Chapter 74 Trading: Ten Books, One Different Answer
"Whatever you say goes." Huang Menglu folded the paper he had placed on the table again and put it back into the box.
"Why not let Cangyu come to the confinement room to look up information together?" the sect leader suddenly asked. Shen Cangyu had performed exceptionally well in every meeting, providing them with a lot of information and ideas. Although she didn't have the opportunity to enter the confinement room to look at the information with the others, she could still keep up with the conversation.
At the end of each meeting, many disciples would continue to search for materials in groups in the solitary confinement room, while Shen Cangyu, who was not qualified to enter the solitary confinement room, could only watch their backs from afar.
The sect leader looked at her and saw envy in her eyes. He saw it, and it pained him deeply.
He felt that he had missed so many years of Shen Cangyu's growth, and he had to find a way to make up for it.
“Cang Yu?” Huang Menglu raised an eyebrow and said, “Don’t forget, although she has joined your Wanqi Guixin sect and inherited the Kunlun Sword, she is not a true member of Kunlun. She will return to Penglai sooner or later. Only Kunlun disciples are allowed to enter the confinement room. This is a rule set by the previous sect leaders. You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”
"She won't go back to Penglai; she'll stay in Kunlun forever," the sect leader said.
Where does your confidence come from?
"She is my child."
The two voices rang out at the same time.
Huang Menglu was silent for a moment, then said, "No wonder you always pay attention to her, so that's the reason."
"When she comes of age, I will tell her the truth. After she knows her background, she will continue to stay in Kunlun."
"Are you sure she's really your child?" Huang Menglu asked.
“She comes from Penglai, and her surname happens to be Shen… Its eyes look just like hers, there’s no mistake.”
The sect leader was initially hesitant, but as he spoke, his tone became increasingly resolute, as if he were convincing himself: "If she is not my child, how could she inherit the Kunlun Sword?"
He still firmly believes that only those of his bloodline can inherit the Kunlun Sword. He became the Kunlun Sect Leader not through his own Taoist techniques and cultivation, but through his bloodline. He knows this clearly. Everyone understands this implicitly; although they respectfully address him as Sect Leader, they never truly respect him.
With all things returning to the heart, the Daoist arts were waning. The sect leader couldn't find a way to break the deadlock. He stood in front of the ancestral hall, looking at the spirit tablets and the swords displayed on the shelves, and thought about it countless times.
Can this bloodline really grant them preferential treatment?
Huang Menglu said, "That child is indeed quite good. I felt a sense of familiarity when I saw her. She has a connection with Kunlun. However, if you want to acknowledge her, have you told her about this? And are you sure she will acknowledge you as her father?"
The sect leader remained silent, and Huang Menglu continued, "She's been in Kunlun for so long but hasn't shown any affection for you. I guess she doesn't really care about you as her father."
These words deeply stung the sect leader's heart: "I am the sect leader, what's wrong with me acknowledging a child? There are so many elders in Kunlun who have adopted children. If she doesn't believe she is my biological child, then I can adopt her as my daughter."
He felt a surge of anger, but Huang Menglu in front of him had no intention of arguing with him. She simply spoke the truth based on her understanding of Shen Cangyu.
“That child is different from Wenjing. She has a strong temper. If you suddenly tell her that you are her father, she won’t be surprised. She might even get angry. You may think that your bloodline and lineage are a good thing, but she may not think so.”
The sect leader's anger froze on his face, only to be dispelled by Huang Menglu's casual remark, which ultimately turned into panic: "You people who believe in the unity of all things seem to enjoy forcing things."
*
"I've handed everything over to you. Did you bring Wan Qianzhong's message?" Shen Cangyu asked Jiang Qian.
"Lord Wan said, take this and open the window of your room. If there is moonlight tonight, she will come to find you." Jiang Qian took out a brocade pouch from his bosom and poured out a copper coin with a floral design.
Shen Cangyu took the warm copper coin and stroked its patterns. She had seen the currencies of various countries in the human world, but she had never seen this floral vine pattern before. This was probably a copper coin created by Wan Qianchong himself.
She made a deal with Wan Qianzhong: she would help Jiang Qian retrieve Wan Qianzhong's books from the Kunlun Scripture Pavilion, give them to Jiang Qian, and he would then send them out of Kunlun. Wan Qianzhong promised her that for every ten books sent out, Shen Cangyu would receive an answer from her.
Now that she has given away thirty books, she can correspondingly ask Wan Qianchong three questions.
Wan Qianzhong was very important in bringing his book out of Kunlun.
In her previous life, Shen Cangyu felt there was nothing wrong with her actions. But the plot of this life was different. After the Xingxiang Hall collapsed, Shui Linglong plotted to establish her new Daoist methods in Kunlun, promoting the art of the mind. What she did was no different from Wan Qianzhong's, except one was inside the mountain, the other outside; one was for cultivators, the other for ordinary people.
