Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Yan Yu suddenly realized. If they choose an elite disciple to preserve the heritage, the risk is indeed too great. If that disciple dies or betrays them, the entire orthodox lineage of the Shangqing Sect would be doomed.

Then what if they copy all the secret techniques and distribute them to all disciples? The risk would be smaller, but the chances of a leak would increase. As long as any one disciple is killed or defects, these things would fall into enemy hands, and the years of accumulated heritage of the Shangqing Sect would benefit other sects.

Therefore, the Shangqing Sect only has one option, which is to split the lineage. You take some, I take some, spreading the eggs into multiple baskets, even if some are lost, it would still be acceptable.

According to what Mei Yingxue implied, most of the inner sect disciples should have died in the end, so only a small part of the Shangqing Sect's heritage remained in the Emei Sword Sect that was established later... In this way, this method is indeed not feasible.

The elders present obviously could think of what Yan Yu could think of, so they all shook their heads in silence.

Sect Leader Chen Yanwei raised an eyebrow, coming up with an idea:

To entrust the heritage to the disciples is too risky. What if the disciples perish? But if I take the heritage with me, the risk is relatively acceptable. I am the current Sun Sword Master, with the Divine Sword for protection, who can kill me?

But this idea cannot be shared with others. If everyone present knows that the entire accumulation and heritage of the Shangqing Sect is on me, and someone later betrays and exposes me, wouldn't I be surrounded and attacked by those demonic sect and evil cultivators?

Chen Yanwei was very conflicted. On one hand, he blindly believed that the Sun Sword Master is invincible, and it was the best choice for him to safeguard the sect's heritage; on the other hand, he feared that if he were truly besieged by demonic and villainous cultivators, should he fall, he could cope with it, but losing the sect's heritage and the Sun God Sword would be an unforgivable sin!

Or should he just not engage these demonic and villainous cultivators, find a place to retreat to, making preserving oneself the first priority?

Various thoughts sprouted in his heart like vines. Chen Yanwei was undecided, and seeing the elders all looking at him, expecting him as the sect leader to make a decision, he felt a bit hesitant.

Suddenly, he saw Yan Yu and Mei Yingxue.

"What do you think, how should we respond to the current situation?" Chen Yanwei asked aloud.

This was a bit unusual. Everyone here was either a sect leader or an elder; when had two disciples had the qualification to speak?

But seeing the elders also looking over, without any confusion or doubt, Yan Yu realized that the choice was being handed to him by the Sun True Dullness Sword:

Come on, quickly tell me, was there a way to turn things around back then!

"The regret of the Sun True Dullness Sword back then should have come from not protecting the Shangqing Sect of Shushan." Mei Yingxue analyzed, "The Sun Sword Master eventually retreated safely, and other members were not familiar with the Divine Sword, nor did they care for the sect's secret techniques, so it was only the name of the Shangqing Sect of Shushan—after all, it supported him for so many years."

"The Divine Sword is principled, but even more sentimental. He followed Chen Yanwei to the Zhenmei Sword Sect, being sealed underground for a long time, unable to fulfill its mission to protect the Human Race, slay demons and eliminate evil, finally decided to leave the sword master but also left a sword intent avatar to serve the sword master, showing he actually cherishes old affections."

"So he wanted to preserve the Shangqing Temple of Shushan." Yan Yu pondered, "From this angle, the plan of dispersing people should first be excluded."

"So, seek reinforcement or fight our way out?" Mei Yingxue asked.

"Let's try fighting our way out first." Yan Yu said, "Since this is the dream of the Sun True Dullness Sword, failure and repetition are just a matter of his thought."

"Master." He turned to Chen Yanwei and said, "We, sword immortals, can evade battles but cannot shy away from them. My sister senior and I are willing to charge out, to preserve the living forces of the sect and seek vitality."

The four elders looked at each other, only to hear Chen Yanwei sigh deeply, saying:

"If that is the case, then let us fight."

An elder who strongly advocated battle was overjoyed and then instructed Yan Yu and Mei Yingxue:

"When the battle begins, follow this old man closely."

