Chapter 1350: Chapter 62: Recruiting Unorthodox Cultivators for the Dragon Pillar Contest
Golden Bell Platform’s Five-stringed Hall is the place where sect leaders of past generations have cultivated, with evergreen plants before the hall, adorned with strange flowers and grass. In the rear garden, amidst the azure sky, the clouds form waves with continuous tide sounds, moored with a Flying Sky Painting Boat. This boat is over a thousand feet long, with five floors high, containing flower gardens and pavilions, long corridors, golden bridges twisting and turning, leading to secluded paths; amongst isolated bamboos and lily pads, strange stones and ancient pines dotted, accompanied by flowing streams, gentle ripples, with exotic birds and beasts gathered in groups, freely romping.
Inside the main hall of the Flying Sky Painting Boat, Du Shixun is bowing in salute to a wealthy and dignified woman adorned with pearls and jade, saying, "Child pays respects to Mum."
This woman is Sect Leader Qiao’s Daoist wife, Mrs. Zhao, and also Du Shixun’s birth mother. She appears to be around thirty years old, with fair and smooth skin, a slender and graceful figure, and radiant eyes tinged with allure. She is reclining on the couch, with wide sleeves and clothes, her body wrapped in light gauze, revealing an alabaster-soft arm, slightly languidly saying, "Is my son back, have you seen your father?"
Du Shixun stands up and respectfully replies, "Child just returned from the banquet and has already seen Father."
Mrs. Zhao seems to think of something and sighs gently, "Your father has been very concerned about the Dragon Pillar Meeting recently. Though he is a cultivator with accomplished cultivation, his hair has turned frosty white, you should assist him more in the future."
Du Shixun snorts coldly, "All the elders within the sect are incompetent. If it weren’t for their complacency, stubbornly rejecting other sects’ cultivation techniques, how could Zhongtai be suppressed so firmly by Xuanyue."
After Da Mi Ancestor founded Zhongtai Sect, the sect has been exclusively passing down the "Tuan Gang Secret Records," but over thousands of years, no one has ever cultivated to the Ascension Realm.
When Sect Leader Qiao took over as the leader, he deeply realized the shortcomings of Zhongtai’s cultivation technique due to its missing half, intending to supplement and perfect it by drawing on the strengths of other sects.
However, led by Elder Yan, a group of elders persistently clung to the original cultivation technique, believing that the Ancestor Master’s method must have its reasoning, asserting that only by acquiring the missing half from Xuanyue Sect can they achieve the hope of ascension, decisively refusing to amend even a slightest part.
Fearing internal chaos within the sect, Sect Leader Qiao had to temporarily put this matter aside.
Yet unexpectedly, Xuanyue Sect advanced ahead of Zhongtai, and over the past few hundred years, the sect extensively incorporated diverse strengths, effectively revising the "Three Extensive Collection Skills," eliminating many loopholes, thus producing figures like Rong Junzhong.
Luckily, Sect Leader Qiao foresaw this, secretly sending some exceptionally gifted disciples to other places, cultivating superior cultivation techniques acquired by previous sect leaders from other continents, yet this method hasn’t surfaced openly, hindered by sect elders, resulting in Du Shixun being the only one to truly achieve success in cultivation over the centuries.
After two consecutive defeats in the Dragon Pillar Battle, Elder Yan reluctantly conceded, suggesting that it might be feasible to employ cultivators from other sects, but remained unwavering regarding the supplementation of cultivation technique defects, and Du Shixun’s doing in the hall earlier was aimed at severely humiliating them.
As the mother and son were speaking, the sound of footsteps arose, and a maid entered from outside. She cast a glance at Du Shixun, then presented a jade plate, kneeling, saying, "Madam, the servant has just harvested Red Fruit."
About dozens of Red Fruit were piled in a pagoda shape, each one red and juicy, Mrs. Zhao picked one up and put it into her lips, enjoying the sweet juice flowing through her teeth and cheeks, she let out a joyous murmur, then said, "My son, this fruit was transplanted through great effort from South Cliff Continent, able to nourish Inner Qi and refine Blood Marrow, it is beneficial for your cultivation of Power Dao, feel free to take and taste."
Du Shixun said, "Thank you, Mum."
He didn’t have the habit of savoring carefully, his abdomen swelled, and a cloud of white smoke emerged, engulfing all the Red Fruit at once.
Mrs. Zhao smiled gently, sat up from the couch, and asked, "Since you returned from the banquet, among those invited cultivators, did you see any outstanding individuals?"
Du Shixun replied disdainfully, "They are merely lesser Loose Cultivators, not even comparable to sect elders."
Mrs. Zhao was not surprised by this result; in East Victory Continent, cultivation techniques practiced by the Five Major Sects are the most superior, except for Little Cang Realm, which can still compare, others are far inferior. She pondered for a moment before saying, "Those people are merely to strengthen the momentum, confronting Xuanyue, we still have to rely on Zhongtai disciples, others cannot be trusted."
Du Shixun asked surprisedly, "Even Fengxiang Sword Sect cannot be trusted?"
Mrs. Zhao was from Fengxiang Sword Sect, and she was not Sect Leader Qiao’s original spouse, her status as Sect Leader’s Wife was attributed to this connection within.
