The Path Toward Heaven

Jing Jiu turned toward Zhao Layue, and didn’t say anything.

Zhao Layue widened her eyes, feeling bewildered.

Jing Jiu was pondering something.

His world view was mostly the same as that of his previous life, going through no change. He had never had the thought of reviewing his experiences and feelings of this second life, because it would be forced, far from authentic.

The purpose of spending the first nine days in that small village was for him to get used to this new body. Bringing Zhao Layue to the top of Shenmo Peak was to continue the cause-and-effect of his previous life.

He pulled away his gaze from Zhao Layue and fixed his gaze at Yuan Qü who was talking to Gu Qing in the Daoist hall.

Yuan Qü was the cause-and-effect of this life. Gu Qing was the only one who came to him voluntarily.

The vixen of Yin City came here of her own will as well.

The iron kettle on the stove by the cliff’s edge gave out the scent of the black tea little by little. Xiao He squatted before the stove, her hair wetted by the sweat sticking to her cheeks, looking very attractive.

Xiao He reminded Jing Jiu of Liu Shisui.

Liu Shisui, like Zhao Layue, was the extension of his previous life; and like Zhao Layue, Liu Shisui had done something beyond his anticipation.

The two of them with, though possessing natural Dao quality, were not satisfied with cultivating quietly on the Green Mountain, with one of them keeping herself busy by investigating an old case and the other becoming an undercover agent.

Jing Jiu couldn’t figure out what were on these young people’s minds.

Zhao Layue had finally been forced to return to the proper path, and didn’t waste too much time on further investigation of the ascension case; but Liu Shisui was still treading on his chosen path, and he had no idea how much trouble awaited Liu Shisui down the road.

Liu Shisui had encountered enough troubles already at the moment.

It was mainly the trouble related to Cultivation, not to mention the trouble with Xilai Peak.

After Liu Shisui’s Green Mountain sword style had been abolished, he relied on the Devil Pill and the secret methods of the Bloody Demon Sect to revive his Cultivation, and later he learned the sword style of the Foggy Island for a few years with Xiwang Sun.

These were all the most profound sword styles in the world. But the problem was, they were totally different styles. The orthodox and the deviant styles were completely the opposite of each other, and there was no way for them to exist in the same body at the same time.

As Liu Shisui was still in the relatively low Cultivation state, he didn’t experience any disadvantage yet, and he seemed more powerful than the Cultivation practitioners in a similar state; but as he improved his Cultivation state over time, the crisis would occur sooner or later. When the different magic styles started opposing each other in his system, his meridians would be broken again, and he could even be reduced to ashes.

Jing Jiu told Liu Shisui that he could go to Sword Peak to practice the Tempered Body of Sword Will to solve the issue a few days ago when they met on the peak top. He intended to merely mitigate Liu Shisui’s worry by saying that.

If Liu Shisui’s Cultivation state were much lower than his current state, Sword Peak might be truly able to help him start over; but it was a bit too late for that.

There were only five places in Chaotian that could help solve Liu Shisui’s Cultivation issue.

The Cloud-Dream Mountain wouldn’t lend their divine animal Unicorn to help out; Taichang Temple in Zhaoge City had a more important role to play; and Jing Jiu was not in a close relationship with the One-Cottage House. As such, only two places were left for the purpose.

Now that Fang Jingtian was to make use of the Zuo Yi case to penalize Liu Shisui, it would be an excellent opportunity to send Liu Shisui to that place.

Having thought of this, Jing Jiu asked Zhao Layue, “What does it say in the sword letter?”

Zhao Layue replied, “Elder Mo Chi of Tianguang Peak wished to hold a Peak Meeting, and he tried to get the approval of all the peaks.”

Cultivation practitioners spent most of their time cultivating behind closed doors and normally were not interested in the meetings.

The Peak Meeting was the highest level meeting on the Green Mountain, where only the important issues would be discussed. This kind of meeting was usually called by the Immortal Sect Master or the Sword Justice Yuan Qijing, and took place only once in a few years. It was even rarer that a regular elder like Mo Chi requested to hold a Peak Meeting, because he needed to acquire the approval from all the peak masters in order to call the meeting.

Jing Jiu remembered clearly that something happened over three hundred years ago. That year the human race and the Snowy Kingdom were engaged in a crucial battle in the Lanling Snowland, and Liu Ci brought all the swordsmen of the nine peaks to the battle. The Underworld Master had found a certain secret from the Curtain Rollers and taken the opportunity to sneak inside the Green Mountain in an attempt to rescue that person; but he had killed them all. Afterwards, an elder of Shangde Peak request that a meeting be held on the Peak. His reason for the meeting was to review the event, but his hidden purpose was to point finger at Tianguang Peak and hold Liu Ci responsible for the incident.

