Chapter 355: Returning Home in Glory

Chapter 355: A Homecoming in Glory

Climbing the stone steps, Zhao Changhe surveyed the scenery of Mount Wu with great interest.

As winter shifted into spring, combined with the change in geography from the majestic Kunlun to this land of clear waters and bright hills, the ice and snow had vanished, leaving green grass and lush trees; the dampness of spring rain hung in the air, and the singing birds and fragrant flowers made it feel as though he had traveled into a completely new hidden realm.

It was a fascinating experience.

Unfortunately, his poetic ink was a fickle thing—occasionally a brilliant phrase would pop out, but whenever he reached a landscape that practically begged for poetry, he could only recall those few famous verses that were terribly ill-suited to the occasion.

For instance, "Once having seen the vast sea, other waters are hard to appreciate; except for the clouds of Mount Wu, no other clouds are real." The one here was Cult Master Xue; would such a poem be appropriate?

Or perhaps, "Mount Wu is high, Mount Wu is low, the evening rain pours as the husband fails to return, leaving the lonely room guarded in solitude."

If Cult Master Xue heard that, he would probably beat him up—who exactly was guarding a lonely room in solitude?

Then again, it seemed the entire Blood God Cult had no interest in women, only possessing a craving for blood and slaughter... what a moronic sect.

In truth, not many people knew the Blood God Cult was located on Mount Wu; otherwise, they might have been wiped out long ago. Back then, Zhao Changhe only found out it was here after asking Wan Dongliu of the Four Symbols Cult. On the surface, Mount Wu possessed only a single mountain stronghold where bandits gathered to rule the crags and plunder passersby, while the cult itself operated secretly within a subterranean hidden realm in the mountains, perfectly mimicking the template of Beimang.

With Maitreya throwing the south into chaos at present, the Great Xia officials truly had no time to spare for this mountain king.

However, a bit better than Beimang was the fact that this stronghold was not just a single camp; spreading from the mountainside all the way to the summit, there was actually a deep succession of large and small camps, complete with some defensive fortifications...

"Halt! What are you doing!"

Having observed all the way to the entrance of the stronghold, a group of bandits, unable to endure any longer, surrounded him and stared at him nervously: "This is no place for sightseeing... we have tolerated you for a long time..."

Zhao Changhe was nearly amused by their sheer innocence: "Why tolerate me?"

Someone hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Are you... Zhao Changhe?"

At this moment, Zhao Changhe’s Vermilion Bird-Dragon Sparrow sabre was tucked away in his ring, missing a classic identifier, but his other classic scarred face was finally no longer concealed; he had come to visit the mountain openly and honorably in his identity as Zhao Changhe, which certainly could not be credited to Wang Daozhong.

Zhao Changhe smiled and said, "Why would I not dare admit it? Because I didn't bring a blade?"

"Nowadays, everyone who imitates Zhao Changhe’s appearance carries a massive broadsword. How could the real Zhao Changhe not bring a blade? I told you guys he wasn't him!" Someone complained to a companion, "To let someone who might or might not be Zhao Changhe walk right up to the stronghold gates without anyone daring to stop him—if this gets out, we'll be a laughingstock!"

Zhao Changhe laughed and said, "So if it really were Zhao Changhe who came, you wouldn't stop him?"

The bandits all replied, "Cut the nonsense, Boss Zhao is someone who went out from our Sacred Cult. If he really comes back, it's a homecoming, alright?"

What the hell do you mean "went out from"... Zhao Changhe didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Weren't you guys hunting me down? How did it become a homecoming..."

"That kill order was left hanging for so long that nobody even mentions it anymore, who takes it seriously?" The bandits said cautiously, "Are you him or not? Say something. If you're not, don't put on airs here. We've already called the brothers from Beimang out to recognize you, don't you run!"

Even as they spoke, a person came rushing out from the stronghold: "I heard someone looks like our Chief? Oh, holy crap, Chief, you’ve finally come! The brothers missed you to death!"

