Ling Yunpo was baffled.
"Senior Brother Lou, what do you mean by saying disaster is upon me?"
Lou Zhizheng smiled faintly.
"Junior Brother Ling, did you know that your master, who's currently in seclusion, returned to the mountain gravely wounded all those years ago? He entered a life-or-death retreat!"
Ling Yunpo's pupils contracted slightly.
In truth, after True Lord Qisha, Su Jian, had been in seclusion for so long, Ling Yunpo had already guessed there was more to the story. He just hadn't expected that Su Jian had entered a life-or-death retreat because of severe injuries.
A so-called life-or-death retreat meant sealing oneself away with all one's power before entering seclusion.
Because sealing the retreat was easier than breaking it open at the same level of power, one had to break through to the next realm and greatly increase one's cultivation before emerging.
The restrictions were so severe that only those nearing the end of their lives and forced to stake everything, or those gravely wounded and on the verge of death who needed secret arts to preserve their lives, would choose to seal themselves in a life-or-death retreat.
To put it bluntly, it was nine chances in ten of dying. Forget when they might emerge; whether they would come out alive at all was unknown!
"Junior Brother Ling, you were far too rash when you joined Green Snail Peak. Didn't you ask the other senior brothers and sisters about it first?" Lou Zhizheng said with heartfelt dismay. "Everyone in Shu Mountain knows that Su Jian was so badly injured back then that he would have died on the spot if he hadn't entered seclusion!"
"By the standards of a Nascent Soul Cultivator, injuries like those would take at least several hundred years of retreat to heal. What Qi Refining cultivator could wait that long?"
"Without reaching the Golden Core Realm, your lifespan is only a little over two hundred years. By the time your master emerges, you'll already be nothing but a pile of bones!"
Ling Yunpo was silent for a moment, then said:
"Thank you for the warning, Senior Brother, but..."
"Listen to me." Lou Zhizheng cut him off, speaking earnestly. "Junior Brother Ling, you haven't been cultivating for long. You don't know how hard the path is."
"The way of the Sword Immortal is filled with countless hardships and dangers. Without someone to guide you, you'll find it almost impossible to advance!"
"I'm not trying to scare you. Just think about it. When you reach a point in your cultivation art that you can't understand, who will teach you? When your sword techniques falter and you can't make them flow, who will point the way?"
"Even if you have some great stroke of fortune and successfully wash your marrow and transform your abode, who will protect you through the Golden Core tribulation at the very end?"
Ling Yunpo was left speechless.
He couldn't exactly tell Lou Zhizheng not to worry about it, because Qiu Changtian had become a disciple of the Ziwei Sect Master in Kunlun. Whether it was Daoist Magic, cultivation arts, sword techniques, or the Golden Core tribulation, someone was there to take care of it.
Seeing that Ling Yunpo had no answer, Lou Zhizheng took it as a sign that he'd been persuaded and continued his fervent pitch, spittle flying:
"Take your Senior Sister An. Su Jian secretly took her in as a disciple while he was away from the mountain. She was already at the Abode Transformation Stage when she returned."
"Half a century has passed. Has her cultivation advanced even a little?"
"Go ask the other senior brothers and junior brothers. Anyone who understands the stakes would dare become a Rogue Cultivator at Green Snail Peak?"
"Only Senior Sister An, who regards Elder Su Jian as her father, has worked herself to the bone for all these years, barely keeping Green Snail Peak afloat. She still refuses to take another master."
"Our Purple Cloud Peak couldn't bear to watch you throw away your future. That's why my master asked the Sect Master to grant you another chance to choose."
"Once you join our peak and cultivate under my master's guidance for half a century, you may well surpass Senior Sister An and reach the Golden Core Realm ahead of her!"
Ling Yunpo listened in silence and more or less understood what was going on.
Oh. A headhunter had come to poach him.
What Lou Zhizheng said wasn't wrong. Everything about Green Snail Peak was fine, except for one thing: it had no master. Cultivating there was basically no different from being a Rogue Cultivator.
If Ling Yunpo had been an ordinary Shu Mountain cultivator, then even though Senior Sister An was as gentle as water and had treated him with care and consideration ever since he joined, this concerned the Great Dao and immortality...
Sorry, I'm leaving. I wish you all the best, Senior Sister. Goodbye.
But as it happened, Ling Yunpo was no ordinary cultivator. He was a mole who needed to infiltrate the sect's upper ranks.
The key to being a mole was not letting anyone suspect he was a turncoat.
If he betrayed his sect and went elsewhere not long after joining, even if the master of Purple Cloud Peak was willing to take him in, what would the senior brothers and sisters there think of him?
