434: Chapter 421: Sword Willow 434: Chapter 421: Sword Willow What they both desired was never the kind of love found at first sight, ardent and intense.
Lacking worldly charm, by nature they loved the hills and mounds.
The way of husband and wife between them was simply an eight-character proverb: finding pleasure in each other’s company and not growing weary with ti.
Who then could say such a marriage wouldn’t last?
With green hills in one’s heart, why follow others to gaze at the blooming peach trees?
Fang Geyu did not dislike these peaceful and serene mories.
Yet, she knew what kind of undercurrents hid behind this tranquility.
Otherwise, why would the great serpent, a divine dragon, devour carcasses and conceal itself within, sinking into the Mohe and falling into Chenyuan?
The scene before her eyes shifted again, after countless springs and autumns had passed.
The strife between the righteous and the demonic was nearing its end.
In the Demon World, among the six rivers of the Mohe, five had been extinguished by the Heavenly Seal Sword Master, with only the leader of the six, Shu Ci, lying dormant in the demon-planting grounds of Taiqi Mountain.
Each of the six rivers of the Demon World had special abilities, and being the foremost among them, Shu Ci held a position of power and status second only to the Demon Lord within the vast Demon World of the three thousand planes.
This campaign to the North was a battle of utmost importance unprecedented through the ages.
Should the leader of the Demon World’s rivers be silenced forever within Taiqi Mountain, the six rivers would be erased from the world for good.
To this battle, every Immortal Sect prepared thoroughly.
If during Shu Ci’s slumber, a sealing mark of a Golden Immortal could be placed upon her, it would greatly reduce casualties and losses.
The terrain of Taiqi Mountain was treacherous, easy to defend but difficult to attack, sheltering three thousand demons and surrounded by countless ancient lethal barriers.
Nearly all the Immortal Sects ca out in full force, intent on eradicating this threat of the six rivers.
That year, the leader of the Xijian Sect ascended to the position of Golden Immortal.
With profound Taoist techniques and mysterious Divine Intent, he was a revered and powerful presence not only across the Four Seas of the Mortal World but even amongst the multitude of states in the Immortal World, deeply entrusted by the Immortal Venerable Zhu Zhan.
In this campaign against demons, he brought with him the Thirteen Swords of Tianxi and most of his disciples, heading to Taiqi Mountain.
Only the witch Arao was left behind on Bai Tuo Mountain.
Though Fang Geyu couldn’t grasp his motives, she was sure he had his reasons.
But she understood that this reason mattered little.
From those mories, Fang Geyu could tell that the witch Arao was an extrely obsessive and insane person—fragile and sensitive at heart.
With all the capable disciples from the Sect summoned to the battlefield in the North Territory, leaving her, a mber of the Demon Clan, behind in the Mortal World would naturally give rise to discontent and suspicion.
The great battle once again unfurled its banner.
In the chaotic and blurred images seen by Fang Geyu, occasionally one could glimpse the devastating clashes between cultivators and hordes of demons, the entire world pervaded with an indelible fog of murky blood.
The legendary Shu Ci of one river, said to be slumbering in Taiqi Mountain, remained elusive.
Just as soone from the righteous suggested setting ablaze the mountain to force out Shu Ci, a catastrophic event spun out of control.
One of the Three Sects, the fourth Xuanwu Hall of the Cangwu Ten Hidden Palaces, Hall Master Zhisu, t a tragic death within a levitating cave in the mountain.
In the great war between the righteous and the demonic, noble figures from establishnts like Cangwu Ten Hidden Palaces, even if they were to fall, it was with heroic magnificence, their deaths shaking the heavens and the earth.
Yet Hall Master Zhisu died silently.
By the ti she was discovered, her soul had been extracted, her body dessicated, undignified and suspended upside-down in the cave, eyes open in death.
And the magic artifact that hung her in the cave was no ordinary object—it was the Baili Sword Willow, owned only by direct disciples of the Xijian Sect.
The Baili Sword Willow was a protective magical artifact personally forged by the Sword Master of the contemporary era, also notably lethal, and it had already recognized its owner.
And that owner was naturally the Sword Master’s one and only disciple, the witch Arao.