Zhao Changhe looked up, his grin widening further. It was precisely one of the Beimang brothers whom Xuanwu had written a letter of introduction for and sent over some days ago. Sure enough, Xue Canghai had held his nose and arranged small chieftain positions for them; for example, this fellow Liu-zi had been arranged to be a minor leader in the lowest stronghold?

Liu-zi pushed through the crowd, quickly rushed in front of Zhao Changhe to give him a hug, then turned around with his chest puffed out: "Which blind idiot said he wasn't? If this isn't our Chief, could it be your father!"

Everyone: "..."

This isn't your family's stronghold, who exactly is the Chief here?

Yet aside from internal grumbling, no one dared to show it outwardly; on the contrary, faces filled with admiration and respect one after another as they bowed in greeting: "It really is Boss Zhao..."

"Greetings, Big Brother Zhao!"

"Hello, Boss Zhao!"

"Boss Zhao, you are our god!"

"Hello, Boss Zhao, please come inside and sit, shall we go inform the Cult Master? And guide Boss around while we're at it?"

"..." Seeing this display of fanatical joy from the bottom of their hearts, as if meeting an idol, Zhao Changhe truly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why don't you guys just start a fan club?

He had imagined that if he formally came to visit the Blood God Cult, he probably wouldn't be treated as a traitor to be hunted down and killed—after all, with his current strength and network of connections, Cult Master Xue had to treat him with prudence. Just a short while ago, he had joined forces with the Four Symbols Holy Maiden to slay the venomous spider Tianlingzi, a feat the Heaven's Secret Chronicle had proclaimed to the entire world; it could be said that even if he offered his neck to Cult Master Xue, giving the man ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare strike.

But he had never imagined he would be treated as one of their own by the Blood God Cult disciples, and the kind that brought them great pride at that... with this attitude, was he a traitor who fled the Blood God Cult, or had he completed his apprenticeship and returned home in glory?

Had he known it would be like this, he wouldn't necessarily have needed to waste Third Mistress's favor to plant people inside.

"Go away, go away, of course I'll be the one to show the Chief around, what does it have to do with you guys?" Liu-zi stood with hands on hips, glaring angrily at the circle, before turning back to smile flatteringly at Zhao Changhe: "Chief, Mount Wu is quite beautiful with many famous sights, shall I take you on a tour?"

Zhao Changhe then smiled: "Settled in well?"

"Not bad, the ways of the greenwood are pretty much the same everywhere. Instructor Sun’s status here is also quite good, he can look after everyone a bit." Liu-zi led the way gleefully: "The climate over here is just so wonderful, the brothers don't even know what the hell they were doing cooped up in that frozen, snowy land of Beimang."

Zhao Changhe politely declined the crowd of eager sycophants and entered the stronghold behind Liu-zi: "Instructor Sun didn't get given a hard time?"

"It's said there was a period when life wasn't too easy, and some people in the cult sidelined him. Though the Cult Master spoke up and said that an instructor doing his best to teach counts as a merit without fault, and that the preaching of doctrine is not the instructor's responsibility, forbidding anyone from making things difficult... it's easy to say, but alienation was inevitable."

"Mm, alienation is normal. I was afraid the Blood God Cult was malicious and would punish Old Sun indiscriminately; then everyone's relationship would be quite different..."

Liu-zi laughed and said, "How could they? Let alone punishment, even that sidelining and alienation slowly vanished later on. Many people's attitudes improved without anyone realizing it, and some even quietly ran to ask Instructor Sun for guidance. I heard even a Guardian Elder secretly went to seek advice, and his cultivation is far higher than Instructor Sun's... they've practically come to view Instructor Sun as some reclusive old man selling wontons."

Zhao Changhe lost his smile: "Everyone's story involves selling wontons, is there no one sweeping floors?"

Liu-zi: "Huh?"

"Uh, nothing, you continue."

"Then the Cult Master actually holds Instructor Sun in high regard deep down, specially permitting him to observe many core secret manuals, and supposedly even allowed him to comprehend the sacred artifact. As a result, Instructor Sun’s cultivation has risen high over this past year, breaking through to the sixth layer of the profound pass. Nowadays, he's no mere instructor under the Master of Propagating Merits, he's been promoted to a Sacred Cult Guardian, so now nobody dares speak of sidelining him."

