Chapter 83 The Sacrificial Secrets Left by the Ancestor

Sect Leader Ye walked to the memorial tablet, picked up a bunch of incense and lit it. "You've done this before. Even when there's nothing wrong, you always find some excuse. I only cooperated with you because I respected you for always taking care of me. It's time for you to come up with a different trick."

Lu Xingfeng said, "The trick doesn't have to be new, as long as it works. See, you still came after all."

"I came here just in case you really have something to do with our sect's secrets, but you've done this again. Lu Xingfeng, this is the last time." After bowing and offering incense, Sect Leader Ye turned to leave.

Lu Xingfeng blocked her way, "Junior sister, this time it's for real."

Sect Leader Ye stopped in his tracks. "Then tell me quickly."

Lu Xingfeng said, "Before I tell you the secret, I'd like to talk to you about something else."

Seeing his serious expression, which was completely different from the look in his eyes when he used to find excuses to meet her, Sect Leader Ye patiently looked at him and simply uttered three words, "I'm listening."

Lu Xingfeng stared into Sect Leader Ye's eyes, "Junior Sister, in these ten years, have you truly never had any feelings for me?"

Sect Leader Ye looked helpless. "No."

"Even just a little bit..." Lu Xingfeng was still unwilling to give up, "Even a little bit? Not even a little bit?"

"No," Sect Leader Ye replied decisively.

In the candlelight, Lu Xingfeng's refined face trembled slightly. He forced a smile, "Then... how exactly do I make you fall in love with me?"

Sect Leader Ye frowned. "Senior Brother Lu, I've told you many times that I respect you the most besides Master. I remember all the kindness and care you've given me. This feeling is closer than that of family, but it has nothing to do with love, and I could never fall in love with you."

"Junior sister..." Lu Xingfeng wanted to say something more.

Sect Leader Ye interrupted, "We're both over forty years old. I've been open and honest with you, without any childish hesitation. Isn't that clear enough?"

Lu Xingfeng was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, turned around, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the dark night outside the ancestral hall gate. "I understand, I understand enough. Yes... I should wake up too."

Sect Leader Ye's tone softened, "Senior Brother, it's almost midnight. Please tell me the secret you want to tell me."

Lu Xingfeng turned his head to the side, "I'll ask you one last time, if I become a man with absolute power, would you be willing to be my woman? Even if you don't love me, it doesn't matter."

Sect Leader Ye's patience was almost worn out, but out of consideration for their years of camaraderie, he maintained a gentle attitude. "Senior brother should know that I am not the kind of person who curries favor with the powerful. No matter how powerful you are, even if you become a king or even unify the world, I will not be your woman. It has nothing to do with you. I would not do the same with any other man."

"Fine, very well." Lu Xingfeng's voice turned cold. "Ye Zhiqiu, since that's the case, how about you hand over the position of sect leader to me?"

This was the first time in ten years that Lu Xingfeng had called her by her full name.

Even the name Ye Zhi Qiu carried a hint of gritted teeth.

"Senior brother, you..." Ye Zhi Qiu was slightly startled and quickly took a few steps back. "What do you mean by this?"

Lu Xingfeng, still with his back to her, continued, "I'm doing this for your own good. Since you don't love me and can't be my woman, I'll take over the Tian Shu Sect for you and let you go find the man you love, oh, and your daughter."

Ye Zhi Qiu stared at his back and said calmly, "You don't need to worry about that, Senior Brother. I have my own plans."

As she spoke, images of the past flashed through her mind.

Ten years ago, she and her husband were being chased by a mysterious person and their car accidentally plunged into a river.

The two thought they were doomed, but after the car sank underwater, a strange light appeared around them.

In the blink of an eye, the two found themselves in a completely unfamiliar world.

It was only later that I realized this world was China more than two thousand years ago.

It was during the period when the seven major vassal states were vying for supremacy in the Central Plains.

Unable to return to the modern era, the two are forced to continue living in this one.

Later, for some important reason, the once extremely loving couple had a huge disagreement and went their separate ways to pursue their own goals.

"What are your plans?" Lu Xingfeng's voice pulled Ye Zhi Qiu back to reality from her reverie.

Ye Zhi Qiu's expression was complicated. "I'm sorry, I have no comment."

She is a time traveler, and what she is about to do are all secrets that cannot be revealed.

She hadn't even told her most trusted and respected master, so why would she tell Lu Xingfeng?

However, this was both to achieve her own goals and to protect the Tian Shu Sect.

