Chapter 777: Returning the Favor
Wu Shuangjiang was trapped within layers upon layers of small worlds, and the figures of the other four had already vanished. Instead, he withdrew that towering Dharma form that could have propped open heaven and earth, and began to properly appreciate this Star Constellation Map as the first layer of mustard seed world of the fundamental object.
Further out, there was the aura of the Mountain Search Painting. Wu Shuangjiang was not anxious. Walking on empty air, with a single casual step, he could cross one constellation within the small world. Around his body, because he was the sole target of the suppression technique, every breath, every movement, would collide with the small world. Especially when Wu Shuangjiang walked, it was like a surging river smashing against a stone pillar in the middle of the current, stirring up a dazzling array of seven-colored glazed brilliance. Flowing light and splendor, extremely radiant. Behind him, it seemed as if he dragged an extremely thin but unbroken long line, making Wu Shuangjiang resemble a deity crossing a river of stars.
He strolled leisurely, like a qi practitioner who had just entered the secular Imperial Observatory, about to undertake the four introductory tasks of observing the stars at dusk, at midnight, at dawn, and at noon.
Then, with one step, Wu Shuangjiang arrived at the void between the Dipper and Ox constellations and suspended himself there. Looking back, he saw streaks of long lines resembling the trajectories of human life, long-lasting and not dissipating. Was this the manifestation of the Great Way of Causality? Wu Shuangjiang found it somewhat novel, so he let it be, expecting the other party to pick up the thread. He only hoped it wasn't a case of much thunder but little rain.
Wu Shuangjiang clasped his hands behind his back and lowered his head, smiling slightly. "Mr. Cui, they say 'qi surges through Dipper and Ox.' Might I ask where the sword light is?"
Among the figures of the Haoran world, Wu Shuangjiang was truly interested in only two: Suzi and the Embroidery Tiger.
As for the former's poetry, Wu Shuangjiang sincerely appreciated it. That was why back then, together with Lu Chen, standing outside the Great Xuandu Temple, even in front of that child wearing a tiger-head hat, Wu Shuangjiang still directly said he admired Suzi. As for the latter, it wasn't admiration for betraying one's teacher and ancestors, nor for the three matters of Haoran's splendid accomplishments. Rather, it was Cui Chan's choice, and the century-long groundwork that finally brought that choice to fruition, which Wu Shuangjiang found extremely interesting. If it had been him, he absolutely could not have done it. Since that was the case, it deserved his respect.
Wu Shuangjiang rarely felt there was anything he couldn't accomplish. He couldn't write poetry with Suzi's boldness, and to scheme against two worlds in just a hundred years, manipulating them in the palm of his hand, he was inferior to Cui Chan.
So the respectful title "Mr. Cui" was not mere politeness from Wu Shuangjiang.
In fact, Wu Shuangjiang no longer needed to be polite to anyone. Not to Sun Huaizhong of Xuandu Temple, nor to Lu Chen of the White Jade Capital.
A white-clad youth reappeared at an extremely distant location below. Even with Wu Shuangjiang's level of cultivation, straining his eyesight to the utmost, he could only see that mustard-seed-sized figure. But the youth's voice was not small. "You beg me, or you won't get to see!"
Wu Shuangjiang smiled. When the Embroidery Tiger was young, he shouldn't have been like this, right? He remembered once, concealing his identity and observing from afar a debate among the Three Teachings. That young scholar standing behind the old scholar, with a bookish air all over, had a very steady temperament, and a natural elegance. At that time, Wu Shuangjiang felt this person was extraordinary. Sure enough, soon after, the White Emperor City's Colorful Cloud Game appeared.
Wu Shuangjiang said to himself, "That's right, I am a guest. The person I am about to meet is half an Embroidery Tiger. I must have a meeting gift."
Then, this master of the Suichu Palace casually raised a palm, smiling as he said the two words "Rise, sword." Beside him, first appeared a tiny snow-white light born from these two words, then it stretched into a long line of sword light, finally becoming a long sword with slight nicks upon closer inspection.
The style of the long sword, aside from over two hundred extremely fine nicks on the blade, was exactly the same as the White Jade Capital's Yu Dou's personal sword, one of the four immortal swords, the Dao Canon.
Wu Shuangjiang then said, "Fall, sword."
A single line fell straight down.
That magnificent sword light, from between the Dipper and Ox constellations, fell straight from the sky into the mortal world.
And the white-clad youth stood right where he was. His double sleeves billowed, and twelve beams of sword light emerged from within his sleeves, as a return gift from the mortal world to that celestial guest.
The twelve sword lights each traced a slight arc, not to contend with that imitation "Dao Canon" sword. At worst, they would each slash their own.
Besides, it was impossible to dodge that one sword anyway.
The celestial sword light fell like a mountain to the ground. Cui Dongshan curled his lip. Damn it, indeed couldn't dodge. Wu Shuangjiang, that shameless bastard, wasn't a sword cultivator, yet he was wielding a sword.
Cui Dongshan's talisman avatar was shattered on the spot, without any suspense.
The lingering aura of the sword light surged, but limited by the strange rules of this world, it couldn't truly pierce through the Star Chart small world in a straight line. Instead, it kept appearing abruptly within various constellations, folding again and again, disappearing suddenly, reappearing in a flash. A single line of sword light kept igniting within the heavens and earth. Wu Shuangjiang didn't even look at the twelve flying swords. They approached him, and without exception, they stopped suspended a few zhang outside him. Wu Shuangjiang reached out and grabbed, condensing all the flying swords, large and small, into the size of a mustard seed, clenching them in his palm, instantly crushing them to powder. These phantom objects contained not a shred of true Dao intent, not even qualified to be counterfeited by him.
Wu Shuangjiang shook his sleeve, and that imitation sword, filled with infinite Dao intent, disappeared into his sleeve.
Cui Dongshan appeared at the Southern Seven Constellations, the seventh constellation of the south, at the tail of the Vermilion Bird. But he had transformed into Wu Shuangjiang's appearance. He used his finger to draw a talisman, writing "Suichu Palace Wu Shuangjiang" on his palm. Flipping his palm, the string of characters immediately melted like snow, merging into the Chariot constellation underfoot. Then, a massive creature, the Chariot Water Worm, emerged, slowly swimming. On the water worm also appeared a burly giant in black robes carrying a sword, and five yellow-robed women standing on a carriage. Each picked out and took a certain character from "Suichu Palace Wu Shuangjiang."
Wu Shuangjiang let out a silent laugh. This Mr. Cui was really one to haggle over such trifling gains, seeking advantage everywhere. Was he trying to fully exploit the advantages of time and place to counterbalance the harmony of people? Accumulating small amounts to make a big difference, sharing the burden among the other three, so that in the end none would die in battle, and at some critical moment, he could secure a decisive victory? A well-laid plan. But whether it would succeed depended on his mood. Wanting to trade wounds for lives with a Fourteenth Realm cultivator—these youngsters really dared to think and to act.
