Starting with The Eagle Shooting Heroes: I gain a year's worth of skill every day.

"Senior brother, you flatter me."

The four words were spoken very lightly.

It was heavier than Mount Tai, crashing down on the hearts of everyone at Zuixianlou.

Dead silence.

A deathly silence so profound you could hear a pin drop.

Qiu Chuji stood frozen in place, his whole being like a clay sculpture that had lost its soul.

He slowly lowered his head.

His gaze first fell on the right hand, which was still trembling slightly.

Then, he looked at the longsword stuck upside down in the floor in the distance, its hilt still humming incessantly.

Finally, he raised his head and refocused his gaze on Shen Mo.

On that face, which was always etched with aloofness, there was neither the shame and annoyance of losing the duel, nor the resentment of being crushed.

There is only one kind of ultimate shock after a cognition has been completely shattered.

A sense of bewilderment and stagnation following the collapse of one's moral compass.

After a few breaths.

"ha……"

A dry, hoarse syllable was squeezed out from deep in his throat.

Then, the laughter grew louder and louder, from dry to cheerful, and finally turned into a wild, sky-high laugh that resounded through the heavens!

"good!"

"good!"

"good!"

"Hahahaha—!"

He laughed so hard he almost fell over, his beard trembling. There wasn't a trace of dejection in his laughter; instead, it was filled with the relief of being relieved of a heavy burden and the ecstatic joy of seeing a new world!

Downstairs, the Seven Heroes of Jiangnan and the entire hall of martial arts heroes were all dumbfounded.

They suffered a complete and utter defeat.

Changchunzi not only wasn't angry, but instead laughed like a madman.

The laughter abruptly stopped.

Qiu Chuji strode up to the sword and drew it out in one swift motion.

Without even looking, he shoved his sword back into its sheath with a "clang".

Then, he turned to face Shen Mo and personally straightened his Taoist robe, which had been ruffled by the strong wind.

The next moment, he solemnly cupped his hands and bowed deeply to his junior brother, who was decades younger than him.

"Junior brother, impressive cultivation!"

He straightened up, his powerful inner strength carrying him, and his voice rang clearly in everyone's ears.

"Our beloved teacher has found a worthy successor!"

"Our Quanzhen Sect has a promising future!"

This statement, like a final verdict, definitively confirmed the victory of silence.

The Seven Heroes of Jiangnan exchanged bewildered glances, as if they were witnessing their life's work of building their martial arts philosophy being trampled and crushed to dust by an invisible giant foot...

In the crowd, Yang Kang's handsome face was slightly distorted with extreme excitement.

What did he see?!

He actually saw a ladder that could take him to the heavens!

Before anyone could react, Yang Kang had already made his move.

He practically lunged at Shen Mo, kneeling down heavily with a thud!

His posture was so humble it bordered on the obsequious, and his voice carried a morbid fawning quality.

"My martial uncle's skills are unparalleled! Your disciple Yang Kang is utterly in awe!"

But Shen Mo's gaze swept past him.

He glanced briefly at the burly young man in the distance, scratching the back of his head with a look of simple honesty and confusion.

Guo Jing.

Only then did he finally spare a glance at Yang Kang, who was kneeling on the ground.

There was no emotion in his eyes.

Like looking at roadside weeds.

"You'd better watch yourself."

Shen Mo's words were like well water poured down on Yang Kang's head, instantly extinguishing all the fervor in his heart.

He looked up abruptly, but all he could see was Shen Mo's turned back.

"Mo Chou, I'm leaving."

"oh!"

Li Mochou quickly stuffed the last piece of osmanthus cake into her mouth, patted the crumbs off her hands, and followed along like a little tail.

"Junior brother, wait!"

Qiu Chuji stepped forward and urged him to stay.

"Now that your skills have reached the pinnacle, why not return to Zhongnan Mountain with me? If our senior brother, the sect leader, knew of this, he would surely be delighted!"

Shen Mo continued walking.

He just shook his head.

"My 'destiny' is still in the mortal world."

Before he finished speaking, he had already reached the top of the stairs.

He stepped downstairs.

The once bustling and noisy lobby fell into an eerie silence the moment his foot landed.

Hundreds of martial arts heroes, whatever they were doing, stopped all their movements at that moment.

They instinctively stepped aside to make way for a wide passage.

Awe, shock, fear, curiosity...

Dozens of complex gazes all focused on the young Taoist priest who was slowly descending the stairs.

He remained silent, seemingly oblivious.

He led Li Mochou through the desolate passage formed by a human wall.

His route happened to pass by the table where Guo Jing and the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan were sitting.

Just as he brushed past Guo Jing.

Shen Mo subtly flicked the cuffs of his wide, blue Taoist robe.

The movement was as natural as the most ordinary arm swing when walking.

Guo Jing's body suddenly stiffened.

He clearly felt a tiny, hard, rolled-up object silently fall into his chest through his clothes.

He instinctively reached out and pressed it down, then suddenly turned around!

In his eyes, only the blue figure about to step out of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion remained.

Shen Mo and Li Mochou disappeared outside the door.

The invisible pressure that had been constantly enveloping the entire restaurant suddenly dissipated.

boom--!

The atmosphere, which had been suppressed to the extreme, suddenly exploded!

The entire Drunken Immortal Pavilion was like a cauldron of boiling oil thrown into the Martian fire, bustling with noise!

Guo Jing, the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, Qiu Chuji, and Yang Kang, who got up from the ground with an uncertain expression, were left in the center of this noisy scene.

The atmosphere was extremely eerie.

……

After leaving the restaurant, we walked to a deserted alley.

In Shen Mo's mind, the words on the ancient mirror quietly appeared.

[Good deeds: providing guidance and correcting errors.]

Good/Evil Points +500.

The contents of that scroll flashed through his mind.

"The princess consort in the Zhao Prince's mansion is Bao, the birth mother of your sworn brother Yang Kang. Her father, Yang Tiexin, is not dead; he is using the alias Mu Yi and is currently searching for him in the martial arts world. There are other details behind the Niujia Village massacre eighteen years ago."

A catalyst that could change the fate of Guo Jing and Yang Kang had already been quietly planted.

After finishing her pastries, Li Mochou was carefully licking the sweetness off her fingers when she looked up and asked:

"Master, where do we go next?"

Shen Mo stopped in his tracks.

He thought of the package that the sect leader's senior brother, Ma Yu, had given him before he went down the mountain.

Inside was the Quanzhen Sect's supreme martial art, "Xiantian Gong," as well as several rare Taoist scriptures that had long been lost. Shen Mo gently stroked the package on his back, and then calmly spoke.

"Go and kill the evildoers."