Chapter 172: Never Wins Legend, the Imperial Uncle Protagonist (Requesting Monthly Votes!)

In short, since then, there was no longer such a thing as the Wu Family Sword Tomb—only the Sword Tomb, and the only Wu left there was Wu Xian.

Thinking of this, Wu Xian's eyes narrowed slightly as he recalled a Wu family member living in exile—the granddaughter of the Wu family patriarch, Wu Su, the former Sword Crown.

When Wu Xian cleansed the Wu Family Sword Tomb this time, this future protagonist's mother was not present.

Five years ago, she had already traveled the martial world under the title of Wu Family's current Sword Crown, and soon became known among martial artists.

Many renowned swordmasters challenged her, yet all were defeated by her blade.

Afterwards, none of them were angry; instead, they all marveled at Wu Su's sword talent, believing she had a strong chance of becoming the first female Sword Immortal in five centuries.

Yet just as the Wu family rejoiced at the prospect of a female Sword Immortal emerging, they received a devastating blow.

Wu Su suddenly announced she had betrayed the Wu Family Sword Tomb, renounced her title as Sword Crown, and eloped with a commoner named Xu Xiao—rumor had it they were already with child, and Wu Su's belly had begun to swell!

For the Wu family, who placed supreme value on bloodline purity, this was a thunderclap and a profound disgrace—and yet they could do nothing to stop them.

Not only was Wu Su's cultivation profound, already at the Heavenly Phenomenon realm, making her unmatched in the Sword Tomb save for the patriarch himself.

More importantly, that man named Xu Xiao was the Emperor of Liyang's most trusted general, commanding an army of over one hundred thousand iron cavalry alone.

When leading troops in battle, he routinely slaughtered entire cities, and his reputation as the Butcher was already taking shape.

Facing such a killing star, even the Wu Family Sword Tomb, which prided itself on superiority, dared not provoke him lightly, and could only grit their teeth and swallow their anger.

But publicly, they declared Wu Su a traitor, erased her name from the family genealogy, and forbade her from ever setting foot in the Wu Family Sword Tomb again.

"I wonder if she'll be pleased or saddened when she hears the Wu Family Sword Tomb has been destroyed?"

Wu Xian murmured to himself, a thoughtful glint in his eyes.

Though both were illegitimate, he had never interacted with Wu Su—after all, her grandfather was the Wu patriarch, a status far beyond that of mere commoners like him.

Yet precisely because of that, he bore her no grudge; after she declared her betrayal, they were, in a sense, on the same side.

But the moment he thought of this woman giving birth to Xu Fengnian, that nuisance, Wu Xian's teeth ached—he wondered whether he should find her and kill the future protagonist before he was even born.

Hmm… better not. Not only would such an act draw the attention of the True Martial Emperor, but harming a pregnant woman already crossed his own line—killing just Xu Fengnian simply wasn't worth it.

Let's wait until the brat is born. After all, if my plan succeeds, I might still find greater amusement from him later.

"Sigh… I'm just too kind-hearted."

Wu Xian sighed softly, his face filled with a sorrowful, benevolent expression.

Yet the boy sitting across from him twitched his lips uncontrollably.

Kind-hearted?

Don't joke—have you ever seen a kind person crush over three hundred men into bloody mist with his bare fists?

"Little Tai'e, were you just thinking ill of me in your mind?"

Sensing the boy's strange gaze, Wu Xian lowered his eyes and looked at him with a half-smile.

"H-How could that be! Deng Tai'e has always admired you, Brother Xian—I'd never speak ill of you! Hahaha!"

The boy—or rather, Deng Tai'e, the future Second Sword Immortal of Peach Blossom Sword from the original plotline—immediately forced a sweet smile and hastily changed the subject:

"By the way, Brother Xian, didn't you say you came to Jianzhou's Jiangdong to test the mettle of Xuan Yuan Dapan? When do we leave for Huishan?"

The region where the two now stood was called Jianzhou, located in the Jiangnan area, prosperous and wealthy.

Every year at this time, many scholarly talents were sent to the capital of Liyang, Tai'an City, making this place highly valued by the Confucian sect.

