Chapter 398: The Ancient and Modern Recorder (9)
Liu Hu came back to himself. He discovered a middle-aged man in a plain white robe standing before him.
"I want you to help me record someone."
Liu Hu asked, "Whom?"
The middle-aged man in the plain robe pointed at himself.
"Myself."
Liu Hu was slightly stunned... This was the first time a living person had come to record himself. Was he going to his death?
Yet when Liu Hu learned the identity of the middle-aged man, he was even more shocked and at a loss.
"Sect... Sect Master?"
The middle-aged man in the plain robe smiled. "I am merely a man about to die. There is no need to be so formal."
The middle-aged man in the plain robe was named Ruan Jingtian, the eighth-generation sect master of the Heavenly Origin Sect and a legendary figure of the sect.
In the end, Liu Hu still carefully recorded Ruan Jingtian's life.
Ruan Jingtian, eighth-generation sect master of the Heavenly Origin Sect. In his youth, he became a disciple of the seventh-generation sect master and displayed remarkable talent. At the age of fifteen, he created his own cultivation method. He rose to fame in the Wooden Scenery Dynasty's prodigy competition and became one of the ten great prodigies.
Later, when his master fell critically ill and passed away, he succeeded as the eighth-generation sect master of the Heavenly Origin Sect. In less than a hundred years, the Heavenly Origin Sect flourished and became a major power with countless talented individuals. Another fifty years later, the Heavenly Origin Sect ranked among the ten great powers of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty.
When demons invaded the Wooden Scenery Dynasty, in the moment of crisis, he broke through to the Profound Connection Realm. Together with many experts of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty, he ambushed the Demon King and died fighting in the demon tide.
Liu Hu looked at the middle-aged man before him. He was clearly still alive, yet he had already arranged the manner of his own death.
Liu Hu carefully sealed the bamboo slip of the middle-aged man. There were seven purple jade boxes among the records. The middle-aged man's slip was placed in the eighth purple jade box.
Seven months later.
News arrived that greatly encouraged the people of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty. The demons had retreated. The crisis of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty's destruction had been lifted.
Yet the eighth-generation sect master of the Heavenly Origin Sect, Ruan Jingtian, never returned.
Not only did the sect master of the Heavenly Origin Sect fail to return, but the old ancestor of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty and the stabilizing pillars of many sects also never came back.
Ruan Hongyao succeeded as the ninth-generation sect master of the Heavenly Origin Sect.
This was a new beginning.
Liu Hu continued to fulfill the duties of Recorder within the sect.
Winter passed into autumn; cold gave way to heat.
One cycle of years after another went by.
Liu Hu immersed himself in the work. Each time he recorded a life, he gained a new insight.
Gradually, Liu Hu discovered that wrinkles had appeared on his fingers, resembling the bark of an old tree. He had grown old after all. His aptitude was too poor, and he could not travel far on the path of cultivation.
Within the Heavenly Origin Sect, the position of Recorder had become a form of inheritance.
When Liu Hu requested to train a successor, the sect quickly approved it.
Before long, Liu Hu selected a successor who satisfied him and began teaching him everything about being a Recorder.
Just as Su Chen had once taught him.
...
Sixty years had already passed since Ruan Jingtian's death.
In those sixty years of storms, too many of the once-famous noble families and vast sects of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty had been destroyed after that demon crisis.
The Heavenly Origin Sect not only failed to be destroyed in that crisis but advanced even further, becoming the third-ranked sect of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty.
All of this was because the Heavenly Origin Sect had a sect master... and that Great Elder.
A thunderstorm spread across the sect. Before the people of the sect could react, the direction of the thunderstorm was precisely the location of the Great Elder.
Some disciples seemed to realize something and shouted loudly, "The Great Elder is about to break through to the Profound Connection Realm! Sixty years ago there was a record that the eighth-generation sect master of our Heavenly Origin Sect did the same!"
The disciples and elders of the sect were all filled with excitement.
