Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Chapter 11 Haizhou from Three Thousand Miles Away
The crowd saw that the younger disciple of the Green Mountain Sect merely possessed State of Inherited Sword and was likely following his senior outside the mountain for experience and training, so he shouldn’t have been much of a threat to Zhu Jie; however, when he spoke the above words, they thought Zhu Jie would instantly spill his blood once the young man drew his sword.
Was this the sword supremacy of the Green Mountain Sect?
Zhu Jie’s face grew slightly pale. Today he arrived a bit late as he attempted to get to know a bodyguard of Xiwang Sun to establish connections, so he didn’t know there were people from the Green Mountain Sect.
Having heard this, he couldn’t help but feel regret, and resentment.
–Why people from the great Green Mountain Sect sit in a dark corner without uttering a word, and pretended being humble?
“I spoke without much forethought; I hope two Cultivation friends can forgive me,” he said abruptly.
Zuo Yushi of the Great Marsh Sect smiled, saying to Yao Songshan, “You really should change the mantra of your sect, as it’s rather terrifying.”
As the Green Mountain Sect and the Great Marsh Sect had a friendly relationship, Yao Songshan nodded in greeting, without saying a word.
Seeing this scene, Shi Fengchen sighed in his mind. After he waved his sleeve, a new picture appeared on the wall.
It was an enlarged map, indicating the locations of all the murder cases with red ink and linking all these places in one single line.
A practitioner asked in a perplexed tone, “Those two magic demons went to Chaonan City from Shangzhou, then up to the north, then turned toward the west from the Yuzhou; this means they started in Nanhezhou, then circled the mid-south section of the inner land. Where are they going? And what do they intend to do?”
Someone discovered another puzzling issue.
“Why didn’t they ride their swords?”
“We also find it odd, but we don’t have answers to these questions. What I do know is they will appear in Haizhou City a few days from now if they travel along this line on the map.”
“If they dare commit any crime here, now that we have so many immortal masters here that we have so many immortal masters here with us!” said Shi Fengchen.
The reason why the Pure Heaven Bureau set the ambush in Haizhou was because of the Four-Seas Banquet taking place here soon, attracting many Cultivation practitioners of the orthodox sects.
“What if they didn’t attack anybody when they were here in Haizhou?” asked someone.
After a moment of silence, Shi Fengchen said, “If that’s the case, we have to ask the Grand Master of the Hall of Heavenly Calculation at Western Ocean to lend a hand.”
The room fell silent again; suddenly a voice called out.
“Well…my dear Cultivation friends should have noticed, how those two people…killed many demons on the way, as well as those humans…”
Everybody had already understood what he intended to say even before he finished the entire sentence.
–Those slaughtered humans were not decent people themselves, just like the Head Master of Black Dragon Temple, Master Zhu Gui.
People all knew this fact, but nobody pointed it out.
When they found out the speaker was the young monk doctor of the Fruit Formation Temple, they instantly knew why he tried to defend those two killers.
Elder He Zhichong of Kunlun Sect glared at the young monk doctor once.
Zhu Jie sneered, “The case in Chaonan City started when the Sect of Three and your Temple fought for the drug. The people of the Sect of Three died, and the drug ended up in the hands of your Temple. Of course, nobody dares suspect the Fruit Formation Temple is connected to those criminals; but what the young master has just said is quite inappropriate!”
The young monk was quite upset, and wanting to defend himself, but not knowing to express it, he remained red-faced.
There was no need to plan ahead for something like this. The practitioners of the sects could simply wait for the news when the Pure Heaven Bureau found those two magic demons.
They weren’t worried about whether it would be a bloody battle. Even though those two magic demons were in the middle of the State of the Undefeated, on their side there were two swordsmen who had reached the State of the Undefeated, the Elder He Zhichong of Kunlun and Immortal Master Yao Songshan of Green Mountain. There was also Haizhou, and once the swordsmen of Western Ocean Sword Sect fought back, their enemies would have nowhere to run.
After leaving the office of Pure Heaven Bureau, the practitioners scattered, most of them returning to the Immortal House.
This was the first time that Lin Yinglang outside the mountains for experience, and encountering such an event made him a bit nervous, though also excited, with him saying, “Those two magic demons must be caught.”
Yao Songshan felt something was out of place, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Watching two disciples of Green Mountain walking away, the young monk of the Fruit Formation Temple became anxious and worried, saying to the old monk by his side, “Senior Master, why didn’t you say something? We know clearly the people they are going to confront; even though we can’t reveal their identities to all the people, we should tell the two in front of us.”
