Chapter Text
Jiang Cheng woke up in the morning just as usual.
There’s nothing special that woke him up, not a ruckus that startled him awake, nor a seductive whispers from a maiden (not that he had any woman, to begin with), not even from a delicious foods’ smell his sister, Jiang Yanli, might have cooked for him.
The only thing that’s special was the fact that despite 8 hours of good night sleep, Jiang Cheng still felt his body ached all over, and his head was throbbing in a rhythm comparable to a marching band. It seemed like sleep didn’t cure a single part of his fatigue anymore.
Clutching his head with both of his hands, Jiang Cheng let himself groaned softly at the pleasant knead to his throbbing head.
He had been doing this for a while now, every morning, or when no one was present.
Jiang Cheng was called Sandu Sengshou (The Sage of Buddhist 3 Poisons) for a reason.
He had usurped his parent, the late sect leader of YunmengJiang, Jiang Fengmian and his wife Yu Ziyuan. He took the mantle of a sect leader by himself at a tender age, 17, even when both of his parents were still alive and kicking.
For what reason, do you say?
It's no other than feeling fed up. Jiang Cheng was so tired and fed up to see his father led YunmengJiang to nowhere in particular, and how his mother constantly berating practically all people around her for no reason.
Jiang Cheng had forced them to abdicate the position as sect leader to him, and proceeded to lock both his father and mother together in one of the pavilions at Lotus Pier. Well, Jiang Cheng said that he would let them out again after they learn to communicate with each other in a civil way, but knowing their personality who had driven Jiang Cheng to do all of this in the first place; it seemed like they wouldn’t go out to see the sunlight in the near future.
At that time, his father had given him a look full of betrayal and disappointment, yet his eyes seemed to paint him in complicated feelings between disappointment and pride. While his mother was shouting at him for his recklessness, and shouting at him for being ungrateful, or what she said as,
"Why are you doing this to me!? What did this mother do wrong!? I'm doing all of this for you! Your father didn't love you! You can never be better than the son of a certain Sanren!"
Not that Jiang Cheng cared about anyway.
He had been fed up with being told, "Your father didn't love you, and you can never be better than a Sanren's son!"
Like Hell, he cares! In the first place, such Sanren had already died decades ago even her bone had already turned into soil!
Why should his mother keep being haunted by a dead woman who never even step into his father's bed-chamber all her life, and why should Jiang Cheng be the recipient of his mother's old grudge and jealousy!?
It never made sense.
Jiang Cheng had practically lived all his life without the guidance of his parent at all if he wanted to honestly say. The only one whose opinion he considered highly was his older sister, Jiang Yanli. She, who had neither special talent nor beauty, but held all wisdom and kindness Jiang Cheng could ever muster in his life. Other than that, He had no regret or hesitation whatsoever even to what his parent might feel about his usurpation.
After the scandalous abdication, Jiang Cheng wasted no efforts to strengthen YunmengJiang and purged all of YunmengJiang elders whom he had deemed as a useless and unnecessary complement for his reign. He confiscated their properties and stripped them out of power.
Due to his action, he was known far and wide, for his revolutionary leadership where he didn’t hesitate to spill blood to those who opposed him no matter what their position in the YunmengJiang sect, while also giving out position and recognize many new talents within all of the social stratum, from street kids to noble-born, women to men, and young to old.
All in all, Jiang Cheng had been known as a sect leader who rules with an iron fist, dangerous fury, strictness, and bloody hands. He had faced countless mocking and doubts from other sect leaders and slapped their words back to their faces in return. He had faced any problems without fear and confusion.
That being said...
In the face of an unresolvable problem, Jiang Cheng could only clutch at his head and wailed in despair alone.
“Arghhhh!!!!!! Die, die, die, you!! Damn it! Damn and rot away in that hell of yours!!!”
While curse words could probably inflict what the caster said to the receiver, Jiang Cheng simply had no power to do it. After all, he had no knowledge or whatever to the heretic path of cultivation, and no, even if he had, he doubted it could even give any effect towards that one particular victim of his curses.
Jiang Cheng’s hands came loose from the previous position on his head, and while he lowered his hands to his eye level, Jiang Cheng could see a few black strains of hairs on the space between his fingers.
Jiang Cheng felt his stomach lurched when he made an effort to twist his body and looked at his pillow, only to see more strains of hair adorning the purple pillow, and this was not the first time!
Yes, it had become a common occurrence now.
Jiang Cheng mourned the many strains of his hairs who had been defeated in the battle with his ever-increasing stress.
From the painting stored in the Ancestral Hall and Library, no one in Jiang's ancestor had thin hair.
But perhaps, Jiang Cheng would become the first in Jiang Clan hundreds of years history, to be the first sect leader who had a bald head.
The culprit who had made Jiang Cheng fell to this state was no other than the Yiling Patriarch, Yiling Laozu, a sect leader of the demonic sect led by a demonic cultivator, one and only Wei Wuxian!
Lately, Wei Wuxian had become the menace to Jiang Cheng every part of life, in a mere 5 months of their time knowing each other.
How had it come to this, now you wonder?
It was all started about 5 months ago.
Yiling was a hot potato-like area.
It was located between the YunmengJiang sect and the QishanWen sect. Legally and historically speaking, it belonged to YunmengJiang, but QishanWen had suddenly become so noisy during the reign of Wen Ruohan as the sect leader. They claimed that the place belonged to their sect. Completed to the fact that YunmengJiang had neglected Yiling as their area, and even the infamous troublemaker place of Burial Mound was sealed and taken care of by QishanWen since hundreds of years ago. It's no wonder that QishanWen wanted to take Yiling as their own as well.
And, uh, had Jiang Cheng stated that his father, Jiang Fengmian was hardly a competent man, and always trying to shirk away from troubles? If not, then let it be stated that Jiang Fengmian was such a person!
Several years ago Jiang Fengmian almost handed the region to QishanWen freely, yes! Freely! The idea was so ridiculous that Jiang Cheng who had previously tried to be patient and waited until his 20th birthday to take the reign as sect leader finally snapped and began his usurpation early.
