Chapter 370

Tie Mu Bai tells Tie Ruo Nan that Tie clan has stood for generations on bravery, unbending resolve and iron justice, its people striking down criminals at the cost of countless lives, and that the young dead behind her are neither the first nor the last to pay that price. He is glad they did not die for nothing, he says, but disappointed that she is living for nothing, since the criminal responsible, little beast king Fang Zheng, still walks free and still harms people; he asks her plainly whether she wants to see justice done. Only now does Tie Ruo Nan place him fully: Tie Mu Bai, rank five peak stage, the clan’s previous leader, who once moved unchallenged through Southern Border and pressed down Wu clan, Shang clan and every other great clan as one of the righteous path’s own heads, a name that once struck terror into the demonic path. She answers with a single hoarse word, yes, and he tells her that from this day he will teach her the metal path, the Gu discipline Tie clan’s own Gu Masters use to stand at the top of Southern Border. ^{ch. 370}

Eight days later the three kings inheritance opens again, three light pillars, red, yellow and blue, piercing the clouds and visible even from thousands of miles away, and San Cha mountain falls utterly silent. At the peak, an unassuming, wrinkled old man stands with his hands behind his back, having just beaten back the combined strength of five rank four peak stage fighters, Yi Huo, Kong Ri Tian, Long Qing Tian, Yi Chong and Wu Shen Tong, with no apparent difficulty. The crowd recognizes him as Tie Mu Bai, still alive, still the glory of Tie clan and a role model of the righteous path whose accomplishments have lost none of their shine, and calls Little Beast King unworthy even to carry his shoes; San Cha mountain’s balance of power turns over completely in that one moment. ^{ch. 370}

Word follows three days later that the divine thief Lu Zuan Feng had been raiding Tie clan and slipping into the Demonic Suppression Tower repeatedly until he finally disturbed Tie Mu Bai’s own seclusion; Tie Mu Bai struck him personally, and though Lu Zuan Feng was a famous thief and a rank five Gu Master in his own right, he came away badly hurt and barely escaped with his life. With that settled, Tie clan’s higher-ups, already furious over Tie Ba Xiu’s death, had been about to send a reinforcement to San Cha mountain when Tie Mu Bai chose to go himself. He overpowered both righteous and demonic path experts there without difficulty, even Yi Huo and Kong Ri Tian conceding to him, and announced from the peak that no demonic Gu Master would be permitted into the three kings inheritance from that day forward. Though they numbered in the thousands, none dared defy a rank five peak stage fighter; Kong Ri Tian and Long Qing Tian left the mountain first, Li Xian and Hu Mei Er soon after, while Tie Mu Bai told the righteous path gathered there that justice would prevail and their combined sparks would grow into a light bright enough to leave no dark places on the mountain, then stepped into the three kings inheritance himself to rolling cheers. The opening lasted more than half a month this time, during which Tie Mu Bai singlehandedly remade San Cha mountain’s balance of power, uniting the righteous path while the banished demonic Gu Masters could only linger nearby and watch the three light pillars slowly thin. ^{ch. 370}

Once the inheritance closes, Tie Mu Bai hosts an outdoor banquet for the righteous path Gu Masters, using bare mountain rock for tables and chairs. Yi Huo toasts him first; Tie Mu Bai remarks that Shang clan’s Yan Fei has become clan leader and was talented even as a youth, then tells Yi Huo to sit, since against his own rank five peak stage cultivation even Shang Yan Fei’s remarkable talent still falls short. Yi Huo can only nod and sit. He sighs inwardly: Tie Mu Bai’s arrival has already cut off any hope of ruling San Cha mountain himself. Yi clan’s fiery tempered elder Yi Chong congratulates him on leaving seclusion with the meekness of an obedient grandson, since to most Gu Masters a rank four is a feudal lord and a rank five is an emperor, and Tie Mu Bai’s visit plays out exactly like an emperor’s inspection tour. ^{ch. 370}

Wu Shen Tong calls Tie Mu Bai the glory of Southern Border’s righteous path, still awe inspiring, and adds darkly that that little bastard Fang Zheng escaped San Cha mountain just days before Tie Mu Bai’s arrival. Tie Mu Bai, unbothered, names him correctly as little beast king and then praises him at length: outstanding, remarkably accomplished for someone who built himself up from nothing, seemingly impulsive but in truth meticulous and skilled at scheming, and not without cause behind the deaths of the young Tie clansmen at his hands. The praise stuns everyone present, the wronged clan’s own patriarch speaking well of his family’s mortal enemy. Wu Shen Tong, surprised that this famously fiery, evil hating old man is behaving with such composure, tries to speak but meets Tie Mu Bai’s gaze and finds himself sweating and silent instead, certain his own thoughts have been read. Tie Mu Bai explains himself to the whole table: praising an enemy may look like it lifts the enemy’s standing at his own side’s expense, but true resolve is never so easily broken by mere words, and studying an enemy’s strengths this way sharpens one’s own weaknesses and keeps hatred from clouding judgment. Tie Ruo Nan, standing behind him, shivers, knowing the lesson is meant mostly for her; since he came out of seclusion he has been guiding her directly, giving her metal path Gu worms and teaching her both his own experience and knowledge of the outside world. ^{ch. 370}

Asked directly what she makes of Fang Zheng, Tie Ruo Nan admits that despite her hatred she must call him outstanding: he takes real risks and still plans carefully, and his investigative skill outstrips what a strength path Gu Master should have, since he alone sensed and intercepted the deliberately hidden route she and Tie Ba Xiu had chosen, and he alone sensed Tie Mu Bai’s own secret arrival at San Cha mountain and escaped ahead of it while no one else noticed a thing. Little Beast King draws every eye, she concludes, but hides himself deeper than that attention suggests and is absolutely not a person to be underestimated. Tie Mu Bai praises her reading, then tells the table that something exists more precious than life itself, glory, and that eons ago Ren Zu’s eldest son, Verdant Great Sun, gave his own life chasing after it. He names Fang Zheng as Tie Ruo Nan’s own mission, to capture or kill and turn her humiliation into glory of her own, reminding the table that Tie clan’s glory belongs not to him alone but to every generation that has stood for what is right. He raises his cup to let the light of righteousness cover the world and end the demonic path, and every righteous path Gu Master present shouts the toast back at him, the sound carrying far enough that demonic path figures nearby hear it and despair. ^{ch. 370}