Unrestricted Dao Lord

The Guiyuan Sect’s temporary residence.

In the spacious living room, eleven Postnatal Realm Elders were seated calmly.

Elder Tang Tianwen sat in the seat of honor.

"Reporting."

Just then, a martial artist in a black robe respectfully entered the living room.

"Eh? Wei Qingyang? Didn’t I tell you and Shen Hetian to secretly follow Zhou Peng’s group? Why are you back so soon?"

Tang Tianwen asked quizzically, looking at the black-robed martial artist who had just entered.

Although the Celestial Eagle Tower was hardly worth mentioning...

...Tang Tianwen still didn’t feel at ease about Zhou Peng and the others.

He had secretly sent Wei Qingyang and Shen Hetian, two Gang Force Martial Artists, to follow them. If anything unexpected happened, the two were to step in and protect the thirty-odd disciples.

But now, Wei Qingyang had returned.

"Elder, Steward Shen is keeping an eye on things over there, so there won’t be any trouble. Besides, Zhou Peng has already disbanded the Celestial Eagle Tower, essentially completing the mission you assigned."

"Hm? It’s only been a short while, and Zhou Peng has already disbanded the Celestial Eagle Tower? Tell me everything, what exactly happened?"

It wasn’t just Tang Tianwen who was curious; the other ten Elders were as well.

"Elders, this is what happened..."

Wei Qingyang then recounted everything that had occurred at the Celestial Eagle Tower in great detail.

All eleven Elders looked astonished.

"Zhou Peng led the team and disbanded the Celestial Eagle Tower without a single person getting hurt. He did a fine job."

"The Celestial Eagle Tower insisted on three matches because Chen Tianying and that group of Jianghu Martial Artists were unwilling to give up, weren’t they? Well, now it’s settled. Losing all three matches showed them the gap between them and our Guiyuan Sect. Naturally, they had no choice but to obediently leave Hengshan County."

"Zhang Su winning two matches in a row was a great contribution..."

The Elders all voiced their approval.

As for Zhou Peng showing mercy to Mo Tingzhu in the end, that wasn’t an issue.

Zhou Peng’s mission was to disband the Celestial Eagle Tower.

As long as he achieved that goal, everything else was a minor detail.

The fact that Zhou Peng brought back all thirty-plus disciples unharmed meant he had done an excellent job.

And so, one by one, the Elders turned their gazes to Tang Tianwen.

"Elder Tang, what are your thoughts on how the merit points should be awarded?"

Among the eleven Elders, Tang Tianwen was the leader.

In fact, the thirty-odd disciples on this mission all had some connection to these Elders.

Tang Tianwen considered for a moment before speaking slowly, "For this operation, the thirty-plus disciples moved out and completed the mission to Perfection by successfully disbanding the Celestial Eagle Tower. Each of them will receive thirty merit points."

"Zhang Su won two consecutive matches, bringing glory to our Guiyuan Sect, and will receive two hundred merit points. Zhou Peng, for his meritorious leadership and for defeating a Huajin Martial Artist, will receive three hundred merit points."

"What do you all think, Elders?"

The ten Elders glanced at one another.

In truth, thirty merit points was already a considerable amount.

Most of the disciples hadn’t even made a move; they had just gone along for the ride. To receive so many points for that was already excellent.

But they all knew that the ones who gained the most this time were Zhou Peng and Zhang Su.

Zhou Peng was one thing—he was from the Sect Leader’s faction, so it was only natural for Tang Tianwen to give him special consideration.

But Zhang Su wasn’t from the Sect Leader’s faction, nor was he even a disciple of the Ten Great Martial Veins, yet he had also received two hundred merit points.

He was truly lucky.

"Elder Wang, congratulations."

Wang Dakui’s face was filled with delight.

He had only told Zhang Su to go along and scrape together a few merit points.

He never expected such a huge return.

"Good. Since no one objects, it is settled. The Celestial Eagle Tower is just an unaffiliated power in the Jianghu, not worth mentioning. Next is the Five Elements Sect. We need to discuss this thoroughly and decide on a strategy..."

