The Martial Saint Pavilion, as the name implies, was a group of cultivators who had gathered under the banner of the Martial Saint, Mu Zhao, out of reverence and respect.
But the name had another meaning as well: to revere the martial path as sacred.
Most members of the Martial Saint Pavilion were those who had started as mortals practicing martial arts and, through tireless effort, ultimately stepped onto the path of cultivation through the martial way.
Mu Zhao himself was the exemplar of this path, its spiritual beacon.
To the members of the Pavilion, Mu Zhao was a figure of near-divine reverence. His words were law, his will absolute.
Because many of its members held high positions or carried weighty names of their own, the Martial Saint Pavilion had immense influence within the broader cultivation world.
And once someone was marked by the Pavilion with a bounty on their head, it was tantamount to being declared an enemy of the entire cultivation world.
This was true fury from the Martial Saint.
Not only did he want the man dead, he wanted him ruined, banished from every sanctuary, erased from existence.
With Mu Zhao's golden words decreeing the label of "demonic cultivator," that label would never be washed away.
Wei Yan's eyelid twitched as he mentally sentenced Chen Kuang to death.
This man had gone too far. Daring to impersonate a Buddhist Son of the Pure Land to deceive others, he truly knew not the immensity of heaven and earth.
Of all people to kill, he chose to kill Li Hongling.
Everyone present knew full well that, with Li Hongling's temperament, she had almost certainly provoked him first and brought about her own doom.
Yet the fact remained: he had killed her, even on the run, he had made sure to finish her off.
That sort of resolve... he must've made her his mortal enemy.
But Mu Zhao didn't care about those details.
His dao was simple: Tyranny.
He would protect his disciple, even in death, he would defend her reputation.
So he didn't concern himself with right or wrong, nor causality. He branded the killer "demonic cultivator," and that was that.
A demonic cultivator? Everything he said or did would be inherently wicked.
Killing a demonic cultivator required no justification.
Wei Yan's gaze flickered. He cupped his hands and solemnly said, "That man was likely one of the prisoners of the Liang Kingdom. I will begin investigating his identity immediately and hand the results over to the Pavilion."
Mu Zhao glanced at him and nodded slightly.
"Di Wu should be at the Wind and Rain Tower in Jishao Prefecture. Hand it over to him."
Wei Yan quickly nodded in agreement.
With a wave of Mu Zhao's hand, a gentle light enveloped Li Hongling's corpse, restoring it to her intact appearance as in life.
But the remnant soul of the Martial Saint was already terribly weak, and this gesture alone made it nearly transparent, on the verge of scattering.
Mu Zhao turned and merged into the dawn's light, disappearing along with her body.
Wei Yan exhaled sharply, looking out over the chaos in the morning haze.
Everyone was dead...
And all of it, left for him to clean up.
"Elder Wei."
A cold, clear voice rang out.
Wei Yan's heart jolted. Turning around, he saw the long-absent Shen Xingzhu.
Once, he had found this Dao Child of the Mysterious Divine Path Sect unbearably obstructive.
Now? She almost seemed... comforting.
"Dao Child," he greeted, far more polite than Wei Su had been, not daring to call her merely "fellow cultivator." He cupped his hands with a bitter smile.
"The battle has ended. Is there something else you need?"
Shen Xingzhu nodded gravely.
"I've already notified the elders of my sect to come. From now on, the Liang royal capital will be temporarily placed under the administration of my Mysterious Divine Path Sect. I ask Elder Wei to lead the remaining disciples of the Three Calamities Sect to withdraw."
Wei Yan's expression changed as he stared at her.
"Dao Child, what is the meaning of this?"
"Your sect claims neutrality. Now that the battle is over, you mean to intervene? The world has no such precedent!"
Shen Xingzhu shook her head and replied calmly,
"Elder Wei misunderstands. I have no intention of interfering in the Zhou and Liang conflict."
"What I mean by 'taking over' refers not to rulership, but rather..."
She turned, gazing solemnly at the ruined imperial palace.
"...to the palace itself."
