As Fang Qianyuan sized the man up, the man had already stepped forward.
"Young master, you're here." The two city garrison officers and the soldiers under their command hurriedly saluted.
"Mm." The young master nodded slightly, then turned to Qianyuan. "I am Tu Mingshan. A pleasure to meet you, Young Master Fang. I never imagined that the renowned Lord of a Thousand Miles would be so young. You truly deserve your reputation as the foremost genius of the Azure Cloud Sect's rising generation."
Tu Mingshan? A thought flashed through Fang Qianyuan's mind, and he suddenly remembered who this man was.
There had once been a celebrated ancient martial sect in the Central Province called the Divine Ape Sect.
Like the Blood Crow Sect founded by the present-day Blood Crow Ancestor, the Divine Ape Sect had been a newly risen power. Its founding ancestor, the Divine Ape Martial Sage, had broken through to the Heavenly Tier through a fortuitous encounter and established his own sect.
Later, the Divine Ape Sect's founding ancestor had died of old age, but none of his disciples could inherit his mantle. Under fierce attacks from powerful enemies, the sect had ultimately split apart and swiftly scattered.
This was a problem faced by many powers that bloomed briefly like night-blooming flowers. Whether a new generation of Heavenly Tier experts emerged determined whether a power could endure and continue its legacy.
In truth, however, only those long-established aristocratic clans on par with sects could achieve this. They were powerful precisely because they possessed secret arts passed down from generation to generation, allowing them to flourish without decline.
This was especially important in the age of Dharma Decline, when no mighty beings possessed eternal life.
Even so, a power that had once produced a Heavenly Tier expert still had