And so, the Elders continued to discuss the various matters concerning the conflict over the Hengshan ore vein.

...

「Day by day, time passed.」

The main contingent of the Five Elements Sect also arrived in Hengshan County.

However, the two sides did not immediately start fighting.

The two sects were competing for an iron ore vein, not waging an all-out war. They had to establish rules beforehand.

All eleven Postnatal Realm Elders of the Guiyuan Sect went out to negotiate with some of the Postnatal Realm Elders from the Five Elements Sect for several days.

It was rumored that the Elders from both sects had also clashed several times in private, with neither side gaining an advantage.

Seven days later, the Elders from both sects finally reached an agreement and set the rules.

At the Guiyuan Sect’s temporary residence, the urgent sound of a Copper Gong rang out.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

"All disciples, hear this order! Proceed to the Martial Arts Arena immediately to view the Sect’s announcement!"

The voice of an Inner Sect Steward echoed throughout the residence.

Many people began heading to the Martial Arts Arena.

The Martial Arts Arena was actually the estate’s original horse-riding grounds. It was very spacious, able to accommodate many people, and had been temporarily converted by the Guiyuan Sect.

At this moment, many disciples had already gathered in the Martial Arts Arena, and they were reading the announcement posted by the Elders.

Zhang Su was also in the crowd.

"Starting from noon tomorrow, disciples from both sects may officially engage in combat. Cultivation is restricted to below the Pill Force realm."

"The area within Drum Tower Street is the Guiyuan Sect’s territory, and the area within Stone Arch Street is the Five Elements Sect’s territory. Disciples from either side are forbidden from entering the other’s territory. Anyone who crosses the line may be killed on sight by martial artists at Pill Force or even the Postnatal Realm!"

The announcement even included several maps of Hengshan County.

Zhang Su already knew that the Guiyuan Sect and the Five Elements Sect’s conflict in Hengshan County over the ore vein would be limited to cultivators below the Pill Force realm.

This was to control the scale of the fighting between the two sects.

If the scale wasn’t controlled, the situation could spiral out of control, and both sects would suffer heavy losses in a mutually destructive outcome.

Zhang Su looked at the map.

The disciples of the two sects could only fight in the area between Drum Tower Street and Stone Arch Street.

However, this was a very large area.

It covered almost half of the county seat.

Zhang Su continued reading the announcement.

"Kill an Outer Force Martial Artist from the Five Elements Sect: ten merit points. An Inner Force Martial Artist: thirty merit points. A Huajin Martial Artist... one hundred merit points!"

A flicker of surprise passed through Zhang Su’s eyes.

A Huajin Martial Artist was only worth one hundred merit points, and that was with the Sect being very generous.

Normally, the merit points awarded would be even less.

Zhang Su thought back to a few days ago, when he had won two consecutive matches during the Celestial Eagle Tower affair. The Elders had deemed it a great contribution and awarded him two hundred merit points.

At the time, he hadn’t understood just how precious two hundred merit points were.

But now, he understood.

Killing two Huajin Martial Artists would only earn him two hundred merit points.

Of course, the value of merit points wasn’t determined by the quantity, but by what they could be exchanged for.

Several lists of various resources that could be exchanged for merit points were also posted in the Martial Arts Arena.

Zhang Su examined them closely.

"Ten merit points to exchange for one portion of Primordial Yang Powder?"

Zhang Su did a quick calculation. One portion of Primordial Yang Powder cost three hundred silver.

’So one merit point is equivalent to thirty silver?’

Of course, it wasn’t that simple.

There were many precious items that silver couldn’t buy.

But merit points could be exchanged for almost any precious item within the Guiyuan Sect.

Zhang Su immediately looked for what he cared about most: a spot for the Fire Melting Cave.

"A spot for the Fire Melting Cave can be exchanged for one thousand merit points."

’One thousand merit points... that’s about equivalent to killing ten Huajin Martial Artists from the Five Elements Sect.’

’If it’s Inner Force Martial Artists, I’d need to kill more than thirty of them.’

’As for Outer Force Martial Artists... I’d have to kill a hundred.’

