Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
After some thought, Tang Jie replied, "As a disciple, to contribute to the sect is my duty, and I would not dare to claim too much credit. But the Jewel Immortal Sovereign's majesty is as heavy as a mountain, and this disciple will have to use everything he has against her. Since Master has asked, then I would like… a mountain."
"You want a mountain?" Ling Xiao was flabbergasted. He thought that Tang Jie would ask for some rare spirit plant or mystical technique, or maybe even the permanent privilege to cultivate in the Water Moon Paradise.
He hadn't expected Tang Jie to ask for a mountain.
"Which mountain?" Ling Xiao asked.
"Heavenly Balance Mountain, the Valley of the Eight Wilds."
Ling Xiao was startled.
Heavenly Balance Mountain was a large mountain located on the eastern border of Sageheart. Its most unique property was that most of it was made of violet gold, which was extremely sturdy and made the place a natural ore vein.
But because it was located on the border, it didn't entirely belong to Sageheart. Instead, the Basking Moon Sect and the Seven Absolutions Sect shared ownership of it.
Ling Xiao frowned at Tang Jie's request. "If you want violet gold, I can have the sect buy it for you. While violet gold is a decent spiritual material, there's plenty of it being mined, so it's not expensive."
But Tang Jie replied, "This disciple doesn't want the violet gold, but the mountain itself."
"Why?" Ling Xiao asked in confusion.
"I will have my duel with Jewel there!" Tang Jie declared.
Ling Xiao's mind was shaken, for he finally understood Tang Jie's goal.
Making sure that he had the home court advantage?
It wasn't a bad idea.
"But why would you choose that place?" Ling Xiao asked.
"Because that place is tough enough. A mountain made of violet gold only needs a little more reinforcement, and then even a Soul Projection Celestial Sovereign might not be able to destroy it. After all, no matter how good a castle is, there's no point if it's built on sand."
Ling Xiao nodded in agreement. "An excellent idea. Your master will send this message to that Jewel. With her cultivation, she probably won't care, not even if she knows that this is some ploy by you. But the Seven Absolutions Sect also has some ownership over this mountain, which is somewhat more difficult to handle."
"Then we can negotiate," Tang Jie replied. "So long as you're willing to pay, it's just a mountain, so nothing is non-negotiable. If it's really no good, we can just rent the mountain for two hundred years."
Ling Xiao laughed. "Haha, so that's what you were after. Fine. Your master will send someone to the Seven Absolutions Sect and buy the other half of Heavenly Balance Mountain for you."
"There's no need to send someone. I'll go myself," Tang Jie said with a smile. "I happen to have an appointment there, and this is the perfect time to make it happen."
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He needed to make some preparations before heading to the Seven Absolutions Sect, so he couldn't set off immediately.
Once they returned from the Cloud Ancestor's thatch house, Ling Xiao assigned Tang Jie a new residence, located behind Starsnatch Peak. This place was Ling Xiao's residence, and the fact he had taken up residence here was a sign that Tang Jie had been officially recognized as a Young Lord of Basking Moon.
As Young Lord, Tang Jie had many special privileges.
For example, he could freely go in and out of Heaven One Pavilion and peruse its secret texts without restriction. He could enter the various halls and peaks and question them on anything, having been endowed with supervisory and advisory authority. He was also able to access all the forbidden grounds of the Basking Moon Sect, even access the Water Moon Paradise for three days every year without needing to pay contribution points.
All of these special privileges were intended to make the strong stronger and the rich richer.
Moreover, Tang Jie also had no limit on the number of days he could stay in the paradise, which was a right that Ling Xiao had fought for so that he could better deal with Jewel. In addition, Ling Xiao announced that the Space Crystal had officially been granted to Tang Jie. Given all that he had done for the Cloud Ancestor, there was really no treatment that could be considered too generous.
Tang Jie's name spread throughout the Basking Moon Sect. Everyone knew that Tang Jie had returned, and that when he returned, he had received unprecedented treatment that drew both admiration and envy. Of course, there were people who were happy, and there were also people who were terrified.
Yu Yan recently hadn't been sleeping well.
After Tang Jie returned from Endsea all those years ago, Yu Yan had been very quiet, no longer pressuring people to attend his lectures. Those in the hall who knew what had happened with Yu Yan privately jeered that Tang Jie had scared him out of his wits. As the days went by, this mocking gradually became a thorn in his heart. But since Tang Jie had never made an issue out of the matter, he eventually went back to his old ways.
