Chapter 1216: Someone Came Riding The Wind

“The storm is coming, and the wind has already filled the house!”

On a barren, rocky wasteland, a bronze carriage was moving slowly and silently.

The carriage was massive, luxurious, yet low-profile. It was exquisite and well-designed. The beasts drawing it were nine bronze dragons and serpents. Each one was giving off the aura of a Phenomenon-class Stranger. It was quite intimidating to say the least.

The ground was covered in rocks and bumps, and yet the massive carriage was passing through it as smooth as butter and eliciting no sound.

The wasteland was called the Rocky Wasteland, and the reason was because it was covered in many jagged, uneven rocks. On top of that, the rocks were extraordinarily tough, meaning that someone was more liable to cut their own foot than crush a rock if they stepped on one. That was why even traversing the Rocky Wasteland on foot was a difficult endeavor, much less a carriage.

In reality, the massive bronze carriage was moving stably and silently. It almost looked like it was moving through the clouds.

Suddenly, a wind blew through the window and into the carriage. It hit Ye Qing squarely in the face. It was a cold, bone-biting wind that felt more like a sharp blade than air.

“The storm has come!”

Ye Qing set down his book and pulled open the curtains. He ignored the wind beating against his face and let out a quiet sigh.

Oooo oooo oooo!

Suddenly, a series of windy howls came from the distance. They sounded like the cries and wails of ghouls.

The next moment, a white light surged from the end where the sky and earth met.

At first glance, the unusual white light looked like the sea. It was as grand as it was immense.

It wasn’t until the white sea came closer that it became clear that it wasn’t the sea or light at all. It was wind. White wind.

The white wind was too immense, fierce, and strong. That was why it looked like a white sea.

The white wind was named the Wither Wind. Unique to the Rocky Wasteland, it was a year-long wind that withered the plants and killed the insects. That was why it was named the Wither Wind.

Every once in a while, the Wither Wind would come together to form a storm. Vast as the sea, it ravaged the entire Rocky Wasteland and devoured all life.

Because the Wither Wind looked like a white sea when it was gathering, the people called it the Wither Storm or the White Storm.

The white-colored storm before him was clearly the White Storm.

Rumble rumble rumble!

As the White Storm came closer and closer, the rocks and earth on the ground began trembling harder and harder. Countless rocks were dragged into the white wind before being crushed into pieces in an instant. It made the White Storm look even scarier than it already was.

“The White Storm, eh?”

Ye Qing jumped off the carriage and looked at the white-colored storm that bridged heaven and earth with a calm expression. “Since the wind is here, then the rain should be showing up any moment as well!”

Ye Qing slowly lifted his head until he was looking at the top of the White Storm. There, there was a hue of black.

A closer look would reveal that the black hue was actually a person.

It was a man in his thirties. He had a pair of determined eyes and an honest countenance. He boasted a thick, dense aura that resembled boulders or mountains. He was wearing a black outfit.

The storm was ravaging anything and everything, but the black shirt man standing at the top of it looked as solid as a rock.

When Ye Qing was looking at the black shirt man, the black shirt man was also looking down on him.

When their gazes finally met, space shuddered, and the White Storm for a brief instant.

“Wang Shan of Mountain Sect has come to challenge you. Please give me your guidance, Brother Ye!”

The black shirt man, Wang Shan, clasped his fists.

The storm was howling, but Wang Shan’s voice was so immense that it was overwhelmed.

“Ah, you are the Mountain King. A pleasure to meet you,” greeted Ye Qing while returning the salute.

Wang Shan sounded like a mundane, common name that no one gave two shits about. However, the Mountain King was a title that was famed throughout the

jianghu

.

Wang Shan the Mountain King hailed from the Mountain Sect, and the Mountain Sect was just a small, nameless sect in Xi Huang. Seriously, it was so small that there was only one master and three disciples. It would have been more fitting to describe the Mountain Sect as a martial hall.

Wang Shan’s master was an Astral Refiner. He had joined the

jianghu

since young, but he neither managed to make a name for himself or found a family. After old age caught up to him, he founded the Mountain Sect and took three disciples under his wings. He taught them everything in hopes that they would carry on his will and one day spread their name throughout the

jianghu

.

Of course, the old man was well aware that it was an impossible dream. After all, he was a living example. He had fought in the

jianghu

his whole life and came away with nothing. His shitty martial art was hardly worth inheriting either. His hope that his disciples could excel among their peers and become a somebody might as well be a pipedream.

Moreover, the three disciples he took in were nothing special to put it mildly. His first disciple was a beggar whose legs were broken so that he could curry more sympathy from the masses. In other words, he was a cripple. His second disciple was nearly beaten to death because a combination of natural and man-made disasters destroyed her family, and she was born with an ugly appearance. His third disciple was Wang Shan, a child who was abandoned by his family and nearly eaten by predators because he was born with an intellectual disability. He survived only because the old man was foraging herbs nearby and found him.

His three disciples were neither a jewel of a famous clan nor an extraordinary talent. They were one of the multitudes who existed in every corner of the world. It was a pipe dream to think that they would ever be worth anything at all.

Therefore, rather than saying that the old man were gathering his disciples, it was more accurate to say that the old man was just acting out of the goodness of his heart. A cripple, a born-ugly, and an imbecile. He took them in and taught them martial arts not because he wished for them to inherit his will and become somebody someday, but simply because he wanted them to grow strong enough that they wouldn’t be bullied anymore.

However, man plans, and god laughs. By sheer luck, the old man had picked up a true dragon. Not only that, that true dragon had already fulfilled his pipedream.

That man was Wang Shan.

As mentioned before, Wang Shan was born with an intellectual disability. It was such a crippling ailment that he couldn’t even handle his daily necessities. He had to rely on the old man, his senior brother and senior sister to take care of him.

This changed when he was thirteen years old. A terrible illness had struck Wang Shan, and at first, it looked like he wouldn’t recover. However, not only did he manage to weather the crisis, his intellectual disability was gone like it never was. As it turned out, Wang Shan was extraordinarily intelligent when he wasn’t crippled by his own mind. He could pick up any martial art and grasp any Magia at first try. He even reinvented the old man’s shoddy “Mountain Art” and “Mountain King Staff Techniques” into a first-rate martial art.

When he was fifteen, Wang Shan left the Mountain Sect and began his journey through the

jianghu

. He practiced anything and everything that seemed useful to him. Countless sects and elites were amazed by his determination and talent and desired to recruit him as their disciple, but Wang Shan refused. He only learned the arts and absolutely refused to accept any other master or join any sect. He had refused countless opportunities and chances to rise to the heavens immediately.

Everyone thought that Wang Shan was being stupid. Even Wang Shan’s own master, the old man whose hair was now completely white, thought the same thing. He scolded Wang Shan was being foolish and even tried to sever their master-disciple bond. It was to give Wang Shan a better, brighter future.

But Wang Shan knelt outside the old man’s door for nine days and nights. He never compromised until the very end.

Since he was unwilling to accept anyone except the old man as his master, nor was he willing to join any sect, it was inevitable that Wang Shang wasn’t able to learn any superior martial arts. Everything he knew was the kind of common trash that absolutely littered the

jianghu

.

He wasn’t as lucky as your conventional genius either. He did not have the kind of fortune where one could walk the streets and find a godlike martial art just resting by the roadside, or fall asleep and receive a dreamy visit from a celestial who desired to teach them the arts. In this regard, he was just like any other ordinary warrior of the

jianghu

.