On the Path to the Great Dao

Cold Mountain Freeholder looked at Xu She and the others, sighed inwardly, and said, “Follow me.”

Xu She and the other Xu Family disciples quickly followed him. A woman of the Xu Family said, “Ancestor Cold Mountain, you are also a member of the Xu Family. How can you just sit idly by and watch the Xu Family be wiped out by the rebel Chen Shi?”

Cold Mountain Freeholder’s expression darkened. Seeing this, Xu She quickly stopped the Xu Family disciple and whispered, “Xiangyun, say less.”

Xu Xiangyun shook off his hand, furious. “Why can’t I speak? Now that the Xu Family has been destroyed, what else is there left unsaid? As an ancestor of the Xu Family, when a calamity befalls the clan, how can you turn a blind eye? Even if you’re no match, you should strive forward, teach us your supreme arts, and find every way to take revenge!”

Cold Mountain Freeholder said coldly, “If you still want revenge, then please leave. I won’t protect you. Heh!”

He let out a cold laugh, his tone full of mockery: “Everyone in the world has the right to revenge, except the Xu Family. Don’t think I haven’t seen how rotten the Xu Family’s offspring are. It’s precisely because I couldn’t stand your actions that I left the Xu Family to become a freeholder! After passing the imperial examinations, I started as the Chief Clerk in Hanshan County. I saw how the Xu Family’s children tyrannized the countryside, how they forced good women into prostitution, how they cut out other people’s Divine Embryos, how they trafficked humans, how they ruined other families, how they suppressed talented individuals from other surnames. Every crime our Xu Family committed in the villages was enough to warrant the execution of nine generations!”

Even as he said this, his anger remained unquenchable. His closest friend, also his classmate, was named Lü Qing, who served as a County Magistrate’s Assistant in Hanshan County. The two had close dealings with each other.

Lü Qing had a son, and Cold Mountain had even named the child, calling him Lü Song. Lü Qing had his son bow to him as an adopted father, and the two families grew even closer, frequently visiting each other. Cold Mountain would even teach Lü Song to read and write, considering him half a disciple.

The year Lü Song turned eleven, he participated in the county-level imperial examination, achieved first place in the county, and obtained a second-grade Divine Embryo.

“Who did this?” he asked Lü Qing, trembling with rage.

But Lü Qing just stared blankly at him. A foreboding feeling rose in Cold Mountain’s heart, and he asked in a trembling voice, “It was someone from the Xu Family who did this.”

“I wanted to avenge him, but I could never take revenge. I can’t even defeat you, and I can never defeat the Xu Family.”

Lü Qing drew his sword and slit his own throat, dying right in front of Cold Mountain.

Cold Mountain stood there dumbfounded, unable to believe that his closest friend, driven to utter despair, had taken his own life.

It was a long time before he came to his senses. Stumbling into the main hall, he saw the corpse of Lü Qing’s wife. The woman had taken her own life before Lü Qing, and there was no saving her.

This incident shook Cold Mountain to his core. For a long time afterward, every time he closed his eyes, he could see his best friend and his family, their faces covered in blood, standing before him.

He made up his mind to change the Xu Family.

He tried for thirty or forty years, rising all the way to a second-rank official in the court and becoming one of the thirteen Cabinet Academicians. Only then did he discover that he had nominally reached the highest pinnacle of power within the Xu Family, yet he couldn’t change a single thing about them!

The Cabinet Academician was just a face for the Xu Family, a pretty ornament. The one who truly held power in the Xu Family was the Sect Leader. And above the Sect Leader were the ancestors in the underworld and the ancestors in the Upper Realm!

Filled with despair after repeated setbacks, he resigned his post, hung up his official seal, and settled for being a freeholder.

To commemorate his experiences in Hanshan County, he gave himself the name Cold Mountain Freeholder, making it clear that he had nothing more to do with the Xu Family.

If it weren’t for the Xu Family’s current existential crisis, he wouldn’t have shown his face.

But he had no intention of helping the Xu Family. He only wanted to save a few Xu Family members worth saving, so their bloodline wouldn’t be completely extinguished.

If these people weren’t worth saving, he would rather send them back to the Lingzhou battlefield.

Because the evil the Xu Family had done, he knew better than anyone!

Suddenly, Cold Mountain Freeholder’s heart stirred. His Primordial Spirit overlooked the underworld, and he saw King Du Shi, Xu Luoying, leading the six great judges, only to be ambushed by Zhong Kui, Tie Chi, Wang Fu, and other judges under the little Yama’s command. Then, Blue Goat, Long You the Freeholder, and the others sacrificed the Purple-Green Double Qi Rings and the Sun-Moon Twin Pearls, two immortal artifacts, and attacked.

This battle was almost a foregone conclusion.

“Chen Shi prepared too thoroughly for this battle. He mobilized all the power he could, but integrating all that power was the truly difficult part.”

Cold Mountain Freeholder’s heart stirred again. That is to say, the person commanding the battlefield, coordinating the various forces and personnel under Chen Shi, wasn’t Chen Shi himself, but someone else.

“That person should be hiding right now in the minor heaven of the Celestial Court.”

Cold Mountain Freeholder grasped the key point. If he could eliminate this person, the forces under Chen Shi would lose their coordination, no longer moving as one, and the tide of battle could turn in an instant.

“And killing this person is actually very simple. Many portals have been set up on the battlefield, ostensibly to facilitate the movement of Chen Shi’s forces, but they actually leave a major flaw. If I use my Ten Thousand Mile Flying Sword Technique to send my flying sword through a portal, I can kill this man in a single move.”