In spite of Jiang Cheng’s act when he had finally taken the mantle of leadership, he ended up receiving a handful of internal sects’ troubles he needed to take care of with his ascension as Sect Leader. So, the matter of Yiling and the surrounding area had been postponed and left in vague.
On one hand, YunmengJiang didn’t let the area fall from their hands, and on the other hand, QishanWen also kept pestering them to let go of the area. Thus, Yiling had become a “hot” region where YunmengJiang cultivators and QishanWen cultivators frequently engaged in small fights, claiming the ownership of Yiling.
It was all common happenstance during the 6 years of Jiang Cheng reign, from he was 17 till he was 23 years old in the current days.
As it stood, 5 months ago, some of his disciples came to Yiling, as usual, to go into a night-hunting.
There’s no report of disturbance from Yiling actually.
It was simply because they had caught some gossips and whispers from rogue cultivators that apparently, the sighting of fierce corpses in Yiling had risen in relatively high number compared to the normal time. There’s no trouble appearing, but still, there’s a need for a check because fierce corpses wouldn’t appear in high numbers and frequency for no reason at all.
The trouble had started when the dozens of disciples didn’t come back to the sect, and instead of them coming back, a pair of kids, a boy, and a girl in their 13 or 14 years old suddenly barged to YunmengJiang, riding a gigantic beast.
The beast with a turtle-like body, yet a Snake-like head, occupied almost the whole training hall of Lotus Pier!
“YunmengJiang sect’s disciples have rudely infiltrated the abode of Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian, in Burial Mound!” the boy announced with a lazy-like tone of voice, “What’s more, they even killed Laozu’s fierce corpses subordinates! The audacity, the audacity~” he shook his head exaggeratedly in an exasperated manner, “Our Laozu was soooo maad~ thus, asking," the boy paused, "No, wait, it's comm-manding, commanding Sect leader Jiang to go personally and beg for our lord forgiveness.” The boy concluded his announcement with a mischievous smirk.
The boy himself was good-looking, saved for his nasty smirk; he actually looked like someone who came from a noble house.
He wore a delicately-sewn robe that at a glance could be seen as some high-quality fabric, an outer black robes adorned with golden trimmings and the pattern of bamboo in red threads, completed with a black undershirt with a red sash.
Jiang Cheng's personal guards, Jiang Bolin, Jiang Molin, and Jiang Solin, stood out to shield him from any harm, while his other personal guard Jiang Rolin, led dozens of direct disciples to confront the two teenagers at the training field.
“Sect leader, we need to evacuate from here quickly! A beast with turtle body and snake-like head, it might be the Xuanwu of Slaughter, the monster that even Wen Mao had failed to slay in the legend!” Jiang Bolin hissed to him in a low voice.
“And where should I run to?” Jiang Cheng only smiled coldly in response.
That Xuanwu had suddenly popped out from the thin air and landed on Lotus Pier Training Hall. They didn’t come from the sky; nor did they come from the land and waterway. The only explanation was they came using a teleportation talisman.
But was there a talisman that could transport the huge body of Xuanwu and the two teenagers all at once?
If there was, they would need an indescribable amount of spiritual energy!
And yet, the two teenagers didn’t look like they were losing any speck of energy at all.
Such opponents needed to be wary of!
In mere seconds, they practically caught all of the disciples, from junior to senior cultivators off guards!
“Alright!!! Where’s sect leader Jiang, hmmmmm~?” The boy continued his annoying taunting while looking around at the YunmengJiang Cultivators who had surrounded them from all directions.
“Oh yuck, what a bad manner, Sect Leader Jiang, to treat your guest this way,” The boy shook his head and lamenting in a hypocritical way. As if he wasn't the one who had the exact bad manner for barging in someone else private property uninvited!
“Hmmm, it seems like the sect leader still does not understand that our Laozu’s time is really precious, and we do not want to waste any unnecessary wait. Alright then,” again with a stretched-out lazy-like tone, as if the boy held no fear at all, and just reading out a line rather than talking about real threats.
"I'll count to 3, if your Sect Leader still doesn't come out to receive us properly," The boy smirked, "Then don't blame me If A-Qing here accidentally command XuanXuan to have a meal time~"
"1~"
The boy indeed started to count!
"2~"
What should Jiang Cheng do? Where should he run to? Where could Jiang Cheng run to? He couldn't possibly run to the town and endangered the civilian, could he?
It's the first time in his life that Jiang Cheng felt like his brain was malfunctioning, he couldn't think at all, yet he should think quickly to race against time! For a young brat able to make a seasoned Sect Leader like Jiang Cheng to be in dreads and unsure of what to do, was truly terrifying...
Jiang Bolin, his guard, however, stood before him and prevented Jiang Cheng to appear even a little, he said,
"Sect Leader, don't worry! They're just having an empty threat! We have surrounded them and ready to take them down any time," he murmured only for the two of them to hear.
There's something like a relief inside Jiang Cheng.
It felt like he was finally freed from thinking for a suitable response and think about the consequences later.
"3~"
There's still no response from Jiang Cheng, and instead, the YunmengJiang cultivators who were surrounding them started to march towards the Xuanwu, manipulating the swords to pierce its body, and also aimed towards the boy and the girl who sat on its back as well,
"Aiyooooo, Sect Leader is a shy one, isn't he?" Faking a lamenting sigh, the boy, turned his head towards his companion, a young girl on his left, "A-Qing!"
“Scram! Only Laozu has the right to command me!” The girl who had been called as A-Qing barked to the boy who only grinned back at her. Still, the girl raised her hands and slapped at the body of Xuanwu, “XuanXuan, it’s mealtime!”
One moment.
Just one brief moment, for the Xuanwu they had been riding until now to suddenly snarl and swiped its serpentine head and neck around the Training Hall.
After those split seconds, the training field which was originally full of clamor from YunmengJiang cultivators who surrounded the two teenagers fell into silence. All that remained was a few chunks of flesh and bones here and there on the field, and a Xuanwu who just shut its mouth with fresh drops of blood gushing out from its mouth and trailed onto its serpentine-like neck.
