Volume 4, Chapter 119 – Blocking the Road

Lingyun Peak lay within the Nanling mountain range. The range forked midway at an angle: one branch enclosed Chilong Circuit, while the other slanted into the Jing River Plain and wrapped around Qiyun Circuit, with breaks between them overgrown by dense forest.

Viewed from the southwest alone, this stretch truly deserved to be called the gateway to Qiyun’s mountain barrier. Unfortunately, this was also exactly where the Taixu Monastery had previously chosen to establish its station.

In the past, Lingyun Peak had not been considered important. That was because beyond this section of mountains lay a vast expanse of open wilderness plain, and farther southwest, beyond that plain, there was another stretch of the Nanling range. There had been no shortage of strategic buffer zones in between.

If defenses were to be set up, that should have been Chilong Circuit’s responsibility.

But things were different now. Chilong Circuit had previously been hit with exceptional severity by the demonic disaster. The entire Circuit City had been left nearly abandoned. Even though Bai Xiang and the others later took in Chilong refugees in Maozhou and continuously sent people back to purge Chilong, hoping to recover the lost land from the demon beasts, the approaching Void Tribulation had caused great swaths of vegetation to surge rapidly into Chilong’s urban districts, creating tremendous difficulty for the reclamation effort.

In the short term, retaking Chilong Circuit was no longer possible. So long as the officials of the Qi lands still possessed even a shred of sense, there was no way they could fail to attach importance to Lingyun Peak’s strategic value.

It was not only capable of defending the southwest; it could also serve as a natural sentry post and watchtower. Any abnormal occurrence anywhere in the southwestern region would be impossible to hide from observers here.

Regrettably, Fang Xiaochun understood this—and so did the Taixu Monastery.

Daoist Fengxu was still more or less a standard Daoist. Among all the people from the Illusory Realms, he counted as one of the conciliatory faction. But even so, when it came to controlling a strategic location like this, he had no intention whatsoever of being courteous to Qizhou. The moment he descended, he seized this place and used it to monitor every development in southwestern Maozhou.

For the Qiyun Circuit of the past, Lingyun Peak guarded against demon beasts from the wilderness.

But for the Qiyun Circuit of the present, many of the demonized cultivators from the Illusory Realms gathered here believed that Maozhou was the greatest threat.

The truth was that Shenming Sword Dao’s stance was far more severe than that of the other Dao lineages. In other regions, those people could at least act without too many scruples. As long as they obeyed the Sacred Court’s decree and did not stir up major chaos, no one cared if they indulged themselves a little in ordinary times—killing a few people on the road, or snatching some tender blood-food to go with their wine.

Hmph… those Dao sects of the Nine Prefectures had no ability to police that anyway.

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Under the current tide of events, challengers from every side inevitably came knocking. Quite a few well-known disciples and renowned elders from the great dojos had been gravely injured in repeated challenges. Forget protecting the common people within their circuits—they could not even protect themselves.

And what about Maozhou?

After the passageways opened, countless demonized cultivators descended. It was not as if no one had tried to enter Maozhou’s territory.

Even if they had already heard how Shenwu Heaven had fallen into Shenming Sword Dao’s hands, they still thought: There are so many of us, and Maozhou is so vast. It is not as if there is only Zhennan. If we find a place for ourselves and stay there, surely you cannot control that too, can you?

Whether it was wishful thinking or sheer arrogance, many demonized cultivators truly thought exactly that.

But what greeted them was Shenming’s sword.

In truth, Shenming Sword Dao did not currently have enough manpower to guard every part of Maozhou without a single gap, so some demonized cultivators were always bound to slip in.

If those demonized cultivators had truly behaved themselves and been willing to integrate into ordinary society, Shenming Sword Dao would, in fact, have turned a blind eye and not interfered too much.

But just look at Shenwu Heaven’s fate. Look at the habitual conduct of the sects from the Illusory Realms when no violent restraint was imposed on them. It was obvious that “behaving themselves” was impossible for them.

The moment many of them infiltrated Maozhou, they could not wait to begin setting up dojos. But constructing a dojo required manpower, and since they could not for the time being transport too many people over from the Void Realm, they could only abduct the people of Maozhou by force.

The moment they did anything like that, the one known as “Immortal Venerable Shenming” would find and suppress them at once. Every last one of them was killed, and not a single person escaped alive.

