Chapter 930 The Reckoning (7)
Zhu Lingfeng, once the greatest swordsman ever known in Molderad, was nowhere pleased with all to hear that Li Zhiyuan only has one word to describe his skill: fierce. He might be daunted if Li Zhiyuan were here himself, but as for the Punisher of Evil Shen Jia, Zhu Lingfeng could care less. He viewed Shen Jia as nothing more than a young fledgling who was still learning how to crawl and an inexperienced novice who could barely hope to match him.
…
Just outside a sandstone pillar formation.
The sprawl of more than a thousand jagged rock columns that spread on a faintly inclined slope just south of the summit where the Creed of Divinity stronghold sat looked like a forest that had been magically turned to stone, forever suspended in both endless time and mortality.
The Patriarch of the Central Truth Sanctuary, the biggest religious order of the Central region of Molderad was a man of divine presence. Despite the white locks and bangs that hung over his shoulders, he looked as youthful as a man in his twenties. Carrying a sword on his back, he casually came to the outside of the rock formation. With a flicker, he was gone, materializing again at the top of one of the tallest pillars.
“There’s vegetation everywhere in this area save for this place. This must be where the ‘Sage’ said the ley line would be. A ley line of the Rock Element. Destroy this place and the force field will fall…” murmured the Patriarch softly as he stroked his snowy beard, his head nodding gently.
Then he looked in another direction, somewhere farther inside the rock formation. “Someone of the Creed of Divinity? Show yourself please.”
“And here was I thinking that the Central Truth Sanctuary that upholds the maxim of ‘Seek the Truth, Embody the Truth, and Trust in Nothing but the Truth’ would be the only one in the Great Five to have any shred of conscience left. Yet here you are, Patriarch. Or do you too believe that the Creed of Divinity is another evil cult?”
A figure gradually came into form out of thin air.
The stranger who had appeared was none other than warrior prodigy Yan Nanfei, the very same person who lost to Li Mu in a contest at Rose’s Allure.
The stranger who had appeared was none other than warrior prodigy Yan Nanfei, the very same person who lost to Li Mu in a contest at Rose’s Allure.
“My son joined the Creed of Divinity eight years ago and has since been accepted as Master Li’s student,” said Yan Nanfei. “Please. Just go. You’ll never be able to destroy the ley line here.”
The shock and surprise slowly ebbed away, giving way to a prideful smile. “Your name might be a household name lately, Mister Yan,” said the Patriarch, “Still, you have much to learn. And amongst them, for instance, the difference between you might and mine.”
“You seem to imply that being learned and informed justifies attacking an opponent from the back,” said Yan Nanfei. “I once had the honor of wandering the Jianghu as the companion of a senior from the Central Truth Sanctuary. It was from him that I learned how the teachings of the Sanctuary championed the pursuit of truth. His stalwart fort.i.tude was what inspired me. What a shame that despite being Patriarch, you are nothing but filth if compared to him.”
“I gather that you’re referring to Dao Quan?” The Patriarch’s face creased with a tinge of surprise.
“That’s right. Master Dao Quan,” confirmed Yan Nanfei stoically.
The Patriarch let loose a heartfelt sigh. “Allowing Li Zhiyuan to walk free on this earth and the scourge of the Creed of Divinity to fester and woe would betide all Molderad. Dishonorable as I might be, it is blame that I gladly bear, so long as it could save this world. You too are a native of this good earth, Yan Nanfei. Why are you siding with a demon from an alien world and standing against the world that had fed and nurtured you?”
“You led a religious order that champions the pursuit of truth, Patriarch,” countered Yan Nanfei, “How could you put stock in such ludicrous accusations?”
“Not all of them are ludicrous,” responded the Patriarch. “A member of the Sanctuary had paid a terrible price to seek the augurs of Heaven. It’s true; Li Zhiyuan really is from another world.”