No one thought that the boy was able to create a massacre!
"You! You monster! You killed them all!"
One of YunmengJiang cultivators whose leg was bitten off but remained alive, cry out in horror, accusing the boy and the girl.
"Oh my, Oh my, How come you're accusing us now?" The boy licked his lip, smirking, "When your fellow sect cultivators suddenly barged into our home and killed our companions, they also didn't knock. So, it's natural that we came here without knocking."
He shrugged, patting his slightly rumpled robes from when he's sitting, the boy proceeded to jump down from the Xuanwu's back, footstep light, avoiding all the gore on the ground,
"Previously, I already said we only wanted to meet the sect leader, yet you all surrounded us, and attacking this weak and vulnerable little girl and boy, with that dangerous sword ready to pierce us if we're just a little weaker. When in the end it's us who gain the upper hand and slay all of you first, wouldn't it only a matter of who's more capable? So, now, don't be a pot calling the kettle black, shall we~"
Stopping just before a few meters away from Jiang Cheng's side, the boy grinned, "So, Would Sect Leader Jiang care to grant us an audience after all this?"
That was it!
That’s the first step of Jiang Cheng's never-ending misery he had right now.
When one thought more about it, it could be said that it was Jiang Cheng’s own hands who invited the trouble to come for his own self.
Because apparently, in Yiling, a demonic sect led by a man called Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian, existed with the headquarter in Burial Mound.
Yes, the Burial Mound, the so-called hell on earth.
Even so, was it Jiang Cheng’s fault that his disciples ended up killing the fierce corpse in a place known as hell on earth?
Who the hell know that the place was apparently the dwelling of Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian????? Or rather, who the fuck Wei Wuxian was, Jiang Cheng had no idea at all.
Therefore, answering the two messengers and Yiling Laozu’s demand, Jiang Cheng had to come to Yiling and apologized to the said Laozu.
Why did Jiang Cheng obey such a ridiculous demand, you say?
Of course, it’s because he had no power to oppose the latter!
A boy and a girl, could control a massive Xuanwu of Slaughter, and they had killed dozens of Jiang Cheng’s direct disciples, the peak of the crops, and one of his strongest disciples, Jiang Rolin, in mere seconds!
One part of him didn’t want to cause any trouble to a person who could create such fatalities.
While another part of Jiang Cheng, also wanted to know and see who the hell was this Yiling Laozu who had dared to lay claim on a “hot” region between YunmengJiang and QishanWen.
And the remaining part of him had been totally caught off guard, driven into a corner, with no way to turn the situation around. Whoever this Yiling Laozu guy was, he was truly impressive to make Jiang Cheng had no way to evade. Jiang Cheng should be wary and should not oppose them on a whim, especially not when YunmengJiang had had enough troubles with other sects already.
His decision to obey the demand to come to Yiling and asked for forgiveness proved to be the right choice.
Jiang Cheng came to Yiling and head straight to Burial Mound, wherein, there he found a circle of neatly lined-up fierce corpses at the mountain foot, they were patrolling diligently.
His surprise had only been increasing the more he stepped into the Burial Mound territory. The place that should be reeking of death, surrounded by dark mist and resentful energy, turned out to be like a normal mountain.
The mountain path was adorned with colorful and beautiful lanterns.
And when Jiang Cheng looked at some part of the mountain's flatter slope, he could even see some part of its was a farm, and several dozen of skeletons or low-level corpses were working in the field, the similar way of human tending the crops albeit a bit stiffly.
But, more than that, the residence of Yiling Laozu and his follower was actually a big mountain cave. The cave was decorated, designed, and styled in an impressive way to resemble an underground palace. It reminded Jiang Cheng of fairies and their beautiful underground dwelling told in legends.
The place was so lavish and beautiful.
Perhaps it was because it had been built on the mountain, but the cave and the stone pillar were made up from glistening obsidian, and the decorations were made up from many beautiful jewels and jades. The silks forming the gauze between the sections inside the cave were also from high-quality silks that Jiang Cheng could only have in his ceremonial robes.
Jiang Cheng and his envoys had been made to sit in a very comfortable mat (very fluffy and soft on his butt), and immediately after, a few maidens came to present them a delicious fruit wine Jiang Cheng had never tasted in life before, served in a delicate and beautiful crystal clear cup to boot. The maiden themselves were very beautiful that Jiang Cheng who was known to have no patience for women actually indulged himself to stare and enjoy the beauty in front of him.
From the moment Jiang Cheng stepped his foot to Burial Mound, the Yiling Laozu residence, he had been fed one fact to another.
Starting from power; look at those hundreds of fierce corpses set out as a wall like they had nothing to do at the foothills! And then look at those corpses tending at the crops! They actually could do something other than killing people????
And then look at this wealth! Look at those precious jades served in purpose merely to embellish a ceiling! Look at those silks! Looks at those crystal clear wine sets! Look at those beautiful ladies who walked around casually like they had a sale on pretty maidens!
Don’t forget the fruit wine they served! It was so exotic and fancy.
From power, to wealth, to beauties, to good liquor, all the things people used to define a man’s worth, all of them were presented in an extraordinary manner in Yiling Burial Mound, it made Jiang Cheng’s effort to stop his hands from gripping his lurching stomach was even more difficult.
His internal weep increased the moment the said Yiling Laozu finally showed himself to Jiang Cheng and his envoys.
The guy was a personification of beauty.
It was not a flattery. Jiang Cheng was just stating a fact.
If the maiden he saw earlier were beautiful in their womanly way, then the man who appeared in front of him was the definition of beautiful on a universal level.
It was similar to when all people regarded starry night as beautiful, rainbows as beautiful, and flowers as beautiful.
The man wore the same style of clothes as the young boy and the young maiden who visited Lotus Pier before. A black robes with a red bamboo pattern, and gold trimmings. His long black hair was let down, reaching to his hips, and a small portion of his hair was tied by a gleaming red ruby as the crown, with red silk ribbon hanging from the crown down to his back.
