Chapter 566: Past Events of Wudang (1)

Chapter 566: Past Events of Wudang (One)

In the dead of night, all was silent.

In the confinement room of Xuanyue Temple, a corner of the originally sealed window was pried open, and a furtive figure slipped inside.

The moment he landed, a faint, elusive fragrance drifted into Chen Qisheng's nose.

In his black-and-white vision, everything around was a barren black, only Zhao Yanlong's figure gleamed in pale gray.

He raised a finger to his lips, signaling Chen Qisheng to keep quiet, while stealthily pulling an iron pot from behind his back.

"Heh heh, this is a good thing—real free-range mountain pork, no nasty additives from the farm."

"Don't be reckless; let me down quickly."

"Did you really think that?"

Just as he was declaiming grandly, Zhao Yanlong suddenly noticed the bruises and cuts on Chen Qisheng's face; his heart wavered, and he scratched his head with an awkward smile.

At the end of the mountain path, a memorial archway inscribed with the words "Governing the World, Mysterious Mountain" could be seen in the distance.

Bright sunlight shone into his eyes; he did not look at the gleaming archway but stared at the sharply defined profile so close to him.

Zhao Yanlong's eyes darted around, finally landing on the altar behind Chen Qisheng. Pointing at the statue of the Lingguan Deity on the altar, he said, "If I'm lying to you, let Lord Lingguan punish me so that I can never cultivate true qi in this life and never enter the Dao—how about that?"

The Daoist who had been used as a shield, absorbing countless sword and blade strikes, had long lost consciousness, his fate unknown.

Zhao Yanlong swallowed the last piece of meat, leaned back on the cushion, and let out a satisfied belch.

Clashes and screams interwove and echoed throughout the entire Wudang mountain path.

Seeing that Chen Qisheng forgave him so easily, Zhao Yanlong could not help but widen his eyes, a look of suspicion on his face.

"That bunch of bastards in the kitchen dared to lay hands on us brothers, and they even got you, Junior Brother, locked up by the abbot. I, your senior brother, had to get even for you. So I took all their supplies in one go—how about that? Pretty good, huh?"

"Heh heh... this cultivation is too exhausting. I quit, I quit."

But he gritted his teeth and did not let out a single sound.

Just then, a beam of moonlight cast down, illuminating his face covered in bruises and blood.

Back then, he thought it was a change brought about by the sequence advancement, but now it seemed that the true traditionalists had been cultivating true qi even before entering the sequence.

Chen Qisheng pulled out a bone, buried his head, and gnawed contentedly, ignoring Zhao Yanlong.

Boom!

The mountain path shattered, flesh and blood flew everywhere.

But the pain, against all expectations, did not land on him.

He fought until his fists were raw, the bones of his knuckles showing white, yet his fists never unclenched.

"Senior Brother, hold tight."

In the dim confinement room, moonlight served as a lamp.

In this black-and-white world, he could not see the crimson blood, but he could truly feel the pain of blades and swords on his body.

Chen Qisheng said uncertainly, "Maybe actual combat is better for stimulating true qi."

There was still one last person blocking the way.

A sharp shriek exploded beside Chen Qisheng.

The sound of a long sword piercing flesh made Zhao Yanlong tremble all over.

"I'll go first, Senior Brother; you follow behind. The finish line of the test is ahead. Don't get entangled with them. Rush through in one go, and we'll settle accounts with them later!"

"Hold tight; don't fall behind this time!"

Zhao Yanlong curled his lip. "That's why those ignorant believers have all gone to Longhu Mountain now. Our incense offerings are getting worse and worse. They don't stop to think—if dreams could come true, then wouldn't everyone be an immortal?"

Seeing Chen Qisheng advancing unstoppably, the breath caught in Zhao Yanlong's throat suddenly dissipated; his legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.

"I really don't blame you, Senior Brother. I also ate the meat you brought from the kitchen before, so it's only natural they'd come after me too. Besides, I'm good at fighting, so it's only right I handle that. You're good at using your head, Senior Brother; we each have our strengths. There's nothing to blame."

"You promised me!" Zhao Yanlong shouted, his eyes red.

Definitely!

No sooner had the thought occurred than the next attack came.

Layers of forest stretched before their eyes, surrounded by flickering figures.

Chen Qisheng wiped his hands on the curtain beside him and said lightly.

"And as for 'qi of the heart,' in our view, it refers to the energy generated through post-natal breathing and cultivation—the true qi you feel. We pursue 'refining qi to transform essence,' merging the cultivation of nature and life into one, each complementing the other."

"I'm such a piece of trash; I—huh?"

