Chapter 92: Return—The Hall of Reincarnation? No way, Arthur
Return? The Hall of Reincarnation? Not a chance, Arthur.
On Blackwood Cliff, the two successive leaders of the Sun-Moon Holy Cult had both died within that brief span of time.
Zheng Jian could not be bothered with that old sly fox Xiang Wentian. The reason the lot of them had rushed up here was nothing more than to wait for him and Dongfang Bubai to bleed each other dry, so they could step in and pick up the spoils.
A fine plan, indeed. Unfortunately, human calculation is never as good as heaven’s. The instant Dongfang Bubai saw them, he had without hesitation killed Ren Woxing, the man who had hoped to profit like a fisherman watching the tide.
They had wanted to harvest the spoils, only to find the fish dead and the net shattered. Dongfang Bubai was dead, yes, but Ren Woxing had not lived either...
One for one.
He passed Xiang Wentian, crossed the summit garden, and entered the quiet residence. Sure enough, he saw Yang Lianying’s corpse. How to put it? That fellow truly had been a tough bastard.
The body was mangled beyond recognition. It was clear that before dying, Yang Lianying had suffered horribly; every sinew and bone in his limbs had been severed, and yet he had stubbornly endured it all without making a sound.
In one phrase: a calf standing on its head, outrageously impressive.
The corpse was too ruined for any more elaborate handling, so Zheng Jian had no choice. After thinking it over, he went back, ignoring the heartbroken Ren Yingying and the outwardly grieving but inwardly delighted Xiang Wentian, and carried Dongfang Bubai’s body back with him.
With a few swift strokes of the Tear-Scar Sword against the ground, a large pit appeared.
Zheng Jian placed the bodies of Dongfang Bubai and Yang Lianying into it, then simply covered them with soil. Done.
After that, he went straight down Blackwood Cliff. He had no interest in the Sun-Moon Holy Cult’s messes. Ren Woxing was already dead, and Xiang Wentian did not yet have the firepower to stir up any serious trouble.
No one dared stop him along the way. Once he left Blackwood Cliff and traveled southeast for more than twenty li, Zheng Jian suddenly saw a great mass of martial artists standing ahead.
Most were local heroes from the Pingding Prefecture region, while others had come from all over the world, eager to witness this peak battle, only to be blocked beneath Blackwood Cliff.
When they saw Zheng Jian returning alone, they first froze, and then erupted into excited cries.
“Heaven-Restoring Swordsman!”
“Heaven-Restoring Swordsman!”
“Heaven-Restoring Swordsman!”
...
The outcome of the battle at Blackwood Cliff spread across the realm with astonishing speed.
The only ones who had seen the result with their own eyes were Ren Yingying and Xiang Wentian, and neither of them spoke a single word about it.
But the leader of the Sun-Moon Holy Cult had indeed been succeeded by Xiang Wentian.
There were no fools in the martial world. Very soon, everyone realized what had happened in that battle. And then the whole world boiled over.
The Mount Hua Sect, without dispute, became the foremost great faction under heaven, and people came in an endless stream every year to seek apprenticeship at Mount Hua.
As for “Heaven-Restoring Swordsman” Zheng Jian, he became, beyond all argument, the number one expert under heaven, acknowledged by none and denied by none.
Before long, a year had passed.
During that year, the Mount Hua Sect rose ever higher. Linghu Chong succeeded as sect master, while also serving as leader of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance.
The leader of the Sun-Moon Holy Cult, Xiang Wentian, personally climbed Mount Hua to offer congratulations, and the gift he brought was none other than the True Martial Sword, taken years before from Wudang.
Linghu Chong immediately returned the True Martial Sword to Taoist Chongxu of Wudang, who had also come to witness the ceremony. Chongxu wept openly and swore on the spot to forge an eternal alliance with Mount Hua.
Within Mount Hua, Old Yue and Ning Zhongze both moved into the Mount Hua elder group. Their neighbors, naturally, were Feng Qingyang and the three brothers of the Feng and Bu lineage...
