Chapter 107.1
Gu Liang was wearing a white garment inside before he draped over a white robe outside. Dark patterns of flowing clouds were embroidered on the white robe, which revealed some opulence, and it made the confidence and handsomeness in his sempiternal disposition more p.r.o.nounced.
What was more beautiful was the small floral design acting as a decoration on the hem of his wide sleeves and at the edge of the outer robe corners, which added a small sprinkle of glamour to the elegant and prideful impression he suffused.
This bit of glamour, happened to complement the faint mirth hanging at the edges of Gu Liang’s lips.
His long hair was parted from the centre of his forehead before it cascaded down, and now that he was sitting beside the waterfall, his long hair was spread across his shoulders before they fell down to the ground.
A peach tree that was blooming tenderly was planted at the side, there were gra.s.sy mountains and evergreen trees behind him, and a clear spring waterfall… Gu Liang was sitting there in that appearance as he stared at Yang Ye with a smile.
The entire image was basically trying for his life.
Yang Ye walked up to him, going onto one knee. He dredged up the hair that was touching the ground and placed it behind him, and he could not resist the urge to hold Gu Liang’s waist.
Gu Liang patted his hand, sinking into his character setting as he chided him, “Rebellious disciple.”
Yang Ye chuckled, pinching his lower jaw. “Sure, darling s.h.i.+zun. I’ll let you satisfy the addiction of being a s.h.i.+fu for the next two days.”
Gu Liang instructed him: “Is the sword practice done? How is the progress of (your) water-based spells? How many clauses of the Sect’s rules have been memorised?”
“Practice what sword. I called you over to tell you to partic.i.p.ate in the afternoon banquet. Let’s go, darling s.h.i.+zun.”
Yang Ye stepped forward to pull Gu Liang to his feet.
Gu Liang persisted in hardening his visage, trying to maintain a calm expression that was as unmoving as the mountains. “Pay attention to your words and actions. You’re my disciple right now, a generation younger than me.”
Yang Ye slanted his body forward, “Tsk, who was the one begging for mercy on the bed two days ago?”
Gu Liang plucked out the prop sword at his waist and swung it towards Yang Ye’s neck, half-threatening as he spoke: “Continue to utter nonsense.”
Yang Ye used two fingers to clip the sharp edge, a touch of disdain apparent at the corners of his eyes as he stared at Gu Liang and said: “Babe, you can really bear to use the sword against me?”
Gu Liang: “……”
Unable to act any further, Gu Liang sheathed his sword again.
Truth to be told, the gaze that Yang Ye used did arouse him slightly, and his heartbeat actually picked up and jolted.
He had no choice but to admit that Yang Ye’s get-up and hairstyle, in addition to his expression, really conformed well with his character design.
Yang Ye was currently being called [Evil Disciple].
Ever since Cold Immortal accepted Evil Disciple, he felt that this person was rather evil like he expected.
He looked exactly the same as his s.h.i.+fu Qing s.h.i.+zun.
After Cold Immortal saw him ten years ago, he intuitively felt that he was Qing s.h.i.+zun’s reincarnation, which was why he accepted him as his disciple, in spite of how Qing s.h.i.+zun barely taught him any spells after he accepted Cold Immortal as his disciple back then.
But after accepting Qing s.h.i.+zun’s reincarnation, Evil Disciple, he gave him moral and practical instruction to dispel his doubts. Cold Immortal did everything that a s.h.i.+fu was supposed to do, and it could even be said that he did everything he could to instruct him, pouring his utmost effort into raising Evil Disciple.
However, after accepting him as his disciple, Cold Immortal would always sense that there was something wrong with Evil Disciple’s gaze every time he was teaching spells.
This was especially so when the pair were practicing swords and sparring; whenever Cold Immortal collided with Evil Disciple’s gaze carelessly, he would always feel a fleeting and approaching killing intent.
Cold Immortal could not ascertain if that gaze was his own delusion, but he could sense that Evil Disciple was not fond of him.
Cold Immortal was aware that he harboured some of the responsibility for Qing s.h.i.+zun’s death in his previous life.
