Zhao Huaiji had remained in the vicinity of Heavenly Wonder Pavilion all along, naturally not because he had been waiting specifically for Tan Shuchang. This had been agreed upon before they descended the mountain, part of their plan.
However, they had not decided who would arrange the secret realm.
After all, unforeseen circumstances were unavoidable. Zhao Huaiji had happened to be able to leave at the time, so they had decided to put him in charge of the matter.
As for why they had done this, it was related to the matter of Tianming.
What was Tianming?
Put simply, once enough people said it and enough people acknowledged it, and even the will of Heaven in the unseen darkness came to regard it as such, then it became Tianming.
And this—was the process of refining a False Mandate into truth, turning it into a True Mandate!
Long Zhangyuan was that False Mandate.
However, not just anyone could become such a False Mandate. Otherwise, Sword Disciple Mountain would not have waited a hundred years for Long Zhangyuan before beginning the Righteous Path Grand Plan.
"Senior brothers, we can't contact Senior Brother Zhao. Something may have happened to him." Among the elder-generation sword cultivators of Sword Disciple Mountain, the one who had entered the sect most recently approached with a frown as he spoke.
Sword Disciple Mountain's sword cultivators had their own means of contact, using the Sword Dao to sense one another. Those sufficiently skilled could casually hold two fingers together like a sword and slash through empty space, manifesting the other party's image and communicating with them.
Those who were less skilled needed external objects, such as a pond or a pool of water.
Like the earlier communication between Zhao Huaiji and his disciple Shi Changkong—that had been the less