The deepest affection in Gu Long's world

Chapter 212 News of the Battle of Tianshan

The next day.

Fang Yunhua introduced Ximen Rou to everyone, and also explained the unique composition of their team to Ximen Rou.

Ximen Rou had no interest in Hua Baifeng and his companion, whose identities were questionable. In his view, now that Fang Yunhua had exposed them, they were set for a better future.

He was more interested in Li Xunhuan.

As the twentieth person on the list of new weapons, he really wanted to experience firsthand the gap between himself and the third-ranked person.

Lao Li was a civilized man and generally wouldn't make a move easily. However, seeing Ximen Rou so eagerly clinging to him, he was repeatedly interrupted by Lin Shiyin when he tried to find an opportunity to say a few words to her.

So he used his newly acquired skills to let Ximen Rou experience the feeling of being completely enveloped by the sword's power.

Then Yuko behaved herself.

He sat upright in the carriage for an entire day, looking as if his soul had left his body but his body was still there.

"Was I a bit too much?" Li Xunhuan was well aware of how strong the deterrent effect of his sword stance was. Take the bronze camel for example. After being covered by it, it behaved itself well at night. Even when it was in a hurry to urinate, it would use the chamber pot in the room and would never go outside.

And Ximen Rou is, after all, one of our own.

"Is it too much?" Fang Yunhua glanced at Ximen Rou, who seemed lost in thought but was actually deep in thought. "He has already honed a strong enough will in that battle at the top of Mount Lu, so this is really nothing for you."

"Then him."

"Perhaps it was the influence of your sword technique that gave him more inspiration on how to improve his own strength."

In fact, Fang Yunhua didn't know what Ximen Rou was stunned about, but he knew that she shouldn't be so easily discouraged. After all, the reputation and infamy of the young scholar Li beside him were even more widespread than in the original storyline.

Knowing the difference in strength between oneself and one's opponent beforehand, being instantly defeated is the most normal outcome.

Then, taking advantage of the moment when Lao Li leaned over, Fang Yunhua asked him a question.

"There are less than twenty days until the duel. Do you think we should head straight to the Diancang Sect now?"

"Did you find out anything from over there?" Li Xunhuan raised an eyebrow.

Fang Yunhua thought for a moment and then answered.

"She probably didn't know about the existence of the Heavenly King of Power and Law, or at least she didn't know that the Heavenly King of Power and Law was related to the Lü family. Her target was only the Heavenly Mystery Tower."

These days, it seems like Fang Yunhua is just chatting away with Hua Baifeng, but some information he needs to know has been confirmed by the other party's reactions and answers.

For example, Hua Baifeng dared to boldly plunge in because she knew that the Heavenly King of Wisdom was Bai Xiaosheng, which made her think that she could use this secret to achieve her goals.

As for the duel between Guo Songyang and Xie Tianling, she didn't care at all. If there really was a conspiracy surrounding this swordsman's duel, given Fang Yunhua's assessment of the other party's scheming, they shouldn't be so calm and chatting with her every day as time went on.

Based on the question the other party had asked the night before, and the information he had gathered beforehand, Fang Yunhua was even more certain that the factional struggle within the Demonic Sect was about to reach a fever pitch.

However, it seems that the Demonic Cult has always been like this.

Or it's in a state of semi-dead or dying.

Either when a company is at its peak, a power struggle will occur among its members.

Given its size, the fact that it could unite with the seven major factions to contend with them meant that some internal strife was inevitable.

This is also where Fang Yunhua saw the opportunity.

Just as Fang Yunhua and Li Xunhuan were secretly discussing whether to go to Diancang Sect to find the weakness of the Heavenly King of Power, Bai Xiaosheng, who had been organizing intelligence, suddenly clenched a piece of paper in his hand.

He immediately moved closer to Fang Yunhua.

"My lord, I have just received news that the leader of the Demonic Sect, Hua Baikong, will challenge Bai Tianyu, the leader of the Divine Blade Hall, to a duel at the summit of Mount Tian. The duel is set for the eighth day of the eighth lunar month. If Bai Tianyu is defeated, he will lead the Divine Blade Hall to join the Demonic Sect."

If Hua Baikong is defeated, as the sect leader, he will ensure that the entire Demonic Sect never sets foot inside the pass again!

At this moment, Fang Yunhua and Li Xunhuan completely forgot about the Heavenly King of Power and Law.

Lao Li looked somewhat serious.

"The eighth day of the eighth lunar month, more than five months before the deadline, and the location is in the Tianshan Mountains."

"By the way, Bai Tianyu is your friend, right? Aren't you worried about him?"