The Four Spirits of Heaven, to rectify the four directions.
Four Palaces, Nine Wilds, Twenty-Eight Constellations, encircling the Sun, Moon, and Five Planets in all directions.
The Great Dao grinding ants.
Besides the small commotion over at the Chariot constellation, there was another grand anomaly in heaven and earth.
Heaven and earth closed in. The Twenty-Eight Constellations each had divine generals stationed there, like spectators unrolling a star map on a desk, before rolling up the scroll again.
They intended to use this to grind away some of Wu Shuangjiang's cultivation.
Wu Shuangjiang simply pointed at a nearby constellation and asked with a smile, "In ordinary books, it's recorded as the Wall Water Shrew, but according to Boatman Zhang's account, it's the Wall Water Leopard. Which one is true?"
Cui Dongshan had transformed into a towering deity, head touching the sky. He bent down, his eyes like sun and moon. On his two huge white sleeves coiled countless aquatic beings of the dragon lineage, all coiled like snakes and serpents. This Dharma form of Cui Dongshan looked down at Wu Shuangjiang. In a tone like casual conversation, but his voice was like a thunderclap, as if the gods of thunder were drumming with all their might. However, the content of his words was very much Cui Dongshan: "You ask Dad? Who the hell is Dad supposed to ask?"
Wu Shuangjiang looked up and said, "If Mr. Cui keeps messing around like this, I will be greatly disappointed in the Embroidery Tiger."
Cui Dongshan slapped down with his palm.
Wu Shuangjiang shook his head. Flicking his sleeve, having roughly grasped the mysteries of the Star Map, he felt there was no need to linger here. He would go out and take a look at the Mountain Search formation.
So, from his sleeve emerged four swords, circling around him. The four long swords, their tips pointed to the four directions.
Dao Canon, Great White, Ten Thousand Laws, Innocent.
Although these were four imitation swords, compared to the swords wielded by the true owners of these four immortal swords—the Dao Old Second Yu Dou, Sun Huaizhong or Bai Ye, the Dragon Tiger Mountain Grand Heavenly Master, and Ning Yao—there was still a considerable gap in sword intent. But to be able to accomplish such a feat, across several worlds, only Wu Shuangjiang could do it. Moreover, that surging sword qi filling heaven and earth was no fake.
It was like a second gathering of immortal swords among the "next best authentic works" of the world, a spectacular sight.
Wu Shuangjiang simply pointed casually, and pierced through Cui Dongshan's Dharma form.
The four swords flashed and vanished.
The mustard seed world was thus shattered.
That white-clad youth didn't even have a chance to recover a badly damaged formation diagram. Or perhaps, from the very beginning, Cui Dongshan never intended to recover it.
Arriving at the second small world.
It was Jiang Shangzhen's Peaceful Version of the Mountain Search Painting.
Unlike the most widely circulated versions of Mountain Search paintings, in this Peaceful Version, the targets of the divine generals' searches were mostly human-faced, including many beautiful women with frightened looks. On the contrary, those divine generals with their hands bound by golden rings looked extremely ferocious, not like humans at all.
When Wu Shuangjiang entered this Mountain Search formation, within the small world of the Mountain Search Painting, friend and foe alike stopped their struggles and slaughter. They all flew away from the mountain peaks, swarming towards him, displaying their divine powers. Tens of thousands of techniques crazily smashed into Wu Shuangjiang alone.
Wu Shuangjiang moved his mind slightly, and the four imitation swords instantly flew far away, hovering at the four corners of the world. The tips of the four swords pointed outwards, and sword light blossomed, like four pillars reaching to the sky standing at the four directions.
Then he took out two talismans and lightly tossed them. Beside him appeared a woman in a white fox-fur coat, full of heroic spirit. She wore a pair of Flying Cloud shoes, made of black silk, embroidered with white clouds, and scented with incense. Fragrant mist swirled around her feet. She walked slowly, as if stepping on white clouds and floating like an immortal. As she walked, white clouds billowed, and an exotic fragrance filled the heavens and earth.
Another handsome youth appeared, wearing a yellow-gem belt and carrying a tablet pouch. The youth simply reached out and pressed his belt, and countless mountain spirits and monsters, demons and ghouls that were being hunted, retreated back into the mountains of their own accord. When the youth again reached into the pouch and took out a jade tablet, casually throwing it into the air, all the mountain-hunting divine generals with golden rings on their wrists stopped in their tracks, and finally began to slowly retreat.
Wu Shuangjiang looked left and right at the young man and woman beside him, like a pair of celestial lovers, and smiled slightly.
Over by the imitation Innocent sword, a white-clad youth stood dozens of li away and nodded slightly, letting out a small sigh of relief. "Must remind Shiniang not to draw her sword lightly."
A small goblin that had been stealthily sneaking over nodded vigorously. "Really troublesome. Fighting with Pei Min is easier on the nerves than sparring with Palace Master Wu."
The imitation sword's light flashed, and the white-clad youth was cut in half at the waist. The small goblin had its head chopped off.
But then the white-clad youth's legs gave a hop, and his body knitted back together. The small goblin simply waved its hand and placed its head back on its shoulders.
Wu Shuangjiang was slightly surprised. It wasn't Cui Dongshan's technique. Just a talisman to enhance the spirit, crude patchwork, a trivial skill. But Jiang Shangzhen was truly sending out his yin spirit. How could he be unharmed?
Wu Shuangjiang thought for a moment, then laughed. "Stop hiding. No one is allowed to be idle."
After his words fell.
Within the three small worlds.
Within the Sparrow in Cage small world, Ning Yao saw a Chen Ping'an in blue robes, carrying a sword on his back, with eyebrows flying high.
In a lawless place, Chen Ping'an, who was holding his breath and concentrating with his sword across his knees, opened his eyes and saw a Ning Yao.
And before Jiang Shangzhen, a delicate young girl like Hengwu appeared.
Only by Cui Dongshan's true body, no one else appeared beside him.
Wu Shuangjiang laughed heartily. "Excellent Embroidery Tiger! Truly does not disappoint!"
---
Inside the inn.
The white-haired child spirit was pale as death, standing dumbly on the bench.
He had thought that with Ning Yao reaching the Ascension realm, hiding with her in the Fifth World for at least seventy or eighty years would mean no more trouble. Even when the gates reopened and all worlds became accessible, and even if wandering cultivators had no more realm restrictions, at worst they could go earlier, beg Ning Yao or Chen Ping'an to hide for a few years in the Central Earth Confucian Temple. That way, they could surely avoid Wu Shuangjiang.
First, he never expected Ning Yao to bring him to the Haoran world. Second, he never expected Wu Shuangjiang to have already reached the Fourteenth Realm. Third, he never expected him to actually cross an entire world. With infallible calculations, he had long been waiting on this ferry for him.
