Chapter 219: Zhang Ping Changes His destiny

The sky was high and the land was vast. A tall mountain stood upon the wasteland, its slopes sparse with flora, standing as majestic as a giant god upon the earth.

On the mountain cliff, a white-haired old man sat in meditation at the edge. He wore red robes and was barefoot, his hair disheveled as he closed his eyes against the wind. The world before him was incredibly vast, with eagles circling in the sky, their cries echoing through the firmament.

A figure approached from behind, coming to a stop and bowing respectfully.

This was a man clad in black armor, wearing a tiger-bone hair crown and carrying two swords—one long and one short—with eerie black Qi swirling around their hilts.

He looked up at the red-robed old man and spoke, “Sect Master, the southward plan has failed. The Jianji Sect was destroyed by the Qingxiao Sect, and our people are being hunted by them, making it impossible to step into the territory of Cangzhou again. The Northern Court army is also being expelled, primarily due to Li Sifeng of the Qingxiao Sect. Li Sifeng’s campaign on the battlefield is clearly an attempt by the Qingxiao Sect to contend for the Nine Provinces.”

The red-robed old man was indeed the Sect Master of the Xuanji Sect, Gui Wuqiong.

Hearing this, Gui Wuqiong was not surprised. He asked slowly, “So, if we want to occupy the Nine Provinces, whether on the battlefield or within the Martial Forest, we cannot bypass the Qingxiao Sect?”

The sword-bearing man said in a heavy voice, “Exactly. The Qingxiao Sect is different from the two saints of the martial world and the Three Founding Sects of the past. They are too strong. I feel that now is not the right time for our Xuanji Sect, and we can temporarily abandon the plan.”

“You also said the Qingxiao Sect is different. Do you think time is an advantage for us?”

Faced with Gui Wuqiong’s question, the sword-bearing man fell silent.

Gui Wuqiong opened his eyes and looked toward the horizon, saying softly, “I fear that in the future, the Qingxiao Sect will move north, while the terror from the north will move south, leaving us caught between two enemies.”

The sword-bearing man opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.

The cliff fell into silence.

A gentle breeze blew past, carrying a faint scent of blood.

A long time passed.

Gui Wuqiong spoke, “Go find Elder Ghost and have him implement the plan I previously settled with him.”

The sword-bearing man frowned, wanting to ask what the plan was, but fearing to anger Gui Wuqiong, he could only comply and turn to leave.

After he left, Gui Wuqiong looked up at the sky and muttered to himself, “The world is so vast, yet is there truly no place for our Northern Court?”

…The colors of autumn deepened, and Qingxiao Mountain became different from before. The biggest change was the increased number of figures flying on swords in the sky.

The qingxiao sword allowed Disciples to save more Origin Qi when flying, which led more and more Disciples to take up sword-flying. Such scenes greatly astonished the visiting pilgrims and martial world figures.

The fact that the Qingxiao Sect was a cultivation sect began to be recognized by more people.

For the Qingxiao Sect, the greatest use of the qingxiao sword was to help them rapidly expand the School, and the Taikun Mountain Range began to truly be incorporated into the Qingxiao Sect.

The Taikun Mountain Range was vast. Previously, it only belonged to the Qingxiao Sect in name, but now, with the Disciples’ presence covering the range, it had truly become the territory of the Qingxiao Sect.

More and more Disciples began to establish Immortal Caves. The Tiangong Hall announced a policy allowing Disciples to choose their Immortal Caves, after which the Tiangong Hall would dispatch Disciples to renovate them.

Although the Taikun Mountain Range was large, Disciples couldn’t just claim whatever they wanted. After choosing a location, it had to be submitted to the Spirit Control Hall for review and a corresponding amount of dao affinity had to be paid.

Not only that, but Disciples began to Cultivate medicinal fields in various mountains and locations across the Taikun Mountain Range.

On this day, Li Qingqiu finished practicing the Mountain Mover God Suppressing Divine Ability and returned to the Lingxiao Courtyard.

For the past few months, he had been studying the Mountain Mover God Suppressing Divine Ability, and he was already looking forward to the scene of shocking the sect’s Disciples with it.

Today, his Mountain Mover God Suppressing reached a new height, putting him in a pleasant mood.

He sat down at the long table, where there was spirit wine prepared by Yuan Qi. This spirit wine was a recent product of the Cultivation Hall; drinking it helped recover Origin Qi. Once it was put on sale, Disciples scrambled to buy it.

Li Qingqiu habitually brought up the dao lineage panel, first checking the status of the new Disciples.

Not bad.

Today, another Disciple with Excellent Cultivate Aptitude was found!

Li Qingqiu was pleasantly surprised. The threshold for the Qingxiao Sect was getting higher and higher; those who could directly become a Named Disciple all possessed obvious talent.

He secretly noted the Disciple’s name, looking forward to which hall would take the boy in.

There were already enough Geniuses around him; he had to give the other halls some opportunities.

After looking at the new Disciples, Li Qingqiu looked at those whose destiny carried a directional path to see if their destiny had changed.

Soon, Li Qingqiu raised an eyebrow; someone’s destiny had indeed changed.

【Name: Zhang Ping】

【Gender: Male】

【Age: 23】

【Loyalty (Sect Leader/Sect): 89/84 (Max 100)】

【Cultivate Aptitude: Rather Good】

【Comprehension Ability: Mediocre】

【destiny: Ordinary Person, Seeking Luck and Avoiding Calamity, Defying Heaven to Change Fate】

【Ordinary Person: Born ordinary, with an ordinary appearance and temperament, easily overlooked by others.】

【Seeking Luck and Avoiding Calamity: When encountering trouble or danger, always thinks of avoiding it; possesses a certain amount of good luck and does not do things without certainty.】

【Defying Heaven to Change Fate: Three opportunities to change destiny will appear in life; two remain.】

…Already changed destiny once?

