I Might Be a Big Shot — Chapter 23
Many people came to the righteous sect gathering, so many that the main hall of Mount Shu couldn’t hold them all, and many were left outside. Here, those below the Great Ascension stage had no right to sit, and those at the Nascent Soul stage couldn’t even enter the door — they had to stand outside. As for those at the Golden Core stage, they didn’t even receive the hero’s invitation. Only those at Nascent Soul stage and above could participate in the righteous sect conference.
Rong Jian stood outside, able only to listen to the proceedings inside through a sound-transmission artifact to learn about the current state of the cultivation world, but he had no right to speak.
Li Xinglun, on the other hand — despite being only at the Golden Core stage — relied on Changkong Zhuoyu’s imposing reputation to actually secure himself a place inside the main hall.
Many sect masters and elders also brought their personally-taught disciples; as long as they could secure a seat in the main hall, the disciples could stand behind them and attend.
Changkong Zhuoyu was obscure and little-known in the cultivation world, so many people took issue with his place. But since this was Mount Shu, they had to respect the host’s wishes, and furthermore, Changkong Zhuoyu’s strength was not trivial — these Great Ascension cultivators couldn’t see through his cultivation level, so they kept their doubts to themselves, planning to consult him after the discussion.
At this moment, Sage Yipin was recounting the story from a thousand years ago, when Xue Qianjie willingly fell into the demon realm to bring a thousand years of peace to the cultivation world.
In the end, Sage Yipin said: “This is absolutely true. Even now on the Sword Tomb of Mount Shu, there remains an image of Sect Master Xue from a thousand years ago. For any fellow Daoists who still have doubts, you may follow a guiding disciple to the Sword Tomb to see for yourselves. The reason I’m making this public is to tell everyone: this calamity upon the human realm is not an ordinary battle between righteous and demonic forces, but a catastrophe for the entire cultivation world. Henceforth, no matter what happens, I urge everyone to remain calm and not attribute everything to the demonic cultivators — this may well be a scheme by the demon realm to sow discord among us. As for the case of the Li Clan’s extermination, I and several other sects’ law-enforcing elders investigated and determined it was likely not the work of demonic cultivators, but rather caused by demonic energy leaking from a breach in the demon realm, which then affected people’s hearts.”
“Sage Yipin, what do you mean by demonic energy influencing people’s hearts?” the sect master of Tianyi sect asked.
Sage Yipin gave a bitter smile and replied: “I’m sure everyone has heard that Mount Shu disciples are prone to falling into demonic ways because of the influence of the demon realm seal — this is indeed true. Not all who fall are due to demonic invasion, but some certainly are. The seal of the demon realm lies beneath the Sword Tomb, and Mount Shu disciples fall into demonic ways because the swords serve as a medium. But what I observed in the Li Clan’s case was not the work of sword cultivators.”
“Allow me to explain this matter,” the previously silent law-enforcing elder of Kunlun said. “Though it’s shameful to expose family scandals, this matter is too important to conceal. The Kunlun sect’s forbidden ground also seals a demon realm entrance. When the Kunlun divine formation broke some time ago, although we did our best to repair the seal, some demonic energy still escaped. I fear the Li Clan’s tragedy is related to this escaped demonic energy.”
Standing behind Changkong Zhuoyu, Li Xinglun appeared calm, but his fists were clenched tightly. Changkong Zhuoyu sensed his emotions and, with a sweep of his long sleeve, grasped Li Xinglun’s hand under its cover.
His robe, some sort of magical treasure, not only blocked sight but also prevented divine sense from probing. Thus, the two of them held hands like this in front of everyone, their expressions solemn, revealing nothing.
“If it truly is the work of the demon realm, why didn’t they attack the great sects directly but instead wiped out a small family?” Emei’s sect master, Abbess Qingyuan, asked with puzzlement. “Demonic creatures are born dark and love blood, death, and human resentment. If they truly wanted to incite calamity in the human world, their first move should’ve been to provoke a war between righteous and demonic forces. In that case, masquerading as demonic cultivators and assassinating disciples of the major sects would make more sense. Why wipe out a small family and alert us instead?”
Abbess Qingyuan’s question was everyone’s question — even Li Xinglun himself didn’t understand why this happened.
“Perhaps it’s simply a case of ‘an innocent man gets into trouble because of his treasure,’” Master Wuyin said softly.
“No matter the reason, what we must do now is find those corrupted by demonic energy and extract it. There are two ways to purify demonic energy: one is to have it cleansed by the Buddhist methods of Tianyin Temple; the other is to burn it away with internal fire,” Sage Yipin said. “If you choose to burn it away, please be extremely cautious, lest you too fall into demonic ways.”
With that, the purpose of the righteous sect conference was fulfilled.
The main points were to avoid unnecessary conflicts with demonic cultivators, so as not to fall into the demons’ trap; and secondly, to call on the experts to hunt down and eliminate stray demonic energy.
Li Xinglun tightened the thumb ring on his finger, completely unable to understand why his little Li Clan became the target of these demonic forces.
Sensing Li Xinglun’s emotions, Changkong Zhuoyu immediately sent him a sound-transmitted message: “Don’t think too much, disciple. Once we descend the mountain, we’ll seek out those who’ve fallen into demonic ways and question them. I will definitely wipe out all the demons in the world and avenge you.”
