News of the Mount Song Sect's destruction and the Liyang Sect's heaven-defying rise soon spread to every nearby Jianghu sect, then raced outward in all directions.
People often said that news traveled slowly in ancient times, but in reality, there was little entertainment back then, and gossip was one of the few amusements people had.
One person told ten, ten told a hundred, and somewhere along the way, the stories went off the rails. A man became a god in the telling, then a demon.
Some said the current master of the Liyang Sect was a reincarnated Immortal who had recovered his divine memories and powers. With a raise of his hand, ten thousand swords had flown at once, reducing the Mount Song Branch on Mount Lu to ashes in an instant.
Others said that the man called Ling Yi was a demon in human form: selfish and greedy, he ignored the rules of Jianghu. He had led the whole Liyang Sect in sweeping through every Jianghu sect near Mount Lu, big and small, stealing money, seizing people and abducting women. In the Mount Lu region, he blotted out the sky with one hand and threw his weight around.
The farther the stories traveled from Mount Lu, the more outlandish they became.
In the Huashan Sect's great hall, the sect master, Old Yue, listened to Lu Hou'er's report on the Liyang Sect without a ripple of emotion on his face.
"Rumors in Jianghu often grow more distorted with each retelling. If he truly had such cultivation, I'm afraid he would have unified Jianghu long ago," Ning Zhongze said with a smile beside Old Yue.
"At least one thing is certain: the Mount Song Branch at the foot of Mount Lu has likely been destroyed. Although the branch was far weaker than the main sect, Great Songyang Hand Fei Bin held the fort there. Anyone who could defeat Fei Bin was no mediocrity."
"In that case, I imagine senior brother Zuo won't be able to sit still," Ning Zhongze said.
Old Yue narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment before asking Ning Zhongze, "Junior sister, should we send someone to Mount Lu to investigate?"
"I don't think there's any need. Besides, senior brother Zuo should be more anxious than we are."
"Mm, you're right, junior sister." Old Yue nodded, but he was full of curiosity. If the Liyang Sect's young master really was that formidable, then he must possess a peerless manual.
The Huashan Sect now had no new generation ready to replace the old, and no top expert to hold the fort. It left Old Yue feeling far from secure.
Truth be told, Old Yue had no great ambitions. His Obsession was Huashan, not the position of Five Mountains Alliance leader.
But Old Yue knew exactly what kind of man Zuo Lengchan was. If the Five Mountains merged, the Huashan Sect would never come to a good end.
If there was even the slightest chance, Old Yue had to seize it. So he decided to go to Mount Lu himself.
There were still five months before Liu Zhengfeng washed his hands in a golden basin. A trip to Mount Lu and back would take him to roughly the day of the ceremony.
With that thought, Old Yue said to Ning Zhongze, "I'll make a trip to Mount Lu and investigate personally, to see if I can find an opportunity."
"Very well. But senior brother, please be careful and act as circumstances permit."
"Of course. Also, it's about time Chong'er went down the mountain to gain experience. Let him go to Mount Heng City first."
It was not just the Huashan Sect. The Shaolin Sect, Qingcheng Sect, Mount Wudang and Mount Song Sect also sent quite a few experts to Mount Lu.
Although no one believed that Ling Yi, the Liyang Sect's young master, was an Immortal or a demon, his strength was bound to be considerable. With a sect suddenly appearing out of nowhere, they naturally had to investigate and find out the truth.
After two months of development, the Liyang Sect had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.
The Liyang Sect had moved from the foot of Mount Lu straight to its summit.
With a fortune poured into the project and thousands of craftsmen hard at work, a magnificent sect compound appeared atop Mount Lu in just two months.
The Liyang Sect's compound had been officially completed three days ago.
Ling Yi had copied the layout of a cultivation sect's compound from a movie he had watched in his previous life.
The entire Liyang Sect was divided into an outer sect and an inner sect. The inner sect consisted of seven parts: the main Liyang Hall, the Pill Refining Pavilion, the Artifact Refining Pavilion, the Cultivation Technique Pavilion, the martial practice hall, the herb fields and the Mutant Beast grounds, arranged in the pattern of the BeiDou Seven Stars.
The outer sect consisted of the disciples' dormitories, the menial workers' dormitories, the cultivation grounds, the Mission Hall, the arena, the Trial Tower and the communal dining hall.
The Liyang Sect was no longer just two or three stray cats.
Aside from the thirteen inner sect members, including Zhao Dongli, it had recruited several hundred outer disciples.
Ling Yi had even used a cheat-like method to forcibly activate the Yang Souls of Zhao Dongli and the other twelve, helping them leap straight past the most difficult Entry stage.
Over two months, all thirteen had entered the Innate Realm, becoming super experts at that level.
In the whole Smiling, Proud Wanderer World, only people like Feng Qingyang and Dongfang Bubai had reached the Innate Realm. Innate experts were already at the very ceiling of the Smiling, Proud Wanderer World.
Ling Yi had named the thirteen the Thirteen Grand Protectors.
Over those two months, Ling Yi and the Thirteen Grand Protectors had swept through every Jianghu sect near Mount Lu, big and small.