“So what if he’s from another world? Does that make him a demon? Why could he not be a G.o.d instead? Isn’t that what we warriors strive so much to become? Powers that would allow us to ascend and achieve G.o.dhood? And you think that G.o.ds can’t come to our world and join us?”
The Patriarch paused in hesitant silence. Brooding for seconds, he finally replied, “I believe that’s enough talk for now, Mister Yan. Time is of the essence, and I no longer want to bandy words. On your guard, Mister Yan.”
…
“So you really have become a dog of the Creed of Divinity, Lan Ruhai.”
Nan Yi, head of the Cult of the Vengeful of the Southern Badlands was a man with a dark complexion and a hawk-like glare that could make anyone balk in his presence. Barefooted, he stood just over the surface of a lake, staring at the man who dared to stand in his way.
Opposite the curly-haired Grand Master of the Cult was a man in black scholarly robes. His young and bookish appearance and air would have fooled anyone from believing he was none other than the most feared Grand Master of the Cult of the Orient Lan Ruhai himself. The zither he carried on his back and the scholar’s cap he wore on his head; nothing about him screamed anything remotely close to “deadly” or “invincible” at all. If anything, he looked every bit the semblance of a wandering scholar whose pa.s.sion lay in nothing but music.
“You’re still as irascible and boorish as before, Grand Master Nan. If you can pledge yourself to the service of that ‘Sage’ fellow, why can’t I ally myself with the Creed of Divinity?” said Lan Ruhai merrily, whose das.h.i.+ng smile exuded an electrifying charisma.
“I’m doing all that in the name of eradicating evil! You dare equate me with the likes of you, you wicked sc.u.m!?” Nan Yi bellowed with rage.
“You call yourself a sacred order, but everyone in the Southern Badlands knows just how depraved and abominable the Cult of the Vengeful is. You treat the ordinary folk as slaves and use living people as sacrifices for your diabolical rituals. Speak for yourself when you accuse others of being evil. If eradicating evil really is what you’re pa.s.sionate about, then you should start with yourself.”
Nan Yi snorted quietly, responding by summoning a pair of watery columns that shot up from the surface of the lake in the image of two dragons. The dragons roared straight at Lan Ruhai while Nan Yi yelled, “Lies! I’ll first start by first killing you, then I’ll lay waste to the Creed of Divinity!”
Lan Ruhai burst into laughter as he reached for his zither, pulling it to his front. Before his opponent could see where and how fast his fingers were, the lilting cadence of music bubbling like a brook drifted over the surface of the water. Images of beasts appeared out of thin air as if they were forged by the music itself and they threw themselves into the dragons of water, entangling their foes in a furious battle.
Lan Ruhai started as a music wunderkind before he was beset with difficulties that included seeing with his own eyes how his childhood sweetheart was taken away. The traumatic ordeal changed him. He joined the Cult of the Orient and showcased a newfound flair in martial arts where he would later invent a music-based fighting craft that propelled him to become one of the most powerful men in the land. He a.s.sumed control of the Cult, becoming the next Grand Master, and went head-to-head against the Great Five, opening challenging their authority and singlehandedly defending the Cult against complete decimation before his exploits during the war skyrocketed him to worldwide fame.
Hence dealing with the Grand Master of the Cult of the Vengeful Nan Yi was hardly anything difficult for Lan Ruhai who quickly and easily wrested control of the initiative in no time.
…
“For eleven long years you’ve vanished, most in the Jianghu think you’re dead. What a surprise. To think that you’ve been hiding here all along—here in the Creed of Divinity,” said a craggy old man dressed like a peasant in his rough spun tunic and shoes, with a pipe clenched between his teeth. Facing him was another elderly man in robes of white. “You must have not been idle, I wager, since you clearly think you possess the power to stop me.”
“And allow me to register my surprise that he who all the Jianghu hail as the Una.s.suming Crofter Zheng still remembers a simple person like me.”
