On the journey back home, Su Yuehan was still massaging her cheeks from laughing too much at Xiaobao’s expense. “Young Master, you ought to make fewer jokes! I would have died from laughter if I wasn’t careful enough! Who would take care of you then!” she chimed.
“You won’t be able to laugh much longer, we’re going back to our tattered old house after all!” sighed Chengfeng.
“Young Master, since they have accepted us, doesn’t that mean we can move into a better home?” asked Xiaobao.
Chengfeng refused, “That won’t do! Poverty motivates a person to do their best, whereas extravagance would lead to a person to become proud and lazy. We’ll just stay where we are!”
Xiaobao didn’t think much of it and accepted Chengfeng’s reasoning without questioning any further. However, Yuehan understood that Chengfeng’s identity was unique, he couldn’t actually follow the cultivation training that was provided by the Spiritual Mountain Sect. He had his own unique approach but must rely on the resources handed by the Spiritual Mountain Sect to continue his training. Only then he could improve his progress smoothly, as well as to intimidate his enemies.
Suppose Chengfeng were to hide in a secluded area and cultivated on his own, his family might have already been assassinated by their enemies by the time he was finished with his training.
Hence, Chengfeng needed his own personal space, as well as a clan to rely on. With their current situation, although their accommodation was horrible, it still perfectly suited Chengfeng’s requirements to ensure his privacy and safety.
After the gang arrived home, they tidied up their place once more and began to flip through the books they had received from the day, one of them being “Record of Cangjian Court”.
As the three of them read until nightfall, they slowly began to understand the relationship between Cangjian Court and the other three courts as well as the reasons for its current hardships and downfall.
Initially, the Spiritual Mountain Sect only had three heavenly courts, namely Cangji Court, Cangxiu Court and Cangqing Court. These three courts were expanding at a fast pace in their own directions, all of their disciples extraordinarily gifted and possessed outstanding talents. However, as the Spiritual Mountain Sect started to grow stronger, the three courts’ desire for more power and benefits became more intense.
All of them wanted the best for their courts, yet none of them were willing to sacrifice their resources. Many of their disciples only wanted to take on easy and fruitful missions such as collecting fortune, learning how to train and create internal pills and crafting magical weapons. But none of them wanted to take on the deadlier and riskier missions such as collecting offerings, debt, and intel.
As a tree grows larger, it will naturally catch more winds. Once a sect has grown to a substantial size, there would definitely be outside forces that would come and find trouble. But who would be the ones to fight for their sect when the time comes? The higher ranked cultivators loved their privilege and refused to use any energy on those who challenged the Spiritual Mountain Sect. However, those who were below them wanted to live; Hence, they were unwilling to fight. Be that as it may, when these forces had come to their domain and challenged them, what could they possibly propose? They couldn’t possibly make the three courts to draw lots between them, could they?
But in actuality… this was precisely what had transpired.
The three heavenly courts engaged in two battles. After a series of verbal and physical battles, they finally sat down and came to an agreement. Cangjin Court would be in charge of paying the bills, Cangqing Court would supply their men, and Cangxiu Court would provide materials. The three heavenly courts contributed to create a brand new heavenly court, known as Cangjian Court!
These men explicitly handpicked by Cangqing Court used Cangjin Court’s money, and Cangxiu Court’s resources headed to another mountain and assembled their own court themselves. At first, none of the men were willing to join this new court. However, they soon realized because they were risking their lives for the sect, the other three courts had to agree to all of their requests. With this, the disciples of Cangjian Court received a copious amount of support. Although many of their brothers were sacrificed in the process, their power and strength grew at a terrifying pace as well.
Following Cangjian Court’s sudden growth in strength, they slowly felt unwilling to take on only the dirty and tiring work of the Spiritual Mountain Sect. They started to request for more power and honour, and finally asked to be on equal footing with the rest of the heavenly courts.