The mysterious death of Xuanwu Hall Master Zhisu undoubtedly set off a furor among the Hundred Immortal Sects.
Naturally, Cangwu Palace was the most furious, but aside from somber faces and oppressive atmosphere, the remaining nine halls fell into an eerie silence.
Instead, it was the other cultivator clans who began to question things, furrowing brows.
“Could the Sword Willow that strangled Hall Master Zhisu be the one presented by the Sword Master to his beloved disciple as a protective magical artifact?
Could Hall Master Zhisu’s death be related to the Xijian Sect?”
“Rubbish!
Who are you implying with that accusation?” soone imdiately retorted, anger in their voice.
“The illustrious Tianxi sect, every single disciple a gentleman, would never commit such brutal and cruel acts.”
“Gentlen?
I doubt it.
Isn’t there a forsaken demon being reared on Bai Tuo Mountain?”
“The Sword Master, so wise and thoughtful, had long ago confined that forsaken demon to the mountain.
Perhaps he was worried she would stir trouble?”
“Even with constant vigilance, it’s hard to guard against a traitor at ho.”
“Raising a tiger invites calamity.
The Sword Master was too soft-hearted in his youth.
If it were up to , back during the battle at the demon-breaking pass, I would have turned the Wasteland City to ashes with a Thunder Talisman.
Then the Mortal World would have been clean and spotless—how nice.”
The crowd around grew increasingly rowdy, at first whispering to each other, but as their voices swelled like waves, they converged into a cacophony that could shatter the human spirit.
Seeing this scene.
Fang Geyu thought, the sky of the righteous was bound to change.
The Heavenly Seal Sword Master stood at the forefront of the crowd, eyes cast downward as if in contemplation, though his lofty position seed loneso at the mont.
Just as the situation was about to escalate further, a figure erged from inside Cangwu Palace.
“The deceased should be revered.
Hall Master Zhisu’s body is barely cold, and here you all are, babbling and speculating wildly, stirring discord without a care.
Does this an Cangwu Palace is left with no one to stand up?”
The speaker was the current highest authority of Cangwu Palace, Palace Master Yin Baishuang.
She wore a cyan Daoist robe draped with a white shawl, her shoulders embroidered with the hidden pattern of a Ying Dragon.
Her beauty was like that of an ethereal orchid in a desolate valley, but her gaze was cold and sharp as it swept across the bystanders, silencing their querulous voices.
Eventually, he slowly lifted his eyes, his pupils sharp and clear, looking at this woman who seed like a crisp, divine breeze from the Divine Realm.
Yin Baishuang slowly withdrew her gaze from the crowd, sadness for the loss of a fellow sect mber flickering in her eyes but quickly concealed as she bowed to him.
“May I ask the Sword Master if this Sword Willow cos from the Tianxi Sect.”
“Yes.”
“Furthermore, may I ask the Sword Master if this Sword Willow was personally forged by you, one of a kind in heaven and earth?”
“Only this one.”
She straightened up, eyes fixed on his face.
“In this case, I assu there’s no murderer foolish enough to leave behind the sole piece of evidence that could reveal their true identity after committing the cri, right?”
In just a few sentences, she had turned a grave accusation into a re insinuation of conspiracy.
The Sword Master remained silent.
She continued.
“I don’t believe that the little disciple by your side has the capability to lift your personal prohibition.
Since she is the Sword Master’s disciple, she has no reason to be here, right?”
“There’s no need for Palace Master Yin to take trouble to defend my disciple,” he replied quietly, caressing the inch of Sword Willow that twined around his fingertips.
“There can be no mistake in this object—aside from myself, only she can wield it.”
His response took everyone by surprise.
He went on.
“Palace Master Yin, there’s one thing you may have misunderstood.
Indeed, I forbade her from descending with the rest, but I never restricted her freedom.”
Hearing this, soone changed color, speaking out, “Sword Master, don’t you find such an approach highly inappropriate?”
“Where does the inappropriateness lie?” he countered.
“She is my disciple, not a sinner.
What cri has she committed?
Or should she bear invisible chains just because of public prejudice?”
His gaze remained even.
“I didn’t take her as my disciple to let her be scorned by the world.”
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