An Encounter with the Tsundere Immortal Lady Chapter 46

When she returned, Yu Huang was standing in the center of the hall. She gazed calmly at Lin Wuxi, then turned and said, “Let’s go.”
“Alright.” Lin Wuxi, with matters on her mind, looked up, smiled, and followed Senior Sister out the door. But she was somewhat preoccupied.
That was why she was so shocked when they arrived at their destination. When she finally smoothed her brow, which had been furrowed for the whole journey, and looked at the plaque far ahead, glinting with a faint golden light in the sunlight, she was truly stunned.
This was not a grand palace complex; the hall was small, like the ordinary ones they had seen along the way. It was also not very tall, only a dozen or so meters in height. In the expansive Nine Heavens Immortal Palace, it was truly inconspicuous. The hall’s decorations didn’t strive for the utmost splendor and magnificence typical of the Immortal Palace’s overall style; it was just an ordinary, even somewhat plain, structure.
Yet, such an inconspicuous hall was made unique by the wooden plaque hanging above its main entrance. Written on it were precisely the three characters: “Ancestral Worship Hall.”
There was no dazzling golden light, no soul-stirring pressure. One of the most important places in the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace was actually such an exceedingly ordinary hall.
Who could have imagined? That the Ancestral Worship Hall of the incomparably noble and luxurious Nine Heavens Immortal Palace would be so simple and unadorned?
“Let’s go in.” Yu Huang said, glancing at Lin Wuxi, who was still standing there dumbstruck.
“Is this… alright?” Lin Wuxi asked, uncertain. “A place as important as this… are outsiders usually allowed in?”
“It’s fine.” Yu Huang nodded without much explanation. She took Lin Wuxi’s sleeve and stepped over the threshold, which looked as if it had weathered countless years.
The walls and pillars inside the hall were made of dark wooden planks. Like the door, one could glimpse the passage of history from various subtle marks on them. Miraculously, there were no signs of repair anywhere in the hall. Even after so many long years, all the furnishings and structures within were perfectly preserved, almost undamaged.
A few steps inside the entrance stood a huge wooden statue. The figure in the statue had white hair and a beard, an aged face, but a vigorous spirit. In front of the statue was a long, narrow altar table. On the table sat an equally ancient-looking two-handled incense burner. Three sticks of incense were currently burning in it, already very short and about to burn out.
“This is Zou Qianzhen, the founding patriarch of the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace, and now, your patriarch as well.” Yu Huang’s words were filled with emotion. “Tens of thousands of years ago, the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace was just an insignificant little sect. Who could have imagined it would achieve its current glorious status? Since you’re here, offer a stick of incense to the patriarch. Since its founding, who knew how many hardships and tribulations the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace had endured?”
“Yes.” Lin Wuxi also took this matter seriously. After respectfully offering three sticks of incense, she then followed Yu Huang deeper inside.
Yu Huang led Lin Wuxi around the large wooden statue and into a narrow corridor on the left. Although the corridor had a few small windows, they weren’t enough to illuminate the entire passage. The bright spots of light cast from the windows landed on dark, sturdy wooden panels, making the already dim corridor seem even gloomier.
Lin Wuxi walked behind, watching the sunlight from the windows fall on Yu Huang’s face ahead. Her skin was so fair it was almost transparent, and her thick, dark eyelashes fluttered as she walked. Her red lips were pressed together, revealing that she wasn’t in a very good mood.
Lin Wuxi was momentarily dazed. The scene before me is too dreamlike, so beautiful it makes me think everything is an illusion. Her hand lifted slightly, as if wanting to grasp something.
“What’s wrong?” A pleasant voice came from ahead. Lin Wuxi felt a warmth in her palm. Looking down, she saw that Yu Huang had already taken her hand. With a slight squeeze, Lin Wuxi felt the distance between them lessen.
“You’ve seemed a bit distracted these past few days. Are you unwell somewhere?” As her robes rustled, Yu Huang’s fingers moved slightly inward, resting on Lin Wuxi’s pulse point, intending to check her condition.
“I’m fine.” Lin Wuxi finally snapped back to reality and quickly stepped back. She couldn’t let Senior Sister discover what was wrong with her.
At this point, Lin Wuxi remembered that Senior Sister had suddenly lost all her spiritual energy in the cultivation world. Looking at her now, Senior Sister seemed to be fine, but why had that happened back then?
Thinking this, Lin Wuxi immediately asked, as such an event was indeed very strange.
The Immortal Lord’s mood, for some reason, suddenly seemed to improve. The corners of her eyes curved slightly as she looked at Lin Wuxi and replied, “My power in the cultivation world was actually sealed all along. But as time passed, the original seal was no longer enough to suppress that power. The final and strongest line of defense of the seal was to suppress all spiritual energy to the extreme. To an ordinary observer, it would look like all my spiritual energy suddenly vanished.”
“But…” Lin Wuxi hesitated, secretly glancing at Senior Sister. The question that had long been in her heart felt difficult to ask.
But Senior Sister seemed to already know what Lin Wuxi wanted to ask. She smiled. “I went to such lengths to return to the cultivation world, actually, it was to undergo a tribulation.”
“Tribulation?” Lin Wuxi felt a slight stirring in her heart.
