Thinking of the banners these so-called righteous sects are waving, Dongfang Bai's eyes were full of scorn.
What, exactly, had she done that endangered the world so greatly that they could proclaim, "The realm has suffered under Dongfang long enough"?
Because she had once been drenched by rain, she knew enough to hold out an umbrella for others.
In the lands governed by her Sun and Moon Divine Cult, the common folk could not be said to live in perfect bliss, but they did live in peace and make their livelihood. At the very least, no sect dared stir up trouble on territory ruled by Dongfang Bubai.
Well, it was only natural. To these righteous sects, what you did was irrelevant; what mattered was that your very existence was not to their advantage.
The world, after all, always insists on black and white.
We are white; therefore, no matter what we have done, we remain white.
You are black; no matter what good you do, you remain black.
Black is forever black; white is forever white.
This martial world, this realm, is a board with only two colors—black and white.
If you wish to change such a state of affairs, you must break free from the role of a piece, become the one who commands the pieces, and then overturn the board itself.
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "You're kidding me. Where'd they get the guts?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "And shouldn't they be super busy right now?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "The scramble over the Evil-Resisting Sword Manual, the Gold Basin Hand-Washing ceremony, the Sword-Qi dispute replaying—how did they even manage to unite?"
Roxie Vale asked with some perplexity. Even if Dongfang Bai didn't involve herself in the plot, some events should still have come to pass.
The Five Mountains weren't complete in numbers yet, nor united in heart. How could they rally together to crusade against Dongfang Bai?
Even if they did unite, who would lead as alliance chief?
Yue Buqun? Zuo Lengchan? It couldn't possibly be Shaolin, right—and would Zuo Lengchan even agree?
Dongfang Bubai: "Because of Linghu Chong."
Dongfang Bubai: "His strength now is formidable. Even at my peak back then, I might not be certain of defeating him."
Dongfang Bubai: "Upon his first descent from the mountain he challenged the world with his sword—Qingcheng Sect, Mount Heng, Mount Song, Shaolin, Wudang—no one was his match. The former Sword Sage of Mount Hua, Feng Qingyang, was defeated within a mere hundred moves."
Dongfang Bubai: "And he seems to have mastered an inner cultivation art that can imitate others' martial arts and unleash even greater power from them. In the martial world, it's been dubbed 'Repay in Kind—Use the opponent's own way against them.'"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "???"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "You're sure you're talking about Linghu Chong?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "Challenged the world and met no equal? 'Repay in Kind—Use the opponent's own way against them'?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "Wasn't he just a third-rate fighter the moment he left the mountain?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "His internal energy was lacking, his swordplay was lacking, he couldn't even beat Tian Boguang—so how did he suddenly become someone who could defeat Feng Qingyang?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "This isn't the Linghu Chong I know! Absolutely not!"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "He's definitely a transmigrator! Definitely! If not—fine, fine, I shouldn't run my mouth too much. If it turns out after I transmigrate someone filmed another version of Linghu Chong that I don't know about, that'd be awkward."
In the end, Roxie Vale didn't speak the word aloud, but the "Repay in Kind—Use the opponent's own way against them" Linghu Chong that Dongfang Bai described looked stranger and stranger to her no matter how she examined it.
And that inner cultivation art—why did it sound more and more like Xiaowuxiang Gong?
If it truly was Xiaowuxiang Gong, never mind where Linghu Chong obtained the lineage; the key question was how he inherited Murong Fu's epithet.
No—more precisely, how he inherited the epithet that belonged with Douzhuan Xingyi.
Then again, thinking it through, it wasn't so far-fetched. She didn't know exactly how Douzhuan Xingyi worked, but Xiaowuxiang Gong could indeed emulate a hundred schools of martial arts and, when displayed, its power was no less—and sometimes even greater.
Dongfang Bubai: "Perhaps it's the butterfly effect."
Dongfang Bubai: "Didn't you say that once we know the plot, any change we make could affect this world's future?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "The change is a little too big, though."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "And he was that strong the moment he came down the mountain—but he only met you after coming down the mountain."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "That doesn't add up."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "If he isn't a transmigrator, then I can only think of two possibilities."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "One: a rebooted version of Smiling Proud Wanderer in your timeline—more fantastical than before—that kept your template but changed Linghu Chong's personality, cultivation, and talent, overhauling the plot until it had almost nothing to do with the original."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "Two: some author wrote a Smiling Proud Wanderer fanfic with no transmigrators, but reshaped Linghu Chong's character settings into whatever they wanted."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "Strictly speaking, the second also counts as a sort of transmigration."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "@Child of Nature, Yuanfang, what do you think?"
After analyzing for a long while, Roxie Vale decided to hand the mic over to Brandon White.
By this point Brandon had finished skimming up through the earlier messages and understood why Roxie had @-ed him.
The Linghu Chong in Dongfang Bubai's world could no longer be said to be the same as the one in the original. To say they were identical would be nonsense; better to say they had nothing to do with each other.
But there was one point that puzzled him.
Child of Nature: "Dongfang, how did the Sun and Moon Divine Cult's information network determine that what he cultivates is an inner art that can emulate an opponent's martial arts—and not an external technique?"
Dongfang Bubai: "What difference does that make?"
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "If it's inner cultivation, odds are it's Xiaowuxiang Gong. If it's a martial technique, then we're talking Douzhuan Xingyi."
Utterly Ordinary Group Owner: "If Brandon hadn't brought it up, I wouldn't even have asked. Is your Divine Cult's intel really that good? You can even know this?"
Dongfang Bubai: "No—he said it himself."
Dongfang Bubai: "When he challenged the world, he used the martial arts of his opponents' own sects to defeat them. While they were still reeling in shock, those sects naturally suspected Linghu Chong of having stolen their techniques. His explanation was that this was the ability of the inner art he'd learned."
Dongfang Bubai: "At first they were skeptical, thinking there couldn't possibly be such a peculiar martial art in the world. But afterward, every time Linghu Chong defeated an opponent, he did so with that opponent's own sect's martial arts—and with even greater force."
Dongfang Bubai: "Given Linghu Chong's age, no matter how extraordinary his talent, it would be impossible for him to cultivate such a number of martial arts to such profound depths."
Dongfang Bubai: "With time, they came to accept that explanation."
At the level Linghu Chong had reached, he had no need to deceive them.
Later, many coveted Linghu Chong's inner cultivation—but after they made their move, every last one of them, without exception, was cut down beneath his sword.
Not only the assassins they sent, but the people themselves—and even their families and factions lurking behind them.
Uprooted to the last blade of grass.
In this, Linghu Chong showed no mercy.
(End of this chapter)