Mount Hua also built a library pavilion. In the deepest hidden mechanism chamber were several peerless martial arts personally written by Zheng Jian: Primordial Power, Dugu Nine Swords, and Phantom Step.
These became the very foundation of Mount Hua.
Linghu Chong’s succession ceremony went smoothly. Old Yue personally handed the sect master token to Linghu Chong, along with the banner of the Five Mountains Sword Alliance leader.
At that moment, Lu Dayou suddenly burst into the Hall of Sword Qi Piercing the Sky. Right, the Hall of Perfect Righteousness had also been renamed back that year to its original name.
“Master, Senior Brother Sect Master, something terrible has happened!” Lu Dayou panted, nearly out of breath.
“What is it?” Linghu Chong and Old Yue both changed color.
“Big... big... Senior Brother... Back-Scrutiny Cliff, you, you all need to go look...” Lu Dayou stammered.
Old Yue and Linghu Chong exchanged a look and hurried toward Back-Scrutiny Cliff. Beside them was an old man in white, moving even faster; it was Feng Qingyang, who cared most deeply about Zheng Jian. Behind them came Ruan Qiuqiu and the others, and farther back trailed a great host of martial heroes who had come to witness the ceremony.
When everyone rushed up to Back-Scrutiny Cliff, they beheld a strange scene upon it.
With the Tear-Scar Sword at his back, Zheng Jian was stepping one pace at a time off the edge of the cliff. Beyond the precipice, white clouds drifted, and pale mist veiled the air.
“Jian’er!” Old Yue cried in alarm. He was about to rush toward the cliff, but Linghu Chong held him back with all his strength.
Zheng Jian turned back, standing motionless within the white mist, looking almost like an immortal among men.
“Master, junior brother, this disciple’s heart is set upon the Great Way, and I have no wish for the affairs of the mortal world. Farewell...”
A fierce wind rose, and the clouds and mist at the edge of Back-Scrutiny Cliff soon thinned away.
The scene before them rapidly became clear, and yet all the more shocking.
There was Zheng Jian, standing in midair as though riding the wind, walking step by step into the distance.
The crowd of heroes was so shaken they could not speak.
Suddenly, Yue Lingshan ran up, pushing through the crowd to the cliff edge. Yet before her eyes there was only rolling mist; Zheng Jian was nowhere to be seen.
“Senior Brother!”
Yue Lingshan cried, “Senior Brother! I know how to raise fish now, I really do... I have always remembered what you told me, and now I no longer need to replace the fish every seven days. I wanted to tell you...”
In her mind, one scene after another surfaced from the past.
“Why not let me entrust it to you? How about you take care of it for me?”
“But I don’t know how to raise it...”
“It’s very simple. I’ll tell you the trick. Just remember one, three, five, seven.”
“Feed it once a day, change the water once every three days, wash the tank once every five days, and replace the fish once every seven days...”
Yue Lingshan sat dazed at the cliff edge and murmured, “Senior Brother, I really did start learning how to raise fish later. I’ve already learned it. I was just about to tell you...”
...
Zheng Jian never heard his little junior sister Yue Lingshan’s words. In truth, that spectacle of walking upon empty air was not real at all. It was merely a means by which Zheng Jian left the world of Smiling Proud Wanderer.
He was only at the Innate realm; how could he possibly know anything about shattering the void? It was nothing more than an effect conjured by the system after he spent some resentment points. Yes, a knockoff version of void-shattering, deliberately fashioned by the system using Hero Transcending the Heavens as its model.
In fact, when Zheng Jian vanished into the clouds and mist, he suddenly felt the world spin. Dizziness swept over him, and by the time he recovered, he was already standing on a vast, empty plaza.
At the center of the plaza stood a pillar of light, reaching from earth to sky, with no end in sight. Aside from that beam, there was nothing else.
“System, where am I?” Zheng Jian asked blankly. For some reason, the sight of this place filled him with an uneasy feeling.
“Welcome to the Reincarnation Plaza!” The voice of the resentment system suddenly turned cold.
“What?”
Zheng Jian dropped straight onto the ground...
...