“Congratulations!”
The Old Man, uncharacteristically, was not lying in his chair; he stood beneath the ancient tree.
The ancient tree stood tall!
But the Old Man’s body was hunched, and from a distance, he looked like an insect shedding its skin.
“What does it feel like to Break Through to the Foundation Establishment Stage?”
He gently turned his head and asked He Pingsheng.
He Pingsheng’s face showed a simple and honest expression, then he vigorously rubbed his hair with his hand, “This Disciple can’t quite explain it, but my Lifespan increased, so I’m very happy!”
“Happy is good!” Taixu said, “Isn’t struggling against the Heavenly Dao all for the sake of longevity?”
“Hehe, longevity is good!”
“When you reach the Golden Core Stage, you’ll have five hundred years of Lifespan, and when you reach my Nascent Soul Stage, you can enjoy a thousand years of Lifespan!”
“Come here, come here, let me ask you, you are a Spirit Refining Cultivator, now that you’ve Broken Through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, has your Divine Thought reached three hundred zhang?”
He Pingsheng was startled and said, “Master’s divine foresight is truly amazing, it is exactly three hundred zhang!”
“Enough!” The Old Man nodded, reached out, and took out a piece of Formation Materials, throwing it to He Pingsheng, saying, “Do you still remember that Two-Rank Gathering Spirit Array I gave you a while ago? Engrave its Formation Plate for me!”
“This Old Man wants to see your skill level!”
“Yes!”
He Pingsheng dared not delay, immediately sat down cross-legged, and meticulously began to engrave the Formation Plate.
The Formation Plate is the core of the entire Formation.
Once the Formation Plate is engraved, combined with the Formation Eye, Spirit Stone, various Formation Materials, and Formation Flag, a perfect Gathering Spirit Array can be formed.
And engraving the Formation Plate accounts for over eighty percent of the work for the entire Gathering Spirit Array.
Engraving the Formation Plate is done by guiding with Divine Thought and using drawn runes as a medium to engrave on the Materials.
When the runes encircle a full cycle and the spiritual power can circulate on its own, the engraving is successful.
He Pingsheng sat in this Lingzhi Garden, continuously trying.
After about seven or eight days, the Formation Plate hummed and flashed, and a ray of light burst forth.
It was done.
“Good!” The Old Ancestor’s face showed a smile, saying, “Good, good… With the Formation Plate, you can now set up some simple Two-Rank Arrays!”
“Not bad, this talent is much stronger than this Old Man’s. A Cultivator with a Five Elements Spiritual Root, besides slow cultivation speed, has all the advantages of timing and location!”
“Come with me!”
The Old Man, with his hands behind his back, slowly walked towards the vast Great Hall with his hunched body.
He Pingsheng, holding a two-foot-wide Formation Plate, followed closely behind.
After entering the Tai Xu Divine Hall, the Old Man waved his hand, and the more than a dozen layers of light membranes outside the Great Hall appeared one by one.
“Outside this Old Man’s Great Hall, there are a total of seventeen Formations!”
“But most of them are Three-Rank Arrays and are not very effective!”
“There are three Four-Rank Arrays in total, pay close attention!”
The Taixu Old Ancestor took out three tokens: “One is a Four-Rank Defense Array, one is a Four-Rank Spirit Restriction Array, and one is a Four-Rank Illusion Array!”
“The Defense Array can block Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators from entering the Great Hall. The Spirit Restriction Array can block the Divine Thought of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators outside this Great Hall!”
“As for the Illusion Array, this Old Man has hardly ever activated it. Once activated, it can completely hide the entire Tai Xu Great Hall, making it invisible and untouchable from the outside!”
He Pingsheng was secretly astonished and said, “It’s actually so miraculous?”
“Hehe…” The Taixu Old Ancestor chuckled, “What’s so miraculous? They’re just deceptive tricks!”
“Now that you have entered the ranks of a Two-Rank Formation Master, although you still cannot set up and break these Four-Rank Grand Formations, you can control them without any pressure!”
“Take a look at these three Grand Formation tokens; they contain the key points for Formation control!”
“From now on, you can enter and exit the Tai Xu Divine Hall freely!”
“Oh…” The Taixu Old Ancestor waved his hand again, “Also… you can let whoever you want in, and you can block whoever you want outside!”
“Yes, Master!” He Pingsheng took the three tokens.
The Taixu Old Ancestor continued, “Don’t leave yet, this Old Man has another important matter to arrange for you!”
“This is this Old Man’s token!” A black iron token was thrown into He Pingsheng’s hand. The Old Man continued, “Take this token, go to Xuanyang, and gather all the Golden Core Stage Disciples to announce something…”
…
“Come, come… Junior Brother!”
“This is the immortal brew this Old Man has treasured for many years, have a taste!”
“It is beneficial for cultivation!”
He Pingsheng reached out, picked up the cup, and took a sip.
Hiss, hiss, hiss…
So spicy.
I thought it was spiritual tea, but you gave me wine.
Xuanyang looked at He Pingsheng’s expression and laughed heartily, “You drank it, it’s fine. I’ve already sent my Disciples to notify everyone individually; they’ll all be here in a moment.”
No sooner had he spoken than a pink stream of light shot through the sky from the cloud sea, landing at the entrance of Xuanyang’s Great Hall.
It was none other than Jianzhu.
After a few more breaths, Daoist Chongyang, Elder Hong, and Daoist Wuwei also landed at the entrance of the Great Hall one by one.
The few of them entered and sat down according to their host and guest order.
“What is it?” Wuwei’s expression was displeased, and his words were rather blunt: “Third Brother, what’s the meaning of gathering us in such a hurry?”
Among the Taixu Old Ancestor’s Disciples, Wuwei was the Eldest Senior Brother, Elder Hong was the Second Senior Brother, Xuanyang was the Third Senior Brother, Chongyang was the Fourth Senior Brother, and the youngest was Jianzhu.
Of course, if counted, He Pingsheng would be the Sixth Junior Brother.
And the Taixu Old Ancestor did not only have these six Disciples.
Legend has it that before Wuwei, there were more than a dozen.
A total of seventy or eighty Disciples.
But eighty to ninety percent of them perished after their Lifespan ran out during the Qi Refinement Stage.
Some reached the Foundation Establishment Stage but also disappeared, unable to withstand the Sharpening of time.
Ultimately, only these few remained.
The Heavenly Dao is ruthless, to this extent.
Xuanyang said, “I don’t know either, Master has something to say. Junior Brother, what did Master say?”
“You announce it to everyone!”
“Yes!” He Pingsheng stood up, took out the black iron token the Taixu Old Ancestor had given him, shook it in his hand, and said, “Master said to inform a few Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters that the Sect needs to make some adjustments in certain areas!”
Everyone cupped their hands and said, “Yes!”
Jianzhu asked, “How will it be adjusted?”
He Pingsheng said, “From today onwards, your annual and monthly stipends and resources will be cut by eighty percent!”
“What?!”
“Nonsense!”
“What kind of dream talk is this?!”
“Cut by eighty percent, how are we supposed to live?!”
“Damn it…”
The Golden Core Cultivators all stood up from their seats.
Without exception.
He Pingsheng, however, was very calm and said, “Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters, please calm down. Master said that the Tai Xu Sect has long been harsh on the lower-level Disciples, and now is the time for reform!”
Wuwei cursed loudly, “This Old thing, this isn’t reform, this is taking my life! No need to cut eighty percent for me, I’ll go find him right now and let him slap me to death!”