Volcanic Age

The Dark Heavens Association acted as if it owned everything under the sun. No one knew of their existence, but their influence was greater than any other authoritative figure.

Sometimes, a few people would come close to learning about their existence. In the end, however, they failed to learn the truth and mysteriously vanished from the world without a trace.

The Dark Heavens Association threatened heaven and earth little by little. Behind the scenes, it threatened the entire Murim.

But now, it was facing an unprecedented crisis.

Something the members of the organization never thought was possible had happened. Vast Gate of the Seven Stars Division could no longer be contacted.

At first, the organization assumed her heavy workload was keeping her busy. But that assumption turned out to be incorrect.

If she hadn't been in touch for half a day, or maybe even one day, that explanation would've made sense. But two days of complete silence? Something must've happened to her.

Most importantly, Vast Gate had not notified them beforehand. The woman Blessed Existence knew was not this irresponsible.

If she had been some fool who only cared about staying youthful and looking good, then this action would've made sense, but Vast Gate was an old monster at the Harmony realm. In terms of life experience, she belonged to the upper half of the Seven Stars Division's leadership.

Blessed Existence grew suspicious on the first day. By the second day his suspicion turned to a certainty, and he spoke to the Dark Heavens Association Lord about it.

On the third day, he summoned the division's leadership and conveyed the news of Vast Gate's demise.

Blessed Existence addressed his fellow leaders. "Lord could not attend due to scheduling conflict. The head of the archives also couldn't attend as the management of spiritual beings took priority."

Six of the Seven Stars Division had gathered in one place.

"Vast Gate is missing. No, in truth, she's dead," said Blessed Existence.

"Mm…!" Twisted Melody, who cooperated with Vast Gate as a spy collecting information, gasped in shock and asked in disbelief, "Do we have the confirmation?"

The world had been underestimating the Xia Wu Sect Master, but that was because she had them fooled.

Excluding Warped Valor or Blessed Existence who acted as the brains of the leadership, everyone else in this meeting had equal martial prowess. They could easily rank within the list of One Hundred Experts Under Heaven if they wished to reveal themselves in Jianghu.

If that were the case, who could have murdered Vast Gate? What troubled these leaders was that the killer had managed to murder her without anyone finding out.

Blessed Existence continued his briefing.

"I've been pondering this for the past three days. It's a certainty. Twisted Melody, you know better than anyone here that Vast Gate was not the type of person to not contact us for over a day."

Twisted Melody was about to say something, only to stop and sigh deeply instead.

Blessed Existence stared at Twisted Melody with a hint of rebuke.

"Don't allow yourself to be completely convinced about something. Suspect everything. Nothing in this life is absolute. Remember, conceit will come back to haunt you. Sometimes, you must accept reality as it is."

Blessed Existence should be thanked for how busy the Dark Heavens Association had been until now. Even if something had a 99% chance of success, he would still focus on that one percent and act under the assumption of 'What if?'

"What about you? Aren't you also acting conceited under the guise of certainty?" Pure Faith, tasked with monitoring and assassinations of non-believers within the organization, asked testily.

"An excellent question. However, I've already taken that possibility into account. You don't have to worry about it."

Instead of being displeased, Blessed Existence smiled in satisfaction.

"I'll exclude what everyone can already guess from my report and tell you the worst possibility in the name of what if."

Blessed Existence narrowed his eyes and addressed everyone.

"It's possible that someone, or an organization, knows about us and is actively trying to undermine our grand plan."

"Nonsense!" Avaricious Wolf immediately interjected. He wasn't alone; other leaders reacted similarly.

Avaricious Wolf laid out his case.

"Pure Faith is already monitoring any non-believers who might leak information about our organization. And anyone foolish enough to do that gets eliminated with absolute certainty. Besides, you also know better than anyone how information about us is strictly controlled."

The leaders nodded in agreement with Avaricious Wolf's words.

"I'm talking about the worst-case scenario. There's no need for this reaction. Even so, isn't it better to keep this possibility in mind rather than not even considering it?" Blessed Existence said.

"Your opinion is indeed logical."

"Then, Blessed Existence. Any other possibilities?"

"The grudge against the Xia Wu Sect… No, this grudge seems much more personal than that."

"That sounds most plausible."

Favors and grudges were the forces driving gangho. The Dark Heavens Association was no exception. Its members were also bound by those ties.

They mustn't forget that Vast Gate was an old monster that was over seventy years old. A senior elder of Murim like her would obviously have a lengthy and checkered history.

"If that's what really happened, things will get complicated."

