The Mount Hua Sect in its Prime

Mount Hua has been known since ancient times as the "most precipitous mountain under heaven." After leaving the training grounds and following a winding stone path for over ten miles, a small courtyard appeared before the eyes.

The courtyard was built against the mountain, taking nature as its refuge and integrating Taoist culture; it was secluded, elegant, and laid out with exquisite taste.

Stepping into the courtyard, the first things to come into view were two middle-aged men locked in a battle over a chessboard. With the wisps of smoke rising from the tea set beside them, the scene possessed a distinct air of transcendent grace.

The two playing chess were none other than Li Mu's master, Zhou Qingyun, and his martial uncle, Yu Qingfeng. The two were considered outliers within the Mount Hua Sect; they lacked the sharp edges of typical martial artists, appearing more like Taoists who had seen through the vanity of the world.

Just as Li Mu hesitated over whether to approach, his companion Liu Bufan, acting like a simple-minded oaf, walked over brazenly. He performed a deep bow to the man in green on the left and said, "Master, I have brought Junior Brother Li here."

Beyond marveling at the straightforward nature of martial arts folk, Li Mu could only follow suit and bow: "Disciple Li Bumu greets Master and Martial Uncle!"

After a grunt of acknowledgment, the two continued their game as if everything around them had nothing to do with them.

Seeing this, Liu Bufan pulled Li Mu back a few paces and whispered, "Junior Brother Li, let's go wait in the back for a while.

I don't know what's gotten into them, but Master and Martial Uncle Yu have recently become obsessed with the way of chess. They won't stop until a game is finished, and they've even stopped paying much attention to the sect's affairs."

Li Mu was slightly stunned; he truly hadn't known this. Although they were under the same master, there were still degrees of closeness. Compared to Liu Bufan, who had been raised by their master, the other disciples were clearly a step further removed.

There was nothing to envy; this treatment was something Liu Bufan's parents had traded their lives for.

Accidents were inevitable for those in the martial arts world, especially for the Mount Hua Sect, which served as a vanguard against the Demonic Cult; the casualty rate among its disciples remained consistently high.

Liu Bufan's parents had died in the line of duty during a mission. As an orphan of the sect, he naturally received preferential treatment. As long as his aptitude was passable, he would be groomed as a priority.

Generally speaking, the loyalty of such disciples to the sect tended to be the highest.

"Oh! Is it because of the infighting within the sect?"

Unlike the simple-minded Liu Bufan, Li Mu, having lived two lives, thought of much more. With so many people in the Mount Hua Sect, it was perfectly normal for some to want no part in the internal strife.

The two camps of Sword and Qi had long been established, and one would be passively dragged in regardless of their willingness. If one could neither avoid it nor change it, then the only option was to find a way to escape.

Liu Bufan replied with a face full of anger: "It's all those bastards from the Qi Sect. They don't have a shred of heroic spirit. They lost a duel and refused to honor the bet, and actually..."

Having figured out the sequence of events, Li Mu felt no sense of shared hatred, only a face full of helplessness.

The Mount Hua Sect originated from Quanzhen. Although it had evolved over hundreds of years, it still inherited the characteristics of Taoist internal energy: upright, balanced, and slow to cultivate.

Against this backdrop, the Sword Sect disciples, who focused more on sword techniques, naturally crushed the Qi Sect in the early stages. By the time Qi Sect disciples had a breakthrough and turned the tables, they were usually in their thirties or forties.

It was merely a case of being young and hot-blooded, unable to handle the provocation. Had they been even slightly rational, the Qi Sect disciples would never have accepted such "duels" that were destined to be beatings.

In Li Mu's view, it wasn't necessarily that the Qi Sect disciples lost the fight and ran to call their elders.

Young people cared about their reputation. Unless forced, they generally wouldn't broadcast their dark history, let alone tell their elders.

Since it was a brawl, accidents were inevitable. Especially when both sides were poorly skilled, the probability of an accident was even higher.

Once someone was careless and an injury occurred, it couldn't be hidden. To mitigate their own responsibility, they inevitably had to embellish the story and push the blame onto the other side.

It just so happened that the higher-ups of the Sword and Qi sects were fighting fiercely, so they seized the excuse and ran with it, never bothering to investigate the truth of the matter.

The sect was already riddled with contradictions, and if this continued, it would sooner or later lead to a great disaster.

This world was never short of smart people. If Li Mu could see the problem, the sect leaders who had spent decades in the martial arts world would naturally notice it too.

Perhaps it was excessive confidence, or perhaps their eyes were blinded by greed, but everyone tacitly chose to play dumb.

After all, no one could have imagined that the Sword and Qi sects would eventually erupt into a battle that would lead to near-mutual destruction because of these accumulated grievances.

They were, after all, people of the martial arts world and could not truly act like carefree cranes in the clouds. This game of chess ended much faster than Li Mu had anticipated.

After seeing Martial Uncle Yu off, Zhou Qingyun finally focused his attention on Li Mu. He stood with one hand behind his back, stroking his beard with the other, his eyes scanning Li Mu repeatedly.

"Your aura is thick and solid. It seems you have truly put in the effort recently."

Even though he tried his best to conceal it, the expression in his brows betrayed the joy in his heart.

The Mount Hua Sect had many disciples, so it wasn't lacking in second-rate experts, but there were very few who could break through to the second-rate realm at Li Mu's age.

Genius always attracted attention easily. At other times it might have been fine, but right now, Li Mu was absolutely unwilling to be in the spotlight.

But there was no help for it; he had only just broken through and could not perfectly restrain his aura, so he couldn't hide it from Zhou Qingyun's eyes.

"It is all thanks to Master's wise guidance; this disciple was merely lucky..."

Before Li Mu could finish, Zhou Qingyun interrupted: "Don't talk such nonsense. If it were truly all thanks to my guidance, why is it you who broke through and not someone else?"

As he spoke, he glanced at Liu Bufan. The feeling of disappointment that his student hadn't lived up to expectations was written all over his face.

That was the most one could do. No one wanted to encounter a martial arts bottleneck, yet it was unavoidable.

Once encountered, one either used heavenly treasures to assist in the breakthrough or relied on time to slowly grind it out, hoping for a "thick accumulation and thin release."

Generally speaking, the better one's aptitude, the easier it was to break through. If not for the help of the Jade Disc, Li Mu would likely have spent several years grinding at the peak of the third-rate realm.

Perhaps realizing he had lost his composure, Zhou Qingyun waved his hand: "Enough. Since you have already broken through, you should have a place in this sect-wide competition.

Among the Sword Sect, you only need to watch out for Wang Buding and Cheng Buyou. On the Qi Sect side, you need to watch out for Yue Buqun, Ning Buzhou, and Zhang Bucheng. The rest are not worth mentioning."

At its peak, the Mount Hua Sect had thousands of disciples, so it was impossible for these to be the only good seedlings. To ensure the inheritance and development of the sect, the Mount Hua Sect opened its gates every three years.

Even within the same generation, the time span between the earliest and latest disciples to join could be ten or twenty years; forcing them to compete together clearly made no sense. Therefore, the sect-wide competition usually only took place among disciples who had joined in the same batch.

Seeing one leaf fall and knowing autumn has arrived, the fact that there were so many good seedlings just among the disciples who joined in the same batch as Li Mu was enough to show the prosperity of the Mount Hua Sect at its peak.