The Path Toward Heaven

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The stories were not over yet; in fact, they had just started.

Recalling the happenings in the past, Jing Jiu remained silent for a long time.

In order to prepare for the ascension, the grandmaster passed the position of the Sect Master to his Master and then went to the Hermit Peak.

Unexpectedly, his grandmaster had botched his ascension attempt due to Nan Qü’s sneak attack, and his own Master hadn’t succeeded in his ascension attempt later on. As a result, he and his Big Brother were the only ones left for their branch of the Green Mountain Sect.

He and his Big Brother had a difficult time back then, as in addition to the position of the sect master, their Shangde Peak was almost taken over by somebody else.

Later, his Big Brother was expelled from the mountain gate.

But this expulsion was a facade.

It was like what Liu Shisui did now. The difference was that his Big Brother had gone to the Underworld.

In the end, like what Liu Shisui achieved, his Big Brother had accomplished his task and returned to the Green Mountain.

Yet, under peculiar circumstances, the other peaks were always cautious about his Big Brother, and often found ways to blame and reprimand him.

Jing Jiu hoped that Liu Shisui wouldn’t encounter similar treatment when he came back.

Shangde Peak kept a low profile back then.

He, his Big Brother, Yuan Qijing, and Liu Ci ate the hotpots for many years, and also played Mahjong once in a while.

The situation improved when the four of them broke through the Broken Sea State as well as the Heavenly Arrival State.

Eventually, His Big Brother had successfully taken back the position of Sect Master.

To be honest, Jing Jiu wasn’t fully aware of what had exactly happened back then.

He was utterly preoccupied with the Cultivation, and had never left Shangde Peak; he seldom came out of that gloomy and cold manor cave.

It was only that one time when his Big Brother told him to kill some people that he led Yuan Qijing and Liu Ci out of the manor cave to kill their enemies.

Reflecting on it, Jing Jiu realized that they had indeed killed many people in order to stabilize the situation on the nine peaks of the Green Mountain.

As for why they killed so many people, Jing Jiu had never asked.

He trusted that his Big Brother wouldn’t kill people for no reason.

This was an irony.

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“What happened next?”

Yuan Qü’s question brought Jing Jiu back from his rare recollection.

He resumed telling the story.

“What happened next is merely a guess.”

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Nan Qü’s Dao Tree had been destroyed and was also contained on the Foggy Island, so he had no chance of ascending even if he could heal his wound and recover the Dao Heart. As such, he wanted to leave the island very much. It was because of the Green Mountain Sect’s threat that he didn’t dare leave that patch of fog. However, he could send somebody else to leave the island and then find a way to overcome the Green Mountain Sect. If that happened, he would be able to leave the island.

This plan would take a long time, even a couple of hundred years, to accomplish; yet, what the Cultivation practitioners had the most of was time.

The person who had left the ocean island was his child servant.

After that child servant came to Chaotian, he called himself Tian Jingren. His task was to find a suitable disciple for Nan Qü.

A youth had a special talent in the sword work, his name was Jian Xilai. But he had been refused by the No-Mercy Sect for some reason, so he was resentful about it.

Tian Jingren suddenly realized that his experience was similar to Nan Qü’s, so Tian Jingren found him later. Tian Jingren gave the identification item to Jian Xilai and told him about the Foggy Island. Jian Xilai followed his instructions to go overseas and became a personal disciple of Nan Qü on the Foggy Island.

It was also possible that Tian Jingren gave Nan Qü’s magic methods directly to Jian Xilai.

That youth had eventually become a very successful swordsman and founded the West Ocean Sword Sect. He abided by his Master’s intent of destroying the Green Mountain someday.

Yet, he found that the West Ocean Sword Sect had no chance of catching up to the Green Mountain no matter how quickly their sect developed, so he had to seek another option.

He took over the control of the Old Ones by unknown means.

The assassins of the Old Ones started to use the sword as the preferred weapon for assassinations about one hundred years ago, which should be around the time he took over the Old Ones.

