After the path was cut off

Chapter 10 Turbulent Times

Li Wangxiang remained leaning against the recliner by the window, holding a jade disc of immortal arts in his hand.

The jade disc was unnamed and slightly bluish-green; it was just delivered by my senior brother.

After returning from the Hall of General Affairs, Li Wangxiang hesitated for a long time before finally contacting his senior brother through the Jade Link. He didn't explain the details, only saying that he urgently needed a working immortal technique.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

No further questions were asked.

He didn't say much, only replying with one word.

"it is good."

Then, less than half an hour later, a flying sword came flying through the air, with only a magic jade disc and a thin letter attached to it.

When Li Wangxiang held the jade disc in his hand, his heart ached slightly.

The immortal techniques sealed within it number in whole and small amounts, totaling 4,364.

This amount was clearly all his savings.

Li Wangxiang did not ask how much he wanted to borrow.

The eldest brother didn't ask "how much do you want?"

But in the process of going back and forth, they still managed to send everything over.

Li Wangxiang unfolded the letter again.

It contained only one sentence: "One prospers, all prosper; one suffers, all suffer."

Li Wangxiang gazed at these eight characters, filled with endless emotion.

This is something Master often says.

This saying has been passed down for generations from the Tianzhu Peak lineage.

Unfortunately, since the eldest sister's accident, fewer and fewer people on the peak have mentioned this phrase. The master goes into seclusion from time to time, the eldest brother is silent, and he himself gradually focuses only on walking the increasingly cold path of true inheritance.

As for the junior sister, she had never truly witnessed the weight these words carried on the peak.

The reason the eldest brother wrote these eight characters is simply to tell him that he doesn't need to repay this immortal skill, nor does he need to think about it too much.

Because Tianzhu Peak doesn't inherently have "you and me".

But the more this happened, the more anxious Li Wangxiang became.

He still doesn't know if he can leave Tianxuan Sect alive, let alone what else the Sect Master will peel away layer by layer from him.

Regardless of the outcome, once his matter is resolved, the pressure on Tianzhu Peak will fall entirely on Junior Sister.

Li Wangxiang even saw a future where the Tianzhu Peak lineage would end in their generation.

Thinking of this, Li Wangxiang felt a slight heaviness in his chest.

After a long pause, he finally just let out a soft sigh.

Do your best and leave the rest to fate.

He put away the letter and the jade plate, and then picked up the message that Anting had sent back.

Even he was slightly taken aback upon seeing this.

Sending his junior sister out to keep watch was originally a haphazard move. But now it seems that this move not only succeeded, but was even more ruthless than he had anticipated.

She not only led the disciples from each of the True Transmission Peaks to the General Affairs Hall and publicly examined the map of the Yunmeng Great Marsh; but also somehow managed to get the people from Duoling Peak and Yuhui Peak to say, "If they are really interested, it's not impossible to buy a piece of spiritual land."

Things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

Originally, everyone was focused on Li Wangxiang, wondering what he had gained and what he had hidden after surviving his ordeal in Beichen.

But now that the leader of the True Transmission Peak has spoken up to bid for the spiritual land, the attention of the entire sect has naturally shifted from him to the Yunmeng Great Swamp.

Rumors spread like wildfire.

Some said that the place contained the remains of the True Lord, others said it held the True Lord's legacy, and still others said that there was another secret cave deep within the marsh. The rumors spread and became more and more widespread, until finally, almost the entire sect believed that there was truly a tremendous opportunity in the Yunmeng Marsh.

The General Affairs Department has already issued three clarifications.

But the more they tried to refute the rumors, the more people felt there was something fishy going on.

So everyone increased their bets, and even those disciples who originally had no intention of leaving the sect began to plan how to get involved.

Even from just this much, Li Wangxiang could already imagine how chaotic and overwhelmed the General Affairs Department must be.

If it were him, he would never dare to take that step.

The words and actions of a true disciple are never just their own business. In the eyes of others, they often represent the will of the Hall of Mastery, the tacit approval of Lord Huanyou, or even a decree.

Without explicit orders, he acted on his own initiative and stirred up trouble throughout the entire clan...

Li Wangxiang felt a slight tightness in his heart, but he silently made a mental note of it.

If Lord Huanyou investigates later, it should be said that he instructed him to do so, and the junior sister should not be made to bear the brunt of his anger.

With the future uncertain and the power of the true lineage gradually tightening, it would be advantageous for him to use the last bit of momentum to disrupt the situation.

Li Wangxiang even secretly hoped that the situation would descend into chaos even faster.

After today, there are only four days left until the bidding process.