“That’s right. You also know I’m the only existing Immortal Lord in the Immortal Realm. But in the long history of the Immortal Realm, I’m not the only Immortal Lord to have appeared. If we want to restore the Immortal Realm to its original state, we must have power stronger than an Immortal Lord.”
“And I am the one in the history of the Immortal Realm closest to the perfection of the Immortal Lord realm. Just one step away, I can cross this realm, go further, and fulfill the long-cherished wish of the Immortal Realm’s predecessors for many years.”
“Follow me.” Yu Huang grabbed Lin Wuxi’s sleeve and led her along the corridor to a room ahead. The room was very large, much larger than it looked from the outside. Lin Wuxi knew this hall had a World-in-a-Seed Formation, forcibly expanding the space several times over.
In the front of the room was a large wooden table. The wooden table was divided into dozens of tiers, incrementally rising, and each tier was densely packed with memorial tablets.
“These are the memorial tablets of all the ancestors of the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace. This is the most sacred place in the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace. Now that my tribulation is over, I brought you here for a baptism.”
“Baptism?” Lin Wuxi was a little confused. Senior Sister said her tribulation was over, and now she mentioned baptism. Could it be…
“That’s right.” Meeting Lin Wuxi’s somewhat shocked gaze, Yu Huang nodded slightly. “I’m about to break through to the Immortal Lord realm. Be my Dharma protector. Don’t worry, there won’t be any danger.”
After Yu Huang finished speaking, she walked to the only wooden table in the room. Her finger tapped lightly on the corner of the table. The ground in the center of the room silently sank, and a huge, arc-shaped jade slowly rose from it.
The jade was very large, about half a person tall. Its quality was crystal clear and extremely translucent. Standing to the left, Lin Wuxi could even clearly see that the inside of the jade was hollow.
Lin Wuxi looked at the jade’s appearance; it seemed somewhat familiar. After a moment of thought, she remembered: this seemed to be an enlarged version of the jade pendant Senior Sister always wore.
“Look here.” Yu Huang activated a formation on the room’s floor, pulled Lin Wuxi to the center of the formation, and said to her, “Later, when I go in, just sit here. You’ll be able to sense me. If you get tired, you can lie down and rest. It won’t have any effect.”
The center of the formation was right next to the giant jade pendant. Lin Wuxi, however, rarely felt so unconfident, murmuring, “Senior Sister, I’m only at the Fusion stage. I’m afraid I won’t be of much help. For something like this, why not let others do it?” In the Nine Heavens Immortal Palace, Immortals were a dime a dozen. Their spiritual energy, whether in quantity or purity, was far better than hers. Although she really wanted to help Senior Sister, Lin Wuxi still hoped for the best for her.
“Silly girl.” Yu Huang patted Lin Wuxi’s head, smiling. “This formation has nothing to do with cultivation realm. And actually, others sitting here would have no effect on me at all. Only you can help me. Because you are the most important.”
Lin Wuxi hadn’t yet had time to savor the meaning of Senior Sister’s words when she saw Senior Sister look back with a smile, then sink into the giant jade. From the outside, she could vaguely see the hem of her robes fluttering within the jade.
Calming her mind, Lin Wuxi sat cross-legged in the center of the formation. As soon as she sat down, the formation’s lines on the ground lit up progressively from near to far. The giant jade beside Lin Wuxi also emitted a bright light, easily illuminating the entire room. Strangely, Lin Wuxi didn’t find the light from this jade dazzling at all; instead, she could clearly see the complex patterns carved on its surface.
This is a natural piece of jade, Lin Wuxi could tell. There were no formations on its surface, yet it could emit a light gentler than a night-luminescent pearl. Such a situation could not be explained by any of the books Lin Wuxi had read. Lin Wuxi couldn’t help but suspect that although this looked like jade, it might actually be another kind of material.
Three days. For three whole days, Lin Wuxi sat cross-legged in the formation. Yu Huang had prepared very thoughtfully; there was food nearby, all extremely delicious and expensive delicacies. But Lin Wuxi barely touched it, not because she found the taste unsatisfactory, but because she simply had no mood to eat.
The room was very quiet, with only the faint sound of Lin Wuxi’s own heartbeat. Sitting like this doing nothing would indeed feel very boring, but Lin Wuxi currently had no mind to think about such things. Her entire focus was on staring at the giant jade pendant where Senior Sister was, unwilling to even blink, afraid she might miss something if she wasn’t careful.
Time kept passing, but the jade in front showed no activity. The surroundings seemed to have frozen. This lack of activity was neither good nor bad in itself; it brought neither bad news nor good news. Yet, it held the possibility of both.
The longer it took, the more anxious Lin Wuxi became. She knew that with Senior Sister’s temperament, if it wasn’t necessary, she would never have let her sit here for several days. Since she had invited her, it could only mean this matter wasn’t as easy as she had said. It makes sense, Lin Wuxi thought. The Immortal Realm has existed for at least hundreds of millions of years. Over these many years, who knows how many outstanding talents have appeared, but none could cross the chasm that lay before everyone. Even the most excellent could only stop at the Immortal Lord realm. And Senior Sister, what she was doing now, was breaking this hundreds-of-millions-of-years-old record, overcoming the most difficult challenge in the history of the Immortal Realm. To say there was no danger, how could that be possible?