Chapter 62 Inconvenient to Leave!

"Dark night, biting wind... quite cold."

Chen Yi sat on the roof of the guest quarters, the Chunyu Sword laid horizontally across his knees, his gaze fixed beyond Sword Peak.

In the dark night, mist swirled about.

In the distance, the outlines of several peaks belonging to the Grand Void Taoist Sect could be discerned, with pinpricks of firelight flickering faintly.

"The closest one is Dan Peak, followed by Body Peak, where the body-refining lineage resides? Ah, wait, that is Craggy Peak."

Craggy Peak, a peculiar name.

Before Ning Xiangsheng introduced it to him earlier, Chen Yi had assumed that Craggy Peak was covered in withered trees and exposed rocks.

Only later did he learn that the name "Craggy" had been bestowed by the founding patriarch of the body-refining lineage, meant to admonish his disciples to remain upright and possess steadfast backbone.

"Further away are the Mystic Gate Peak and the Mountain of Books."

When Chen Yi looked toward the Mountain of Books, a trace of curiosity flickered in his eyes.

Having entered the Grand Void Taoist Sect for nearly three months, he had yet to visit the Mountain of Books to witness the sect's profound heritage.

According to Ning Xiangsheng, that mountain held a million volumes of bamboo slips and ancient texts, encompassing a vast array of categories. These mainly included technique inheritances, chronicles of demons and monsters, pharmacology, array formations, and miscellaneous mystic arts.

Leaving aside the sheer volume, the mere fact that an entire mountain was used as a repository for books allowed one to imagine how terrifying the heritage hidden within truly was.

"Further still is the Grand Void Peak."

That was also where Lin Xueru, Du Yanqing, Wei Luotian, and Wei Xiaoyun resided, as all four of them had entered the main lineage of the Grand Void Taoist Sect.

In truth, ever since the trials that day, the seven youths who had traveled from the Capital Prefecture to seek discipleship had all dispersed.

Aside from the four belonging to the Grand Void lineage and Chen Yi, the sword cultivation disciple, little Princess Du Yan had gone to Mystic Gate Peak, which specialized in array formation inheritances.

Little fatty Wang Yongnian had chosen body refinement and entered Craggy Peak to cultivate.

Among them, Wei Luotian and Wei Xiaoyun possessed masters of the highest status.

Adopted as disciples by Xiao Xuanzhen on behalf of his father, they entered the lineage of Xiao Huang, the master of the Grand Void Taoist Sect.

Meanwhile, Lin Xueru and Du Yanqing were personally tutored by Gu Tiangang.

Initially, the little girl had been unwilling to part ways with Chen Yi, and no amount of cajoling from the old Daoist priest could change her mind.

In the end, driven to his wits' end, the old Daoist priest "appealed for help" to Chen Yi, and only with his assistance did he successfully take Lin Xueru on as a disciple of supreme talent.

However, Lin Xueru had not forgotten to seize the opportunity to request permission to visit Sword Peak frequently, a condition the old Daoist priest readily and fully agreed to.

Chen Yi was quite satisfied with this arrangement.

First, the old Daoist priest had a good temperament and had provided them with much protection along the way from the Capital Prefecture to the Grand Void Taoist Sect.

Second, the old Daoist priest was, after all, a grand cultivator of the Second Grade.

With him providing personal guidance, Chen Yi believed the little girl's future martial achievements would not be low.

Perhaps her martial cultivation at the age of thirty would be even higher than the Fourth Grade realm indicated by his system panel.

At this thought, Chen Yi felt the biting chill in the air and could not help but exhale a breath.

As the cold winter wind blew past, the expelled breath was clearly visible, dissipating only when its momentum was spent.

"That person, are they still not coming out?"

According to the description of the poison, the true essence would be dissipated within five hours.

Chen Yi deduced that the person who administered the poison would definitely emerge before then.

After all, once the next day arrived, the abnormalities in his body would be discovered by others on Sword Peak.

Unless that person was utterly confident in evading the sect's screening process, they would certainly do something tonight.

Either launch an assassination attempt or flee.

As for why Chen Yi chose to wait alone rather than inform Ning Xue and the others—

Heh, someone who resorted to poisoning to weaken his strength beforehand; how high could their martial cultivation possibly be?

After waiting for a long time, until the hour he estimated the poison should take effect, he finally heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

He saw an outer disciple of Sword Peak, neatly dressed and holding an iron sword, quietly stepping out of the guest quarters.