Perhaps the only one who could compete with his beauty was the twin jades of Lan from GusuLan Sect, Lan Xichen, and Lan Wangji.
A pair of brothers known to be the best descendant GusuLan ever had, be it their looks and also cultivation. While in fact, GusuLan itself was infamous for how their clan always gave birth to good-looking and strong cultivator for centuries, and how their rules of only accepting a disciple with looks above averages.
It explained so much the beauty of the twin jades who were said to be the most beautiful of them all, thus explained the beauty of this Yiling Laozu who actually stood a chance to the Lan brothers here.
Yiling Laozu, the guy himself was (surprisingly) very young. Perhaps at the same age group as Jiang Cheng.
But Jiang Cheng doubted it was the case at all.
Wen Ruohan was also someone whose appearance deceived his old-man age.
Besides, Yiling Laozu who later introduced himself as Wei Ying courtesy Wuxian, was so charming that Jiang Cheng felt suspicious not only about his age but his race as well. Demon and spirits were all said to have very good-looking appearances after all.
Perhaps, if Yiling Laozu had turned out to be an old man, or a greasy guy like Wen Chao, even though he had more power, wealth, and beautiful maidens, Jiang Cheng could still hold onto his remaining dignity as a youthful guy known to be the number fourth of the most desired cultivator in his generation.
But, no!
Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian had also ground Jiang Cheng’s last chance of dignity and triumphed upon their vast difference in every worth!
Now, if only his grievance was simply the matter of men’s pride, then Jiang Cheng would just acknowledge him as another “Wen Ruohan”, a leader who hoards upon beauties, power, and wealth, and possessed a good look as well.
But just like the old saying ‘when it rains it pours’, it was merely the beginning of Jiang Cheng's endless misery and defeats.
If the show of power through the countless fierce corpses at the mountain foot, the parade of beauties, and the casual showing of wealth, would make any men’s feet grew weak and ground their dignity to dust, then the appearance of Yiling Laozu with his dangerous aura and otherworldly beauty would either make people gawked in admiration and lulled to throw their guards off, or triggered to be even warier.
In Jiang Cheng's case, it was the latter.
But even after he chose to be cautious, in the end, it was still the wrong way to adapt to the situation!
Jiang Cheng had been so wary to Wei Wuxian.
His voice was clear and nice; it made Jiang Cheng was on guard to the possibility of being hypnotized by the voice. His smile was so charming, it made his overall look even more pleasant to look at; though it made Jiang Cheng became afraid of being seduced.
All in all, He had observed Yiling Laozu's every gesture and listened to his every word, trying to discern the other meaning behind it, so much that Jiang Cheng disregarded the man who stood beside Wei Wuxian.
The man who stood unassumingly was by no means ugly, but when standing beside such a monstrous beauty, the man could only be regarded as plain and average.
At the time Jiang Cheng started to realize what’s going on and started to throw his attention to the man, the fight had already ended, the butterfly that had its attention focused solely on the forbidden flower had fully been tangled in a spider web with no way out.
Jiang Cheng was so preoccupied and had turned all of his mind to the Laozu, and when he finally snapped out of it, the plain man, Meng Yao was it, had trapped him into their scheme with Meng Yao’s braided words he had thrown earlier.
Unbeknown to him, Jiang Cheng had more or less acknowledged the land of Yiling was Yiling Laozu’s rightful domain, and he had even been robbed into agreeing to help the claim to the Wen Sect in the form of declaring war upon them shoulder to shoulder with Yiling Laozu and his subjects.
It was a flawless trap.
Jiang Cheng could only stare hatefully at Meng Yao. To the man who had been ignored at the presence of the jaw-dropping appearance of Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian.
Meng Yao returned his fury stares with a benign smile on the other hand, as if to say,
“Thank you for falling into our trap so gracefully,”
While Wei Wuxian himself pretended to not notice his staring and conversed with Jiang Cheng’s envoys instead.
He had been had! Thoroughly!
Jiang Cheng helplessly acknowledged another distance to be increased between him and Yiling Laozu with his defeat of their mind games.
In the past, Jiang Cheng had dealt with many troublesome sects and their leaders.
The key to deal with those people was observing the most eye-catching individual and ignored the other minions who were just spewing mindless words.
Wen Ruohan, Jin Guangshan, Wen Xu, and Nie Mingjue were men who had an eye-catching presence and were also the only ones who needed to be cautioned with. While small fries in the likes of Wen Chao and Jin Zixun and other elders from their sects who spouted threats and arrogant words, were worth no attention actually.
Apparently, those experiences were turned upside down when dealing with Yiling Laozu and the gang.
Jiang Cheng had been so caught up with Wei Wuxian that the possibility of his underling being even more dangerous and needed caution from, had slipped out of his mind, no, it never crossed his mind at all that the one who needed to be paid attention to was actually that plain person who had no presence and was just braiding words over words!
But, it was totally different with the blabber those kinds of minions usually shot out about, that practically nonsenses. Every word that Meng Yao spoke was a trap meant to direct him into their plan with no other way to back off.
In the end, Jiang Cheng had been defeated in their battle of wits...
Once again though, If only it was the only grievance Jiang Cheng had to bear, he would gladly shoulder it all.
But, luck always comes alone while misfortunes come in a succession.
With the agreement of challenging the Wen Sect into an open war, Jiang Cheng readied his 5 thousand men consisted of his elite cultivators' troupes whom he had painstakingly nurtured since he was still the sect heir 10 years ago and had been growing in number since he took the mantle of sect leader 6 years ago.
They were elite among elites. Even the barbaric cultivators of QingheNie stood no chance in the face of Jiang Cheng’s pride and hard works.
Even with a heavy heart, Jiang Cheng still had to send them into the war with the Wen Sect anyway.
They had an overwhelming number, it was indeed true. With 5 thousand men YunmengJiang had sent out in their war ground that was Qiongqi valley, the Wen Sect had in turn sent out 15 thousand men to counter them. It seemed like they were adamant to make this first open war to be the last, and strived for their goal to subdue YunmengJiang along the way.
