2 The Sect Command

"It is no fable," Shen Shu answered patiently.

"Have you ever seen it?"

"Yes."

"What does it look like? Is it really as tall as a hundred thousand feet?" Again, the boy stretched his hands to the sky. His blood boiled and his heart surged every time he talked about the Divine Depository. Even though he knew it probably wasn't real, the story still brought a smile to his face.

"No, it is even taller than that. There are nine floors in the Divine Depository, and each is as high as a hundred thousand feet," Shen Shu whispered.

"T-T-That…"

The boy's eyes widened in pleasant surprise. He found himself drunk off the dizzying information. He held out his fingers and tried to count and measure nine hundred thousand feet. His small, fair face flushed red with excitement and anxiety.

"Then, are there countless divine books in the Divine Depository? Do countless deities live there? Do they read divine books, look at divine techniques, and live free and unrestrained, detached from the world?" After the boy said these words in a single breath, he anxiously looked at the young man beside him, waiting for his affirmation.

Shen Shu was silent.

The Divine Depository was he and he was the Divine Depository. He knew very well that the Divine Depository did not have countless divine books. It had 95 million volumes of divine books, 6800 volumes of divine techniques, and 137.56 million other kinds of cultivation methods and miscellaneous books.

He was also clear that countless deities had not lived in the Divine Depository. There had only been 15 god-saints, 678 demigod-saints, 17,325 people of the Divine Boundary, and 1,834,212 people of the Saint Boundary. And though these deities had read through the divine books and looked at the divine techniques of the Divine Depository, they had neither been free nor unrestrained, detached from the world. In fact, they had only been there out of the need for survival. Before the arrival of the great tribulation, they had been looking to study and create a heaven-defying, life-transforming cultivation method that would save themselves and the Divine Province from destruction.

But the Divine Depository no longer existed. It was only him now, a weak young mortal without the least bit of magic power.

"… Doesn't have?" murmured the child with a look of disappointment.

"No," Shen Shu's face softened, and he gave a smile that could melt a glacier, "There are countless divine books and countless deities in the Divine Depository. These deities really do read divine books and glance through divine techniques every day. It's all true."

"Really?!" the wide-eyed boy asked pleasantly surprised.

"Really!" Shen Shu affirmed with a slight nod.

"T-That is too good…" the boy cheered.

Pleasure, excitement, and deep determination brimmed on his small, immature face as he stared at the distant sky.

"Abbey Lord, I will find the Divine Depository one day, obtain its divine books, ask the deities for advice, and carry forward my Falling Cloud Abbey," he promised.

Shen Shu listened to these words and smiled.

"Hey, what are you two fools laughing about? Come quickly, it's time to eat!"

The voice of a gentle female, drawn by the laughter, drifted from a nearby door. The girl who had spoken was wearing a slightly pale, white and blue dress. As she stood under the eaves of the door, her soft, black hair and her slim figure seemed so graceful and moving.

Shen Shu turned and looked to the girl's fair, jade-like face. He noticed the sweat on her forehead, eyes that were as clear as autumn water, and her warm smile. Under the gentle breeze, her dress fluttered. She reminded him of a blue snow lotus in full bloom, pure, chaste, not of this world.

She was Shen Linlin, the talented girl of Falling Cloud Abbey and the strongest of the four junior and senior brothers.

"We're coming," Shen Shu smiled, grabbed a hold of the boy's hand, and left with the girl.

. . . . .

In the shabby courtyard of Falling Cloud Abbey, Shen Shu and the other first-grade disciples ate around a large, round table. Although there were few disciples in Falling Cloud Abbey – Tongtong, Old Jiang, himself, and six other people – they all talked and laughed. The atmosphere was very harmonious when all of a sudden.

"Bang!"

The front gate of the temple was violently kicked open. Five people, wearing long, pale blue gowns, strolled into the yard. Each threw out their chest and threateningly approached.

The leader of the group was a calm middle-aged man. As soon as he burst through the door, he shouted at Shen Shu and the others, "Shen Shu, your Falling Cloud Abbey has declined. Why are you willing to occupy a latrine but not shit? Why won't you hand over the 'sect command' to my Pure Wind Abbey?"

The middle-aged man spoke and acted as if he were the real master!

"Em?"

Shen Shu's complexion slightly sank.

But before he could say anything, the brow of the seemingly listless and wooden Old Jiang sitting beside him moved. His turbid eyes became sharp and aggressive as if he were an eagle patrolling the skies over his territory.

He calmly sat in his chair like an immovable mountain and asked indifferently, "Chu Tianhe, who let you come to my Falling Cloud Abbey?"

A pair of eyes locked the leading middle-aged man named Chu Tianhe. So long as the man dared to show even an ounce of disrespect, he would paint the steps of the temple with this the man's blood.

Chu Tianhe's face changed a little. As soon as he saw the old man, he quickly cupped one hand in the other, lowered his posture, and said with a smile, "Old Jiang, listen to me. I'm here to beg you for the 'sect command'."

'Sect command?'

Shen Shu slightly frowned and a ponderous look appeared in his eyes.

"The sect command is not something you and your Pure Wind Abbey can have!" Old Jiang scolded. "I urge you to stop your daydreaming!

Chu Tianhe's complexion turned dreary, but he did not draw back.

"Old Jiang, you definitely understand the situation of your Falling Cloud Peak better than I do," he said solemnly. "The decennial rank war of the sects in the Great Wind Commandery is about to begin. Instead of having your sect command be taken away at that time, why don't you give it to us, to the Pure Wind Abbey?"

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, Chu Tianhe straightened his arched back. His tone of voice changed from one of subservience to one of unequaled confidence and he said, "Old Jiang, my Pure Wind Abbey and your Falling Cloud Abbey have been close neighbors for a hundred years. Wouldn't it be better for the 'sect command' to fall into our hands than that of a stranger's?"

"What's more, my Pure Wind Abbey guarantees that if the Falling Cloud Abbey gives us the 'sect command', we will give you three third-class cultivation methods as compensation? Aren't these conditions good enough?"

Face red, Chu Tianhe haughtily stretched out three fingers. His heroic spirit soared to the heavens as if these three third-class cultivation methods were something marvelous!

"Go away!" Old Jiang shouted. The white hair all over his head stood up in threat.

"You!!"

Chu Tianhe's face reddened with fury.

"Understand, Old Jiang!" he shouted with a voice marked with rage, chest heaving. "Your Falling Cloud Abbey is not the same as it was! Eight years ago, a mysterious person massacred your former leader and all of your core disciples. Your abbey-suppressing cultivation method, the Falling Cloud Art, was lost and your other cultivation methods have vanished completely. The only thing you have left is one or two unpopular cultivation methods."

Chu Tianhe sneered at this point, eyeing the crowd of people through a side glance.

"Old Jiang, how can your Falling Cloud Abbey ever develop with such unpopular methods? You would be wise not to reject the help of my Pure Wind Abbey!" he said seemingly with good intentions.