Old Ma brought the two to the third destination: Quanzhou Yan Mountain City, named after the Yan Mountain it leans against.

"The third person is called Tao Tingfeng, fifteen years old, from Quanzhou Yan Mountain City. Eh, it was Man Gu who, after slaying demons at Yan Mountain, discovered him while passing through Yan Mountain City."

"What was Junior Brother Man’s evaluation?" Lu Yang asked curiously.

Meng Jingzhou looked at the notes on the booklet, his expression odd: "He said Tao Tingfeng is timid and afraid of trouble, daring not to stir up disputes, and his character is far inferior to Brother Lu and Brother Meng."

"...Is Junior Brother Man praising us?"

Meng Jingzhou wasn’t sure either: "Looking at the overall context, he should be praising the two of us."

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Tao Tingfeng was born into a Nascent Soul family, a very influential and well-known large clan locally, and Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou found the Tao Family easily.

The private tutor hired by the Tao Family saved the Tao family disciples from having to attend the local private school.

Moreover, unlike most private schools, the Tao Family not only taught its disciples the words of the sages but also imparted knowledge of cultivation.

When Lu Yang and another sneaked into the Tao Family, Tao Tingfeng and the other Tao family disciples were listening to a lecture from a clan uncle.

The Tao family disciples all looked up to this clan uncle as an idol. He was quite gifted in the path of cultivation, reaching the Foundation Establishment Middle stage at only thirty, and the Tao Family people said he might break through to the Nascent Soul Stage, producing the second Nascent Soul ancestor for the family.

"In the path of cultivation, impatience is most to be feared. Before cultivating, one must cultivate the mind. Those who are restless and rash are prone to deviate into madness when cultivating..."

"Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul...each realm is like a great stairwell, and ascending one can turn your status and position upside down."

"Don’t look at our Tao Family as a Nascent Soul family, wielding some influence on this patch of land in Yan Mountain City. But once you leave Yan Mountain City and witness the Spirit Transformation families, you’ll see that even our proud Nascent Soul family is nothing much."

"When I was young and traveled around Quanzhou, I once saw a peak Nascent Soul Great Power take action. It was truly like a thunderous roar from the mountains and seas, awe-inspiring and majestic, completely enthralling."

The Tao Family ancestor was also nothing more than a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator.

"For example, the great battle that happened in Yan Mountain City half a month ago, the Demon Race secretly infiltrated Great Xia and hid in Yan Mountain. Thanks to the Righteous Path expert who took action, killed the demons, otherwise, who knows what catastrophe might have occurred."

"If I am not mistaken, that must have been a legendary Divinity Transformation Stage Great Power."

Upon hearing the words "Divinity Transformation Stage", the Tao family disciples let out a collective gasp of amazement.

"This Nascent Soul Stage of the Tao Family..." Lu Yang, finding the lecture boring, sent a thread of his Spiritual Sense to probe the Tao Family ancestor’s condition.

Although the Tao Family ancestor and Lu Yang were both at the Nascent Soul Early Stage, under normal circumstances individuals of the same level could not probe with Spiritual Sense, but Lu Yang was clearly not bound by the usual rules.

"What’s up with the Tao Family ancestor?" Meng Jingzhou, unlike Lu Yang, was listening attentively to the lecture.

"Rather than saying he’s at the Nascent Soul Stage, it’s more like Half-step Nascent Soul Stage. It seems he has sequelae from forcing his breakthrough, possessing the power of a Nascent Soul but with a limit on the number of times he can take action," Lu Yang surmised.

Your Nascent Soul family’s Nascent Soul seems a bit too forced, doesn’t it?

"That’s nothing," Meng Jingzhou waved it off. As a son of the premier influential family of the era, he had seen various families, "I’ve even seen a Golden Core Stage person consult a fortune teller, who said he was destined to reach the Nascent Soul Stage, and then he had his family publicly claim to be a Nascent Soul family."

