The Enlightenment of the Ancestors

Xuanyangzi's eyes were red as he handed over the jade box, watching the Fifth Patriarch "struggle" to open the lid. His heart ached intensely.

The Patriarchs were so weak that they couldn't even open a box!

The moment the box was opened, the rich aura emanating from the Innate Spirit Marrow caused the spiritual energy in the entire forbidden area to tremble.

The Fifth Patriarch's hand shook. That kid Gu Changge was actually willing to give this away?

"This... this is too precious..."

The Fifth Patriarch was truly trembling this time.

Xuanyangzi, however, misunderstood and quickly supported his shaking hand.

"Patriarch, don't be agitated! Take it easy!"

Turning around, he said to the other Patriarchs, "This spiritual tea is also a treasure of Junior Brother Gu. He said it can calm the mind and nourish the qi, and there is a chance of entering a state of epiphany..."

The Fourth Patriarch's beard twitched imperceptibly. Could it really be the Dao Enlightenment Tea?

Seeing that the act was about to be exposed, the First Patriarch quickly "weakly" changed the subject: "Little Yangzi... how... how is the sect doing lately?"

"Thanks to the Patriarchs' blessings, everything is fine."

Xuanyangzi answered respectfully, thinking to himself that the Patriarchs were still worried about the sect even in this state, truly... he felt like shedding tears again.

The Second Patriarch suddenly coughed "violently": "It's... getting late... you... you go back to your work..."

Xuanyangzi understood; the Patriarchs were running out of strength!

He quickly stood up: "This disciple takes his leave. Patriarchs, please rest well."

Before leaving, he didn't forget to gently place the tea canister by the stone platform.

When Xuanyangzi's figure completely disappeared and the forbidden area's barrier had just closed, the five "dying" old men instantly jumped up, full of vigor.

"Quick! Reinforce the barrier with three layers!"

The First Patriarch dropped his weak act, his voice booming like a bell.

The Fifth Patriarch was already circling the spiritual tea on the stone platform: "Is this really the Dao Enlightenment Tea? I've only seen descriptions of it in ancient texts!"

The Third Patriarch hugged the tea canister and sniffed vigorously: "I feel like I'm about to have an epiphany just from smelling the aroma!"

The Fourth Patriarch impatiently snatched the tea canister, his fingers trembling: "Quick, quick, quick, brew a pot to taste first!"

The Second Patriarch, however, suddenly pressed down on the tea canister, his expression grave: "Wait! If this tea is truly the Dao Enlightenment Tea, we must first adjust our state."

The First Patriarch stroked his beard and nodded: "Number Two is right. Let's adjust our own state first..."

Before he finished speaking, the Fifth Patriarch had secretly broken off a small piece of tea leaf and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Number Five! You!" The Third Patriarch's eyes widened.

They saw the Fifth Patriarch shudder, and three phantom golden lotuses suddenly appeared above his head, with Dao rhythm flowing around him.

With his eyes tightly closed, he had directly entered a state of epiphany!

"You prodigal!"

The First Patriarch stomped his feet in anger.

"Swallowing a tea leaf just like that! What a waste of a heavenly treasure!"

The Fourth Patriarch was quick-witted and quickly shielded the remaining tea leaves in his arms.

"Not a single piece of the remaining leaves can be missing! We have to find that kid Gu Changge and ask him exactly where this tea came from!"

Just then, Xuanyangzi's voice suddenly came from outside the barrier: "Patriarchs, this disciple forgot to mention, the sect competition is in four months..."

The five old men instantly froze and, with lightning speed, reverted to their dying appearances.

The First Patriarch even flopped down on the ground with a "thud," not forgetting to drag the enlightened Fifth Patriarch down with him.

The barrier opened, and Xuanyangzi looked at the Patriarchs "fainted" all over the place, immediately panicking: "Patriarchs! What happened to you!"

The Third Patriarch "weakly" raised his hand: "It's... it's nothing... Number Five's... old injury relapsed..."

The Fifth Patriarch cooperatively "twitched" twice, with uncleaned tea dregs still hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Xuanyangzi frantically pulled out a communication jade slip: "I'll call Junior Brother Gu right now!"

"Don't!" The four Patriarchs simultaneously "sat up in shock from their dying sickness," startling Xuanyangzi.

