On half the mountain, the primal energies of the universe and even the light was obscured and twisted by an invisible power.

Pan Ruoye’s cold expression grew stronger.

Threads of powerful primal energy and vital energy cut out of her body. While she could not move large amounts of primal energies from outside this mountain, her own body was like a mountain that contained endless primal energies.

The falling leaves danced.

The fight between the primal energies only gave off quiet sounds, but the tearing of real power caused all the green leaves in Ding Ning and Fu Su’s sight to fall off their branches and spin through the air.

The spinning green leaves wove into countless curtains that obscured the world.

“Why bother?”

A cool voice came from a place on the mountain peak, passing through these numerous green curtains to reach the ears of Ding Ning and the others.

“The Daoist Scroll has flowing clouds. The strongest of the Dao Scroll Sect is the essence of flowing wind. Today, I want to see it.”

Pan Ruoye, as a true grandmaster and one of the top people in the world, was able to suppress the other even through her aura while speaking. As Pan Ruoye looked up and spoke, a clear energy shot out of her body and stabbed into the sky right above her. Then she stretched her hand towards the mountain peak.

Snap!

There was a sudden explosion high above her head.

A ray of bright light fell from the blue sky and shone on her body.

Her entire body turned light gold.

As the sunlight descended, there was an inundation of primal energy.

The primal energy surged out of this sole opening, forming an enormous blue wave visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, a small pure white sword flew out of her hand. The enormous blue wave surged into the small white sword.

The sword immediately disappeared, leaving behind a straight path in the multiple green curtains.

At this time on the mountain peak, underneath an ancient pine, sat a man in indigo robes.

This man’s features showed him to be in his thirties, but his calm serene eyes seemed to contain an ocean accumulated over long times.

When the path of light appeared through the multiple curtains of green, he pointed with his index and middle finger as he raised his eyebrows.

As he pointed, the air in front of him seemed to become viscous. An item suddenly appeared, spinning furiously, unstoppable in its presence. This was Pan Ruoye’s small white sword.

This indigo-robed grandmaster’s fingers turned transparent, even his blood vessels and bones disappearing. His fingers shone with glowing light.

His fingertips were like the tips of the sword, accurately tapping the tip of the spinning white sword.

The sword tip spun at his fingertips without leaving behind a mark. However, the piece of stone he was sitting under, reduced to fine powder.

Cracks formed like a spiderweb on the ground underneath him, stretching further away.

He looked up at the sky.

The invisible curtain that had covered the entire mountain and blocked off the world had completely disappeared at this time.

Some of the white cloud energies in the sky, in this instant, changed into enormous white seal scripts.

Pan Ruoye took a deep breath. the small white sword that had been spinning at the fingertips of the indigo-robed grandmaster suddenly retreated along its original path.

Being able to pull the sword back at such speeds showed that she was not using her full power, or she did not want to use her full power to deal with the counterattack the indigo-robed grandmaster would muster next.

The indigo-robed grandmaster seemed to have understood something.

He also took a deep breath, and frowned deeply.

The white cloud energies in the sky remained condensed, giving off terrifying power but were just waiting.

Then he stood up and slowly started to descend the mountain.

The green leaves had all fallen down, and his figure quickly appeared in the line of sight of Ding Ning and the others.

“Those skilled in offense lose to those good at defense. Those skilled at defense lose to those at hiding. I know who is able to hide from me. So Principal Mo of Changling has come in person.” The indigo-robed grandmaster sighed softly as he saw Ding Ning and the others from a long ways off. He saw Mo Shoucheng next to Pan Ruoye and bowed. “Previously, I laughed it off, why should one bother, and felt that wasting energy to ascend the mountain was useless. But I have lost to Mister a move ago.”

“Mister, do not be so polite.”

Mo Shoucheng nodded and returned the greeting. “I have climbed many mountains in this lifetime, but never worked so hard like this one.”

Only when he said this did Fu Su notice he was covered in sweat.

Fu Su finally realized. Previously, when climbing the mountain, Mo Shoucheng had not used vital energy at all and only relied on his body. While Mo Shoucheng was one of the people closest to realm eight, he was truly an old man, and naturally would be tired when climbing the mountain.

The indigo-robed grandmaster thought for a moment and said, “Since this is the case, then I will bid farewell.”

Having spoken, he turned and left without dawdling.

“This is the presence of a true grandmaster?

Fu Su was filled with admiration, and felt that this person had an unspeakable presence in his actions. All these mountains did not seem as tall as the back of this grandmaster right now.

“Not so simple,” Ding Ning looked at him, shook his head and said softly.

Mo Shoucheng looked at Ding Ning in praise and said, “It is not so simple.”

