When Li Mu and the others walked out of the tent, they saw Old w.a.n.g and the other old men confronting a middle-aged man who was clad in the swordsman robe of the Mind-clearing Sword Sect.
Old w.a.n.g’s military uniform had been slashed at the shoulder. The wound extended down to the bone, and blood flowed out of the wound.
As for the middle-aged man in the swordsman robe, there was blood oozing from the part of his hand between the thumb and the index finger.
“Are you Li Mu, the G.o.d of War?” The middle-aged man looked at Li Mu mockingly and said, “I’m here to send you an invitation on behalf of the Divine Alliance of the Five Great Mountains. You’d better tell these old dogs to behave themselves and not to bite me at will. Otherwise, they would have only themselves to blame if I cut off their claws.”
He was extremely arrogant and domineering.
Song Changlin, w.a.n.g Menghu, and the others complained secretly.
In the past few weeks, they had been suppressing their anger because they were at an absolute disadvantage on Xuantian Mountain.
Li Mu didn’t respond to the provocation of the middle-aged swordsman.
He was concerned about Old w.a.n.g’s injury.
Fortunately, the wound on Old w.a.n.g’s shoulder healed in the blink of an eye, leaving only a red mark. It seemed that the “old soldiers” trained by the old faker were not just physically strong.
“The old faker told me to come here with these old men. There must be a reason.”
At the thought of that, Li Mu felt relieved. He looked at the arrogant middle-aged swordsman from the Mind-clearing Sword Sect.
Under the leaders.h.i.+p of the head of the Mind-clearing Sword Sect, Elder Jian, all the top masters of the six major forces in the Mount Shong World had come to Qinling to compete for the Gate of the Ancestors. The middle-aged swordsman must be one of the top masters.
No wonder he had an arrogant aura that was unique to the Mind-clearing Sword Sect.
“What do you think, Mr. Li, the G.o.d of War? He-he, just tell me if you dare to go.” The middle-aged swordsman grew a little impatient when he found that Li Mu didn’t respond to him. He raised his head and sneered.
Li Mu raised his hand and slapped the middle-aged swordsman in the face.
Slap!
The middle-aged swordsman felt dizzy, then he felt acute pain shooting through his left cheek. His body spun nonstop like a top.
He was dumbfounded.
“The purpose of this slap is to teach you to respect the old, love the young, and talk nicely.”
Li Mu said in a deep voice.
After a long time, the middle-aged swordsman finally stopped spinning.
His left cheek was swollen beyond recognition, and his cheekbone and his upper and lower teeth on the left side were all shattered. Half of his body was numb, making it impossible for him to perform any of his sword skills. He didn’t see how Li Mu executed the move just now.
“You…” He glared at Li Mu but didn’t dare to utter a word.
This slap made him realize that there was a huge gap between his strength and Li Mu’s.
Li Mu said, “Go back and tell Elder Jian that I accept his invitation and will arrive at the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square in an hour.”
The middle-aged swordsman gnashed his teeth and glanced viciously at Li Mu as he turned around to leave. He was thinking about how to humiliate Li Mu to his heart’s content after he carried out the plan and caught Li Mu in the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square.
Li Mu suddenly said, “Wait a minute.”
The middle-aged swordsman stiffened.
“What’s the matter?” He looked back at Li Mu.
Li Mu said, “Do you think you can just saunter out of our camp after you came here and showed off your power?”
“What… what do you mean?” The middle-aged swordsman asked angrily.
Li Mu said, “Leave the hand with which you held the sword and hurt our people.”
The middle-aged swordsman was greatly shocked. He said angrily, “Li Mu, don’t go too far.”
Li Mu said, “You may leave your hand or your life. The decision is up to you. You have only one chance in three seconds.”
The middle-aged swordsman felt an uncontrollable chill rising up his spine. He also felt a little regretful. “If I had known that Li Mu was so strong and domineering, I wouldn’t have provoked him too much just now. Do I have to leave him a hand now?”
When he met Li Mu’s eyes, which were as calm as ancient wells, he felt scared.
He clentched his teeth and drew his sword.
Swoos.h.!.+
A cold light flashed.
The middle-aged swordsman’s right hand fell onto the ground.
He held the sword with his left hand, his face ashen, and said, “Are you happy now?”
Li Mu said, “I’m not very happy, but I never go too far. Take your filthy hand and get out of here. Don’t you ever do that again.”
The middle-aged swordsman picked up his severed hand, glared at Li Mu, and said, “My name is Chou Jiu. You’d better remember it and not forget it.” His tone was cold, and his face looked ferocious.
“You won’t get out of here if you say one more word,” Li Mu said.
The middle-aged swordsman immediately shut up. He swallowed his anger and left, not daring to say another harsh word.
“How dare those wild cats and dogs want to bite me?”
As Li Mu watched the middle-aged swordsman leave, there was killing intent flowing in the depths of his eyes.
“These ancient pract.i.tioners think very highly of themselves. They won’t learn and remember the lesson unless it hurts them.”
“I must teach them a good lesson this time!”
“Woof, what do you mean?” The stupid Husky came out of nowhere. When he heard Li Mu’s words, he said very unhappily, “It doesn’t matter if you are talking about cats, but why did you have to mention dogs? Do you have a problem with dogs?”
