Chapter 45: A Little Bit and Planning the God Conferment

　　On the way back to the Immortal Du Sect, Li Changshou thought, ‘After coming out for a few days, it should be fine in the mountains, right?’

　　His master should still be drinking tea at the other peaks. He had also told his little junior sister to enter seclusion and cultivate.

　　The most probable inconvenient situation was that someone would go to the Little Qiong Peak and trespass the array formation around the Pill Chamber by accident. Even though the trapping arrays and mazes did not cause direct damage, if anyone stopped in between them for a long time, they would easily lose their mind and nourish the mental demons.

　　However, after he had nearly driven Martial Uncle Jiu Wu crazy the other time, Li Changshou had also done some changes to the chain arrays.

　　He had left behind a ‘guest’ path.

　　If a thief trespassed the array formation, he would drive them crazy and just silence them. However, there was a mountain-protecting array formation in the immortal sect. How could thieves enter?

　　Under normal circumstances, the person who entered the array formation should be those from the same sect as him and had strange goals⁠. Killing and driving them crazy was not appropriate.

　　Hence, Li Changshou had set up some guide signs on the dead-end path to draw the trespasser into a comfortable environment to temporarily stabilize the person.

　　This way, he could avoid being awkward afterward and not let the other party run everywhere. He could still set up other things with ample time.

　　Moreover, if he managed to trap a Perfected Immortal, who constantly made a move everywhere, it would likely trigger the hidden killing arrays.

　　It was none of his business whether the trespasser died or got injured. At that time, it would be troublesome when the sect found out that he had gone against the rules.

　　The role of the array formation was to stop other people from approaching the Pill Chamber on the surface. The ‘guest room’ set up in the array formation could solve these two more critical problems properly.

　　This was a necessary measure taken by Li Changshou after careful deliberations.

　　Moreover, he had also used his master’s name and imitated his handwriting on the wooden guide signs.

　　After all, his master was the Peak Leader, while he was just an older disciple of the Little Qiong Peak.

　　‘I’m finally going to return.’

　　Li Changshou scanned the mountains in the distance and planned his journey.

　　After he returned, he would continue to suppress his cultivation level and ponder through the True Samadhi Flames.

　　In this current minor realm, if Li Changshou wanted to suppress his natural speed of breaking through with his life, he should still be able to suppress it for another two years or so.

　　Two years was only enough for him to barely cultivate his True Samadhi Flames into the initial stage.

　　The next time he went out of the mountains would be for the official Tribulation Transcendence.

　　Then again, how should he explain to his master about the Pill Chamber and the chain arrays around it? If his master asked how he had set up the chain arrays, should he reveal some of his hidden strength?

　　Li Changshou naturally trusted his master, but if his master spoke the truth after being drunk…

　　Forget it. His master and junior sister were the closest people to him. Their scope of power and treatment here should be unbiased.

　　Li Changshou would go back and find his master to talk about it so that his master would understand him to the extent at which his junior sister understood him.

　　As he approached the sect mountain, the night breeze was unexpectedly somewhat warm.

　　…

　　When Li Changshou returned to the Immortal Du Sect, it was already in the middle of the night, where the moon was bright, and the stars were sparse.

　　Everyone dispersed in front of the Bai Fan Hall, and Li Changshou also bade his leave to Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu before drifting toward the Little Qiong Peak on the white cloud.

　　Youqin Xuanya clearly wanted to say a few words to Li Changshou. However, just when she landed on the ground, she was told to go to the Bai Fan Hall by a few martial uncles. She had no chance to get away.

　　Li Changshou drifted away on the white cloud without anyone noticing him. People were happy with their happy events, and he had reaped great benefits in the past few days.

　　However, Li Changshou’s expression nearly sank when he recalled his journey to the East Ocean.

　　He still was not sure why the Dragon Prince had chosen him that day.

　　Just in case he once again met the unconventional Ao Yi, Li Changshou had to stay away from these ancient nobles in the future.

　　The Little Qiong Peak was extremely quiet. From afar, Li Changshou realized that his little junior sister and master were not in their own respective straw huts. He scanned the array formations with his spiritual sense and saw them being trapped at the edge of the array formation.

　　How had they ended up being trapped together inside?