His tone was full of confidence — just as it always was. This time, however, instead of worrying, Li Xinglun was moved.
His master was someone who kept his word and would surely get justice for his disciple.
The grief and anger in Li Xinglun’s heart eased a little. Knowing Changkong Zhuoyu was concerned about him, he scratched his master’s palm with his finger.
Changkong Zhuoyu gave a faint smile.
At this moment, some cultivators in the hall proposed going to the Sword Tomb to see the remnant image of Xue Qianjie to verify the matter. Although the Sword Tomb was a critical place of Mount Shu, Sage Yipin personally led everyone there to make the case more convincing.
However, before the crowd went up, Mount Shu disciples had already arranged formations to guard the Sword Tomb. Everyone could only observe from the foot of the mountain and could not ascend.
Upon learning this, Changkong Zhuoyu raised his brows slightly. Back then, Sage Yipin had personally taken him up the mountain and even let him try to draw the sword — yet now things were completely different. Perhaps Sage Yipin had hoped he was Xue Qianjie, wishing that the peerless one who had willingly died for the cultivation world might escape from the demon realm and reincarnate as a human.
Unfortunately, Changkong Zhuoyu was not Xue Qianjie.
The master and disciple pair stood below the Sword Tomb with a hint of melancholy, gazing up at the towering peak like everyone else.
A Mount Shu disciple holding a sword began to ascend, intending to awaken the myriad swords as Sage Yipin had once done.
However, the moment he started climbing, Sage Yipin sensed something was wrong and immediately shouted: “Stop him! To awaken the myriad swords you don’t need to ascend — just have all Mount Shu disciples’ swords sing together!”
Someone rushed to stop the disciple, but it was too late.
The Mount Shu disciple’s sword emitted a faint black mist as he leaped to the summit, tore off his clothes, and slashed his chest with his sword, spraying hot blood over the swords of the tomb.
He hacked himself again and again, until only his right hand still held the sword, the rest of his limbs severed. Endless blood stained the ground red.
“Hahaha!” He laughed madly, stabbed the sword into his dantian, destroyed his internal energy sea, and died on the spot from excessive blood loss.
{Internal energy (qi) sea — the reservoir of refined energy gathered during the early cultivation stages, before the formation of the Golden Core.}
As his blood seeped into the earth, the entire mountain began to shake violently. Unstoppable demonic energy surged out from beneath the Sword Tomb, enshrouding it in black mist, turning it into a hellish domain.
“Form the formation!” Sage Yipin shouted. “Those below the Soul Transformation stage, retreat at once! Those of lesser cultivation cannot withstand the demonic invasion! They aim to use this righteous gathering to wipe us all out!”
He never expected that this Mount Shu gathering would be exploited by these scheming demons, nor that the inner disciple he trusted would succumb at such a moment.
Master Wuyin unleashed powerful magic to lay down an exorcising formation, sitting in the center and chanting sutras. The others supported him, trying to suppress the demonic energy and force it back.
At the very least, they had to set up a formation outside the Sword Tomb to prevent the demonic energy from leaking out!
Yet the demonic energy was too strong. The golden swastika seal that appeared over the mountain with the Buddhist chanting quickly turned into a blood-red inverted seal. Seeing the Buddha seal become a demon seal, everyone was filled with despair.
Was this truly the beginning of the human realm’s calamity? If this demonic energy escaped, what would become of the world?
Though all present were masters of their sects, they could not suppress such a vast amount of demonic energy in such a short time. They were not afraid of it themselves, but ordinary cultivators and mortals would be doomed!
The Buddha seal grew redder and redder, with almost no gold left, about to be swallowed by blood. At that moment, a white figure broke through the formation and landed atop the mountain, holding an ordinary wooden sword, which he thrust into the demonic seal.
The instant the wooden sword pierced the seal, golden light blazed, and the demon seal gradually reverted to the Buddha seal.
The demonic energy, unable to corrupt the seal, furiously assaulted the formation instead. Cunningly, it stopped trying to implant demonic nature into the people’s hearts and chose to flee. The exorcising formation, hastily set up, could not withstand the massive onslaught. Blood seeped from Master Wuyin’s lips as he struggled to hold on.
At this moment, the white figure stood atop the mountain, casually grasped two swords, and pulled them out.
In an instant, purple and azure light shot into the sky, two giant dragons entwining and roaring thunderously. With their roar, all the swords of Mount Shu rang out in unison, the vibrations echoing ceaselessly. Every sword trembled violently, and baleful sword energy, even stronger than the demonic energy, enveloped the entire Sword Tomb.
The terrifying baleful energy firmly trapped the demonic energy. Meanwhile, the blood scattered over the Sword Tomb gathered onto an ordinary iron sword, which began to glow red. Beside it appeared a figure clad in blood, overlooking the land and murmuring softly: “Guard this world for me.”
As soon as he spoke, all the demonic energy was forced back into the depths of the mountain. The twin dragons circled once in the air before vanishing into the tomb, turning back into ordinary swords.
Both the demonic energy and the baleful energy disappeared, and the blood-colored figure was dispersed by the wind.
Atop the Sword Tomb stood only one person, his white robes fluttering in the mountain breeze, like an immortal descending from the heavens.
~ Chapter End ~
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