Chapter 166 Elder of the Demonic Cult

Linghu Chong looked closely at another pattern engraved next to the "Phoenix Comes to Pay Homage" sword move, and suddenly his expression changed drastically.

Yue Lingshan was very puzzled as to why her senior brother looked like he had seen a ghost, so she also went over to take a closer look.

On the wall, a few simple lines depicted a basic sword technique called "The Phoenix Arrives," the sword flashing out with lightness and agility. The opposing humanoid figure held a straight weapon, whether a club or a spear, its tip pointing directly at the sword tip of the opponent's "The Phoenix Arrives" move, its posture unusually clumsy.

Yue Lingshan first sneered inwardly, thinking, "This move of our sect, 'The Phoenix Comes to Pay Homage,' contains five follow-up moves. I practiced for several months before I learned it. How could this clumsy move possibly break it?" But then she looked at the figure in the picture. The clumsy figure contained an inexhaustible and endless meaning.

Although the move "The Phoenix Arrives" has five follow-up moves, that person's staff seems to contain six or seven more follow-up moves, which can easily counter the various follow-up moves of "The Phoenix Arrives".

Yue Lingshan stared at the human figure drawn with just a few strokes, utterly astonished. She pondered, "Our sect's move, 'The Phoenix Arrives,' is quite ordinary in its technique, but its follow-up move is extremely powerful. If the opponent is aware of the situation, they will block and dodge. If they try to break through it, they will suffer a great loss. But this one blow from the opponent can indeed break our move, 'The Phoenix Arrives.' This...this...this..." Gradually, her astonishment turned into admiration, and deep in her heart, she couldn't help but feel a great sense of fear.

She turned to look at Linghu Chong, her voice trembling, "Senior Brother, these... the Phoenix's Arrival ceremony has been ruined?"

Linghu Chong's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and he said in a hoarse voice, "Yes, the Phoenix's Arrival has been broken. Look over there, there are other sword moves from our sect."

Yue Lingshan hurriedly looked at the other patterns. She saw that the second group of patterns depicted a swordsman using the "Welcoming Pine Trees" move from her sect. She was immediately invigorated. It had taken her two whole months to master this move, and it had become one of her signature moves in battle.

Amidst her excitement, she felt a slight sense of trepidation, fearing that her move would be countered again. Looking at the figure wielding the staff, she saw that he had five staffs in his hands, striking five parts of the lower body of the figure wielding the sword.

She was immediately taken aback and said, "Why are there five sticks?"

Linghu Chong said, "It wasn't five sticks, but rather he struck five times in quick succession, targeting five points on the opponent's lower body. But he was fast, and so was I; he might not have had time to strike five times in a row. He simply can't break this 'Welcoming Pine Tree' move."

Just as he was feeling smug, Shi Potian suddenly said, "He didn't strike five times in a row, but rather struck one of the five blows randomly from any direction. How are you going to dodge that?"

Linghu Chong was startled and immediately understood. He raised his longsword and used the "Welcoming Pine Tree" move. He then carefully examined the pattern on the stone wall and imagined the opponent's blow. If he knew where the opponent would attack from, he would have a way to deal with it. However, the opponent's blow could come from any of the five directions. At that time, his longsword would already be stuck in the outer gate, and he would not be able to withdraw it in time. Unless he killed the opponent with this sword first, his lower body would definitely be hit.

But if the opponent is a master, how can one expect to kill them with a single sword strike? Seeing the enemy's posture of lowering their shoulders and sliding their feet, they will surely dodge my sword strike in the nick of time. Once the sword strike is dodged, I will not be able to avoid the counterattack. In that case, wouldn't the Huashan Sect's ultimate move, "Welcoming Guests from the Pine Tree," be broken again?

He and Yue Lingshan exchanged a glance, both horrified. Both of them had used this move, "Welcoming Guests with Pine Trees," to win in the past. Linghu Chong had even used it many times in life-or-death battles. If the opponent had seen the pattern on the stone wall and knew how to use it to counterattack, then no matter if the opponent used a stick, a spear, a club, or a lance, they would either die or be seriously injured if they fought back in this way. Perhaps Linghu Chong would no longer exist in this world today.

Linghu Chong grew increasingly alarmed, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. He muttered to himself, "No, no! If there really was such a way to break the 'Welcoming Pine Tree' spell, how could Master not know? How could he not warn me?"

