Chapter 204

"Then why can't she be the Wu Zun? Why must she only be the reserve Wu Zun?"

"The Rain Clan lives in seclusion within the Ice Domain, rarely entering the mortal world, never stirring up trouble. Yet these three clearly came out with a purpose."

"I remember now—they're looking for the Divine Sword and the Sword Boy!"

"Exactly. The Rain Clan possesses a Divine Sword, and the one who guards it is the Sword Boy. The final step in every new Wu Zun's ascension is that they must die once beneath the Divine Sword."

"Die beneath the Divine Sword? Why? Can they be resurrected after death?"

"This has been passed down through the generations of the Rain Clan; the reason why is unknown. As for dying and coming back to life, that's nothing remarkable either—there are plenty of Wu Gong in this world capable of resurrection."

Du Bingyan realized and said, "They're searching for the Sword Boy and the Divine Sword, which means the Sword Boy fled with the Divine Sword, causing the new Wu Zun to be unable to complete the final step for so long."

"Precisely so."

"Brother Jiang, then what should we do now…"

"Follow them. When necessary, we can lend them a hand."

"Lend a hand?"

Jiang Sishui smiled faintly: "The Rain Clan has an art called the 'Transformation Art,' and I'm very interested in it."

……

The Rain Clan's Ice Rain was wondrous beyond compare—wherever the rain curtain covered, everything within could be perceived by the Rain Clan members through special means.

Just now, the white-haired elder had moved the rain curtain, searching all around, using this very method to lock onto the target's location.

The three of them tracked the Sword Boy all the way, when Heichuan suddenly stumbled and nearly fell to the ground.

"Heichuan, what's wrong?" The young girl and the elder both looked over.

Heichuan frowned, his face showing pain, and clutching his stomach said: "I… I'm not feeling well."

Not feeling well?

Hearing him say that, the girl in the snow jacket also said: "Bashao, I'm also feeling a bit unwell."

The white-haired elder Bashao looked at Heichuan, then at the girl in the snow jacket, thought briefly, then circulated his Wu power, a resplendent blue light emanating from his palm.

"Rise!"

Bashao swung his palm, but the moment the blue light left his hand, it vanished and scattered.

At the same time, a wave of weakness spread through his limbs and bones; Bashao couldn't stand steady and was about to topple forward.

Heichuan, quick of eye and hand, hurriedly supported him.

The girl in the snow jacket asked urgently: "What's going on?"

?? Please give flowers??????????

Bashao shook his head, his countenance solemn: "I don't know, but my Wu power has vanished."

Wu power vanished?

The two of them changed expression, silently sensing within themselves, and discovered that the Wu power in their bodies hadn't completely disappeared, but was faint and elusive.

This meant their Wu arts would work intermittently, and even when they worked, their effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

The two of them immediately felt their hearts sink.

Heichuan's face turned ashen: "We've been out a year and never had anything like this happen. Then let's rest for a while, and then…"

"No!"

The girl in the snow jacket cut him off directly: "It's been ten years—we've searched for the Sword Boy for ten years! We only just discovered his whereabouts after such difficulty. If we fail to catch up this time, and he escapes and hides again, how much more time will it take to find him again?"

....... 0

Bashao and Heichuan exchanged a glance, lowered their heads, and said nothing.

The girl in the snow jacket was silent for a moment, then said: "Bashao is advanced in age. Heichuan, you stay behind to look after him; I'll go find the Sword Boy. This time, I must find him!"

The girl in the snow jacket spoke with firm resolve, and saying so, turned to leave.

"Hou Jian!"

Bashao called her to a halt and said: "What weighs on your mind—is it that person, or our Rain Clan's Divine Sword?"

The girl in the snow jacket, Hou Jian, lowered her head slightly, her gaze evasive, silent and speechless.

Bashao sighed, speaking with earnest weight: "Hou Jian, you must remember—you are about to be the new Wu Zun, and the Ice Domain still has your people."

"I… I know."

"Then can you let it go?"

"…I just want to understand why he didn't want me back then."

Hou Jian spoke evasively, and having said this, left at a quick pace without looking back.

