On the path of life, there are always a few storms, as if the heavens are reminding mortals that they are but tenants, and should obediently bow their heads.

For instance, Chen Ping’an encountered Cai Jinjian at his doorstep in Mud Jar Lane, and the original owner of the golden-essence magic robe at Flood Dragon Ditch. When he strayed into the depths of the lotus root marshes, he was greeted by a joint siege of grandmasters.

It all depends on whether one can endure it.

Endure it, and the skies will clear after the rain. Fail to endure it, and one can only, at best, roar like a martial artist, “I’ll be a good man again in eighteen years!”

The master leads you in, but the cultivation is up to you.

Zhong Kui is facing such a situation today.

Before today, Zhong Kui of the Great Fu Academy’s cultivation was too good, too fast, too astonishing, leaving all the Confucian scholars of Tongye Continent in the dust.

But today, the white ape has appeared in this world.

A mortal enemy.

Compared to Master Zhong Kui, the Mountain Lord of the Great Fu Academy faces even greater peril, intercepting that great demon hidden near the Spirit-Bestowing Sect.

This goes against the Mountain Lord’s original intention.

Zhong Kui’s current predicament can be described as certain death.

The white ape’s eyes were indifferent as it gazed at this young scholar, regarded as a promising candidate to become a Grand Preceptor of a certain academy.

Zhong Kui took a deep breath.

Even though he has not broken through the Immortal Realm bottleneck, even though he is not a demon race renowned for its innate physical prowess,

The white ape before him, carrying an ancient sword on its back, is a true Jade Purity Realm swordsman.

If cultivators are the most rebellious thieves under the heavens, daring to challenge the cycle of life and death decreed by the Heavenly Way, then swordsmen are undoubtedly the most unreasonable existence among cultivators.

A gentleman does not part with his jade for no reason.

The white ape’s first sword strike shattered the protective jade pendant that the Great Fu Academy bestowed upon every gentleman, reducing it to powder.

With the shattering of the jade pendant, containing the true meaning of Confucian sages’ writings, between the gentleman and the great demon, hundreds of golden characters slowly vanished into the world, like a shower of golden rain.

In an instant, Zhong Kui retreated dozens of feet to the edge of a well prison, his sleeves billowing, the autumn wind chilling, the tiny cuffs of his green robe filled with the majestic aura of an autumn review on the battlefield.

This well prison on Mount Taiping is a massive well-like structure, with a downward-sloping plank road ladder carved into the well wall, spiraling downwards, filled with cold Yin energy, like a bottomless pit leading straight to the netherworld.

Lower-realm cultivators, even just approaching the well prison, would have their energy disrupted and their bodies corroded by the countless years of accumulated baleful aura.

Mount Taiping’s novice Taoists have a special arduous training, which is to sit in meditation near the well prison, tempering their bodies, an excruciating experience.

The female Taoist Huang Ting is regarded as a stunning and beautiful jade for cultivation because, when she first followed her fellow disciples to approach the well prison, while everyone else was struggling to prevent the baleful aura from flooding their energy centers, she was completely unaware of any abnormality, and stealthily walked to the entrance of the well prison. If it weren’t for the old Taoist of Mount Taiping, who was in charge of watching the younger generation’s cultivation, quickly grabbing the little girl by the back of her collar, Huang Ting might have already entered the well prison at the age of nine.

After that, Huang Ting fought wits and courage with the elders of Mount Taiping, and finally managed to sneak into the well prison at the age of eleven, but almost died in the depths of the well prison, unable to go down, unable to get out, and fainted.

In the end, she was thrown out of the well prison by a black-clothed white ape.

The old ape slowly advanced, leisurely strolling, and came to the edge across from the well prison.

The ancient sword that had been drawn from its sheath possessed sword energy that was too heavy, completely obscuring the true appearance of the blade. After shattering the jade pendant, equivalent to a high-grade magic treasure, the flying sword was no longer even on Mount Taiping at this moment. Faintly, one could see a white rainbow streak across the distance, flashing like lightning, like a slender white snake swimming on a vast black curtain.

