The Word of Heaven

Chapter 193 I am the leader
For a long time afterwards, Gu Zhuo headed north, going into mountains and crossing rivers.

Those who intended to trace him have lost their way.

The only thing that made him uncomfortable was that in the mountains he could only eat wind and drink dew, and the food in his mouth was so bland that there was no taste at all.

In fact, he also thought about improving his diet, but he gave up in the end.

For someone like him who has never cooked before, he may not even be able to grill meat well. The most important thing is... his eldest disciple did not put any seasonings into the Sansheng Pagoda for his master to enjoy, which was really not flattering enough.

After giving up this idea, Gu Zhuo felt inexplicably complacent, thinking that he was indeed very experienced in life and would not make such a common sense mistake.

Live up to your three lives.

With this thought in mind, the sound of cicadas chirping all over the mountain faded into his ears, representing the passing of midsummer.

And he also officially stepped into the vast land of the north.

This was almost the same time he and Yu Sheng had agreed upon, before the beginning of autumn.

So Gu Zhuo came out of seclusion - literally.

It was a clear and crisp autumn day. Wearing a bamboo hat, he walked into a town. He found a shop alone and had a meal of mutton hotpot. The sesame sauce with chili oil tasted very good.

He was extremely satisfied with the meal, and then headed to the Sky Patrol’s contact point.

……

……

"Master, you are finally here!"

A deacon from the Sky Patrol Department looked at Gu Zhuo, who was wearing a bamboo hat, with a sincere expression and almost tears in his eyes, as if he was about to hug his thighs tightly in the next moment.

Gu Zhuo couldn't understand this enthusiasm, he just nodded calmly and said "hmm".

The deacon looked at the token that was presented again, and after confirming that it was correct, he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had finally waited for this adult to come.

As early as one day in midsummer, he was arranged to wait in this town. However, the whole summer passed and the person who was supposed to show up still did not show up. How could he not be nervous?

Nowadays, the Sky Patrol Division is in the midst of a turbulent time. Even the elite disciples of the major sects have been sent back to the mountain gates. Deacons like them may lose this status at any time and be transferred to other government offices of the court. Their treatment will plummet and is simply unacceptable.

More importantly, he vaguely realized that the big shots in the Sky Patrol Department attached great importance to this mission and were willing to mobilize a huge amount of resources for this purpose, just to cooperate with this adult as much as possible.

Gu Zhuo actually knew all this, but he just didn't feel it.

What others see as special is taken for granted in his eyes.

After receiving the latest intelligence from the deacon, Gu Zhuo found a chair and sat down. He used the unique method of the Sky Patrol to unlock the ban and began to read the information.

Time will not stop because of human will, and the same is true for the world.

From early summer to late summer, during the long period of time when Gu Zhuo was late, the people related to this mission did not dare to slack off even for a moment and were always carefully collecting relevant information.

The main purpose was to determine which sects and forces were related to the matter with the barbarians, why they wanted to make this transaction with the barbarians, and what these forces wanted to get from the transaction... In the end, all the information was sent to Gu Zhuo for him to make a judgment.

It didn't take too long for Gu Zhuo to put down the information.

After a moment of silence, he looked at the deacon without saying anything.

The butler was a little flustered and lowered his voice and said, "Sir, although I don't know what is written in the intelligence, I can assure you that what you are seeing now is the information that my colleagues have repeatedly confirmed with their lives."

Gu Zhuo remained silent, thinking that this was really troublesome.

No wonder Yu Sheng insisted on having him come.

The reason for the trouble is that two words appeared in the intelligence - Yishui, which is the world's number one sword sect.

A hundred years ago, when Taoism had not yet declined, the Qingjing Temple in the north was still forced to compete with Yishui due to the momentum of Taoism. This shows how powerful the latter is and how profound its foundation is.

However... he still felt that this information was a bit absurd.

The deeds of Yishui that are still remembered by the cultivation world today are that its founder rowed the river in the middle of the stream a thousand years ago, holding his sword in front of him, and the waves stopped a hundred thousand barbarian people from sailing south to the Central Plains.

The impact of that battle on the entire human world still exists today. At the same time, it also made Yishui recognized by the world as the number one sword sect, on par with the Taoist Xuandu Zen Sect and Cihang, without losing in the slightest.

