Faced with Long Feiye’s shock, the sword sect master only grew more stubborn. “It’s not that I can save her, but that I must!”

“How?” Long Feiye asked quickly.

The sword sect master only stared at Long Feiye coldly. Since when has this boy been so concerned with Yao Yao’s affairs? He probably has bad intentions in mind. Sensing his master’s suspicions, Long Feiye came straight to the point.

“This disciple isn’t interested in Duanmu Yao’s injuries, but I have a friend who’s suffered similar heavy injuries to the dantian. They cannot gather qi anymore and lost all of their martial arts. If there’s a way to treat them, I respectfully request master to give me a few pointers.”

The sword sect master immediately denied his words. “It’s impossible, you should give up the idea.”

“But Duanmu Yao…”

“Take care of yourself instead,” the sword sect master cut him off sharply. Long Feiye immediately shut up, his eyes cold. He had a frosty personality by nature, so even before his master the most he did was say a few extra words. His master took his wrist to check his pulse while he asked, “Did you use the power of the l.u.s.tbite Seal again to kill Lady Leng Yue?”

News of Long Feiye’s revenge killing on Lady Leng Yue and gifting the City of Daughters to Han Yunxi had long shook the foundations of Cloud Realm Continent. Even now, the martial arts circles were still discussing the news, so the sword sect master had kept an ear out too. Instead of replying, Long Feiye remained silent. Meanwhile, the sword sect master discovered something odd as he continued to examine the pulse.

“Your internal injuries are completely healed?” he exclaimed in shock. “How can this be?”

Long Feiye had mentioned in his previous letter about unlocking the l.u.s.tbite Seal for the first time at the Medicine Requesting Cave. The rebound from the effort had caused him severe internal injuries, which was why he was unable to treat Duanmu Yao’s wounds. His fight against Lady Leng Yue should have forced him to unlock the seal one more time, or else there was no way he could have killed the woman within three moves. That new wound on top of the old should have left his internal injuries tremendous!

But how could he have healed so quickly? In fact, he’s not only completely healed, his inner energy reserves have progressed further than ever.

Before Long Feiye could reply, the sword sect master suddenly punched him. Long Feiye quirked his lips as he accepted the blow with a fist of his own. Their two fists met as master and disciple compared strengths. Soon enough, the sword sect master felt the exhaustive depths of Long Feiye’s internal energy. His eyes flashed in amazement before he sent a strong wave of energy to examine his disciple. To his surprise, Long Feiye blocked the a.s.sault!

In disbelief, the sword sect master expelled another forceful wave of energy. This time Long Feiye had to give way, but it was only to back up a few steps. Their hands were still connected. The sword sect master was the first to drop his arm, utterly astonished. “When did you cultivate to the seventh level?”

There was only one internal cultivation practice of Celestial Mountain Sword Sect, the Nirvana Heart Arts. But there were a total of nine levels within the the practice, and the distance between each level was far and wide. Higher levels had greater gaps than the lower ones. Each was suited for learning different levels of sword arts and wielding different types of treasured swords.

The disciples of the branch factions on Celestial Mountain, and even the highest level disciples without the Depositories and Courtyards, had only reached the fifth level. Of the four elders, Second Elder from the Sword Depository, Third Elder from the Scripture Depository, and Granny You from the Abstinence Courtyard were all sixth level. Only Cang Qiuzi had reached the seventh. That was already an impressive feat. After all, besides the sword sect master himself, no one had ever surpa.s.sed the seventh level in the history of Celestial Mountain Sword Sect. The grandmaster was its first living miracle by reaching the eighth within his lifetime.

But he’d only managed to break through the seventh when he was thirty years old, then the eighth when he was almost sixty. Cang Qiuzi himself had only risen to the seventh five years ago. Meanwhile, Long Feiye was only in his twenties!

Compared to the sword sect master, Long Feiye was even more of a marvel.

“One year ago,” Long Feiye replied simply. If Cang Qiuzi hadn’t injured him before then, he would have improved much more quickly.

“When did you reach sixth rank? Did you only use a year to advance from sixth to seventh?”

Long Feiye’s last visit to Celestial Mountain had been spent in closed door cultivation to reach fifth rank. Even the sober and calm sword sect master had to cover up much of his amazement at the fact. Cang Qiuzi had spent 15 entire years to advance from sixth to seventh! Did Long Feiye only need one?

Instead, Long Feiye’s reply was even more shocking. “There was no sixth rank. This disciple advanced directly from the fifth to the seventh. Thus, it took me a month to recover from the wounds I sustained in the Medicine Requesting Cave. Killing Leng Yue didn’t require the power of the l.u.s.tbite Seal.”

“Who helped you?” the sword sect master asked urgently. It was possible for Long Feiye to improve rapidly with hard work, but breaking through levels like this seemed almost impossible without outside help!

“Aside from master’s internal energy, nothing else is capable of helping this disciple, is it?” Long Feiye asked back.

That’s true!

Only an eighth rank master like the sword sect master would be capable of helping a fifth rank reach seventh rank. In other words, Long Feiye had managed it all by himself. The old man looked at him, stunned, then revealed a helpless, forced smile. “Fortune fools with man! Fortune fools with man, ah!”

“Why do you say that, master?” Long Feiye felt a bit uneasy.

