Chapter 426 Inverted Heaven's Will Undying Divine Art

Ruan Yuqing gave a wry smile. After a moment of silence, she said,

“However, this also means the matter between Young Hero Jiang and this Jiaowei ends here.

“I have been away from the Shuiyue Sword Sect for some time now. I plan to take my leave in the next few days and return to my sect.”

“Ah?”

Jiang Ran was taken aback.

Tang Huayi, however, quickly chimed in:

“Wonderful! It has indeed been a long time since you’ve returned to your sect, Lady Ruan. I imagine your sisters at the Shuiyue Sword Sect must miss you dearly.”

“…”

Jiang Ran shot Tang Huayi a glance.

Tang Huayi paid it no mind whatsoever.

Ruan Yuqing, however, gave her a strange look:

“Brother Li, you seem quite happy about this?”

“Not at all, not at all.”

Tang Huayi shook her head repeatedly.

“What’s there for me to be happy about? Sigh… Rather than happy, I’d say I’m a bit envious.

“Lady Ruan, you still have a sect to return to, while I no longer have one to call my own.”

“Ah? Brother Li, your sect…?”

“It’s been gone for many years.”

Tang Huayi sighed. “Nowadays, it’s just a bunch of old, weak, sick, and disabled folks, yet they still dream of making a comeback. They can barely support themselves, but they spend all day scheming and infighting. It’s just laughable.”

“I see.”

Ruan Yuqing sighed. “What a pity. Brother Li, you’re a man. Otherwise, I could have recommended you to join my Shuiyue Sword Sect.”

“Huh? Does your Shuiyue Sword Sect accept disciples so casually?”

Jiang Ran was stunned.

“Young Hero Jiang… I can’t agree with that.”

Ruan Yuqing rolled her eyes at Jiang Ran.

“My Shuiyue Sword Sect is certainly not careless when accepting disciples.

“It’s because Brother Li is an upright person with a chivalrous heart. What’s wrong with accepting someone like that into our sect?

“The only pity is… he’s a man.”

Tang Huayi, for her part, breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Good thing I’m traveling the martial world as a man…’

Jiang Ran was speechless. ‘Just a moment ago, a certain someone wanted to take Ximen Feng’s life to test this Jiaowei, and now Ruan Yuqing is just blindly praising her.’

However, he also nodded repeatedly.

“It is a shame indeed.”

After he said that, Tang Huayi shot him a secret glare.

Only then did Jiang Ran adopt a more serious expression.

“So, Lady Ruan, when do you plan to leave?”

“How much longer will you be staying at Qifeng Manor, Young Hero Jiang?”

Ruan Yuqing asked.

Jiang Ran thought for a moment and said:

“Probably today or tomorrow.”

“Alright then. When you leave, Young Hero Jiang, I will depart as well.”

Ruan Yuqing gave Jiang Ran a complicated look, then smiled.

“When you’ve finished your business, Young Hero Jiang, you must come and visit my Shuiyue Sword Sect if you have the time.”

“I will, I will.”

With the conversation over, Jiang Ran put away the Jiaowei.

Then, he dragged out Jin Sanding’s body.

As for the matter Jin Sanding had entrusted to him before his death, Jiang Ran paid it no mind.

Neither he nor Lady Wu were good people.

Jiang Ran felt he had no time to spare for their affairs.

The matter of the Jiaowei was thus concluded. After sorting through his gains from the trip to Sunset Plateau, he planned to set out on his journey again.

Therefore, when afternoon arrived, Jiang Ran made a trip to the Government Office.

He went to turn in his haul from the Sunset Plateau trip.

To be honest, the haul from this trip wasn’t that substantial…

One Young Manor Lord, and then three members of the Four Evil Sects.

Add Jin Sanding to the list, and that was the entire haul.

The other members of Heterodox Manor had been completely claimed by the righteous masters on Sunset Plateau that day.

A large portion had also been taken away directly by Dao Wuming.

After this incident, Jiang Ran decided, ‘I absolutely cannot team up with Dao Wuming again.’

‘That guy is a man of the Court, and he has innumerable ties to the Sword Holding Department.’

‘As an Assassin, working with him is simply too disadvantageous.’

Fortunately, the people he took were all nobodies.

They weren’t on any wanted lists, nor on the lists of the Sword Holding Department.

So, Jiang Ran let it be.

All the truly famous targets, the ones worth mentioning, had ended up in his hands.

The Young Manor Lord alone was worth forty thousand taels of fine silver, the highest-value target Jiang Ran had encountered since he started intentionally ‘fishing’.

Others, like Shi Pingzhang, had mostly been a matter of chance.

But as his own reputation grew, he feared such easy encounters would become rarer in the future.

「He left in the afternoon and returned at dusk.」

Jiang Ran sat in his room and began to sort through his gains.

[Reward Acquired: Golden Cauldron True Qi (Twenty-Six Years)!]

[Reward Acquired: Serpentine Step Technique (Thirty-Eight Years)!]

[Reward Acquired: Ten Years of Inner Strength!]

[Reward Acquired: Great Vajra Demon-Slaying Fist (Forty Years)!]

[Reward Acquired: Heaven’s Will Inverted Indestructible Divine Art (Twenty Years)!]

‘Golden Cauldron True Qi must be Jin Sanding’s martial art.

‘This person’s martial art is linked to cauldrons… it’s probably not suitable for me.

‘Serpentine Step Technique, that sounds like a Body Technique.

‘Great Vajra Demon-Slaying Fist… If only the ‘Fist’ was ‘Mist’. What a pity.

‘Heaven’s Will Inverted Indestructible Divine Art? What kind of martial art is this?

‘Looks like this is the one dropped by the Young Manor Lord. It seems quite powerful…’

For a moment, Jiang Ran was undecided.

On one hand, he didn’t want his repertoire of skills to become overly complex, as some techniques might be impossible to use in the heat of battle.

On the other hand, he didn’t want to miss out on the more interesting skills.

After much deliberation, he first discarded the [Golden Cauldron True Qi].

He refused to compromise on his Inner Energy arts. With the Creation Heart-Rectifying Sutra as his foundation, the quality of the other martial arts he integrated would determine the future upper limit of the Sutra itself.