Scarlet Peak Mountain.
A place steeped in legend.
It's said that a red sword fairy once resided on Scarlet Peak. When demons invaded, he stood alone, slaying the demon king and saving the entire continent. However, the battle drained his life force, and he vanished from the world. In his absence, Scarlet Peak transformed—overnight, all vegetation disappeared, as if it had never existed.
Li Taixing had read about this legend in an old book but couldn't help feeling that the final part had been exaggerated.
"Legends? How much of this could actually be true?" Li Taixing mused, expressing deep skepticism. While he lived in a world of immortals, where many unbelievable things existed, such grandiose stories felt distant and removed from reality.
He leafed through the book but soon abandoned it. He was looking for practical information, not fairy tales.
As he continued his search, Li Taixing noticed something disappointing. Despite the vast collection, most books were historical notes or fictional tales passed down through the ages.
"Depressing. Anyone stumbling in here might think this is a novelist's house, filled with useless stories."
There wasn't a single cultivation technique in sight, causing him no small amount of frustration.
After an hour of fruitless searching, he saw that the sky was darkening. He sighed, put out the lights, and returned to his room. On the way, he couldn't resist glancing at the quarters where the Fifth Elder lived. Unsurprisingly, she hadn't returned.
Li Taixing frowned. "It's so late, and she's still not back. Isn't my master being a little too negligent?" he thought, feeling somewhat aggrieved.
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
"Ha...choo!"
Fifth Elder Wang Xuanwu sneezed suddenly.
"Fifth Elder, maybe you should return home," Xuantian Sect's Sect Leader, Zhao Wentian, said darkly, glaring at her.
Wang Xuanwu, ever the troublemaker, flashed a mischievous smile. She ran up to Zhao Wentian, clinging to his arm. "Senior brother, how about advancing me some salary, hmm?"
Zhao Wentian recoiled in disgust, goosebumps rising on his skin as he jumped away in fury.
"Shua!"
With a swift motion, he unsheathed the Qingming sword and pointed it at her, his expression icy. "Fifth Elder, don't force my hand!"
Wang Xuanwu pouted, looking wounded, but she knew Zhao Wentian wasn't one to be trifled with. In matters involving her, softness was never an option.
After all, many were the lessons learned from dealing with her.
"Senior brother, you really have no heart. Before Master left, he specifically told you to take good care of me, yet here you are, threatening me with a sword. If Master knew about this, I wonder how heartbroken he'd be…"
"Don't worry," Zhao Wentian retorted, seething. "Master will definitely deal with you first, his unfilial disciple who has brought nothing but shame to his name!"
He slammed the Qingming sword back into its sheath, his frustration bubbling over. "You just took on a disciple and left him on the mountain without giving him anything! Do you want him to starve to death?"
"Moreover, are you truly interested in teaching a disciple? Or are you using this as another excuse to mooch off me, to steal food, drink, and salary?"
Wang Xuanwu was momentarily flustered, clearly caught off guard by how spot-on Zhao Wentian's accusations were.
"Well…"
Seeing her hesitation, Zhao Wentian felt the heat rise in his face. "You wretch! Today, I'm cleaning house for Master!"
Recognizing the danger, Wang Xuanwu panicked and bolted for the window, calling back over her shoulder, "Brother, it's late! I think I'll head back. No need to bother you further!"
"Bother me? I should kill you for this!"
Zhao Wentian was so incensed he nearly coughed up blood.
At that moment, another elder, Lin Feiyi, arrived to find the Sect Leader.
"Sect Leader, you called for me?" Lin Feiyi asked respectfully.
"Do you know that Fifth Junior Sister has taken on a disciple?" Zhao Wentian growled, pacing angrily as he sheathed his sword once more.
"Of course," Lin Feiyi responded, nodding.
"What do you make of it?"
"I don't quite understand it myself. All this time, Master has been urging Fifth Junior Sister to take on a disciple and experience the challenges of being a teacher. But... it feels unreliable."
"Unreliable?" Zhao Wentian snorted. "Do you even know what she's done? She destroyed the history of Scarlet Peak Mountain! It was she who turned it into a barren wasteland, and then had the nerve to blame it on the Red Sword Immortal. If Master knew of this, I'm sure he'd cut her down with his sword."
He slammed his fist on the desk, the wood groaning under the force.
"And that's not all. She sold off all the valuable manuals from Scarlet Peak Mountain to buy wine and meat, replacing them with worthless, pirated books! She threw them into the library as if no one would notice. What an outrage! That damned, shameless woman!"
Zhao Wentian was visibly shaking with anger, the veins in his forehead pulsing. There was no one else in the world who could push him to this level of frustration like Wang Xuanwu.
Among all of his junior siblings, Wang Xuanwu was the only one who made Zhao Wentian truly despair.
He wasn't afraid of heaven or earth, but Wang Xuanwu showing up at his doorstep filled him with dread.
Every night, he slept clutching his Qingming sword, paranoid that he would one day wake up to find it missing.
"Senior Brother, Fifth Junior Sister has been coming to your room a lot recently," Lin Feiyi warned. "You'd best be careful and safeguard anything important."
"I know! Don't remind me, wait..." Zhao Wentian's eyes suddenly widened in realization. He sprinted to his room, frantically searching through his belongings.
After a tense moment, he let out a relieved breath. "Whew, it seems nothing is missing."
Lin Feiyi, however, noticed something. "Senior Brother, where is your Sect Token?"
Zhao Wentian froze. His hand flew to his waist, only to find it empty. His mind flashed back to earlier, when Wang Xuanwu had brushed against him, seemingly affectionate.
His face turned a deep shade of purple as the realization struck. "That damned woman!" he roared. "Wang Xuanwu, you lawless wretch! I'm going to kill you!"
Without a second thought, Zhao Wentian stormed out, Qingming sword in hand, ready to hunt her down.
"If she pawns my Sect Leader's token for wine, I swear I'll end her!"
He searched the Sect high and low, his fury evident to everyone who saw him.
The disciples and elders, upon seeing the Sect Leader with his disheveled hair and crazed look, knew exactly who had pushed him to the brink.
Wang Xuanwu's infamous reputation had reached new heights. Everyone avoided her like the plague, fearing that if she ever set her sights on them, they too would be tormented for life.
"Look at him. The Sect Leader's furious again, all thanks to Fifth Elder. What a curse."