In the blink of an eye, two months passed. Snow swept across the land, whipping violently through the freezing winds.
Crimson Whale Sect’s dominion over the Northern Lands was now firmly entrenched. Whether it was Ashoka Manor or the imperial court, none could halt the frenzied expansion of Lu Sheng’s forces.
The Saber King of the Northern Lands, Lu Sheng. His name blazed like the midday sun. Across the vast expanse of the region, it was spoken of constantly.
He was hailed as the number one expert of the mortal world, an unparalleled martial artist without equal, and a grandmaster of the saber.
Naturally, part of his fame spread through word of mouth. Yet a far greater portion of it stemmed from Crimson Whale Sect’s massive recruitment drive following its territorial expansion. Sect disciples and members multiplied rapidly, proclaiming his name and raising his banner wherever they went. With each passing day, Lu Sheng’s reputation grew ever greater.
As for the Noble Families, they exercised restraint due to Shangyang Jiuli’s presence. None were willing to provoke her. As long as she remained within the family, her overwhelming strength ensured Lu Sheng’s absolute authority over the Northern Lands.
Lu Sheng himself spent his days immersed in cultivation. He focused relentlessly on refining his saber techniques and inner force skills, while simultaneously beginning the recruitment of Crimson Sun Sect disciples.
He publicly announced his identity as the Sect Master of Crimson Sun Sect and openly held selection matches in Mountain-Edge City.
Anyone was eligible to participate. So long as one passed the trials, they could enter Crimson Sun Sect and be taught its arts, regardless of age, cultivation level, or character.
Naturally, Lu Sheng did not preside over these matches in person. Instead, his Senior Apprentice Brother, Hong Mingzi, organized and oversaw them with Lu Sheng’s approval.
Unexpectedly, many Divine Prime seniors from Martial League volunteered to serve as judges. They, too, acknowledged Lu Sheng’s status as the number one expert.
In truth, many of them joined Crimson Whale Sect out of sheer reverence for Lu Sheng’s personal strength, taking up roles as External Affairs Emissaries. Thus, although he had lost Zhao Jiaojiao, Lu Sheng gained several other Divine Prime experts under his command.
Moreover, after joining Crimson Whale Sect, these experts went on to apply for entry into Crimson Sun Sect as well. Lu Sheng approved their requests without hesitation.
He personally presided over their entrance ceremony. Only a few days later, their former associates within Martial League began to notice something unusual. The experts who had joined Crimson Whale Sect were all displaying clear signs of imminent breakthroughs.
This observation was soon confirmed.
One Divine Prime expert, after entering Crimson Sun Sect, was imparted a secret martial art. It allowed him to finally shatter the bottleneck that had plagued him for years, and he began advancing toward a new realm.
Though the step forward was not a great one, and though the man was already advanced in age with an abundance of accumulated inner force, his success sent a wave of excitement through the aging veterans of Martial League.
As a result, more and more mortal experts quietly withdrew from Martial League and secretly joined Crimson Whale Sect. Lu Sheng’s hidden strength swelled rapidly.
This growth stemmed from two sources: Crimson Sun Sect’s open selection matches, and the steady influx of Divine Prime experts from Martial League.
With peace and stability restored to the Northern Lands, vitality soon returned. The demons and ghosts that once lurked in the shadows retreated even deeper. Once a Divine Prime expert achieved a breakthrough, they could threaten even Bind realm beings. Ordinary ghosts stood no chance against them.
As for Bind realm entities, they possessed intelligence of their own. Aware of Crimson Whale Sect’s ever-expanding power, they chose to avoid it altogether. After all, attacking one expert would draw two or three more in response. And looming behind them was the terrifyingly powerful Sect Master, with the Shangyang Family as his backing. Confronting such a force was tantamount to suicide.
Gradually, the people of the Northern Lands began to sense that their lives had grown peaceful and secure. Merchants traveled without fear, unable to spot even bandits or thieves along the roads. No one dared stir up trouble in front of a group of newly joined Divine Prime experts from Crimson Sun Sect, all eager to prove their worth.
