A Close Call

Fang Chen glanced at the Enforcement Hall disciples flying toward the summit. He worried they might find something suspicious, drag him off to the Enforcement Hall, and slap him with another fine.

The Stone held a legacy left by True Monarch Liuyun. Its value was beyond measure, and Fang Chen still owed a hefty fine. If they saddled him with another one, he would never survive it.

He asked Li Yanshan and Elder Yun, "Uncle Li, Elder Yun, what should we do?"

Li Yanshan looked at Fang Chen. "If they question you, insist that the Stone fell on its own. It's no big deal!"

"Mm!"

Fang Chen nodded.

After the Enforcement Hall team reached the summit, they looked around for a while but found nothing suspicious.

One of the attendants asked the team leader, "Captain, why would a perfectly sound stone suddenly crack?"

The team leader's face darkened. "If you're asking me, who am I supposed to ask?"

The attendant frowned. "Should we take them all back for questioning?"

The Enforcement Hall wielded considerable power and often used it for private gain. Whenever its members saw an opportunity during an investigation, they would arrest people and take them back to the Enforcement Hall, then find every possible way to squeeze benefits out of them.

Outer Sect Disciples and Inner Disciples alike hated the Enforcement Hall. Yet whenever it openly recruited new members, everyone fought tooth and nail to get in. They all knew there was plenty to be skimmed there.

The other three attendants looked up at their captain. "Captain, are we arresting them or not?"

"Arrest them, my ass! Don't you have enough on your plate? This godforsaken Dog Head Ridge has a blind man and a cripple. What do you think you could squeeze out of them?"

The captain tore into his attendant. It was not out of kindness. He simply looked down on Li Yanshan and Elder Yun. Dog Head Ridge was the poorest place on Azure Cloud Peak, so barren even rats refused to stay. He had no desire to waste his energy on them.

The attendant he had scolded frowned and asked cautiously, "Then what should we do?"

The captain's expression remained grim. "What else? It was a worthless stone to begin with. Report the facts: the Stone at the summit of Dog Head Ridge, the one carved with a True Lord's inherited sword technique, cracked and fell. It caused no damage. What the higher-ups decide after that is none of our business!"

The captain knew the higher-ups had long since stopped caring about Dog Head Ridge. If they had cared, it would never have fallen into its current state.

"Yes!"

The attendant answered, and they rode their swords down to the foot of the mountain.

The captain brushed a hand over the belt at his waist, and a sheet of paper appeared in his hand. It was a Storage Belt, but it was not his personal property. The Enforcement Hall had issued it to him as captain of a Patrol Team. If he left the Enforcement Hall or stepped down as captain, he would have to return it.

He swiftly wrote the investigation's findings on the paper, then had Elder Yun, Li Yanshan, and Fang Chen check it and sign their names and press their marks on it.

The Enforcement Hall team put the paper away and flew off on their swords. They did not want to spend another moment in a godforsaken place like Dog Head Ridge.

Fang Chen breathed a sigh of relief when they left. He really had been afraid they would arrest him, but it had been a close call.

Li Yanshan turned to Fang Chen. "Fang Chen, tell me how you managed to master the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique."

Elder Yun watched Fang Chen, waiting for his answer. No one had mastered the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique in over a thousand years, yet this boy had done it after just two days on Dog Head Ridge. He wanted to know how Fang Chen had cultivated it.

Fang Chen had no intention of revealing the Floating Immortal Sword's secret. "When I was cultivating at the summit, the Stone suddenly lit up. Lots of little tadpoles appeared on it, too. They crawled around, then spread out and separated the words carved on the Stone. I cultivated according to the order marked out by the tadpoles, and it worked!"

"Little tadpoles?"

Li Yanshan and Elder Yun were both stunned. They had studied the Stone many times without gaining anything, much less seeing the tadpoles Fang Chen described. But they believed him without question. After all, the technique on the Stone had been left by a True Lord.

Throughout the Glazed Sword Sect, techniques were carved on stone tablets and even ordinary Stones. Some people could obtain the legacies they held, while others came away empty-handed. That was a matter of fate and opportunity, and opportunities mattered greatly to cultivators.

"Yes!"

Fang Chen nodded.

Elder Yun asked Fang Chen, "Could you write out the sword manual you cultivated so we can have a look?"

"Of course!"

Fang Chen nodded vigorously and wrote the sword manual on the ground, breaking its lines into phrases wherever the little tadpoles had stopped.

But when Li Yanshan and Elder Yun tried to cultivate according to the sword manual, neither could succeed.

Elder Yun shook his head. "It seems this sword technique was not meant for us!"

"Indeed!"

Li Yanshan nodded as well. They knew legacies left by great experts could be strange. Fate mattered.

Li Yanshan looked at Fang Chen. "Pick up the fish on the ground. We're having fish for lunch!"

"All right!"

Fang Chen nodded and began gathering the fish.

At noon, Li Yanshan cooked a whole pot of fish in a large cauldron. Fang Chen, Li Yanshan, and Elder Yun gathered around it, ready to eat.

Fang Chen and the others had eaten their fill, and so had Xiao Liu. With his belly round and full, he lay on the ground with his eyes closed, looking utterly content.

Fang Chen looked at the black-headed creature and asked Li Yanshan, "Uncle Li, Xiao Liu is so black. Why isn't he called Little Black instead of Xiao Liu?"

Li Yanshan glanced at Xiao Liu. "Because he used to rank sixth on Dog Head Ridge. Elder Yun was the eldest, I was third, and he was sixth. The second and Fifth Brother both died!"

"I see!"

Fang Chen nodded, then asked Li Yanshan, "Uncle Li, where do I rank now?"

Uncle Li looked at Fang Chen, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "You don't rank anywhere. We stopped doing that after they left. You can be the eldest or the youngest—whatever you like!"

"Bzz, bzz, bzz..."

Fang Chen felt his Identity Token vibrate faintly.

He immediately took it out. The inscriptions on it were giving off a faint white glow.

"What's going on?"

Fang Chen frowned, unable to understand why his Identity Token was behaving this way.

Li Yanshan looked at it and said calmly, "Scan it with your Spiritual Sense and you'll know!"

"Mm!"

Fang Chen nodded and immediately scanned it with his Spiritual Sense.

The next moment, unfamiliar information appeared in his mind. It concerned the Supervision Hall.

Fang Chen immediately took out his Identity Token and looked up at Li Yanshan and Elder Yun. "Uncle Li, Elder Yun, what's going on?"

Li Yanshan frowned slightly. "It's a message from the sect. Scan it with your Spiritual Sense and you'll know!"

With that, he immediately scanned it with his Spiritual Sense.

Fang Chen also scanned his Identity Token with his Spiritual Sense, and unfamiliar information surged into his mind.