Translator: La0o9 Editor: La0o9
After a grand declaration, the martial cultivator teenager suddenly collapsed and fainted.
An elder quickly came over to check him.
“He’s fine, his soul vessel was a bit shaken so he fell unconscious” he reported.
The cultivators around all sighed in relief.
But the peak masters’ gaze looking at Gu Qing Shan was no longer the same as before.
They were experienced and knowledgeable enough to notice the tsunami of invisible sword spirit in the air.
But the other disciples were too inexperienced to know what happened.
Gu Qing Shan glanced at Xie Gu Hong.
Xie Gu Hong kept quiet.
Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and declared with a calm and gradual voice: “The Palace Master’s disciple induction ceremony is one of our sect’s most sacred ceremonies, according to our customs, it is never to be violated. Seeing how today was your first violation and you had reasons for your actions, I sentence you to three months of seclusion. Carry him away”
Two enforcer cultivators stepped forward and carried the martial cultivator disciple away.
The surrounding disciples were still completely clueless as to what happened.
What happened just now was too out of this world, and with how inexperienced they were, they couldn’t even imagine such a thing was possible.
Their cultivations were still shallow so they couldn’t tell how terrifying the density of sword spirit converged in that split second just now.
All they saw was that a disciple who tried to issue a challenge suddenly collapsed.
And then Gu Qing Shan issued him a punishment.
And so…
That was a martial cultivator, why did he just collapse while talking?
Was that a stooge who purposefully acted that way so that Gu Qing Shan guy could gain prestige in front of everyone?
Or did an elder silently act?
The disciples all felt resentful.
How could the Eldest Disciple of the sect be that sheltered?
This way, who would ever listen to him from now on?
Various disciples of the Perching Cloud peak exchanged glances and nodded.
They all leapt onto the small island in the middle.
Over ten other martial cultivators of Ancient Dawn peak also leapt out and landed on the small island.
Disciples of Spirit Echo peak turned into mist and reappeared on the small island.
Disciples of Clear Water peak surfed the water to gracefully board the small island.
Since there weren’t too many disciples in Fine Sound peak, they didn’t move out just yet, but the sound of instruments playing could be clearly heard, displaying their dissatisfaction.
A crowd of disciples gathered.
They ignored the expressions of their own peak masters and spoke in unison: “Eldest Disciple of the sect, Gu Qing Shan, we issue you a challenge”
Gu Qing Shan looked at them all and sighed.
They’re still only teenagers barely old enough to attend high school, do I really have to be petty with them?
He glanced at the crowd.
Wherever his gaze swept through, the overwhelming invisible sword spirit easily shook the minds of these youths.
They all felt their minds became blank before falling unconscious.
A single breath’s worth of time.
The world returned to silence.
Everyone looked at Gu Qing Shan like they were looking at some sort of monster.
Gu Qing Shan looked again at the unconscious disciples and shook his head: “They’re all sentenced by 3 months of seclusion, if they cause another ruckus, strip them of their cultivation and expel them from the sect. Does Master want to add anything else?”
Xie Gu Hong answered: “That will be fine”
“Yes” Gu Qing Shan replied.
“Qing Shan, things are done here, bring your two junior brothers back to the master peak, I’ll come by later” Xie Gu Hong told him.
Gu Qing Shan then brought Huang Zhan and Shen Yang back to Barren Cloud master peak.
The only people left on the small island were the Barren Cloud Palace Master, the peak masters and the elders.
No one said anything.
Xie Gu Hong glanced around and cleared his throat: “I heard that the peaks are somewhat dissatisfied with how I teach my disciple”
Everyone was quiet.
Xie Gu Hong continued: “All of you are peak masters and elders, if you have free time, spend it to care for your disciples and teach them not to be so reckless. So quick to violate the sect’s rules just to end up unconscious without even figuring out how strong their opponent was”
Still, no one replied.
Xie Gu Hong sighed: “A few hundred years ago, you all couldn’t cultivate as well as I did, a few hundred years later, I can’t believe you’d teach your disciples with the same carelessness, hah”
He swung his sleeve and leapt into the sky, quickly disappearing without a trace.
On the small island, everyone still stayed quiet, but the atmosphere was tensed to its limits.
…
Barren Cloud master peak.
The three disciples arrived at the grand hall on top of the peak, sat down in a circle and chatted.
They would need to wait here until the Palace Master returns to arrange the specifics.
Huang Zhan looked at Gu Qing Shan in awe, asking: “Eldest brother, how are you so strong?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “As long as you focus yourself on cultivating, you’ll be able to reach this point in no time”
Huang Zhan replied: “But I’m already very focused. Besides the days when we have to socialize with the other peaks, I’m always cultivating”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “I’ve stayed in the Sword Abyss for 7 years straight, besides going to other peaks to look for jade tags, I’ve never left the master peak”
Huang Zhan and Shen Yang both opened their mouths wide and gasped.
This was the first time they’ve heard that someone could cultivate diligently to this degree.
For them, nothing was impossible for someone who could push themselves that hard.
But what they didn’t know was that, for Gu Qing Shan, taking that much time just to return to Virtualized realm was already very slow.
This time, Gu Qing Shan made sure that he cultivated slowly.
Because he had a lot of time.
And also because being too exceptional was a cause for suspicion.
The Laws of this world were the same now as they were in the future, so if he cultivated too quickly in front of Xie Gu Hong, he might instead become suspicious.
So Gu Qing Shan has been carefully maintaining a natural pace of cultivation and breakthrough so that even if someone tried to observe him, they would only find that he naturally broke through as anyone should in his circumstances.
At this point, Xie Gu Hong returned to the master peak with a refreshed body and mind.