Although Chen Qisheng had cultivated Daoism at Longhu Mountain since he was young, this talk of 'true qi' and 'heart qi' was something he had never heard before.

"And the older you get, the smaller the chance of generating true qi. If you're unlucky, you might end up just a Daoist boy your whole life."

"Charge! Chen Qisheng, you brat, hurry up and charge forward—don't block your senior brother's path!"

Such ferocity was found only among the old-school members of the Daoist sequence of the Great Ming.

The Daoist with the long staff rejoiced at the sight; he was about to swing the staff sideways to smash Zhao Yanlong's head when he suddenly felt a chill in his abdomen.

A contemptuous sneer came from the crowd: "There are only so many assessment slots granted by Wudang. What makes you and your dimwit junior brother think you can take two?"

Zhao Yanlong shouted angrily, but his fingers gripping Chen Qisheng's pant leg refused to obey and would not let go.

Zhao Yanlong looked over in disbelief; seeing Chen Qisheng nod in affirmation, his face contorted in shock.

"How could it be so fast? You've only practiced taijiquan for a few days! I've been at it for a year and haven't felt a shred of qi sensation."

The fallen corpse did not cow the surrounding enemies but instead stirred up even fiercer murderous intent.

"Charge!"

Without me, he would definitely have made it through, passed the assessment, and become a member of Wudang's Daoist sequence.

Zhao Yanlong patted his belly leisurely. "I haven't had my fill of being human yet—why rush to become an immortal? Let me focus on seeing the world first. Don't you agree, Junior Brother?"

Zhao Yanlong placed the iron pot in front of Chen Qisheng, lifted the lid, and the aroma mixed with steam rushed out.

Chen Qisheng sat down on the cushion and stretched out his legs. "Senior Brother, what exactly is this true qi? Explain it to me."

Zhao Yanlong hugged his knees with both hands, squatted in front of Chen Qisheng, scratched his head a little sheepishly, and said awkwardly, "Junior Brother, back then, I really wasn't afraid to face it with you. I was actually going to get reinforcements."

Seeing this, Zhao Yanlong deflated like a punctured balloon; his squatting body fell backward and he sat down heavily on the ground.

Zhao Yanlong smiled proudly. "Because they practice internal martial arts; the true qi we practice is in no way inferior—in fact, we can fight even better than them!"

"I don't even have it myself, so how should I know what it is?"

"But it's much simpler for the new school. As long as you're not a hopeless fool, you can always get the chance to enter the sequence after more than a decade of effort. And I hear that the so-called 'Yellow Millet Dream' can let people cultivate in dreams—sleep for a few years or decades, and even a pig could become a spirit."

A teasing laugh came from above. Zhao Yanlong forced open his eyelids and saw a grinning face covered in bloodstains.

"Junior Brother..."

Having just barely stopped rolling, Zhao Yanlong grabbed a short sword and swung it wildly, managing to drive the surrounding people back, finally gaining a moment to catch his breath and stand up again.

"This wild mountain boar is truly authentic, completely incomparable to those deformed, low-quality goods produced by the agricultural sequences."

"Zhao Yanlong, you cannot escape now!"

This time, he could no longer drag his junior brother down with him.

When rivals meet on a narrow path, a bloody melee naturally ensues.

"Junior brother, I admit I am a coward, I have no backbone, I know I was wrong, so please do not blame me, alright?"

Chen Qisheng reacted with incredible agility; the longsword in his hand struck second but arrived first, plunging straight into the man's stomach and instantly bringing him down.

As for himself, he had blundered blindly back onto this path by sheer accident.

"Wang Jiulang, you son of a bitch, we agreed everyone would join forces to pass the trial together, yet now you unexpectedly break faith and betray us, are you not afraid the Patriarch Lord will strike you dead with a bolt of lightning?"

With one careless slip, the two were swept apart; Zhao Yanlong fell into the distance and was instantly surrounded by a crowd.

Shouts and battle cries echoed in the distance, where Chen Qisheng's sword moved like a swimming dragon, leaving no opponent standing before him for a single exchange.

When the sword in his hand was bitten and snapped by flesh and bone, he used his fists instead.

"Just as long as you've trained it into existence... wait? What on earth did you just say?"

Beneath the majestic statue of the deity, the rich aroma of meat drifted in waves.

"Junior brother!!"

Zhao Yanlong swallowed hard in nervousness, nodding his head like a chicken pecking at grain.

Only when the sound of shouting and slaughter by his ears finally ceased did Zhao Yanlong at last slowly open his eyes.

Sprawled over his shoulder, Zhao Yanlong kept his eyes tightly shut and uttered not a sound, yet upon his face, which was equally covered in blood and filth, two dirty tear tracks had appeared at some unknown point.

