In front of the stone cave, six Foundation Establishment cultivators were sitting cross-legged on a stone platform, each with late-stage Foundation Establishment strength, guarding this place.
Zhang Ling's arrival attracted the attention of these people, and they quickly got up to pay their respects.
"Greetings, Ancestor."
"No need to be so polite, continue guarding this place, I'll go in and take a look." Zhang Ling glanced at these people and said casually. These Hu family Foundation Establishment cultivators naturally wouldn't say much and retreated to the side.
Zhang Ling threw out a black jade token, which flashed and directly embedded itself into a groove on the stone door. With a loud rumble, the stone door opened, and Zhang Ling walked in.
After the stone door closed, he looked back at it. The stone door was only about ten feet tall, but it was engraved with many spiritual patterns. It wasn't made of any ordinary material. When his divine sense landed on it, it was instantly bounced back.
"It seems the Hu family values this treasure cave quite a bit."
Zhang Ling smiled and walked forward along a dark passage. The passage wasn't long, but it was engraved with many array spiritual patterns, indicating that many restrictions were set up here.
Soon, he arrived at a circular stone cave about twenty feet in size. The surrounding walls had many square stone doors, all covered by array light curtains.
Zhang Ling, holding the restriction token, entered one of the stone caves without any hindrance. As soon as he entered, he felt the abundant five elements spiritual energy.
The interior of the stone cave was very large, filled with various colors of spirit stones. A slight sweep with his divine sense revealed that there were as many as a million spirit stones. In the corner on the left, there were more than a dozen wooden boxes, filled with middle-grade spirit stones, more than a thousand of them, but there were no high-grade spirit stones.
Zhang Ling waved his hand and directly collected these middle-grade spirit stones. As for the low-grade spirit stones, he didn't touch them. He walked out of the spirit stone cave and headed towards another stone cave.
It took Zhang Ling half an hour to leave this treasure cave.
Back in his cave dwelling, a smile appeared on his face. In addition to the middle-grade spirit stones he collected in the Hu family's treasure cave, he also found some good materials.
This earned him a small fortune, but he only took some of the things he needed. He didn't touch most of the Hu family's resources.
A cultivation family with hundreds of years of inheritance like this would accumulate a lot of resources. Through Baiyun Sanren's memories, Zhang Ling also had a good understanding of the Hu family.
The Hu family had been attached to the Flying Cloud Sect for more than a thousand years. The first ancestor was originally a cultivator born in the Flying Cloud Sect. Including Baiyun Sanren, the Hu family had produced a total of seven Core Formation cultivators, four of whom were elders of the Flying Cloud Sect.
It could be said that they had developed very well.
Zhang Ling shook his head and sighed, then patted his storage bag. A scarlet small flag appeared in front of him. This was a Flying Cloud Flag, a magic weapon refined using Cloud Swallowing Stone as the flag surface material.
And this Flying Cloud Flag was the natal magic weapon left behind by the late-stage Core Formation ancestor of the Hu family who passed away a few years ago. That person was known as the Red Fire Old Monster and cultivated fire attribute techniques, so this Flying Cloud Flag was also called the Red Cloud Flag.
After the Red Fire Old Monster passed away, this treasure was left in the Hu family.
Of course, there were also a few magic weapons in the Hu family's treasure cave, but they were all ordinary goods. With Zhang Ling's current cultivation, he naturally wouldn't be interested. If the Flying Cloud Flag hadn't been refined with Cloud Swallowing Stone as the main material, he wouldn't have been interested.
A few days later, Zhang Ling left the Hu family and entered Flying Cloud City. He didn't stay in the city and flew directly towards Mount Qiyun.
Before long, he arrived at the mountainside of Mount Qiyun, landing on a bluestone-paved platform. A sweep with his divine sense revealed that there were several teams of cultivators in blue and white robes patrolling nearby.
However, these cultivators didn't seem to notice his arrival. Only a white-faced scholar under a huge stone pillar rushed towards Zhang Ling with great joy.
"Fifth Uncle, you've arrived. This junior, Lin Yan, pays his respects."
"Hehe, so it's Little Lin. It's been more than ten years, and your cultivation has increased again."
