With True Monarch Eternal Fire showing the way, Song Shuhang and Venerable White easily entered the world of the golden lotus, the most secret place of the scholarly faction.

The world of the golden lotus was created not too long ago, and at this time, it was nothing but a vast expanse of whiteness with nothing inside. All the people that got inside felt as if they had stepped into a small black room… hmm, no. Perhaps it was more appropriate to call it ‘big white room’ in this case? Anyway, if someone were to stay inside this huge expanse of whiteness or inside a small black room for too long, they would surely have a nervous breakdown and turn insane.

The world of the golden lotus was very big. Although it had been created just recently, and had yet to receive any nourishment, it was still quite big. From where he was standing, Song Shuhang was unable to see the end of the world. In addition, Shuhang could feel that, even at this moment, the world of the golden lotus was continuously growing and expanding.

Compared to this ‘world of the golden lotus’, having a portable space of several acres, a portable immortal cave, or a portable small sect… was not even worth mentioning!

Although the world of the golden lotus had been created just recently, it already had the size of a large city, and was still expanding.

If one became the master of the world of the golden lotus, they would turn into someone that had a portable city at their hands. In addition, this city was continuously expanding. In the future, after receiving enough nourishment, it would expand at an even faster pace… eventually, it would turn into a portable China, a portable continent, and finally a portable Earth. Thinking about it, it sounded rather cool.

This dimension the golden lotus had given birth to would eventually turn into a small world. Therefore, it was rather appropriate to call this place ‘world of the golden lotus’.

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At this time, in the world of the golden lotus.

The higher-ups of the scholarly faction were all gathered there. The people present were looking at the ‘world of the golden lotus’ with expressions of shock. Some of the scholars were squatting down and caressing the pure white ground.

This place was a real world, the same as Earth. After the development of the world of the golden lotus had come to an end, and as long as enough nourishment was given to it, it would be possible to create soil and rivers here.

The world of the golden lotus was full of spiritual qi, and the level was even higher than that of the White Cloud Academy in the outside world.

“This place is the future of our scholarly faction!” a big scholar said excitedly with tears in his eyes.

If they spent a hundred or so years to transform this place, they would be able to turn it into the supreme headquarters of the scholarly faction.

Here, the disciples of the scholarly faction would be able to concentrate on their practice and grow up free from worries.

Here, the scholarly disciples would no longer have to worry about getting raided by the forces of the Netherworld Realm at any time.

“Everything we sacrificed during the past thousands of years didn’t go to waste!” An old scholar laughed heartily. All the sacrifices they had made, and the effort they had put into this, hadn’t gone to waste. As long as they had the world of the golden lotus, it had been completely worth it!

Some of the relatively ‘young’ scholarly disciples couldn’t hold it anymore, and burst into loud sobs.

Some were crying, others laughing, singing, or reciting poems. Between the disciples of the daoist, buddhist, and scholarly factions, the latter were the ones that expressed their real feelings the most and didn’t restrain themselves.

Song Shuhang and Venerable White looked at the excited disciples of the scholarly disciples, and could feel their happiness.

“Senior Eternal Fire, there isn’t much time left. Please, perform the ‘marking dance’,” Song Shuhang said to the nearby True Monarch Eternal Fire via secret sound transmission.

Before Senior White Two went to look for him, that other existence in the Netherworld Realm that wasn’t any weaker than Senior White Two had already started to leave its personal mark inside the world of the Sinful Black Lotus.

Therefore, they had to speed up things on their end as well.

Otherwise, if the opposite party managed to get complete control of the world of the black lotus, discovering the method to jump from that world into the world of the golden lotus, it would be too late from them to do anything.

True Monarch Eternal Fire nodded with a serious expression on his face.

Afterward, he started to perform the ‘marking dance’ in front of everyone.

If it was any other day, and the serious-looking True Monarch Eternal Fire were to start performing a strange dance in front of everyone, it would surely give rise to a commotion in the scholarly faction, and a lot of people would gather around him to watch the show.

However, today was an exception.

All the scholarly disciples were in ecstasy today. Some were laughing, others crying, shouting, singing, reciting poems, and some even dancing.

Therefore, there was nothing wrong with True Monarch Eternal Fire being happy and dancing. Even if his dance was somewhat strange and showy, no one would pursue this matter. Actually, there was a respectable old man of the Seventh Stage Venerable Realm in the scholarly faction that liked to hide in his house and practice those dances performed in public squares. The majority of the members of the scholarly faction knew about this matter, but no one dared to mention it in front of that respectable old man.

True Monarch Eternal Fire started dancing, and the first part of the dance consisted in a beautiful modern-type dance, the ‘Melbourne Shuffle’, where he had to quickly spin around. At the same time, two beams of light emitted from his palm, which he used to rhythmically leave runes in the air.

While he was leaving these runes in the sky and moving his hands according to the dance steps, he left a long streak of dazzling light behind him.

Some of the scholarly disciples turned around, taking out their mobile phones, digital cameras, and so on to take videos of True Monarch Eternal Fire’s dance.

True Monarch Eternal Fire’s fair complexion gradually started to become red…

I’m doing this for the great cause of the scholarly faction. I’m devoting my life to the greater cause!

True Monarch Eternal Fire tried to comfort himself this way.

After the ‘Melbourne Shuffle’ was over… True Monarch Eternal Fire continued with the rest of the ‘marking dance’. Amidst it were also some blinding steps of the ‘Ali Shuffle’.