　　His master had always been in seclusion, so he did not know about the array formations at the back. On the other hand, Lan Ling’e was watching when he had set up the array formations. How had they gone in together?

　　Could they have thought that the scenery there was good, so both of them had gone in together to have tea and enjoy the stars?

　　Li Changshou drifted over on the white cloud. He was not in a hurry to let the two of them out. He would first check the array formation inside out. Just now, he had felt that the jade token used to control the array formations was left outside the trapping arrays.

　　The breeze blew, and the white mists in the forest came and disappeared. The dense forest seemed to have less thicket.

　　Lan Ling’e immediately cheered. “Master! Senior Brother is back!”

　　Qi Yuan perked up and wanted to get up. However, he seemed to have recalled something. He sat properly, showed his usual face, and picked up the specks of dust!

　　“Cough! You brat… How great, Li Changshou! Aren’t you coming over to receive your punishment!?”

　　Li Changshou, who was drifting over in the sky, blinked and sensed that something was unusual.

　　As soon as he landed on the ground, his master whipped him with the horsetail whisk.

　　After he had advanced to a Turbid Immortal, Qi Yuan’s strength had soared. This horsetail whisk had whipped out a sky of white nets in a blink of an eye! If not for Li Changshou’s endurance, he would have escaped!

　　Li Changshou had been tied under the white net.

　　Lan Ling’e at the side immediately pounced on her prey like a tiger and pushed Li Changshou down.

　　A few sounds of miserable howling and peals of laughter were heard in the forest.

　　However, the ‘lesson’ that they were going to teach Lan Ling’e’s senior brother was not that intense as she had expected.

　　Thanks to her senior brother, who did not retaliate at all, and her master, who had been watching from the start, she did not know where to start.

　　She was just a little junior sister. If her master did not demonstrate it, she could not hit her senior brother for real.

　　She lifted her head to see her senior brother looking at her with a warning gaze.

　　‘Hmph!’

　　As her heart raced, she was about to land her empty hands down fiercely. However, just when she was about to do that, her delicate hands could only eventually land on where her master had hit her senior brother several times. When she thought about how he had been beaten swollen by her master there, she could not help but gently… rub it.

　　“Um, Ling’e has indeed grown up.”

　　Li Changshou was relieved yet helpless. He educated her earnestly, “A woman has to restrain herself. Drooling and habits are different matters. It’s not that I can’t understand you. After all, you are at that age. However, as a cultivator, you still have to restrain the urge. What if you give rise to the mental demons? Am I right?”

　　“No! I…”

　　Lan Ling’e instantly blushed and looked at her master with a flustered look. She realized that her master was also looking at her with a frown. He wanted to say something but hesitated and looked awkward.

　　“Just now, I was just… Stupid Senior Brother! You’re bullying me!”

　　“A gentleman takes action instead of reasoning things. Why are you so fierce?”

　　“Hmph! I can’t win over you!”

　　“Master, if you don’t take good care of her, how will she get married in the future?”

　　“It’s none of your business! I will die at the Little Qiong Peak of old age!”

　　Qi Yuan had already turned to leave. He had a slight smile on his face and slowly drifted toward his straw hut.

　　After some time, Li Changshou walked out of the forest with a head full of leaves and untidy clothes. As he looked at the few bite marks on his arm, he was caught between laughter and tears.

　　His junior sister was born in the Year of the Rabbit. This was proven.

　　Lan Ling’e, who was behind him, blushed and pretended to look at the sky as if nothing had happened.

　　When he reached the straw hut, Qi Yuan sent a voice transmission to their ears.

　　“I am going to start seclusion to be enlightened about the Dao cultivation of a Turbid Immortal. Changshou, you are in charge of taking care of everything at our Little Qiong Peak. You can find me to discuss anything at any time.

　　“Ling’e, you still have to take note of your speech and actions. You have to respect your senior brother.”

　　Lan Ling’e replied as soft as the sound of a mosquito, “Yes… Yes, Master…”

　　Then, the layers of array formations around Qi Yuan’s straw hut lit up and were isolated away from the outside.

　　Li Changshou turned around and looked at her. “You told Master?”

　　Lan Ling’e instantly stammered, “This… Um… This… A little…”

　　“Is it just a little or a lot?”

