Chapter 83: The Secret Sacrificial Art Left Behind by the Ancestor

Ye Zhangmen walked to the spirit tablet, also picked up a bundle of incense and lit it, "You have done this before; clearly nothing happened, yet you insist on finding excuses. I respect you for always taking care of me, so I've repeatedly gone along with you. You should change your approach."

Lu Xingfeng said, "It's not about being new; as long as it works. Look, you still came."

"I was thinking, just in case you really had some connection to our sect's secret, that's why I came over. But you're still like this. Lu Xingfeng, this is the last time." Ye Zhangmen finished the ritual and lit the incense, then turned to leave.

Lu Xingfeng blocked her path, "Junior sister, this time it's real."

Ye Zhangmen stopped, "Then speak quickly."

Lu Xingfeng said, "Before I tell the secret, I want to chat about something else first."

Ye Zhangmen saw his solemn expression, completely different from the look he had when he previously made excuses to meet her, so she patiently looked at him and uttered three short words, "I'm listening."

Lu Xingfeng stared into Ye Zhangmen's eyes, "Junior sister, over these ten years, have you truly never felt anything for me?"

Ye Zhangmen wore a look of helplessness, "No."

"Not even a little..." Lu Xingfeng still unwilling, "A little bit? Not even that?"

"No." Ye Zhangmen still answered bluntly.

In the candlelight, Lu Xingfeng's refined visage trembled slightly; he forced a smile, "Then... how exactly can I make you love me?"

Ye Zhangmen frowned, "Senior Brother Lu, I've told you many times already: I regard you as the person I respect most besides my master. Your kindness and care for me are etched in my heart. This feeling is like family, even surpassing family, but it has nothing to do with love, and I could never love you."

"Junior sister..." Lu Xingfeng still wanted to say more.

Ye Zhangmen interrupted, "We're both over forty; I've laid everything out plainly, without beating around the bush like a child. Isn't that clear enough?"

Lu Xingfeng fell silent for a moment, lightly sighed, turned his back with hands behind him, gazing at the dark night outside the Ancestral Hall doors, "Clear enough, indeed... I too should wake up."

Ye Zhangmen's tone softened, "Senior brother, it's almost midnight; please tell me the secret you want to share."

Lu Xingfeng turned his face, "I ask you one last time: if I become a man who holds power over all under heaven, would you be my woman? Even if you don't love me, it wouldn't matter."

Ye Zhangmen's patience was nearly exhausted, yet out of years of fellow-disciple affection she kept a gentle attitude, "Senior brother should know I'm not someone who clings to power and wealth. Even if you held power over all under heaven, even if you became a king or unified the world, I would not be your woman; this has nothing to do with you, and I would not be with any other man either."

"Good, very good." Lu Xingfeng's voice turned cold, "Ye Zhiqiu, if that's the case, will you yield the Sect Leader position to me?"

This was the first time in ten years that Lu Xingfeng called her by her full name.

Even the three characters "Ye Zhiqiu" carried a faint hint of gritted teeth.

"Senior brother..." Ye Zhiqiu's heart gave a slight start; she quickly stepped back a few paces, "What do you mean?"

Lu Xingfeng still had his back to her, continuing, "I'm doing this for your own good. Since you don't love me and could never be my woman, I will take over the Tian Shu Sect for you, so you can seek the man you love, oh, and also your daughter."

Ye Zhiqiu stared at his back and said lightly, "You need not worry about this; I have my own plans."

As they spoke, images of the past flashed quickly through her mind.

Ten years ago she and her husband encountered mysterious pursuers; while driving, they accidentally plunged into the river.

They thought they were surely dead, but after the car sank underwater, a ring of strange light appeared around them.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived in another completely unfamiliar world.

Only later did they realize this world was Huaxia over two thousand years ago.

It was the era when the seven major states vied for hegemony over Zhong Yuan.

They could not return to modern times; they could only survive in this era.

Later, due to some important reason, the originally deeply loving couple developed a great rift, and each pursued their own goals, going separate ways.

"What plans?" Lu Xingfeng's voice pulled Ye Zhiqiu from her reverie back to reality.

Ye Zhiqiu's expression was complex, "Sorry, I cannot disclose."

She is a Time Traveler, and what she intends to do are all secrets that must not be leaked.

Not even her most trusted and revered master has she told; how could she tell Lu Xingfeng?

However, this is both to achieve her own goal and to protect the Tian Shu Sect.

