Chen Shi said with solemnity, "There’s indeed no need to continue investigating Red Mountain Hall."
Yu Tiancheng heard his underlying meaning and spoke earnestly, "You don’t need to investigate either. Such young masters in major families hold great power and are basically the chosen successors to the clan leaders. In these big families, those who hold court positions may seem to have high status, but in reality, they don’t compare to the clan leader—they’re merely the spokespeople the families push forward. Compare this person to Li Tianqing, and you’ll understand the gap in status."
The Li Family from Quanzhou is also one of the Thirteen Families.
Li Tianqing, a prodigy who received the Purple Jade Divine Fetus, holds a relatively low status in the Li family, only able to receive fifty taels of monthly allowance. As for family status, he doesn’t have any— at most, he’s just a key disciple that’s being focused on for training.
Yet this master from Yudou holds real power, owns vast businesses abroad, keeps a group of people searching for treasures on his behalf, and can even order cultivators from the Divinity Transformation Realm to investigate cases!
His status compared to Li Tianqing’s is worlds apart!
Chen Shi laughed and said, "I understand, you can rest assured, Hall Master."
Yu Tiancheng was still concerned and continued, "When I was your age, I was also fresh to the world, full of enthusiasm, but I met with setbacks at every turn, suffering countless obstacles. Later, Her Majesty emerged, causing the deaths of many. No one dared to slay Her Majesty, feeling that this Blood Taisui was about to undergo Demon Transformation.
"If Her Majesty were to transform into a demon, she would devour Gongzhou, and millions would die without a place for their bodies. Back then, I was just a little talisman master, thinking of sacrificing myself for righteousness, so I went to see Her Majesty, ready to go all-out with her. But when I met her, I realized she was just unable to control her own powers and emotions.
"I taught her how to control her powers and emotions, brought her back to Gongzhou, and established Red Mountain Hall. But life in Gongzhou is not easy, even with a heart full of righteousness, it’s filled with hardships. Red Mountain Hall needs to rely on the officials to survive. That’s why I pay a hefty amount of silver to the Gongzhou authorities every year."
He paused, then said, "Scholar, I can’t change the ways of this world, so I attached myself to it, coexisting with it, but at the same time, I remain true to my own morals!"
He patted Chen Shi on the shoulder and added, "Sometimes, when you can’t change the ways of the world, you need to attach yourself to it and coexist."
Chen Shi felt moved and responded, "Thank you for your advice."
Yu Tiancheng smiled and asked, "The Independent gathering is about to end, what are your plans?"
Chen Shi replied, "After Tianqing concludes, we’ll head back to Gongzhou first, then return to Xinxiang. With the demon incident in Gongzhou, it’s impossible to hold the autumn imperial examinations, so we can only go home and wait for news."
Yu Tiancheng nodded slightly, "Han Qian the elder also plans to go to Gongzhou, I want to follow them to cultivate, I’ll leave ahead. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t pass the exams this time, there’s always a next time. When I pass the exam and become a Scholar, perhaps we could take the higher examinations together."
Chen Shi was also resigned, having anticipated a smooth round of examinations, only to find them disrupted by so many incidents, leaving his talents unused.
Otherwise, in this examination, he was certain to be the top scorer of Gongzhou, the foremost on the list!
"What terrible luck," he lamented inwardly.
In these past days, Li Tianqing had been engrossed in attending lectures and seldom appeared. After the Independent gathering ended, some who were still not satisfied lingered on the mountain to continue exchanging Taoist skills. These people were often obsessed with their study of the Tao, delving extremely deeply into it, and naturally, Li Tianqing was reluctant to miss this opportunity.
Chen Shi was waiting for him to return to Xinxiang together, getting bored when suddenly he remembered something and called Black Pot, asking, "Black Pot, is the geography of the underworld different depending on where you enter from?"
He had been to the underworld several times, and each visit took him somewhere different. The first time he had fallen ill and died, the underworld he visited was shrouded in fog, filled with demons lurking in the mist. The second time, he was devoured by Big Gun in the De River and entered the River of Forgetfulness.
His third venture into the underworld was when he died in Gongzhou, leading him into a marsh filled with lotus fields.
There was also the time when Black Pot entered the underworld through the stove at Red Mountain Hall—the place was different again.
Black Pot nodded seriously.
Chen Shi pondered, "If that’s the case, the location of the lotus fields should be somewhere between Phoenix Ridge and Gongzhou, but from the perspective of the underworld, the territories are immensely vast, limitless. Could it be that the spaces of the Yin Yang Two Realms are not the same in size? Black Pot, can you open the underworld again?"
Black Pot stood up, busying herself immediately. Chen Shi watched as the dog began moving stones, building a stove, and quickly constructing a stone stove. Then she dragged Chen Shi’s cooking pot out from the wooden cart and placed it on the stove.
The dog fetched an axe from the cart and ran off to chop wood.
As Chen Shi observed its hustle, he saw Black Pot prepare the kindling, take out some salt, and then breathed a flame into the stove underneath, igniting the firewood.
"My dog can breathe fire?!"
Chen Shi was astonished, but soon, he wasn’t shocked at all.
If Black Pot could enter the underworld, what was so surprising about breathing a bit of fire? Was it even worth making a fuss over?
Black Pot grabbed a handful of salt, casting it into the flames. The fire instantly revealed a glimpse of the underworld.
Chen Shi leaned over to look and saw amongst the flickering flames, the image of the underworld was not the marsh lotus fields, but a path leading to the mysterious Yuan Chen Palace.
The book of endless ghastly tales that the dog snuck peeks at every day was taken from that very Yuan Chen Palace.
"Black Pot’s Stove Magic seems to be able to reach only a specific place, not the lotus fields."
Thinking this, Chen Shi felt a stir in his heart and asked, "Black Pot, why does your Stove Magic only connect to this palace in the underworld?"
Black Pot lifted a paw and scratched its head, indicating it didn’t know either. When it grew to a certain age, the hidden powers in its bloodline would awaken automatically, and the ancestral memories hidden in its blood would also resurface, endowing it with an innate grasp of some extraordinary Divine Skills.