The Six Immortals

 A Conspiracy Brews

After returning to Yunufeng, Bi Fan began practicing daily.

He had memorized several new techniques and had started practicing some of them, a few days had passed and with every passing day, he felt more and more comfortable with these new skills.

He had learnt a lot about ‘Fufeng double-edged sword’ from Mo Nan’s display and had been practicing it very frequently, and to his surprise, was able to master the technique in a rather short span of time.

Presently, the sun had already set and Bi Fan was ready for his nightly practice.

He had been very excited with his progress regarding his sword play and couldn’t sleep much even if he wanted to, so he decided to take Greedy to the orchard for his meal.

The orchard, under Bi Fan’s care was coming out really well, with all kinds of herbs growing healthily, and Greedy would still get his two herbs a day.

Bi Fan’s life had taken a very calm note; he was practicing steadily every day, preparing himself to take on the devil’s territory.

On the other hand, after watching Bi Fan at the selection, Zhu San’s life had been turned upside down. He too, was having sleepless nights, but his reasons differed.

“I must kill Bi Fan. He has been accepted as a student by the deputy, and sooner or later, will become exceptionally strong and influential. If I don’t kill him now, then he is going to get me later on for sure.” Zhu San was willing to consider any and all means to eliminate Bi Fan.

Zhu San had been carrying a very gloomy look on his face these past few days, constantly thinking about his new problem and trying to contemplate means to sort it out.

“I need to find a man who has an axe to grind with Bi Fan. But this man should be strong enough to take on Bi Fan. Where will I find such a man in Quinyang….”

Zhu San shook his head thinking: “No man from Quinyang would dare to break into Yunufeng and kill Bi Fan. But I need him dead as soon as possible. He becomes stronger with every passing day.”

The thought of Lou Sheng sprouted into Zhu San’s head. Not only was Lou Sheng a core student of Neimen school, he was also the grandson of a very influential monk.

Bi Fan had disgraced Lou Sheng after his victory at the selection and everyone at Quinyang was aware of it.

Lou Sheng wasn’t the kind of man who would take such a disgrace with ease, and would be definitely holding a grudge against Bi Fan. This meant that he could be tempted into killing Bi Fan.

Zhu San decided to use this feud, after all, who better to kill Bi Fan than such a powerful and influential man, and even if somehow Bi Fan managed to prevail, he would end up making even more powerful enemies.

Lou Sheng resided at the ‘peak of light’ and that way exactly where Zhu San needed to go.

Zhu San knew that the guard at the gate wouldn’t let him through, and he couldn’t trespass into the vicinity in bright day light. So after a bit of struggle, he somehow managed to get a message across to Lou Sheng.

Since the message spoke of Bi Fan being a common enemy, Lou Sheng was naturally interested in knowing more.

Bi Fan had just barely managed to become a disciple and was already challenging Lou Sheng’s authority. This wasn’t even remotely acceptable to Lou Sheng and he had been looking for means to teach Bi Fan a lesson.

Lou Sheng asked Zhu San to meet him at the ‘peak of light’ and came personally to greet him.

“I heard that you requested this meeting with Bi Fan in mind, make it quick. You are causing an obstruction in my training and if I’m not satisfied at the conclusion of this meet then the consequences will be severe of you.” Lou Sheng said in a very cool voice.

Zhu San’s face turned purple with fear, making him look even uglier.

Zhu San would not dare to talk any nonsense at this point, so he quickly got to the bottom line and said: “Bi Fan has only just started practicing a few months ago, and in a very short span of time managed to become strong enough to win the selection tournament. He is moving up too quickly.”

Lou Sheng listened carefully to everything that Zhu San had to say, his expressions changing constantly.

“Zhu San, isn’t that your name? You’ve managed to offend Bi Fan, and now you’re afraid that he’s going to take his revenge on you. So now you have come to ask for help in order to get rid of him, but what’s in it for me?” Lou Sheng smiled.

Zhu San suddenly became very excited and his face reflected it: “Lou Sheng, you are such a respected….”