As a result, the Mount Taiping Mountain Protecting Array, which was about to be activated, instantly ceased operation and exhibited unusual disorder.

Zhong Kui was unable to successfully drive the great array to suppress this demon.

The founding patriarch was on the way to Lotus Root Paradise to retrieve Huang Ting, the sect leader had gone to the Spirit-Bestowing Sect to intercept that twelfth-realm great demon, and the Nascent Soul Earth Immortal in charge of Mount Taiping’s affairs had handed over the central control of the Mountain Protecting Array to Zhong Kui, an outsider, without reservation, before descending the mountain, not because of his status as a gentleman of the Great Fu Academy, but simply because he trusted Zhong Kui. In fact, this action had strong overstepping implications and could potentially leak the inner secrets of Mount Taiping, but the whole mountain had no objection.

A sage once said that the Taoists of Mount Taiping have a tradition of chivalry.

They certainly deserve this praise.

It’s just that the Tao is one foot high, but the devil is ten feet high. This white ape, worthy of being the Mount-Protecting Guardian who had protected Mount Taiping for three thousand years, was able to temporarily halt the great array.

Zhong Kui’s expression was solemn as he silently recited a sage’s writing in his heart.

The autumn wind in his sleeves was of a higher quality than the sought-after Wind of Turning Pages.

Back when Zhong Kui had not yet reached adulthood and had already joined the ranks of the academy’s worthies, he was quite “notorious” in the Great Fu Academy due to his unruly nature year-round, and was disliked by many rigid old scholars. If it weren’t for the Mountain Lord’s almost doting protection, he would have been stripped of his title of worthy long ago. Becoming a worthy and gentleman of the academy was not a one-time thing; there was a major exam every few years. Zhong Kui once got drunk and slept for three days and three nights, and actually missed the exam. The older teachers of the Great Fu Academy, either disapproving of Zhong Kui’s recklessness, or angry at his squandering of talent, or harboring the intention that those who were destined for great things must first have their minds tempered, jointly petitioned the Mountain Lord to deprive Zhong Kui of his status as a worthy.

As a result, on that day, which was a day of heavy snow in winter, Zhong Kui walked barefoot in the snow, loudly reciting a moral essay by a certain sage, and in the arrogant posture of a madman asking the heavens, he inquired about the doubts in the essay from the sage. In the end, Zhong Kui answered himself, his expression quite pleased.

When Zhong Kui stopped, in the cold winter season, there was actually a gust of autumn wind, carrying the “good” character praised by the sage himself, echoing throughout the Great Fu Academy.

Autumn wind entered his sleeves.

Zhong Kui joined the ranks of gentlemen that day, and no one dared to question it.

Legend has it that when sages created characters, ghosts cried and gods wailed.

Characters do have their power, especially for academy disciples.

The most peak manifestation is the native characters possessed by the sages in the “Orthodox Culture” Confucian temples. These great sages have been standing on divine altars for countless years, receiving the worship of the world, with the cultural lineage constantly flowing and the incense eternally preserved.
Even the sages of the “orthodox” Wen Temple – aside from the Supreme Sage Confucius in the center and the five accompanying sages (now only four) – only possessed a single natal character.

There was only one exception in the entire world.

Qi Jingchun of the Cliffside Academy.

“Spring” and “Quiet” were both natal characters of this scholar, and both were of immense power.

Next were the mountain lords and gentlemen of ordinary Confucian academies, who could invoke heavenly edicts with their words and resonated with the world due to their bellies full of righteous aura.

Then came worthies who could recite poems and summon gale-force winds capable of disintegrating human forms and scattering ghosts and specters into nothingness.

The white ape, carrying only a sheathed sword, stood across the wellhead, not speaking, but extending three fingers.

Was it suggesting that it only needed three swords to kill Zhong Kui?

Zhong Kui remained silent, not engaging in any verbal disputes.

His jade pendant, symbolizing his status as a gentleman, had already transmitted the situation here back to the academy.

All around Zhong Kui, white waterfalls seemed to appear, the white streams composed of countless, brilliantly shining, tiny characters.

