I am so kind - chapter 423 - Light Novels AI

Zi Tianjun stood on the viewing pavilion beside Xuantian Hall, gazing down at the land below.

Xuantian Hall had been built at the highest point of the Azure Dragon Mountain Range, giving it a commanding view of every peak. At this moment, however, the once-lush mountains had been torn from the earth one after another, leaving enormous pits gaping in their place. Against that backdrop, the already ravaged Xuantian Sect looked even more devastated.

He had never imagined that Xuantian Sect would end up in such a state, much less that its situation would become so dire.

His sudden assault had been carefully considered. He had intended to strike while they were all gathered on the spectator platform, seize Hua Sheng, Yu Mi, Feng Menglong, and the others, and force Bao Gu to back down out of concern for her fellow disciples and Yu Mi’s group’s safety. He would then teach them a lesson, impose a token punishment, and send them back. After such a show of force, the rumors about removing him as sect master and installing Yu Jianming in his place would naturally have died down.

Yet the disciples under his command had ignored his orders and launched the warship’s bombardment without authorization. He had also never imagined that Bao Gu’s strength had reached a level beyond anything he could comprehend, and the entire affair had consequently spiraled out of control.

One wrong move had cost him the entire game; one wrong step had led to another. The once-prosperous Xuantian Sect had split in two. Even his own daughter had walked away without a backward glance, and the Demon Saint, who had always been tolerant and kept a low profile, had openly taken a stand.

Feng Yi slowly climbed onto the viewing pavilion and came to stand beside Zi Tianjun.

“News of your falling-out with Bao Gu has spread throughout the entire cultivation world. Even Pavilion Master Lu, all the way in the Snow Region, sent a voice transmission to ask about it.”

Zi Tianjun asked in a subdued voice.

“Feng Yi, was I wrong?”

Feng Yi remained silent.

Zi Tianjun said:

“Shu’er said she didn’t know when it happened, but you and Chen Yu both stopped speaking to me.”

“You don’t like hearing what this disciple has to say, Master. Why make yourself unhappy?”

“Today, I want to hear what you have to say. Is it too late?”

Feng Yi thought for a moment before answering.

“Ever since the seal on the Primordial Mountain Range was lifted, the power of its nine dragon veins has spread throughout the world. Cultivation in this realm has become easier, and the cultivation world has already entered an age of great prosperity. But isn’t an age of great prosperity also an age of great contention?”

“You worried that the disciples under your command had cultivated for too few years and possessed realms too low to protect themselves if they ventured into the outside world. So you imposed numerous restrictions on the sect’s disciples leaving the mountain to train. Given enough time, those restrictions were bound to become a policy of shutting ourselves away.”

“The disciples of the Twenty-Six Peaks all came out of Cloud City and Two Realms Mountain back then. They are not the sort to remain penned up in one corner. Their hearts belong to this vast cultivation world, and their sights are set on the Upper Realm. That is where they want to go, and where they want to compete.”

Feng Yi paused before continuing.

“Bao Gu values loyalty, but she has always been known for her ruthless resolve. When she turns ruthless, she does not even spare herself. Given her temperament, she will not harm Xuantian Sect because of what happened today. But if Xuantian Sect encounters trouble in the future, then even if the sect were annihilated right before her eyes, she would not lift a finger to help.”

Zi Tianjun’s expression grew extremely grave. He looked at Feng Yi with utmost seriousness.

“What do you propose?”

“The future of Xuantian Sect is in your hands, Master. I ask that you carefully consider what path Xuantian Sect should take, both now and in the years ahead.”

With those words, Feng Yi let out a sigh.

He knew there had been disagreements among the peaks, but they had always been petty conflicts beneath serious notice. Whenever anything did happen, he dealt with it impartially, so none of it had ever amounted to much. He also knew that quite a few of his junior brothers were ambitious but inept. Yet a large sect naturally contained all kinds of people; it was impossible to expect everyone to be as accomplished as Yu Mi and the others.

