Just Right

One cultivator at the Enlightenment Realm, four at the Divine Transformation, and over a Nascent Soul Stage Formation Realm. Is this the strength that the Nine Great Xuan Sects can casually display...?

Although Li Fan had wiped out the Emei 'Southern Mountain lineage' in the time it takes for a third of an incense stick to burn, making them seem particularly weak, to be honest, this time he could only be considered as rushing into the emergency room to collect heads.

It's a bit despicable, but so what?

This is tactic! This is strategy! This is good timing for entry! It's using their own methods against them! So what if it's a little underhanded and despicable! As long as we win, isn't that what matters? Isn't it better to play a little more easily?

Honestly, if these people really recover from their injuries, complete their spells, lay out their traps, collect their magical treasures and elixirs, and gather their army to launch a full-scale attack, it's hard to say whether Li Fan could even last a third of an incense stick's time. Ink Bamboo Mountain would definitely be wiped out within that time!

In short, the struggle for the Daoist Tradition is a life-or-death struggle!

Taking a deep breath to stabilize his Dao heart and banish distracting thoughts, Li Fan waved his hand to retrieve the True Yang Dao Fire that had filled the ground, confirming that there were no more bio-engineered beings around.

But that's strange. Why aren't any Divine Transformation cultivators from Hengshan there to help? Were they eliminated by the Abbot?

Li Fan couldn't figure it out for the time being, but since he would return to his original body and spirit soon after dispelling his physical form, he couldn't possibly clean up all the equipment on the ground. As for troublesome creatures like White Treasure Sword Lord, who had deep karmic ties, Li Fan was too lazy to provoke them. He simply left the equipment on the spot, just like he had done with Zhu Mingjian last time, and flew directly into the sky.

At this moment, the overwhelming demonic aura had mostly subsided. Part of it was burned by the True Yang Dao Fire, and most of it was severed by Xuan Yunzi's Sword Qi. The remaining fingers and arms were heavily tangled together, resembling a large, white, fleshy ball. On the back of the hand that made up the fleshy ball, countless eyeballs bulged outwards, their wide-open pupils dilated, and their lenses rotating in all directions. It was somewhat like many jelly-like pustules and worm eggs growing on the fleshy ball. To a nearsighted person, it probably looked like a peeled dragon fruit.

"Tsk..."

Although his mood only dropped slightly, disgusting things are still disgusting, and Li Fan didn't want to get too close.

Unfortunately, he is currently in his Dharma body, and his most effective red pupils against Non-Thing have always resided within his Dao body, so he can't use that move now. Therefore, he can only take the more troublesome step of condensing True Yang Dao Fire to burn them...

"Wait, there's no need to make a move."

Suddenly, the abbot's voice rang in his ears. Li Fan looked around but couldn't see anyone. He realized that it was the abbot's spirit following him.

"Isn't this the perfect opportunity to take advantage of her weakness and kill her?"

Li Fan cautiously used his Divine Sense to investigate and confirmed that the Hengshan Purple Void Dao Lord was meditating at the center of this fleshy ball, seemingly engaged in a battle with his own demonic heart celestial being within his divine court. This was the perfect opportunity to finish him off!

The abbot said, "No need. I have severely damaged her primordial spirit. Without spending over a hundred years to stabilize her foundation, she will not dare to leave the mountain again. Everything in excess is as bad as deficiency. Now that our goal has been achieved, there is no need to linger or take any more risks! Leave now, without delay! I will clean up the mess and cover up your tracks!"

If it were up to Li Fan, he would have at least made a couple of holes in this little bundle of flesh to show his grandfather's power. However, since he was here to do a mission for the sect, and the abbot had given such clear instructions, Li Fan didn't linger in the fight. He immediately dispelled his Radiant Star clone, transformed into star power filling the sky, and instantly returned to his physical body.

The fatigue from the battle overwhelmed him, making him dizzy. Li Fan quickly bit down on the pill in his mouth, Dao Breath into his nasal cavity. He chewed it twice and swallowed it, instantly dispelling his mental fatigue. Then he sat quietly to regulate his breathing and restore his Qi.

After sitting for a while, Li Fan felt a breeze in front of him. He opened his eyes and saw that the abbot had sat back down in front of him, and the incense in the censer had burned out.

