The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

Flame-like plum blossoms, cloud-like white snow, and a carefree Taoist—these three were supposed to look so perfect together. However, Wen Hengshui felt an unspeakable sense of disgust upon seeing this. How dare someone to stir up trouble at his wedding!

Just as he was about to command his two Guardians and every master present at his wedding to kill the audacious newcomer, Meng Qi continued to speak with a carefree smile. “I’m not here to stop the wedding.”

What… Everyone was taken aback, including Redline Lady.

Meng Qi continued to speak as everyone else was in a daze. “In this big world, the wedding customs aren’t all the same. There are always small differences even if they share similarities. For instance, to measure the groom’s sincerity, the bride’s family in some regions would pose challenges and test his reactions. Some require the groom to show his knowledge or artistic skills, while others may play the game of Tossing Arrows to the Pot, with the loser drinking wine as punishment.”

“Since the God-gathering Heights is a kungfu sect, we should naturally test the groom’s kungfu. As long as the groom can win me in a fight, I’ll move out of the way and let you receive your bride.”

Instead of taking Miss Huangfu away by force, the Moon Village had done a lot of superficial work to make the wedding look like the real thing such as sending out a procession. Meng Qi knew that they still wanted to look proper in public or their reputation would be ruined.

Mr. Moon-washing might be aggressive enough to control the sects that had befriended Huangfu Tao, but what about hundreds of years later? Hence, even if the Moon Village benefitted from the misfortune of others, they still had to abide by certain rules and keep their reputations intact. Otherwise, they might be accused of dishonest practices and end up badly in the future.

Thus, he believed that as long as he didn’t push them too far and controlled their actions through customs and rules, he should be able to prevent all the masters of the Moon Village from besieging him and taking Huangfu Fei away by force.

If he could win them all, his momentum would reach the peak while crushing the confidence of his opponents. He would then definitely have the opportunity to retreat with Huangfu Fei and Madam Huangfu without experiencing any loss.

Wen Hengshui became less irritated after hearing Meng Qi’s request. He could pass as long as he could win?

He had also often heard of such challenges when a groom welcomed his bride. When it came to an aristocratic family specializing in kungfu, such a request didn’t seem strange. After all, this wedding was considered as an act to benefit themselves from the misfortune of others. It was good enough the Taoist didn’t stop the wedding in a brash manner.

If he was to take the bride away by force… He looked at the visitors around him, thinking about how his father’s reputation would be destroyed. That would result in dire consequences for him.

Wen Hengshui instantly felt calm and confident as he looked at Green-blood Dragon King and Red-eyebrowed Saber King flanking him. How strong could this young Taoist be? Between the two great Guardians here, one was even at the Half-step Exterior Scenery level. How could they lose to him?

He pressed his hand down to prevent other masters from accepting the challenge as they all seemed very eager to try. He laughed and said, “How may I address you? Based on what I know, anyone from the wedding procession can take up the challenge if the family wants to test the groom. It doesn’t have to be the groom himself.”

“That’s correct. You may call me Qingyuan. Heightslord Huangfu and I are friends regardless of age, and today I’ll test the groom on Miss Huangfu’s behalf.” He didn’t oppose Wen Hengshui’s words as that would attract attacks by masters at the level of Half-step Exterior Scenery plus Heaven-man Connection, as well as many masters with Eight or Nine Acupores open. Even if he was capable of escaping from such attack, he couldn’t stop Huangfu Fei from being taken away.

Just as Wen Hengshui was about to agree, Zhong Ning said loudly, “Childe Wen, please don’t be deceived! We’ve never seen this wild Taoist before. You shouldn’t believe him so easily when he has only claimed to be a friend of my Master! The bride’s family should be the one issuing the challenge! Who is he to have a say in it?”

Zhong Ning had just tasted the fear and embarrassment from Meng Qi’s seven moves that cut off seven strands of his hair. With so many masters gathered here, he couldn’t help letting all his emotions burst.

Wen Hengshui’s eyes lit up as he heard what Zhong Ning said. Nobody wanted to waste time and energy on this if as it could be dealt with the easy way.

Many disciples of the God-gathering Heights had arrived by now, including the second disciple Qi Shaochong and the fourth disciple Xia Yanyun. They had also just learned of the wedding since Zhong Ning and many other traitors had been hiding the matter from them.

