The Path of the Martial Arts BOSS

That night, within a certain courtyard of Taizhen Palace, the noise still had not subsided.

Real or fake, those fellow daoists who had come to see the True Master Tianyang for the last time had already departed, leaving only the members of the Pure Yang Palace.

This clamor came from those very disciples of the True Master Tianyang.

True Master Tianyang had passed away suddenly, and his eldest disciple Yun Lai had perished yesterday, defeated by Lin Jianfeng. The next Palace Master of the Pure Yang Palace was yet to be decided, and those with ambition naturally would not let this opportune moment slip by.

"Fellow disciples, our master has just passed, and our eldest brother has also met with misfortune and died. As the saying goes, 'an elder brother is like a father,' I shall take care of the Pure Yang Sword on our brothers' behalf."

"Brother, what do you mean? The Pure Yang Sword is a symbol of the Palace Master, how could you..."

Right in front of the still unsealed coffin, True Master Tianyang's disciples bickered and squabbled non-stop over the ownership of the Pure Yang Sword.

True Master Tianyang was an elder of the old generation, even a generation above Hua Yufei. All his contemporaries within the Pure Yang Palace had passed away, so these disciples were the high-ranking members of the sect.

Because he had never anticipated his sudden death, True Master Tianyang had left no instructions behind. Therefore, once the True Master Tianyang died, the Pure Yang Palace—a sect capable of vying for a place among the daoist ranks—immediately descended into chaos.

Yun Zheng, the youngest disciple and the one most esteemed by True Master Tianyang, was agonizing inside a partitioned room next to the main hall where the coffin was placed, listening to the unending disputes outside.

He never thought that True Master Tianyang would die so suddenly. Nor could he imagine that his fellow disciples, who appeared harmonious in the past, would now reveal such an ugly side.

Having been injured by the Killing Sword of Zhu Kong the day before, Yun Zheng was completely unable to attend today's Debating Conference. So, when he heard the news of True Master Tianyang's death, he was utterly stunned.

And now, hearing his brothers fight over power in front of their master's coffin, Yun Zheng felt anger surging within him, twisting his handsome face into a ferocious and frightening expression.

If it weren't for the severe injuries that prevented him from even rising, Yun Zheng would have stormed out to confront his brothers.

'They truly deserve to be killed!'

This sudden thought threw Yun Zheng into a panic.

While he was indeed angry at his brothers' actions, the rise of murderous intent filled him with dread.

But...

With the Pure Yang Palace now being eyed by others coveting the sect's Divine Skills, if internal strife was allowed to fester among his brothers, the sect could quickly decline, and the Daoist Orthodoxy might vanish.

Decisively cutting through the mess and swiftly eliminating these already greed-infested brothers was not a bad solution.

With this thought, the intent to kill reappeared in Yun Zheng's eyes.

But in the next instant, his inner turmoil intensified, 'My brothers have been kind to me on ordinary days, how can I harbor such thoughts?'

'Besides, with Dragon Tiger Mountain supporting the sect, even if there are outsiders coveting us, Dragon Tiger Mountain would not stand idly by. Why should I worry needlessly?'

Yun Zheng tried to console himself, to settle his mind.

Yet, new thoughts kept rising unbidden within him.

'Would Dragon Tiger Mountain truly protect our sect?'

'Those fellow daoists covet our sect's Absolute Skills, and Dragon Tiger Mountain is among them, wouldn't they covet them too?'

Yun Zheng couldn't help but think of the Young Heavenly Master from Dragon Tiger Mountain who had brought back his master's body that afternoon, and remembered the concerned expression on his face as he had consoled him.

At that moment, Yun Zheng's heart had been deeply touched, tears brimming in his eyes. But now, as Yun Zheng remembered the face of Zhang Yuanchu, he only felt disgusted by the hypocrisy, enough to make one sick.

'Those so-called peers are untrustworthy, Dragon Tiger Mountain...untrustworthy too...'

'My senior brothers have also been drawn in by Dragon Tiger Mountain and other Sects, selfish and greedy, desiring the position of Palace Master so much they'd let wolves into the home...'

'I must make a decisive move, like a swift blade cutting through tangled hemp, excising the rotten flesh that has become corrupted, to maintain the independence of our Sect...'

'But my power is not enough. My second senior brother, my third senior brother, they were all part of the first group of disciples Master took in, nearly twenty years my senior. They are all in the True Pill Realm, while I am still only in the Divine Origin Realm.'

'I need to advance quickly, to gain the power to contend with them...'

Ideas emerged one after another in Yun Zheng's heart, making him feel as if his thoughts had never been as agile. Even the social intricacies he had previously been clumsy with now seemed crystal clear to him.

Dragon Tiger Mountain, Chunyang Palace, and the various Daoists with their different agendas—all these relationships entangled with one another—Yun Zheng could now see through them clearly.

In the past, due to True Master Tianyang's affection for his youngest disciple and Yun Zheng's single-minded focus on Martial Arts, even though he was already thirty years old, he was quite inept when it came to these worldly affairs.

But now, it was as if he had an epiphany, as if a hazy veil had been lifted from his eyes, enabling him to see the world from a completely new perspective.

'I must cultivate, I must achieve a breakthrough...'

Withstanding the pain inside his body, Yun Zheng persisted in circulating his True Qi, continuously engaging in cultivation.

'Success.'

In the room separated by a wall from where Yun Zheng was, Qing Yu leaned against the wall with a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

Yun Zheng thought these ideas were of his own making, unaware that all this was Qing Yu's doing.

Not to mention Yun Zheng's thoughts, even the group of senior brothers in the hall arguing until they were red in the face benefitted from Qing Yu's behind-the-scenes encouragement.

Otherwise, those older disciples of True Master Tianyang, already masters in the True Pill Realm, despite coveting the position of Palace Master, would not exhibit such unseemliness.

With Divine Thought scanning and 'seeing' Yun Zheng insist on circulating his True Qi in pain, without any gain, instead experiencing a relapse of his injury, Qing Yu decided to give him an additional push.

A gravely injured body, forcibly circulating True Qi—far from making progress, it was good enough if the condition didn't worsen.

Yun Zheng, relentless in his circulation of True Qi, had already become obsessed, wishing for nothing more than an immediate breakthrough to restore order and cleanse the Chunyang Palace.

Even with his injuries worsening, nothing could deter Yun Zheng's resolve.

If he continued to force himself like this, Yun Zheng would either not die from Deviation or he would end up severely impaired.

Yet, contrary to expectations, as Yun Zheng persisted, a new Qi Mechanism gradually began to emerge in his heart.

This Qi Mechanism, utterly opposed to Yun Zheng's own True Qi—extremely Yin and evil, yet surprisingly gentle—complemented his Pure Yang True Qi perfectly.

'This...'

Yun Zheng suddenly felt that the Qi Mechanism had merged with a remnant of Sword Qi left in his body by Zhu Kong, transforming into a new type of Pure Yin Sword Qi.

'Could it be that from extreme Yin, Yang arises, and my obsession had inadvertently resulted in a Yin Mistake that gave birth to Pure Yin True Qi, then merged with the Killing Sword Energy?' The thought emerged in Yun Zheng's mind, and he found it immensely plausible.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Running his True Qi, Yin and Yang together, the Pure Yang Sword and the Pure Yin Sword Qi merged, seemingly brewing a power unmatched.

The sensation of enhancement in strength was so intoxicating that Yun Zheng didn't notice how, imperceptibly, his concepts began to shift, his beliefs began to change.