Over the past thousand years, Yishui has had immortals in every generation, thus consolidating its status.

If the information from the Sky Patrol is true, then this matter is no ordinary trouble.

Gu Zhuo and the old man sitting in the wheelchair in Yishui can be considered to be acquainted.

As far as he knew, the other party didn't seem like someone who would make such a decision...but this was his understanding many years ago.

It is common for people's hearts to change over time.

Judging from the past, people today are the most foolish.

"grown ups?"

The deacon's voice asked cautiously, bringing Gu Zhuo back to his senses from his memories.

"Nothing."

Gu Zhuo shook his head, and a flame ignited at his fingertips, burning the information to ashes.

This time, Yu Sheng just asked him to help see the truth of the matter, not to help solve the matter. He just needed to take a look from a distance and find out the truth.

As long as he is careful enough, nothing should go wrong...right?

Thinking of this, Gu Zhuo sighed in his heart and said calmly: "Let's do this for now."

The deacon was stunned and wondered what it was.
Gu Zhuo stood up and wanted to go out.

When he was halfway there, he suddenly stopped and said, "Find me some suitable clothes."

The deacon was stunned and thought, so that's how it is?
Gu Zhuo found a mirror in the store and looked at himself in it.

He was dressed in white, and the dust and smoke he had traveled thousands of miles from north to south and then back north did not leave a single trace on his clothes. No matter how transcendent he was, he could not avoid attracting attention even with a conical hat on his head.

It wouldn't matter under normal circumstances, but the place he was going to next was sparsely populated, so it was necessary to make himself less conspicuous.

——According to the intelligence from the Sky Patrol Department, the barbarians will meet with a certain force in an ancient battlefield. The time cannot be fully determined for the time being, but it will be about twenty days later. The details need to be further investigated.

That ancient battlefield was once the place where the armies of Great Qin and Northern Yan fought and countless people died there throughout history. The traces left by the dead not only did not disappear with the passage of time, but instead ushered in an indescribable magical change.

This change can also be roughly explained in two words.

——Dojo.

Yes, that ancient battlefield has become an ownerless place naturally and naturally raised.

There are many similar places in the world, such as the ancestral temples of Taoism and Zen Buddhism, which are also temples.

Different from those famous mountains and peaks, ancient battlefields are not only unhelpful to spiritual practice, but are often harmful to the practitioners themselves, so they are avoided and few people go there.

The only exception is the cultivator who is about to break through to the Chengyi realm - some people, in order to achieve a breakthrough, disregard the danger to their lives and go to places like ancient battlefields, trying to use the various auras remaining there to hone themselves in order to make further progress, but this is ultimately a very rare case.

Not long after, the deacon came back.

Gu Zhuo took a look at those clothes and thought that as expected of an owner of a cloth shop, he had some taste.

The encounter ended there.

After saying goodbye to the deacon, Gu Zhuo left the cloth shop with eyes full of hope and expectation and continued his journey north.

It was another long journey of hundreds of miles. The closer he got to Yishui, the more sword cultivators appeared in his sight. He often saw scenes of sword duels. It was lively but also orderly. Few people died as a result. After all, this was still within the jurisdiction of the Qin Dynasty.

However, as you go further north, further north of the Yi River, this order disappears because there is only wasteland there.

Most of the evil demons and heretics that are not tolerated by the Qin Dynasty are located in this bitter cold area called the wasteland, accompanied by the continuous snow and wind that lingers all year round. Bai Langxing once had a difficult training there.

The ancient battlefield is not in the wilderness, but is located to the west of Yishui River, not far from Beiyan.

One day, Gu Zhuo looked seriously into the distance from a long distance.

It was a long river winding its way forward.

The banks of the long river are not barren. All you can see are beautiful palaces and it is as prosperous as the south.

There is an island in the middle of the river, and the road is shrouded in fog, which makes it unreal.

This is Yishui.

From an objective point of view, Gu Zhuo has never had any friends in Yishui in his life.

So he just took a look from a distance and turned west.

……

……

The island in the middle of the river.

The old man in the wheelchair opened his eyes, and it was as if an old clock was ringing.

He followed the direction of his heart, his gaze fell towards the southwest, with a hint of confusion in his eyes.

A moment ago, he felt an extremely strange and familiar feeling, which woke him up.