Wei Yan was still baffled. He frowned.
"This palace... what's there to take over?"
Suddenly, Shen Xingzhu drew her sword.
Wei Yan's pupils constricted. Before he could react, she slashed the ruins apart.
Boom!
The palace collapsed completely.
From the depths below, a sinister, terrifying aura began to rise.
Wei Yan stared, aghast, into the crack opening beneath his feet, within the foundations of the imperial palace was a massive, grotesque, indescribably twisted creature, writhing and coiling in the dark.
A single, colossal eye shimmered faintly in the gloom.
Wei Yan broke out in cold sweat, dumbstruck.
"What... what is that?! Dao Child, what have you unleashed?!"
"There is no need for alarm, Elder Wei," Shen Xingzhu said softly.
"This creature is mindless."
"It's the corpse of an ancient great demon."
Wei Yan blinked. "Corpse?"
Shen Xingzhu sheathed her sword with a sigh.
"Yes. That person probably never expected..."
"That what was sealed beneath the palace wasn't the demon itself, but merely its corpse, possessing only aura and pressure, but no consciousness."
Wei Yan steadied himself, dazed.
"Then... where did its mind go?"
"It probably..."
She paused, then looked toward the distant forest with a sigh. "Already escaped."
Shen Xingzhu narrowed her eyes.
"Perhaps the so-called protective ward of the nation was never meant to keep enemies out, but to keep something from escaping."
Wei Yan didn't understand. His head ached terribly. He rubbed his nose, only to find blood streaming from his seven orifices.
His heart pounded in alarm.
Even just the aura of this demon corpse... was so overwhelming.
A mere shell, and even that was too terrifying to face directly.
Indeed, this was beyond what the Three Calamities Sect could handle.
Shen Xingzhu shook her head.
"No matter..."
"Elder Wei, you said earlier that you'd investigate that man's identity. When you do, would you kindly share your findings with me as well?"
"You wish to take the bounty too, Dao Child?"
Shen Xingzhu's cold, elegant face hinted at a smile.
"You're joking, Elder Wei. I don't kill those who've done no wrong."
...
Chen Kuang stared at the straw-cloaked fisherman in silence before finally breaking the quiet.
"Why do you think I've met the Music Sage?"
The fisherman, Wen Si, tilted his head in surprise.
"Why do you ask, little brother? Isn't that bastard's Zither right in front of you?"
Chen Kuang looked speechlessly at Dragon Gums and rubbed his forehead.
"So this Zither... was made from your teeth?"
Wen Si chuckled, producing bubbling sounds.
"Of course."
But this Zither had not been gifted to him by the Music Sage, it had been... "tricked" out of him.
Still, if the Zither hadn't passed from the Music Sage into Su Yu's collection, it wouldn't have ended up in Chen Kuang's hands either.
Chen Kuang tried to piece together the strange logic of everything since their meeting.
"Just having the Zither doesn't mean I know him-"
"But you carry his intent upon you," the fisherman interrupted.
Chen Kuang blinked.
Zither intent?
A chill crept up his spine.
Zither intent could only be acquired if one had been directly taught Zither technique.
And only two people had ever taught him:
One was the nameless musician.
The other, a court musician from the Music Bureau, who was already dead.
Which left only one possibility.
The nameless musician who bought him from his parents years ago...
Was the Music Sage, Xi Mengquan?
Chen Kuang went silent.
Had Xi Mengquan really foreseen all this, ten years ago?
"So, you believe I'm your junior disciple... because we have the same master?" he asked.
Wen Si's gaze grew more amused, clearly thinking him an idiot.
"Of course. Besides, didn't you already call me senior brother?"
...I was just being polite.
Chen Kuang dared not say that out loud.
He exhaled.
"And that master... is Xi Mengquan?"
The fisherman flapped his tail dismissively.
"That bastard told me to wait here in this river for you."
"I've rowed this boat by the capital for ten long years."
"Ten years of bitter waves."
"He told me to ferry you once, so you may rise to the clouds henceforth."