Chapter 49: Confucian Scholar First Level, The Net of Heaven and Earth!
Wanzong Auction House, third-floor Techniques Pavilion.
Gu Lin stepped inside.
“What might catch my lord’s interest?”
An elderly man stepped forward, welcoming him warmly.
Gu Lin let his sleeve slip back to reveal the corner of his gilded token, his voice stern as he asked:
“Do you have someone here at Wanzong Auction House surnamed Chao? Arrange a private room for me, and send him over.”
The elderly man dared not refuse, cupping his hands in a deeply respectful bow before rushing to make the arrangements.
Moments later, a lean man in swordsman’s robes stepped into the private room.
“Greetings, my lord!”
The man in swordsman’s robes bowed with utmost respect.
Gu Lin studied him for a moment, setting his gilded waist token down on the table, and spoke in a gentle tone:
“It was you who noticed Shen Deyang’s presence and quietly reported it to the prefectural government?”
The man in swordsman’s robes nodded quickly:
“Reporting to my lord, this humble one possesses a talent for perfect memory. I had previously seen the wanted notice, and since our auction house forbids disguises, I recognized this Shen Deyang at a single glance.”
Gu Lin continued questioning:
“When he visited the auction house that day, was he alone?”
The man in swordsman’s robes answered truthfully:
“A young woman of striking beauty accompanied him.”
Gu Lin fell silent for a long moment before issuing an order:
“You work here at the auction house and know Wanzong Town well, and with your gift for perfect memory, find out everything you can about this woman as quickly as possible.”
The man in swordsman’s robes hesitated briefly, but under the weight of Gu Lin’s authority, reluctantly agreed.
Had he known things would turn out this way, he never would have filed the report in the first place—nothing but trouble, all for nothing.
Thump!
Gu Lin tossed a pouch onto the table.
“15 Spirit Stones. Consider it your payment.”
The man in swordsman’s robes lit up with delight, nodding eagerly like a chick pecking at grain.
As a sacred grounds dignitary, whether to offer payment at all rested entirely on conscience—had he simply issued orders backed by raw authority, who would have dared refuse? Groveling submission would have been the only option.
But this particular lord had genuine conscience!
Gu Lin waved him off, signaling that he should attend to the task at once.
Handling this particular case file was only worth 23 contribution points, exchangeable for a mere 34 low-grade Spirit Stones at the sacred grounds—yet he’d tossed out 15 Spirit Stones without hesitation, a truly generous gesture.
What he was really after was the “merit” that would come from Shen Deyang’s death.
He desperately needed to advance his Confucian Dao cultivation!
3 days later, the man in swordsman’s robes returned with information.
The woman was the direct granddaughter of the Blade-Gathering Sect’s sect master.
Gu Lin immediately ordered Wanzong Auction House to extend an invitation to the Blade-Gathering Sect’s sect master, under the auction house’s own name.
That very evening, the Blade-Gathering Sect’s sect master arrived at the auction house.
The sect master, well past seventy years of age, his face deeply lined with wrinkles, paced restlessly about the room.
Creak.
A handsome young man clad in a black Xiezhi robe pushed the door open and stepped inside, his bearing carrying a deep, weighty authority.
The sect master’s face filled with shock and confusion, yet he still bowed with respect.
“Sit.”
Gu Lin gestured toward a chair.
The sect master sat down stiffly, straight-backed.
Despite being a formidable cultivator at the very peak of Life’s Mandate, he found himself gripped with anxiety in this moment.
Such was the sheer intimidating power of the sacred grounds!
Even though the young man before him couldn’t have been more than 20 years old, he was a member of the Eastern Temple, an enforcer of the Divine Dynasty’s very power structure!
Gu Lin unfolded a portrait and got straight to the point:
“Shen Deyang. What is his relationship to the Blade-Gathering Sect?”
The sect master glanced at it, his face filled with genuine confusion.
Gu Lin then produced a second portrait, one drawn by the man in swordsman’s robes depicting Shen Deyang’s disguised appearance.
At this, the sect master shot to his feet at once, holding nothing back:
“Reporting to my lord, 5 months ago, this man claimed to be a wandering cultivator with no sect affiliation, calling himself Yang Shen. This old one, seeing that he was a fellow practitioner of the Confucian Dao, took him in.”
Gu Lin spoke coldly:
“Your granddaughter and he share mutual affection?”
The sect master’s face filled with terror, and he explained at once:
“This old one truly had no idea what he’d done in the past!”
“If my lord wishes him dead, this old one will return this very instant and personally sever his head, presenting it to my lord!”
