Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain

Chapter 92: Wang Lu Made A Difficult Decision

Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

"Oh, Sister Ling, you come just in time, we really are one heart sisters, hahaha."

"Who wants to be sisters with you, this pervert…"

"Hahaha, don't be shy."

Inside the main building, Wang Lu laughed as he tried hard to break free from the active spells that bound his body. Gradually, he got his feeling back.

However, just now, that triple spells were indeed quite serious. Without the Sword of Mount Kun in hand, thus, he could not use the Non-Phase Broken Sword Method to break free. These triple spells were equal to be buried under an avalanche! However, thanks to his solid Non-Phase Sword Bone and Non-Phase Golden Bell Shield cultivation, he wasn't directly squashed to death by this spell! If this was the high level Qi Cultivating Stage four stars emissary, perhaps that emissary would've been shocked to death!

This challenging someone with higher cultivation stage was really difficult, especially when the cultivation stage was getting bigger; the gap could be described as worlds apart. The power of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was fully used here.

Wang Lu sighed. "Foundation Establishment, why are you so powerful?"

"Fu*k! You're the one who's a waste here. This guy is basically a Foundation Establishment disgrace. If he is a Foundation Establishment disciple from Spirit Sword Sect, that triple spells would've slammed you, face first, to the ground." While tying up the unconscious old cultivator, the Lady Boss unceremoniously launched an offensive slander against him.

"Humph, if I didn't come in time, you'd be ravaged by this old pervert! Yet you said as a Successor Disciple, you can challenge those with higher stage than you, what a joke!"

On the other side, Wang Lu used the Non-Phase Emperor Bone to mobilize the whole bones in his body to return to their original places and form. At the same time, he peevishly retorted Lady Boss's irresponsible remark, "I don't even have my main weapon, okay? This time, I dived into this so that you can have the opportunity to strike; how could you criticize me for that? If you were me, could you single-handedly subdue this guy? Before you could come close, you would've long been trapped in his array! However, you don't have to worry that you'd be ravaged by him, because you have a flat chest! He won't even want to look at you!"

"Damn! If you say flat chest again, you and I, end!"

"That's enough, why are you still quarreling with me, go catch that four stars before she could escape."

The Lady Boss peevishly said, "Do I need you to tell me that? When I came in, I already settled that slut… Fortunately, I'm quick, otherwise, it'd be too late to save you."

"Hey, don't think of yourself as the lone hero here, okay? Without me attracting that dirty old man's attention, how could you easily sneak in? This happened because of the cooperation between the two of us, so the credit should be split fifty-fifty between you and me, okay?"

The Lady Boss cut him off, "Suit yourself… who needs this worthless credit? What are you proud of? He's just a trash level Foundation Establishment!"

Wang Lu was, of course, proud, not because of his cooperation with the Lady Boss to win against someone with a higher cultivation stage than him, but proud that...

Having this six stars elder as a captive, who needed to find the main base of the Seven Stars Sect anymore! As a Sect Elder, this guy's position should be high enough. If he brought him back to the village, the task would be completed.

Although Wang Lu didn't think that bringing back an Elder would solve the problem in the Wang Family Village deep down, but...

"Who… who exactly are you?"

While Wang Lu was still lost in thought, that dirty old man woke up—the body of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was far stronger than the body of a Qi Cultivating Stage cultivator.

It was just that the punch from the Lady Boss almost destroyed his Jade Mansion and his mind also suffered a heavy blow. Although his consciousness has returned, he could not move even a bit of magical power, which was tantamount to him being crippled. The Lady Boss had just casually tied him with the rope; in the past, with a flick of a finger, he could snap it. However, right now, he was actually unable to break free from it.

However, this incident was a blessing in disguise for him; that punch from the Lady Boss not only scattered his mind and the magical power in his Jade Mansion, it also extinguished his flaming lust… Although the price for this was that his skill was sent several years backward, but this was still a far better result than dying from self-immolation because of qi deviation.

"Wh-why do you guys sneak attacked me? What enmity do I have with you?"

The Lady Boss frowned. "Disgusting. Listening to a dirty old man's talk is like dirtying my ears… I'll wait outside. You two perverts can talk it out yourself."