After hearing Zhong Ning’s words, Redline Lady decided to return and ask for Madam Huangfu’s permission so Taoist Qingyuan could test the groom on behalf of her family. However, before she could even enter the madam’s room, she heard consecutive calls of “Masters!”.

Every cry was filled with shock and astonishment.

She turned around and saw Taoist Qingyuan extending his left hand, a jade pendant decorating his long fingers. The jade was bluish green in color, with a couple of thunderbolt marks and inscriptions engraved on it. She saw the inscriptions clearly when Meng Qi showed both its sides.

‘God-gathering Heights, Huangfu Tao.’

That was the jade pendant Huangfu Tao had tossed to Meng Qi during the short time when he had broken away from control. Meng Qi had only planned to take it out after persuading Huangfu Fei so he can build the basis for mutual trust. It could be useful for him to get the Black Tortoise Jade Pendant, the Five Thunder Skill, and the Heavenly Night Spear Art. If he had shown this to Huangfu Fei first, they might put up their guard against him.

Qi Shaochong, Xia Yanyun, and the others were both surprised and elated. So many thoughts crossed their minds. The jade pendant had gone missing since the Master became mad and left this place. Could it be possible Taoist Qingyuan had met their Master, explaining his possession of the pendant? Or could he had seen their Master’s corpse and took the pendant? Or did their Master lost the pendant while he was running and Taoist Qingyuan happened to pick it up?

There were many different guesses, but they all subconsciously preferred to believe that their Master was still alive and had the hope of becoming sane again.

Zhong Ning and the other traitors, on the other hand, were in great terror. Their Master was regarded as the most powerful Emperor of Tengen of all generations. If he were to return, they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves even if they hid in the Moon Village!

“Who… Who knows how you got your hands on it?” he asked, voice obviously trembling.

Meng Qi didn’t even look at him when he smiled and said to Wen Hengshui, “Childe Wen, this is a token from Heightslord Huangfu. I’ve also received permission from Madam Huangfu, so please send someone to answer my challenge.”

His voice wasn’t loud but he sounded unperturbed and confident.

Wen Hengshui’s pupil shrank ever so slightly as he asked, “Did you meet Heightslord Huangfu?”

The guests who had been watching gasped as they considered the idea, but they thought it was more likely that the Taoist had picked it up somewhere as they thought it through.

Meng Qi smiled without a word as he admired the red plum blossoms.

His reaction confused Wen Hengshui even further. He thought for a while before looking at Xu Suwen, one of his eight masters. He planned to send her to fight the wild Taoist and test his kungfu.

Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder.

“Young lord, this Taoist is unfathomable. Please let me fight him.”

Unfathomable? Wen Hengshui turned in the direction of the voice and saw an unsophisticated face. His brows were tinged red and his eyes were as sharp as a weapon that reflected sunshine.

It was Red-eyebrowed Saber King!

Since it was good to be prudent, Wen Hengshui nodded and told Meng Qi, “I’ll believe you for now. My senior here will fight in this round in my place.”

Red-eyebrowed Saber King? Childe Wen really thought highly of Taoist Qingyuan! The guests thought he would merely send one of the eight masters out. Who knew he would send Red-eyebrowed Saber King, one of the Four Big Protectors, instead?

Among the numerous Martial Artists in this big world, there were few who could open up the Hidden Latch at mid-brows. The number wouldn’t exceed 30, including those who had been living in seclusion. Those who could connect the Internal and the External were even fewer, to the point that one could count them with one hand.

After excluding this extremely small group of people, most Martial Artists were at the level of having enlightened Acupores. Among those, Red-eyebrowed Saber King could be considered within the top five for sure. Moreover, he even reached the level of Heaven-man Connection before the age of 30.

With his age, realm, and calmness, he would usually have high hopes of reaching the Exterior and understanding the knowledge of heaven and men.

As a result, he went on to take up the challenge straight away! That little Taoist didn’t even have the Protective Upstanding Qi!

“Red-eyebrowed Saber King?” The expressions of Redline Lady and Holy Hunchback Beyond the Great Wall turned grave. That person was a powerful Martial Artist, famed all over the world!

“Haha! Taoist, now you’re up against Red-eyebrowed Saber King. I wonder how you’re going to stop us!” Zhong Ning and the other traitors were even more agitated than their master. After all, he had just started a feud with Meng Qi after the seven attacks he had suffered.

Looking at the sturdy and imposing Red-eyebrowed Saber King, Meng Qi stroked his blade handle and smiled. “If you want to call yourself the King among all of those who use sabers, you must first challenge my Scar of Heaven.”