However, he was extremely familiar with the essential techniques of this move. Seeing the five blows from the stick-wielding human figure, he was extremely fierce. Although they were only five short lines on the stone wall, each line seemed to hit his leg bones and shin bones heavily.

As he continued reading, he saw that the sword techniques carved on the stone wall were all the sect's signature moves, yet the opponent had countered them all with ingenious and ruthless methods. Linghu Chong grew increasingly alarmed as he looked. When he came across the move "Boundless Falling Leaves," he saw that the opponent's counterattack with the staff was weak and ineffective, purely defensive. He couldn't help but let out a long sigh, thinking to himself:

"You can't break this move after all."

Shi Potian said, "Brother Linghu, I'm familiar with this move too, but I didn't expect it to be broken by this person."

This move, "Boundless Falling Leaves," was the one Linghu Chong used against Sarutobi Sun Moon. Later, Shi Potian used Linghu Chong's hand to perform it as well.

When this move is executed, it's as if the leaves of hundreds of trees are falling. This sword technique aims to take care of every single leaf in all directions, which shows its immense power.

Linghu Chong was startled upon hearing this and said, "It's broken too?"

"Yes, this person is indeed extraordinary."

Linghu Chong looked closely and saw that the stick-wielding humanoid figure was curled up in a ball in the face of the "Boundless Falling Leaves" move, in an extremely ungraceful posture, looking helpless and being beaten. Linghu Chong found it funny, it was too ugly, but suddenly, the smile on his face froze, a chill ran down his back, and the hairs on his back stood on end.

He stared intently at the stick in the man's hand, and the more he looked, the more he felt that the stick's placement was extremely ingenious.

In the move "Endless Falling Leaves," the nine, ten, eleven, twelve swords... each one is bound to strike this staff. At first glance, this staff seems extremely clumsy, but it is actually extremely skillful. It appears weak, but it is actually extremely strong. It has truly reached the pinnacle of "using stillness to control movement, and using clumsiness to control skill."

In an instant, he lost all confidence in his sect's martial arts. He felt that even if he learned swordsmanship as skillfully as his master, he would be helpless against someone who wielded a staff. What use would it be to continue learning this swordsmanship? Was the Huashan Sect's swordsmanship really so vulnerable?

Shi Potian said, "Judging from this counter-move alone, it is even more ingenious than Sarutobi Hiugetsu's swift and forceful counter-move back then. I wonder who engraved these moves."

Linghu Chong was distraught and did not answer.

Qu Feiyan suddenly said, "Look, there are words written on this side."

Yue Lingshan recovered faster than Linghu Chong. Looking closely, she saw that there were indeed words written on one side of the Huashan Sect sword technique pattern. The torch was not bright enough, so Qu Feiyan went outside the cave, lit a torch, and came back in, and the cave was immediately brightly lit.

Qu Feiyan then realized that she had entered through a narrow passage. Looking down, she suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Right at her feet lay a skeleton. She wondered if this was the person who had inscribed the sword techniques. She hadn't noticed it before.

She composed herself and pondered, "Could this be the tomb of someone from the past? But why is this skeleton not lying on its back, but rather lying face down? Judging from its appearance, this narrow passage is not a tomb passage." She leaned down to look at the skeleton and saw that its clothes had decayed into dust, and two large axes lay beside it, still shining brightly in the torchlight.

She picked up an axe; it felt heavy in her hand, easily weighing forty pounds. She swung it at the stone wall beside her, and with a whoosh, a large rock fell to the ground. She was startled again: "This axe is so sharp; it's no ordinary weapon. It must be the weapon of a martial arts master."

Then I saw that the axe marks on the stone wall were perfectly smooth, like cutting tofu with a knife. There were also many sharp axe marks around it. After a moment of contemplation, I was stunned. I took a torch and walked down into the cave. The whole cave was full of axe marks. I was utterly horrified.

"It turns out this passage was carved out by this man with a sharp axe. Yes, he was imprisoned inside the mountain, so he tried to break through by chopping at the mountain with his axe, but he failed miserably. He was only inches away from the cave when he died from exhaustion. Alas, what a tragic fate this man had! Urgent! A major plot twist! Watch now. It's truly pitiful that he came to this."