The younger generation of disciples who had already come into their own would become the sect’s future pillars and shoulder its burdens. His junior brothers would not have much to do with that. As long as they did not make any serious mistakes, he had generally turned a blind eye.

He had never expected that he had underestimated what those youngsters were capable of—and that they really would stir up such a huge storm.

He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes.

“Master, I think we need to investigate which of these youngsters were stirring up trouble behind the scenes this time.”

He paused before continuing.

“Fortunately, Bao Gu was strong enough to withstand the sacred artifact’s strike. Otherwise, who knows how many disciples would have been caught in the blast? Yu Mi and the others would certainly have been able to evade it, but if they had seen the disciples beside them come to harm, I fear today’s affair would not have ended with them simply walking away.”

“The rumor that Bao Gu intended to install Yu Jianming as sect master was suspicious in itself. Without this flood of rumors and the baseless accusations aimed at Bao Gu and the others, Bao Gu should have returned to the Cleaver Gang to oversee the Boundary-Breaking Portal as soon as she finished arranging Qing Ying’s induction as a true disciple. She holds the reins of the cultivation world’s greatest force. When would she have had time to squabble with these boys?”

At this point, how could Zi Tianjun fail to understand what lay behind it all? He nodded heavily, brushed his sleeve, and said:

“Go.”

His most pressing concern now was the mountain-protecting formation. In the past, the Qingzhou Grand Formation had served that purpose, ensuring complete security. But if Bao Gu truly altered the Qingzhou Grand Formation, then, aside from the separate guardian formations each peak had arranged for itself, the entire Xuantian Sect would be exposed to the world.

Before all this, Xuantian Sect had Zi Yunshu, an eight-tribulation flood dragon; the Demon Saint, renowned throughout the world for having trained the Cleaver Token Lord who had slaughtered a city with a formation; and disciples such as Yu Mi. Even without a mountain-protecting formation, Zi Tianjun believed no one would have dared target Xuantian Sect lightly.

But now, in the space of half a day, every one of the sect’s backbone fighters had left.

Nanshan Yijian had been invited back by Bao Gu years ago. After fulfilling his promise to defend the sect a hundred times, he had left. Now that matters had reached this point, Zi Tianjun was too ashamed to ask him to return.

Zi Tianjun’s heart felt leaden. He simply could not understand how matters had come to this.

He closed his eyes, settled his mind, and carefully retraced everything. In the end, all he could do was sigh.

“So be it. It is better for me to work a little harder than to keep feeling guilty and uneasy about taking things from someone else’s hands.”

Opening his eyes, he gazed at the sky beneath the setting sun, his heart full of helplessness.

How could he not know that his own selfish motives had played a part in all this? If his battle prowess had been overwhelming and he had possessed real skill at political maneuvering, why would he have needed to fear them? How could he have allowed anyone to exploit an opening?

He did not want to be a puppet. Yet if he abandoned the sect master’s position, then without the vast accumulation of cultivation resources that came with it, his level of comprehension might not even carry him to the Void Tearing stage.

A Heavenly Spirit Root had obvious advantages in the early stages, but once a cultivator reached the middle and late stages of Deity Transformation, its shortcomings became equally apparent.

***

Bao Gu returned to the Order Envoy’s Residence, exhausted in body and spirit. Yu Mi escorted her back to her room.

As soon as she crossed the threshold, Bao Gu buried her head in Yu Mi’s arms. Her hands clenched the front of Yu Mi’s robe, and though her heart was aching, she could not utter a word.

Saint Aunt’s words made sense, but today it was Grandmaster who had broken with her, and they had left the sect that had sheltered them. It felt like being a child driven from home, cast out because she had been too capable.

Whether or not she had coveted the sect master’s position, her very existence had undermined the sect master’s authority.

Yu Mi held Bao Gu and gently patted her back.