Back when he was his disciple, he clearly knew that there was a trap in the grand ceremony that Qing s.h.i.+zun was attending, but he did not say a single word, and allowed him to leave.
If Evil Disciple had the memories of his previous life, he would probably blame him.
Hence, despite being cognizant of the fact that Evil Disciple was harbouring impure intentions when he became his disciple, Cold Immortal still continued to guide him, duty-bound and unable to turn back, and he did not conceal any sort of selfish intentions.
After leaving the back mountain, Gu Liang and Yang Ye went to the main hall at the front mountain together.
The current main hall was no longer the one from a hundred years ago.
A hundred years ago, Qing s.h.i.+zun went down the mountain to get rid of demons and punish evil. For the sake of killing him, the remaining four Peak Leaders took advantage of his departure and laid down an array in the large main hall.
According to Qing Qiong’s regulations, every person who stepped out of the mountains for business had to attend a grand ceremony in the front mountain after returning.
The grand ceremony carried the small intent of celebrating a heroic deed. For instance, when Qing s.h.i.+zun left the mountain back then, he went to eliminate a notorious evil demon. Therefore, the grand ceremony was hosted to celebrate his heroic deed, and everyone would congratulate him for eradicating the evil demon smoothly and returning victorious at the grand ceremony.
Besides that, the grand ceremony had a slight investigative and interrogative quality to it.
Which meant that he had to truthfully recount the entire process of leaving the mountain to get rid of the demon, and the ridding of the demon itself.
Like whether he had offended any enemies, did he obtain any spoils from the battle, so on and so forth. All of the people that went to eliminate demons had to enumerate everything in detail at the grand ceremony. In that way, if he happened to offend any enemies, the Sect would be informed of the happenings in advance which would enable them to make preparations in case they came looking for revenge.
Furthermore, which battle spoils was obtained from eliminating the demons, which treasures had to be handed over to the Sect for safekeeping… It could only be decided through discussion.
During that instance one hundred years ago, Qing s.h.i.+zun had originally followed the Sec’s rules and attended the grand ceremony after eliminating the demon.
Similarly, he had never expected that he would come under the onslaught of the array.
Consequently, not only did his flesh body perish, but the entire main palace hall where the grand ceremony was being hosted also accompanied him in burial.
A hundred years later, there was already a new hall built in the same s.p.a.ce, and it was called “Qingyun Hall”.
The extant afternoon banquet was also being hosted in Qingyun Hall, and all the important figures would be in attendance.
Additionally, according to the information that Gu Liang received, as the actor of Cold Immortal, he would be announcing a matter that was closely related to himself.
Gu Liang did a brief recall of the plot on the card. When it mentioned the afternoon banquet, the words ‘all of the important figures’ were specifically bolded.
That being said, Gu Liang received the system’s hint. During this afternoon banquet, he would be meeting all of the players in this scenario.
In this scenario, there were nine main characters.
Qing Qiong’s Sect Leader [Cold Immortal], and his disciple [Evil Disciple].
Then there were four remaining veins, [Earth Peak Leader], [Gold Peak Leader], [Wood Peak Leader], and [Fire Peak Leader].
The four Peak Leaders were all men.
Lastly, there were three elders.
Although they (feminine) were addressed as “Elders”, their actual age was actually quite large.
But owing to their cultivation, all of them looked like young and pretty ladies.
The common mortal referred to them as the honourable t.i.tle of “Qing Qiong’s Three Celestials”, and they were [Wind Celestial], [Cloud Celestial], and [Snow Celestial] respectively.
The Peak Leaders of the four veins plus the Sect Leader cultivated in five different types of elements, and they were in-charge of different affairs, which was equivalent to being divided into five factions.
The three female Elders did not belong to any of the five factions. Their spell work was outstanding, and each had their own specialisations. Although they were not responsible for the management of the Sect’s day-to-day affairs, they occupied important positions, and they would definitely intercede when there were important matters within the Sect.
Their strength was hard to contend against even if the four Peak Leaders joined hands with the Sect Leader.
Wind Celestial undertook the role of martial might, and she could be considered as the best in Qing Qiong, and she scarcely had any opponents that could measure up to her.
Cloud Celestial was proficient in the five elements and the art of the Eight Trigrams.