Unfortunately, everything is fleeting.

The old man looked up at the yellowing leaves outside the window and said with emotion: "It's autumn again. You have been dead for 130 years."

……

……

After a few more days, Gu Zhuo arrived at another town, not far from the border of Daqin.

Because of the geographical location and climate, whenever the wind blows, there is always mud, sand and dust blowing in our faces, making people miserable.

Therefore, although both are important border areas of the Qin Dynasty, the level of prosperity here is far different from that of Yangzhou City.

Gu Zhuo met with a deacon from the Sky Patrol here and confirmed again that the information was accurate.

Just as he was about to brave the sudden drop in temperature at night and head for the ancient battlefield in the severe cold of a winter night... the existence of two people was discovered by all things here and then became known to him.

Those two people came from the Taoist sect, or more precisely, the Pure Purity Sect.

One of them... is the good friend that the Immortal Monk cares about the most - the goddess of scenery, Chu Jun.

The remaining person was Chu Jun’s teacher, the Taoist Master Zizai of Qingjing Temple.

What's more troublesome is that these two people did not come in a legitimate way, and were just as low-key as Gu Zhuo.

If Gu Zhuo was not too familiar with Taoism and had all things as his eyes and ears, it would be impossible for him to discover the whereabouts of these two people.

"I'm starting to regret it now."

Gu Zhuo said expressionlessly, "I shouldn't have agreed to this."

The moonlight poured in from the window, gently covering him and bringing comfort.

If nothing unexpected happens, he will see Chu Jun in the ancient battlefield. As for why Qingjing Temple brought a junior out to meet and negotiate with the barbarians...how could he know why now?
He couldn't go and reminisce with Chu Jun at this time, because that wouldn't be a reminisce, but pure shock.

"seeing is believing."

That gentle and affectionate voice sounded in his heart: "Things may not be as bad as you think."

Gu Zhuo was silent for a while, then said, "When I passed by Yishui a few days ago, I thought that I had no friends practicing there in this life, so I had no old friends to talk to. But today I met someone I know here."

Qingjing Temple is hundreds of miles away from this important border town. How could one have the leisure time to come here for a visit?

"Isn't that the truth?"

The voice that fell into his heart became softer and softer: "The most unbearable thing about things in this world is wild imagination. The more you think about the worst, the more likely it is that things will become as bad as you think."

Gu Zhuo shook his head and said, "It's just what I think."

Having said that, he did not bother about it any more and closed his eyes to rest.

The next day, before the town had fully woken up, Gu Zhuo had already left and headed for the ancient battlefield.

The sun has not yet risen, the sky is tinged with a faint blue, and so is the world on earth.

Gu Zhuo walked alone on this silent and desolate land.

The sounds of all things were endless, bringing him the movements of everything within a radius of dozens of miles, no matter how big or small.

Over the next few days, he kept repeating this to make sure everything was under control without feeling any boredom.

This is a form of practice in itself.

The practice of nourishing the spirit to the state of accepting intention.

Until the seventh day.

The information from the Sky Patrol was eventually proven to be correct, but not entirely correct, because the forces involved in this encounter were not just Qingjing Temple and Yishui, but also two other parties.

……

……

The ancient battlefield was vast and complex in terrain, so this meeting was scheduled on a hill, facing the sunlight.

There are no trees on the hills, and the yellowed weeds are falling in the autumn wind, making the scene desolate and bleak.

Gu Zhuo hid in a tree that had not yet withered from a very long distance, and watched from afar with his excellent eyesight.

As he knew, there were many forces participating in this meeting, but in fact, not many people came, less than ten people in total.

No different from any other secret meeting imaginable, the nine people were all dressed in thick robes, carefully concealing their faces, even though they all knew each other's origins.

The first to speak was the Savage.

"I have shown all the sincerity I should have shown. Now it is time for you to show your sincerity."

In the tree behind, Gu Zhuo had a slightly strange expression.

What the autumn wind brought to his ears was the official language of the Great Qin Dynasty, which was so pronounced and melodious that it was impeccable. Even the teacher might not be able to speak it so standardly, let alone him.

How did a wild man do it?
The conversation continues.

The two people from Qingjing Temple remained silent, and the man who spoke came from Yishui.

"That's not enough."

