Volume 2, Chapter 99 – Truth (1)

Qiyun Road, a district near the northern part of the city. Daoist Master Li Sheng stood in the street with a group of disciples, dark clouds already churning overhead.

The entire stretch of street before her could only be described as a horrific sight. At least a hundred charred corpses lay scattered on the ground, and further ahead a barricade piled of blackened debris formed a defensive line, now engulfed in roaring flames.

With a crisp click , the Shangqing Sword slid back into its scabbard. Daoist Master Li Sheng let out a heavy breath of stale air from her chest and, without looking back, gave a terse order: “Return to Wuqiu Mountain.”

Led by Zhao Jinyan, the Shangqing disciples glanced at each other. All of them shrank their necks a little at the scene they’d just witnessed, yet there was a flicker of excitement in their eyes.

Naturally, those charred corpses had been struck down by lightning.

Their group had originally planned to head to the dock in the northern section of Qiyun Road. A branch of the Jing River flowed past there, and boarding a boat at the docks would take them straight back to their own Daoist grounds.

But for no apparent reason, halfway there they discovered riots breaking out in the surrounding streets. Not only were gang factions fighting and killing each other, some people were so brazen they’d driven cars across the road to block it, forbidding anyone from passing.

Faced with that kind of situation, it was hard enough for them to hold themselves back, to say nothing of their hot-tempered master.

Daoist Master Li Sheng had truly flown into a rage. This devastation and the thunderclouds that still refused to disperse overhead were proof enough.

And as the group quickly turned back, everyone realized that calling what was happening on Qiyun Road a “riot” was far too general.

It wasn’t just gangs. It wasn’t just the dregs of society massing to make trouble. In some places, there were outbreaks of literal monster chaos.

Especially when they were about to reach the bus station. Daoist Master Li Sheng suddenly raised her hand to halt the line, then pinched her fingers into a sword seal and drew down thunder ahead. In an instant, dozens of bolts of lightning crashed densely into the crowd up ahead, blasting them into nothing, body and soul.

A moment before they’d still been puzzled as to why their master was slaughtering indiscriminately, but after turning the corner they abruptly saw hundreds of incredibly gory “skeleton men” lying on the ground—skin dissolved away, leaving only muscles and bone.

“Cheap tricks.” Daoist Master Li Sheng snorted coldly, muttering with clear disdain, “What are Fang Xianzhang and Old Wang even doing? How could they let these things strut around on the streets making trouble in broad daylight?”

So those just now hadn’t been people at all, but monstrous phantasms in human guise?

Only then did the group come to their senses, chilled at the thought that they hadn’t noticed.

They continued forward and found that almost everyone in the station had been killed. The entire ticketing and waiting hall had become a blood-soaked hellscape, with skeletal blood-corpses wandering everywhere, hurling themselves at the group the moment they saw them.

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Daoist Master Li Sheng had no interest in using this as a training exercise for her disciples. With a casual sweep, she cleared them all out and then told Zhao Jinyan and Leng Qiu to take a few people to look for a coach bus.

“But this way, everyone will know we’re on our way back,” Leng Qiu said softly as she followed behind Zhao Jinyan, glancing up at the dark clouds above. “For Qiyun Road to turn into this is not normal. If someone planned this on purpose, and we’re exposed… it’ll be very hard to act as a surprise force.”

Bai Xiang had purified her of the pollution; her body was fine now. She could run and jump, and only felt a bit weak in her bones. Her fighting strength was probably at seventy to eighty percent.

Zhao Jinyan and the other disciples all looked at her, their eyes clearly asking, are you sure you’re okay?

If anyone understood their master’s temperament, shouldn’t it be Little Qiu?

And you actually want Master to lie low, to bide her time as some hidden trump card?

To be honest, the very fact that Daoist Master Li Sheng hadn’t just flown into the sky, called down a storm of wild thunder over all of Qiyun Road, and then shouted, “Whoever’s skulking in the shadows, get out here and greet me at once!”—they already felt was the height of restraint.

“The situation really is different this time…” Leng Qiu’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Like I said, to dare violate such a great taboo, the culprit can only be a monstrously vile traitor.”

“I agree with that much.” Zhao Jinyan finally voiced his support for Leng Qiu, at least in words. “But Qiyun Road right now is probably under the strongest defensive posture it’s had in years. There’s no need to panic too much.”

Exactly.

The others all nodded slightly at that.

If they’d just gone back to their Daoist grounds normally, that would be one thing. But being forced to turn back halfway meant that one Shentai cultivator and nearly ten Ningxiang cultivators were about to join the battlefield.

And what if you added Wuqiu Mountain to the count?

Two Shentai. Wouldn’t that be the strongest defensive force Qiyun Road had seen in years?

“If Dao Master Xiang hasn’t managed to leave yet, that makes three.” But Leng Qiu’s expression was still clouded. “Everyone knows that… and they still dared to spark a riot…”

“Don’t worry, Senior Sister Leng.” A fair-skinned youth came up beside her. “Didn’t they say Yaoxian Dao suffered a huge loss in Chidragon? I’d guess the Dao Master of Yaoxian Dao just can’t swallow it and came for revenge.”

