Zi Yunshu was so furious that her eyes turned red, and for a long while she could not get a word out. She stamped her foot, stepped through the teleportation portal, and left without looking back.
Within a quarter of an hour, the Demon Saint hurried over. She found Bao Gu standing before the portal, her eyes and nose red as though she had been crying. After glancing at Zi Tianjun and sweeping her gaze around the area, she frowned.
“What happened? Everything was fine a moment ago.”
Yu Mi gently shook her head and let out a heavy sigh, unable to say anything.
Yu Jianming was both angry and amused.
“The Sect Master and his disciples have decided that we’re plotting to seize the position of Sect Master. They want to purge us from the sect.”
The Demon Saint’s gaze fell on the hill-like pile of identity tokens before Zi Tianjun. She then looked at the shattered wreckage and scraps of corpses scattered across the ground before turning her eyes toward the Sect Master’s disciples gathered around him. With a low sigh, she wiped the tears that had not yet dried from Bao Gu’s face.
“What is there to be sad about? People simply have different aspirations, and selfish motives have gotten in the way. Not everyone is as devoted to the sect as you are, and not everyone has the courage or ability to go out and fight for themselves. Bao Gu, everyone values different things. You can’t—and you have no way of—demanding that they be just like you.”
Bao Gu’s heart was in unbearable pain, and she could not utter a word.
“Things like this happen every day in the cultivation world, especially among humans. The only difference is that it happened to others before, while today it has happened to you. It’s nothing serious. Don’t resent them or let this make you sad; there’s no need. Everyone walks their own path, and everyone makes their own choices. Whether those choices are right or wrong, they made them themselves and must bear the consequences.”
“But he’s my Grandmaster! This is Xuantian Sect!”
“But you are no longer walking the same road, and Xuantian Sect is no longer a place for you to take shelter. Why let yourself be held back by people who are no longer walking the same road as you? This is Xuantian Sect. Everything here worth missing or cherishing has already left with you. What are you still unhappy about?”
Bao Gu paused. Her heart suddenly felt much lighter and more at ease.
“Bao Gu, everyone pursues and chooses a different path. If people who share a common goal can gather together, that is a rare and precious bond. But bonds form and bonds dissolve; it is not something we can force. Do you understand? Cultivation means cultivating the heart and the Dao. What you face today is only a small twist along that road, merely a minor setback in your life.”
Bao Gu nodded.
“I understand now. Thank you, Saint Aunt.”
The Demon Saint sighed.
“After all, he is your Grandmaster.”
She turned and walked a few steps to Zi Tianjun’s side, then gave him a slight bow.
“Sect Master Zi, I have long been indebted to your care, and I am deeply grateful. The Chopping Gang is now preparing a realm-breaking portal, and I truly cannot spare the time. Moreover, Bao Gu is my disciple. Since she has caused this incident, I have no face to remain in Xuantian Sect. I have come to tender my resignation.”
She took out the identity token identifying her as a guest elder and offered it to Zi Tianjun with both hands.
“You’re leaving too?”
“Shu’er is my Dao companion, and Bao Gu is my disciple. They are where my heart lies. Wherever they are, I will be.”
She paused, then added, “Take care.”
After giving him another slight bow, she stepped onto the teleportation portal and left without hesitation.
Even the Demon Saint Elder had left!
Bao Gu had been away from Xuantian Sect for more than five hundred years, so her absence meant little to its disciples. But the Demon Saint’s departure made them feel as if half of the great mountain that was Xuantian Sect had collapsed in an instant.
For all these years, the Demon Saint had remained at Xuantian Sect, refining perfect-grade pills and even many treasured elixirs that the cultivation world had never heard of. Her virtue and reputation had reached a height that inspired awe, and everyone held her in nothing but reverence. Every disciple had heard of Elder Demon Saint. How many cultivators had broken through their cultivation bottlenecks because of her pills? How many disciples had been saved from death by them? Every year, how many renowned figures from the cultivation world came to Xuantian Sect seeking her treasured elixirs?
Though she was a demon, to the human cultivators of the cultivation world, she was a benevolent saintly physician, a renowned healer devoted to saving lives.
The Demon Saint’s departure, and the way she stood by Bao Gu, were they not also a rebuke of the Sect Master?
Some of those who had still been hesitating finally stopped hesitating after seeing the Demon Saint leave and followed her out.
The departure of the twenty-six peak lineages headed by Lingyun Peak, along with the Demon Saint, Zi Yunshu, and Yu Mi, dealt Xuantian Sect a devastating blow. With them gone, Xuantian Sect had only three Void Tearing cultivators left: Zi Tianjun, Feng Yi, and Chen Yu.
Feng Yi was only half a step from entering the Tribulation Transcendence stage, but he had been unable to cross that half-step for two hundred years. The difference between being half a step away and actually reaching Tribulation Transcendence was as vast as heaven and earth.
Three Void Tearing cultivators were nowhere near enough to support a sect or faction in the current cultivation world.
Many disciples who had gone out to gain experience and see the wider world were filled with worry.
