Along both banks of the Fury River, city after city bustled with activity.
Only, that bustle had once belonged to Orthodox Cultivators; now it belonged to New-Method and unaffiliated cultivators.
Well... the unaffiliated cultivators had joined in because they wanted to help the New Method topple the Orthodox Cultivators, so the serfs could rise up and sing.
Cultivators from the unaffiliated Mountain Reliance Sect had settled in one city.
Their sect master was no longer the old man who had met Wang Quan back then.
Instead, it was a middle-aged woman.
This female sect master was far more capable than that old man had been.
Relying on the [Twelve Houses of the Zodiac] Magic Implement Wang Quan had refined back then, she had led the present-day Mountain Reliance Sect from strength to strength.
Some years ago, when she received an invitation from the New Method to overthrow the Old Cultivation Method together, she agreed after only a moment's hesitation.
At first, she led her disciples in waving banners and shouting support, taking an active role and capturing city after city.
But as they approached the source of the Fury River, she ignored everyone's objections and halted her group in a city, refusing to lead them any farther.
In private, she told her disciples, "The New Method may be sweeping forward like a blade through bamboo, but the orthodox lords have deep reserves and ruthless methods."
"Throughout all history, no living being has ever managed to resist the orthodox lords."
"All the slaughter throughout history has been infighting among the orthodox lords."
"The New Method's rebellion is just like a rebellion within an ordinary empire-the first to rebel only clear the way for a king."
"The final victors will certainly not be the New Method."
"So the right course is for