Beneath the sea of clouds, west of the Dragon Ascension Platform, and north of the solitary ferry island, the entire Old Dragon City was caught in a moment of suspended time.

When Fan Junmao saw that snowy white figure descending like a celestial rainbow, his face was filled with endless reminiscence, and finally, tears welled up in his eyes. He rose to his feet, hesitant to speak, and then, in a time-honored “stable sitting” posture, sat upright above the sea of clouds. Later generations of Confucian gentlemen emphasized sitting as still as a corpse, as reverent as a deity, and this was precisely it.

At the Dusty Apothecary, Pei Qian, wielding his mountain-trekking staff, was practicing his frenzied swordsmanship in the alley outside the shop, completely unaware of the celestial phenomenon. Zhao’s Yin God, by the threshold, was utterly motionless.

Outside the city, a short, wealthy old man, just about to step out, frowned, retracted his foot, and remained motionless. He merely rotated his eyeballs, pondered slightly, and then sent his even more clandestine Yin Spirit out for a distant journey, stealthy and yet feeling right at home.

Outside the east gate of Old Dragon City, Instructor Grandma of the Yunlin Jiang Clan was flushed, her natal flying sword humming and vibrating within her acupoints, allowing her to barely discern some blurred images.

The revitalizing ancestor of the Tongye Sect, surnamed Du, narrowed his eyes, gazing towards the hole in the city wall. His natal immortal treasure, the Sword-Swallowing Boat, hovered silently beside him.

In the “doorway” blasted into the city wall, a tall woman in snowy white robes, sleeves billowing, sat on a pile of rubble. With gentle movements, she cradled a young man whose Golden Liquor Treasure was nearly destroyed. He was severely injured, already unconscious. She lowered her head, extended a finger, and gently smoothed the young man’s furrowed brow.

Not far away stood an old, impoverished Confucian scholar in green robes, wiping his forehead. “You’re too reckless, making such a big commotion. Do you know how much effort I had to expend to conceal your whereabouts? If the Grand God of Sui Mountain hadn’t been so righteous, allowing me to directly jump to the northern part of Treasure Bottle Continent, your presence would already be known throughout the world. How could Chen Ping’an cultivate in peace then?”

Seeing that the woman remained silent, the old scholar became even more apprehensive, sighing in lamentation. He turned away from the second most powerful immortal on the Tongye Continent, walked to the edge of the wall, and suppressed his inner rage. “What is it, you two who so love to watch the excitement? Why don’t you even dare to show your faces?”

To the north, a misty figure appeared, vaguely discernible as a middle-aged Confucian scholar with a golden jade pendant hanging from his waist, inscribed with the seal characters “I cultivate the grand and righteous Qi.”

To the south, a similarly ephemeral Confucian scholar, looking ancient, with a golden jade pendant hanging from his waist, inscribed with the seal characters “Abundant assistance for those who attain the Dao.”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar bowed and said, “Greetings, esteemed sir.”

The ancient Confucian scholar to the south, upon seeing the literary saint’s old scholar, remained utterly unmoved, not even twitching an eyelid.

The old scholar took a deep breath, pointed to the revitalizing ancestor of the Tongye Sect, and looked at the old Confucian scholar with the “Attain the Dao” pendant, asking, “As the sage responsible for observing the northern Tongye Continent, if you can excuse yourself for the travels of tenth and eleventh realm Qi cultivators, claiming that human affairs are numerous, that you cannot attend to every star-like light of the myriad homes beneath your feet, what about such a soaring realm Qi cultivator? A huge lantern floating before your eyes, and you still can’t see it?”

The ancient Confucian scholar remained silent.

The middle-aged Confucian scholar sighed. He had actually been notified beforehand that Du Mao of the Tongye Sect would descend the mountain to visit Old Dragon City on Treasure Bottle Continent, which was within his jurisdiction. This was part of a scheme by the Northern Great Li Song Clan, and also involved the spirit-writing sect and the secrets of the demon race during the Taiping Mountain turmoil. Therefore, before Du Mao left the sect, he had reported and registered with the ancient Confucian scholar, but the matter arose suddenly, and there was no time to request a pass from the academy. So the middle-aged Confucian scholar had turned a blind eye.