To view Cangjian Court with the same level of honour as the other three courts? That was blasphemy! None of them were willing to view Cangjian Court as an equal. To them, Cangjian Court was only the same as an extension of their power! A slice of their own flesh!
And now that this flesh has lived and grown into its own person, it dared to request for them to be equals?
How preposterous!
As a result, a war within the Spiritual Mountain Sect broke out between them.
Cangjian Court and the other three heavenly courts engaged in their first giant battle.
This was when Spiritual Mountain Sect’s first-ever civil war began!
The disciples of Cangjian Court fought bravely in the first war. Their organization was strict, their discipline was strict, and they advanced and retreated in unison. Having used their strength in numbers to conjure unique arrays to fight in battle, they defeated the other three heavenly courts to a pulp.
During the first great war, Cangjian Court celebrated its great victory!
After which, Cangjian Court and the other three heavenly courts finally sat down and began to appoint their new rules and positions. And from that day onwards, the Three Heavenly Courts became the Four Heavenly Courts.
These disciples of Cangjian Court who had risked their lives for the dirtiest and most challenging missions had used their own blood and lives in exchange for the dignity and recognition of Cangjian Court. The remaining survivors of Cangjian Court felt a great sense of recognition and belonging from it!
Not only did they think that they were the disciples of the Spiritual Mountain Sect, but also felt that they were now disciples belonging to Cangjian Court!
After Cangjian Court’s victory in the first battle, they obtained a critical authority within the Spiritual Mountain Sect — the Disciplinary Order that was in charge of the Spiritual Mountain Sect!
This was akin to a dirty and tiresome department transforming into a disciplined unit!
Cangjian Court then became the picket line and discipline department of the Spiritual Mountain Sect.
However, good fortune follows upon disaster; while disaster lurks within good fortune.
The Three Heavenly Courts were naturally unwilling to accept such a defeat. They could give up the authority of a disciplinary order, but they could not tolerate a piece of meat that had been cut off from them growing up and riding on their heads!
The Three Heavenly Courts were furious. Fifteen years later, the second civil war of the Spiritual Mountain Sect broke out.
This time, the Three Heavenly Courts were courageous after learning of the shame. They selected their most elite cultivators and sent them out to follow the Emperor in his expedition. After they returned from the flames of war, they launched a surprise attack on Cangjian Court!
However, in the past few years, Cangjian Court had become proud and arrogant, and their pride became laziness. During the second civil war, Cangjian Court had been defeated!
But in the final moment, while faced by the threat of the Three Heavenly Courts, the Court Master of the Cangjian Court vowed to not bow his head in the slightest and even activated the Heaven Splitting Ten Thousand Sword Array.
The Three Heavenly Courts discovered that if they wanted to eradicate Cangjian Court, they would have to pay the price of half of their best cultivators being killed. This was a price they couldn’t afford.
No sect could withstand another heavy blow of losing their elite cultivators after losing a quarter of their strength.
In desperation, the Three Heavenly Courts had no choice but to sit down with Cangjian Court and negotiate with them once again. But this time, Cangjian Court had fallen from their divine altar, and their vast resources and authority had been withdrawn, leaving behind only the responsibility of law enforcement and discipline functions. However, they no longer had the power to make the law, only the power to enforce it. This was the last bit of dignity given to Cangjian Court.
From then on, the Three Heavenly Courts began to take precautions against the Cangjian Court in every possible way. However, during the second civil war, Cangjian Court lost a large number of elite cultivators and began to enter a period of rapid decline.
One hundred and fifty years later, Cangjian Court began to get used to doing dirty work. As they slowly started to forget about their former glory, another big event happened! An extremely rare spiritual crystal was mined from Shiwu Mountain within the Spiritual Mountain Sect!
This news shocked the Spiritual Mountain Sect!
The Three Heavenly Courts all wanted Shiwu Mountain for themselves!
Thus, the third Spiritual Mountain Sect civil war had broken out once again!