It was ridiculous to say. In the world, there were only cultivators who feared heart demons. Where was the logic that a heart demon would fear a qi practitioner?
Only Wu Shuangjiang of the Suichu Palace was the exception among exceptions.
First, at the bottleneck of the Golden Core stage, he deliberately created her as a heart demon. After Wu Shuangjiang smoothly advanced to the Jade Core realm, over the next thousand years, he slowly refined this Taoist partner heart demon he had imprisoned in his heart, using secret arts. Finally, he used her as a Dao validation opportunity to break into the Fourteenth Realm.
Wu Shuangjiang's infatuation was real, but his ruthlessness was even more real. In the Azure Underworld, Wu Shuangjiang's stubbornness was almost as famous as his high Dao methods.
That was why this spirit had painstakingly sought a chance to escape that heart's cage, finally following that Daoist from the Great Xuandu Temple on a journey to the North Julu Continent of the Haoran world. Then, according to some agreement, he gained freedom. After many twists and turns, he finally found a place to settle: the prison run by Old Deafy of the Sword Qi Great Wall. It seemed like imprisonment, but for him, it was a very precious free world. At least his life was safe. And compared to the living death of falling into Wu Shuangjiang's hands, in that prison, he could curse Old Deafy, take a few swords from the executioner when bored, chat with the little girl Nian Xin, occasionally tease Xiao Xun, and find some amusement by bullying those demon clan cultivators in worse situations. This heaven-void demon felt he wasn't so miserable anymore. Especially, he could follow the gaps in the demons' mental states, like traveling, enjoying the scenery through their eyes, seeing the great mountains and rivers of the Desolate World, and randomly flipping through countless interesting experiences—that was also a joy.
"Don't be afraid."
Pei Qian took a sip of the fermented sticky rice wine and gently patted the head of the little girl beside her. "It's okay to be afraid if you really are. Just drink and get drunk, fall asleep. When you wake up, you'll see Master and Shiniang."
Zhou Mili raised her hands, rubbed her face roughly, and nodded vigorously. She picked up her white bowl with both hands and drank it all in one gulp. Unfortunately, the wine bowl was too small, so a whole pot of wine seemed like a lot. It took quite some effort to finish a pot of sticky rice wine. If she couldn't help, she shouldn't cause trouble. This was Zhou Mili's number one rule for walking the martial world.
Pei Qian handed over her own pot of wine. Little Millet continued drinking bowl after bowl.
The white-haired child spirit saw this and gave a bitter smile. The smile was full of bitterness. He sat on the bench, just about to speak, to talk about Wu Shuangjiang's terrifying power.
Pei Qian immediately shot him a look. The white-haired child spirit instantly understood. Already feeling somewhat guilty, he stubbornly shut his mouth.
After the little girl in black clothes hiccupped and fell asleep on the table, drowsy, the white-haired child spirit finally sighed. "Ning Yao and Chen Ping'an—I know their backgrounds. They are very strong. But against that man, they still have no chance of winning. I'm not exaggerating. Really, not a single chance. So Chen Ping'an not handing me over earlier, your master, was just too foolish."
He reached out, grabbed a pot of osmanthus wine, tilted his head back, and took a swig. Wiping his mouth, he sighed and spoke slowly. "I am the heart demon of that young waiter just now. My realm is decent, Ascension realm. Anyway, you've figured all this out. But this heart demon of mine is living a very down-and-out life. I'm not a Confucian saint; otherwise, I could have refined eight fundamental characters. Unlucky timing, ill-fated life! I have brought shame upon the millions of heart demon brethren! Ah, it's all because the hidden officer patriarch named his own mountain too casually. If he had called it something like 'Proud Mountain,' then right now it would be me bullying that man."
When it came to the sad parts, he could only drink in silence.
He never dared to call Wu Shuangjiang by his name. Not just because of the taboo on Geomancy, but more out of a deep-seated fear. It was clear this heaven-void demon was absolutely terrified of that Palace Master of the Suichu Palace.
Pei Qian instantly understood. Since this was that man's heart demon, it meant that man had come to collect a debt.
Regarding the Suichu Palace, after a battle in the Golden Armor Continent ended, Yu Juanfu had mentioned it. Pei Qian only listened to it as a story, like reading a celestial book.
She never expected that Palace Master to step out of the book and be forced into a life-or-death struggle with her master.
But since that man had already expelled his heart demon, logically it was like cutting off the Three Corpses. For a qi practitioner, shouldn't that be a sought-after blessing? Why would he go out of his way to take back the heart demon?
Pei Qian stared hard at this heaven-void demon.
"Little girl, do you think I am the trump card on your master's side? Aren't you being a bit too naive? Hasn't your master told you that 'reason' and 'absoluteness' are a pair of mortal enemies, and the worst thing is when they start visiting each other and trying to get chummy?"
He pointed at himself and said bitterly, "To tell you the truth, believe it or not, when I fled the Suichu Palace in the early days, I only knew about seventy to eighty percent of that man's abilities, and even then, they were just the minor details. His real specialty, especially his ultimate trump card, had long been refined away by him. Besides, when a heaven-void demon leaves a cultivator's heart and goes outside, other than in the Outer Heavens where they are in their element, their abilities inevitably take a big hit. Let me bully someone of a lower realm, like a Jade Core cultivator—that's easy. I can stir up trouble and play with them to death. But a fairy with a firm Dao heart is already troublesome. And an Ascension realm? For example, if Fire Dragon Patriarch opened his heart and invited me in, would I dare? Of course not. So Chen Ping'an wisely didn't involve me in this fight."
There was something he didn't say. In Chen Ping'an's heart back then, he had already suffered. He was forcibly dragged into a chat by some "Chen Ping'an," which was equivalent to listening to lectures for a full few years.
He looked at the little girl in black clothes sleeping soundly, then at Pei Qian. He forced a smile, finished the osmanthus wine, and picked up the last pot on the table. "But I have to thank you two little girls. Even though this storm was caused by me, you only have some ordinary resentment towards me, no hatred. That's surprising. Chen Ping'an's family style and upbringing are really good."
Pei Qian could see through people's hearts, and as an Ascension realm heaven-void demon, so could he.
He asked, "Do you know why I am willing to stay by Chen Ping'an's side?"
Pei Qian nodded. "My master always keeps his promises."
He nodded and shook his head. "You are only half right."
The other half was that, in his eyes, the young hidden officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall was too much like a certain person. It worried him and yet gave him peace of mind.
The young hidden officer was like Wu Shuangjiang. Very much like him! In the choices of many matters, Chen Ping'an was practically a younger version of Wu Shuangjiang.
Imitating Little Millet, the white-haired child spirit lay down on the table, raising his hands, fingers like hooks, scratching his head again and again, stroking his hair, muttering to himself, "Can't hide, can't escape. What to do?"
Pei Qian said, "When there seems to be nothing that can be done, just wait and see."
"Right."
