Current Generation Fairy, Zhao Lian Yun?
Zhao Lian Yun does not recognize the rank nine Gu before her, but its presence fills her vision until it feels like the center of the world, and weeping, she wonders whether this is a miracle before she collapses unconscious. Spirit Affinity House falls into commotion. Love Gu, the sect’s signature Immortal Gu, flies to her side and, though she is unconscious, stays on her shoulder. That night the sect recalls every Gu Immortal for its largest gathering in hundreds of years, first, second and third supreme elder joined by Feng Jiu Ge, Fairy Bai Qing, Xu Hao, Li Jun Ying and others. Xu Hao declares, sounding expressionless yet unable to hide the intense joy in his tone, that love Gu’s acknowledgement makes her, by sect rule, the current generation fairy, and he sees in it a chance to retaliate against the Feng faction. ch. 1222
He had nurtured her earlier as a piece against Feng Jin Huang, aiming to raise her own prestige while damaging Feng Jin Huang’s, with his true target her father Feng Jiu Ge. The Feng faction, which Feng Jiu Ge leads, holds the sect’s greatest authority, having suppressed Xu Hao and Li Jun Ying, who keep their place in its core only because the rank eight first and second supreme elders favor neither side. A mortal, Zhao Lian Yun became qualified to contend with Feng Jin Huang for the fairy position only after inheriting the Thieving Heaven true inheritance. Xu Hao had meant to end her kneeling once its political use was spent, but she stubbornly kept on past his intent, and hours earlier love Gu had chosen to stay by her side, so he changed course. He rises to invoke the sect’s fairy order, first the masses, then aptitude, then the higher-ups’ preference. He argues her kneeling shows a loyalty the whole sect knows, that the sect can raise a mortal’s aptitude at will, and that her Northern Plains ordeal already marks her elite. Li Jun Ying, his wife, agrees at once, and five or six others follow. ch. 1222
Fairy Bai Qing, Feng Jin Huang’s mother, cannot bear the show of support. As a fairy of the sect herself, she knows the position means the sect’s chosen cultivation seed is funded and nurtured toward ascension as its future representative, a backing no parent alone can match. By sect rule, once love Gu acknowledges someone that person becomes fairy regardless of reception, aptitude or sex, which is why Xu Hao’s appeal draws so much support despite his own weak standing. She starts to invoke a precedent, a past fairy raised the same way, but Feng Jiu Ge stops her hand before she finishes. He transmits privately that she means Mo Yao, once an inkman slave whom love Gu acknowledged and the whole sect funded, who reformed Bo Qing yet ultimately betrayed the sect and defied Heavenly Court. He calls it Xu Hao’s trap: a wisdom path Gu Immortal would not omit his own most favorable rule by accident. ch. 1222
The rule survived both Mo Yao’s betrayal and the pressure the sect took after the battle of Yi Tian Mountain, and challenging it now would cost the Feng faction heavily while leaving Xu Hao untouched. Chastened, Bai Qing blames her love for their daughter and the overconfidence her recent advance to rank seven brought her. She admires the political skill her demonic path husband has built inside a righteous path sect and asks him to take the matter in hand. He declines to interfere, saying it would be of no use, and falls silent, watching the sky. With nobody objecting, Xu Hao decides the matter is settled. But the first supreme elder suddenly speaks, naming Zhao Lian Yun’s otherworldly demon origin and saying he will only report the sect’s discussion to the higher-ups, who will decide, leaving Xu Hao completely stunned. ch. 1222
