Chapter 44: Two Waves of Interceptors

Master Tianmen of the Mount Tai Sect was renowned far and wide for his upright and unyielding character. Since he had spoken, those in the crowd who had previously been wavering and skeptical all quieted down, stopping their discussions.

Instead, they began to ponder whether their own families or sects possessed anyone of exceptional talent. As soon as this hand-washing-in-gold ceremony concluded, they would dispatch people to the Five Yue Sword Sects, or to Wudang and Shaolin.

Yu Canghai stood in place with a gloomy expression, unable to say much. Wang Jingyuan stared at him for a long time, licked his lips, and tugged at Yue Buqun’s sleeve, signaling him to hand over the sword manual he was holding.

Yue Buqun had no objections and casually passed it to him.

Wang Jingyuan walked up to Yu Canghai and handed the sword manual over. Yu Canghai was somewhat startled, but with the sword manual right before his eyes, he could care less about anything else. He snatched the manual away in one go, without even uttering a word of thanks.

Wang Jingyuan didn’t mind and merely said, "I played a trick on your son, and now I give you a sword manual. My senior brother beat up your disciples, but when villains tried to harm them, he also spoke out to stop it. My Mount Hua Sect and the Qingcheng Sect are now even."

Yu Canghai gave Wang Jingyuan a sinister look. "Very well, all grievances are completely wiped away!" Whether he believed his own words or not, only he knew.

After the farce, Liu Zhengfeng cleared his throat, reminding everyone who the protagonist of the day was. Seeing that everyone had turned their attention back to him, Liu Zhengfeng waved his hand to signal his disciples.

Before long, Hengshan disciples carried a golden basin into the main hall, then began pouring water into it from bottles, waiting only for the auspicious hour to commence the ceremony.

When the auspicious time arrived, Liu Zhengfeng turned outward and said in a ringing voice, "This disciple Liu Zhengfeng was accepted into the sect by my benevolent master, who imparted martial arts to me. I am deeply ashamed of failing to expand the prestige of the Hengshan Sect. Fortunately, our sect has Senior Brother Mo presiding over it. Liu Zhengfeng is mediocre and ordinary; one more like Liu is not many, and one less like Liu is not few.

From this day forward, Liu washes his hands in the golden basin and concentrates on an official career, and he shall resolutely never use the martial arts taught by his master to seek promotion and high rank. As for the grudges and rights-and-wrongs of the martial world, and the disputes between sects, Liu Zhengfeng shall resolutely pay them no heed whatsoever.

If I violate these words, let it be like this sword!"

Liu Zhengfeng flipped his right hand, drew his long sword, and with both hands snapped the blade into two halves. Having broken the long sword, he casually let the two severed pieces drop. With two soft thuds, the broken sword embedded itself into the green bricks.

Many people were unaware of Liu Zhengfeng purchasing an official title. Hearing him mention promotion and high rank now, they realized what was happening—he must have bought an official post. Quite a few people frowned; washing one's hands in the golden basin was one thing, but turning around to accept imperial recruitment—what was that supposed to mean?

Just at that moment, the people of the Mount Shan Sect arrived. "Hold on!"

Hearing this voice, Liu Zhengfeng’s eyes narrowed slightly. In the end, they had come after all.

A group of men in yellow robes filed in. The leader was holding a five-colored brocade banner, which presumably was the so-called Five Yue Alliance Leader’s command flag.

That man walked up to Liu Zhengfeng, raised the flag, and said, "Senior Uncle Liu, by the command flag of Lord Zuo, Leader of the Five Yue Sword Sects, Senior Uncle Liu's grand event of washing his hands in the golden basin is requested to be temporarily postponed."

Liu Zhengfeng feigned a look of bewilderment, but still readily nodded and said, "Very well. But I wonder what purpose the Alliance Leader has in issuing this order?"

The leading yellow-robed man was about to answer when a fierce roar suddenly echoed from outside the house: "Liu Zhengfeng, you dog thief! If you want to wash your hands in the golden basin, you must first ask whether I agree or not!"