“Actually, this is for the best.”

She tipped up Bao Gu’s chin. Bao Gu’s face was full of grievance, tears spinning in her eyes as she pressed her lips together with all her strength to keep them from falling.

Yu Mi suddenly remembered that the mighty Cleaver Token Lord, rumored outside to be as terrifying as a drought demon, was actually such a pitiful little thing. She could not hold it in and burst out with a pfft of laughter.

Bao Gu had held those tears back for ages, but Yu Mi’s laughter finally broke her resolve. Beads of tears began pattering down one after another.

Seeing that, Yu Mi immediately felt sorry for her again. She hurriedly wiped Bao Gu’s tears and coaxed her gently.

“Please don’t cry anymore, okay?”

She pulled Bao Gu over to the nearby couch and sat her down.

“Actually, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least we won’t have to be sickened by the sect master’s disciples every other day. Grandmaster didn’t want to let them down the mountain, and we Twenty-Six Peaks disciples are even less willing to see them set foot outside the sect gate.”

“Once they leave Xuantian Sect, people with ulterior motives outside will flatter and fawn over them. Who knows what kind of trouble they might stir up next? With their utter ignorance of heaven’s height and earth’s breadth, they dare to provoke any disaster. If they cause trouble, it will be Xuantian Sect’s reputation that suffers, and won’t we have to go out and clean up after them?”

“Are we supposed to watch fellow disciples fall into danger and refuse to save them? This way is better. Out of sight, out of mind. Even if someone beats them to death right in front of us one day, we won’t even have to collect their corpses for them. Didn’t you see how cleanly and decisively I threw away my identity token?”

As she spoke, Yu Mi kicked off her boots, climbed onto the couch, and sat cross-legged facing Bao Gu. She gazed at her with wide, pleading eyes.

“But right now, none of us has a place to settle down. So please, poor little Token Lord, take pity on us and give us a patch of land where we can put down roots, won’t you?”

Yu Mi’s teasing left Bao Gu angry and embarrassed, but it also eased much of her grief. With her voice thick with a nasal whine, she muttered:

“You should spend less time with Jade Shura. She’s corrupted you.”

“You have no sense of propriety at all.”

Yu Mi dragged out a long, amused sound.

“Oh.”

“Crying like a baby is dignified, then?”

“I’m sad!”

Seeing that her senior sister was still able to laugh, Bao Gu wondered if she was the only one who was actually sad. That made her even sadder.

She wanted to throw herself into Yu Mi’s arms and cry, but then she remembered that Yu Mi had made fun of her. She was too angry to fling herself into those arms and make a fool of herself.

She tried to hold it in. Maybe she could throw herself onto the couch and have a good cry, but Yu Mi had taken up half of it, leaving too little room. Nor could Bao Gu bring herself to cover her face and wail.

She held on for a long time, the tears swirling stubbornly in her eyes without finding a proper place to fall. By the time the few tears she had managed to summon finally rolled out, she no longer knew what she was supposed to do.

Yu Mi watched Bao Gu with tears pooled in her eyes and a misty expression on her face as she looked around in search of somewhere to cry. Once the last few tears had rolled down in a neat little row, Bao Gu stopped crying—and stopped being sad.

Yu Mi laughed until her whole body shook.

She raised a hand and rubbed Bao Gu’s forehead.

“Bao Gu, do all those cultivators outside who tremble at the mere mention of your name know that you’re this adorable?”

Bao Gu was furious enough to hit her, but Yu Mi’s radiant smile dazzled her into stopping. Her senior sister really did have a beautiful smile.

Then she remembered that she was still grieving while Yu Mi was laughing so happily. She found it infuriating and felt sorry for herself at the same time.

She looked at Yu Mi, then at herself, and was left with nothing but utter defeat.

So she was the only one who was hurt and sad after all.

She could not understand how they could take it all so easily.

Yu Mi wiped Bao Gu’s tears once more and subdued her smile.

