In the world of the strong, things were never that convoluted, nor were they ever over-explained.
Principles.
Xu Xian understood them all.
Pros and cons.
He was well aware of them too.
Yet he still tried to argue.
He tried to use reasons that couldn't even convince himself to persuade the five people before him.
The result was as expected.
Li Taibai said, "You can certainly wait a little longer, if you feel you still have plenty of time."
Li Taibai also said, "You could also refuse, but the result would be the five of us dying with regret. In the end, the outcome would be the same."
"Only the process would become more troublesome."
"Variables,"
"would also increase."
"Eventually, Fanzhou's qi fortune will be exhausted, the Sky Gate will inevitably open, and the Great Cataclysm will descend..."
They said a great deal, everyone speaking at once.
Even Shuer was convinced by them, repeating in Xu Xian's mind, "They are right."
Xu Xian compromised. He said, "I can accept it, but... I at least have to tell them, let them prepare in advance, right?"
Xu Xian felt this request was perfectly reasonable.
Li Taibai took a deep breath and smiled. "How do you know they aren't already prepared?"
Xu Xian looked suspicious. "Hmm?"
Li Taibai pointed a finger at the sky, and an illusory projection quietly emerged.
Turning from ethereal to solid, fragments of images flashed across it, shifting and changing.
Xu Xian subconsciously stood up, raising his eyes to stare at the curtain of light.
He asked in surprise, "This is?"
Li Taibai smiled faintly. "As you can see..."
In the curtain of light, countless scenes were playing out.
Familiar settings.
Familiar faces.
At the Sword Qi Great Wall, a white-haired sword immortal sat with his sword across his knees, gazing indifferently at the distant wilderness...
In the vast white snowfields, an old man with a blood-colored banner on his shoulder braved the wind and snow to climb a high mountain...
Amidst green mountains and clear waters, a girl in plain clothes listened to the wind on a hill and bathed in the sun atop the clouds...
Before the mountain gate of the Wendao Sword Sect, startling flashes of light came and went in a frantic hurry...
Yes.
Just as Xu Xian saw, the Wendao Sword Sect had already begun preparing for war.
Right after Xu Xian stepped through that door, Jiang Wanyin had convened a Pavilion Elder Council within the Sword Pavilion.
After the meeting ended,
Lin Fengmian and Lei Yunche set off for the far north.
That place was devoid of life, one of Fanzhou's forbidden zones of life, and also the ideal battlefield.
At the same time,
the news reached the Demon Suppression Abyss and the new city on the banks of the Wild River immediately.
Half of the disciples were recalled to the sect, while the rest ended their cultivation and ascended the high city walls.
Even Yao Xiqiao, who usually never showed his face in public, sat on the city wall, gazing toward the East Desolation.
The sword in his hand was already restless.
Within the Wendao Sword Sect,
the Shadow Hall was fully mobilized; even its eighth-stage Hall Master had departed for the Central Plains.
The Merchant Hall announced internally that all external trade was to cease, and existing goods were being inventoried and moved into storage.
The Personnel Hall was re-tallying the disciples in the sect...
The Mission Hall issued a series of tasks, with disciples from every peak and hall participating. Centered on the Wendao Sword Sect's mountain gate, they were to evacuate and relocate every human and mountain spirit within a thousand-mile radius...
Scenes of frantic activity were playing out in every corner of the Wendao Sword Sect simultaneously.
Though
the results of the meeting had not been announced to the public, and the sect's ancestors had said nothing,
every disciple knew very well in their heart.
Something major was about to happen to the Wendao Sword Sect.
War,
was coming.
Moreover, it would be an unprecedented war; otherwise, it wouldn't have come to this.
Twenty years ago, when the sword hung over the southern sky,
only the strength of Zhijian Peak was mobilized, and the one leading them was merely Ye Xianyu.
Eight years ago, during the struggle for the auspicious beast at the Demon Suppression Abyss when the East Desolation made its comeback, the Wendao Sword Sect had only prepared for battle at the bridgehead.