When Tang Jie went missing, Yu Yan was one of the happiest, and he started to slander Tang Jie wherever he went. In his words, Tang Jie was a pervert and villain, a wicked bastard who only stopped at eating babies.
This sort of wild slandering was like a psychedelic drug for Yu Yan, making him extremely happy, as if Tang Jie had dealt him some terrible injury that one time. And from this, almost everyone in the Basking Moon Sect learned that there was a madman who loathed Tang Jie. When Tang Jie was missing and his brothers were still in Endsea, this wasn't a problem, but when Tang Jie returned, everything changed.
Today, Yu Yan was cultivating in his cave estate.
A disciple came to the entrance and asked, "Is Steward Yu present?"
Yu Yan's heart thumped. "What is it?"
"The hall master has requested your presence. He has a mission for you."
Yu Yan sighed in relief.
Exiting his cave, he followed the disciple to the hall on the principal mountain.
The hall was empty of anything but darkness.
Upon entering, Yu Yan immediately got to his knees and shouted to the darkness, "Yu Yan pays respects to the hall master."
Although he couldn't see him, Yu Yan knew that Xu Baibing was here. It was just that nobody could see him unless he let them see him.
The Secret Hall had many members, but only an extremely small number of them had ever actually met Xu Baibing. It was said that other than the Violet Palace experts and Celestial Chiefs, nobody, not even his deputy hall master Chang Tianshui, had seen Xu Baibing's true face.
Yan Changfeng was a fierce warrior that shone like the burning sun, Ming Yekong was an elegant sword Immortal, and Xu Baibing was the assassin lurking in the darkness. It was said that if he wanted to kill someone, then even if that person was a Violet Palace Titan, he could still kill them.
Bang!
A portrait flew out of the darkness and landed in Yu Yan's hand, and a voice rang out. "Your mission is to kill this person."
Yu Yan unrolled the portrait and then shuddered. "Li Chengfeng? This is a Celestial Heart True Person! Hall Master, your disciple is only at Cognitive Creation. How can I kill a Celestial Heart True Person? Hall Master, please withdraw your order."
The voice in the darkness casually said, "The mission is the mission. No matter how difficult it is, you must complete it. If you can't, then offer up your life instead."
Yu Yan's body went cold. Suddenly, he realized what was going on and shouted, "Tang Jie! It's for Tang Jie, isn't it? You're using the same method I used against him on me, right? Hall Master, have even you bowed to his pressure?"
A person finally appeared in the darkness.
It was a very honest and open face, one that could be found on any farmer in the countryside.
This sort of appearance might not have matched the status of a hall master, but this was the Secret Hall's style, a desire for the entire world to not pay them any attention.
Putting his hands behind his back, Xu Baibing sympathetically looked at Yu Yan. "If I told you that Tang Jie never brought this matter up with me, would you believe me?"
Yu Yan was startled. "How could that be?"
Xu Baibing shook his head. "He has never paid you any attention. In his eyes, you are just an ant, something not even worth taking revenge on. But you've been far too annoying, slandering Tang Jie in both private and public over the years, and countless people know about it. Now that Tang Jie is the Young Lord, while he has never talked about removing you, if you live, you will be a malignant tumor for my Secret Hall, making everyone think that I am enemies with Tang Jie."
Yu Yan protested, "But Hall Master, even if he's the Young Lord, you are a chief! You don't need to be afraid of him!"
"Correct—I don't need to be afraid of him. But the problem is: do I need to have him resent me for your sake?"
This question made Yu Yan shudder, and he howled, "No! No! No!"
He turned and fled.
Xu Baibing didn't give chase, indifferently saying, "In truth, I hoped that you would try to openly resist your fate."
As he spoke, a sword flashed out of the darkness, stabbing into Yu Yan's chest. The young and callous face of Xi Canhen emerged from the shadows.
Yu Yan cried out in despair, "Xi Canhen… Xu Baibing, you tricked me. Tang Jie clearly had you kill… me… "
He died before he could finish his words.
Xu Baibing gazed at Xi Canhen in admiration. "Your stealth assassination skills are getting better and better, but you still have many flaws. So what about it? If you are willing to follow me and become my disciple, then I guarantee that you will become the assassination grandmaster of the generation, and the post of master of the Secret Hall will also be yours. Moreover, this is the only way you can keep up with Tang Jie."
