Chapter 124: Linghu Chong's Journey of Experience

Linghu Chong is truly worthy of being a child of destiny, a man whom everyone loves and flowers bloom for. Even though Yang Xin has altered the course of the story beyond recognition, Linghu Chong continues to encounter one miraculous adventure after another the moment he steps out of the mountain gates.

First, he ran into that pair of best friends, Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang, who, obsessed with music and nature, spent their time wandering freely. Linghu Chong not only obtained the "Proud Wanderer" musical score but also won the adoration of Qu Feiyan.

The fact that Liu Zhengfeng of the Hengshan School and Qu Yang of the Sun Moon Holy Cult were openly associating and gallivanting about drew resistance from both the righteous sects and the Holy Cult. However, the Xianyue School, formed after the merger of the three mountains, was tolerant of Liu Zhengfeng and let him be, disregarding the matter entirely and ignoring the inquiries sent by Shaolin and Wudang.

Shaolin and Wudang, though they held grievances against the Xianyue School, were helpless; they could not overstep their bounds and forcibly separate the two. While the righteous sects were powerless, the Sun Moon Holy Cult could not swallow this insult and dispatched experts to hunt down and kill Qu Yang.

Yet, both men were truly gifted in music—it would be no exaggeration to call them the greatest musicians of the age. With ease, they mastered the "Sound Waves of Heaven’s Defect and Earth’s Absence," and with the enhancement of the Heavenly Demon Zither, their pursuers were no match for them.

"One melody breaks the liver and intestines, where in the world can one find a soulmate?" The song echoed through the martial arts world, and the experts of the Sun Moon Holy Cult who came to hunt Qu Yang all met their downfall beneath the Heavenly Demon Zither. Had Qu Yang not been concerned for his former comrades and held back from killing them, every elder of the Sun Moon Holy Cult would have perished.

Over time, a tacit understanding formed between the righteous sects and the Sun Moon Holy Cult to turn a blind eye to the pair and let them wander as they pleased. Finding Qu Feiyan to be a burdensome "drag," Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang, upon meeting Linghu Chong, simply left her for him to take care of as he traveled.

Linghu Chong, even less inclined to carry such a burden, traveled to Hengyang City, intending to dump Qu Feiyan on the Hengshan School. With his carefree temperament, once he arrived in Hengyang, he first sought a good drink. While drinking heavily and reminiscing at the Huiyan Restaurant, he bumped into Liu Jing, who had come to collect Qu Feiyan.

The moment Liu Jing saw Linghu Chong, she was struck by his extraordinary appearance; she fell for him instantly and began casting flirtatious glances his way. Linghu Chong was a wanderer, but he was not stupid. One Qu Feiyan was already giving him a splitting headache; if he added a Liu Jing to the mix, he could forget about being a carefree hero—he would likely die in a bed of softness.

Linghu Chong hurriedly shoved Qu Feiyan toward Liu Jing and then, using his light-foot skills, vanished in a puff of smoke. Although Yue Buqun had already given up on him, Linghu Chong was, after all, a child he had raised from youth. Yue Buqun had still taught him the first move of the "Wind God Legs," Catching the Wind and Grasping the Shadow—not to harm enemies, but to save his own life. Little did he expect Linghu Chong to use it to escape a romantic catastrophe.

Leaving Hengyang, Linghu Chong headed straight for the Golden Blade Sect in Luoyang. Although he found Lin Pingzhi unpleasant, Lin Pingzhi’s mother hailed from the Wang family of the Luoyang Golden Blade Sect. As the chief disciple of the head of the Xianyue School, Linghu Chong represented not just himself, but the dignity of his school, and both reason and etiquette dictated that he pay a formal visit. Furthermore, the Xianyue School held nearly ten thousand acres of farmland in Luoyang, and to collect the rent successfully, he needed the support of local powers like the Golden Blade Sect.

With the merger of the three mountains, the Xianyue School was at the height of its power. Since Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan had shone brightly in Hengyang, Wang Yuanba, the master of the Golden Blade Sect, felt a sense of reflected glory. Even so, he dared not slight the chief disciple of the Xianyue leader, and he threw open the main gates, welcoming Linghu Chong with great pomp and ceremony.

Linghu Chong was like a fish in water when it came to social dealings and was adept at currying favor. With Wang Yuanba showing him such respect, Linghu Chong’s vanity was greatly satisfied. With a few words, he struck up a rapport with the disciples of the Golden Blade Sect. When the liquor flowed, Linghu Chong proposed borrowing some of their men, and Wang Yuanba slapped his chest on the spot, declaring it no problem.