Although no one knew Vast Gate's true background, everyone suspected that she was from the Black Hand.

That meant she must've endured trials and tribulations from a young age and done many things worthy of others' resentment. Since that was the case, investigating her past would be very difficult.

Worse still, Vast Gate was the reason the Dark Heavens Association could gather information with ease. Her absence meant the organization's ability to collect information had been affected greatly.

Blessed Existence spoke up again, "If an individual was responsible, it shouldn't be too tricky to handle. Humans are bound to make mistakes. The killer must've left a trace behind somewhere. We only have to discover it. Also, Vast Gate's faction has not dissolved yet, so we can divide it among ourselves and use it as we see fit."

"Now that you mention it, I don't understand why you decided to leave the Tough Bastard alone…"

Some random punk showed up as soon as the Xia Wu Sect Master disappeared and took over that position. Considering Vast Gate's underlings, the Three Strongest in Zhengzhou, had also been murdered, this punk's presence was certainly suspicious. And the presence of an assassin called Silent Messenger weighed on their minds, too.

"Although I don't believe Vast Gate would fall at the hands of a random nobody like that, could there be some kind of connection?"

"Indeed. I'm also concerned about the Southern Fire House burning down."

Blessed Existence shook his head. "I've investigated the latter incident, but it's impossible to confirm anything due to a lack of witnesses."

"No witnesses? When the Southern Fire House is situated where anyone can see it? How is that possible?"

"That's because the agents of the Seven Stars Division were carrying out missions elsewhere at the time, leaving only unskilled people behind. We can't expect much from the Black Hand's people, anyway."

A Peak realm cultivator, no, maybe even a First Class expert could have infiltrated the Southern Fire House undetected if they wanted to.

"Fuu-woo…"

The leaders sighed.

"So? What will you do about the Tough Bastard, then?"

Blessed Existence took his time before replying, "As you all know, Vast Gate was an extraordinary woman. For her to be killed without being seen, the murderer's martial prowess must be even greater. I don't believe following an obvious clue will lead us to the culprit. If anything, it could be a trap to lure us in."

When nicely put, Blessed Existence was meticulous. But when not so nicely put, he was a coward. Thanks to his habit of overthinking things, he always considered various possibilities at length to a fault.

This unprecedented event made him consider the possibility of someone knowing about the Dark Heavens Association's existence and wanting to extract additional information about it. That made him hesitate to take any further actions.

The truth about Vast Gate's death turning into a mystery was that it only happened because she had underestimated the Zhengzhou incident and tried to deal with it in secret. Of course, neither Blessed Existence nor the Dark Heavens Association would ever learn this truth.

"Hence, I propose we take our time approaching this situation. Let us divide Vast Gate's duties among us so that our grand plan can proceed without any further delay."

****

Mount Song.

Known as the "Central Mountain" among the Five Famed Mountains of the Central Plains. Merely looking at the mountain range's majestic appearance made one realize how sacred this area was.

Despite being the shortest of all Five Famed Mountains, the people of the Central Plains still praised it for being the greatest mountain under the heavens. The reason for that was neither with the Taishi Peak to the East nor Junji Peak in the center, but with Shaoshi Peak to the west.

By following its precipitous mountain trails and reaching around the midway point of its northern facade, one could see the origin of the Central Plains' martial arts, the one people sometimes called the most important and respected place under the heavens.

The Shaolin Temple!

A sect with a long and storied history that deserved to be called everlasting, the Shaolin Temple's splendor left onlookers awestruck. Not only that, but its bell tolls echoing throughout the surroundings were pure and virtuous enough to put a person at ease and cleanse their mind of distracting thoughts.

Even during the Era of War and Chaos, the Shaolin Temple's steadfastness never wavered, allowing it to stand tall as the pillar of strength for the righteous faction cultivators.

After inadvertently reminiscing about the past, Zhou Xuchuan immediately frowned at the sight of a lengthy, snaking queue of visitors hoping to enter the temple.

He had come straight here after finishing business with the Hainan branch of the Phantoms.

Let's unload this heavy burden as quickly as possible and go home. I've promised Junior Sister Luo I'd be back soon, after all.

One month had flown by. Zhou Xuchuan had promised to go on the journey to gangho with her, so he could already picture Luo Xiaoyue pouting in displeasure.

The weight of the Prajna Divine Art currently rotting away under his clothes felt like a block of heavy lead.

Zhou Xuchuan also gained a renewed appreciation for the difficulties Li Yicai must experience.

"What a relief it is that I don't have to stand in this queue!"