It was as if huge pages from classic texts were erected beside the Well of Hell in Mount Taiping.

Even the baleful aura emanating from the Well of Hell was forcibly pressed downwards, causing the imprisoned demons and specters to erupt in ferocity and roar.

The sound of countless iron chains within the Well of Hell violently clanging reverberated like thunder.

The white ape surveyed its surroundings. Mount Taiping actually possessed two mountain-protecting formations, one overt and one covert. The former was the mountain-protecting array known throughout Tongye Continent. Once activated, a mirror would rise like a bright moon, illuminating Mount Taiping, leaving no place for demons and specters to hide. Being bathed in that light would not only suppress one’s cultivation, but it would especially overwhelm demons and ghosts. Those with shallow cultivation, like those below the Earth Immortal realm, would vanish instantly upon exposure.

However, what the white ape truly feared was not this formation that had already been tampered with, but the true trump card of Mount Taiping.

The Bright Moon Mirror, powerful enough to deter half the continent, had a purpose that outsiders couldn’t fathom. Its existence was simply to help Mount Taiping identify its opponents, nothing more!

As for who was the third-largest sect in Tongye Continent after the Tongye Sect and the Jade Gui Sect…

For thousands of years, cultivators in Tongye Continent had claimed it was the Fuzhi Sect, whose sect leader and his consort were both in the Upper Five Realms. However, no matter how much outsiders flattered, praised, or sincerely acknowledged them, the Fuzhi Sect never admitted to being the third-largest sect in Tongye Continent. Regarding this debate, the sect leader of the Fuzhi Sect only once spoke evasively, jokingly saying that if the Fuzhi Sect moved to that small place in the north, the Treasure Bottle Continent, what difficulty would there be in vying for first place?

The streak of white rainbow wandering restlessly outside Mount Taiping once again broke through a layer of invisible landscape aura, surging towards them and descending from the sky, falling directly towards Zhong Kui’s head.

Page after page of waterfall-like text flowed upwards in reverse, forming a semi-circular, snow-white formation around and above Zhong Kui.

The tip of the long sword collided with the waterfall, erupting in countless sparks of lightning and fire.

The falling speed of the long sword had been somewhat hindered, but the heaven and earth’s righteous energy contained in the waterfall rapidly dissipated.

Even the scattering sparks caused devastation to the towering ancient trees, viewing pavilions, and immortal cultivators’ cave abodes near the Well of Hell in Mount Taiping. Countless birds and beasts wailed and fled.

Zhong Kui ignored the ancient sword that would eventually break through the waterfall, instead staring intently at the unwavering great demon.

The white ape looked calm and composed, with a hint of playfulness on its lips, clearly waiting to see what trump cards this academy gentleman, marked for certain death, possessed.

The sword above Zhong Kui’s head was merely its second sword.

Demonic cultivation was inherently difficult, and becoming a sword cultivator was even more challenging. Therefore, the sword cultivator great demons who reached the Upper Five Realms were, without exception, undisputed overlords of the Wildlands. Sword cultivator demons in the Middle Five Realms enjoyed various honors and privileges in the Wildlands, almost equivalent to academy disciples in the Vast World. Even for legitimate revenge or attacks, Middle Five Realm sword cultivators could be spared once. Those who violated the rules and recklessly killed sword cultivators, regardless of their status, would be severely punished upon discovery.

The cultivators of the Vast World might not be very clear about the terror of a sword cultivator great demon. After all, although there were numerous demons, goblins, and monsters, true great demons were rare. However, on the Sword Qi Great Wall, the difficulty of dealing with a sword cultivator great demon had been learned through the valiant deaths of countless human sword cultivators, experiencing their terrifying killing power and bloody methods.

The reason A Liang was so powerful, why he had countless admirers and supporters on the Sword Qi Great Wall, was that A Liang had honed his sword path on the Sword Qi Great Wall for a century, facing sword cultivator great demons of the same realm without ever losing. Not only did he have a flawless record, but he also had records of chasing down his opponents for tens of thousands of miles, even killing them on the spot.