"Thank you, elder." Yan Yu said hurriedly.

"Alas, if I can't protect the younger ones, how dare I claim any credit?" Elder shook his head, turned, and left to prepare for battle.

——————————

"I don't know much about the fall of the Shangqing Sect of Shushan." Mei Yingxue spoke to Yan Yu in a transmitted voice, "I only know that it was said that 100,000 divine and demonic beings besieged Shushan at that time. Although the '100,000' is an exaggerated figure, it does reflect the number of enemies."

"Historically, the demonic and evil attacks on Shushan are countless, mostly because of Shushan's dangerous geographical position, surrounded by enemies on all sides. Southward lay the 100,000 mountains, to the northwest Iron City Mountain, to the northeast Beimang Mountain, all are nests of demonic cult cultivators. Unlike Kunlun occupying the northwest, and Penglai isolated overseas, they only need to deal with enemies from one or two directions."

"But I heard that the Orthodox Sect is generally stronger in all aspects, while the Demon Path is accustomed to taking extraordinary measures." Yan Yu asked, "Unless met with a counter relationship, demonic cultivators are often not the opponents of Orthodox cultivators, just like when you once made Yuanzhen unable to escape."

"You know only one aspect, not the other." Mei Yingxue sighed and said, "Why can Orthodox cultivators lead in strength? Because the sects strictly control aptitude when taking in disciples, selecting the best. But in the Age of Dharma Decline, when the concentration of spiritual energy between heaven and earth drastically declines, no matter how excellent your aptitude is, how good can you be?"

"Life is like a boat sailing; the key lies not only in personal effort but also in the changes of the larger environment. Just like the Spiritual Energy Resurgence over on Earth, the concentration cap rises stepwise. The environment offers a ceiling, even if endowed like Xie Ruoxi, she can't outpace you in level progress, can she?"

Yan Yu was speechless for a while before saying:

"Can we not use my aptitude as an example? According to your analogy, if I were in the Cultivation World, the Orthodox Sect certainly wouldn't accept me as a disciple, I could only join the Demon Cult and oppose you, no wonder the Orthodox Sect doesn't prosper."

Mei Yingxue thought, with your talent, the Demon Cult probably wouldn't take you either… but on the surface, she smiled and said:

"Sorry, it was a slip of the tongue. As you said, the Orthodox Sect pays too much attention to hard conditions when recruiting disciples and doesn't care much about subjective standards like judgment, tactical literacy, strategic vision, leading naturally to declining outcomes."

Her sincere admission of flaws made it difficult for Yan Yu to exploit as a topic, so he brought the conversation back:

"Let's first exchange a few moves with those demonic cult villains outside, and see their quality."

The two followed Elder Yi to the outskirts of Emei Mountain, where all the other elders and outer disciples were already present, ready to break out at any time — as for the personal disciples of the elders, naturally it was to wait for the elders to breakout and attract the main force of the enemy's attention before sneaking away with the sect's heritage in other directions.

Seeing that Yan Yu and Mei Yingxue had not fled midway, Sect Leader Chen Yanwei was delighted and stroked his beard approvingly as he said:

"Very well. Everyone's spiritual energy remains strong. The sect's heritage will be carried by others, taking this opportunity to inspire wisdom again and ascend the Tao!"

"I've only heard about bosses withholding wages, promising payment next month." Mei Yingxue joked to Yan Yu, "but never about reincarnation and enlightening past wisdom," she said with a smile.

As they set out to distract the enemy, no one attempted to hide. They saw a large number of demonic and enchantress cultivators gathered on various mountaintops. Taoists, monks, madmen, beggars... all dressed freakishly. One of them even put on Nianhua Finger, laughing and saying:

"Fellow daoists of Shushan, welcoming guests so warmly really puts people ill at ease. But a threat of this magnitude... he broke the Buddha beads, scattered them into the air, immediately generating Red Lotus Karma Fire, with momentum and power far exceeding the enchantress's Red Lotus Bowl by untold measures!"