Chapter 1426: Chapter 100 Empathy for the Sa Suffering
Fu Dongxu was still sowhat cautious at first, but upon seeing this giant tree take on a humanoid form and hearing its voice, he relaxed.
Taking a step forward in mid-air, he called out, “Fu Dongxu is here!”
The towering tree man suddenly turned around and began striding over with heavy, thunderous steps, exuding an air of earth-shaking might.
“Namo bless , that scared !” Ku Jue, skulking behind Fu Dongxu, muttered, “Who is this old fellow? How dare he disregard your face like this? Not that I’m looking for trouble… but back in the Hanging Monastery, no one dared to speak to that way.”
Fu Dongxu ignored him and took a few steps forward, clasping his hands in greeting, “Elder Cang.”
The tree man lowered his head and regarded Fu Dongxu for a while, his erald-green eyes devoid of any discernible emotion.
Fu Dongxu kept his hands respectfully clasped and did not retract them.
After a mont, the tree man split open down the middle entirely, revealing a tall elder with white hair but a youthful face stepping out from within.
It was as if he had opened an inwardly-hinged, semicircular door and walked out of what was essentially his “dwelling.”
The tree man froze in place, appearing to truly morph into a treehouse.
The interior was emptied entirely.
For once, Ku Jue refrained from stirring trouble, as the situation at present clearly required no additional fuel from him.
This white-haired elder, who had descended in such an extraordinary manner, walked over to Fu Dongxu, scrutinized him again, and said, “I am indeed quite old. So old that no one rembers anymore.”
“You must be joking,” Fu Dongxu replied. “With your esteed virtues and reputation, how could anyone forget you?”
The leader of the Mirror World Platform clearly adopted a much more deferential attitude, even treating the elder as if he were a junior, which spoke to the elder’s exceedingly high seniority and revered status in the Jinguo hierarchy.
“Is that so?” the white-haired elder continued to scrutinize him, “Then why would soone dare to recklessly order my disciple, placing him in danger and causing him to go missing?”
“Ahem.” Fu Dongxu softly reminded him, “This matter was reported to you all by the Mirror World Platform beforehand; you all approved it and even actively participated in devising the plan. You even went to Zhuang Country to et with Zhuang Gaoxian… That’s the only reason the operation proceeded.”
The white-haired elder’s accusatory montum crumbled instantly.
For a mont, he didn’t know how to recover his footing, nor where to start picking it back up.
He had stord out the door, full of anger, determined that soone must bear responsibility for this incident.
Only now did he suddenly realize—good heavens—it turns out it was *him* who had lost his own disciple?
And hadn’t he left ho thinking he’d forgotten sothing?
The white-haired elder stood frozen on the spot.
As a junior True Man, Fu Dongxu, despite his advanced cultivation, found it inappropriate to rub salt into his senior’s wounds and make the elder even more uncomfortable. Thus, he chose silence as well.
For a while, an eerie silence hung over the Wind Queen’s Dense Forest, broken only by the rustling of leaves in the breeze.
Fortunately, there was Ku Jue.
With great enthusiasm, he stepped out from behind Fu Dongxu and went directly to shake the white-haired elder’s hand. “Oh my, so you’re the legendary True Man Cang!”
The white-haired elder, caught off guard, had his right hand grasped before he realized it. Seeing the bald monk in front of him, he blinked in surprise. “You know ?”
“How could I not know you?” Ku Jue feigned indignation. “You’re True Man Cang, a luminary of unparalleled virtue and renown. Of course I know you!”
“My apologies,” the white-haired elder said awkwardly, “I have a poor mory—perhaps it’s from being in seclusion for too long. May I ask who you are?”
Fu Dongxu opened his mouth slightly, “He’s—”
“I am Ku Jue!” declared Ku Jue, gripping Cang Shen’s hand firmly. “Unaffiliated and sectless, just a lone wanderer now devoting himself to the path of Dao.”
Wearing monk robes and sporting a shaved head, you claim to be devoting yourself to the Dao…
Even if Cang Shen secluded himself for another eight hundred years, he wouldn’t find that credible.
“Have we t?” he had no choice but to continue asking.
Ku Jue was utterly unabashed. “We haven’t t before, but we’re bound to et often in the future!”
