My Years as a Menace in the Sect

Three pairs of feet stopped at the edge of the rocky slope. The leader of the Qi family members held a knife and looked down the slope. Mist carrying the smell of decaying leaves floated up, and the bottom was dark and full of broken branches and animal bones.

"The captain said that kid fell down. It's only a short distance; he might not be completely dead yet." He spat, then spat into his palm and gripped the knife tightly. "Let's go down and take a look. Find him, chop the pot off, and come back for the reward."

The three men slid down the loose gravel, the pebbles tumbling and rolling until they landed less than half a foot away from Wei Ping'an. The man in front, with sharp eyes, immediately spotted the half-section of a blackened pot rim protruding from the pile of bones.

"There it is!" He was overjoyed and took a few steps over, reaching out to lift the broken branch covering Wei Ping'an.

His fingertips had just touched the dry branch when a sharp sound came from behind him. Before he could react, a line of blood appeared on his throat. "Ugh..." He clutched his neck and fell to the ground, his eyes wide open. The other two were shocked and were about to draw their swords when two flashes of light fell from the top of the slope, precisely piercing their chests.

Two inner disciples of the Cangxia Sect sheathed their swords and landed, glancing at the three corpses. Their tone was indifferent: "The remnants of the Qi family have been eliminated."

"Let's go. The elder said to search thoroughly, don't miss any corner. We haven't found Junior Brother Wei yet." The two turned and leaped up the slope, their footsteps fading into the distance. From beginning to end, they hadn't glanced even once deeper into the pile of bones. The stench of decay mixed with the smell of blood overpowered the scent of the living, and with the withered branches and leaves covering the area completely, no one had expected that the person they were looking for was lying just a few steps away among the bones.

The day Ouyang Jie cleaved the Mountain-Locking Formation in two with a single palm strike, the entire Sunset Valley trembled. The mist that had traversed the eight-hundred-mile valley was dispersed by the spiritual energy, and more than two thousand inner disciples filed in. The Black-Clad Enforcement Hall cleared the way in front, the Dan Peak disciples treated the wounded behind, and the Wu Peak disciples spread out like a net, forming an impenetrable net that pulled them towards the Qi family's ancestral land.

Ouyang Jie stood in mid-air, his red hair fluttering in the wind. With a wave of his hand, a crimson spiritual light swept across the dense forest below, and the Qi family's hidden sentries behind the trees fell to the ground without even uttering a sound.

"One team will follow me to raze the Qi family's underground palace. The second and third teams will split into two groups to search the mountains, east and west. Kill all remaining members of the Qi family without exception." His voice was as deep as iron, spreading throughout the valley with the spiritual energy. "Focus on finding Wei Ping'an, the handyman of the medicine testing hall. We need to find him alive or dead."

"Whoever finds him will be rewarded with 500 contribution points and promoted to Outer Sect Steward." The order was given, and countless sword lights scattered and swept across the valley. The Qi family dungeon was thoroughly searched, and Zhang He, who had been missing for many days, was rescued, barely alive and depleted of his life essence. He was placed in a temporary camp at the valley entrance to recuperate. Sun Yan's body was found beside the blood pool; his clothes were tattered, most of his life essence had been drained, and he was already cold.

Inside the tent at the valley entrance camp, Su Yin had just been given a healing pill. Upon waking, her first words were to grab the arm of the disciple beside her and ask, "Where's Wei Ping'an? Have we found him?"

The disciple shook his head: "Not yet, Senior Sister Su. The elder has already sent people to search towards the western rocky slope. You should focus on recovering from your injuries."

Su Yin tried to stand up, her left arm wound throbbing painfully, but she didn't even flinch. "I'm fine. Take me to search. He went that way to distract Qi Mang. I know the route."

The disciples from the Enforcement Hall standing guard nearby tried to dissuade her, but she glanced at them and dismissed them, so they could only hand over a spare short sword. Su Yin wrapped the whip back around her waist, and after taking only two steps, she saw two figures rushing over.

It was Shen Qingyao and Zhou Yan. Shen Qingyao's hair was disheveled from running, and her clothes were covered in mud. When she saw Su Yin, she grabbed her wrist: "Senior Sister Su, Wei Ping'an... is he really inside?" Her voice trembled, and her eyes were bloodshot.

