Chapter 422 — Mount Shu, the One Beyond Reincarnation

"I shall obey Senior Brother Han's command."

Zhao Luochen tucked the spirit-root repair liquid close to his body and cupped his hands toward Han Li.

He smiled bitterly in his heart, yet his face remained resolute, betraying not the slightest shrink.

Senior Sister Zhao Ling'er is currently in the lofty mountains of western Sichuan.

Though the information was scant, a little thought made it clear enough what she had gone there to do.

The disciples of the Seven Mysteries Sect and Mount Shu had never been "fellow travelers of the same Dao."

To speak precisely, calling each other "heretics" was more apt.

At any time, heretics are beings more deserving of death than heathens.

Both sides seemed to share some Daoist origin, yet their core tenets were entirely different.

Mount Shu advocated slaying demons and exterminating evil, suppressing every monstrous thing under heaven.

The immortal learning of the Seven Mysteries Sect, by contrast, upheld that "whatever benefits the people may be used," holding that any demon or monster that had done no evil could be treated as an equal.

The flashpoint of their conflict had been a snake den near the Lin Family Fort.

Five years earlier, young women had kept vanishing around the Lin Family Fort.

The matter grew too large to suppress, until at last it alarmed the two great sects, Mount Shu and the Seven Mysteries. Wang Xu and Sword Saint Dugu each sent disciples down the mountain to uncover the truth.

With the two immortal sects working in concert, they soon followed the trail to the culprit.

It turned out that the girls had merely been abducted by a demon couple to serve as maids attending their daughter.

The demon couple were rather peculiar; they seemed to yearn deeply for human life, and had even given their daughter a human name: Su Mei.

Mount Shu insisted that both demon spouses be executed on the spot, and their daughter imprisoned in the Demon Locking Tower.

Liu Jinyuan, representative of the Seven Mysteries Sect, argued that Heaven cherished the virtue of sparing life, and that the demon couple appeared never to have killed or injured any human.

Abducting maids was wrong, yet they had not sullied the girls' honor; their main intent had been to have the girls care for their young "daughter." They should be given a chance to reform: imprisoned in the Ten-Mile Ice Domain, laboring for fifty years to repay the common folk, and if they sincerely did good, their crime could be offset.

As for the young "demon spawn" Su Mei, with proper teaching and correct guidance, she might well become a second Zhao Ling'er in the future.

Each side had its reasons. The Mount Shu disciple flew into a rage, denouncing Zhao Ling'er as a half-human, half-demon abomination and the Seven Mysteries Sect as a den of filth and iniquity.

When principles did not align, there was no need for further words.

The two sides fought on the spot.

The outcome of that duel was never spread abroad, but anyone with a mind for it need only analyze the temperaments of Liu Jinyuan and the other Mount Shu disciple involved to reach the correct conclusion at once.

The victor did not spread his fame; it was simply to spare the loser's face.

Apart from the kindhearted Liu Jinyuan, who else could have done such a thing?

Later, Mount Shu's Sword Saint Dugu also sent the Wine Sword Immortal Situ Zhong to extend goodwill to the Seven Mysteries Sect.

To avoid revealing his identity, the Wine Sword Immortal even took the alias Mo Yixi and went down the mountain to wander the world...

A man like the Wine Sword Immortal, even under the alias Zhang San, Li Si, or Wang Wu, would still be like a firefly in the night, utterly unable to disguise himself.

Thinking of this, a bitter look rose in Zhao Luochen's eyes.

This errand was hard! Hard! Hard!

Yet he showed no fear. He merely cupped his hands toward Han Li and said calmly, "I will not disturb Senior Brother Han's study of immortal arts. The moment this junior enters Qi Refining, I will hasten to Mount Shu and stand guard for Senior Sister Zhao."

...

At the same time.

The Lin Family Fort received a group of uninvited guests.

These people dressed like Jianghu heroes, each bearing a saber or sword, moving like the wind; their temples bulged and their brows were red, clear signs of experts with no small internal force.

They came with ill intent.

"Where is Lin Zhaoye? Has he hidden himself away out of fear of our Alliance Leader Shen?"

"That makes sense. Alliance Leader Shen's daughter joined the Xianxia Sect and has returned from cultivating immortality. How could a mortal be her match?"

"But Lin Zhaoye's daughter, Lin Yueru, is also under the Seven Mysteries Sect..."

"Shut up! You fool, boosting others' morale and crushing our own!"

The martial artists chattered and clamored, a chaotic mess.

"Silence."

The one who spoke was a middle-aged man in an apricot-yellow tight-fitting robe.

His name was Shen Qingfeng.

He was the lord of the Shen Family Fort, the Alliance Leader of the Northern Martial World, known as the Subduer of Three Mountains.

For many years past, he had been equally renowned with Lin Zhaoye, lord of the Lin Family Fort; the two houses were jointly called by Jianghu folk "South Lin, North Shen."

This time, he had come to their door of his own accord precisely to defeat Lin Zhaoye and become the one and only martial alliance leader.

Thinking carefully, it made sense: through every dynasty, there had only ever been one martial alliance leader. By their generation, it had been split into north and south, which always made the title feel a few degrees lower.

In this world, people sought nothing but fame and profit.

The meaning of Shen Qingfeng's life was the "name" of sole martial alliance leader.

"Lin Zhaoye! I know you are there! Come out!"

As soon as he spoke, his internal power shook the courtyard, sending dust flying. Some wandering swordsmen of shallow cultivation covered their ears, pain showing on their faces.

Having spoken, Shen Qingfeng said no more.

A young man and a young woman came to his side as if by prior agreement.

The youth was named Shen Qi, a son in whom he placed great hopes.

The young woman was the daughter born to his concubine, named Shen Qishuang, returned from cultivation in the Xianxia Sect.

The father-daughter relationship between Shen Qingfeng and Shen Qishuang was not good. The only reason she was willing to act for him this time was that she wanted to restore her mother's name and win her mother a proper status.

"Father! Why bother with all that? Kill a few people first; then Lin Zhaoye won't dare play the turtle!"

The youth's face was full of viciousness, his manner arrogant and spoiled.

Shen Qingfeng shot him a glare: "Shut up!"

With that, he looked at his daughter, as if asking something with his eyes.

Shen Qishuang's eyes half closed. After a moment, she said slowly, "Lin Yueru is not here."

"You have cultivated immortality for so many years, and you still fear that yellow-haired girl Lin Yueru?"

Shen Qingfeng saw his daughter's misgivings and asked in a low voice.

Hearing this, Shen Qishuang's lips curved in a trace of mockery, as if laughing at her father's ignorance: "By the Seven Mysteries Sect's classification of cultivation realms, the head of our Xianxia Sect is only at the late Foundation Establishment stage, comparable to Lin Yueru. The sect elders are merely at the early-to-mid Foundation Establishment stage."

At these words, Shen Qingfeng's expression turned grave: "Then... what about Wang Xu, head of the Seven Mysteries Sect? How is his cultivation?"

Shen Qishuang seemed to be recalling someone's words.

"An elder of our Xianxia Sect once witnessed him strike with her own eyes..."

After a moment, she shook her head with a bitter smile: "Between turning his hand over, he remakes heaven and earth. He no longer enters reincarnation; he is a true immortal."