Zhao Dongli was teaching the outer sect disciples when a voice suddenly rang out in his head, startling him.
"Sect Leader?"
"No shit. Who else would it be? Get your ass over here."
Zhao Dongli didn't dare delay. He immediately sprang into the air and reached the inner sect hall in a few leaps. His graceful figure filled the newly admitted outer sect disciples watching him with envy.
"Sect Leader!" Zhao Dongli immediately bowed upon seeing Ling Yi.
Zhao Dongli admired and appreciated Ling Yi from the bottom of his heart. If Ling Yi hadn't appeared, the Liyang Sect would probably have been finished long ago, let alone achieved its present glory.
"Take this to the top of the Trial Tower." Ling Yi tossed Zhao Dongli a stone sphere.
The moment the sphere landed in his hand, Zhao Dongli sensed the powerful Yang Soul power contained within it. The Sect Leader was probably the only one who could imbue an inanimate object with Yang Soul power and keep it concentrated without dispersing.
"This contains my inheritance imprint. If any promising disciples can reach the top floor of the Trial Tower, they can use it to formally reach Entry in the Liyang Heart Sutra and become inner sect disciples."
"Sect Leader, the Trial Tower is too difficult. Given the outer sect disciples' skill, I'm afraid they'll have a hard time reaching the top floor."
Ling Yi had made the Trial Tower himself. It had nine floors in all, each guarded by enlightened beasts with powerful souls. Ling Yi collectively called these enlightened beasts Spirit Beasts.
Zhao Dongli knew all too well how terrifying the Trial Tower was.
Even the weakest of those Spirit Beasts were at Peak Acquired, and the higher one went, the more numerous they became. Ling Yi had even devised a set of coordinated attack routines especially for them. Although it couldn't be called a Formation, the outer sect disciples had absolutely no chance of getting through.
The top floor was guarded by three Xiantian-level Spirit Beasts. Forget the outer sect disciples-even the inner sect disciples couldn't get past them.
"Are you stupid? If those Spirit Beasts really went all out, of course no one could get through. The Trial Tower mainly tests character and tenacity. The Spirit Beasts know how to hold back."
Understanding dawned on Zhao Dongli. "Brilliant, Sect Leader. In that case, there's no problem."
"I'm leaving for a while. If I don't come back within three years, I may have already left this world. When the time comes, you can continue as the Liyang Sect's leader."
"Ah, Sect Leader, you, you... have an incurable illness?"
Ling Yi raised a foot and kicked him.
"You're the one who's sick! Ascension! Do you understand Ascension? Fucking idiot, you'll piss me to death sooner or later."
Zhao Dongli's eyes widened. "Sect Leader, you're going to become an Immortal?"
"Who the hell knows if it counts as becoming an Immortal!" It wasn't that Ling Yi didn't want to tell them he could travel to other worlds. He simply thought it would be too much trouble to explain, so he put it another way.
"Cultivate the Liyang Heart Sutra diligently. As long as you cultivate your Yang Souls to Great Accomplishment, living for a thousand or two thousand years shouldn't be a problem. We'll have another chance to meet then."
Though Ling Yi was brash and didn't have the best temper, he treated anyone he acknowledged with all his heart. Otherwise, he couldn't have gathered a group of people who followed him so steadfastly in his previous life.
"Sect Leader, can we become Immortals too?"
"That depends on your fortune. This world is too low-level. Becoming an Immortal and truly ascending will probably be fraught with countless difficulties."
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer World was a low-martial world. Ling Yi didn't know whether Shattering the Void was even possible here.
Besides, this was a television drama world to begin with. He didn't even know what lay at the root of its existence, or whether it was illusory or real.
Zhao Dongli believed Ling Yi without a shadow of a doubt, and his heart was filled with longing and anticipation.
But at the thought of Ling Yi leaving, Zhao Dongli was deeply reluctant to part with him.
Although they hadn't known each other long, he and the other members of the Thirteen Grand Protectors respected Ling Yi from the bottom of their hearts.
After giving Zhao Dongli a few brief instructions, Ling Yi left the Liyang Sect.
Ling Yi neither used Qinggong nor rode a horse. He simply left on foot.
Ling Yi made no deliberate effort to conceal his departure, and as soon as he left the sect, many interested parties took notice.
He traveled south until he came to a small grove, where he stopped.
With a strange expression, Ling Yi looked at the beggar-like young man kneeling before him.
Strange. How did this guy end up on Mount Lu? According to the original plot, he should be becoming Old Yue's disciple about now. Is this the butterfly effect?
The young man dressed in beggar's rags pressed his head almost to the ground and pleaded, "This junior is Lin Pingzhi. Greetings, Sect Leader Ling. I bear a blood feud as deep as the sea, yet have no way to take revenge. I beg you to accept me as your disciple. Once I've learned a move or two and avenged my family, I'll serve you for the rest of my life."
"You obtained the Bixie Sword Manual, didn't you?" Ling Yi asked. With the Mind-Reading Technique, Lin Pingzhi had no secrets from him.
"Th-that's right!" Lin Pingzhi shuddered, looking somewhat alarmed.
"If you cultivated the Bixie Sword Manual, taking revenge would be simple."
