Chapter 360: Crossing the Snowy Wasteland
The elder from Li Mountain gazed at Liang Xiaoxiao on the stretcher, remaining silent for a long time. Then he turned to look at Zheshou beneath the locust tree, his voice utterly devoid of emotion: “Do you have anything else to say?”
Zheshou closed his eyes and said, “Since he defected to the demon race, anyone could kill him. If I had done it, I wouldn’t need to hide it. But he wasn’t killed by me.”
A faint stir rippled through the forest. The Li Mountain elder’s face was as cold as frost as he spoke harshly: “Junior Brother Liang is already dead, and yet you dare to sling mud at a departed soul. Isn’t that a bit too shameless?”
Only then did Zheshou confirm that Liang Xiaoxiao was truly dead. He roughly understood the whole situation and suddenly felt an overwhelming weariness.
“Come back to Li Mountain with us to face interrogation,” the Li Mountain elder said, looking at him as if he were already a corpse.
At his words, over a dozen disciples of the Longevity Sect surrounded Zheshou, while even more Southern cultivators in the vicinity kept watch on his movements, ready to prevent any sudden outburst.
Just then, Zhu Luo said expressionlessly, “Hold on.”
As one of the Eight Directions Wind and Rain, the strongest of humanity, his status was naturally unique. His words forced even the enraged Li Mountain elder to momentarily calm down.
“I hate scenes where things are done without everything being made clear first,” Zhu Luo said, pointing at the unconscious Qijian. “From what you’re implying, besides Zheshou, Qijian must also be a suspect in killing Liang Xiaoxiao—and even Chen Changsheng?”
The Li Mountain elder said slowly, “This is a matter for Li Mountain. Please show some respect, sir.”
“This isn’t just a Li Mountain matter. It’s something that happened in the Garden of Zhou.” Zhu Luo looked at him expressionlessly. “I’m in charge of overseeing the Garden of Zhou’s opening this year. Whatever happened inside, you have to let me understand it.”
Suppressing his anger, the Li Mountain elder said, “Isn’t this matter already clear?”
“Not at all.” Zhu Luo, indifferent to his reaction, said casually, “Zheshou has earned considerable military merit for our Great Zhou. You claim he colluded with the demon race—fine, let that pass. But if Qijian was also involved, does that mean she defected too? She’s your Li Mountain disciple. What reason would she have to join forces with this wolf-tribe youth against her own senior brother?”
The Li Mountain elder thought of the meaning in Liang Xiaoxiao’s gaze before his death. After a moment of silence, he walked up to Zhu Luo and said in a low voice, “This involves Li Mountain’s pure reputation. Please, sir, do not press further.”
Zhu Luo raised an eyebrow slightly. He knew that the words “reputation” and “pure reputation” seemed similar but carried different implications.
The Li Mountain elder lowered his voice further. “What happened between Junior Brother Qijian and Zheshou… we don’t know yet, but it absolutely cannot be asked about in front of everyone. Her identity is very special.”
Only the two of them could hear this exchange. Seeing how cautious the elder was, Zhu Luo asked, “What identity is she?”
After a long silence, the Li Mountain elder said, “She… is a woman.”
Zhu Luo looked at Zheshou beneath the locust tree and understood somewhat. “No wonder you mentioned ‘pure reputation.’”
The Li Mountain elder said, “Please understand, sir.”
Zhu Luo shook his head. “That’s not enough. Li Mountain’s reputation is important, but it can’t outweigh the truth and matters of life and death.”
The Li Mountain elder hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, “She is the daughter of the junior master.”
Zhu Luo’s expression turned serious. Looking into his eyes, he asked, “Which junior master?”
The Li Mountain elder said softly, “The Little Junior Master.”
Hearing those three words, Zhu Luo fell silent for a long time.
As one of the Eight Directions Wind and Rain, his status in the human world was supremely lofty, second only to the five sages. In principle, no name should make him cautious—but there was one exception.
So she was Su Li’s daughter. Su Li’s daughter. No wonder the Li Mountain Sect Leader had taken her as his final disciple, and the entire Li Mountain cherished her like a treasure. Even Qiu Shanjun and Gou Hanshi had to hold her in the palms of their hands.
Looking at the unconscious Qijian, Zhu Luo shook his head as he pondered these things.
The Li Mountain elder said, “Thank you for understanding, sir. Of course, if Qijian really did do something in the Garden of Zhou… by the Law Sword above, the Discipline Hall will certainly invoke the sect rules. The final result will be reported to you as soon as possible.”
Zhu Luo said nothing, which counted as tacit consent. This was indeed something that happened in the Garden of Zhou, but since the Li Mountain Sword Sect had put it that way, and the matter involved Su Li, even he was unwilling to take it on.
But at this moment, there was another elder present whose words carried even more weight.
As the Li Mountain elder signaled, people carried away the stretchers bearing Qijian and Liang Xiaoxiao’s corpse. Zheshou, hearing the commotion, leaned forward slightly as if he wanted to do something, but in the end, he did nothing.
Just as the Li Mountain Sword Sect was about to take Zheshou away as well, that elder finally spoke.
From the moment the Garden of Zhou was destroyed and the Green Mountain vanished without a trace, Archbishop Melisarius had been staring blankly at where the thick fog used to be. His aged face had grown even older, his cloudy eyes even cloudier, paying no heed to what was happening in the forest. Only now did he turn around and say expressionlessly, “Leave the person here.”
