Chapter 334

Behind the water-splashing old man, in the middle of the two horse-riding immortals surrounding him, stood a tender young child about seven or eight years old, with a chubby little face fair with a hint of red, extremely cute.

However, this seemingly harmless cute child instantly made the situation inside the hall very strange. The horse-riding immortals, as if they had seen a lifeline, became extremely excited. Meanwhile, the Yin masters' side grew strange; although I could not see their expressions, seeing Fan Tiangsheng walk to my front and tightly shield me behind him, I could imagine that whoever could make Fan Tiangsheng this nervous is surely no ordinary figure.

The child entered the hall and, bowing loudly before the bronze coffin Yin master, said: "Ghost Heavenly Child under the Sect Ancestor Qingfeng, I pay respects to Ancestor Yu Tai."

The child's words instantly turned my insides upside down.

When I first saw the bronze coffin master, I thought he must be some senior expert of Yin Mountain, but I never imagined he was actually one of the four grand ancestors of my Yin Mountain, Ancestor Yu Tai.

Human skin, tree's shadow—Ancestor Yu Tai rose to fame in the late Qing and early Republic, being hailed as the first person of Yin Mountain's Pangu Law since the Qing dynasty; he does not know the Ghost King's script, never commands troops, and possesses no magical implements at all.

He specialized in Pangu martial arts, his most famous move being the Thousand-Jin Spike from that art, which binds ghosts so they vanish and binds people so their bodies split.

Although Ancestor Yu Tai fell in that battle in the Yunnan gorge, his residual might still awed all the rats who dared to offend Yin Mountain, protecting the sect for nearly half a century. Even after his death, whenever the older Daoist Sect masters hear his name, they involuntarily tremble three times—because Ancestor Yu Tai acted with extreme cruelty, his martial prowess was superb, leaving an indelible shadow in the hearts of the old masters.

The so-called Ghost Heavenly Child, with a single sentence revealing Ancestor Yu Tai's identity, threw the entire hall into an uproar.

The Yin masters of Yin Mountain obviously knew the ancestor's identity and showed no great reaction, but the immortals confined to the side were different: upon hearing the name Yu Tai, they trembled with fear, even the leading Huang Pizi could not help but cry out in terror.

"Yu Tai, you are actually Yu Tai..."

"How dare you utter the ancestor's name directly, you immortal!" Fan Tiangsheng showed no mercy, a blast of Yin wind command struck Huang Pizi.

Seeing the immortals of the Great Hall being bullied, Ghost Heavenly Child's emotion hardly fluctuated. He laughed and bowed to Ancestor Yu Tai, saying: "Senior Yu Tai, might I ask you to grant Sect Ancestor Qingfeng a favor, considering we are all from the same school, let this matter pass; my Samman Sect will not settle scores later, and will be deeply grateful for your magnanimity."

When Ghost Heavenly Child finished speaking, the hall fell into silent stillness; the bronze coffin carried by the Five Direction Ghost Kings made no sound, Ancestor Yu Tai remained silent, and nobody present dared to speak.

I quietly leaned close to Fan Tiangsheng's cloak and, puzzled, asked him: "Senior Fan, when did the leader of this ghost immortal sect, Qingfeng, become connected with my Yin Mountain Sect?"

Fan Tiangsheng softly replied to my words.

"Qingfeng was originally a short-lived ghost; after death he descended to the netherworld, King Yan seeing his handsome looks sent him to Yin Mountain to endure bitter cultivation, the Yin Mountain patriarch transmitted his teachings to him so he could pass between the yin and yang realms, allowing him to travel to the Ten Courts of Yan, the city gods and land deities relay messages, and Earth Store sealed him as a ghost immortal, receiving paper money during festivals."

This passage is likely one of the chants of the Northeastern Immortal Hall; the Northeastern Immortal Hall has preserved these chants so that future disciples may remember each sect leader's origin.

However, I never expected that the ancestor of this ghost immortal sect, Qingfeng, was actually a disciple of the Yin Mountain patriarch.

