Chapter 4118: Gandharva and the Fourth Confucian Ancestor
Love Mountain Inn was a wooden structure, with a spacious hall containing eight sets of tables and chairs.
The ceiling was about ten meters high, and the roof beam was a dragon bone.
The sky was dim.
Exquisite ox-horn lamps were inlaid on the yellowish-brown wooden pillars.
Zhang Ruochen observed the inn and looked up to the second floor. There were indeed guest rooms for lodging, with eight doors from right to left. Outside each door was a flower rack, hung with wooden plaques bearing the characters for "person" and "ghost," along with numbers.
"Sit anywhere, don't be polite."
Gandharva stood in the center of the hall, stopped, and looked Zhang Ruochen up and down. With a genial smile, she asked, "Would you like some soup?"
"Not for now."
Zhang Ruochen looked at the first table on the right side of the hall, his eyes slightly narrowing.
There.
A foot-long white-haired brush hung above the table, its tip stained with ink.
Only the tip touched the tabletop, as if someone were holding it upright and suspended.
It was the Fourth Confucian Ancestor's painting brush; the aura was unmistakable.
Zhang Ruochen quickly averted his gaze, meeting Gandharva's eyes. His wariness deepened. "I've heard that among the Eight Divisions Followers, there is a division called Gandharva. May I ask if you were born into this division?"
"Not exactly!"
Gandharva shook her head.
But she quickly added, "However, the entire Gandharva tribe reveres me as their leader. Sit down, why are you so tense? A figure like you—surely you're not afraid this old woman will eat you?"
Zhang Ruochen let out a hearty yet slightly awkward laugh and sat down at the second table on the right, still holding the Human Head Staff. "The Eight Divisions Followers truly have many experts. May I ask if you know who I am?"
"Is who you are important?" Gandharva asked.
Zhang Ruochen countered, "Then what is important? I think there must be something important, which is why you invited me in. Otherwise, I suspect I would have followed Yuan Qiu's fate—thrown into the stone mill and ground to pieces, becoming fertilizer for Love Mountain's flowers."
"I was wrong, spare me... ah..."
Yuan Qiu's screams and pleas came from outside, heart-wrenching.
Ordinary pain would never make a Great Unbound Infinite suffer so miserably.
This was the erasure of all spirit and soul!
The stone mill outside the inn could kill gods.
Tantra Earth Treasury walked in from outside, looking pained and angry. "What did he do wrong? Why are you treating him like this?"
Gandharva finally shifted her gaze from Zhang Ruochen to Tantra Earth Treasury. Her once friendly and kind smile turned sinister and eerie. "A traitor deserves any death. Using his blood to water the flower seedlings of Love Mountain is his great merit. Do you know which two types of people I hate the most?"
"Traitors?" Tantra Earth Treasury said.
Gandharva said, "Traitors certainly deserve death, but they aren't the most hated. The most hated are, first, monks from Di Huang, and second, men from the Meng Clan."
"Whoosh!"
Without any visible movement, divine aura, or rule release from Gandharva, Tantra Earth Treasury was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into the stone mill outside the inn.
Countless blood-red inscriptions emerged on the mill, dissipating the impact force.
Tantra Earth Treasury sat slumped on the ground, with more than half of his divine bones broken. It was as if an invisible divine mountain pressed on his chest, preventing him from standing.
Even breathing and speaking were extremely difficult.
"Once he's ground to nothing, it'll be your turn," Gandharva said.
Zhang Ruochen remained calm, but inside, he was a storm of shock.
With just a single glance, she had rendered an Indestructible Infinite peak expert combat-ineffective.
Even if Tantra Earth Treasury's consciousness and divine soul were incomplete, causing a severe drop in combat power, he shouldn't be this useless.
Meng Huang'e stood at the inn's entrance, hesitated for a moment, then walked inside. She bowed respectfully to Gandharva but didn't dare sit.
Gandharva ignored her, turning back to Zhang Ruochen with her friendly demeanor. "Are you interested in hearing a story?"
"If this story has nothing to do with me, I won't listen," Zhang Ruochen said.
Gandharva said, "No one can refuse me."
"I'd like to try."
Zhang Ruochen's fingers stroked the heads on the Human Head Staff, his gaze gradually sharpening, losing all previous warmth and gentleness.
When someone with great strength and a bad temper treats you with unusual kindness, it's time to be wary.
Meng Huang'e, who had been observing Zhang Ruochen, looked as if she had discovered something remarkable. Her eyes lit up.
Such sharp eyes and demeanor—she had never seen them before.
Among the cultivators Meng Huang'e had met, some might have higher cultivation than him, but their auras were deep and gloomy, like bottomless dark pools. Others might be tougher and more ferocious, but they were all bluster, lacking substance.
A peerless divine sword must not only be sharp enough but also have a thick, unyielding blade. Both were indispensable.
"Finally going to reveal your true strength?" Meng Huang'e thought with anticipation, but without fear.
Because this was Love Mountain Inn!
No matter how sharp the sword, it must sheathe its edge.
After a brief silence, Gandharva laughed. "This story has been buried in my heart for many years, and I really want to tell it."
"Why choose me as your audience?" Zhang Ruochen asked in a low voice.
Gandharva said, "Because you have no karma. I can't see your past, nor your future."
"What does that mean?"
"Either you are an Ancestor, or you will become one. You have severed your own karma."
"I didn't know I was so extraordinary. Since I'm so extraordinary, why should I force myself to listen to an old woman's old tales?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Meng Huang'e was stunned. She never expected Zhang Ruochen to dare offend Gandharva so openly.
Did he really think this old woman had a good temper?
If Gandharva was angered, his fate would be worse than Yuan Qiu's.
"Whoosh!"