The orthodox Cultivation sects, especially the Green Mountain, had been suspicious of his origin, but they were not certain due to the lack of evidence. As such, when Liangwang Peak planned the scheme, the masters who knew about it didn’t have a high expectation of success, though they didn’t stop the others from doing it either. These masters took on the attitude of “wait and see”, since it would be harmless for them.

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Jing Jiu said, “Unexpectedly, Liu Shisui has actually acquired some important information; so we have today’s event.”

“Our Big Brother is really great,” Yuan Qü praised.

Jing Jiu didn’t know anything about what Yuan Qü and Gu Qing had talked about in private, so he didn’t quite understand what Yuan Qü actually meant. “Yeah, he is great, but what he did might not amount to anything significant, because Jian Xilai will not give us the opportunity,” Jing Jiu said.

Zhao Layue couldn’t figure out the consequence, but Gu Qing realized it as he asked in surprise, “Master, do you think he will break ‘his arm’ to keep his life?”

Jing Jiu said, “The Green Mountain has finally found the opportunity to kill him with ample reason, so he has no choice but to survive this way.”

“He is the Godly Swordsman of West Ocean; how can we just kill him?” Yuan Qü inquired with widened eyes.

Jing Jiu said, “It’s indeed difficult to do so. The main purpose of the Green Mountain employing so much manpower is to force him to retreat. After this battle, the West Ocean Sword Sect will be utterly wiped out.”

The more Zhao Layue listened, the more surprised she felt. “I thought you didn’t know anything about these matters,” she commented.

Jing Jiu didn’t say anything more.

Though he had been talking a lot more now since he came back from the snowland, he was still not very talkative.

It was the day that he had talked the most, save for his long conversation with Zhao Layue outside Zhaoge City many years ago.

Zhao Layue understood why.

It wasn’t that Jing Jiu couldn’t figure out things; it was because he was simply too lazy to do so before.

Gu Qing asked, “What is the origin of Xiwang Sun then? It was always said that he is the Young Brother of Jian Xilai. Is he also the disciple of Nan Qü?”

Zhao Layue shot Jing Jiu a glance, recalling the experiences they had back in Haizhou.

That time Jing Jiu went to check out Xiwang Sun, but Jing Jiu was disappointed after seeing him, because Xiwang Sun wasn’t the person Jing Jiu was looking for.

Jing Jiu remained reticent, because this was something he couldn’t figure out; why did someone like Xiwang Sun suddenly appeared over ten years ago?

His Big Brother had already left the Green Mountain at that time; was there a correspondence between his Big Brother’s departure and Xiwang Sun’s appearance?

Where did Xiwang Sun’s trust in Liu Shisui actually come from?

Did this event really have something to do with his Big Brother?

Yuan Qü said, “No matter what, Xiwang Sun will die today, and the Old Ones will be destroyed. As a result, the deviant sects will be even weaker from now on. The Cultivation world will have many peaceful years to come.”

Upon hearing the word “peaceful”, Zhao Layue shot Jing Jiu a glance.

Jing Jiu was fully aware that even if the orthodox Cultivation circle had eradicated all those members of the Old Ones in the lists this time, they merely got rid of the members of the Old Ones in the lower middle status.

Liu Shisui had no chance of acquiring the information on those truly dangerous members.

For instance, the person who might appear here today was one of them.

Time passed fast enough, and the dusk turned into the dark night. The stars gazed at the peaks quietly.

It was the most critical moment outside Haizhou City in the sky above the inky ocean. The Sect Master of Green Mountain and Yuan Qijing had showed up one after the other.

Standing by the cliff’s edge, Jing Jiu thought, this should be the moment for him to appear if that person was to appear at all.

As he thought of it, a powerful energy had reached Shenmo Peak.

The forbidding formation of Shenmo Peak sensed the energy, hundreds of sword wills shooting out skyward, but they failed to force that person to come out from the darkness of the night.

Gu Qing and Yuan Qü perceived the change of the formation, and they came to the cliff’s edge as quickly as they could, looking at the night sky.

In the manor cave, Zhao Layue stood before the ice-jade bed, looking at the white cat. “Great Grandmaster, it’s time to get up,” she called in a hushed voice.