’Thirty-something Inner Force Martial Artists... if I kill one a day, I’ll have enough in about a month. If I kill three or four a day, I’ll have enough in ten days...’

Zhang Su thought about it. ’It doesn’t seem that difficult.’

Besides, he already had two hundred merit points.

He was only eight hundred points away from a thousand.

Zhang Su thought it wasn’t difficult because he was confident in his own strength.

Those thirty-odd Inner Force Martial Artists weren’t just any Jianghu Martial Artists; they were disciples or stewards of the Five Elements Sect.

They were basically on par with, if not stronger than, the disciples and stewards of the Guiyuan Sect.

Just being able to kill a few would be considered very strong.

Killing more than thirty?

Difficult!

Next to impossible!

"The bounty list is up!"

Just then, someone shouted.

"The bounty list?"

Zhang Su’s interest was piqued. Sure enough, he saw many disciples rushing over at the news.

He also went to the front of the bounty list to take a closer look.

The bounty list was very interesting. It was divided into two types.

One was the Guiyuan Sect’s bounty list, divided into an Inner Force Chart and a Huajin Chart, which placed bounties on martial artists from the Five Elements Sect.

There were ten names on the Inner Force Chart. Killing any one of them would earn a reward of three hundred merit points.

Keep in mind, killing a regular Inner Force Martial Artist from the Five Elements Sect would only yield thirty merit points.

But a martial artist on this bounty list was worth ten regular ones!

The Huajin Chart also had ten names. Killing one would directly award one thousand merit points!

As for an Outer Force Chart... uh, there was no Outer Force Chart.

It seemed Outer Force Martial Artists weren’t worthy of having bounties placed on them.

Zhang Su read it very carefully.

He committed every name on the Inner Force Chart to memory.

’After all, this is all about merit points!’

If he could kill three of them, he would have enough for his thousand merit points.

Of course, every martial artist who made it onto the Guiyuan Sect’s bounty list was extremely powerful. A martial artist of the same realm would be lucky to escape with their life if they encountered one.

However, there was another type of bounty list.

This one was from the Five Elements Sect.

It was, in effect, the Five Elements Sect’s bounty list for Guiyuan Sect martial artists.

This list was most likely passed on by the Guiyuan Sect’s spies within the Five Elements Sect.

This was also very normal.

Both sects certainly had spies in the other.

Besides, this kind of bounty list was public, not some top-secret information.

It wouldn’t be difficult to get the names on the list.

The Five Elements Sect’s bounty list was also divided into Inner Force and Huajin.

An Elder first posted the Huajin chart.

Zhang Su was surprised to see Zhou Peng’s name, ranked third.

Zhou Peng was very strong.

’But in the eyes of the Five Elements Sect, he’s not even the most threatening Huajin Martial Artist from the Guiyuan Sect?’

’There are two other Guiyuan Sect Huajin Martial Artists considered more dangerous than Zhou Peng!’

However, Zhang Su was more concerned with the Inner Force Chart.

He also wanted to see which ten Inner Force Martial Artists the Five Elements Sect considered the greatest threats from the Guiyuan Sect.

As the Inner Force Chart was slowly unfurled...

...name after name appeared before Zhang Su’s eyes.

The very first name, in particular, made Zhang Su pause in surprise.

"This is... my name?"

"Did the Five Elements Sect make a mistake? I’m just an Outer Force disciple. How did I end up on the Inner Force Chart, and ranked first at that?"

Zhang Su’s voice wasn’t loud, but he was surrounded by Guiyuan Sect disciples, and everyone naturally heard him.

Heads snapped around.

In an instant, all eyes were fixed on Zhang Su.

Although no one spoke, the meaning in their eyes was simple. The people from the Five Elements Sect weren’t stupid; they had surely learned of the news that Zhang Su had killed Wei Yunzhou long ago.

Who would still treat Zhang Su as a mere Outer Force Martial Artist?

An Outer Force Martial Artist who could kill a Half-Step Huajin in a direct confrontation being ranked first on the Five Elements Sect’s bounty list? That was perfectly reasonable!

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!