Densely Packed

Although Lin Xiao really wanted to lead everyone in cultivating peacefully, it was obvious that true peace did not exist in this world.

It was indeed time to increase the martial strength of their sect.

Otherwise, it would be unrealistic to expect their sect to grow and flourish.

In this world, where strength reigned supreme, anyone who wanted to have a voice first needed fists hard enough to back it up.

The strong made the rules, while the weak obeyed them. That was the same everywhere.

The only difference was what kind of environment the powerful rule-makers wanted to create.

Lin Xiao knew that the Lingxian Sect could not hide away forever.

A common man was innocent, but possessing a treasure made him guilty.

The various advantages of the Lingxian Sect—things that set it apart from the other sects in the mortal world, and that were enough to make many sects in the cultivation world drool with envy—could not possibly remain a secret for long once the Lingxian Sect began interacting with the outside world.

Unless they were willing to remain completely cut off from the world.

But people did not live just to lock themselves away in a cage.

Nor was there truly such a thing as “playing it safe until the day one became absolutely invincible.”

Because Lin Xiao was not alone.

He had so many friends and loved ones.

Was he really supposed to take everyone deep into the mountains and have them cultivate day and night, gambling on the chance that every single one of them would achieve great success?

What if someone fell behind on the path of cultivation and passed away?

Lin Xiao did not know whether they would leave this world with regrets—regrets that they had never properly experienced life or taken a good look at the world.

So he would not do that.

The road ahead in life was always unknown. That was true for everyone.

Therefore, he would do his best to protect everyone, but he would not imprison them within the sect.

As he thought about this, Lin Xiao glanced into his private treasury.

As far as the eye could see, it was packed with cultivation manuals and secret techniques.

He had casually made over a hundred copies of every manual, ensuring that no one would be left without one.

His original belongings occupied only a small corner.

Once everyone in the sect saw how many cultivation techniques they had to choose from, they would surely be delighted, wouldn’t they?

Whether they would still be happy when they learned the truth was impossible to say, but Qin Jianghe was certainly delighted at the moment.

“Brother Xiao, when does this training expedition start?” he asked expectantly.

Seeing how eager he was, Lin Xiao was quite pleased.

“Don’t worry. As soon as you’ve finished learning the cultivation techniques, I’ll arrange it for you right away!”

“Then when do we start learning? Can I master them right now?”

Lin Xiao reassured him, “There’s no need to hurry. Once my elder brother’s wedding is over, I’ll make the arrangements in a couple of days.”

Then he remembered something and added, “By the way, Jianghe, did you manage to buy the materials from the additional list I gave you last month? The most important one is that Spirit River fertile soil. We absolutely need it.”

Hearing this, Qin Jianghe nodded.

“We’ve bought almost all the other materials. I put them in the storeroom and planned to give them to you once everything was assembled. We haven’t managed to buy the Spirit River fertile soil yet, but the Yuan family has a channel for obtaining it. They said they should be able to transport a batch back for us next month.”

“Good. Tell me once everything is ready. If I’m in secluded cultivation in the Formation Hall, send me a voice transmission.”

After the wedding boat delivered the bride and her family to Xiushui Village, the liveliest wedding Xiushui Village had seen in over a century officially began.

Everyone from the Lingxian Sect came down the mountain to attend the celebration at the Lin family home.

Although many of the sect’s new disciples were not from Xiushui Village and were not particularly familiar with Lin Lei, they still mingled with the crowd and came along to enjoy the festivities.

For many of them, this was their first time leaving the sect since joining.

However, there were simply too many people in Xiushui Village that day, and the villagers did not recognize most of the new disciples, so their arrival did not cause any confusion.

Many of the disciples’ relatives had begun paying close attention to Xiushui Village because their own family members had joined the Lingxian Sect. Upon hearing that the Lin family was holding a wedding, they came to join in the fun—and, as a bonus, perhaps run into the relatives who had entered the Lingxian Sect.

As a result, some of the disciples were able to reunite with their families that day.

Although the villagers of Xiushui Village were unfamiliar with the new disciples, they knew Lin Xiao and the other locals from the village very well.

Therefore, to avoid causing a traffic jam in the village, the disciples did not dare wander around after coming down the mountain. Instead, they directly used teleportation talismans, Soaring Cloud Arts, and other movement techniques to enter the old Lin family residence, where several tables had been arranged for them to sit and wait for the meal.

Outside the old Lin residence, a continuous banquet had been set up for the other guests.

The banquet inside the residence was reserved for members of the sect, as well as the village chief, several respected elders of the village, and some neighbors who had always maintained good relations with the Lin family.

As a result, the already modest old Lin residence was packed inside and out.

Eldest Uncle Lin and Eldest Aunt Lin stood at the gate to welcome the guests. As they watched the endless stream of people arriving to offer their congratulations, their faces were filled to the brim with joy.

Firecrackers crackled without pause outside, while the guests coming and going frequently called out their loud congratulations at the entrance.

Amid all this excitement, Lin Lei and his bride performed the wedding rites.

At dusk, the wedding banquet officially began.

There was no need for anyone to carry out the dishes. Plate after plate flew onto the tables on their own, as smoothly and continuously as a flowing stream.

The guests were all so excited that their faces flushed red, but they managed to hold themselves in.

The lively wedding feast continued until deep into the night.

Old Master Lin and the others stayed overnight at the old residence, as did Lin Lei and his new wife.

No matter how one looked at it, this was still the Lin family’s ancestral home. Old Master Lin felt that his eldest grandson’s wedding ceremony ought to take place here.

For that reason, Lin Xiao had specially set up a defensive formation around the old Lin residence, just in case.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, the long conversations reminiscing about the past finally came to an end.

Once the guests had been escorted out, Lin Xiao and the others also returned to the sect.

As for the disciples of Qingyun Peak, Liu Yunan had already summoned them all back to the sect through their Lock Rings an hour earlier.

It was a rare joyous occasion, so everyone in the sect tacitly decided to give themselves the day off.

No matter how busy they usually were, they could put everything aside for today.

Most of them did nothing else. They simply lay down on the beds in their rooms—beds they perhaps had not properly rested on in a very long time—closed their eyes, and slept soundly through the night.

Lin Xiao, however, was not among them.

The sect master still had no excuse to take a holiday.

He still had a great many things to plan.

More importantly, some of those things were already half-finished. He always felt uncomfortable leaving anything incomplete instead of finishing it in one go.

And so, that night, while everyone else had entered the land of dreams, Lin Xiao alone curled up in the small dark room of the Formation Hall and pulled a pile of formation plates from his private treasury.

If Mo Yuanjiao saw these formations, he would probably find them somewhat familiar.

That was because many aspects of these formations resembled parts of the formations recently used by the Formation Hall in the mass production of Lock Rings.

But there were also many differences.