But today,
evacuating the commoners within a thousand-mile radius.
What that implied was all too clear.
They feared these commoners would be caught in the crossfire and lose their lives needlessly.
And what kind of war would cover a range of a thousand miles?
One had to know,
the entire mountain gate of the Wendao Sword Sect spanned nearly a thousand miles.
Calculated this way,
the cleared range approached two thousand miles.
The only thing they could think of that could cause so much territory to fall into ruin was a battle between saints.
It would either be a false alarm,
or a war for the sect's survival.
Sometimes,
the quieter it was, the more it made one's heart race. At this moment, such was the case for the disciples of the Wendao Sword Sect.
In the late autumn of this year, the Wendao Sword Sect, which had welcomed a second spring, was quietly waiting—waiting for the first winter snow...
As Xu Xian learned of the events beyond the mountain through that small curtain of light, his heart grew even more conflicted.
No wonder.
No wonder his Senior Sister had insisted on seeing him off, and no wonder she had said those mysterious things.
Come to think of it,
Senior Brother Yun Zheng must have told her something back then. Did she know what was going to happen?
Had Li Taibai told her?
Or perhaps she had guessed it herself.
That must be why,
eight years ago, he hadn't hesitated to risk his life to cripple the East Desolation.
At this moment, many things that had seemed unreasonable before suddenly became clear, and many things he hadn't understood were now resolved...
Li Taibai was waiting for this day.
The Wendao Sword Sect was also waiting for this day.
Training an army for a thousand days for a single moment of use. Whether it was Li Taibai and his four Senior Brothers who had sat withered here for ten thousand years,
or the ancestors who rarely showed their faces, and even Xu Xian himself—they all seemed certain.
The Northern Borders would fall into chaos.
Once change occurred within the Wendao Sword Sect, those people would definitely strike.
Because they all knew very well,
that in the world outside, those old monsters who had vanished from sight and lived in seclusion were also waiting for this day to arrive.
Li Taibai's fall.
The collapse of the sect-protecting formation.
A universal crusade to trample the Wendao Sword Sect, reopen the Sky Gate, and ascend to the heavens.
When that time came,
the entire world would surely flock to it, just as they had in the Emperor's Tomb, rising up together to profit from the situation.
That spectacle would surely surpass the previous confrontation at the Demon Abyss.
And this time,
they wouldn't just be testing the waters.
It had been ten thousand years.
They had endured for so long and waited for so long; they would not be soft-hearted.
Xu Xian pondered, and Xu Xian reflected...
The current him
simply did not possess the strength to suppress those old monsters.
Rather than racking his brains to go and then return, it was better to catch them by surprise and strike them while they were off-guard. Perhaps he could even create a time gap.
To minimize the losses.
As long as he could build the Sword Tower, break through to the tribulation transcendence stage, and stabilize the seal before they realized what was happening and made their move,
then even if the whole world came to attack,
Xu Xian could overcome them alone and sweep them away with a single sword.
The journey to the Emperor's Tomb,
the confrontation at the Demon Abyss,
Xu Xian had recognized a reality: the old monsters of this world were not as easy to fool as he had imagined.
Playing tricks, schemes, or even tactics with them...
was useless.
They had lived longer than him; they had seen everything and used every trick in the book.
To deal with them,
one could only rely on strength—absolute strength.
If they feared you,
they would play dumb or even turn a blind eye; you could do whatever you wanted.
If they didn't fear you,
only submission and falling awaited you.
Leaving
and preparing in secret offered no guarantee that news wouldn't leak.
Rather than waiting for a future that might never come,
it was better to act right now.
Choose a day to raise the sword?
Why not today.
He gave a bitter smile, one of compromise and helplessness. "Heh... How will the world judge me in the future?"
"Xu Xian, the one who betrayed his master and ancestors?"
"The one who committed the ultimate sacrilege?"
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