The restrictions on these soaring realm great cultivators were an iron rule established by the Sage of Rites. Over the years, there had been resistance, with some great cultivators even openly mocking the Sage of Rites as truly loving, letting so many demon races roam freely throughout the vast world, not annihilating them, not uprooting them, and instead imposing strict rules on his own people. Even stretching one’s arms and legs required approval from the academy. Look at the Azure Firmament World, where the three Daoist veins were stationed. Soaring realm cultivators could stay in the Jade Capital, or travel the world at will when they were bored. Why was it that only in the vast world, even a sneeze had to follow the rules?

Du Mao of the Tongye Sect grew impatient, scratching his head with one hand behind his back, and looking up at the old scholar, “You are the literary saint?”

The old scholar completely ignored this person from beginning to end, speaking to the two Confucians enshrined in the Confucian Temple, accompanying the seventy-two sages, “Both of you are Lao San’s (Confucius) prized students, and sages. Lao San should have taught you, and you should remember, that compassion is inherent in all people.”

“The sense of shame and aversion is inherent in all people!”

The former was addressed to the middle-aged Confucian scholar stationed in the southern Treasure Bottle Continent.

The latter was addressed to the ancient Confucian scholar who had allowed Du Mao to descend the mountain, cross continents, and enter Old Dragon City.

Those who could enter the Confucian Temple, accompanying the Supreme Teacher, were of course veritable sages, carrying more weight than the so-called Confucian sages who served as the heads of Confucian academies. However, the orthodox Confucianism of the vast world still adhered to the saying of the seventy-two sages.

The old scholar continued, “Your teacher also said, ‘Life is what I desire; righteousness is also what I desire. If I cannot have both, I will give up life for righteousness!’ Now it is Chen Ping’an who is teaching you how to be human! Anyway, Lao San couldn’t teach you well, so let a child who hasn’t read much teach you.”

The ancient old man’s face was stiff, and he spoke indifferently, “You are no longer in the Confucian Temple, and have no accompanying divine image. The lineage of scholarship and culture has been severed. You should respectfully address my teacher as the Second Sage.”

The old scholar was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, “I didn’t call him an old bastard, which is already giving him a lot of face! What are you? Relying on dogshit moral articles, useless dogshit learning, entering the Confucian Temple just to eat cold pig head meat.”

The ancient old man remained expressionless, but his lips twitched slightly, as if in mockery.

The old scholar patted his chest, muttering to himself, “One must persuade people with reason, persuade people with virtue.”

The old scholar sighed, “Both of you know that I can’t do anything to you now, so you are relying on this, aren’t you?”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar shook his head and said, “I dare not, and I do not wish to do so.”

The ancient Confucian scholar sneered, “Your learning is a shit-stirrer, a stinky fly, ruining our Confucian orthodoxy’s grand cause for all time.”
The elderly Confucian scholar, distinguished by a golden jade pendant inscribed with “Virtue Attracts Assistance,” instead of retreating, stepped forward. “I’m saying it to your face. What can you do about it?”

The old scholar laughed derisively. “Have you forgotten how you diligently studied my lineage of scholarship when I was at the height of my influence? If I remember correctly, you even sought guidance from Cui? And what was the result? Cui, who rarely did anything good in his life, criticized you for learning nothing but the hypocritical facade of Lao San. He even suggested that Confucianism should establish a ‘hypocrite’ title alongside the ‘virtuous gentleman,’ a truly incisive observation.”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar wore a bitter smile.

The elderly scholar possessed remarkable composure, remaining unfazed by the old scholar’s insults.

The old scholar raised his head, gazing at the sky, and murmured, “You can deceive a gentleman with principles, a philosophy you, Lao San, yourself espoused. I know you wanted to add another shackle to the scholar’s burden, echoing the Saintly Teacher’s saying of ‘restraining oneself and returning to propriety is benevolence.’ But look at the world now. Does it align with your initial intentions? Forget others, just look at your prized student. Because of this, the Grand Preceptor of the Rites Academy, a disciple of the Sage of Rites, shamelessly begged Bai Ze for help. And what did Bai Ze say? ‘Let’s see.’ See what? I think there’s no need to look anymore. This world is failing, declining, and losing its virtue! How did we debate scholarship back then? Even if our paths diverged, we all believed that ‘modern people need not be inferior to the ancients.’ What a joke! A complete joke!”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar looked at the elderly scholar to the south and softly chuckled, “Why not apologize to Master?”