Therefore, when A Liang ascended and left the Vast World to fight against the extraterrestrial demons with Dao Lao Er in that strange place where they ran rampant, the cultivators of the Vast World believed that A Liang would be glorious even in defeat. On the contrary, most of the demons in the Wildlands firmly believed that the swordsman A Liang, who deserved to die ten thousand times over, would beat that “Truly Unbeatable” into someone who was truly beatable.

Demons respected and admired the strongest. Even though they hated A Liang, who called himself a swordsman, to the bone, when a peak great demon proposed that after A Liang’s death, a sword could be used as a tombstone at his burial place in the Wildlands…

The entire Wildlands, a barbarian land regarded by the Vast World as “without the sound of reading,” actually considered this suggestion as a matter of course.

The hundred or so Taoists remaining on Mount Taiping did not stand idly by. They were almost all the lowest-ranking Taoists in the mountain gate, many of them young Taoist novices with pale faces but firm eyes.

Zhong Kui sternly said, “Retreat! Don’t throw your lives away!”

One of the Golden Core Realm old cultivators among the Taoists, although he had already recognized the identity of the old ape, still blocked all of Zhong Kui’s scholarly reasoning with one sentence, “We Taoists of Mount Taiping slay demons and exterminate monsters, there is no reason to die behind others.”

The white ape didn’t even glance at the Golden Core cultivator, casually throwing a punch. The fist-force shattered the body of a Golden Core Earth Immortal in the eyes of the world, and the Golden Core collapsed.

Repaying kindness with kindness, even in death, without regret.

The Taoists of Mount Taiping were like that.

Zhong Kui was even more so.

With a wave of both sleeves, two gusts of autumn wind within them wrapped up all the Taoists of Mount Taiping, throwing them all far away.
The white ape turned a blind eye, allowing Zhong Kui to toss those Daoists out of the battlefield.

A single Zhong Kui was worth more than a Mount Taiping.

A thought flickered in the white ape’s mind.

The unsheathed ancient sword accelerated its descent.

Zhong Kui stealthily pinched a talisman of azure material between his fingers.

A sacred scholar’s script, inscribed with the words “Divinely Inspired Brushstrokes” using a small snow-cone-shaped tool, bore Zhong Kui’s unique Sword-Suppressing Talisman!

The instant the long sword pierced through the waterfall, the azure Sword-Suppressing Talisman materialized above Zhong Kui’s head.

The ancient sword vanished completely, as if a banished immortal had fallen into a blessed grotto.

Even the white ape, who had refined it for millennia, could no longer sense its presence.

Mount Taiping possessed two great mountain-guarding arrays, like luminous mirrors ascending into the sky, used to illuminate and find demons. Even Jade Purity Realm cultivators could be momentarily imprisoned, and the true killing move would follow swiftly. This was precisely the four imitation ancient immortal swords, forged by Mount Taiping’s enlightened founder, sparing no expense of manpower, material resources, or wealth. Though imitations, each sword was of the rank of a semi-immortal weapon. When the four swords formed an array, their power became heaven-piercing, comparable to a true slaying immortal weapon.

But the very sword the white ape carried was one of the four.

As a mountain-guarding devotee for three thousand years, it had not only pursued and killed the demon giants that had “escaped” from the Well Prison but had also stealthily descended the mountain countless times to slay enemies, accumulating immeasurable merits.

Finally, a thousand years ago, the Mount Taiping Sect Leader of that generation, defying all opposition, bestowed one of the ancient swords upon the white ape, whose merits were already “beyond reward.”

Although the white ape could not fully control the Four Swords Formation, it was child’s play for it to exploit loopholes temporarily. If ordinary earth immortals were forced to hastily preside over the formation in an emergency, the white ape was confident that it could make the four swords defect.

Without the ancient sword that was both its personal weapon and natal object,

the white ape narrowed its eyes slightly, twitching the corner of its mouth, a subtle movement yet filled with soaring, savage, and bloody aura.

Zhong Kui held his one hand behind his back, the other holding the snow-cone-shaped tool, as if standing before a desk, beginning to write the first character.