And on the rare occasion that such fools appeared, they were swiftly eliminated.
By the second month after the snow began to fall, the Northern Lands had largely regained their former prosperity, steadily returning to the state they had known before the famine.
…………
“The snow’s getting thicker.”
Inside a Crimson Whale Sect–owned tower atop Red Cliff Peak, deep within the eastern mountain range, Lu Sheng stood by the window, gazing thoughtfully at the boundless white outside.
“This isn’t ordinary snowfall. It’s a disaster,” Jade Lotus reported as he stood behind Lu Sheng, accompanied by a tall, middle-aged senior. “Bad news is flooding in from across the land. In many regions, the snow has been so heavy that roofs have collapsed and houses caved in. There are countless dead and wounded.”
The senior beside him wore an expression of cold solemnity. He was clad in green robes embroidered with floral patterns along the sleeves, resembling wheat leaves stirred by the wind. An emerald hairpin secured his hair neatly in place.
This man was Ouyang Qi, known in the pugilistic world as the Headless Python. He was a legendary Divine Prime expert at the peak, infamous for his vicious and merciless nature, killing without the slightest hesitation. Once, his name had shaken the Central Plains. Later, after drawing the attention of the court, Bind realm experts had been dispatched to hunt him down, forcing him to flee northward into the Northern Lands.
Now, he stood as one of the strongest Divine Prime experts from Martial League who had sworn allegiance to Lu Sheng.
Ouyang Qi had never been welcomed within Martial League. His brutal temperament and history of pillaging and bloodshed had led to his ostracization by other Divine Primes. When he heard that Crimson Sun Sect accepted recruits regardless of character, he was the very first to apply. He had not expected Lu Sheng to accept him so readily, without questioning his past.
“Senior Qi,” Lu Sheng said, turning his gaze toward him. “How are things progressing on your end?”
Lu Sheng valued him not only for his strength, but also for his rare aptitude in administration.
Ouyang Qi lowered his head slightly. “Everything is proceeding according to schedule. The matches have not been affected. The pre-selected contestants from across the land are currently being escorted to Mountain-Edge City. Preliminary estimates place the number of those who will pass at two hundred and sixty-two.”
“Over two thousand were pre-selected, and only that many will make it?” Jade Lotus asked, clearly taken aback.
“That number is already generous,” Ouyang Qi replied coolly. “By my estimation, it is in fact too high. Selecting experts capable of hunting and killing ghosts requires far more than assessing ordinary temperament and talent.”
Jade Lotus hesitated, then fell silent. The gap between him and Ouyang Qi was far too great. Had they not both been indispensable assets of the Sect Master, this old man could have killed him with a single finger in a one-on-one confrontation.
“Alright. With Senior Apprentice Brother presiding over the matches, there won’t be any issues. What we need is a sufficient number of disciples with indomitable will, regardless of disposition,” Lu Sheng said calmly.
“But Sect Master,” Ouyang Qi pressed on, unable to suppress his doubts, “we may ignore disposition in the name of fairness and objective external evaluation. Yet what of respect for elders and former masters? What if we take in traitors who, instead of appreciating the grace shown to them, turn around and bite the hand that feeds them?”
“Disposition does not matter,” Lu Sheng replied, his voice devoid of emotion. “Whether kind or evil, loyal or treacherous, the moment one enters my Crimson Sun Sect, they no longer belong to themselves.”
At those words, both men felt a chill run through them. Neither dared to question him further.
For ordinary disciples, the control exerted by the Yin Crane Web was absolute, leaving no room for resistance. The formation of the Yin Crane Web relied primarily on Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi. Its quality directly determined whether one could sense or expel the web embedded within their body.
Fueled by Lu Sheng’s millennium-old inner force, the Yin Crane Web was beyond their capacity to detect, let alone remove.
From the moment of selection, Lu Sheng intended for the disciples to cultivate their inner force with the Yin Crane Web assisting them. The deeper their cultivation progressed, the more tightly the web would entwine with their bodies. As days turned into months, it would fuse with them completely.
