The Path Toward Heaven

In front of the Grand Hall at the bottom of Shiyue Peak, many pine trees were planted around the stone platform.

As the winter wind blew over, the accumulated snow on the trees fell down with a rustling noise, as if another snowfall had just occurred.

The snow on the stone platform had already been shoveled to the side by the caretakers, melting under the sunlight and making it even colder around the arena.

The look in Tong Lu’s eyes was icy cold. “Jing Jiu is scared of accepting my challenge. This isn’t the way your Green Mountain Sect acts.” He said this while staring at a few disciples of the Green Mountain in front of him.

The visit by the West Ocean Sword Sect was for the Four-Seas Banquet. They would likely to invite some influential people of the Green Mountain Sect to attend their banquet.

Yet, these matters were discussed between the elders of the West Ocean Sword Sect and the masters of Shiyue Peak. Tong Lu sent out a formal letter of challenge and was declined flatly by Shenmo Peak, as expected.

Yao Songshan said, “If Cultivationist Tong Lu wants to try his skills on someone, I’d like to help, or he can pick anyone among us.”

Tong Lu said, “You are not my equal, not one of you. So there is no point in even trying.”

In the past, it would be the high-ranking disciples of Liangwang Peak like Guo Nanshan and Gu Han to receive Tong Lu.

But due to a certain incident, they were punished by the sect rules, and hadn’t been allowed to come out from their manor caves for two years.

Tong Lu guessed that the incident most likely related the death of Luo Huainan.

Yao Songshan was ranked eleventh on Liangwang Peak, and he was fully aware that he wasn’t Tong Lu’s equal, so he wasn’t upset when hearing his remark.

“In my opinion, Cultivationist Tong isn’t my Young Senior Master’s equal, so there is no point for you to try.”

And Tong Lu was unwilling to argue with him, turning around to walk toward the Grand Hall.

Jing Jiu wasn’t willing to accept his challenge; what else could he do?

Watching his figure from behind, Yao Songshan shook his head. “Senior Master Jing accepting his challenge is a pipe dream,” he commented.

“He is more than a dreamer; he is an idiot.”

“That’s right. A lazy person like Young Senior Master wouldn’t spend any energy on such a thing. Who has seen him get into a sword fight with anybody?”

If it were anybody else on the Green Mountain who refused Tong Lu’s challenge, that disciple would be considered a coward and be looked down on by the colleagues.

Yet, this person was Jing Jiu, and he wouldn’t be scorned by anybody; it was because all the disciples of the Green Mountain knew that he wasn’t that kind of person, instead being that kind of individual

A disciple suddenly thought of something, exclaiming, “It happened before! Young Senior Master had fought three battles in a row at that Sword Trial on Green Mountain.”

“That was for Liu Shisui’s sake .”

Upon hearing this name, the discussion suddenly stopped.

The crowd dispersed.

…

…

The huge shadow drifted at a seemingly slow pace over the ocean surface, but actually it moved at an astonishing speed. In an instant, it passed the Chaotic Rocks and hundreds of fishing boats and arrived outside Haizhou City.

A large amount of sea water dropped down from the sky, and Haizhou City experienced a heavy rainfall, with a rainbow created by the raindrops reflecting the slant sunlight.

The heavenly whale flapped its two wings and flew away from the city, causing big waves in the ocean. The booming noises created by the waves bombarding the cliff rocks couldn’t curb the cheers of the residents in the city.

This year’s Four-Seas Banquet officially began.

As a competition with Zhaoge City, the West Ocean Sword Sect had invested more in the Four-Seas Banquet this year. Though it still wasn’t as popular as the Plum Meeting, both the size and level of the event had greatly improved over the years; more Cultivation practitioners participated in the event, and the Center Sect had sent their elders in the Yuanying State to the event in last three banquets.

Like in the past, the Green Mountain Sect had sent a few regular disciples to participate in the event, showing their attitude plainly.

It was interesting to note that the current fame of the Four-Seas Banquet was mostly due to the Green Mountain Sect.