He beamed. He raised his head and asked, "When you passed by Inverted Mountain earlier, did you stay at the same Crane Sparrow Inn as your master did?"
Pei Qian nodded.
He glanced at Pei Qian's eyes, somewhat puzzled. "You little girl, didn't you notice anything strange there?"
Pei Qian shook her head. "Before going to the inn, Little Senior Brother warned me not to stare at anyone."
He lay back on the table, spread his hands, and lightly wiped and cleaned the tabletop, listlessly. "That young-looking innkeeper is actually the Guardian of the Suichu Palace. Only known by the surname Bai, no real name. Everyone calls him Little Bai anyway. He fights like a beast. Looks cheerful and friendly to everyone, but when he gets angry, his temper is bigger than the sky. Back in my hometown, he once twisted off the head of a fairy-level old patriarch from another sect and threw it into the Outer Heavens. No one could persuade him otherwise. The bunch of people around him are all extraordinary. They were all after me, to catch me and take me back for credit. I guess before the Sword Qi Great Wall and Inverted Mountain ascended together, Little Bai must have already sought out Chen Ping'an, but they couldn't come to an agreement. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to make the trip to the Haoran world himself."
In the Crane Sparrow Inn, which had been open on Inverted Mountain for two to three hundred years, the young innkeeper was precisely the Guardian of the Suichu Palace. His real name unknown, his Daoist name sounded like a nickname, very perfunctory—"Little Bai."
The other four had all traveled far as out-of-body yin spirits, but after following the Inverted Mountain, they had all returned to their home sects.
Zhang Yuanbo, the Dragon in Cave, and Yu Chou, the Mountain Lord, were both fairy realm. The girl disguised as Year Window Flower, and the woman named Year Spring Stripe at the inn, were both Jade Core.
In the Azure Underworld, before Wu Shuangjiang's rise, the Suichu Palace was just a second-rate, bottom-tier immortal sect. Not to mention the Great Xuandu Temple, even a first-rate Daoist sect like the Immortal Staff Mountain, if they brought out a head law-enforcement officer from their Patriarch Hall, could have annihilated the Suichu Palace in an instant.
So Wu Shuangjiang, entirely by himself, turned the Suichu Palace into a top-tier Daoist sect on par with the Great Xuandu Temple. During that process, there were countless grudges, grievances, and dangerous situations. No matter the person or the matter, in the end, Wu Shuangjiang killed them all.
And Wu Shuangjiang's teaching of the Dao was also unsurpassed in the world. Within the Suichu Palace, all cultivators of the Upper Five Realms were the result of his personal, hands-on Dao transmission.
Zhang Yuanbo's Dragon-raising technique, Yu Chou's Mountain Refining divine power, Yu Chou's Dao partner Ling Cui Lian's swordsmanship, and Wu Shuangjiang's legitimate daughter Wu Chi, whose Dao name was Candle, her Shaking Celestial Drum, lighting candles and shining on waste, beating the drum to expel plague ghosts—these were all the untransmitted secrets of the Suichu Palace's Patriarch Hall.
Not only these high-ranking, high-realm "patriarchs" of the Suichu Palace, but almost all direct and indirect disciples, Wu Shuangjiang was willing to personally teach them the Dao, handling everything personally, with extreme patience.
No wonder the entire Suichu Palace, from top to bottom, worshipped Wu Shuangjiang as a god from the bottom of their hearts.
In the Azure Underworld, among sect cultivators, the only ones, from top to bottom, who internally and externally didn't take the White Jade Capital seriously were Sun Huaizhong's Xuandu Temple and Wu Shuangjiang's Suichu Palace.
For one, if they went down the mountain for training and swindled a White Jade Capital Daoist, they would set off firecrackers to celebrate upon returning to their temple.
For the other, if they got into a conflict with a White Jade Capital Daoist during training, they would be completely reckless, not caring about life or death. If it didn't result in a death or at least one side breaking their Longevity Bridge, it wasn't considered a Dao spar. Anyway, everyone in the Suichu Palace had a Lamp of Long Life. Zhang Yuanbo, the Dragon in Cave, had died once. Yu Chou's Dao partner had even died twice. Logically, it would be extremely difficult for them to reach the Upper Five Realms again. But with Wu Shuangjiang around, it wasn't a problem. After that, they started their cultivation over from scratch. The Suichu Palace poured countless heavenly treasures and rare resources into them, and Wu Shuangjiang personally oversaw their progress, pointing the way. Their cultivation path remained unstoppable.
The Immortal Sword lineage of the Great Xuandu Temple was recognized in the Azure Underworld as being the most united in a fight.
And the cultivators of the Suichu Palace were recognized as striking the hardest and being the most ruthless, because they valued their own lives the least.
Street urchins, especially young hotheads, were most prone to acting on impulse and didn't know their own strength. Give them a knife, and they didn't even need alcohol to pluck up their courage. If something displeased them, they would pull out the knife and start slashing for all they were worth, without caring about the consequences at all. That's why the Suichu Palace had a reputation in the mountains as the "Lair of Youths."
It finished the two pots of osmanthus wine from Chen Ping'an and Ning Yao, and started cracking melon seeds. Casually, it asked, "A person who can imitate anything—is that formidable?"
Pei Qian nodded without hesitation. Very formidable. Because her own master was like that.
It asked again, "And what about a person who can become anything he imitates?"
Pei Qian thought for a moment. "Very frightening."
Pei Qian then said, "In that case, wouldn't it be easy to get into a Great Dao conflict with others on the cultivation path?"
Imitating something—no big deal. But if you learned something and "became" it, that was too taboo in Great Dao cultivation. For example, the untransmitted secrets of another sect's Patriarch Hall, or the lifebound divine abilities of a flying sword from a sword cultivator?
It rolled its eyes. "Those who admit defeat and accept it are fine. Live and let live. At worst, each goes his own way. He will also find ways to compensate them a bit. But it depends on his mood. How he settles the account and how he makes amends—he decides. Others can only accept. As for those who don't believe in this and insist on arm-wrestling with him, they all die. Among the Five Cities and Twelve Towers of the White Jade Capital, historically, there were two who were pulled down by him. One by force and Dao methods, the other by schemes and Dao heart. So... his relationship with the White Jade Capital's Dao Old Second is extremely bad."
It emphasized, "Extremely bad. They are just short of being mortal enemies. If they meet on the road, they will definitely fight."
Pei Qian asked curiously, "Why are you so afraid of him?"
It reached out. "Give me a bit more to rinse my mouth."
Pei Qian took a pot of wine from her mustard seed space and placed it on the table, pushing it over.
It drank it all in one gulp and sighed. "Still not enough courage. Don't dare to say."
Pei Qian said, "It's okay if you don't want to say."
It sighed again. "Chen Ping'an taught you very well."
Whether a person's qi was clear or turbid actually lay in whether they had a forgiving heart.
Pei Qian smiled. "Sort of. My master taught me ten out of ten, but I only learned two or three tenths."
