Li Mu didn’t want to go on talking with the old faker.
However, he had to ask the old faker about some things.
“Why is the Immortal-Devil a.s.sembly held in Baoji City?” He said, “A large number of masters in the King Realm and Upper King Realm will gather here. Once they start a fight, Baoji City will be destroyed in an instant.”
“You worry too much,” the old faker said disdainfully, “Jintai Temple is now occupied by the Chunyang Clan. If you need to worry about something, you should worry about those d.a.m.ned Taoist monks. In fact, you just want to ask if you will be beaten up badly at the Immortal-Devil a.s.sembly because many immortals and devils will attend the event and you have provoked so many people from the immortal sects. Am I right?”
Li Mu said, “Talking like that will make you lose all of your friends very soon.”
The old faker said while picking his teeth, “Hey, I’m not here to make friends… Just go there. I’ll stay in Randeng Temple to cover you. Should anything go wrong, I’ll go over immediately and save you.”
Li Mu said, “If you really want to cover me, you should go with me.”
“I can’t. Randeng Temple can’t be left unattended for even one day,” said the old faker.
Li Mu was rendered speechless by those words.
“Your shabby temple is not even weatherproof, weeds are growing everywhere, and the Buddha statues are all covered with dust. Even beggars don’t want to live in your shabby meditation room. You make it sound like it’s an imperial palace. Back then, you left the temple unattended for several years after you ran away!”
“Do you have any treasures like divine artifacts or imperial weapons? Lend me some so that I can protect myself when I attend the event,” Li Mu said.
“Get lost!” The old faker yelled.
…
During the past few days, Baoji City received many strange visitors.
All the hotels and inns at the foot of the North Mountain were fully occupied by all kinds of people from all over the world, and there were heated discussions about the Immortal-Devil a.s.sembly. The atmosphere felt like the righteous and the wicked were going to fight a duel and compete for the leaders.h.i.+p of the martial arts society.
Of course, those who settled down in the hotels and inns at the foot of the mountain were mostly people of no great importance.
The real big shots from the immortal sects came riding in on clouds and mists covered in golden light, which caused a strange phenomena between heaven and earth. As soon as they arrived, they were immediately guided up the mountain and welcomed into Jintai Temple.
In the past few days, the citizens of Baoji City had witnessed all kinds of strange happenings. Various immortals rode in on clouds as if they were going to attend the “Peach Feast” held in the legendary Immortal Peach Garden.
This day, the Immortal-Devil a.s.sembly had officially convened.
Li Mu came to Jintai Temple with the stupid Husky and his maidservant named Yunguang early in the morning.
By the time they arrived, all kinds of people from all over the world had already gathered outside Jintai Temple. The people of Chunyang Clan treated mortals in a somewhat offhand manner. The mortal pract.i.tioners from various regions were allowed to stay in the square outside the temple, but they were prohibited from going into the square inside the temple.
Li Mu’s appearance attracted the attention of all parties.
His reputation as the Eastern G.o.d of War had spread far and wide. However, only the people from the immortal sects knew about the incident that occurred in Qinling recently. The ordinary pract.i.tioners in the mortal world had no clear idea about that and thought Li Mu was the same as before.
In Luo Liang’s live show, Li Mu had been taken away by the people of the Mind-clearing Sword Sect. As a result, the pract.i.tioners in the mortal world had a wrong understanding of Li Mu’s status relative to that of the people from the immortal sects.
Therefore, when Li Mu showed up, the pract.i.tioners from all sects, families and powers who had recognized him began to talk about him, but they didn’t think that he was out of their league.
After all, in the past half a year, they have found out that immortal sects had a disdainful att.i.tude toward mortals and regarded mortals as lowly creatures. They thought that although Li Mu was very famous, he was just a mortal like them and was looked down upon by the immortal sects. Moreover, they believed that he belonged in the same world as them, but he came here cheekily to join in the fun.
