Master of the Xuanyin Sect of Mount Shu

Chapter 56 Wudang Sect Leader
The Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor attained enlightenment during the Northern Song Dynasty. During the Southern Song Dynasty, he obtained a Taoist celestial book, which contained the orthodox teachings of the Xuanmen (Taoist school).

His Taiyi Five Smoke Garland is an absolutely righteous Xuanmen treasure, and the Red Cloud Divine Fire Bell is also a treasure of the orthodox Xuanmen path.

Of course, he had cultivated for hundreds of years and had a wide range of interests, including some unorthodox and even demonic techniques. However, he still considered himself to be a follower of the orthodox Xuanmen sect, neither a heretical sect nor a demonic one.

Otherwise, Li Jingxu wouldn't have had any connection with him, and the orthodox immortal sects like the Kunlun Sect and Wudang Sect wouldn't have befriended him.

The first sword fight between the Wutai Sect and the Emei Sect was not a battle between good and evil.

On a smaller scale, it was a power struggle between the arrogant Emei sect and the defiant Wutai sect.

On a larger scale, it was a dispute over the "legitimacy" between the sword immortals of the north, led by the Wutai School, and the sword immortals of the Sichuan region, led by the Emei School.

Just like ordinary warlords fighting each other, whoever wins will rule the Central Plains.

This is a struggle for the fate of different sects, and it also concerns the future development of the sword immortals of the Central Plains.

At this time, the Wutai Sect was not as despicable as it would become later. Although the Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor was protective of his own, he also restrained his disciples to some extent, forbidding them from doing evil and practicing evil arts.

The Divine Infant Sword, the Nine-Child Mother Yin Soul Sword, and other evil flying swords have not yet been forged.

In the original story, the Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor lost his first sword duel and had one of his arms severed. In a fit of rage, he went to forge the Five Poison Immortal Sword, a weapon from the unorthodox sects.

On the eve of the second sword duel, he even thought about refining the Six-Six True Essence Gourd, but he gave up because the traitor Zhu Hong stole the Taoist book.

That's when things started to decline.

After returning from the second sword duel, he soon passed away, his body and soul vanished, and the Wutai Sect fell apart. The disciples went their separate ways, completely letting themselves go and falling into a downward spiral.

When the main story begins, the sword fight at Ciyun Temple has degenerated into a battle between good and evil.

The four elders of the Kunlun Sect, along with the four friends of Wudang, were invited to Ciyun Temple to help with the fight, only to find lewd monks and wicked Taoists, demons and evil spirits, who had done all sorts of bad things. They were immediately disheartened.

At this time, there was still a hint of gentlemanly competition between the two sides. The Taiyi Hunyuan Patriarch only brought the Huashan Sect, which was closely related to him, while the Emei Sect only had Zhu Mei representing the Qingcheng Sect.

They only had one match, with their respective sect leaders participating.

Thanks to a letter from Guan Minghui, the Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor obtained the Three Yang One Qi Sword and the Azure Mirage Bottle, and subsequently seized Qi Shuming's magic weapon, severing one of his arms and achieving victory.

The Emei faction expressed its acceptance of the result, but demanded a rematch ten years later, which the Wutai faction agreed to.

For the next ten years, the Wutai Sect will be the leader of the Xuanmen (Taoist) sects in the Central Plains, and the Emei Sect will have to back down and avoid anyone from the Wutai Sect.

This is why so many sword immortals have come to offer their congratulations today.

As for the Demonic Sect, the Wutai Sect doesn't have much contact with it now; they mostly keep to themselves.

The only exception was the Poison Dragon Venerable of the Western Demonic Sect, who was a close friend of the Fiery Ancestor of the Huashan Sect. The Poison Dragon Venerable's junior brother, Shi Nanxi, was even invited by the Fiery Ancestor to serve as the vice leader of the Huashan Sect.

But that's all. [Note]

The Grand Master Taiyi Hunyuan wanted to plan the development of the Wutai School for the next ten years as the leader of the Xuanmen (Taoist school), which is why he was unwilling to meet with Guan Minghui.

In the world of Shushan, the orthodox sects, the unorthodox sects, the evil sects, and the demonic path each have their own paths. Although they sometimes collude with each other for profit, their paths are ultimately different.

Guan Minghui had not considered this point; in his memory, the Wutai Sect was a heretical sect.

What impressed me most was Ciyun Temple – it was a den of iniquity. What good people are there among the disciples of the Wutai Sect? They simply don't have the concept that "the Wutai Sect would look down on them." Gu Chen's reputation is bad, but everyone's generally disreputable, so who looks down on whom? They also have a common enemy, the Emei Sect, so wouldn't it be perfect to join forces?
So when he heard that the Wutai Sect had won the sword duel, he was quite happy, because this would make things much easier for him.

Shouldn't the Emei Sect disappear without a trace, bide their time, and wait ten years to avenge their humiliation? Then they wouldn't have the energy to deal with themselves, thus giving themselves at least ten years to catch their breath.

