Chapter 1 The River

The river's waves were magnificent and boundless, truly resembling a giant dragon winding its way.

The Great Dragon River, one of Dafeng's three major rivers, was a convergence point for many rivers, flowing through eighteen provinces, one hundred and sixty-three prefectures, and countless counties. It was Dafeng's most important channel for river transport.

A small boat sailed on the turbulent river, cutting through the waves.

The river flowed rapidly, but the small boat, though drifting with the current, was very stable, attracting the attention of many people on the passing large ships.

An Qisheng sat leisurely on the deck, his white hair fluttering in the wind.

Half a month had passed since he left Tianyu Peak.

The events at Tianyu Peak had been widely spread in the past half month. The Soul-Seizing Demonic Art had appeared, and thousands of martial artists were buried in the Huayan Mountains. In addition, two famous constables of the Six Doors were killed.

Each of these events was enough to shake the martial world.

Their combined occurrence caused a huge shock to the martial world.

As a result, the name of the Blood Demon An Qisheng became famous overnight, achieving what countless young martial artists could not achieve in their entire lives.

In particular, his feat of killing Xue Chaoyang and Tuoba Chongguang in a one-on-two battle shocked the martial world and was feared by many martial artists.

"The Dafeng Dynasty is stronger than I imagined..."

An Qisheng looked out at the turbulent river, his eyes rippling.

More than half a month had passed, and apart from some sporadic rumors, the news of the Six Doors ambushing many martial artists had not spread in the martial world.

The victims, the Jishen Sect and the Baiyue Villa, also kept silent and were tight-lipped.

Naturally, An Qisheng found that even though he had killed Xue Chaoyang and Tuoba Chongguang, the hat of 'Blood Demon' was still firmly on his head.

That was why he did not return to Nanliang City.

After learning that Yun Dongliu had taken Zhang Hao Hao and Jiang Tingting to the Xia Yi Sect, he completely left Nanliang City.

And except for some regulars who missed Yangxiao Hall's delicacies, no one cared about the disappearance of an old Taoist.

Whoosh~

Tie Shan, dressed in a black martial suit, walked out of the cabin, straightened up, and looked at the rolling tide.

"Does the Daoist Priest not understand why these crimes are still being placed on your head?"

Tie Shan's voice was a little hoarse.

In the Huayan Mountains, after witnessing the Six Doors massacre dozens of mountain village women and children, he completely gave up his thoughts and faked his death during an operation to escape.

That day, An Qisheng came down from Tianyu Peak and happened to meet the bewildered Tie Shan.

After a brief conversation, Tie Shan followed him.

"Is there even a need to say that?"

From inside the cabin, Huang Pu chimed in with a frustrated expression, "How can the words of a few martial artists compare to the Embroidered Uniform Guard's intelligence network that covers the world?"

Huang Pu felt very unlucky.

After being knocked unconscious that day, he really couldn't wake up on his own. When An Qisheng woke him up and told him that Xue Chaoyang and Tuoba Chongguang were all dead, he was stunned.

At first, he thought it was a lie, but as the news spread, he realized that this old Taoist was really so fierce, killing Xue Chaoyang and Tuoba Chongguang in public.

"They want to accuse me, what excuse do they need? If the imperial court really wants to convict me, so be it."

An Qisheng didn't care, and said lightly:

"The world is so big, there should be a place for me to live."

Although the situation was a bit different from what he had expected, he had already prepared before killing Xue Chaoyang and the other two.

The Jiu Fu Realm was so big, there were too many bandits who roared in the mountains, lone robbers, and experts who had been evading capture for many years, one more of him wouldn't make a difference.

This wasn't a big deal.

"They want to accuse me, what excuse do they need..."

Tie Shan muttered to himself, suddenly feeling a lot of emotions.

During the years he joined the Six Doors, he truly understood the meaning of this sentence.

"Not many people dare to stand up for you against the imperial court."

Huang Pu shook his head:

"The Jishen Sect and the Baiyue Villa are all keeping silent, there must be a really big figure involved."

"A really big figure..."

An Qisheng's eyes narrowed slightly.

Through dreaming of many martial artists during this period, he naturally knew a lot about the experts in the world.

On the surface, the imperial court had four great experts listed on the Weaponry Index.

The Qintian Supervisor's Han Changong, the East Depot's Cao Tiangang, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Yang Lin, and the Six Doors' God Catcher, these four were very famous, known throughout the martial world, and intimidated many martial arts sects.

But even the Weaponry Index was secretly arranged by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and spread through Lin Wanwan's mouth.

Naturally, Dafeng wouldn't expose all of its experts.

In the memories of Xue Chaoyang and Tuoba Chongguang, there were also two great experts in the Dafeng court.

One was the Grand Tutor of Dafeng, Ji Chonghua.

This Grand Tutor, who was known for his literary achievements, was actually a great expert no less than the other four.

The last one was hidden in the palace, and even Xue Chaoyang and Tuoba Chongguang didn't know his identity.

According to Xue Chaoyang's speculation, that person should be an old eunuch.