"Senior, there's something you don't know. The Bixie Sword Manual is too sinister. To cultivate it, one must first... This junior is now the sole surviving heir of the Lin Clan. I don't want our family line to end with me."
Ling Yi nodded. He could understand that.
In the original plot, Lin Pingzhi had been driven into a dead end and had no other choice, so he had been forced to cultivate the Bixie Sword Manual.
But now that the Liyang Sect had burst onto the scene, and Ling Pingzhi had seen Ling Yi's godlike, demonic strength with his own eyes, he naturally didn't want to cut himself.
"You have a sincere, filial heart and a tenacious character. Follow me for now." Ling Yi didn't care about changing the plot. If a transmigrator didn't change the plot, what kind of transmigrator would he be?
Besides, compared with Linghu Chong, the protagonist favored by this world's Karmic Luck, Ling Yi preferred Lin Pingzhi.
That guy Linghu Chong dragged his feet, wavered over every decision, failed to act decisively when he should, and couldn't tell good from evil.
Ling Yi himself was impatient by nature. When watching the drama, he had wanted nothing more than to dive straight into the television and kill him.
Lin Pingzhi was overjoyed. He immediately kowtowed nine times, then obediently stood behind Ling Yi.
"Hey, Old Yue, Old Yu! You've been following me for so long. Are you waiting for me to kick you out before you show yourselves?" Ling Yi suddenly shouted toward the rear.
Several seconds passed without an answer. Ling Yi scratched his head and cursed, "I gave you bastards a chance to save face, and you threw it away. I don't have time to play hide-and-seek with you."
Ling Yi grasped at the air with both hands, instantly condensing two enormous palms that reached out in opposite directions.
Two screams rang out.
The next moment, two figures were slapped out of the woods by the enormous palms.
The two men tumbled like rolling gourds until they came to a stop near Ling Yi.
Their movements were almost identical: they rose, retreated, and assumed defensive stances, watching Ling Yi warily.
They were none other than Old Yue and Yu Canghai, the two major supporting characters who stirred up storms in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.
At the sight of Yu Canghai, Lin Pingzhi's eyes instantly turned red. The grudge of his family's slaughter meant they could not live under the same sky. If he hadn't been too weak, he probably would have charged at Yu Canghai already.
"Your strength is truly eye-opening, Sect Leader Ling. I am in awe. With a powerful figure like you appearing in Jianghu, you will surely deter evildoers and bring order to the martial world." Old Yue truly lived up to his name; he had a way with words.
Yu Canghai, meanwhile, was at something of a loss.
Ling Yi's move just now had truly frightened him. Seeing Lin Pingzhi behind Ling Yi in particular gave him a bad feeling.
"The way you put it, it sounds like I'm going to unite Jianghu and become some great demon." Ling Yi rolled his eyes.
"I don't have that kind of time. As long as you don't come looking for trouble with me, I won't bother interfering, even if you fight to the death and everyone in Jianghu dies."
Old Yue's mouth twitched, and for a moment he was at a loss for words.
"I thought Zuo Lengchan would come too. Looks like that fellow's a lot more timid than you."
Old Yue heard the contempt Ling Yi held for them. His thoughts turned briefly, and he spoke again. "Sect Leader Ling, I have no choice. Jianghu appears peaceful now, but undercurrents are surging beneath the surface. Zuo Lengchan of the Mount Song Sect has a wicked, demonic heart. He secretly conspires with villains from various sects and harbors grand ambitions to unite the martial world..."
Seeing that Ling Yi said nothing, Old Yue paused, then continued, "If he succeeds, I'm afraid Jianghu will never know peace again."
"The bandits around Mount Heng, Mount Hua, Mount Heng, and Mount Tai are all secretly backed by Zuo Lengchan. They burn, kill, loot, and commit every evil imaginable. Please, Sect Leader Ling, take action and rid Jianghu of this demon."
"You've got a silver tongue, but what does any of that have to do with me? You must be out of your mind if you think you can use me as your weapon. Besides, with your methods, Old Yue, Zuo Lengchan would have a hard time getting the better of you."
Old Yue was a little embarrassed. Brother, did you have to say it so bluntly? Old Yue withdrew into himself again.
"But strictly speaking, I do admire you, Old Yue. You know how to bide your time, and you're ruthless enough. Most importantly, your devotion to Mount Hua is sincere. Your methods were a little extreme, but they were understandable."
In the original plot, Old Yue was a tragic figure too. It wasn't that he was too wicked; it was that Jianghu forced him to turn wicked.
And Ling Yi really didn't have a good impression of Zuo Lengchan either. The man was even worse than he was, and that was intolerable.
Ling Yi raised his hand and sent a stream of Yang Soul power into Old Yue's body, directly doubling the strength of his Yang Soul.
Old Yue's whole body trembled. At Peak Acquired, he broke through to Xiantian in the blink of an eye, then continued all the way to Middle Xiantian.
Feeling the abundant internal power within him and sensing that his body had become noticeably younger, Old Yue was overjoyed. At the same time, he gained a clearer understanding of Ling Yi's strength.
"The Huashan Sect declined because it had no powerful expert to hold the fort. Now that your wish has been fulfilled, go back."
Old Yue bowed deeply. "Thank you, Senior, for giving me a new lease on life. Should you have any orders, I will brave fire and water."