Chapter 94: His Sword is Mournful!

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: His Sword is Mournful!

The night moon hung high.

The mountain wind stirred the stench of blood scattered across the ground, painting a picture far beyond mere tragedy.

Chen Sha slowly retracted his fist.

Ancient Transformation Dragon’s lifeless body collapsed onto the ground. This Emperor of Great Yuan from thirty years ago, a generational Great Innate who possessed three hundred years of Power, had been imprisoned here by Chen Canxuan for thirty years. Yet, less than half an hour after breaking free... he fell!

Zhou Santong looked at the place where he had lived for decades and let out a long sigh. "The place is beaten into a total mess. Looks like I’ll have to clean it all up again."

Chen Sha gazed fixedly at Ancient Transformation Dragon’s corpse, calming the Qi Power surging within him after the fierce battle. Hearing Mr. Zhou’s words, he slowly raised his head. "Mr. Zhou, I think starting today, you can absolutely return to the front mountain and live with us."

Zhou Santong had been ordered by Chen Canxuan to guard Ancient Transformation Dragon here for decades. Now that Ancient Transformation Dragon was dead, it was as if the First Layer of shackles had been removed from Mr. Zhou.

Zhou Santong shook his head. "Front mountain or back mountain, it’s all the same wherever I live." With that said, he turned to look at Chen Sha. Thinking of something, he asked warily, "Little Chen Sha, have your Martial Arts already surpassed mine?"

It was evident from the battle just now. Even he didn’t have the confidence to suppress the freed Ancient Transformation Dragon, yet the man had been completely dominated by Chen Sha at every turn.

"Although my Power has greatly advanced, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’ve surpassed you, Mr. Zhou," Chen Sha said with a smile.

There was a mix of truth and falsehood in those words. Mr. Zhou’s only Martial Arts lay in the Great Yellow Court, which consisted of Three Parts, Eight Sceneries, Twenty-four Gods. He had roughly cultivated the power of "One Part and Eight Gods." However, that power of One Part and Eight Gods was all he had. He possessed no other skills.

Chen Sha, on the other hand, had a multitude of methods at his disposal—not to mention a century’s worth of Innate Power. The Martial Arts Level of the Fusions he had cultivated into his Great Yellow Court included the First-Grade Martial Scripture: the Qi Stealing Technique, the Jade Emperor Tower, and Dugu Qiubai’s Innate Sword Technique... Beyond that, he had even more Grandmaster Level Martial Arts.

Speaking purely of the quality of the Great Yellow Court, although Mr. Zhou had walked further along the path, the quality of his foundation was far inferior to Chen Sha’s. This Mountain Guardian Divine Skill of Dao Yi Mountain inherently required the Fusion of more Martial Arts to allow a practitioner to walk further and climb higher on the path.

Therefore, if the two were to fight, Chen Sha would not lose. But ultimately, he respected Mr. Zhou. Towards his elder, he merely gave a vague response.

Zhou Santong was naive, but he wasn’t stupid. He sighed. "Little Chen Sha, don’t pretend. I know you can defeat me now. In other words, if you want to leave the mountain, I can no longer stop you."

The reason for this melancholy was his promise to Chen Canxuan on his deathbed. He had sworn not to let Chen Sha leave the mountain until he became the number one martial artist in the world. But now, even if Chen Sha wasn’t the absolute strongest in the world, he was no longer someone Zhou Santong could control.

To Zhou Santong, Chen Canxuan was the Sect Leader Senior Brother he respected the most. Now that he had no way to keep his strict promise to his senior brother, he was deeply troubled...

"Leaving the mountain..." Chen Sha exhaled, making no absolute guarantees. "All I can say is, when I truly feel it’s time to leave the mountain, I will definitely go to my father’s grave and tell him, so he can rest at ease."

"As long as I have your word," Zhou Santong said, waving his hand. "Alright, I’ll clean up this devastating aftermath by myself. Since there was such a massive battle on the back mountain, the front mountain probably didn’t fare much better. You’re the Sect Leader; you should head to where you’re needed as soon as possible."

Chen Sha didn’t decline. Just as he was about to leave, Zhou Santong walked over to Xie Tangyan’s corpse. As if noticing something, he bent down and picked up a chess piece tightly gripped in her hand.