In an instant, Zhang Ruochen leaped up from his seat, his body straight, enveloped in the aura of life and death. He raised the Human Head Staff above his head.
"Boom!"
The staff slammed down violently, crashing toward the first table on the right side of the hall—the one with the Fourth Confucian Ancestor's brush suspended above it.
The staff was still five feet from the table when it was blocked by an invisible wall.
The wall erupted with blazing, blinding divine light.
It was like striking the divine wall of heaven and earth. Whatever force Zhang Ruochen used, the same force rebounded. His arm ached and went numb, and he was sent flying backward.
He had struck with full force.
It was like punching himself.
While flying backward, Zhang Ruochen saw the true scene within the inn's hall.
Around that table was a circular light barrier.
It was this blazing barrier that had blocked Zhang Ruochen's full-force strike and sent him flying.
Inside the barrier.
The true bodies of the Fourth Confucian Ancestor and Gandharva sat facing each other.
The Fourth Confucian Ancestor sat with his back to the main door, holding the painting brush, completely motionless. His Confucian robes seemed cast in iron, his hair like steel needles.
Across from him, Gandharva's true body formed strange hand seals.
Her palms faced outward, placed before her chest.
A circular time imprint floated in front of her palms.
Zhang Ruochen had transcendent achievements in the Way of Time, so he immediately recognized it as an "Absolute Self Time Sovereign Seal."
This scene alone would shock any Indestructible Infinite, Heavenly Venerable Rank, or Half-Ancestor in the world.
Logically, only someone who had mastered over fifty percent of Time Esoterica and had reached the Half-Ancestor realm could hope to execute the "Absolute Self Time Sovereign Seal."
It was one of the ultimate time divine ability great arts!
But Gandharva hadn't mastered over fifty percent of Time Esoterica. Instead, she used her spiritual power and her own time insights to condense this time imprint.
This was even more frightening than a Half-Ancestor who had mastered fifty percent of Time Esoterica.
Of course, Gandharva's Absolute Self Time Sovereign Seal only covered an area of one zhang, just enough to envelop the area around the first table on the right.
It was far from being able to control the time of heaven and earth.
With this one move, she had used time power to immobilize even the Fourth Confucian Ancestor.
The Fourth Confucian Ancestor was someone who could trap Pan Yuan Ancient God, who had reached the Half-Ancestor realm, with just a single painting. That he was now pinned down by this time imprint could certainly be called the second shock.
Of course, maintaining the imprint meant Gandharva couldn't act separately.
She used her unfathomably profound spiritual power to conceal the true scene in the hall, making it impossible for anyone to see the true bodies of her and the Fourth Confucian Ancestor locked in battle.
Fortunately, the Fourth Confucian Ancestor was strong enough to project the brush, otherwise Zhang Ruochen wouldn't have seen through the trick.
When high-realm experts duel, it's like opening a new dimension. Low-realm cultivators, even if right beside them, can't detect any fluctuations.
Zhang Ruochen had sensed it, seen through it, and therefore didn't want to listen to Gandharva's clone tell a story, suspecting she was stalling for time.
He acted decisively, using the Human Head Staff to reveal the true scene in the inn's hall.
Inside the light barrier, besides Gandharva and the Fourth Confucian Ancestor sitting opposite each other, there was also the Soul Mother sitting to the Fourth Confucian Ancestor's right and Bore sitting to his left.
Bore was affected by the time power, frozen like an exquisite, beautiful sculpture.
The Soul Mother, wearing a purple gauze hat, had one finger pointed at the Fourth Confucian Ancestor. Although her finger moved very slowly, almost imperceptibly, it was steadily approaching his brow.
The Absolute Self Time Sovereign Seal was mainly aimed at the Fourth Confucian Ancestor, so she was relatively less affected.
Without external intervention, the Fourth Confucian Ancestor would surely die here today.
He was also fighting for his life, projecting the brush to attract Zhang Ruochen's attention, while unleashing his full power to force Gandharva to suppress him with stronger time power.
Stronger time power meant the Soul Mother's speed would be even slower.
The Fourth Confucian Ancestor was buying time, waiting for a variable.
This time could be several days, even dozens of days.
If several days or dozens of days could decide the life or death of a top-tier Half-Ancestor, that was already extremely fast!
All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Zhang Ruochen, sent flying, landed just a few steps from the main door and steadied himself.
The light barrier covering the first table on the right flickered and vanished, along with all the images, including the previously suspended brush.
In the hall, only Zhang Ruochen, Gandharva's clone, and Meng Huang'e, who had silently appeared at the entrance to block his escape route, remained.
Zhang Ruochen locked his gaze on Gandharva's clone. "I'm now interested in your story again!"
Gandharva's clone, standing in the center of the hall, walked step by step toward Zhang Ruochen. "But this old woman is no longer interested in telling it. Your cultivation and strength are far weaker than I estimated. You're not qualified to listen."
Zhang Ruochen said, "The Fourth Confucian Ancestor was able to project a brush, which shows your spiritual power hasn't reached the level to firmly suppress him. Now, splitting off a clone to deal with me will make things even more unstable over there. Why bother?"
Gandharva said, "Do you think I need to use much power?"
Zhang Ruochen said with extreme seriousness, "Even if Love Mountain is your territory, you absolutely cannot stop me with just a clone."
"What if I join in?" Meng Huang'e said with a grin.
She had always been so youthful and vibrant, with a smile always on her face. Pretending had been so hard, constantly suppressing herself.
Zhang Ruochen wasn't surprised at all. "Seventh Miss's smile is truly enchanting. It must have been hard for you to pretend to be so gloomy and worried all this time!"
"When did you notice?" Meng Huang'e asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "The first time you entered Wangchuan Secret Realm!"
Meng Huang'e still smiled, but her gaze froze!