"F*ck! I am an honorable good-looking man from a respectable family, I'm not a f*cking pervert!"

"Someone who wears a skirt to seduce a dirty old man does not have the qualification to say that."

"Tch, a thirty years old flat-chested woman does not have the qualification to accuse others."

"... Forget it, I'm too lazy to argue with you." The Lady Boss pursed her mouth and directly backed out from the room, leaving behind the two people, Wang Lu and the old man.

Wang Lu leaned forward. "Do you recognize my face?"

The dirty old man's vision was still blurred from that blow. However, after a moment, he exclaimed, "Wang Lu!?"

"Ah, looks like you know me. Now, what do you think?"

"... I surrender."

The dirty old man was a Foundation Establishment cultivator with rich experience. At this time, his mind had quickly came up with countless ideas and made a wise judgment.

Regardless of how he lost—the sudden appearance of the girl and whatnot—but all in all, the situation was already completely beyond his grasp; the opponent's strength was far beyond what he anticipated… To be honest, he somewhat believed the proposed conjecture by the other elders in the previous meeting at their main base.

Could it be possible that this Wang Lu was the disciple of one of the Five Unique? As to why there was no Yuanying Stage expert who descends the mountain to take revenge for the disciple, it was probably because this was some kind of a special experiential learning? When he was still a disciple in one of the sects in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortal, this kind of thing was nothing new.

That being the case, currently, he has no other alternative than to surrender. Moreover, he even rejoiced that just now, he hadn't injured his opponent, otherwise… Ahem, if he really annoyed a Yuanying Stage expert, he would probably end up in utter misery!

Seeing the dirty old man happily surrendering, Wang Lu was taken aback. "Ha, you really know how to adapt to the situation! Fine, then confess to me your Seven Stars Sect's crime in the Wang Family Village in brief."

The dirty old man sighed and very cooperatively spilled the beans, in general, on everything that he knew.

The dirty old man's name was He Yun, who, in his youth, was a disciple in a small sect in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals. Due to the violation of the sect rules and slow cultivation progress, he was kicked out of the sect. After wandering around in the Nine Regions for several years, by coincidence, he joined the Seven Stars Sect and began to do the despicable shady business.

However, their involvement in the Wang Family Village was a classical example that happened numerous times in the Nine Regions. If not for provoking Wang Lu, this kind of against-the-heaven's-will person, there was nothing worthy about it. The rest was already known by Wang Lu.

"But, you want me to go to the Wang Family Village and explain the truth to the villagers?"

While lying on the ground, the dirty old man revealed a contemplative look. "I think this thing is inappropriate."

At this time, Wang Lu was also upset about this thing; he unhesitatingly asked, "What is inappropriate with it?"

The dirty old man hurriedly explained, "This… as I understand it, the Seven Stars Sect have deceived the villagers for quite a few years… If you want them to come to their senses, unless they were 'badly beaten and out of luck', otherwise, it's almost impossible to do that. Once human greed comes to the fore, it's difficult to press it down. Even if I explain it to them, they would just think that you bribed me to deceive them."

Wang Lu snorted. "Yeah, so?"

The dirty old man very much wanted to say, "Please give up this unrealistic idea of yours… No matter what, you're a disciple of the Five Unique, why bother to care about a bunch of ignorant country bumpkins? Didn't your Spirit Sword Sect tell you to cut your ties with the mortal world? Moreover, if you really care about your mortal world's relationship, you could just bring your parents and other significant loved ones back to the sect and that's that. You want to solve the problem of all the villagers? That's impossible!"

For a time, this dirty old man was speechless, frozen on the spot.

Wang Lu also didn't expect him to answer his question; if he couldn't even come up with the solution to this puzzle, how could this dirty old man give him a solution? Currently, this combination of swindlers and fools was a problem that was way off the chart! Even if he, right now, by some profound mystery, was able to destroy the Seven Stars Sect, it was still to no avail.

The idiots in the Wang Family Village had been shown the way to the world of Immortals by the Seven Stars Sect. Unable to accept what they were—that they were just humans—they wholeheartedly seek for Immortality. Even if he exterminated the Seven Stars Sect, as long as it didn't make them Immortals, later on, inevitably, there would be Eight Stars Sect, Nine Stars Sect… Alas, thinking about the future trouble, he really wished he could carry the sword and kill all the villagers, and that would settle the problem!

