Cut for the Sake of Eternal Governance

Wang Ming took Lin Pingzhi in a carriage towards Fuzhou City.

After a month of travel, their bones felt like they were about to fall apart from the bumpy ride, but they finally arrived at Fuzhou City.

Then, with Lin Pingzhi leading the way, they quickly found the old house on Xiangyang Alley, saving a lot of effort in asking around for information.

After passing through the crowded streets, the two arrived at the back door of the old house on Xiangyang Alley.

Initially, Lin Pingzhi wanted to find a locksmith to open the main gate and enter from the front.

But Wang Ming stopped him and led him to the back door instead. The back door had fewer people, making it less likely to be noticed.

Then, the two used their lightness skills to climb over the wall and enter the courtyard.

Upon entering the courtyard, Lin Pingzhi sighed. The young master of the dignified Fuwei Escort Agency had fallen to the point where he had to sneak into his own home by climbing over the wall.

Actually, Wang Ming wasn't afraid of entering openly, but doing so would harm Lin Pingzhi, and he also didn't want the trouble.

Why make a big fuss and attract unwanted attention for something as simple as taking a few extra steps and climbing a wall?

Now, the two were in the ancestral hall of Lin Pingzhi's old residence.

"Senior Brother, you brought me back to the ancestral home. Could it be that my family's ancestral Bixie Sword Manual is here?"

Lin Pingzhi looked at the furnishings in the room and asked Wang Ming with some doubt. He was too familiar with this ancestral home; he stayed here for a period every year when returning for ancestor worship and knew the condition of the furniture well. It was impossible for the sword manual to be here.

Wang Ming glanced at the impatient Lin Pingzhi and didn't answer his question. He leaped up onto a roof beam.

It was daytime, and the light on the beam was sufficient for clear vision. The beam hadn't been cleaned in a long time, and it was covered in dust. After searching around, he successfully found an old, dusty bundle.

Wang Ming's lips curved into a smile as he grabbed the bundle. He jumped down from the beam, using his lightness skill to absorb the impact of the fall, landing steadily on the ground without making much noise.

Before Wang Ming could even open the bundle to check its contents, Lin Pingzhi excitedly rushed forward, reaching out a hand to snatch it, but Wang Ming sidestepped and dodged him.

"What's the hurry? We don't even know if it's the real thing yet. Don't be so impatient," Wang Ming reprimanded.

The outburst instantly jolted Lin Pingzhi out of his excitement. He knew that if he offended Wang Ming, he wouldn't get the manual, and he would be the one to suffer.

Lin Pingzhi had witnessed Wang Ming beating up members of the Mount Hua Sect's Sword Sect and Lu Bai of the Songshan Sect. Especially that rainy night, Wang Ming had dealt with the black-clothed men with swift and decisive efficiency.

He didn't want to anger his fifth senior brother, Wang Ming, lest the easily obtainable Bixie Sword Manual slip through his fingers. Without this manual, many of the things he wanted to do would be impossible!

"I apologize, Fifth Senior Brother! Pingzhi suddenly saw hope for avenging the Lin family's entire clan with the appearance of our family's Bixie Sword Manual, and my excitement was overwhelming. I was rude; I hope Senior Brother will forgive me." Lin Pingzhi was adaptable and immediately softened his stance to ease the atmosphere.

"I understand. Senior Brother isn't that petty."

Wang Ming looked at the now calm Lin Pingzhi, then lowered his head to gaze at the bundle in his hands. He held it with one hand and patted the dust off it, repeatedly, as if there was an endless amount of dust.

"Senior Brother, stop patting. There's no more dust on it. Please open it and see if it's the Bixie Sword Manual. If it is, Pingzhi is willing to study it together with Senior Brother."

Seeing Wang Ming patting the dust off for the time it takes to brew half a cup of tea, and remaining silent, nearly scattering the bundle without any intention of opening it, Lin Pingzhi quickly spoke up, having figured things out.