The elderly Confucian scholar retorted, “What is there to apologize for?”

The middle-aged scholar pondered for a moment. “Severing the flame of humanistic tradition should only be done through scholarship, and should only stem from the choices of the people and the nation, not through force. A Qi cultivator in the Ascension Realm, under false pretenses, provokes the four Sages’ tacit agreement with the Ancient Divine Sovereign, arbitrarily killing a young man who ‘might be a disciple of the Literary Saint.’ It’s unreasonable and goes against propriety!”

The elderly Confucian scholar said calmly, “I am considering a grand, enduring legacy, a millennium of literary fortune.”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar shook his head slightly and remained silent.

The old scholar plopped down on the edge of the broken wall. “Whether reason is spoken or not, who speaks it, whether others listen or not, some principles always remain, but you do not understand.”

Behind him, a cold voice rang out, “Finished?”

The old scholar nodded, his shoulders slumped, his hands folded on his knees, somewhat disheartened. “Finished. Running so far, and concealing your aura all the way, and then spouting so much nonsense, I’m completely drained. All the good principles that the Saintly Teacher, the Sage of Rites, Lao San, and I worked so hard to develop, I think they’ll have to be returned to this world unchanged.”

The tall woman in white gently placed Chen Ping’an down, stood up, and slowly walked to the old scholar’s side. “Then it’s my turn to speak my piece. Let me make it clear, if you dare to stop me, I’ll deal with you too…”

The old scholar shook his head. “I won’t stop you. It’s just that this old wretch is incompetent, causing Xiao Qi to die and disappear, and causing Xiao Ping’an to suffer so much. I’ve let down these two disciples. Some people want to eat dung, and I can’t stop them. Why would I stop you, who speaks reason?”

Du Mao, who had been watching the show the whole time, laughed. “What, another hidden swordsman? Immortal Realm? Can’t be an Ascendant Realm cultivator who ran out from Upside-down Mountain, right?”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar’s gaze was strange as he glanced at the elderly Confucian scholar to the south, whose expression was solemn and grave, clearly feeling more pressure facing her than he did facing the old scholar, who was once a Literary Saint.

The woman in white yawned, stepped forward, and stood straight under the wall, slowly moving forward.

Around her waist hung an old sword blade with no sheath and no hilt, covered in rust. Only a small section of the tip was polished to a gleaming, sharp point.

The elderly Confucian scholar said in a deep voice, “If you dare to act, you will break the rules of this world!”

The woman in white simply continued to move forward, tapping her mouth. She seemed to have just woken up.

The old sword blade was not securely fastened, so with her steps, the tip swayed gently, the snow-white sword light flickering uncertainly.

As she advanced, she turned her head to the middle-aged Confucian scholar and said, “Since you’ve said a few sensible words, get out!”

The middle-aged Confucian scholar frowned slightly, but saw the old scholar waving at him. After a moment of hesitation, he still dispersed his figure, leaving this “small world” in the middle of the torrent of time.

She glanced slightly south, squinting at the elderly Confucian scholar. “Get out.”

The old scholar made no further movements.

The elderly Confucian scholar questioned, “Do you truly want to contend against the Great Dao of this world?”

The tall woman in white tilted her head, extended a finger, and gently pressed the tip of the old sword blade. “Sharpening this little bit should be enough to split open Upside-down Mountain, so I’ll open a gate in the Vast Sky World and the Wilderness World.”

The elderly Confucian scholar’s expression changed drastically. “Impossible!”

She had no intention of paying attention to this fellow.

She gently pushed the old sword blade.

A flash.

The sky of this midstream pillar world was immediately torn open with a large hole. The flying sword went straight to Upside-down Mountain, instantly traversing ten thousand li and then another ten thousand li.

The old scholar didn’t care at all.

He was still the unbridled scholar who ran to the sky before becoming a Saint, craning his neck and shouting for Dao Lao Er to strike him.

On the vast sea between Saha Continent and Tongye Continent, a swordsman who was far removed from the world suddenly looked up.

In an instant, he saw the sea thousands of li ahead being directly split in two by a flying sword. The giant waves were as high as mountains, rushing towards him with swift force.