“Exactly!” another disciple chimed in with a nod. “They must’ve thought Shangqing and Benling had an irreconcilable blood feud, and that even if we found out, we wouldn’t turn back to help… they really think we’re that petty!”

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I don’t think so.

Leng Qiu frowned, thinking of “Bolu.”

That Rahu youth, tall as a black tower, the tattered demon-age souls coiled around him, and the deliberate pollution he’d driven into her body—every bit of it showed they’d come in with a plan. A plan that included dealing with the Shangqing Sword Dao as well.

Because the pollution had been cleansed, they had no way of knowing what would have happened if it had remained.

Maybe if that thing had erupted inside her, it could’ve threatened her master?

The Rahu people were undoubtedly accomplices of the mastermind, but what level of power did it take to reach into the Southern Kingdom and move people there?

Yaoxian Dao?

Their main focus was in the Northern and Eastern regions. How could they have this kind of reach in the South…

Leng Qiu had her suspicions, but it wasn’t convenient to speak openly right now. She simply shut her mouth and focused on carrying out her master’s orders.

Elsewhere, on Wuqiu Mountain.

Benling Dao Master Wang Ran was, for once, wearing a red kasaya inlaid with pearls and precious stones. He held a gilded eight-ring tin staff, a five-Buddha Vairocana crown on his head, and stood on the same broad platform where Xiang Xian and Li Sheng had once sparred, quietly gazing toward the northern part of the city.

Over there, a mass of dark clouds was violently roiling, and purple lightning flashed inside them from time to time. The rolling thunder was probably audible across the entire Daoist city.

“Amitabha.”

Wang Ran pressed his palms together and intoned the Buddha’s name.

“The Daoist Master has returned as well, just as expected.”

“Just as you said—they really did plan this around ‘three Shentai’.”

“So now you believe me?” Xiang Xian stepped forward to stand beside Wang Ran, her tone cool. “About what I said—the Nanling Prince’s manor plotting rebellion.”

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“There are still many doubts in this matter.” Wang Ran frowned.

For example, he still didn’t believe Yao Qingyuan could be that stupid. Knowing he could never obtain something, yet still willing to pay such a price to fight for it, to seize it.

Even if he didn’t have long to live.

Even if he truly had suffered injustice back then.

But if he was destined never to achieve imperial hegemony… wasn’t he afraid of going down in the history books as a complete disgrace?

“There are some things I can tell you now.” Xiang Xian chuckled lightly. “Based on what I’ve uncovered over these years, Yao Qingyuan has been colluding with the likes of Zhengwo Dao and Yaoxian Dao. In fact, the former only managed to grow in the northwest because it was being fed by the Nanling Prince’s manor.”

“…I always thought you just couldn’t let go of White Nianchan’s death!” Wang Ran stared fixedly at Xiang Xian.

“That was the reason at first.” Xiang Xian nodded. “It’s the main reason.”

She looked again toward that bank of thunderclouds and spoke softly, “Nianchan was the most talented young person I’d ever seen at the time—even more so than Wang Anxing of the Qingping Sword Dao. I refuse to believe she couldn’t tell a human from a monster.”

“In fact, it couldn’t have been more obvious.” Xiang Xian gave a cold laugh as she looked at Wang Ran. “Including you … all those official documents and explanations might fool mortals who don’t understand cultivation. ‘Her consciousness was corrupted by demon pools and she fell into madness’… do you honestly buy that?”

“…” Wang Ran said nothing.

To say he didn’t believe it… wouldn’t be quite true either.

After all, no matter how talented White Nianchan had been, her gifts had never had the chance to fully unfold. Without sufficiently deep cultivation, it wasn’t impossible for her to be bewitched or possessed by some demon pool.

But to say that such a young swordswoman had somehow slipped past layers of guards and killed the young prince—that was something he absolutely refused to believe.

Not even if the young prince had his eye on her beauty and let her in himself.

The whole thing was absurd on its face.

“Anyone with eyes could see it.” Xiang Xian’s voice grew more and more frigid. “Of course I understood… besides Li Sheng, plenty of people saw it!”

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“But none of you raised a single objection to the investigation’s findings!”

“Because you all understood—this was an incredibly rare chance for Yujing to get solid dirt on Yao Qingyuan, to suppress him, even to eliminate him!”

Wang Ran still said nothing.

Yes.

In truth, many things that look murky and unfathomable from the outside have very simple reasons behind them—so simple it’s childish and laughable.

Yujing wanted to pull out the thorn that was Yao Qingyuan, so they couldn’t afford to condemn him at that early stage.

Handled impartially, his crimes back then simply wouldn’t have been heavy enough.

So someone had to be sacrificed.

They needed death and blood to blind Yao Qingyuan’s eyes. They needed family ties and blood relations to numb his vigilance.

To make him reach farther and farther. To make him bolder and bolder.

Until finally, just like today, everything exploded.

“Didn’t you ask me before… how I managed to dig all this up when I was locked down in Yujing?”

Xiang Xian swept her sleeve and turned to walk away. As she walked, mocking laughter drifted back.

“Why don’t you think about it a little more.”

“On Yujing Dao, without his permission… what could I possibly do?”