"Well done! Just right!" The abbot set up the formation and calculated with his fingers. "This time it's also heaven's help. Hengshan originally left two Divine Transformation Realm cultivators on guard, so it shouldn't have been possible to succeed so easily. Unexpectedly, they actually abandoned their posts and ran out to gather herbs and search for treasures!"

Now that they know they've caused a huge disaster, they're still slaughtering nearby rogue cultivators in an attempt to cover up their shameful deeds, which inadvertently helps us conceal our whereabouts!

Qingyue, I don't need to say anything more. Just pretend nothing happened tonight and don't reveal a single thing to anyone else, understand?"

"Yes..."

That's terrible? A room full of wounded, and two guards actually abandoned their posts? But then again, with Daojun in charge, they even stopped to treat their injuries; they must have really felt safe to be so careless.

"But... is it really... over like this?"

The abbot noticed Li Fan's confusion and explained slowly in a calm and steady tone,

"Indeed, this matter has been accomplished. With such a large number of people lost, even Hengshan cannot recover. Moreover, the various mountains and branches within their Xuanmen usually rely on the relationship with the lineage of Purple Void Dao Lord of the Yellow Court Palace to coordinate and communicate. Now that this central link has been severed, Hengshan will not be able to organize a large-scale operation for a while."

In this way, even if the Demon Race from the Ten-thousand-mountains and the South China Sea invade Xunzhou, Hengshan will be powerless to restrain them. These demons are unlikely to fight to the death against Luofeng Mountain and will probably wreak havoc Fourth Department. This will give the east time to organize defenses.

Once Xuanzhou has persuaded the Kunlun Divine Cult army to retreat, I will arrange for him to go to the Eastern Kingdom to set up defenses and gather the defeated soldiers of Luofeng and the people of Xun Kingdom.

"Qingyue, you should stay in Ink Bamboo Mountain to cultivate and digest the accumulation of these years, and reach the Transformation Stage as soon as possible."

Li Fan nodded silently.

Actually, he only prevented Hengshan from receiving reinforcements from Emei Nanshan and incidentally killed some Nascent Soul Stage disciples who were helping with healing. However, the two Divine Lords in charge of cultivation levels couldn't find him even after searching for an entire incense stick's time. It's hard to say whether Hengshan's fate wasn't yet exhausted, or Emei's fate had run out.

The abbot also remained silent for a while, pondering. "Qingyue, weakening Hengshan's strength and thwarting their plans are only one thing; the key is to find the 'seventh person.'"

Upon hearing the abbot's tone, Li Fan couldn't help but ask, "That Daoist Lord just now, he shouldn't have been the Seventh Friend, right?"

The abbot also shook his head, "No, I originally thought that this person from the Yellow Court Palace would have some connection with Shi Tong'er. After all, Purple Void Dao Lord has been deducing the ascension method after female cultivators attain enlightenment, so he is naturally very enthusiastic about this Holy Mother of the Black Lotus Sect. Yellow Court Palace has also been hunting down Shi Tong'er's descendants."

Therefore, I used the Beast Mother's Heavenly Book to test her this time, but who would have thought that she had never come into contact with the authentic Tai Su Heavenly Scripture. It actually had a surprising effect, and it was much easier to deal with her than expected.

However, it seems that the "Seventh Friend" also kept some things to himself, and did not hand over all the Tai Su Dao inheritance he obtained to the sect. His true identity is probably unknown even to many high-ranking members of Hengshan.

Li Fan was confused again. "The Beast Mother's Heavenly Book? Shi Tong'er? Wait, Abbot, you actually have the Beast Mother's Heavenly Book?"

The abbot nodded. "Back then, we only obtained a few words from the Luo Sect. After all, to deal with the 'Seven Friends,' the Heavenly Book taught to us by the Seven Generations of Giants is far from enough. So we exchanged some secret manuals with Brother Xing Yun and the others, but that's a story for later. You should focus on cultivating the True Yang Technique for now."

However, it is now certain that this Hengshan Huangting Purple Void Dao Lord was indeed not among the original 'Seven Friends'. I also personally witnessed the last time Hengshan Shangqing Sixuan Daojun came to play a game of chess, and neither of these two leading Daojuns of Hengshan were the 'seventh person'. And the other party could not possibly be the head of the Shangqing Outer Sect of Mao Mountain.

