Chapter 546 - 26: Ten Fleeting Years
While Qiuwang organized his people for the investigation, Wenhai secretly discussed the matter with Qianmu Temple’s internal affairs. Within just five days, a message arrived from the temple.
It was only a single sentence: Clear up this matter within half a month!
The deadline was tight.
Along with this message, news also reached True Yang Mountain that Daoist Zi Luan had become the Sect Leader of the Six Heart Sect. For some reason, this news morphed into a rumor that the Daoist Palace was going to establish a garrison on True Yang Mountain to quell the chaos in its Cultivation Realm, causing widespread unease among the local sects.
The Single Saber Sect received a constant stream of visitors because of this, as Qiuwang was invoking the name of Qianmu Temple, which shared a lineage with the Six Heart Sect.
Qiuwang handled these visitors with ease, but he didn’t neglect the Divine Soul Guide case. Every night, he would spend a great deal of time studying the intelligence reports that came into his hands.
「Ten nights later.」
Qiuwang compiled the intelligence as usual, then carefully recorded it on a bamboo scroll he carried with him.
After finishing, he habitually walked to the pavilion and looked out at the disciples meditating in the nearby plaza. Due to the summer heat on True Yang Mountain, many of them chose to meditate out in the open.
He seemed to be so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice when Wenhai appeared behind him.
"Any news on the case?"
Wenhai walked to Qiuwang’s side and got straight to business.
Qiuwang snapped out of his reverie and turned to Wenhai. "His Majesty the Emperor is abdicating in favor of the Crown Prince. Why do you suppose that is?"
Wenhai casually shook his head. "I’m not concerned with that. We don’t have time for idle chatter."
Qiuwang studied Wenhai for a moment, then gave his usual smile. "My apologies. Here on True Yang Mountain, I spend most of my days talking nonsense. It’s rare to find someone I can actually speak honestly with."
Wenhai fell silent.
Qiuwang also went quiet. After a dozen breaths, he got to the point. "We investigated everyone Canglan Taoist came into contact with over the past three years. We read the memories of over six hundred people, which gave us a vague outline of his life and the route he took south from the north three years ago. It all led to one uncorroborated lead: he trained at a Daoist Temple in the north called Qingyuan Temple."
"That’s it?"
"Finding this much in ten days was already pushing our limits. Our information had to travel thousands of miles!"
"You want me to send this news back? This is the big fish you were talking about?"
"I didn’t expect him to have truly contacted no one in these past three years. He spent three years completely erasing his tracks."
"But there must have been some sign when he left, right?"
"Nothing so far."
"..."
The two of them fell silent.
「Two days later.」
Zuo Xuan sent a handwritten letter ordering Wenhai to go to Qingyuan Temple and investigate thoroughly. Unable to refuse, Wenhai had Qiuwang arrange a cover identity suitable for gathering intelligence in the north before setting out on the journey alone.
The day after Wenhai headed north, Qiuwang also received a personal letter from Zuo Xuan. The letter ordered him to expand the investigation and hinted that, if necessary, he could mobilize the Chu Country’s garrison on Jianglin Road.
The Chu Country’s garrison on Jianglin Road wasn’t just a mortal army. It also included elite disciples from various sects within Chu Country who were out gaining experience, and even at least five Fake Pill Second Realm members of the Demon Race. This was the fundamental reason True Yang Mountain was able to maintain basic order.
Moreover, the mission had no time limit, meaning he would have to remain on True Yang Mountain and investigate everything related to Wang Ping for a long time.
Months flew by.
Although the Chu Emperor’s abdication ceremony drew the attention of the entire Zhongzhou Continent, it concluded without incident.
After Wenhai headed north alone, no further news of him reached Qiuwang, leaving Qiuwang feeling as if he were walking on thin ice.
Finally, a month before the Spring Festival, his superiors on Nanlin Road stopped paying attention to his case.
This was because the Daoist Palace, on the pretext that an obscure sect in Hai Zhou Road called the Dingshui Sect was secretly creating Corpse Soldiers and wreaking havoc, suddenly dispatched four Third Realm Cultivators, forty-five Second Realm Cultivators, and over a hundred Entering Cultivators to utterly annihilate them. Zuo Xuan was among their number.
The news sent shockwaves through the Cultivation Realm of the entire Zhongzhou Continent.
Citing border instability, the Yuqing Sect immediately sent envoys to the Daoist Palace to demand what their intentions were.
The Daoist Palace was now in a rather awkward position. According to their original plan, the cultivators of Hai Zhou Road were supposed to interfere when they moved against the Dingshui Sect, which would have given them an excuse to wipe out the entire Hai Zhou Road Cultivation Realm in one fell swoop.
However, the anticipated interference never came.
The Yuqing Sect’s inquiry thwarted Zhi Gong’s ambitions, preventing her from ordering a direct assault on the Hai Zhou Road Cultivation Realm. However, she did not disband the dispatched cultivators either.
Hai Zhou Road spent that year’s Spring Festival in a tense standoff.
Many people assumed the matter would be resolved quickly: either Zhi Gong Daoist would forcibly sweep through Hai Zhou Road, or she would retreat in disgrace.
But in reality, the cultivators from the south used Dingshui Sect as a forward base and became completely entangled with the cultivators of Hai Zhou Road. From that point on, bloodshed became an almost daily occurrence within Hai Zhou Road.
It was a brilliant move, but one that came at the cost of all interests in Hai Zhou Road. Zhi Gong, however, cared little for such things. Her eyes were set only on her promotion ceremony.
Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
Zhongzhou remained the Zhongzhou of ten years prior. The world had not undergone any drastic changes, and the Mortal World had long forgotten the events in Shangjing City, for they had happened twenty years ago.
But in this peaceful world, on a scorching summer day, a sudden thunderclap echoed across the Northwest Region!
Factional strife once again broke out among several Buddhist sects in the Snowfield, eventually escalating into a coup in Shangning City. The news that spread throughout the world claimed that some Monks had colluded with the Dragon Guard of the Datong Marquis Mansion to attack the Marquis’s Mansion, but it gave no details on the cause or the outcome.
But this was enough to shake the world, especially the war hawks in the Chu Country.
And at that very moment, Fourth Realm Cultivators across the land, who had been quiescent for twenty years, suddenly summoned their disciples. As the news spread, everyone sensed that the Zhongzhou World was on the verge of a massive upheaval!
Qianmu Temple.
For the past ten years, it had been the most bustling place in the entire Southern Cultivation Realm, with cultivators from every sect and school visiting almost daily.
Today was no exception.
On the Ascension Platform.
A number of Qi Cultivators and Foundation Establishment Cultivators were registering with the Guiding Disciples when suddenly, a golden Identity Token materialized in the sky beneath the clouds.
The next moment, a middle-aged man dressed as an Inner Sect Disciple of the Six Heart Sect landed on the Ascension Platform. He cupped his fist and said, "If you would be so kind as to announce me. I am Hongyuan of the Six Heart Sect, here to deliver a formal invitation on behalf of my master to ascend the mountain and request an audience with Changqing Zhenren."
He presented a gold-rimmed invitation as he spoke. The moment the words left his mouth, the boisterous Ascension Platform fell silent.
Soon, an Entering-level Water Cultivator emerged from a pavilion near the gates of Qianmu Temple. He politely returned the cupped-fist salute, accepted the invitation, and said, "Please wait a moment, Daoist Hongyuan."