Hengkun Sect
Yin Li was the supreme being in the cultivation world, his strength unfathomable.
When the demon realm invaded the immortal realm, he had led the immortal lords in putting down the rebellion. In the end, he had single-handedly beheaded the demon lord. From that moment on, he had stood at the pinnacle of the entire immortal realm, honored as Immortal Lord Yin and hailed as the foremost figure of the Three Realms.
His cultivation had gone smoothly from the very beginning. As far as combat experience went, even stripped of all his spiritual power, Yin Li, an immortal lord, could surely handle a few vicious beasts without much trouble.
Lin Nansheng’s arrows were clearly poisoned. When he saw Yin Li dodge them, he gritted his teeth and fired ten in rapid succession. But before they could even reach Yin Li, a powerful force knocked them away, and they snapped against the ground.
The other elders surrounded Yin Li and attacked from both sides, determined to seal the fiend back in. Blades clashed with a ringing like struck jade, sparks flying, but a powerful surge of spiritual power sent them all reeling back.
Glancing over, they saw the demon ancestor seated on the jade coffin, his expression unchanged and his body motionless. His eyes were cold as he watched them as if they were ants. Simply sitting there, he seemed like an insurmountable mountain.
Yin Li was getting a little tired. But he was in the middle of a fight, so he ought to at least put on a decent show. Still, with such a vast difference in strength, what could he do? Just seeing the people in front of him keep coming at him one after another made him want to yawn.
He had only just arrived and wasn’t very familiar with the original owner’s body yet. It was probably best not to seriously injure anyone and incur a blood debt. So he gathered a little spiritual power at his fingertips and used it to shield everyone. His face remained stern, though inwardly he was fighting off sleep.
Seeing that he couldn’t break through Yin Li’s barrier no matter what he tried, Lin Nansheng hardened his resolve and slashed his palm. A stream of rich blood poured out, and the arrow seemed to come alive, greedily drinking it in. In an instant, the entire bow and arrow had turned pitch-black.
When he loosed it, the arrow carried a tremendous force of spiritual power. A streak of red light trailed from its tail as it shot straight through the barrier.
Yin Li hadn’t expected that arrow. The stench of blood surged through the barrier, and the arrow flew straight toward his chest, its force both righteous and vicious.
A hint of amusement entered Yin Li’s eyes as he raised a hand. At last, someone worth watching. Just before the arrow could pierce him, he pressed his palm against it with his spiritual power and snapped it cleanly in two.
“Pfft!” The arrow was linked to Lin Nansheng’s divine soul. The moment it broke, Lin Nansheng spat out a mouthful of heart blood and began retching violently on the ground. Everyone else had been hurled back by the barrier. In an instant, the floor was covered with the injured.
Yin Li paused, then silently lowered his hand.
He rose and walked slowly toward Lin Nansheng with his hands behind his back. Seeing him approach, the others scrambled away even faster, desperate to keep their distance, and instinctively cleared a path for him.
Yin Li stopped in front of Lin Nansheng. The man had just vomited a mouthful of heart blood, and his vision was swimming. Watching the demon ancestor approach, he felt nothing but despair.
He had failed to seal the ancestor and had instead let him out. How was he supposed to explain that to the sect’s disciples? Was today going to be the day Lin Nansheng died?
With his chest tight, Lin Nansheng could only stare as Yin Li’s black boots stopped beside him.
“You’re the current sect leader of Hengkun Sect?” Yin Li leaned a little closer and asked as kindly as he could.
Lin Nansheng saw the ancestor’s face, taut in the shadows, and felt the chill of his presence. His lips trembled twice. “I… am… Pfft!” He couldn’t catch his breath and fainted on the spot.
He’d been awake for less than two hours and had already made two people pass out. Sheepishly, Yin Li withdrew the hand he’d been about to use to pinch Lin Nansheng’s philtrum.
When he’d leaned close to Lin Nansheng, his enormous white robe with its black pattern had hidden them both. Now that he stepped back, Lin Nansheng lay exposed on the ground, barely alive.
The others were so terrified they could hardly speak. A few of the younger ones finally couldn’t hold back and stammered, “Sect Leader Lin, is he… could it be…?”
“The ancestor drained all of Sect Leader Lin’s spiritual power! Waaah!”
“What are we going to do without our sect leader? Waaah!”
Disjointed sobbing, sniffles, and the chattering of teeth as people tried to stifle their fear rang all around him, making Yin Li’s head throb. At last, he brought his palm down hard on a stone pillar. The pillar, so wide it would have taken five people to encircle, instantly crumbled to dust, and the entire Cold Pool Tomb shook three times.
The worse Yin Li’s headache became, the brighter the vicious red glow in his eyes grew, swirling like a blood moon risen over the world and casting a vision of rivers of blood. “Quiet.”
Everyone fell silent, stunned. The elders’ thoughts grew even more tangled. They had assumed that after three hundred years sealed away, the ancestor’s physical strength must have faded considerably. But now it seemed it hadn’t faded at all. If anything, he was stronger than before.
Seeing that the sect leader was unconscious, and thinking of everything that had happened within Hengkun Sect that day, the elders exchanged glances. Then they gritted their teeth, stood up, and knelt at Yin Li’s feet, bowing in unison. “This disciple welcomes Ancestor Yin back to his rightful place!”