Li Qingqiu remembered that Zhang Ping’s Cultivate Aptitude was mediocre, yet it had actually risen by one level. Could it be related to the Opportunity to change his destiny?

This kid really isn’t simple.

Li Qingqiu wondered if he should copy the 【Defying Heaven to Change Fate】 destiny.

But he quickly rejected the idea. He didn’t need to change his destiny; what he needed were destinies that enhanced his own strength.

Since Zhang Ping joined the School, Li Qingqiu had been watching him and had even secretly asked Zhang Yuchun to look after him. The reason he didn’t do it openly was for fear of scaring Zhang Ping away.

After so many years, Zhang Ping’s loyalty still hadn’t reached 90. Li Qingqiu felt it was time to take action.

He sent a voice transmission to Yuan Qi outside the courtyard, telling him to go find Zhang Ping.

Afterward, he stood up and went to find Cloud Color.

He sought Cloud Color mainly because he had placed Li Shouzheng and Li Shoumin in her courtyard, to be cared for by her seven sisters in rotation.

Both boys were top-tier Geniuses, and he held great expectations for them.

In twenty years, when Geniuses like Yuan Li, Cloud Color, Zhao Zhen, and The Three Xiao Brothers had grown up and no longer participated in the Dharma Battle Assembly, Li Shouzheng and Li Shoumin would surely become the leaders of the new generation… By evening, Li Qingqiu returned to the Lingxiao Courtyard, where Yuan Qi had been waiting for a long time.

“Down the mountain for experience? How long has he been gone?”

After hearing Yuan Qi’s report, Li Qingqiu couldn’t help but ask.

Could that kid have run into danger?

How could he change his destiny for no reason?

“It has been nearly two months,” Yuan Qi answered truthfully.

Li Qingqiu frowned and walked toward the long table. Seeing his expression, Yuan Qi immediately followed, waiting for his orders.

After some thought.

Li Qingqiu ordered, “Have The Three Xiao Brothers go to the Experience Hall to find out what mission Zhang Ping took, and then go down the mountain to track him down, to prevent the boy from getting into trouble.”

Yuan Qi was surprised. He didn’t have a deep impression of Zhang Ping, yet this person could make the Sect Leader dispatch The Three Xiao Brothers for support. He couldn’t help but wonder what the relationship was between this person and the Sect Leader.

“Understood!”

Yuan Qi didn’t ask further and immediately left to carry out the order.

Li Qingqiu didn’t think Zhang Ping would actually die; after all, the boy had already changed his destiny. He just wanted to see if he could provide help in a time of need… Moonlight spilled down from the cliff, illuminating a two-hundred-zhang deep pit. At the bottom of the pit was a lake, unfathomably deep, shimmering with an eerie light in the night.

Zhang Ping sat on a reef by the lake, looking up at the bright moon outside the cave opening above, his face filled with despair.

Looking closely, his legs were in a very unnatural position; clearly, they were broken.

His hair was somewhat messy, and parts of his robes were torn. He was in a truly wretched state.

“Am I really going to die here…”

Zhang Ping was unwilling. His shallow medical skills couldn’t possibly treat his broken legs, let alone help him escape from this place.

Had he known this would happen, he shouldn’t have left the mountain.

Although the power struggles within the School gave him a headache, they would never have landed him in such a desperate situation.

At that moment, a woman in white walked out from the darkness. Her robes were soaking wet, highlighting her graceful figure. Her hair hung loose, and despite the mess, her pretty face remained bright and looked quite pitiable.

She held several fiery red fruits in her arms, each about the size of a fist.

She came to Zhang Ping’s side, placed the fruits on his lap, and adjusted his broken legs a bit to prevent the fruits from rolling off the reef.

Zhang Ping could no longer feel the pain, but her actions made his mouth twitch.

“Could you show some respect for my injury? I got hurt saving you, after all,” Zhang Ping said resentfully.

Murong Xi snorted, “If I didn’t respect you, I wouldn’t be serving you and finding these fruits for you.”

“Instead of dazing off here, why don’t you practice the divine technique on the wall? Perhaps it can heal your broken legs.”

Hearing this, Zhang Ping fell silent. He picked up a fruit and began to eat.

Seeing him like this, Murong Xi got angry and said, “Your martial arts are decent, so how can you not see the extraordinary nature of the peerless technique on that wall?”

She didn’t know that Zhang Ping was a Disciple of the Qingxiao Sect.

Zhang Ping had already looked at that so-called peerless technique. In the Martial Forest, it would indeed be a divine skill, but compared to his Hunyuan Scripture, it wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Asking him, a Cultivator, to learn martial arts—specifically an Internal Skill—was a pure waste of time.

It was just that he couldn’t easily explain this to Murong Xi.

“If you want to learn it, go ahead. Who knows, your enemies might find their way down here one day and look for trouble,” Zhang Ping said, his heart softening as he thought of her care over the past few days.

“It’s so high. How would they get down?” Murong Xi said dismissively.

Zhang Ping asked curiously, “I’ve been wanting to ask, who exactly are you, and why are those experts looking for trouble with you?”

He had wanted to ask before but feared getting involved in even bigger trouble. Now that he saw no hope of escape, he decided to just ask.

“I come from Murong Manor. Have you heard of it? Those people are from my own clan; they want to steal a treasure I have,” Murong Xi replied.

If Zhang Ping hadn’t grabbed her when they fell, she would have been smashed to pieces long ago, so she now fully trusted him.

Thanks to Started Reading Novels at Three for the 10,001 Qidian coins tip~