What an utterly undeserved calamity—the entire Blade-Gathering Sect had had no idea whatsoever of “Yang Shen’s” true origins!
Gu Lin shook his head:
“That won’t be necessary. Find some pretext to lure him out.”
He had to kill the man with his own hands, personally, or else no merit points would be earned.
Finally, he added one more thing:
“Should anything go wrong, I will consider it deliberate harboring on the Blade-Gathering Sect’s part. You understand the consequences.”
The sect master’s spirit trembled with fear, and he offered his assurance with firm resolve:
“My lord may rest assured!”
***
2 days later.
A desolate river valley.
The Blade-Gathering Sect’s sect master and “Yang Shen” rode in on horseback.
As they reached the valley, a figure in a black Xiezhi robe came into view.
“Yang Shen’s” pupils contracted sharply, his face draining to a deathly pallor as he stared fixedly at the sect master.
The sect master’s gaze turned bitterly cold, and he snarled through gritted teeth:
“Assuming a false identity, hiding behind a disguised face—you nearly brought calamity down upon the entire Blade-Gathering Sect!”
Gu Lin turned around and spoke calmly:
“You may leave now.”
The sect master cupped his hands in a respectful bow, hesitating for a long moment, the words rising to his lips before he swallowed them back down.
Judging by his age, this lord had to be one of the newcomers who’d joined the Eastern Temple through the selection trials held across Chu Province’s various prefectures and counties, likely possessing strength somewhere around Cavern Mystery First or Second Level. Could he truly handle Yang Shen alone?
Yang Shen stood at Confucian Dao, Spirit Nurturing Second Level, his true combat strength genuinely rivaling Cavern Mystery Fourth Level!
Yet since the lord had already spoken, he had no choice but to ride off.
Gu Lin fixed his gaze on “Yang Shen,” his tone turning grim:
“Shen Deyang. You orchestrated a massacre wiping out an entire family purely to satisfy your own selfish desires, slaughtering 46 members of a single clan! And you still dare cultivate the Confucian Dao’s Righteous Energy?”
“Yang Shen” stared at the Xiezhi robe before him, then suddenly tore off his disguised face, revealing a remarkably young visage beneath, no older than 24.
His smile twisted into something savage as he raised a hand, pointing furiously:
“What do you know of the Confucian Dao?”
“You think the Confucian Dao exists only for the pursuit of goodness and virtue? Heh. The Confucian Dao also holds that man’s nature is fundamentally evil, that goodness itself is merely artifice! Born to seek profit, simply following the natural order of heaven!”
“And what is the natural order of the Divine Dynasty, exactly? The strong devour the weak! The powerful exploit everything within reach—by whatever means necessary!”
“I, Shen Deyang, orchestrated that family’s slaughter, and my malevolent intent never once hindered my cultivation—this is precisely my gift, my innate talent for the Confucian Dao!!”
Knowing full well that death awaited him regardless, that even fleeing the valley would never let him escape the sect master’s reach, Shen Deyang instead broke into hysterical laughter, pointing accusingly at the Xiezhi official robe on Gu Lin’s body, his fury boiling over:
“To hell with the sacred grounds—I, Shen Deyang, have always despised the lot of you!”
Gu Lin stared at him, then let out a silent laugh:
“Judging by your age, I’d guess you failed a selection trial yourself once? Is that where all this bitterness comes from?”
In an instant, the veins on Shen Deyang’s forehead bulged violently, and he screamed with fury:
“The sacred grounds are unjust—a selection trial that hinges on nothing but ridiculous luck, what right does it have to decide anything?!”
“I drew one of the top 6 favorites in the very first round! My strength and talent were more than sufficient to earn me a position in the Literary Dao Academy’s Blade-Bearer Bureau—I could have even made a real push into the Literary Dao Academy itself! What right did a single unlucky draw have to destroy everything I’d worked toward, day and night, without rest?”
“I won’t survive today, so I’ll drag you down with me! A sacred grounds member—I’ll destroy every single thing you take pride in!!”
As Shen Deyang’s savage grin twisted further, the Literary Palace between his brows opened, vast waves of mental force coalescing into complete, fully-formed characters.
Four large purple characters surged outward, streaking across the distance at tremendous speed.
“Vengeance!”
“Grudge!”
“Hatred!”
“Slaughter!”
The killing intent behind these 4 characters grew denser and denser with each passing moment, unstoppable, sweeping forward like a force nothing could hope to withstand.
This was the true power of the Confucian Dao’s Spirit Nurturing realm!