Snow Celestial was proficient in ancient Chinese divinations and mechanical works.
Among the three celestials, Wind Celestial and Cloud Celestial stayed together on Fengyun Peak.
Snow Celestial and Cold Immortal resided in the back mountain.
The wall face behind the waterfall was the circ.u.mpolar constellation stone, and there was a deep pool of stones in front of the circ.u.mpolar constellation stone.
South of the deep pool of stones was the bamboo house that Cold Immortal was staying in, and going further north of the deep stone pool, past the large bamboo forest, would lead to Snow Celestial’s residence.
Therefore, even though she lived on the back mountain of the Main Peak with Cold Immortal, their intersections were minimal at best.
Snow Celestial’s residence was next to a nine-tiered paG.o.da which was strewn with mechanical arrays, and Snow Celestial was in-charge of protecting the various precious artefacts inside, for it was the home to all the treasures belonging to Qing Qiong.
The nine-tiered paG.o.da was constructed a short distance away from the waterfall for the same reason— Snow Celestial was in-charge of watching over the nine-tiered paG.o.da and the circ.u.mpolar constellation stone.
As they continued towards the Qingyun Palace Hall, and saw the view composed of jade and jasper buildings surrounded by the mist, even Gu Liang felt that a great deal of blood capital had gone into constructing this scenario premise.
The pair reached the front of the hall very quickly, and they could vaguely hear the conversing voices inside.
Yang Ye strode forward, and just as he had one leg across the door threshold, Gu Liang tugged on his robe sleeve.
“What’s the matter?” Yang Ye halted in his footsteps to ask him.
Gu Liang questioned: “Do you know where your other younger and older martial brothers went?”
Yang Ye shook his head. “I only know that every time you were done guiding those disciples, they would be a.s.signed to the other four veins very quickly. They have taken away all the good seedlings you had, except me.”
Gu Liang went quiet momentarily, noting that this character was really quite odd in his heart.
Firstly, a hundred years ago, Qing s.h.i.+zun accepted him as a disciple but he did not bother with raising him, neither did he teach him anything nor allow him to intercede in any of the Sect’s affairs. Although he was the Sect Leader’s main disciple in name, the reality was that he always staying in the back mountain sweeping the floor, tidying up the room, and helping his s.h.i.+fu wash his clothes. Apart from those errands, he did nothing else.
Secondly, when the other Peak Leaders of the four veins killed his s.h.i.+fu, the three elders did not intercept at all, making it evident that they had tacitly consented to the entire plot.
In the small child cultivator’s field of view, besides the fact that his s.h.i.+fu did not really guide him, he was a man of honour that upheld justice, and he should not be some kind of evil demon or heretic.
Under such conditions, the reason for his murder was truly a cause for puzzlement.
The few persons involved having divergent thoughts and wanting to get rid of the Sect Leader to seize greater authority was understandable.
But this was the number one large cultivator sect under the heavens; it was not possible that all the people in the higher echelons were villains. Therefore, why did they want to get rid of Qing s.h.i.+zun?
Furthermore, after Qing s.h.i.+zun’s death, everyone supported Cold Immortal up to the seat, even though he barely knew anything, and allowed him to become the Sect Leader. This also conveyed that their motivation for getting rid of Qing s.h.i.+zun was not for the Sect Leader position, or for power and authority.
For the same reasons, this matter became even stranger.
Lastly, it was only after becoming the Sect Leader that Cold Immortal started to learn spells, and learn how to manage the affairs within the Sect.
During this period of time, he accepted a great number of disciples, but those disciples were all taken away. In the end, the only one that remained by his side was Evil Disciple. Why was that exactly?
The three elders must have realised that Evil Disciple looked exactly the same as the late Qing s.h.i.+zun.
Have they not guessed that Evil Disciple was Qing s.h.i.+zun’s reincarnation?
Have they never considered that Evil Disciple might take revenge against them?
Under the current circ.u.mstances where his information was limited, there were a lot of questions that Gu Liang could not pa.r.s.e out no matter how hard he tried.
Presently, he could only step into the main hall with Yang Ye, who was portraying Evil Disciple, to attend this afternoon banquet before speaking.