The Road Trodden by Hundreds and Thousands
"Master Li is truly awe-inspiring!"
Night had not long fallen, and some minor officials had already left Anle Palace, but high-ranking officials near the palace needed to keep watch for a period of time, or take turns keeping watch at night.
The Anle Palace was filled with experts, but they were unable to defeat the Nine Spirits Primal Sage in their initial test of skill.
When the Nine Spirits Primal Sage found the Nine Dragon Cauldron, he was beaten to the point of vomiting in a very short time. The stark contrast between victory and defeat cannot be described with a single word.
Sima Tan stood motionless on the high platform, but the Yang Soul that had escaped from the platform kept breathing out words of praise.
"Nine Spirits Primal Sage is a great demon from the Western Regions. It is said that he was relentlessly pursued by the two leaders of the Western Sect before he fled to the Northern Kuru Continent. This old demon has probably never suffered such a humiliating defeat before!"
Sima Tan spoke eloquently, yet with a hint of regret.
While it was certainly satisfying to catch such a powerful demon and give him a good beating, he also lamented that those skilled in flying and leaping were rare, and the Great Han Dynasty lacked the manpower to hunt down the Nine Spirits Primal Sage.
"It's a pity that the Peacock Kingdom is too far away from our Great Han Dynasty, otherwise we could have taken this opportunity to join forces with the Western Sect and wiped out this scourge in one fell swoop!"
Sima Tan was well-versed in ancient history and knew many secrets.
The conflict involves the interplay between nations and Sacred Land, with each side maintaining a delicate balance, and there is no shortage of mutual animosity.
In the Sacred Land of the Demon Race, the concept of strength is deeply ingrained, and the phenomenon of "when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter" is particularly evident.
It is extremely rare for the Nine Spirits Primal Sage to be attacked. If he is caught red-handed by his enemies, it almost certainly means that the vast Nine Spirits Holy Land will collapse.
He sighed several times, feeling that no one could possibly get such a good deal right now.
"Few people should know that Commander Li lost the Heaven-Shaking Arrow, so how did Nine Spirits Primal Sage suddenly find out?"
Zhang Xuezhou put down the "Great Wind Sutra" in his hand.
He already knew that the Nine Spirits Primal Sage would be coming to the palace, and he even found a special spot to watch the show.
Zhang Xuezhou was somewhat surprised that the Nine Spirits Primal Sage suddenly stopped being wary of Li Guang. After all, few people knew that the Empress Dowager had confiscated the Heaven-Shaking Arrow from Li Guang, and the Venerable One had not taken the Heaven-Shaking Arrow with him when he entered Yangling, so he still had some fear of Li Guang.
The Yangling Mausoleum is filled with Sha Qi, teeming with ghosts and zombies. It is extremely rare for someone to be able to take away the Heaven-Shaking Arrow without fear of being tainted by the Sha Qi.
Li Guang couldn't go to retrieve the arrows, but the others shouldn't have known this information at all.
Even Zhang Xuezhou was somewhat surprised when Nine Spirits Primal Sage mentioned that the Heaven-Shaking Arrow had been taken.
"Who would have thought that the biggest loser at the Empress Dowager's funeral would be Commander Li, the Imperial Guard!"
The damage to the roof of Anle Palace caused by the Nine Spirits Primal Sage's trampling was not a major issue; such a trivial matter could be repaired in a few days by gathering craftsmen. However, the fact that Li Guang's trump card had been exposed was undoubtedly a fatal blow, making it difficult for him to maintain his status as a top-tier archer in the future.
"Li Guang is the guardian of the Weiyang Palace, and His Majesty has also been caught in the crossfire. However, the stance of Commander Li is somewhat problematic; whether weakening his threat is good or bad for His Majesty is hard to say!"
Zhang Xuezhou thought about it for a moment and figured that was roughly how things were.
As for whether any unforeseen events might occur after the Empress Dowager's funeral, that was beyond Zhang Xuezhou's ability to guess.
The Immortal Court might send powerful cultivators to Anle Palace to seize the Nine Dragon Cauldron, or it might use gentler methods to obtain it, or it might borrow it like the Nine Spirits Primal Sage did.
Ultimately, what the Immortal Court needs is the Nine Cauldrons, not the Nine Dragon Cauldrons.
Once enough information is obtained from the Nine Dragon Cauldron, taking it is not necessarily a must.
