Unsheathed

Chapter 368 (1): Unspeakable Hardships

Chapter 368 (1): Unspeakable Hardships

After waiting for a moment, Du Mao still refused to show himself.

Zuo You cast his gaze toward the ancestral mountain as he chuckled, "Still not coming out even after that? As expected of an Ascension Tier cultivator, your face is so thick that even my flying sword most likely won't be able to pierce through it."

At the same time, Zuo You suddenly noticed something strange. Halfway up the ancestral mountain stood an old Unpolished Jade Tier cultivator beside a cluster of beautiful pavilions. It appeared that he was protecting a young woman with decent cultivation aptitude. At this moment, everyone was looking at her with peculiar expressions, and she was a very young Dragon Gate Tier cultivator.

Upon noticing Zuo You's gaze, she immediately lowered her head in a fearful manner.

Zuo You's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this.

Many of the disciples of Parasol Leaf Sect had turned to the ancestral mountain in unison, and it seemed that all of them were looking for her.

The old Unpolished Jade Tier cultivator standing beside her was perhaps her Dao guardian, and appeared furious, but he didn't dare to stand up to Zuo You.

The young woman had a very timid personality, and she began to quietly weep in the face of everyone's scrutiny.

If a cultivating sect wanted to establish dominance over all other sects, then that was actually a very simple task to accomplish: the sect just had to have the most powerful cultivators.

In the past, Parasol Leaf Sect had the most powerful cultivators and cultivation arts that could take one straight to the Upper Five Tiers, thereby establishing the foundation.

Currently, Parasol Leaf Sect also had the most powerful cultivators, allowing them to beat other opposing powers into submission, essentially giving the sect and its disciples an untouchable status.

In the future, they also had to ensure that they had the most powerful cultivators to keep everyone else submissive. Otherwise, vengeance would come in swift and brutal fashion from all those that they had oppressed in the past.

Revenge was a dish best served cold, and this was particularly true for cultivators, who had far longer lifespans than mortals. It was not unheard of for one to plot their vengeance over the course of centuries, even millennia!

This reincarnated young woman was an Unpolished Jade Tier cultivator in her previous life. It had taken close to thirty years of arduous searching for the sect to find her, and that was after a cultivator in the sect adept in the art of divination pointed out the general area.

After that, another cultivator of the sect had waited for her for decades under a false alias, and several years after she was born, that cultivator was finally able to successfully bring her back to the sect after a grueling battle.

There were high hopes placed on her shoulders, and she was expected to be one of the future leading figures of the sect.

In terms of status, she was similar to Huang Ting of Peace and Tranquility Mountain. However, she didn't possess anywhere near the same cultivation base as Huang Ting, nor did she seem to have the innate, intangible properties required to go far on the path of cultivation.

The old Heavenly Lord of Peace and Tranquility Mountain and Sect Leader Song Mao regularly scolded Huang Ting for always causing trouble, but internally, they were very pleased with her courageous and unyielding nature.

As for this young woman, her cultivation aptitude was exceptional, but her personality was a little too soft. She had left the mountain to travel and hone her Dao Heart on several past occasions, and upon her return, the appraisal that the sect gave her would always be full of glowing praise, but at the very end, there would always be a comment or two about how her personality was a little too timid and lacking in decisiveness.

However, due to her special status, no one dared to actually criticize her, and the Du Clan, the most prominent clan of Parasol Leaf Sect, treated her like their pride and joy.

The reasons for this were twofold. First, during her previous life, she was an Unpolished Jade Tier cultivator. Second, also during her previous life, she happened to be Du Mao's mother.

Generally speaking, only extremely powerful cultivating sects and immortal clans would be able to pull off the miraculous feat of finding a past prominent figure in their reincarnated form.

Zuo You faltered slightly upon seeing this, and with one hand holding his sword, he scratched his own head with the other, seemingly feeling a little guilty for scaring an innocent young woman.

"That was just a joke, don't take it seriously. It's more so a figure of speech, I'm not actually here to do anything to you," he explained.

His explanation only made things worse, and the young woman's complexion instantly turned deathly pale upon hearing what he had to say.

Her delicate little face began to pucker up, and there were still tear stains on her cheeks as she did everything in her power not to appear timid and fearful against this unreasonable man who had just barged into their sect. Otherwise, given her personality, she would've already been weeping profusely by now.

Zuo You was left ruing his rather unfortunate choice of words, but he didn't want to explain anything.

Little Qi was not very good at dealing with women, while Cui Dongshan was a little better in this regard. As for Zuo You, he had always felt like the heart of a woman was even more difficult to understand than his master's teachings. Essentially, it was something completely beyond him.

Was Zuo You a learned individual?

