A familiar, crisp female voice rang out. Feng Xuan turned his head to see Nuwa and Fuxi walking together toward the four of them.
Nuwa had bright eyes and white teeth, possessing a peerless and stunning grace.
"Yes, my masters brought me here."
Feng Xuan answered politely.
At that moment, Nuwa also noticed his current realm, and a trace of astonishment appeared on her pretty face.
"Your cultivation... you've broken through!"
In just ten thousand years, breaking through several realms in succession—such innate talent was truly extraordinary.
"Indeed, this is our precious disciple."
Seeing the shock on their faces, Yuanshi felt a secret wave of delight inside. His obedient disciple was truly bringing him so much face, it felt simply amazing!
Seeing the Sanqing and Nuwa chatting so happily, the surrounding people could not help feeling puzzled.
How had their relationship become so good?
And who was that weakling?
Could any random monsters and demons enter the Zixiao Palace now?
Before long, however, they stopped thinking about it. Whatever happened, happened; it had nothing to do with them anyway.
Time passed quickly, and two jade-carved child attendants walked out of the Zixiao Palace, one male and one female.
"Time is up. You may enter."
With that, they stood on either side of the grand doors, respectfully welcoming the crowd inside.
Led into the main hall by the Sanqing, Feng Xuan could not help glancing at the two attendants as he passed them. He felt a familiar sense of kinship, as if they were of the same kind.
He felt a strong urge to get close to them.
Haotian and Yaochi were the two child attendants under Patriarch Hongjun, whose true forms were chaotic Yinyang stubborn stones. Later, after the destruction of the Demon Court, they would be personally appointed by the Patriarch as the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother, ruling together over all the heavens and the universe.
At this moment, Haotian and Yaochi also looked at Feng Xuan's retreating back with expressions of curiosity.
Entering the Zixiao Palace, they saw an old Daoist with the bearing of an immortal perched upon the topmost prayer mat, resting his eyes.
Everyone quietly walked over to the spot where the first sermon had been held and sat down.
As for Feng Xuan, he was led by the Sanqing to sit right behind them, close to the three of them.
There was no prayer mat for him!
At that moment, Feng Xuan felt a bit nervous. That Innate Gourd of his had undoubtedly been given to him by Patriarch Hongjun, who must certainly be aware of his existence.
He just wondered if the Patriarch knew he was a modern-day transmigrator.
Seeing his shifting gaze and assuming he was just nervous about coming to the Zixiao Palace for the first time, the Sanqing immediately comforted him, telling him not to worry because the Daoist Patriarch was a very kind person.
Meanwhile, Patriarch Hongjun, sitting high upon the high platform, was filled with doubt and utter confusion.
Why couldn't he calculate anything about him at all?
And why was he already sitting so close?
Hongjun had been aware of Feng Xuan's existence from the very moment he descended into the Primordial World.
He had initially thought him to be just an ordinary chaotic stubborn stone, but subsequent events had left him greatly astonished!
An ordinary chaotic stubborn stone actually possessed the foundation of a mid-grade innate divine being!
An ordinary chaotic stubborn stone could actually receive the blessings of the Great Dao!
An ordinary chaotic stubborn stone could actually elevate its foundation even after taking human form!
All these signs indicated that this ordinary chaotic stubborn stone was far from ordinary!
Thus, he had begun to calculate the origin of this stone, only to find a realm of chaotic blankness that defied calculation.
However, anyone capable of receiving the blessings of the Great Dao was bound to be no ordinary person. Therefore, he had bestowed that precious Innate Gourd upon him to forge a favorable bond.
He had thought that once the youth reached the Zixiao Palace—his own home territory—he would finally be able to understand his origins.
Yet the result remained a chaotic void, completely imperceptible.
Now, he found himself in a difficult dilemma.
With his thoughts in turmoil, he finally made a decision.
The time for the sermon quickly arrived. Hongjun opened his eyes and swept his gaze across the crowd below.
Seeing Feng Xuan, who still looked full of nervous tension, he could not help but smile.
He was still too young, after all.
"Why is there one extra person at this sermon?"
The attendees of the Zixiao Palace lectures were fixed at three thousand, perfectly aligning with the number of the Great Dao, a limit set during the very first lecture.
Hearing this, the Sanqing respectfully replied:
"Daoist Patriarch, this is our shared disciple. He is gifted with sharp intelligence and an extraordinary foundation, so we brought him along to listen to the Dao."
