Longevity: Starting as a Sect Servant

The Dao Sect has always valued the return of the soul to the earth and the return of the body to nature, emphasizing coming naked and returning naked. Therefore, they usually don’t use coffins or even clothes for burial. Even the high-ranking officials of the Dao Sect used to be buried this way, with their bodies thrown directly into the soil.

When Li An was transporting the bodies, he discovered that the corpses of these young people were mostly mutilated, as if they had suffered terrible humiliation and torture before their deaths. They were covered in blood, with skin torn to shreds, and some even had words carved into their bodies.

"The Dao Mountain must be destroyed."

"Like slaughtering pigs and dogs."

...

The killers were demonstrating!

This was a provocation!

A blatant provocation.

"Damn it...."

"Revenge, revenge must be had!"

The other disciples, who were also transporting the bodies, couldn’t help but get angry again, despite having seen it before, each filled with a boiling fighting spirit.

Li An frowned slightly but said nothing, finishing the burial of the bodies one by one.

An Li looked up, glanced at the nearby cliff, and suddenly moved his palm. A sword light burst forth, cutting a giant granite rock from the cliff into pieces of stone steles, which stood like swords in front of each mound of earth.

He drew the long sword from his back, walked forward, and carefully wrote down the names of these young talents.

"One day, the Dao Sect will make the enemy pay in blood for blood－－"

An Li spoke heavily.

"Elder An, who is the enemy?"

Li An asked.

An Li replied, "Double-Headed Mountain."

"With the opening of the Space-Time Secret Realm drawing near, the Dao Sect did not agree to allocate quotas, so they targeted our young disciples. Their actions are unforgivable!"

"These people died for the Dao Sect. Let’s not let their graves be covered by wild grass－－"

After saying that, he turned and left.

Everyone else left, leaving only Li An in the field. He quietly looked at these tombstones. He hardly recognized any of the names on them, suggesting they were likely disciples re-recruited by the Dao Sect upon reaching the Saint Realm.

Not many people left the Spirit Realm’s Dao Sect back in the day.

Xiang Yuntian, Gu Canye, and others are the oldest generation within Dao Mountain now and hold power; An Li, Li Nianxue, and the second generation count as the backbone, with many having become Elders; and Fen Yuan and others, representing the third generation, are few in number...Altogether, there were barely a thousand people, making up the core, the lifeblood of Dao Mountain!

After settling in Dao Mountain, when Purple Fairy was present, teachings spread far and wide, and apart from the Dao Peak, there were two main peaks, Cyan Feather Peak and Yizhu Peak. Many Golden Immortal level figures also joined, reaching numbers between three and four hundred thousand, resembling a grand sect.

However, after Purple Fairy’s incident and Hongbo Fairy’s departure, under the oppression of various forces, most people have left. Nearly everyone from Cyan Feather Peak and Yizhu Peak has dispersed like birds and beasts. Now within Dao Mountain, only a few tens of thousands remain.

Those who can still remain under such circumstances are all loyal and good.

It’s a pity they died.

Li An cleaned the graves.

But what he didn’t expect was that today was only the beginning.

In the time that followed, new bodies were occasionally brought over, and not only young disciples but even the core figures of the old Dao Sect were being killed!

"Dao Sect swine, get out of the Saint Realm, or today’s this person will be your tomorrow－－"

The body of a middle-aged man was cut into three pieces, tortured beyond recognition, all teeth shattered, fingernails plucked, the skull filled with nail holes, and the eyes gouged out. The enemy used his intestines to inscribe such a line of words on his back...

It was unbearable to look at!

Li An looked at the body, pausing for a moment. Although he had not interacted much with this middle-aged man in Dao Sect, he knew him.

Qin Yue, a genius from Huichun Peak in the former Dao Sect, was skilled in the art of medicine. Li An, injured multiple times in the Spirit Realm’s Dao Sect, had been treated by him before, but unexpectedly, in their reunion in the Otherworld, it was amidst such a gruesome scene.

"Uncle Qin Yue has practiced medicine and saved lives, often leaving Dao Mountain to traverse nearby Immortal Cities to heal cultivators, never charging Immortal Crystals, honoring the Huichun Peak’s old aim of saving the dying and healing the injured...With the worsening situation around Dao Mountain, an order had been issued that if it wasn’t necessary, one shouldn’t leave the mountain. However, recalling a cultivator he treated last year who was at a critical moment, he descended the mountain, only to meet such a vile death!"

An Li spoke with pain.

Li An recalled the Dao Sect of the Spirit Realm, where indeed Huichun Peak had a precept like that, mandating disciples to help the world, so the people of Huichun Peak often descended into the mortal world, treating the sick for mortals and low-level cultivators, earning an excellent reputation...

"Elder An, Peak Master Xiang urgently summons, people from Double-Headed Mountain have come, and they’ve entered the main hall, please hurry to them!"

At this time, a disciple rushed over urgently.

An Li’s pupils contracted, saying, "They dare come? Did Peak Master Xiang not order them to be apprehended?"

The disciple shook his head, saying, "People from Double-Headed Mountain are extremely arrogant, announcing in the main hall that if their demands aren’t met, today’s mountain gate will be breached－－"

An Li grit his teeth, giving Li An a glance, "Properly bury Uncle Qin Yue’s body, I must go－－"

He hurriedly turned and left.

Li An kept his brows furrowed, pondering how Dao Mountain should respond to such a crisis?

He took a deep breath to stabilize his emotions, dug a grave, placed Qin Yue’s body within, and piled up the mound, but did not erect a stele－－erecting steles needed to be done by the Dao Sect’s higher-ups to show respect.

Just after finishing this task, Dao Mountain suddenly shook violently, the Mountain Protection Array sensed it and spontaneously erupted with brilliance.

"Enemies attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

Voices rang out all over Dao Mountain, as many lights emerged, rushing towards the sky, protecting the array and resisting the invaders.

"The Array is about to break." But upon looking up, Li An was greatly shocked.

The Dao Sect’s Mountain Protection Array is not simple, reaching the Golden Immortal Level. Yet, the arriving enemies have used Taiyi Golden Immortal Level treasures, aimed specifically at restrictions and arrays...Dao Mountain’s array can’t withstand it!

Rumble!

However, to Li An’s surprise, after a loud explosion, the light from the sky seemed to disappear, and the Dao Sect’s array seemed stabilized?

"The enemies have retreated!"

A voice echoed in the sky, and everyone in Dao Mountain breathed a sigh of relief.

"No, impossible..."

But in the Stele Forest, Li An’s brows furrowed deeply, certain that the Dao Sect’s Mountain Protection Array had indeed been breached...yet the Dao Sect’s people hadn’t realized it.

The Dao Sect is in danger!

As he was pondering on how to alert Dao Mountain, his senses suddenly warned him, his hair standing on end. A tremendous sense of peril surged, and he turned his head, only to realize that in the Stele Forest, unbeknownst to him, there was an additional person ...

It was a middle-aged man, wearing a grey long robe, holding a silver needle in hand. Faint immortal dao patterns were flickering on the needle, gradually calming as he put it away. Turning back, he looked at Li An and said, "Could this place be the Stele Forest of the Dao Sect?"

...

Goodnight.