It suddenly slammed the table, annoyed. "Little girl, why are you imitating my speech?!"
Pei Qian quickly reached out to steady the tabletop, so as not to wake Little Millet.
It apologized to Pei Qian a bit sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry. True feelings slipped out. Couldn't help it."
Pei Qian said out of nowhere, "Later, when you go to Fallen Mountain, you can first visit the Thatched Head Shop on Qilong Lane. There's an old senior there. You should hit it off with him. You'll take an instant liking to each other."
The white-haired child spirit looked skeptical. "What old senior? Ascension realm? And a sword cultivator?"
Fallen Mountain was pretty impressive. With Ning Yao, plus himself and this old senior—three Ascension realms! From then on, in the Haoran world, couldn't he just walk around like a crab every day?
Pei Qian shook her head. "Dragon Gate realm."
The white-haired child spirit spat. "What the hell? Dragon Gate realm? I can't afford to lose that face!"
Pei Qian said nothing more.
The white-haired child spirit suddenly put his hands together, looking serious, muttering to himself, "Child talk has no taboos. Borrow your auspicious words, borrow your auspicious words. I definitely have to manage a trip to Fallen Mountain and pay a visit to that Dragon Gate realm old immortal on Qilong Lane."
Pei Qian suddenly stared blankly at the heaven-void demon in the guise of a white-haired child. She said softly, "To live only in someone else's heart, to live as another version of yourself—that must be very hard."
The white-haired child spirit was stunned for a moment. Then he sat cross-legged, cracking melon seeds while saying cheekily, "Little girl, you're too young to know anything. Speaking so lightly won't comfort anyone's heart."
Pei Qian hummed in agreement, did not refute. She lay down on the table, hands folded, her pointed chin resting on her arms.
The white-haired child spirit glanced at the young woman's topknot. "All cases of empathy, every shared joy and sorrow—they are not easy. So don't learn everything from your master. Chen Ping'an doesn't want that either. Otherwise, just wait and see. When you practice the sword, when you cultivate, the day a heart demon arises in your heart, it will be as big as Mount Sumeru, blocking your path, making you suffer beyond words. Only then will you know what 'hard' really means. Back in the prison, there was a youth named Youyu. Foolish people have foolish luck. He couldn't think much even if he wanted to. And a kid named Du Shanyin thought very selfishly. Good things were his, everything was his. Worthless things, if possible, he would rather smash them than give them to others. No rules in his heart. These two types of people have an easier time on the cultivation path."
After that, there was silence between them.
Little Millet slept soundly, Pei Qian lay there in a daze, the white-haired child spirit sat around with nothing to do, occasionally putting his hands together, raising them high above his head, murmuring spells. He had probably prayed to every deity he could think of.
Finally, he sighed and glanced out the window at the night. It was dark and gloomy, as if there were no end to it.
That Wu Shuangjiang, to him and to the former her, to both sides, was a hurdle that was destined to be insurmountable.
Back then, Wu Shuangjiang had accomplished one thing first: She was the heart demon, and she was the heart demon. It was as if Wu Shuangjiang had long established the entire framework and all the rules.
For this, Wu Shuangjiang had meticulously prepared for over a hundred years.
How did Wu Shuangjiang solve the heart demon?
By becoming her heart demon.
At the time, in the eyes of the old patriarchs of the Suichu Palace, Wu Shuangjiang had wasted a hundred years at the Golden Core bottleneck. Everyone was more puzzled than the next. Why would someone with such outstanding cultivation aptitude stagnate at the Golden Core stage for so long?
No one could imagine that, actually, very early on, Wu Shuangjiang had already arranged a path to the Ascension realm for himself. Even how to reach the Fourteenth Realm seemed to have been prepared long in advance.
Like a person, born with innate knowledge.
But whether it was her or the heaven-void demon, they knew better than anyone that Wu Shuangjiang was not born with innate knowledge. This man, who usually spoke little and gave an impression of being dull at best, or steady at worst, just liked to think too much.
The white-haired child spirit had a headache. Just thinking about that Wu Shuangjiang gave him a splitting headache. He held his head in his hands.
Pei Qian came back to her senses and handed him another pot of wine. He took a big gulp, half the pot. The corner of his eye caught sight of a small bag. He jumped up, bent down, and was about to grab it, but Pei Qian also stood up and gently pressed down on the half-bag of small dried fish. On this trip, Little Millet had a lot of melon seeds, but not many dried fish.
He had to settle for grabbing a few small stream fish, then sat back down, crunching them in his mouth, one fish with a sip of wine. Mutering to himself, "When I was little, every time I lost a key, broke a bowl, got a scolding, I thought it was a huge deal."
Pei Qian didn't understand why he was saying this. But the white-haired child spirit rubbed his eyes vigorously, and instantly his face was full of bitter tears. Sniffling, he wallowed in self-pity. "I'm still a child, still a child! Why should I be bullied by a Fourteenth Realm great cultivator? There is no such logic in the world! Hidden Officer Patriarch, your martial arts are unparalleled, invincible under heaven! Beat him to death! Beat that insane bastard to death!"
Pei Qian rubbed her temples. While her master wasn't around, she also took a pot of fermented rice wine for herself, poured it into a bowl, and took a sip.
The white-haired child spirit finished wiping his tears, but still sobbed. "Children feel pain and scream loudly. Adults..."
He stopped there, his expression turning blank. "Spend their whole lives like drinking alone in silence."
Pei Qian asked, "If I may be so bold as to ask, if Palace Master Wu perishes, then you...?"
He hesitated, then nodded. There was a hint of light in his eyes. He said something that would be hard for others to empathize with. "And I would still be reluctant."
Before encountering Wu Shuangjiang, he hoped to regain his freedom and have no worries about life and death. After encountering Wu Shuangjiang, he only hoped for release, no longer imprisoned in his heart. Yet he didn't want Wu Shuangjiang to perish completely, because she had always hoped that there would be an 'him' in the world, living well.
Pei Qian raised her wine bowl and offered it towards him. The white-haired child spirit raised his wine pot and lightly clinked it. They each drank.
Life's unhappiness, dissolve with wine. Down the hatch.
He tested the waters. "We're already close friends. How about two more fish?"
Pei Qian smiled faintly and directly put the bag of fish into her sleeve.
He gave a thumbs-up and shouted exaggeratedly, "As expected of the Hidden Officer Patriarch's first senior apprentice! Such breadth of mind and spirit! A true inheritance!"
Pei Qian said a fair word. "With your flattery skills, just being loud-mouthed, you can't even get a seat to crack melon seeds at my Fallen Mountain."
He thought for a moment and began to pray piously, locking his jaw. "As long as I can get to Fallen Mountain, I'm willing to be a handyman in that shop on Qilong Lane for that Dragon Gate realm old immortal!"
