Coming Down the Mountain with a Dao Protector—How Shameless

What was propriety?

Offering sacrifices and praying for blessings was propriety; moral self-restraint was propriety; social customs and rituals were propriety; standards of conduct that served the interests of the ruling class were propriety; gifts expressing fine sentiments were propriety.

And One Must Not Be Discourteous was precisely the killing rule of the fierce ghost that had once been the Calamity-Sighting Sword Qi.

It was an almost unsolvable and terrifying rule.

Once caught within it, virtually no one could escape. They could only face certain death.

Tan Shuchang had been able to capture a fierce ghost possessing such a killing rule with ease not only because the Jia Five Realm's Ghost Suppression Techniques had spread to an absurd degree, but also because of his own unique nature.

The power he had inherited from his birth mother—seeming alive yet dead, seeming still yet extinguished—gave Tan Shuchang an extraordinarily high immunity to the powers of ghosts.

Put simply—killing rules could not touch him.

Thus, Tan Shuchang's effortless instant kill of the fierce ghost did not mean that cultivators of the Jia Five Realm could all dispatch fierce ghosts so easily. Moreover, the fierce ghosts in that Weird Game were fundamentally different from the native fierce ghosts of the Jia Five Realm.

The fierce ghosts in the Weird Game all possessed the power of rules.

The fierce ghosts of the Jia Five Realm could at most possess an evil ghost domain. If they wanted more methods, they had to comprehend them themselves or obtain them through cultivation.

As the killing rule was triggered, faint layers of crimson light, like red gauze, swiftly spread through the street.

As though alive, they twisted like snakes and tightly wound themselves around the spot where Tan Shuchang's gaze had settled.

In that instant, the street of Luojia Mountain where the Peaceful Heart Charity Fair was being held inexplicably darkened. A sinister wind rose, whimpering as it blew—not chilling the body, but drilling straight into the heart.

The rule erupted!

There was no special phenomenon. Only a crack rang out as a pitch-black jade pendant fell from the other man's body. The moment it hit the ground, it turned into a pile of powder, while the man himself remained completely unharmed.

Because nothing had happened to him, he did not realize that he had just taken a trip to the gates of hell.

Thus, he even clasped his hands toward Tan Shuchang in apology. "My name is Long Zhangyuan, a disciple of Sword Disciple Mountain. I lost control for a moment. I hope, fellow Daoist, that for Sword Disciple Mountain's sake, you can be magnanimous."

Long Zhangyuan also knew that those able to attend the Peaceful Heart Charity Fair were largely no ordinary people.

Especially since the other party had struck in an instant and forcibly received the Sword Qi he had unleashed at full strength, Long Zhangyuan knew the man was not someone to provoke.

As the one who had unleashed the Sword Qi, he knew better than anyone just how powerful it was. It was no exaggeration to say that once that Sword Qi flew forth, it could directly shear away half a mountain peak.

Such a blunder would not have been excessive grounds for forging a life-and-death feud on the spot.

That was why Long Zhangyuan had raised Sword Disciple Mountain's name.

In the past, what Long Zhangyuan had despised most were people who bullied others by flaunting their backing. But he was not someone with an unshakable moral bottom line.

Besides, doing so could reduce his own trouble to a minimum!

Yet Tan Shuchang was not the only unlucky one. After the Sword Qi Long Zhangyuan had unleashed with his top-grade flying sword shattered, it became Sword Force that filled the sky, injuring cultivators who made up fully one-fifth of the people on the street!

So, after Long Zhangyuan finished speaking, a young man whose head was covered in blood and grime could not help saying, "Heh heh, Sword Disciple Mountain truly has quite an imposing name!"

The sarcasm in those words was unmistakable.

Naturally, Long Zhangyuan could hear it too. However, being somewhat in the wrong, he did not flare up at once.

Because he had not yet found a suitable excuse.

But Tan Shuchang, the first victim, remained silent. His expression appeared unchanged, but the corner of his eye kept surveying his surroundings.

After the pitch-black jade pendant on Long Zhangyuan had been flung out and shattered into powder, several vague but discernible auras had already locked onto him.