How arrogant! Everyone present had the same thought. How could a nobody talk to Saber King like that?

“All who have said that were defeated by my saber,” Red-eyebrowed Saber King said with a booming voice. He looked like a gigantic saber capable of tearing up the sky and his momentum didn’t drop at all. His aggressiveness made others unable to look at him directly.

When two masters fought, their momentum would influence each other. That was why he didn’t take this challenge lightly at all.

“Very well!” Meng Qi took three steps forward, appearing much taller and larger with every step. In the end, he looked as if he connected the heaven and earth; becoming an embodiment of the vault of Heaven, integrating into the Earth, and inspecting the world at a whole new level!

What terrifying his momentum! Even the confident and experienced Red-eyebrowed Saber King shuddered at the combination of Meng Qi’s supernatural power and Knife Momentum, so much so that he couldn’t even wield his saber!

Before Meng Qi finished his sentence, he was already attacking with his saber.

The strike was as heavy as a mountain, bringing the thrilling sound of thunder as if punishment from the Heaven had descended. There were traces of purple lightning in the air.

The gist of this attack was its heaviness, hence the airflow in front of the saber collapsed immediately and formed a vortex that drew Red-eyebrowed Saber King toward Meng Qi.

With such momentum, his attack truly created an illusion that the sky was falling and thunders were striking!

However, Red-eyebrowed Saber King wasn’t so easily defeated. He was still able to react to his attacks despite being at a disadvantage in terms of momentum. The fleeting knife energy was like a wisp of cold wind, difficult to control and predict. The roaring and heavy Knife Momentum was never crushed, just like how wind could never be crushed.

When the momentum disappeared, two sabers finally clashed yet the sound created was too soft to be noticed.

Red-eyebrowed Saber King waved his long saber and its knife energy could be seen fluttering in the air as if a snowstorm had come. Each change and each intention to kill was like a snowflake, hiding among the snowstorm. They dashed toward Meng Qi with irresistible force.

Meng Qi drew a circle gently with his saber to derive the sky and contain the snowstorm. Traces of purple thunder appeared, making the situation even more terrifying.

When one attacked, the other would defend, and vice versa. They had exchanged many attacks in a few mere breaths, with every attack directly aimed at the opponent’s flaw. However, the attack would either fall into the opponent’s trap or be defended by him.

Red-eyebrowed Saber King felt that the Taoist was the strongest swordsman he had ever faced in his life. He tried his best to fight, yet even with his surroundings covered by dark clouds and snowstorm, he still hadn’t created any chance to use his killer move.

Moreover, in the state of Heaven-man Connection, his judgment on the opponent’s flow of genuine Qi was always slower. Hence he was unable to design his next attack in advance and was forced to fight meticulously. He had to concentrate fully on that Taoist in a blue-white robe as well as the saber in his hand.

Clang! When the two sabers clashed again, Meng Qi’s saber bounced back yet it suddenly trembled for eight times as if making eight high-speed attacks.

Boom!

The purple lightning flowing in the air lit up all of a sudden, converging into several Thunder Dragons. As Meng Qi made an actual attack with the saber, the dragons violently pounced on his opponent.

Sh*t, that was a trap! He had been setting up this trap since his first move!

Meng Qi fought against Red-eyebrowed Saber King the same way he fought against Five Emperors’ Knife, Qing Yu, so there was no doubt he would win so easily!

Red-eyebrowed Saber King clenched his teeth. Even if it might not be the right moment, even if his momentum was tied down, he had no choice but to use his killer move.

His surroundings suddenly turned hazy as the snowstorm pervaded again. The coldness made everyone in the vicinity shudder involuntarily.

As the snowflakes fluttered in the air, his saber turned into a blinding white light and went head-on against the purple dragon with the intention to bury everything around. It was vigorous and magnificent, just like a crumbling snow mountain.

Avalanche against the Thunder Punishment!

Boom!

The lightning was so dazzling that everyone’s sight was filled with a splendid purple. The crisp sound of the clashing spread far away.

As the light disappeared and the snow stopped, Red-eyebrowed Saber King stumbled five steps back in one go. Blood oozed from the corner of his mouth and his hand that was holding the saber never stop trembling.

Meng Qi stood where he was, his robe untainted with even a single snowflake.

He returned his saber into the scabbard and smiled peacefully and carefreely.

“Next.”