True Monarch Eternal Fire was a cultivator of the Sixth Stage, and he knew his body like the palm of his hand. It didn’t matter which movement he wanted to perform; he needed but a thought, and his body would perform it to perfection. These few steps of the Ali Shuffle had totally reached the level of ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’.

Splendid!

Some of the disciples of the scholarly faction wished they could whistle to encourage True Monarch Eternal Fire.

After the attractive ‘Ali Shuffle’, True Monarch Eternal Fire changed his style, and started with the stunning moves of the ‘Thomas Flair’.

Runes were engraved in the air one by one along with his dance steps.

This time, the scholarly disciples couldn’t help but start clapping. They didn’t know that True Monarch Eternal Fire was the outwardly gentle but inwardly passionate type of elder!

He actually went ahead and learned so many modern dance moves!

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I’m doing this for the great cause of the scholarly faction. I’m devoting my life to the greater cause! +1

True Monarch Eternal Fire clenched his teeth, and secretly repeated this sentence in his heart as a form of self-hypnosis.

Then, after a great spin, True Monarch Eternal Fire jumped upward, and engraved the last rune in the air.

It was finally over!

“Did it work?” Song Shuhang and Venerable White asked at the same via secret sound transmission.

“I don’t know yet. Let me take a look,” True Monarch Eternal Fire replied.

True Monarch Eternal Fire closed his eyes, and tried to sense the ‘marks’ he had left in the air. When the ‘marking dance’ came to an end, all the marks that True Monarch Eternal Fire left behind vanished as well.

However, although the marks vanished, they didn’t completely disappear. True Monarch Eternal Fire could faintly feel that there was now a connection between him and the world of the golden lotus.

Along with the world of the golden lotus expanding and taking shape, the connection between the world and True Monarch Eternal Fire was getting stronger and stronger. At the same time, a certain feeling welled up in his heart. He felt as if the world of the golden lotus had now become an extension of his body. He and the world of the golden lotus were right in the process of becoming one entity!

True Monarch Eternal Fire opened his eyes, and said happily, “It worked.”

“Great!” Song Shuhang heaved a sigh of relief. Such being the case, the mission Senior White Two gave him was completed.

True Monarch Eternal Fire had now become the master of the world of the golden lotus, and could oppose that entity that wanted to sneak into it from the world of the black lotus. Only now was the scholarly faction truly the master of its own future and wouldn’t have to partake in that hopeless battle against the Netherworld Realm.

“Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Eternal Fire,” Venerable White said.

“Thank you, Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Saber, Fellow Daoist White. Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Saber, in particular, will be the most honored guest of our scholarly faction from now on,” True Monarch Eternal Fire said resolutely.

“Senior Eternal Fire, you are too polite,” Song Shuhang said with a smile.

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The opening ceremony of the scholarly faction officially started, and the old scholar was the host and the one giving the speech.

Even if they were cultivators, during this type of opening ceremony, it was unavoidable having a ‘principal’ give a speech.

Song Shuhang kept listening until he started to feel sleepy, losing focus.

Right at this time, Venerable White’s mobile phone emitted a buzzing sound—he’d received a message. He took out his phone and discovered that it a message from Yellow Mountain.

After reading the message, Venerable White said in a soft voice, “Damn, I forgot to pay the spiritual qi bill.”

“Eh?” Song Shuhang turned his head, confused. “Spiritual qi bill? What’s that?”

“How can I explain it… in short, the spiritual qi bill is something similar to the water bill, electric bill, gas bill, and so on of the modern world,” Venerable White explained. “Time flies by, and before the arrival of the next ‘tide of spiritual energy’, the spiritual qi in the world will keep getting thinner and thinner. As such, the amount of spiritual qi inside the immortal caves of some cultivators will become insufficient, making sitting in meditation, practicing, and cultivating spirit plants very difficult. But, on the other hand, it would also be a pity to abandon the immortal cave for this reason. As such, nowadays, cultivators can look for specialized sects and buy the necessary spiritual qi from them. For example, I chose to buy it from the ‘Rising Sun Spiritual Qi Sect’. I pay them a certain number of spirit stones at intervals of a few years or even hundreds of years, and they send the spiritual qi over to my immortal cave after extracting it from their spiritual veins, spiritual rivers, or other spiritual qi sources. The last time, I closed up for a little longer than usual, and up until now, I have yet to pay the spiritual qi bill for this season.”

“…” Song Shuhang didn’t know from where to start to ridicule this whole matter. Cultivators were surely eccentric!

At the same time, out of curiosity, he asked, “Senior White, you actually have so many immortal caves under your name. Yet, how come you are still short of spiritual qi?”

Senior White was the type of person that would randomly find a treasure while walking around, and his holiday residence was actually a medium-size sect. Would he really be short of spiritual qi?

In addition, did that ‘tide of spiritual energy’ imply that there was going to be a large wave of spiritual energy gushing out from somewhere?

“I have a lot of immortal caves, and amongst them, there are around ten that don’t have enough spiritual qi. For this reason, I go to the Rising Sun Spiritual Qi Sect to buy additional spiritual qi. Anyway, I only have to pay some spirit stones at intervals of a hundred years, and I can have my immortal caves always full of spiritual qi thanks to that. It’s completely worth it,” Venerable White said.