And because the gulf between their inner force and Lu Sheng’s was immeasurable, there was no possibility of them breaking free from the Yin Crane Web he had planted within them.
It was a terrifying network woven from a thousand years of inner force. Unless they, too, possessed a millennium’s worth of cultivation, it could not be shattered. Such a feat was unattainable, as none of them could live that long.
Lu Sheng was absolutely confident.
He would, by legitimate means, transform the entire Northern Lands into his vast warehouse for absorbing inner force.
Even if their inner force varied in purity, and absorbing a full year of cultivation from one person only yielded a single month for him, that was still only one individual.
If twelve people cultivated inner force for a year, it meant a full year’s worth of inner force for Lu Sheng.
With one hundred and twenty people, that became ten years.
With one thousand two hundred, a full century.
Grains of sand, once piled high enough, could form a tower.
As for whether such a practice was orthodox or heretical, Lu Sheng did not spare it a single thought.
‘I’m saving them’, he told himself calmly. ‘So many people lack the aptitude to practice martial arts at all. I’m merely giving them a chance to rewrite their destinies.’
In his eyes, he was simply collecting rent.
He had built them a house, the Yin Crane Web, using his own inner Qi. In return for enjoying the benefits of living within it, they paid rent at fixed intervals. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Alright. Proceed according to plan. Unless something significant changes, there’s no need to report back to me. Just carry it out,” Lu Sheng said, his thoughts returning to the present.
“Yes, sir.”
Jade Lotus and Ouyang Qi withdrew respectfully. As they left, they closed the door softly behind them.
Lu Sheng stood alone by the window for a long time.
Then, without warning, he raised his hand and extended it through the open window.
“Flap flap flap.”
From the distance, an inky-black bird shot toward him. It resembled a crow, yet its head was unmistakably serpentine, giving it a bizarre and unsettling appearance.
The strange bird landed lightly in Lu Sheng’s palm.
A slender copper tube was tied to its leg. Lu Sheng carefully removed it and pulled out the stopper.
Inside was a tightly rolled note.
He glanced once at the bird before setting it aside, then unfurled the note with both hands.
“The Hundred Lineages Symposium will be held at Skywatch City in the Central Plains. As the one in control of the family’s resources, I have the authority to recommend a few names. You may consider whether you wish to participate.”
“The Hundred Lineages claim to encompass over a hundred sects and factions. In truth, there are only sixty-four lineages. The Shangyang Family’s mantra is incompatible with you and cannot be imparted. However, you may choose to cultivate the general mantra practiced by the Hundred Lineages.”
“I can submit your name and allow you to select a sect.”
The words were few, likely constrained by the limited space of the note. Lu Sheng stared at it in silence, a trace of confusion surfacing in his eyes.
Putting the note away, Lu Sheng asked softly, “Yingying, do you know about the Hundred Lineages?”
“Swish…”
The closet door slid open slowly. Inside, the little umbrella girl knelt on the floor, pressing Lu Sheng’s clothes as carefully as she could. A messy pile of unfolded garments lay scattered beside her.
“I… know…” Yingying lifted her head when she heard his voice and glanced toward him. Her hands, however, never stopped moving.
The clothes were thicker than usual. With her petite frame and lack of strength, she had no choice but to lean her entire weight onto them. Her cheeks had already flushed red from the effort, and her breathing came out in short, labored puffs.
After her rebirth, her strength had dwindled to that of a small child. Moreover, she had absorbed too little bitterness, having passed most of it on to her sister. What remained had gone into rebuilding her body. At present, she was little different from an ordinary mortal. At best, she was lighter on her feet and could run a little faster. That was all.
Lu Sheng watched as the little umbrella girl huffed and panted, struggling earnestly with his clothes.
He had no intention of tormenting her. Yet as the number of his secrets grew, ordinary servant girls were no longer sufficient. Thus, he allowed the little umbrella girl to assume this role.
In any case, he had never planned to let her leave.
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