He told the three of them.
“Qing Shan, since you’ve revealed your cultivation today, there’s no need for you to stay in seclusion constantly anymore”
“Your cultivation has surpassed others of your peers by 4 to 5 realms, which should be more than enough to teach your two junior brothers”
He then threw a jade disk out.
Gu Qing Shan caught it.
“This is the sect master’s jade disk, while I’m not here, you can use my jade disk to go to any of the peaks to find and use any cultivation resources or scripture necessary for your junior brothers”
“Yes, Master, where are you going?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Xie Gu Hong replied: “I need to go to the frontlines, you should already know the strange occurrences at the frontlines already. I want to take a look myself to make sure that the information we received was correct”
He then spoke with a serious tone: “Take good care of your junior brothers for teacher”
“As Master wills” Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist with a solemn attitude.
Xie Gu Hong nodded.
He then told Huang Zhan and Shen Yang a few more things in detail.
Once everything was taken care of, Xie Gu Hong disappeared from the grand hall.
Once Xie Gu Hong left, Gu Qing Shan led Huang Zhan and Shen Yang to the outside of the Sword Abyss.
The Sword Abyss looked like a simple mountain valley, but as you enter, you will need to pass through layers after layers of formations before descending over several hundred miles of cliffs before reaching where the sect’s sword scriptures were stored.
Gu Qing Shan stood outside the valley and pointed at the two cultivation chambers next to the entrance of the valley.
“Master and I spent some time to create these two cultivation chambers outside of the Sword Abyss, one of them suitable for spell cultivation while the other is suitable for martial cultivation, this way, us three brothers will be able to cultivate in the same place”
Huang Zhan and Shen Yang lightly nodded.
Gu Qing Shan clapped his hand: “Very well, now go and cultivate. If there is anything you don’t understand, or if you need any resources, come into the Sword Abyss and inform me. I need to go cultivate now as well”
Huang Zhan and Shen Yang looked blankly at each other.
We just got to the master peak and we’re just going to directly cultivate without doing anything else?
Gu Qing Shan continued: “One day later, I’ll test your strength, then come up with suitable methods for you to better cultivate”
Huang Zhan couldn’t help but ask: “Eldest brother, why one day later?”
Gu Qing Shan spoke embarrassed: “I have a sword scripture that I’ve only read halfway, I can’t help but finish the rest of it today otherwise I won’t be able to think about your matters”
Shen Yang spoke up: “But Eldest brother, you have to at least show us to our rooms, otherwise we wouldn’t know where to rest tonight”
Gu Qing Shan was a bit surprise and told him: “If you’re tired, just rest inside the cultivation chambers”
Shen Yang went quiet thinking about the meaning of his words.
Huang Zhan, on the other hand, carefully asked: “Eldest brother, could it be that the Master never gave you a place to rest all this time?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “Ah, that’s too troublesome, I’d rather just stay in the Sword Abyss. I can cultivate whenever I can, if I’m tired I’ll just sit down and rest, it’s great. Master eventually also thought that to be great, so we never bothered”
Huang Zhan cut him off: “Which means, Eldest brother has been staying inside the Sword Abyss for 7 years?”
“7 years and 8 days” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Huang Zhan and Shen Yang turned to look at the mountain valley.
From where they stood, they saw nothing in there but mountains after mountains of sword scripture jade tags, all the way to the end of one’s sight.
Eldest brother stayed there for 7 years, doing nothing else but cultivating.
Gu Qing Shan said: “Alright, go and cultivate in your chambers, I’ll be studying my sword scripture now, see you after one day”
He then headed into the valley.
“Wait a minute, Eldest Brother” Shen Yang called out.
Gu Qing Shan stopped, turned around, and asked: “Is there anything else?”
Shen Yang took a deep breath and asked doubtfully: “Eldest brother’s cultivation has far surpassed others in the same generation. You should already be the number one cultivator of this generation both in name and in truth, so why are you still cultivating so painstakingly?”
Gu Qing Shan chuckled at this question.
“Alright then, let me teach the two of you the first cultivation lesson in place of our Master” he said.
Huang Zhan and Shen Yang both clasped their fist and bowed respectfully: “Please teach us, Eldest brother”
Gu Qing Shan stood and fell into thought briefly.
He suddenly asked: “Do you know about what happened at the frontlines?”
Huang Zhan’s eyes appeared a bit shaken as he spoke: “I heard that the war situation is getting desperate. A Divinity went missing, most people assume that he was surrounded and slain by Desolate monsters”
Shen Yang also chimed in with a heavy voice: “This was the first time that a Divinity had died in battle, so the great sects are currently in shock and panic”
Gu Qing Shan smiled: “Indeed, this time’s matter was certainly shocking, it had such a heavy impact that Master had to travel to the frontlines to investigate the truth”
“Regardless of the truth of this matter, what I want to teach you is how this could affect you”
He stepped forward and patted his junior brothers on their shoulders: “Try and imagine, 10 years later, the Desolate world suddenly defeats the Divinities, and the Divinities can no longer save anybody but themselves, all your family members are killed by the monsters, your closest friends and allies in the sect were massacred, even the girl you like was treated and eaten like food. But when you want to take revenge, you found that you couldn’t save anyone with your measly strength, even when you disregarded your own life and fought with everything you have, you still end up being killed by a single slap of the monster”
Gu Qing Shan’s tone below slow as he continued: “At the very moment of your death, suddenly someone told you that you can live your life again, that you can return to this exact point 10 years ago, when you had just been inducted as Master’s disciple, to this point where you’re listening to me talking”
“And then you found that you really did return, you really did get another chance”
“Tell me, how do you intend to live this time around?”
