Leaving Green Ox Town, Tang Xiao Qi continued his mundane world wandering. He no longer limited himself to practicing medicine, but like a true ascetic, crossed mountains and rivers, his footprints covering mortal towns, remote villages, even some uninhabited wilderness. Sometimes he appeared as a healer, sometimes as a peddler, sometimes as a silently walking traveler, experiencing the world's hundred states, nurturing the Dao seed in his dantian.
One day, he traveled to a place called "Sunset Mountain." This mountain's spiritual qi was notably more abundant than surrounding areas, with precipitous terrain and ancient trees reaching the sky, obviously a place where cultivation forces were stationed. He didn't intend to disturb, only wanting to detour around, but keenly sensed an extremely oppressive, hostility-filled killing atmosphere pervading the mountain, with two different spiritual power fluctuations faintly confronting each other in the mountain's depths, conflict imminent.
"Is there fighting?" Xiao Qi's brows slightly furrowed. He could have ignored it, but the intensity of that hostility, the breadth of its spread, once it erupted,afraid not only would the cultivators in the mountain suffer heavy casualties, even the mortal villages at the foot of the mountain that depended on survival might be affected. This contradicted his "guardian" Dao.
He concealed his aura and quietly sneaked into the mountain. Relying on his powerful divine sense, he quickly figured out the source of the conflict.
The two sides confronting each other were two cultivation families occupying the north and south slopes of Sunset Mountain—the "Blazing Sun Fortress" Wang family to the south, and the "Cold Stream Valley" Lin family to the north.
Based on the scattered divine sense transmissions and residual resentment information he captured, these two families' grudge had already lasted over a hundred years! The cause was longblurred, some said it was fighting over a small spirit stone vein, some said it was for a rare spirit herb, and there were even stories involving ancestral love-hate killings. For a hundred years, friction between the two families continued, blood feuds accumulating deeper, until this generation, they were like water and fire, not ceasing until death. Recently, because of fighting over a newly discovered "Earth Fire Spirit Cave," theconflict completely intensified, agreeing to a final decisive battle today at Sunset Mountain's main peak "Broken Blade Cliff," the victor would exclusively occupy the spirit cave, the loser... would withdraw from Sunset Mountain, or completely disappear.
At this moment, on Broken Blade Cliff, both sides were at daggers drawn.
Wang family head Wang Lie, a burly, full-bearded man, held a giant axe burning with flames, his cultivation at Foundation Establishment late stage, behind him followed dozens of clansmen, all with fierce eyes and murderous aura.
Lin family head Lin Han, a sinister-faced, thin middle-aged man, held a cold-glowing thin sword, his cultivation also at Foundation Establishment late stage, behind him clansmen all with cold faces and killing intent.
The two families' strengths were evenly matched; once war started, it would inevitably be a mutual destruction outcome, with rivers of blood. The air was filled with despair and crazy atmosphere, many young clansmen's faces even showed a trace of fear and confusion about the impending slaughter.
"Lin Han! Today is when your Lin family line ends!" Wang Lie's voice was like a great bell, his giant axe pointing remotely.
"Wang Lie, a hundred years ago your ancestor ambushed my Lin family ancestor, today it should be paid back with interest!" Lin Han's voice was cold, his thin sword humming.
Just as the great battle was about to erupt—
"Amitabha."
A clear and peaceful Buddhist chant, not sounding from the sky, but as if directly rising in everyone's hearts on Broken Blade Cliff. This voice carried a strange power, instantly smoothing out part of the restless killing intent, making both sides' about-to-strike movements pause.
Everyone looked in surprise to see a young man wearing blue cloth long shirt, with peaceful aura and unseeable specific cultivation, somehow already quietly appearing on the massive blue stone in the center of Broken Blade Cliff that symbolized the dividing line.
It was precisely Tang Xiao Qi.
He didn't emit any pressure, just peacefully stood there, his gaze sweeping over the Wang and Lin family members, his eyes deep as an ancient well, as if he could see through the hatred and fear accumulated in their hearts.
"Who are you? Dare to meddle in our Wang and Lin families' business?!" Wang Lie's brows tightly locked, sternly shouting, but his heart was shocked—he hadn't detected at all how this person appeared.
Lin Han's eyes also narrowed, his thin sword gripped even tighter; this person gave him an unfathomable feeling.
"Just a passerby." Xiao Qi's tone was plain, "Seeing the hostility reaching the sky here, resentment tangling, I specially came to ask. A hundred-year grudge, extending to now, besidesneedlessly increased casualties, making relatives grieve and enemies rejoice, what benefit does it have for both families' Dao paths, for descendants' welfare?"
"Hmph! A blood feud deep as the sea, not coexisting under heaven! How could an outsider like you understand?!" Wang Lie angrily said.
