Lonely Immortal

And the thunderclouds rolled, and the raindrops as big as beans poured down, as if the weather was not good, and it rained heavily when the Xiyan Mountain murder case happened.

No one realized what this heavy rain would become. Maybe it was just an ordinary heavy rain on weekdays. No matter how heavy the rain was, it would pass for a while, and no one would care about it. The head of the police led people and rushed to Xiyan Mountain in the pouring rain.

Looking at Xiyan County, it is located in a basin and is open all around, but Xiyan County is surrounded by mountains. In these mountains, it looks very small. Logically, such a small county should not have many people coming here.

But this is Xiyan Mountain, and there is Zhongjiandao, the largest sect in the world, on Xiyan Mountain. Zhongjiandao is not only the largest sect, but also the most transcendent existence. Therefore, Zhongjiandao is very popular and has many disciples.

Given the status of Zhongjiandao, it is not necessary to accept so many disciples, but Zhongjiandao has a rule, that is, incense must be burned at all times in the sect. The incense is densely packed around the entire Zhongjiandao. The burning incense is in the copper tripods, which have long been filled with incense ash, a thick pile, and it looks delicate and soft.

Counting them carefully, there are no less than 10,000 copper tripods. Looking down from the sky, the copper tripods present a peculiar layout. This layout is like a dragon but not a dragon, like a tiger but not a tiger. The disciples of Zhongjiandao all know that the copper tripods are arranged according to the Tiangang Qimen formation, and the ancestor calls it the Zhongjian formation.

Why is it called the Zhongjian formation? Because this is actually a brief statement. The complete statement is the Zhongzheng Jiutian Sword Formation. The so-called Zhongzheng means neither righteous nor evil, and the Jiutian Sword Formation is the unique housekeeping skill of Zhongjiandao.

The highest secret of Zhongjiandao is the Nine Heavens Sword Art. The disciples of Zhongjiandao do not know where the Nine Heavens Sword Art comes from, but this is the specialty of Zhongjiandao. However, the Nine Heavens Sword Art is extremely difficult to practice, and ordinary disciples only practice the basics.

Even many disciples are unable to perform the Nine Heavens Sword Art because of their poor qi and unstable spirit. The Nine Heavens Sword Art is also called the Green Sword Art, because the sword qi is green when it is performed, like the momentum of a dragon and a tiger, and has the charm of the thick heaven and earth. It is not wrong to call it the Green Sword Art directly.

Of course, as the strongest sect in the Great Yan Dynasty, Zhongjiandao naturally has many visitors, especially some martial artists who come here to study. They will come here to study, and even some leaders of major sects will come here to practice from time to time.

The Nine Heavens Sword Art of Zhongjiandao is not passed on to others, but it is not a big deal to let others observe it.

"Sister, when will our Senior Sister Bai come back?"

At this moment, in this dojo, a group of young men and women were practicing swords, but a young man was a little absent-minded. He looked around and muttered.

Standing next to him was a woman, who was pretty and lovely, wearing a plain white long gown. After hearing the words, she ignored it and continued to watch the brothers and sisters in the field practicing swords and sparring.

"Our master hasn't come back, and Senior Sister Bai hasn't come back either. We have to prepare for the internal selection. Will this be postponed?"

The young man was still mumbling. It turned out that this sword method was planning to select a group of disciples. As the first disciple, generally speaking, such an internal selection would be held every three to five years.

Now, the time is almost up. These disciples are all talented, otherwise they would not be accepted as disciples by the old Taoist. Speaking of which, the old Taoist has high requirements for accepting disciples. Therefore, these young people here are all considered as disciples of the old Taoist. Of course, they are not considered as the old Taoist's direct disciples. Only Bai Feiyan is the old Taoist's direct disciple. As for the others, they are all ordinary disciples, and they are all disciplined by some senior brothers and sisters, but they are still disciples of the old Taoist in name.

Zhongjiandao is different from other sects. There are no elders or uncles in the sect. The old Taoist is the only one who can accept disciples. Therefore, everyone is considered as the old Taoist's disciples. The old Taoist naturally cannot teach so many disciples, so he will share it and let some older disciples teach some younger disciples.