After scanning his surroundings, the man made a show of patrolling around the guest quarters before appearing outside the room where Chen Yi was staying, gently pushing the door open and slipping inside.

All of this was witnessed by Chen Yi.

Yet he did not rush to make a move, choosing instead to wait a moment longer.

This outer disciple was named Fang Wentao, and he had been on Sword Peak for a full five years.

Just as Chen Yi had anticipated, Fang Wentao's strength was not formidable, merely at the lower stage of the Eighth Grade Qi-Condensation realm.

"I must see just who is standing behind him."

Chen Yi did not believe that an outer disciple of such low status and strength would dare to take such a desperate risk to move against him without some external incentive.

Surely someone hadn't predicted years in advance that he would join the Grand Void Taoist Sect and deliberately planted an outer disciple on Sword Peak ahead of time?

Sure enough, very soon, Chen Yi saw the outer disciple walk out in a hurry, not lingering for even a moment as he headed straight down the mountain.

"To be able to direct such a person and use this method to deal with me, the mastermind probably isn't any formidable powerhouse either."

Chen Yi picked up the Chunyu Sword and silently gave chase.

Following the path down Sword Peak, passing through various array formations, he arrived at a grove halfway up the mountain.

The outer disciple named Fang Wentao finally stopped, casting a nervous glance from side to side before lifting his hand to whistle a brief, sharp tune.

Soon, from behind a tree not far away, a deliberately lowered, hoarse voice sounded.

"Did it succeed?"

"I... I don't know." Fang Wentao's tone carried a hint of a guilty conscience as he spoke in a hurried and panicked manner. "I saw with my own eyes that he consumed the poison, but after I entered the guest quarters just now, he, he..."

"What about him?!"

"He wasn't in the guest quarters!"

The figure in the distance let out a surprised "Oh," and after a brief silence, spoke again:

"Since that is the case, you should go down the mountain."

"Right, but," Fang Wentao traced the source of the voice to look at the dark shadow in the distance, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he asked, "Senior, shouldn't you give me what you promised?"

As soon as his voice fell, he suddenly felt an additional book appear in his hand, and then the voice of the person in the distance reached him:

"Take it and get out of here quickly!"

"Th-Thank you."

"Remember, leave via the western mountain path; someone will be there to receive you."

Fang Wentao nodded repeatedly, turned around, and continued running down the mountain.

However, before he could run far, the person who had been hiding behind the tree earlier ambushed him with lightning speed.

Two cold gleams flashed across the air!

"You, you..."

Fang Wentao's body stiffened. Clutching his gushing throat, he stared wide-eyed at the figure before him.

Then, his breath ceased entirely.

Only at this moment did Chen Yi clearly see the person who had struck, and his eyebrows arched involuntarily.

"Could it be someone from the Martial Arts Hall?"

Though the person was dressed in the standard attire of a Grand Void Taoist Sect disciple, there was an embroidered golden-thread pattern on the left side of the chest.

Chen Yi recognized that as the emblem of the sect's Martial Arts Hall, whose disciples specialized in patrolling the various peaks and capturing hidden spies and infiltrators.

"Is this what they call a thief acting as a night watchman?"

Chen Yi curled his lip, and just as he was about to make a move, he saw another person emerge from behind a tree nearby.

Two of them?

And both were disciples who had joined the Martial Arts Hall?

The latter arrival looked at Fang Wentao's corpse and lowered his voice, "What should we do? Since this attempt failed, I'm afraid it will alert the target, and there probably won't be another chance."

"No rush." The one who had dealt the fatal blow shook his head. "Even if this attempt failed, as long as the Marquis of Chen's son has lost all his true essence, that lord above will most likely not blame the likes of us."

"But I'm worried there might be repercussions."

"Then refuse!"

The second Martial Arts Hall disciple looked at him in shock and doubt. "Aren't you afraid of being punished by that lord?"

"What is there to fear? I was never in favor of making a move against Chen Yi in the first place. Failing this time is fine; if we had succeeded, I fear neither of us would have escaped with our lives."

"But..."

"Stop chattering nonsense, let's leave first!"

The Martial Arts Hall disciple who had struck the blow was young, yet both his words and actions were extremely resolute. With that, he turned and began to walk away.

Yet before he had taken two steps, he abruptly halted. Looking at the figure standing not far away, a look of profound astonishment flashed across his face.

"You, you..."

Chen Yi held the Chunyu Sword upright before him, grasping the hilt with a calm expression as he looked at the two of them.

"I think you gentlemen shouldn't leave just yet!"