Xue Chaoyang was able to know of this person's existence because he had seen many highly skilled eunuchs in the Dafeng Palace.

Those eunuchs had high martial arts skills, and their techniques were exactly the same, as if they were taught by the same master.

Naturally, he guessed that there was a great expert hidden in the palace.

Han Changong, Ji Chonghua, Cao Tiangang, Yang Lin, God Catcher, and the unknown old eunuch, these were already six Shenmai (divine meridian) great experts!

Among the countries of the world and countless sects, the only one that could compare with it in number was the Six Hells Demon Sect.

But among the Six Hells Demon Sect, only Pang Wanyang and the Red Sun Dharma King were ranked at the top of the Weaponry Index, and the others were still inferior to them.

Therefore, whether it was the army, wealth, or experts, Dafeng was the undisputed number one in the world!

"There's no need to worry too much."

Seeing An Qisheng's silence, Tie Shan said, "Those big figures want to intimidate many martial arts sects and monitor the movements of experts from other countries, so they can't easily take action."

An Qisheng didn't answer, but raised his eyebrows and looked over.

In the turbulent river, a figure was stepping on the water at an extremely fast speed.

The person had excellent qinggong (light body skill), and had no place to borrow strength on the turbulent river surface, crossing hundreds of feet by stepping on the river water.

Whoosh!

The small boat shook almost imperceptibly, and Gui Xiaoer, dressed in coarse linen clothes like a groom, had already landed on the deck.

He had traveled all the way through the waves, but except for the slightly damp cloth shoes on his feet, there wasn't a single trace of water on his body.

The people present were not surprised.

Gui Xiaoer's skills ranked second on this small boat. If they really fought, Huang Pu wouldn't be his opponent.

If anyone looked down on him because of his simple and honest appearance, they would suffer a big loss.

"Xiaoer, weren't you supposed to wait for us in Ronghua Prefecture? Why did you suddenly come back?"

Huang Pu came out of the cabin, a little surprised.

"Of course, there's something going on."

The groom who didn't drive the carriage had a bit of a carefree air. Hearing this, he took out a rolled-up piece of white paper from his arms:

"I arrived in Ronghua Prefecture a few days ago. Ronghua Prefecture hasn't changed much. The people from the Six Doors had already left, and I didn't find any wanted posters for the Daoist Priest...

After staying for a few days, I suddenly found the streets were very lively early this morning...

I went down to take a look and found this..."

Gui Xiaoer sat cross-legged on the deck and slowly unfolded the white paper in front of him.

"Weaponry Index? Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings?"

Huang Pu's expression changed as he glanced at it.

Suddenly, he remembered that Xue Chaoyang had told him that the Embroidered Uniform Guard was going to rearrange the Weaponry Index.

It was arranged so quickly?

Or rather, that person was so impatient?

"The rearranged Weaponry Index is divided into Heaven, Earth, and Human rankings?"

Tie Shan also changed his expression when he took a closer look.

He wasn't stupid, of course he knew how much trouble this ranking would cause.

People in the world, those without money seek wealth, those who don't lack money seek fame.

No expert who can become famous would value money, but fame is different.

Those young heroes who tirelessly 'walk the path for the heavens' and challenged one mountain village after another, were they really bursting with a sense of justice?

These newly emerged young heroes would do anything to seek fame.

But swords have no eyes, and injuries and deaths are inevitable in a fight. At that time, a large number of people will be involved.

Which young hero doesn't have a sect behind them, a large group of brothers, uncles, and granduncles?

In other words, if you don't even have brothers or people to support you, are you worthy of being called a young hero?

"Weaponry Index first, Six Hells Demon Lord Pang Wanyang, Weaponry Index second, Taibai Sword, Mu Qingfeng, Weaponry Index third, Slaying Arhat, Yixiu Chan Master. Fourth, Wheel Turning King, Fifth, Baiyue True Person..."

Huang Pu smacked his tongue in amazement: "This, this doesn't even leave a place for the Eight Great Weapon Masters... If the Eight Great Weapon Masters are born and discover this, there will be a show to watch!"

The original Weaponry Index was to reserve eight places for the Eight Great Heavenly Human Divine Weapons.

Even the Six Hells Demon Lord Pang Wanyang was only ranked ninth.

Although everyone knew he was number one, he was still ranked ninth. Now, he's directly ranked first, which is a different effect!

At a glance, the shock of reaching the top as number one and number nine is also different.

An Qisheng glanced at it. This Weaponry Index was much more complete than the original one. Almost all the Shenmai Grandmasters he knew were on it, and it listed their lives, weapons, martial arts, and achievements in great detail.

There were also some hidden experts whose names he hadn't even heard of from dreaming of dozens or hundreds of martial artists.

These people were all dug out, which showed how much effort the Six Doors had put into this ranking.

However, the names of Ji Chonghua and the mysterious expert in the Dafeng Palace were still not on this list.

"Look at the Earth Ranking."

An Qisheng's eyes flickered. He had a premonition that the Earth Ranking would give him a surprise.

"This Earth Ranking..."

Gui Xiaoer shook his head slightly, put away the first piece of white paper, and spread out the second piece of white paper.