Cultivation: Fortune by Lots-Chapter 467 - 247. Today I Start as a Master! (Combined Chapters)

Chapter 467: 247. Today I Start as a Master! (Combined Chapters)

As Lei Jun received congratulations from his fellow disciples, within the luminous pillar that shot up to the clouds at the Altar of Wanfa Sect, runes and Tao Containment condensed, manifesting the images of generation upon generation of ancestral Taoist masters.

"Disciple Lei Chongyun of the Celestial Master Mansion, today I humbly receive the ’Supreme Pureness Three Caverns Scripture Talisman’ and assume the sacred office of overseeing the Shenxiao Jade Pivot, contemplate Yin and Yang and the upper truths, with utmost trepidation and piety, earnestly invoking the divine."

Lei Jun began with a solemn prayer to heaven and earth, then paid respects to the ancestral masters of the past, and finally showed reverence to the current Celestial Master, Tang Xiaotang.

Next, he turned to his fellow disciples outside the altar who were congratulating him and returned a half-bow according to ritual.

Later on, Lei Jun would join Celestial Master Tang Xiaotang on a visit to the Rear Mountain Ancestral Tomb, a forbidden area, to once again pay homage to the spirits of the ancestral masters.

Before that, he sat cross-legged within the Altar of Wanfa Sect, closing his eyes in silent contemplation.

A great number of runes and Tao Containment surrounded Lei Jun like mist.

The ’Three Caverns Five Thunders Talisman’ he obtained during his fourth talisman addition ceremony shone brightly, slowly merging with him.

At the same time, seated within the Altar of Wanfa Sect, Lei Jun’s mind began to reveal the exquisite profundities of the Taoist scriptures.

It was the sixth volume of the ’True Formula of the Great Way Scripture,’ the essential classic from the true inheritance of Longhu Mountain Celestial Master’s Mansion.

Only a Talisman Sect cultivator of the Seventh Heavenly Layer was qualified to study it.

Inside the altar, Lei Jun engaged in his meditative cultivation in peace. His participation in the New Year’s ceremony thus came to a pause, waiting only for his departure from the Altar of Wanfa Sect to offer his respects at the Rear Mountain Ancestral Tomb.

Outside the altar, other elders and disciples carried on with the next parts of the New Year’s ceremony under the lead of Celestial Master Tang Xiaotang after the current rituals concluded, though many minds were still focused on Elder Lei.

It turns out that Lei is one step ahead after all... Lin Shan, who had not returned to the mountain for a long time, looked back towards the direction of the Altar of Wanfa Sect with a sense of emotion.

In recent years, he had spent most of his time teaching at the Capital City Academy, only occasionally returning to Dragon Tiger Mountain.

While lecturing at the academy, Lin Shan also took the opportunity to associate with the influential figures of the Capital City.

Some of them, eager to send their children or grandchildren to Dragon Tiger Mountain to pursue the Tao, asked Lin Shan to arrange and take care of them.

Among those he helped, some outstanding youths managed to qualify for the Transcension Ritual after a few years at the Tao Boy Court and were set to participate in the first such ceremony of the new year.

As per the traditional rule, Lin Shan was to be their Du Shi.

Therefore, before this year’s New Year’s ceremony, Lin Shan made a special trip back to the Ancestral Courtyard of the Sect, on the one hand to visit his fellow disciples, and on the other, to accept disciples himself before returning to the Capital City after the Transcension Ritual on the fifteenth day of the first month.

Due to the aftermath of the troubles in Jiangzhou and Youzhou, Shangguan Ning had left the mountain to continuously coordinate and communicate with the Tang Imperial Court, and she would remain in the Capital City during the New Year.

As a result, Lin Shan, her first disciple, was currently taking care of Shangguan Hong and other fellow disciples of the same sect and lineage.

He was just in time to witness Lei Jun’s fourth talisman addition ceremony and his promotion to a high office.

Lin Shan had long recognized the other’s excellence. If at first, he still harbored some competitive thoughts, by the time Lei Jun had cultivated to the Sixth Heavenly Layer and reached the Dao Mark Realm in just over a decade—catching up to Lin Shan’s own decades of hard work—he had let go of those slight competitive urges.

Even if their cultivation levels were the same, they were not on the same level.

Lin Shan had no doubts that Lei Jun could smoothly pass the Heavenly Moat Tribulation between the Sixth and Seventh Heavenly Layers and achieve Upper Three Heavens cultivation.

He just thought it would take a few more years.

He had expected that Zhang Jingzhen would be the one to take that step before Lei Jun.

But unexpectedly, Lei Jun was still quicker.

"Elder Lei is a Heavenly Talent, as exceptionally brilliant as the Celestial Master and Elder Xu. He has the potential to leave a significant mark in history, not just in the future but even now," Shangguan Hong said softly.

As one of the disciples who underwent the Transcension Ritual into the Celestial Master Mansion at the same time as Lei Jun, he felt this more keenly than others.

Having officially entered the sect nearly two decades ago, Shangguan Hong, wearing deep red Taoist robes since the last talisman-bestowal ceremony, was now one of the Talisman-Instructed Disciples from Dragon Tiger Mountain. He possessed a Taoist Talisman Sect’s Third Heavenly Layer Altar Stage cultivation and was striving for a breakthrough to the Middle Three Heavens.

He was not yet forty years old, and time was still relatively on his side.

As long as he reached the Fourth Heavenly Layer Original Talisman Realm before fifty, he could extend his lifespan and the Golden Opportunity Period of his cultivation.

However, Lei Jun, from the same Transcension Ritual cohort, was already in an entirely different situation.

Compared to his own efforts to break through to the Middle Three Heavens cultivation before turning fifty, Lei Jun... had already achieved the Upper Three Heavens realm within fifty years of age.

With a lifespan of eight hundred years, he had been appointed to a high office.

Whether looking across the contemporary world or through the annals of history, he was a talent that shocked the world.

Moreover, Lei Jun had recently made significant contributions, assisting Celestial Master Tang Xiaotang in breaching the ancestral land of the Jiangzhou Lin Clan, Dragon Tiger Mountain’s longstanding enemy.

Now that the news had spread, Lei Jun, upon his initial ascension to the Seventh Heavenly Layer, had successfully killed Lin Chi, a veteran Great Scholar of the Lin Clan from the Upper Three Heavens.

Everyone knew that Lei Chongyun was a genius, but since he seldom took action before, there was a feeling of him being somewhat unproven.

However, his killing of Lin Chi in the battle of Jiangzhou suddenly made his image take solid, substantial form in the eyes of the world.

Dragon Tiger Mountain had truly produced another monstrously talented figure!

"Our Sect has faced both internal and external disasters in recent years, which has been somewhat challenging. However, it has also united us more than ever before and given us a resurgence akin to a withered tree reviving in spring. This is uplifting," Lin Shan mused, "but we must not become complacent because of it. Although Jiangzhou has fallen, there are still others with malicious intentions."

Shangguan Hong nodded in agreement. "Senior Brother is entirely correct."

After glancing at Lin Shan, he spoke in a hushed tone, "Senior Brother, have you heard any news in the Capital City?"

Lin Shan, speaking softly but with an even tone, replied, "After our Eldest Martial Sister broke through to the Ninth Heavenly Layer, coupled with Elder Huang from Pure Yang Palace, our Taoist Sect now has two Great Vehicle High Immortals. This should be a good thing for the Imperial Court, but... it could also easily arouse the misgivings of some former allies."