“That’s right! That Jiang Xiaojian!” Zhu Honggong exclaimed.
Si Wuya frowned and said, “Only seven of the ten great sects remain. After failing twice, I’m sure they’ve made all the necessary preparations this time. How’s master faring recently?”
“He seems normal… I can’t help but have a feeling that master’s idling away in his room. Nobody knows what he’s doing there,” Zhu Honggong replied.
“Hm?” Si Wuya looked at Zhu Honggong. “Is that what you think of master?”
“Uh…” Zhu Honggong immediately covered his mouth.
“How are the three old men’s cultivation bases?” Si Wuya asked.
“Don’t get me started. That fellow Pan Litian was duped by a bunch of people and was ganged up on. If master didn’t do something, he would’ve died by now! Elder Hua is skilled in tortoise defense skills, but he’s not much use in offense. Elder Leng has great mobility and is as slick as a loach. However, in a direct fight, none of them is a match for Pan Litian.” It was the truth. After all, Pan Litian possessed the heaven-grade weapon, the Wine Gourd Bottle. He was a true Daoist elite!
“In that case, the Evil Sky Pavilion might be in danger.”
“That Hua Yuexing isn’t too bad… She’s almost a Three-leaf Godly Archer,” Zhu Honggong said.
“If this were in the past, a cultivator with five leaves or less might have been a great help. However, it’s different now. It’s not enough to serve as a deterrent. With the rumors of severing one’s Golden Lotus and master’s approaching great limit running rampant, it’s likely that the seven great sects might decide to take a gamble,” Si Wuya said.
“Huh? What should we do then?” Zhu Honggong asked, slightly worried.
“Inform Eldest Senior Brother about this.” Yu Zhenghai appeared in Si Wuya’s mind immediately. They could only turn this situation around if Yu Zhenghai and the Four Great Protectors showed up.
“What a terrible coincidence! The people of Rouli have attacked Liang Province and are engaged in a battle with Eldest Senior Brother!” Zhu Honggong said.
Si Wuya frowned again. Was this truly a coincidence?
“Any word from Second Senior Brother?” Si Wuya asked.
“Well, no.”
“…” Si Wuya’s calm expression turned slightly grim. “I think Eldest Senior Brother is being plotted against. With Second Senior Brother missing, it seems like the Evil Sky Pavilion can only count on me.”
Zhu Honggong was speechless. ‘Aren’t you worried that you’d be clobbered by master for talking like that?’
“Old Eighth, in two days, by hook or by crook, you must convince master to unseal my cultivation base. Remember that, no matter what…”
“Oh, yeah! You’re a Six-leaf cultivator as well, Seventh Senior Brother!” Zhu Honggong smacked his own thigh. “Ow!” A pig-like squeal resounded in the Cave of Reflection. He forgot that he was wearing his boxing gloves again.
…
Meanwhile, on Wuxian Mountain.
The Nobleman Country was a nation that never knew spring. It was perpetually stuck in winter, and the landscape was always white with snow.
Today, however, Wuxian Mountain welcomed the rare sunshine.
The golden globe shone its rays through the canopy of leaves onto the clean and white snow. It seemed like something out of a painting.
Outside the Melilot Grave, a small group of cultivators was furtively digging and picking at the stone door.
“It’s f*cking freezing here! Put your backs to it. The mark on the map should be correct. This is the Melilot Graveyard that vanished from the world more than 300 years ago.”
“Boss, this is our first time digging a grave of the Other Tribes. I’m so excited!”
“Technically, the Nobleman Country isn’t part of the Other Tribes. The victor becomes the king while the loser is outlawed. It has been branded into the annals of history. It’ll be almost impossible to rewrite it.”
“Who cares about the tribe. It’d better not be empty or I’d be worked up for nothing.”
Click! Clack!
With the collective effort of the five men, the stone door buzzed and slid open.
The five of them hurried into the Melilot Graveyard.