"Junior Brother, my apologies! Senior Brother has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Seeing dust on a bundle makes me uncomfortable until it's clean. Since you sincerely invite Senior Brother to view it, I'll reluctantly agree. Don't worry, Senior Brother doesn't lack this martial art; I'll just take a look and won't practice it."

Although Lin Pingzhi smiled outwardly upon hearing this, he cursed Wang Ming as shameless in his heart. He had never heard of such a thing as obsessive-compulsive disorder in his life; Wang Ming was simply coveting his family's ancestral sword manual. He knew he had to endure it and didn't show it on his face.

Wang Ming directly opened the bundle, took out the kasaya, spread it on a large table, and began to read and memorize the technique on his own.

"To practice the divine skill, one must first castrate oneself!! What, what does this mean?"

At first, Lin Pingzhi was very nervous, afraid that Wang Ming wouldn't let him see it. He eagerly leaned towards the table, but now, seeing the content, he felt utterly bewildered. What was this?

Wang Ming glanced at Lin Pingzhi, who was stimulated by the content of the technique and began to question his life. He ignored Lin Pingzhi's frantic questioning of heaven and his parents and continued to memorize the technique.

This martial art was indeed exquisite, but Wang Ming dared not practice it. It wasn't because of the castration; Wang Ming could change bodies and wasn't afraid of that at all.

The most terrifying aspect of this sword manual wasn't the self-castration, but the distortion of personality.

It caused one's personality to change in the opposite direction. Look at Dongfang Bubai, who became completely effeminate; Yue Buqun and Lin Pingzhi also became effeminate in a short period, and becoming gay was only a matter of time. The thought sent a shiver down his spine!

There were many eunuchs, but most of them still liked women. It was rare for castration to turn someone into a homosexual.

After practicing, Old Yue and Lin Pingzhi also became eccentric and ruthless. This was even more terrifying than Guihai Yidao's Hegemon Under Heaven.

Hegemon Under Heaven controlled people's minds in a way that could be felt, but the Bixie Swordplay did it subtly. The practitioner wouldn't even realize it, but outsiders could clearly see the changes.

Wang Ming worried that Old Yue would end up on the same path, so he decided to retrieve the sword manual early.

Just now, as Wang Ming read the sword manual, he discovered that the martial art's ability to accumulate internal energy was average. It was mainly an internal energy cultivation method that stimulated and developed the human body's potential, similar to the Heaven and Earth Great Shift.

The reason this martial art was powerful was that it adhered to a martial arts truth passed down in a previous life's movies and television: "All martial arts are indestructible, only speed is unbreakable."

The Lin family's sword techniques had many flaws, but with the enhancement of extreme speed, there were no flaws.

In the original plot, Lin Pingzhi killed Yu Canghai as if it were child's play, but his internal energy was only second or third-rate, which proved this point.

He glanced back at Lin Pingzhi, whose worldview had shattered, sitting on the ground in existential crisis.

"Since you are my junior brother, I will give you three choices: First, I will help you kill Yu Canghai. Second, you return to Mount Hua and practice martial arts for ten years, then seek revenge on Yu Canghai yourself; Third, this Bixie Sword Manual can make people stronger quickly, but the price..."

After a long while, Wang Ming's enhanced memory had memorized all the characters on the kasaya. Memorizing them was only to increase his martial arts knowledge.

"Have you thought about it?"

"I don't need your help. I want to get revenge with my own hands."

After speaking, he took the kasaya from the table and was about to leave.

"You don't need to leave, I'll go. Be careful yourself." Wang Ming had finished reading the manual, and there was no point in staying, so he decided to leave.

As he was about to leave the Buddhist hall, Wang Ming still thought of Lin Pingzhi's life. Bringing him out and giving him the Bixie Sword Manual felt a bit underhanded.

In the entire Smiling, Proud Wanderer World, the only one who truly deserved the title of "xia" (chivalrous hero) was Lin Pingzhi before his sect was destroyed. Even Linghu Chong couldn't be called a xia.