Hearing this, Zhao Changhe sighed deeply in his heart.

It wasn't that any random instructor under the Master of Propagating Merits in the Blood God Cult possessed Old Sun's level... Old Sun was not only responsible but his fundamentals were truly incomparably solid. In the past, he thought this was standard, but after roaming the Jianghu for so long, he discovered that the vast majority of martial artists were actually very mediocre in this regard, appearing not to care much at all.

Instructor Sun had simply lacked good nurturing and a stepping stone to advancement; if he truly had resources poured into him, why would he have been stuck at only the fourth layer of the profound pass in his mid-thirties?

There were actually many geniuses in the world, they were just buried deep; such was the case regardless of the faction, and even more common was that many didn't even possess the fate to find a master to acquire techniques in the first place.

The two talked as they made their way up the mountain, while someone had already gone ahead to report to the cult's upper echelons.

Over there, Xue Canghai was currently discussing matters with an envoy from the Maitreya Cult. A guard outside poked his head in and winked repeatedly, clearly having something to say but refusing to speak out loud. Xue Canghai rose and went over, completely exasperated, and delivered a slap across the face: "Who taught you to behave like a scurrying rat?"

The guard felt terribly wronged, holding his cheek as he lowered his voice: "Zhao Changhe is visiting the mountain."

Xue Canghai’s heart skipped a beat, realizing he had struck the wrong person; the guard was absolutely being well-intentioned and clever—if the Maitreya Cult envoy truly heard this, it would be very difficult to handle.

Moreover, that fellow Zhao Changhe had a habit of killing other people's envoys right in front of the host; he had played this trick twice in a row, once before the gates of the Wang family and once within Batu's army, and the victim of one of those times happened to be the Maitreya Cult.

Xue Canghai's mind raced, and he turned back to smile at the envoy: "This Cult Master has some urgent private matters to attend to. The envoy may return to rest first, and you and I shall talk again later."

Having finished speaking, he cast a glance at the guards, signaling that they absolutely must not let the envoy leave to see Zhao Changhe, before hurriedly exiting the discussion hall and rushing down the mountain at top speed.

Before he had even descended halfway, he looked down to see thunderous cheering in the stronghold below; a crowd of Blood God Cultists surrounded Zhao Changhe, looking exactly as if they were witnessing a visit from an idol. Meanwhile, Zhao Changhe waved with a beaming smile, putting on a smug "you've worked hard, brothers" expression.

Several people who had just arrived from Beimang surrounded him, laughing and talking all the way up the mountain. Looking at the situation, he was gathering lackeys all along the way through the different strongholds; seeing this scene of being thronged by a crowd, are you the Cult Master of this Blood God Cult or am I?

He came here to flaunt his power, didn't he? Xue Canghai ground his teeth in fury.

Just as he was pondering Zhao Changhe's true intention and attitude in coming here, another figure from a different mountaintop came flying over in a great hurry, arriving before Zhao Changhe within moments.

Zhao Changhe halted his steps.

Beneath the eager gazes of countless mountain bandits looking up, Zhao Changhe dropped to one knee and performed a grand gesture of respect: "Seeing that Instructor is in good health and successful in his cultivation, Changhe is filled with boundless joy."

The continuous chain of strongholds fell completely silent; even Instructor Sun, who had run over just to see his disciple, had never imagined he would receive such a grand salute, standing frozen there for a time, even forgetting to help him up.

When I blocked you on the road to Ancient Sword Lake last time, you didn't show such deep reverence.

Watching from afar, Xue Canghai breathed a slight sigh of relief... judging by this performance, at least he wasn't here to cause trouble.

Just as he thought this, he saw Zhao Changhe lift his head to look toward the mountaintop where Xue Canghai stood, as if he had long known the man was there. Xue Canghai's heart skipped a beat once more... such five senses meant he was at least already at the Door of the Hidden Treasury.

Zhao Changhe stood up, speaking calmly, his voice carrying to the distant mountains: "Cult Master Xue, I trust you have been well... unregistered bandit Zhao Changhe, comes to visit the mountain."