“Simple? Nay” scoffed the old peasant. “Only fools would discount your strength, Yundao. That injury so many years ago nearly saw you crippled. It’s nothing short of a miracle that you were able to recover.”
Yundao, also known as Ascetic Yundao, whom the whole world knew as Li Zhiyuan’s mentor and the same Ascetic Yundao who had been missing for almost eleven years.
“That’s all thanks to my student,” Yundao responded as he gazed into the sky, taking in the breathtaking view of the sea of white plumes overhead. “A pity that your plans were all for nothing. I daresay you were the one behind the plot to annihilate the Creed of Divinity back then, weren’t you? The Priory of the Four Seas had no bad blood with the Creed and there was no reason for any animosity in the first place.”
“A pity as well that the Priory failed in its charge,” The old farmer tapped some ashes out of his pipe, “I should have made sure that your boy was killed. It was my wishes to torment you that had spared your boy and that had given rise to a veritable monster. Look what he is now. I won’t even dare to stand in front of him.”
“Hmph, once the head of the coalition of good and now a scheme who’s only good at backstabbing. Don’t you even have a sense of pride that you too were once a leader of men and yet here you are, doing the bidding of this ‘Sage’, fellow?”
“Be that as it may, I’m only resigning to fate. We get old eventually, no?” Zheng smiled, completely unfazed at the criticism. “What’s done is done. What’s the use of haggling about the past? It won’t mean anything anymore. If fight we must, then so be it. You can have your chance for a reprisal, and I have my shot at another round of triumph. Talking won’t solve anything so we might as well just fight.” Zheng took the pipe out of his mouth and stuck it at the scruff of his neck. Then he patted the ashes off his hand and retrieved his signature weapon—a hoe—and the very same one which he once lorded over the entire Jianghu with.
It was this simple and a.s.suming weapon that the entire Jianghu once feared.
…
“You don’t have to thank me. In fact, I should be the one doing the thanking.”
Li Mu cracked into a smile all of a sudden.
That surprised Nie Renlong into speechless silence for one second before the sense of foreboding dread began to sweep all over him.
“Thank you for your elaborate arrangement and thank you for telling me how I can break through the confines of this dimension and ascend,” Li Mu released his hold of Lu Chuan and stood upright una.s.sisted as if he was uninjured. “I just love it when villains like to prattle with all that smugness and glee. They would just spill the whole can of beans without realizing it.”
He reached around his waist and yanked the broken shard of the trident that was formerly lodged in his abdomen wound.
The gaping hole began to grow and heal at an incredible speed right before Nie Renlong’s eyes. In just three to four seconds, the wound was gone as if nothing had happened before.
“No! That’s not possible!” Nie Renlong stammered in complete denial.
“There’s nothing impossible about it,” Li Mu muttered nonchalantly as the blue streaming wound at his chest began to turn red like Time had been turning back. “You’ve not learned your lesson the first time, haven’t you? If the Deity’s Bane poison doesn’t work on me, what makes you think that this would?” said Li Mu, referring to a crystal-blue bead of liquid that he extracted from himself and levitated right in front of his own eyes.
“There’s nothing impossible about it,” Li Mu muttered nonchalantly as the blue streaming wound at his chest began to turn red like Time had been turning back. “You’ve not learned your lesson the first time, haven’t you? If the Deity’s Bane poison doesn’t work on me, what makes you think that this would?” said Li Mu.
A crystal-blue bead of liquid that he extracted from himself levitated right in front of his own eyes.
“I’m not afraid of poison not because I have some sort of immunity, but rather, it’s because no poison of this world could harm me,” answered Li Mu as he conjured a flame at the tip of his fingertips that burned away the bluish poison that was being expelled out of his body through his fingers.
“Too bad you’ve miscalculated despite all that planning and plotting, and everything results in nothing.”
In just mere moments, Li Mu regained his former strength and power. He rose in the air and glided forward towards Nie Renlong like a wraith in broad daylight. “You had a choice,” he said, And you just tossed yours into the sea.”