At such a vast distance between them, a martial artist at Cavern Mystery had no way whatsoever to strike back at a Confucian Dao cultivator—forced instead into pure defense, left to endure the onslaught, subjected entirely to the psychological devastation and mental assault of these character-based attacks.
Yet Gu Lin remained perfectly still.
Though his thoughts blurred for the briefest instant, he steadied himself through sheer, terrifying force of will, and in the very next moment, the acupoints at his fingertips stirred, 4 invisible streaks of sword energy erupting outward.
Shen Deyang had been grinning savagely moments before, but the instant he witnessed his 4 characters shattered apart, his expression twisted into pure, unfiltered horror.
How was this possible?
He couldn’t even perceive how the mental-force characters had been destroyed.
No trace of inner energy circulation, utterly invisible, utterly silent—was this finger force, or sword energy?
Gu Lin unleashed the Wave-Treading Steps at full mastery, closing the distance to stand directly before Shen Deyang within mere breaths. The latter’s face filled with terror as his vast purple righteous energy transformed into a massive defensive shield.
But a Confucian Dao cultivator’s greatest weakness had always been close-quarters combat!
Gu Lin gathered his strength and unleashed 18 consecutive aerial kicks, the thunderclap sound accompanying each strike as he brutally shattered the defensive shield to pieces, then followed immediately with a casual palm strike, slamming it hard into Shen Deyang’s chest.
The latter flew backward several zhang, his chest caving inward, blood gushing violently.
Gu Lin’s expression remained impassive, though inwardly he found himself growing ever more satisfied with the sheer might of the Six Meridian Divine Sword.
Truly a technique worthy of both offense and defense alike!
He walked slowly toward Shen Deyang, gazing down at him from above, and spoke in a cold voice:
“During the selection trial, I was still only Energy Condensation Seventh Level when I drew the tournament’s number-one favorite before the trial even began. And I still advanced, stepping right over him.”
Shen Deyang’s eyes went wide, and he suddenly broke into hoarse, shrieking laughter, blood spilling continuously from his mouth as he did.
Crack!
Gu Lin’s palm shattered his skull.
Shen Deyang’s life had ended!
In that same instant, scattered points of golden light flickered to life within Gu Lin’s mind, coalescing into three large characters: “Book of Merit.”
【Slaying a Grade-B, 1st-Tier villain, reward: full mastery of the Net of Heaven and Earth】
【Martial Dao merit points: 2400/10000】
【Confucian Dao merit points: 753/10000】
【Arcane Dao merit points: 0/1000】
【Witchcraft Dao merit points: 0/1000】
At once, purple energy swirled mistily within the Literary Palace between his brows, a hazy foundation rising up from level ground, offering only a first, indistinct glimpse of its structure.
Confucian Dao, Spirit Nurturing First Level!
Commonly known as Confucian Scholar First Level!
Gu Lin found himself utterly unable to suppress the smile pulling at the corners of his mouth—this particular advancement had, without question, been the single largest leap yet. To begin with, the Confucian Dao path had no equivalent to Meridian Opening; opening the Literary Palace placed one directly at Confucian Disciple, Energy Cultivation, and from there, thanks to the Book of Merit, Energy Cultivation required only 1,000 merit points to complete.
Which meant this particular breakthrough had carried him directly to Confucian Scholar, Spirit Nurturing First Level!
His Confucian Dao cultivation now stood at a level he could finally be proud of!
Gu Lin began sorting through the Confucian technique “Net of Heaven and Earth” now settled within his mind.
Without question, it far surpassed the Confine Art in every respect!
The Confine Art could only target a single opponent at a time, and its duration of confinement varied depending on the opponent’s own strength, often lasting no more than a fleeting instant.
But the Net of Heaven and Earth was an entirely different matter—Righteous Energy wove together into a vast, sprawling net, trapping opponents within it, forcing them into exhausted, desperate struggle, and capable of ensnaring multiple people at once!
“A truly rewarding trip!”
Gu Lin’s smile deepened with satisfaction as he mounted his horse and rode off.
After riding for roughly a quarter hour, he crossed paths with the Blade-Gathering Sect’s sect master.
The sect master, who had been consumed with worry, finally allowed himself to relax the moment he caught sight of the figure in the black Xiezhi robe—truly worthy of the sacred grounds, to be so young and yet already capable of slaying a Confucian Scholar Second Level cultivator with such fury and ease.
“Send the body to the nearest prefectural government.”
Gu Lin instructed briefly before riding off at a swift pace.
Sign up to join the discussion...
Already have an account? Log in
No comments yet. Be the first to discuss this chapter.