Fang Yunhua had long anticipated this duel. Perhaps because of his own connections, the duel was brought forward considerably. Although he had not made any plans outside the Great Wall, the moment he stepped on the corpses of two Demonic Sect Heavenly Kings to establish his prestige, it was bound to cause a series of butterfly effects on the Demonic Sect.

Just as in his memory as the one who turned the pages of the book, Hua Baifeng, as the eldest princess of the Demonic Sect, would not have had the leisure to travel all the way south from the distant northern border to this land of Yunnan.

When Fang Yunhua thought of Hua Baifeng, she couldn't help but wonder if Hua Baikong had taken the opportunity to deliberately send her away since the other party knew from Hua Baikong that the Heavenly King of Wisdom was Bai Xiaosheng.

In fact, not much information about the demonic cults of this era is revealed in the memories of those who read the book.

One of the key clues in the original storyline mentioned is that Hua Baifeng voluntarily left the Demonic Sect because she fell in love with Bai Tianyu, the leader of the Divine Blade Hall.

From this perspective, Hua Baifeng seems to be a love-struck person, and later, in order to avenge Bai Tianyu, she did indeed show that the two had genuine feelings for each other.

However, even if the feelings were genuine, he would still be considered a loser in the internal power struggle within the demonic cult.

That retreat contained many survival choices made out of desperation to protect oneself.

Through these days of getting along, Fang Yunhua was quite certain that Hua Baifeng was a person who was afraid of death. Even when she subtly attacked him with her words, she only dared to do so secretly. After attacking him, she would quickly try to make up for it by praising him, for fear that he would find out and threaten her with death again.

The main character is someone who is both impulsive and cowardly.

At this moment, Li Xunhuan also answered Fang Yunhua's question.

“He is my friend, so I believe he will win, and I also trust your judgment.”

Fang Yunhua cast a question mark at him.

"Your weapon ranking list places Bai Tianyu fifth and Hua Baikong sixth, which further proves that Bai Tianyu will definitely win this decisive battle."

"So, setting aside our friendship, do you think this challenge is reasonable?"

Li Xunhuan frowned slightly, because he knew that Quanfa Tianwang might take the opportunity to cause trouble in the upcoming swordsman competition. This also made Li Xunhuan more familiar with the Demonic Sect through the information from Tianji Tower.

In addition, during his time outside the Great Wall, he had already helped Bai Tianyu fight against the Demonic Sect in many battles.

Therefore, he knew very well what a terrifying behemoth this was.

"The Divine Blade Hall is quite strong. At least when I returned to the interior, in terms of overall martial prowess, it had grown to the point where it was second only to the Seven Great Sects."

"But facing the Demonic Sect, the seven major sects need to join forces to have any chance of keeping it outside the pass."

"Indeed, in theory, the Divine Blade Hall shouldn't be able to stop the Demonic Sect's advance into the interior. However, this duel involves the future development plan of the Demonic Sect, and the other side of the stake is just the Divine Blade Hall." Clearly, the stakes are not equal for either side.

And for Bai Tianyu, it was far too friendly.

Because if he were to achieve a great victory, he would not only temporarily eliminate the threat posed by the Demonic Sect, but also use the favor of blocking the Demonic Sect to smoothly enter the pass and integrate into the Central Plains martial arts world.

Given Fang Yunhua's deliberate assertion of the Demonic Sect's threat, if Bai Tianyu were to defeat Hua Baikong in the Battle of Tianshan, he would gain immense prestige and a vast amount of potential benefits.

Of course, given Bai Tianyu's personality, this will also bring him closer to the bottomless abyss of death.

Although Ding Baiyun orchestrated the Plum Blossom Temple massacre in the original storyline, the biggest factor that actually led to Bai Tianyu's death was that his personality, once the threat of external enemies was gone, inevitably led to him being plotted against by his 'brothers and friends' who were dissatisfied with his current situation.

The fact that Ding Baiyun was in charge only accelerated the process of this tragedy.

The absence of Ding Baiyun will not affect the fact that Bai Tianyu will also suffer a severe backstabbing in the future.

What is even more obvious is that this battle of Tianshan will trigger a change in the entire martial arts world.

Fang Yunhua also saw some important opportunities.

He believed that he was probably not the only one who had discovered this opportunity.

Shangguan Jin Hong would certainly not miss this opportunity, given her possession of the Lone Peak Heavenly King Token, her apparent connection with Tie Gu, one of the Four Princesses, and her chosen path of the king.

This has already led him down a path completely different from the original plot.

Fang Yunhua then waved to Bai Xiaosheng.

"How is the conflict between the Money Gang and the Hainan Sword Sect going?"

"The conflict has been suppressed. The Hainan Sword Sect should have made some compromises for this. Of course, what is shown to the outside world is that the two sides have joined forces after clearing up the misunderstanding in time. In addition, the host has been asking me to pay attention to Shangguan Jin Hong's movements."