While collecting books in the Scripture Pavilion, Shen Cangyu encountered Shui Linglong several times. Shui Linglong was also collecting manuals related to mental arts, many of which were written by Wan Qianzhong. To be honest, Shen Cangyu didn't think it would be better for these books to return to Wan Qianzhong's hands than to fall into Shui Linglong's.
After all, no matter what, Wan Qianzhong is a demonic cultivator, while Shui Linglong is a righteous one.
"Why did you come to Kunlun? You know perfectly well that Kunlun is dangerous. Everyone is currently hunting the Five Evils. If your identity is exposed, your fate will be terrible." Shen Cangyu put away the copper coins and asked.
"It's not night yet, and there's no moon," Jiang Qian reminded him.
"I'm not asking Wan Qianzhong, I'm asking you." Shen Cangyu looked up at him. In her memory, Jiang Qian had always been cautious and prudent. He constantly cultivated relationships with various people and planned his own escape route, all so that he could make a clean getaway if his identity was ever exposed. As a disciple of one of the Five Evils, he must have been afraid while lurking in Kunlun.
Otherwise, when everyone was rescued ashore after the ship sank, Jiang Qian wouldn't have slipped away from the crowd without a word.
But why would someone like him risk staying in Kunlun? What benefits did Wan Qianzhong offer him that made him take such a risk?
“If these books remain in Kunlun, they will only be burned. But if they are spread outside the mountains, they can enable more people to live a better life,” Jiang Qian said with a smile.
"I didn't expect you to have some saintly qualities," Shen Cangyu said sarcastically. If she weren't also a penny-pincher, she would have actually believed Jiang Qian's nonsense. How could someone with such a narrow mind become a selfless saint? Shen Cangyu found the thought laughable.
"After all, I've had my share of hardships, and I know there are many, if not many, people in this world who have suffered as much as I have. I hope that what I'm doing can prevent one less person from freezing to death in winter." Jiang Qian's words concealed a half-hearted sincerity. Shen Cangyu looked at him and suddenly remembered the beggar who died beside him when she first saw him in this life.
"Never mind," Shen Cangyu thought.
"Then you should hide well. If you are exposed, let Wan Qianzhong come and save you. After all, she is the one who threw you into the fire pit of Kunlun, so she has to take responsibility." Shen Cangyu picked up the umbrella next to him and looked out of the pavilion.
The rain outside the pavilion had stopped by then, the sky was clear and blue, and water dripped intermittently from the tiles.
The rain had stopped, so there was no need to open the umbrella anymore. The sky would clear after the rain, and perhaps we could even see the moon tonight. Shen Cangyu picked up the umbrella and walked outside.
Shen Cangyu felt that she didn't need to worry about Jiang Qian, after all, he was always very good at hiding his true feelings. In her previous life, when she died, Jiang Qian was still alive and well, and she wondered what had become of him since then.
As Shen Cangyu walked back along the mountain path, he suddenly encountered someone he never expected.
It was Shen Qingyan and the members of the Tongmenghui.
The members of the Tongmenghui turned red the moment they saw Shen Cangyu. They all knew that Shen Cangyu was present when Dongtang died, and she had made a significant contribution.
When the news spread that Dong Tang was a demonic cultivator, the members of the Alliance found it hard to believe. After all, they had been together for so many years and had never noticed any characteristics of a demonic cultivator in Dong Tang.
But it is said that when Dongtang summoned Wuliangsheng, everyone saw that in addition to summoning Wuliangsheng, she also planted evil seeds in many disciples, arousing their anger.
They didn't believe it because they weren't among the people Dongtang planted the seeds of evil.
Despite their close relationship, spending almost every day together, sharing similar personalities and goals, they resented the elders' favoritism and disapproved of the Kunlun Inner Sect's system of bloodline privilege and hierarchy. They harbored deep resentment towards the members of the Kunlun Inner Sect and perfectly met the criteria for becoming followers of Wuliangsheng.
If Dongtang were truly a follower of Wuliangsheng, spending every day with them, she would have had countless opportunities to harm them. But she didn't.
Since the fact that Dongtang was Wuliangsheng was exposed, the members of their alliance were also placed under the control of the Kunlun elders. Interrogations and tests followed one after another, but in the end the elders found nothing about them, and they left the admonition hall unharmed.
Even today, many members of the Tongmenghui still believe that Dongtang could not possibly be Wuliangsheng. There must be some misunderstanding, or perhaps it was just a trap set by Kunlun for Dongtang.
She's such a good person...
“I heard from others that she killed Dongtang back then.” Someone stared at Shen Cangyu, their jaw clenched.
The soil beneath their feet was damp with rain, becoming soft and sticky. This was Little Kunlun, not Kunlun itself; this was their territory. If they killed Shen Cangyu and hid him in the ravine, the rain would cause the soil on the hillside to collapse, burying all traces, and no one would notice anything amiss…
Shen Cangyu looked at their constantly changing expressions and knew what they were thinking.
They wanted to kill her, and she could kill them just as easily. With a single burst of light from the candle dragon, everything was reduced to ashes.
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