Chapter 209

Sixteen years ago, Wu Xian walked the world alone, killing from the shores of the East Sea to the Far West, and then from the Northern Mang grasslands to the forbidden zones of the Southern Frontier.

Wherever he passed, blood flowed like rivers, and heads rolled. He almost single-handedly pushed across the entire world, simultaneously rooting out all the chess pieces hidden in the human realm by those in the heavens, briefly escaping their control.

Besides this, he also assisted the Great Chu Imperial City, using forceful means to suppress all disputes, forcing countless forces in the world to reshuffle and fall into a long silence.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Great Chu also entered a stage of rapid development. The Chu Emperor, Jiang Ren, changed his past style of neglecting state affairs and began to govern diligently.

In just one month, he issued nearly a hundred political decrees, every one of which was beneficial to the country and the people, immediately drawing praise from scholars and commoners alike, who believed he had the makings of an emperor for the ages.

However, as everyone knows, any policy beneficial to the common people will basically harm the interests of high officials, nobles, and powerful clans.

Helplessly, if this were any other dynasty in history, even the former Great Qin Empire, those powerful clans and high officials would have plenty of ways to trip up the imperial court.

Without cooperating with them or compromising with them, even the First Emperor would have to suffer. They could easily use small tricks to make decrees ineffective, causing turmoil among the people.

But such actions were completely ineffective against the current Great Chu.

Not to mention the Emperor himself, that National Master with the title "Primordial Great Luo Heaven" was a figure truly like a god or demon. Moreover, his temperament was violent, and he would kill an entire family at the slightest provocation. Whoever dared to make him unhappy for a moment, he would make them cry for a lifetime.

With his support, these nobles and officials dared not defy Great Chu, so they had no choice but to kneel and sing in submission, actively cooperating with the implementation of the court's policies, behaving themselves to avoid being eliminated by the unknown new era.

It was not just the powerful clans that did this; the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, as well as foreign forces outside the Central Plains, were all the same.

Although the current Great Chu was newly established, it truly possessed the momentum of ten thousand religions bowing their heads and ten thousand nations paying homage.

On the other hand, as the overt and substantive pusher of all this, Wu Xian, after ensuring that Great Chu's foundation was completely stable, immediately chose to retreat behind the scenes, settling down in Liangzhou, specifically on that Mount Qingliang which originally belonged to the Beiliang Prince's Mansion in the original work.

The retirement life of the world's number one was very dull and boring. Every day was spent either drinking tea and fishing, studying the Yin-Yang Dao with the former Empress of Western Chu, or training a few young, wet-behind-the-ears disciples in literature and martial arts. The main theme was simply being carefree and at ease.

But in recent years, for some unknown reason, Wu Xian began to frequently announce his seclusion, and the intervals between them were getting longer and longer.

From the initial seven or eight days to later one or two months, and as for this most recent time, it had been a full half a year without him stepping out of his quiet room, making people worry about Wu Xian's state.

There are no airtight walls in the world, not to mention that Wu Xian was the world's number one person, the National Master of the Great Chu Dynasty. In daily life, let alone seclusion, even a sneeze could be interpreted in a thousand different ways.

Therefore, upon learning of Wu Xian's abnormal seclusion in recent years, many speculations arose in people's hearts, and the two most plausible ones were as follows.

First, Wu Xian had gone wrong in his martial arts practice, such as suffering from Qi deviation, leading to serious internal injuries, which was why he needed frequent seclusion for recuperation.

As for the second, it was that Wu Xian's realm had broken through again, reaching a state where he had to ascend. The reason for his seclusion was to suppress his cultivation so he could continue to linger in the human realm.

Either of these two possibilities was great news for certain people.

If this world's number one martial arts maniac really had a problem or ascended to the Immortal Realm, then from then on, the human realm would lack a god who suppressed everything, and they could return to the past, to that wonderful life of doing whatever they wanted and being superior to others.

