Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Xuanyin Sect, was one of the five great clans on the planet Ziyun. It was just as famous as the Divine Light Sect.
However, the Xuanyin Sect was currently in turmoil.
“Today is my elder brother’s birthday… we two brothers have agreed that no matter what happens, everyone must return beforehand and celebrate our birthday together with us.
“In these last two hundred years, we have not missed even a year.”
February 21, Year 1232 of the Ziyun Era, late at night, an old man wearing a black robe, who was emaciated with aged features walked out of the courtyard. “If elder brother doesn’t return this time, that’ll mean that something definitely went wrong!”
This old man was called “Chi An,” the nineteenth elder of the Xuanyin Sect.
It was the same in the Xuanyin Sect as it was in the Divine Light Sect—only mid Primal Core adepts could become clan elders.
“Shortly before the new year… did Elder Brother notice that Zhong Ya acquired a female disciple named Chen Dandan?”
Having spent an entire evening until daybreak investigating, Chi An finally found a crucial clue from when his elder brother, Chi Ping, last left the Xuanyin Sect. The clue pointed toward the newly acquired female disciple of Zhong Ya, one of the two chief elders of the Xuanyin Sect.”
“Miss Dandan.”
Chi An immediately opened the door and searched for Chen Dandan. “Before leaving the Xuanyin Sect, my elder brother Chi Ping met with you… that time when he was set to depart, do you happen to know where it is that he went?”
“You mean Chi Ping?”
Chen Dandan knitted her brows. “Now that you mention it, a year ago when I saw him that time, I never did see him again after that… Nineteenth Elder, are you sure that after he met with me and left, that it was his last time leaving the sect? No one saw him return to the sect after that?”
“I investigated all night; I can confirm that he never returned to the sect after that time.”
Chi An’s voice sounded somewhat husky because of the gloomy tone in his voice. “Yesterday was our birthday, and for the last two hundred years, we have celebrated our birthdays together. That is the promise between us two brothers… Since the day we made that promise, this year is the first time he has failed to keep it.
“If he has broken our promise, there can only be two possibilities… either he has gotten stranded somewhere and has no way to get back or he has been killed!”
After saying this, Chi An’s face became increasingly sullen.
“I’ve come here looking for you, Miss Dandan, to ask you precisely… that time when he was set to depart, do you happen to know where it is that he went?” Chi An asked.
“That I do know.” Chen Dandan nodded her head. “When we were talking that time, we spoke of my birthplace, the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley. Afterwards, I mentioned my personal enemy from over there… and he said, he could go to the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley and help me settle the score with my foe.”
“So what you are saying, Miss Dandan… is that he went to your home country and has not been heard from since.”
Chi An’s eyes flashed.
He knew his elder brother, Chi Ping, better than anyone. Naturally, the only reason Chi Ping would go off on his own to the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley, was because he wanted to curry favor with the woman standing before him and get closer to the chief elder of the Xuanyin Sect, Zhong Ya.
From the start and ever since then, that elder brother of his had always been involved with unorthodox practices and shortcuts. Otherwise, there was no way his brother’s martial skills could be so inferior to his own.
They were twins, and their innate martial talents did not differ much.
However, he was already a mid Primal Core adept, while his brother Chi Ping, was still only an early Primal Core adept.
“Yes.” Chen Dandan nodded. “But in the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley, it’s impossible that there is anyone who can match him… the strongest person in the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley is that Head of Valley of the Medicine Masters, Su Mo, but even he is only a late Connate stage adept.”
“As for my personal enemy, Zhou Donghuang, he is also only a Connate stage adept. Although he does rely on the use of a sword sphere, a sword sphere poses no threat whatsoever to a Primal Core adept,” Chen Dandan said.
“Miss Dandan, please tell me the location of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley,” Chi An begged.
Although his brother most likely had gone out in order to help the woman before him, even if he had encountered some mishap, he could not blame the woman before him at all because it had been his elder brother who had taken the initiative to undertake the task and help her.
However, taking a step back and looking at it, even if it had not been a voluntary action on his brother’s part, but rather, it had been the woman who had forced his elder brother to go, he still would not dare accuse the woman before him.
The woman before him was a disciple under the Xuanyin Sect’s Golden Essence elder adepts, so her position within the Xuanyin Sect was high. There was no need to mention him, a mere mid Primal Core elder, when even those elders who were late Primal Core adepts were extremely courteous when they saw her.
“Very well.”
Chen Dandan nodded, and afterwards told Chi An, in a few words, the location to the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley.
After Chi An had left, Chen Dandan’s eyebrows raised as she thought, “I still don’t know whether it was on the way to the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley that something happened to Chi Ping, or if it was on his way back to the Xuanyin Sect that something happened… if it is the former, then he definitely did not make it in time to kill Zhou Donghuang or to snuff out the Valley Head.
“However, if it was the latter, then he should have already killed Zhou Donghuang and the Valley Head… if that’s the case, then he can still be considered to have died a worthy death.”
Che Dandan did not care the slightest about Chi Ping’s life.
What she was worried about was whether Zhou Donghuang and the Valley Head had been killed by Chi Ping or not.
…
Divine Light Sect.
In more than an entire year’s time, the people sent out by the head of the Divine Light Sect’s intelligence gathering, Eagle Eye, had all returned one after another, all except for Eagle Eye’s second in command, the Divine Light Sect’s tenth elder, Lin Hantian.
“Why hasn’t the tenth elder returned?”
