Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

  After his Master had flown away, Wang Lu was still somewhat in denial. “It’s really unlike something that she would do.”


  However, immediately after he finished speaking, a girl’s cold voice came from behind him, “You have a prejudice against her!”


  Wang Lu smiled and turned around. He wasn’t surprised by the Lady Boss’s sudden appearance—this incompetent innkeeper ran her Ru Family Inn business like a dead dog, thus, in addition to wandering up the mountain, was there anything else she could do? Therefore, meeting her on the Spirit Sword Sect up the mountain wasn’t something that was unusual. Not to mention that his Master had gotten into trouble this time, so based on their deep sisterly love, she would certainly want to take a look.

  Upon hearing her defending his Master, Wang Lu then shrugged. “Let’s not talk about me, among several hundreds of people of the Spirit Sword Sect, wasn’t a few of them also prejudiced against her?”


  “Alas, Wang Wu, that idiot; she likes doing things on a whim and is especially fond of bullsheet pranking. If people misunderstood her because of that, that’s her own fault, but… you’re her own Successor Disciple! How could you jeer at her like other ignorant people? And now with her current appearance, it was clear that she has some difficulties.”


  Wang Lu deeply frowned. “Is the world’s justice and people’s affairs the source of her difficulties?”


  “… Hey, she’s your Master.”


  Seeing Wang Lu’s prejudice against his Master was too deep, Ling’Er thought that she should earnestly explain it to him—because he still respected her opinion and also for their sisterhood.

  “I’m not talking about other things… I just want to talk to you about the Non-Phase Method that you practice. Now that you have reached the eighth layer of the Non-Phase Sword Bone, how does it feel?”


  Wang Lu uttered a sneer and was about to reply, but little Ling’Er cut him off, “Use your conscience.”


  “… Fine. Although the effect is quite extreme, it is undeniably a very good cultivation method. Although I don’t practice any other cultivation methods from the sect, base on this Non-Phase Sword Bone alone, I am pretty sure it’s one of the top-notch cultivation methods in the entire Immortal Cultivation World.”


  Little Ling’Er nodded in approval. “Indeed, based on the effect on one’s body, it is second to none in the Immortal Cultivation World, at least from the defensive ability. Therefore, you should know how much thoughts she have put in this cultivation method, even revising it for more than a hundred times. It sounds like a joke, but if there is no great perseverance, it is impossible to reach this step.”


  “Yeah, I can understand that.”


  “No, you don’t really understand her difficulties… After a hundred years, it is certainly commendable that she had developed the Non-Phase Method into its current state. However, of the ten Spirit Sword Sect’s Elders, how come only she alone practice this self-made cultivation method? Based on talent, is her spirit root better than the Sect Leader’s Stellar Spirit Root? Based on perception, could she be compared to the Fourth Elder’s Sword Heart Brilliance? These talented people didn’t create their own cultivation method, so why is she different?”


  Wang Lu thought for a moment. “Because there was no other choice?”


  “Yes, she did not have a choice. Let’s not talk about perception, affinity and so on. Her spirit root is actually a fifth rated one. Moreover, it’s not the Five Elements Spirit Root, it was just a special spirit root. When she entered the Spirit Sword Sect, it was actually because of various kinds of coincidences, as well as her own hard work. However, if she wanted to effectively advance on the road of Immortal Cultivation, no matter how big the Spirit Sword Sect was, it still couldn’t help her. Thus, she could only rely on her own effort.”


  Little Ling’Er sighed. “With this set of Non-Phase Method, she continued to make a breakthrough on the road of Immortal Cultivation, and eventually, she even hold the position of the Sect Elder. In reality, however, each step forward she took spent a hundred times more effort than the others. Why do you think she hates that Heaven Burning Blood Technique? It’s because compared to her bumpy journey on the Immortal Cultivation path, this kind of ‘as long as you burn a few years of your lifespan, you can rapidly advance your cultivation’ method is simply an insult to the Immortal Cultivation Path.”


  “… Listening to your words, I feel like Master’s image suddenly grow tall and mighty.”


  Little Ling’Er ruefully smiled. “Actually, her journey is a lot more harder than that… You know, although the Non-Phase Method is boundlessly useful and wonderful that it can even advance someone with a fifth rated spirit root to the level of Jindan Stage, but, in practice, it needs to consume resources several times, or even dozens of times more than the sum of resources required to be consumed by other cultivators! Take you, for example, the eighth layer of the Non-Phase Sword Bone is simply the end of your Body Refining Stage and the beginning of the Qi Cultivating Stage, but do you know the worth of all the Bone Strengthening Pills that you took to reach that stage?”