Besides collecting vast amounts of money and property deeds, he had also come up with the novel idea of issuing each sect a Sect Protection Token.
Any sect that received a Sect Protection Token would be protected by the Liyang Sect, but it had to hand over a portion of its wealth to the Liyang Sect each month.
It could be money or medicinal herbs.
To put it bluntly, it was protection money.
Though many of them were unhappy, they could only swallow their grievances. The Liyang Sect was so powerful that they did not even dare think of resisting.
Had you ever seen a technique that summoned the five sacred beasts-the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise and Qilin-with a wave of the hand and wiped out half a sect? These sects had seen it, and more than once.
As time passed, Ling Yi's Yang Soul grew ever stronger, and the benefits of that growing strength became increasingly apparent.
Ling Yi had developed many ways to use the power of the soul.
For example, the methods of controlling and taming beasts formed an entirely new system that Ling Yi had developed using the power of his Yang Soul.
By extracting part of a wild beast's soul and merging it into his own Yang Soul, he could control the beast. At the same time, Ling Yi could use his Yang Soul to strengthen the Beast Soul, not only making the beast stronger but also awakening its intelligence.
That was why Ling Yi had established separate Mutant Beast grounds.
There were now over a hundred wild beasts in the Mutant Beast grounds, mostly tigers, leopards, wolves, pythons and eagles.
Zhao Dongli and the others each had an enhanced wild beast of their own now. When they took them out, they looked unbelievably impressive.
Ling Yi was forcing a cultivation sect into existence in a martial arts world.
Host: Ling Yi Life: 999 Internal Energy (Spiritual Power): 999 Cultivation: Peak Grandmaster Techniques: Liyang Heart Sutra (Great Perfection), Liyang Sword Technique (Great Perfection), Liyang Palm Technique (Great Perfection). Points: 4,125. Plot progress: The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (15%). Passive Cultivation Aura lv1 (activated): When activated, all martial arts learned enter Automatic Cultivation. Current cultivation speed bonus: 1x. Passive Transmigration Aura lv1 (activated): Transmigration becomes available once participation in the current world's plot reaches 30% or more. The destination world is random, and its timeline begins at the start of the plot.
"System, how many points does it take to upgrade the Passive Cultivation Aura?" Ling Yi asked the system from the main seat in the great hall.
His cultivation had now reached a bottleneck.
Ling Yi had tried many methods, but none had enabled his Yang Soul to break through and reach the realm of a Yang Soul becoming a god described in the Liyang Heart Sutra.
Ling Yi reckoned that to break through, he would either have to rely on the system's power or transmigrate to a higher-level world.
Ling Yi had not had enough fun in this world yet. He had not even met any of the protagonists, so naturally he would not leave the Smiling, Proud Wanderer World.
Since he could not leave, he could only see whether the system could deliver.
"Ding, upgrading the Passive Cultivation Aura requires 2,000 points."
"What changes after the upgrade?" Ling Yi asked.
"Ding, please explore that for yourself, host."
"What the hell is wrong with you? You obviously know, but you won't say. What's the point of that? When I used to read novels, this setting always left me speechless. Fuck, is your lousy system going to pull this brain-dead routine too?"
"Ding, please explore that for yourself, host."
"Fuck... You stupid system, upgrade the Passive Cultivation Aura for me."
"Ding, 2,000 points spent. Passive Cultivation Aura upgraded successfully. Current level: lv2."
Ling Yi immediately opened the system interface to check its new function after the upgrade.
Passive Cultivation Aura lv2 (activated): When activated, all martial arts learned enter Automatic Cultivation. Current cultivation speed bonus: 2x.
Twofold Cultivation speed did not seem all that useful. It would not do much to help him break through his current realm.
Of course, he could not say it was completely useless. For instance, Ling Yi would be able to cultivate new techniques faster.
But ever since cultivating the Liyang Heart Sutra, Ling Yi had completely looked down on other techniques.
Wasn't cultivation so much better? Why did he have to go and practice those martial arts?
Still, although he could not break through to the next realm, the active Passive Cultivation Aura continued to deepen Ling Yi's understanding of the Liyang Heart Sutra at every moment.
Although the numbers had not changed, Ling Yi knew perfectly well that he was gaining an understanding of the Yang Soul faster. He would also have more ways to use it and wield it with greater ease.
For example, Ling Yi had previously needed to convert the power of his Yang Soul into Internal Energy (Spiritual Power) to use a skill. Now, that step was completely unnecessary.
His increasingly refined Yang Soul could already affect heaven and earth directly. That was why Ling Yi's attacks looked as though they were packed with special effects.
And the benefits brought by a powerful Yang Soul were not limited to stronger cultivation and technique skills.
As his Yang Soul grew stronger, his mental power, mental calculation ability and comprehension all became incredibly powerful. His mental power could already affect reality.
That meant the familiar abilities of Telekinesis, the Mind-Reading Technique, Telepathy and wide-range Perception, among others.
The more refined his Yang Soul and the stronger his soul power, the stronger those abilities became.
None of that could be seen in the numbers on the status panel.
"It's about time I went out for a walk." The plot had already begun, and Ling Yi would have to get involved sooner or later.
"Zhao Dongli, get your ass to the great hall!"