novelraw Chapter 531: Sword Drawn, Bow Stretched
Chapter 531: Sword Drawn, Bow Stretched
The Sect Leader of Celestial Sword Sect, Fang Shouye, was originally just a tenant. Because the master of the house used to be a small official, the treatment was quite good.
The master was kind-hearted and specifically built a small school for the townspeople, hired a teacher to teach enlightenment, and if any child showed talent for reading, he would sponsor them with silver coins to encourage attaining fame.
Whether ordinary people or servants in the mansion, if they wanted to learn to read and write, they could listen in after finishing their work.
Fang Shouye would consult the teacher in his spare time and learned to recognize some commonly used words, although his writing was crooked. Nonetheless, reading books and letters posed little difficulty.
Literacy opened a small window into the outside world beyond the mountains in his life, and it was a stroke of luck when the master returned from office and brought back many collected books. Fang Shouye pleaded for grace and occasionally borrowed one or two to read.
Until one day, he discovered an unusual tattered book in a pile of travelogues—its content was difficult to understand, yet as he read earnestly, he felt a faint warmth gathering in his abdomen, exactly as described in the book regarding sensing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy!
Fang Shouye vaguely sensed that he might have found an incredible treasure, so he borrowed it home, and aside from eating, sleeping, and working in the fields, he would read it seriously whenever he had free time.
Before long, he actually embarked on the mysterious path of cultivation.
However, for a tenant, the challenge became how to convert his newfound abilities into tangible benefits; he certainly couldn’t resort to banditry based on combat power, could he?
Moreover, upon calculating things carefully, the master’s benevolence in establishing a small school providing enlightenment and allowing borrowing led him to find the way into cultivation techniques. How could he repay kindness with enmity?
The introductory cultivation technique was clearly written: Virtue achieves, thus cultivation yields merit.
If one were to use extraordinary abilities for evil, it would instead damage the foundation and harm the root.
He understood the reasoning, yet how could he use this special ability to escape the tenant’s status, effortlessly eat meat, live in a spacious and bright room, and have more silver coins to search for similar books, advancing the path of cultivation?
Fang Shouye pondered day and night but had no good ideas. He finally decided to consult the knowledgeable master.
After all, he possessed real skills and didn’t fear them being taken away. It seemed the master would be willing to make friends with someone possessing extraordinary power.
Indeed, when the master learned that he could cultivate and had achieved a small mastery, he was overjoyed and not only funded assistance to recruit disciples but also provided clues, trying various methods starting from the source of the cultivation technique to find more books of the same series.
With sufficient silver coin support, Fang Shouye for the first time in his life left the mountains and saw the outside world, learning some skills for dealing with people;
With ample experience, he dared to leave the town’s protection at night carefully searching a small area in the wilderness for extraordinary items.
The embryonic form of Celestial Sword Sect gradually took shape under such fortuitous circumstances.
Years passed quickly, and Celestial Sword Sect with its discovery of sect descendants and more inheritances became one of the leading major sects in Central Province. The master, who had laid the foundation with great effort, had long passed away.
His descendants had not awakened into cultivators, but with Celestial Sword Sect as a guardian, his offspring flourished without worry.
"Sect Leader! Sect Leader, please go to the front hall quickly!" Fang Shouye stood lost in thoughts staring at the master’s portrait on the wall when suddenly a somewhat panicked voice came from the quiet room outside.
Accompanied by hurried footsteps, the eldest disciple pushed the door open, his face slightly pale, and said, "Just now, several senior visitors suddenly arrived, including two with strong demon cultivator auras; a terrifying eagle-type demon beast; and two human cultivators, the leader referred to as ’Mr. Jiang’! The other young man calls himself Wan Mingchuan!
Master, is the rumor about the Lin Mansion in Central Province actually true?
They requested to meet with the Vice Sect Leader. I asked a junior sister and Guardian Technique to go to the rear mountain to invite them. What if they knew we treated them like that..."
