Lǐ Xuán held a chipped, coarse ceramic bowl, inside which were seven or eight pieces of braised pork, stewed to tenderness, with a bright red luster, emitting wisps of steam.
He deeply inhaled the potent aroma, feeling all thirty-six thousand pores of his body relax.
This was the taste!
This was life!
What cultivation, what Dao, could compare to the bowl of braised pork before him?
He carefully cradled the bowl and walked out of the kitchen, intending to return to his comfortable rocking chair and savor this hard-won lunch.
Zhāng Fán and Lù Xuěqíng followed behind him, each carrying a basin of spirit rice and a pot of hot water, respectively.
Their expressions, unlike Li Xuan's full of appetite, were instead filled with the solemnity and reverence of participating in a sacred ritual.
In their eyes, what their Master was about to undertake was not 'eating,' but 'merging with the Dao.'
It was to personally consume the 'fruit of the Dao' obtained from the recent 'perform the dao,' completing the final step of perfection.
Being able to witness it by their side was already an immense honor.
Lǐ Xuán paid no mind to their thoughts; his entire being was focused on his pork.
He walked to the rocking chair and was about to sit down when his peripheral vision caught sight of three figures, walking step by step up Little Bamboo Peak from the direction of the sect's gate.
Leading them was Xiao Yicai.
Behind him followed Fang Wen, with his arrogant expression, and the young girl Shui Yue, with a complex look in her eyes.
Lǐ Xuán's hand, holding the bowl, froze mid-air.
No...
Why did they come up here?
Didn't I ask Xióng Bà to turn them away?
Was my statement 'If you want to eat, find your own way' not direct enough?
It clearly meant 'Don't bother me, get lost'!
Do these people have trouble with reading comprehension?
Lǐ Xuán's heart sank, an ominous premonition rising in his chest.
The thing he feared most had finally happened.
These main characters had come looking for him!
Now, he could neither run nor hide, and could only brace himself to face them.
Lǐ Xuán's mind raced, contemplating countermeasures.
Should he continue to pretend to be an expert? Or should he lay his cards on the table, admit he was a fraud, and beg them to spare him?
No, revealing the truth was too risky.
What if they became enraged, feeling tricked, and simply killed him with a single blow?
It seemed he could only continue the charade.
Lǐ Xuán took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the panic in his heart, and plastered his usual nonchalant expression back onto his face – 'I'm a slacker, who's afraid of whom?'
He decided to ignore them; if he wasn't embarrassed, then those who were embarrassed would be others.
He leisurely sat down in the rocking chair, placed the bowl of braised pork on a small stool beside him, picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a trembling piece of meat, and was about to put it in his mouth.
However, Xiao Yicai and the other two had already reached the front of the courtyard.
They looked at the scene before them and were collectively petrified.
The courtyard was dilapidated.
The rocking chair was brand new.
The person was lazy.
The meat was... glowing!
Yes, glowing!
Under their spiritual sight, each piece of seemingly ordinary braised pork was enveloped in a faint, yet incredibly pure, radiance of Dao rhyme!
That radiance was warm and profound, exactly like the aroma they had just smelled!
It truly was the 'fruit of the Dao'!
The 'fruit of the Great Dao,' personally cooked by the senior!
Xiao Yicai's heart began to pound uncontrollably.
He was just about to step forward and bow respectfully.
But Fang Wen behind him, brimming with youthful arrogance and previously having been repeatedly 'slighted,' harbored a simmering anger.
He spoke first.
His voice carried a hint of scrutiny, a hint of questioning.
"We are disciples from Tongtian Peak under the Qingyun Sect, sent by the Sect Leader's decree to pay our respects! Are you the master of this place? Why have you repeatedly avoided us, and used such preposterous words..."
Before he could finish speaking, he felt a blur before his eyes.
He saw the honest-looking young man behind the 'expert,' the Qi Refining Stage disciple they had previously overlooked, suddenly frown.
Zhāng Fán did indeed frown.
He was very unhappy.
Master was about to partake in the 'fruit of the Dao' – what a sacred moment this was!
And these uninvited guests not only trespassed into the mountain gate but dared to speak to Master with such a questioning tone?
They were simply courting death!
He had wanted to pick up the fire poker and teach them a lesson, but he felt that using the 'Great Dao Divine Artifact' bestowed by his Master against such minor characters would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
So, he merely had a thought in his mind and took a step forward.
Just that one step.
He didn't even use any spiritual energy.
He merely infused the 'momentum' he had comprehended while scrubbing pots and washing meat, the rhythm of 'great art is not elaborate,' into this simple step.
"Weng—"
A formless, yet mountain-heavy, aura instantly spread out from Zhāng Fán as the center, crushing forward!
Fang Wen's arrogant expression instantly froze.
He felt as if he wasn't facing a cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining, but a ten-thousand-ren high mountain slowly collapsing!
That pressure was not an overwhelming of spiritual energy, but a crushing of 'Dao' itself!
A kind of absolute suppression that offered no explanation, stating 'You are wrong, I am right'!
His protective true essence, in the face of this aura, was as fragile as a piece of thin paper, instantly torn to shreds!
"Plop!"
Fang Wen's legs went weak, and he couldn't control himself, directly kneeling on the ground, his face as pale as paper, cold sweat instantly soaking through his back clothes.
Shui Yue behind him also turned pale, staggering back three steps before barely managing to steady herself, her eyes on Zhāng Fán filled with horror.
How was this possible?
A disciple at the eighth level of Qi Refining, with just one step, made his senior, who was at the Foundation Establishment Mid-stage, kneel without any power to resist?
What kind of demonic/sorcerous art was this?
And the instigator of all this, Lǐ Xuán, was just about to put a perfect piece of streaky pork into his mouth.
Suddenly hearing Fang Wen's noisy voice, he felt extremely annoyed.
So noisy!
Can't you see I'm about to eat?
Have you no public decency?
He hated being disturbed while eating the most.
So, without even looking up, holding the meat with his chopsticks, he waved his other hand impatiently in the direction of the courtyard gate.
"What are you shouting about?"
"Can't I eat in peace?"
His voice was lazy, filled with the grumpiness of someone awakened from a nap.
This wave, this sentence, was perfectly normal in Li Xuan's eyes.
But in Xiao Yicai's eyes, it was no less than the world being turned upside down!
Just a moment ago, as Fang Wen was suppressed by Zhāng Fán's aura, the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth had shown a slight disturbance.
And Li Xuan's seemingly casual wave.
Without mobilizing any spiritual energy.
It was as if an invisible giant hand had lightly brushed over all the disturbed spiritual energy, instantly smoothing it out!That impatient complaint was like a soul-soul "quell" soul-"quell" mantra, directly blasting into his sea of consciousness, instantly calming his Golden Core, which had been violently fluctuating due to shock!
What terrifying control!
What is said, the law follows!
This was absolutely the legendary 'What is said, the law follows,' the highest realm achievable by merging one's own Dao with the laws of heaven and earth!
Xiao Yicai's body froze.
He looked at the lazy young man lying on the rocking chair, with a displeased look on his face, as if he were merely swatting away a fly.
His last shred of doubt completely vanished.
This senior was not pretending.
He was truly... unimaginably powerful!
He and everything in his sect followed a 'Dao' that returned to simplicity, which they completely couldn't comprehend!