"A blood feud deep as the sea?" Xiao Qi's gaze turned toward a place at the cliff's edge where dark red bloodstains remained and resentment was particularly dense, seeming to be a battlefield relic from some conflict years ago. "Is it for that long-dried-up miniature spirit stone vein? Or for that long-refined-into-pill 'Ice Flame Herb'? Or perhaps... for some ancestral legends that even you yourselves can't remember clearly?"
His voice wasn't loud, but seemed to carry a heart-penetrating power, making Wang Lie, Lin Han, and others' hearts all tremble. Those so-called hatred roots, under a hundred years of time's washing, had indeed becomeblurred, more of a "tradition" driven by inertia, not to be questioned.
"Stopspreading demonic lies here! Today we must determine life and death!" Lin Han didn't want to think more, his thin sword shaking, a cold sword qi tentatively shooting toward Xiao Qi.
Xiao Qi didn't dodge, didn't even use spiritual power for protection. He just raised his right hand, index and middle fingers together, and lightly caught that incoming cold sword qi.
"Pop."
A light sound, that cold sword qi sufficient to freeze metal and stone, sharp beyond compare, was actually steadily caught by his two fingers, then like fragile ice crystals, inch by inch shattering, dissipating into nothingness.
The whole scene instantly fell silent!
Wang Lie, Lin Han's pupils suddenly contracted, their faces filled with horror! Catching a Foundation Establishment late stage cultivator's sword qi bare-handed, and so casually?! This young man's strength far exceeded their imagination! Probably a Golden Core stage expert!
Xiao Qi dispersed the coldness at his fingertips, his gaze again sweeping over everyone, his voice still gentle but carrying an irresistible majesty: "Hatred, like poisonous fire, burns not only enemies but also oneself. A hundred years of entanglement, has either family's strength advanced even an inch? Have the younger generation disciples been able to cultivate in peace? Have the mortalsattached you lived and worked in peace?"
He paused, pointing toward that newly discovered Earth Fire Spirit Cave: "This spirit cave is heaven and earth's creation, available for both families' disciples to refine pills and artifacts, both benefiting. Why must you fight to the death, letting this spirit cave be stained with blood, becoming a new source of hatred?"
Wang Lie and Lin Han's expressions changed, wanting to refute but finding themselves speechless. Indeed, a hundred years of fighting, both families were exhausted, young disciples grew up in hatred with dust-covered Dao hearts, family development stagnated. Was this really what they wanted?
Xiao Qi watched the struggle and confusion flash in their eyes, knowing the timing was right. He didn't want to forcibly suppress, but to guide them to make their own choice.
"When willcycles of vengeance end." He slowly said, "If you are willing, I can be a witness, both families stop here, sign a contract, jointly develop this Earth Fire Spirit Cave, dividing areas, not invading each other. Past grudges, all committed to flowing water. How about it?"
As he spoke, he quietly activated a trace of the Dao seed's Dao rhyme, that power containing "order,""reconciliation," and "new life" meaning, like moistening spring rain, quietly affecting the emotions of everyone present.
A long silence.
Wang Lie and Lin Han exchanged a look, both seeing in the other's eyes exhaustion, helplessness, and a trace of... the desire for peace that had been suppressed for so long. Continuing to fight, aside from mutual destruction, what result could there be? The appearance of this mysterious expert might be an opportunity heaven gave both their families.
Finally, Wang Lie gave a long sigh, throwing down the flame giant axe in his hand. Lin Han also slowly put away his thin sword.
"As the senior says." Both spoke almost simultaneously, their voices hoa.rse but carrying the relief ofshed a thousand-jin burden.
Under Xiao Qi's witness, the Wang and Lin family heads signed a peace contract on the spot, delineating the Earth Fire Spirit Cave's usage scope, agreeing not to invade each other for a hundred years, jointly maintaining Sunset Mountain's peace.
When the contract signing was completed, the hostility and resentment accumulated for a hundred years on Broken Blade Cliff seemed to be dispersed quite a bit by an invisible clear breeze. Many clansmen from both families breathed sighs of relief, some even couldn't help shedding tears, whether for deceased relatives or for this hard-won peace.
Xiao Qi could clearly feel that as this hundred-year grudge was resolved, a vast and pure, positive Dao rhyme representing "liberation,""peace," and "new life" poured into his dantian likehundred rivers returning to the sea, happily absorbed by that Dao seed. The Dao seed's light grew warmer and fuller, the chaotic qi flowing within even seemed to become more orderly and harmonious.
He didn't claim credit or demand reward, quietly departing in the complex and grateful gazes of both families' cultivators, as he had come, without a trace.
Resolving grudges, settling karma. This was not only helping the Wang and Lin families, but also a profound practice of his own "purification" Dao—purifying that hundred-year-entangled hatred and hostility, guarding a region's living beings' peace. His Dao seed, in this experience, grew a major step.