Chapter 63

Just as Yun Zelin was strategizing and feeling that things were finally on the right track.

The Mount Taishan Sect was in a state of chaos.

Let us turn the time back to two days ago.

The battle between Li Miao, Lan Lechuan, and Zuo Lishan had caused too much of a stir to be hidden from anyone.

Not to mention the later part, where the two fled for their lives and Li Miao pursued them, which was like a bulldozer; where he passed, trees fell, stones flew, houses collapsed, and the ground sank.

The leaders of the Songshan, Hengshan, and Hengshan sects had been worried sick these past few days by the various anomalies on the Mount Taishan Sect, wanting only to see Zuo Lishan and ask him properly, but Zuo Lishan had consistently avoided them.

They were guests, and they couldn't just attack the mountain without evidence to demand an explanation, so they could only wait anxiously.

At that time, the few of them were gathered together, discussing countermeasures.

Suddenly hearing such a huge commotion, the first reaction of the leaders was, "You surnamed Zuo, what the hell have you done!? You need the Embroidered Uniform Guard to bring cannons to bombard us!?"

"Did you dig up the ancestral grave of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander!?"

However, after a while, the leaders heard the clashing of sharp weapons and roars mixed within the booming sounds.

And these roars... why did they sound more and more like Zuo Lishan?

The leaders looked at each other and went together toward the place where the sounds were coming from.

By the time they arrived, Zuo Lishan had already fled, and they only caught the tail end.

So they watched Li Miao, this Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Commander who had been throwing his weight around in front of them a few days ago, grab the head of the already unrecognizable Lan Lechuan and rip the skull off by force.

Then Li Miao turned his head, glanced at them, said "Don't leave," and left, carrying the head.

Now, the leaders were in a real bind.

Lan Lechuan had been a top-tier master for over a decade. Back when Ji Tianrui dominated the martial arts world, he rarely appeared, and most of the Ming Cult's affairs were handled by him, the Left Envoy.

None of the leaders were young, so they naturally recognized that the corpse whose head had been torn off and whose entire torso lay on the ground was Lan Lechuan.

What on earth was going on with the Mount Taishan Sect!?

At this moment, no matter how close the Five Mountains Sword Sects were, no matter how much the leaders cared about their reputation, or what wishful thinking they harbored, they couldn't help but have a thought arise from the bottom of their hearts.

"Shall we... just leave?"

"Divide the luggage, you go back to your Songshan, I go back to my Hengshan?"

Good heavens, what Five Mountains Alliance meeting is there to hold? Is there even a place for us Five Mountains in this territory?

The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Ming Cult are killing each other here, and they’ve killed a Ming Cult Left Envoy.

We can't afford to offend either side.

The few of them stepped forward to examine the traces left by this fierce battle, and the more they looked, the more terrified they became.

Each sect's martial arts were different, and there was indeed no unified standard of classification. In terms of destructive power, those who used hidden weapons naturally couldn't compare to those who used weapons; in terms of durability, no one would compare themselves to a master of hard-body techniques.

But above the peak, it really was beyond the understanding of ordinary martial artists.

Deng Baixuan, leader of the Hengshan Sect, squatted down and touched a piece of the ground.

This was a bluestone slab, very thick, at least two or three inches, and a sword mark had cut through the middle, splitting it in two.

Deng Baixuan drew his sword and inserted it into the sword mark; even until the hilt was blocked by the bluestone slab, it hadn't reached the bottom.

Zhou Yingxue, leader of the Songshan Sect, reached out and touched a tree stump as thick as an arm; the cross-section was as smooth as a mirror.

Zhang Jingfeng, leader of the Hengshan Sect, didn't say anything, but looked left and right, his face growing increasingly somber.

The traces here were beyond their imagination. Now they only felt like rabbits who had inadvertently stepped into a struggle between tigers and leopards, and they would be torn to shreds if they weren't careful.

It was precisely because they had long been in the martial arts world and their own martial arts were high enough that they could feel the terror of these traces even more.

"Two leaders, what should we do?" Deng Baixuan asked.