With this thought, his mind moved. With a *zheng* sound, the precious sword behind him leaped from its sheath, turned into a streak of white light, and flew through the air with a *shua*, passing through the nearest Celestial Court portal.

The next moment, the sword light arrived before Yang Bi and suddenly landed.

Yang Bi was startled, but he saw that the sword radiated a powerful sword intent. However, it never attacked him, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

This precious sword had no intention of harming him; on the contrary, it seemed to stand guard before him, protecting his safety.

Yang Bi’s gaze fell upon Cold Mountain Freeholder, and he bowed deeply. “Thank you, senior.”

Cold Mountain Freeholder waved his hand and led Xu She and the others away into the distance.

Yang Bi steadied his mind and focused his attention on the Tingzhou battlefield.

The Tingzhou Yang Family was basically finished.

He had prepared the most experts for the Tingzhou Yang Family: five of the six great freeholders like Chen Yindu, all the successive patriarchs of Tai Hua Qingyang Palace, and great experts like Qiongyang and Changying. The strongest was Jue Yangzi, the first immortal of the old method!

The only one who had cultivated to the immortal realm.

Although Jue Yangzi was a Celestial Immortal, he was only a false immortal. He had achieved Dao Unification in the small temple behind Chen Shi’s head, and his unification space was limited, not a true small world.

But a false immortal was still an immortal.

Wielding the immortal sword Crimson Rainbow Glazed Sword, he was unstoppable, facing no opponent who could match him. The Yang Family’s experts were annihilated in an instant!

But Yang Bi still had selfish motives. Although his layout appeared the most powerful, leaving no cracks, he had deliberately left a tiny loophole.

In deploying all the experts from the Imperial Capital, amidst their intersecting movements, he had intentionally left a thread of life.

None of the experts in the Imperial Capital could detect this thread of life, but it was enough to save the people he wanted to save.

“Mother, this way!”

In the midst of the chaotic battle, a young girl led a middle-aged woman through the bombardment of countless magic treasures and Dao techniques. Many great experts, any of whom could have annihilated the mother and daughter thousands of times over, were clashing, yet whether it was magic treasures, talismanic seals, or spells and divine techniques, they somehow never touched the mother and daughter, always just missing them.

They hurried forward, as if guided by a divine hand, and managed to traverse the death-strewn battlefield, escaping that land of slaughter.

The girl’s name was Yang Qianqian. Her cultivation was not high; she had just cultivated her Primordial Spirit. She looked back at Tingzhou, still finding it hard to believe, and said, “Mother, I feel like someone is helping us. Could it be my brother helping us?”

The woman was a middle-aged lady. Upon hearing this, sorrow she could not hide welled up in her eyes. “Qianqian, your brother is already dead. Five years ago, when the Upper Realm fell, he died.”

Yang Qianqian looked up at the sky and smiled. “Mother, I don’t think my brother is dead. He’s still watching us from up there. My brother can’t die; he’s the smartest. He even said he would defeat Despair Slope and come back to teach me how to cultivate.”

The woman’s heart was wracked with grief, but she hid it deep inside. “Qianqian, this place isn’t safe yet. We need to hurry. If Bi’er were truly alive, he would want us to escape this place as quickly as possible.”

Yang Qianqian nodded and was about to leave when suddenly a voice, brimming with wickedness, laughed, “Well, well, looks like we have two fish that slipped through the net.”

The mother and daughter’s hearts leaped with fright. A young man with a smile on his face had suddenly appeared before them.

In the minor heaven, Yang Bi’s heart jolted.

“I calculated the movement routes of all the experts, exhausting all my abilities to find a thread of life for Mother and Qianqian. But the demonic nature of Creation Little Five exceeded my calculations!”

Cold sweat poured from his forehead, and his body trembled.

Creation Little Five was proficient in the Way of Qiankun, reversing heaven and earth, coming and going at will. Yang Bi had taxed his intelligence to the limit trying to calculate Little Five’s movement route, but he had still miscalculated one step, causing Little Five to block the mother and daughter.

Creation Little Five was the most infamous evil spirit. Only Chen Yindu could make him obedient. Now that he had found the mother and daughter, they would surely be devoured into his stomach!

Yang Bi’s heart ached as if cut by knives, but he could think of no plan.

At that moment, Creation Little Five suddenly looked up at the sky.

In Yang Bi’s eyes, Little Five’s face was almost pressed right up against his own.

But between them was clearly an invisible void. How this evil spirit had sent his face into the minor heaven was beyond comprehension.

However, although Creation Little Five’s eyes were rolling around wildly, it was as if he couldn’t see him at all.

The evil spirit glanced toward his direction, then turned to look at the mother and daughter, and then toward Tingzhou. Suddenly, he laughed and said, “Fifth Master doesn’t feel like eating anyone today. You two mother and daughter can leave.”

Yang Qianqian sighed with relief and quickly took her mother’s hand to leave.

Just then, Creation Little Five’s voice came from behind them: “You haven’t said thank you yet.”

Yang Qianqian and her mother quickly turned around and said in unison, “Thank you for sparing our lives!”

Creation Little Five shook his head. “Not you two. Yang Bi, say thank you.”

The mother and daughter were stunned.

From the void came the voice they had longed to hear, the voice of Yang Bi.

“Thank you, Fifth Master.”

Creation Little Five was very satisfied. He put his hands behind his head, swayed his upper body as he walked away, and laughed, “You’re very polite. I won’t kill you.”

The mother and daughter burst into tears.

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