As time passed, Maozhou became a “forbidden zone.”

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Many unaffiliated cultivators and Dao sects from the Void Realm gathered one after another in the surrounding area—in other words, the Qi lands. Nursing both fear and resentment toward Shenming Sword Dao and that “Immortal Venerable Shenming,” they held themselves in check and watched the situation unfold.

Most of them were not qualified to take part in a struggle between Immortal Venerables.

But little people had always understood how to read the situation. They could see that the very act of that man promulgating new laws had already violated a taboo of the Sacred Court. The Sacred Court Heaven-Patrol would never allow such conduct to go unchecked.

That meant the downfall of “Immortal Venerable Shenming” was inevitable, and Maozhou too was destined to become ownerless land in the future.

Driven by precisely these thoughts, great numbers of unaffiliated cultivators and Dao sects chose to submit themselves and station themselves beside Lingyun Peak, hoping to judge the direction of events by attaching themselves to a great Dao sect and major power like the Taixu Monastery.

In the past, Daoist Fengxu could not be bothered with such people.

Bai Xiang’s impression of Daoist Fengxu was actually fairly good. He believed the man “understood the human path and Human Principle,” and belonged to the category of demonized cultivators and demon-Daoists with whom one could still communicate.

But Wang Xiu was different.

He intended to drastically remake the structure of Qiyun, and at this moment he was badly short of manpower. So he simply mobilized all those motley people, making them drive the populace and lay out formation disks in preparation for the final stage of the meridian-qi extraction that he would personally preside over.

At this moment on Lingyun Peak, Zhu Canghai and He Xian were standing in the corridor of a pavilion. Both wore ugly expressions as they stared fixedly at the two young Daoists seated inside.

One of them had a face like polished jade, with two graceful beauties standing at his side.

The other was tall and powerfully built, his hands resting on his knees, carrying himself with wild arrogance.

The latter was Wang Xiu. The former was called “Zhu Yunsheng,” supposedly some “Young Master Yuling.” Among the loose cultivators he had considerable prestige, and his cultivation had also entered the ranks of the Venerables.

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The two of them sat leisurely in the pavilion playing chess. Not only were numerous beauties attending them at their sides, three more people stood outside the pavilion. They were of varying ages, and each still had traces of a demon aspect remaining on the surface of the body.

In other words… they were roughly the same sort of people as Zhu Canghai, He Xian, and Shen Quan—figures who could throw their weight around in their own home dojos, but who, once outside, had to work for major powers in exchange for resources.

“Stop standing there, all of you.”

Halfway through the game, Zhu Yunsheng looked up with a smile.

“Since you’ve already entered the Venerable ranks, stop harboring delusions about wantonly meddling in mortal order.”

“The one in front, we can let through. But as for you… since you’re unwilling to go back and report to little sister Zhixing, why not sit down and play a game with Brother Wang and me?”

The hell with that.

He Xian’s lips moved, ready to flare up.

Zhu Canghai hurriedly stopped him, then frowned at the two men and said, “Since you are both fellow cultivators, then you should understand this much: the Sacred Court forbids this kind of disorder before the martial exercises are over.”

At those words, Zhu Yunsheng, Wang Xiu, and even the scattered Venerables nearby almost laughed out loud at the same time.

“You’re lecturing me now…”

Zhu Yunsheng laughed until tears nearly came out.

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Then his expression abruptly changed, and a dense killing intent spilled out, instantly wrapping tightly around Zhu Canghai and He Xian.

“The Sacred Court’s decree—how Brother Wang ought to interpret it—needs to be taught by the likes of you?”

“Kneel. Now.”

“And I’ll forgive your earlier offense on Brother Wang’s behalf. We’ll let bygones be bygones.”

Zhu Canghai narrowed his eyes. “Are you really going to be this overbearing?”

“Do you not understand human speech?”

Wang Xiu also turned cold as he looked over.

“Forget you two wild Venerables—I don’t think much of you. Even if Bai Zhixing came here in person, I’d treat her exactly the same way!”

“Is that so?”

Suddenly, everyone present heard a clear, cool woman’s voice.

“Who?”

Zhu Yunsheng shot to his feet. Then he saw that everyone else was staring behind him in horror, and he hurriedly turned around. Only then did he discover that at some unknown moment, an incomparably beautiful female cultivator with white hair and golden pupils was already standing there, less than an inch away from him.