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Chapter 287: The Lu Family Causes Chaos, Taowu Appears (I)

Under Venerable Lu Yu\'s command, the Mount Shu Sect made it through numerous difficult situations while preserving the sect\'s manpower as much as possible. The sect had fallen from the top of the ranks to the very bottom. Without Venerable Lu Yu\'s perseverance, Mount Shu would likely have faced the same fate as other fallen sects. Unable to rise back up, they had disappeared from the spotlight and become a forgotten part of history.

However, it was precisely because he had put in so much effort into keeping the Mount Shu Sect afloat that Venerable Lu Yu\'s vitality had been in an exhausted state for a prolonged period of time. Consequently, he met an early end. Venerable Lu Yu became one of the sect leaders with the shortest lifespans in Mount Shu\'s history.

Before he died, Venerable Lu Yu was troubled by a difficult decision.

The Mount Shu Sect was still in a bleak situation. In this time of adversity, what the sect needed was a strong leader. The most outstanding candidate at that time was Venerable Lu Yu\'s son, Lu Wuqi—who would later be known as Venerable Wuqi, Junior Sect Leader Lu.

Ever since Lu Wuqi was a child, he had been extraordinarily talented—a peerless genius. It could even be said that he was more remarkable than his father. He had great influence in the Mount Shu Sect and was the best candidate for the next sect leader.

Nonetheless, there had never been a precedence in the Mount Shu Sect where the son of a sect leader would take his place when he died. The Mount Shu Sect wasn\'t a family clan, so how could there be a tradition of hereditary succession? If Venerable Lu Yu were to pass the position of sect leader over to his son, he would likely be criticized greatly. It would also set a bad example for future sect leaders.

In a peaceful era, Venerable Lu Yu would definitely have chosen someone else to be the next sect leader, no matter how excellent his son was. Nevertheless, that wasn\'t the case. The Mount Shu Sect was still in a precarious position in the Divine Nine, and their plentiful resources attracted the attention of greedy eyes. They needed a leader with great strength and wisdom so that they could turn the tide.

In the end, Venerable Lu Yu decided not to hand the Heaven Authority Token to his son personally, leaving the choice to the sect\'s Four Guardian Elders instead.

Venerable Lu Yu slowly closed his eyes for the last time. Then the Four Guardian Elders unhesitatingly proclaimed Venerable Wuqi as the new sect leader of the Mount Shu Sect.

After Venerable Wuqi took over, the Mount Shu Sect\'s continuous decline was swiftly brought to an end. They formed geographically distant alliances and attacked nearby foes, restoring the Mount Shu Sect\'s prestige across the four seas!

Upon becoming the sect leader, Venerable Wuqi put forth the idea that the Mount Shu Sect did not need to compete against the other sects in the Divine Nine because they no longer had a legendary artifact. He was certain that as long as they could suppress the Terrestrial Ten, they could secure their current position in the Divine Nine. It was far better to rank at the bottom of the Divine Nine than to be one of the Terrestrial Ten.

The Mount Shu Sect continued to act in line with that idea even to this day.

It was also during Venerable Wuqi\'s time as sect leader that the Mount Shu Sect established their own system of fostering disciples, which was still being used in the present day. This system focused on giving their disciples great autonomy. It was an educational approach that was rare among the older and more traditional immortal sects that placed great value and focus on fostering disciples. Instead, it was a little similar to how diabolical sects fostered their disciples, but they were, of course, very different overall.

The older immortal sects like the Great Astral Sect and the Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals still followed the ancient practice where a teacher would only take on a few disciples with exceptional talent. The teacher would provide the disciples with resources and arrange missions as well as opportunities for them to gain experience. One teacher would foster several geniuses simultaneously.

However, under Venerable Wuqi\'s reforms, the Mount Shu Sect established a system where resources and missions were made accessible to all disciples in the sect. Enchanted tools, pills, divine techniques and skills... the disciples could acquire anything they needed, but they had to rely on their own abilities to earn those things.