As expected of my junior brother, he really is incredibly formidable!

Zhao Yanlong dived forward into his opponent's embrace, snapping his head upward to strike the man's chin with a vicious headbutt. Immediately following with a roar from his throat, he plunged the short sword in his right hand into the opponent's abdomen, surged forward with a sudden burst of power from his shoulder, and forcefully pinned the man as he charged up the steps.

The two youths sat head to head, their mouths slick with grease as they ate, occasionally exchanging glances filled with happy, satisfied smiles.

At this moment, Zhao Yanlong's left arm was bent at a twisted angle, obviously having had its bone shattered by someone's kick; the agonizing pain piercing into his marrow caused his vision to black out in waves.

"You little brat, who told you to look after me?"

Chen Qisheng let out a roar, his pace quickening as he drove his knee forward and surged, actually leaping into the air while carrying Zhao Yanlong on his shoulder, shattering the chest of a man blocking the path with a flying knee strike and crushing him down onto the mountain trail.

His forehead collided with the hard mountain path, and blood instantly gushed out like a torrent.

Clang!

The longsword in Zhao Yanlong's hand was parried away by a heavy blow; ducking his head to dodge a heavy frontal punch, he reached out to grab the left foot of the daoist who had thrown the punch, pulled with brute force to flip him to the ground, and buried a fist directly into his face.

But upon second thought, Zhao Yanlong gave up on the idea; if he were truly expected to take on over a dozen people with two chair legs, let alone manifesting true qi, it would be a miracle if he weren't beaten to death.

"Right, senior brother, I have something to tell you, I seem to have manifested true qi."

"Of course. Are you still eating this meat? If not, I'm going to finish it all."

Yet in such a chaotic battle, even though Chen Qisheng was exceptionally valiant, it was difficult to protect Zhao Yanlong amidst the tide-like swarm of enemies.

"If it smells good then eat more, there is plenty to go around this time."

Zhao Yanlong was currently filled with vexation, wishing he could slap himself twice; if he hadn't run away back then, perhaps he too could have manifested true qi.

"Our Patriarch Lord once said a phrase: to cultivate nature but not the physical life is the primary ailment of cultivation."

Zhao Yanlong swayed his head and said, "Don't look at how much faster the new faction cultivates compared to us, their physical bodies are fragile, just like paper mache, they die from a single poke of a sword. Although our cultivation is far more difficult, our strength is much greater than those of the new faction, so we have no real weaknesses when a fight breaks out."

Chen Qisheng scooped a piece up with his bare hand, stuffed it into his mouth, and nodded, saying, "Fragrant!"

Pfft!

Chen Qisheng grabbed Zhao Yanlong by the collar and hoisted his body onto his shoulder.

Zhao Yanlong leaned forward to pluck a fruit from the offerings on the divine altar, taking a bite as he mumbled indistinctly, "Take our Xuanyue Daoist Temple for example, we are a genuine, proper branch temple of Wudang Mountain, yet how many daoist boys in the temple can actually manifest true qi and have hope of entering the Dao?"

Zhao Yanlong let out a miserable smile, which instantly aggravated his numerous injuries, causing his figure to stagger and sway unsteadily.

Still high above, Chen Qisheng heard the shout and seemed to truly believe that Zhao Yanlong was following closely behind him; the sword light in his hand immediately whipped up a wave of even colder, sharper flashes, causing those before him to wail in agony.

But very quickly, a dense swarm of surging figures completely blocked Chen Qisheng's line of sight.

"I did promise you, but if you yourselves cannot pass the trial, then you cannot blame me. Go, ruin them."

Zheng!

The wind howled viciously as a sword light slashed down.

"Of course I want it, you little brat, leave some for me."

Zhao Yanlong, who was in the middle of condemning himself, suddenly froze mid-sentence, a look of pleasant surprise rushing into his eyes: "What did you say, junior brother? You truly do not blame me?"

"Move!"

"Why else, they want to take a shortcut."

Perhaps because his disheveled hair bun was interfering with his meat-eating, Chen Qisheng raised an oil-slicked hand to brush away the strands of hair before his eyes.

A long staff came crashing down toward his head; Zhao Yanlong shifted his body slightly, letting the staff land squarely on his shoulder, which let out a sharp, cracking sound.

To allow the drawing of blood and the killing of men in an entry trial, Wudang was the only daoist sect in the world to do so.

Zhao Yanlong said with a face full of frustration and in a thoroughly annoyed tone.

Only then did Zhao Yanlong realize the meat in the pot had almost reached the bottom; he scrambled up in a hurry, fumbling a pair of chopsticks from his sleeve to plunge into the pot.