She had entered with Danfeng's support team and had just reached the valley entrance when she heard about Wei Ping'an's solo luring of the enemy. Su Yin looked at her pale face and nodded: "Yes. He led Qi Mang westward toward the Broken Soul Cliff, buying us time to send a message. There's still no news."

Shen Qingyao swayed. She remembered the last time she saw Wei Ping'an was in the drying room. He was squatting on the ground counting spirit stones, his lips curled up as he bargained with her for a 30/70 split. Back then, he was perfectly fine, his mind filled with earning spirit stones to exchange for cultivation techniques. How did he end up trapped in this deadly situation all by himself?

"I'll go look in the west." She bit her lip and turned to leave.

"Wait," Su Yin called out to her, "Qi Mang is only half a step into Foundation Establishment. It's too dangerous for you to go alone. I'll go with you."

Zhou Yan stepped forward, still holding the book he had given as the mission guide: "Count me in, I know the way around Luoxia Valley." The three of them headed west toward the Broken Soul Cliff. Along the way, they encountered many fleeing members of the Qi family, all of whom were lashed down by Su Yin's whip. Shen Qingyao followed up with a sword strike from behind, her movements swift and ruthless, a stark contrast to her usual demeanor when weighing medicine in the alchemy room.

Old Zheng from the Medicine Testing Hall came in with the support team of handymen. He carried a cloth bundle full of healing pills and ointments, all of which were his personal stash accumulated over many years. He was old and his cultivation was not high, only at the seventh level of Qi Refining. He couldn't keep up with the speed of the inner disciples, so he walked step by step into the mountains, asking everyone he met if they had seen Wei Ping'an from the Medicine Testing Hall.

"A kid who's barely grown up, skinny as a battered ram, always carrying the blame." He grabbed a passing disciple and gestured with his hand, "He's this tall, and he has a wicked look on his face when he smiles. Have you seen him before?" The disciple shook his head and hurried away.

Old Zheng sighed and touched the medicine bag in his arms. This kid has always been full of tricks since he was a child. When he first came to the medicine testing hall, he secretly rolled the waste medicine residue into pills to sell. When he was caught red-handed, he still grinned and said, "Making use of waste is not wasteful."

He verbally berated the kid for breaking the rules, but secretly he had done him a lot of favors; otherwise, that old geezer, Steward Sun, would have kicked the kid out of the sect long ago.

"Don't die," he muttered, trudging through the mud until his shoes were soaked. "You still owe me a ten percent of the shares. Who am I going to ask for them if I die?"

On a large rock at the valley entrance, Zhang Erpang squatted with a cloth bag at his feet. Inside was Wei Ping'an's favorite jujube cake, which he had secretly taken from the medicinal cuisine room. His cultivation level was too low to enter the deep mountains, so he could only wait at the valley entrance. Every time a group of disciples came to search the mountain, they would crowd around him and ask questions until their voices were hoarse.

"Senior brother, have you seen Wei Ping'an? The scapegoat from the Medicine Testing Hall."

"no."

"Junior brother, any news?"

"We haven't found it yet, let's wait a little longer." With each question followed by disappointment, Zhang Erpang squatted on the rock, tears streaming down his face, splashing into the mud and creating small dents.

A few days ago, before Wei Ping'an left, he gave him two packets of Wenqi San (a traditional Chinese medicine for calming the mind), patted him on the shoulder and said, "When I come back, let's expand our business." Why can't this person be found? He held the medicine packet in his arms; the brown paper was soaked with sweat and limp.

The search of the mountain lasted for a full half month.

In half a month, Luoxia Valley was ransacked. The Qi family's underground palace was destroyed, the blood pool was filled in, and the Qi family patriarch, who had just emerged from seclusion and hadn't yet stabilized his cultivation, had his heart meridian shattered by Ouyang Jie's palm strike. Qi Heng died in the chaos of battle, and Qi Mang's body was found at the foot of Broken Soul Cliff. A large cave-in in his chest indicated that his heart meridian had been shattered by a heavy object, likely the work of the Xuanwen Pot. The remaining members of the Qi family were wiped out completely, not even the hidden sentries in the deep mountains were spared.