Inwardly, he was upset, but on the surface, Wang Lu looked even more relaxed. He then pulled the dirty old man up. "You said in the past, you were one of the good guys and your origin is also not bad. How come then you lower yourself and join the Seven Stars Sect to be the running dog for the Sect Leader?"

The dirty old man recalled his memory and ruefully smiled. "Our Sect Leader didn't always like this too, since he also came from the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals… Actually, half of the Elders were like these. Although we are trash level sects in your eyes, but within trash level sects, Seven Stars Sect could be considered as one with a good development."

"Oh? Since you have this foundation, why don't you cultivate in a proper way? Why can't you let a bunch of common mountain villagers go?"

The dirty old man said, "The benefits cloud our judgment… The cultivation of the higher ups in the Seven Stars Sect have basically encounter a resistance; it is difficult for them to cultivate further. Because of this, they were disheartened leading to the increase in desire. The harvest from their swindler activity these recent years was huge, so they simply couldn't stop themselves. In particular, in the previous years, there's an outflow of a high-quality stuff, which if used to deceive people, would have an extremely good effect. In our Seven Stars Sect's glorious time, once we spread our sphere influence on the prefectural capital, among the hundreds of thousands of people in that city, six or seven out of ten of them were our sect's followers! At that time, even teaching low-level disciples were not bad because they were very wealthy. Compared to those untalented and chanceless sects, who believe that the Immortal Path could be traveled as long as they tried hard enough, our sect is several times better than them!"

Upon listening to this, Wang Lu also became interested. "Wealthy? How could they be wealthy? Mortal World's wealth isn't that many, isn't it?"

The dirty old man shook his head. "No, you don't know this. In a place like the Wang Family Village or Marquis County, indeed there's not that much wealth that we could draw. But if it's a rich and populous county or even a prefectural capital, there's a big difference there. Although high-rank magical tools, magical treasures and so on are still rare, they are rich with other resources. For example, spirit stones; I remember when we occupied that prefectural capital in those years, in one year, our Seven Stars Sect was raking in several hundred thousand spirit stones. Although it varied greatly in grades, but still…"

Before he could finish, Wang Lu's incredulous voice has interrupted him. "Several hundred thousand spirit stones!?"

"Em, yeah."

"... Aren't you just bragging now?"

The dirty old man shook his head. "Definitely not! If you don't believe me, you can go and check it out yourself! It's not only us Seven Stars Sect who could do this. If others Sects can occupy a prefectural capital, they can also fish out several hundred thousand spirit stones. If it's even a higher level of government office, even one million spirit stones is possible!"

Seeing that the dirty old man was very serious, Wang Lu frowned. "Strange, how could a bunch of ordinary mortals come up with so many spirit stones?"

The dirty old man continued to explain, "Certainly by gathering them bit by bit. In the Nine Regions, the spirit stones come in two ways. The first one is in the form spirit stone ore that appears in the spot where the surrounding spiritual energy had been converging for ever and ever. Not only it has abundant reserves, but as long as it is mined moderately, the reserve would never exhaust. Another one is the scattered spirit stones that accidentally born in various ways all over the regions. Nowadays, the rich spirit stone ore reserves are mostly in the possession of the top rate sects. Those ores are easy to mine, and the yield is huge. However, if we count the total numbers, those scattered spirit stones are no less than those spirit stone ores. It's just that it's not easy to acquire them, and the cost of doing so is too high… However, the mortal worlds have hundreds of thousands of willing people; if they gather them bit by bit, the total amount is extremely amazing… With how big the Nine Regions are, any sect could only occupy an insignificant little space."

Wang Lu nodded his head in agreement. "That's reasonable. It's wrong to ignore the power of the people, but… I never thought there's actually hundreds of thousand spirit stones in a prefectural capital."

The dirty old man smiled. "Yeah, that's because big sects like yours never expect we can get rich in place other than theirs. Moreover, spirit stones are not the most important thing for us. Occupying a prefectural capital has countless benefits."

"Such as?"

