Chapter 624: The Sentient Beings Have Nothing to Do With Me

Master Tushan?

Name, Master Tushan!

The surrounding Foundation Establishment cultivators were bewildered, furious, feeling they had been made fools of.

Other Foundation Establishment cultivators began to tremble, recalling the events of the past hundred years.

From a mere Qi Refining cultivator all the way to Foundation Establishment, the better part of their lives had been lived under the shadow of the Master Tushan Old Ancestor's might.

Back then, they had even believed that from the day they were born to the day they died, and that their children and grandchildren from birth to death, would all grow accustomed to the Master Tushan Old Ancestor's might, until a time so distant they could not fathom it.

Back then, they were accustomed to the order within Master Tushan Xiancheng — orderly, methodical, demonic cultivation strictly forbidden — spending their lives dutifully as good cultivators.

Then, suddenly.

General General Heishi's immortal-seed cultivators arrived, many people died, a new order emerged — more chaotic, more bloody, more brutal.

Diligence and craftsmanship were no longer standards by which a cultivator's strength was measured; only the cruelest, the bloodiest, the cultivators most capable of extracting profit from other cultivators and mortals were the ones Master Tushan Xiancheng needed.

The path to Jin Dan became an unspeakable delusion, one that would invite terrible calamity.

But, what could one do?

General General Heishi would kill every outsider cultivator who had any chance of forming a core; even outstanding mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators were on that dreadful blood-list, vanishing without a trace at some unknown moment.

Only mediocre, loyal Foundation Establishment cultivators were permitted to live along the path General General Heishi had so painstakingly built.

At this moment, the instant the two characters "Master Tushan" appeared,

every cultivator's gaze fell upon the blue-robed youth before the city gate.

A blue-robed, sword-bearing youth of sixteen.

And a face that had not changed in a hundred years.

Exactly as it was in memory.

"Greetings, Old Ancestor!"

A Foundation Establishment cultivator whose hair was beginning to grey shot a burning light from his eyes, dropping to his knees without a moment's hesitation.

"Greetings, Old Ancestor!"

"Congratulations on your return, Old Ancestor — immortality and eternal life…"

Many surrounding Foundation Establishment cultivators likewise knelt and worshipped, shouting frenziedly.

These cultivators, mid-Foundation Establishment and above, were older, had lived through the former Master Tushan Xiancheng era, stood alone, had no descendants, or did not hold their descendants in their hearts.

Their hearts held only the great Dao of Jin Dan; heedless of all else, so long as there was hope they would throw themselves at it like moths to a flame.

The remaining Foundation Establishment cultivators hesitated.

Older Foundation Establishment cultivators who had lived through the former Master Tushan era, with ties that bound them, feared being implicated, and wavered.

Younger Foundation Establishment cultivators were startled and uncertain, not trusting this newly appeared stranger.

In the end, a small number of Foundation Establishment cultivators, while respectfully lowering their heads, sent transmissions to various places — they were General General Heishi's diehards, or General General Heishi's own Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The Qi Refining cultivators, meanwhile, were utterly bewildered, not knowing what to do.

A hundred aspects of sentient beings, each with their own choice.

The only common point was,

insignificance.

The wind blows, the mountain collapses — whether the people within rejoice or fear, they can change nothing.

They can only grow accustomed, and endure.

"Mm."

Jiang Ding nodded lightly, reached out with a beckoning motion, and Li Li Mingda's head fell into his hand.

Wisps and strands of sword Qi seeped from between his fingers; the vicious restraints imprisoning the soul melted away like ice and snow, without harming the soul within in the slightest.

Instead, a stream of clear light poured into it, causing the weakened soul to gradually grow solid, not dispersing even under the sunlight.

Thud thud thud…

The instant the head was taken, wisps and strands of invisible curse wound their way from the head toward Jiang Ding; the city-wall formation rumbled, sternly issuing commands in all directions.

Terrible visions of General General Heishi's punishments flashed through the souls of the surrounding city-guarding cultivators, and they could not help but shudder.

From farther away, more cultivators formed battle arrays and came killing toward this place.

Within a few breaths, over a hundred cultivators arrived swiftly, each clad in black, murderous aura soaring to the heavens.

The surrounding cultivators scrambled aside in panic, terrified and wary beyond measure.

These people were precisely the infamous Black-Clad Guards of the immortal city, the nightmare of countless cultivators; it was said that in the past, loose cultivators and the exceptionally talented within the immortal city were all dealt with by them, and they rarely failed.

"You!"

"Put down the head of the Xiang Xiang Qiyu remnant!"

A late-Foundation Establishment cultivator with a square face, surrounded by the battle array of over a hundred cultivators, shouted fiercely: "General General Heishi is the descendant of Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun — even a Jin Dan Old Ancestor must not run amok in our Master Tushan Xiancheng!"