It was not the fear of having to lose to the Wen Sect cultivator’s army that made Jiang Cheng felt like weeping.
Even with those 3:1 differences in cultivators, Jiang Cheng had no doubt that his disciples would win. Perhaps if it was in the past, under Jiang Fengmian's rule and his way of training the cultivators, they would lose in no time. But, the current YunmengJiang cultivators couldn't be underestimated.
But still, at the very least YunmengJiang would lose one to two thousand of his men to win the war, even after considering the army of Yiling Laozu who was on their side as well.
Nurturing elite disciples was no easy matter.
It was what made Jiang Cheng’s stomach ached in pain, and the sudden ridiculous impulse of wanting to just pack his elite disciples and hide them away.
It needed considerable efforts and resources to form them. Hence, every single one of them was like a treasure to YunmengJiang.
The matter of money to provide them could be set aside. But the time needed to train them, and the existence of gifted people itself was highly essential.
One could not simply grab random nobody in the streets and say “From tomorrow onwards you’re going to be YunmengJiang elite cultivators.”
That goes without saying that every single loss of his elite disciples would be a hard blow to YunmengJiang, not to mention one or two thousand of them!
Jiang Cheng knew it.
That’s why his stomach had been rolling in pain whenever he thought of those potential losses.
Nevertheless, it needed to be done.
On one hand, it was his fault, to begin with, for falling into the schemes of that damn Yiling Laozu and his gang. On the other hand, Jiang Cheng also wanted to use this chance to gauge the strength of Yiling Laozu and his fierce corpse army.
Fierce corpses were fearsome monsters for mortal humans and lesser cultivators, and yet for a trained cultivator, fierce corpses were hardly a threat. The normal case so far proved that a team of junior disciples equipped with swords and talismans would be enough to subdue one fierce corpse. While one trained disciples like YunmengJiang had, could face about 3 of them at the same time.
Given that estimation, it needed DOZENS of Thousands of fierce corpses to defeat 5 Thousand of YunmengJiang elite cultivators.
That number was so ridiculous, and by far, even in the most dangerous place, Burial Mound, there were only hundreds who could develop into fierce corpses among dozens of thousands of kinds of walking corpses there, while the rest of them could only be transformed into skeletal corpses, and lesser walking corpses who could even be beaten out by an adult mortal human.
Therefore, this war was also his way of depleting Yiling Laozu’s forces and also to see what power the man named Wei Wuxian actually held.
For now, Jiang Cheng could only swallow the bitter pill and waited for the chance of him to collect the payment from Yiling Laozu’s actions, fully with the addition of extra interests. Some other day he would…
Now, if it went with Jiang Cheng’s plan all would be well, wouldn’t it?
But, Jiang Cheng needed to engrave the saying of “once it rains it pours, and misfortunes always come in succession!”
The battle between YunmengJiang who aided the Yiling Laozu to claim the Yiling region with the Wen Sect ended with total victory to the joined factions.
Among 5 thousand cultivators YunmengJiang had sent out, there were only 24 deaths; a surprisingly low amount for a direct clash with an enemy, no, it’s so frighteningly low casualty! It’s really a far cry from Jiang Cheng’s prediction of 1 to 2 thousand losses.
However,
the deaths had been entirely self-inflicted!
That's right. The war to the Wen Sect could be described as a one-man army.
Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian, had come out with 10 sentient fierce corpses as his guards (how he made a sentient corpse was also beyond belief!). Jiang Cheng previously had warned one of his right-hand men who led their cultivators, Jiang Bolin, to be wary of Wei Wuxian’s underling, because they could present unimaginable roles.
And yet, once again Jiang Cheng’s precaution was turned upside down with his clash of wits to the Yiling Laozu.
His 10 fierce corpses were proved to be a vicious threat, indeed. But the one who actually wreaked havoc to the Wen Sect was Wei Wuxian himself!
Jiang Cheng had asked Wei Wuxian to open the war with his strongest cultivation move.
It was his disguise to gauge the extent of the Laozu’s power. And Jiang Cheng had also mentioned to him if he could perhaps kill Wen Zhuliu while the battle commenced, it would be advantageous to their future plan.
Wen Zhuliu was the nightmare of every cultivator for the threat of their cores being melted.
The goal Jiang Cheng hoped to achieve by mentioning this, aside from making two monsters fought each other, no matter who won in the end, the victor would be in a weakened state. And if Wei Wuxian succeeded to kill Wen Zhuliu, it would erase the nightmare of every cultivator.
That being said,
Despite how Wei Wuxian had killed their nightmare, in the process of killing Wen Zhuliu himself, he had made a completely brand new, more terrifying nightmare in return!
If Wen Zhuliu was feared of his technique of melting the already formed golden core, dispersing the condensed spiritual energy back into their meridian, then what Wei Wuxian displayed was his power of ripping out the golden core from the body directly in the blink of an eye, and proceeded to show it off in front of the owner before shattering it into nothing right in front of their eyes...
How had he done it, nobody knew.
One thing left to be the fact was; the act of ripping a golden core out and shattering it right in front of their owner's eyes was extremely damaging to the mind! Much more damaging than a simple knowing of their spiritual energy had been dissolved.
Jiang Cheng’s plan to erase the cultivator’s nightmare had bitten him on the ass and producing a new worse nightmare instead!
Their nightmare didn’t stop at just that.
Wei Wuxian possessed a black flute with some array crafted to its slender body and decorated with bright red tassel, ChenQing, the name Wei Wuxian had proudly introduced it to Jiang Bolin at the beginning of their assemble before the war commenced.
Using that flute, Wei Wuxian then commanded the 10 sentient fierce corpses he brought to begin the slaughter of the Wen cultivators.
The usual estimation of the fierce corpses they knew was turned once again upside down with those 10 fierce corpses show of power!
Compared to those 10 fierce corpses, their usual fierce corpses were like an infant to a knight!
It was a complete massacre.
It went to the point that the 5 thousand of YunmengJiang cultivators prayed in earnest for the Wen Sect cultivators to just run away and be safe.
Their pray had not been granted, of course.