It's certain that he's not currently in the south, because Shangguan Fei has been in charge here lately.

"If nothing unexpected happens, he should have already set off."

If it is confirmed that Shangguan Jin Hong and Tie Gu, who is loyal to Hua Bai Kong, have joined forces, then the other party will definitely receive news of the Tianshan battle earlier than I do. Given Shangguan Jin Hong's style of not taking a carriage or riding a horse, but only walking, he should definitely set off early.

This guy is going to have a tough time walking from Hainan to Tianshan.

Fortunately, he was a martial arts master. If an ordinary person were to cross from the southernmost point to the Northwest, even if given a year, they wouldn't be able to complete the journey.

Meanwhile, Li Xunhuan couldn't understand why Fang Yunhua had suddenly shifted the focus from the Tianshan Challenge to Shangguan Jin Hong. Moreover, judging from the situation, it seemed that the other party was also going to watch the battle. This made him gradually realize that the Tianshan Battle was no longer limited to the two forces.

"At that time."

"I will definitely go."

Hearing Fang Yunhua's words, Li Xunhuan breathed a sigh of relief. In his opinion, Fang Yunhua's departure would at least prevent the worst possible outcome.

But he seems to have overlooked one thing.

That person was his friend, but that doesn't mean they were Fang Yunhua's friend.

In reality, Fang Yunhua didn't like Bai Tianyu's personality at all, or rather, he himself had a domineering style of "I don't care what you think, I care what I think." However, unlike Bai Tianyu, he didn't have a problem distinguishing between friends and subordinates.

Furthermore, they would forcibly assign some subordinates a title of "brother" that did not match their status.

"In short, let's focus on the current situation first."

Li Xunhuan nodded, but in reality, he was already somewhat bored with the upcoming swordsman competition. Even knowing that Quanfa Tianwang might take the opportunity to cause trouble, he still found it rather uninteresting.

His mind was filled with thoughts of the Battle of Tianshan.

Fang Yunhua will gradually focus his energy on the battle six months from now.

And for him, the invisible struggle hidden beneath that battle had already begun.

This made him turn his gaze to the carriage traveling alongside him.

He suddenly remembered something: he hadn't kept his appointment with Ximen Rou yesterday because he was entertaining her. Although he and Hua Baifeng hadn't made a verbal agreement, the tacit understanding that had been formed was broken, which would have some impact.

Just as he was lost in thought.

Lin Shiyin, who seemed to be focused on the scenery outside the window, noticed that the atmosphere inside the carriage had become much more oppressive.

She looked up and first saw Ximen Rou standing there in a daze, and then Bai Xiaosheng, who was holding a stack of slips of paper and carefully arranging them one by one.

Then there was Li Xunhuan, who was frowning. Just as she looked over, the other person's gaze immediately fell on her, causing her to shift her attention to the last person.

Fang Yunhua seemed no different from usual.

This made her nudge Ding Baiyun, who was also secretly looking at Fang Yunhua.

"What's wrong, Shion-nee?"

"Come back to your senses. Staring at the other person so intently won't do any good."

“(òó) Oh dear, Shion-nee, I'm just conveying my feelings~ and proving my sincerity!”

Lin Shiyin shook her head helplessly. She had already realized that this love-struck fool beside her was all talk and no action, but when it came to actually taking the plunge, he was a complete failure. Logically speaking, after Sun Xiaohong left, she had given him an excellent opportunity to shine.

The result was that Ding Baiyun's progress in pursuing love was about the same as when Sun Xiaohong was around, or even worse.

"Instead of arguing with me here, why don't you find a chance to talk to him more?" As the number one CP fan who champions Yunxian, even she can give this advice, which shows that Lin Shiyin is also somewhat unable to bear watching the other party's awful behavior.

“I’d like to too, but I’ve never had the chance. I don’t know why Young Master Fang is so close to that guy surnamed Fu. And since we’re all together during the day, it’s not really appropriate.”

Ding Baiyun looked aggrieved.

"So, daytime isn't suitable for being alone together, but what about nighttime?"

"night."

"You're not still worried that he'll do something bad to you, are you? Shouldn't that be what you want?"

Lin Shiyin's words made Ding Baiyun suddenly realize that she had originally assumed that the evening was Sun Xiaohong's time, so she hadn't reacted for a moment after the other party left. But now she realized that spending time together at night was indeed an excellent opportunity to enhance their relationship!

"Okay! Tonight it is!" Ding Baiyun clenched her small fist, displaying that same confident attitude of "it's all or nothing."

However, in Lin Shiyin's view, the other party always seemed to have the appearance of a loser, like someone who could never catch the hottest food.

(End of this chapter)