"Hold on. This thing isn’t simple. It gives off an evil vibe. I’m guessing it has something to do with the forces behind this attack on Dao Yi Mountain. Take it and investigate."

Chen Sha halted and turned around just as Mr. Zhou tossed the chess piece over. Catching it, his Great Innate vision instantly detected a faint, lingering aura hidden within the stone.

"This chess piece... is indeed a bit evil."

Unable to immediately discern the nature of the special aura inside the chess piece, he could only tuck it into his robes. Giving Mr. Zhou a nod, he leaped away, leaving the back mountain.

***

Song Yu and the others were leading the Disciples to clean up the bloodstains. The remaining hundreds of members of the First-Grade Hall had failed to take a single step past the mountain gates; every last one of them had been annihilated on the road leading up to the entrance.

Once all traces of the battle at the mountain gates had been cleared, the group made their way up the mountain, only to find Sect Leader Chen Sha already waiting in the main hall.

"Greetings, Sect Leader!" Song Yu, Yuu Miaolian, a group of Elders, along with Lin Qingqing, Qii Zhengyi, and over a hundred other vital Disciples of Dao Yi Mountain bowed in respect. "May we ask how the battle at the back mountain went?"

"The back mountain is fine. Mr. Zhou and I joined forces and killed five of the First-Grade Hall’s Grandmasters. We also thoroughly eliminated Ancient Transformation Dragon while we were at it. There are no longer any hidden threats to worry about on the mountain." After informing everyone of what had transpired on the back mountain, Chen Sha asked the question he cared about the most. "What are our casualties from the First-Grade Hall’s attack?"

An Elder stepped forward to summarize the tally. "Although the First-Grade Hall came in aggressively and caught us off guard, we had Song Yu’s timely return to warn us. Combined with you single-handedly holding up the sky, Sect Leader, and continuously slaying the leaders of the invading enemies, we only lost a dozen or so ordinary disciples and Daoists at the mountain gates. Every vital member of our Dao Yi Sect is still here. At worst, some sustained minor injuries, but no one’s Primordial Qi was damaged.

"As for the First-Grade Hall, they mobilized roughly three hundred members for this siege. Among them, three Grandmasters and eighteen Grandmasters on the front mountain all perished. Out of the hundreds of members, only a sporadic four or five managed to escape. This time, it can be said that we’ve completely annihilated the First-Grade Hall!"

Having finished this battle summary, the expressions of the numerous Elders in the main hall surged with emotion, a mix of both sighs and profound relief.

This time, the First-Grade Hall had mobilized two Innate Level experts, supported by eight Grandmasters, dozens of Grandmasters beneath them, and numerous members. They never could have imagined that against such a formidable force, Dao Yi Mountain would completely annihilate the First-Grade Hall at the cost of only a dozen ordinary disciples!

Judging from the roster of the First-Grade Hall’s experts they had just eliminated, it was practically equivalent to wiping the First-Grade Hall from the Jianghu. An organization that had grown to rival top-tier Major Sects in just three or four years had, overnight, been completely annihilated by their Dao Yi Mountain!

One could only imagine the massive uproar this would cause once the news spread throughout the Jianghu. It was equivalent to the Dao Yi Sect destroying one of the other Four Great Daoist Sects!

And all of this was because Sect Leader Chen Sha had single-handedly held up the sky. In a situation where Dao Yi Mountain actually had few advantages and low odds of winning, he had led them to victory in an incredibly beautiful defensive counterattack! Furthermore, they had even captured a First-grade Great Innate Level prisoner.

Once word of such a battle record got out, the prestige that Dao Yi Mountain had lost over the past two years would absolutely rebound, making the world revere them once again.

"Sect Leader, there is one matter. You previously mentioned how to deal with that female Sword God..." an Elder asked in confusion. "We don’t quite understand. How can her Power be utilized to her fullest potential?"

Chen Sha spoke slowly. "You all know what Ancient Transformation Dragon’s Qi Stealing Technique does. This Cultivation Technique is now in my hands. I plan to select one person from among you Elders, or from the Disciples, and have them cultivate this technique to steal Shangguan Qing’s Power! This should allow our mountain to rapidly gain another Grandmaster Level expert!"

The Qi Stealing Technique absorbed the Power of others. Out of ten parts, a practitioner could only refine about one part for their own use. However, even with that limitation, it was more than enough to grant an ordinary person a Grandmaster Level of Power.