Many of them even began to dislike him because of his reputation.
“Ha-ha, is he here to watch the fun with a dog?”
“He’s even brought a maidservant with him.”
“He’s a captive of the immortal sects. Doesn’t he feel embarra.s.sed swaggering about like that?”
“Why is he still putting on airs at such a moment? Perhaps the Eastern G.o.d of War is only a false t.i.tle?”
“He’s so good at marketing and hyping himself! Nowadays, you have to hype yourself if you want to become famous.”
The sounds of various heated discussions rang out in the outer square. Some people were not afraid of being overheard at all. They deliberately raised their voices to let Li Mu hear them.
Cloud Light Saintess smiled coldly when she heard those discussions.
“It seems that Li Mu, who wholeheartedly speaks up for the people of the mortal world, doesn’t even have a good reputation among the people he tries to protect, not to mention prestige. He’s really a loser on both sides.
“He deserves it!”
Li Mu came to the gate leading to the inner square.
The gate was tightly shut.
Many pract.i.tioners were waiting to see him become a laughing stock.
Li Mu stopped walking, turned around and glared at Cloud Light Saintess. “You ignorant servant! What are you waiting for? Hurry up and knock on the door. Don’t you know what you’re supposed to do?”
His words put Cloud Light Saintess’s nose out of the joint.
“Ha-ha, you are known as the Eastern G.o.d of War. How could you vent your anger on a little maidservant? That’s really an eye-opener.” A sarcastic voice rang out.
A young man with a strong aura walked out of the crowd with a faint sneer on his face.
Li Mu glanced at the young man.
“I’m Bai Qing from Dongting Lake. I’ve heard that you are very powerful and invincible in the mortal world. I would like to have a fight with you so that I can learn something. I wonder if you dare to accept my challenge.” The young man’s skin was light blue. He was thin, tall, and slightly hunchbacked. He looked at Li Mu provocatively.
“You blind idiot!”
Cloud Light Saintess snickered silently through her nose.
Li Mu looked at the stupid Husky and said, “You like seafood, don’t you? This big blue shrimp looks delicious.”
The silly dog’s eyes lit up. “Can I eat it?”
“Sure,” Li Mu said.
“Li Mu, you’ve become smarter.” The Husky opened his mouth.
The lanky young man with light blue skin disappeared from sight in a flash, as if he had melted into thin air.
No one knew what was going on.
Rat-tat-tat!
Cloud Light Saintess knocked on the door to the inner square.
Several Taoist monks dressed in black and white Taoist robes and surrounded by wisps of immortal Qi opened the door and walked out.
“Who is knocking on the door? Don’t you know the rules? The hands and feet of any mortal knocking on the door will be broken. Is it because my senior fellow apprentice is so kind that you mortals forget your place and the heavenly rules?”
The speaker was a disciple of the Chunyang Clan with quite a high cultivation level.
“Get out of my way! Tell Athanasia Taoist Child and the Immortal Taoist to come out and welcome us!”
Cloud Light Saintess cursed the disciple loudly.
“Are… are you…looking to court your ….?”
The leading Taoist monk had a considerably high status. When he heard someone scolding his two senior fellow apprentices in his presence, he got mad and wanted to take action on the spot. He raised his head and found that the person standing in front of him was Saintess of the Cloud Clan named Yunguang. He had seen her before, so he knew how formidable she was. He was so scared that he swallowed the word “death”. He hurriedly bowed to her and stuttered, “Yes, Your Highness. Please wait a moment. I’m going to report to them right now.”
With that, he ran into the inner square as if he were escaping from something.
“What?”
The pract.i.tioners in the outer square were utterly stupefied.
“What’s going on?”
“Who is that little maidservant? She merely said a few words and managed to scare the h.e.l.l out of a high-level immortal of Chunyang Clan—an immortal sect. This… how could this be real?”
After a while, something happened that made those pract.i.tioners feel even more surprised.
