Chapter 645: A Contingency Against the Orthodox Alliance

Not long after.

With a taut, expressionless face, Chi Jiuyu led Zixuan Zhenjun back to the Xiang Jianzong Hall.

She had gone to deliver a message on behalf of her martial uncle, so she represented his dignity—of course she couldn't be as giggly as usual; she had to be a bit more solemn.

"Martial Uncle, I've brought Zixuan Zhenjun."

After cupping her hands in a salute, Chi Jiuyu stepped aside, the spacing of every step as if specially measured, without the slightest deviation.

In the end she stood quietly in a corner, motionless like a sculpture.

She was now a fish with no emotions!

Xu Xing: "..."

This girl was as absurd as ever.

"Alright, the person's here, so go on down. Don't just stand there."

Chi Jiuyu froze: "Huh?"

He was already chasing her away!

She still wanted to see what kind of connection this Zixuan Zhenjun, who had founded 【Truthseeking】, had with her martial uncle.

Burning the bridge after crossing the river...

Right, right, right!

Martial Uncle was burning the bridge after crossing the river!

Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, a flash of light came drifting down toward her.

Chi Jiuyu scrambled to catch it.

She looked closely and saw it was a storage ring, identical in style to the ones Xu Xing had given her before.

She sent in a wisp of divine sense to inspect it, and her expression instantly grew solemn.

"Martial Uncle, then this disciple will take her leave first."

If there's good stuff like this in the future, be sure to call me!

After quickly adding that line in her heart, she turned around and swiftly left the dojo.

Only after her figure had completely vanished from sight did Zixuan Zhenjun draw a deep breath, step forward, and bow respectfully:

"Zhu Er, greets the Xiang Jianzong senior."

That's right, Zixuan Zhenjun's real name was Zhu Er.

"Sit," Xu Xing said.

"Yes."

He didn't stand on ceremony either, and sat down directly on a cushion that had suddenly appeared.

"How did the talks go this time, coming to the Xiang Jianzong to discuss cooperation?" Xu Xing asked.

"..." Zixuan Zhenjun paused. "All right, I suppose."

Because the other Xian Sects hadn't been negotiated with yet, and combined with the fact that it was unclear how much 【Pure Moon】 had paid back then to obtain the support of the Divine Mechanism Treasure Refining Pavilion—

He couldn't quite gauge whether the conditions the Xiang Jianzong was currently putting forward were lenient or harsh.

"Go try a few more. Whichever house offers the best terms, choose that one."

The cooperation between 【Truthseeking】 and the Xiang Jianzong...

This sort of minor matter, naturally, he wouldn't meddle in.

The reason he brought it up specifically was mainly to let Zixuan Zhenjun have one less scruple.

"This junior understands," Zixuan Zhenjun said, not surprised in the slightest.

He had anticipated this before coming.

If the Xiang Jianzong senior's gaze had truly been limited to the Xiang Jianzong, back then he wouldn't have, upon learning of his experience, raised the sword in his hand against the Xiang Jianzong instead.

"Being able to meet the Xiang Jianzong senior this time, this junior does have a question I'd like to ask for guidance," he said proactively.

"Ask away."

"May I ask how the Xiang Jianzong senior views Yuan?"

Because he hadn't joined any Xian Sect, the information he could obtain wasn't much—in fact, far less than what the Orthodox Alliance had.

Even when Xuan broke into the Central Continent and took away 'Hun Tian Yi,' he only knew that some great enemy of the human race had broken into the Central Continent; as for what specifically happened, he knew nothing at all.

How did he view Yuan?

A trace of something odd flickered through Xu Xing's heart.

"He's done very well. Many things I failed to do, he's done them all."

Zixuan Zhenjun smiled:

"To receive such an evaluation from the Xiang Jianzong senior, Yuan, if he knew, would surely be very pleased."

"From the sound of it, you and Yuan are actually acquainted?"

"Yes, Yuan is indeed a friend of this junior's."

Back when Yuan had just reached Nascent Soul and was still very weak, he had already taken a great liking to Yuan and lent a hand many times.