The next day, after sobering up, Linghu Chong led a grand procession of Golden Blade disciples to the Luoyang prefectural office. The imperial decree of the Great Ming Humane Empire designating the Xianyue School as the only official martial arts sect had already reached every prefecture, and combined with the legendary deeds of Master Yang Xin of the Xianyue School that had drifted down from the capital, the Prefect of Luoyang and his officials dared not be negligent. Being quite sensible, they immediately dispatched their most capable clerks to carefully verify the farmland holdings with Linghu Chong, issued official warrants, and sent out teams of yamen runners to assist in collecting the rent.

At this point, Linghu Chong was riding high, comfortable in both the light and dark worlds. He had expected to sip fine wine at his leisure while the yamen runners and the Golden Blade disciples did the heavy lifting, easily completing the task Yang Xin had entrusted to him. However, reality dealt him a harsh blow, and Linghu Chong encountered what could be called the first setback of his life.

"What did you say? The rent from my Xianyue School’s fields has been collected by those bald donkeys from Shaolin?!" Linghu Chong stood up abruptly, shouting in disbelief. This concerned whether he, Master Linghu, would eat meat or chew chaff for the rest of his life—how could he not be furious?

"Yes, it was collected by Shaolin," the yamen runner who had come to report said in a low voice.

At the mention of Shaolin, the slightly tipsy Linghu Chong sobered up in an instant.

"Take me to see it." Since it involved Shaolin, Linghu Chong could not just take one side’s word for it. Led by the yamen runner, he arrived at the fields belonging to the Xianyue School. There, he witnessed a scene of absolute darkness.

He did not see barns filled with a bountiful harvest, nor did he see farmers with joyful faces, nor even the curling smoke of cooking fires...

What he saw were handfuls of old grain mixed with dirt and mold. Even so, it was not enough to sustain a family of three. He saw farmers with numb, lifeless faces like walking corpses; he saw elders who had starved to death to save rations; and he saw tenant farmers who had been beaten to death by Shaolin monks for failing to pay their rent.

Every time rent was collected, it was like a trip through the gates of hell. Cart after cart of grain was hauled away, leaving only bleached bones in its wake!

"What percentage of the harvest does Shaolin take from the tenants?" Linghu Chong grabbed the nearby yamen runner and demanded.

"Eighty percent!"

"What percentage?" Linghu Chong’s eyes widened, his gaze filled with killing intent.

"Eighty percent!"

"If they only leave twenty percent, how are the tenants supposed to survive?"

"That is the best-case scenario. This year, the weather was favorable, so these tenants can scrape by by digging for wild vegetables and relying on that remaining grain. But when natural or man-made disasters strike, the descriptions in books about lands stretching for a thousand miles without a soul, filled only with bleached bones—that is not an exaggeration; it is the truth."

"This is Shaolin? This is the compassionate Shaolin?! Not only do they blatantly rob the Xianyue School of its rent, but they drive people to their deaths? Does your government do nothing about this?" This was the first time Linghu Chong had witnessed the dark side of the world.

"The Buddhist sect is a realm beyond the secular world; they pay no taxes and submit no grain... Besides, martial arts matters are settled by the martial arts world," the yamen runner sighed.

"Shaolin, the Buddhist sect!" Linghu Chong gritted his teeth and spoke coldly. He returned to the inn like a walking corpse, locked his door, and refused to see anyone.

That night, Linghu Chong donned a night-traveling suit and silently slipped out of his window. Although the scenes of the day had dealt him a massive shock and even shattered his mental defenses, he did not fully trust the words of the yamen runner and the Golden Blade men; he wanted to investigate for himself.

Following the records, Linghu Chong inspected the fields belonging to the Xianyue School one by one. The results were exactly as he had seen during the day; the yamen runner and the Golden Blade men had not lied to him. Unwilling to accept this, he used his light-foot skills to dash several miles to another location, only to find the situation unchanged. He steeled his heart and ran for dozens of miles more, checking over a dozen farms and villages, but the reality remained the same.

Linghu Chong was completely enraged. With a sharp blade at his side, the urge to kill took root, and his fury turned into malice. Ignoring the expenditure of his internal energy, he raced straight after the Shaolin grain transport convoy. Though Shaolin had collected the rent, they had not gone far, and after a desperate, high-speed chase, Linghu Chong finally caught up to them in the dead of night.

Linghu Chong was not so consumed by rage that he lost his reason. He did not break in and demand answers; instead, he stealthily infiltrated the camp to gather more information.

Then, the conversation between the Shaolin disciples guarding the grain completely ignited his fury.