Old Friends
Li Mu returned to the Heavenly Land.
When he appeared on the Taibai Mountain, he was filled with emotions.
This place was where he started up and succeeded.
There was a Taibai Mountain on the Earth, and there was a mountain with the same name on the Heavenly Land.
He came to the Taibai Mountain on the Heavenly Land from the Taibai Mountain on the Earth. This must have something to do with his fate.
The former Taibai County had become Taibai City, which was a very large city.
Numerous spectacular high-rise buildings were constructed in the former downtown area along the mountains, covering an area of hundreds of miles. The former desolate suburbs had become beautiful residential areas.
This place was now like a fairyland with surging Spiritual Qi.
It had been only a few years since Li Mu left the Heavenly Land, but this place had changed greatly and become a Holy Land of martial arts.
"It’s a great pleasure to see you again, Your Honor."
"Nice to see you, Young Master Li."
The four disciples of Hun Yuan Sect were filled with mixed feelings when they saw Li Mu. They were very grateful and respectful to him.
When Hun Yuan Sect was defeated, the four of them were like homeless dogs, and it was Li Mu that took them in. Now, they had become the legendary masters of martial arts on the Heavenly Land, who had inherited and spread the teachings of Hun Yuan Sect.
Li Mu gave them a new lease of life.
"There’s no need to stand on ceremony. Thanks to you, Taibai City has thrived and become what it is now. I appreciate your efforts."
Back then, Li Mu often scolded and beat them. However, when he saw them again, he had cordial feelings toward them.
"Brother!" Qiu Yin, the Broadsword Man, also came.
As the former leader of Guanshan Pasture—one of the top nine Holy Clans, he used to be high-spirited and ambitious. After experiencing many vicissitudes of life and weeding out the traitors in the sect, he realized the true meaning of the Broadsword Way. Now, he was not as ostentatious as before, but more reserved and calmer, looking unperturbed by honor or shame.
In fact, he had long entered the Void-breaking Realm.
However, he had been controlling his cultivation level from rising too fast. He wanted to remain in the current state and continue to improve his own broadsword-using method and deepen his understanding of the Broadsword Way.
Every practitioner had to choose his own path.
Not soaring into the Void-breaking Realm was the path that Qiu Yin chose for himself.
"Brother."
Li Mu hugged him tightly.
Back then, they discussed martial arts while drinking in the lamplight, and the three of them became sworn brothers. Those were the good old days they spent together.
The world had changed, but their brotherhood had grown stronger.
Some elders of Yue Mountain Faction also came to Taibai City to meet with Li Mu.
"Elder brother." Li Mu gave Xu Sheng a hug.
Xu Sheng had regrown his arms.
In the past few years, his cultivation level had improved greatly. Therefore, he did not look old at all.
"Your Honor." Zhao Xue, the current Sword Master of Taibai Sword Faction, also heard the news and came to visit Li Mu.
Taibai City was now the Holy Land of martial arts on the Heavenly Land. Taibai Sword Faction was based in Taibai Mountain. It had developed quite smoothly and
Zhao Yu and Zhao Ling followed behind Zhao Xue.
Zhao Yu once took Li Mu as his idol and role model. In the past years, his cultivation level had soared. Like Qiu Yin, he also controlled his cultivation level from rising too fast to improve his swordsmanship. By now, his swordsmanship had reached a very high level.
He looked at Li Mu with his eyes full of the intent to fight.
Zhao Ling, who was a female pharmacist, had mixed feelings when she looked at Li Mu.
At the very beginning, she was contemptuous of Li Mu. Then, she pretended to surrender to him. Later, she gradually became interested in him and fell in love with him unknowingly. Finally, she made a confession of how she felt about him. It could be said that she had experienced many emotional twists and turns in her relationship with him.
Most importantly, the root cause of those emotional twists and turns was her one-sided love with him.
From beginning to end, Li Mu did not know about that, nor did he pay much attention to her.
At first sight of Li Mu, she was destined to miss him for the rest of her life.
She initially thought that she would gradually get over him after he left.