If this gets out, the sect might face annihilation.

To achieve her goals in the future, she must continue to serve as the leader of the Tian Shu Sect; otherwise, she may not be able to achieve them in her lifetime.

"You don't even trust me? You're hiding this from me?" Lu Xingfeng turned around abruptly, his eyes filled with pain and disappointment. "Even if you don't love me, you don't have to be so wary of me, do you?"

"Ye Zhiqiu, I know that you have been secretly working with the sect's disciples all these years, but I have never questioned it. On the contrary, when elders or others in the sect noticed, I covered for you."

Is this how you treat me?

Faced with Lu Xingfeng's questioning.

Ye Zhi Qiu looked apologetic. "I wasn't being wary of you; I had to hide it for the sake of the sect's safety. But I can assure you, what I did was absolutely not evil. I—"

"Alright!" Lu Xingfeng stared straight at her. "One word: are you going to give me the position of sect leader or not?"

Ye Zhi Qiu's apology faded, his eyes hardening. "This position was entrusted to me by the old sect leader before his death. If I were to make you the sect leader, wouldn't that be going against his last wish? Besides, if others heard you say such things, they would think you were trying to usurp the throne! Fortunately, it's just the two of us here, so I'll pretend you never said it. This is a one-time thing, and it won't happen again!"

"Hahahaha!" Lu Xingfeng laughed loudly, "You've only been the sect leader for less than two years, but you're already acting more and more like one! Now you're even using the old sect leader's and your current sect leader status to intimidate me?"

Ye Zhi Qiu was speechless.

If you're being serious, she's never put on any airs in front of her fellow disciples.

Now, a well-intentioned reminder has backfired, leading him to label me?

"Senior Brother, the memorial tablets of the former sect leader and all the previous sect leaders are here. Watch your words." Ye Zhi Qiu's voice carried a hint of warning.

"I'm going to say it to the faces of these old geezers!"

Lu Xingfeng suddenly took a step forward, grabbed Ye Zhi Qiu by the neck with one hand, and sneered, "You'd better obediently give up the position of sect leader, or don't blame me for being impolite."

Ye Zhi Qiu knew very well that as a modern person who had transmigrated to this world, even if he had learned some martial arts from the old sect leader, he was no match for someone like Lu Xing Feng who had practiced martial arts since childhood.

She was neither anxious nor did she resist, because she had not yet figured out what the other person was trying to tell her.

"Senior Brother, do you want to kill me?" She looked calmly into his eyes. "All the past sect leaders are watching from heaven. And how will you explain this to all the disciples afterward? Aren't you afraid of carrying the infamy of killing the sect leader and usurping the throne for the rest of your life?"

"Kill you?" Lu Xingfeng laughed. "Killing you is easier for me than crushing a mosquito. If I wanted to do it, I would have done it long ago. Even now, I still want to give you a chance to step down."

“Impossible,” Ye Zhi Qiu said calmly. “If you could do it, just kill me.”

"Okay." Lu Xingfeng slowly exerted force with his five fingers.

Ye Zhi Qiu's hand was hidden in her sleeve, tightly clutching something, but she didn't want to fight back yet.

As Lu Xingfeng exerted a little force, her face flushed red.

Lu Xingfeng glanced back and said with a smile, "It seems you still trust me. You came to see me in the middle of the night without bringing the old sect leaders' attendants. I thought they might show up."

Ye Zhi Qiu said with difficulty, "Your martial arts... are the highest among everyone in the sect right now. Even if they... come, they can't beat you... Lu Xing Feng, can you... tell me what secrets of the Tian Shu Sect you know before I die?"

Lu Xingfeng released a bit of internal energy from between his fingers and, after testing Ye Zhi Qiu's skills, discovered that Ye Zhi Qiu's martial arts were indeed lacking.

So I was completely relieved and let go of his hand.

Ye Zhi Qiu coughed, clutching his chest with one hand.

Lu Xingfeng raised his head and said, "I won't kill you, because, as you said, it would be difficult for me to handle the aftermath. But I don't need to kill you to make you obediently relinquish the position of sect leader."

"Not only that, I also want you to be my woman from now on, whether you like it or not."

"I'm still waiting for you to obediently serve me in bed, how could I bear to kill you?"

At this moment, Lu Xingfeng's usually refined and scholarly demeanor only served to highlight the terrifying nature of his expression.

"Do we really have to get to this point?" Ye Zhi Qiu asked.

