Zhuo Bufan reached out and laid his hand on the qin strings. After a slight adjustment, he began to play. The music came gently, clear and pure, like a mountain spring or a little stream murmuring along. Everyone sank into the sound, and no other noise remained in the square.
Suddenly the tune turned urgent, like a river rushing and twisting. It reached a waterfall, plunged down from a great height, then became a hundred rivers returning to the sea, with hidden currents surging.
The crowd’s state of mind shifted with the tune, like a boat upon the vast sea, unable to control itself, only able to drift with the waves, rising and sinking. The spiritual power within their bodies surged and flowed along with it.
He played on like this for half an incense stick. Then the tune suddenly calmed. The vast sea finally turned into thousands of little streams. The crowd’s hearts settled as well. Looking back on all that had come before, it was like white clouds and gray dogs, like the blue sea turning into mulberry fields, giving rise to a feeling that past events were like smoke and the Great Dao was heartless.
The qin music grew softer and softer until it was barely audible. When the piece ended, most of the Miscellaneous Duties Disciples in the square had not yet recovered. Some disciples at the peak of the second layer of Qi Refining even faintly felt that the bottlenecks that had troubled them for a long time showed signs of loosening. They all kept silent and quietly savored the subtlety of the qin Dao.
Just as everyone was immersed, a clear, resonant sword cry suddenly rang out from the high platform. Liang Yan looked up and saw the long sword at Zhuo Bufan’s waist leave its sheath, hover in midair, trembling unceasingly, as if it could not bear to refrain from fighting an enemy.
“It’s out! That’s Senior Brother Zhuo’s Dingguang Sword!”
“Senior Brother Zhuo is the only sword cultivator among the outer sect disciples—a genius who appears only once in a hundred years.”
“That’s right. Sword cultivation is the most difficult and arduous path. There are very few sword cultivators nowadays, but it’s said that once they succeed, they are bound to become great powers who can destroy heaven and extinguish earth.”
“Exactly. Sword cultivators are said to be first in attack, but sword cultivation is also extremely dangerous. In the whole outer sect, only Senior Brother Zhuo deserves to be called a sword cultivator.”
As soon as Dingguang Sword appeared, the crowd below erupted. Hearing the discussion around him, Liang Yan couldn’t help narrowing his eyes at the treasured sword on the platform. Listening to them talk about sword cultivation made his heart burn, and he yearned deeply for the path of the sword.
Zhuo Bufan formed a sword art on the high platform, and Dingguang Sword shot out, slashing once high in the air. Though it was only a slash at empty air, the crowd still felt a cold, piercing killing intent rushing at their faces. Their body hair stood on end and their hearts raced.
But the next moment, Zhuo Bufan withdrew the sword art. Dingguang Sword circled back and disappeared into its scabbard, and the overflowing killing intent returned to nothingness. Zhuo Bufan stood, cupped his hands to the crowd, then leaped up, landed on the mountain path, and headed down the mountain.
Everyone knew this Dao-Preaching Assembly had come to an end. They began going down the mountain in twos and threes. Some female disciples, in groups of three or five, chattered away without stopping, looking very excited.
Only Liang Yan sat quietly on the rush cushion. Zhuo Bufan’s midair sword strike had stirred him deeply. He secretly replayed the details of that strike and thought, ‘If this sword came at me, even if I used the Hooligan Art with full power, I would still have no way to avoid it.’ He brooded over it for a long while and still could not find the slightest way to break it, but this only made him yearn even more for the sword cultivation method.
He sat alone for a long while. When he came back to his senses, the area around him was already empty. Liang Yan sighed lightly, rose, and walked down the mountain path from Mystic Mechanism Peak.
Halfway down the mountain, he suddenly heard a noisy argument from the bamboo grove beside the path, mixed with a familiar voice. Liang Yan frowned and followed the sound into the grove.
He had not gone far when he saw two groups standing face to face. One group had only two people: Sun Qianli and Li Dali. Liang Yan had come over precisely because he had heard Li Dali’s voice. The other group had three people, who from their clothing looked like Pill Meridian Miscellaneous Duties Disciples. Liang Yan swept his eyes over them and saw that the black-faced young man in the middle was at the third layer of Qi Refining, while the other two were at the second layer.
Then the black-faced young man spoke: “Li Dali, haven’t I made it clear enough? I told you to take a piss and look at yourself, yet you actually have the confidence to ask my cousin for a woman.”
