Having studied for a hundred years, why do you call me the Martial Saint?

"You know him?" Zhou Ji looked up in surprise.

"My former roommate, the handyman, helped me a few times," Gu Shuxian answered truthfully.

"Oh..." Zhou Ji looked enlightened. "That's quite a coincidence. Your Senior Brother Meng wanted to join the Pill Hall and came to me to make connections."

Gu Shuxian was somewhat surprised: "Senior Brother Zhou actually has connections to get outer disciples into the Pill Hall?"

He had heard Zhou Ji say before that the competition to join the Pill Hall was fierce.

"Of course I do. I have some connections at the Pill Hall."

Zhou Ji lowered his voice, "My second uncle is one of the elders of the Pill Hall, and several managers in the Pill Hall have to give me some face."

Gu Shuxian was speechless.

No wonder no one kicks you out even though you often practice bad medicine.

So you're a relative of someone with connections.

"Did Senior Brother Meng Ping join?"

"If I were to intervene, it would certainly succeed," Zhou Ji replied casually, then, as if remembering something, added, "Since he's Junior Brother Gu's friend, I'll naturally lend a hand if I can."

Gu Shuxian nodded thoughtfully.

"By the way," Zhou Ji suddenly leaned closer, speaking mysteriously, "have you ever heard of the Shaoyang Sword?"

"The Lesser Yang Sword?"

"It's that mysterious expert who defeated that Shen Jianyi a few days ago. Now, even the outer sect doesn't know who he is. They only know that he mentioned the name Shaoyang, so we'll just call him Shaoyang Sword."

Gu Shuxian mumbled, "I haven't seen it with my own eyes, I've only heard others talk about it."

"I didn't see it either, which is a real pity." Zhou Ji said with some regret, as he was refining medicine at the time and didn't have time at all.

"I didn't believe these rumors at first, things like a wooden sword breaking an iron sword, or a single sword strike shattering a sword's momentum. They all sounded fake. But do you know what happened later?"

"What?" Gu Shuxian asked in confusion.

Is there more to this story?

How could I, the person involved, not know this?

"That one-armed swordsman, Han Baitao! He spread the word in our outer sect that he would pass on his life's swordsmanship to that Shaoyang Swordsman!"

Gu Shuxian paused in his movements.

"Tsk tsk, that's Han Baitao! Countless people would only dream of receiving his guidance, yet the Shaoyang Sword never even shows itself..."

Zhou Ji shook his head and sighed for a while, then changed the subject, "It's a pity that I've already decided to pursue alchemy. Otherwise, with my talent, if I had focused on swordsmanship back then, I would be a master swordsman now."

Gu Shuxian smiled and casually offered a few words of praise: "That's right. If Senior Brother Zhou had practiced swordsmanship back then, he might be the one who is famous today."

"Hahaha, well said! Junior Brother Gu, I'll get you a few more boxes of bone-strengthening ointment later!" Zhou Ji laughed.

While Gu Shuxian was helping Zhou Ji, he was thinking about other things.

Han Baitao said he would pass on his swordsmanship, but I'm afraid I won't be able to keep his promise.

Let's not even talk about whether I can learn it.

None of his own martial arts techniques belonged to the Suishan Sword Sect. If someone like Han Baitao were to examine them closely, something might be discovered.

Not worth the candle.

This kind of inheritance is better left undone.

After helping Zhou Ji select the medicinal herbs and taking a few more boxes of medicine, Gu Shuxian bid farewell and left.

Judging from the sky, it was clearly still some time before dusk.

Gu Shuxian turned a corner on the mountain road and headed towards a familiar, secluded path.

Library.

Most of the leaves on the old locust tree had fallen, and the withered yellow leaves covered the ground.

Old Feng was still lying on the chair under the tree, coughing occasionally. The difference this time was that he was holding a pen and writing and drawing in a notebook.

Gu Shuxian stepped forward, took out an oil paper package from his pocket, and handed it over.

"Elder Feng, it's been cold lately. This is a health-preserving soup I got from my senior brother at the Pill Hall. It's good for warming up. Why don't you try it?"

Old Feng raised his eyelids and smiled.

"That's very thoughtful."

"I'm able to borrow books here thanks to Old Feng."

Gu Shuxian smiled; those words seemed quite sincere.

For the past few months, Elder Feng has allowed him to freely enter the pavilion and browse through its contents. If someone else were to guard it, it probably wouldn't be so convenient.

Even if someone is willing to lend it, you might have to drag them out and talk for two hours about rebellious theories.

So, it's probably best for this old man to live a few more years.

Gu Shuxian went into the library and borrowed a few books at random.

I intended to say goodbye and leave.

But when I came out, I saw that the old man seemed to have a lot of free time, so I couldn't help but start bragging to him again, mainly about the management of the sect.

Feng responded half-heartedly, occasionally nodding.

Finally, Gu Shuxian suddenly asked, "Elder Feng, when did you come to Suishan?"

Gu Shuxian was a little curious. This old man Feng seemed aloof, but he also seemed to have some influence. However, the Suishan Sword Sect was very young and could not support such an old man. He was obviously an outsider. If an outsider had power, then this outsider was not simple. He might be one of the founding elders of the sect.

Of course, these are all just guesses. The old man is all alone in this place and doesn't look like he holds any great power.

Perhaps the incident at the arena was just a coincidence, or perhaps the old man just mentioned it casually, and his so-called connections just happened to have this idea.

Feng Lao remained silent for a while.

Gu Shuxian thought he didn't want to talk and was about to change the subject when the old man suddenly spoke up.

"I wasn't from here before."

"Many years ago, I was elsewhere." Old Feng leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the sky.

"That place is very high, so high that you can't even imagine it. Countless people in the world want to go up there, but they can only look up at it from the foot of the mountain."

Gu Shuxian's heart stirred.

Old Feng continued, "I stayed there for many years. I was very young then, so I would question things I didn't like. Then I encountered something I really disliked."

"What?" Gu Shuxian asked curiously.

"An object."

"There is an object on the mountain. For countless generations, all the elders, peers, and juniors of the entire sect have been revolving around that object, day after day, year after year."

Gu Shuxian frowned: "What exactly is it?"

"Nobody knows," Elder Feng said calmly. "Nobody has figured it out. Generation after generation has been languishing in front of that thing, exhausting their energy."

"I watched them, spending their whole lives trying to understand the same thing, and I felt it was meaningless, so I left."

"After leaving there, I wandered the martial world for several years," Feng Lao continued. "Back then, I was young and felt there were too many injustices in the world, so I wanted to do something about it. Fortunately, my swordsmanship was still quite good, and I did a few decent things and gained some fame."

"Later, as I got older, I wanted to find a place to retire quietly."

"So, we came to Suishan."

After listening to Elder Feng's brief story, Gu Shuxian found some details worth considering, but what puzzled him most was the object Elder Feng mentioned.

So he asked curiously, "About that object, you... really don't know anything about it? Uh, like its appearance or what?"

Old Feng didn't answer, but instead asked a strange question:

Do you think anyone in this world can live for a very, very long time?