After walking for more than ten zhang, the path still hadn't ended. He thought to himself, "This man carved out such a mountain path. His perseverance and martial arts skills are truly rare throughout history." He couldn't help but admire him greatly.

After walking a few more steps, she saw two more skeletons on the ground, one sitting against the wall, the other curled up in a ball. Qu Feiyan thought to herself, "So there's more than one person imprisoned inside the mountain." She then thought:

"This is the most important and important place of the Huashan Sect, and outsiders do not easily come here. Could these skeletons be senior masters of the Huashan Sect who violated the sect rules and were imprisoned and died here?"

After walking a few more feet, turn left along the passageway, and the stone cave you just arrived at will appear before you.

Shi Potian and his two companions waited for her inside the cave. When they saw her enter with a torch, the cave was suddenly brightly lit. Everyone was surprised to see that the cave was so large that it could hold a thousand people.

Inside the cave were seven more skeletons, some sitting, some lying down, each with a weapon beside them. There was a pair of iron plaques, a pair of judge's pens, an iron rod, a bronze rod, a weapon that looked like a thunderbolt, another was a three-pointed double-edged knife covered with wolf fangs, and yet another weapon that was neither a knife nor a sword, unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Linghu Chong said, "These unusual weapons are definitely not used by people from the Five Mountains Sword Sect."

Qu Feiyan frowned as she looked at the weapons, thinking to herself that there were exactly ten corpses and ten unusual weapons in total. Could it be...?

Then everyone saw a dozen or so long swords lying on the ground in the distance. Linghu Chong walked over, picked one up and examined it. He saw that the sword was shorter than a normal sword, but the blade was twice as wide and it was heavy in his hand. He said, "This is a sword used by the Taishan Sect."

The other longswords were either light and flexible, belonging to the Hengshan School; some had curved blades, belonging to one of the three types of longswords used by the Hengshan School; some had unsharpened blades with only extremely sharp tips, indicating that they were weapons favored by some senior members of the Songshan School; and there were three other swords, of different lengths and weights, which were the standard swords used by the Huashan School.

Linghu Chong grew increasingly puzzled: "This place is littered with weapons from the Five Mountains Sword Sects. What's the reason for that?"

Qu Feiyan exclaimed in surprise, raising her torch to examine the four walls of the cave. She saw a large rock protruding from the right-hand wall several feet above the ground, resembling a platform. Below the rock, sixteen large characters were carved on the stone wall. Qu Feiyan read them aloud, one by one:

"The Five Mountains Sword Sect is shameless and despicable. They lose in martial arts competitions and resort to underhanded tactics to harm people."

Four rows of four characters each, each character about a foot square, carved deep into the rock with an extremely sharp blade, reaching several inches in depth. The sixteen characters are angular and sharp, exuding a tense and menacing aura. Beside these sixteen large characters are countless smaller characters, all curses such as "despicable and shameless," "utterly shameful," "incompetent," and "cowardly," covering the entire wall with insults.

Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan were furious, thinking, "So these people were captured and imprisoned here by our Five Mountains Sword Sect. They were filled with anger and had no way to vent it, so they carved some insults on the stone wall. This kind of behavior is truly despicable and shameless."

Qu Feiyan had a growing sense of unease. She lit a torch and found the words next to the Huashan Sect sword technique. This time she could see them clearly. There was a line of words. She read it aloud: "Zhang Chengyun and Zhang Chengfeng have completely broken the Huashan Sword Technique."

Qu Feiyan was shocked.

If Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan had seen these words at first, they might have been angry, but now they felt that what the other person said was true and were speechless for a moment.

Seeing that Qu Feiyan's expression was off, Shi Potian asked with concern, "Feifei, what's wrong? Do you know these two seniors, Zhang Chengyun and Zhang Chengfeng?"

Qu Feiyan said, "I've heard rumors in the martial arts world that more than sixty years ago, the ten elders of the Sun Moon Sect attacked the Huashan Sect, and in the end, the entire army was wiped out, with no one surviving. I saw three corpses along the way, and with the ones here, that makes exactly ten people."

I've heard that one of the ten elders, a pair of brothers, is extremely skilled in staff fighting, known as "Golden Monkey Demon" Zhang Chengfeng and "White Ape Demon" Zhang Chengyun. It seems these two are the ones who can break the Huashan sword technique.

