Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 884 – Meeting Old Friends at the Summit

“My beloved son enjoyed tea culture, so came to this place.”

Wuqiong Bi stared into her husband’s eyes as if she was staring at her foe. She hatefully spat, “What do you still need to investigate? What more evidence do you need? Or is it that you still can’t believe that the His Holiness the Pope you so admire has killed your son? Or is that you don’t even dare to take vengeance for your son, so are doing your best to explain things for him?”

Bie Yanghong still said nothing. Turning around, he entered a restaurant by the river.

He knew that his son had stopped here for some time, and he wanted to know what had happened.

But regretfully, there was no one he could ask.

The restaurant was full of corpses.

He quickly left the restaurant. Relying on the sliver of heavenly mystery that he had forcefully calculated, he found his target on a boat in the river used for transporting tea.

That person did not give him a chance to ask any questions. The moment they saw him flying through the air, they took in poison and died, their face carrying a wretched, despairing, and bizarre smile.

Bie Yanghong recognized this person.

Priest Xin of the Hall of Announcements had played a very important role in the revival of the Orthodox Academy.

As he gazed at Priest Xin’s corpse, Bie Yanghong maintained his silence.

Wuqiong Bi angrily yelled, “What are you still waiting for? Better to quickly kill Chen Changsheng!”

Bie Yanghong’s silence persisted for yet longer, and then he finally said, “Chen Changsheng is the Pope.”

“And just what is the Pope? Are you afraid?”

Wuqiong Bi wept and cried, “I am not afraid! I’ll butcher that black dragon… I’ll rip out her muscles! Peel off her skin!”

……

……

South Stream Temple wanted to close the temple for ten years, cutting itself off from the world?

This news was certain to shake the entire continent, but for the moment, it had not been spread very far. The Imperial Court’s diplomatic mission and those great sects and noble clans who had arrived at Holy Maiden Peak last night had been informed of this matter in advance. They had naturally made ample preparations to assist the three martial grandaunts of South Stream Temple in resisting the pressure of the Orthodoxy.

The Imperial Court’s diplomatic mission was led by the Prince of Xiang. This prince had broken into the Divine Domain not too long ago and was currently at the peak of his strength. In addition, the Old Lady of the Mutuo clan and the head of the Wu clan had also personally come. The Longevity Sect had sent one elder and several disciples, and then if one also took into account small sects like Gentle Stream Monastery, Singing Water Temple, and the Blazing Sun Sect, there were around one thousand people in attendance.

The Li Palace’s response was far inferior. They had only sent a bishop from a missionary church located in the south. Scholartree Manor and Mount Li were closer, so although they had learned of the news a little late, they arrived at the same time, alleviating the situation slightly. Scholartree Manor had sent one of its vice principals and disciples like Zhong Hui. On the other hand, the Sect Master of the Mount Li Sword Sect needed to stabilize his cultivation, and the experts of the Sword Hall were still on the northern border so as to intimidate the demon experts, so Mount Li had sent Gou Hanshi and ten-some other disciples. Gou Hanshi was only a second-generation disciple, but he had a very steady personality, was well-versed in the Daoist Canon, had a vast store of knowledge, and was profoundly skilled in the sword. Many people were quite optimistic about his future, especially since Qiushan Jun had now been missing for five years, making him the most likely candidate to be the next Sect Master.

This was the liveliest Holy Maiden Peak had been in several decades. This could truly be called the grandest occasion on the continent after the celebration of the confluence of the north and south.

The location of the ceremony for closing the temple was not in front of South Stream Temple, but at the summit of another mountain. This mountain was incredibly special, as its summit was a large stone plateau, extremely spacious and smooth as a mirror. It was possible to fit several thousand people on this plateau, with plenty of space to spare, which made those sects who had sent a smaller number of representatives stand out even more—for instance, the archbishop of the Orthodoxy’s southern church and his attending priests, who had only arrived this morning.

