"Sure enough, it was him!" Song Qingshu could not help sighing. His long-held suspicions had finally been confirmed. The Sweeping Monk had seemed to appear out of nowhere; no one knew his origins, and his martial arts were unfathomably profound. Only now did they learn that he was Xiaoyaozi's son.
"You've met him?" Wuyazi asked in surprise.
Song Qingshu nodded. "I've exchanged blows with him several times. His martial arts are unfathomable." After a pause, his gaze swept across the three of them. "They're stronger than yours."
Tianshan Tonglao replied, "That is no surprise. The three of us learned only part of our master's abilities. As Master's son, and the one who bore the hopes of restoring the country, he must have received all of Master's teachings. Naturally, his martial arts surpassed ours."
Song Qingshu revealed a look of yearning. "Your master truly was a peerless genius. Every martial art he created was vast and profound, enough to occupy an entire lifetime of practice." Tianshan Tonglao specialized in the Eight Desolations, Six Directions, I Alone Am Supreme Skill; Wuyazi specialized in the North Darkness Divine Skill; and Li Qiushui specialized in the Minor Formless Skill. Though the three fellow disciples practiced different martial arts, all had reached the pinnacle of their age.
The three fellow disciples nodded together. "Indeed. Our master was the person closest to a god that we had ever seen."
Yet Song Qingshu secretly pondered, I've met the Sweeping Monk several times, and he has always seemed upright, peaceful, and detached, like an enlightened senior monk. He bears the same burden of restoring a nation, yet he is far calmer than Murong Fu. I wonder whether he still harbors ambitions of restoration.
Thinking of the schemes laid over these years—having Cheng Kun provoke conflict between the Six