  Wang Lu was taken aback; he had never actually thought about this! Because this bone strengthening pill was a medicine created by his own Master, not to mention the rank of the medicine, he didn’t even know the recipe. He only knew that it was made from the Cinnabar fruit, while the value of that Cinnabar fruit…


  “F*ck! Wouldn’t it mean that I ate medicine worth at least thousands of spirit stones last month?!”


  Little Ling’Er said, “Yes. Now that’s just for the eighth layer of Non-Phase Bone. However, Wang Wu has reached more than a hundredth layer… So, you should probably know why she’s that destitute, right?”


  “Damn! Destitute, yet she still drink every day! Five hundred spirit stones per bottle of Spirit Spring Wine! Did she sell herself!?”


  “Because at that time, she needed to consume Spirit Wine to raise her qi! Otherwise, do you think she’s that kind of ‘drunken poor’ people!? She didn’t even want to buy new clothes for herself! And she only has one set of clothes!”


  Wang Lu was stunned as if he was struck by a lighting.

  “At that time, before she descended the mountain, I secretly took her underwear; then that means, all this time she went out wandering, she…”


  “Tsk, tsk, no wonder she became particularly violent and easy to lash out. You can’t cross a woman who goes commando…”


  ——


  Spirit Sword Hall, Four Divisions Peak.

  The blue gowned Daoist Master Zhifeng has been waiting for quite a while at the lobby. Since he issued an ultimatum, an hour has already passed.

  However, the Spirit Sword Sect has yet to deliver the result of their verification. However, Zhifeng didn’t feel surprise by that. On the contrary, although his ultimatum has been crossed over for several times, he became more relaxed instead.

  To him, the only reason why the Spirit Sword Sect delayed the verification report was because they hesitated—hesitated on how to deal with this diplomatic dispute. Towards this so-called “more in name than in fact, strong in appearance but weak in reality” Ten Thousand Immortal Oath, the longer the other side hesitated, presumably the higher the chance of them to admit defeat—this also came from Daoist Master Zhifeng’s years of experience in dealing with other sects.

  This set of maneuver was not new; as the top Immortal Cultivation Sect in the Nine Regions, the Shengjing Sect has their force spread throughout the Nine Regions. Not to mention their main base at the Central Region, even the relatively remote place like the Blue River Region also has their own Shengjing Sect’s Division.

  Since their forces were so widespread, naturally, there would be this inevitable friction with the local force. Daoist Master Zhifeng was the person in charge of the southern Blue River Region, and has handled various big and small sect’s disputes; he personally handled more than ten of them.

  Moreover, it was almost the same rhythm every time—as long as he came in threateningly, the other party would naturally compromise. This result has nothing to do with who was right, but rather it has something to do with the strength. Of course, it was not because of Daoist Master Zhifeng’s strength, since he was only a Yuanying Stage expert, but rather the glittering name of the Shengjing Sect. In fact, more than five years ago, when he was temporarily transferred to the Southern Region, he dealt with the case of friction with the Beast Taming School. At that time, Daoist Master Zhifeng single-handedly charged into their main base and confronted the Yuanying Stage School Leader and several Elders, and a dozen Jindan Stage cultivators. Obviously, the opposite party’s force was far better than him, yet he succeeded in forcing the Beast Taming School to give in to his demand and make a concession.

  He only relied on the name of his Shengjing Sect.

  Now, it seemed that this set of maneuver wasn’t only effective with the third or fourth rate sect like the Beast Taming School, even the similarly first rate sect like the Spirit Sword Sect would have to eat some losses here.

  Of course, if not necessary, Daoist Master Zhifeng really didn’t want to provoke this ancient sect. A hundred years ago, a golden generation era appeared in the Spirit Sword Sect, and their young talents were as brilliant as the stars. At that time, no one doubted that in another one hundred or two hundred years, they would be on par with the Shengjing Sect… Unfortunately, a sudden turn of event had almost destroyed this thousands of years ancient sect; almost a hundred talented disciples successively fell, leaving only the current ten Heavenly Sword Hall Elders and the most powerful among them, the Deity Stage Sect Leader.

  However, the Shengjing Sect once had done an assessment of the Spirit Sword Sect. However, because this sect was too low-key, there was a great uncertainty on the result of the assessment. At the very least, they were certain of one point: the Sect Leader Feng Yin, was in no way just an ordinary Deity Stage cultivator; they might as well considered him as a genuine Unity Stage Cultivator… As for the other Yuanying Stage Elders, treating them as Deity Stage cultivators would a very conservative estimate.

  Thus, an ordinary Yuanying Stage cultivator like him actually did not have the qualification to be presumptuous in their Spirit Sword Hall. The only thing that he relied on was but the great name of the Shengjing Sect. He could bluff his way easily using this great name in front of a second or a third rate sect like the Beast Taming School, but towards the Spirit Sword Sect… he initially didn’t have that much confidence.

