Ask the Patriarch to Stand Up for His Disciple! [Thanks to 'Fellow Daoist Fu

In the blink of an eye.

Chen Jichuan had been in Yangshuo County, on Begonia Mountain, for three months.

It had also been fifty days since Sheng Dayang and his son had "joined up."

In the Great Yan World.

Lu Changshou had been dead for sixty-five years.

This year.

Chen Jichuan was one hundred and ninety-five years old.

While in Black Prison, Chen Jichuan spent half of every year in Great Yan.

After leaving Black Prison, he spent only three months in Great Yan each year.

When he was absent.

His body was sealed away, as though asleep. Whatever state it was in when he left, it remained in when he returned; only time in this world continued to pass.

At the ripe old age of one hundred and ninety-five.

With bones only sixty-five years old.

Chen Jichuan had finally begun to show signs of age—

His temples were frosted white.

The wrinkles on his face had gradually deepened.

Yet his waist and back remained straight. Standing upon the ground, he was like a javelin. Even in old age, he was still like a verdant pine.

This day.

At the ancestral master's training ground on a side peak of Taiqing Mountain.

Inside a large hall.

From the crisscrossing beams overhead hung three tiers of razor-sharp blades, differing in height and length. There were twenty-four sharp blades on each of the upper, middle, and lower tiers, seventy-two in all, swaying back and forth.

Chen Jichuan stood in their midst.

Looking closely.

One could see that beneath those sharp blades, wooden stakes had been driven into the ground. Tall and short, they were scattered in disorder.

A person within them.

Had to step upon the stakes.

Not only did he need to take care not to miss a step, he also had to evade and deflect the sharp blades, keeping them from harming his body.

Back when he had first practiced the Golden Blade Exchange Palm Technique, merely eight sharp blades had left Chen Jichuan flustered and scrambling, hard-pressed to cope.

But now.

The eight sharp blades had increased to seventy-two, and the flat ground had been replaced by wooden stakes.

The combination of the Golden Blade Exchange Palm Technique and Plum Blossom Stakes had increased the difficulty of both techniques by more than tenfold.

Chen Jichuan stepped upon the Plum Blossom Stakes, pointing, turning, sinking, shifting, unraveling, landing, carrying, and advancing. His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water, endlessly changing, lively yet never chaotic.

Because the stakes varied in height.

And their spacing was different as well.

Chen Jichuan was sometimes forward, sometimes back, sometimes high, sometimes low.

The sharp blades above swayed wildly.

Chen Jichuan had to be quick of eye and hand, deflecting, striking, kicking, hooking, tapping, sweeping, lifting, turning aside, bracing, colliding, hooking, and swinging. The blades never touched him as he dodged, leaped, shifted, and moved.

Such skill.

Even an ordinary person ignorant of martial arts could see how formidable it was.

Seventy-two sharp blades flew about in disorder without touching him.

He rose and fell upon the Plum Blossom Stakes without ever falling.

With such ability.

He could charge in and out seven times before two armies. Amid a forest of ten thousand arrows, he could still withdraw calmly.

After a round of bitter training.

This session was complete.

Chen Jichuan tapped rapidly beneath his feet and traveled in a straight line. Like a fish leaping from the water, he sprang out from the chaotic blades and off the Plum Blossom Stakes, landing outside the hall.

Disciples had long been waiting outside.

"Patriarch."

"Patriarch."

Once their patriarch emerged, each respectfully paid his respects, then ran into the hall to rearrange the positions of the Plum Blossom Stakes and sharp blades, ensuring that Chen Jichuan would face an entirely different setup the next time he trained.

Besides these disciples.

There was another person.

Chen Jichuan looked over and recognized him as Zhang Ge, a fifth-generation disciple of the Chen Sect.

Zhang Ge had studied under Mao Li, the previous sect master of the Chen Sect, known as Wind-Chasing Palm. He was now the chief of Bright Virtue Hall, one of the seven halls, and was known outside the sect as Mad Fist. His mastery of the Wind-Chasing Palm Technique was no small matter.

"Why have you come here instead of handling affairs at Bright Virtue Hall?"

Chen Jichuan looked at Zhang Ge and asked.

Respect and panic showed on Zhang Ge's face as he hurriedly replied, "Patriarch, Sun Dajin, the Iron Palm Gang's leader, has come seeking an audience over an urgent matter. Senior Brother Sect Master is receiving him now, but the matter is of great importance, so he has specifically asked the Patriarch to make the decision."

"Sun Dajin of the Iron Palm Gang?"

Chen Jichuan had devoted himself wholeheartedly to training and had long ceased to concern himself with matters of the martial world. He did not know the background of this Iron Palm Gang, nor its connection to the Chen Sect.