But Wei Ping'an was nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead. The bone forest under the Broken Soul Cliff was searched three times. The disciples dug up piles of animal bones and found only a few pieces of blood-stained cloth, which were the gray cloth clothes of the menial disciples. There were also a few drops of dried blood that had seeped into the cracks in the rocks and could not be picked out.

"Elder, there's only rags and no one in the Bone Forest." The leading disciple returned to report, his voice low. "Qi Mang's body is here too, but Junior Brother Wei... he probably fell off the cliff. The bottom of Broken Soul Cliff is a bottomless miasma forest; no one has ever come up alive from there."

Ouyang Jie stood on the edge of the cliff and looked down. The clouds and mist obscured the bottom, and the wind blowing up from below carried a heavy miasma and a stench that made one dizzy. He had heard about this child. He had single-handedly lured the enemy away and, with his Qi Refining Stage 3 cultivation, had managed to hold off Qi Mang, who was only half a step into Foundation Establishment, buying time to send a message. He had also injured Qi Kun and killed several members of the Qi family with a Xuanwen cauldron.

He was a promising talent, what a pity.

"Continue searching,"

He said in a deep voice, "Send people down to the bottom of the cliff with ropes to search for anything, even bones, and bring them back to me."

"Yes." The disciples, bound by ropes, explored the area for three days, only to be forced back halfway down by the miasma. The miasma below was too heavy, and there were also bone-corroding poisonous insects. The disciples in the Qi Refining stage simply couldn't withstand it, and the Foundation Establishment elders were all busy clearing out the remnants of the Qi family and inventorying the blood sacrifice evidence, so they couldn't spare any manpower.

Su Yin tied a rope herself and tried to go down, but was firmly stopped by the disciples of the Enforcement Hall.

"Senior Sister Su, you're still injured, it's too dangerous for you to go down!"

"Get out of the way."

Su Yin's face was as cold as ice. "He fell while trying to save us. I have to find him."

"Senior Sister Su!" The disciple was almost in tears. "The elders said the miasma is poisonous; anyone below the Foundation Establishment stage won't last more than an incense stick's time. If something happens to you, wouldn't Junior Brother Wei's sacrifice be in vain?"

Shen Qingyao also grabbed her arm, her fingertips icy cold: "Senior Sister Su, don't be impulsive, let's think of another way."

Su Yin's knuckles turned white as she gripped the rope, her fingernails digging into her palms as she stared at the bottomless abyss. She was the one who dragged him into this mess, the one who chose him to investigate the case together, and in the end, he risked his life to save hers. She released the rope, and it snapped back against the cliff face with a crisp crack.

"I'll go find the elders and ask the Foundation Establishment masters to go down and take a look." She turned and left, her back straight, only her slightly trembling shoulders betraying a hint of barely suppressed emotion. But the Foundation Establishment elders were all unavailable, and Ouyang Jie promised her he would go down and investigate personally after things were settled here, but that waited for another ten days.

Old Zheng has aged considerably in the past two weeks. His back is more hunched, and half of his hair at the temples has turned white. Every day, he wanders around the cliff edge, carefully collecting the scraps of cloth that have been blown up by the wind and putting them into his cloth bag.

He pleaded with the elders to let him go down and find it himself, but they stopped him, saying that with his limited cultivation, going down would be suicide. So he sat on a rock at the edge of the cliff every day, talking to the misty bottom of the cliff.

"You're always full of tricks, aren't you?" He said, his pipe damp and unable to light. "Hurry up and figure out how to climb up. I still have half a bottle of century-old ginseng dew that I was saving for when I was trying to break through to a higher realm. I'll give it to you once you're up."

"That old bastard, Steward Sun, has been so smug lately. He keeps telling people you're definitely dead out there. If you don't come back, he'll definitely replace all the staff at the Medicine Testing Hall with his own people, and then our Qi-stabilizing powder business will be ruined."

"You haven't even figured out what your father left behind, and you just threw it down there like that?" He sighed as he spoke, tapping the pipe on the rock and letting some damp soot fall out, which was then scattered by the wind. The wind swept the mist away, and the bottom of the cliff remained silent.