Among them, Bai Feiyan is the only exception. Bai Feiyan has followed the old Taoist since childhood. The old Taoist also followed the head master since childhood. They are all of the same lineage and only pass on one person. The internal selection mentioned by this young man is actually an opportunity to get Bai Feiyan's guidance.

It is impossible to get the guidance of the old Taoist. The old Taoist only taught Bai Feiyan martial arts cultivation. It is naturally extraordinary to get the guidance of Bai Feiyan's senior sister Bai. Therefore, this young man is thinking about when the master and senior sister Bai will come back. If they don't come back, won't they miss this year's internal selection.

In this sect, there are probably these things, and they are also in groups of three or five, especially these young people. They can't get along with the older brothers and sisters, because the older brothers and sisters are much older than them. The oldest brothers are now almost sixty years old and are grandfathers.

This Zhongjiandao does not prohibit disciples from marrying. It is not so strict, but it is inevitable that they cannot do anything wrong. Therefore, disciples in the Zhongjiandao can marry and marry, and there is no such restriction.

After marrying and marrying, they must have children, so the children will live in the sect, but these children cannot become disciples of the old Taoist. They are all disciplined by themselves, and they can pass on some Taoist methods.

So, the rules of the Zhongjiandao sect are quite peculiar. Basically, the old Taoist controls the entire sect, and the rest are disciples. Bai Feiyan is the only one among many disciples who can be truly regarded as the old Taoist's disciple.

This is actually very important, and it is also the rule left by the ancestors. If Zhang Zhiwen knew about this, he would definitely be very surprised, because according to Zhang Zhiwen's idea, if he wanted to establish a sect, he would do the same.

Because this sect is actually a sect composed of the old Taoist and Bai Feiyan, and the others are actually vassal existence, dispensable, but a sect needs a lot of resources to maintain, so it needs to recruit enough disciples to contribute to the sect.

For example, some older brothers and sisters of Zhongjiandao are from rich families. If they are poor, the old Taoist will not accept them. Since they are rich families, they must not be short of money, which can bring great benefits to the sect. Some are families with fields, and they also send their children to practice martial arts, which is not bad.

In addition, disciples who don't have much money can also come, as long as they have good conduct, then these disciples must be hardworking and can contribute to the sect. In essence, the old Taoist of Zhongjiandao has only one disciple, Bai Feiyan, and he doesn't need him to discipline others at all. He doesn't know how comfortable he is.

So why don't other sects operate according to this set of things? They are all masters, elders, and a lot of things. In fact, the reason is very simple. Those sects were established by several people from the beginning, or when the sects were passed down, the forces were divided and each family continued to rise, which led to the emergence of elders and forces.

But Zhongjiandao will not do this, because it is a single-passage, with only Bai Feiyan, so there is naturally no possibility of any force division. The gap between other disciples and Bai Feiyan is too big, and their identities are also different. Bai Feiyan is a person who has come down from the mountain, but he can compete for the throne. Which disciple is worthy of such an identity?

Therefore, this Zhongjian Dao is very special. Of course, there are many people in this sect, and there are all kinds of people. There are even disciples who secretly like Bai Feiyan. For example, this young man, although he is talking about the internal selection, in fact, the senior sister next to him knows what he is thinking.

He just wants to see Bai Feiyan, and there are many young people like him. Which young disciple of Zhongjian Dao does not admire Bai Feiyan very much? Let alone, Bai Feiyan's appearance alone is enough to make everyone fascinated.

Not to mention that Bai Feiyan has mastered the three important techniques of the Nine Heavens Sword Art, which is much stronger than the old Taoist, and the old Taoist has only reached the first level of the sword art, and the Nine Heavens Sword Art has a total of nine levels of swords. Even Zhang Zhiwen would be surprised. You know, it is almost impossible for mortals to practice this Nine Heavens Sword Art. Without the foundation of cultivation, how to control the sword energy?

But Bai Feiyan actually mastered the triple sword art, which was simply amazing. Even if Zhang Zhiwen saw it, he would definitely not believe it. Perhaps this was the pure power brought by the physical body. Bai Feiyan's physical body was unusual, and coupled with the power of the Yuanshen, even if Bai Feiyan had no cultivation, he still mastered the triple nine-day sword art.