Fu Su looked with slight embarrassment at Mo Shoucheng and Ding Ning. Ding Ning did not waste time, and pointed at the enormous white cloud seals that still remained condensed.

“When I read in the White Goat Cave library cave, those records said that cultivators above realm seven are storage vessels for primal energy. Yet, once the energy is used up, it is slow in being replenished. Especially when using some extremely powerful methods, it is not as simple as just using vital energy.”

Ding Ning said camly, “If this grandmaster had retreated before using this kind of seal, it would have been normal. Yet, he has formed these seals at great cost to his energy. Even if he just wanted to see Principal Mo’s tactics, he might have gleaned some understanding. But he left as such … this means that he does not want to even take a single risk before the Deer Mountain Conference.”

Fu Su immediately understood something.

“This kind of danger is within a controlled range. People like him usually will not give up a chance to fight.” Pan Ruoye looked at the indigo-robed grandmaster disappearing into the distance and turned to look expressionlessly at Mo Shoucheng next to her. “I just don’t understand. The Dao Scroll Sect has always kept themselves separate from the dynasties of the world. They do not participate in any of the conflicts between dynasties and sects. Why has this successor from the Dao Scroll Sect broken precedent?”

The Dao Scroll Sect was an extremely mysterious sect. While powerful, it did not involve itself in worldly affairs. Only cultivators such as her and Mo Shoucheng, who were extremely knowledgeable, would know of them. Even so, she and Mo Shoucheng did not know the name of the indigo-robed grandmaster.

It was too difficult to predict the intentions of someone who was a complete stranger and left after one round of fighting. So her questions could not be answered.

But Mo Shoucheng was no ordinary person.

“His goal is Deer Mountain.”

Mo Shoucheng looked at her calmly and said, “This time, he has expended greatly but when he left, he tilted towards Deer Mountain. This goes to show that he thinks Deer Mountain is safer and he has connections to people on Deer Mountain.”

Pan Ruoye did not speak but a hint of coldness flashed through her eyes.

With that, everything was clear.

Only the Chu Dynasty was on Deer Mountain right now. Then this grandmaster from Dao Scroll Sect had a connection to someone from the Chu Dynasty on Deer Mountain.

Mo Shoucheng closed his eyes slightly in tiredness and emitted a wave of energy.

A small gust of wind blew by.

They had spent a lot of time climbing up to the middle of the mountain. But with the passage of this gust of wind, in the span of a few breaths, Ding Ning and Fu Su came to the peak of the mountain with a complete change in scenery.

An enormous procession slowly appeared on the plains on the side of Deer Mountain.

This procession had over five thousand people, but from the peak, it was possible to see that only half of this procession was the army, and the other half were various officials and ceremonies.

Numerous bright yellow banners and the golden dragons atop the canopies seemed tiny at such a great distance, but still evinced an astounding aura, as though they were about to fly.

The head of this procession glittered with gold and was as bright as the sun.

In the world, such pomp and circumstance would only occur when a son of Heaven was touring.

After the king of Chu had ascended Deer Mountain, a second monarch had arrived.

“You are right. The second to ascend Deer Mountain is the Yan Dynasty.” Pan Ruoye was in a mystical state, as though she was turning to nothingness and absorbing the primal energies of the universe from afar. At the sight of the glittering procession, she glanced at Mo Shoucheng and sneered.

“How were you able to guess the Yan will be the second to ascend?” This time, it was Ding Ning who asked proactively.

“The Yan Dynasty is not weaker than the Chu Dynasty, but the king of Yan is the most cautious and indecisive. He will never want to be ahead of others. So while he has been ruling for many years, he is extremely conservative,” Mo Shoucheng said patiently.

Ding Ning asked, “Then what about the emperor of the Qi Dynasty?”

Mo Shoucheng smiled faintly and said, “The emperor of the Qi Dynasty is the most shameless, no one can compare to him. But this is also his strength.”

Fu Su became curious. He couldn’t help but think of what other dynasties thought of his father-king. But when he thought of how this kind of question would be disrespectful towards his father, he smiled in self-disdain and abandoned his idea.

His minute actions could not escape Mo Shouchengs’s eyes. Mo Shoucheng looked at the silent Ding Ning, and thought, a genius that grew up on the streets has seen more and matured earlier.

Why did he need to ask such a question? If not for feeling that Emperor Yuanwu and the empress were truly ruthless and had intentions of consuming the world, why would the other three dynasties treat the Qin Dynasty as their main enemy?

Translator Ramblings: I’m not sure that “bright yellow” was the imperial color back in the Warring State. At the very least, when Qin unified, the imperial color was black, not bright yellow.