To fight over Shiwu Mountain’s ownership, Cangjin Court, Cangxiu Court and Cangqing Court fought day and night over the internal strife. The number of casualties was much higher than the previous two civil wars combined!
This internal conflict that lasted sixty years had consumed nearly half of the Spiritual Mountain Sect’s power, causing the strength of the Spiritual Mountain Sect to plummet. The Sect Master painfully came up with a deal and agreed on a three-day truce, deciding to let the weakest court, Cangjian Court, who didn’t even have the qualifications to participate in the fight at the time, have total control over the mining whereas the spiritual crystals would be divided among the three courts according to the levels of their strength. This was the only way to prevent the Three Heavenly Courts from fighting again.
However, no one would have thought that within Cangjian Court, which was initially just serving as cannon fodder, would actually harbour a man of immeasurable talent — Chao Tianque!
Cangjian Court’s disciples all came from poor backgrounds, but he relied on the mineral stones that he dug every day from Shiwu Mountain and secretly hid them. After 10 years of cultivating, he successfully crafted the legendary Heaven Breaking Sword that would be passed down for generations in Cangjian Court!
The rise of Cangjian Court led by Chao Tianque had once again awakened the pride and glory hidden deep within the disciples’ memories. They united around Court Master Chao Tianque and once again became the iron-blooded and fearsome sword array army!
The rise of the Cangjian Court had also awakened terrifying memories in the depths of the other three heavenly courts. They began to frantically suppress and attack the Cangjian Court, and the fourth civil war of the Spiritual Mountain Sect erupted once more!
During this big battle, Cangjian Court had their elite cultivator, Chao Tianque, as well as tyrannical strength. They were a well-disciplined sword array army. Cangjian Court’s weakness of not having a master cultivator within their court had been fixed, and they no longer had any apparent flaws!
Facing the menacing arrival of the Three Heavenly Courts, Cangjian Court had a gruesome battle with them for more than ten days. After fighting for three years and three months, the Spiritual Mountain Sect was severely injured once again.
The Sect Masters had no choice but to leave their cultivation retreat to soothe the detrimental effects of the civil war. The Sect Master ultimately used their authority to suppress the internal conflict within the Spiritual Mountain Sect and set an iron law: From now on, the Spiritual Mountain Sect would not allow internal conflict. Those who engage shall be kicked out of the sect for good!
The Four Heavenly Courts once again restored peace, at least on the surface.
However, the mighty strength of Chao Tianque made the Three Heavenly Courts unable to sleep or eat in peace. Cangjian Court was like a vast shadow that loomed over the other three courts, causing them to be in complete darkness!
Until, over a hundred years ago, Cangjian Court’s Court Master, Chao Tianhe, suddenly disappeared!
After patiently waiting for fifty years, the other three heavenly courts finally mustered up the courage to make another move against the Cangjian Court. With each step they took, their courage grew greater and greater, slowly weakening the initially incomparably strong Cangjian Court until today.
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However, the three heavenly courts were still haunted by the shadows of Chao Tianque and Cangjian Court’s incomparably strong past. They were afraid that this terrifying Cangjian Court would once again rise to prominence!
“So… Cangjian Court is now the target of eradication for the other three heavenly courts! “After Li Chengfeng finished reading “Records of Cangjian Court”, he covered his face with his hands and sighed, “Why am I so unlucky? At this critical juncture, how could I possibly have fallen into such a dark pit? “
Whatever happened to ‘standing under a big tree to enjoy the shade’? Whatever happened to’ join a great cultivation sect and you’ll be set’? They were all lies!
Wherever there are people, there would be turfs. Wherever there are turfs, there would be benefits. And wherever there were benefits, there would be war!
At this moment, Li Chengfeng simply wanted to curse up a storm!
I’m just a newcomer! Why on earth did the heavens play this cruel joke on me? This is not okay!
What a scam!
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