The second character, “Man.”

The third character, “Has.”

The fourth character, “Clouds.”

The brushstrokes were extremely fast.

Each character from the snow-cone-shaped tool hovered before Zhong Kui, its momentum vast.

Above Mount Taiping, winds surged and clouds roiled.

The white ape shook its head gently.

A flash.

With a two-handed sword-dragging stance, the white ape traversed most of the Well Prison’s mouth, lunging straight at Zhong Kui.

A horizontal sweep.

No longer giving this young scholar of the academy any hope.

It wasn’t that the white ape would be helpless after Zhong Kui finished writing the complete chapter.

After all, when it emerged, it was already a sword cultivator of the Immortal Realm.

It had painstakingly suppressed its cultivation for a full five hundred years.

Unless the Core Formation Realm Zhong Kui was a reincarnation of the Dao Ancestor Buddha, how could Zhong Kui survive, separated by a Jade Purity Realm and the chasm between the Middle Five Realms and Upper Five Realms?

It would be a different story if Zhong Kui could simultaneously control the two Mount Taiping mountain-guarding arrays.

Unfortunately, these two great arrays would be regarded as nothing by the white ape unless the Sect Leader and that Ancestor personally presided over them.

However, it would be troublesome, truly a great trouble, if it stayed on Mount Taiping for even a moment longer.

When the white ape landed lightly at the spot where Zhong Kui had stood, ten or so zhang away, Zhong Kui had been cut in half at the waist, blood splattering beside the two sections of his body.

The four golden characters and the snow-cone-shaped tool had all been destroyed.

A dignified and righteous golden core no longer existed, and a Nascent Soul of extremely high rank had dissipated.

This was the end for a twelfth-realm sword cultivator who had given his all.

The white ape reached out and pulled an azure talisman, already cracked, from the void. It pinched it between its fingers, grasped the ancient sword that had broken free from its cage, and returned it to the scabbard on its back.

The white ape glanced at the blue-robed scholar, who was beyond salvation after the attack, and finally spoke in a hoarse voice. This was the first time it had spoken, saying slowly, “Consider it a generous sacrifice.”

It looked up into the distance, stomped its foot, causing the entire Mount Taiping to tremble, and leaped into the air, reaching the summit of Mount Taiping. With a turn, it flew swiftly south.

After the mountain peak trembled, the bottom of the Well Prison seemed to have lost its restraints. The soaring baleful aura that permeated the entire Well’s mouth rose with a thunderous roar.

Countless demons suppressed in the Well Prison for countless years, after a brief shock and bewilderment, erupted in countless laughter. Those demons and evil spirits who wanted to slaughter Mount Taiping were about to rush out of the Well Prison when this impressive demonic and evil aura suddenly stagnated, becoming hesitant.

It turned out that…

A speck of light appeared far to the north of Mount Taiping.

Then came rumbling thunder, continuous and unending, and sea after sea of clouds were shattered.

The mountain peak shook again, and a tall, white-haired Daoist elder landed beside Zhong Kui’s corpse, his face full of grief and guilt.

A golden Dharma body rose from the ground, almost as tall as the towering Mount Taiping, raising one arm high. A round moon disc rose from the mountain peak and was held in the hands of the imposing, mountain-like Daoist priest, shining towards the south.

At the same time, he flicked his sleeve, and three sword lights rose from the southeast, southwest, and west directions of Mount Taiping, eventually hovering beside the golden Dharma body one by one.

This Daoist was the ancestral grand-uncle of the contemporary Sect Leader of Mount Taiping.

Back then, his senior brother had insisted on bestowing one of the immortal swords to the white ape, and he had been the one who most strongly opposed it. Because of this, the two senior and junior brothers had become estranged.

What was even worse was that an outsider of similar seniority as them had publicly ridiculed him for being jealous of the good fortune of a beast.

This Immortal Realm Ancestor of Mount Taiping, holding the Luminous Mirror that seemed to rival the bright moon in the sky, surveyed for a moment, and finally still saw the fleeing white ape millions of miles away.