Seeing this, Zhang Ge understood at once and immediately explained, "The Iron Palm Gang's first leader, Senior Brother Sun Biao, was a lay disciple of our Chen Sect. He entered Master's tutelage and learned Iron Sand Palm, one of the six sand palm arts, as well as the Thread-the-Needle Technique lightness skill. In the martial world, he was called Iron Palm Treading Water. More than twenty years ago, Senior Brother Sun Biao founded his own sect by the Ji River and established the Iron Palm Gang. This Sun Dajin is Senior Brother Sun Biao's eldest son and the current gang leader."

As Chen Jichuan and Zhang Ge hurried toward the main hall at the mountain gate, the latter explained the situation.

By the time they reached the main peak.

Chen Jichuan had grasped the basic circumstances.

As it turned out.

Great Yan had grown increasingly chaotic in recent years. A sect called the Moon-Worshiping Divine Church had risen in the martial world, with one foot planted in the martial arts realm and the other among the rebel armies.

This time.

The Moon-Worshiping Divine Church intended to unify the martial world, then establish dominion over all under heaven.

Thus, the church's experts had all emerged and captured masters from six major sects: the Tan Sect, Heaven Gate, Eagle Claw Wild-Goose School, Five Tiger Mountain, Golden Snake Sect, and Iron Palm Gang. Sun Biao, the Iron Palm Gang's old leader, had been captured, along with every elder and guardian in the gang. Only Sun Dajin had escaped in panic, crossed the Ji River, and come to the Chen Sect for help.

"Patriarch."

"Patriarch."

Chen Jichuan arrived at the main hall. The sect master, hall chiefs, and elders had gathered there in full force, all bowing to Chen Jichuan in salute. Mao Li, the Chen Sect's third sect master, known as Wind-Chasing Palm, was also in the hall and bowed to Chen Jichuan.

The year Lu Changshou died, Mao Li had only just come up the mountain, merely eighteen years old.

Now, in the blink of an eye.

He was already over eighty. Yet because he had cultivated the Divine Pounce Blade and possessed deep inner strength, he still appeared quite robust. He had also broken the curse that Chen Sect masters could not live beyond seventy.

"Sun Dajin."

"This is the patriarch of our Chen Sect. Why have you not come forward to pay your respects?!"

Mao Li's voice was full and powerful as he looked toward the middle-aged man standing in the hall and called out loudly.

"Patriarch!"

Sun Dajin looked at Chen Jichuan. This legendary, ageless and deathless ancestor of the Chen Sect appeared to be in his early sixties, looking even sturdier and more vigorous than Wind-Chasing Palm Mao Li, his father's master. Sun Dajin could not help but be startled.

Hearing Mao Li speak.

Sun Dajin suppressed his pounding heart, then fell to his knees at Chen Jichuan's feet like a golden mountain collapsing and a jade pillar toppling. He cried out bitterly, "That demonic cult has lost all conscience! They killed dozens of experts from my Iron Palm Gang and seized my father along with all our elders and guardians. Their lives and deaths are unknown! I beg the Patriarch to stand up for this disciple!"

Everyone in the hall was moved by his words.

The current Chen Sect master Qian Shi and Bright Virtue Hall's chief Zhang Ge were both disciples of Mao Li, as had been Sun Biao, the Iron Palm Gang's old leader. Though the former two were personal disciples while the latter was a lay disciple, and though they differed in age by nearly twenty years, Sun Biao would send people to the Chen Sect with gifts during every festival and holiday. On years ending in five or zero, he would personally come to Taiqing Mountain.

They could be considered acquainted.

Hearing Sun Dajin say that Sun Biao had been taken by the demonic cult, anger rose in Zhang Ge's heart. "More than twenty years ago, the Golden Blade King, one of the demonic cult's Eight Dharma Kings, extinguished all humanity and slaughtered all forty-eight members of the Golden Spear Wang Clan, young and old alike. The demonic cult's leader, Dongfang Ping, was already steeped in evil in his early years. This time, they have even openly crushed the six major sects, killing and abducting a host of venerable martial elders. Our Chen Sect absolutely cannot stand by and watch!"

With Chen Jichuan overseeing it, the Chen Sect had sat firmly upon the throne as the foremost sect in the martial world for more than a century.

Everyone in the sect took pride in this.

Though the Moon-Worshiping Divine Church had risen in recent years, and beneath its leader Dongfang Ping stood four great guardians, eight Dharma Kings, and thirty-six banner chiefs, all first-rate experts, compared to the Chen Sect, the former was more like a nouveau riche.

The older generation looked down on them all.

The Chen Sect disciples disdained them even more.

This time.

The Moon-Worshiping Divine Church sought to challenge the entire martial world alone. As the leader of the martial world, how could the Chen Sect stand idly by?!

Thanks to 'Fellow Daoist Fu' for the reward, and thank you for your continued support. I am ashamed!

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