"Why panic?" Fang Shouye was momentarily stunned at the words, seeing that his eldest disciple was clearly showing fear, he interrupted his hesitative words with a wave of his hand and said solemnly: "Even if that child has returned; even if he met with fortune and apprenticed under a strong master, now he returns seeking family, which is only right, what is there to fear?"
The eldest disciple felt chagrined and quietly said: "The rumors are true, the Lin Mansion indeed prospered because of his ancestral recognition and connection with a big figure! The mysterious Mr. Jiang intends to support the Lin Family Patriarch, and the rumor is completely true!
Master, we sent out invitations and settled to hold the Immortal Ascension Conference tomorrow, and Mr. Jiang’s group arrives now of all times—it seems they all look rather gloomy, like they’re holding onto some anger!"
The disciple’s analysis made some sense.
The recent arrival of esteemed guests at the Lin Mansion spread like wildfire, and although Fang Shouye heard the whispers, he did not quite believe them.
Ouyang Ying was a girl he watched grow up, with cultivation talent remarkably high like her father. Had she not married Young Lin Shuo so early and left Celestial Sword Sect, with sect resources and her father’s earnest guidance, she would have inevitably become a formidable figure.
When she married into the Lin Mansion, Fang Shouye, as the sect leader from her maiden family, even served as the wedding officiant, seeing the handsome couple forge a good union.
Later, that charming boy was born.
At that time, when Ouyang Qing failed to advance and was seriously injured, Fang Shouye attended the child’s full moon feast with the sect’s disciples. He had a vivid impression of the chubby baby, inheriting good looks from his parents and filled with Spiritual Energy from the Ouyang Family, a very beautiful and intelligent child.
What a pity...
Could an infant in swaddling escape mortal danger during a hunt, fortuitously apprentice under a strong master, and then come back from miles away to recognize his family?
Fang Shouye harbored skepticism about these claims.
Unexpectedly, they truly arrived at his doorstep. He smiled wryly and said, "If the rumors are true, a blessing it is, not a curse, a curse cannot be avoided.
I will go to the front hall to welcome the esteemed guests; you go to the rear mountain to check the situation, if necessary, use some stern measures, after all, that old fellow does not have much strength to resist."
The eldest disciple agreed and hurriedly went to the rear mountain; Fang Shouye tidied his clothes and walked steadily toward the front hall.
[Fang Shouye: Sect Leader of Celestial Sword Sect, Peak Heartbeat Realm Cultivator, intermediate low-level cultivator. Soft personality and upright character, cultivates Yellow Tier intermediate cultivation technique "Flying Heaven Sword Technique," about to cross tribulation, success rate 30%, use of Profound Yellow Pill can increase success rate]
"Upright character?" Jiang Yuan seeing him for the first time, the appraisal system details confused him slightly.
The information Little Bai gathered did not quite match the appraisal system description, was there some misunderstanding?
"Are you the Sect Leader of Celestial Sword Sect?" Bai Yunqi’s eyes narrowed, cold pressure released.
Noticing the other’s realm wasn’t high, he thought angrily, how dare he mistreat Little Chuan’s grandfather? He’s overstepping his bounds!
Fang Shouye was stared at by a pair of crimson snake eyes, involuntarily shivering, feeling a chill up his back, and pressure was so intense his breath became slightly irregular, thinking this is bad! Clearly, they came to question, the rumors obviously held some truth!
"Cough!" Jiang Yuan felt it wrong, lightly coughed and exchanged a look with his contract beast.
Bai Yunqi’s erected bright red horns retracted some as he stepped back to his venerable family member’s side, the cold aura withdrawn, restoring the hall to the summer temperature it should have.
Fang Shouye did not thus lower his guard, instead feeling the adversary was obviously aggressive for a reason. It was better to let Ouyang Qing remain well on the rear mountain and refrain from coming over, otherwise, who knows what might happen!