The moment these words were spoken, the surrounding cultivators were seized with terror.

Even those Foundation Establishment cultivators who had first knelt and pledged themselves now felt much regret, their eyes darting left and right, seeking an escape route.

Jiang Ding paid no heed to any of this.

He continued, with utmost care, to use magic power and soul-nurturing spiritual medicines to mend Li Li Mingda's soul, which was on the verge of shattering.

This old man, though he had no particular friendship with him, could still be considered an old acquaintance.

Over these years, Long San, Huang De-you and the others had gradually died, old acquaintances passing away one by one; feeling much emotion, and having chanced upon him, he casually lent a hand to save him.

"Seeking death!"

"Stubbornly incorrigible!"

The square-faced cultivator, born of a General General Heishi branch line, did not know what an "old acquaintance" meant; he only knew that if he hesitated any longer, the punishments of the main-line cultivators would leave him unable to live or die — hundreds of times more dreadful than death itself.

"Kill him!"

The square-faced cultivator barked sharply, a ghost-head greatsword wreathed in eerie Yin Qi cleaving down with a rushing wind. The swordsmanship was grim and stern, eighteen ghost generals wailing alongside it.

"Kill!"

Over a hundred cultivators to the side roared in unison, their Dharma artifacts falling in perfect concert. Their coordination was exquisite beyond compare, the artifacts converging into a river, further amplified by the faint augmentation of a battle formation. The might was terrifying, causing the expressions of the surrounding Foundation Establishment cultivators to change drastically.

These fearsome attacks, without the slightest mercy, struck toward the blue-robed youth cradling a weakened remnant soul for treatment.

Clang!

A faint sword-chime.

No flying sword was seen leaving its sheath, yet sword Qi spilled out in all directions.

The converging river of Dharma artifacts, a flood of terrifying might, stuttered. Their spiritual light was utterly extinguished, and they fell from the sky, crashing onto the ground with clattering sounds, sparks flying in all directions.

"No…"

The square-faced cultivator and the hundred-plus black-clothed guards wore expressions of terror. Not a single word escaped them. Their spell shields dissipated, their auras vanished entirely, and their bodies collapsed limply to the ground.

On their entire bodies, there was not a single wound.

"Hiss hiss…"

The surrounding Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators were seized with dread.

They all lowered their heads deeply, silent as a graveyard. Many cultivators with shallower knowledge immediately carved the name Master Tushan deep into their minds.

Jiang Ding focused entirely on healing the remnant soul before him, never once distracted, doing his utmost to keep its divine soul intact.

If there truly were such things as reincarnation, it would be good to be reborn into a decent family, not in vain for their acquaintance over a hundred years past.

"... It hurts... spare me..."

"... Spare my life..."

The remnant soul awoke, its face hideously contorted, wailing and sobbing without cease. Clearly it had endured torments beyond the limits of a divine soul in the past, weeping tears of anguish.

After a long while, it barely regained a sliver of spiritual intelligence.

"Little Martial Uncle?"

"Little Martial Uncle!!"

Li Li Mingda looked over and over again, his body jolting, wild with joy.

Before him was unmistakably the most talented in the history of Xiang Qiyu Sect, the Old Ancestor's Junior Martial Brother who possessed a defective Innate Sword Body!

Merely this was not enough to make him so overjoyed.

What was even more encouraging was that this Little Martial Uncle was famously cautious. In his youth he could stay on a single small mountain for decades on end, never taking half a step away, his patience terrifyingly strong. It was absolutely impossible for him to fall into danger.

In other words…

"Mm, it's me."

"Senior Li, rest a moment."

Jiang Ding replied with a smile, telling him it was not an illusion.

After some comforting, he put Li Li Mingda away.

Jiang Ding looked toward the empty void not far away, and the writhing third-tier top-grade formation patterns all around.

There was someone here.

"You are late-stage Jin Dan?"

Jiang Ding was slightly surprised, recalling the information on General General Heishi.

After reading a vast number of texts, he could now be called the cultivator in this world who understood General General Heishi the most.

In a few hundred years from now, if anyone were to study the General Heishi of the Black Snow Great Grassland, he would be the undisputed towering figure of the field.

"You are called Hei Hei Zefeng, the son of Hei Hei Chengwu. He placed you on this escape route, which shows he also had his painstaking efforts, and is not entirely a cold and heartless sort."

Jiang Ding said quietly.

"Who are you?"

Ahead, the void shimmered vaguely. A short-bearded burly man whose appearance resembled the General Heishi clan leader Hei Hei Chengwu was forcibly dragged out from his stealth state, looking at the blue-robed youth before him with alarm and uncertainty.

(End of this chapter)