A Profound Connection Realm expert! This meant that from now on, their Heavenly Origin Sect could stand on equal footing with the royal family of the Wooden Scenery Dynasty!
Sun Ao was the first to break through to the Profound Connection Realm.
A Profound Connection expert at the age of one hundred. His aptitude was even more dazzling than that of the eighth-generation sect master Ruan Jingtian.
The entire sect celebrated with great joy.
Liu Hu, meanwhile, was still diligently handing over the duties of Recorder. He had little time left. On a night of wind and snow, Liu Hu finally collapsed. His body was far too weak...
With Liu Hu's death, no one noticed that the mask on his face flashed with a brilliant light... Accompanied by the appearance of that light, the mid-grade spiritual artifact quietly underwent a transformation.
It became a high-grade spiritual artifact!
If anyone had been present, they would certainly have felt as if they had seen a ghost.
The mask on Liu Hu's face had clearly been a mid-grade artifact, yet it suddenly became high-grade. Although the difference was only a single word, the value was incomparable... it had become a full ten times more precious. This could no longer be explained!
Yet the inexplicable scene truly occurred.
After the brilliant light faded, the mask showed no further movement, as if nothing had ever happened. It was not until the young man Dong Qiang, Liu Hu's disciple, discovered that Liu Hu had disappeared that he finally learned of Liu Hu's death.
Looking at Liu Hu's corpse, Dong Qiang's eyes held a trace of sorrow. After all, Liu Hu had treated him well, and the sect's regard for the position of Recorder had also ensured that the role came with a generous salary.
Dong Qiang sorted through Liu Hu's personal belongings and found some relics. These were things that could neither be brought into life nor taken into death. As Liu Hu's disciple, Dong Qiang naturally inherited them.
Dong Qiang intended to take Liu Hu's body to the sect for burial.
When he looked at Liu Hu's face, he saw that the mask was still worn. From the moment Dong Qiang first met Liu Hu, he had never seen his true appearance. Every time they met, Liu Hu's face was covered by this mask.
"Could this mask be a treasure?"
As if guided by some unseen force, Dong Qiang touched the mask on Liu Hu's face. The astonishment in his eyes gradually turned to greed.
"A high-grade spiritual artifact... this is actually a high-grade spiritual artifact!"
Dong Qiang's heart pounded wildly. High-grade spiritual artifacts were rare even among outer disciples and extremely expensive. Relying on the sect's salary alone, one could never afford one in an entire lifetime.
Dong Qiang did not hesitate. He directly pulled the mask from Liu Hu's face and toyed with it in his hands, wondering whether to sell it for a large sum of spiritual stones or keep it for his own use.
As he thought this, he looked at the mask in his hands. It seemed to exert a certain magnetism that drew him in. Dong Qiang directly placed the mask on his own face.
His gaze gradually grew calm. Looking at Liu Hu's corpse, Dong Qiang buried the body beside the place where Su Chen's corpse had once been laid.
The Recorder changed from Liu Hu to Dong Qiang. The only thing that remained unchanged was that Dong Qiang's face still wore the bronze mask.
The Recorder Pavilion continued to record the life stories of the elders and disciples of the Heavenly Origin Sect.
...
Heavenly Origin Sect.
Another fifty years had passed since Liu Hu's death. The current sect master, Ruan Hongyao, also broke through to the Profound Connection Realm.
With two Profound Connection experts in one sect, the Heavenly Origin Sect was absolutely the foremost power in the Wooden Scenery Dynasty. Even members of the royal family treated the disciples of the Heavenly Origin Sect with great courtesy, fearing to give offense.
After all, in the present Wooden Scenery Dynasty, a single Profound Connection expert was already the strongest. With two such experts, all the other sects and noble families combined were no match for the Heavenly Origin Sect.
Under the governance of the Heavenly Origin Sect, the Wooden Scenery Dynasty was developing in a positive direction and entering a golden age of martial cultivation.
Yet all of this was far from as peaceful as one might imagine.