Perhaps this person was worried that once they attained enlightenment, the true nature of their Non-Thing Devil Embryo would be revealed, alerting others, which is why they deliberately suppressed their cultivation and concealed their identity. But so many years have passed, and even if they had reincarnated through Tai Su Dao. This 'seventh person' couldn't possibly still be at the Nascent Divine Transformation stage; they must have at least reached the Nascent Soul Realm..."

Li Fan looked at the abbot, who was deep in thought, his eyebrows furrowed in calculation, and suddenly understood.

"Master, you... you don't mean to seek revenge? Do you want to wipe out the Nangong Seven Friends and avenge the people of Feng Family Village?"

The abbot raised his head and glanced at Li Fan indifferently, "The number of people they have harmed over the years is far more than just one village."

Those seven people were demons that the old Xuanmen sects of the previous generation would absolutely find intolerable. When they studied the Dao of Tai Su, they would never care about the lives of mortals. In order to comprehend the future Heavenly Dao, they would not hesitate to destroy this world.

Qingyue, you must eradicate the Daoist Tradition of the 'Seven Friends.' Such a momentous matter as the Tai Su Dao cannot be entrusted to these cold-blooded, ruthless, and arrogant demonic cultivators."

Li Fan nodded solemnly, "Yes, disciple understands."

Therefore, the main storyline of Ink Bamboo Mountain and the Abbot ultimately aims to find the seventh member of the Nangong Seven Friends and sever their Daoist Tradition.

Could this be considered a struggle for Daoist Tradition between him, the teacher of the modern Tai Su method, and the Nangong Seven Friends, the progenitor of the ancient Tai Su method?

But then again, look at the kind of people Nangong Seven Friends is. The killings committed by Nangong, the Black Lotus Sect, and the Luo Sect don't even count from what he did. Lu Hansheng is also a ruthless person.

Even if the seventh generation of the Mo Mountain Giant is considered a 'good person' in a relative sense, just look at the countless Revered Heavenly Demon covering the Five Sons Peak, and the Taotie currently feasting on an army of about ten thousand men. Calling him a demon wouldn't be an exaggeration, would it?

Nangong Wubu, Mo Chanzi, Shi Tong'er, Lu Hansheng, Luo Yin, Wisdom Dharma King, Seventh Friend.

The Tai Su Dao lineage established by these seven individuals must be recovered by Li Fan; otherwise, its dispersal will surely bring harm to the common people.

Therefore, the most urgent task is to first screen out the hidden 'Seventh Friend' among the Divine Transformation monsters of Hengshan.

However, there's no need to rush. Judging from the battles among Divine Transformation Realm cultivators these days, Qingyue's true form using the Tai Sha Sword Embryo can basically kill one-on-one instantly, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

However, if he were to use the disguised identity of 'Li Yaoshi' or 'Wisdom Dharma King', without using the Tai Sha Sword Embryo and without a matching divine weapon, he might be able to handle ordinary Xuanmen practitioners, but against a master like 'Seventh Friend' who also has the Tai Su Dao as his support, it would probably be a 50/50 chance.

In short, Qingyue's main character is already practically invincible. All that's left is to progress step by step, stacking attributes with the Ink Mountain Dao Body while cultivating the True Yang Technique and honing the proficiency of various skills. Then most dungeons should be easily cleared, right?

So Li Fan flew back to the surface, returning to the Ink Bamboo Mountain Grotto-Heaven, and first checked the harvest...

Holy crap! Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!

What a loss! A huge loss!

According to the system's calculations, this is neither a "mountain-breaking and temple-crushing" event nor a "major calamity" for the Ink Bamboo Mountain; it's just a normal killing event. Well, that's understandable.

Aside from letting Xuan Yunzi go to save him, Li Fan personally killed three Nascent Divine Transformation and eighteen Nascent Soul Stage cultivators from the Southern Faction of Emei. He also killed two Nascent Soul disciples from Hengshan.

Yes, just the two of them...

Many people were torn apart by the demonic hand or pulverized by the Sword Qi, Li Fan could understand. But was it really true that no one was burned to death? Although his sword fire was mainly aimed at Xuan Yunzi, surely not a single one was missed? Not a single one??

And that's not even the most outrageous part.

The most outrageous thing is that the three Nascent Divine Transformation that Li Fan killed with his own hands—Chu Yingxiong, Xu Yingjie, and Zheng Yingming—each only increased Li Fan's mood cap by 100 points.

