Visitors to Mount Hua

Chu Liuxiang never did figure it out.

He had already parted ways with Fang Yunhua. Although Fang Yunhua's remark, "We should meet again soon," had left him uneasy, he had more important things to deal with for now.

After meeting up with Ying Wanli, he needed to work with him and Dai Duxing to prepare a public statement clarifying the matter. In truth, how much discussion the affair generated was unimportant.

Once the statement was released, any martial-world factions still ruthlessly attacking the Beggar Gang would rein themselves in by tacit agreement, provided they saw it and had any sense.

Those who were slow to stop, or had already become addicted to their own greed, would become targets for the Beggar Gang to vent its fury upon.

Fighting back and forth was simply the norm in the martial world, and Fang Yunhua paid these matters no further attention.

Now that the Blood Sea Fragrance storyline had run its course, he needed to give serious thought to his arrangements for the Great Desert storyline. Still, he had plenty of time. In the original story, Chu Liuxiang had spent over ten days roaming Southern Fujian just to confirm that Master Tianfeng had been the first person to encounter Tianfeng Jushiro.

The ripples inadvertently stirred up by Little Fang's butterfly wings during the storyline had also greatly accelerated Chu Liuxiang's investigation.

Over in the Kucha Kingdom, the king probably had not even been driven out of the Royal City yet.

"The martial world really is more interesting."

Fang Yunhua glanced at the animated Shangguan Cangxing. He could tell that the man was restless down to his bones, though for some reason, after becoming the prince's chief martial instructor, he had managed to suppress that side of himself.

Perhaps secure jobs with such high status and generous pay were simply too rare.

Now, with the An Prince's Mansion and Mount Hua bound together, he finally had an outlet for his true nature.

"Tell me, are we going after Stone Guanyin next?"

Shangguan Cangxing looked eagerly at Fang Yunhua. Fang Yunhua first surveyed the Swift Boat they were aboard, then nodded only after confirming that no one was secretly listening.

"Then you must have already figured out how to persuade the mansion to send me to help you."

Fang Yunhua fell silent for a moment, then nodded again under the man's expectant gaze.

Shangguan Cangxing was indeed one of the teammates he had chosen to surround and kill Stone Guanyin. Even if his strength amounted to that of a weakened Shangguan Jinhong, and he was nowhere near the supposed realm of having no rings in his hands but rings in his heart.

Still, a top expert in the T2 bracket qualified to take part in the fight.

Anyone in T3, such as Ji Bingyan or Hu Tiehua, would not even count as cannon fodder in the original storyline. Stone Guanyin had taken them down with a single palm strike apiece, like she was playing fucking whack-a-mole.

His fight with Wuhua had also confirmed that Fang Yunhua himself had stepped into roughly the same tier as the leaders and senior masters of the major sects.

In fact, with the untraceable movements of the Thirteen Forms of the Clear Wind, coupled with the Mingyu Skill's means of constantly eroding an opponent with cold force, he ranked among the very best in T2 when it came to killing techniques.

But against Stone Guanyin, who was T1 and very likely a king among T1 fighters, he and Shangguan Cangxing alone would not quite be enough.

He needed more help.

Aside from Chu Liuxiang, that good friend who would obediently join the storyline no matter how many twists and turns he took, Fang Yunhua needed to ensure that this operation was absolutely foolproof.

After all, the way Chu Liuxiang had defeated Stone Guanyin in the original story was fucking ridiculous.

He had barged in at just the right moment while Stone Guanyin was huffing and puffing before a mirror, then unsettled her with a psychological attack. He had used that opening to smash her mirror, seizing her one and only weakness to defeat her.

As a result, Stone Guanyin had suffered a complete mental collapse and simply chosen suicide.

Did that make any sense?

No one in the world other than Chu Liuxiang could easily reproduce the course of that battle.

Nor could Fang Yunhua pin all his hopes on so-called destiny.

After all, Wuhua's death had already thrown the storyline into disarray. A single missing link might mean that Chu Liuxiang could not subdue Stone Guanyin even after breaking her mirror. Or he might never happen upon her huffing and puffing before it at such a convenient moment in the first place.

In the end, a man had to rely on himself!

"Once we're back in Shaanxi, I'll arrange a meeting with Steward Lin for you." Shangguan Cangxing was visibly eager.

Fang Yunhua nodded like an emotionless nodding machine.

Meanwhile, he was still weighing candidates he could recruit as teammates who would pose a threat to Stone Guanyin. He had already settled on one target and begun taking action.

As for Wuhua's final vicious scheme-gathering the factions of three regions, loudly proclaiming the threat posed by Mount Hua, and forming a resistance alliance-Fang Yunhua's preparations were sufficient to deal with that rabble for the time being.

At the same time, at Mount Hua.

Hua Zhenzhen was temporarily occupying the seat of authority that should have belonged to the sect leader.

After all, she now represented Fang Yunhua, and her recent performance had proved her ability to Mount Hua's senior members.

As for the original sect leader, Master Kumei, she was still out working hard on the Western Peak Sword Emerges, Myriad Mountains Turn Cold plan. One's fifties were precisely the age to strike out and make things happen, and her martial prowess and prestige made her their greatest deterrent against outsiders.

During this period, the resistance alliance Wuhua had plotted had actually begun to take shape. After the Beggar Gang's evildoers were purged from Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, Mount Hua had begun establishing its prestige, strengthening its influence, and expanding its territory.

The other factions had consequently begun to fear for their own safety.

Especially with Wuhua there to fan the flames.

Yet just as those factions were planning to unite and ascend Mount Hua together to demand an explanation, troubles suddenly appeared within their own ranks.

The Imperial Court had also made a strong showing in this crackdown on the Beggar Gang's evildoers. Without the evidence it supplied, along with its clearly documented unsolved cases, there would have been no way to substantiate the Beggar Gang's wicked deeds over the years.

This had also greatly strengthened public trust in the authorities.

Thus, when the authorities began questioning members and senior figures of those factions, or asking them to assist in investigations into serious crimes involving the Beggar Gang, they could only cooperate obediently, terrified of being branded accomplices.

After all, cracking down on the Beggar Gang's evildoers had now become a form of political correctness in keeping with the prevailing mood of the martial world. This forced the factions to postpone their alliance's visit to Mount Hua again and again.

As the saying went, the first drumbeat roused their spirit, the second weakened it, and the third exhausted it.

Those faction leaders who had initially believed the claims about Mount Hua's threat after Wuhua's provocations gradually calmed down and began seriously considering the consequences of such a move.

At the same time, Mount Hua timely offered them a step down, announcing that once its young sect leader returned to Mount Hua in the coming days, they would invite everyone there and provide a concrete explanation.

Now that they had a way to back down gracefully, there was no need to rush into banding together and storming Mount Hua.

They also noticed something else at this point: the authorities, who had previously been questioning their members and requesting their assistance, had suddenly fallen quiet. That gave them something to ponder.

Of course, such tactics could only keep them subdued temporarily. Even without Wuhua's instigation, this was a major challenge Mount Hua would have to face.

And just as this gathering storm began to brew around Mount Hua.

Some factions with longstanding ties to Mount Hua, having likewise heard the news and rumors, came to lend their full support.

Among them was a figure who made Wuhua so jealous that his face twitched, for this was the man Fang Yunhua truly regarded as a rival.

The young master of Wuzheng Manor, the lord of Bat Island, the Bat Young Master-Yuan Suiyun!