“Don’t give me any of that, I have agreed to fight Bi Fan at the tournament next year, and I will emerge victorious, that is the only possible outcome.” Lou Sheng stated, interrupting Zhu San.

“Lou Sheng sir, I’m willing to offer all my saving in return for this favor.” Zhu San said, gritting his teeth.

“No, no…. I’m not interested in your savings, but I heard that you’re managing a medicine orchard, and I would require a good amount of Panacea for my training…” Lou Sheng said, shaking his finger.

As soon as Zhu San heard Lou Sheng’s demand, he felt foolish of himself.

“If you do not agree to my terms, then you will be going down sooner or later.” Lou Sheng stated.

Zhu San was mad with fury and looked at Lou Sheng: “Lou Sheng sir, please give me some time to arrange the Panacea you require.”

“You can take your time, you can leave now.” Lou Sheng said, although it sounded like more of an order.

Zhu San quickly left the ‘peak of light’ and his heart rained curses at Lou Sheng: “I gave you vital information, and instead of helping me, you want to extort Panacea from me with threats. I curse you; I curse that you never be able to practice another day.”

Zhu San fat body looked like a ball, clumsily shaking down the mountain.

“What do you plan on doing, young one?” Spoke a man named Li Yu Feng, a senior disciple at the ‘peak of light’.

Li Yu Feng had been over hearing their conversation, but hadn’t spoken out until now.

“Bi Fan is an evil doer. If Zhu San is telling the truth about Bi Fan, that means that Bi Fan must have encountered some sort of a miracle in the Wan Snake Cave which is the reason he has been able to progress so quickly in such a short span of time. Moreover, there is no saying where he could go from now, as nothing about his encounters in the cave is known, I need to get rid of him quickly.”

Lou Sheng said as his eyes reflected a lining of haze and his fists were clenched so tight that his veins sprouted out.

Li Yu Feng warned: “Young one, think of things from a long term perspective. Killing a fellow disciple in Quinyang is a very serious crime, and is known to be punished very severely. Be careful.”

“Don’t worry about it, he dared to challenge me, I will bury him while his body still draws breath.” Lou Sheng replied in a very cold tone.

Meanwhile Bi Fan was busy with his practice in Yunufeng, and knew nothing of the developments in the outside world. He was completely unaware that Zhu San had been setting up trap for him, and was just sitting there and waiting for him to walk right into it.

 His practice with his sword play had been coming out very well. He was practicing both ‘Fufeng double-edge sword’ and ‘rainy-fly sword’. He was confident that both these techniques would come in handy at a later stage.

He was extremely happy that he was now capable of generating a lot more force with the ‘immortal finger’, but even then, at his current level, he couldn’t go much further than the first move of the ‘free burst’ techniques.

‘The immortal finger’ after all, was only a basic foundation level move in the ‘free burst’ technique.

‘The dance of mist’ and ‘free burst’ at the end of the day were techniques that required a practitioner to be in the ‘emerging from womb’ category before the practitioner could fully make use of them. So Bi Fan presently, was only able to practice the very basic moves.

Even so, at present, even the basic moves were enough to take care of his enemies.

Recently, Bi Fan had also started practicing the ‘prancing tiger’ boxing technique. But the ‘prancing tiger’ boxing, again, required him to be a lot stronger before he could employ in properly in combat.

But Bi Fan continued to stubbornly practice the ‘prancing tiger’ boxing as he was sure that it would help him increase his strength and the skill would come in handy in a fight, if it was ever needed.

With a blooming mood, Bi Fan was preparing himself for the battles ahead.

Nowadays, Bi Fan had already reached the peak of ‘inner breath’ layer, and need to find a way to break into ‘inner organs’ layer now.

He practiced harder and harder as he needed to bottleneck through to the next layer without wasting any time.

Bi Fan was running short on time, so he decided to go away from the mountain, so he wanted get some outside experience which might help him break through to the next layer.

As far as going into the devil’s territory was concerned, Bi Fan decided to wait until he had broken into the ‘inner organs’ layer, just to be safe.

Bi Fan decided to see Xiaofeng before departing from the mountain for his practice.