“Let’s get to the serious matter. Although the Twenty-Six Peaks seem sparsely populated, that is only by comparison. Those who have finished their training and are traveling outside, together with those still studying and cultivating day and night on the various peaks, number thirty or forty thousand in total.”

“They all need a place to settle down and put down roots. We don’t need any cultivation resources or supplies. Just give us a tract of land with reasonably abundant spiritual energy and enough of all five elemental forces.”

“When Xuantian Sect was poor, there would never have been anything like this. Everyone was poor, so they had no choice but to go outside and make their way. Life was difficult, and they had to rely on fellow disciples to support one another in order to survive.”

“When everyone was poor, no one despised anyone else, and no one needed to look down on anyone. Once they became rich, with more cultivation resources in their pockets, they advanced at lightning speed and began to regard themselves as superior.”

The mockery in her voice was unmistakable.

“Do you know what we call the two factions of Xuantian Sect in private? We’re the Poor Faction, and they’re the Rich Faction!”

Bao Gu looked at Yu Mi in disbelief.

“You’re still poor?”

“Of course we are. Go ask Feng Menglong and Hua Sheng. Which of us isn’t constantly dead broke, without a single spirit stone in our pockets?”

Bao Gu blinked blankly.

“Why are you poor?”

“For one thing, we don’t know how to accumulate wealth. For another, we don’t skim the monthly stipends of the disciples under our peaks and line our own pockets. Third, whenever a disciple under our care shows promise, we often have to subsidize them out of our own pockets.”

“Fourth, our status and position are there for all to see. We can’t exactly have a peak master go out dressed more raggedly than a rogue cultivator, can we? Refining magical treasures costs a fortune, and they often get smashed to pieces when we fight people.”

“Fifth, breaking through to a higher realm requires a large supply of elixirs. On top of that, we spend years traveling outside. When we meet a formidable enemy, pills and spirit wine flow down our throats like water. When our lives are hanging by a thread, who has time to be thrifty, and who would dare?”

“They have it better than I do. I, on the other hand, am always getting struck by lightning—”

She broke off and hurriedly skipped over the subject.

“Not having a single spirit stone doesn’t mean a person can’t be happy. The world is vast; if there is wine today, we drink today. I draw a salary as the Cleaver Gang’s Order Envoy, and Wang Ding and Sun Dilong occasionally bring me gifts, so I’m actually the richest among them.”

“They’ve mooched off me plenty. After they’ve hit me up so many times, why should I be polite when I haul them in as free labor? Before long, our friendship became as solid as iron. That’s what you call the bond between fellow disciples, understand?”

Seeing Bao Gu staring blankly, Yu Mi added:

“The bond between fellow disciples is a deep affection forged by mooching off one another and tricking one another into doing hard labor.”

Yu Mi rose from the couch and ruffled Bao Gu’s hair.

“That bunch under Grandmaster won’t let us mooch off them, won’t let us rope them into working for us, and spends every day secretly tripping us up. They want to profit from us while looking down on us. We never had any real bond as fellow disciples in the first place, so falling out is perfect. We can split the household!”

Bao Gu was so startled that her lips remained parted for a long while.

Yu Mi folded her arms.

“Junior Sister, take pity on your poor junior sister. I’m practically drooling here. Give us a patch of land to stand on, will you?”

Only then did Bao Gu return to herself.

“You’re familiar with all the Cleaver Gang’s territory, aren’t you? Choose whichever plot you think suits them. You can make the decision.”

Yu Mi smiled brightly.

“Exactly. Even you are mine, so naturally everything that belongs to you is mine as well. Then I won’t hold back.”

She winked playfully at Bao Gu.

“I’ll take the Cleaver Gang’s map over to Feng Menglong, Hua Sheng, and Little Martial Aunt so they can look it over.”

In reality, she meant to let them pick out the choicest plots.

Bao Gu nodded.

“Mm.”