"This…" The dirty old man thought for a moment. "For example, a year of tax in a prefectural capital is about several millions tael of silver, however, in a year, we can amass wealth ten times more than that!"

"I'll be damned! Ten times more than the income from tax? This is absolutely the Great Leap Forward [1]!"

The dirty old man laughed. "But this is the truth. A state tax will usually not burden the people too much because they don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. If the tax is too heavy, people will have no means to make a living—that will not benefit anyone. However, Seven Stars Sect is different. In order to seek Immortality, those ignorant mortals who believe they can become Immortal Cultivators would not hesitate to sacrifice everything they had, wouldn't they? They can even sell their wives and kids just so that they can get a pack of Spirit Root Development Pill! With such fools, how could we worry about money?"

Without waiting for Wang Lu to reply, the angry voice of the Lady Boss came from behind them. "Can you still fall asleep at night after getting this ill-gotten gain!?"

Upon hearing Lady Boss's castigating voice, the dirty old man trembled in fear. Compared to Wang Lu, a disciple from one of the top sects, he was actually more afraid towards this cultivation-less, yet can punch his layer upon layer of defenses, flat chested girl—who was a real monster.

Thus, the dirty old man immediately explained, "This can't be blamed on us. Those bereaved crazy followers, in most cases, bring it upon themselves. We just made exaggerated claims about our product, but we never force them to pay the high price tag that we put on it… Even some conscientious people from the sect, upon seeing that those people were bereaved, persuaded them to assess their capability and act accordingly. However, this thing doesn't work on those crazy followers. The more we persuade them, the more they suspect that we are being partial! In order to achieve Immortality, they can do anything. For example, in the Wang Family Village, two days ago, I got news that there are several families, for fear that they will lose the Seven Stars Sect favor, plan to… claim underserved credits by taking your family hostage."

Upon hearing the last few words, the Lady Boss was slightly surprised. She quickly turned around to see Wang Lu, only to discover that the later has an indifferent look.

"Ai, sometime, I think maybe this is a human nature. For a bottle of Spirit Root Development Pill, many people do not hesitate to commit murder and arson!"

Lady Boss couldn't help but ask, "But… for mere mortals, even if they are crazy, those Spirit Root Development Pills couldn't possibly have any effect, right? Why is it that they don't come to their senses then?"

The dirty old man said, "No, the effect is certainly there. After all, this was a groundbreaking invention from the Shengjing Sect Patriarch, Patriarch Liu He… No matter how low someone's qualification is, no matter how far someone's affinity with the Immortal Path is, as long as that someone keeps taking the pills, their cultivation will improve. And with just this insignificant improvement, it could attract even more of them. Heh, no matter what, I am a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, not just in name only, but also in reality. Yet, I never thought that Immortal Cultivation could have such a big attraction!"

This time, Wang Lu also helped him explained, "Sister Ling, right now, in the Immortal Cultivation World, except for the ancient sects, the man-made spirit roots have been basically proliferated. Basically, as long as someone is wealthy enough, that someone can cultivate. Even if that someone is as imbecile and as fat as Wen Bao, as long as that someone took the Spirit Root Development Pills and so on everyday, in a few years, that someone would definitely reach the Qi Cultivating Stage."

"This… the price and the gain are completely disproportionate. No matter how hard these commoners try it, how much money can they actually come up to buy these cultivation elixirs? Even after several decades of losing their family's fortune, I'm afraid they can't even stabilize level nine Qi Cultivating Stage; in the end, what's the point?"

The dirty old man was stunned for quite a while. "Actually, even I don't know what's the point of it, but… since they are willing to take a beating, then we're certainly happy to hit them!"

Wang Lu shrugged. "Sister Ling, don't try to understand these idiots' thoughts. If they are willing to use their brain to think and willing to listen to reason, then I don't have to come here to deal with this dirty old man."

The dirty old man bitterly smiled a few times; he didn't know how to answer to that.

However, he soon realized that he didn't need to say anything.

Because Wang Lu then continued, "However, hearing his remarks just now, I suddenly have an idea."

"... An idea?" the Lady Boss boringly asked as she leaned on the door frame of the door that led to the rear chamber.