The First Patriarch quickly explained: "This small matter... no need to trouble Changge... you... you go back first..."

Xuanyangzi looked suspiciously at the mess on the ground, then at the suddenly energetic Patriarchs, feeling that something was wrong...

Meanwhile, the Fifth Patriarch was cursing loudly through divine sense transmission.

"You old bastards! I was in the middle of an epiphany! You forcibly interrupted me!"

Xuanyangzi backed out of the forbidden area with heavy steps, the barrier slowly closing behind him.

The Patriarchs' momentary "energy" just now was too abnormal, especially the bit of green tea dregs at the corner of the Fifth Patriarch's mouth, which stuck in his heart like a thorn.

But on second thought, the Patriarchs might have been temporarily stimulated by the aura of the spiritual tea, but their bodies were ultimately exhausted.

He suppressed the urge to turn back and headed toward Qingyun Peak.

Inside the barrier, the "dead wood" on the five stone platforms instantly came alive.

"Quick! Reinforce the barrier!"

The First Patriarch suddenly sprang up from the stone platform, his originally hunched back straightening up, his voice booming like a bell, shaking the stone dust loose.

His fingers formed seals, and three golden lights shot into the edge of the forbidden area. The originally translucent barrier instantly became solid like colored glaze, and even the air seemed to freeze.

The Fifth Patriarch was already squatting on the ground holding the box of Innate Spirit Marrow, his fingers trembling like autumn leaves as he carefully extracted a drop of the Innate Spirit Marrow.

As soon as the spiritual liquid touched the air, it turned into wisps of mist, emitting a warm aura that could make moss grow on gold and stone.

"Tsk tsk, this is Innate Spirit Marrow..."

He popped the spiritual liquid into his mouth, immediately shivering all over, the cloudiness in his eyes completely swept away.

"Just how many treasures did Daoist Zizhu leave for that kid Gu Changge?"

"Don't just enjoy it by yourself!"

The Third Patriarch snatched the tea canister and roughly tore off the lid. The rich tea aroma instantly exploded, actually condensing into tiny golden light particles on the stone platform.

He pinched a tea leaf and brought it to his nose, inhaling deeply, his beard trembling into waves.

"It's Dao Enlightenment Tea! It really is Dao Enlightenment Tea! Ancient texts say that a single leaf can cause a saint to have an epiphany!"

"Cut the crap, brew it!"

The Second Patriarch had already brought over a stone basin and pulled out a chipped coarse porcelain bowl from nowhere.

"Use the spiritual spring to brew it!"

The Fourth Patriarch was quick with his hands. With a flick of his finger, a clear spring gushed out from the cracks in the stone, making a tinkling sound as it fell into the bowl, and a faint spiritual light floated on the water's surface.

The Third Patriarch's hand holding the tea leaves trembled again and again, but he finally threw in five leaves with a hardened heart—any more, and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to control himself and would go mad on the spot.

"You prodigal!"

The First Patriarch was about to curse, but his mind was severely shaken by the tea aroma in the bowl.

The fragrance drilled into his sea of consciousness through his nasal cavity, instantly turning into countless tiny points of light, crashing against the bottleneck that had kept him stuck at the peak of the King Realm until it buzzed.

He could no longer care about teaching the Fifth Patriarch a lesson and picked up the coarse porcelain bowl, draining it in one gulp.

He then sat cross-legged, his eyes tightly closed, the spiritual energy around him surging like a tsunami, and the cracks on the stone platform actually slowly healed under the nourishment of the spiritual energy.

The Second Patriarch and the Fourth Patriarch also scrambled to share the tea soup. After downing it in a few gulps, they each found a clean stone platform to sit on.

On the stone platforms, the five elders were either sitting or lying down, all surrounded by a faint rosy glow. The originally lifeless forbidden area was now even more vibrant than the spiritual fields of Zizhu Peak.

Only the Fifth Patriarch's resentment over his interrupted epiphany was still intermittently drifting in the divine sense: "When I get out... I have to beat up that kid Xuanyangzi..."

Before his words could fade, he was completely engulfed by a surging tide of enlightenment.

The profound roar of the Great Dao echoed within his sea of consciousness, and the golden light radiating from his body blazed ever brighter. Even the moss on the stone platform absorbed the overflowing spiritual energy, growing wildly into vines of vibrant emerald.