Having already guessed that this fellow was the so-called Child of Destiny in Sword Disciple Mountain's Righteous Path Grand Plan, Tan Shuchang immediately realized that these mysterious auras were likely Dao protectors sent down the mountain by Sword Disciple Mountain.

And that was indeed the case.

This street used for the Peaceful Heart Charity Fair appeared to have only one layer, but it actually possessed a hidden one. At that moment, in that concealed second layer, several cultivators had all fixed their eyes on Tan Shuchang.

"Who is this person? What method did he use just now? Even the life-protecting jade pendant that Senior Brother Sect Leader gave to Martial Nephew Long has shattered!"

"He is so young, yet the depth of his power when he struck seems to be at least twenty years' worth. Which family would be so willing to invest in cultivating a junior? Yet I have never heard of him before. Could he be someone specially produced by some faction to challenge our Sword Disciple Mountain?"

"He uses a sword. Could he be from Heavenly Sword Manor?"

"No, no. Though we have not descended the mountain for many years, I still remember that Heavenly Sword Manor's is a young girl, and she is not this old either."

These cultivators discussed the matter.

Among them, however, was an old man who had not spoken a single word from beginning to end. The others with him merely assumed he had only recently joined Sword Disciple Mountain and did not understand many things, so he did not dare speak. In truth, though, this old man was utterly shocked inside.

The old man looked kindly and benevolent. He was none other than the former master of the Demon Sect who had taught Tan Shuchang the Heavenly Merit Canon, the Black Shadow Immortal-Saving Manual.

"The first volume is not merely complete—he even comprehended a divine ability from it that fits himself?" If the timing had not been so inappropriate, this former master of the Demon Sect would have roared those words aloud.

Because only a few days had passed since he taught the other party the Black Shadow Immortal-Saving Manual!

"This brat is simply made of demonic bones! I did not pass on my cultivation method in vain. The demonic path finally has a qualified successor! It is just a pity that even if you cultivate the later volumes to this level, you can only helplessly be restrained when facing other Heavenly Merit Canons..." the former master of the Demon Sect sighed inwardly.

He had cultivated for more than two hundred years, yet he was still inferior to righteous path disciples who had cultivated Heavenly Merit Canons for only several decades. How could this old man possibly endure that?

That was why this Demon Sect master, whose lifespan far exceeded that of other cultivators, had conceived the idea of faking his death to escape, changing his identity, and joining Sword Disciple Mountain.

Unlike this former master of the Demon Sect, who remained as steady as a mountain, the other cultivators were becoming unable to sit still. With that young man's sarcastic words, quite a number of cultivators had begun openly praising while covertly disparaging Sword Disciple Mountain.

After all, no one else had brought magical artifacts to the Peaceful Heart Charity Fair, yet Sword Disciple Mountain had. And bringing them would have been one thing, but they had even acted here.

They clearly had no regard for Luojia Mountain and Heavenly Wonder Pavilion!

As for Rainbow Cloud Valley, although their disciples were the ones who had been injured, the Rainbow Cloud Valley disciple leading the group had long since received instructions. Moreover, he ordinarily disliked those few injured disciples anyway, so he said nothing at all.

"Daoist brother, should we do something?" the Sword Disciple Mountain cultivators asked the old man for guidance.

Although none of them were weak in cultivation, the old man was someone who had cultivated for a hundred years. Furthermore, he had a close relationship with Elder Chen, so these cultivators regarded him as their leader.

"Such a great disturbance has occurred at the Peaceful Heart Charity Fair, yet Luojia Mountain's young minor master has never shown himself, and the four pavilion masters of Heavenly Wonder Pavilion are the same. Clearly, they hold some grievances against us. In that case, we can only settle this ourselves. This old man should not reveal himself, so I must ask several fellow Daoists to step forward," the former master of the Demon Sect said after some thought.

"Then I'll go! I was already angered listening to this bunch of little brats. Let's see which blind fool happens to run into me, Zhao Huaiji!" Among them, one with a particularly explosive temper immediately snorted coldly and nodded.