If it were leaked, the sect might even face annihilation.

And to achieve her goal in the future, she must continue as Sect Leader of the Tian Shu Sect; otherwise, relying solely on her own strength, she might never accomplish it in her lifetime.

"Even me, you don't trust? You want to keep it from me?" Lu Xingfeng snapped his head back, eyes flashing with pain and disappointment, "Even if you don't love me, you wouldn't go so far as to guard against me, would you?"

"Ye Zhiqiu, I know you've been leading sect disciples in covert operations these years, but I've never interfered; on the contrary, whenever elders or others in the sect noticed, I even helped cover it up for you."

"And this is how you treat me?"

Facing Lu Xingfeng's questioning.

Ye Zhiqiu showed an apologetic look, "I'm not guarding against you; I'm merely forced to conceal for the sect's safety. But I can guarantee that what I do is absolutely not evil, I——"

"Enough!" Lu Xingfeng stared fixedly at her, "One word: will you give me the Sect Leader position or not!"

Ye Zhiqiu's apology faded, her eyes firm, "This position was entrusted to me by the former Sect Leader Master on his deathbed; if I let you become Sect Leader, wouldn't that violate his dying wish? Moreover, if others heard you say this, they'd think you're trying to seize power! Fortunately only we two are here, so I'll treat it as if you never said it—just this once, never again."

"Hahahaha!" Lu Xingfeng burst out laughing, "You've held the Sect Leader position for less than two years, yet you're putting on more and more airs of a Sect Leader! Now you're even using the identity of the former Sect Leader and your own current Sect Leader status to pressure me?"

Ye Zhiqiu felt utterly speechless inside.

If we were to be literal, she has never put on any airs before her fellow disciples.

Now, when I kindly reminded him, he instead slapped a label on me?

"Senior Disciple, the spirit tablets of the former Sect Leader and all past Sect Leaders are right here; watch your words." Ye Zhiqiu's tone carried a hint of warning.

"I just want to say this in front of these old fogies!"

Lu Xingfeng suddenly lunged forward in a single stride, grabbed Ye Zhiqiu's neck with one hand, and sneered, "You'd better obediently yield the Sect Leader position, or don't blame me for being rude."

Ye Zhiqiu clearly understood that, as a modern person whose flesh had crossed over, even if she had learned a bit of martial arts from the former Sect Leader, she was absolutely no match for Lu Xingfeng, who had trained in martial arts since childhood.

She neither panicked nor resisted, because she still hadn't figured out what secret the other party wanted to say.

"Senior Disciple, do you want to kill me?" she calmly looked into his eyes, "All past Sect Leaders are surely watching from heaven. Moreover, how would you explain it to all the disciples of the sect afterward? Aren't you afraid of bearing the infamy of killing a Sect Leader and seizing power for the rest of your life?"

"Kill you?" Lu Xingfeng laughed, "Killing you is easier than squashing a mosquito; if I wanted to do that, I would have already acted. Even now, I still want to give you a chance to voluntarily step down."

"Impossible," Ye Zhiqiu said flatly, "If you dare to strike, killing me is exactly what you'll do."

"All right." Lu Xingfeng's five fingers gradually tightened.

Ye Zhiqiu's hand was hidden in her sleeve, tightly gripping something, but she currently did not want to counterattack.

As Lu Xingfeng exerted a bit of strength, her face flushed.

Lu Xingfeng turned his head, glanced, and smiled: "Looks like you still trust me, coming to see me at this midnight, you didn't bring the attendants those old sect leaders arranged for you—I thought they'd show up."

Ye Zhiqiu strained: "Your martial arts... is the highest among all sect members now; even if they came, they couldn't beat you... Lu Xingfeng, can you... before I die, tell me what secret of the Tian Shu Sect you actually know?"

Lu Xingfeng released some internal strength from between his fingers; after testing, he discovered Ye Zhiqiu's martial arts were indeed insufficient.

So he completely relaxed, loosening his grip.

Ye Zhiqiu covered her chest with one hand and coughed.

Lu Xingfeng raised his head: "I won't kill you, because, as you said, then I'd have trouble handling the aftermath. But I don't need to kill you—I can also make you honestly relinquish the Sect Leader position."

"Not only that, I also want you from now on, whether you like it or not, to be my woman."

"I'm still waiting for you to obediently serve me in bed—how could I bear to kill you?"

At this moment, Lu Xingfeng, who usually appears refined and scholarly, instead made his expression look even more terrifying.