For a time, undercurrents surged in the world, with countless eyes fixed on Mount Qingliang, hoping for news that Wu Xian had died in seclusion or that he had ascended to the heavens.

Thinking of this, the corners of Ye Qingmei's mouth, which had been turned up, curled into a mocking arc again, and she sneered: "Those idiots are always thinking of unrealistic things. What kind of person is Master? How could he be affected by a mere breakthrough in realm? It's just a show for some people to see."

"Some people? Does Sister Qingmei mean..."

Wang Qingxuan frowned slightly, raised her finger to point at the sky, her eyes filled with curiosity.

Seeing this, Ye Qingmei just smiled without saying a word, choosing not to answer directly.

Both were disciples taken in by Wu Xian. Over the years, while practicing martial arts, they often heard Wu Xian mention the grievances between the heavens and the human realm. He even once compiled a story called *Snow Sword Stride*, analyzing it deeply and using the personalities of many characters within it as negative examples for his disciples to establish correct values.

Both were deeply impressed by this, only because Wu Xian had such a wicked sense of humor. To motivate his disciples, he actually used their names as supporting characters in the story, leading to a very poor sense of immersion.

For example, Wen Liang and Xuanyuan Qingfeng—one lost his hands and feet for the protagonist, and the other had parents who died early and lived a lonely life. Each was more miserable than the last.

There were also Wang Qingxuan and Ye Qingmei. Although their names did not appear in the story, that Spear Immortal's daughter called Qingniao and the Xu Weixiong who recognized a thief as her father were clearly based on the settings and backgrounds of the two.

Thinking that in the story, these two gave everything and their emotions for that twisted Beiliang Prince and became his death soldiers, Wang and Ye couldn't help but feel a chill, and for this, they were angry at Wu Xian for a long time.

Just then, the two suddenly felt a tremor beneath their feet, as if a ground dragon were rolling near Mount Qingliang. Just as they were surprised, a terrifying pressure came from the sky.

Within Liangzhou, every martial artist with a cultivation of Second Rank or higher looked up in horror.

They saw that high above the infinite sky, the thick clouds were suddenly torn apart, revealing a portal radiating ten thousand rays of light.

Immediately following, as the light spread, the portal began to expand rapidly, eventually turning into a huge passage several miles in diameter. A massive palace could be seen slowly descending, and rows of majestic figures loomed in the radiance, just like the legendary heavenly soldiers and generals.

Seeing such a miraculous scene, the commoners and martial artists in Liangzhou and the surrounding areas were all dumbfounded.

After the initial surprise, the former couldn't help but kneel, kowtowing to the blurry light and shadows in the sky, clearly thinking that gods were manifesting, and began to chatter and flatter, hoping to gain the favor of the gods.

On Mount Qingliang, Ye Qingmei and the others watched this scene solemnly, but there was not a hint of fear. They all drew their weapons, ready for battle, looking as if they were ready to swing their swords at the immortals in the sky at any moment.

Hum, hum, hum—

Suddenly, a bright white light shone from the passage, and layers of heavenly gates extended and descended, lined up neatly, one higher than the other, totaling thirty-six heavenly gates.

Outside the lowest heavenly gate, a group of immortals with fluttering sleeves flew over, and one of them shouted in a deep voice:

"Great Chu National Master Wu Xian, we immortals of the heavens have come down to the mortal world under the order of the Emperor to eradicate you, a demon from outside the domain. Why don't you come out and accept..."

"Bang————!!!"

Golden light flashed, and the immortal's voice stopped abruptly. Under the dumbfounded gaze of the crowd, he, along with the other immortals around him, turned into fly ash and disappeared.

Also disappearing was that heavenly gate that looked like white jade, but it was not shattered; rather, it was grabbed by a hand, and then in the next second, it vanished into thin air, as if it had been moved to another space.

————

The second update will be late. Going to the hospital for acupuncture first, will get it done by noon. The *Snow* world is almost finished, returning to *Infinite Terror* tomorrow!

(End of chapter)