Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 610 Undercurrents Beneath the Mountain
March 17th, the Awakening of Insects.

Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province.

The Wudang school in this world has been established for hundreds of years.

In the early Ming Dynasty, because Emperor Taizu and several emperors after him had been very high-profile in their veneration of Taoism, and because it was during the late years of Master Zhang when he had reached a high level of mastery in all aspects, Wudang was a dominant force in the martial arts world for a long time.

However, as the saying goes, what goes up must come down. With the changing times, Wudang inevitably declined from its peak.

Since Zhang Zhenren's passing, the position of Wudang Sect Leader has been passed down for dozens of generations. Although there have been some minor ups and downs, the sect has generally been on a downward trend.

This situation continued until about seventy years ago.

In those years, perhaps it was a stroke of luck, Wudang suddenly experienced an inexplicable "talent boom"; to use a modern sports league as an analogy, they were essentially caught up with five consecutive "drama draft years", and each year was a "golden generation" level.

Of course, we also know that not all talented young people can eventually realize their talents—a person's success requires many factors, including luck, to work together, but a person's failure often only requires one factor.

Fortunately, many of the young people from Wudang eventually stood out, and so, about fifty years ago, Wudang reached its second peak since its founding, namely the "Era of the Six Heroes".

Unfortunately, due to the first invasion by the Wanyuan Sect and the series of subsequent changes caused by the Heavenly Silkworm Skill, this era came to an abrupt end in less than ten years, and Wudang suffered enormous losses as a result.

Decades later, the gradually declining Wudang Sect finally found an outstanding leader like Wang Shilian and began to show signs of revitalization. However, it was then caught up in the Wujian Villa incident.

Master Wang's fate was truly tragic. He was still alive and well when he left, but he returned already lying in a coffin. Moreover, his "innate spiritual bone" was stolen by Fairy Shuiyuan on the way back. Furthermore, because Master Wang was brought back to the mountain gate and buried directly, the Wudang disciples still do not know that their sect leader's remains were missing a section of his spine.

But no matter what, bad luck is bad luck, life goes on.

And so, a new leader was appointed to the position in a time of crisis and hastily took office.

Speaking of this new leader, his name is quite interesting, "Yao Zhizu". It's clear that his parents also have high hopes for him.

Yao should be content; he should be content.

Whether a person lives a good or bad life is always relative. The more easily a person is content, the less trouble they will have.

And Yao Zhizu is quite worthy of his name. This kid has always had "three nos" since he was a child: no fighting, no laziness, and no striving.

Some people might think there's a contradiction between these three. Let me give you an example: Have you ever met someone who... goes to get off work on time every day, only cares about their own job responsibilities and can complete them well, but never works overtime for free or flatters others?

If you've met him, or if you're that kind of person, then you'll probably understand Yao Zhizu's philosophy of life.

However, even Yao Zhizu himself never expected that one day, he would actually be the one to sit in the position of sect leader...

From a certain perspective, this also reflects that Wudang is indeed not doing well now. After Wang Shilian died, among his peers, there was no one whose martial arts skills and ability to handle affairs were higher than Yao Zhizu's.

Thus, Yao Zhizu ascended to the position of sect leader in a daze, and in the past two years, he has continued to adhere to his "three no's" principle, which can be considered as managing the sect peacefully and steadily without making any great achievements.

But who would have thought that after a few days of peace, the Wudang Sect was hit with bad news again—a group of people had attacked Shaoshi Mountain and left a message saying they would "kill Shaolin first and then destroy Wudang." Where could Lao Yao go to complain about this?

The key point is that these people said they would destroy it, but they didn't give a specific date. Instead of learning from the good example of Galactus, they're really lacking in virtue.

Even if Wudang wanted to ask for help, they couldn't, because they didn't know when those people would arrive. Maybe they would come knocking on their door in a few days, but it could also take several months. They couldn't very well ask all the sects that were willing to help them to stay at their place and guard against them day and night for several months, could they? Even if they were willing, they wouldn't be.

Anyway, two months have passed, and Yao Zhizu's hair has turned quite white from worry, but no one has come knocking on her door yet.

However, at the foot of Wudang Mountain, undercurrents were swirling and the atmosphere was bustling.

Here we have to say that the martial arts world and the internet have something in common. Right now, the news that "Hunyuan Star Gate is going to destroy Wudang" is a hot topic in the martial arts world, so naturally many people with different purposes will be attracted to it and come uninvited.