However, when she saw him again now, she found that he was even more handsome and attractive than before, and she couldn’t help feeling her heart stir.
However, she knew very well that this man would never belong to her and she didn’t even have a chance to share him with others.
She thought it was enough for her to just look at him from the distance.
She knew that it was destined to be unrequited love.
Many beautiful women might have such feelings in their lives. When they grew old and their hair turned gray, they would smile at the thought of these feelings, regretful but not demanding.
"Miss Zhao, long time no see." Li Mu nodded at Zhao Ling.
Zhao Ling smiled heartily and said, "Long time no see."
When she saw the sunny, warm smile on Li Mu’s face, the last regret in her heart seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. She thought she should completely let go of this relationship and move on to find the happiness that really belonged to her.
"Your Honor, Your Honor, you’re finally back. Boohoo..." Someone rushed in and knelt on the ground with a thump. He was already in tears and choking with sobs.
It was Feng Yuanxing.
Li Mu looked at him, sighed silently with emotion, and then stepped up to help him up.
Back then, Li Mu impersonated a county magistrate and contended against several high-level officials of the county. Feng Yuanxing was forced to take Li Mu’s side, which was also a speculative choice, but later he used all his efforts to support Li Mu.
Nobody had expected that this former civil official of little influence would now become one of the well-known big shots on the Heavenly Land. Although he had limited talent and his cultivation level was not high, his status was extraordinarily high, and he was an influential figure whose words carried great weight.
He got to this point thanks to Li Mu.
Now, his feelings toward Li Mu were genuine. When he saw Li Mu, he got very emotional and burst into tears like an old servant who saw his master again.
Then, Ma Junwu, Zhen Meng, and the others arrived one after another.
Those members of the original troops in the small county had all changed.
Ma Junwu had entered the Sage Realm and grown back both his missing arms. He was quite accomplished at archery and was a renowned God of Archery. Zhen Meng was now one of the commanders of the soldiers in Taibai City. He became a commander relying on his prestige instead of power.
The fates of all those people had changed because of Li Mu.
Now, when they saw Li Mu again, they all felt very excited and shed tears.
Li Mu greeted them one by one.
"His Imperial Majesty has arrived..."
The high-pitched voice of a eunuch came from outside the hall, but he was soon interrupted.
Qin Zheng, the current emperor of the Qin Empire, who was wearing an imperial robe embroidered with dragon patterns, walked into the hall at a brisk pace.
He was accompanied by ten martial arts masters of the Qin Empire, who looked distinguished. Some of them were masters whose cultivation levels were even higher than the Void-breaking Realm.
"Mr. Li, I finally see you again." Qin Zheng was quite excited to see Li Mu. Back then, Qin Zheng was still a child, but now he had grown up into a high-spirited young man.
In his memory, Li Mu had always been a legend.
Had it not been for Li Mu’s help at that time, he and his elder sister would probably have been killed by other princes and become rotten bones in the graveyard. Later, he ascended to the imperial throne thanks to the support of Li Mu’s sect.
The Western Qin Empire had already conquered the Northern Song and the Southern Chu on the Heavenly Land. The situation of tripartite confrontation of the three empires no longer existed. The Qin Empire had outshone the other two empires, and Qin Zheng had a tendency to become the emperor of the Qin Dynasty.
Li Mu nodded with a smile on his face.
Qin Zheng had the strong aura of an emperor. The aura that he had developed over the years as a decisive ruler would indeed make many martial arts masters feel scared, but it was not worth mentioning for Li Mu.
Not to mention the emperor on the Heavenly Land Planet, even the overlord of the entire Brilliance Immortal Star Region was as insignificant as a speck of dust in front of Li Mu.
However, Li Mu’s casual attitude made the imperial guards behind Qin Zheng feel extremely uncomfortable.
"How dare you be so rude in presence of His Majesty? Li Mu, you ought to straighten your clothes and pay your respects to His Majesty." A young man shouted loudly with an arrogant and fierce look on his face. He looked only in his twenties, but he was obviously the leader of the imperial guards.