The highest member in Eagle Eye, the Divine Light Sect’s fifth elder Tuo Bei, immediately felt that something was awry, “Due to his master of the Primal Core supreme demon speed, in ordinary circumstances, the one heading the search should return before the others… he is absolutely not supposed to come back after everyone else!”
“Is it possible that something happened to him?”
As soon as the thought occurred to him, Tuo Bei’s face suddenly grew sullen.
Lin Hantian, while only the Divine Light Sect’s tenth elder, had been the only person with the greatest potential, having become one of the top three in his generation.
Lin Hantian was also the most promising of his generation to achieve the ultimate Primal Core stage and was one of the few Golden Essence adepts.
This man was extremely important to the Divine Light Sect and calling him the future pillar of the sect was not an exaggeration.
But now, he suspected that something had gone awry.
Without any hesitation, Tuo Bei immediately went to find the head of the Divine Light Sect and express his ideas on the matter.
However, after the head of the Divine Light Sect heard Tuo Bei’s conjectures, he immediately gave orders and sent Tuo Bei and the other two late Primal Core adept elders from the sect to go and search for Lin Hantian.
“If he’s alive, I need to see him here. If he’s dead, I need to see his corpse!”
These were the requirements of the head of the Divine Light Sect.
When Tuo Bei and the two with him left the Divine Sect, it just so happened that they ran into an old monk wearing a gold-colored kasaya. They fell over themselves to bow respectfully to the man in front of them in greeting.
“Uncle!”
“Uncle!”
This old monk in the golden kasaya was none other than the elder Golden Essence adept of the Divine Light Sect, Ci Xuan.
“You three are leaving in such a rush, where are you going?” Ci Xuan asked curiously.
“Uncle.” Tuo Bei forced a smile, “Here’s the situation…”
As he spoke, Tuo Bei revealed his conclusions. “So, I think that some misfortune has very likely already befallen the tenth elder.”
“Does Old Man Lin already know about this?” Ci Xuan asked with a frown.
Although Lin Hantian was only the tenth elder of the Divine Light Sect, due to his great potential, his importance was greater than several two-hundred-year-old late Connate stage adepts combined… the latter perhaps had a hair of a chance to enter the ultimate Primal Core stage, but definitely could not break into the Dharma stage.
Furthermore, Lin Hantian, though not yet one-hundred years old, had already become a mid Primal Core adept. In the future, he would most likely be able to enter into the ultimate Primal Core stage, and he even had hopes of breaking into the Dharma stage!
Moreover, Lin Hantian belonged to the “princelings” of the Divine Light Sect.
Lin Hantian’s paternal grandfather had been one of the three elder Golden Essence adepts of and was the only one of the great Golden Essence elders who was a disciple of a layman.
There were three chief elders of the Golden Essence stage within the Divine Light Sect. Ci Xuan and his other fellow disciple’s title was the “Protector of the Buddha Dharma.” Ci Xuan was the right protector of the Dharma, and his fellow disciple was the left protector of the Buddha Dharma… and Lin Hantian’s grandfather held the title of “Most Exalted Elder.”
The chief Golden Essence elders of the Divine Light Sect was the strongest of Ci Xuan’s fellow disciples, then after that was him, and the least strong was Lin Hantian’s grandfather.
“Brother, I must still ask you to keep this matter secret. At the moment, I don’t want to tell the Most Exalted Elder… The head of the clan thought it inappropriate to have the Most Exalted Elder know about this matter, otherwise it would certainly influence his frame of mind,” Tuo Bei said with a bitter laugh.
“I understand how serious this is.” Ci Xuan nodded his head. “However, let’s just not have anyone say anything, we also won’t be able to hide it much longer… okay, you guys head out.”
After Tuo Bei and the others had left, Ci Xuan sighed. “Now, I only hope that that Zhou Donghuang will rush to the Black Market to help us in the Divine Light Sect acquire and master the third spirit weapon… we’ll wait until that spirit weapon is in the hands of Old Lin, so even if something really has happened to Lin Hantian, then it will make him feel somewhat better.”
If the Divine Light Sect obtained the third spirit weapon, it would definitely make the Divine Light Sect’s power second only to the other Golden Essence elders.
Ci Xuan, as a Golden Essence elder of the Divine Light Sect, was currently returning from the capital of the Shenguang Empire. On behalf of the Divine Light Sect, he had personally gone to collect all of the materials according to the requirements of that youth, Zhou Donghuang. He had taken them to the Black Market and given them to the third elder, Tuo Ku.
…
“This is the Valley of the Medicine Masters?”
The Xuanyin’s Sect’s nineteenth elder, “Chi An” had spent nearly two months’ time before finally locating the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley’s location. Moreover, while in a small country of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley, he had inquired about the location of the Valley of the Medicine Masters and immediately thereafter, he came to the Valley of the Medicine Masters.
“I am the nineteenth elder of the Xuanyin Sect, Chi An. Where is the Head of Valley of the Medicine Masters, Su Mo?
Chi An’s voice was of a simple and honest tone, and in the next instant, it went down from the top of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, causing those within the Valley of the Medicine Masters to raise their heads and instinctively look up toward the sky… a voice really was coming down from over there.
“The nineteenth elder of the Xuanyin Sect?”
At that moment, Su Mo was practicing his craft within the Valley. When he heard the voice, he immediately opened both eyes and frowned slightly. “Chi An?”
“He has the same last name as that Xuanyin disciple I killed….it seems he has come on account of Chi Ping.”
Considering the other man’s actions and his name, it was not difficult for Su Mo to figure this out at all.