He was naturally severely lacking in this regard compared with Qi Jingchun and Cui Dongshan. He had never liked studying, and all of the books he had read had been forced upon him by the Scholarly Sage. However, he was still a very learned individual. At the very least, the average academy’s noble or virtuous scholar wasn't even worthy of having an academic discussion with Zuo You.

One had to realize that the earliest source of his sword qi had been derived from none other than books, as well countless cliff carvings and engraved plaques.

Moreover, in order to support his training, Qi Jingchun had accompanied him on extensive journeys that spanned immeasurable distances.

Zuo You heaved a faint sigh as he cast his gaze toward Middle Earth Divine Continent.

As he withdrew his gaze, he discovered that there was an exceptionally talented young swordsman standing beside the young woman. The young man was glowering directly at Zuo You with a fierce and stubborn look in his eyes, and he was unwilling to turn away even as Zuo You's sword qi scorched his eyes.

Zuo You took a glance at a certain spot on the ancestral mountain, then said, "I know what you're trying to do, Du Mao. You can give it a try, and I'll wait for you."

After that, he sliced another opening into the barrier around the ancestral mountain with a casual slash of his sword, then made his way outside.

From there onward, at night, Zuo You would hover in mid-air, resting with his eyes closed near the border of Parasol Leaf Sect's territory.

As soon as the sun began to rise, he would use his sword qi and sword intent to shatter the physical manifestations of the mountain and water fortune in the sect, such as a certain mountain, a certain stretch of river, a huge tree that had hopes of becoming a spirit, a pavilion that was suppressing yin energy, or a subjugation treasure that was buried underground.

Only a small amount of spiritual energy was dissipating, so on the surface, the losses didn't appear to be that heavy, but in reality, the consequences were extremely severe.

When it came to the fortune of the land, such an unfathomable thing could only be stored in certain places. If it were allowed to drift around erratically, then no one would dare to claim it as there was no telling whether it would bring fortune or calamity.

Zuo You was like an old farmer tilling the land as he began digging into the foundation of Parasol Leaf Sect.

Due to the fact that he was near the border, some of the spiritual energy inevitably seeped out of the sect, and initially, no one from the sect dared to come out to recover the spiritual energy and bring it back into the sect.

However, this was simply far too severe a loss to bear, so Parasol Leaf Sect sent out a Golden Core Tier cultivator on what was essentially a suicide mission to gather the spiritual energy with an artifact.

Much to the cultivator's relief, Zuo You didn't even bother to take a glance at him. Instead, he descended onto the surface of a large river, and the veins of spiritual energy being nurtured in the river were instantly shattered.

Emboldened by this turn of events, another Golden Core Tier cultivator emerged from the sect, following Zuo You from dozens of kilometers away to carefully gather the spiritual energy before doing his best to place it back into the water and restore the shattered spiritual energy veins inside.

Ten days passed by, and Zuo You and the cultivators of Parasol Leaf Sect coexisted in harmony, with Zuo You continuing to wreak havoc wherever he went, while Parasol Leaf Sect cultivators cleaned up his mess to the best of their abilities.

Another ten days passed by, and the sect lifted its exit restrictions, sending out some cultivators of the Middle Five Tiers below the Golden Core Tier to follow Zuo You. All of them did so from dozens of kilometers away with mixed emotions in their hearts.

Another ten days passed by, and many young cultivators of the Lower Five Tiers began to join in on the action as well.

Fortunately for them, Zuo You continued to pay no heed to them at all.

After the Major Cold solar term, it wasn't long until the new year.

There was a saying among mortals—the turn of the year is a difficult hurdle that has to be overcome every year. Having reigned supreme on Parasol Leaf Continent for countless years, this was the first time that Parasol Leaf Sect was experiencing just how difficult a hurdle the turn of the year could be.

One day, Parasol Leaf Sect meticulously planned an ambush that involved two Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators and close to ten earth immortals, but Zuo You was able to brush them all aside with a single slash of his sword.

After that, he diverged from his original route, paying a visit to a restricted mountain near the ancestral mountain. That mountain had been gifted to a certain future Unpolished Jade Tier cultivator to serve as the site for their immortal abode, and with just a single slash of his sword, Zuo You split the mountain into two from top to bottom, creating a massive canyon, following which he casually departed without a word.

From that point onward, he continued to chip away at Parasol Leaf Sect little by little.

It wasn't long before all of the major sects and cultivators at or above the Nascent Tier on Parasol Leaf Continent caught wind of what was happening in Parasol Leaf Sect, but seeing as the academy hadn't intervened, no one dared to come and see what was happening for themselves.

With the exception of a single person: Jiang Shangzhen.

Upon his arrival, he extended a deep and formal bow of apology to Zuo You, and after observing the severely ravaged Parasol Leaf Sect for a while, he suddenly erupted into raucous laughter.