　　“Definitely just a little!”

　　Li Changshou had a serious look. “Enter the house.”

　　Lan Ling’e slightly trembled, and her expression sank. She instantly switched into a crying mode. After she entered her own straw hut, she took the cushion, closed her legs, and knelt. She lowered her head and pretended to cry.

　　As he activated the surrounding array formations, Li Changshou said faintly, “Tell me. What did you tell Master?”

　　“Senior Brother, Master forced me to tell him…”

　　Li Changshou was helpless. If someone heard this, they might have thought there was a human tragedy at the Little Qiong Peak.

　　In his master’s retirement plan, should he add a wife for him?

　　He could consider this.

　　Li Changshou actually did not care much about his little junior sister beating around the bush as she told him about what she had told their master.

　　After all, there was a limit to what she knew.

　　Based on his understanding of Lan Ling’e’s personality, he already had a hunch regarding the situation today.

　　…

　　In the dead of night, the array formations around the Pill Chamber had been completely activated. Li Changshou used the furnace to refine pills casually. He let the paper doll clones guard them, while the real paper dolls in the hidden underground chamber.

　　Everything was going well.

　　Li Changshou took out three jade tokens to play with and put away the thunder spell and Inaction Sutra. He then took out the True Samadhi Flames cultivation technique and forcibly engraved it in his head before he was lost in thoughts.

　　The Great God-Conferment Tribulation…

　　Although it was the most ideal state to secretly become a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, that required a long time.

　　As the Immortal Sects of the Three Schools, the Immortal Du Sect was very likely involved in the Great God-Conferment Tribulation.

　　The Great God-Conferment Tribulation was not just a plot like King Wu of Zhou overthrowing the tyrant King Zhou of Shang in the South Continent of the mortal world. The Three Realms should be involved in this, and this targeted the Great Tribulation of the disciples from the Three Schools.

　　Presently, the Middle Continent was becoming more and more prosperous. When the time came, they would naturally be destroyed miserably by the Great Tribulation. The East Continent’s immortal sects probably could not escape from the tribulation either.

　　However, Li Changshou did not intend to avoid this Great Tribulation.

　　It was very simple. He wanted to climb ashore in advance.

　　The Great God-Conferment Tribulation was actually the process by which the Jade Emperor of the Heavenly Courts established the authority to dominate Heaven and Earth. The nominal cause was that Jade Emperor Hao Tian had complained to the Dao Ancestor that the Three Schools’ disciples were rude and did not follow the orders of the Heavenly Courts. His title, as the ruler of the Three Realms, existed in name only. He did not have the dignity of a man, so he could not lift his head before the Queen Mother of the West. His manly grandeur had totally collapsed…

　　Cough. That had gone off track.

　　Based on the God Conferment results, the Three Schools’ disciples had become immortal in the Heavenly Courts. The Saints no longer took the initiative to manifest them in the world, and they laid the foundation for the Heavenly Courts to manage the Three Realms.

　　In that case, as long as Li Changshou got into the Heavenly Courts in advance and became an elder during the difficult times, he did not need to be a high-ranking official. He just had to conceal his cultivation level and become a low-ranking official so that his name could be in the Immortal Registry.

　　After the Great God-Conferment Tribulation, his name would have been in the Immortal Registry, and he would have nothing to do with the tribulation. How could the God-Conferment calamity fall upon him again?

　　Confer the gods in the Heavenly Courts again? That was unreasonable.

　　When the conferred gods were appointed to the Heavenly Courts, there would be many geniuses. He could then succeed easily and seize the chance to retire. He could obtain the seniority of an elder of the Heavenly Courts and return to the mountains to continue cultivating steadily.

　　What could he have against that?

　　Li Changshou knocked on the table with his fingers and carefully considered the specific plan.

　　His name had to be in the Heavenly Courts’ Immortal Registry before the Jade Emperor complained to the Dao Ancestor, in which he still had ample time. Letting his master become the Earth God was also a crucial step, as it could save him a lot of planning.

　　Li Changshou would have to see whether his master was willing or not.

　　Although the land was small and plentiful, and he would have little authority, he would be the Earth God after all.

　　The Earth God might even find a… wife.