A Sage.

When Li Haowen heard those two words, spoken by the young man dressed in a cool white daoist robe who was currently seated with great self-satisfaction atop a mountain of corpses formed from ten thousand remains, his heart could not help but tremble for a moment.

As the Guardian of the Dao of Du Cang Mountain, Li Haowen had naturally heard of the so-called "Sage" before.

Just as the cultivation world of Chenping Continent referred to Immortal Ascension cultivators as True Persons, in an age more distant than the era of Heavenly Summit Mountain, and even more remote by countless years than the era of Chenping Continent itself, cultivators at the second realm above immortality were honored by the world as Sages.

But what shocked Li Haowen even more than the young man in the cool white daoist robe seated atop that mountain of corpses claiming to be a Sage, was the fact that this youth claimed to be the first Ascended Steward of Kongshan Sect, True Person Kongmiao, Yan Yunhe.

Patriarch Yan.

The importance of this person to the Kongshan Sect needed no elaboration. Had it not been for Yan Yunhe emerging within the sect eighty thousand years ago, the Kongshan Sect of today would never have been able to enter the ranks of the Five Great Sects.

Moreover, if Yan Yunhe had not created the Kongshan Annotation of True Understanding, then the Kongshan Sect, lacking the complete cultivation system of the Nine Realms Below Immortality, would not even have possessed the qualifications to be considered a top-tier cultivation sect.

Was the young man in the cool white daoist robe before him truly the Patriarch Yan of the Kongshan Sect?

As an Offering Elder of Qingchan Peak within the Kongshan Sect, Li Haowen naturally knew of Patriarch Yan's final ending back in those days.

That was, alone in a forbidden land on Kongyuan Mountain, he had passed away in meditation.

Of course, one could not rule out the possibility that the current Patriarch Yan, just like Patriarch Kong in the past, had reincarnated to cultivate anew and returned to the mortal world once more.

But...

Li Haowen's gaze turned toward the massive mountain of corpses beneath the young man in the cool white daoist robe, a sight that chilled the bones.

Were all these remains beneath him killed by his own hand?

If that was the case, then he absolutely could not be Patriarch Yan!

As a cultivator of the Kongshan Sect, Li Haowen had grown up hearing the deeds of the sect's three Ascended Stewards, Patriarch Yan, Patriarch Xie, and Patriarch Kong, practically from the very day he had formally joined the sect.

What kind of magnificent and righteous figure was Patriarch Yan? How could he possibly commit such brutal acts?

Even the manner of Bai Jinye's death was the same.

Besides that, there was another point of doubt.

Li Haowen's gaze repeatedly fell upon the massive mountain of corpses beneath the young man in the cool white daoist robe.

He tried to discern which cultivation sects the daoist robes worn by those remains came from, yet the robes on those corpses felt utterly foreign to him.

It was as if those remains did not belong to the current era at all.

"...Your Excellency, just who are you exactly?"

Li Haowen's voice and tone were extremely restrained, for he knew very well that the young man in the cool white daoist robe currently seated atop the mountain of corpses possessed the power to crush him like an ant.

"Did I not just say it? You may address me as Sage, or you may call me Patriarch Yan."

A smile appeared on the young man's face:

"Or could it be that you dare not believe my words?"

The young man seated atop the mountain of corpses, his voice shifting from its earlier playful tone to freezing point in an instant:

"How rude."

The moment those words fell, Li Haowen immediately felt his Martial Spring begin to boil, the true qi within his meridians completely slipping out of control, and the beating speed of his own heart growing faster and faster.

From two beats per breath to five beats per breath.

Then it became ten beats, twenty beats, fifty beats...

A thousand beats!

"Pfft!"

Blood sprayed from Li Haowen's mouth as, at the same time, his heart was completely blown to pieces, tearing a bloody gaping hole in his left chest.

The middle-aged man with graying temples fell to his knees in a wretched state, his innate true energy surging ceaselessly toward the area of his heart, trying to heal the injuries he had sustained.

Yet those pale gray threads of innate true energy could not approach his heart even a single inch, as if severed by some unknown force.

Li Haowen's body began to grow weaker and weaker. Although cultivators at the Myriad Transformations Realm possessed incredibly formidable endurance against external injuries, he could still feel his life rapidly draining away.

He was about to die.

This thought rose in Li Haowen's mind.

He first struggled to raise his head and glanced once in the direction of the young man atop the mountain of corpses, then his head and both eyes grew heavier and heavier, drooping toward the ground.

The Yuanji Sword and Xiaohua Sword that he had just dropped on the ground came into his line of sight.

He recalled the scene from decades ago, when he was on Yuanhua Mountain.

His master had held a bamboo fishing rod in hand, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a loose daoist robe, seated beside the Jieyou Abyss fishing.

And he himself sat beside his master, silently reciting the key techniques of the Kongshan Art in his heart.

"Senior Brother."

Li Haowen opened his eyes and looked toward the child beside him, a boy who, despite his youthful innocence, carried an air of great uprightness.

"Senior Brother, when do you think Martial Uncle Wei will finally catch a fish?"

Lin Xinyang asked this question.

Before Li Haowen could answer Lin Xinyang's question, Wei Mian beside them gave two light coughs:

"Last night, didn't you eat the fish I caught?"

"How is that fish something Martial Uncle caught? Senior Brother told me everything. You secretly gave him a few spirit stones and had him go to the outer court to buy it!"

Lin Xinyang said this with complete self-righteousness, then turned his gaze back to Li Haowen:

"Senior Brother, isn't that right?"

Before Li Haowen could speak, Wei Mian's very deep voice came from the side:

"Haowen."

"Disciple is here."

"Pick up both the Yuanji Sword and the Xiaohua Sword, go over there and practice your horse stance. Remember to hold the swords level."

Wei Mian commanded thus.

"...Yes, Master."

Li Haowen stood up reluctantly and walked toward the two peak swords of Yuanhua Mountain that he and Junior Brother Lin had set aside...

......

"Death Not Permitted."

A cold yet playful voice came from above Li Haowen's head.

And after those three words fell, Li Haowen's life drain ceased abruptly, and the hallucination he had already begun sinking into, along with his extremely hazy consciousness, began to regain clarity.

Li Haowen's gaze rested upon the Yuanji Sword and Xiaohua Sword that he had just dropped on the ground.

He stared for a long time at the one black and one white long sword before him, and the scene before his eyes actually began to overlap with the memory from decades ago when he was on Yuanhua Mountain, accompanying Junior Brother Lin and Master while fishing.

Then, Li Haowen raised his head once more and looked toward the young man in the cool white daoist robe atop the mountain of corpses—

This, this was the true reality.

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