Cultivation: Fortune by Lots-Chapter 468 - 247. Today I Start as a Master! (Combined Chapters)_2

Chapter 468: 247. Today I Start as a Master! (Combined Chapters)_2

Shangguan Hong raised his eyes to the sky above. "Your Majesty?"

Lin Shan replied, "Her Majesty is wise and harbors no suspicions towards Our Sect."

Shangguan Hong fell silent for a moment.

If not the Empress, then it must be the other Royal Family members and nobles.

My Shangguan Clan will be the first to bear the brunt!

He had heard of some changes within the Shangguan Clan in recent years.

Hearing Lin Shan mention it now, Shangguan Hong felt a surge of complex emotions.

"Some of the Royal Family members are also restless," Lin Shan continued in a gentle voice. "However, the main reason isn’t that Eldest Apprentice-Sister has achieved the Ninth Heavenly Layer. It’s because of the methods Eldest Apprentice-Sister and the Sect Leader used to break through the Lin Clan’s ancestral lands in Youzhou and Jiangzhou."

The Zhang Tang Royal Family was largely pleased with the suppression of the Five Clans and Seven Families, although the splendid victory achieved by the Celestial Master Mansion was completely beyond their expectations.

However, there was a small problem.

Within the Zhang Tang Royal Family, there were also a large number of cultivators who practiced Confucian School Skills.

Although they were at odds with the Five Clans and Seven Families, the methods of the "Barbarian Spearhead" and the Locking Scholar Shackles also provoked their deep apprehension.

Xu Yuanzhen’s breakthrough to the Ninth Heavenly Layer, becoming one of the few top experts in the Great Tang, was certainly conspicuous.

But what concerned some members of the Royal Family even more was this: the Celestial Master Mansion, which everyone believed had fallen to rock bottom and was slowly recovering, had suddenly risen. While crippling the Jiangzhou Lin Clan, they had also managed to disgrace the Youzhou Lin Clan at the same time.

This was not a feat that a lone Ninth Heavenly Layer master could easily accomplish.

Otherwise, Wei Ancheng, the Sect Leader of the Blood River Sect, would not have been defeated and fled to the Southern Wilderness back then.

Youzhou and Jiangzhou were strongholds of the Lin Clan, developed over many years. They had numerous experts, an abundance of Sacrificial Instruments and ritual vessels for support, and each branch possessed ancestral treasures like the Shuofeng Sword and the Dragon Serpent Pen.

The difficulty of a full-scale battle on neutral ground compared to attacking a well-established family’s home base, fortified over many years, was entirely different.

Yet both Youzhou and Jiangzhou were breached on the same day.

Disregarding the casualties from the earlier battle at Great Black Mountain in the Northern Border, and considering only the battle in Jiangzhou, seven Upper Three Heavens Cultivators from the Lin Clan perished. This included their Clan Chief, Lin Che, and Lin Chou, an elder of the Eightfold Heaven Realm.

The number of other dead and wounded was difficult to count.

Moreover, they lost their clan-protecting ancestral treasure, the Dragon Serpent Pen!

Only Lin Yuwei and a total of three other Upper Three Heavens family elders were fortunate enough to escape unscathed.

But with their Cultural Pulse and treasures destroyed, and their ancestral land’s years of accumulation ruined in an instant, the Nanzong Lin Clan was dealt a crippling blow, even if Lin Yuwei and the others struggled to maintain what was left.

With Xu Yuanzhen not participating in the battle of Jiangzhou, the Celestial Master Mansion achieving such a brilliant victory was remarkably noteworthy.

"Senior Brother, although I come from the Shangguan Clan, and I have some dealings with the family from time to time—after all, my father and mother are still alive," Shangguan Hong spoke after a brief pause, "But like Master, having gone through the Transcension Ritual to enter the Taoist Sect, I am a disciple of the Celestial Master Mansion. Between the Imperial Court and the sect, my greatest wish is to become a bridge between the two."

Lin Shan said, "Junior Brother Zhonghong, I naturally understand your thoughts and trust you completely. The bridge between the Imperial Court and the sect is indeed very important. It’s just that... such a bridge can be dangerous when it’s fragile."

Shangguan Hong nodded silently.

He suddenly looked up into the distance.

There stood another person: Fang Jian, a True Inheritance disciple of the Celestial Master Mansion from the Jingxiang Fang Clan.

"Senior Brother Fang is firm and composed, far surpassing me," Shangguan Hong sighed deeply.

Lin Shan looked towards Fang Jian in the distance, also feeling a bit sentimental. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

No matter the true intentions of the Shangguan Clan, or whether they were making moves behind the scenes, at least for now, everyone was ostensibly on the same side, aligned with the Imperial Court.

As for the Jingxiang Fang Clan, they now stood on the opposite side.

Relations that were once quite good between the Fang Clan and the Celestial Master Mansion had now officially diverged.

Fang Jian had once been close to the Li Clan and had worked hard to promote deeper cooperation between the Jingxiang Fang Clan and the Celestial Master Mansion. Consequently, he suddenly found himself in an extremely awkward situation.

But it seemed that he had already made up his mind long ago.

The Jingxiang Fang Clan appeared to have given up on him.

Suspicious and wary gazes and voices had persisted for a long time. Yet Fang Jian seemed unaffected. He carried on as usual: quietly cultivating, accepting his assigned duties, and performing his tasks diligently.

In fact, Fang Jian was indeed very calm at the moment. All the decisions and struggles, those sleepless nights spent wrestling with them... he had endured for far too long. But once he truly made up his mind and understood himself, he finally relaxed.

Just as when he watched Lei Jun enter the Wanfa Ancestral Altar, Fang Jian remained equally composed.

His emotions had already churned when he heard Lei Jun had achieved Upper Three Heavens cultivation. After the turbulent waves, there was now a calm sea.

As for an emotional gap... Twenty years ago, when Lei Jun first joined the sect, I was a Direct Disciple of the previous Celestial Master, Li Qingfeng. However, about six or seven years ago, I was merely a Talisman-Instructed Disciple, while Lei Jun had already become an elder of the mansion. If there was a gap, I’d felt it long before now.

Now, witnessing Lei Jun attain Upper Three Heavens cultivation and become a High Merit Elder, rather than dwelling on the disparity, I feel more joy for the Celestial Master Mansion’s recovery of its Primordial Qi.

Truth be told, I even have the presence of mind to think about my senior martial sister, Zhang Jingzhen. We’re kindred spirits in misfortune, her and I...

Compared to me, Senior Sister Zhang Jingzhen has been preparing for the Heavenly Moat Tribulation between the Sixth and Seventh Heavens for years. If she had to watch a junior martial brother, who entered the mansion much later than her, now surpass her, she would likely need to seriously adjust her mindset and stabilize her mental state. I even feel fortunate that for the past few years, she has been almost completely sequestered in closed-door cultivation, cut off from the outside world...

The audience watching the ceremony harbored a variety of emotions.