Most of the other disciples were far less worried about their future than they were about what the Demon Saint’s departure seemed to indicate: Had the Sect Master been wrong? Would they have far fewer pills from now on?
They had entered the sect at only a few years old, grown up in Xuantian Sect, and never left. What the outside world—and the cultivation world itself—was really like, they could learn only from their elders and fellow disciples.
Their masters and senior fellow disciples certainly could not tell them:
“Our Peak Master is only at the Deity Transformation stage. In the cultivation world, that level doesn’t even count as a fart!”
That would only make their own master lose face.
Since their masters were at odds with Lingyun Peak, whenever it came up, all they could offer were vague remarks such as:
“Lingyun Peak’s disciples are ferocious outside the sect.”
“The Young Sect Master was chased for tens of thousands of li. Later, during her lightning tribulation, she dragged her pursuer into it and got them killed, which was how she escaped.”
“Lingyun Peak once had someone named Bao Gu. She founded the Chopping Gang, and the inns she opened are spread throughout the cultivation world. But five hundred years ago, she tricked the Drought Demon, which was ravaging the world at the time, into being banished into the void with her, so she probably isn’t coming back. The Chopping Gang is now controlled by the Left Envoy, the Right Envoy, and the Finance Envoy. Our Young Sect Master is nominally the Chopping Gang’s Command Envoy, but in reality, she is doing even worse there than she did as Xuantian Sect’s Young Sect Master.”
Unable to understand any of it, knowing nothing, and having no way to tell right from wrong, they naturally just stood there watching the show. After all, it had nothing to do with them.
After the Demon Saint left, another batch went as well. The disciples who had decided to leave then departed one after another, until almost all of them were gone.
By then, Bao Gu had steadied her emotions and composed herself. Things had come to this, and nearly ten thousand disciples were now following them. There was a huge undertaking to organize, so she had no time to stay there grieving.
Bao Gu walked slowly up to Zi Tianjun. With a sweep of her sleeve, she gathered up the hill-like pile of identity tokens and turned toward Feng Yi.
“I’ll have to trouble you, Martial Uncle Feng.”
Feng Yi understood what she meant and looked at his master.
Zi Tianjun’s face was livid. He flung his sleeve and walked away.
Feng Yi led Bao Gu into the rear hall where the soul lamps were kept.
“Do it yourself.”
Using the aura left on each identity token, Bao Gu located its owner’s soul lamp and released the strand of natal soul stored within. Once freed from the lamp, the strand followed the faint, unseen connection to its original body.
When Bao Gu found her own soul lamp, she undid its seal. The strand of natal soul inside entered her body through the center of her brow and merged with her soul.
Before long, Bao Gu had used the identity tokens to release the natal soul strands of every disciple who was leaving. She noticed many soul lamps still registered under the twenty-six peaks, including those of several direct disciples of Hua Sheng and Feng Menglong. She guessed those disciples were traveling outside, so she took it upon herself to release the natal soul strands in the lamps belonging to all the disciples under her martial brothers and sisters.
As for the soul lamps placed at the twenty-six peaks themselves, Qing Ying had already carried them away along with the peaks when she scooped them up with the Heaven-Refining Cauldron. Bao Gu therefore had no need to worry about them.
After finishing, Bao Gu returned to Xuantian Plaza and walked over to Yu Mi, who was waiting beside the teleportation portal.
“Where’s Yu Jianming?”
“Yu Jianming went ahead to Shadow City to arrange things for the disciples who arrived first.”
Bao Gu nodded lightly.
“Let’s go.”
She took Yu Mi’s hand and stepped onto the teleportation portal without looking back.
In an instant, the two of them appeared before the teleportation portal in Shadow City, where nearly ten thousand disciples from Xuantian Sect’s various branches had gathered in the square.
Preparations to build a realm-breaking portal, the Chopping Gang’s restructuring and debt collection, and a whole series of other developments had drawn the attention of the entire cultivation world to Shadow City. Plenty of people were coming to repay debts or seek positions in the Chopping Gang.
Nearly ten thousand Xuantian disciples were already conspicuous enough. With almost all of Xuantian Sect’s current high-level combatants deployed as well, every faction immediately began paying close attention. Many spies crowded around to inquire into the situation, and some even quietly abducted weaker disciples and searched their souls for information.
By the time Bao Gu reached Shadow City, news of her break with Zi Tianjun had already spread throughout the cultivation world at astonishing speed. Some people had even used soul-searching to extract one disciple’s memories, engraved them into a magical artifact, and sent the news out.
The Chopping Gang’s Shadow Pavilion was solely responsible for gathering intelligence from all sides and was arguably the strongest intelligence network in the cultivation world. It was always quick to catch wind of any developments. It mobilized immediately and soon obtained a copy of the memory imprint.
When the Shadow Pavilion’s agents saw Bao Gu appear at Xuantian Plaza, they hurried over to report and presented her with the duplicate memory imprint.