This swordsman naturally wouldn’t worry about the power of these waves, which would shatter within a hundred zhang of him, but the aura of that flying sword startled him.

Does the Vast Sky World have such a swordsman?

Did A’Liang get beaten down by Dao Lao Er again?

But A’Liang doesn’t have such a sword, does he? In fact, he never has in his life.
Across the four corners of the world, the finest four swords were thusly: one held by the successive Grand Celestial Masters of the Celestial Master’s Residence in the Central Earth Divine Continent; one at the waist of the scholar who claimed “Mediocre talent, unable to attain Dao or learning,” yet cleaved the Yellow River with a single stroke, reaching the heavens; one in the hands of Dao the Second. After A-Liang departed from Upside-down Mountain, it was said that he sought the last one, the blade whose “killing force surpassed the heavens!” Yet, inexplicably, A-Liang, the one most deserving of that sword, ultimately ascended to the Outer Heavens empty-handed.

Instead of pursuing that peerless killing blade, he suddenly awoke, and immediately hastened towards the southernmost tip of Treasure Bottle洲 Continent.

The venerable Confucian scholar pointed at the tall woman, angrily declaring, “You are mad!”

She continued her slow advance.

Du Mao swallowed hard, “Now that you’ve discarded your sword, do you truly intend to fight me to the death?”

She reacted as if she heard the funniest joke in the world. “Fight to the death? You likely know nothing of an old tale, considering your youth. I do not fault you.”

The old scholar erupted in laughter, the kind that shook his very core. “Who do you think butchered the greatest treasure-devouring whale of the ancient era?! Do you know?! I know, but I won’t tell you!”

She continued her unwavering approach, coming to a halt before a soaring realm deity, a distance similar to when Du Mao had stood before Zheng Dafeng.

However, the white-clad woman was tall, so she looked down with icy eyes, staring at the damnable old fossil, “Why not command your natal immortal armament and test its might? I shall stand still, I assure you.”

“You insolent wench, courting death!”

Du Mao roared, his figure blurring as he lunged forward.

But the Swallow-Sword Boat moved with lightning speed, aiming to pierce the peculiar woman’s head.

They were but a few steps apart, and it was a natal immortal armament.

Yet, Du Mao’s heart trembled violently.

The venerable Confucian scholar’s eyelids also began to droop.

The Swallow-Sword Boat hovered before her eyes, quivering with primal fear and resentment towards its master, Du Mao.

The tall woman extended a single finger, pointing downwards, “Be a good boy, don’t obstruct my view, descend a bit.”

The Swallow-Sword Boat obediently began to lower, finally hovering at her feet. She kicked it away in annoyance, “You never learn.”

Du Mao habitually wiped his lips with his thumb; those familiar with “that old pervert from the Tung Leaf Sect” would know that when Du Mao made this gesture, he was about to fight with his life.

The tall woman sighed, saying to Du Mao, “You are fortunate to have lost only one natal item. That sword was meant for you. But when I next appear in Tung Leaf洲 Continent, you will not be so lucky.”

At that moment, from the opening in the heavens, a large hand in a green robe reached down, two fingers pinching the old sword. His arm trembled, his sleeve billowing.

Evidently, even temporarily controlling that old, blunted sword was no easy feat.

A majestic voice echoed from the greater world outside this microcosm, “Nonsense! Let this be the last time.”

The tall woman turned her head. “What, must I wield the sword before drawing it? Shall I then shatter the barriers between the Vast and Azure Heavens?”

With a wave of her hand, the old sword instantly broke free of the hand’s grasp and into her possession.

The owner of that arm did not reveal himself, but with a flick of his wrist, a clear breeze coalesced within his sleeve like a surging river, engulfing the venerable Confucian scholar. He stated, “Follow me to the Temple of Literature, and reflect on your actions.”

The old scholar clicked his tongue. “Now I can’t even have my cold braised pork head.”

That man snorted coldly, seemingly addressing the old scholar, “You shall clean up this mess today, the Temple of Literature will not interfere.”