Ten years from now, humph, who knows who'll be afraid of whom then!
Guan Minghui was most worried about Li Jingxu. Although Li Jingxu had some connection with the Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor, he was even closer to the Changmei Zhenren. If the Wutai Sect invited him for other reasons, the probability of him coming was extremely small. Now that they had just defeated the Emei Sect and cut off Lao Qi's arm, there was absolutely no way Li Jingxu would come.

So he ate heartily while happily watching the commotion, waiting for the banquet to end and for the crowd to thin out so he could go alone to ask the Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor for the Azure Mirage Bottle.

It wouldn't have mattered if other magical treasures had been given to the Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor, but the Azure Mirage Bottle was a rare treasure from the Heavenly Palace. The Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor turned the tide of the battle and won his first sword duel after obtaining the Three Yang One Qi Sword.

The bottle is better than the sword; it can specifically counter all kinds of magical energy, flying needles, and divine sand. It can also counter my own Xuan Yin Divine Curtain. I can't let myself be cheated out of this so inexplicably.

Moreover, the divination indicates that the Azure Mirage Bottle can be retrieved, and the Grandmaster of Taiyi Hunyuan probably did not intend to forcibly keep it.

But as they were eating, they overheard people talking about a large patch of dark clouds on the western hillside that was churning and looked very ominous. They wondered what kind of vicious magic the Wutai Sect was practicing.

Among those present was the Qingyang Patriarch from the Sanxing Cave in Yunbian Shiyanyu. He was born in Qingyang Palace and served as a Taoist novice there in his youth, where he learned some Taoist scriptures and methods.

However, in this world, there were no truly powerful immortals in the Qingyang Palace. His knowledge was very superficial. Later, he was expelled from the palace for breaking the rules and ran away into the mountains alone. There, he had the opportunity to eat immortal fruit and was reborn.

Based on his years of cultivation, he has lived for nearly two hundred years, and his inner elixir has only just reached the fourth stage; he has not yet cultivated the golden elixir.

Because he has a sheep's face, he calls himself the Green Sheep Ancestor. Over the years, he has performed many magical miracles in the human world and is quite famous. Among the younger generation, he is considered a "highly respected" elder.

He was dressed in a blue robe, leaning on a rattan cane, his eyes half-closed, enjoying the flattery of several rogue cultivators:
"You bunch of youngsters, it's one thing if you don't recognize that black cloud, but let me tell you all to remember, that thing is black evil energy, containing many extremely dense black evil threads, as well as mysterious yin cold flames."

Among those present was Yue Sanguan, a unicorn spirit official from western Sichuan, who asked, "Could it be that the Primordial Ancestor defeated Qi Shuming this time because of this magic?"

The Green Sheep Ancestor shook his head: "There are many people in the world who can refine black shimmering silk, but only one person can create such a spectacle. That person is Gu Chen, the Xuan Yin Sect Master who once roamed the world without any laws! Have you heard of him?"

Fifty or sixty years have passed since Gu Chen was killed by the Seven Swords of the Long-Browed Immortal. Many of those present were young people who had just entered the Dao in recent years. They had never heard of this name before and shook their heads, eagerly awaiting his explanation.

The Green Sheep Ancestor stroked his beard: "I once had a brief encounter with the Xuan Yin Sect Master, I..."

Before he could finish speaking, someone from the chief's side, slightly drunk, suddenly said loudly, "Since the Xuan Yin Sect Master is here, why not invite him over to meet us? I've heard so much about him over the years, but I've never had the chance to meet him."

Everyone turned to look and saw that the speaker was Li Qinsheng, the leader of the Wudang Sect.

Li Qinsheng, nicknamed "Demon Face," suffered a fire when he was young, which disfigured his face and left many scars. Later, his master took him to the mountains to cultivate Taoism. He used spiritual medicine to repeatedly cleanse and remove the surface scars, turning him into a handsome young man.

He was Zhang Sanfeng's direct disciple and grand-disciple, with excellent aptitude and high magical power. Zhang Sanfeng ascended to heaven suddenly without designating a successor, so his disciples, out of consideration for their relationship, were able to elect a leader from among their fellow disciples.

When it came to Li Qinsheng's generation, they started to rely on their strength. He won the position of sect leader by relying on a Heavenly Demon Harp and a pair of Turtle-Snake Swords.

Even the eldest disciple, Xinming Sanren, was forced to leave by him and enter the Buddhist order, becoming Xinming Shenni. The remaining disciples all followed his lead.

He was dressed in white, with a jade belt around his head. After drinking Ye Douxian wine, he had a somewhat unrestrained and unconventional demeanor.

Zen Master Zhifei of the Kunlun School disliked associating with demons, but instead of speaking directly to Li Qinsheng, he advised Grandmaster Taiyi Hunyuan:
"If you want to be a leader among sword immortals in the future, you must accumulate merit and virtue, and walk uprightly and properly in order to win the respect of the masses. You must strictly establish rules and regulations within the sect and restrain your disciples. They must not associate with evil spirits, otherwise they will be criticized. Once you lose the hearts of the people, the future fortune of the Wutai Sect will be lost."

　Note: The idea that Taiyi Hunyuan Ancestor is an elder of the Northern Demonic Sect is a fan fiction creation and not part of the original work.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)