Li Dali said with reddened eyes, “I’m asking you to tell me, where exactly have you taken Yang Wei?”
The black-faced young man laughed. “Heh heh. Taken her where? Naturally, to a place of wind and pleasure.”
Sun Qianli was also full of indignation and said, “Miss Yang and Li Dali are green plums and bamboo horses, betrothed before birth, and in mutual affection. We are all fellow disciples, so why snatch love with a horizontal blade?”
“Ah, bah! Who’s a fellow disciple with you?” The black-faced young man pointed at Li Dali’s nose and cursed. “You two are wastes who will always be stuck at the first layer of Qi Refining. And that Yang Wei—are you sure you two share mutual affection? Then why did she run to my cousin’s bed last night?”
“Impossible!” Li Dali roared as if gone mad, then charged at the black-faced young man.
“Oh? The brute ox has grown bold, has he?” The black-faced young man showed no panic, instead grinning. A fellow disciple beside him raised his hand and sent out a spirit tool, lashing it hard across Li Dali’s body. Li Dali’s steps halted, a mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth, and he immediately wilted to his knees, bracing his hands against the ground and gasping for air.
“Haha, waste is waste, too useless.” The black-faced young man laughed loudly, and the two Pill Meridian Miscellaneous Duties Disciples beside him jeered along.
Sun Qianli clenched both fists, his nails digging deep into his palms, but he did not dare step in to help.
The black-faced young man glanced at Sun Qianli with disdain and said smugly, “Let me be straight with you. You two, and that Yang Wei, are all wastes who will never pass the first layer of Qi Refining in this lifetime. My cousin is a heaven-chosen son. At just twenty-three, he’s already at the fifth layer of Qi Refining. He has never put you in his eyes!”
“As for that Yang Wei, hmph. My cousin only saw she had some looks and took her to play with. Ridiculous that she thought my cousin would openly and properly marry her and become Dao companions. Haha, a waste who can never step out of the first layer of Qi Refining. My cousin is only using her as a cultivation cauldron!”
“Beast!” Li Dali’s eyes nearly split with fury. He gritted his teeth, stood, and swung a fist at the black-faced young man. But he was badly injured, and the punch had no force at all. The black-faced young man neither dodged nor retreated, taking the punch directly without even stepping back, then laughed loudly.
Seeing that his punch was useless, Li Dali spat a mouthful of thick phlegm. This was too sudden to guard against, and with the distance so close, even as the black-faced young man hurriedly dodged, some of it still stuck to his sleeve.
“Courting death!” The black-faced young man flew into a rage, clenched his right fist, and struck straight at Li Dali’s crown. He was born a body cultivator, and with his third-layer Qi Refining cultivation, as long as this punch landed solidly, Li Dali wouldn’t have enough lives even with nine.
At this critical moment, a hand suddenly reached out from the side and pulled Li Dali back with lightning speed. The black-faced young man’s expression changed. He looked over and saw a gray-robed youth standing in front of Li Dali—just over ten years old, tall and thin, with a formation plate pattern embroidered on his clothes as well.
The black-faced young man frowned and thought to himself, ‘When did Talisman Meridian gain another Miscellaneous Duties Disciple?’
“I am Yuan Shan. Who are you, sir, to forcibly stand up for Li Dali?”
Liang Yan answered coldly, “Since we are all senior and junior brothers of the same sect, why must you go so far as to kill?”
Yuan Shan could not figure out his background and probed again, “May I ask which senior relative of yours holds a post in our sect?”
Liang Yan sneered. “You don’t need to probe. I entered the sect as an independent cultivator and became a Talisman Meridian Miscellaneous Duties Disciple. I acted only because I can’t stand what you’re doing.”
After hearing this, Yuan Shan laughed. “So you’re just a lonely soul and wild ghost, and you don’t even look at your own weight. Only at the first layer of Qi Refining, and already learning to play the hero. Haha, I, your father, will deal with all of you today!”
Liang Yan had the Heavenly Mystery Pearl on him. Though he had not deliberately activated it, low-level Qi Refining cultivators still could not see through his cultivation and only took him for an entry-level cultivator at the first layer of Qi Refining.
As soon as he finished speaking, Yuan Shan exploded into motion, punching at Liang Yan. Liang Yan stretched out his right hand and took the punch head-on, staggering back five steps. He couldn’t help thinking in shock, ‘I received the old monk’s teaching, and my body’s tempering far surpasses ordinary people, yet I still can’t match a single punch from this man.’
