Gu Chengyin took over his words, his tone as calm as if he were talking about a trivial matter:
"Then the Azure Sword Sect will become a target for all."
"It will be coveted by countless people, pried into by countless people, and countless people... will want to swallow it whole."
Jiang Qingshan's gaze was complex. After a long while, he asked:
"You know this, yet you still want to do it?"
Gu Chengyin smiled. His expression remained composed, but the depth in his eyes seemed capable of swallowing mountains and rivers.
"Sect Master Jiang."
"Rumors represent hope, but if the Azure Sword Sect does not have the inheritance to complete it."
"Wouldn't that hope be shattered?"
Jiang Qingshan fell silent.
Gu Chengyin continued:
"The current cultivation world can still move forward because hope still exists. As long as there is hope, people can strive."
"But if I, the heir of the Azure Cloud Immortal Clan, fail to complete the inheritance at the Azure Sword Sect, or if there is no inheritance at all."
"When that time comes, what will happen to those cultivators who rely on hope to sustain themselves?"
Jiang Qingshan closed his eyes.
He knew.
Once hope was shattered, there would only be despair.
"Therefore," Gu Chengyin's voice continued, "the rumors must become reality."
Jiang Qingshan opened his eyes and looked at Gu Chengyin again.
The candlelight danced on his face, making that young visage alternate between bright and dim.
But those eyes remained as calm as water, showing no ripples whatsoever.
"Aren't you afraid of being smashed to pieces?"
Gu Chengyin shook his head and said very frankly:
"Of course I'm afraid."
"Then why do you still..."
"That's why we must proceed step by step."
Gu Chengyin interrupted, "Meals must be eaten one bite at a time; roads must be walked one step at a time."
"I need someone to cooperate, and I need a sufficiently powerful faction to escort me."
"And you are the one to cooperate with me."
Cooperate.
Jiang Qingshan chewed on this word, his thoughts surging.
Gu Chengyin giving him the Azure Cloud Token, making the Azure Sword Sect a sect with an immortal clan's inheritance, was the first step.
Once this step was taken, the Azure Sword Sect would become a target for all, coveted by countless people, and plunged into the center of a vortex.
Once this step was taken, he, as the Sect Master, would become the focus of everyone's attention and be tested by countless people.
But this was only the first step.
What about the second step? The third step?
Jiang Qingshan suddenly understood somewhat.
It wasn't that Gu Chengyin didn't know the dangers involved.
Not only did he know, but he was clearer than anyone else about how massive this storm would be.
Yet he still wanted to do it, because the greater the storm...
The more expensive the fish!
"Sect Master Jiang."
Gu Chengyin's voice sounded again, "Who do you think will be the first to lose their composure when the news of the Azure Sword Sect having the inheritance spreads?"
Jiang Qingshan was startled, then fell into deep thought.
Who would be the first to lose their composure?
Those who coveted the inheritance?
Those who wanted to snatch it?
Those...
No.
A glint flashed in Jiang Qingshan's eyes.
"The Heavenly Master Mansion?"
The corners of Gu Chengyin's mouth turned up. Although Jiang Qingshan had been reduced to a figurehead like a fool.
It didn't mean he was truly a fool. Judging from the content of their conversation just now.
The main reason Jiang Qingshan didn't fight for power was that he had seen the deaths of prodigies of his generation.
Thus, he grew disheartened, feeling that even if he controlled the Azure Sword Sect, it would be meaningless, so he let himself be marginalized.
"Correct, it is precisely the Heavenly Master Mansion."
Gu Chengyin confirmed Jiang Qingshan's guess.
The Heavenly Master Mansion.
Its history was even longer than the Great Luo, with profound foundations and experts as common as clouds.
But even such a behemoth faced the predicament of the immortal path being severed.
Among the prodigies who died at the threshold of the Great Perfection of the Golden Core, countless belonged to the Heavenly Master Mansion.
