Chatter

It was already afternoon, and the sun outside was slowly beginning to set in the west.

Jiang Youfu had already taken his place at his exclusive stove beneath the Return to Fields Residence. He brought Liu Shengsheng along to help prepare the ingredients for tonight's sect New Year's Eve dinner.

Lin Xiao handed the remaining task of inventorying the storage rings to Liao Pantu and Liu Yunan. He then went down the mountain to find Wang Goudan, who was holed up alone in the solitary courtyard arranged by the village chief for Li Zhanying.

At this moment, Wang Goudan was in the courtyard, looking up at the sky and letting out a long sigh.

Nascent Soul Venerables were truly unpredictable.

Previously, he was asked to stay behind, clearly told to serve by the Venerable's side.

But after a whole day, from early morning until now, he had not even caught a glimpse of Senior Li.

Wang Goudan suddenly felt a bit of regret.

Had he known this would happen, he might as well have returned to his sect.

In that case, he would certainly have been meditating on his little futon for half the day by now.

However, the spiritual energy here was quite dense, almost rivaling their sect's cultivation hall. No wonder the Lingxian Sect chose to establish their gate here. Why hadn't the Shangyang Sect found this good place back then...

The only downside was that it was too remote. He hadn't seen a single pretty girl; they were all rustic village girls. Sigh.

Speaking of which, the sect was now filled with Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation cultivators.

If he went back, he might even be able to snag a few pretty junior sisters to guide personally...

Just as Wang Goudan was letting his imagination run wild, Lin Xiao appeared outside the courtyard gate.

Seeing Wang Goudan's lecherous, absent-minded expression, Lin Xiao mercilessly spoke up to interrupt his fantasy:

"Fellow Daoist Wang, are you enjoying your stay in Xiushui Village?"

Brought back to his senses, Wang Goudan was about to subconsciously shake his head and say 'not really,' when he caught a glimpse of Lin Xiao and suddenly realized who it was. Swallowing his impending words, he changed his tune and laughed:

"Ah, it's Sect Master Lin! Yes, yes, yes, my stay has been excellent. My, this Xiushui Village is indeed a wonderful place that even Senior Li praises endlessly. After staying for just a day or two, I don't even want to return to my sect."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao simply gave him a polite smile without responding to the flattery, and instead went straight to the point:

"I would like to have a brief chat with Fellow Daoist Wang. I wonder if you have some free time right now?"

Wang Goudan happened to be bored out of his mind. Moreover, the other party was a sect master who had personally come to chat with him. He was currently on their territory, so how could he disrespectfully claim to be busy?

Of course he couldn't. Even if he were truly busy, he would have to make time, right?

Thus, he immediately stood up and welcomed Lin Xiao into the courtyard.

Lin Xiao followed him inside but stopped in the courtyard, not entering the house.

Although this was Xiushui Village, this place was ultimately the residence arranged by the village chief for Senior Li. Therefore, Senior Li could be considered the temporary master here, while Wang Goudan was merely a guest invited to stay temporarily.

Currently, Senior Li was not at home. Since he came to find Wang Goudan, staying in the courtyard was sufficient; entering the house rashly would be impolite.

Seeing this, Wang Goudan also remained in the courtyard, curious about what this young Sect Master Lin wanted with him.

Lin Xiao was not very skilled at beating around the bush or making indirect inquiries.

He hesitated for a moment before finally deciding to first ask about the history of the Shangyang Sect's development.

However, he didn't expect Wang Goudan to be completely clueless about it.

He was just an ordinary disciple who had barely reached Foundation Establishment after cultivating in the sect for many years. Even if the seniors occasionally mentioned it during normal days, who would seriously remember such things? He mostly just dozed off and coasted through.

Thus, Lin Xiao killed the conversation in the very first round.

Fortunately, Wang Goudan was intimidated by his status and cultivation base. This was the sect master of a formidable sect that could dispose of that bastard Wei Hai.

He took the initiative to try and revive the dead conversation.

Hearing that Lin Xiao wanted to chat about their sect's history right off the bat, Wang Goudan guessed that the other party probably wanted to learn more about their sect.

Although he wasn't very clear on the sect's history, he could talk about other internal matters he knew about.

After he tentatively brought up various anecdotes within their sect and saw that Lin Xiao was quite willing to continue the conversation.

Oh boy, he immediately became extremely excited and blurted out everything he knew, heard, and saw on a daily basis to Lin Xiao without holding back.

So much so that Lin Xiao even learned what color underwear Elder Luo, the most powerful figure in the Shangyang Sect, liked to wear.

Even though he didn't know who this person called 'Elder Luo' was.

That didn't stop him from knowing that this Elder Luo liked to wear golden-yellow underwear.

After trying every means to gather information from Wang Goudan, Lin Xiao stood up and took his leave.

From the conversation just now, Lin Xiao learned that there didn't seem to be any mention of special forbidden grounds or the like within the Shangyang Sect.

The only place few people had visited was the area where the Shangyang Sect's patriarch had gone into secluded cultivation.

But they only found out later that the sect's sole Nascent Soul patriarch had passed away long ago.

The corpse of the Nascent Soul patriarch in that secluded cultivation spot had already air-dried.

He had probably been dead for quite some years.

However, it was said that their sect master had also sent some disciples into the secluded cultivation spot to collect the patriarch's corpse, and they hadn't heard of anything peculiar inside.

It was just a slightly larger cave with relatively abundant spiritual energy.

However, Wang Goudan later mentioned that supposedly, every sect master of the Shangyang Sect would pass down a sect master token.

It was said that only with this sect master token could one truly obtain the Shangyang Sect's inheritance.

But back when Wei Hai killed the original sect master, he did not obtain that sect master token.

Wang Goudan guessed that it was highly likely the item was taken by those few elders in the sect.

Having listened to a head full of various information about the Shangyang Sect, Lin Xiao preliminarily judged that this so-called Grand Lunar Sealing Array was probably not located within the Shangyang Sect.

After all, this sect didn't even have a forbidden ground.

If such an activated array truly existed, if it were a low-level array, there would certainly be no need to hide it from the sect's disciples, and they would surely know a thing or two about it.

If it were a high-level array, they would definitely establish a forbidden ground or something similar within its range and guard it closely to prevent others from wandering in by mistake, right?

Having ruled out the Shangyang Sect, Lin Xiao returned to the Lingxian Sect.

It was already evening by now.

The aroma of the food cooked by Jiang Youfu drifted all the way down to the foot of the mountain.

Relying solely on this tantalizing aroma, Lin Xiao could walk straight up the mountain even with his eyes closed.

When he returned to the mountain and arrived at the dining table below the Return to Fields Residence, he found that around the massive dining table pieced together from a pile of wooden boards, everyone in the entire sect, including Tuantuan, Little Luan, and Da Tao, had already taken their respective seats like radishes in their holes.

Only Lin Xiao and the head chef Jiang Youfu had yet to take their seats.

"He's here, he's here! Brother Xiao is back!"

"Brother Xiao, come quickly! Fuzi has already finished cooking the food. As soon as you sit down, we can serve the dishes!"

Seeing that Lin Xiao had returned, everyone enthusiastically pulled him to quickly take his seat.

Seeing him sit down, Jiang Youfu immediately used the Object Control Spell to manipulate plates of food, flying them toward the giant dining table.

"Serving the dishes—"