"To hell with your grandmother!"

Zhao Yanlong's pupils were bloodshot and spit flew from his mouth as he actually pushed through a crowd of people, advancing up several steps by sheer physical force.

Chen Qisheng asked in bewilderment, "If it is truly that powerful, why do people still choose to join the new faction's daoist sequence?"

Zhao Yanlong rolled over with great difficulty to face upward, his chest heaving violently, his daoist robe riddled everywhere with slashes from blades and swords, while a piercing puncture wound had appeared at some point through his left calf.

A wicked wind tore through the forest, sounding like the wailing of mountain ghosts.

A chilling intent to kill bore down upon them along with the approaching figures.

Zhao Yanlong said with a sorrowful face, "There were so many people on the opposite side at the time, and I am not good at fighting with others; the moment I saw blood my heart started to panic, and once I panicked my mind went blank, my two legs refused to obey me, and I don't know how but I just ran, leaving you all alone there, junior brother..."

"I felt it when I was fighting with that crowd from the kitchen."

Chen Qisheng surveyed the surroundings with cold eyes, arranging their moves at a rapid pace.

"Everything I said is the absolute truth, you must believe me. If I am lying to you, I..."

"The masters in the temple never mentioned that such a situation could occur..."

"Before the Chongzhen Restoration, it originated from the ancient word for breath, meaning atmospheric mist; there wasn't really much difference between them. But after the Yizong Emperor established the three religions, nine schools, and twelve sequences, 'breath' and 'qi' evolved into two entirely distinct concepts."

At the end of the mountain trail, beneath the ceremonial archway.

"Kill!"

Yet none of this could halt Chen Qisheng's steps.

"Senior brother, next time if it doesn't work out, let's call out earlier, otherwise it really is exhausting for me to fight my way back down from above."

A handsome daoist whose robe was untainted by a single speck of dust held a floating, surging flying sword in his open palm; his aura was overwhelmingly arrogant, his expression proud, and his indifferent eyes looked down upon the blood-soaked Chen Qisheng.

Zhao Yanlong, rubbing his lower back that was stinging from the burns, chuckled and said, "Come on, have a taste."

A path of relentless slaughter, every step marked by blood.

Zhao Yanlong, now in his youth, stood back to back with Chen Qisheng, their longswords stained with blood, surrounded by a host of enemies.

"Join forces? You actually believe that? Zhao Yanlong, you are truly stupid."

After a moment, however, he sat up straight, pondered briefly, and said, "I used to hear the masters say that the entire Daoist path is now split into two schools. One practices Refining Qi, that's us. The other practices Refining Primordial Qi, the group now called the 'New School Daoist Order.'"

"Senior Brother, you chose True Qi over Heart Primordial Qi. Is it because True Qi is stronger?"

"Honestly, Senior Brother, I'll tell you the truth. It's not for any other reason—I just like that our path allows us to eat and drink. Tell me, even the immortals up on the altar need to accept incense offerings. We are not yet immortals, so if we lose all our emotions and desires, can we still be called human?"

The fear of death tightly clutched Zhao Yanlong's heart; his earlier bold courage instantly vanished. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out an instinctive scream.

"Little Qisheng, what you said is not right at all. Is our cultivation about who is stronger? No, we cultivate the truth, the Dao, the..."

"Those boors outside bully the weak and act tyrannically. Today they slap a Confucian scholar, tomorrow they beat up a Buddha, yet they never dare to cause trouble here. Do you know why?"

Chen Qisheng charged ahead, taking the lead, with Zhao Yanlong close behind, finishing off any enemy not yet fallen with two quick thrusts.

Chen Qisheng sidestepped to evade an incoming weapon, then swept his longsword upward, cleaving a man's face.

"From the perspective of the New School, 'Primordial Qi' is the source of innateness, possessed by everyone from birth. They advocate 'refining Primordial Qi to transform into spirit,' pursuing only the Dao heart, disregarding the physical body."

"I don't blame you."

"Even though I was deceived this time, at least I should now have the demeanor of a senior brother, right? I think so."

In the Japanese territory, when he slew Zhang Qingsheng and advanced to the Human Immortal Lord realm, he felt the True Qi spontaneously generate within him.

Before he could catch his breath, a malicious wind came from ahead; he hurriedly raised his arm to block, but was kicked and sent tumbling backward.

It was none other than the culprit who had deceived Zhao Yanlong—Wang Jiulang of Taiyue Temple.

Chen Qisheng took a deep breath and broke into a brilliant grin.

"Junior Brother, I will now take you through the gates of Wudang!"