Suddenly, an elderly man in black landed on the outer wall of the Liu residence, glaring inside with a murderous look in his eyes. Liu Zhengfeng cried out in alarm, "Qu Yang?!"

Qu Yang gave a sinister chuckle. "After plotting against this old man, you still want to wash your hands in the golden basin? In your dreams! This old man will surely kill you before you can wash your hands!"

No one could have anticipated that Qu Yang would show up at a gathering of the righteous sects like this. Was he not afraid of death? At that moment, a voice sounded from the crowd: "Is this... turning love into hatred?"

Upon hearing this voice, Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng felt a chill run down their spines, almost failing to keep up their act. Everyone turned their heads to look at the source of the voice and saw it was none other than Wang Jingyuan.

This brat was truly too reckless. Even though everyone knew about this in their hearts... or at least had their suspicions, you couldn't just blurt it out in public like that!

Especially the Hengshan disciples present, who looked at Wang Jingyuan with increasingly unkind eyes. Wang Jingyuan slapped his forehead in sudden realization. "My fault, my fault. Whenever I read novels, I tend to get too immersed, often failing to separate novel plots from reality."

Hearing this, everyone present wore somewhat awkward expressions. Did he have to keep poking at a sore spot? Could he just shut his mouth!

As if trying to redeem himself, Wang Jingyuan looked at Qu Yang outside the house and then opened his mouth to scold: "Qu Yang, you old bastard with a rotten chrysanthemum! You only came to raid Senior Uncle Liu’s place by night a few days ago, causing Senior Uncle Liu to be bedridden for a long time.

Today is Senior Uncle Liu’s great day, and you still dare to come?! With so many of us here today, could you possibly manage to... well, not *handle*, but harm Third Master Liu right in front of everyone here?"

As Wang Jingyuan talked and laughed, he turned his head as if inadvertently and caught sight of the vertical bamboo flute that Liu Zhengfeng had placed before the steps of the main hall. His laughter gradually grew softer, and finally, he clamped his mouth shut.

Then he scratched his head awkwardly and apologized to Liu Zhengfeng, whose face had turned livid. "Senior Uncle Liu, I am not insinuating anything about you. Everyone knows you have both sons and daughters, and you are completely not the kind of person who cuts the sleeve or shares the peach."

Hearing Wang Jingyuan’s words, quite a few knowledgeable people among those present wore rather strange expressions. In this era, people who played for both teams were far more numerous than those who swung exclusively one way.

Wang Jingyuan seemed to realize something, closed his mouth once again, and then began frantically fumbling to patch up his previous remark: "I... I didn't mean that. What I meant is that Senior Uncle Liu is a senior figure of the righteous path; even if he were to cut the sleeve, he wouldn't mingle with demons of the Cult of the Sun and Moon. No matter what, he would look for someone from a prominent and orthodox sect..."

At this point, Wang Jingyuan seemed to remember something else, and covered his mouth in terror. Meanwhile, the righteous martial artists present also closed their eyes in agony.

As disciples of the righteous path, trading verbal blows upon encountering demons of the cult was only natural. But whether your few words enraged the demons or not was hard to say, yet you had just reviewed the juicy gossip that everyone had been avoiding discussing lately. It was hard to tell whether he did it on purpose or by accident.

Not only Liu Zhengfeng, but Qu Yang also wore an ugly expression. However, emotions could not be brought into performance; the play still had to go on. Qu Yang directly ignored everything Wang Jingyuan had just said, fearing that once he took the bait, heaven knows what else Wang Jingyuan might blurt out.

Qu Yang merely looked at Liu Zhengfeng and said, "I suppose you knew long ago that I would come today? However, human calculations are no match for heaven's will. When I arrived, I discovered the men you had laid in ambush. They were struck by my Black Blood Divine Needles, and they are not having a very good time right now."

Hearing this, the disciples of the Mount Song Sect turned pale with shock.