The golden Dharma body’s voice boomed like thunder, “Ungrateful old beast! This Daoist will tear you into ten thousand pieces!”

Words became law.

The three Mountain-Protecting Immortal Swords of Mount Taiping, three rays of light that illuminated thousands of miles as bright as day, streaked across the sky, chasing after the white ape that was desperately fleeing south after its rampage.

The sword-bearing white ape was indeed decisive, reaching out and taking one of the four swords from its back, driving it towards one of the emerald lights.

It only asked that the three swords of Mount Taiping pause slightly.

The Mount Taiping Ancestor was even more ruthless, letting two ancestral ancient swords be destroyed together in a blaze of glory, creating a terrifying light in the air. This old Daoist still unhesitatingly controlled the remaining two swords, one sword piercing straight through the white ape, which could not avoid it no matter how it changed its course. However, the white ape still did not let the sword pierce directly through its head, but rather let it pierce through its back.
The desperate situation forced the white ape to manifest its hundreds-of-feet-tall Dharma Body. Its feet stomped heavily upon the mountains and rivers, while its hands clutched desperately at the second ancient sword.

The giant ape’s hands were a bloody mess, its enormous form sliding backward. Finally, unable to maintain its grip, it lost the sword. It broke free from its restraints, only to have the ancient blade plunge into its heart, piercing straight through.

Wounded twice so severely, the giant white ape could no longer sustain its Dharma Body. It shrunk back to its human-sized form. Its Great Dao fundamentally damaged, it exerted every last ounce of strength to flee southward.

Before the giant ape form vanished completely, it snarled, “Aren’t you going to save that Zhong Kui?! You still have a chance! Are you saving a man or slaying a demon? To slay a demon is to kill a man, hahaha…”

After the great demon had fled hundreds of miles, it was pierced twice more by the two ancient swords, which, being too far from Mount Taiping, finally revealed their true forms.

The old Daoist sighed. He had been prepared to forcibly alter and diminish the mountain’s spiritual Qi, even to move the entire “Dharma Body” of Mount Taiping forward several hundred miles. This was all to maintain the power of the remaining two immortal swords. However, if he did so, the scholar beside the Well Prison on the mountainside might truly lose his last chance at life. After all, after using his Golden Body Dharma, his true form had remained in place, helping Zhong Kui gather his remaining soul fragments. He was attempting to reverse the natural order, to “resurrect the dead.” This was defiance of Heaven, inviting the wrath of Fengdu, the capital of the underworld. Once Mount Taiping’s Qi shifted, Fengdu might seize the opportunity to steal Zhong Kui’s few remaining traces of his soul.

Therefore, the old beast had uttered the phrase, “to slay a demon is to kill a man.”

Perhaps one of the white ape’s schemes was to avoid completely shattering Zhong Kui’s primordial spirit.

Near the Well Prison, before the old Daoist, appeared a flickering and unstable soul – the pale-faced scholar in azure robes, Zhong Kui.

The old Daoist said gravely, “Mount Taiping has failed you, Master Zhong. This poor Daoist has no face to meet the Great Fu Academy.”

Given the Immortal-realm old Daoist’s seniority, both within Mount Taiping and across the entire Tongye Continent, he was a celestial figure standing at the very peak. For the old man to address the young Zhong Kui as “Master” was an immense acknowledgment.

But the man was already dead, reduced to a weak soul that could dissipate into the world at any moment. What use was it?

However, this ancestor of Mount Taiping truly deserved the Daoist title of “True Person.”

Zhong Kui’s soul smiled and shook its head, its lips moving silently. No words reached the Vast World, but the old Daoist understood their meaning: “True Person, there is no need for guilt. This was my ordained tribulation, impossible to escape. If not on Mount Taiping, it would have been at Great Fu Academy, or anywhere else on Tongye Continent.”

Beside the Well Prison stood a young female Daoist.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, a thread of blood seeping out.

It was Huang Ting, who had originally been required to remain in the Lotus Blossom Blessed Land for sixty years, or rather, Fan Wan’er and Tong Qingqing of the Mirror Heart Studio.