Mo Chi requested to hold the Peak Meeting by the reason of discussing the subsequent issues regarding the Old Ones, but everybody knew the real issue was the matter regarding Liu Shisui.

Was Xilai Peak the target of Tianguang Peak then?

Jing Jiu knew Mo Chi was an amicable person, but an amicable person could be quite formidable when angered. Yet, Jing Jiu didn’t think the matter was that simple.

Liu Shisui’s matter was a trivial issue, so the peak masters wouldn’t approve of the Peak Meeting, even if the issue of the Old Ones was cited as the reason.

Zhao Layue said, “They have all approved of it, including the Immortal Guangyuan, the one behind closed doors.”

As Shenmo Peak was the last in the list, it meant that all the others had already signed the sword letter when it was sent to Zhao Layue’s hands.

The request was definitely tricky.

Jing Jiu wasn’t surprised.

Though Liu Shisui’s matter was a trivial issue, it had the potential to turn into a significant one when more people were involved.

Some people wanted to turn this into a significant event.

Zhao Layue suddenly said, “Someone is investigating the Zuo Yi case through the Curtain Rollers.”

When Jing Jiu came back from the snowland, the first exchanges between him and Zhao Layue were “Sword Peak” and “Zuo Yi”.

Their first meeting was on Sword Peak, where they had killed Zuo Yi that night.

Nobody knew of this secret, except Liu Shisui.

But Liu Shisui was not even aware of the details.

Jing Jiu knew that Zhao Layue had a helper on the nine peaks.

That person should be a mole planted on the Green Mountain by Zhaoge City or even the imperial court.

There was no point in him heeding the matter.

“When will the Peak Meeting take place?”

“Ten days from now.”

“We will go have a look.”

“Okay.”

…

…

Jianli City in Qihai County was not very big, with a population of about a hundred thousand, but it was big enough to support more than ten medical houses.

A division of the Muddy River passed through the city. The trees by both sides of the river were shedding leaves in the autumn wind, and it was a beautiful scene with the yellow leaves everywhere on the ground. There was an ordinary looking medical house by the river.

On the plaque of the medical house was a ginkgo leaf instead of a begonia flower.

A tall young man walked into the medical house and took out a wooden board before the assistant of the medical house received him, saying, “I’m here to pick up the results.”

The wooden board was made of a dark heavy wood that pitch black with a small sword carved on it, exuding a gloomy aura. This was the Green Mountain Sword Board, which was impossible counterfeit.

The tall man was Jian Rushan, a disciple of Liangwang Peak. It was unknown why he suddenly appeared in the northern city of Jianli.

The results he requested to were of course not medical in nature.

The medical house closed its front door, and activated the formation to insulate the sound and energy from the outside.

Jian Rushan stared into the doctor’s eyes and said, “That person was one of your caretakers. I don’t believe that they still haven’t found where he is after such a long time.”

“The person you are looking for is dead,” the doctor said with narrowed eyes.

With a slightly changed expression, Jian Rushan demanded, “I want to know how he died.”

The doctor said sharply while looking at him calmly, “This is the internal affair of our Curtain Rollers, so why should I tell you?!”

Jian Rushan demanded again, “Did Senior Master Zuo Yi find something on a certain person and silenced as a result?”

The doctor had no patience to talk to Jian Rushan any longer, as he said curtly, “If the guest has no nothing else to ask, then please leave.”

“How dare you be so rude?!” Jian Rushan exclaimed angrily.

The doctor said nonchalantly, “The Curtain Rollers of course don’t dare treat the immortal masters of the Green Mountain rudely, but it was you who rudely made demands.”

The medical house opened its front door again.

The assistant walked to the side of the doctor when he saw the angry look on the face of the disciple of the Green Mountain before his departure, feeling worried. He asked the doctor a few questions.

“The Green Mountain has been acting as an oppressor for many years, but they have never been so unreasonable. They have gotten with each generation. We have a backer on the Green Mountain, so there is no need to worry about him.”

The doctor picked up a pen and started writing something. “This will be put in Class C; but it has to be sent back to Zhaoge City as soon as possible.” He said this while still having his head lowered over the table.

The assistant didn’t quite understand it, wondering why this information had to be sent in such a hurry, even though the information in Class C was indeed important.

The doctor didn’t lift up his head, musing that Fang Jingtian, the peak master of Xilai, wanted to kill Jing Jiu back then, and Liangwang Peak was investigating the issue related to Jing Jiu; the internal struggle on the Green Mountain had already reached such a point!