Chapter 32: A Rare Oddity, Zhu Zhangling

While Zhang Jie went to "receive" his Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor,

on a wide stone platform covering several hundred square meters in the middle of the cliff,

a white-haired wild man with tattered clothes, dirty and tangled hair, and a gaunt appearance was falling into madness.

"Second Brother! Zhen'er! Bi'er!"

The white-haired wild man looked at the corpses of Wu Lie,

Zhu Jiuzhen, and Wei Bi, which were unrecognizable from the fall,

but could still be identified by clues like their clothing and jade pendants, and wailed incessantly.

"Ah, ah! Who killed you?

I must exterminate his entire family to avenge you!"

The white-haired wild man roared madly at the sky, startling the flocks of birds resting on the nearby cliff walls.

Flutter, flutter~

The wild man's wailing mixed with the sound of birds and beasts flapping their wings, making the place appear exceptionally desolate.

The next day, the white-haired wild man sat blankly in front of the grave Zhu Jiuzhen and the others had piled up with snow.

At this moment, a clear voice came from above his head:

"I never imagined Master Zhu would have lived in such an environment for three years; Zhang admires you."

"Who?"

The white-haired wild man, or rather, the other master of Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor who had been missing for three years, Zhu Zhangling, looked up at the sky abruptly.

Then he saw a young Daoist dressed in dark blue Daoist robes, carrying a long sword, wearing cloth boots, with a face that was not very handsome,

but exuding an indescribable charm, pulling a rope that seemed to have no end,

descending slowly from mid-air like an immortal.

The newcomer was Zhang Jie.

After Zhang Jie finished off Wu Lie, Zhu Jiuzhen, and Wei Bi yesterday, he had returned to Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor to look for supplies.

As a result, for some reason, Wu Lie's daughter, Wu Qingying, had accidentally slipped and hit her head on Zhang Jie's sword and died.

Thus, Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor was now without a master.

The others at Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor saw that Zhang Jie was cultured and martial, and had an extraordinary appearance,

and were all subdued by his kingly aura, expressing their willingness to serve him as the new manor master.

Zhang Jie declined repeatedly, stating that his merit was low and his virtue thin, making him unworthy of being the master of Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor,

and told them to choose someone else who was virtuous and capable, but those people all knelt on the ground,

stating that if Zhang Jie was unwilling to be the new manor master, they would kneel until they died.

How could such a kind person as Zhang Jie watch so many people kneel to their deaths here?

In the end, he could only reluctantly state that he would temporarily act as manor master,

and would abdicate in favor of a worthy successor once they found a new candidate with both virtue and talent.

Zhang Jie: You have truly harmed me, harmed me! Haha(((o(*? ▽? *)o)))!

The newly ascended Acting Manor Master Zhang, once power was in his hands, began to issue orders,

commanding that all the ropes in the manor be gathered together and twisted into a long rope several hundred meters long.

Early this morning, seeing that the sky was clear and the breeze was gentle, suitable for exploring secrets,

Zhang Jie brought the long rope to the edge of the cliff.

After choosing a tree that had grown for several hundred years and required several strong men to embrace, he tied the rope,

and only then did Zhang Jie step on the Cloud-Ascending Ladder, descending along the rope to find this stone platform.

Of course, to prevent any traitors at Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor from destroying the rope,

Zhang Jie found a giant rock more than ten meters down the cliff to tie a backup rope.

This way, even if a traitor cut the rope above,

he could still use the Cloud-Ascending Ladder to return without falling to his death.

However, what gratified Zhang Jie was that he hadn't needed the backup rope yet,

which meant there were no traitors yet, and he had already achieved his goal—finding this stone platform.

Zhang Jie looked at the desolate stone platform, which was located on a cliff, with howling cold winds,

piles of snow, and only a few cold-resistant vines growing, and marveled.

That Zhu Zhangling had actually managed to survive for three years in such an environment was truly amazing perseverance.

One had to know that in "A Deadly Secret," in the same icy world, also lacking food and clothing,

Hua Tiegan had turned into a barbecue expert like Hannibal to survive a winter.

Since then, the old hero Hua had lived like a monk, and although he didn't chant Buddha,

he always ate vegetarian food and could no longer stand to see any meat on the dining table.

"Who are you?"

Zhu Zhangling squeezed out a sentence with a throat that had barely spoken in three years and had become exceptionally hoarse.

"Hehe.

Master Zhu, aren't you curious about who killed Wu Lie, Zhu Jiuzhen, and Wei Bi?"

Listening to Zhu Zhangling's extremely hoarse voice, which sounded like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together,

Zhang Jie, who had landed gracefully, pointed to the three graves behind Zhu Zhangling and asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Could it be that you killed my second brother, my daughter, and my nephew?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Zhangling stared fixedly at Zhang Jie, his eyes appearing as if they were about to spit fire.