“Get out of my way.”
Li Mu didn’t want to argue with the stupid dog.
“Li Mu, are you really going to the Sword contest square?”
Song Changlin looked a little worried.
“Things are different now. I’ve heard that all the most powerful pract.i.tioners in the world have gathered on Xuantian Mountain. Many masters from famous mountains and oceans, such as the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, the King of Deep Sea G.o.dzilla, and the G.o.ds of the Far West Continent, have gone there and formed an alliance of shared interest. If you go there, you will be in grave danger.”
The old man named Ouyang Fu chimed in, “Professor Song’s words make sense. Those ancient pract.i.tioners from famous mountains and great rivers are very resistant to the secular world. They regard us as ants that can be killed at will. I’ve heard that some of them practice evil skills and send people to the secular world to catch children so that they can take the children’s blood for practicing their evil kills…”
Actually, he and Song Changlin were very excited now.
Before Li Mu came here, they swallowed their grievances and suffered a lot.
After Li Mu showed up, he made the pract.i.tioners of the Mind-clearing Sword Sect lower their heads and admit their mistakes, injecting hope into the hearts of all the people in the military camp.
Now, the situation was really different because those “immortals” had shown up. Could Li Mu turn the tide as he did last time? In fact, the people in the military camp didn’t have much confidence, and they were concerned about Li Mu’s safety.
“If that’s the case, I must go there this time.”
Li Mu had made up his mind.
“Stupid dog, you stay in the camp.”
Then, he said to the others, “I will set up a tactical deployment around the camp. Uncle Zhang, please work with Mr. Ouyang to protect the camp. All of you should stay here to protect Professor Song and collect research data.”
“That’s preposterous!”
Elder Jian was so angry that he almost threw the teacup in his hand to the ground.
“Li Mu has gone too far!”
As the first leader of the Divine Alliance of the Five Great Mountains, Elder Jian had been quite calm recently. Although his base in Mount Shong World had been raided, he still held his ground in Xuantian Mountain.
However, he could no longer stand it after he heard Chou Jiu’s exaggerated report.
He wondered who would dare to disobey him.
He had a vague idea about what had taken place in Mount Shong World. He had long regarded Li Mu as a thorn in his side. It was just that he had more important business to attend to and didn’t have time and energy to deal with Li Mu, who he thought was just a n.o.body from the secular world. However, he didn’t expect that Li Mu would show up in Qinling and act in such a domineering manner.
He didn’t care about Chou Jiu’ severed hand.
What he cared about was that he, as the first leader of the Divine Alliance of the Five Great Mountains, had been slapped in the face.
“Let’s go to the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square.”
He waved his hand and hurried to the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square with his men.
After taking a few steps, he suddenly remembered something and gave an order to his trusted subordinates. “About the other things, proceed as planned. In addition, release the news that Li Mu is coming to the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square.”
“Yes, sir.”
The swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square was located right under the Gate of the Ancestors in the center of Xuantian Mountain.
It was an open area compacted by some highly skilled pract.i.tioners. The white floor was as smooth as gla.s.s and as hard as iron, covering an area of about 66 square kilometers. Around it was a high stone platform with seats arranged in rows at different levels. It was a little like an amphitheater in ancient Rome. On the white floor, there were irregular black spots which were the blood stains of the masters who had died on the floor.
The swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square was a name given by the people of Hero Country. It had other names among the cultivation forces from the Far West Continent in the western world.
From some unknown point of time, this open area had been used by different forces and pract.i.tioners as a place for resolving disputes. In a very short time, it had become a venue for martial arts pract.i.tioners to compete for sword skills, and a set of rules had been made for compliance.
No matter how chaotic a place was, there would always be certain rules and orders to be followed.
Wearing a white sports suit and a pair of sneakers, Li Mu looked like a college student hiking through the mountains. He took his time as he traveled while inquiring about the destination along the way. He arrived at the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square an hour after he received the invitation from Chou Jiu.
Standing at the entrance, he found that countless people were sitting on the stone platform around the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square and many people were following him.
This was a world of martial arts pract.i.tioners.
All pract.i.tioners that appeared in Xuantian Mountain were masters.
Li Mu felt like he had gone back in time and returned to White Earth.
This place was the cultivation world for pract.i.tioners from Earth.
He saw all kinds of pract.i.tioners and people, including the old and the young, males and females, handsome and ugly human beings and devils, and all kinds of strange creatures. They were dressed in different clothes and had different skin colors. They were sitting on the stone platform around the square and looking at him as if they were looking at a panda at the zoo.
He also saw two “old acquaintances”—the Taoist priest named Indestructible, who was the future leader of the Chunyang Clan, and the little Taoist novice who had so much Spiritual Qi. They were seated the first row, looking at him.
“You must be Li Mu, right? Heroes do come from the younger generation.”
Elder Jian greeted Li Mu from the distance with a gentle smile on his face.
He stood on the second-level stone step in the east, followed by a large number of masters from the Divine Alliance of the Five Great Mountains.
Li Mu walked slowly into the swordsmans.h.i.+p contest square. He stood at the center of the square, looking composed. Then, he glanced at Elder Jian and said, “Let’s cut to the chase. Why don’t we get straight to the point? You sent me an invitation. What do you want?”