Martial Cultivator

After the transmission of the Dao ended, the Sect Master of the Rongshan Sect went back into seclusion. Bei Geng left and arrived before a cliff, where he sat down.

The red flower transformed back into the little girl and sat on his shoulder.

Looking at the sea of clouds, Bei Geng said, "Master says that unless I become unrivaled in the world, I can't go down the mountain."

The little girl sighed as well, but soon comforted him, "It's fine. I can't leave the mountain either. I can stay here and keep you company."

Bei Geng looked at the little girl and thought for a long time before saying, "If I get the chance in the future, I'll send you down the mountain."

The little girl asked curiously, "Why?"

The youth in white looked at her very seriously, "Do you really not know what your fate is?"

The little girl thought for a moment and replied indifferently, "I guess I just keep eating those other medicines, and one day when I've fully matured, someone will eat me."

The little girl spoke very casually, as if she did not care at all.

In her eyes, if that was how things ended, then it was simply the natural order of things.

Looking at the little girl on his shoulder, Bei Geng said very seriously, "But I don't want you to die. I want you to live well."

The little girl looked puzzled. I'm not a person."

"You just have to live well. Go see the places I haven't seen. Eat the things I haven't eaten. Be happy every single day, and just live like that.

Bei Geng looked at the sea of clouds. The youth knew very clearly in his heart that one day, if he could reach the Fuyun Realm, then for the sake of attaining an even higher realm, the sect would definitely make him consume her and the other immortal medicine.

At that time, it might allow him to become an even more powerful existence. But he was unwilling.

He was unwilling to eat his friend.

He had always felt that he had no friends in the mountain. Those people respected him, and they feared him as well. More often than not, they looked up to him. Such things could easily give a person a sense of satisfaction, but he did not need that. He only wanted a friend.

But only Zhu Xia was his friend.

The little girl sat on his shoulder and thought for a long time before saying softly, "That works too. I also want to go down the mountain and take a look. If I spent my entire life in this mountain, how boring would that be?"

Bei Geng nodded and muttered, "Yes. If I spend my entire life in this mountain, it really would be very boring."

Although he also wanted to go down the mountain and have a look, for some reason, he felt that in this lifetime, he would probably only ever remain on the mountain.

Since that was the case, then it was even more important that she go down the mountain.

"Oh right, A'Geng, if I go down the mountain, I should have a name, right? I don't know what I should be called. Can you help me choose one?"

The little girl played with the hair by the youth's temples and made her request very seriously and solemnly.

Bei Geng thought for a moment before seriously saying, "You're bright red, like the celestial body in the morning. How about calling you Zhu Xia?"

"Xia is another name for vermilion."

Looking at the little girl, Bei Geng said hopefully, "It would be wonderful if you could remain this happy and radiant for your entire life."

The moment Bei Geng said those words, the scene before them began to blur.

Yu Xiyi curiously looked around, only to discover that Zhu Xia beside him was crying.

This woman, whose temperament was still not much different from when she had been a little girl, had at that time merely been a muddleheaded medicinal plant that had only recently taken human form. She had not realized what exactly Bei Geng had done.

But now, after experiencing so much and living for so many years, how could Zhu Xia not understand?

And so she felt miserable, so she cried.

Seeing Zhu Xia cry, Yu Xiyi did not know what to say, so he could only change the subject. "Little Chen, I think this fellow is pretty similar to you. Both of you are good people."

Chen Chao looked at Bei Geng and smiled, "If he had been allowed a bit more freedom, his cultivation speed would probably have been even faster. The expectations of everyone throughout the mountain became an obstacle to him."

Sometimes, expectations that are too heavy become shackles.

Of course, the shackles in this world are far more than just the word "expectations."

......

......

Everything Chen Chao and the others were able to see was actually the memory Zhu Xia most wanted to revisit. The things that happened between her and Bei Geng were the memories she had been most unwilling to forget during her time within the mountain pass gates of the Rongshan Sect.

They were also her most beautiful memories.

That was why these scenes had appeared from the very beginning.

But what they actually wanted to know was not this.

There were actually two things Chen Chao wanted to know.

The first was how the Rongshan Sect had been destroyed. The second was how the handwritten notes of that Fuyun Sect's Sect Master had ended up in the Rongshan Sect.

But it seemed that these things could not be seen within Zhu Xia's memories.

Afterward, Chen Chao and the others saw the full extent of what the Rongshan Sect had once been. Through Yu Xiyi's careful calculations, they discovered that the Rongshan Sect had possessed no fewer than fifty Nepenthe cultivators.

There had even been seven or eight cultivators at the end of Nepenthe.

And that did not include the cultivators who were in seclusion.

As for cultivators of the Fuyun Realm, Yu Xiyi also arrived at an answer through deductions based on what he learned from the disciples of the Rongshan Sect. There were at least three or four who were not in seclusion.

This meant that the foundations of the Rongshan Sect were probably no weaker than those of Infatuation Daoist Temple. But the problem was that afterward, through conversations among some Rongshan Sect cultivators, Yu Xiyi learned something.

The Rongshan Sect had merely been a second-rate sect in that era.

Yu Xiyi rubbed his head, somewhat in disbelief, "Damn it. A sect this powerful was actually only a second-rate sect. Then just how powerful were the truly first-rate sects of that era?"

Chen Chao said nothing, merely recalling that Sect Master of the Fuyun Sect whom he had seen mentioned in the handwritten notes. Compared to the Sect Master of the Rongshan Sect, that man was probably even more powerful?

Could the Fuyun Sect have been a first-rate sect?

Chen Chao raised his eyebrows.

And at this moment, Zhu Xia's memories finally reached their end.

Because Chen Chao smelled a murderous aura spreading through the air.

Within the Rongshan Sect, there were cultivators who sensed it as well.

Several towering figures appeared at the heights of the mountain. They were the Fuyun cultivators who were not in seclusion.

The Sect Master of the Rongshan Sect also emerged from seclusion at this moment and appeared in the distance. This powerful cultivator raised his head and looked toward the sky. The sky itself appeared completely ordinary, no different from before, but only a powerful existence like him could sense that invisible pressure.

In the next moment, without any warning whatsoever, streaks of burning meteors suddenly crashed down from the heavens toward the Rongshan Sect.

The stretch of sky immediately turned into a sea of fire.

Before the Sect Master of the Rongshan Sect could make a move, one of the Fuyun cultivators behind him had already swept into the heavens, stepped into that sea of fire, and intercepted the countless burning meteors.

But soon afterward, a figure appeared within that sea of fire.

That person was even more towering. Standing within the sea of fire, he looked like a deity who governed every source of flame between heaven and earth.

Perhaps he could be called a God of Fire!

Before him, that Fuyun cultivator from earlier appeared somewhat weak and was not his opponent.

So another Fuyun cultivator went.

If that was a deity, then they would fight him as well.

But as more and more meteors descended, more figures could be seen standing within the meteors behind them.

No...More gods were standing there!

Countless deities stood silently within the sea of fire, looking down upon the human world with indifference.

And the people of the human world were looking at them as well.

Quiet and intense.

The cultivators within the Rongshan Sect had already begun to panic.

The Sect Master of the Rongshan Sect glanced at the sky, and his voice slowly rang out, "Do not panic."

After speaking those two words, he shot toward the sky, like a pillar of light rising from the earth.

Chen Chao watched this scene without speaking. He merely continued sizing up those deities that had arrived from an unknown place.

Moreover, he had a question.

Were those truly deities?

Or rather, did deities truly exist in this world?