Leaving aside those who already had grudges against Wudang and Hunyuan Star Gate... there were quite a few outsiders just there to watch the show.

Many newcomers to the world, or those who simply enjoy joining in the fun, are naturally eager to see what's going on when they hear about such a "big event." As long as they don't get hurt, it's good to be in the nearby county town to watch the drama unfold.

Others come for "profit".

However, even they themselves couldn't clearly explain what these "benefits" actually were.

For example: Suppose one night, a seriously injured Wudang disciple runs down the mountain, pursued by an assassin. You happen to see him, and then you seize the opportunity to kill the assassin with a sneak attack. Afterwards, wouldn't you be able to go out and boast that you saved a Wudang disciple from a highly skilled assassin during the "major event of the destruction of Wudang"?
As for whether this person was killed by your sneak attack, fought you for three hundred rounds, or was defeated by you in three moves... isn't that all up to you to brag about?

For example: Suppose Wudang is really destroyed this time, and the fellow practitioners at the foot of the mountain receive the news and rush up the mountain to rescue them, but they arrive too late and only corpses are left and the mountain gate is empty. In that case, is it possible for you to take advantage of the chaos at the scene, where everyone is unfamiliar with each other, to do some petty theft?
In conclusion, whenever such a major event occurs in the martial arts world, there is absolutely no shortage of "traffic" (internet buzz).

Recently, the inns in several counties near Wudang Mountain have been almost fully booked by travelers from all over the country.

Among them, one person has attracted the most attention.

This man's surname is Zheng, his given name is Dongxi, and he is known in the martial arts world as... "Hero Zheng".

Some people might wonder, what kind of nickname is this? Isn't it just a normal name?

What you all said is correct; that is indeed the case. But there must be a reason for everything.

The reason Zheng Dongxi has this nickname is actually quite simple: he became famous very quickly.

How fast?
To put it simply, just two months ago, around the time of the incident at Shaoshi Mountain, no one in the martial arts world had ever heard of Zheng Dongxi.

But shortly after that, you could hear a rumor about him almost every few days.

This middle-aged man, who looked to be in his forties and had an extremely righteous and awe-inspiring appearance, appeared out of nowhere like a shooting star. In just two months, he had killed at least fifty notorious villains in the martial arts world. Not only were these people hard to find, but most of them were also top-notch martial arts masters.

But in Zheng Dongxi's eyes, none of these things seemed to matter.

His efficiency in dealing with these people was like how modern people do bounty missions in games—accept the mission, find the target, and kill them once found.

No one knows how he locked onto his target, nor does anyone know where he learned his superb martial arts skills or where they came from.

People only know that he killed more villains in two months than many famous heroes had killed in twenty years.

As for acts of chivalry such as helping people in need or giving money to those in urgent situations, he has done countless such "trivial" acts of chivalry.

Moreover, he never asked anyone for anything in return, at most leaving his name. After all, his appearance was very distinctive, and even if he didn't leave his name, people could easily find out who he was.

So, by the time people realized what had happened, he was already a "hero."

Everyone who meets him respectfully calls him "Master Zheng".

So... what is the background of this person?
The book subtly reveals here that he is actually Gu Qiying.

The so-called "Zheng Dongxi" means "to suppress Dongxi," which implies the intention to suppress the "Eastern Harmony and Western Poison."

For Gu Qiying now, changing his appearance is no longer difficult, so he deliberately chose a face that is "very righteous" in people's stereotypes, gave himself a fake name, and then began to do what a "hero" should do with almost crazy efficiency.

As he expected, he quickly became a household name and a great hero.

Of course, we all know that "becoming a great hero" is just a means to achieve one's goal, not the goal itself.

It's not hard to see from the time he started creating this "persona" and his actions at the foot of Wudang Mountain that he transformed into "Zheng Dongxi" to make it easier to deal with the Hunyuan Star Gate.

Considering Gu Qiying's past experiences and his extreme hatred for the righteous path of the martial arts world, playing this "hero" was actually a very difficult and unpleasant thing for him.

He felt nauseous, especially when he had to make all sorts of hypocritical and grandiose pronouncements in public.

However, while some people dislike this kind of thing, others like it.

Jiang Shouzheng is someone who really likes and even enjoys "playing the role of a chivalrous hero".

These past few days, Master Jiang has also come here after hearing about the "traffic" around Wudang Mountain.

And the first person he wanted to visit upon his arrival, unfortunately, was none other than Zheng Dongxi, who had recently risen to fame in the martial arts world.