Beyond that, martial artists referred to Jianzhou with the saying: "Western Jiang's Longhu, Eastern Jiang's Xuan Yuan."

"Western Jiang's Longhu" referred to the Daoist ancestral seat, Long Hushan.

As is well known, in most wuxia worlds, the strongest fighters always include Daoist priests and bald monks—and the world of Snow in the Middle was no exception.

Take Long Hushan: most of its successive Tian Shi had reached the Heavenly Phenomenon realm; this generation's Zhao Danxia and Zhao Danping were no weaker than their predecessors.

Not to mention the two ancient immortals beneath Long Hushan who stubbornly refused to ascend, both at the Land Immortal realm.

Without exaggeration, in terms of sheer number and cultivation level of experts, Long Hushan reigned supreme in the Liyang martial world—far surpassing the Wu Family Sword Tomb.

No wonder, since Lu Zu's "ascension," Long Hushan had dominated the Daoist sect for five hundred years, crushing Mount Wudang beneath its heel—this was absolute power.

In contrast, the Xuan Yuan family, which stood alongside Long Hushan in Jianzhou, was only nominally slightly weaker—but in reality, the gap between them was immense.

The entire Xuan Yuan family had only one true expert: their ancestral patriarch, Xuan Yuan Dapan.

According to the original novel, this ancestral patriarch was a truly peculiar man, a master of riding fame.

At thirty, he challenged the Spear Immortal Wang Xiu and narrowly lost.

At forty, he single-handedly stormed the Wu Family Sword Tomb, demanding the then Sword Crown use his flying sword technique—failed again, then turned to sword comprehension.

At fifty, he believed his sword skill rivaled Li Chungang's, so he challenged him—and lost again.

He then switched to swordsmanship, fought the young master of the blade, Gu Jiantang, and lost again.

Later, he went to Long Hushan's Demon-Slaying Platform to test his inner energy against Qi Xuanzhen, who was about to ascend—and lost again.

In short, his entire life was either failure or on the path to failure—truly the "Never-Wins Legend" of the martial world—and yet few in the martial world mocked him.

Because he always challenged the elite, his opponents were each stronger than the last—all towering figures at the pinnacle of martial arts.

Merely fighting such men proved his strength reached the world's top tier; surviving those battles made him even more worthy of awe.

Of course, it was also possible his opponents never intended to kill him.

Like Jia Dou from Naruto, hurling a shuriken from eight hundred li away at the First Hokage.

The First Hokage didn't notice—and let him escape… in a way, wasn't that a battle of equal strength?

Jia Dou: Don't ask if we fought—just tell me if I died!

Of course, compared to Xuan Yuan Dapan's incomprehensible "glorious" record, his personal life was even more scandalous.

According to the original novel, Xuan Yuan Dapan, seeking to master the Yin-Yang Creation Dao to break through to the Land Immortal realm, used his family's power to collect beautiful young boys and girls for sexual cultivation.

That alone wasn't unusual—many powerful old lechers in ancient times had done the same.

But the key was, this old bastard had no shame—he violated heaven's law and human ethics, extending his claws to his own family, corrupting every promising youth regardless of blood relation—truly horrifying, even Chen Ge's father would bow to him.

By the way, Wu Xian had reason to suspect Xuan Yuan Dapan was modeled after certain ancient "uncle prince" protagonists—after all, in his memories of ancient martial arts, he'd seen many similar cases, and the familiarity was overwhelming.

Cough cough… back to the point!

Upon hearing Deng Tai'e's words, Wu Xian raised an eyebrow: "Not urgent. Before I kill that old lecher, I still need to meet one person… hmm, judging by the time, he should be arriving soon."

As he spoke, a steady, unhurried footstep sounded at the teahouse door. Wu Xian turned his gaze—and a young man in a gray Confucian robe stepped in.

Their eyes met, instantly recognizing each other as the intended meeting party. The man soon approached Wu Xian and bowed deeply.

"This humble one is Xuan Yuan Jingcheng. Might I ask, are you the esteemed Wu Xian, Young Master Wu?"

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Requesting monthly votes!

(End of chapter)