Volcanic Age

Zhou Xuchuan was now fourteen years old.

Zhang Hong and Zhang Xuen had graduated from the pavilion when they turned fifteen. The two of them were rather reluctant to part ways with Zhou Xuchuan, but they promised to meet the following year.

I wonder what happened to Senior brother and Senior sister in the original timeline.

As he had gotten closer to them, Zhou Xuchuan couldn't help but worry. He did not know what happened to the two of them in the original history. He combed through his memories several times, but he couldn't remember anything.

This could mean one of two things. One, they were prodigies when they were young, but had difficulty gaining insights and became average cultivators when they were old. The other possibility was that they lost their lives before they could fully span their wings out. Zhou Xuchuan was mainly worried about the latter.

Although he had significantly altered the future with the things he did, he did not know what kind of effect that could have. He wasn't certain, but there was the possibility that he didn't manage to influence Zhang Hong and Zhang Xuen's fates.

Because of this, he had secretly helped them with their training by sparring with them over the past year. Even though he found it a little bothersome, at least they would be able to prepare for their own uncertain future.

"I won't see the two for a while, so I guess I can lay low and focus on training for the next year," Zhou Xuchuan muttered as he looked around.

A few years ago, he had treaded on the fine line between life and death several times on the cliff while training with his master. The memory still sent shivers down his spine. He couldn't bring himself to view it nostalgically. The reason he came here again despite that… was because hardly anyone came here.

He took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. While repeatedly taking deep breaths, he circulated his qi according to his cultivation method. Internal qi flowed from his dantian, which was now about sixty-seven years' worth of qi.

The increase in his qi had slowed down but he had still accumulated more than double of what others could in the same period. He had sixty-five years when he was thirteen, so he had accumulated two years' worth in the past year.

Violet Haze Divine Art, sixth stage.

He'd broken through to the sixth stage of the Violet Haze Divine Art as well, though he thought that his progress was still way too slow. Although his qi didn't have the violet hue yet, the qi circulated using the method of Mount Hua's top cultivation manual gave him a significant boost in power.

He assumed a sword stance and swiftly converted his internal qi into offensive energy. The dense qi caused the air to vibrate faintly.

Second form, Arc Flower Rain!

Woosh!

He thrust his sword forward in a lightning-fast motion. However, that wasn't the end of it. The moment he thrust his sword, dozens of sword silhouettes spanned out in the shape of a fan, leaving a long comet-like trail before hitting dozens of trees.

Crrrack!

One tree had a hole punched through its center, while another had a large chunk gouged out from the side. Some trees had their branches snapped, and there was a deep sword mark on the ground.

"Haah, haah!" Zhou Xuchuan gasped for breath, his face contorted in annoyance.

"Urgh!"

It wasn't the high qi consumption that annoyed him. The second form possessed a destructive power matching its qi input. What annoyed him was the difficulty of executing the form itself. It had been a long time since he started training the second form, yet he was unable to execute it properly.

In theory, Violet Haze True Qi should form petals, and the sword trajectory should be linear. Just now, he had aimed straight ahead, so there shouldn't be any marks left on the ground, as it indicated that he failed.

"It's not a martial art reserved for the greatest genius of Mount Hua for nothing, huh. I almost ended up swearing at the founder!"

Becoming a leader of one of the pillars of the Martial Alliance required many things, including martial prowess. However, while it was fundamental, being powerful wasn't the only requirement to lead a sect.

The strongest expert of a sect wasn't necessarily the sect master. A prime example was the Shaolin Temple, whose master wasn't their strongest member. In fact, the current Shaolin Temple Master couldn't even be considered an expert. This was because the Shaolin Temple prioritized the study of Buddhism over martial arts. Buddhist teachings and laws were the first, and martial arts was only secondary.

The Wudang Sect was similar in that regard but with their focus on Daoism. They prioritized the Dao, not cultivation. Other sects within the ten major organizations had similar tendencies as well, as most sects were founded on Daoist or Buddhist teachings.

However, there were exceptions to this, which were Mount Hua and the Beggars Gang. Leaving the Beggars Gang aside, Mount Hua Sect was an unexpected exception.

It wasn't that Mount Hua did not value Daoist ideals like other sects, they just had slightly more secular tendencies. At best, Mount Hua's secular nature was only slightly above average among the nine major sects. The fact that the elitist organization within Mount Hua, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, couldn't be joined through strength alone, was proof of this.

Despite that, the title of sect master of Mount Hua was always held by the strongest member of the sect, unless it was a special situation like war.

It's obviously because the Violet Haze Divine Art and the Violet Haze Sword Art cannot be learned by someone with ordinary talent! Urgh, I'm gonna vomit.

Learning the Violet Haze Divine Art required extraordinary talent. Still, as long as one had the talent, they would receive full support from the sect master himself. With the teachings of the previous generation's genius and the resources invested, it was almost guaranteed that the successor would become the strongest expert in the sect.

Just how powerful is the Dark Heavens Association Leader? Zhou Xuchuan wondered.

In Zhou Xuchuan's previous life, even the strongest expert of Mount Hua lost his life at the hands of the leader of the Dark Heavens Association. That instilled a deep sense of fear in him.

He furrowed his brow in contemplation before shaking his head to dispel his fears.

"Geez, I hate geniuses!"

Instead, he decided to curse geniuses in general.

"I'm going through so much suffering, barely reaching the Harmony Realm after seventy-seven years, while those guys enjoy learning martial arts! The world is so unfair!"

