Chapter 228

On the She River in Jianzhou.

A small boat went down the river, and on the boat stood a silver-haired youth in grey linen robes with his hands behind his back.

On the river bank, beautiful and magnificent mountain colors with red mountains and green water and purple Qi rising gradually appeared. The mountains were towering, and the peaks confronted each other like dragons and tigers fighting. The mountains stood by the water, and the water circled the mountains, like a natural landscape painting.

The silver-haired youth in grey linen robes on the small boat suddenly stepped on the cloud Qi and went up. After seven or eight breaths, he landed outside a vast mansion.

"Sigh, after all the turns, I finally came to Longhu Mountain."

The youth's gentle voice spread in all directions:

"I am Zhuang Buran. I have long heard of the fame of the Four Heavenly Masters of Longhu Mountain, please let me see them."

Instantly, a large group of Longhu Mountain Taoists ran out as if facing a great enemy, and four old Taoists strode out, all in a posture of waiting in full battle array.

The four old Taoists were dressed with their own characteristics. The eldest had hair and beard like snow, wearing sandals and clean socks. The next oldest Taoist was relatively sloppy, with stains visible on his blue cloth thick cotton robe.

The other two, one wore a pure yellow Taoist robe, and one wore pure yellow inside and a purple coat outside. They were Zhao Xiyi, Zhao Xituan, Zhao Danping, and Zhao Danxia.

Among them, Zhao Xiyi was the head of the Four Heavenly Masters and also the father of the contemporary Longhu Mountain sect leader Zhao Danxia, while Zhao Danping was also his son, and Zhao Xituan was his own younger brother.

Zhuang Buran had a smile on his face:

"The contemporary Four Heavenly Masters are really interesting, all of them are direct descendants of the Heavenly Master. Old Heavenly Master Zhao is quite good at teaching students according to their aptitude, cultivating both sons into talents."

Zhao Xiyi made a Taoist salute:

"To be praised like this by the elusive Immortal Zhuang, the old Taoist is honored. I don't know why Immortal Zhuang has come today?"

Zhuang Buran said unhurriedly:

"Zhuang also wants to ask a question: Longhu Mountain has had a hereditary Taoist lineage for over sixty generations, and every generation has produced talents, so why do you still reach out so messily?"

After hearing this, everyone's hearts sank inexplicably. It was just that the silver-haired immortal youth, who was stunning enough to make people unable to move their eyes, inadvertently revealed a fierce and monstrous aura, immediately making people feel the horror of being pointed at the center of their brows by a sword tip, with life and death not in their own hands.

Zhao Xituan stepped out and said sternly:

"Beiliang has been destroyed, and only a young child remains of the Xu family. Can't you let Immortal Zhuang raise your hand?"

The youth in grey linen robes shook his head and laughed:

"You old Taoist are good at speaking. You took Xu Longxiang as a disciple because you valued his talent, possessing the magnificent root bone of being born in the Vajra realm. Once his wisdom is clear, the Great Vajra realm is within reach, and he can forge a true indestructible body."

"He is exactly the opposite of Hong Xixiang of Wudang Mountain. That fake Taoist scholar was born with a heart aperture in this life, and because there is one extra 'one,' he can derive ten thousand things. Xu Longxiang is missing one 'one,' so he doesn't have to worry about not understanding the longevity of the Dao for years, and his heart aperture is blocked by yellow dust."

Zhao Xituan said in a deep voice:

"Immortal Zhuang has great divine powers and is no longer an ordinary person. To you, Hong Xixiang, the reincarnation of Patriarch Lu, what is he? Just an ordinary swordsman."

"Hahaha, you old Taoist are really good at speaking."

The youth in grey linen robes clapped his hands and smiled:

"It's a pity... Zhuang just likes killing people and setting fires, and exterminating whole families."

He looked at the Longhu sect leader Zhao Danxia with a smiling face:

"Let me ask one more question: is the inheritance of a small branch greater than the inheritance of the entire Taoist lineage?"

As soon as the words fell, everyone present felt a chill down their spines, their bodies trembled, and the horror in their hearts became even more intense.

"Immortal Zhuang, wait!"

A youth with carved powder and jade, red lips and white teeth, and clear eyebrows and eyes descended from the sky, and then a middle-aged Taoist brought down a sallow and thin youth.

The middle-aged Taoist threw the sallow and thin youth, who had no breath, to the ground and said:

"The Xu family remnant Xu Longxiang is dead, please take a look, Immortal Zhuang."

Seeing this, Zhao Xituan was stunned on the spot as if struck by lightning. Seeing the two who took action, he couldn't say anything.

"Interesting. I have long heard that the Heavenly Master's Mansion still hides two people. One should be called Zhao Huangchao, a prince of the Liyang Zhao clan. For the sake of the Zhao clan's Qi luck, he abandoned the country and beauties to enter Longhu Mountain to build a hut and practice. One is the direct descendant of the Heavenly Master, Zhao Xuansu. Although he is in the Land Immortal realm and looks like a young true immortal, his body is already rotten and he cannot open the Heavenly Gate to ascend, so he can only linger on."

Zhuang Buran glanced at the youth with clear eyebrows and eyes:

"Considering that the Heavenly Master's Mansion is still sensible, I have no reason to take action. It just so happens that I will use your strength to help me do one thing."