The Li Mountain Sword Sect elder said, “This is Li Mountain’s…”
“The dead one is your Li Mountain disciple, and the one who acted seems to be your Li Mountain disciple too. I couldn’t care less about your internal mess. But on what grounds do you take Zheshou away? Just because of what Liang Xiaoxiao said before he died? Then if Chen Changsheng were still alive, would you drag him back to Li Mountain in front of me too?”
Melisarius walked slowly back into the forest, looking at the Li Mountain elder and saying, “Is that reasonable?”
The Li Mountain elder said nothing, but the new instructor of the Heavenly Dao Academy hesitantly spoke up: “Your Excellency, if Chen Changsheng really is involved in this, then he must be thoroughly interrogated as well.”
“The dead can no longer speak, so you can freely sling mud at them? I seem to recall someone saying that earlier.” Melisarius looked at the new instructor of the Heavenly Dao Academy and said expressionlessly, “As for interrogation… Chen Changsheng is the dean of the National Academy. What qualifications do you, a mere instructor, have to interrogate him? Besides His Holiness the Pope, who has the right?”
He glanced at Zheshou beneath the locust tree and said, “Your Li Mountain’s pure reputation is important, but isn’t my National Church’s reputation important too? This wolf-tribe youth is involved in the National Church’s reputation. I’m taking him back to the capital. Does anyone object?”
Zhu Luo said, “I have no objection.”
Since he had no objection, no one present had the right to object—including the Southern cultivators and the Li Mountain elder, who clearly had plenty to say. Melisarius said coldly to the Li Mountain elder, “If Li Mountain has objections, let your Sect Leader come and say so, or let Su Li come.”
The Li Mountain elder could no longer hold back and said indignantly, “The dead one is my Li Mountain disciple!”
“So what if he’s dead? Just because he’s dead, does that mean this whole affair isn’t riddled with holes and chaos?” Melisarius’s voice grew even colder. “And right now, I’m in a bad mood. His Holiness the Pope is about to be in a bad mood too. The entire National Church will be in a bad mood, because Chen Changsheng is dead—the dean of the National Academy, Chen Changsheng, is dead!”
The old man looked at the sky beyond the forest, his expression melancholy. “What could be more important than this? Even if all the Seven Laws of the Divine Kingdom were dead, could it be more heartbreaking than this?”
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Chen Changsheng could imagine that the people outside Hanqiu City would surely think he was dead, because he hadn’t left through the Garden of Zhou’s gate but had instead appeared directly on the snowy wasteland ten thousand li away through an incredibly miraculous method. He could also imagine that many people would have very different reactions upon learning of his death—some would be delighted, some would feel relieved, and some would be deeply saddened.
Those people were the ones who truly cared for him: Luoluo, Tang Thirty-Six, Xuanyuan Po, Jin Changshi. Even Mo Yu might feel a bit regretful. He even thought that Gou Hanshi, Guan Feibai, and other Li Mountain Sword Sect disciples were among those people—not to mention the elders of the National Church and that girl from the Xiu Ling tribe.
He didn’t want them to be sad, anxious, or worried. So he was in a hurry—eager to return to the human world as quickly as possible, to spread the news that he was still alive back to the capital, so everyone would know. Unfortunately, the demon domain’s snowy wasteland was far too distant from the human world, and Senior Su Li… was really quite heavy.
Their escape from the demon domain’s snowy wasteland had actually gone smoothly.
A true master of the sword path must possess great wisdom in all aspects—cooking, tea ceremony, and so on—because all paths are interconnected. Escape could be seen as a retreat, which is part of the art of war, and Su Li was very skilled at it.
The sword strike that tore open the sky was quite deliberate.
That strike had cut open a sword path spanning several hundred li, heading directly south, embodying the true essence of the sword path—the straightest is the nearest, and the nearest is the fastest. But who would have guessed that the place where that sword truly landed was actually in a snowy ridge somewhat to the southwest?
The Black Robe had vaguely sensed something, but by the time the demon army changed its strategy and encircled that snowy ridge from east and west, only a few traces of blood remained by the hot spring, along with a plucked jasmine flower.
By then, Su Li had already reached a glacier four hundred li away.
Of course, he was on Chen Changsheng’s back.
Chen Changsheng’s body, washed by dragon blood, seemed to possess inexhaustible energy, providing immense strength that allowed him to unleash astonishing speed. Covering four hundred li in such a short time was truly remarkable. Even Su Li was somewhat surprised, but the wind and snow cutting at his face like knives meant that whenever he wanted to praise Chen Changsheng, his words came out as irate scoldings instead.
Without pausing in the glacier, Chen Changsheng continued sprinting south along the ice crevices. When he felt thirsty, he thrust his hand into the ice rock beside him, leaving two clear marks on the beautiful pale blue ice as fragments flew. He stuffed the ice into his mouth, feeling his scorching body cool down slightly—a wonderfully comfortable sensation.
Running through glaciers and snowy wastelands, crossing snowy ridges and great mountains, Chen Changsheng carried Su Li and ran without stopping. When thirsty, he chewed on ice and snow; when hungry, he… endured. Day and night without sleep, until one day, he finally saw a human city in the distance.
The ten-thousand-li demon domain snowy wasteland—he had crossed it entirely.
He could hold on no longer and collapsed backward.
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(The next chapter will be posted before eleven o’clock if possible.)