Chapter 2 Two Paths

Although Cangling Town is surrounded by mountains on three sides, there are two roads leading into the town.

One is a main road, extending all the way from "Tongqiu," the nearest county town.

The other is a small path, the one Feng Bujue and the others appeared on when they entered the script.

Let's talk about the main road first. The situation at the other end of the main road is quite tense.

The Tongqiu of today is filled with members of various sects, martial artists from all walks of life, and even soldiers dispatched by the imperial court, numbering several thousand in all. Naturally, it was impossible for all these people to go to Cangling; if they did, the small town would be razed to the ground.

Therefore, entering Cangling via the main road also required certain conditions.

After mutual consultation, the leaders of the major sects established two rules. First, the disciples under each sect leader were numerous and could not all be brought along. Therefore, each sect leader could select a maximum of twenty disciples to accompany them into the town, while the rest would remain in Tongqiu and were not allowed to cause trouble. Second, people of the "demonic and heretical paths" were forbidden from passing through. Of course, what constituted a heretical path was determined by the so-called "righteous people."

Apart from a few notorious murderers and flower-picking thieves jointly wanted by the martial world and the government, some more marginalized martial artists were undoubtedly classified as belonging to the heretical path, and were blocked from entering Tongqiu. Although these people did not have a reputation for chivalry, they were not evil either. Most of them simply preferred to be alone, or had eccentric personalities, and therefore rarely associated with the righteous sects. Now, they were experiencing what it meant to exclude those who differed in opinion.

It should be mentioned here that in the setting of this script, the imperial court generally did not interfere in martial arts feuds, unless these matters affected civilians. Similarly, the people of the martial world did not care about the affairs of the imperial court; who was the emperor, and whether he was doing a good job, was irrelevant to these martial artists. This was an invisible line between the two, and it was absolutely forbidden to cross it.

Therefore, at least on the surface, the imperial troops came to Tongqiu only to maintain order. If any martial artist disturbed the peace, they would be arrested and dealt with; otherwise, they would not interfere.

Now, let's talk about the small path. Those who took this path were naturally those who had been stopped on the main road, or those who simply could not show themselves in Tongqiu.

Disciples of the major sects guarded Tongqiu day and night. Trying to sneak through or force one's way through the main road was simply courting death. Those with weaker martial skills would be shot into a honeycomb by a barrage of arrows, while those with higher martial skills... would eventually exhaust their inner energy after being besieged by hundreds of people one after another.

Therefore... the only way for these people to enter Cangling Town was to take the small path. As long as there were few people, and their movements were concealed properly, they could reach this small path after a day's journey around Tongqiu.

But here, there was also a fearsome figure guarding it.

The blue-robed old man's identity was Ye Hai, the steward of "Sword God" Ye Cheng's mansion. There were no stories about him in the martial world, and not many people had even heard his name, because he had never ventured into the martial world.

Ye Hai entered the Ye mansion as a servant at the age of twelve, and more than sixty years had passed since then. Since he became the steward of the Ye mansion at the age of thirty-two, the Ye family had changed three masters, but he, the steward, remained steadfast.

Ye Hai's martial arts skills were all bestowed by Ye Cheng's grandfather. Ye Hai's talent was not high, and he was well aware of this. Moreover, as a servant, even if he did have talent, he would not be qualified to join the Ye family. However, the old master Ye had been secretly guiding this young man. When the young master practiced his swordsmanship, he had Ye Hai sweep the floor nearby, and deliberately read out some of the mental cultivation methods aloud; when Ye Hai secretly practiced martial arts at night, the entire mansion pretended not to see it.

The Ye family's martial arts were all top-notch skills, and besides, diligence could make up for lack of talent. Even though Ye Hai's talent was mediocre, he had still achieved some success by the age of thirty, and could be considered a quasi-first-rate expert in the martial world. Two years later, he became the steward of the Ye mansion, and married and had children. For Ye Hai, this was the happiest period of his life.

Years later, old master Ye passed away, and Ye Cheng's father inherited the family business. He allowed Ye Hai's son to join the Ye family and become a formal disciple. Unfortunately, this son was young and eager to win, and at the age of sixteen or seventeen, before he had mastered his skills, he fought with others and died a violent death; Ye Hai's wife also passed away from illness not long after.

After losing his family, the sense of mission to serve the Ye family became Ye Hai's entire spiritual sustenance and life pursuit. It could be said that Ye Hai's entire life had been filled with gratitude and loyalty to the Ye family.

Today, in terms of martial arts skill, even if the leaders of those major sects came, they would definitely not be his opponents. There were only two types of people who could defeat Ye Hai. The first was the one-in-a-million peerless expert, such as Xie San and Ye Cheng, those rare figures. The second was a congenital expert who had practiced hard for many years, and this person had to have... a talent above Ye Hai's, moves that were not inferior, and inner strength that was at least sixty percent of his. Only by possessing these three qualities was it possible to defeat him.

With such a figure guarding the small path, the result was predictable.

In just half a month, many villains who were well-known or unknown in the martial world had been directly eliminated by Ye Hai, which could be considered doing a good deed for the people.

Those martial artists who were both righteous and evil, but whose martial skills were not up to par, were all "invited" back by him. Only true "experts," those who were worthy of watching the duel, could enter Cangling Town via the small path.

As for those like Jade-Faced Explorer Bai Dian, who appeared to be martial artists on the surface, but actually had an imperial court background, many of them had also died. The imperial court was, after all, the imperial court. Since ancient times, the government had always said one thing and done another. On the surface, they did not interfere in the affairs of the martial world, but in reality, they intervened in many ways, but they would never admit it. Therefore, when encountering similar situations, the people of the martial world would also kill the people of the imperial court without hesitation. Anyway, you won't admit that this person was sent by you, so you just have to suffer in silence.

…………

Also on this night, in the mountains north of Cangling Town, not far from the legendary haunted ruined temple.

Here, the vines and grass reached knee-height, and there was no sound. Looking into the forest, it was gloomy and the shade was thick, the branches and leaves intertwined overhead, and thorns grew everywhere on the ground.

But a figure flew in, stepping on the grass without a sound.

The person was a woman, dressed in a simple blue robe, slender and graceful, and her appearance could be considered beautiful and refined.

However, at this moment, her expression was solemn and serious, and her eyes also carried a hint of panic.

"Not bad Qinggong." A cold voice sounded.

As he spoke, another dark figure appeared in an instant. Judging by his posture, not only did he not hold any weapons, but he also had his hands behind his back, as if he could win without even using his hands.

Without saying a word, the woman used all her cultivation, wielding her sword with fierce wind, and swept it out in one strike.

The dark figure dodged this sword with an unbelievable movement, and stepped his right foot on the long sword, suppressing the sword with a majestic inner force. No matter how hard the woman struggled, her face flushed red, and she exhausted all her strength, she could not pull the sword out at all.

"Unfortunately, your best Qinggong is nothing more than a juggling trick to me." The dark figure said in a deep voice, "Female Knight Lu, it's just your bad luck that you discovered my secret... so you must die."

Before Lu Qingning could reply, strange changes suddenly occurred around her.

At this moment, a strange bell sound suddenly rang out in the darkness, and at the same time, both of them were surrounded by an indescribable chill...