The old scholar jumped up and down, cursing, “I refuse! Give me something in return! Otherwise, I’ll go to the Temple of Literature and, besides the statue of the Old Master, I’ll move out the remaining seventy statues, including the Sage of Rites and you, and throw them all out! Then I’ll move mine in! The Old Master always favored me the most anyway…”

After taking the venerable Confucian scholar into his sleeve, that man sighed, “Take it.”

With those words, the hole in the sky of the microcosm closed, but a golden jade pendant fluttered down, not the “assistance of many” one of the Confucian scholar, but the “I nourish my noble spirit well” one of the middle-aged Confucian.

The old scholar caught it in his hand, finally satisfied. “That’s fair enough this time, a little bit of benevolence.”

That man seemed infuriated by the “little bit of benevolence” comment. Instead of immediately returning to the Central Earth Divine Continent, a surge of righteous qi lingered outside the microcosm. The old scholar straightened his neck, “What, you don’t accept it either? Otherwise, I’ll tell you all about the debate of three and four, and why I lost! You really think your learning is higher than mine? If it wasn’t for my disciples being Qi Jingchun, Zuo You…”

As the old scholar “rambled,” he shook his sleeves and slightly bent his knees, ready to debate the Dao while seated.

Only Confucian sages and the top five realm immortals of the Central Earth could personally witness the brilliance of a certain someone’s learning in those years, how it suppressed the sages of both Buddhism and Daoism!

Even Cui, the Grand Tutor of Great Li who betrayed his teacher and destroyed his ancestors, would speak of this sealed history with a look of passionate emotion.

That man simply left.

The old scholar stopped his bluffing, staring wide-eyed for a long time. There was no movement, so he must have left. He then took a bite of the golden jade pendant, “Ouch, it’s real. At least he’s reasonable. My whole vat of saliva was worth it.”

After leaving the Li Zhu洞天 Grotto-Heaven this time, the tall woman, for the first time truly wielding the old sword, smiled at Du Mao, “Your luck seems to be worse than I imagined.”

The old scholar laughed loudly, “Aren’t you unhappy with the soaring realm restricting you? I’ll beat him down to the Jade Purity or Nascent Soul realm, then he can go wherever he wants! Didn’t you want to cut off my literary lineage? Haha, now you’ve kicked an iron plate! No, no, it’s kicked an old sword. Du Mao, your luck is unique in ten thousand years! You can still brag about it when you go out in the future…”

The tall woman turned her head, squinting with a fierce gaze, “Take care of my master!”

The old scholar shrank back. “Don’t worry, I care about Little Ping’an no less than you.”

Du Mao rolled up his sleeves, slowly saying, “Without the Swallow-Sword Boat, I am still a soaring realm!”

The old scholar twitched his lips, and with a wave of his sleeve, the sky above Du Mao’s head opened, allowing Du Mao alone to return to the Vast Heavens.
Finally, Du Mao was becoming somewhat exasperated. The reason Ascendants mostly holed up in various blessed lands wasn’t just because they easily triggered chaotic movements of the heavens and earth, or because they were bound by Confucian rules, but also because they themselves dared not show their faces easily, as it was extremely easy to attract the crushing force of the Great Dao!

The tall woman held her sword before her, and calmly said, “Close it.”

The old scholar nodded, and indeed re-sealed the loophole in the celestial canopy.

Only then did Du Mao begin to feel a trace of panic, but the malice on his face did not diminish in the slightest. “Since you value that young man so much, are you truly willing to exchange your cultivation with me?”

The tall woman smiled. “Now you’re starting to reason with me?”

A wise man submits to circumstances.

Du Mao’s journey north had three purposes: if possible, to cut off the lineage of the Literary Sage; to take the measure of the sword cultivator Zuo You’s flying sword; and thirdly, to help the Tongye Sect infiltrate half of the Treasure Bottle Continent.

Now he had achieved two goals. The first, however, was dispensable. He was not a Confucian disciple, and did not need to expend his own Dao cultivation for it.

Cultivation on the mountain places power above all else.

At least, Du Mao had always advocated this view.

He who conquers others gains power, he who conquers himself gains enlightenment.

The former was solid and could be safely secured, while the latter, in Du Mao’s eyes, was entirely useless nonsense. As long as one died under the Great Dao, even if it could be called martyrdom, wasn’t it still death?

She lightly gripped the old sword. “When my master was before you, did you reason with him?”