The first appearance of Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue in the Cultivation world took place here.

Jing Jiu had won first place in the chess tournament here, and it was due to the Four-Seas Banquet that Jing Jiu participated in the Plum Meeting and played that amazing chess game.

Though Zhao Layue didn’t take part in the Four-Seas Banquet, the way she showed up was impressive.

In the grand hall of the Cloud Platform, she sent out a bloody rainbow and killed the free- traveling Cultivation practitioner Zhu Jie in front of the elder of the West Ocean Sword Sect and many highly achieved swordsmen of various sects.

Many palace halls were hidden inside the thick cloud that hung over a certain spot of the ocean all year long and had never scattered. The Cloud Platform was located there.

Tong Lu stood in front of the grand hall and looked at the distant ground, thinking of something, his looks terrible.

The Cloud Platform was an important place for the West Ocean Sword Sect, and was a place offering them the opportunity to interact with all kinds of people from Chaotian. Though Tong Lu was a personal disciple of the West Ocean Godly Swordsman, he seldom came here.

The West Ocean Sword Sect was actually located on a large island seven hundred miles away in the deep end of the ocean. That was the place where he practiced his sword work.

At the moment, the blue bay looked like a gemstone in his eyes, and the buildings on the greenish mountains became many small dots.

This year’s Four-Seas Banquet had already had the tournament outcomes. Later on, those winners would take the Cloud Boat to come here to receive the four precious treasures presented by Xiwang Sun in person.

As the representative of the young disciples of the West Ocean Sword Sect, Tong Lu was responsible for greeting the dignitaries here.

Thinking of the uninteresting pleasantries and boring affairs, his countenance had grown even more awful.

In recent days, the West Ocean Sword Sect and some friendly sects had taken the opportunity provided by the Four-Seas Banquet to spread the news that Tong Lu challenged Jing Jiu on the Green Mountain, but Jing Jiu didn’t dare to accept the challenge.

Though he was a celebrity at the moment, it was actually meaningless to him.

It would take a while for the Four-Seas Banquet to finish, so Tong Lu walked back to his own room, finding a letter on the table.

Who could come and go so freely in such a well-guarded place of the West Ocean Sword Sect?

After checking the letter with his Sword Awareness, making sure no formation or poison was attached to it, Tong Lu picked up the letter and opened it.

Two concise messages were written in it, that is, the time and the place; this was a challenge letter.

He was surprised to find that the signature was a red sword.

Was it the Thoughtless Sword?

…

…

Ten days later.

On the ocean outside Haizhou City, far away from the seashore, there was a cluster of chaotic rocks submerged from the sea water, and the sea water rolled and somersaulted amid these rocks, creating an endless white foam.

When the bigger waves hit the rocks, the sea water would shoot up between the rocks, looking like the whales spitting the water, truly a marvelous scene.

The steamy fog filled the air, and it would be hard to see anything further away.

A man in black clothing stood among the rocks silently, as if he were part of the rocks. If one didn’t pay close attention, one couldn’t notice his existence.

Along with the landing of a sword light, Tong Lu arrived.

The man in black said to him, “I didn’t expect that you would be so arrogant as to dare come here by yourself. Don’t you worry that this might be a trap to assassinate you?”

“This is the West Ocean. Nobody can set up a trap to kill me here,” said Tong Lu.

The man in black asked, “Is it because you know who those killers are?”

Tong Lu said, “Actually, I’m more curious about who dares pose as a disciple of the Green Mountain.”

“Though I’m not a disciple of the Green Mountain anymore, it’s far from posing as a disciple of the Green Mountain,” the man black rejoined.

Tong Lu guessed who his opponent was. He remained silent for a while before saying, “To show yourself then.”

“I heard that you want to avenge Luo Huainan, and you went to the Green Mountain to challenge Jing Jiu.”

The man in black pulled off the black mask covering his face, showing his face that was even darker than before, but the expression on his face was still so genuine.

“In that case, you should come to me, rather than bother somebody else.”