Hearing Chen Sha’s words, the group of Elders exchanged glances, deep excitement welling up in their eyes.

This...

According to the Sect Leader, Shangguan Qing represented a chance to rapidly step into the Grandmaster Realm? This opportunity? Who would it be given to?

Chen Sha said, "This person must first be unanimously nominated by all the Elders, and then judged by me before they can receive this opportunity for a breakthrough. The reason is simple: the Qi Stealing Technique is an Evil Skill that plunders the secrets of heaven and makes it extremely easy for a practitioner to develop the vicious habit of absorbing human Power. Therefore, whoever I entrust this Cultivation Technique to, I must be certain they won’t casually absorb others’ Power in the future, let alone turn on their own fellow disciples."

The Elders shivered in awe. Seeing Chen Sha’s solemn expression, their hearts inevitably skipped a beat. They invisibly felt the imposing aura bearing down on them as he spoke these words. They had all heard the story of how Ancient Transformation Dragon, who practiced this technique, had drained dry the Power of all the experts within his Imperial Palace.

Song Yu chimed in, "Martial Arts themselves are neither righteous nor evil; righteousness and evil exist only in the human heart. Therefore, it still depends on how a person uses the Martial Arts. Ancient Transformation Dragon possessed an Emperor’s Heart Nature, believing that everything between heaven and earth was his for the taking, which led him to such unbridled indulgence. However, our Dao Yi Mountain is a Daoist School Sect. As long as our Desire Suppression is practiced well, I suspect such a thing will not occur."

Chen Sha nodded. "You will first discuss and select the candidates, and then leave the final decision to me." Saying that, he looked at Lin Qingqing and Qii Zhengyi. "The two of you returned to the mountain right in time to encounter this great tribulation, and you did your part for the sect."

After speaking, he turned to Song Yu. "Bring out that stone and give it to me. I need to know what you all encountered after leaving the mountain before I can decide whether to officially accept these two as Direct Disciples."

Hearing this, Song Yu immediately took out the Cosmic Light Fragments that had manifested Chen Sha’s projection. But as he brought out the Cosmic Light Stone, he seemed to recall something else. He pulled out a chess piece alongside it. "Oh right, Chen Sha, this thing doesn’t seem simple either. Take a look..."

All the Elders’ eyes converged on this magical stone. They had seen it clearly earlier. It seemed the two extra Sect Leaders had popped right out of this stone. Just what kind of treasure was this?

However, no one paid any attention to the chess piece.

"This kind of chess piece again?" Only Chen Sha’s eyes flashed. He took the chess piece into his hand and asked in a grave voice, "Where did you get this chess piece?"

Song Yu couldn’t understand why Chen Sha cared so much about this chess piece. Immediately after, he watched as Chen Sha pulled out an identical chess piece...

"This is...? Sect Leader, how do you have one too!"

***

While Dao Yi Mountain had thoroughly finished their post-battle cleanup, tallied their casualties, and survived this calamitous sect-exterminating tribulation...

Inside the First-Grade Hall, Young Master Qing was still unaware that the massive faction he had bled and wept to build over four long years had already been wiped completely clean on Dao Yi Mountain.

But he wasn’t entirely oblivious.

The Lingxiao Immortal Sword hanging behind the First-Grade Hall’s plaque was trembling and vibrating continuously. It seemed to have sensed something and was extremely restless.

"What’s wrong with the Lingxiao Sword?" Peacock frowned in confusion. "Why is it reacting so intensely?"

Young Master Qing’s eyelids twitched, and he reached up to touch them. "I can’t shake the feeling that something terrible is happening. For over a hundred years, the Lingxiao Sword has only acknowledged Shangguan; invisibly, it has already accepted her as its master. For it to act like this now... Could it be? Something has happened to Shangguan!"

"Impossible!!" Young Master Qing shook his head vigorously. "No, nothing could possibly happen to her!"

But right after he spoke those words...

WOO—

The Lingxiao Immortal Sword hanging behind the First-Grade Hall’s plaque let out a sorrowful, weeping sword hum. It unexpectedly unsheathed itself, flying straight out into the sky above the First-Grade Hall...

And streaked toward Dao Yi Mountain!