"In the history of the Eastern Continent, the name 'Green Leaf Village,' never once appears. Even as the Green Hat Immortal rampaged, no one could locate his hideout, suspecting that it shifted to whatever place he fancied. Little did they know that, all along, this mysterious brume concealed the immortal's home and various achievements.
You can't blame them though, the brume existed long before the Green Hat Immortal became a thing, and was just altered so the Green Immortal Sword Art would become its key".
"Why is that village so important to you, anyway?"
"You don't know?"
"Why should I know?"
"Your former master is the Green Hat Immortal. More specifically, since his eunuch body couldn't fulfill its marital obligations, and Xue Lin's Extreme Yin Transformation required a dual cultivation partner, Qiu Meng used the Nine Paths of Yin and Yang to create two avatars. The first one drew from the Taiyang clan's Sun Spirit characteristics to create a brand-new life with a unique human lineage: the Golden Immortal Bloodline. That avatar, the Golden-Haired Immortal, never appeared in the cultivation world, and basically turned into Xue Lin's eggplant."
Qiu Meng's Ancient Spirit body cultivated a heretical Yin-Yang technique that required him to stay a eunuch for a lifetime. He could have abandoned it for more tolerable techniques and found a way to regenerate his junk. But while not an ordained monk, Qiu Meng was a staunch practitioner of the Golden Lotus Temple's Creed of Liberation, and like many others in the Four Continents, firmly believed that, on the way to reach the peak of enlightenment, sexual desires would always be distractions.
"Avatar and original shared one consciousness, but Qiu Meng's eunuch state became a weight on his psyche, making him develop no end of insecurities. To remedy that, he cut off the portion of his emotional spectrum that produced those insecurities and fused them with the second avatar—the Green-Hat Immortal—enabling him to develop his own consciousness and cultivate the perverse Green Immortal Sword Art developed by Qiu Meng himself. Initially, Qiu Meng planned to integrate the two into his Ancient Spirit body after achieving Sainthood. Taiyang Yuan quite literally reduced that plan into ashes."
Others only had one opportunity to develop a skill from the Nine Paths of Yin and Yang. But while not as gifted as Xinzi, as the master of that technique, Qiu Meng could produce as many techniques as he gave himself the time to.
Of course, none of those techniques could come close to Xinzi's Five Elements Transmutative Technique, the one-hit-knockout that opened a world of myriad possibilities that only our monk could exploit.
"Xue Yuanshao knows all this and is the one I got the info from. In fact, he contributed to the creation of this village by performing the experiments that Qiu Meng relied on to set up the various lineages and resources we will find there.
This village is rich—filthy rich, so rich that it can save me a lot of energy. At its peak, it supplied various resources to the Celestial Hall. Why were you left in the dark? Seems like, at the end of the day, Qiu Meng had more trust in his direct relatives than you Infernal Nuns. To think you died for him..." The golden mask prevented Xinzi from seeing Tusha's facial changes, but this couldn't stop our monk from sensing the fluctuations in her mood.
Xinzi would never lose an opportunity to bring Qiu Meng down in Tusha's esteem. But truth be told, he could understand the Eunuch Immortal's misgivings. In their Demon Noble bodies, the four Infernal Nuns served the future Demon Monarch that Hell saw in Qiu Meng, not the Immortal Saint he aspired to become. With strong connections to the Lords of the Infernal Paradise, how could he entrust them with his biggest secret?
Qiu Meng wasn't that reckless. Had he not been so besotted with Xue Lin, had he not grown up alongside the Xue sisters, spending thousands of years of his existence with them and under the guidance of Xue Yuanshao, he'd have never shared the Ancient Spirit secret with Jingzhao. A pity that she played the role of demure girl so well that he got fooled into giving her the keys to his coffin.
Needless to say, Tusha couldn't consider all these. Her thoughts were much simpler.
'For him, we gave up our hearts and souls, opened the gates of hell and waged a bloody war against the Central Domain, but he wouldn't even share with us...the source of his resources? Hahaha, what a waste of life. Qiu Meng, I misjudged you!' People of the Asura Noble Bloodline were mostly short-tempered and felt everything at an extreme that even their fellow demons couldn't match.
Love and hatred, rage and resentment—all to unreasonable heights. Tusha might no longer possess an Asura Heart, but her Sanguine Reincarnation built on her previous form, enabling her to keep many of those traits. Needless to say, Qiu Meng's lack of trust wounded her deeply.
"What are you two talking about?" Dong Ling chimed in, speaking the mind of the Liberation Temple gals.
"Oh, logistics. I'd explain but it'd take so long that's it better for you to just learn along the way."
"Just like how you will explain why a mighty patriarch of the demonic path emerged out of nowhere with spies already planted in the White Immortal Sect?
Just like how you will explain why your goons had enough time to explore the Liberation Temple and notice the words we left you right before the Bloodstone Patriarch conveniently blew up the sect.
Just like how you will explain why the timing of that patriarch's arrival coincides so well with our disappearance, how the casualties of such large-scale warfare stayed so minimal, how none of the leaders died in the conflict and survived long enough to become your goons. Wait, wait, dad, are you a goon now?" Dong Ling turned towards her old man and asked in a casual tone.
"I...guess?" Guang Fanghu broke into a cold sweat. Xinzi was no different, and on the side, Zi Feng pulled out a handkerchief, wiping off her master's forehead.
"Good, so now my trouble-making mom has been infected with a poison that prevents her from standing near her relatives. Great-uncle Hanxing, another troublemaker, has become a green-hat lord. Meanwhile, the White Immortal Sect has turned into a branch of the Liberation Temple, giving you absolute control over the sect's future direction. So many coincidences, so convenient. A'Xin, why are you sweating?" Dong Ling leaned over Xinzi's shoulder, from the side staring into his eyes.
"A'Ling, you need to decide. Are you clever or dumb? You have to make a decision and stop shifting between big-brained and brainless. It's getting hard to follow. But regardless, I love you."
"Ooooh, what did you say? Say it again please, I didn't hear." The words sent Dong Ling on cloud nine, and forgetting entirely about the questioning, she seized Xinzi's arm, rubbing her head on his shoulder.
'Hijacked by three words. Shame on you!' The Zhi-Zhu twins shook their heads, half-impressed, half startled by the ease with which Dong Ling set the matter aside. Alongside Chun Xu, they also had their suspicions. The twins knew Xinzi better than anyone else, and wouldn't be surprised if he smashed the sect out of spite. Chun Xu, on the other end, followed Dong Ling's approach, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
But as their thought wandered too close to the truth, the band reached the Green Leaf Village's gates. Lord Hanxing put his hands on the handle, pouring the winds of degradation into the door.
With slow, grating sounds, the door opened—revealing a cluster of flying green sword arcs that raced towards our group.