However, it's difficult to know whether a conflict will occur.
As long as they can safely get through this short two weeks, everything will be settled smoothly for Zhang Xuezhou and his team.
"Why did the Immortal Court and the three great Sacred Land of the Northern Kuru Continent intervene in the matter of the Nine Dragon Cauldrons almost simultaneously, and all point to the Nine Cauldrons? Could it be that Your Excellency has joined forces with the Immortal Court?"
As the story unfolds further back in time, Zhang Xuezhou remains unaware of the relevant details.
He began browsing through other types of books in the Qilin Pavilion, focusing his mind on searching for books that might benefit him.
The first floor of the Qilin Pavilion alone contains hundreds of thousands of volumes of books, and the second floor doesn't have many fewer, with even more to come as you go higher up.
Searching for what one needs among the numerous bamboo slips is a difficult task, especially for someone like Zhang Xuezhou who wanders aimlessly.
For Zhang Xuezhou, his cultivation has reached the level of Divine Ability, and he has already formed his own style of cultivation. The scriptures he has been studying are mostly extraordinary, making it extremely difficult to make up for any deficiencies, let alone replace or surpass them in terms of cultivation.
Searching for a technique is not difficult; what is difficult is for Zhang Xuezhou to master it and make it suitable for his own style.
Simple techniques are easy to learn but difficult to apply to other levels; profound techniques are difficult to cultivate. Only complex techniques, few people cultivate them, and all of them have wonderful uses, meet Zhang Xuezhou's requirements.
"The Yin-Yang Sorrow and Joy Curse?"
Zhang Xuezhou, whose background stemmed from the Yin-Yang School, was particularly sensitive to the content of the Yin-Yang School.
After carefully selecting his items and stepping onto the third floor of the Qilin Pavilion, Zhang Xuezhou finally found some content that interested him.
Sima Tan's claim that his cultivation involved the Yin-Yang School was not mere boasting, but rather a fact that the Qilin Pavilion did indeed contain content related to the Yin-Yang School.
These contents are not the orthodox inheritance of the Nine People Sect and the Nine Heavens Sect, but belong to a branch sect.
More than ten years ago, the Great Han Dynasty issued an order to search for cultivators of the Yin-Yang School, and thus used the aura of their cultivation to search for Zou Bugui and Jin Chang. At that time, there were hundreds of applicants.
While many of these people are simply trying to make a living or swindle money, quite a few do indeed have intricate connections with the Yin-Yang School.
Not every Yin-Yang School cultivator can accept the endless internal strife; some seek to promote transformation, thereby breaking away from the Yin-Yang School to form their own faction and avoid getting caught up in it.
To this day, Zhang Xuezhou has not seen any successful practitioners, but there are clearly many Yin-Yang School cultivators striving along this path.
"Dear senior brothers, sisters, uncles, and grandmasters, I thank you all!"
Zhang Xuezhou's biggest regret was that there were only a handful of Yin-Yang School cultivators, and even with his constant efforts to promote them in the real world, the number remained very small.
The scarcity of practitioners makes even trial and error a luxury, while profound spiritual practice becomes a mere delusion.
Zhang Xuezhou had been waiting for Ren Anran to cultivate and attain Divine Ability, so that they could help each other move forward.
He never imagined that so many bamboo slips related to the Yin-Yang School would remain in the Qilin Pavilion.
Even if we don't copy these predecessors, the content of these cultivators can undoubtedly serve as various references, which may be beneficial, eliminate errors in cultivation, or bring about insights from other cases.
The Yin-Yang School's side branch doesn't have any top-tier cultivators, but those who can leave their work in the Qilin Pavilion, even if they haven't reached the Divine Ability Realm, are at least a step below the Body Transformation Realm, which is also the realm where cultivators deduce and extrapolate the most theories.
"It's definitely worth picking up His Majesty's key!"
This is why the advantage of dynastic succession far surpasses that of sectarian succession.
What was difficult for Zhang Xuezhou and others had been traversed by hundreds and thousands of people in the library, who had also left behind their lifelong experiences and records.
As Zhang Xuezhou flipped through the bamboo slips in his hand, his eyes swept over the nearly one thousand scrolls of related content piled up beside him.
He felt that the reward for investigating matters related to Princess Dou was something he had never expected, and it gave him a feeling of rain after a long drought.