The sword cultivator said indifferently: "You know what kind of risk we took to do this business with you. I don't deny that your sincerity is enough to make my heart move, but your realm is too low after all."

The Taoist Zizai said, "That's exactly the truth."

The remaining two forces naturally agreed.

The barbarian frowned and said in a deep voice: "But I don't want much, you are too greedy."

"not much?"

One of them was like hearing a huge joke, and said sarcastically, "What you are buying now is the lives of you and your people. Isn't that enough?"

Hearing this, Huang Ren's tone became calm instead.

"Not much, because we are very fertile and life is really not worth much."

"It's too little to ask for compared to what I can give you."

He said calmly: "This is an opportunity for you to change your fate."

Chu Jun looked at the Taoist Zizai.

The latter nodded.

Chu Jun said seriously: "The prerequisite for changing one's fate is to be alive first, but what you have given me right now has not allowed me to see the possibility of survival."

Her voice was very strange, completely different from what Gu Zhuo remembered. It was obviously due to the influence of Taoism.

It was quiet on the hill.

After an unknown amount of time, the barbarian finally gave his answer.

"can."

He said: "But I can't give you the things here. If you insist, you must go north to the wilderness."

After the words were spoken, the other people in the room obviously frowned.

The situation in the wilderness is too complicated. The border troops of Daqin and Beiyan, the evil demons and the people of the wilderness have gathered together. No one can guarantee that there will be no accidents.

In comparison, this ancient battlefield located in the territory of Daqin is certainly a dangerous place, but at least it can avoid most unexpected situations... This is what the nine people on the hill thought.

Until there was a person under the tree in the distance.

The first person to look at Gu Zhuo was the wild man, followed by the Yishui swordsman and the Zizai Taoist, and then the representatives of the other two forces. Chu Jun didn't even look at them.

There were no words.

A bright sword light broke through the air and instantly crossed a distance of hundreds of feet until it reached in front of Gu Zhuo.

This sword has undoubtedly reached the level of the Immaculate Realm. An ordinary practitioner in the Return to Oneness Realm may be able to survive against this sword, but serious injury is the inevitable result.

Just as the swordsman casually withdrew his gaze and was about to continue the conversation, he suddenly found that the connection between the flying sword and his soul was suddenly severed, and his mind was violently shaken.

A mouthful of blood rushed up his throat, making his face pale several times, but he finally forced himself to swallow it back.

Before he could suddenly turn around and look over there again, he heard exclamations of disbelief.

"Eliminate all methods, extinguish true essence, and ban all magical powers?"

“This is the Sansheng Tower!”

"How did you end up here?"

"Who is that person?"

The barbarian listened to these voices and stared at the young man who was still under the tree in the distance. He saw that he was holding the flying sword with all its magical power between his fingers, as if he was holding scrap metal.

The Sansheng Tower hovered quietly beside Gu Zhuo, without emitting any light.

In the eyes of the barbarians, the Three Lives Tower looked extremely ordinary, but it gave people a sense of mystery like reincarnation. Looking at it for a long time even brought him a sense of discomfort and mental disorder.

A helpless sigh sounded.

From Gu Zhuo's lips.

"Why would you draw your sword and kill someone just when you meet them?"

He seemed to be helpless and said: "Isn't it a great fate that we can meet in such a ghost place?"

No one paid attention.

The youngest, Chu Jun, lowered his head slightly, rolled his eyes under the cover of his cloak, and thought that anyone who believed this was fate was an idiot.

Gu Zhuo was not embarrassed. He looked up at the nine people on the hill and threw the flying sword back.

As the sword sank into the ground, he smiled through his bamboo hat and said sincerely, "Since we are so destined to meet, why don't you let me hear what kind of business you are doing?"

Still no one spoke.

Gu Zhuo couldn't help but feel a little curious, and asked seriously: "Didn't you all recognize that this is the Three Lives Tower? Why are you still ignoring me?"

A long silence.

Just when Gu Zhuo thought he would not get an answer, the swordsman finally spoke.

"who are you?"

"Don't ask questions like this next time."

Gu Zhuo looked at the nine people in bewilderment and said speechlessly: "The Three Life Towers are all in my hands. If I am not the leader of the Tianming Sect, then who else could I be?"

(End of this chapter)