Chapter 481: The Two of Them Grow Closer a Bit Fast
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
It was not uncommon in Nine Regions to have all sorts of conjectures about time travel. From the Supreme level cultivator close to ascend to immortality, to the storyteller in common tea house, all had their own conjectures about time travel.
Of course, they were all limited to conjectures only, because even the most enlightened cultivator could not manipulate time on a large scale. The Immortal Tea was just a legendary tale among cultivators, there had never been a true instance of time travel.
And according to Wang Lu's understanding, there were currently several popular conjectures. One of which was that history could not be changed. Even if by some means someone could return to the past, that someone would find out that he or she could not change anything that had happened, because returning to the past itself had already been the part of history. Another was the theory of alternate history. When someone traveled to the past, that someone could indeed change the course of history. However, from the moment that someone went back through time, the history had branched out, and what that someone could change was one of those branches.
Relatively speaking, Wang Lu preferred the second conjecture, because at least it gave people the possibility to exert subjective initiative. For example, in this present case, if Wang Lu's effort could change the tragic experience of Spirit Sword Sect, then he would certainly do his best.
As for the other branches of history that didn't change… they had nothing to do with him, so he didn't need to care.
Moreover, if his traveling back through time was already destined to be in the history, then… there was no reason no Elder of Spirit Sword Sect had ever mentioned this to him during his twenty years of cultivation. Let alone, he still clearly remembered when in the Immortal Gathering he almost lost the opportunity to enter the sect due to the nearsightedness of the Sect Leader.
If they remembered him, how could that mishap happen?
Therefore, from now on, he had to have a positive attitude, to do everything that he could in this Savage Land to reverse the history. If he did well enough, perhaps the golden generation of Spirit Sword Sect might not die.
Wang Lu actually had no emotional attachment to the golden generation. After all, all the Elders who taught him skills were mostly unknown within the golden generation.
In other words, if the golden generation did not die, would the leader of Spirit Sword Sect still be Feng Yin? Would Fang He, Liu Xian and the others still be members of the Heavenly Sword Hall? Especially Wang Wu… Would Wang Wu still be Wang Wu?
However, Wang Lu didn't intend to be indifferent to what happened in the past because of these things.
In Spirit Sword Mountain, he had been getting along with the Elders for decades, and Wang Lu could clearly feel the tragic pain of the past was a shadow that they could never forget. If they could change the past… they would surely choose to change it, even if they had to sacrifice everything that they had right now.
Wang Lu had received great kindness from the Elders of Spirit Sword Sect… so he would just consider this as a gift for them.
——
Half a day later, the group, which now consisted of nine people, crossed Jade Forest, marched along the steep mountain road, until the Blessed Fountain was already in sight.
"Phew, we finally see the Blessed Fountain. But, along the way, we have consumed a lot, so let's camp here and we'll go to Blessed Mountain tomorrow to clear the area."
After pondering for a moment, that was the decision of the lead disciple Ouyang Shang, who led the team while in front.
Thereupon a wave of cheer erupted from behind him. Several junior cultivators directly laid on the ground, not wanting to move even for a bit.
Ouyang Shang shrugged and slightly shook his head, apparently a bit dissatisfied with the laziness of his Juniors. Then he turned his head toward the similarly dressed young man who also had a similar appearance as him and softly said, "Excuse me for this. Junior Brothers and Sisters haven't been able to handle it yet."
"You're asking too much from them."
Wang Lu lightly responded.
The journey was not smooth sailing. At this time, the Western Mountain of the Savage Land has yet to have the black tide that Wang Lu later saw. However, the indigenous creatures of the Savage Land were still a major threat that could not be ignored. In Jade Forest, they met a surprise attack from a monster. A group of tree monsters more than a hundred in numbers, all of which had already cultivated inner core, surrounded them. Their offense was like the tide, led by a fierce and brilliant person with owl face, with strength comparable to that of Peak Jindan Stage. Although from Spirit Sword Sect team there were two Daoist Masters of Jindan Stage, in the ensuing fierce battle, the magical power and elixirs that they consumed were no small matter.
However, in Wang Lu's view, their success in breaking through the encirclement without any injuries or deaths has been an incredible thing.
The team led by Ouyang Shang was not even the strongest elite of the golden generation. The strength of the eight disciples was uneven, which was formed by choosing from the more than one hundred disciples in a balanced way and thus no team would have overall strength exceedingly higher than the other teams. In Jade Forest, the owl-faced monster and its minions had terrifying strength, but under the leadership of Ouyang Shang, all of them got through the daunting experience without mishap.
During the fight, although Wang Lu had made many contributions, he did not come up with one hundred percent of his real skill. The success of the breakout was mainly due to the strength of all the team members. And their strength was really impressive.
Although it was not so high that it went against the heaven, put in any sect, this team of cultivators would always be the elite of the elites. And at present, Spirit Sword Sect had more than ten of such a team!
However, Ouyang Shang was still unsatisfied. "Compared with our peers, our groups of cultivators are indeed very strong, but it's still far from enough to make up for the decline of Spirit Sword Sect over the past few thousand years. Compared with the other Five Uniques, the foundation of Spirit Sword Sect is really bad. In any aspect, we are in an absolute disadvantage, which leave us little time to catch up."