"I never expected that the Tenth Elder would be trapped and die here. There is a corpse at the entrance of the cave, which is made of an axe. It seems to be Fan Song, the 'Mighty Demon God'. He wanted to use the axe to carve out a way to survive, but he failed in the end."

Yue Lingshan gave Qu Feiyan a deep look, wondering how someone so young could know about the Demonic Sect's past from so many years ago. And her surname was Qu…

Upon hearing Qu Feiyan's words, Linghu Chong, recalling the century-long feud between the Five Mountains Sword Sect and the Sun Moon Sect, almost believed her. He hadn't expected the founder of the Huashan Sect to win using such methods? No wonder the ten elders were cursing so vehemently.

Qu Feiyan sneered: "The Five Mountains Sword Sect, which prides itself on being a prestigious and righteous sect, uses such despicable means to fight its enemies. No wonder that battle back then was shrouded in mystery and unknown to the world. It seems that even the Five Mountains Sword Sect itself feels ashamed and keeps it a secret!"

Linghu Chong remained silent, feeling a deep sense of shame. He recalled Yue Buqun's constant admonition that anyone seen with the Demonic Sect must be killed on sight, as they were despicable, shameless, and utterly wicked. Now, it seemed that the Five Mountains Sword Sect was even more despicable and shameless.

Yue Lingshan bit her lip and said, "Good and evil cannot coexist. When dealing with the elders of the Demonic Sect, what's wrong with using wits instead of strength?"

Qu Feiyan merely sneered, holding up her torch as she continued examining the stone wall. Sure enough, next to the Huashan Sect swordplay text, she found another line of text:

"Fan Song and Zhao He broke the Hengshan sword technique here."

The group finally confirmed that these ten people were indeed the ten elders of the Demonic Sect from back then.

As they continued reading, it was indeed found that the sword techniques of the Songshan, Hengshan, and Taishan sects had all been broken by the Ten Elders.

Linghu Chong turned pale and returned to the Huashan Sect sword technique section. As he continued reading, he discovered a Huashan Sect sword technique he had never seen before, with no fewer than a hundred moves, each one exquisite.

Linghu Chong grew increasingly frustrated as he looked at the sword techniques: "These sword techniques... even Master doesn't know them. It turns out the Huashan Sect has lost so many exquisite sword moves." He sighed, "But even if we had these techniques, what use would they be? They'd still be easily countered, wouldn't they?"

Yue Lingshan also said dejectedly, "So our Huashan Sect's swordsmanship is this pathetic. If it gets out, where will our Huashan Sect have a place to stand?"

Qu Feiyan carefully memorized the moves on the wall and said gloatingly, "The Five Mountains Sword Sect has managed to preserve its great name only because these moves haven't been spread. Otherwise, anyone who learned them could beat them to a pulp."

Linghu Chong was speechless and his face turned ashen. Yue Lingshan was even more devastated.

Seeing the sad expressions on their faces, Shi Potian shook his head and said, "You're both wrong. The same sword technique, when used by different people, will have vastly different power. Different internal energies and different mental cultivation methods will also change the power of the sword technique. Sword moves are static, but people are dynamic."

He raised the Azure Water Sword in his hand and said to Linghu Chong, "Brother Linghu, I will use the Huashan Sect's 'Boundless Falling Leaves'. You will fight me according to the method to counter it."

Linghu Chong roused himself, picked up the bronze rod from the ground, and held it in his hand.

When Shi Potian unleashed his move "Boundless Falling Leaves," countless sword shadows appeared, resembling endless falling leaves rustling down.

Following the moves on the wall, Linghu Chong curled up and raised his copper staff horizontally to block all the falling wood.

Unexpectedly, when the first sword struck, Linghu Chong could not withstand it. His copper staff tilted and could no longer stop the falling wood. Shi Potian's sword was already pointed at his throat.

Shi Potian sheathed his sword and laughed, "Look, have you solved the Boundless Falling Leaves technique?"

Linghu Chong was taken aback, then suddenly realized, his eyes regaining their light: "You mean, even if a child knows how to counter the same move, they still can't do anything to an adult?"

Shi Potian said, "Exactly. Different internal energies result in vastly different sword techniques. Isn't this precisely the tenet of your Qi Sect? Why then are you distressed because your moves are inferior to others?"

Linghu Chong's eyes lit up.