What he didn’t know was that Yuan Shan was even more surprised. Yuan Shan was a pure body cultivator, and years of resources had all been spent tempering his body. Normally, cultivators of the same level were no match for him in close combat. Yet the person before him had a lower cultivation realm than him and could actually take a punch head-on.
“So it’s the peak of the second layer of Qi Refining. You brat really know how to hide your clumsiness!” Yuan Shan shouted. Fighting someone with a higher realm, Liang Yan clearly could no longer conceal his cultivation.
Before he could catch his breath, Yuan Shan had already closed in and attacked again. The two Pill Meridian Miscellaneous Duties Disciples also summoned their spirit tools and attacked Liang Yan from left and right.
Liang Yan thought to himself, ‘If I use the Hooligan Art, I should be able to handle these three. But there are too many eyes here. The Hooligan Art is the old monk’s secret transmission and really shouldn’t be exposed. Besides, I carry a heavy treasure on me. If I draw some scheming person’s attention to investigate me, it will be even worse.’ For now, he could only rely on his tough body to contend with the three.
After fighting like this for only a short while, Liang Yan was already hard-pressed, with danger appearing on all sides. The more he fought, the more anxious he became. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration and remembered the Three Talents Thick Earth Formation he had studied in the Repository of Scriptures.
This Three Talents Thick Earth Formation had one formation eye and three formation flags. Once the formation was set, the three formation flags clashed with each other, stirring up the hidden power of thick earth to resist enemies.
At this moment, Liang Yan had a sudden strange thought: ‘All things have spirit and can be used as formations. Why not use people to set the formation?’ Once the thought appeared, it could not be stopped.
Immediately, he made himself the formation eye, the three Pill Meridian men the formation flags, and their spiritual power the spiritual source, drawing formation patterns in the void.
At first Yuan Shan still felt relaxed, but the more he fought, the more alarmed he grew.
The three of them should have captured Liang Yan easily in their joint siege. The brat had also been hard-pressed at the start and clearly couldn’t hold out much longer. But after fighting for a while, he found Liang Yan becoming more and more at ease.
On the other hand, the three on his side were somehow coordinating worse and worse.
Sometimes the spirit tool of the person on the left happened to block the attack path of the spirit tool of the person on the right, forcing the disciple on the right to stop his art.
Sometimes, when Yuan Shan punched out, by a ghostly coincidence it happened to strike the spirit tool of the person on the left, helping Liang Yan neutralize the attack.
In short, the three interfered with one another, and their full strength could not even be brought out to fifty percent.
Yuan Shan did not know that they had already fallen deep into Liang Yan’s Three Talents Thick Earth Formation, and had themselves become Liang Yan’s three formation flags.
As the formation eye, Liang Yan was like a general in the formation, the commander of three armies. The three formation flags on Yuan Shan’s side were pulled by his Dao patterns and clashed with each other, so naturally they could not be Liang Yan’s opponents.
The more Liang Yan fought, the more comfortable he felt, and his understanding of formation use grew clearer. Yuan Shan’s face turned ashen. He suddenly gritted his teeth, and his right hand moved toward a storage pouch at his waist.
Just then, a clear, resonant sword cry rang out. A sword light flew through the air and, with a ripping sound, split the people in the field into two sides. Then a figure descended from the sky and landed in the middle of them. The newcomer wore a moon-white long robe and a Confucian headscarf. At this moment, the corner of his mouth held a smile, and his gaze drifted faintly toward the storage pouch at Yuan Shan’s waist.
Alarm appeared on Yuan Shan’s face. He immediately released the storage pouch, cupped his hands in salute, and said respectfully, “Greetings, Senior Brother Zhuo.”
(TL Note: This next part is just the authors note:
‘Since some classmates have appeared who are nitpicking the setting, I still need to explain a bit here.
Although Yi Xing Pavilion is a major Confucian sect and even the upper sect of Yue Kingdom, when the protagonist entered the sect it happened to be the time when Yi Xing Pavilion was going from prosperity to decline. This point will be explained later.
The sect’s upper echelons each held their own opinions, and the sect master and elders fought for power and profit, so the inside of this sect is inevitably full of problems. It’s not surprising that many disharmonious places will appear.
Moreover, this world is not black and white. It’s not that just because you wear the outer clothing of a Confucian sect, you are all sages who understand rites and law.
On this point, if your three views are overly upright and you can’t stand it, then I can only suggest you not read. It hurts the heart and drains the spirit, so why bother?’)