"Indeed."

Zhang Jie nodded bluntly.

The reason he was interested in talking to Zhu Zhangling

was that he considered Zhu Zhangling a unique oddity in the Heaven-Dependent world.

Zhu Zhangling came from a famous family, a descendant of the Dali Duan clan's Zhu Ziliu,

and currently resided at Zhu Wu Twin-Ring Manor on Mount Kunlun, co-mastering with Wu Lie.

He had a handsome appearance and a scholarly demeanor in his speech and actions,

and when he first met Zhang Wuji, he presented himself as a kind elder, winning his trust.

To find out the location of Xie Xun and the Dragon-Slaying Saber, Zhu Zhangling carefully planned a series of scams.

He first ordered his daughter Zhu Jiuzhen to use a honey trap on Zhang Wuji,

then burned down his own manor to show "family ruin and death,"

and finally ordered Wu Lie to disguise himself as Xie Xun and beat him severely, performing a bitter-meat trick.

Zhang Wuji, kind-hearted, believed it to be true and finally wanted to reveal everything he knew.

However, at the critical moment, Zhang Wuji noticed a flaw and saw through his conspiracy.

After the plot was exposed, Zhu Zhangling tore off his disguise, revealed his vicious nature, and began to hunt down Zhang Wuji.

Zhang Wuji was finally cornered at the edge of this cliff and jumped off to commit suicide.

Everything up to here was very normal; it was just another ambitious person wanting to seize the Dragon-Slaying Saber,

to achieve the goal of dominating the Jianghu.

At most, he was just an ambitious person who was willing to invest capital, even sacrificing his daughter and his foundation.

But what followed was not normal: Zhu Zhangling, in his anxiety, reached out to grab someone,

actually not wanting to cut off the clue to obtaining the Dragon-Slaying Saber, and as a result, fell with Zhang Wuji.

Relying on profound martial arts, the two fortunately didn't fall to their deaths, landing on this suspended stone platform halfway up the mountain, trapped.

While trapped, Zhang Wuji accidentally entered a cave in the mountain,

obtained the "Nine Yang True Scripture," and practiced for five years, finally becoming a top expert.

While Zhu Zhangling was trapped in this desolate, icy world, physically and mentally exhausted.

After Zhang Wuji came out of the cave, he even kindly told him about the Nine Yang True Scripture.

Zhu Zhangling saw that Zhang Wuji, with his tall build, could still crawl out of the cave, and misjudged that he could also succeed,

so he pushed Zhang Wuji off the cliff and crawled into the narrow cave again.

Driven by greed, he used too much force, finally causing his body to get stuck, unable to move forward or backward, and he died permanently embedded in the cave...

That's right, Zhu Zhangling was first trapped on this stone platform for five years, and finally was lived-in stuck to death by the narrow stone path...

A Jianghu expert with such a unique cause of death, I'm afraid, is one of a kind even across the myriad worlds.

Such an oddity, even if you searched the myriad worlds, there wouldn't be many.

And what puzzled Zhang Jie was that although this place was several hundred meters from the top of the cliff,

Zhu Zhangling actually had no thoughts of self-rescue and was trapped here for five years.

In five years, not to mention self-rescue like chiseling a few hundred stone steps,

even twisting a hemp rope with the vines on the side of the stone platform would have been enough to make several hundred meters, right?

In the original work, Zhang Wuji wasn't killed when pushed down from here by Zhu Zhangling,

even if Zhang Wuji's Nine Yang Divine Art was complete, and he was a child of destiny, with destiny on his side,

especially resistant to falling, but this stone platform was at most a few hundred meters from the bottom of the cliff.

After all, no matter how you put it, the Heaven-Dependent world is a martial arts world,

there is no flying, burrowing, or immortality, so naturally there is no one who cannot be killed by falling.

Let alone Zhang Wuji, who had just completed the Nine Yang Divine Art, even if Zhang Wuji, who had practiced the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth to the ultimate level of unloading and

channeling force, fell from a thousand meters without protection,

he would still become a pancake.

Sir Newton's coffin lid couldn't be pried open by a few martial arts from a martial arts world.

But what did Zhu Zhangling do?

He did nothing; he just lived on this stone platform and waited for five years!

And being stuck to death at the end was even more ridiculous.

An expert with martial arts was actually stuck to death by a place he could enter himself...

If Master Yideng knew he had such a useless descendant as Zhu Zhangling,

he would probably let Zhu Zhangling know what it means to be "Vajra-angry, even Buddha has fire!" ===== CHAPTER 33 =====