The vast Cold Pool Tomb was bitterly cold, its wind piercing. In the center of the tomb, everyone knelt together before a handsome young man.
His features were exquisite, bright as the sun and moon held close, but his expression was stern, downright terrifying. And the dark aura around him made everyone forget his good looks. Overawed by his presence and power, they could only tremble and kneel at his feet, bowing their heads in submission.
Yin Li stood at the center, his face set in a haughty, contemptuous look, as though he scorned all mortal men. But a question was slowly forming in his mind, and he couldn’t help wondering: What was going on? Weren’t they trying to kill him just moments ago? Why were they all kneeling now?
He was completely baffled, but he was used to being an exalted immortal lord. This sort of thing was nothing new to him.
Yin Li gave a cool “Mm” through his nose, and before he knew it, the disciples of Hengkun Sect were escorting him back to the sect.
To leave the Cold Pool Tomb, they had to break through the water of the cold pool.
The tomb was built underground, with the cold pool covering it from above. The slow-moving water kept the air circulating inside. Normally, they would also have to undo the restriction before they could get out.
The elders brought Yin Li beneath the cold pool. Wu Yuan had also come to, and was just starting to undo the complicated restriction when Yin Li asked, “Is the exit here?”
With his head lowered, Wu Yuan focused on the restriction and nodded absentmindedly. Only then did he realize his mistake and curse himself for being an idiot. He hurriedly looked up and shouted to Yin Li, “Ancestor Yin, if you don’t undo the restriction first, the mechanism will shoot you through with ten thousand arrows!”
He had only just managed to get back on his feet, and after shouting, he broke into a fit of coughing. The sound of the cold pool drowned him out, and Yin Li didn’t hear a word.
Yin Li turned to see Wu Yuan’s mouth opening and closing. Puzzled, he raised an eyebrow, but kept moving. He sent spiritual power outward from his fingertips. With a sharp crack, the exit opened.
Wu Yuan stared in disbelief and turned to look at the elders. They only signaled that he shouldn’t make a fuss, so he had no choice but to calm down.
Outside the exit was a cliff beside the cold pool. In the past, they would have had to fly to the opposite bank on their swords. Yin Li simply clapped his hands, and the water rose of its own accord. He stepped onto it, and it froze beneath his foot, forming an icy path straight to the other side.
Trying to seem kind and approachable, Yin Li remembered to ask Wu Yuan, “What were you saying just now?”
Wu Yuan pressed a hand to his poor, badly startled heart. His feet could barely keep him steady on the ice path. He could only mumble, “Nothing… nothing at all.” Inwardly, he wondered: Ancestor, what kind of monster are you?
After they left the Cold Pool Tomb, they found themselves on a mountaintop in the forbidden back mountain of Hengkun Sect. The back mountain was shrouded in snow and ice all year round, and the cold wind wormed its way into their bones. Flying down from the peak, they found the temperature rose the farther they descended. By halfway down the mountain, spring colors shimmered in the air. From the summit, they could see the whole of Hengkun Sect spread out below.
Hengkun Sect stood on a steep mountain range. Aside from the forbidden back mountain, where the Cold Pool Tomb lay, there were five peaks, each with its own elder. One was naturally the main peak, where the sect head lived. Though the sect’s location was somewhat remote, its rugged terrain meant spiritual energy was especially abundant. There was even a spiritual vein beneath the back mountain, making it an exceptionally blessed place to cultivate.
As Yin Li looked over Hengkun Sect, Wu Yuan told him about the sect and the cultivation world’s recent history. Yin Li couldn’t help feeling wistful.
In Yin Li’s own world, the cultivation world had been dominated by a single power before he ascended. But in the cultivation world of this book, a hundred schools contended and sects abounded.
When the original owner had first founded Hengkun Sect, it had ranked among the top three sects in the cultivation world. But after the original owner went berserk and went on a killing spree, it had immediately begun to decline. Now it languished at the very bottom.
Hengkun Sect was now stuck in an awkward middle ground. It couldn’t compete with the top ten sects, and it was a stretch to say it even ranked among the top fifty. Still, compared with the smaller sects, it had once been glorious, and even a lean camel was bigger than a horse. But the smaller sects had never had an ancestor go berserk and ruin their reputation.
Whatever the case, Hengkun Sect was in an utterly precarious position, like a nest on the verge of collapse.
By the time they reached the main hall on the main peak, the inner disciples, elders, and other senior members, already informed of the news, had been waiting for some time. When they saw Yin Li arrive through the clouds, none dared even raise their heads. They were afraid the so-called Ancestor Yin, who killed without blinking and ate people without spitting out the bones, would devour them whole.
Hundreds of people kneeling in unison made quite a sight. Yin Li was ushered to a carved nanmu chair at the center, its back decorated with dragons and clouds.
It was the height of autumn. Though the cultivation world kept no count of years, trees still followed the changing seasons. Outside the main hall, the enormous parasol tree’s leaves had turned red and gold, and fell one by one. The sky was clear, the air serene and bright.
It suddenly reminded Yin Li of the autumn several years ago when he had taken his only disciple, Lu Yuan. The red leaves had been like flames then, too.
Author’s note:
The author has crawled out of the coffin…