"Sigh."

Wang Ming still couldn't bear it, so he took out the Illusion Sword, which he had memorized before heading to Mount Hua, and sent it to Lin Pingzhi using his hidden weapon skills.

"You..." He wanted to say something but didn't know what.

"Take care of yourself!"

With that, he turned and left, walking straight out of the Lin family's old mansion.

He climbed over the wall and out of the courtyard, then looked back at the Lin family's old mansion. He sighed helplessly and walked away.

The choice Wang Ming had given Lin Pingzhi in the house earlier, while not a lie, was only to ease his own guilt.

In the original plot, Yue Lingshan had mentioned several times that she asked Yue Buqun to help Lin Pingzhi get revenge, but Lin Pingzhi refused each time.

Lin Pingzhi's desire for revenge was his obsession and his inner demon.

His desire for revenge was not only due to his love for his parents but more so because of his self-hatred and guilt towards the entire Lin family.

In his heart, he believed he was the cause of everything, and without revenge, he could not find inner peace.

Over the course of a year, he had witnessed the coldness of human relationships and the dangers of the jianghu. He was no longer the innocent young escorts' chief of the Lin family's Fuwei Escort Agency.

In reality, Lin Pingzhi's path from beginning to end had only one outcome and choice. The jianghu had long since mistaken Linghu Chong's Nine Swords of Dugu for the Bixie Sword Manual. Everyone in the jianghu wanted it, and he would be hunted as soon as he left Mount Hua.

Lin Pingzhi's predicament was actually a huge pit dug by his father. Lin Yuantu had left three martial arts for them, but Lin Zhennan couldn't bring himself to practice the Bixie Sword Manual through self-castration. He also disdained the Heaven-Overturning Palm and the Silver Feather Arrow.

While escorting caravans in the jianghu, he had relied on Lin Yuantu's lingering prestige and his wealth to clear paths, never encountering trouble. He was arrogant, thinking that the Bixie Sword Manual was powerful even without self-castration.

If Lin Zhennan had diligently practiced the Heaven-Overturning Palm and the Silver Feather Arrow, even if his strength wasn't exceptionally high, he could have matched Mu Gaofeng's level and wouldn't have been completely helpless when Yu Canghai attacked his family.

Wang Ming knew Lin Pingzhi's personality well, which was why he brought him to get the Bixie Sword Manual.

By bringing Lin Pingzhi out earlier, he allowed Linghu Chong to take advantage of the situation and prevented Yue Lingshan from becoming more deeply involved.

Initially, Wang Ming had no intention of interfering. His original plan was to obtain the Nine Swords of Dugu and leave Mount Hua Sect, leaving behind a letter about the sword techniques on Siguo Cliff and Feng Qingyang, and then washing his hands of the matter.

Wang Ming also didn't want to get involved with Yue Lingshan's affairs. While Linghu Chong's treatment of Yue Buqun was indeed despicable, he had done nothing wrong to Yue Lingshan. She was the one who fell for someone else, falling in love with Lin Pingzhi, and she had to see her chosen path through, even if it meant crawling.

He recalled that in the original plot, Linghu Chong had risked his life to save her multiple times. Once, he was even injured saving her, and when he begged her to visit him, she refused to even glance at him, showing extreme heartlessness.

However, Yue Buqun suddenly passed down the Purple Haze Divine Skill to Wang Ming. This was a significant gesture, essentially grooming Wang Ming as the next sect leader.

But Wang Ming had no interest in becoming the leader of Mount Hua Sect. Therefore, he could only tie Linghu Chong to the Mount Hua chariot and make him bear that responsibility.

Thus, he brought Lin Pingzhi out to prevent him from ruining Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan's relationship. After all, Yue Lingshan was his master's daughter, and in a way, this saved Yue Lingshan's life.

Giving Lin Pingzhi the sword manual in the end showed that his heart was not hard enough!