It was early morning on the second day.
Nangong Xi’er slowly opened her eyes. She hadn’t slept so well in a long time, as if all her strength had dissipated and she was floating above the clouds, free and peaceful. Even though she knew it was because she had lost all her cultivation, she still felt very happy.
Because she dreamed of two people she hadn’t seen for a long time.
One was a beautiful young woman in a white dress, standing under a peach blossom tree, holding an umbrella and smiling at her.
The other was a thin figure with a long sword hanging from his waist, facing away from her, climbing up the mountain.
It was her mother and her second senior brother.
“Sister.” A clear voice suddenly called her. “You’re awake. Come and have breakfast.”
Nangong Xi’er propped herself up on the bed board and rubbed her eyes. She looked at the young man in front of her who was drinking porridge and asked in confusion, “When did I fall asleep?”
“You fell asleep as soon as you got on the boat.” Su Baiyi smiled. “Nailuo brought a bowl of hot water. Sister, you should wash up first and then come and drink some porridge. Let me tell you, the fish slice porridge on this boat is amazing. I’ve never had such delicious porridge before.”
Nangong Xi’er got out of bed and walked to the window. She picked up a hot towel and washed her face. She finally woke up and asked, “Who is Nailuo?”
“She said that every room in the heaven section has a maid assigned to it. Nailuo is the maid in charge of us, but she can’t enter the room. She can only leave things for us at the door of the heaven section. There are four rooms in total in the heaven section, and they are all occupied.” Su Baiyi replied.
“Who lives in them?” Nangong Xi’er sat next to Su Baiyi and picked up a bowl of porridge. She saw that it was full of white and thick fish slices. She scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth. The fish slices had no fishy smell at all. They melted in her mouth and went down with the porridge. She felt a warm flow in her body, which was indescribably comfortable.
“Sister, this porridge is amazing. Oh, you asked who lives in the other rooms. One of them never opened the door, as if there was no one inside. Another has a middle-aged man who dresses like a wealthy gentleman. Master Mu calls him Mr. He. . And there’s an old man who’s always trimming his nails with a small knife.” Su Baiyi looked at Nangong Xi’er who kept her eyes closed, seemingly still savoring the delicious fish porridge.
“There’s something wrong with this porridge.” Nangong Xi’er suddenly opened her eyes. “It has some tonic medicine added to it, and it’s very expensive tonic medicine. Maybe this bowl of porridge is much more expensive than a boat ticket. Why?”
Su Baiyi scratched his head and smiled, “I made a bet with that Mu Nianhua.”
“A bet?” Nangong Xi’er was stunned.
“And I won.” Su Baiyi said with some pride. “So he agreed to one condition.”
“What condition?” Nangong Xi’er frowned slightly.
“He would protect our lives at the cost of his own. As long as he still breathes, he won’t allow anyone to harm us on this ship.” Su Baiyi said slowly.
Nangong Xi’er thought for a moment and said, “There are people from Shanglin Heavenly Palace on this boat.”
“Yes, they followed us as soon as we got on the boat.” Su Baiyi sighed lightly.
“We have to find a way to get out of here.” Nangong Xi’er shook her head. “Even if the Mu family is such a wealthy merchant in the world, Shanglin Heavenly Palace still wouldn’t care about them. Besides, Mu Nanhua may be willing to gamble with you, but the Mu family isn’t. In a critical moment, they might just knock Mu Nanhua out and hand us over to the Shanglin Heavenly Palace.
“We can’t leave, sister. This time, we can only choose to trust this Seventh Young Master.” Su Baiyi picked up a chopstick of vegetables and put it in Nangong Xi’er’s bowl. “And sister, I need you to tell me the story I want to hear. I want to know why Shanglin Heavenly Palace, the number one sect in the world, would chase us like assassins from the underworld?”
Nangong Xi’er took another sip of porridge and smiled after a long silence, “Then let’s start with a past that most people believe in.”
More than a decade ago, the martial world was divided into two factions, the south and the north. The south was led by the Hero’s Tomb, and the north was led by the Wujie Sword Sect. But the two sects were both annihilated in a decisive battle. After that, the martial world was in chaos. The various sects began to draw their swords against their former allies in order to become the new hegemon. The big sects constantly swallowed up the small sects to expand their sphere of influence. The small sects spent a lot of money to hire skilled assassins to kill the leaders and elders of the big sects. The entire martial world was shrouded in a dark cloud. Until Su Han, the young master of Shanglin Heavenly Palace, came down from the mountain with his sword, the martial world finally welcomed a new person who could dominate it.
Shanglin Heavenly Palace was originally a hidden sect on Weilong Mountain. The people only knew that this mountain had a gold mine and was very rich, but they knew nothing else about it. And Su Han made the people realize that the swords in Shanglin Heavenly Palace were not weaker than those of the former Wujie Sword Sect. Su Han challenged the heads of thirty-two sects in the north alone with his sword, and won within ten strokes. Besides his superb swordsmanship, Su Han was also said to be a very charismatic person in legend. He gathered a large number of talented young masters to join Shanglin Heavenly Palace. Among them were Bai Jile, the owner of the Tower of Life and Dream, Helian Xiyue, the owner of the Tower of Spring Breeze, Xie Kanhua, the owner of the Tower of Misty Rain, and so on. These newly established three towers, together with the original four courtyards of Shanglin Heavenly Palace, unified the martial world in three years and redivided the martial forces.
Shanglin Heavenly Palace was revered as the leader of the martial world, still located on Weilong Mountain, with its sphere of influence covering the entire north. And the southwest was ruled by Yunmeng Prefecture, which consisted of three major sects: Heavenly Dawn Cloud Realm, Heavenly Book Hall, and Heavenly Water Manor. The south is governed by four great families: the wealthy Wang family, the talented Xie family, the forging experts of the Lu family, and the medical masters of the Dongfang family. These four families would take turns to elect a leader from one of their families to serve as the patriarch every five years. Moreover, because these four families had all belonged to the Wujie Sword Sect, their martial arts still focused on swordsmanship. However, they never dare to boast about their sword skills because of a city in the southeast called Jimo. This is the city of the Jimo clan, whose leader, Jimo Jingzhu, is known as the last sword immortal of the old martial world. It was this sword immortal who helped Su Han win the final battle, and since then, Jimo City has also been known as the Sword City.
Of course, there were also some sects in the martial world that did not care about worldly affairs, did not participate in any fights, but their strength was not to be underestimated. For example, the Academy located in the Shili Langdang Mountains of Qiantang City, the Celestial Master’s Mansion on Qingcheng Mountain where Daojun Luyan resided, and the Devil’s Castle, which exclusively accepts reformed villains. They did not acknowledge Shanglin Heavenly Palace’s leader status, but they did not deny it either.
This martial world had been unusually peaceful for some years.
Until a new sect rose up south of Yunmeng Prefecture. This sect was Heavenly Gate Sacred Sect.
Also known as, the Demon Sect.
Thank you.
Please continue translating.