Du Mao was a true villain. “His cultivation is now useless. If it weren’t to lure out the sword cultivator Zuo You, he wouldn’t even be worthy of Du Mao saying a word to him. You are!”

The tall woman held the sword in one hand and raised the other.

The old scholar bitterly took out a scroll of landscapes. “Be careful with the fighting.”

Upon seeing the extraordinary scroll, Du Mao no longer hesitated, retrieving his useless natal magical weapon into his aperture. At the same time, he unleashed his Golden Body Avatar, smashing open the small world with a shoulder and fleeing towards the South Sea.

She did not give chase.

The old scholar smiled and casually threw out the scroll.

The tall woman and Du Mao’s Golden Body Avatar disappeared one after the other.

Then, the scroll of landscape paintings hovered in front of the old scholar. As for the small world of Old Dragon City, it re-sealed seamlessly. Outside Old Dragon City, apart from the teaching nanny who could barely blink, everyone else remained still and silent.

From the painting, the sound of silk tearing could be heard from time to time, caused by Du Mao’s Golden Body Avatar expanding the world within the painting, and even more by swords tearing through the air.

The old scholar watched with a pained expression.

Before the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the old scholar was greatly relieved. He tapped a certain spot on the painting with his finger, and then put away the scroll, hiding it in his sleeve.

The tall woman slowly emerged from the void, the old sword hanging at her waist, the small section of the sharpened sword tip dulling slightly.

She yawned, dragging a leg in her hand.

The Tongye Continent’s Ascendant Grand Cultivator, Du Mao, was dragged out of the painting like a dead dog.

She asked, “This… what was his name again?”

The old scholar wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Du Mao, the strongest cultivator in Tongye Continent besides the Old Daoist of the East Sea.”

She oh-ed and casually tossed the “corpse” aside. “He has some unorthodox divine abilities. He must have returned his Yin spirit the moment he broke through the celestial canopy. This body is just… whose Yang spirit avatar?”

The old scholar suddenly understood. “Just an avatar. No wonder the Confucian scholar sitting in the heavens agreed. If we hadn’t made this commotion, they could have excused it to the academy.”

But the old scholar was speechless. “Even so, Du Mao still possessed the cultivation of the Twelfth Realm, right?”

She sat cross-legged next to Chen Ping’an, carefully cradling him in her arms again. She looked up at the distance, leisurely saying, “Before my sword, is there a difference between the Twelfth and Thirteenth Realms?”

The old scholar whispered, “What about the Sword-Swallowing Boat?”

She absentmindedly said, “I removed the innate suppression, letting his Yang spirit use that weapon, and then I shattered it. Otherwise, I would have come out earlier. I just wanted to know what this so-called ‘immortal weapon’ is really like.”

The old scholar wiped the sweat from his forehead. “How are you?”

The tall woman looked down at the young face, which was a little paler, as if he was having a nightmare. Although the old scholar had temporarily stopped the injuries, it would still be difficult to endure. She reached out a finger and gently rubbed his brow, softly saying, “The stone cliff in the great mountain of Lizhu Grotto Heaven was originally the condensation of my master’s sword intent, which was originally mine. It’s just that so many years have passed, I’m too lazy to care about it. Later, I made a small deal with Ruan… what’s-his-name, and he occupied 30% of that Dragon-Slaying Platform.”

The old scholar glanced at the tip of the old sword at her waist and smiled. “So, in these few years, you’ve been using Ruan Qiong’s Dragon-Slaying Platform to sharpen your sword?”

She said indifferently, “I’m using the one on Zhenwu Mountain. Ruan Qiong’s is for my little Ping’an.”

The old scholar was sweating profusely.

She looked south. “This matter is not over yet.”

The old scholar shook his head. “No, please don’t. It’s not over, but you can’t take action anymore. Let me handle it. This is for Ping’an’s sake.”

She nodded. “I won’t come out for the time being after I go back this time. If I find that your so-called good is not good at all next time I come out, I will find you. You should know that after you merge with the Great Dao of the Vast World, I am the only one in the world who can kill you.”

The old scholar chuckled dryly. “We’re family, why are you so fierce?”

The tall woman, her white sleeves fluttering without wind, shook her head. “It was all good, but because you had to take him as your closed-door disciple, today’s disaster happened. If you weren’t almost family, you would have been the first to die.”