---
Within the Appearance City, the middle-aged scholar who was the owner of the Night Voyage Boat, since the Article City had already isolated heaven and earth, and even he could no longer watch the battle from afar, conjured a booklet. It gleamed with treasure light, gold and jade leaves. When he opened it, one page recorded the final content of Xuandu Temple's Sun Huaizhong, and the adjacent page was the beginning of the record on Suichu Palace's Wu Shuangjiang.
On the Night Voyage Boat, this battle today was enough to go down in history.
A Fourteenth Realm, an Ascension Realm, two immortals whose combat power could not be judged by their current realms alone, plus a Jade Core, Tenth Stage Martial Artist.
If that heaven-void demon joined the battlefield, regardless of which side it chose, that would add another Ascension Realm.
If Pei Qian then followed suit, maybe there would be an additional... Stopping Realm martial artist?
The middle-aged scholar laughed. "What a fierce battle. Lucky it's on our ferry. Otherwise, at least half a continent's rivers and mountains would be ruined. Shouldn't the Confucian Temple record a merit for the ferry?"
The executioner said nothing.
The middle-aged scholar asked with a smile, "If Wu Shuangjiang had always suppressed his realm to Ascension realm, what would your chances of victory be?"
The executioner said, "If he hadn't broken through, I could only say there was a chance to exchange my life for his. Once he entered the Fourteenth Realm and then suppressed his realm to Ascension, I have no chance whatsoever."
The middle-aged scholar shook his head. "So in any case, he shouldn't have chosen Wu Shuangjiang as an opponent."
He dared to assert that as long as Chen Ping'an angered Wu Shuangjiang, the latter would definitely restore his Fourteenth Realm cultivation.
This man Wu Shuangjiang, in his home world, dared to provoke even the White Jade Capital and the Dao Old Second. Coming to the Haoran world, he wouldn't take the Confucian Temple's rules too seriously.
It was said that the Grand Master had privately established a "family rule" with his junior brother: within the hundred years that the Dao Old Second sat in the White Jade Capital, Yu Dou was forbidden to carry an immortal sword and pay a sword visit to the Suichu Palace.
Besides the Master Dao Ancestor, that Yu Dou, known as the truly invincible, only listened to his senior brother's advice. Not just because the senior brother had taken on disciples on behalf of the master and transmitted the Dao.
If the rumor was true, then the White Jade Capital Grand Master forbidding his junior brother Yu Dou from arbitrarily paying a sword visit to the Suichu Palace definitely wasn't just a simple act of favoring an outsider like Wu Shuangjiang.
The most underestimated great cultivator in the Haoran world, probably without any "one of," was Liu Qi, who turned the Tendon Forging stage into a place where people got stuck.
In the end, Liu Qi, after returning to the Haoran world, proved this with facts. With over three hundred types of techniques, even though the battlefield was over the vast ocean, he still suppressed the Water technique divine power of the Crown Great Yao Yang Zhi from all sides.
And in the Azure Underworld, according to a less widely circulated rumor, it was Wu Shuangjiang besides Lu Chen.
Sun Daochang of the Great Xuandu Temple once made a witty remark: Lu Chen, who can't be shaken off the sole of your foot; sticky-toothed Wu Shuangjiang, who can't be picked off with a toothpick.
One had no real skill, only knew how to disgust people; the other was a tenacious ghost even more haunting than a poor Daoist.
The middle-aged scholar kept flipping through the ferry's book records and said slowly, "During the Middle Five Realms, Palace Master Wu's luck was so good it could be called number one under heaven. Every time, he narrowly escaped death. During the Jade Core and Fairy stages before the Ascension realm, Palace Master Wu had the most killing intent and the strongest murderous heart. The number of times he engaged in duels with others again ranked first in the Azure Underworld, surpassing all Upper Five Realm cultivators. After entering the Ascension realm, for some reason, he began to cultivate his mind and nature. His temperament changed drastically, becoming especially detached from worldly affairs. He only made two recorded moves in total: one with the Dao Old Second, and one with Sun Daochang. After that, it was mostly one closed-door cultivation session after another, with hardly any contact with outsiders from the sect. That's why he had fallen out of the top ten list earlier."
On the book, there were also some relatively detailed secret records of mountains and rivers, documenting Wu Shuangjiang's approximate "Dao-seeking" processes with some Earth Immortals and Upper Five Realm cultivators. The lower Wu Shuangjiang's realm, the more records there were, and the closer the content was to the truth.
The biggest characteristic of Wu Shuangjiang's cultivation path was survival in desperate situations, specializing in counter-killing powerful enemies in disadvantageous and hopeless positions.
But this was only the superficial result. The real mastery lay in Wu Shuangjiang's ability to gather the strengths of hundreds of schools, and he was extremely pragmatic, skilled in forging them into one furnace, using them for his own purposes, and ultimately going a step further.
The Dao methods of the White Jade Capital's Five Cities and Twelve Towers, the immortal sword lineage of the Great Xuandu Temple, the "pointing out the country" talisman formations of the Immortal Staff Mountain—by collecting secret manuals and Dao formulas, and following clues and threads, he deduced the fundamental Dao origins of various types of techniques and divine powers. He also dabbled in the talismans of Yu Xuan and the Thunder Method of the Dragon Tiger Mountain Heavenly Master Mansion. As to how close his versions were, separated by two worlds, there had never been a chance to verify.
The middle-aged scholar closed the book and asked with a smile, "How about it? Can you tell me about that person? As long as you are willing to reveal this matter, on the ferry, a new fourth city will be opened, and I'll give you one more city."
The executioner shook his head. "Don't test the limit, Zhang Fuzi. Don't ask about this anymore."
The middle-aged scholar was a bit regretful. "Then it will forever remain a 'no result' inside the Hongmao City."
The executioner said, "This one more won't hurt."
In the ten-thousand-year history of the Sword Qi Great Wall, there had always been three extremely important positions: Executioner, Hidden Officer, and Sacrificial Officer.
The earliest three patriarchs were precisely Chen Qingdu, Dragon Lord, and Guan Zhao.
As time passed, first the Executioner lineage stole the show, with successive Hidden Officers rising and falling. The Sacrificial Officer gradually retreated behind the scenes, and their identity was extremely concealed, never made public. Until the last thousand years, the Sacrificial Officer had been even more silent and hidden than the Executioner, as if this lineage had never existed. Not to mention young sword cultivators, even many sword immortals almost never thought about this matter, which didn't matter anyway—couldn't be eaten for food, drunk for wine, or used as a flying sword to go out of the city to kill demons. Why bother thinking about it.
In contrast, the Hidden Officer lineage, first Xiao Xun, then Chen Ping'an, had become extremely conspicuous on the Sword Qi Great Wall and in the Desolate World.
It was estimated that in the future, ordinary mountain cultivators in the Haoran world would mistakenly think that the Sword Qi Great Wall had always only had the Hidden Officer position.
