The Huashan and Taishan Sects were the two great sword sects of the Central Plains, renowned throughout the land for their swordsmanship.
The Huashan Sect had more than a thousand disciples, which sounded like fewer than the three thousand members of the Iron Palm Sect.
But the Iron Palm Sect's three thousand members were of wildly varying ability. No more than five hundred of them could fight with any real skill, while every one of the Huashan Sect's thousand disciples had genuine martial training, passed down from one generation to the next.
The Huashan Sect's leader was named Zong Gui. He was in his forties, and his swordsmanship had reached a transcendent level.
The blade of his sword had naturally formed golden patterns. In battle, its light shone dazzlingly, like the rosy glow of dawn. Thus, he had earned the nickname "Golden Cloud Swordsman."
Huashan was only two days' journey from Luyang City, so Zong Gui was the first to hear the news from there.
When he first heard that the Heavenly Demon was a disciple who had defected from Nie Nong's service, Zong Gui didn't believe it, even though the disciple had sworn up and down that he had seen Taotie with his own eyes.
After all, the existence of ghosts, gods, demons, and monsters was too bizarre. Unless someone saw them personally, no one would believe in them too readily—least of all Zong Gui, a sect leader.
He stubbornly believed that the so-called Heavenly Demon and Taotie were tricks concocted by con artists in the martial world.
The Peacekeeping Gang was no more than a sect like the Lotus Cult, using crooked, unorthodox methods to put on a supernatural act and deceive the common people. Nie Nong, the man in charge of Luyang City, had also been