Of all on Mount Taiping, she was the most enraged.

That back-sword-carrying white ape had been one of the fortuitous encounters on her cultivation path. It had taught her a back-sword technique not recorded in her sect’s teachings, etching it into her heart, even taking it with her to the Lotus Blossom Blessed Land. That was why, in the martial world, there was the saying, “To carry or not to carry the sword makes two different Fan Wan’ers.”

The old ape had repeatedly led her deep into the Well Prison, honing her sword heart and assisting her cultivation.

She would personally slaughter it and ask it one question: Did it ever regret betraying Mount Taiping?

As for why it had chosen to betray, Huang Ting would not ask, did not want to ask!

The moment Zhong Kui’s true body died, a massive black vortex appeared above Mount Taiping, within which a gigantic figure wearing an imperial crown coldly gazed down upon the mountain.

Zhong Kui’s soul looked up and smiled bleakly.

The old Daoist, originally intending to retract his Golden Body Dharma, without a word, slightly bent his knees, then leaped high into the air, smashing the vortex apart with his bare hands.

However, the old Daoist’s Golden Body Dharma also shattered in the process.

The cost was unimaginable.

Zhong Kui was about to speak.

The old Daoist waved his hand, laughing freely, “Cultivation, realms and such, are just fart! In the end, it’s all about making yourself feel… good!”

After saying this, the old Daoist’s expression became somewhat melancholic.

This Master Zhong, disregarding any talk of quasi-sage or Great Libationer potential, just considering his temperament, a scholar with such gentlemanly virtues, should never have died so young.

Huang Ting turned her head and spat out a mouthful of blood, saying to the old Daoist, “Ancestor, I want to descend the mountain!”

The old Daoist nodded. “Before the white ape dies, you, Huang Ting, are not allowed to return to the mountain. Either bring back its head, or just die out there. You may borrow the two mountain-guarding ancient swords for sixty years, after which you must rely on your own abilities to hunt down the white ape.”

Huang Ting said in a deep voice, “Huang Ting of Mount Taiping, receives the Ancestor’s decree!”

The young female Daoist transformed into a streak of light, heading south.

The ancestral patriarch of Mount Taiping was never one for eloquent words, and furthermore, he felt deep remorse in his heart, so he remained silent.

Deep within his heart, Zhong Kui also felt a sense of guilt.

Suddenly, the old Daoist’s eyes showed surprise.

He saw two wisps of clear wind near the Well Prison, gently drifting towards Zhong Kui’s soul, surrounding it.

Not only that, but a small writing brush, crystal clear and ethereal, appeared before Zhong Kui.

Even more, a scarlet robe resembling ancient official attire drifted down from the place where the vortex had dissipated.

Zhong Kui hesitated for a moment, then gently grasped the small snow-cone-like brush in his hand.

The scarlet official robe draped over Zhong Kui’s shoulders.

Two wisps of autumn wind surged into the wide sleeves of the robe.

At the same time.

Beneath the Well Prison, those demons and monsters, normally as docile as chickens and dogs in a marketplace, not only obediently retreated to their original prison cells, but suddenly, involuntarily, retreated further, until there was nowhere left to retreat.

Zhong Kui recalled the prophecy.

No longer a scholar in azure robes, but a soul in scarlet robes, Zhong Kui murmured, “Before Zhong Kui descends the mountain, all ghosts in the world are without restraint.”

He turned and looked towards the Well Prison, saying without thinking, “Just kowtow.”

From within the Well Prison, the sound of countless kowtows echoed.

The old Daoist stroked his beard and smiled.

Falling from the Immortal Realm back to the Jade Purity Realm, it seems, was not in vain.

Zhong Kui seemed to understand something, remaining silent for a long time.

Finally, he spoke, “True Person, I have a matter to ask for help.”

The old Daoist nodded, “As long as it doesn’t require this poor Daoist to kowtow to you, anything is possible.”