Zhao Xuansu made a Taoist salute:

"Longhu Mountain is willing to work like a dog for Immortal Zhuang."

"Three months later, on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, on the shores of the East Sea, anyone in the world who wants to become an immortal can come. Zhuang will not hesitate to offer a fortune. Besides opening the Heavenly Gate, I will send those who have ambition but no ability to ascend."

The youth in grey linen robes waved his sleeves, and Xu Longxiang's corpse instantly turned into fly ash in the flames.

"In this way, it will not be in vain that people in the world call me, this peerless fierce person, an immortal."

When a burst of laughter echoed on Longhu Mountain, the youth in grey linen robes had already stepped on the clouds and gone far away.

Everyone was speechless about this, and their eyes flashed with flickering light, just because the word "ascension," even for the disciples of Longhu Mountain, seemed too ethereal, just because their own sect also had people who proved the Dao and ascended every hundred years.

Now that a peerless existence far beyond imagination has appeared, willing to open the door of convenience, how could it not make more than ninety percent of the people in the world feel moved?

Zhao Danxia asked:

"Old Ancestor, how much of what this person said do you think is true, and how much is false?"

Zhao Xuansu pondered for a long time, and finally couldn't help but smile bitterly:

"True or false is no longer important, because even I am moved."

In the next three months, whether it was Liyang or Northern Mang, the three teachings and nine schools of thought all headed to the East Sea.

Just because the existence who is written as a fierce person and read as an immortal, through the mouths of the Four Heavenly Masters of Longhu Mountain, said he wanted to create an unprecedented martial arts event and send the entire Jianghu to ascend and become immortals.

This caused countless people to move upon hearing the news. They didn't think this person would talk nonsense. After all, someone who could easily destroy two or three hundred thousand people, saying he was some kind of immortal, was already looking down on him by seventy or eighty percent.

One must know that a Land Immortal can at most deal with two thousand people, and sometimes a line of difference is infinitely far, not to mention the difference between clouds and mud now.

Therefore, even if the words about sending the entire Jianghu to ascend and become immortals came from the mouth of Wang Xianzhi, who had been invincible for sixty years, it would only be treated as a joke.

But if it came from the mouth of Immortal Zhuang, who destroyed Beiliang, they believed it by seventy or eighty percent immediately.

This made the East Sea area increasingly lively during this period, and the East Sea Martial Emperor City was overcrowded and congested.

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month.

On the shores of the East Sea stood a towering city. The city walls were inserted with dense weapons, all of which were witnesses to Wang Xianzhi's time as the number one person in the world.

At this moment, the Martial Emperor City, which could originally only hold more than one hundred thousand people, had at least two hundred thousand people, and there were two or three hundred thousand people outside the city. Most of those standing outside were from various sects and Jianghu wanderers of Northern Mang.

Now the people inside and outside the city were all here for the appointment of ascension on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.

However, today the agreed time had arrived, but someone whose whereabouts had been uncertain since his birth never appeared.

On the city wall of the Martial Emperor City stood an old man in a black robe with white beard and hair, tall and burly. It was Wang Xianzhi.

Outside the city, there were also top experts with imposing manners, such as Deng Tai'a, who looked plain but was known as the Peach Blossom Sword God.

The tall and burly one-armed old man was Sui Xiagu, who swallowed countless famous swords into his belly and was known as the Sword-Eating Old Ancestor.

There was also a blind old zither player and an old Confucian scholar with frost-white temples. The former was Zhang Fuyao, who had independently judged the Qi luck of the human world for eight hundred years, and the latter was Huang Longshi, one of the three great demons of the Spring and Autumn period.

There were also famous figures in Northern Mang, such as Tuoba Bodhisattva, the number one person in Northern Mang who looked like a farmer, and the monk Longshu, the number one person in the Two Zen Temples. His disciple Li Dangxin was also there, known as having no Zen to participate in, and was recognized as a living Buddha in the world.

Besides this, Zhao Huangchao and Zhao Xuansu of Longhu Mountain were also present, Wujian, the head of the Wu Family Sword Tomb, and Song Nianqing, the sect leader of the East Yue Sword Pool, all came here.

There were also many martial arts experts who dominated one side, such as Chai Qingshan, a sword grandmaster whose sword technique was the best in the Southeast of the Central Plains, and Liu Haoshi, the ancestor of the Liu family of Nanyang, one of the ten great clans of the Spring and Autumn period.

The most eye-catching was a woman in white with red and purple eyes and a peerless appearance, who said her name was Huang Baozhuang.

Suddenly, a light laugh sounded inside and outside the Martial Emperor City:

"Hehe, Zhuang often says to himself: kindness is cutting off one's own meridians, ruthlessness is opening up the Ren and Du meridians."

"Persuading a gambler to turn back, teaching a giant baby to turn over, helping mud onto the wall, pointing the way for fools—all these are not accumulating virtue, but using Samadhi True Fire to burn one's own life."

"But who let Zhuang always be rebellious and violent, most unafraid of acting, and fearless of heaven's might."

"Fellow Daoists, are you ready?"

A light flashed in mid-air, manifesting a silver-haired youth in grey linen robes.

"When the yin and yang are in chaos, I will definitely dye the blue sky with my blood, which is the time for you to ascend to immortality!"

(End of chapter)