Chapter 886: Meeting an Old Acquaintance at the Peak
"Xin'er enjoys the tea ceremony, so she came here."
Infinite Green stared at Unique Red's eyes, looking at him as if he were her mortal enemy, and said viciously, "What else do you need to investigate? What other evidence do you want? Or do you still refuse to believe that it was the Pope you admire who killed your son? Or perhaps you simply don't dare to avenge your son, so you desperately try to make excuses for him?"
Unique Red still said nothing. He turned and walked into a tavern by the river.
He knew his son had once stayed here for a time, and he wanted to know what had happened in this place.
But unfortunately, he had no way to ask anyone.
Because the tavern was filled with corpses.
He quickly left the tavern and, relying on the faint thread of heavenly fate he had forcibly deduced, found his target on a tea-transport boat on the river.
That person didn't even give him a chance to ask questions. Seeing him break through the air from afar, he took a strong poison and committed suicide, a bitter, despairing, yet eerie smile on his face.
Unique Red recognized this man.
It was Deacon Xin of the Xuanwen Hall, the same man who had played a crucial role in allowing the National Academy to revive in the capital back then.
Looking at Deacon Xin's corpse, Unique Red continued to remain silent.
Infinite Green stared at him and shouted angrily, "What are you waiting for! Why don't you go kill Chen Changsheng right now!"
Unique Red was silent for a long time before saying, "Chen Changsheng is the Pope."
"So what if he's the Pope! Are you afraid?"
Infinite Green wailed and screamed, "I'm not afraid! I want to slaughter that black dragon... I want to rip out her sinews! I want to flay her skin!"
...
...
The Nanxi Zhai was to close its doors for ten years, cutting itself off from the world?
This news was bound to shake the entire continent, though for now it hadn't spread far. The imperial envoy that had arrived at Holy Maiden Peak last night, along with those clans and sects, had learned of this matter in advance. To help the three grand-aunts of Nanxi Zhai resist pressure from the National Religion, they had naturally made thorough preparations.
The imperial envoy was led by the Prince of Xiang, who had just broken through to the Sacred Domain and was at the height of his power. The Matriarch of the Mu family and the head of the Wu family had also come in person. The Eternal Life Sect sent an elder and some disciples, along with over thirty smaller sects like the Cijian Temple, the Mingshui Temple, and the Lieyang Sect, totaling nearly a thousand people.
The Li Palace was caught off guard and could only hastily send a message to the Southern Dao Hall, dispatching a bishop as their representative. The Huaiyuan Academy and the Li Mountain were relatively close, so although they learned the news a bit later, they arrived at the same time, preventing the situation from becoming too dire. The Huaiyuan Academy sent a vice dean and disciples like Zhong Hui, while the Li Mountain Sword Sect's sect leader needed to stabilize his cultivation realm, and the experts of the Sword Hall were on the northern border intimidating the demon clan's strongmen. Thus, Gou Hanshi and over a dozen disciples came instead. Gou Hanshi was only a second-generation disciple, but he was steady in temperament, well-versed in the Daoist scriptures, broad in knowledge, and profound in swordsmanship. Many held him in high regard, especially since Qiu Shanjun had been missing for five years; many believed he would become the future sect leader of the Li Mountain Sword Sect.
In decades, Holy Maiden Peak had rarely seen such bustle. It could truly be called another grand event on the continent after the North-South Unification Celebration.
The location for the closing ceremony was not in front of Nanxi Zhai, but on the peak of another mountain. This peak was extremely unique—its summit was a vast, flat expanse of stone, smooth as a mirror and extremely wide, capable of seating thousands of people without feeling crowded. It only made the smaller sects stand out more conspicuously.
For example, the Southern Dao Hall's archbishop and his few attendant priests, who had rushed over only this morning.
The Li Palace and Holy Maiden Peak both belonged to the same lineage of the National Religion, yet faced with such a major event, only these few had come. Many could see the problem. Whether in the imperial edicts or private discussions, the matter of Nanxi Zhai's closure was clearly intended to exclude the Li Palace. The three grand-aunts of Nanxi Zhai and the imperial envoy's initial explanation to all parties was that the Pope was not in the Li Palace, making it difficult to seek his instructions in time. Everyone knew this was just an excuse. The real question was: why hadn't a single major figure from the Li Palace shown up?
Gazing at the mountain path shrouded in distant clouds and mist, Gou Hanshi was silent for a moment before saying to his junior brothers, "It seems today's matter cannot be undone."
Hearing this, the Li Mountain Sword Sect disciples' expressions turned somewhat grim.
Li Mountain and Holy Maiden Peak were not far apart, especially certain cliffs and peaks that faced each other across a river. The disciples of the two sects were quite familiar with each other, often addressing one another as fellow disciples. Now, knowing that those senior and junior sisters would be cut off from the world for ten years, even with their sword hearts as pure as washed, they couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholy.
Everyone, like Gou Hanshi, believed that Nanxi Zhai's closure was inevitable. Because Saintess Xu Yourong was in seclusion, and because the Li Palace—the only force capable of opposing the imperial court and so many other powers—had clearly been caught off guard for some reason, with not a single major figure present.
Thus, when the thousand or so cultivators on the peak's cliff suddenly saw Pope Chen Changsheng emerge from the clouds and mist, they were all stunned beyond belief.
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...
The sea of people gradually turned into a tide of people—that was them bowing in greeting.
The tide of people fell still like a sea of people—that was the thousand or so cultivators finishing their salutations and, under the gentle words of Grand-aunt Huairen of Nanxi Zhai, taking their seats.
The dozen or so members of the Huaiyuan Academy sat not far from the Li Mountain Sword Sect.
Back then, these two uniquely temperamental and tough sects and academies had looked down on each other and certainly wouldn't have sat together. But after the events at Xunyang City and Wang Po's breakthrough at the Luo River in the capital, the Huaiyuan Academy's inferiority had lessened, and the Li Mountain Sword Sect's arrogance had diminished. They now saw each other in a slightly better light—at least they wouldn't come to blows.
"The imperial court thinks too highly of itself, believing they can pull off such a major event without including the Li Palace?"
The Huaiyuan Academy's vice dean looked at the distant Prince of Xiang and sneered, "Don't they realize what kind of relationship the Pope and the Saintess have? How could matters of Nanxi Zhai possibly be hidden from him?"
After saying this, he glanced deliberately at the Li Mountain Sword Sect crowd.
With that one simple sentence, he had simultaneously mocked the imperial court and the Li Mountain Sword Sect. The Huaiyuan Academy had risen so quickly in the south—truly, their boldness was extraordinary.
Zhong Hui's temperament was somewhat gloomy, but he didn't share the vice dean's scheming nature and didn't realize the remark was also an insult to Li Mountain. He asked, "So, is that rumor true?"
"You should have witnessed what happened on the Cold Mountain. When the Pope was injured by Guan Bai back then, who risked herself to save him? And on the journey back to the capital from the Cold Mountain, how many pairs of eyes were watching? The Pope and the Saintess ate together, drank together, rose and rested together—they were practically a Daoist couple."
The Huaiyuan Academy's vice dean sneered, "Everyone knows what the imperial court is thinking by pushing for Nanxi Zhai's closure. But since the Pope has arrived, this matter might not succeed after all."
The Prince of Xiang sat in the seat of honor to the east, far away, so naturally he didn't hear this. He chatted calmly with the Matriarch of the Mu family and the head of the Wu family.
But Gou Hanshi and the other Li Mountain Sword Sect disciples heard the vice dean's words clearly, and their expressions turned somewhat uncomfortable.