"Oh? Not much time? Why the urgency?"
"There's no way we can wait. The gap between Spirit Sword Sect and that of the others is a few thousand years, of which they have dozens of generations of cultivators that pulled forward. However, the time for Spirit Sword Sect to catch up is only in our golden generation. Spirit Sword Sect has enormous luck that in this generation they can gather so many talented disciples, who are also loyal and devoted to the sect. When our generation passes away, I'm afraid it would be impossible to have the same luck again. To catch up with the gap over the past thousands of years in a generation is really not easy."
Feeling funny, Wang Lu asked, "Is it necessary to be so obsessed with chasing the gap? Having a firm place within the Five Uniques is also quite good."
"People striving for top could at least obtain middle, people striving for middle would at least obtain bottom. Resting on laurels was the biggest reason why Spirit Sword Sect has declined to this point from its heyday." Ouyang Shang shook his head, and said, "Right now, within the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, Shengjing Sect is the number one sect. It has an absolute unshakable leading advantage over the others. However, regardless if it's Royal Soldier Sect, Ten Thousand Arts Sect… All of them have never given up in trying to catch up with Shengjing Sect, and Shengjing Sect has never been complacent with their top spot. Since that's how they are, for us Spirit Sword Sect who have fallen behind, can we allow ourselves to just let the matter go? Only if we redouble our effort to bear a heavier burden than any other sect can we step by step catch up with the others. People from ancient times said that everyone's born must have its use, so, since the golden generation could suddenly be born in Spirit Sword Sect, we have to bear our historical mission."
After saying those things, Ouyang Shang smiled. "Sorry, I'm starting to ramble again. Alas, I already have this problem since childhood. As long as I open my mouth to speak, I would not stop. Sometimes, I even accidentally say something that shouldn't be said. But, you must believe me that I treat people with sincerity and will never intentionally make things difficult for others!"
"Um…"
"Alas, unfortunately, very few people in this world understand me. Let alone outside the sect, even within the sect, I was often blamed by Master and Uncles. The most hateful thing is that, there are several of Junior Brothers and Sisters who suggested me to bring a snaffle, it's so outrageous."
"Hmm, how could a mere snaffle be able to stop this mouth of yours?"
"..." Ouyang Shang gawked for a moment, and then immediately nodded. "That's reasonable. How should I rely on external things to change internal problems? I really didn't think of it before. Junior Brother Wang Lu is indeed a talented disciple who had reached Jindan Stage at a young age, with many things worth me to learn from."
Upon hearing this, Wang Lu fully realized that this guy's mouth really could not be saved. Thus, he was too lazy to continue to talk to him and just directly blocked his own hearing, no longer paid attention to the endless streams of words from Ouyang Shang's mouth.
Although this was a bit cruel to Ouyang Shang, who was in highly interested in the conversation, Wang Lu really didn't have the mood to continue the trivial talk with him any longer.
At the same time, Wang Lu was inwardly moved.
Although this Big Brother Ouyang had a broken mouth, and his mind was a bit off, the guy was actually very sensible and rational in dealing with major issues and principles. His thinking was, in fact, not wrong at all. For the current situation of Spirit Sword Sect, if they wanted to truly stabilize their standing within the Five Uniques, and even in the Immortal Cultivation World, they had to exert more efforts than that of the other sects. The golden generation was not only a heaven-sent opportunity, but also the only opportunity, so they could not let this chance go.
Moreover, in their journey, Wang Lu could see that the guy was not foolhardy. Although there was almost pathological obsession to being stronger, in the specific implementation process, Ouyang Shang had always cautiously controlled the risk. For example, in this temporary diversion to Blessed Fountain, he had fully taken into account of Wang Lu's strength before he made that decision. The fierce battle in Jade Forest also proved that his calculation was accurate and the fight was in the category of low risk and no surprise.
Such a person was indeed worthy to be the Big Brother of the sect. In a sense, he was even more competent than himself— compared to Ouyang Shang, Wang Lu's personal style was too bright and less approachable.
Then, the next question was: Since there was no problem with Ouyang Shang, what caused the tragedy that led to the end of the golden generation?
While he was thinking, he suddenly heard Ouyang Shang change the topic of discussion, no longer talking about the backwardness of the construction of the public cafeteria of Spirit Sword Sect in regard to the disciples' cultivation. Instead, he proposed, "Junior Brother Wang Lu, I think it's not too late to go out, how about we go fishing?"
"Do you mean to spread a rumor that one of the Elders had received two hundred million gold spirit stones from Royal Soldier Sect to overthrow the rule of Sect Leader and see which of the Junior Brothers or Sisters is deceived? Whoever is fooled is a stupid fish."
"Junior Brother Wang Lu, how did you come up with such a sick game? But this time, I mean it literally. Just you and me, fishing."
With that, Ouyang Shang extended his finger to point at the distance.
There, under the sunset light, the Blessed Fountain was glittering with countless sparkles.
Ouyang Shang actually wanted to team up with Wang Lu to go ahead of time to the Blessed Fountain!
"...Fine, now I understand how the golden generation ended."