  Unfortunately, the case in the White Moon Country had forced his hand with no way to retreat. If he didn’t charge forward in great stride, he would fall into the abyss, consigned to eternal damnation.

  The truth was indeed already in his heart, just like what that younger Elder previously said.

  Supporting the puppet sect in the White Moon Country, which used a crooked way to trick a large number of ordinary mortals to take the man-made spirit roots, and then teaching them the modified version of the Heaven Burning Blood Technique to create an illusion that a mere mortal might also become Immortal Cultivator to incite even more people… All of these things were very clear to him, because he was the puppet master behind the scene!

  The reason why he did all these was very simple: he needed resources, massive amount of resources, to support an important test. Once the test was completed, he would become the greatest inventor in the Shengjing Sect in a hundred of years, which was something that he needed badly.

  He didn’t know when it started, but some time ago, he has been unable to walk smoothly on the Immortal Cultivation Path… The last time he advanced his cultivation level, a fourth rate Yuanying, was around a hundred years ago. Daoist Master Zhifeng was very clear that this was a talent bottleneck; after all, he wasn’t one of his sect’s uber genius, so he had already reached his limit.

  However, this limit was far from enough to him. A fourth rate Yuanying Stage was perhaps a sufficient accomplishment in other sects, but in Shengjing Sect, people stronger than him were dime a dozen. Especially around ten years ago, several talented cultivators among them had advanced by leaps and bounds, which was a great threat to him.

  He was now one of the Sect’s Elder and was assigned to the Blue River Region to take charge half of the region’s territory. Admittedly, this post wasn’t as illustrious as those who held positions within the Central Region, where the Sect’s main base was located. However, this could still be regarded as a real authority, like a “vassal king”. Especially since the area was far from the “Emperor”, he could feel at ease in ruling his own territory as he pleased. However, in reality, if there was any competition, his sect’s tendency to look for “survival of the fittest” among their disciples gave him a bad omen that he would suffer elimination. Especially those younger generation disciples, there were many amongst them who have been eyeing his position… Admittedly, their cultivation level was still below him, however, the Shengjing Sect was usually more willing to use those enterprising dauntless newcomers.

  In order to keep his status, Daoist Master Zhifeng racked his brain. However, this cultivation bottleneck was like a natural moat; it could not be overcome. Extreme situation required extreme measure, thus, he finally ended up doing that White Moon Country affair.

  Daoist Master Zhifeng wasn’t good in anything but one thing, which was the development of the man-made spirit root. However, due to the lack of resources and materials, he was previously unable to put in practice all the theories he had in mind, and now…


  What he did in the White Moon Country was strictly prohibited by the sect. However, if he succeeded in his research, when he reported it back to the sect, the sect would usually turn a blind eye to his infraction of the sect regulation.

  However, now was still not a good time for his work to be exposed; there was still some distance away from the end result, so he wouldn’t be able to provide convincing evidence for his sect. Worse of all, that Spirit Sect’s b*tch had created a great disturbance. Once this thing spread out, not only would it hit the Shengjing Sect’s reputation, his sin would also be unforgivable!

  Therefore… the only thing that he could do, before this thing got even bigger, was to make a preemptive move, using the Shengjing Sect’s prestige to overwhelm the dissenting voices within the Spirit Sword Sect so that they would bury the truth forever.

  There was no such thing as the Heaven Burning Blood Technique, and of course, there was no such “Mortal’s Immortal Cultivation”. There was but an evil cult named Thousand Spirit Sect in the White Moon Country that swindled people out of their money. However, by the Shengjing Sect’s Division’s Division Head’s, Daoist Master Zhifeng’s, all seeing eyes, the fact was finally revealed. Naturally, a certain Spirit Sword Sect’s Elder’s claim that the Shengjing Sect had colluded with that evil cult was just a complete nonsense! The Spirit Sword Sect thus must offer an official apology for this!

  … Of course, in practice, this condition could be relaxed. Such as the Spirit Sword Sect and the Shengjing Sect sending their people to discover the truth together, and after they had discovered it, they would dismantle together the evil cult and save hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the White Moon Country. As for the previous certain Elder’s argument, it was merely a misunderstanding.

  The later scheme was undoubtedly more realistic, however, asking for a sky-high price first could still land him in a better deal, so Daoist Master Zhifeng absolutely didn’t want the opposite party to discover his bottom line. Thus, he aggressively charged into battle.

  While thinking about his next response, a burst of footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall. Daoist Master Zhifeng turned around and saw the second and third most important figures in the Spirit Sword Sect coming in hand in hand. Second Elder Liu Xian was holding a stack of sincerity paper, looking very solemn.