The old Barbarian raised his head with difficulty and gazed at Li Wudang suspended in midair. He stretched his wide mouth into a grin, revealing his few remaining black teeth, and said with a hoarse laugh:
"Old, so old. It really is time I went to meet Panda Heavenly God."
His gaze then fell in the direction of Mengshui Pass. He sighed softly and said, "What a pity."
"Before I died, I had hoped to do one last thing for my people."
Li Wudang stared at him and snorted. "Your 'last thing' was to hide in the shadows and strike at my disciple?"
"Tu Meng, you certainly do your Barbarian Tribe proud."
The old Barbarian, Tu Meng, shook his head. "It was merely a coincidence."
"I only wanted to take away one of the Central Plains soldiers who came here today. Whether she was your disciple made no difference to me."
"It made no difference to you, but it mattered a great deal to me!"
Li Wudang glanced at him, then raised his head toward the sky.
The sky was clear for ten thousand miles, and the sunlight was somewhat dazzling.
He seemed not to notice. His deep eyes looked straight toward the southeast, as though piercing ten thousand miles to see the sacred mountain deep within Barbarian Tribe territory. He said evenly:
"Great Asa, I know you are watching."
"I ask you only this: do the rules of the Hidden Immortals still stand?"
His voice was not loud, yet it carried into the ears of everyone within nearly a hundred miles.
Both the Barbarian Tribe and the soldiers within Mengshui Pass were somewhat stunned.
Most soldiers, and even the Barbarian Tribe warriors, had only heard Great Asa's name or held him in reverence. They had no real understanding of