Zhang Erpang runs from the valley entrance to the cliff every day, bringing food and water and asking for news. Each time he comes, he comes with a glimmer of hope, but each time he leaves disappointed. He's been fat for so many years, but in the last half month he's lost a lot of weight; his chin is now sharp, and his clothes are swaying loosely on him.

"Uncle Zheng, is Brother Wei really down there?" He squatted down next to Old Man Zheng, his voice muffled, his nose twitching. Old Man Zheng didn't speak, only slowly nodded. Zhang Erpang's nose stung, and tears welled up in his eyes again. He remembered how, back in the servants' quarters, someone had bullied him and stolen his rations, and Wei Ping'an had stood up for him, though in the end, they had to extort five spirit stones from the other party to resolve the situation. He remembered Wei Ping'an secretly slipping him pills, saying they would give him strength so he could work without effort. He remembered the two of them squatting by the wall, counting on their fingers how many spirit stones they could earn, dreaming of renting a bigger courtyard and opening a small pharmacy after they advanced to the outer sect. All of that was gone.

A month later, the Qi family rebellion was completely quelled. All remnants were wiped out, the evidence of the blood sacrifice was inventoried, and several members of peripheral families who colluded with the Qi family were arrested and brought back to the sect for trial. Luoxia Valley could not hold out its manpower indefinitely, so Ouyang Jie ordered them to return in three days.

For the last three days, additional manpower was sent to search the bottom of the cliff, but still nothing was found. The miasma was too thick, and the terrain below was too complex. Anyone who had fallen down so long would probably have been eaten away by poisonous insects, leaving not even bones. Everyone accepted this conclusion. Wei Ping'an, a handyman disciple of the Medicine Testing Hall, single-handedly led the enemy to cover the retreat during the Qi family rebellion, falling off the cliff to his death.

On the day of the return journey, the valley entrance was crowded with people. Old Man Zheng held a cloth bag containing scraps of clothing, a few drops of dried blood, and half a bag of calming powder left by Wei Ping'an in the drying room. This was to serve as a cenotaph.

Zhang Erpang followed behind him, his eyes swollen like walnuts, still holding the undelivered jujube cake in his hand; the cake had hardened. Shen Qingyao stood in the group, holding half a packet of Qi-stabilizing powder, the one Wei Ping'an had given her to test its effects. She had kept it, unwilling to use it, the edges of the paper packaging were frayed. Su Yin walked at the front, her whip replaced with a new, high-quality one from the Qi family's storeroom. She had originally wanted to find the whereabouts of Wei Ping'an's Xuanwen pot, but hadn't found it, assuming it had fallen off a cliff with someone. Zhou Yan walked silently beside her. He remembered how this kid had been reluctant and haggled when he delivered the mission letter, trying not to go. If he had rejected Steward Sun's nomination back then, would things have turned out differently today?

Deacon Sun mingled in the Danfeng team with his head down, a barely concealed smile playing on his lips. Finally, he was dead. That brat had been an eyesore for so long. From now on, he would be in charge of all the pill-making tasks at Danfeng and the Medicine Testing Hall.

On the third day after returning to the Cangxia Sect, the sect set a date for the posthumous conferment of titles.

The news spread throughout the Three Mountains and Five Academies, and everyone knew that a heroic handyman named Wei Ping'an had emerged from the Medicine Testing Hall. With his Qi Refining Level 3 cultivation, he single-handedly held off a half-step Foundation Establishment cultivator to buy time for the message to be sent, and finally fell off a cliff to his death.

The sect wanted to posthumously confer upon him the title of Honored Disciple and erect a cenotaph on Xiangyun Mountain, with the sect leader personally presiding over the ceremony. The news shocked the entire sect. Honored Disciple was the highest honor in the Cangxia Sect, and only four people in the sect's ten thousand-year history had been awarded this title, all of whom were heroes who sacrificed their lives for the sect.

For a menial disciple to receive such an honor was unprecedented, and no one objected. Everyone knew that if Wei Ping'an hadn't sacrificed himself to cover their retreat, Su Yin wouldn't have been able to send the news. If the Qi family hadn't successfully completed their blood sacrifice and their ancestor had broken through to the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment stage, it wouldn't have been just a few people who died, but the entire village and town surrounding Luoxia Valley, and even the sect's branches, would have suffered. This merit deserved this honor.