The old scholar glared. “Don’t say angry words. Besides, dare you say these nonsense words in front of your master?”

She said directly, “I won’t say it. I’ll do it secretly. When the time comes, whether Chen Ping’an recognizes me or not, I’m still his master.”

The old scholar was speechless.
With a wave of her hand, the small gift she had given Chen Ping’an long ago shattered, and three long strips of azure stone fell out. These were Dragon Slaying Platforms coveted by all sword cultivators in the world, varying in size, the smallest like a ruler, the largest like a floor tile from a palace. She handed Chen Ping’an over to the Old Scholar, “I’m going out to take care of some trivial matters.”

The Old Scholar said awkwardly, “Let’s talk things through calmly, alright?”

This time, the tall woman did not head to any particular place. With a single step, she appeared before someone.

It was the Granny Instructor of that Nascent Soul Sword Cultivator.

The tall woman extended two fingers and forcibly extracted a natal flying sword from the Granny Instructor’s heart orifice. She pinched the head and tail of the flying sword with her fingers, applying slight pressure, bending the sword into an arc.

Trapped within this small world, the old woman’s eyes were filled with pleading.

The tall woman tilted her head slightly, “Beg me? Or, like my Master, tell me a reasonable argument, and I will consider not breaking this flying sword.”

This was blatant unreasonable behavior.

After a moment, the Granny Instructor from the Yunlin Jiang Clan, lacking the supernatural powers of an Immortal Realm cultivator, could not utter a single word in this small world. So, the tall woman continued to increase the pressure. The arc grew larger and larger until, with a snap, the flying sword broke in two.

The Granny Instructor bled from all seven orifices, cracks appeared on her Golden Core, and her Nascent Soul wailed in despair.

The tall woman scoffed, “I’ve always admired your reasoning. I’ll take care of things before my Little Peace wakes up. There might not be such an opportunity in the future.”

After she finished speaking, she ascended straight up, arriving in the cloud sea above Old Dragon City.

The green-robed woman, Fan Junmao, maintained her strange sitting posture, looking up with fervent eyes and a heart filled with awe. Her first words were, “I did not know beforehand that this young man was your new Master!”

The tall woman, with the old sword strip hanging at her waist, stood before Fan Junmao, bent down, and asked with a smile, “Ignorance is bliss?”

Fan Junmao shook her head, “Ignorance is a great sin. I accept it!”

The tall woman rubbed her brow, “Why are you always so pathetic, just like before? Either you’re secretly crying at the arch bridge facing the sea of clouds, or you’re kneeling in the sea of clouds like this. How can I kill you?”

Fan Junmao’s spirit soared, “Kill me if you must! With you here, that’s enough!”

The tall woman said “Oh,” and gently tapped the end of the old sword strip in her palm, causing it to rise high, spin once, and then pierce Fan Junmao’s heart with a single stab, slowly lifting her into the air. “Enough? Don’t you know how many like you I killed back then?”

Blood trickled from the corners of Fan Junmao’s mouth, her eyes filled only with joy. “You haven’t changed, you haven’t changed. I knew it. Ten thousand years, and you’re still the same. Even after another ten thousand years, you won’t change… As long as you are willing to show this spirit, the world will…”

The tall woman glanced towards the Old Dragon City wall, descended from the sea of clouds back to the ground, and the old sword strip also returned to her waist from Fan Junmao’s heart.

Fan Junmao fell into the sea of clouds, clutching her heart, and fainted. However, the sea of clouds began to surge wildly into her body.

Near the breach in the Old Dragon City wall, Chen Ping’an had awakened and was somewhat dazed.

The Old Scholar was nowhere to be seen.

Then, he saw that familiar figure slowly descend before him, hovering in the high sky outside the wall breach.

The young man, no longer the thin and impoverished boy from Mud Bottle Alley, softly asked, “Did I make a mistake?”

She shook her head.

The young man promised, “I’ll be more careful next time. For example, I’ll learn some Yin-Yang divination techniques. I thought I could handle it myself, but I didn’t expect that cultivator to be so powerful…”

She shook her head again.

The young man asked, “Not disappointed in me?”

She shook her head once more.

Thus.

Chen Ping’an’s eyes narrowed into a smile.

The tall woman did the same.