Upon hearing this, Hongjun nodded slightly, then with a wave of his large hand, a brand-new prayer mat appeared to the right of Taiqing.
"From now on, you shall sit here and must not move about."
Seeing this, the Sanqing wore delighted expressions. The Patriarch clearly placed great importance on their disciple!
He had set up a separate prayer mat just for him!
Furthermore, placing it on the far right showed just how highly the Patriarch regarded him.
And so, amidst the envious and jealous gazes of over two thousand living beings behind him, Feng Xuan took his seat upon the new prayer mat.
How comfortable! Not having to sit on the cold, hard floor felt simply amazing!
Soon, Hongjun began his sermon.
Everyone began to listen with rapt attention.
"Today I shall speak of the Dao of breaking through Daluo to become a Quasi-Sage!"
"The Daluo Golden Immortal: the three flowers gather at the crown, sealing the Daluo fruit status; the three bodies of past, future, and present merge into one, attaining eternal freedom and ease, grasping the Daluo laws; with a single thought universes are born, and the true spirit becomes undying."
"..."
In an instant, ten thousand golden lotuses blossomed throughout the Zixiao Palace. Countless wondrous phenomena emerged endlessly, accompanied by waves of celestial music. The laws of the Great Dao became clearly visible for all to perceive and comprehend.
The assembly listened in complete fascination, swaying their heads, some looking up, others reclining, which looked utterly bizarre amidst the swirling celestial mists.
Wasn't this just a massive, group-style hypnotic trance session?!
Feng Xuan's mind suffered a tremendous shock!
At the start of the lecture, Feng Xuan had still managed to follow along, but after listening intently for a while, he gave up, letting it go in one ear and out the other.
For no other reason than this:
He simply couldn't understand a single word of what Hongjun was saying!
The gap in realms was just too vast. For a mere Golden Immortal like him to listen to the Dao of Daluo and Quasi-Sages was like making a first-grade elementary school student take a college-level advanced mathematics exam.
He was completely clueless.
Even his heaven-defying comprehension ability only allowed him to record the contents of the lecture verbatim, waiting until his realm was closer to slowly comprehend it later.
The Daoist sounds continued to reverberate within the grand hall. At that moment, Feng Xuan strangely discovered that the magic power within his body was operating automatically.
It was cultivating on its own!
What a surprise! A pleasant surprise indeed!
With such a situation, wasn't this the perfect time to sleep?
While everyone else was bitterly toiling away at their cultivation, he didn't have to lift a finger while his power grew automatically. Bliss!
Feng Xuan's spirits began to droop as drowsiness washed over him, and he could no longer resist nodding off straight to sleep.
This sight was quickly noticed by Hongjun.
Countless living beings across the world would break their heads trying to enter his Zixiao Palace to listen to the Dao, and many perished, body and soul destroyed by the chaotic gales, without a single regret.
And yet, look at you—you actually fell asleep right in the middle of his sermon!
However, seeing the magic power automatically circulating within Feng Xuan's body,
the corners of Hongjun's mouth twitched involuntarily.
This brat!
Let him be!
At that moment, a gentle woman in a white dress sitting behind Feng Xuan wore a face full of sorrow. Faced with the Patriarch's sermon, she could only perceive the surface without any ability to delve deeper.
Her incomplete primordial spirit made the Daoist system taught by Hongjun vague and incomprehensible to her, rendering cultivation impossible.
It was as if out of nine apertures, only one was clear.
During the first lecture, she and her twelve brothers and sisters had come eagerly to the Zixiao Palace to listen, only for her siblings to declare they couldn't understand a word and promptly fall into deep slumbers.
This time, having learned their lesson, they hadn't come, refusing to waste their time.
Only she felt that the Patriarch's sermon was too crucial to miss, and thus she had come alone.
Yet, just like last time, she still found herself unable to comprehend it.
"What should I do?"
The woman murmured softly, her tone filled with grievance.
Suddenly, Feng Xuan, who had been sleeping soundly ahead of her, lost his balance and fell straight backward.
Seeing this, the woman caught him and let him rest comfortably upon her lap.
Looking at Feng Xuan's somewhat youthful, sleeping face, the woman smiled brightly. He was truly just like her brothers—only knowing how to sleep, looking so silly and naive.
After arranging him in a comfortable position, the woman continued to listen to the abstruse and difficult Daoist sounds.
Yet, at that very moment, a look of joyful surprise welled up in the woman's eyes.
It was as if the impossible had just occurred.