Why do I have so many masters?

"We won't be able to hide for more than a month anyway."

"Sending those Martial Artists out today, if they make a move, will naturally expose information. If they don't, although these sprawling mountains seem vast and boundless, they eventually end, and by then catching them will be as easy as seizing a turtle in a jar."

The towering Swordsman by the side slightly lifted his eyelids and sneered:

"By that time, it had better not turn from catching a turtle in a jar to a tiger leaping from its box."

The man resembling an ancient corpse fixed his gaze on the Swordsman and said, "Hero Yan, what do you mean by that? Even our Lord has agreed to this strategy. Could it be that you, Hero Yan, find it inappropriate?"

"If you truly find something inappropriate, why not speak up earlier? Always sneering and making strange comments on the side doesn't seem like the behavior of a Swordsman as you claim."

Swordsman Yan sneered silently.

The leader waved his hand to stop the two Guest Elders from arguing and said softly, "There's no need for conflict between you two. This plan has my approval, and should any danger arise, I alone will shoulder it. I won't blame either of you."

The gaunt man stopped talking.

Swordsman Yan spoke in a solemn voice, paused as if he felt his words were a bit stiff, then bowed and added:

"In this matter, I follow your lead entirely, without objection."

The middle-aged man smiled and nodded, gazing at the undulating mountain range stretching into the horizon, and whispered:

"This plan is somewhat rash, but such a good opportunity might not come again in this lifetime. I had hoped to resolve it quickly, yet it has dragged on till now."

"We can no longer keep this news hidden."

"In a few more days, who knows if a General from the Divine Martial Mansion will appear. If it's just someone from the Commanding Generals Camp, we could handle it by fighting, but if Li Qidao shows up, we'd probably have to retreat."

Thoughts churned in Swordsman Yan's heart.

Li Qidao, having come from the Southern Frontier of Great Qin and grown to become a Commander of Great Qin, was renowned throughout roads of warfare. Swordsman Yan, also hailing from the Southern Frontier, was familiar with the name of Li Qidao, who had become famous as a youth for killing his master.

Thinking now of his childhood idol potentially becoming his adversary made his blood surge.

A gleam of dark intent shone in the eyes of the gaunt man beside him.

Jiangnan Road.

He murmured softly.

It might not just be Jiangnan. The course of the entire Jianghu might undergo a complete transformation because of this incident.

The struggles in Jianghu differed from those in the Imperial Court; the court battled through scheming and status by birth.

In Jianghu, dominance was claimed mostly through bravery and reputation. Being able to defeat the Divine Martial Mansion would not only seriously offend the court of Great Qin Dynasty but would also provoke Li Qidao, the formidable Lei Dao Master who, even after leaving the army, was one of the most powerful in the world.

The man in whose home he was temporarily residing had also reached the Grandmaster Realm, considered a formidable figure in Jianghu. However, he stood no chance against Li Qidao, who had killed five Grandmasters in battle and even personally slaughtered Jingguo's Great Grandmaster Che Yulong on the battlefield.

In Martial Arts, once one ascended above the Grandmaster Realm, fights didn't just revolve around Inner Strength and Realm.

For someone like Li Qidao, who had fought his way out of chaotic wars, even without an army behind him, his sheer murderous aura was enough to suppress his opponent from exerting their Full Strength.

It was fortunate that Li Qidao had left Great Qin.

Otherwise, just the thought of Great Qin's most fearsome warrior holding the Divine Weapon known as Qin Zhenyue, ranked seventeenth on the Divine Weapon Rankings, nearly made him tremble with fear.

Even as a Grandmaster, facing one who had killed more than one peer, the innate air would weaken by a third, especially since Lei Dao's Martial Arts were already the most aggressive in the world.

Back then, under the ancestral hall of the Taoist Sect, Li Qidao had repeatedly defeated Taoist Grandmasters and had nearly forced the Supreme from Taoist Sect to leave seclusion, almost causing an uproar across the entire Jianghu.

