Chapter 67: The Chaos on Taishan

Just as Yun Zelin is strategizing and feeling that things are finally on the right track.

Taishan Sect is 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 too much commotion and could not be hidden from anyone.

Not to mention the later part where the two fled for their lives and Li Miao pursued and killed them, which was like a bulldozer, with trees falling and stones flying, houses collapsing and the ground sinking wherever he passed.

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

They were guests and could not storm the gates to demand reasons without evidence, so they could only wait anxiously.

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

Suddenly hearing such a great commotion, the first reaction of the leaders was, "You bastard 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 in with the booming sounds.

And these roars... why the more they heard them, the more they sounded like Zuo Lishan?

The leaders looked at each other and went together toward the place where the sound originated.

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 for the past few days, grab the head of the now unrecognizable Lan Lechuan and tear it off alive.

Then Li Miao turned his head to look at them, said "Don't leave," and carried the head away directly.

Now, the leaders were in a real bind.

Lan Lechuan had been a top-tier expert for more than ten years. Back then, Ji Tianrui suppressed the Jianghu but rarely showed his face; most of the Ming Sect'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 alive and whose entire torso had collapsed to the ground was Lan Lechuan.

What exactly is the situation with this Taishan Sect!?

At this moment, no matter how close the connection between the Five Mountains Sword Sects was, no matter how much the leaders cared about their reputation, or what wishful thinking they held, they could not help but have an idea arise from the bottom of their hearts.

"Shall we... if it doesn't work, let's just leave?"

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

Good heavens, what kind of Five Mountains Sword Alliance meeting is this? Is there still a place for us Five Mountains to speak in this region?

The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Ming Sect are both killing people here, having killed a Ming Sect Left Envoy alive.

We can't afford to offend either side.

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

Each sect's martial arts are different, and there is indeed no unified classification standard. In terms of destructive power, those who play with hidden weapons naturally cannot compare to those who use weapons; in terms of durability, no one would compare themselves to an expert in hard-style training.

But above the Peak Realm, it really has already exceeded the cognition of ordinary Jianghu people.

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

This was a bluestone slab, made of solid material, a full two or three inches thick, and a sword mark had cut through the middle, dividing it into two halves.

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

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

Hengshan Sect leader Zhang Jingfeng didn't say anything, looked left and right, and his expression became increasingly heavy.

The traces here had already exceeded their imagination. Now they only felt like rabbits who had inadvertently stepped into a place where tigers and leopards were competing, and if they were not careful, they would be torn to pieces.

It was precisely because they had long experienced the Jianghu and their own martial arts were high enough that they could increasingly feel the terror of these traces.

"Two, what should we do?" Deng Baixuan spoke up.

He was not very close to the Taishan Sect, and among the Five Mountains Sword Sects, he was the one who could be said to be the most detached.

So only he could calm his mood and speak first.

Zhang Jingfeng was silent for a moment and said: "Two, don't be in a hurry to leave; listen to me."

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

"Sect Leader Zhou." He said to Zhou Yingxue: "You go instruct the disciples to collect Lan Lechuan's corpse and hand it directly to the Taishan Sect disciples; don't say anything, just let the Taishan Sect people take this hot potato."

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

"If you find her, no matter what, make her pull us along. The one who wants to be the leader of this Five Mountains Sword Alliance is Sect Leader Zuo, and the one who suppressed 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, but you two haven't done little to help on the side, right?"

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

However, he knew that this was not the time to haggle over these things, so he nodded to Zhang Jingfeng.

"I'll go find Sect Leader Zuo. This matter ultimately falls on the head of his Taishan Sect, and he cannot escape his connection to it."

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

Having said that, the three sect leaders left separately.

By the evening of that day, the three gathered together.

Looking at each other, they all felt that the other's expression was not very good, and they all sighed.

Zhou Yingxue spoke first: "The corpse has been collected, and those traces of the battle have also been cleaned up. It's just that the Taishan Sect people kept asking questions, and I barely managed to muddle through."

"That corpse has no head, so they couldn't recognize it for a while, but it shouldn't be able to be dragged out for too long."

Zhang Jingfeng said: "I walked all the way along the traces of the battle, but I walked to the back hall of the Taishan Sect."

"There was a Taishan Sect disciple there who was scared into a faint; I brought him back in advance without letting the Taishan Sect people discover him. It's just that his heart pulse was damaged and he couldn't wake up for a while; I sent disciples to use true energy to nourish him, and it is estimated that he will only be able to wake up after two days."

"And... I caught a few Taishan Sect disciples to ask, and 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, and Sect Leader Liu is gone."

"But she left a note; you all come and see."

Having said that, he took the piece of paper out of his bosom.

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

After looking closely, the few saw a few sentences.

"Taishan Sect colludes with Ming Sect."

"This matter is a foregone conclusion."

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

"Cooperate with the Imperial Court, and there will be no worry for your lives."

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

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

Zhang Jingfeng rubbed the hilt of his sword with his fingers, and after a long while, he slowly said: "Sect Leader Liu's character should be worth trusting."

"That day she chased Sect Leader Zhou and said some things about colluding with the Ming Sect; at the time, I only thought it was the rampant behavior of a villain who had gained power and turned the tables. Now that I think about it, it was more of 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 little longer... wait for that unconscious Taishan Sect disciple to wake up, ask about the situation at that time, and then we will make plans."

Deng Baixuan sighed: "That's all we can do..."

The three were worried, returned to their rooms separately, and just waited for two days later to make a decision.

(End of chapter)