"I won't hide it from you, senior—when I first met Yuan, I did harbor some thoughts of testing him."

Talent, temperament—both were top-notch.

To say he never had the thought of 'taking a disciple' would be a lie.

"Oh?" Xu Xing grew a bit interested. "Then why didn't it work out in the end?"

One had to know that after that purge, Zixuan Zhenjun had successfully advanced to Tongxuan—quite a substantial thigh to cling to.

No matter how fast Yuan's cultivation progressed later, at that time he was still very weak, precisely the moment when he desperately needed to cling to a powerful backer.

And in the end it hadn't worked out...

That's a bit strange!

"It's actually nothing much. It's just that Yuan later joined Listening Rain Tower, and as a junior I couldn't very well steal their people."

He himself had quite a good relationship with the previous generation's Tower Lord of Listening Rain Tower.

"Besides, being friends is ultimately more carefree than being master and disciple."

Not to mention Yuan's cultivation progress afterward was simply terrifying—in just a little over a thousand years he had completely surpassed him.

If it really came to pass, with the disciple's realm higher than the master's, how awkward would that be?

"Then did he invite you to join the Orthodox Alliance afterward?"

"No." Zixuan Zhenjun shook his head slightly, paused, then said, "But regarding this matter, he did explain it to me."

That was some time after Yuan founded the Orthodox Alliance and took the position of Speaker.

"He said that on a momentary impulse, he had gained the favor of many seniors, and so ended up founding such a neither-fish-nor-fowl Orthodox Alliance."

"But the Orthodox Alliance was too idealistic from the very start. Even if he stayed within the Alliance the whole time, he couldn't necessarily guarantee it wouldn't go astray in the future."

"So he hoped to leave some seniors outside the Alliance, so that when it did go astray later there would be people to sound the warning."

Saying this, Zixuan Zhenjun smiled:

"In his words, this is called 'don't put all your eggs in one basket.'"

Besides him, there were also some high-level cultivators on good terms with Yuan who received his request.

"Oh, right." Zixuan Zhenjun seemed to recall something. "I remember Yuan also mentioned that if the Alliance ultimately ended up at the outcome he didn't hope for, there would be a senior with a rather eccentric temperament, one he didn't really want to deal with, who would step in through arrangements Yuan had left behind to set things right."

This was something Yuan brought up while drunk at their last gathering.

Hearing this, a strange glint flashed in Xu Xing's eyes.

An eccentric-tempered senior he didn't really want to deal with?

If he wasn't mistaken…

Tsk tsk!

To escape its entanglement, he had racked his brains for a solution, only for the final trump card to turn out to be him.

Yuan really was a scheming one too.

……

……

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

The Xiang Jianzong's outer-disciple martial arena.

Because Lin Changsheng had not long ago arranged for his life-bound sword to deliver the batch of spiritual herbs it had just exchanged to his cave abode and hand them to Qing.

And because many places within the Xiang Jianzong had speed limits, especially for unmanned flying swords…

So Lin Changsheng, a sword cultivator, ultimately chose to spar with Zhu Feng empty-handed.

Zhu Feng was quite indignant about this.

He felt Lin Changsheng was looking down on him, so he insisted on waiting for his life-bound sword delivering the herbs to return.

Only then would he have a fair and square contest with Lin Changsheng!

Even though Lin Changsheng explained that the result would be the same whether he was empty-handed or wielding a sword, Zhu Feng simply refused to agree no matter what.

In the end it was Wu Zhongfeng who grew tired of waiting and spoke up to urge him on, and only then did Zhu Feng reluctantly agree.

He didn't know why either—even though he already knew Wu Zhongfeng was a Heaven-Human cultivator, he still wanted to show off a bit…

Of course, this was merely his own personal thought.

Ding!

Amid the crisp clash of metal, a sharp war-blade stabbed into the brick and stone of the dueling platform.

Zhu Feng's face flushed beet red, his whole body half-kneeling on the ground, sliding backward almost in a lateral glide, the blade-tip scraping bright sparks across the platform.

Opposite him, Lin Changsheng appeared entirely at ease, a thin layer of white light glowing on his two pressed-together fingers.