If they really provoked Li Qidao into pursuing them, they would have to hide everywhere.

But despite this, he still thought it was quite worthwhile. Even though Li Qidao was formidable, the world was vast, and if one was determined to hide, there would always be a way. Besides, Li Qidao was already aged, having sustained numerous hidden injuries during his battlefield campaigns in his younger years.

In at most ten to twenty years, this once-dominant warrior on the battlefield would fall ill and never recover. By then, the fame and benefits brought by killing the Divine Martial Mansion would gradually become apparent.

At that time, even if it was because of the opinions of those in Jianghu, the people of the Six Kingdoms would treat them as honored guests and start up a greater foundation almost effortlessly, almost as easy as the wave of a hand.

Twenty years of hiding in exchange for access to the elite of the Six Kingdoms and for ensuring the continuation of his lineage, establishing a Noble Clan with just one person.

Such deals, scarce through thousands of years, invariably involved stepping on the shoulders of chaotic era heroes and emperors and generals to climb upwards. And to encounter such a grand opportunity and have the boldness to bet everything on one gamble was even rarer.

The gaunt man folded his hands in his sleeves and squinted his eyes.

A month ago, there had been an omen of Heavenly Fire burning the clouds, leading the nearby fortunate commoners, who witnessed this scene, to kneel in sincere fear and worship, thinking it was a Divine Spirit of the Taoist Sect manifesting to cleanse the impure with Heavenly Fire.

In every household, people recited Taoist scriptures, posted yellow talismans on their doors, and mentioned Taoist maxims upon leaving or entering their homes. From that day on, everyone acted as if they were descendants of that Taoist immortal. Yet, inside a Taoist Temple not far down the mountain, there was barely any reaction.

The daily routine continued with three incense offerings in the morning and evening.

A young Taoist novice busied themselves with meals while a twenty-something female Taoist nun did not chant scriptures or meditate but merely sat on a rock, blankly staring at the nearby flowing stream.

She held a tree branch in her hand with a white string dangling from it, hanging directly into the water. The little Taoist novice seemed to have finally found it uninteresting and murmured,

"Master... what are you really doing?"

With a serious face, the Taoist nun replied, "Fishing."

The novice sighed helplessly and said,

"Master, to catch fish you need bait and a hook. The way you're doing it, you won't catch any fish at all."

"And the last old man who posed like this was an old man from two or three thousand years ago. Now, even the kids in the village who wear split pants all know about willing victims getting hooked. Your act of pretending to be a high and mighty sage doesn't work anymore."

A few moments passed before the Taoist nun, as if she had just come to her senses, said,

"I am different from him."

"I am an Immortal."

The novice rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and said, "Yes, yes, whatever you say. If you say you're an Immortal, then you're an Immortal." Then, looking at the sky, he patted his buttocks and went back inside the temple, grabbing a handful of incense in his hand and murmuring,

"Saying she's an Immortal. If she really had the capability, she'd be like those clay statues in the temple getting three incense offerings each morning and evening. She even eats more than anyone else and sleeps more soundly than a pig, yet still has the nerve to claim she's an Immortal…"

"But it's probably better she's not an Immortal; just sitting around in the temple all day doing nothing, so cold, and barely speaking, not fun at all."

He grumbled twice, looked at those majestic clay statues, lit the incense, and waved saying,

"Today, you guys figure it out yourselves."

On the bluestone outside the Taoist Temple.

The Taoist nun, declared outdated by her own disciple, sat immobile, her eyes fixed on the branch that could barely be called a fishing rod, the white string plunging into the shallow stream and continuously spreading downwards.

To mortal eyes, a few inches, several feet, yards, several yards, hundreds of yards, thousands of yards.

With a momentum matching the heavens, yet suspended below.

With thirty-three Forbidden Purple Skies above.

And ninety-nine Netherworlds below.

The Taoist nun sat between heaven and earth, fishing with her rod.

PS: Two chapters presented as one today...