Chapter 509 — The Petty Old Thieves Fall at a Single Stroke
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
Several more former Cult Masters came over, and a handsome man among them sneered at these words. "Flourishing all the more, you say? I hear the mortal world is now ruled by the Jingping Kingdom, which has swallowed the world. How did you make the Holy Sect flourish? Or did you sell the Sect for glory and willingly become an adopted son–Cult Master to the Emperor?"
Shen Mu swallowed his anger and smiled. "And who might you be?"
The handsome man whisked open his folding fan with a flick. "Have you never visited the Yueguang Hall on Holy Lin Mountain? I am Cult Master Yueguang!"
Shen Mu laughed aloud. "Rotten wood in that hall—I have never paid my respects there. On Holy Lin Mountain, I honor only the woodcutter who transmitted the Way, the founding Cult Master, and the Three Sage Kings. The rest of the Cult Masters are, in my eyes, no more than flies that buzz and dogs that grovel—unworthy of my reverence."
"What nerve!"
More former Cult Masters came. Shen Mu followed the sound and looked at them; they were all handsome men and pretty women. Clearly the Dark Demon Sect was not like the Hall of Human Sovereigns. In the Hall of Human Sovereigns, anyone, male or female, could become a Human Sovereign, but the Human Sovereigns set no store by their appearance, letting their looks wither with age, and rarely preserved their youth forever. The Cult Masters of the Heavenly Sage Sect, however, were quite the opposite. In the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Sutra were the Seven Chapters of Creation, and by cultivating them one could keep one's features forever youthful, could even turn one's face back to boyhood or girlhood. Every Sage Cult Master Shen Mu now saw was a youth or maiden, bright and fresh of face. Even the Young Ancestor appeared as a boy, and minded his image very carefully.
"My Thousand Bones Hall of Feng Qiangu—I suppose the little Cult Master has never paid homage there either?"
The Thousand Bones Cult Master stepped forward and sneered. "Your seat came by succession, not won by your own strength. Its origin is crooked, and you still dare call us flies and grovelling dogs, unworthy of reverence? What is there in you worth revering?"
"Exactly. You have neither the name nor the right. What face have you to meet us, to meet the ancestral masters?"
"You do not honor even the rules of the Holy Sect, let alone us, your ancestral masters. Are you not, at your tender age, betraying your master and destroying your ancestors?"
"Little Cult Master—"
...
"Silence!" Shen Mu's fury flared and he bellowed.
The circle fell quiet.
Shen Mu laughed heartily, spreading his robes wide on both sides, and said aloud: "I succeeded to the position of Cult Master at twenty. When I mounted the seat, the Sect was in ruins, a hundred wastes awaiting renewal—a broken mess left me by the previous Cult Master, Fan Xuanshu. After I took the reins, I reformed what was harmful and what was beneficial, joined hands with Jingping, drove the Buddhist school west, struck heavy blows at the Daoist school, and brought two great holy lands to their knees.
"I changed the laws and opened the Way, expanded the doctrine, established schools, founded the Heavenly Sage Academy, and gathered the arts and divine powers of every school and sect under heaven to right our name!
"I created the Eighteen Swords and established the Original Spirit through the Six Harmonies.
"The children of our Sect now dominate a hundred thousand li from east to west. Of the several million who hold divine powers, from the Jingping Emperor's own teacher down to the common laborer and the running footman, in court and countryside alike there are members of our Sect!
"With my cultivation at the Seven Stars realm, I have done such deeds!"
His gaze swept the circle, scanning the successive Sage Cult Masters of the Dark Demon Sect, and he sneered: "And you?"
"In your hands, the Holy Sect degenerated into a demonic way and came to be called the Dark Demon Sect—hunted by all, cursed by all!