“Master thought you were injured, so I sentenced you to the Abstinence Courtyard as a way to treat your wounds without Cang Qiuzi suspecting,” the sword sect master sighed. “I never thought that you…hehe. Aye…so be it!”

The sword sect master took Long Feiye’s hand and tested his reserves with two fingers. Afterwards, he sighed. “Beginning stage of the seventh level isn’t enough to defeat Cang Qiuzi. He’s in the seventh level’s middle stage now. Your master can’t help you, either.”

The Nirvana Heart Arts divided each level into beginning, middle and later stages. The difference between each division was vast, and it took some people entire lifetimes to bridge the gaps. Long Feiye didn’t consider that an issue and only looked at his master with a complicated gaze. “Master, are you finally making a move after fostering a tiger for all these years?”

Because master had neglected to manage affairs over the past few years, Cang Qiuzi had seized the chance to win over the two Depositories and Courtyards along with various other factions within the martial arts circles. His power and influence grew by the day. Long Feiye could tell that his master dreaded pus.h.i.+ng Cang Qiuzi too far, because that would only lead to internal strife within the sect. Moreover, he knew that master had sentenced him to the Abstinence Courtyard on purpose, but now he knew for certain that the man was going to move against Cang Qiuzi for real.

The sword sect master lowered his head to drink his tea, casting the room into silence. All was still but for the trailing tendrils of incense rising into the air. Long Feiye waited patiently without asking questions. Judging from his intuition, the situation at Celestial Mountain must be more dire than he imagined. Why else would master have been so silent and forgiving of Cang Qiuzi today?

A long time later, the sword sect master revealed a shocking secret. “Cang Qiuzi has been meeting frequently with members of the Heretical Sword Sect. If there’s disorder within our ranks, he’ll seize the chance to open the sect to them!”

“What nerve!” Long Feiye said coldly.

The Heretical Sword Sect was one of Celestial Mountain’s branch factions, but they had been expelled over a century ago for cultivating taboo sword arts without authorization. Even now, they existed as Celestial Mountain’s enemies and were part of the negative powers in the martial arts circles. Members of the Heretical Sword Sect were cold and emotionless, a fierce and bloodthirsty sort. Once Cang Qiuzi led them up here, the peace of Celestial Mountain would turn into a reign of terror and a rain of blood.

The sword sect master didn’t care how Cang Qiuzi fooled about within the sect’s own ranks. As the foremost sect of the martial arts circles with the strongest fighters, it was only natural for its members to vie for fame and power. As long as Cang Qiuzi didn’t go too far, he could open one eye and close the other. But Cang Qiuzi now had the gall to bring members of an evil sect into their grounds. That was something he simply couldn’t ignore.

“Master, how are you planning to help this disciple face Cang Qiuzi?” Long Feiye probed.

“Originally, master meant to send you to the Abstinence Courtyard so I could treat you and give you my internal energy. That would have helped you break all the way through to the seventh level’s later stage. But now…” he was helpless.

The fact that his disciple had miraculously broken through two levels should have been a cause for celebration, but he wasn’t glad at all. If Long Feiye was still sixth rank, he could boost him with his inner energy and sent him to the seventh level’s later stage all the same. That would be enough to overwhelm Cang Qiuzi at the mid stage. However, Long Feiye had broken through seventh rank himself, a stage that rendered him incapable of accepting interference or inner energy from external forces. His master couldn’t give him a whit of internal energy. If Long Feiye fought Cang Qiuzi as he was now, he’d lose for certain!

Long Feiye looked at his master without a word. By now, he’d finally understood the old man’s plans. Once master gave him his internal energy to break through levels, master would have dropped at least a level of his own, losing his status as the martial arts circle’s number one power. In truth, his master was more than capable of killing Cang Qiuzi. But if Cang Qiuzi died just like that, the Heretical Sword Sect would have more excuses to seize Celestial Mountain by force; the Lockheart Courtyard disciples would have more reasons to rise up and rebel; the elders of the Sword and Scripture Depository would have more ways to denounce him for the murder. No internal strife had ever plagued Celestial Mountain Sword Sect since its founding, much less ugly scandals like these. Master didn’t want to see such things pa.s.s, so he would rather sacrifice his own inner energy to have Long Feiye partic.i.p.ate in the ranking matches. Aside from the sect head, any member of Celestial Mountain Sword Sect was qualified to compete. They would be responsible for their own lives upon entry. Thus, even if Long Feiye killed Cang Qiuzi in a match there, no one would object.

Once he did, master would hand over the position of clan head to him and let him inherit everything naturally. Who would dare to complain then? The sword sect master knew that he had lost his disciples’ hearts, so his original plan was to push Long Feiye forward with the fairest method possible to wrest Celestial Mountain from its precarious position.

Long Feiye understood all this. It also happened to coincide with his own goals. Using the ranking matches he could 1) kill Cang Qiuzi, 2) stabilize the ambitions of varying factions, and 3) awe the disciples of the two Depositories and Courtyards. A fair bout was the most sensible path to take for victory. He didn’t have time to waste here either, since he belonged to the imperial courts, not the jianghu.

Rising to his feet, Long Feiye cupped his hands and declared, “Master, you can help this disciple. Please undo the l.u.s.tbite Seal. Once the ranking matches commence, this disciple will only allow victory, not defeat!”

The l.u.s.tbite Seal…

Greatly alarmed, the sword sect master exclaimed, “Impossible, you’re simply seeking death!”