He wasn't very close to the Mount Taishan Sect, and among the Five Mountains Sword Sects, he was the one who could most easily distance himself.

So now he was the only one who could calm his mood and speak first.

Zhang Jingfeng was silent for a moment, then said, "Two leaders, don't rush to leave; listen to me."

"Lan Lechuan’s corpse cannot just be left here; it must be dealt with."

"Leader Zhou," he said to Zhou Yingxue, "Go instruct your disciples to collect Lan Lechuan’s corpse and hand it directly to the disciples of the Mount Taishan Sect. Don't say anything, just let the Mount Taishan Sect people take this hot potato."

"Leader Deng, go to that private residence in the back mountain and see if Leader Liu is still there. Since she defected to the Imperial Court long ago and deliberately pointed out the Ming Cult that day, she should know something."

"If you find her, make her pull us along no matter what. The one who wants to be the leader of the Five Mountains Alliance is Sect Leader Zuo, and the one suppressing the Huashan Sect is also Sect Leader Zuo; it has little to do with us."

Deng Baixuan thought to himself, "It has little to do with me? You two haven't done little to push things along, have you?"

"This is seeing that I don't usually get involved in these things and wanting to sell me a favor."

However, he knew this was not the time to quibble over such things, so he nodded at Zhang Jingfeng.

"I will go find Sect Leader Zuo. This matter ultimately falls on his Mount Taishan Sect, and he cannot escape responsibility."

"There is no time to lose; let's set off now."

With that, the three leaders went their separate ways.

By that evening, the three of them gathered together.

They looked at each other, felt that the other’s expression was not very good, and sighed one after another.

Zhou Yingxue spoke first: "The corpse has been collected, and the traces of the battle have been cleaned up. It's just that the Mount Taishan Sect people kept digging for the truth, and I barely managed to fob them off."

"The corpse has no head, so they couldn't recognize it for a while, but I don't think it will last long."

Zhang Jingfeng said, "I followed the traces of the battle all the way to the back hall of the Mount Taishan Sect."

"There was a Mount Taishan Sect disciple there who had been scared into a coma; I took him back in advance without letting the Mount Taishan Sect people discover it. It's just that his heart pulse was damaged, and he won't wake up for a while. My disciples are using internal energy to warm and nourish him; it is estimated he won't wake up for two days."

"And... I caught a few Mount Taishan Sect disciples and asked them; Sect Leader Zuo should have been living there these past few days."

Deng Baixuan looked left and right and said, "The private residence in the back mountain is empty; Leader Liu is gone."

"But she left a note; you all should see it."

With that, he took the paper from his bosom.

Liu Baiyun had been suddenly called away by Gao Ling, sent by Li Miao, and had left in a hurry, so she could only write a few short sentences; the handwriting was sloppy and vague.

After looking closely, they made out a few sentences.

"Mount Taishan Sect colludes with Ming Cult."

"This matter is a foregone conclusion."

"Stay here and don't leave; wait for the Five Mountains Alliance meeting."

"Cooperate with the Imperial Court, and there will be no threat to your lives."

After reading the note, they looked at each other again and were silent for a while.

After a long while, Deng Baixuan spoke first: "Two leaders, what do you think?"

Zhang Jingfeng rubbed the hilt of his sword, and after a long while, slowly said, "Leader Liu’s character should be worth trusting."

"That day she chased Leader Zhou and said things about colluding with the Ming Cult; at the time, I thought it was just the arrogance of a petty person who had suddenly turned the tables. Now that I think about it, it was mostly a warning."

"At the very least, those second and third-rate forces that went down the mountain these past few days were able to escape this muddy water because of her actions."

"But, we cannot entrust our lives to her few words..."

Zhou Yingxue pursed her lips and said, "Let's wait a bit longer... wait for that unconscious Mount Taishan Sect disciple to wake up, ask about the situation at that time, and then we will make plans."

Deng Baixuan sighed, "That is all we can do..."

The three of them were worried sick and returned to their rooms, waiting for two days later to make a decision.