“The choice is yours,” Lu Xingfeng said, a cold glint in his eyes. “You want to know the secret, right? Now I can tell you, and that’s exactly why you will hand over the position of sect leader to me. Ye Zhiqiu, I have given you chance after chance, and you are the one who has pushed me to this point.”

Ye Zhi Qiu gripped what was inside his wide sleeves tightly, and focused intently. "I'm all ears."

Lu Xingfeng stood with his hands behind his back and slowly said, "Hundreds of years ago, the first patriarch of the Tian Shu Sect came from an unorthodox background, you know that, right?"

Ye Zhi Qiu nodded, "I've heard a little about it."

Lu Xingfeng sneered, "Later, he founded the Tian Shu Sect. Through the efforts of the first few sect leaders, in order to gain a foothold in the martial arts world and avoid being wiped out by the righteous sects, they gradually lost the skills of the first patriarch. But—except for one of them."

"What?" Ye Zhi Qiu's interest was piqued.

Looking at the dark silhouettes of the rolling mountains under the night sky, Lu Xingfeng saw that there were already some lights on the altar. He continued, "The reason why that ancestor established his sect here was because he discovered a giant snake in Falling Eagle Gorge that could transform into a dragon. He then developed the art of sacrifice and offering, and made a pact with the giant snake."

"Huh?" Ye Zhi Qiu was stunned.

She has been here for ten years. Her own time travel was already a bizarre thing, and after encountering some strange and wonderful things, she gradually got used to it.

After all, it was more than two thousand years ago, an era that is not particularly far removed from the time of ancient mythology.

But now, when I hear about giant snakes that can transform into dragons or about making contracts through sacrifices and offerings, I still find it outrageous.

"Really?" Ye Zhi Qiu asked incredulously.

Lu Xingfeng didn't care whether she believed him or not. He paced back and forth as he spoke: "Later, the first few leaders of the Tian Shu Sect felt that the ancestor's other evil arts could be destroyed, but that giant snake might become the sect's treasure in the future. In case of a life-or-death crisis for the sect, it would have a backer. So they secretly kept the sacrificial technique that could summon the giant snake."

Ye Zhi Qiu looked puzzled. "How come I've never heard the old sect leader mention this before?"

"Him?" Lu Xingfeng laughed so hard he bent over. "Don't even mention him. Several generations of sect leaders before him didn't know about it because this secret is too ancient. It was already unknown two or three hundred years ago."

Ye Zhi Qiu still looked suspicious. "So how did you know that? Could it be that you've lived for two or three hundred years?"

Lu Xingfeng said with a smug look, "Let me tell you a little secret related to this. Actually, one of my ancestors was a follower of the fourth leader of the Tian Shu Sect. My ancestor secretly copied the technique of summoning the giant snake and put it in the family heirloom."

"Forty years ago, when I was only a few years old, the world was in constant conflict between countries, and people were suffering for many years. My whole family died, leaving me all alone. I had no choice but to pawn my family heirloom."

"But that heirloom was just a small, rough, and ugly terracotta figurine. Nobody was willing to spend money to buy it, and they wouldn't even buy it for free. In a fit of anger, I smashed it. As a result, I discovered the secret technique and the secret story about the giant serpent engraved on the inside of the terracotta fragments."

"Although I didn't know many words at that time, I still memorized every single one of them."

"Later, I ended up in Yuqi Mountain, where the old sect leader took me in as a disciple. He taught me to read and to practice martial arts, and I finally learned this huge secret."

After hearing this, Ye Zhi Qiu was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

He described it in such detail, and it was so bizarre that it seemed impossible to have made it up.

Ye Zhi Qiu composed himself and asked, "Assuming everything you said is true, then you mean you want to use this secret technique to exchange for the position of sect leader with me?"

"Hahahaha! You're so naive!" Lu Xingfeng smirked. "With such a powerful secret technique, why would I need to trade with you? Can't I use it myself?"

"Ye Zhiqiu, the sacrificial altar is now fully prepared. As soon as I give the signal, the throats of the four hundred low-level disciples on the altar will be slit and they will bleed to death by my men..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ye Zhi Qiu was greatly alarmed.

"How could you do something so heinous?!"

"You flatter me, this is nothing at all."

Lu Xingfeng's smile deepened. "After the blood is released, the giant snake will crawl up from the bottom of Falling Eagle Gorge. I can secretly control it to open its belly and devour people. My dear junior sister, do you really want to see the sect you painstakingly built up in accordance with the old sect leader's last wish flow with blood? Do you really want to see all those who respect and protect you die in the snake's mouth?"