Mount Zhongnan.
The sun had passed its zenith.
On the back mountain of Mount Zhongnan lay a winding, twisting path up the mountain, hidden away and difficult for ordinary people to find.
Only the elite disciples of the Three Truths Sect and local mountain folk had glimpsed its true face; common people rarely knew of it.
Ancient trees towered on both sides of the mountain path, their branches and leaves dense, the sunlight sifted by the thick canopy into mottled patches of light and shadow.
The roars of wild beasts rose and fell through the forest, chilling the heart and gall.
With the mountain road so steep, no one without real skill dared take this route.
As a result, it seemed especially secluded and tranquil, lacking the noise and crowds of the front mountain.
Only the occasional traveler hurried past.
At this moment!
Two unusual figures appeared on this quiet mountain path.
One was a youth, his frame somewhat thin.
Perhaps the climb had exhausted him too much, for he shamelessly wrapped himself around a large tree, closed his eyes to rest, and breathed rather heavily.
The youth was not old, around sixteen or seventeen. His face still carried childishness, scattered with faint freckles.
Yet he looked as though wine, women, wealth, and indulgence had hollowed him out.
Before the youth.
Stood a middle-aged scholar.
He was tall and slender, his skin crystalline as jade. Though his temples had begun to gray slightly, it only added a few measures of mature masculine charm.
His brows held profound wisdom and refined elegance. His temperament was outstanding, and his bearing dazzling.
If any noble ladies from Kyoto had been here, they would surely have fallen head over heels for him.
"Sir, this mountain road is so rugged I can barely walk any farther!"
The youth gasped miserably, sweat pouring down like rain, exhaustion written all over his face.
Yet the middle-aged scholar remained calm and composed.
It was as if he were walking along a level road. Not only was his face unflushed and his breath steady, even his boots had not picked up a speck of mud.
He glanced at the youth and smiled.
"You ruined your primal yang when you were eleven or twelve. Naturally, your body has been badly depleted. Walking more is good for you."
"Besides, it is Great Cold now, when the stirrings of spring are bursting forth. Sweating a little will help solidify your kidney essence."
Seeing how composed the scholar was, the youth said with a chuckle.
"How about it, sir? Could you carry me for a while?"
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged scholar's smile became even gentler, like a spring breeze brushing over one's face.
"Certainly. You may try."
At those words, the youth looked at the kind smile on the middle-aged scholar's face.
He seemed to recall something. His expression abruptly changed, and he shook his head like a rattle-drum as he hurriedly said.
"Forget it, forget it. Sir must be joking!"
He knew perfectly well that although this scholar appeared easy to get along with.
He was a true devil!
The youth was named Xie Mu. He had originally been the third young master of Kyoto's Xie Clan.
The Xie Clan was fairly influential in Kyoto, associating with powerful ministers at court.
But in the hands of such a devil, he would most likely be crushed to death.
...And that would simply be that.
The first time they met, he had seen this man drifting in a boat upon a lake, with no one steering or rowing.
Yet the boat flowed on by itself!
Curious, he had ordered his household servants to throw silver onto the boat and shouted.
"Fine work! You deserve a reward!"
Thinking of it now, he only wanted to give himself two resounding slaps.
Afterward, the two became acquainted. The middle-aged scholar looked like a down-and-out student, yet his bearing was extraordinary. He frankly said that women of the world had wounded him, and that he wished to go die in the lake.
When Xie Mu heard this, he mocked him.
"What girl can't money buy? This young master will take you out to broaden your horizons!"
Thus, the two addressed each other as brothers.
Xie Mu took the scholar through every brothel. The two even shared a woman, played their way through Kyoto, sang wild songs in drunken revelry every day, and frequented gambling houses, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
One day.
The scholar suddenly became overjoyed and threw back his head in laughter. He had attained enlightenment.
Xie Mu shook his head and laughed. "Another madman!"
He too had attained enlightenment after winning money, only to continue losing the next day—and even go all in!
The scholar suddenly asked whether Xie Mu had any enemies.
Xie Mu casually mentioned an aristocratic young man surnamed Sun who always won his money.
Who could have expected it!
The next day, a horrifying piece of news spread through the capital.
The Sun Clan had been exterminated overnight!
The Sun residence was surrounded so tightly by government officers that not even water could pass through. The stench of blood soared to the heavens, and everyone in Kyoto trembled in fear for themselves.
He had found it unbelievable, yet had never connected it to the middle-aged scholar.
At dawn, he returned home after fooling around at a brothel!
The moment he opened his room door!
One hundred and eight heads were laid out neatly in his home. Xie Mu even saw the heads of the Sun brothers.
The middle-aged scholar sat at a table to one side of the room, eating vegetarian noodles.
He slurped them loudly, and had even thoughtfully brought Xie Mu a bowl, as if none of it had anything to do with him.
Xie Mu fainted on the spot from fright.
From then on, he no longer dared call him brother.