"Hou Jian! Hou Jian! Your Wu power has run into problems, you can't…"

Seeing that the girl in the snow jacket paid no heed, Bashao said urgently: "Heichuan, hurry and follow her! Follow Hou Jian! She is the future Wu Zun of the Rain Clan—she absolutely cannot come to harm!"

Heichuan also knows propriety, hurriedly responded, and was about to give chase.

Yet he had only taken two steps when his belly seized with unbearable pain: "Bashao, I… I can't go on."

Clearly, his symptoms were far more severe than Hou Jian's and Bashao's.

Bashao saw this and could only sigh helplessly.

At this point, the stubborn Hou Jian could only pray for her own good fortune.

226 The Qinglong Society's Recruitment, Ren Yingying's Refusal

A bamboo grove thirty li outside the suburbs of Luoyang City.

Two parties were in the midst of negotiations.

Standing on the left were two middle-aged men.

One wore a sickly look, from time to time covering his mouth with a handkerchief to cough a few times; the other wore his hair half-long, his eyes vacant, appearing to be a blind man.

Standing on the right were two women.

One of them wore a veiled bamboo hat, his face obscured; the other had a bewitchingly beautiful countenance, every charm and grace, and was unmistakably Lan Fenghuang of the Wu Du Sect.

The sickly-looking man coughed once and said, "Since Miss Ren has come to keep the appointment, I suppose you've thought things through."

"You say my father was murdered by Dongfang Bubai—what proof do you have?" The voice from beneath the bamboo hat was cool and clear, like great pearls and small pearls tumbling onto a jade plate, delicate and pleasing to the ear.

The sickly-looking man smiled faintly: "Proof? What I, Ximen Yu, say needs no proof."

Lan Fenghuang gave a cold sneer: "Is everyone from the Qinglong Society always this arrogant?"

Ximen Yu glanced at Lan Fenghuang, the slightly upturned corner of his mouth carrying a hint of contempt, and said lightly: "The young lady is mistaken. I'm nothing more than a minor altar master. In the Society, there are several hundred people just like me."

"You—" Lan Fenghuang's little face darkened, choking with anger.

Ximen Yu's words, on the surface, were self-deprecating: I'm only an altar master, I can't speak for the Qinglong Society.

But the implication was: even though I'm only an altar master, I can still talk this big in front of you, and what I say counts as proof.

Being looked down on like this didn't feel good, yet Lan Fenghuang had no way to argue back.

Although she spoke dismissively of the Qinglong Society, deep down she held it in profound dread.

The Qinglong Society—this was a mysterious and powerful organization.

No one knew who had founded it, how long it had existed, what its structure was like, how many members it had, or who currently held power.

In the intelligence files on the Qinglong Society kept by the various major powers, there were usually only a few sparse lines.

But no one could deny the Qinglong Society's strength.

Even holy lands of the Wu Lin such as Shaolin and Wudang did not dare hold this neither-black-nor-white mysterious power in contempt.

And all of this was solely because of a shocking battle more than a hundred years ago.

In the early days after the founding of the Great Ming, for reasons unknown, the Qinglong Society clashed with the Great Ming court.

The fighting was brutal and bloody, and in the end it took the Ming Grand Ancestor deploying the nation's divine artifact to bring that slaughter to a close.

Yet even so, the Qinglong Society was still not uprooted; it merely vanished back into hiding.

And the Great Ming court, after this campaign, was also grievously wounded, even abandoning for that reason its plans to march south against the Song and north against the Qing.

In other words, the Qinglong Society, by its own strength alone, altered the balance of power in the Central Domain!

For the next hundred years or so, the Qinglong Society largely vanished from the jianghu, as if licking its wounds and recuperating.

It was only in the last ten or twenty years that this organization's activities began to grow frequent once more.

So how does the Qinglong Society of today compare to a hundred years ago?

No one could say for certain.

But clearly, no one dared look down on such a behemoth.

Including the Six Great Dynasties!

Ren Yingying said coolly: "Your Qinglong Society is all-powerful. Since you know my father was murdered by Dongfang Bubai, then you should also know where my father is now, shouldn't you?"