On the day of the ceremony, it was drizzling. The light rain felt cool on our skin. On a clearing halfway up Xiangyun Mountain stood a brand-new blue stone tablet, on which was engraved a portrait of a young man with curved eyebrows and a slightly roguish smile, exactly like the real person.

The inscription on the tombstone reads: "Tomb of Wei Ping'an, Honorable Disciple of the Cangxia Sect." In front of the tombstone are incense, candles, and fruit, as well as a small black wooden pot carved by Old Man Zheng himself, which took him three days to carve until his hands were blistered.

The foot of the mountain was packed with people. People from the servants' quarters, the medicine testing hall, the disciples of Danfeng, and the law enforcement hall had all arrived. The densely packed crowd was dressed in plain-colored clothes; no one spoke, only the sound of rain and the rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard.

Old Zheng, standing at the front, didn't even notice his pipe had gone out. He looked at the portrait on the monument, his lips moved but he didn't speak, only a hint of moisture lurked in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Zhang Erpang stood beside him, his shoulders shaking with sobs, clutching the two packets of Wenqi San tightly in his hands. The kraft paper was soaked through by the rain, the powder leaking out and mingling with the rainwater, dripping onto the ground.

Shen Qingyao stood before the monument, her plain white dress stained with mud. She reached out and gently touched the portrait on the monument; her fingertips were icy cold, the temperature of the stone. She remembered the dregs of medicine scattered all over the drying room, the way he squatted on the ground counting spirit stones, and how he said with a sullen face, "Four or six it is, who told you to be my senior sister?"

Raindrops lashed her face, streaming down her chin, indistinguishable from tears. Su Yin stood to one side, her black robes imposing, a whip hanging at her waist, her fingertips lightly stroking the handle. The image of him rushing over from the rocky slope that day, carrying a pot and shouting "I'll cover your retreat," was still as vivid as if it were yesterday.

She owed him a life. Zhou Yan stood behind, holding the book he had used to deliver the mission, its edges worn smooth from his handling. Deacon Sun also arrived, standing in the Danfeng group with his head down, feigning grief, but inwardly he was overjoyed, planning to take back control of the Medicine Testing Hall and find all the medicinal powders Wei Ping'an had hidden, so he could sell them and make even more money.

The sect leader and a group of elders have arrived.

Ouyang Jie stood before the monument, his red hair soaked by the rain and plastered to his forehead. As he looked at the name on the monument, his deep voice carried throughout the entire mountain by the spiritual energy.

"Wei Ping'an, a disciple of the Cangxia Sect's Medicine Testing Hall. When the Qi family rebelled and secretly set up an 800-mile-long mountain-locking formation to harm his fellow disciples and commit a blood sacrifice, this young man, with his meager cultivation, led the enemy alone and sacrificed himself to cover their retreat, gaining the initiative for the sect to quell the rebellion and protecting the lives of his fellow disciples. His actions are as clear as the sun and moon, and his heart is as steadfast as mountains and rivers."

"Today, in the name of the sect, Wei Ping'an is posthumously honored as a disciple of the sect, and will be enshrined in the sect's Hall of Heroes to receive eternal incense offerings. His name will be forever recorded in the annals of the Cangxia Sect, never to be forgotten." The entire audience fell silent as the words were spoken, and the rain poured down even harder.

Some people sobbed softly, while others bowed their heads in silent mourning. The sect leader stepped forward and personally lit three incense sticks.

"This child has never formally acknowledged a master since joining the sect, yet he has remained steadfast in his Daoist practice despite his solitary cultivation. Today, I, on behalf of the Enforcement Hall, accept him as a disciple in name only, so that he may continue the Great Dao if he knows in the afterlife." After saying this, he bowed deeply, and all the disciples behind him bowed in unison.

Thousands bowed their heads in the pouring rain to bid farewell to the young man who sacrificed his life for his cause. The mountain wind swept the rain past the monument, and the smoke from incense rose into the thick clouds.

No one knew that at the bottom of the Broken Soul Cliff in Sunset Valley, eight hundred miles away, amidst layers of decaying leaves, the boy's eyelashes trembled slightly. His mud-covered eyelids moved, slowly opening a tiny slit. Dim sunlight streamed in, illuminating a dark, deep pupil.