The Hidden Officer lineage's two palaces, the Summer Retreat and the Winter Shelter, had vast collections of books and countless secret files, but there was no record on this matter. It was like a few pages had been torn out of an old almanac. It didn't even count as a taboo anymore.
A small lake, covered with lotus leaves, had a path leading straight to a pavilion in the center.
On the path, a couple stood admiring the scenery, not going to the pavilion where the middle-aged scholar and the executioner were.
A young man, beside him a girl carrying a bamboo basket, elegantly dressed, of extreme beauty.
The young man wore blue robes and carried a sword on his back. He was tall, with a small silver pouch at his waist. Countless fine golden threads seeped through the silver threads, shining like the glow of sunrise.
This was a sword cultivator from the Sword Qi Great Wall, Du Shanyin. Along with Youyu, he had been thrown into the prison. Du Shanyin became the executioner's direct disciple, while Youyu vaguely became Old Deafy's disciple. One followed the executioner back to Haoran, the other followed Old Deafy to the Desolate World.
The girl beside Du Shanyin was named Ji Qing. She and Chang Ming had once depended on each other in the prison, year after year washing clothes by the stream together.
Chang Ming was the manifestation of a gold-copper coin ancestral money. Ji Qing was also the manifestation of a divine coin ancestral money.
Du Shanyin asked in a low voice, "Miss Ji Qing, is it really that Wu Shuangjiang of the Suichu Palace? Has he already validated the Dao at the Fourteenth Realm?"
The pair in the pavilion had not deliberately concealed their conversation, so Du Shanyin had been listening silently, committing it to memory.
Ji Qing smiled gracefully and nodded. "Most likely."
Du Shanyin rubbed his chin. "Since that child spirit is Wu Shuangjiang's heart demon, it's like a runaway, right? Then, publicly and privately, logically and emotionally, shouldn't the Hidden Officer hand him over? Why fight? It makes no sense."
Ji Qing smiled but said nothing.
Du Shanyin continued, "Besides, the Hidden Officer is famously good at making deals. At the inn, couldn't there have been some negotiation before it fell apart? End up with a complete falling out, both sides dropping harsh words, and then suddenly start fighting? Not like our Hidden Officer's style at all. Could it be that after returning to his hometown, the Hidden Officer, using his literary lineage identity, has already gotten in touch with the Central Earth Confucian Temple, so he no longer has to worry about a Fourteenth Realm great cultivator from a foreign land?"
Ji Qing shook her head and said softly, "This servant wouldn't know either."
Du Shanyin laughed. "If it were on our Sword Qi Great Wall, Wu Shuangjiang wouldn't dare to make such a move. Ning Yao is not the Great Old Sword Immortal after all."
Ji Qing had already turned her head to look into the lake. It was as if lotus umbrellas stood upright in the emerald water. The water rippled, the leaves were lush, and a fragrant aroma assailed the nostrils, refreshing the heart. Occasionally, pairs of mandarin ducks swam among them. The lotus leaves were as dark as hair, the lotus flowers like a beauty's makeup. The movement of flowers and leaves without wind meant it was either fish or mandarin ducks.
Ji Qing missed Sister Chang Ming. If she had the chance to meet this time, she would go ask that money-loving Hidden Officer. She remembered their first encounter. The young Hidden Officer was very proper at first when he saw them. Later, when he learned about her and Sister Chang Ming's Dao foundation, he smiled so warmly, his eyes full of an intimacy he couldn't hide. A man who seemed to have no eyes for beauty, only for money.
The girl thought of these things and was in a good mood. She crouched down, smiling as she gently parted the green lotus leaves.
Du Shanyin laughed. "Miss Ji Qing, if you like these lotus leaves, I'll have a word with City Lord Zhou and fill your basket."
Ji Qing, with her back to the young sword cultivator, rolled her eyes playfully and didn't bother to say much. Money in the world wasn't earned that way. It might seem like getting a basket of lotus leaves for free, but wasn't the incense and fate connection in the mountains also money? Besides, your relationship with that Beautiful Zhou Lang wasn't really that close.
Du Shanyin had only mentioned it casually, not giving it much thought. A basket of lotus leaves wasn't worth wasting his mental energy. He was more focused on his own cultivation matters.
How to practice the sword to break through faster, how to improve the rank of his flying sword, how to become one of the future young top ten.
Later, when he left his master's side and traveled alone, what he could and couldn't do—for example, whether he could keep Ji Qing by his side, whether he needed to make a trip to the Southern Bodhi Continent to visit the old sword immortal Qi Tingji and Lu Zhi... all these things required careful consideration now. He was not that Youyu who muddled through every day in a daze. He hoped that after a few decades or a century, when he met his contemporary Youyu again, they would be as different as heaven and earth.
His master, the executioner, was taciturn. So in these years, even though they lived together day and night, Du Shanyin only knew a few things about him. He had no real understanding of his master—what his surname and given name were, how he learned the sword, how he became a sword immortal, why he became the executioner on the Sword Qi Great Wall—all were mysteries.
His master loved to drink, which earned him the nickname "drunkard" in the prison. But after returning to the Haoran world, he drank very little. Also, after he took Du Shanyin as his disciple, his master had no other requirements, just one: that in the future, when Du Shanyin had mastered the sword and traveled through Haoran, he should kill every flower thief he met in the mountains. Finally, his master, the executioner, seemed to have no good feelings for anyone in the world who possessed a blessed land. That was why, back at the Hidden Officer's place, his master never had a good expression.
Over at the pavilion, the middle-aged scholar flicked his sleeve, preventing Du Shanyin from hearing another word. Then he asked with a smile, "Does this only direct disciple of yours hold a grudge against Chen Ping'an from back in his hometown? Otherwise, as clever as he is, thinking about this and that all day, why is he deliberately playing blind on this matter? Almost like he's lending Wu Shuangjiang some murderous intent."
The executioner shook his head. "He has no grudge against Chen Ping'an. They probably just don't see eye to eye."
The middle-aged scholar laughed. "To be precise, leaving aside the Sword Qi Great Wall and Ascension City, and the many low-realm sword cultivators and mortals who had their lives preserved thanks to the Hidden Officer lineage of the Summer Retreat Palace, the fact that he could become your direct disciple ultimately comes down to thanking that Hidden Officer. So why, when Chen Ping'an encounters a Fourteenth Realm Palace Master Wu who has come to demand an accounting, does this young man seem to be gloating?"
According to the careful deductions of the ferry, during that war on the Sword Qi Great Wall, although the fighting lasted a few more years, thanks to the troop deployments of the Summer Retreat Palace, an extra eighteen thousand people survived.
This meant that Ascension City, in the Fifth World, had an additional large number of young sword cultivators. Even if everyone's realm was low, it gave Ascension City more momentum for concentrating sword fortune. And the flowering and bearing of fruit of every sword Dao seed, which might have seemed insignificant on the former Sword Qi Great Wall, just a matter of dying early or late on the battlefield, in that brand-new world, the long-term impact was immeasurable.
