Chapter 402: The Ancient and Modern Recorder (13)

Liu Yizhi's performance proved outstanding.

He rose swiftly from the ranks of the outer sect, even comprehending a spear technique to the level of major accomplishment. In the outer sect competition, he defeated Zhao Jingfu along with many senior brothers and sisters, shocking everyone and securing a place in the inner sect.

Less than five years after joining the Heavenly Origin Sect, the boy who had entered at thirteen stepped into the inner sect at just eighteen, becoming one of the outer sect's legends.

Once inside the inner sect, the pressure on him increased sharply. The mask had turned him into a genius, yet every disciple who entered the inner sect was a true genius. They were not false prodigies who relied on external aid as he did.

Still, Liu Yizhi refused to give up. He threw himself into hunting demonic beasts and wanted demonic cultivators, accumulating sect contributions without rest. Drawing on the cultivation resources left by the dead elder, he gradually closed the gap with those true geniuses and even showed faint signs of surpassing them.

He understood clearly that the only path open to him was to work harder than any of them.

In the blink of an eye, thirty years passed within the inner sect. During those decades, Liu Yizhi finally pieced together the identity of the elder whose inheritance he had claimed. Only Elder Li Zhiyuan matched every detail. He came to understand that Li Zhiyuan had been the legendary Masked Man who purged evil and upheld justice. With Li Zhiyuan's death, that legendary figure had vanished as well, fading into myth.

Another ten years slipped by, and Liu Yizhi successfully broke through to the Spirit Sea Realm.

He was not yet sixty. At that age, he became one of the younger elders of the Heavenly Origin Sect. Cultivators of the Spirit Sea Realm enjoyed a lifespan of three hundred years, so breaking through before sixty still counted as youthful among them. In the years ahead, he might even attempt the Spirit Soul Realm.

Liu Yizhi had never forgotten the vow he once made to Li Zhiyuan. He intended to avenge him. Some of the demonic cultivators who had once besieged Li Zhiyuan had grown old, some had been killed by others, and some had simply disappeared. Liu Yizhi felt no urgency. He waited in silence.

At last, after a full century, he hunted down the final demonic cultivator, severed the man's head, and carried it as usual to a remote wilderness.

In that desolate place stood a large tomb marked by a stone stele. Around it lay countless skulls that had long since turned to bone.

No. Something was wrong.

Liu Yizhi noticed an extra figure standing by the grave, a middle-aged man whose face bore the marks of time and hardship. Sensing danger, he tried to leave, yet it was already too late. His feet grew as heavy as if filled with lead, locking him in place.

"Great Elder!"

The weathered middle-aged man was none other than the Great Elder of the Heavenly Origin Sect, one of its two absolute sovereigns, a cultivator of the Profound Connection Realm.

Liu Yizhi's heart leapt into his throat. His mind went blank. The gap between the Spirit Sea Realm and the Spirit Soul Realm was already as vast as heaven and earth. The Profound Connection Realm stood even higher.

My life is over!

Concealing an elder's death was a grave crime.

To his astonishment, the Great Elder neither struck him dead with a single palm nor delivered any stern judgment. Instead, he took the severed head from Liu Yizhi's hand and placed it among the surrounding skulls. Then he spoke in a mild voice.

"Well done."

Liu Yizhi wondered if he were hallucinating. Had the Great Elder just praised him?

He discovered that he could move again. This time he did not flee. Confusion held him in place.

The Great Elder saw the puzzlement in his eyes and smiled.

"Did you think I would punish you?"

Liu Yizhi said nothing, yet his gaze betrayed him.

The Great Elder only chuckled.

"I am not so narrow-minded. The Heavenly Origin Sect has no shortage of disciples who keep secrets. So long as their hearts remain loyal to the sect, we will not dig into those secrets."

Liu Yizhi's face flushed with shame.

"It was I who proved narrow-minded. Thank you for your guidance, Great Elder."

The Great Elder nodded.

"Your actions show that young Li found a worthy successor. Cultivate well."

His figure vanished. Liu Yizhi's deeds might have escaped the notice of others, yet within the Heavenly Origin Sect, how could they ever have hidden from a powerhouse of the Profound Connection Realm?

"That mask… it seems somehow familiar."

Atop a distant peak, the Great Elder reappeared. His gaze rested on the direction Liu Yizhi had taken. The mask on the young man's face stirred a faint sense of recognition, yet no matter how hard he searched his memory, he could not recall where he had seen it. In the end, he could only attribute the lapse to age. A cultivator of the Profound Connection Realm lived eight hundred years, and he had already passed the halfway mark.

…

Another century slipped by. Liu Yizhi broke through to the Spirit Soul Realm by the narrowest of margins.

Yet the Wooden Scenery Dynasty was far from peaceful.

Demonic creatures rose one after another across the land, stirring disasters great and small. Even when they were put down in time, the losses remained heavy.

People throughout the realm began to wonder whether the demonic races were about to return in force.

In the great war of that earlier age, the Wooden Scenery Dynasty had suffered grievous losses. The balance of power had been reshuffled. The once-lofty royal house, stripped of its Profound Connection Realm sovereign, had plummeted in status. Though it still claimed the title of royal family, without a Profound Connection cultivator to anchor it, the house existed in name only.

Some factions declined while others rose. The Heavenly Origin Sect, in particular, had produced two Profound Connection Realm experts and had become the undisputed uncrowned king of the land. On the surface, the Wooden Scenery royal house still ruled the dynasty, yet in truth, the Heavenly Origin Sect could replace it whenever it wished.

Such had been the shifting of power over the past few centuries. The defeated demonic forces truly had returned. That savage demon king, after hundreds of years, still refused to abandon his ambition of bathing the Wooden Scenery Dynasty in blood so that he might break through to the Void Refining Realm.

"What… the defenses of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty have fallen?"

The sudden turn of events caught everyone unprepared. Before they could grasp what was happening, the border fortresses, long thought impregnable with their countless formations and stationed experts, were overrun by a vast demonic army that poured through without resistance.

Liu Yizhi understood at once that the situation was grave. Perhaps that demon king had already broken through to the Void Refining Realm and become a Demon Emperor. If so, the Heavenly Origin Sect itself stood in danger of collapse.

As an elder of the sect, he could not stand aside. Without delay, he led a contingent of disciples to reinforce the Wooden Scenery royal house.

Inside the royal palace, however, he discovered he had walked into a trap. Powerful demonic cultivators had already infiltrated the heart of the Wooden Scenery court. In the space of a few breaths, the entire relief force was surrounded, with no hope of escape.

"Why?" Liu Yizhi demanded, his heart aching with rage. "You are the ruler of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty! Why would you collude with demons and slaughter your own people?"

The border had not fallen because a demon king had advanced in cultivation. It had fallen because the Wooden Scenery royal house itself had joined hands with the demons.

"Ruler?" the Mu King spat, eyes blazing with hatred as he stared at Liu Yizhi and the other Heavenly Origin Sect cultivators. "What a joke. Your Heavenly Origin Sect is the true ruler. My Wooden Scenery Dynasty is nothing more than a dog you keep on a leash.

"How laughable that the third-generation ancestor of my house died fighting for the common people of this world, only for your Heavenly Origin Sect to snatch the fruits of that sacrifice!"

As the demonic experts struck, Liu Yizhi knew his doom was sealed.