The old monk didn’t respond, thinking the relationships between the nine peaks of Green Mountain were quite complicated, and no one knew which peak the two Cultivation friends who helped them two years ago in Chaonan City belonged to; the two disciples of Green Mountain in front were from Liangwang Peak, which treated their own disciples and colleagues of the same sect very harshly, so it was hard to tell if the revelation would bring trouble to the two Cultivation friends.
The young monk was still talking, “The masters at the Hall of Heavenly Calculation in Western Ocean are good at speculating. What if they are really ambushed? Senior Master, we have to think of a way to inform…”
“Those two Cultivation friends don’t need our help. You shouldn’t make it worse, so continue practicing your Zen of the Closed Mouth,” said the old monk.
“Ah,” the young monk closed his mouth, feeling he was being treated unfairly as he yelled few times with his mouth closed.
The old monk replied, “When will the Zen of Closed Mouth finish? Not until we have left Haizhou or those two Cultivation friends have left Haizhou.”
…
…
Outside Haizhou City, the Cold Mountain was tranquil, not a single human being to be found there.
Zhao Layue stood by the cliff’s edge, her dress fluttered by the wind coming from far away.
The childish hint on her face was long gone, the look in her eyes calm, or, to be more precise, determined
She still had the short hair like a boy’s, but it wasn’t so messy anymore.
Looking at her from behind and thinking of the happenings on the road, Jing Jiu became somewhat sentimental.
He didn’t tell her where he planned to go or what he planned to do, and didn’t tell her who he was.
After he chose her as the inherited sword in Zhaoge City, he hadn’t done anything for her.
Yet she hadn’t forgotten him, and so he was indebted to her.
He tried to teach her in his own way over the past two years.
Walking ten thousand miles, purging demons and evildoers, traveling and resting; all of this was all Cultivation.
…
…
Zhao Layue gazed at a mountain in the distance silently.
Suddenly, a flash of sword light appeared in her black and white pupils.
In the warm sky illuminated by the red sunset, there appeared another, brighter red color.
A dull thud echoed in the distant mountain range.
That flash of red light came back from the sky, disappearing into her palm.
Yet the red stripe still remained in the sky.
The glow from the Thoughtless Sword, which had been bathed in fresh blood for past two years, was redder than the sunset.
“In the area close to Haizhou City, we can find a human-eating demon; I don’t know what those idiots of Western Ocean are doing here,” said Zhao Layue, walking back to Jing Jiu’s side.
The Green Mountain Sect regarded themselves as the number one orthodox sword sect in the world, naturally looking down on the Western Ocean Sword Sect.
Even though the Western Ocean had produced a Godly Swordsman, the impression left by the Western Ocean Sword Sect had only worsened in the minds of the disciples of Green Mountain.
“The number humans eaten by this demon in a year doesn’t equal even a percent of those fishermen who died picking pearls on the ocean floor,” Jing Jiu said.
The source pearl was the special product of Western Ocean, more precious than common crystal stones; the collected pearls were shared by the Western Ocean Sword Sect and the Imperial Court every year.
In order to pick the source pearls, countless fishermen gave their lives at the bottom of the ocean.
In other words, the number of fishermen who died for the practitioners to break the Cultivation states was much higher than those eaten by this demon.
Zhao Layue understood what he meant.
As Jing Jiu said two years ago in Shangzhou, the Cultivation practitioners must be indifferent.
“Where are we going next?” Zhao Layue asked.
When they left the Green Mountain, she was the one who decided where to go, like the Precious-Tree House that had close connections with Bihu Peak and the hometown of Master Meng. The curtain roller, who had exposed her identity and forced Zhuo Yi to kill her, was also a clue, but that person had disappeared a while ago. Over time, however, she found that her choices were actually Jing Jiu’s.
Even though she realized this, she didn’t seek a change by using her status as the Senior Sister; during their travels, Zhao Layue gradually sensed Jing Jiu had been teaching her all this time, regardless of whether it was simply the walking, the seemingly simple fighting, or a casual statement and eye signals.
She wasn’t certain what Jing Jiu had taught her, or where Jing Jiu planned to go, or what to do.
Yet she knew Jing Jiu had one destination, or one purpose.
“It’s here.”
Gazing at Haizhou City glowing under the sunset in the distance, Jing Jiu said, “I come here to see someone.”
After having left the Green Mountain, traveled around the land for two years, killed more than seventy human evildoers and more demons, he only wanted to see one person!
They didn’t encounter any trouble when entering Haizhou City.
Zhao Layue obtained two real Travel Permits in Yizhou, probably through her family contacts.
The first meal in Haizhou was still the hotpot.
As it was close to Western Ocean, the ingredients for the hotpot were of course mostly seafood, which tasted great with the newly brewed malt wine.
Looking at the overcooked vegetables, Zhao Layue couldn’t help but ask, “You really think Yin San is still alive?!”