"Thank you all for gathering today!" A burly stood at the centre of the hall, the attention of all drawn to him.
"I toast hereby to our 621st Neighbourhood Gathering! As always, a great thanks to Puyan for the wine and the great snacks!
I hereby declare the start of the gathering!"
His voice sounded throughout the whole hall, causing the audience to cheer.
Puyan bowed at his mention, smiling brightly.
Others also toasted to him, holding glasses in their hand, appreciating the great wine and the fruits all around.
"Hehe, you see, with a wealthy and large neighbourhood full of various craft masters, you gain a great advantage. My contribution is merely small. But the whole courtyard here, and that of every member, has been built by senior sister Rulian!
It's said she comes from a prominent feng shui lineage, but no one knows which exactly. Regardless, it's actually a great thing! With her, we don't have to worry about our courtyard attracting evil energy or being inharmonious.
After all, we aren't specialists so we usually just put whatever we like anywhere.
Oh right, senior sister Rulian is usually with us, but she's on a mission. Apparently a senior from outside the city requested her to built him a courtyard. She's very famous and one of the first senior Ruan had invited."
Puyan explained as he sipped his wine.
At one point, many attendants and maids had entered. They were qi-refining cultivators, serving the cultivators while going around.
In this gathering, qi refining cultivators could only be servants, head attendants and head maids were foundation building cultivators, and the manager of the courtyard was a third-stage cultivator like themselves.
Among the various cultivators there were several foundation building cultivators – these were the disciples or descendants of the cultivators.
Fu Xian was interested in this. As an origin light cultivator, he too could take a disciple. He looked over to his senior brothers and sisters, curious whether they had any.
Jiming answered, she seemed to be the most senior among them, but her casual attitude and coquettish behaviour made people overlook this slightly "My disciples are in the pavilion. Usually I don't take them to this gathering. We basically have rotation among neighbours – you may only take the same disciple once every three years.
This is mainly to make sure the gathering isn't filled with too many. Anyways, the rule isn't restrictive and ensures that the majority of people are still us neighbours, while it also allows the disciples and possible future neighbours to get to know others.
Most third-grade creation masters present are disciples of the first ones.
Haha, even my own eldest disciple is about to advance to the third stage, so it's not surprising.
You are the rarity here – a second stage cultivator who entered prematurely and started a new 'lineage'. Hehe, that topic is for another time. For now, you don't have to bother about these.
Are you planning on taking any disciples? If you truly call out for disciples… haha, how many would gather? We have so few talisman cultivators, if you simply say that you plan to cultivate another talisman cultivator, then the city will likely directly send at least one talented internal member. As for the rest, isn't there one right here?"
Just as she said so, she winked at Fu Xian, telling him to turn.
He was curious and turned, only to be met with a strong aura!
Somehow he appeared silently! This instantly alarmed Fu Xian, but he quickly calmed down and bowed "Greetings senior Ruan!"
Ruan Yelong nodded, a smile on his face "I see you've familiarised yourself with Puyan, Miaoyu, Jiming and Longbao! Haha, this is quite an 'exciting' group! Maybe I will find some 'myriad illusions talisman' on the market soon!"
Fu Xian was stunned then nodded "Haha senior, if I truly got such a thing, I will make sure to inform you directly! These things, I see a large market. After all, not everyone can afford to visit sister Jiming's pavilion, but if I could record even a bit, wouldn't it excite them and make them save all their income just to visit her?"
As soon as she heard it, Jiming's eyes gleamed and a smile spread on her beautiful face, as if seeing this junior brother anew.
Ruan smiled when he heard him joke, this meant he had adapted quite well into this group.
He smiled and said "That's good. As long as you earn well and can advance, you shouldn't care about face."
After saying so, he pointed to his side. There stood a young boy, maybe twelve or thirteen, his hair long and slightly covering his face, unkempt, while his finger tips were black from ink and his eyes blurry, as if he had been watching TV all night.
Fu Xian nearly laughed when he saw this – isn't this the perfect example of a small student who had been up all night, only to find out he had forgotten to do his homework, so he wrote in the dark of the night, smearing ink all over his hands?
Yelong didn't seem to care and said with a smile "This is my nephew, Ruan Helong. He just became twelve a month ago. Come, Helong, introduce yourself."
Helong, who seemed a bit dazed, bowed to Fu Xian and said a bit slowly "Greetings senior! I am Helong of the Ruan family, twelve years old this year, at the seventh stage of Qi refining! I can draw first-grade late-stage talismans of the wind and water element…"
Hearing the introduction, Fu Xian looked a bit weird.
Who introduced himself like this?
Then he suddenly felt like he was hit by lightening – just a moment ago, they talked about disciples… this couldn't be the legendary "going across mountains and rivers to find a teacher", right?!
No way, impossible!
Even more, hearing of the boys age and his mastery, and his lineage too… he was clearly talented!
And with an uncle like senior Ruan behind, this boy, if it wasn't for Fu Xian's hidden talent, he'd be sure that Helong would succeed and reach higher heights than he would! At least his path would be a lot easier, not having to struggle during the second stage for over two hundred years!