The white Jade Pendant was the mark of a Great Hua Mountain Disciple. Each disciple received one upon entering the sect, and it held a line bearing their Daoist Name. It had many other uses, most of which were now of little value to Chen Cuo. One, however, remained useful: it let him communicate with the sect.
Whenever something important happened in the sect, its members would be notified, unless they were somewhere cut off from the world, such as the Beyond-Mundane River Realm or the Divine Treasury's Great Wilderness.
This time, Chen Cuo and his martial uncle received the message together.
He gripped the Jade Pendant and sensed its contents. Surprise rose in him.
The message had come from none other than Qiongfa Zi.
Qiongfa Zi said that he was at the mountain sect and had noticed something amiss outside. Soldiers had surrounded the mountain, giving him an ominous feeling. With Great Hua Mountain so thinly populated, only his Master and he were there. Feeling badly outnumbered, he had used the mountain's Formation to send word.
"Why would the Zhou Kingdom send troops to surround Great Hua Mountain for no reason? Why set the mountain on fire?"
Chen Cuo looked up at his martial uncle. "Mortal Dynasties treat ordinary cultivators with the utmost respect. However far Great Hua Mountain has declined, it still has a foundation. At the very least, our senior brothers' and sisters' cultivation far surpasses that of others. Why would the Zhou Kingdom turn its blades against us?"
He had spent only three or four years in the sect, more than three of them in secluded cultivation. He had little experience of sect affairs and could not judge what this meant. Perhaps some old grievance lay between the sect and the Zhou Kingdom?
Yan Yin Zi