They had lost the sense of time, but at some point, the Qiongqi valley that was originally filled with the cry of men some time ago had turned as quiet as a graveyard.
What was left were the scattered 15 thousand bloodied corpses in every nook and cranny of the valley.
And Wei Wuxian, who was excitedly praising the still proudly standing 10 sentient fierce corpses he had brought with him.
Still, It was not the end of the nightmare.
One moment later, Wei Wuxian activated some array, triggering dark clouds of resentful energy to surround the entire Qiongqi valley and many wisps of greenish fire popping out among the dark mists.
It was then, that the start of YunmengJiang's self-inflicted deaths began.
They had been so traumatized by Wen Zhuliu's manner of death, and they were overwhelmed with the total massacre of an entire 15 thousand cultivators right in front of their very eyes.
The appearance of terrifying resentful energy condensed into mists and eery green fires had finally triggered the primal instinct as a human being, that is running for their lives in the face of a fearsome entity!
The 24 deaths YunmengJiang suffered were all the result of YunmengJiang cultivators running frantically with no sense of direction or orders, trampling their own comrades in the meantime.
To add to the misery, after they came back to Lotus Pier, 423 disciples had expressed their desires to take off their mantle as cultivators, or in other words, almost 10% of the elite cultivators Jiang Cheng had sent to Qiongqi path had lost their courage to be a cultivator at all!
And then, there were also more than 1 thousand disciples who complained of uneasiness and nightmare. Even more so, according to the healers, there were at least 30 mentally unstable disciples as well.
What was even more ridiculous was the fact that almost all of those 5 thousand cultivators had been mentally scarred with the sound of a dizi, to the point that YunmengJiang had resorted to banning the people in Yunmeng from playing any dizi for the time being.
Later on, Jiang Bolin who had stayed till the end so that the relationship between Yiling Laozu and YunmengJiang didn't go awry, plus the remaining disciples who had been left standing in the valley, those who had lost their strength to run and could not move their body at all, reported to Jiang Cheng the end result of the battle.
Those 15 thousand Wen Cultivators who had died, their corpses were not let to even be brought back to QIshan, and had all been turned into fierce corpses by Wei Wuxian and herded back to Burial Mound.
It was like another slap to Jiang Cheng’s beliefs that for YunmengJiang to perish, it needed dozens of thousands of fierce corpses, while even the nastiest place like Burial Mound had only hundreds of it.
Now, it was like Wei Wuxian said to him, “Well, now, here I created the dozens of thousands fierce corpses needed, how about it?”
‘Why!! Why didn’t you just say that you’re that strong at the beginning!? Why!? If only you said it, I would have just asked for a handicapped move of your power instead!’
For once, Jiang Cheng desperately wanted to scream and crying, complaining about this unfair result.
The matter was not actually stopped at just that.
Again, “when it rains it pours”.
With the massacre of 15 thousand Wen cultivators, and the newly acclaimed Yiling Wei Demonic sect, with Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian as the leader, the news had shaken the entire cultivation world like an earthquake.
Jiang Cheng’s usurpation, followed by his bloody terror during the purge of YunmengJiang elders and busy body minor sect leaders within the Yunmeng region was one thing. When he formed a new troupe of elites cultivators who could rival the beastly nature of QingheNie cultivators and purge the overwhelming number of the Wen cultivators were another thing.
But now, a newly acclaimed Yiling Laozu who had the power of demonic entities was even more fatal than the rise of Sandu Sengshou, and it was a whole new problem altogether.
In response to that, many people inquired about his role in this arisen threat.
As for today, Jiang Cheng had received many “concerned letters” from the rest of the minor sect leaders around Yunmeng whom Jiang Cheng hadn’t find an excuse to purge.
The most ridiculous thing of all was the fact that sect leader Yao and sect leader Jin were also sending “concerned letters” to him.
Basically, all the letters were inquiring about the course of the war, the information about this sudden arrival of a Patriarch in Yiling, and of course YunmengJiang, or to be precise Jiang Cheng’s stance in this whole business.
Jiang Cheng had known that those two sect leaders were trash to the core and were always lurking in the background waiting to strike any other sect who let their guards down.
And yet, even if he already knew, it still succeeded in fueling his already brewing anger, annoyance, and frustration.
The audacity of those two sect leaders to get their hands onto YunmengJiang’s matter was just too irritable. Why the fuck those two sects had to make a fuss upon the trouble brewing in the Yunmeng region that was practically thousands of miles away from them!?
In addition to the already piled up troubles,
Even his own disciples, the many senior disciples had sent their petition expressing their desires to avoid any warfare with the newly founded Yiling Wei sect.
Of course, that had to be expected from every single person who could think normally to avoid “that sect who was filled with either metaphorical or literal monsters”.
Even so, the real reason why those senior disciples still sent their petition to Jiang Cheng was actually they had lost their faith in Jiang Cheng!
It’s because they blamed Jiang Cheng for his blabbermouth of saying,
“Laozu, please open the war with your strongest cultivation move available,” to Wei Wuxian before.
In other words, they were shifting the blame solely on him for that spoken request to every misfortune that happened during and after the massacre of Qiongqi path.
When Jiang Cheng realized their true meanings, he had been furious and frustrated to the extreme.
It’s so ridiculous that Jiang Cheng wanted to laugh in rage.
In the first place, the reason he had asked Wei Wuxian the Yiling Laozu to make his strongest move in the war was to gauge his power.
Shouldn’t all of those people be thankful to Jiang Cheng to be finally introduced to the insane level of power those fierce corpses Wei Wuxian had!?
Shouldn’t they grovel in thanks to Jiang Cheng now that they finally know Wei Wuxian could make a massacre to dozens of thousands of cultivators in an instant, and still even had the time to turn the corpses for his own army instead!?
Shouldn’t they worship Jiang Cheng by now for their eyes have been opened wide, knowing that their nightmare Wen Zhuliu was actually no nightmare at all before the utter horror of Yiling Laozu!?
Regardless, no matter how frustrated, no matter how Jiang Cheng wanted to yell, growling, shouting, and throwing a tantrum, there’s no such person who could replace Jiang Cheng, or even giving him any solutions at all.