Upon learning this, I inwardly cursed the treachery. The Northeastern Immortal Hall, which had sworn to destroy my Yin Mountain Dao, actually has a leader who is a disciple of our Yin Mountain patriarch, and this disciple, at a critical moment, even took the side of the Northeastern Immortal Hall and pleaded for them.

I was not the only one angry; the Yin masters behind Fan Tiangsheng were also furious.

"Since you know we are fellow Yin Mountain disciples, why then do you favor the Northeastern Immortal Hall in bullying my Yin Mountain Sect? Could it be that, after becoming the leader of the Northeastern Immortal Hall, Qingfeng has forgotten his ancestors?"

Although these Yin masters' seniority falls short of Ghost Heavenly Child's and Ancestor Yu Tai's, they still possess proud bones; the Dao lineage is their faith.

Ancestor Yu Tai remained silent throughout, the bronze coffin lying quietly in the hall, its stillness exerting an invisible pressure on everyone; meanwhile, Ghost Heavenly Child also stood quietly, his face neither humble nor arrogant, without sorrow or joy.

"Senior Yu Tai, this was originally just a minor dispute between the Great Hall immortals and your Yin Mountain juniors; I have investigated the cause and effect, and it all stems from that wicked wild cat."

Seeing everyone quiet down, the Fox Immortal behind Ghost Heavenly Child stepped forward, paused, and explained to Ancestor Yu Tai: "That wild cat stole the military talisman of the Samman Sect's Old Four Hall and Utterly Exterminated Hall; fearing the cat would use the talisman to command troops and sow discord within my Samman Sect, that is why I snatched the wild cat from the hands of the Daoist Master Chen of Yin Mountain."

From the Fox Immortal's explanation we learned the full story: originally, the cat immortal who had snatched Qingqing's vitality stole the Samman Sect's military talisman. The Samman Sect is the Northeastern Horse-Riding Immortal teaching, and the Great Hall is one of its halls.

The military talisman is a token bestowed by each sect leader to the hall master for mobilizing troops; it recognizes the token, not the person, and is extremely important to the Horse‑Riding Hall. That day, when Hu Xian had just found the Cat Immortal, she saw me preparing to strike her down fatally; fearing the loss of the military talisman, she therefore snatched the Cat Immortal from my hand by any means.

Gu Tian Tong said, as long as the Shaman Sect extracts the whereabouts of the military talisman through interrogation, they will surely hand the Cat Immortal over to me for me to dispose of as I wish, after all this Cat Immortal is also an evil immortal who cultivates by seizing human qi, doing wicked deeds; therefore the Shaman Immortal Hall will not protect such a scoundrel.

"You snatched my person, yet why do you still spout grandiose words, proclaiming to exterminate my Yin Mountain Dao lineage?" I stepped forward, pointed at her, and loudly questioned.

Hu Xian, upon being questioned by me like that, glared at me and retorted, "Junior, speak clearly; when did I ever say I would exterminate your Yin Mountain Dao lineage?"

I pointed at the gray rat hiding behind him and said, "That's what the Gray Immortal said: in the woods, after you seized the Cat Immortal, that Gray Immortal secretly followed me into the ancient fortress, where my brothers caught him. Afterwards he said you sent him to tell me to come in person to apologize, otherwise you would gather the immortals of the Horse‑Riding Hall to exterminate my Yin Mountain Dao lineage."

I repeated the Gray Immortal's words from inside the ancient fortress to Hu Xian; as I repeated those words, not only I, but the robes of every Yin Master of the Yin Mountain Sect flared, killing qi leaking out, and I could not suppress the sliver of anger in my heart—only because the Ancestor Master Yu Tai was present here did I refrain from acting.

"Nonsense, Gray Immortal, come out!" After hearing my words, Hu Xian leaned on her cane and called forth the Gray Immortal hiding behind her.

"I only had you investigate their whereabouts to resolve this grudge. When did I ever say such things to you, or when did I ever say I would exterminate the Yin Mountain Dao lineage?" After Hu Xian's shout, the gray rat was terrified, collapsing to the ground, continuously kowtowing to beg for mercy from Grandma Hu, saying, "Grandma Hu, spare my life; I only lied because I feared they would kill me."