"Do we really have to come to this point?" Ye Zhiqiu asked.

"The choice is yours," Lu Xingfeng's eyes flashed cold light, "You want to know the secret, right? Now I can tell you, and this is also exactly why you will surely relinquish the Sect Leader position to me, Ye Zhiqiu—I have given you chance after chance; it's you who forced me to this point."

Ye Zhiqiu gripped the thing inside her wide sleeve, gathered her spirit: "I'm all ears."

Lu Xingfeng stood with hands behind his back, slowly saying: "Hundreds of years ago, the first patriarch of Tian Shu Sect came from an evil heretical path—you know that?"

Ye Zhiqiu nodded: "I've heard a little."

Lu Xingfeng sneered: "Later, he founded Tian Shu Sect; after the efforts of several early sect leaders, to survive in the martial world and not be wiped out by the orthodox, they gradually discarded the first patriarch's abilities. But—except for one."

"What?" Ye Zhiqiu's strong interest was aroused.

Lu Xingfeng gazed at the dark silhouette of the continuous mountains under the night sky, seeing faint firelights rising at the altar platform direction, and continued: "That patriarch established the sect here because he discovered within Zhuiyingjian a giant snake capable of turning into a flood dragon; he researched the sacrificial offering technique and made a contract with the giant snake."

"Ah?" Ye Zhiqiu dazed.

She has been here for ten years; her own time travel was already bizarre, and later she encountered some strange phenomena, gradually getting used to.

After all, it's over two thousand years ago; this era is not especially distant from ancient myth times.

But now hearing about a giant snake that can turn into a flood dragon, about a sacrificial offering contract, still feels absurd.

"Really?" Ye Zhiqiu incredulous.

Lu Xingfeng, too lazy to care whether she believes now, paced while saying: "Later, the early sect leaders of Tian Shu Sect thought the ancestor's other evil arts could be destroyed, but that giant snake might later become the sect's treasure; in case of a sect life‑death crisis, it could still be a reliance, so they secretly kept the sacrificial secret technique to summon the giant snake."

Ye Zhiqiu puzzled: "How come I never heard the old sect leaders talk about it?"

"He?" Lu Xingfeng laughed, "Not just him—several generations of sect leaders above him didn't know, because this secret is too ancient, already unknown two or three hundred years ago."

Ye Zhiqiu still doubtful: "Then how did you know? Could it be you lived two or three hundred years?"

Lu Xingfeng, proud: "I'll tell you another related small secret—actually I have an ancestor who once was the attendant of the fourth sect leader of Tian Shu Sect; that ancestor secretly copied the sacrificial technique to summon the giant snake and placed it in the family heirloom."

"Forty years ago, when I was only a few years old, the world was already in constant war, people suffering, my family all died—only me left—I had to pawn the family heirloom."

"But that family heirloom was just a small crude ugly clay figurine; nobody wanted to buy it, even giving it away was disliked—I angrily smashed it, and discovered: inside the clay figurine fragments were inscribed the secret technique and that segment about the giant snake's secret history."

"Although at that time I didn't know many characters, I still memorized every single character in my mind."

"Later, I drifted to Yuqi Mountain, was taken in as disciple by the old sect leader, taught reading, taught martial arts, and finally I knew this huge secret."

After hearing these, Ye Zhiqiu was astonished, couldn't close her mouth.

He said it too detailed, and so bizarre it doesn't seem like something made up.

Ye Zhiqiu steadied herself, asked: "Assuming what you said is all fact, then you mean you want to use this secret technique to exchange for the Sect Leader position with me?"

"Hahaha! You're really naive!" Lu Xingfeng curled his lips, "I have such a powerful secret technique—do I need to exchange it with you? Can't I use it myself?"

"Ye Zhiqiu, now the altar platform has already prepared everything; as long as I send out a signal, the four hundred low‑level disciples of the sect on the altar platform will have their throats cut and bled by my people…"

He hadn't finished speaking when Ye Zhiqiu was greatly startled.

"You actually dare to do such a heaven‑defying atrocity?!"

"Praise aside, actually this isn't even much."

Lu Xingfeng's smile grew thicker: "After bleeding, the giant snake will crawl up from Zhuiyingjian below; I can secretly drive it, let it open its belly to eat people. My dear junior sister, do you really want to see you inheriting the old sect leader's wish, painstakingly operated sect flow into blood? Do you really want to see those who respect and protect you, all die in the snake's mouth?"