Zhong Kui gave a helpless smile, finally bowing respectfully, “Although I am now a ghost, I am still a True Person of Mount Taiping.”
The old Daoist priest was slightly surprised, then burst into hearty laughter, “That flattery was truly… refreshing!”

That night, Chen Ping’an, feeling inexplicably agitated, went to the courtyard outside the post station to practice his swordsmanship.

However, he couldn’t calm his mind.

He suddenly looked up.

In the distant sky, a subtle, almost imperceptible ripple appeared.

Chen Ping’an took a few steps back, and the flying swords “First” and “Fifteenth” had already shot out from the sword-nourishing gourd.

Then, Chen Ping’an quickly breathed a sigh of relief.

It was Zhong Kui, the gentleman in the strange crimson robe, accompanied by a white-haired, aged Daoist.

The old Daoist glanced at Chen Ping’an, nodding and smiling in greeting, then said softly to Zhong Kui, “You two chat. After you’re done, give this old one a shout. I need to take you away quickly; you cannot linger in the mortal realm for too long.”

Chen Ping’an’s heart tightened.

Zhong Kui chuckled, “Don’t ask anything yet; allow me to explain everything in detail.”

He roughly recounted the battle of Mount Taiping. Zhong Kui seemed like an outsider, making it sound completely unthrilling and boring, and he even wore a smile. Things like not being able to defeat the great white ape demon, admitting that his skills were inferior, being killed by two sword strikes and a saber blow, and becoming a wandering ghost, no longer fit to be a gentleman of the academy… What detailed explanation was this?

Chen Ping’an angrily said, “Just like that? Dead?!”

He pointed at Zhong Kui’s nose, “Just like that, you went from being a man to a ghost? Aren’t you a gentleman of the academy? Can’t your Yin spirit and Yang spirit leave your body?”

Towards the end, Chen Ping’an’s voice grew softer, his expression dazed, and he asked quietly, “How could you just die?”

Having said this, Chen Ping’an could no longer speak.

A series of images flashed through his mind, finally settling on one scene.

A free-spirited scholar was squatting above the water of the Buried River, finding the female ghost beautiful, and pulling her hair, wanting to see her.

Why were the scholars in his heart all dying?

Chen Ping’an subconsciously reached for the sword-nourishing gourd, then silently clipped it back onto his waist.

The small Snow Awl hovered in front of Zhong Kui, clearly already integrated with Zhong Kui’s Yin soul.

Zhong Kui cautiously said, “Chen Ping’an, let’s get this straight, it’s really not that I’m being dishonest, deliberately trying to steal your Snow Awl. If you want to hit or scold me, it’s up to you!”

Chen Ping’an asked, “What’s the saying about a gentleman’s word?”

Zhong Kui said with a guilty conscience, “Unbreakable?”

Chen Ping’an went to sit on a stool next to the stone table, and Zhong Kui scratched his head and sat next to him.

Chen Ping’an said, “Anyway, you’re dead now, you’re not a gentleman anymore.”

Zhong Kui felt even more uneasy.

Chen Ping’an raised his head, looking at Zhong Kui, and said slowly, “But I will definitely do what I promised others. It was like that with Mr. Qi, and it’s like that with you, Zhong Kui.”

Zhong Kui was somewhat confused, “Huh?”

Chen Ping’an, with red eyes, said slowly, “Saying I’ll lend it to you means I’ll lend it to you. A year is lending, a hundred years, a thousand years, is also lending.”

Zhong Kui was silent.

Chen Ping’an finally asked, “If a thousand years isn’t enough, is ten thousand years enough?”

Zhong Kui nodded lightly.

He stood up, and Chen Ping’an followed suit.

Zhong Kui smiled brightly again, “The continent of Tongye, Ghost, Zhong Kui! I have a friend, named Chen Ping’an!”

Chen Ping’an glared at him, then laughed as well, “The continent of Baoping, Swordsman, Chen Ping’an! I know a righteous gentleman, named Zhong Kui.”

In the distance.

The ancestor Daoist of Mount Taiping stroked his beard and nodded, praising, “Hundreds or thousands of years from now, this meeting tonight will be a wonderful tale?”