The only way out of it was swallowing the mountain of complaints Jiang Cheng had and just figuring it out himself.
“Damn it!!!!! Wei fucking Wuxian, it’s all your faults!!!!! Why did you show up!? No! Why did you show up in the time where I could just finally have everything on my palms!? Damn it! Just go back to the hell hole you sprang out from, won’t you! Arghhh!!”
In the end, he could only cry out again in anger first in the morning today.
Suddenly Jiang Cheng paused,
‘No, wait! It was not Yiling Laozu’s fault, it was Yiling Laozu’s conspiracy!’
Jiang Cheng had fallen into the trap right at the beginning where he had agreed to come to the Burial Mound. His “falling into the trap” was following him in succession after that day. It was as if all of this had already been predicted.
The shameful mental condition of his disciples, and also the loss of faith from his painstakingly nurtured subordinates for the entire event until now, all of it was just too perfect to be called as coincidence. Jiang Cheng as a shrewd leader himself refused to believe it was only the course of nature.
Feeling that he would go nowhere with his recently-formed ritual of “morning dreading”, Jiang Cheng lifted his body from his bed and went to the other side of the screen partition.
He felt the bones of his body creaking with his every movement.
Now, Jiang Cheng was only a man in his early twentieth, the reason for his sore lower back and bones creaking was perfectly the proofs of how the stress had built up inside him, enough to make his body in which a golden core formed within was creaking in protest from the internal stress.
After getting up from the bed and collecting the fallen hair in the bedsheets and pillow, Jiang Cheng poured himself a cup of tea from the container put on the desk at the other part of his bedroom.
The tea was preserved with heat talismans, thus it had stayed warm even though it was made last night by his sister.
After wetting his throat with the tea, Jiang Cheng proceeded to open one of the drawers under his desk and retrieved a paper pack, and drank the content inside. It was a stomach pain medicine prescribed by his healer, for his continuous stomach-lurching upon his stress.
A knock on his door prevented him from prolonging his usual “morning dreading” of how his life had been turned upside down by a certain menace.
“Come in,” he answered after gulping down the entire medicine and a mouthful of tea.
With his sound of approval, the door slid open and a man, barely in his early thirty entered his room.
The man, Jiang Solin, was his right-hand man who handled the official matters. Though, for him to acquire the position of the closest disciple to Jiang Cheng was silent proof of his high cultivation as well. It’s just that his talent also reached into different departments other than pure cultivation, therefore Jiang Cheng had taken it into an advantage to fire the elder who previously had this position and replaced him with a subordinate of his own choice, that's Jiang Solin.
“Sect leader, the merchants who sell rare wines from that region have come to Yunmeng last night. I heard from auntie Wang this morning when I bought some scallion pancakes,”
While Jiang Cheng sat and started to check scrolls upon scrolls Jiang Solin had brought with him concerning the official matter of the sect, Jiang Solin started to fill the silence with idle talks.
“That group of a merchant, huh….it’s indeed true that the wines they brought are especially good, though I’m not really a fan of wines myself,”
“It seems like I keep forgetting that sect leader is not really fond of wines and women,” Jiang Solin chuckled and bowed slightly.
The bow was executed in a polite manner, and yet the way Jiang Solin’s mouth was twitching to prevent a laugh was in no way of being polite.
“Shut up. Whoever started this stupid rumor was just jealous of my achievements,” Jiang Cheng grumbled when Jiang Solin mentioned the infamous rumor of how Sandu Sengshou's lack of indulgences in wines and women was rivaling the Gusulan Monks.
“Nonetheless, I heard that they seem to bring many good wines this time, more good stuff than the ones they brought the last time they were here, it'll be a pity if Sect Leader doesn't try any.”
“Oh! Really now?”
Jiang Cheng’s smile was a little obscured by one scroll he’s reading currently, regardless it was a relief and happy one.
"Indeed." Jiang Solin also smiled knowingly.
It was the best news and soothing medicines that finally healed Jiang Cheng's haggard mind and body from many weeks ago.
The gossip itself was actually a coded conversation.
The region where the merchants had come from was Qinghe.
Naturally, the said merchants were the elder of QingheNie who had come secretly to YunmengJiang under the guise of traveling merchants, answering to his pledge of discussion about a certain Laozu he sent weeks ago to QingheNie.
The condition and faith of his disciples were in a worrying state. Right now, what Jiang Cheng needed the least was any unnecessary ire from certain Laozu due to some information leak concerning what he was about to do.
Thus, the start of using coded conversation to pass the secret information.
The only one he could trust was his remaining three right-hand men.
The information and reports written in his official documents could be stolen by any potential spy.
Therefore, they resorted to the verbal way of reporting “the important” ones. And yet, to avoid any eavesdropping as well, they made the reports into a day-to-day conversation, it would make those who eavesdropped to be confused between the real nonsensical gossips with the real coded conversations. Even the topic used to be the code was changed every single day.
If even with this meticulous and painstaking effort to ward off any spy yet the information still ended up leaking, then Jiang Cheng needed to kowtow in praise for that spy’s master!
“Hmm…so, where will those merchants rest during their stay in Yunmeng?” continuing their idle talks, Jiang Cheng offhandedly asked while grabbing his tea to ease his throat again and finished the content in a few gulps.
“It seems like they stay in Thousand Lotuses Inn, the best of the high-end inn in Yunmeng. I heard they will stay at least until Yunmeng’s river God festival concluded three days later,” Jiang Solin took the teapot and began refilling Jiang Cheng’s teacup.
After pouring the tea, he set it gently on the desk, far to not impede the scrolls but near enough to Jiang Cheng’s hand reach.
“Even traveling merchants are still interested in our festival, it’s kind of pleasing, don’t you think, Sect Leader?”
“Yunmeng’s river God, huh….” Jiang Cheng softly murmured,
‘If there’s truly a God somewhere, surely they would not let that demon incarnate off, would they? Or my wishes this far would have been granted at least one of them, so why didn’t it? Did the Gods out there are merely taking their payment without doing their job properly?’ he grumbled bitterly in his mind.