Yes, you read that right! A dignified Nascent Divine Transformation only has a 100-point cap! And the eighteen Emei Nascent Soul Stage are the same! 100 points!

The entire Southern Faction of Emei only gained 2100 points! That's less than what he could gain by killing a wild boar in the Ten-thousand-mountains!

Heavens above! System! This is outrageous!

Last time, I was already ripped off once for only getting 100 points for killing Qingyang the Old Demon! And now they can still rip me off again and again!

Li Fan truly speechless.

What does this mean?

It can't be that just because he plays easily, his earnings are low!

Does this mean we can no longer fight those who are seriously injured, doomed, or exhausted?

That's such a huge loss!

However, two disciples from Hengshan were given a 500-point mood cap each...

No, system, are you also judging based on sect rankings? Does that mean Emei disciples who betray their sect aren't Emei disciples anymore, but just rogue cultivators or something? And didn't he really try to salvage the situation? His swordsmanship was so good that he ended up hitting Xuan Yunzi? What about those demonic hands? They burned so many, and didn't get any reward??

Unfortunately, the system doesn't make mistakes.

So Li Fan had no choice but to accept the fact that after a whole night of effort, he only gained 3100 points of mood cap. Incidentally, he refreshed the Three Flowers six times this time, for a total of 7200 points, resulting in a negative total gain of 4100 points.

Therefore, my current mood is 9k/25.6k.

Sigh... A sneaky attack from behind is really unpleasant; the risk is considerable, and the reward is low...

However, a 25k mood cap is enough. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to accept the loss. After all, I'm doing this for the sect.

Li Fan's mood immediately soured, and he had no choice but to return to Li Family Village to cultivate.

As soon as Li Fan entered, he saw two people fighting.

Incredibly, the people fighting were Qin Nanxin and Jiyue, and it was actually a real fight!

Qin Nanxin, weak and frail from his injuries, immediately wielded his twin blades, his feet moving in a trigram-like fashion, his gleaming white swords flashing and swirling, slashing with the force of wind and thunder, aimed directly at Jiyue's head, neck, waist, and knees! He showed no mercy!

Although Jiyue had higher cultivation and her injuries had healed, what she had learned in the Six Doors was only a little bit of Jianghu skills. Before long, she was hacked to pieces by the swords, her clothes were torn and blood was everywhere. She only managed to hold on because of her strong demon body. But no matter how many punches and palm strikes she threw, she could not touch the corner of Qin Nanxin's clothes.

The two women exchanged blows for over thirty moves, until Jiyue slashed until her fangs were bared. Qin Nanxin, on the other hand, was also flushed red, her inner energy rising, and a wisp of white smoke rose from her forehead.

Li Tangyuan and Lin Xiang rode on the leopard's back to watch the show.

"Hey! Hold on! What's going on?!"

Li Fan quickly jumped into the arena, and with a sweep of his Dalu Jing Tian Finger, he sealed the acupoints of the two women.

"Qingyue! Is this monster your pet?!"

"Pah! You're the monster! Master! This thief has broken into a private residence and is attacking people with a knife!"

"What! This beast is actually the servant girl you took in!"

"Hey you thief, watch your mouth! Who's the beast here?!"

Holy crap... What happened to our promise to live happily ever after? And didn't we agree to be charming sex partners? What's with this hellish atmosphere???

"Ah, I... ah, this... ah, her..."

Before Li Fan could figure out how to explain, a red light flew over, and Duan Ye, whose red hair had been dyed black, landed directly at the doorway, brazenly displaying his ruby.

"But this is the estate of Qingyue, the Mountain Lord! I am Duan Ye, a rogue cultivator, here to seek refuge!"

Holy crap, you just dyed your hair and this is it...

Qin Nanxin, "What! You actually colluded with members of the Divine Cult!"

Jiyue, "It's so big... Master! Aren't we sisters enough? Waaah!"

Qin Nanxin, "Sister, sister!?? Qingyue!!"

Duan Ye: "Hey, when are you guys going to eat?"

Li Tangyuan: "Dinner's ready!"

System, "Hello, this is a test communication from the Celestial Ship. Li Fan, can you hear me? Hmm? What's wrong on your end? It sounds like two thousand five hundred ducks are quacking."

Sigh... It doesn't matter anymore... So be it... Out of sight, out of mind...