The Heavenly Eye Yang family is one of the top elite clans within Taoist Alliance.
Every member of the Heavenly Eye Yang family is born with a divine eye capable of discerning the flow of enemy spiritual energy, allowing them to anticipate moves before they are made.
Because of this, the Heavenly Eye Yang family commands immense prestige within Taoist Alliance, their influence second only to Heaven and Earth's Single Sword, the Wangquan family.
Today is a day of great celebration for the Yang family.
Yang Yifang, head of the Yang family, is marrying off his daughter, Yang Yan. The Yang estate is filled with distinguished guests, the sky draped in ten miles of celebratory red.
The groom is merely a minor squad leader under one of Taoist Alliance's regional branches. To Yang Yifang, though his heart whispered that this match was far from a social equal, he was, after all, a doting father who could not withstand his daughter Yang Yan's relentless pleading, and ultimately consented to the marriage.
At the banquet, nearly all the guests laughed and chatted merrily, some out of sincere joy, others with fawning flattery. Only a child sitting in a corner watched the radiant Yang Yan on the elevated stage with a gaze full of pity.
The child's name is Yang Qingyuan, also a member of the Heavenly Eye Yang family.
Yet, unlike ordinary Yang family disciples, his status is rather peculiar.
"Such melodrama. A perfectly good wedding, about to be ruined by a pack of rabid dogs biting everyone in sight..."
At this thought, Yang Qingyuan could not help but shake his head.
Unawares, he has already transmigrated into this world for eight years.
Though he transmigrated into the world of *Fox Spirit Matchmaker*, right into one of Taoist Alliance's top elite clans, Yang Qingyuan's luck is clearly not so stellar.
Unlike Yang Yitian, the heaven-blessed prodigy of his generation, Yang Qingyuan has never once laid eyes on his foster parents in this lifetime since he was a child. All his food, clothing, and daily provisions are essentially no different from those of the Yang estate's servants.
Yang Qingyuan does not really mind this. After all, what is wrong with the food and lodgings of a servant? It is free anyway, and nobody starves to death, right?
Is this not much better than his past life, where he had to endure the 996 work schedule day in and day out just to scrape by?
The problem is, low social standing aside, as long as he remains part of the Yang family and bears the Heavenly Eye upon his forehead, where could he not leverage the Yang family's name to bully others under the guise of their power?
Yet, seeing that Yang Yitian of the same generation had opened his Heavenly Eye long ago, while the thing on his own forehead is as good as nonexistent, showing not the slightest trace of movement after so many years, Yang Qingyuan cannot help but feel a bit depressed.
No, if Yang Yitian were a genius, that would be one thing.
But normal Yang family disciples open their Heavenly Eyes by the age of six. How could anyone be like him, showing zero reaction even now?
Gradually, Yang Qingyuan came to accept the reality that he is a cultivation good-for-nothing.
Sure enough, those stories about transmigrators being supreme geniuses are all lies...
Just as Yang Qingyuan had already made up his mind that, at worst, when he grew a bit older, he would go out and become a fortune-telling charlatan to earn a living, relying on the Heavenly Eye on his forehead to fool ordinary people, right after he turned six, a cultivation manual suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Mastering the mysteries of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, let you roam free across the mortal realm!"
Those fourteen opening lines alone made Yang Qingyuan's blood boil entirely.
Others might not know it, but as an old fan of *Journey to the West* and *Investiture of the Gods*, Yang Qingyuan is far too familiar with these words.
Are these not the mythological praises bestowed by Master Yuding upon the Eight-Nine Arcane Art?!!
The Eight-Nine Arcane Art, also known as the Nine-Turn Profound Skill, is the supreme Chanjiao divine technique recorded in *Investiture of the Gods*.
Eight is the maximum yin number, and nine is the maximum yang number. The multiplication of eight and nine yields the highest Taoist number, which is why heaven and earth contain the nine palaces, the eight trigrams, and the seventy-two solar terms.
It is not only the method for attaining the Dao of the Golden Elixir, but also encompasses all manner of divine powers and spells.
Speaking of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, one cannot omit that legendary True Lord of Clarity and Dedication, Erlang Yang of Guankou.
As a devout believer whose very name resembles the title of Erlang Shen Yang Jian, Yang Qingyuan in his previous life knew just as much about this Second Master as everyone did about the legendary Great Sage Equalling Heaven, Sun Wukong!
The legends concerning Erlang Shen—such as splitting the mountain to save his mother and carrying mountains to chase the sun—were committed to his memory.
Though he has no idea why the Second Master's signature cultivation manual inexplicably appeared in his mind, once he considered that he had transmigrated anyway, this seemingly irrational event suddenly became quite reasonable.
Indeed, since this world bears the shadow of the Great Sage, how could it lack a devotee of the Little Sage?
Thus, Yang Qingyuan attained enlightenment.
Cultivate what Heavenly Eye on the forehead! Does that trinket carry a greater legacy than the Eight-Nine Arcane Art?
One must know that the pinnacle of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art leads to achieving sainthood in the flesh. When cultivated to the realm of the Nine-Turn Great Perfection, as long as the primordial spirit within the mudpill palace remains undestroyed, the physical body never dies. Should the primordial spirit escape, safety is guaranteed, and the physical body can infinitely regenerate. Coupled with wind-defying transformations, it can truly be called indestructible!
In this world, human lifespan stretches to a mere century at best.
Whether for ordinary people or Taoist priests, the temptation of longevity far surpasses any other cultivation method!
"Ever since I officially began practicing the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, I have cultivated it for a full two years now. Yet two whole years have passed, and I have only cultivated the first turn to Great Perfection. Is this speed a bit too slow..."
At this thought, a trace of melancholy inevitably wells up in Yang Qingyuan's heart.
Sure enough, his cultivation talent is truly useless. Not even a heaven-defying technique like the Eight-Nine Arcane Art can save him...
Melancholy aside, the manual still has to be practiced.
If nothing else, after practicing the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, Yang Qingyuan has been able to perceive the strengthening of his soul and physical body at a nearly visible rate over the past two years.
It is just that, having never fought anyone over the years and rarely seeing others fight within the Yang estate, Yang Qingyuan lacks a concrete understanding of where his current strength actually stands in this world.
With this thought, Yang Qingyuan slowly pulls back his stray thoughts and shifts his gaze once more toward Yang Yan, who currently wears a face full of happiness upon the high platform.
Come to think of it, the reason he has been able to stay in the Yang family for so many years is largely thanks to this kind-hearted eldest miss.
If Yang Yan had not taken pity on him back then when he was young, destitute, and helpless, stepping forward to speak up righteously on his behalf, he probably would have been driven out of the Yang family long ago to fend for himself.
"Sigh..."
"Hey kid, today is clearly a joyous day for your family. Why are you hiding in this corner sighing?"
Yang Qingyuan looks up to see a delicately carved, jade-like little girl of about his own age gazing at him with a puzzled expression.
Seeing that Yang Qingyuan merely looks at her without replying for a long time, the little girl frowns and mutters softly, "Judging by that Heavenly Eye on his forehead, he should be a member of the Yang family, right?"