Look at that Ling Yunpo. He's the one who betrayed Green Snail Peak. With a record like that, he's clearly got no loyalty. He might betray Purple Cloud Peak next...
How could he ever get by after that?
For other people, whether to trade their reputation and good name for better conditions to cultivate might be a choice worth careful consideration.
But for Ling Yunpo, there was no need to think about it.
After Lou Zhizheng finished speaking, Ling Yunpo set his jaw and said solemnly:
"Thank you for Purple Cloud Peak's kindness. But I have already joined Green Snail Peak and become a disciple of True Person Su Jian."
"Once a master, always a master. How could I betray him so lightly?"
"I, Ling Yunpo, am not so disloyal and unrighteous! No matter how many dangers or hardships lie ahead, I'll bear them all myself!"
[Unyielding persona, synchronization +1.]
He spoke with impassioned conviction, each word ringing like metal striking stone. Then he heard Senior Sister An call out excitedly behind him:
"Junior Brother!"
Ling Yunpo turned around and saw An Zhisu rushing out of the temple gate behind him, clutching his arm in excitement.
When Lou Zhizheng had first said, "Your master entered a life-or-death retreat," she had just returned to Green Snail Peak on her flying sword. Seeing her junior brother talking to an unfamiliar young man outside the temple, she had quietly hidden behind the main gate to listen.
When she heard Lou Zhizheng say, "Who would dare become a Rogue Cultivator at Green Snail Peak?" An Zhisu's expression first turned icy. Then she fell silent, and at last her face darkened.
Without a master to guide them, Green Snail Peak had a glaring weakness. If the other side kept hammering away at that one point, they had already won.
That was why Green Snail Peak hadn't gained a single disciple apart from Ling Yunpo all these years, and had grown more and more dilapidated and desolate.
She remembered that before her master entered his life-or-death retreat, he had told her, "Su'er, I'm leaving Green Snail Peak in your hands."
Back then, she hadn't understood the stakes. She had simply agreed, innocent and carefree.
Only later had she weathered the cold and warmth of the world and endured the contemptuous stares. Her cultivation had hit a bottleneck and stalled for years, earning her mockery and disdain. Now people were even withholding her monthly stipend, leaving her without enough spirit stones to cultivate...
No matter how lonely and helpless she felt, she still kept her master's words close to heart. His voice rang in her ears, and so she had always relied on herself and refused to give in.
When her stipend was withheld, she went to the Administration Hall to argue her case. When someone barged into Green Snail Peak to provoke her, she drew her sword and beat them until they could barely move.
Golden Core True Persons were forbidden by the sect rules from attacking Foundation Establishment Realm disciples. So she had practiced flying sword techniques day and night, and had now become the strongest below the Golden Core Realm.
With her hard work, she had somehow managed to keep the Green Snail Peak branch going.
The only thing she couldn't manage was recruiting disciples. With Green Snail Peak in its current state, she couldn't ask people to sacrifice their Dao Path and force them to stay there. So she had never managed to recruit any junior brothers or sisters.
That was precisely why, when Ling Yunpo joined Green Snail Peak, she had cared for him in every way, treating him just like her own little brother.
Now Junior Brother Ling had truly turned down Purple Cloud Peak's offer for her sake. And the words he'd just spoken had been so heartfelt, his expression so sincere. Her heart warmed, and she asked gently:
"Junior Brother, do you really mean that?"
"Of course!" Ling Yunpo answered firmly.
[Unyielding persona, synchronization +1.]
An Zhisu's gaze grew even gentler. She asked again:
"Master may stay in seclusion for a long time yet, with no chance to come out and guide us in our cultivation. We'll have to rely on ourselves for everything. You can accept that too?"
Ling Yunpo answered resolutely:
"What does it matter if we have no master? From now on, you and I will support each other and keep Green Snail Peak going!"
[Unyielding persona, synchronization +1.]
This unyielding persona's synchronization rate was really hard to raise!
"Junior Brother..." An Zhisu was deeply moved. Tears shimmered in her eyes, her gaze was tender, and she bit her lower lip, unable to speak.
Across from them, Lou Zhizheng had been stunned into silence. It took him a long moment to recover. He angrily swept his sleeve and snapped:
"Stubborn fool!"
"In that case, Purple Cloud Peak won't hold back anymore!"
With that, he tossed down a sword talisman and rode off on a beam of sword light.
An Zhisu reacted quickly. Shuangjiang turned into a streak of light and swept the sword talisman back before it hit the ground. She glanced at the words on it, and her expression changed at once.
The talisman read:
The Shu Mountain Disciplinary Hall has approved Purple Cloud Peak disciple Lou Zhizheng's challenge to Green Snail Peak disciple Ling Yunpo to a sword duel, to be witnessed by an Elder in Charge.
Before you continue