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Duoling Peak

Unlike the other peaks in the Changbai Mountains, this place is characterized by nine ridges surrounding one peak. With the main peak standing alone, the surrounding ridges become insignificant, hence the name "Duoling" (meaning "seizing the ridge").

At this moment, the atmosphere inside the Lansheng Hall of Duoling Peak was even more oppressive than the mountain itself.

The floor tiles in the hall were cold. A boy, no more than eleven or twelve years old, was kneeling in the center, his face full of resentment. He didn't know why his senior sister had made him kneel.

At the head of the table, a woman in white sat quietly.

Her robes were as white as snow, her hair was tied up high, and her eyes were filled with anger.

With a wave of her hand, more than ten invitation cards landed in front of the young man.

"have a look."

"Look what you've done!"

The boy looked down and his expression immediately changed.

Those visiting cards were all sent from various parts of the sect. Some were to test the waters, some were to ask to join in the bidding for the sacred land, and a few were even more explicit, stating that they were willing to attach themselves to Duoling Peak, manage the sacred land for Duoling Peak, and be at its beck and call.

He opened his mouth, first in surprise, then feeling wronged.

"These people are so bold, how dare they submit their visiting cards?"

The man at the head of the table felt a slight throbbing in the veins on his forehead.

"courage?"

"Isn't this courage something you gave me?"

The boy shrank back, but still sounded somewhat defiant, muttering under his breath:

"I just casually mentioned that if it were really interesting, we could buy a plot of land to play with... who knew they would take it so seriously."

"Just for fun?"

The woman in white stared at him, her voice suddenly turning cold.

"How many times have I told you to stay away from worldly affairs, to go down the mountain less often, and to avoid places like the General Affairs Hall? If your mind wanders, your energy will dissipate; if your energy dissipates, what will you use to persevere on that path to immortality?"

The boy was somewhat stunned by the beating and couldn't help but defend himself:

"But...but didn't you, Senior Sister, tell me to get close to An Ting from Tianzhu Peak to find out about Li Wangxiang?"

"She had been hiding in the peak for the past few days and had to be coaxed out by me. She said she was doing something for her senior brother and needed to go to the General Affairs Hall to get the map of the Yunmeng Great Swamp, so I went with her."

As he spoke, his voice grew softer and softer.

"Who knew she would insist that we take one too, without any explanation. After we took it, she started talking about how there were many good things in the Yunmeng Great Swamp, and how we should buy a piece of spiritual land to explore and build a separate residence, and asked if we wanted to pick one out of Duoling Peak as well..."

"I... I didn't think too much about it at the time, I just casually replied."

"Who knew someone would take it seriously."

He eventually realized he was in the wrong, but he still refused to admit it completely.

"Besides, didn't the people from Jade Return Peak agree..."

Upon hearing this, the woman in white finally closed her eyes.

She suddenly understood why the disciples down the mountain were able to spread the word so quickly.

Senior Sister Siam is currently searching for survivors of Beichen. She was ordered to stay on the peak, but she was supposed to be keeping an eye on Li Wangxiang, Tianzhu Peak, and the unusual activities that have not yet surfaced since Beichen.

But now things are different.

She was caught off guard for a moment, and these fools, carried by a gust of wind, rolled into the Yunmeng Spirit Land on their own.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but curse.

"Why can't you use your brain at all?"

The boy stiffened his neck after being scolded, and the resentment he felt as a young man resurfaced.

"So what if I agreed? It's just a sacred plot of land. I bought it, so what?"

The moment those words were spoken, the hall fell silent.

The woman in white stared at him, her gaze darkening inch by inch.

After a moment, he said, word by word:

"Pioneering wars are not child's play."

"Once a sacred site is purchased, it is no longer a mountain to be admired, but a nail driven into the remote wilderness by the sect."

"When the sect gives you land, it will also give you tasks. If it tells you to guard it, you must guard it; if it tells you to advance, you must advance. If you fail, you will die inside."

As she said this, her voice became even more subdued.

But the flatter it is, the more chilling it becomes.

The boy was truly stunned.

He opened his mouth, and after a long while, he stammered out a sentence:

"Then... then I won't buy it."

The woman in white was too lazy to even curse anymore.

"What I worry about is never whether you buy it or not."

Her gaze fell upon the letters of invitation on the ground, her voice so low it almost drowned out the entire hall.

"What I'm worried about is you fools who blindly followed Tianzhu Peak in making trouble, and in the end, unintentionally disrupted the sect's overall plan for the war of opening up."

After those words, the boy finally fell silent.

He knelt on the spot, his face turning red and white in turns, until he finally realized that something was wrong.