Such a lucrative proposal coming from the likes of Xu Baibing would have anyone picking up their jaw from the floor.
Yu Yan had guessed wrongly. Tang Jie really hadn't said anything about dealing with Yu Yan to Xu Baibing. Xi Canhen had appeared simply because Xu Baibing appreciated his talents and wanted to take him as a disciple. Yu Yan was basically a welcoming gift.
When a person achieved a high enough status, they could just stand around and do nothing, and countless people would be working to fulfill their desires, sometimes without even a promise or request.
Similar scenes played out elsewhere.
The Tribute Hall.
A middle-aged cultivator was pleading on his knees, "Hall Master, it was this lowly one's mistake. I shouldn't have let my greed get to me and covet Tang Jie's rabbit spirit beast. But this lowly one didn't actually succeed!"
It was this man who had taken a liking to Tutu and tried to steal it, forcing Tutu and Shi Jingzhai to flee the sect, after which they had met up with Tang Jie in the fragment of the Myriad Court. Now, it was his turn to meet misfortune.
An Yinglong flipped through documents as he casually replied, "Yes, you didn't succeed, which is why you don't have to die. I'm just sending you off to the border for some hard labor, so there's no need to despair. Relax. So long as Tang Jie doesn't want you dead, I won't be sending anyone to go all the way over there to kill you. Just stay there and cultivate, and perhaps you might get so strong that you come back and overthrow me."
The middle-aged cultivator was in despair. The border was a place barren of spiritual energy. What sort of prospects would he have cultivating in such a place?
And there were still more such incidents taking place across the Basking Moon Sect.
Fortunately, the Basking Moon Sect was a rather principled sect, and Tang Jie knew how to conduct himself well as a person, so he had few real enemies. There were some who went a little too far in trying to get Tang Jie's favor and dug up minor quarrels to cause a fuss over. As a result, some of Tang Jie's old rivals suffered, like Long Dao.
This guy and Tang Jie hadn't gotten along while they were in the academy, but he had been rather diligent after entering the sect, and he had officially entered Celestial Heart not too long ago. He had applied to become a steward, and since he was at Celestial Heart now, it should have been a smooth promotion. Alas, the moment Tang Jie returned, Long Dao's application was met with an unprecedented rejection, and his career was given a heavy blow. Fortunately, the matter stopped there, and nobody tried to make things any worse for him.
Tang Jie had played a role in none of this.
Of course, there was an exception.
The Commerce Hall.
This was a hall that specialized in international transactions and gathering resources for the sect.
The hall master, Qian Ruhai, was a plump and fair man, adorned in luxurious clothes and sporting a jade ring. He usually carried a golden abacus, which he was always fiddling with. He had the appearance of a typical merchant, yet nobody dared to underestimate the chief of the Commerce Hall. The Commerce Hall was the richest hall of the Basking Moon Sect, and anyone who could be its master had to be strong. Qian Ruhai had relied on his golden abacus to kill his way to this seat.
Everyone knew that when this smiling Buddha got angry, the mountains would flow with rivers of blood.
And at this moment, this smiling Buddha was grinning at the man in front of him.
This was one of his subordinates, clever and capable.
This man had a fair and beardless face, and his eyes were rather furtive and sinister. But at this moment, he was looking up fearfully at Qian Ruhai. "Hall Master, what exactly did your subordinate do wrong, for you to treat me this way?"
Qian Ruhai shook his head and sighed. "I also don't know what you did wrong to offend Tang Jie. He didn't even care about that Yu Yan who had offended him before, yet he personally came to find me and told me that he hoped that you would die."
"Tang Jie?" The fair-faced man trembled. He just couldn't understand. When had he ever offended this most popular figure of the Basking Moon Sect?
"But…" Qian Ruhai paused for a moment. "Tang Jie wanted me to pass a message on to you."
"What was it?"
"The Numb River Flooding of Mengmen Gully."
The fair-faced man shuddered and fell silent.
Seeing this, Qian Ruhai naturally understood what had happened. After all, after Tang Jie had entrusted him with this task, he had investigated the Numb River incident. It now seemed that this incident had not been without reason, though he didn't understand why Tang Jie, who wasn't from Mengmen Gully, had decided to execute justice on its behalf, nor did he care to find out. He sighed and said, "The heavens will shine a light on injustice, and divine retribution will always come eventually. Bai Tanzhen, have a safe journey to the Yellow Springs!"
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