The executioner said, "Not really sure. Can't be bothered to look into it."
The middle-aged scholar laughed drily. "Taking on such a disciple, doesn't it bother you? But I suppose masters like you are rare."
That young sword cultivator kept calling Wu Shuangjiang by name. The middle-aged scholar would have to clean up the mess. A few golden characters had quietly gathered in his palm, like birds in a cage, unable to flap their wings and leave.
"The Great Old Sword Immortal threw him at me. I couldn't not accept him."
The executioner said, "I am only responsible for teaching Du Shanyin swordsmanship. Once he becomes an Upper Five Realm sword cultivator, he will go out and make his own way. Whether he lives or dies, where he ends up, that's what he deserves."
The middle-aged scholar asked with a smile, "And if he meets danger, will he drag out his master's name?"
The executioner said calmly, "Same goes for that. Since he was able to recognize me as his master, whether it's fate or karma, it counts as Du Shanyin's skill."
The middle-aged scholar nodded. That was also a kind of logic.
The executioner rarely took the initiative to ask a question. He asked this scholar Zhang a crucial one: "Why is it that when he boarded this ferry, he was so restrained with you, yet so overbearing with Chen Ping'an? It seems that this journey is not just about retrieving that heart demon, but more like he wants to 'ask the Dao' of Chen Ping'an? Otherwise, just based on the young Hidden Officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall and the closed-door disciple of the Wen Sheng lineage, he shouldn't be so aggressive, unwilling to discuss anything, and directly resorting to force."
The middle-aged scholar leaned sideways against the railing, turned his head, and looked at the lotus leaves in the lake. "The real reason is hard to say. Don't bother guessing. It will only be futile. For now, there is only a rather vague thread. That heart demon Dao partner of Palace Master Wu, back when he was in closed-door cultivation trying to break through, slipped out of the Suichu Palace, followed that Daoist from the Great Xuandu Temple, and left the Azure Underworld together, causing his breakthrough to fail. And over in the North Julu Continent, Chen Ping'an should have been traveling with Sun Daochang to an ancient site. Somehow, right under Sun Daochang's nose, he obtained that secret Dao inheritance. Among the Five Element lifebound objects, there was a divine statue in the image of that Daoist. I can follow the clues and see this scene. With his Dao methods, of course, it's easy to see through. Since that Daoist is already dead, seeking revenge is a luxury. So, probably, Chen Ping'an gets the blame. Or maybe, he simply wants to perform a calculation and backtrace, to conduct a spectacular Dao evolution. After stripping that Dao seed from Chen Ping'an's heart, it would be a profound starting point of the Great Dao."
The middle-aged scholar put his two fingers together, picked up a drop of water from the lake, and casually flicked it onto a tilted lotus leaf. The water droplet then rolled back into the water. After observing the subtle process of the water droplet entering the water, he smiled. "So if you replace Chen Ping'an with any other person, when they meet him, they won't suffer this calamity. Of course, if it were someone else, they wouldn't have an Ascension realm heaven-void demon by their side either. Isn't this what they call 'every drink and every peck is preordained'?"
The executioner frowned deeply. "To strip a Five Element object from Chen Ping'an, with his realm, it's indeed not difficult. But to reverse the Great Dao? Can he really accomplish such a thing?"
The middle-aged scholar smiled knowingly, revealing the secret. "You probably don't know that he has a fairly good relationship with Lu Chen. It is said that from that White Bone True Man, following an old rule, he exchanged seven hundred and twenty thousand coins for a Tai Xuan Qing Sheng talisman personally made by the Dao Ancestor. As for whether this talisman was used on his Dao partner, or on that Daoist that the Xuandu Temple once wanted to 'start a new situation' for, that is just my personal guess for now."
This scholar sighed softly. "There's no help for it. Many times, the thread that you and I believe to be true in our hearts is actually a wrong path that makes one walk without ever turning back."
The middle-aged scholar glanced at the young sword cultivator on the path. Upon closer inspection, each of Du Shanyin's jumping thoughts and every thread of his mental path seemed to be strung together by a series of characters. After the scholar Zhang had read them all, he smiled slightly. "Those who fear the strong never fail to bully the weak."
The executioner said, "None of my concern."
The middle-aged scholar laughed. "None of your concern? Where in the mortal world is not your hometown's blessed land?"
Upon hearing this, the executioner was silent, his expression even more indifferent.
The middle-aged scholar suddenly burst into laughter. "You, the current executioner, are actually inferior to the previous one. Before the former Haoran Jia Sheng became Wen Hai Zhou Mi, he at least left behind a city of rules built with painstaking effort."
The old scholar, who looked not very old, lightly patted his knee and spoke slowly.
If Bai Ye were not just a scholar but also a sword cultivator.
If Chen Qingdu had disregarded the consequences, only cared about high spirits, just for himself, and poured all his strength into a sword strike, questioning a Desolate World.
If the old blind man in the Hundred Thousand Mountains and the old abbot of the Donghai Guan Dao Temple, the two most senior Fourteenth Realm cultivators, were willing to come out for the Haoran world.
If Yu Dou had not traveled far with his sword to the Great Xuandu Temple and killed that Daoist.
If Bai Ye had not questioned the sword in Fuyang Continent, had not destroyed that immortal sword Great White, but had returned it to its rightful owner, ultimately to be held by Sun Huaizhong of the Great Xuandu Temple, who then questioned the sword against the White Jade Capital.
If the Sword Qi Great Wall had chosen to side with the Desolate World, or taken a step back and chosen neutrality, helping neither side, standing by with folded arms.
And if the Embroidery Tiger Cui Chan had joined forces with his junior brother Qi Jingchun, simply blocked the path of the second Ascension Platform, the Haoran world would have lost at least one or two additional continents' worth of mountains and rivers. The two sides would have fought a completely earth-shattering battle, mountains collapsing, land sinking, corpses everywhere. Then the Armored One would have chosen to merge with the Dao, moving the site of the Heavenly Court, crossing the vast river of stars, crashing into the Haoran world. Li Sheng would have been forced to absorb the world's qi fortune, break into the Fifteenth Realm, fight to the death, blocking most of the disaster. Yet still, many gods would have truly returned to their positions. Chaos would have swept through the four worlds. The White Jade Capital would shake, the Buddhist Kingdoms tremor, heaven-void demons run rampant, ghosts and monsters run amok, and the mortal population would be decimated to less than one in ten.
The middle-aged scholar sighed. "What is the hardest heart barrier for a scholar to overcome?"
The executioner said, "Being a wild old man by the roadside, seeing displaced commoners."
The middle-aged scholar laughed and cursed. "So you do fucking know!"
Like a traveler's inn on a journey, a small boat sheltering from the cold night, wind and rain battering the reeds. Anyway, the reeds come back every year. In one night, thousands upon thousands are blown down. Who gives a damn?
The executioner nodded. "Once I knew."