Chapter 733 Heading to Heavenly Summit Mountain

Ten thousand zhang above the ground.

Scattered across the deck of the Kongshan Sect's flagship stood young disciples of the Kongshan Sect. They gazed down at the towering mountain below, covered year-round in solid ice and accumulated snow, rising over eight thousand zhang high, and were deeply shaken.

Heavenly Summit Mountain.

Nearly seventy thousand years ago, it had been the sacred cultivation ground of Chenping Continent.

Of the Kongshan Sect's Three Mountains and Four Peaks, the tallest was Yuanhua Mountain, which stood about two thousand eight hundred zhang high.

Heavenly Summit Mountain was a full three times as high as Yuanhua Mountain.

Chen Yan sat alone at the prow of the Kongshan Sect's flagship.

His gaze, too, rested on Heavenly Summit Mountain before him. Though it was still hundreds of li away, its presence was impossible to ignore.

Then Chen Yan's gaze slowly shifted upward.

About two thousand zhang above Heavenly Summit Mountain, a tiny white speck hung in the sky.

By using true qi to sharpen his eyesight, he could just barely make out the outline of the speck. It looked like a palace.

That was Heavenly Summit Palace, the residence of the successive Stewards of Heavenly Summit Mountain who had reached the Immortal Ascension Realm.

Chen Yan had only one goal at the Chenping Continent Dao Discussion Conference.

He would claim first place at this Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry.

Then he would go to Heavenly Summit Palace and obtain the great opportunity that, in the nearly seventy thousand years since the palace's destruction, no one had ever managed to take away from it.

As Chen Yan thought this over, a name surfaced in his mind once again:

Qin Qingyu.

Among this generation of young cultivators on Chenping Continent, she was an unavoidable presence.

If, a few years ago, Chen Yan, Li Haowen, Chu Xiyao, and the others could still just barely be mentioned alongside her,

then nowadays, whenever people mentioned Qin Qingyu and other cultivators of her generation in the same breath, they would instinctively feel that she stood half a step, or even more, above the rest.

That was because rumors claimed Qin Qingyu, who was the same age as Chu Xiyao at nineteen, could in fact break through to the Qi Sea Realm at any time.

She was deliberately suppressing her cultivation so that she could take part in this Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry.

I have to win.

Thinking this, Chen Yan slowly turned around.

The first thing to enter his view as he turned was the lifelike statue of an immortal crane, standing seventeen zhang tall at the prow of the Kongshan Sect's flagship.

Chen Yan raised his head and studied the majestic crane statue for a moment, then reached out and gave it two gentle pats.

At first glance, it was pretty impressive.

That was what he thought.

Then Chen Yan leaped down from the flagship's prow, landing on the deck of the ferry, which stretched more than seven hundred zhang in length.

“Chief Disciple Chen.”

“Greetings, Chief Disciple Chen.”

“Senior Brother Chen!”

As Chen Yan slowly crossed the deck of the Kongshan Sect's flagship, the disciples he passed all saluted him with clasped hands.

Chen Yan merely nodded slightly.

It wasn't that he looked down on them. If he had to return the salute of every disciple who greeted him, who knew how long it would take him to reach the cabins?

In front of the cabins, Chen Yan saw the figure of another young disciple, also wearing Kongyuan Mountain daoist robes.

Chen Yan knew who he was.

Qi Yadong, personal disciple of Song Wencheng, Kongyuan Mountain's Enforcement Hall elder.

He was at the early Martial Spring Realm.

In truth, among this generation of Kongyuan Mountain disciples, aside from Chen Yan, who had come from the outer court, the mountain was indeed in decline compared with the other six Peak Masters' lineages.

It had no genius capable of standing on his own and shouldering the burden.

Qi Yadong was also the best of a mediocre lot. If Chen Yan had not appeared out of nowhere, he would most likely have become Kongyuan Mountain's current chief disciple.

“Chief Disciple Chen.”

Seeing Chen Yan approach, Qi Yadong smiled and then gave a slight salute in his direction.

“Senior Brother Qi.”

Chen Yan clasped his hands and returned the salute.

Qi Yadong was two years older than Chen Yan and had deeper roots in the sect.

By seniority, Chen Yan should therefore have been Qi Yadong's junior.

But out of respect for Chen Yan's status as chief disciple of Kongyuan Mountain, and because the two were not particularly close, barely more than nodding acquaintances, Qi Yadong had never called him “Junior Brother” since they met.

He had always addressed Chen Yan as “Chief Disciple Chen.”

Respect was repaid with respect.

Since Qi Yadong had shown Chen Yan such respect, Chen Yan naturally wouldn't let it go to his head.

Whenever he saw Qi Yadong, Chen Yan also addressed him respectfully as Senior Brother.

“Elder Zhong, Elder Yue, Elder Lin, and Daoxing are all waiting for you,” Qi Yadong told Chen Yan.

“I understand.”

Chen Yan first nodded, then paused slightly.

“Which Elder Lin?”

Of the four names Qi Yadong had mentioned, Chen Yan knew three well: Zhong Yin, Kongyuan Mountain's Dignity Elder; Yue Chi, Kongyuan Mountain's Alchemy Hall elder; and Liu Yantang, the Kongshan Sect's Dao Sect Wanderer.

Connecting their identities, Chen Yan quickly realized that they were all personal disciples of Yun Yichen, the current Sect Leader of the Kongshan Sect.

In that case, Elder Lin must be...

“Elder Lin Qifeng from the sect's outer court,” Qi Yadong said.

Chen Yan had already guessed the answer.

“Thank you, Senior Brother Qi.”

Chen Yan immediately saluted Qi Yadong once more.

“Chief Disciple Chen, you're too polite.”

Qi Yadong returned the salute.

......

The cabins of the Kongshan Sect's flagship were very grand.

They had a total of twenty-one levels, and Elder Zhong Yin's room was at the center of the tenth level.

Chen Yan went to the tenth level and stopped outside Elder Zhong Yin's room, then raised his hand and knocked softly on the door three times.

“Disciple Chen Yan requests an audience.”

Then Chen Yan called out.

“Come in.”

A deep voice came from inside.

Chen Yan gently pushed open the door. Seated in the middle of the room, just beyond it, was a burly old man whose frame nearly strained his otherwise loose daoist robes. His graying hair was tied into a bun at the back of his head. He was Zhong Yin, the Imperial Envoy Elder for the Kongshan Sect's delegation and Kongyuan Mountain's Dignity Elder.

Seated beside him was an old man in Bagua Daoist robes, Yue Chi, Kongyuan Mountain's Alchemy Hall elder.

A middle-aged man wearing a crane-feather cloak and a young woman in an apricot-yellow dress sat beside the two Myriad Transformations Realm cultivators in the middle.

They were Lin Qifeng, the Kongshan Sect's Outer Court Elder,

and Liu Yantang, the Kongshan Sect's Dao Sect Wanderer.

“Greetings, Elders.”

Stepping into the room and stopping in the center, Chen Yan saluted everyone with clasped hands.

“Mm.”

Zhong Yin nodded, then raised his right hand slightly to signal that Chen Yan could straighten up.

“We've been on the road for almost a month since leaving the Kongshan Sect. Have you adjusted to life aboard?”

“This disciple is doing well,” Chen Yan replied.