A special entrance was prepared for cultivators and disciples from the Nine Sects and One Gang. When Zhou Xuchuan reached the Mountain Gate, he saw the long queue stretching down to the foot of the mountain, but beside it was a table with no queue at all.

He naturally headed to the queue-less entrance. A monk with a visitor's log glanced at the plum blossom insignia engraved on Zhou Xuchuan's sleeve, then greeted him while putting his hands together in a Buddhist prayer.

"Welcome to the Shaolin Temple. Would you mind registering your name and Daoist title, the name of your sect, as well as the purpose of your visit?"

It was obvious what kind of commotion Zhou Xuchuan might cause by being truthful with the purpose of his visit. Thankfully, the correspondence from the Martial Alliance Leader contained a password for situations like this.

"Ancient Buddhist scriptures…?"

The monk tilted his head in confusion as he read what Zhou Xuchuan had written. Then, he gasped in surprise at the name and title.

Plum Blossom Order Sword!

Every Shaolin disciple, or a cultivator of Murim for that matter, should have heard of that name by now. Wasn't he the protagonist responsible for burning the cause of war, the Blood Monk's secret manual?

From the Shaolin Temple's perspective, they simply had to know about this man even if they didn't want to. After all, he was the culprit who destroyed the chance to fulfill the Shaolin's long-cherished wish!

Zhou Xuchuan whispered to the monk. "I'd like to avoid drawing people's attention. If you don't mind, can you let me through quietly?"

The monk stared pale-faced at Zhou Xuchuan before hurriedly nodding.

When receiving cultivators as guests at the Mountain Gate, monks on duty would often encounter celebrities like this. Quite a few of these celebrities wished for their visit to be as discreet as possible for personal reasons, such as being on secret missions.

"Please, come this way."

Zhou Xuchuan was immediately guided to the temple's guest reception hall.

****

As the current Abbot of Shaolin and the First Seat in the Ten Empyrean Overlords, Divine Monk Abbot Hui Mian's fame rivaled that of the Martial Alliance Leader.

Currently, he was in a room made of stone. A small statue of Buddha was somewhere in the middle of the room, and in front of it was a tower of fading but well-cared-for Buddhist scriptures.

"What should I do?" Hui Mian muttered worriedly.

The Blood Muscle and Tendon Classic! It had almost been half a year already since that demonic art capable of fulfilling Shaolin Temple's long-cherished wish had surfaced in Jianghu before disappearing forever.

The Shaolin Temple should also have participated in the battle to snatch that secret manual away, but several circumstances forced them to watch from the sidelines instead.

If the Shaolin Temple had joined the fray, it could have turned the rush to acquire that art into an all-out war between the righteous and demonic, or heretical, sects.

As a fellow denizen of Murim, the Abbot knew he shouldn't have just brushed aside the relationships of favors and grudges and turned a blind eye. Even though that was true, the Shaolin Temple studied the teachings of Buddha. As such, he couldn't accept his temple acting as the trigger of a great war.

Even if this long-cherished wish had become a great humiliation for the temple, he couldn't go against the Buddhist ideals to fulfill it.

Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't improve afterward. The Martial Alliance had achieved a total victory, but the all-too-important Blood Muscle and Tendon Classic burned down to a pile of ashes along with the opportunity to undo the Shaolin Temple's humiliation.

It didn't take a genius to imagine how the Shaolin Temple reacted afterward. And Hui Mian was left embarrassed for choosing not to participate.

At least one good thing had come of this mess, and that was the Martial Alliance Leader promising to hand over an art that could substitute the Blood Muscle and Tendon Classic. Unfortunately, that art still hadn't arrived at the Shaolin Temple.

If it were up to him, Hui Mian would have dispatched the Hundred and Eight Arhats to retrieve the art. However, the Martial Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Strategist convinced him to trust them and wait, saying dispatching the Arhats could attract unwanted attention.

However, as time went on, dissatisfaction among the hot-blooded younger generations of monks was threatening to boil over.

Particularly among the generation whose names began with Hong, which came right after Hui, who were destined to become the future pillars of the temple. Their voices of discontent were considerable, putting the Abbot in a difficult position.

The Abbot recalled the conversation he had with one of the members, which left him with a pounding headache.

To think things would end up like this, not because of the Two Demonic Factions or the Evil Valley, but because of a member from the Nine Sects and One Gang! That's why I pray the Prajna Divine Art arrives soon.

At this point in time, Abbot Hui Mian had no idea that the courier would be the Plum Blossoms Order Sword, the one who caused so much trouble during the Blood Muscle and Tendon Classic incident.