“Boss, what’s that?” One of them pulled their leader. He pointed at the pack of wolves that appeared on a mound before the Melilot Graveyard.
“Wild wolves?”
“This is a bad sign. We should get out of here. I heard that a graveyard guarded by wolves isn’t an auspicious place.”
“You’re scared? You can leave if you are. Don’t count on us to give you a share of the loot though.”
The others had no qualms about venturing forth. They walked deeper into the Melilot Graveyard. They were finally here and would not call it quits before achieving their goals. They passed through a walkway and entered a dim tunnel. Then, they arrived at a huge and wide area. The piles of bones made them click their tongues in wonder. They searched for valuable items while guarding against any possible traps.
After searching for some time, they merely found some valuables on two skeletons and nothing else.
“Boss, look…” One of them pointed at another door. Light was shining down from above.
“Shh!!!” The leader’s eyes brightened as he caught a glimpse of a sword on the floor beyond the door. He had an eye for treasure. The moment he set eyes on it, he was instantly attracted by the scarlet glow of the sword. His heart skipped a beat as he exclaimed excitedly, “Heaven-grade!”
“Heaven-grade?” the others looked elated. ‘Jackpot! We’re rich!’
With a heaven-grade weapon, they could feast like kings for the rest of their lives.
The five of them were now attracted by the sword on the floor. They moved closer and closer. They saw the scattered projectiles on the floor when they reached the stone door.
The leader frowned. “Be careful of hidden weapons. Perhaps, some of our colleagues were here before us.”
“Colleagues? Is that sword theirs?”
The leader of this gang of five was a cultivator with an acceptable cultivation base. He could easily move an item remotely. He was worried there might be hidden contraptions beyond the stone door. Hence, he smiled as he raised a hand and said, “Who cares who it belongs to? Come to papa!”
Whizz!
The sword shook. It merely vibrated on the ground.
“Hm? I can’t seem to move it with my Brahman Sea realm cultivation base.”
The five of them began to discover something was amiss.
“Well, let’s see about that…” He raised his palm, condensed a huge amount of Primal Qi into energy, and sent it toward the sword. He gritted his teeth from the effort and of unleashing all his Primal Qi.
Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!
The Longevity Sword shook violently.
“Go, boss!”
“Just a little more!”
“Almost there! Almost….”
The cultivation bases of the other four were weak. They could only cheer him on. They looked at the shaking sword that would not even move even though their leader was in the Brahman Sea realm. They were even more convinced that the sword was an extraordinary heaven-grade weapon! When they thought about this, they almost drooled.
Whizz!
“It moved!”
The blade of the sword suddenly shone with a scarlet light as it hovered in the air and shot toward them.
Swoosh!
The sword glinted briefly as it slashed across four men’s throats.
With a bang, the Brahman Sea realm cultivator flipped backward and fell to his knees. He regarded the sword in extreme shock. He turned around to look and saw his four comrades were looking at him with wide eyes. Their hands were holding their necks while their other hands pointed at him. “Boss… you… you…”
“It wasn’t me!”
Before he could explain himself…
Thud!
The four men fell to the ground, no longer breathing.
The sword hovered beyond the stone door. It was hovering horizontally before it flipped and plunged its tip to the ground.
Bam!
The cover of the well instantly cracked in half. The instant the cover of the well broke, the sword’s blade shone even more brightly with a scarlet glow.
The leader of grave diggers felt a chill run up his spine. His face was drenched in sweat as he rubbed his eyes. down his spine. There seemed to be a phantom before his eyes. When his eyes adjusted, the phantom had taken on substance.
A green-robed swordsman with long hair that fell to his shoulders, a chiseled face, and a gaze that was both gentle and cold at the same time appeared before him.
“You… you… you…” The grave digger leader felt a warm trickle down his legs. He could not stop it. It felt scalding in this cold place. His legs trembled violently.
The green-robed swordsman said emotionlessly, “Trespassers of the Melilot Graveyard shall die.”