Seeing that he dressed as a scholar, he only dared address him as "sir."
Xie Mu had asked the scholar's name. When they had been fooling around together, he had always acted as the elder brother.
Now, he only wanted to be the grandson.
The scholar smiled and said.
"Huang Dao."
"Huang as in Yellow Heaven, Dao as in the great Dao of heaven and earth!"
Xie Mu had never heard of him.
But he was truly terrified.
This time, Huang Dao wanted to come to Mount Zhongnan. Xie Mu had not wanted to go, but he had not dared say so.
He feared Huang Dao would serve up a "Manchu-Han Imperial Feast" at the Xie residence, so he gritted his teeth and came along.
Thus, the two had traveled here all the way!
Huang Dragon looked at Mount Zhongnan, his hands leisurely clasped behind his back.
He suddenly asked.
"Xie Mu, who do you think is the most formidable person on Mount Zhongnan?"
Without even thinking, Xie Mu said.
"Of course it's Lu Chen, Junior Guardian Lu."
"When he retired into seclusion on Mount Zhongnan, I was heartbroken that day. That night, I drowned my sorrows in drink and only recovered after calling over two virgin courtesans!"
Huang Dragon laughed despite himself.
"That man does indeed count as one of your so-called heroes, but he is still mortal. If I wished to kill him, he would undoubtedly die."
"Whether it is Lu Chen or those so-called imperial nobles, in my eyes, they are no different from fish and shrimp in a river."
Xie Mu could not help asking.
"You want to kill Junior Guardian Lu?"
Huang Dao shook his head.
"He bears me neither grievance nor enmity, so I will not kill him. If you hate him, though, I can kill him for you."
Xie Mu hurriedly said.
"Better not. Junior Guardian Lu is a good man."
Huang Dao spoke indifferently, his voice carrying a trace of age-worn desolation and apathy.
"Good people and bad people are merely definitions forcibly imposed by the world. In some people's eyes, they are no more than an anthill. Ants do not harm people, but when a foot comes down, even if the ants die, it is still no more than a trivial matter to those people."
Xie Mu climbed down from the tree, stood to one side, and asked curiously.
"Then, sir, what have you come to Mount Zhongnan for?"
Huang Dragon smiled, his tone entirely casual.
"I came here to slay a dragon."
Xie Mu's expression changed dramatically.
Mount Zhongnan naturally had no dragon, but next spring, Emperor Qing would pray for the blessings of all people at Zhongnan Mountain.
"You want to kill the Emperor!"
Xie Mu was frightened by his own words and hurriedly covered his mouth.
Huang Dao nodded indifferently.
Huang Dao raised his head toward the light filtering through the dense woods. Unable to see the vault of heaven clearly, he did not care as he said.
"What of the Emperor? He is merely one among these ordinary mortals. In my eyes, he is no different from common people."
"If what he does violates the Heavenly Way, then I naturally have reason to slay him."
Xie Mu cautiously asked.
"Violates the Heavenly Way?"
Huang Dao smiled. "I am the Heavenly Way."
At this, Xie Mu's whole face fell as though he were about to cry.
"No, then why did you bring me along?"
Huang Dao said with a measure of gratitude.
"If not for you, I would most likely have had to wait out several more years in this mortal world."
"And thereby missed this—Heavenly Change!"
"Of course I must thank you for it."
Xie Mu inwardly collapsed. You damned bastard, you're harming me!
If you kill the Emperor, then with the two of us together, there'll be no explaining it away.
I treated you as a brother and treated you to food, drink, prostitutes, and gambling.
You're trying to kill your own brother!
Yet Huang Dao ignored Xie Mu's expression. Instead, a faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
"Of course, those three have most likely sensed it as well!"
"It truly is a change unseen in a thousand years."
"For three thousand years, countless astonishingly gifted patriarchs of our Sacred Sect ultimately grew old and died here."
"What they spent their entire lives pursuing has finally appeared!"
The Devil Dao's supreme and unrivaled sacred tome, Heavenly Demon Strategy.
Not only recorded countless cultivation arts researched and improved by Devil Dao masters throughout the generations.
It also bore the Demon Sect's highest mental art—Dao Heart Demon Seed.
This cultivation art was unfathomably mysterious and endlessly powerful, but it was also extraordinarily difficult to cultivate. Throughout history, only a handful had succeeded.
The middle-aged scholar was Huang Dao, the Demon Sect Grandmaster of thirty years ago, who had nearly become an idiot while cultivating Dao Heart Demon Seed.
Now, he had succeeded.
However, aside from those cultivation arts, the final page of Heavenly Demon Strategy concealed a painstakingly crafted prophecy.
Countless Demon Sect patriarchs had all yearned for it with racing hearts.
"Return of Spiritual Qi."
"Martial Shattering of the Void."
The next chapter got a little spicy. It can only be posted tomorrow after translation, so everyone, don't be impatient!
Before you continue