If the Heavenly Master Mansion knew that the Azure Sword Sect had a true inheritance...
What would they do?
Jiang Qingshan somewhat understood Gu Chengyin's intentions.
"You want the Heavenly Master Mansion to escort you?"
Gu Chengyin nodded.
"But on what grounds?"
Jiang Qingshan frowned: "The Heavenly Master Mansion could completely control the inheritance token in their own hands. Why would they protect you?"
Gu Chengyin smiled. The smile was faint, but deep in his eyes, there was something Jiang Qingshan couldn't understand.
"Sect Master Jiang, the rumor is the hope of the cultivation world."
"But have you ever thought that for some people, there are things more important than hope?"
Jiang Qingshan was stunned.
Gu Chengyin continued:
"What is the root of the Heavenly Master Mansion's establishment? Is it to lead the cultivation world in seeking the highest Great Dao?"
"No, it is stability."
"The highest Great Dao is the pursuit of cultivation sects, but not the pursuit of the Heavenly Master Mansion."
"From beginning to end, the Heavenly Master Mansion has been doing one thing: maintaining order and ensuring stability."
"If, for the sake of an inheritance, a bloodbath is stirred up, plunging the entire cultivation world into turmoil."
"Then would the Heavenly Master Mansion still be the Heavenly Master Mansion?"
"Furthermore..."
Gu Chengyin paused, his gaze deep: "The Azure Cloud Token is merely an inheritance token. Without me, the heir of the immortal clan."
"Even if the Heavenly Master Mansion obtains the inheritance token, what meaning would it have?"
Jiang Qingshan suddenly drew in a breath of cold air.
He understood.
The Azure Cloud Token was just bait, bait to attract the entire cultivation world, and also bait to attract the Heavenly Master Mansion.
And Gu Chengyin's goal was to make the Heavenly Master Mansion pour all their efforts into protecting him.
Protect him, the heir of the Azure Cloud Immortal Clan, protect the hope that could reconnect the immortal path.
And as long as Lin Qingyan was around, the Heavenly Master Mansion couldn't touch Gu Chengyin.
They could only send more personnel to protect him, lest a greater storm be stirred up.
So once the news spread, for the Heavenly Master Mansion, compared to the inheritance.
Maintaining the stability of the entire cultivation world was the more important matter.
If countless people started slaughtering each other to snatch it, plunging the entire cultivation world into turmoil.
Then the Heavenly Master Mansion's millennium-old foundation would be entirely ruined.
But what Jiang Qingshan didn't understand was why Gu Chengyin trusted Lin Qingyan so much.
After all, no matter what, Lin Qingyan was the Jingzhe of the Heavenly Master Mansion, acting on their orders.
But the answer to this question was known only to Gu Chengyin himself.
Lin Qingyan did like him, but he wasn't naive enough to base his logic on emotions.
From beginning to end, his relationship with Lin Qingyan was a transaction.
It was him controlling Lin Qingyan's inner demons that served as the foundation of everything.
"Therefore."
Jiang Qingshan slowly spoke: "When the news spreads, the Heavenly Master Mansion will be more anxious than us."
"Correct." Gu Chengyin nodded: "They will rush to confirm, rush to protect, rush to..."
"Bring the whole matter under their control."
The corners of Jiang Qingshan's mouth twitched. Bringing it under control sounded so nice.
In reality, they were just being dragged down into the muddy waters.
Since things had reached this point, Jiang Qingshan naturally wouldn't refuse. After all, everything now.
Whether it was the tempo or the situation, it was clearly within Gu Chengyin's control.
Jiang Qingshan just needed to honestly act as a chess piece.
Anyway, they were already on the same side now. No matter who Gu Chengyin schemed against, it wouldn't fall on his head.
Even if the sky fell, the taller Heavenly Master Mansion would be there to hold it up.
Instead of him, the Sect Master of the small Azure Sword Sect.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