“Yes, Sect Leader. The festival itself consisted of many occasions during the span of 5 days. Though, the most popular one would be the rowing boat competition three days later,”
“Oh! Isn’t the rowing boat was where Jiang Bolin participated 5 years ago, and almost win it over?” Jiang Cheng’s interest suddenly perked up remembering the still happy days of 5 years ago.
“Sect leader is correct. But no, almost win is not an adequate term. Lost by an unforeseen circumstance was more of the appropriate term to address it,” snorting, Jiang Solin took back the already checked scrolls from Jiang Cheng’s desk so it wouldn’t make a pile of mess.
It brought back the memories of 5 years ago.
It was hardly one year after Jiang Cheng’s ascension.
Jiang Cheng was in a tight and stiff manner with the piled-up troubles here and there. Henceforth, his 4 right-hand men decided to forcefully kidnap him from his study and brought him to enjoy the festival.
Jiang Bolin at that time was determined to make Jiang Cheng’s tight shoulder lessen a bit with joy. He decided to participate in the rowing competition and promised Jiang Cheng the winner glory.
It was a place where unmarried or widowed man to show off their physical prowess.
The competition itself made the participant row a two-man boat across the distance of 1 mile using only their arms as the paddle. The winner was the first one to arrive at the designated goal.
There were a lot of men who went participating in this event.
Aside from the entertainment, they also used it as a means to show off their might to the maidens who were cheering at the river bank.
Cultivators were free to participate as well among the mortal humans.
But those who cultivated were banned from using their spiritual energy to boost their physical performance.
So, it was pure muscle endurance.
Jiang Bolin was strong in pure physical aspect as strong as he was in cultivation.
He advanced gallantly to the top participant at the front-liner and was one step away to reach the goal point.
And yet, during that time he accidentally looked upon the river bank, thus witnessing the moment where the hanfu of one beautiful maiden was blown by the wind and her thigh was revealed. In that one moment, Jiang Bolin's extraordinary balance was shifted to that side of the riverbank, which ended up causing his boat to capsize on its own, while Jiang Bolin himself drenched like a rat in the process.
Even when he failed to hold his promise of the winner’s rewards, in the end, it made an even more refreshing and funny moment instead. Jiang Cheng and his fellow YunmengJiang senior cultivators had been laughing at him for several days after, and still teased him for it even for several years later.
“Thinking about this now, I believe it would be a good thing for the Sect Leader to take a break and enjoy the festivities, wouldn’t it?” Jiang Solin looked at his sect leader who's still carefully checking the scrolls in front of him.
“Who knows, perhaps there will be some other YunmengJiang disciples who decided to follow on Jiang Bolin’s step and wear the mantle of blown hanfu-gentlemen?” he added afterward.
Still smiling from the fond memories of bygone days, Jiang Cheng laughed when Jiang Solin mentioned the term “blown hanfu-gentlemen”.
“Well, well, now that you said it, it certainly sounds like a good idea. So, how about it? Could you free up my schedule for the days of the rowing boat competition?”
“I would see to it immediately, Sect Leader. Please allow me to arrange it,” after saluting with his hands clasped in front of his chest, Jiang Solin took the last scrolls Jiang Cheng had checked upon.
“But, what do you think will be the perfect place to oversee the overall field of rowing boats? I do not want to stand in line at the river bank surrounded with high-pitched cheering from the maidens,” Jiang Cheng furrowed his eyebrows, remembering the awful experience of 5 years ago of squeezing between the cheering maidens.
The Yunmeng maidens were by no means, elegant or reserved at all in the times of a festival.
“How about 800 years Liquor? It served a good liquor combined with cuisines cooked with liquor as well. I believe Sect Leader has never taste any good liquor these days,”
“Really now? Drinking at the broad daylight?” Jiang Cheng squinted his eyes at his right-hand man.
Chuckling, Jiang Solin countered with “It would not be called a festival if one could not let oneself to be free of such shackles and rules, would it?”
“Mnn, you have a point. Whatever, just arrange a good day off for me as you like,” Jiang Cheng waved his hands to Jiang Solin, approving his retreats.
“Ah! Don’t forget to ask Jiang Bolin if perhaps he’s interested to join the rowing boat competition again this year,” he added when Jiang Solin was about to slide the door shut.
“I will certainly remind him of it, Sect Leader”, Jiang Solin smiled and finally left Jiang Cheng’s room.
In summary, that conversation concluded that ‘they would have a meeting with the QingheNie elders during the rowing boat competition at the 800 years Liquor Restaurant. So, please inform Jiang Bolin to go accompany him as his guard as well with the official scribed, Jiang Solin, while the remaining one, Jiang Molin was left to stand guard in Lotus Pier.’
With his secret communication and plan set in stone, Jiang Cheng could only pray that it would go according to his plan, at least for this once.
But the traitorous part of his mind was whispering something else,
‘What if even this plan of his was actually part of the schemes from Yiling Laozu?’
Still, no matter how strong, how powerful, and how clever Yiling Laozu and his gang were, they couldn't do anything without information. Even Jiang Cheng himself would flail around in the dark. The proof of it was how spectacularly misfired all his plan to scheme on Yiling Laozu had ended up with in the past, where he had no clue at all about the man.
‘If it were the case, then-‘
Jiang Cheng quickly cut his over-paranoid thinking.
His stomach pain had flared again even after he drank the medicines not long ago.
The matter of his fatigue aside; his incurable stomach pain was a more pressing matter.
Normally, a strong cultivator like Jiang Cheng had been immune to mundane sickness, like fever or light stage of internal health issue. Not to mention a mere stomach pain.
But, it seemed like the moment Wei Wuxian, the ban of Jiang Cheng’s existence appeared, the petty health problems like what he was suffering right now kept getting worse day by day!
It got to the point where even after he drank the bitter concoction his healer had given him, the stomach pain still flared up whenever he was as brief as he was thinking about Wei Wuxian~
Next Chapter : Wei Wuxian