Bao Gu had not expected the news to spread so quickly. When she sent her divine sense into the jade tablet bearing the memory imprint and saw the images within, she froze.
Jade Shura, who had received word from Zi Yunshu earlier, was already waiting at Xuantian Plaza. As soon as she saw Bao Gu and Yu Mi appear, she rushed over.
“Bao Gu, are you all right?”
She had just pinned down a Golden Core-stage disciple of Xuantian Sect and searched that disciple’s soul. The memory showed Bao Gu clutching Yu Mi by the collar and bawling her eyes out, leaving Jade Shura completely stunned.
Jade Shura knew the cultivation world was probably about to go mad. Some of the old fellows in the Soul Chasing Pavilion were already half-crazy themselves, anyway. One after another, they had grabbed her and demanded answers.
“What level of combat strength does Bao Gu actually have? She easily neutralized the force of a Saint artifact’s attack, then destroyed with one sword a hundred-zhang warship equipped with a Saint artifact. Is that really true?”
“Was that the Heaven-Refining Cauldron in the Drought Demon’s hands? The one that an expert from the Demon Realm took from the Ancient Desolate Mountain Range? Damn it, why did they give it back to the Drought Demon? Are they trying to leave the rest of us no way to live? Even the Qingzhou Grand Formation couldn’t do anything to her!”
After being peppered with questions for a long time, Jade Shura suddenly realized that not a single person had asked her even the slightest thing about Zi Tianjun.
Bao Gu merely shook her head and said nothing.
Jade Shura handed the jade tablet bearing the memory imprint to Bao Gu. Seeing how low Bao Gu’s spirits were, she passed it instead to Yu Mi, who looked a little better.
“Take a look at this. Is it real? The Council of Elders is driving me crazy. They don’t dare pester my master, so every one of them keeps hounding me, telling me to ask you the moment I see you! Zi Tianjun has gone insane, hasn’t he? He has, right? He really has gone insane, hasn’t he?”
Yu Mi took the jade tablet and sent divine sense into it.
“It’s real.”
Jade Shura cried out, “Oh my god! Zi Tianjun really has gone insane!”
Yu Mi was speechless.
Jade Shura grabbed Bao Gu’s arm.
“Bao Gu, Zi Tianjun is crazy, but I’m not. Join the Soul Chasing Pavilion! I’ll give you the position of Young Pavilion Master. Yu Mi can have it too! I’m being completely sincere!”
Not even a golden-egg-laying hen could make money like Bao Gu. Zi Tianjun had actually driven Bao Gu away! He was absolutely insane! Jade Shura was about to go insane herself. Then she suddenly remembered the real question.
“Bao Gu, what is your combat strength now, exactly?”
Unable to endure Jade Shura’s chatter, Bao Gu could only answer weakly:
“I once wielded the Xuantian Sword and fought several Earth Immortals head-on. I didn’t keep track of whether there were five or six, or seven or eight. I was too busy going after the Barbarian King. Whenever one blocked my path, I cut it down and drove the others back. I suppose my combat strength is around the Earth Immortal realm.”
Jade Shura was speechless.
She stared at Bao Gu with wide, eager eyes, swallowed hard several times, and asked cautiously:
“Then roughly how many Earth Immortals were there? How many of them fought you and still got beaten down?”
“I didn’t notice whether it was five or six, or seven or eight. At the time, I was too busy going after the Barbarian King.”
Jade Shura blinked.
“The Desolate King? The king of the barbarian tribes in the Desolate Barbarian Realm? The leader of a whole group of Earth Immortals? Good heavens!”
She looked Bao Gu up and down again and again, her face filled with disbelief.
Just then, her communication jade talisman sounded again. When she connected it, her Grandmaster—the Grand Elder—once more asked what Bao Gu’s actual combat strength was. Before he could finish asking, Jade Shura rolled her eyes and replied:
“Bao Gu says she killed five, six, seven, or eight Earth Immortals with one sword. She doesn’t know what level her combat strength is at. Anyway, she charged straight toward the Barbarian King, the leader of the Earth Immortals, and chopped down every Earth Immortal who tried to block her!”
She cut off the communication talisman after saying that.
Her booming voice startled people in every direction, and they all turned to look.
Yu Mi was speechless.
Bao Gu was speechless too.
The cultivators from all over who had been straining their ears and watching this spot with rapt attention were speechless as well.
“That unreliable Jade Shura—how could she mangle a message so badly just by passing it along?”
When everyone looked at Bao Gu again, she appeared so weak and pitiful that no one would have taken her for someone capable of killing an Earth Immortal. They did not believe the claim, but none dared underestimate her. Even if she could not really cut down an Earth Immortal, a cultivator at the peak of Tribulation Transcendence would probably still be no match for her.
For a time, all of Shadow City was discussing Bao Gu’s combat strength.
As for Bao Gu’s break with Xuantian Sect, it drew little attention. What was there to notice about a minor faction that depended on the Chopping Gang? Of course, some people did take notice—according to rumor, thirty percent of the Chopping Gang’s annual profits flowed to Xuantian Sect…