“Oh, dear!” He swayed his head dramatically. “At first, I thought you were going to harm my friend and nearly moved to strike. Fortunately, I held myself back. Truly, this is a case of a great flood washing into the Dragon King’s temple—mbers of one family failing to recognize one another!”
Fu Dongxu interjected hurriedly, “I’m not friends with him at all! This monk is from the Hanging Monastery.”
“Didn’t I renounce my affiliation already!?” Ku Jue glared at him indignantly.
Fu Dongxu’s mind reeled with countless expletives.
The Hanging Monastery truly is a great brand. Whether he uses it or dismisses it, it’s done so naturally!
Cang Shen blinked. “One family?”
“Alas.” Ku Jue was still shaking his hand, gripping it tightly, “My disciple is Jiang Wang, who was captured by your disciple. What a fateful connection—how could one reason with such luck? Now that they’re both missing, aren’t we two kindred spirits in misfortune, in the sa boat, part of the sa family? As they say—mountains and rivers confound, yet around a hidden path lies compassion in the teacher’s heart!”
Cang Shen pulled his hand away, wearing a forced smile. “So, you’re the Qi scoundrel!”
“What kind of nonsense is that!” Ku Jue feigned reproach. “We’re all friends in the vast world, neighbors across the skies, fellow mbers of the Human Race, hearts broken similarly, and both searching for disciples… Why dwell on kingdoms or sects—doesn’t that seem absurd? Boundless love knows no boundaries, Fellow Daoist!”
“You make it sound so easy.” Cang Shen remained unmoved.
“As if it’s easy?” Ku Jue sneered, “We True n, walking the way of Dao, must our speech and actions be so frivolous? What we say, we will do! I left the Hanging Monastery precisely to dispel the notions of sectarianism. Would you dare leave your sect? We True n should act freely and unrestrained; why must we abide by sects? Or even nations? I dare criticize Jiang Shu—would you dare criticize Ji Fengzhou?”
Ji Fengzhou, of course, was the personal na of the Jing Emperor.
Cang Shen paused briefly and replied, “I also dare to criticize Jiang Shu!”
Ku Jue looked at him, genuinely surprised—it seed he hadn’t expected the man to have common sense.
Fu Dongxu could no longer sit idly by and watch them chat. He stepped forward with a sullen face, moving between the two, and glared at Ku Jue. “Enough with your nonsense. True Man Cang may be magnanimous, but that doesn’t an you can continue to act impudently!”
Ku Jue looked deeply hurt, staring at Fu Dongxu. “Why are you treating the two of us so differently?”
Fu Dongxu: …
Does that even need to be explained? Surely you’re not oblivious to which side you’re on!
Ku Jue sidestepped slightly left, bypassing Fu Dongxu, and said to Cang Shen, “While chasing after them, they all disappeared. I think my disciple and your disciple could beco friends—no rivalries without first a fight, right?”
He paused, then added, “We could also beco friends!”
Cang Shen realized the era might have changed, as he struggled to keep up with the monk’s words. Turning to Fu Dongxu, he asked, “What’s up with this man?”
“I don’t know either,” Fu Dongxu replied, shaking his head. “Should we just kill him?”
“Would that be convenient?” Cang Shen asked.
“Didn’t you hear him? Sectless and nationless,” Fu Dongxu replied. “Seems like it should be fine to kill him.”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Ku Jue shouted angrily. “Discussing murdering right in front of —is that reasonable?! Killing soone harms the natural order, you know!”
Fu Dongxu silently moved a step to the side, forming an angled stance with Cang Shen. He reached out toward the sky, as if draping a dark shroud over it, turning day into sudden night.
He said sinisterly, “Then let’s block the heavens first.”
Ku Jue raised both hands. “I surrender! Jinguo, as the strongest nation under heaven, wouldn’t stoop to the classlessness of killing soone who’s surrendered, would it?”
Fu Dongxu noticed that despite Ku Jue raising his hands, his left hand was forming the Vajra Seal while his right shaped the Fearless Seal—no trace of genuine surrender could be seen. Just as Fu Dongxu was about to press him further, he felt sothing stir within him, and his left eye suddenly crystallized, resembling Liu Li glass. Runes cascaded across its surface like a waterfall.
His faint trace of killing intent dissipated.
“Zhongshan Yanwen is here!” he announced.
User Comments
0 comments from readers