In this system, a teacher didn\'t decide on everything for their disciple. It might seem like a free-range style of fostering, where the teachers didn\'t supervise or guide the disciples much. Nevertheless, as long as a disciple was talented and skilled, they could rise to the top. The teachers did not decide how resources should be distributed among their disciples; instead, majority of the resources would end up with disciples who used their talents and skills to earn the resources.

If it wasn\'t for this system, Chu Liang wouldn\'t have thrived so well like a fish in water.

During the later years of Venerable Wuqi\'s life, a major event occurred in Mount Shu.

At the time, the Mount Shu Sect had regained stability under Venerable Wuqi\'s leadership, and there wasn\'t much internal strife within the sect.

There were two contenders competing to become the next sect leader: Venerable Wen Yuan and Lu Cang, Venerable Wuqi\'s son. Compared to Wen Yuan, Lu Cang wasn\'t particularly outstanding. Rather, it could be said that the two were evenly matched.

Considering everything Venerable Wuqi\'s had accomplished for the sect, no one could criticize him even if he wanted to pass the position of sect leader to his son. Some might find it inappropriate, but it was unlikely anyone would oppose the decision openly.

However, that would mean the Mount Shu Sect was truly adopting a hereditary succession system. Consequently, a significant number of elders supported Wen Yuan instead.

Nevertheless, Lu Cang, was very ambitious. He boldly used his father\'s name without restraint to gather his own supporters, and some people did indeed support him out of respect for Venerable Wuqi.

Wen Yuan and Lu Cang continued to compete for the role of sect leader for over a decade, fighting in the open and scheming in secret.

During this time, Venerable Wuqi stayed silent on the matter, and no one could guess what he thought. He maintained his silence until he neared the end of his life.

It was said that all ninth-realm cultivators would enter the Divine Ruins upon nearing the end of their lives. No one knew if they were responding to the call of a preordained fate or if there was a way to defy the heavens and change their fate hidden in the Divine Ruins. Nonetheless, even some eighth-realm cultivators at the end of their lives would enter the Divine Ruins as well to try their luck.

Likewise, Venerable Wuqi decided to give it a shot. He entered the Divine Ruins and even took Wen Yuan and Lu Cang with him.

Everyone in the Mount Shu Sect speculated that Venerable Wuqi intended this trip into the Divine Ruins to be a test for the two contenders. Whoever passed it might just become the next sect leader.

In the end, Wen Yuan returned alone.

He claimed that Venerable Wuqi had indeed given him and Lu Cang a test, which resulted in Lu Cang going missing in the Divine Ruins. Wen Yuan was the only one who managed to emerge from the Divine Ruins.

Many of the details of what had happened at the Divine Ruins remained unknown, but Wen Yuan ultimately succeeded the position of sect leader without any objections. Soon after, the Mount Shu Sect realized that the Lu Family had mysteriously vanished from the mountain, and no one knew where they\'d gone... or if they were even still alive.

Since then, Venerable Wen Yuan had stayed in power for a hundred and fifty years. He had done a great job at continuing Venerable Wuqi\'s legacy and direction for the sect, steadily nurturing the sect\'s growth. Simply put, Venerable Wen Yuan was a very competent sect leader. That was why no one had brought up the controversy surrounding his succession to the role even throughout all his years as the sect\'s leader.

...

Many of the visiting cultivators were unaware of the story behind Venerable Wen Yuan\'s succession as the sect leader of the Mount Shu Sect. Therefore, when Lu Chengchou suddenly appeared, they just thought he was rather strange. Yet, this man was holding the Heaven Authority Token, which was something that only the sect leader of the Mount Shu Sect should possess. It was a truly shocking scene.

The crowd burst into an uproar.

Yet, confronted with Lu Chengchou\'s domineering attitude, Wen Yuan chose to remain silent.