After all, influential families are not like organizations certified by the Dynasty that need annual assessments. The strength of the family completely depends on what people say, and there is a lot of leeway in that.

Of course, the Meng Family definitely didn’t have a hint of exaggeration; otherwise, they wouldn’t still be living so well in the Imperial City.

"Class dismissed."

"Let’s go, let’s go, time to play." Kids of that age have a strong desire to play, and Tao Tingfeng was no exception.

Tao Tingfeng listened to his clan uncle recount the battle that took place in Yan Mountain, itchingly eager to check out the situation for himself.

Let’s take a look.

After a moment of hesitation, Tao Tingfeng quickly made his decision and headed for Yan Mountain.

Although the Dynasty had sealed off Yan Mountain, forbidding entry to travelers, Tao Tingfeng had played on the mountain since he was young and knew a secret path.

Sure enough, that path wasn’t blocked, and Tao Tingfeng made his way to the site of the battle on Yan Mountain with practiced ease.

The depths of Yan Mountain were full of deep pits punched out by Man Gu’s fists, which Lu Yang recognized at a glance.

Seeing these deep pits, Tao Tingfeng’s eyes bulged in shock—is this what combat at the Divinity Transformation Stage looked like?

Suddenly, something flashed across the sky and whooshed down towards Yan Mountain, landing not far from Tao Tingfeng, startling him immensely.

Tao Tingfeng originally didn’t dare to approach, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to take a look.

"It’s a person!" Tao Tingfeng finally saw what had come crashing down—it was a cultivator, severely injured with only breath going in and none coming out.

The gravely injured cultivator tensed up when someone approached, but realizing that it was an unthreatening mortal, he relaxed.

Then he remembered, what difference did it make if it was a cultivator or a mortal? Even if the other had malicious intent, what could it matter? His injuries were beyond redemption, and without the need for anyone to act, he was going to die.

"Are you alright?" Tao Tingfeng approached the seriously wounded cultivator cautiously—the latter was obviously not okay.

The mortally wounded cultivator let out a wry laugh: "To think that I, Master Guanqi, would meet such an end, and the last person I see would be a youngster like you."

"I’ve calculated and calculated, but in the end, I just couldn’t outwit fate."

"Master Guanqi?" Lu Yang muttered under his breath; in his memory, during the Great Qian, there indeed was a cultivator at the Body Integration Realm.

"Well then, it seems that my destiny was never meant to cross with this object."

At this moment, Tao Tingfeng noticed that Master Guanqi was clutching a wooden box tightly to his chest.

"This thing is called the Golden Cicada shedding skin; it’s something I snatched from a troublesome opponent at a great cost, and to think that in the end, it would fall into the hands of a youngster like you."

"It seems this object and you are fated."

"Young man, this item is exceedingly rare through the ages, once you have it, you must be cautious above all, never allowing a second person to know that you possess it!"

With that, Master Guanqi closed his eyes peacefully, his body gradually turning into dust and vanishing, leaving behind only the wooden box.

Tao Tingfeng was bewildered by all these sudden changes; he brought his palms together and bowed twice toward the spot where Master Guanqi had disappeared. Then, with trembling hands, he opened the wooden box and found inside a glistening golden cicada shell.

"Fairy, what is the Golden Cicada shedding skin?" Lu Yang asked.

"In ancient times, there was a cicada demon who cultivated to the Transcendance Tribulation Stage, a feat never before achieved by his kind; his entire body turned golden. He comprehended a divine ability named ’Golden Cicada shedding skin,’ which could improve ones innate qualities. It was through this divine ability that he reached the Transcendance Tribulation Stage."

"The shell he left behind after his metamorphosis came to be known as ’Golden Cicada shedding skin,’ a top-tier treasure for enhancing one’s innate qualities."

"What happened to that cicada demon later on?"

"I crushed him to death," the fairy replied.