As he traveled southward to return to Jade Tablet Sect, he made sure to fly extremely slowly, swaggering through the air to taunt the disciples of Parasol Leaf Sect below.

As a result, he was almost slain on the spot by a sword strike from Zuo You, but even as he fled for his life, he was still chortling with glee.

One day, a young woman appeared before Zuo You, observing him in a timid manner from afar as she asked in a trembling voice, "Why are you destroying the fortune of our sect for no reason?"

At this point, Zuo You was already a familiar face in Parasol Leaf Sect. Some of the sect's disciples thought that he wouldn't be able to hear the hushed discussions that they had about him, but in reality, he was able to hear them as clearly as if they were screaming in his face.

After considering the young woman's question for a moment, he replied, "Everyone in your sect seems to be convinced that Du Mao is a blessing from the heavens who'll take the sect to new heights, but if you ask me, he's the one who's going to bring the sect to its destruction. You should've never given birth to him."

A furious and embarrassed look appeared on the young woman's face.

She was accompanied by the young swordsman who was also expected to form part of the foundation of Parasol Leaf Sect's prosperity over the next one thousand years, and compared with the timid young woman, he had a far more confrontational and abrasive personality.

He was carrying a longsword personally gifted to him by Du Mao on his back, and his eyes were filled with resentment as he declared, "You will die by my sword someday!"

"Oh? In that case, maybe I should get rid of you now so your prophecy doesn't come true," Zuo You said with an amused smile.

The leader of Parasol Leaf Sect was still yet to fully recover from his injuries, and he hurriedly descended out of the sky, positioning himself in front of the young man and the young woman to shield them as he apologized to Zuo You, "Please don't pay him any heed, esteemed sword immortal. He's just had a rush of blood to the head."

Zuo You sat down with his leg crossed on top of a cliff as he said, "I've heard that the cultivators of your Parasol Leaf Sect have always had a habit of attacking anyone they don’t like the look of. If you can't beat them, then you resort to announcing that you're from Parasol Leaf Sect, and after you return to the sect, you'll give a sob story to your seniors, who'll then send more people to go after the ones that you failed to defeat. Am I wrong?"

The sect leader could only give a wry smile in response.

"You must be thinking to yourself 'so what if that's true?' right?" Zuo You chuckled.

The sect leader's expression instantly changed drastically. He gave the young man a vicious slap across the face and yelled, "Kneel down and kowtow in apology to this esteemed sword immortal! Keep kowtowing until he tells you to stop!"

"I'd rather die!" the young man spat through gritted teeth as blood began to trickle down from the corner of his lips.

Zuo You smiled as he said, "At this point, I have no more interest in educating arrogant so-called prodigy swordsmen like yourself. Your seniors are the ones responsible for how you turned out today, so as the sect leader, you can take another sword strike from me for his transgression."

Immediately thereafter, Zuo You's sword pierced through the sect leader's abdomen, and he was once again sent tumbling down from the heavens before crashing into a mountain.

As for whether he had intentionally refrained from defending himself in the hope that doing so would be enough to ease Zuo You's fury, that was a question that only he and Zuo You could answer.

Zuo You turned his gaze to the young man as he asked, "Are you not going to continue your little act of defiance? Perhaps Du Mao will come out to save you."

The young man's complexion had turned deathly pale, and he offered no response.

"If you don't say anything, then you're going to die. If you put on a defiant act, you'll probably still die, but perhaps someone will come out to try and save you. What's your choice going to be?" Zuo You asked.

A conflicted look appeared in the young man's eyes.

All of a sudden, the young woman stepped forward with a desperate look in her eyes as she yelled, "Stop! If you keep doing this, his sword heart is going to break! You're so powerful, why can't you just spare him?!"

"Go ask your son that question," Zuo You replied with a smile.

Tears began to well up in the young woman's eyes again. She had never met someone so unreasonable!

Zuo You rose to his feet as he said, "You weren't willing to kowtow to me just now out of a sense of honor. You wanted to make it appear as if you're a courageous and defiant person so that you could make a good impression on the seniors of your sect, but now that you're truly under pressure, you're showing your true colors and revealing the coward under your defiant facade. I've seen far too many arrogant little brats like you for your little act to work on me."

Zuo You cast his gaze toward the north as he spoke, and a self-deprecating look appeared on his face as he sighed, "Why is it that only now am I just beginning to realize how great my junior brother is?"

Zuo You turned back to the young woman as he continued, "Setting aside Du Mao's transgressions, I'll admit that my actions have reduced you to a laughing stock in the sect, and that is something that I must apologize to you for. Hence, you can state one reasonable request for me to fulfill."

The young woman wiped the tears from her eyes as she asked in a skeptical manner, "Really?"

Zuo You nodded in response.