Letting out his frustration like that gave him some relief. He even felt a little refreshed.

"Ordinary folk like me should focus on training instead of worrying. There's no hope for me otherwise."

He sat down cross-legged and started circulating his qi to recover as much of what he consumed as possible.

"Hm, next is the Eclipse Divine Archery Art, huh?"

After recovering, he took out the bow and arrows that he had hidden in the same place and looked up at the sky to check the weather.

The training conditions for the Eclipse Divine Archery Art were rather peculiar. First of all, the time had to be somewhere between night and day, with clear visibility of the sun and the moon. It could be trained even if the sun and the moon were obstructed by clouds, but for some strange reason, performing the art under such conditions wasn't as powerful.

When he first came to know about the Eclipse Divine Archery Art, he thought it was named that way because the archery was powerful enough to shoot down the sun and the moon. However, that wasn't the case at all. It was instead a martial art that harnessed the natural qi originating from the sun and the moon.

The first stage of the Eclipse Divine Archery Art was basic archery, and upon reaching the second stage, the cultivator would be able to infuse qi into an arrow to increase its speed and destructive power. The third stage allowed for the infusing of yang qi, and the fourth stage, yin qi. It was because of this ability to infuse the yin and yang into an arrow that it was called "Divine Archery."

"Hmm."

He nocked an arrow and pulled the bowstring. The arrow slowly moved in sync with his breath, rising and falling rhythmically.

Zhou Xuchuan inhaled deeply and held his breath. As he did, the arrow stilled. With his left eye closed, he refocused, simultaneously circulating his internal qi to infuse it into the arrow.

It wasn't that he increased his physical abilities with internal qi, he had infused an arrow with his qi. This was something that was impossible without a proper archery art.

One li.

He let go of the hand holding the bowstring.

Pop!

The arrow exploded from the bow, like a comet streaking through the air. It followed a perfectly straight trajectory without the slightest undulations before hitting the target.

The first target was a tree branch as thin as Zhou Xuchuan's finger, and the secondary target was a leaf. His final target was a large tree behind that.

"Oh! I hit the arrow too!" he exclaimed.

He found archery to be harder than it looked, especially since it required a precise adjustment in output when he infused the arrow with qi. Too much, and the arrow would shatter; too little, and the arrow would veer off course.

Still, the power was quite considerable if he could pull it off. First, the arrow was unaffected by the wind, which was attributed to the Eclipse Divine Archery Art itself. This alone increased the accuracy a lot. Other than that, as mentioned before, the destructive power and speed would increase as well.

"Let's keep going like this."

His days of training continued.

*

The weather was hot enough to make people sweat even if they stood still. It was a kind of heat that made people look for water.

"Senior brother, senior brother," Luo Xiaoyue called out to Zhou Xuchuan.

"Hm?"

"What are you doing?"

"Breathing."

Luo Xiaoyue became speechless. However, even that expression was undeniably pretty, making Zhou Xuchuan's heart skip a beat. At thirteen, Luo Xiaoyue had become even more beautiful, and her beauty seemed to grow every day.

Mmm!

He couldn't help but groan inwardly. Sometimes, he found himself lost in a daze when he looked at Luo Xiaoyue.

"Geez, you're not trying to be funny, are you?" Luo Xiaoyue frowned, which was also cute.

"Senior brother, is there something on my face?" she tilted her head, feeling Zhou Xuchuan's gaze.

Zhou Xuchuan snapped back into reality and quickly glossed over it.

It's nothing.

"I was permanently etching your cuteness into my memory. I'm going to pretend I'm not interested and keep remembering it forever."

He blurted out what was on his mind, getting it the other way around.

Oh no!

He realized his mistake and quickly checked Luo Xiaoyue.

A gasp escaped him. He plopped down onto the ground, clutching his chest. In front of him was a heavenly maiden.

Luo Xiaoyue had lowered her head, and her frail-looking shoulders were trembling. At first, he thought she was angry, but he was wrong. Luo Xiaoyue was blushing in embarrassment. The way she clutched the hem of her clothes was really cute.

"Ehem!" He coughed awkwardly, hoping to ease the awkwardness. "Why did you look for me?"

Luo Xiaoyue also regained her composure at Zhou Xuchuan's considerate words and replied, "I'm here to tell you the news about the Lotus Sword Gathering."

"The Lotus Sword Gathering?" Zhou Xuchuan frowned in clear displeasure. "That's happening this year?"

Luo Xiaoyue nodded in response.

"Why? There wasn't one until now."

The Lotus Sword Gathering was basically a sparring tournament. However, as its name implied, only members of the Lotus Pavilion could participate.

"I believe you know why." Luo Xiaoyue smiled bitterly.

"Urgh."

It wasn't that the sect hadn't held it, but they hadn't been able to. Mount Hua Sect had been preoccupied with the matters going on in the world, such as the Nine Water Gangs and the treasury of the Three-Eyed Godly Thief.

They finally managed to clean it up, and return to their normal lives, which meant that they could resume their annual events.

"Why do you hate it so much?"

"…I'm leaving the pavilion next year, so I wanted to take it easy until then."

He wasn't entirely lying, but he wasn't telling the whole truth either. Because of the small number of members in the Lotus Pavilion, he wasn't given the right to refuse. He had to participate in it unless there was a serious reason.

And naturally, participating would draw unwanted attention. With everyone watching his every move, it would be impossible to sneak away and train in secret. That was something he didn't want.

I'll just do it moderately before dropping out.

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