After thinking for a moment, He Qingling met Li Haowen’s gaze and lowered her head.

"Senior Li."

Looking at the sect leader’s daughter of Xuan Sheng Sect, a hint of curiosity rose in Li Haowen’s heart.

"You mean, you recognized me right from the start?"

Li Haowen asked.

"Yes."

He Qingling replied.

"When you carried the Yuanji Sword and Xiaohua Sword, I recognized them back when you were outside Yun Capital of the Yunci Dynasty."

"I didn’t expect the sect leader of Xuan Sheng’s daughter to have such a good eye, able to recognize the two swords passed down from our Sect’s Ancestor Xie."

Li Haowen said indifferently.

Ancestor Xie referred to the second Ascended Steward of the Kongshan Sect, True Person Minghua, Xie Shouzhuo.

"Senior Li flatters me. I simply like to spend long years listening to storytellers in immortal tea houses, so I know the appearance of the Yuanji Sword and the Xiaohua Sword, that is all."

He Qingling continued.

"Then why didn’t you directly point out that I was Li Haowen at first?"

Li Haowen asked again.

"Because you were not wearing Kongshan Sect robes at the time, but a light gray daoist robe, so I vaguely suspected you might not want to reveal your identity."

He Qingling answered.

"Later, when I asked your family name and you called yourself 'Lin Fan,' I confirmed my suspicion, so I cooperated with you and let the act continue."

Li Haowen nodded.

He Qingling was not stupid; in fact, she was quite clever.

After all, Xuan Sheng Sect was one of the top cultivation sects on Chenping Continent. Outside the Five Great Sects, Xuan Sheng Sect could easily rank among the top twenty cultivation forces on the continent.

Given that Liu Puzhong of Xuan Sheng Sect could place such expectations on He Qingling and hope she would carry the sect’s banner in the future, it was not only because of her cultivation talent.

He Qingling was indeed very innocent.

For a cultivator who spent at least twenty years of a short life mostly on training, being anything but innocent would be abnormal.

But people grow.

The more one experiences, the less one remains as simple as in youth.

"If you like listening to storytellers, have you heard many things about me?"

Li Haowen asked.

"...Yes."

He Qingling hesitated slightly, then nodded.

"What did you hear?"

Li Haowen continued.

"The first time I heard your name was after the Heavenly Summit Mountain Cataclysm, when Yuanhua Mountain’s Sword Master Elder Wei Mian was slain and you were stripped of the chief disciple title of Yuanhua Mountain."

He Qingling said.

"And then?"

"Then, after the revival of the immortal path, when Kongshan Sect suppressed the villains and launched the extermination war against the Coiling Dragon Sect, I heard that during the final mopping-up phase..."

He Qingling paused again.

"What did I do at the end?"

Li Haowen asked calmly, pressing on.

"...You executed prisoners."

He Qingling said.

Li Haowen fell silent for a moment upon hearing that, though his face remained expressionless.

"Continue."

He simply said.

"After that came the time you traveled to the Qingque Kingdom to exterminate the Ding Bandits. It is said that the number of innocent cultivators wrongfully killed by you in the Qingque Kingdom was at least a thousand. It was then that you began to have a sobriquet in Chenping Continent’s cultivation world..."

He Qingling continued.

"What sobriquet?"

Li Haowen asked.

"...Li Godslayer."

He Qingling said.

"Heh, sounds rather imposing."

Li Haowen smiled.

"But that title wasn’t meant as praise..."

"Any insult is still better than being called Li Dog or Li Hound, right?"

Li Haowen said.

"..."

He Qingling opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she said nothing.

Not only that, after Li Haowen slaughtered Ding Qiu, Kongshan Sect’s purge of villains continued. In the period after the revival of the immortal path and before the Great Chaos of the Immortals, the words used to describe Li Haowen in the cultivation world were consistently "decisive in killing."

Or put another way, "indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent."

"Do you have something to say?"

Li Haowen noticed He Qingling’s small movements and spoke again.

"I am indeed somewhat confused..."

He Qingling said.

"When I returned from Du Cang Mountain to Xuan Sheng Sect, I once heard in a Yun Capital teahouse about what people said happened when I debated on Du Cang Mountain, but the storytellers’ accounts were vastly different from what actually occurred.

"Since then, I’ve been doubting how much of what storytellers say is true and how much is false... including your deeds. Were you really, as the storytellers claim, someone who killed innocents without restraint?"

He Qingling asked.

Li Haowen grew a little hoarse for a moment before he spoke.

"What do you think?"

"At least from how I’ve interacted with you so far, I don’t think you’re someone who kills innocents indiscriminately..."

As she spoke, He Qingling glanced at the two long swords standing by the table.

"And perhaps you are even more loyal and sentimental than people imagine. What do you think, Senior Li?"

"..."

Li Haowen had no reply at that moment. After a short silence, he finally said:

"The ferry will soon cross the Martial Immortal Mountain Range and then enter Chenping Continent’s Northwest Region. We’ll be at Kongshan Sect shortly. Prepare yourself mentally to meet Patriarch Kong. Don’t be stage-frightened."

"Yes, Senior Li."

He Qingling answered respectfully.

Li Haowen said no more.

He knew better than anyone what kind of person he was.

A person of uprightness.

Those four words probably only applied to who he was before the Heavenly Summit Mountain Cataclysm.

As for who he was now...

Among the storytellers of Chenping Continent’s cultivation world, more than ninety percent of the rumors about his bloodthirsty deeds were undeniably true.

......

Du Cang Mountain, Du Cang Hall.

A tall, beautiful woman wearing Wind Ravine Valley daoist robes walked past the twelve coiling-dragon jade pillars in the main hall and headed to the white jade seat at the far end.

Ascended Steward of Wind Ravine Valley, True Person Shuangyu, Yin Xia.

For some reason, today the dao rhyme pressure emanating from the twelve coiling-dragon jade pillars in the hall seemed heavier and more terrifying than usual.

It even made Yin Xia, an Immortal Ascension cultivator, feel a chill.

Finally, Yin Xia stood at the far end of the hall and looked up at the handsome youth in plain white daoist robes seated on the white jade throne.

"Greetings, True Person Chen!"

She saluted.

The one seated on the white jade throne, Du Cang, did not respond.

He simply stared expressionlessly at the Immortal Ascension cultivator standing in the hall.

Then a cold light flashed across his eyes.

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