Of course, at this moment, Zhongjiandao was peaceful, and the copper tripod with burning incense still had bursts of smoke, and there was a very subtle place on the copper tripod that was worth noting, that is, there were carvings on the copper tripod. If Zhang Zhiwen saw it, he would be very surprised.

This carving is not an ordinary carving. It is obviously the carving of the Xuanmen Great Array, but this is a secular sect, there is no great array to speak of, but this copper tripod has it. Obviously, Zhongjiandao has a mountain protection array, and this mountain protection array requires the disciples' faith to maintain its operation. Once it encounters any evil spirit invasion, this mountain protection array must be immediately operated.

At this moment, people came down from the mountain, and they were the captain and his men.

"Captain Li, it's raining heavily here, it's not easy to go up the mountain, right?"

The coroner was a little helpless. He didn't plan to go up the mountain in this weather. In fact, it was useless to go now. Once the heavy rain came, all traces of the scene would be gone, and he would have no way to find out anything. In that case, he didn't need to follow them. He asked the yamen officials to take the bodies back, and then he could check the situation of the bodies.

But Captain Li insisted on taking him up the mountain, and he was a little reluctant.

"It doesn't matter, we'll be there in a while."

Captain Li didn't care about this. As the captain of the yamen, he was in charge of all public security matters in Xiyan Mountain. He naturally couldn't neglect it, otherwise the county magistrate would report him, and he would be in trouble. Besides, this kind of thing rarely happened. He encountered it today, and he was also curious about why the dead woodcutters died.

It was pouring rain in Xiyan County and at the foot of Xiyan Mountain, but no one noticed that Zhongjiandao was clear, otherwise these disciples would not be able to practice martial arts in the dojo.

What they didn't know was that the Zhongjian formation protected the entire Xiyan Mountain and the entire Zhongjiandao. If it was ordinary rain, snow, or wind, the Zhongjian formation would not have any reaction, but this time the Zhongjian formation obviously had a reaction, and it directly emitted waves of spiritual energy, and then the mountain protection formation slowly started to operate. The mountain protection formation had reached the power of the Nascent Soul level, directly covering the entire Xiyan Mountain and the entire Zhongjiandao sect.

Ordinary people cannot feel this power and breath. They thought the weather was fine and there was no rain. However, it had been raining heavily in Xiyan County and the foot of the mountain. If they saw it, they would be very surprised.

Then, they did not know that Li the Captain and his people had come down from the mountain. In fact, Li the Captain and the county government were not qualified to set foot in Zhongjiandao. However, the outer Xiyan Mountain area was open to everyone. Zhongjiandao was not so overbearing, and there was no need to restrict people from outside. Zhongjiandao did not have anything shameful.

So, whether it was a woodcutter, a captain, a peddler, or a tourist, they could all come here. Moreover, many people in the rivers and lakes came here. There was almost no threshold here, even Zhongjiandao did not set any threshold. It seemed to be similar to the nature of a Taoist temple. When pilgrims came, they were all welcomed with open doors.

In this way, the Xiyan Mountain area was naturally extremely prosperous, and Xiyan County was also crowded with people and very lively.

"Okay, why are you asking so many questions? Just practice your sword well."

The young sister was a little impatient. How could she not see what the young man was thinking?

The young man was scolded like this, and he understood the situation and stopped muttering.

But at this moment, there was some movement outside, and then everyone saw a group of people walking here.

Seeing this group of people, the disciples were obviously a little surprised, because these people did not look like pilgrims, nor did they look like friendly people in the martial arts world. Instead, they gave people a sense of solemnity, so they immediately became alert.

It is said that people who practice martial arts are more or less sensitive and quick to react. As long as they take a quick look at the other party, they can roughly know that it seems that the visitor is not kind.

In fact, it was really like this. The leader looked to be about 40 years old. He didn't look like an ordinary person at all, nor did he look like someone from the underworld. Instead, he looked more like someone from the imperial court. When this person came here, he didn't do anything abnormal. Instead, he clasped his fists towards these disciples and said politely, "Everyone, I am Li Da. I wonder if your master is in the Taoist sect? I would like to meet your master. Please inform him!"