Tens of people suddenly walked out of the inner square.
Besides the two high-level immortals in charge of the Chunyang Clan—Athanasia Taoist Child and the Immortal Taoist, the successors and masters of other major immortal sects were also among those people. They were the big shots that everyone had been talking about these days. It was said that they were all geniuses of the younger generation from various major sects and clans of the Celestial Court.
“They have really come out.”
“Are they there to welcome Li Mu?”
“What… what on earth has Li Mu done?”
The looks on many people’s faces suddenly changed.
Those cultivators who had deliberately talked loudly to mock Li Mu trembled with fear. They lowered their heads, stepped back and hid themselves in the crowd, for fear of being discovered.
“Your Highness the Saintess.”
“Your Highness.”
“Yunguang.”
Several young people walked out and gathered around Cloud Light Saintess.
As the successor of the Cloud Clan, Cloud Light Saintess had a very high status. In the past, she was quite a prestigious master among the people of the six major Divine Clans of the Celestial Court. Naturally, she had some good friends. Even those who were on lukewarm terms with her treated her very politely now and dared not give her the cold shoulder.
Many pract.i.tioners in the mortal world were dumbfounded when they saw what was happening.
“Things are getting more and more confusing.”
“Yunguang, I went to the Cloud Palace a few days ago. Mr. Mo said that you… Is that true? Did you really deign to be the maidservant of that old man’s successor?” A little fairy who looked like a porcelain doll with s.h.i.+ning eyes, a small face, and willow-leaf eyebrows took Cloud Light Saintess’s hand and asked confusedly, “Yunguang, why did you do that?”
Cloud Light Saintess felt a bit awkward, but she looked calm and relaxed. “I just consider that as a kind of training. Moreover, Senior Yu was invincible back then. I can stay by his side, listen and learn a lot of things from him. That’s a rare opportunity.”
Of course, she couldn’t say that she was forced to be a maidservant and she was about to go crazy. Otherwise, her old friends would laugh at her. Moreover, if the compet.i.tors that used to contend against her both openly and secretly found that she was in a bad situation, they would probably laugh at her and add insult to injury.
For these reasons, she had to cover her acts.
Li Mu almost laughed to death when he heard what Cloud Light Saintess said.
“This woman would rather suffer from her vanity than tell the truth. She is really a good actress.”
“Ahem, ahem…” Li Mu coughed.
All the people fixed their eyes on him.
Athanasia Taoist Child walked over to him, made an obeisance with one hand and said, “Amitayus. Hey, Mr. Li, nice to see you again. It’s been a while since we bade farewell in Mount Tianxuan. I’ve heard that you returned with a beauty from the battlefield behind the Gate of the Ancestors. Congratulations!”
Naturally, he was talking about Bi Yan, the Green Fox G.o.d.
The look on Cloud Light Saintess’s face suddenly changed. She thought Athanasia Taoist Child was saying that she was Li Mu’s beauty. She snorted and said angrily, “You little b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You’re a Taoist monk. How dare you gossip behind my back? What do you mean?”
“Um…” Athanasia Taoist Child’s face stiffened. He said, “I mean…”
“Shut up,” Cloud Light Saintess said coldly, “I’ll remember the humiliation you made me suffer today. When I’m done with my training, I’ll let you know how sharp the Cloud Clan’s finger sword is.”
Athanasia Taoist Child didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “What’s this all about?”
Just then, Li Mu glared at Cloud Light Saintess. “Watch your tone! Back off.”
“You…” Cloud Light Saintess seethed with anger, but she backed off obediently in the end. Standing behind Li Mu, she lowered her head and gritted her teeth without saying a word.
The scene completely overturned the outlook on life and world view of countless pract.i.tioners in the mortal world.
“Those chosen ones of the Celestial Court are so respectful to Li Mu’s maidservant. What about Li Mu’s status? Is he the divine prince or immortal king of the Celestial Court?”