"Actually, I only wanted to scare them; I never imagined it would bring such great disaster upon the Great Unity Hall. Please, Grandma, spare my life; please, Master Chen, spare my life." Having said that, he kept turning toward me, continuously kowtowing to beg for mercy.

Hu Xian shook her cane and shouted angrily, "It's all because of you, this shameless liar, that my Great Unity Hall has suffered this calamity. You say, my Dragon‑Phoenix Hall has lost so many immortals in vain because of you—I ask you… what crime do you deserve?"

Hu Xian trembled with rage, incessantly cursing the gray rat.

"Enough..." a loud shout came from within the bronze coffin, startling the room into silence once more. Ancestor Master Yu Tai spoke, and no one dared to utter another word; the gray rat was so frightened it collapsed to the ground, softly sobbing.

After a moment, Ancestor Master Yu Tai slowly opened his mouth and said, "Hai Sheng, what do you think should be done about this?"

I was startled; I never expected Ancestor Master Yu Tai to ask for my opinion. As he posed that question, everyone's gaze in the room turned to me.

Looking at the battlefield strewn with wreckage, the injured feral immortals, and Fang Xin covered in wounds, I involuntarily felt guilt. Because of me alone, the Horse‑Riding Hall suffered losses, with more than half of its immortals killed or wounded; this guilt is truly too great for me to repay.

I took a deep breath, walked out amid everyone's astonished looks, arrived before the dying yellow-skinned immortal, and bowed.

"Sorry, it's my fault; a moment of impulsiveness let the Yin Masters besiege your Great Unity Hall. If I had arrived earlier and clarified things, perhaps this wouldn't have happened…"

By the end, I felt ever more remorseful, for a single drama had nearly caused an irreparable catastrophe; I almost brought an unresolvable grudge between the Yin Mountain Sect and the Horse‑Riding Immortal Hall.

"No… speaking of it, it's our Horse‑Riding Hall that was at fault first; if we could have explained the situation clearly when we seized the Cat Immortal, and if we could have properly disciplined the immortals under our hall, today's events would not have occurred." Fang Xin grabbed my shoulder and said softly.

He turned his head, glanced at the ravaged Horse‑Riding Immortal Hall, and then solemnly said in a low voice, "Please, all immortals and hall masters of the Great Unity Hall, remember today's lesson; henceforth, properly discipline the immortals under your charge—do not falsely claim to be the Jade Emperor or the Supreme Elder Lord by lying, and do not, relying on the prestige of my Dragon‑Phoenix Hall, fabricate right and wrong to stir up strife."

After Fang Xin finished speaking, most of the immortals of the Horse‑Riding Immortal Hall lowered their heads in shame. Impersonating deities and boasting through lies has always been the nature of animal immortals, but this time they truly received a lesson.

After disciplining the Horse‑Riding immortals, Fang Xin turned to me and said, "Over these years, our Great Unity Hall has failed to discipline its immortals; they rely on the hall's prestige to act arrogantly, often proclaiming they will exterminate other sects' lineages. If this continues, even without you coming to our door, it will stir up grudges between other major sects and our Dragon‑Phoenix Hall, and by then we may truly face the catastrophe of our hall's destruction."

He paused, then continued, "All of this is fate; it has been destined in the dark that our Great Unity Hall would suffer a calamity. I do not hate you; on the contrary, I will feel grateful to you, for a smooth cultivation journey has made some of our immortals consider themselves unsurpassable. After this tribulation, our Great Unity Hall will instead restrain that arrogance, truly comprehend the Dao of cultivation, and will not be swayed by greed, anger, ignorance, and other desires."

Fang Xin's words greatly changed my impression of him; frankly, if it were me, I doubt I could be as magnanimous as he is. Moreover, being able to turn sorrow into a lesson that every immortal remembers—it is precisely at this moment that I realized Fang Xin's identity is probably not as simple as I imagined.

A mere youth in his early twenties dared to reprimand the immortals of the hall; moreover, those immortals who had been disciplined did not dare to defy him, but instead listened quietly to Fang Xin's instruction, as if heeding the teachings of an elder.