"Fifth Uncle, don't praise me. This junior is far behind you, Senior."
Zhang Ling flashed and landed in front of the man. This was a middle-aged cultivator in his forties, with a hair crown on his head, wearing a black robe embroidered with purple bamboo, looking like a scholar.
This person was called Lin Yan, and his strength had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment. He was a steward of the Flying Cloud Sect, but he was also a direct disciple of the Red Fire Old Monster.
Although the Red Fire Old Monster had passed away, he still had a few disciples in the Flying Cloud Sect, and this person had also married into the Hu family and had a wife in the Hu family, so he was also considered an outsider disciple of the Hu family.
"Fifth Uncle, please come quickly. Sect Leader Sun is waiting for you above."
Zhang Ling, disguised as Baiyun Sanren, nodded and followed Lin Yan towards Mount Qiyun. He had come here to enter the Flying Cloud Sect, and with the Hu family's connections, this step wasn't difficult.
……
"Fellow Daoist Hu, are you really willing to join the Flying Cloud Sect? Although you have many connections with our Flying Cloud Sect, you must know that once you join the sect, you must put the sect's interests first," an old man in a purple robe said leisurely, looking at Zhang Ling.
"Hu understands the difference. Joining the sect naturally means putting the sect first," Zhang Ling said, looking at the old man without the slightest hesitation.
The old man's surname was Sun, and he was the current sect leader of the Flying Cloud Sect. His cultivation was also in the Core Formation stage, but he only had early-stage Core Formation cultivation. It was said that he had suffered serious injuries in his early years, damaging his foundation. Although he retained his Core Formation strength, his cultivation couldn't improve, so he became the sect leader.
"Sect Leader, why do you need to worry? Fellow Daoist Hu is a cultivator from a cultivation family that is attached to our Flying Cloud Sect, and he is also a clan brother of Senior Brother Red Fire. He has a close relationship with our Flying Cloud Sect. Now that he wants to join, isn't that only natural?"
Before Sect Leader Sun could speak, an old man with disheveled hair smiled.
In the hall, besides Sect Leader Sun and Zhang Ling, there were two other high-level cultivators.
The old man with disheveled hair's surname was Yang, and it was said that he had a close relationship with the Red Fire Old Monster. Although Baiyun Sanren wasn't a cultivator of the Flying Cloud Sect, he had entered and exited the Flying Cloud Sect many times, and he was quite familiar with this Fellow Daoist Yang.
This time, in order to join the Flying Cloud Sect, he had also communicated with this Fellow Daoist in advance.
As for the other person, he was a black-faced man. Baiyun Sanren had also met him a few times. He was an elder of the Flying Cloud Sect with the surname Wang. These two were both late-stage Core Formation strength and held a lot of power in the Flying Cloud Sect.
After a few more words of conversation, they finalized the matter. Sect Leader Sun also said to Zhang Ling with great joy.
"Since Junior Brother sincerely wants to join the Flying Cloud Sect, we naturally welcome him very much. According to the usual practice, high-level cultivators like Junior Brother Hu have to obtain the consent of a Supreme Elder. However, Junior Brother Hu is from the Hu family and has a deep connection with our Flying Cloud Sect. Moreover, the Supreme Elders in the sect have been busy with trivial matters recently, so it won't be too late for Sun to take Junior Brother to meet the Supreme Elder later. How about this, how about Junior Brother Hu first become an External Affairs Elder?"
"Whatever the Sect Leader arranges." Zhang Ling also nodded with great joy. He didn't care whether he was an External Affairs Elder or an Inner Sect Elder.
"Haha, that's good. From now on, we are all fellow brothers, so there's no need to be polite. With Junior Brother Hu joining, our Flying Cloud Sect has another fellow Daoist. With Junior Brother's cultivation, the sect will soon have another late-stage expert. Back then, Senior Brother Red Fire was very famous in the sect."
"Yes, Senior Brother Red Fire's strength was profound. Back then, when Yang and a few others were fighting against a few cultivators from the Red Devil Sect, if Senior Brother Red Fire hadn't held back two cultivators of the same rank, I'm afraid we would have suffered many casualties."
Zhang Ling thus became an External Affairs Elder of the Flying Cloud Sect.
