Mount Song is the “Central Peak” of the Five Sacred Mountains. It is an eastern extension of the Qinling Mountains and is located in Dengfeng City, Henan Province. It starts from the east side of Longmen in Luoyang, gradually turns northeast and extends all the way to the north of Xinmi. It stretches for nearly 100 kilometers from east to west and is about 20 kilometers wide from north to south.

Geographically speaking, Mount Song is located at the center of the Five Sacred Mountains. In this respect, it is very reasonable for the Five Sacred Mountains to unite with the Mount Song Sword Sect as the main force, at least in terms of coordination, which is more in line with common geographical sense.

However, in the martial arts world, when Mount Song is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is Shaolin Temple; they are completely unaware of the other sects on Mount Song.

Just like how there are more than twenty Taoist temples, monasteries and martial arts sects of all sizes on Wudang Mountain, when it comes to the Wudang sect, most people regard the Sanfeng sect, which is the lineage of Zhang Sanfeng, as the most respected.

In fact, the Sanfeng School is just one of the Taoist temples on Wudang Mountain, and can be considered a branch of the Quanzhen School.

However, there are also Taoist temples of the Zhengyi sect on Wudang Mountain.

The Taoist sects are now mainly Zhengyi and Quanzhen. The Huashan Sword Sect originally belonged to Quanzhen, but it incorporated Confucianism. Moreover, they do not become monks, can marry, and do not prohibit the five pungent vegetables. They mainly practice both Confucianism and Taoism, making them more like a Jianghu sect.

The Emei Sect is similar, comprising both Buddhist and Taoist elements, with the Taoist branch primarily based on the Quanzhen School.

This is the real martial arts world.

So when people talk about a certain sect, they are actually just saying that this lineage or family is the current leader and representative, and can represent this mountain. It doesn’t mean that this mountain only has this one sect.

For example, the Emei Sect member who came to watch the battle today is not Abbess Miejue. She is the Buddhist leader on Mount Emei, a nun who has already taken vows. Her disciples are mostly women, and the one who inherits her mantle must be a married nun, not a lay disciple.

Today, the person representing Emei to watch the battle is a leader of the Taoist lineage, also from the Quanzhen School, named Dugu Yihe, nicknamed “Master of Both Sword and Saber”.

He is not one of the Five Great Sword Gods or the Ten Famous Swords (because he does not only use swords), but he ranks fifth on the Weapon Ranking and is considered by many to be one of the top ten masters of the righteous path. He ranks 26th on the Martial Arts Ranking.

Because of his exceptional skills and legendary status in the martial arts world, Emei is one of the six major sects.

With Shaolin Temple as its leading institution and the ancestral home of Zen Buddhism, the Songshan Sword Sect naturally fared only moderately.

If it weren’t for the blessings of our ancestors and a stroke of good fortune that led to the emergence of Zuo Lengchan in the previous generation, who successfully became the leader of the Five Mountains Alliance, he probably wouldn’t have much fame in the martial arts world.

The Five Mountains Sword Sects are famous mainly because of the Huashan Sword Sect. The saying “Swords come from Huashan” refers to the two major sects of Huashan, especially the Huashan Sword Sect, which was founded during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and is the most famous.

It can be said that the Huashan Sword Sect earned most of the prestige of the Five Mountains Sword Sects. The Huashan Sword Sect has always been the leader of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance since its inception. It is almost a consensus that the leader of the Huashan Sword Sect is equivalent to the leader of the Five Mountains Alliance.

To put it nicely, it’s the Five Mountains Sword Sects and the Five Mountains Alliance; to put it bluntly, it’s the Huashan Sword Sect and its four underlings.

Everything would have continued, but twenty years ago, a severe plague (internal strife) broke out in the Huashan Sword Sect. Dozens of first-class and near-first-class masters from the original Sword and Qi sects died one after another. After the death of the previous sect leader Ning Qingyu, Yue Buqun, who hastily succeeded to the position, directly handed over the position of leader of the Five Mountains Alliance to the rising star Zuo Lengchan, who had already gained fame.

It’s quite laughable that people outside the Sword Sect are fighting each other for the position of leader of the Five Mountains Alliance.

Many people who know this history seem to be scrutinizing Yue Buqun, making the already frustrated Yue Buqun even more uncomfortable.

Although it was his master’s order and a helpless reality, Yue Buqun always regarded this as the greatest shame of his life. He even went a little crazy because of the title of “Leader of the Five Mountains Alliance”. So, after his skills could not improve, he hardened his heart and took a knife to himself.

Although Yue Buqun’s strength has greatly improved, and he has even achieved the Small Heavenly Cycle with the Zixia Divine Skill and the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique, making him one of the top three masters, he is confident that he can fight against Xiao Qiuyu, one of the Ten Famous Swordsmen, but he still does not dare to show his face easily.

As if nothing had happened, he acted like any other person in the martial arts world, simply coming to witness the event.

The training ground of the Songshan Sword Sect is also called the Fengchan Platform, which reveals Zuo Lengchan’s arrogance and ambition.

However, Zuo Lengchan in the Ming Dynasty world is far less imposing than the Swordsman, so he appears more like a grandmaster than a martial arts hero.

At least for now, he doesn’t dare to truly show his ambition as a hero; he’s still in the stage of developing in a cowardly manner.

Zuo Lengchan dared not underestimate the little girl who was a few years younger than his son.

Although he didn’t know much more than the other powerful factions, he was very clear about the strength of his three junior brothers, and he also noticed a key point.

That is, Zhang Lingyu caught Mo Xiaobei’s Crimson Flame Blade with his bare hands.

Zuo Lengchan understood this better than anyone else.

Masters of innate external martial arts are the rarest of all innate masters; perhaps only one in 100 innate masters can be found. The most famous among them are the monk Kongjian and the undefeated boy Gu Santong, who lived more than 20 years ago.

One was the head of the four great monks at the time, and one of the top ten masters of the righteous path; the other, even if he wasn’t the number one in the world at the time, was a peerless demon who was recognized as firmly among the top five in the world.

In other words, Zhang Lingyu was able to defeat his opponent in one move because the opponent had a strong physical body and possessed a very powerful external protective skill, comparable to the Vajra Indestructible Skill of the Five Great Temple-Protecting Skills of Shaolin, not because Mo Xiaobei was really weak.

If you can’t physically withstand swords and blades, this little girl from the Yihua Palace is definitely not easy to deal with; she’s a terrifying presence who forced Shaolin to close its gates.

Zuo Lengchan witnessed that battle firsthand and still feels lingering fear and dread to this day.

“A martial arts contest is fine, but you, my niece, are not qualified to take the position of leader of the Five Mountains Alliance.” Before they even started fighting, Zuo Lengchan made this opening remark.