She just assumed that he would say some method of persuasion for those villagers… Although the Lady Boss didn't have much contact with the mortal world's villagers, she knew that if persuasion were useful, the Seven Stars Sect wouldn't grow so big.

However, this part of Wang Lu was rarely seen. In the Spirit Sword Mountain, he lived a carefree live; he never had any worries about mortal worlds… However, when the Spirit Sword Sect sent their disciples down the mountain, it was exactly for these mortal world's worries. Severing the ties with the mortal world was a painful process, and perhaps Wang Lu had eaten some bitter hardships?

Then he caught the sight of Wang Lu from her peripheral vision, only to see there was a faint smile hanging on his face. Immediately, she felt as if her head was splashed with cold water.

"Yes, just an idea." Wang Lu's voice was as soft as silk, but each word was unusually clear, as if it carried an amazing power.

The Lady Boss's breathing slightly quickened. The silence in the room made her felt her own heartbeat seemed harsh. She had seen this kind of scene before… It was when a cultivator had a flash enlightenment.

Could it be, Wang Lu really thought of something?

Then, Wang Lu's gentle voice tore the silence.

"Life is stupid."

The Lady Boss was stunned. "Life is what…?"

"In this world, most people are stupid. Such stupidities originate from nature. Like the birds are born to fly, the fishes are born to swim, so the people in this world are born stupid… This is the law of the heaven, there's no way to disobey it."

"…"

"I once attempted to resist this heaven's law in the Wang Family Village. I thought that being eloquent would make me win their hearts, but the result was, I lost to a small fry… It's not because my eloquence degenerated, but because at that time, I went against the heaven. Therefore, I lost."

"…"

"On the contrary, although the Seven Stars Sect is a despicable low-level sect in your view, but in this matter, they actually comply with the heaven's will."

The Lady Boss was about to go crazy. "This was your epiphany? Were you accidentally qi deviated?"

"They comply with the heaven's will!? Wang Lu, what happened to you? Wake up, okay?"

Wang Lu laughed. "You are mistaken, Sister Ling, right now, I have never been this awake; my mind has never been this clearer. Think about it, what is the biggest rule in this world? It's the winners survive, the losers perish; it's a survival of the fittest! It's the law of the jungle! You see, when a fox catches a rabbit, what did the rabbit do to deserve that? When the rabbit grazes, do those flowers and plants deserve to be eaten? The answer is, it is the law of the heaven. If you take sympathy to the flowers and plants, then that means you want the rabbit to starve to death. If you pity the rabbit, then the fox will starve… If this continues, the conclusion is, this world might as well not exist to avoid the sufferings of the living beings… However, this is obviously wrong."

"..." This chain of reasoning completely confused the Lady Boss. The girl gently knocked the doorframe with her head, yet, even if the sturdy door frame completely cracked, everything was still unclear to her.

Although she didn't seem to understand it, it still seemed pretty awesome.

Wang Lu continued, "Therefore, we need to cast aside our sympathy. We often said that the world is unkind, it considers all living beings as worthless as dogs and hay. If we have no way to free ourselves from the world of mortals, then there's nothing more to say. But, since we have set foot on the path of Immortal Cultivation, we should see this from a higher perspective. The common people are fools, therefore, by the heaven's law, they are destined to be bullied and exploited. If nobody is going to oppress them, it would be a waste instead. The Seven Stars Sect has done a good job; they have successfully played an important part in the 'food chain'. In my opinion, the Seven Stars Sect and other similar sects are like a bunch of hard working reapers in the wheat field."

"What the hell! Hard working reapers!? You…" Upon hearing Wang Lu's messy remark, the Lady Boss really wanted to slam the whole wall with her head!

"This is but the truth…" Wang Lu said, and then sighed. "The only problem is that, as a reaper, the Seven Stars Sect is too lame."

Feeling as if her brain was still a mass of paste, the Lady Boss very depressedly nodded. "Since you criticized the Seven Stars Sect, we still at least have something in common."

But the next moment, that something in common was also gone.

Because Wang Lu's next words were, "Since the Seven Stars Sect is unreliable, then we might as well hand over this matter to a professional."

"Professional…?"

Wang Lu pointed at himself. "This professional adventurer."

"What the! … Are you kidding me!?"

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward