Volume One: Youths Meeting in Humble Times Chapter 164: Before Leaving

Before Leaving

Shen Tang possessed no cultivation base and should have originally suffered a much heavier backlash from the false avatars. However, the vast majority of it had been transferred by Li Yu onto his own body.

Compared to Li Yu, who was bleeding from his seven orifices, Shen Tang only looked pale with a complete lack of color in her face. She could easily guess that Li Yu must have shifted the brunt of the injuries she was supposed to bear onto himself; otherwise, her condition ought to have been far more severe than his.

Chen Yuan had taken Xu Kaijiang away early on, leaving only Shen Tang and Li Yu inside the Yetai Temple. Shen Tang hurried to fetch a basin of water for Li Yu, supporting him to sit by the edge of the pond so he could catch his breath.

After taking the water from her, Li Yu produced a white medicinal pill and swallowed it. Roughly the time it takes for an incense stick to burn later, Li Yu finally began to feel much better. He smiled at Shen Tang, who was standing anxiously by his side, and said, "Elder Sister, do not worry. I am quite all right."

With her eyes red with self-reproach, Shen Tang said, "It is all my fault. If only I were a bit more useful and did not become such a burden to you, you would not have had to endure so many injuries on my behalf. If anything were to happen to you, I would lose even the courage to go on living."

Li Yu comforted her, saying, "You must trust me. From the very moment my Master departed, my life has no longer belonged solely to me. I carry upon my shoulders my Master's ideals and beliefs. Whatever he left undone, I must fulfill in the days to come. As for my own life and death, I shall cherish them dearly and will not recklessly put myself in a position where I must face death."

Hearing Li Yu speak thus, Shen Tang felt slightly more at ease. She then asked, "What shall we do next, then?"

Li Yu glanced at the tightly shut doors and replied, "We wait. For now, all we can do is wait. If my calculations are correct, the people outside will not dare to enter Tianmen Town just yet. They are also waiting for the residents of Tianmen Town to leave first and report the situation inside to them before they arrange to enter and carve up the spoils of Tianmen Town. All we can do now is wait for the people of Tianmen Town to depart first, and only then can we leave."

Shen Tang nodded to indicate she had no objections, but then a thought struck her: if they stayed right here in the Yetai Temple, would those people truly not come looking for them?

Li Yu explained, "They will not. The Yetai Temple has the restrictive seals laid down by my Master. As long as I do not open them, they cannot enter, nor can they probe what lies within!"

As he spoke, Li Yu murmured inwardly, "Master, oh Master, did you foresee long ago that this day would come, and thus set up these restrictive seals in advance as an extra layer of protection bestowed upon me?"

During the days they hid within the Yetai Temple, outsiders still tried every possible means to break the temple's seals and barriers, hoping to gain entry and pry into the secrets within. Yet, without exception, every attempt was repelled by the Yetai Temple.

At first, many refused to believe it. They simply could not accept that the restrictive seals left behind by someone who had already transcended the Dao could stir up any waves. Initially, they brought out all their trump cards—whether it was supreme sorcery, magical artifacts, venomous attacks, or Daoist strikes—only to have them all bounced back or dissolved by the Yetai Temple. After this happened repeatedly, they finally realized that although the Daoist of Lin had passed on, the restrictive seals he had laid down were truly not something ordinary people could unravel.

After several days of this, they finally dampened their drums and lowered their flags, abandoning any further expectations of what might be inside the Yetai Temple. After all, what good was expectation? They could only gaze at the ocean and sigh, left with nothing but futile regret!

This grand opening of the Heavenly Gate had essentially drawn to a close here. So many had come, yet in the end, only two people had reaped any benefits, while everyone else could be said to have lost half their lives. And that was merely on the surface; the true consequences would only manifest in the years of Dao cultivation ahead of them.

Only then would they truly understand what it meant to bitterly regret their initial actions!

Although Tianmen Town had now become a land blessed by the Dao, because the Great Dao still needed to thoroughly merge with Tianmen Town before it could harmonize with the outside world, and with so many people needing to cross the spatial barrier one by one, it was no easy task. Most crucially, half of their cultivation bases had been abruptly wiped out. Lacking the confidence to brave the vast open seas alone or in small groups and emerge completely unscathed, they ultimately decided to wait and depart together as a group. By doing so, they would retain a greater chance of survival.

For them, mere survival was the greatest hope—a glimmer of hope that they might one day reclaim their former cultivation levels! If they lost even their lives, they would truly be crying their eyes out in despair.

Having endured wave after wave of crushing blows, survival had become their ultimate obsession!

Therefore, in the days that followed, they all waited for the members of the Li clan, the Great Sword Qing Shan, and the Imperial Palace to pack up and set out, because only those three major sects still retained the strength of the Dao Realm. Following them would grant the others a measure of peace of mind.

To be fair, they did not actually trust the people of the Li clan. To them, the Li clan was a cold-hearted, ruthless family that regarded everyone else as mere ants unworthy of notice. Fortunately, however, there were also the people from the Great Sword Qing Shan and the Imperial Palace, allowing them to pin their hopes on these three colossal entities.

The members of the Li clan did not return to the City Lord's Mansion. They knew that this trip to Tianmen Town had thoroughly and irreconcilably offended those outsiders. Though they cared little for it, one less trouble was better than one more; since they found each other mutually repulsive, it was better never to meet again. From that day onward, they hid within the residence of the Zhang family—one of the Five Great Clans—to recuperate and rest.

Lu Ming, however, was entirely different. Upon learning that Li Yu had perished within that grand array, he sank into deep self-reproach and bewilderment.

At first, when he heard the news that Li Yu had set up a massive array in Tianmen Town to trap numerous individuals, he had wanted to go and take a look. His intention was to watch over Li Yu's flank so that if any trouble arose, he could intervene in time.

Yet, just as he was about to set off, Xie Tong had told him, "You would do best not to go. As rumor has it, he has laid down a grand array in Tianmen Town, waiting for those people to walk right into the trap of their own accord. I understand your desire to go and watch his flank, but if you do, you must enter the grand array alongside them. Once you go in, Li Yu will have to divide his focus to look after you. Alternatively, your very presence might cause certain complications for his strategy. When the time comes to strike against them, seeing you there, should he attack or not? What will you do then?"

At the time, Lu Ming had retorted hastily, "I am a Sword Immortal; I can protect myself. Whatever he wishes to do, let him do it. All I want to do is keep watch over him, nothing more."

Xie Tong shook his head. "It would be fine if you did not enter the chess game, but the moment you step into it, you represent the Great Sword Qing Shan. If they ask you for assistance and you refuse, it means Qing Shan stands in opposition to them. Privately and publicly, your presence would only make him vulnerable."

Persuaded by Xie Tong's words, Lu Ming shelved his urge to go. Just as Xie Tong had said, given his identity, it was indeed inconvenient for him to show his face.

Yet, when the news of Li Yu's death finally reached him, he was filled with regret and anguish. He had gone to the scene of the incident and searched for any trace of Li Yu's life or death, but alas, the entirety of Tianmen Town no longer held a single trace of Li Yu's aura, as if he had never existed there at all.

At that time, he had even wondered whether the Li Yu inside the grand array was merely an illusion. But according to those people—or rather, the information released by the Li clan—that was undoubtedly the real Li Yu.

The Li clan's soul-probating and truth-seeking arts had never erred. Thus, believing that the Li Yu in question was genuine, no one else dared to question whether he was real or fake.

Lu Ming sank into profound self-reproach, regretting that he had not ignored the elders' advice back then. Perhaps, had he gone, he might have saved Li Yu, and things would not have deteriorated to the current state.

Xie Tong shared an identical sense of self-reproach and remorse. Of course, his remorse was not as profound as Lu Ming's; his regret stemmed primarily from the perspective that Li Yu was a prodigy born for swordsmanship. In his eyes, Li Yu was the next Lu Ming, and might even achieve heights surpassing Lu Ming's.

Yet, such a brilliant sapling had been ruined by his own overcautiousness, ruthlessly robbing Qing Shan and the entire world of someone who could have shone brightly in the realm of cultivation.

Still, he was not Lu Ming. Having experienced more of the world's trials, he thought to himself: with the Daoist of Lin's fiercely protective nature, would his sole disciple run into trouble and die—even transcending the Dao—without leaving behind some means to safeguard him? He simply refused to believe it. Moreover, given Li Yu's habit of looking seven steps ahead for every single step he took, he refused to believe Li Yu could die so easily.

Cao Xihe, the Dean of the Renhe Academy, had fallen into similar doubts. Among the three major academies of the Imperial Palace, each possessed unfathomable mystical arts, and the Renhe Academy happened to specialize in an art of probing mortals and peeking into the heavens.

The foundational principle of this art was the belief that every individual constantly influenced the world; as long as they had existed, they left an imprint on the world's evolution. Even the moment of their death could trigger long-term repercussions on the future world.

When he learned of Li Yu's death, he initially had no desire to meddle, but strangely enough, a thought had suddenly stirred within him. Consequently, he employed the art of probing mortals and peeking into the heavens to observe how Li Yu's existence had affected the world's transformation.

As it turned out, the results were astonishing!

Li Yu's existence had acted as a driving force for the world. Furthermore, from what his probing revealed, although he could indeed sense that Li Yu had died, that influence had not vanished, nor did it seem to have been caused by his death.

To Cao Xihe, Li Yu was like a figure shrouded in mist—unfathomable, yet endlessly captivating.

He muttered to himself, "Could this child be a pivotal figure reshaping the cosmic order? If so, where on earth does he hail from? Could he truly come from..."

His thoughts halted right there. He realized he was sliding toward a dangerous precipice. For high-level cultivators like them, uttering the unknowable aloud would inevitably draw the attention of the immortals in the immortal realms.

Although immortals could not descend at present, nor could mortals ascend, the power of heavenly punishment still remained firmly in the hands of the immortals. A single bolt of heavenly retribution was something even the Dean of the Renhe Academy had no wish to endure.

These matters were of paramount importance and could not be kept hidden. After a brief deliberation, he decided to report everything to the Supreme Lord of the Imperial Palace.

A letter from Cao Xihe flew across two distinct spaces on a wisp of curling smoke, arriving straight at the Imperial Palace.

Zhang Helun gazed into the distance, whispering in his heart, "His death, whether true or false, can finally draw a definitive period to the affair of Tianmen Town."