From the way the attendant spoke, it was clear that a performance had already been arranged, and regardless of where the storyteller was, there would be no story today.
He Yi, feeling disappointed, stood up and left the private room.
As he passed the attendant, he tossed him a silver ingot, then left the teahouse.
The value of the silver ingot far exceeded the cost of the tea and private room.
Moreover, this unfamiliar customer had been so generous every day.
"Take care, sir!" The attendant, holding the shiny silver ingot, smiled broadly as he hurried off to settle accounts with the manager.
In truth, over the past few days, He Yi had heard most of the stories about the Lingxian Sect.
Normally, the storyteller would repeat sections of a story over and over, taking a long time before moving on to the next part.
But since He Yi paid him handsomely, the storyteller abandoned his usual slow-paced style and recounted the entire story of Lingxian Sect over several consecutive days.
After all, the stories told in teahouses were generally common knowledge, and while the storyteller occasionally mentioned internal affairs of the sect, He Yi could tell from the vague and poetic descriptions that most of it was made up by the storyteller.
So, going through the entire story didn't take much time.
Perhaps because the storyteller had run out of content over the past few days and wanted to keep He Yi, his generous customer, he had rushed to Xiushui Village to gather more material overnight.
Little did he know that this valuable customer didn't even want to wait.
He Yi decided to head to Xiushui Village himself.
He had heard enough stories and could now go and see things for himself.
As for the Shanyang Sect, which was said to have been stationed in Lake Province for many years, he had little interest in them.
He had inquired about the sect earlier, but it was just an ordinary, powerless mortal sect with nothing exciting about it.
When He Yi had been in the capital, he had already heard about how this sect had been overrun by a rogue cultivator who had taken over their headquarters.
However, in the storyteller's version, Shanyang Sect was merely a backdrop, with all the focus on Lingxian Sect.
So, there was no particular reason for him to visit Shanyang Sect.
However, if he didn't find anything new or interesting in Xiushui Village, he would still take a look at the source of the yin energy he had sensed earlier.
But only if Lingxian Sect proved irrelevant to that flow of yin energy.
As He Yi leisurely entertained these random thoughts, he strolled towards Xiushui Village.
Although his steps seemed relaxed, his speed was incredibly fast. The surrounding pedestrians and buildings blurred and flew past as if they were moving backward at high speed.
But the people on the street were completely unaware of this.
This day had been chosen by the Lingxian Sect, after consulting the almanac, as a suitable day for breaking ground and moving graves.
Yang Jinshu, Lin Dayou, and the others who had already made their decisions were in position.
In fact, the disciples of Qingyun Peak had been informed earlier that if they wanted to move the graves of their relatives, they could also bury them on Changming Mountain.
It turned out that quite a few disciples from Qingyun Peak, upon hearing the news, were tempted and went to the Miscellaneous Hall the next day to submit applications to Elder Liu.
Applications were necessary because they had to leave the sect, and some disciples' homes were far away. Some of them weren't even from Puxi Country.
If they were left to handle it on their own, the process, including exhuming the graves, would take at least six months just for the round trip. As a result, the sect decided to assign sect spirit ships to transport the disciples who needed it.
With the sect's spirit ships and Lin Xiao's well-planned routes for each destination, the disciples were transported in different directions aboard several ships.
Thus, even the disciples with the most distant hometowns returned to the sect within a few days.
Everyone was back just in time for the auspicious day they had selected.
And so, the groundbreaking ceremony on Changming Mountain officially began.
Lin Dayou, carrying the wooden coffin of his wife, entered Changming Mountain with mixed emotions of excitement and complexity.
From now on, he could visit his wife often and chat with her.
Although Lin Dayou moved Lin Xiao's mother's coffin to Changming Mountain, he had also set up a cenotaph at the original grave site.
After all, that was the family's ancestral grave, and it didn't feel appropriate to move the grave without even leaving a cenotaph behind, as if preventing his wife from entering the family's ancestral tomb.
Because of this move, many of the original residents of Xiushui Village, who had been hesitant about relocating their family graves to Changming Mountain, finally made up their minds to do so.
Along with many Qingyun Peak disciples who had left their homes long ago, the number of people participating in the groundbreaking ceremony on Changming Mountain that day was quite large.
With so many people, the atmosphere became lively quickly.
After Lin Xiao, as the sect master, dug the first shovel of earth at the entrance to Changming Mountain, those who had requested to move their family graves proceeded to their assigned spaces within the mountain to bury their relatives personally.
After several months of cultivation, even the lowest-ranking disciples of Qingyun Peak had physiques that were vastly improved compared to the past.
Digging a grave and setting up a monument was no longer a difficult task.
The tombstones had already been ordered from the Artifact Refining Hall, and the orders had been placed as part of the early planning stages.
As a result, everyone who needed one had already received a tombstone crafted precisely to their specifications.
Everything was set up to everyone's satisfaction.
After the ceremonies were completed, the Lingxian Sect's Spirit Food Hall had prepared a grand feast for the occasion.
Somehow, the Spirit Food Hall had acquired many large tables, which they arranged in several rows in front of the sect's main hall.
Each table was filled with a variety of dishes, from cold plates to hot dishes, from various meat dishes to an abundance of fruits and vegetables. Every type of food anyone had ever eaten was present.
There were also all kinds of drinks.
Clear and murky, red and yellow, cold drinks with condensation on the outside, and hot drinks steaming with a light white mist.
Just looking at them made everyone thirsty, eager to gulp down a few drinks.
Moreover, the variety of dishes had been meticulously arranged, so that every plate was visually pleasing in its presentation.
This masterpiece was the work of Ma Changlong, a Qingyun Peak disciple now working at the Spirit Food Hall.
As a seasoned gourmet, Ma Changlong had a deep understanding of all aspects of food. When he saw Elder Jiang personally preparing such a large feast, he volunteered to handle the presentation, ensuring that the "beauty" of the food was maximized.
It was clear that Ma Changlong's expert touch had made a difference.
After he completed his masterpiece, the other Qingyun Peak disciples working in the Spirit Food Hall couldn't help but praise him.
The food, already tempting enough, now looked even more mouthwatering.
Even Jiang Youfu, upon seeing this, praised him with a few words.
He felt that this elder Ma had just opened his eyes to a new approach to food.