The Li Palace and Holy Maiden Peak both belonged to the Orthodoxy, but for such a grand occasion, the Li Palace had only sent this small number of people. Many people saw that there was something wrong with this. Whether in the edicts of the Imperial Court or in private conversations, the Li Palace had clearly been intentionally left out in the preparations for South Stream Temple’s ceremony. The first explanation given by the three martial grandaunts of South Stream Temple and the Imperial Court’s diplomatic mission was that the Pope was not in the Li Palace, so it was difficult to give him a timely invitation. Everyone knew that this was an excuse, but the problem was that not a single important personage of the Li Palace appeared. What was going on here?

Gou Hanshi gazed silently at the distant mountain path shrouded in clouds, then said to his junior brothers, “It seems that there’s no chance of recovering from today’s event.”

The Mount Li Sword Sect disciples all became rather gloomy.

Mount Li and Holy Maiden Peak were not far from each other, and there were even some mountains of these sects that were only separated by a river. The disciples of the two sects were very familiar with each other and regarded themselves as being under the same sect. Now that they knew that they would be separated from their martial sisters for ten years, they found it hard not to feel frustrated, no matter how clean their sword hearts were.

Everyone agreed with Gou Hanshi’s opinion that there was no means of altering the closing of South Stream Temple. Because Xu Yourong was in seclusion, and because the Li Palace, the only power that could resist the Imperial Court and all these factions, had clearly been caught unprepared for some reason and not sent a single important personage.

Thus, when the thousand-some cultivators at the plateau suddenly saw the Pope walk out of the clouds, they were shocked to the extreme.

……

……

The sea of people became a tide of people prostrating.

The tide of people calmed into a sea of people, the thousand-some cultivators finishing their bows and asked to return to their seats by the gentle voice of South Stream Temple’s Martial Grandaunt Huai Ren.

The ten-some people from Scholartree Manor were seated not far from the Mount Li Sword Sect.

Before, these two unflinching factions of peculiar temperaments had never been able to see eye to eye and would have never sat together. However, after the matter of Xunyang City and Wang Po’s breakthrough in the capital’s Luo River, Scholartree Manor was no longer so humble, the Mount Li Sword Sect no longer so boastful. The two sides began to get along a little better so that they would at the very least not fight.

“The Imperial Court must have been dreaming. Did they really think that they could keep the Li Palace out of a major event like this?”

The Vice Principal of Scholartree Manor looked at the distant Prince of Xiang and jeered, “Didn’t they think about the relationship between His Holiness the Pope and the Holy Maiden? How could the matters of South Stream Temple be hidden from him?”

After saying this, he cast a glance at the Mount Li Sword Sect’s party.

These simple words had simultaneously ridiculed the Imperial Court and the Mount Li Sword Sect. Scholartree Manor’s stature in the south had risen so quickly that it had truly become quite bold.

Zhong Hui had a rather dreary personality, but he did not think the same as his vice principal and had no idea that those words were meant to shame Mount Li. He asked, “Is that rumor true?”

“You should have personally witnessed what happened at Mount Han. When His Holiness the Pope was injured by Guan Bai, just who went to save him? And on the journey from Mount Han to the capital, just how many eyes were watching? His Holiness and the Holy Maiden ate and drank together, slept and lived together, just like Daoist companions.”

The Vice Principal of Scholartree Manor sneered, “Who knows what the Imperial Court was thinking with the closing of South Stream Temple, but since His Holiness has arrived, this matter isn’t guaranteed to succeed.”

The Prince of Xiang was seated on the eastern end of the plateau, very far from Scholartree Manor’s position, so he naturally did not hear. With a normal expression, he chatted with the Mutuo clan’s Old Lady and the head of the Wu clan.

But Gou Hanshi and the other disciples of the Mount Li Sword Sect could hear those words loud and clear, and their expressions became somewhat unnatural.