Within the coiling smoke, the Mountain manor of the Divine Ape that had once stood in renown within the north had been reduced to ruins. The embers flashed in the darkness.
Feihong rushed over, passing through the ruined courtyard and arriving beneath the collapsed building. All she saw was Li Qingshan seated on the tall, stone steps, robust and quiet with a smile on his face. Gu Yanying stood beside him, peering off into the distance. Her clothes fluttered, as if she was about to drift away with the wind.
She eased up inside. She could not see even the slightest disappointment from the two of them, which filled her with even more admiration.
“You’ve come, Feihong,” Li Qingshan greeted like usual.
“Manor lord, as long as you’re fine. Sigh, so many of my sisters died to the flames,” Feihong sighed emotionally. When she recalled the charred corpses, she still felt some disgust. Feihong smiled wryly. If it were not for the improvement of her martial arts lately, she almost would have been in trouble too.
Seeing how her face had blackened from the smoke, he smiled, “Looks like there’s still a bit of benefit to learning martial arts.”
“Yeah!”
“It’s destroying! It’s destroyed! It’s all destroyed! Manor lord, what are we supposed to do?”
Yuan Feifei rushed over in a tear-stricken manner. Originally, she wanted to remain in this manor comfortably for the rest of her life as the caretaker, but it had all gone up in ashes now.
“What’re you wailing around for?”
Li Qingshan barked. He stood up slowly and allowed his hands to dangle, reaching all the way to his knees. He sucked in a deep breath and howled at the sky.
The howl rang out across the entire mountain and everyone gathered over. Basically none of the swordsmen in the external courtyard had suffered any losses. Apart from an unlucky bastard who was killed by lightning, the others were perfectly fine. Over a dozen people did die in the back courtyard, but almost everyone possessed inner force after all, so most managed to survive.
The night was deep. Figures flickered about, all staring at Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan extended his limbs and pointed at the sky. He asked loudly, “Do you know why the lightning happened?”
Everyone was silent. He patted his chest, “It came for me!”
Everyone had all felt the lightning storm was related to Li Qingshan somehow, but when he personally admitted it, they also found it to be absolutely absurd. How could a mortal incur the wrath of the heavens?
“The damned heavens want me dead. Do you know why?”
Li Qingshan scanned around with his orangey-yellow pupils. Finally, someone could not help but ask, “Why?”
“Because I’m trying to do something big!”
“What big thing?”
“Who still remembers our motto? Feihong, you tell me!”
“Everyone can learn! Martial arts for everyone!”
“That’s right, that’s exactly what it is. I’m going to make my way off the mountain right now and make this come true! I want to spread the books I’ve written across the world, so everyone in the world can learn supreme secret arts, the strongest martial arts!”
Everyone looked at one another, filled with shock. They never imagined him to be serious with the motto and not joking around. That was basically even crazier than everything he had done as the manor lord, but due to their reverence and fear for him, no one dared to speak up.
“Manor lord, you must never do that. You’ll be making an enemy out of all the aristocratic clans in the world!”
A swordsman spoke up to object. He was the young man that Li Qingshan had thrown the skull at.
“If I recall correctly, you’re from an aristocratic clan,” Li Qingshan’s face sank.
The young man regretted it slightly now. He said reluctantly, “I’m from the Ximen family of the west. This is just my personal opinion. It has nothing to do with my clan.”
“Keep going!”
“This is a place beyond the influence of any clan, so you’re welcome to do whatever you want, manor lord, but if the Legend of the White Ape King spreads across the world, all sword sects and sword schools will face extinction. No, not just sword sects and sword schools. By then, all the sects and clans in the world will rally together against you. Please reconsider, manor lord!”
The young man bowed deeply. His forehead gradually became laced with cold sweat. Even he himself had not imagined how severe the consequences would be before he spoke up. He only hoped that it would be another skull that was thrown at him.
The other swordsmen were shocked, unable to imagine just what kind of a sight that would be. Across the world, there were only a handful of cultivation methods that could rival the White Ape Sword Classic. If he included the annotations in the Legend of the White Ape King, it would basically be unrivalled.
If it really had spread across the world as Li Qingshan had said, who would still want to take on a master and study martial arts by that? Even most master-disciple successions would be lost. Even a farmer in the mountains would be able to kill the descendents of great clans and disciples of great sects as long as they possessed sufficient talent and willpower.
There were several instances of this in the martial arts community—a young genius has a fortuitous encounter, suddenly rising up like a star, which leads to a hubbub of discussion and conversation. However, something like that rarely even happened across each century. These geniuses were all from lineages, with masters, as well, and they would become masters themselves in the end, either forming a sect or establishing a clan.
If this became commonplace, then the order of the martial arts community would completely collapse. The world would sink into unprecedented chaos.
“Well said!”
With a wave of his hand, a streak of frosty light pierced the air from Li Qingshan’s hand, shooting towards the young man.
The young man’s eyes narrowed. He could not draw his sword in time. He thought, I’m done for!
However, the frosty light formed an arc and was planted into the ground right by his feet.
“You sure have a bit of courage, kid, to speak so frankly. I’ll reward you with the White Ape King’s True Steel sword!”
“T- thank you, manor lord!” The young man was both surprised and overjoyed, while everyone else’s gazes were filled with envy.
“But that’s exactly what I want, to make an enemy out of all the sects and clans in the world!” Li Qingshan said proudly.
Actually, Gu Yanying had already told him about this a long time ago, and she had explained it with even greater clarity. He wanted to use the White Ape Sword Classic to spread his novels. Even though it was a shortcut to success, allowing him to rapidly accumulate the power of belief, he had to pay a price as well.
Martial arts was extremely popular in this world, but most importantly, the thousands of sects and clans had a monopoly over the most important martial arts manual. If a peasant youngster did not have a fortuitous encounter, he would never be able to defeat an adolescent young master even if he trained for his entire life. As a matter of fact, even the sects and clans themselves were divided into various levels. There was the external and internal courtyards, direct and branch descendants. These formed a firm system.
In the very centre of all this, it would usually just be a single secret art or a few kinds of martial arts.
Li Qingshan’s actions would definitely be challenging the order of the world that had lasted for centuries and millennia. Coupled with how he had acted in the past, the response obviously was as clear as day.
“But what’s the point of this?”
No one could understand why he would try and do something so difficult and fruitless.
“For the sake of justice! Across the entire world, just how many young and great heroes devote themselves to building their reputation and only just that? How many good deeds have they done in their lives? The so-called fine brigands of the forests are known to rob the rich and give to the poor, but just how many rich families have they robbed and just how many poor families have they given to? Not to mention, the actions of these people are like looking down on others and pitying some. They don’t even treat people as people, just tools of self-fulfillment.”
“I will show everyone in the world right now just what is true righteousness and what is truly robbing the rich and giving to the poor. I want all the weak and feeble people in the world to possess the power to protect themselves! I want to give all those from humble circumstances the opportunity to become supreme masters! I dream that one day, there will be no division left in the world, no difference between the rich and the poor! I want everyone to have a fair chance, so everyone can achieve something great by themselves! I want to leave these haughty people born with a silver spoon in their mouths dumbfounded!”
“What clans and sects? They’re absolutely nothing! Before the unstoppable changes sweeping across the world, even the obscure will of the heavens won’t be able to stop it! Those who submit will prosper and those who resist will perish! That’s exactly what I’m doing today, going against the heavens!”
The weather changed and the sun rose up in the east. Li Qingshan glowed brilliantly, such that no one could stare at him directly.
