Chapter 748: Rouse a Hundred Thousand Ghost Soldiers!

A life-or-death assassination had somehow been twisted by this father-and-son pair into something with an extraordinarily peculiar flavor.

Even in the middle of chanting incantations and forming hand seals... they had to force the spell to pause... just so that one line could be spoken.

Once it was said... everything felt better.

Once it was said... the heart settled.

Once it was said... the urge was satisfied.

That was where true aesthetic height lay.

One could not lose all earthly flavor and flee into empty transcendence.

That was never what they wanted.

But neither could things become too vulgar.

Simply throwing gold and silver around might look satisfying to outsiders... yet inside, the spirit would remain hollow.

The height of aesthetics... lay in the height of life itself.

Like walking a tightrope with a balancing pole.

What I am playing with... is my own life.

"Knows a little."

To Marquis Zheng, that line represented the absolute summit of this particular kind of performance.

It had taken so long to encounter a scene this suitable.

If he failed to use the line on himself even once... failed to personally say it once... the regret would have been unbearable.

The son was complaining that his father was fussy and melodramatic.

But the son himself was exactly the same damned kind of creature.

Earlier, the father had repeatedly urged him to stop playing around and finish the fight.

The boy had refused.

Instead, he kept dragging things out, thinking about how best to vent the rage in his chest.

To satisfy that rage... he had even released the suppression he had placed on himself and advanced.

Father and son both took turns dancing along the knife-edge of death.

No wonder the woman found the whole situation so uncanny.

Perhaps anyone facing a Marquis Pingxi like this would feel helpless.

If you could not kill him in one clean blow... then in return, you had to endure "torment" from him in every possible direction.

The interrupted spellcasting resumed.

After Zheng Fan completed the first stage of his hand seals... he raised one hand and pointed toward Heaven.

Heaven.

It was a word with meanings broad enough to change from one context to another.

To Qi Refiners...

Heaven was a kind of will.

A gaze.

What Kong Shanyang had done was essentially place a lid above their heads... blocking that gaze.

What Zheng Fan intended to do... was pierce through the lid.

The moment Zheng Fan resumed casting...

Kong Shanyang, on the other battlefield, sensed it immediately.

A force was trying to punch straight through his "cover."

"How is that possible?"

The direction from which the force came... was perfectly clear.

And precisely because it was so clear... the whole thing felt absurd.

The Sword Saint continued driving Longyuan against the Lilong Spear while sensing the change as well.

His gaze tilted slightly upward.

The moment Zheng Fan began casting... the Sword Saint's perception of the situation changed directly.

From the very beginning of this fight, what he had wanted was simple: open Second Grade immediately.

End the battle at the fastest possible speed.

Even if borrowing Second Grade power injured his own body... it did not matter.

He needed to break the deadlock quickly.

But Kong Shanyang's methods had forced the Sword Saint to use the most primitive approach instead... wearing down the Lilong Spear's defense through sword qi and sword techniques.

The method resembled peeling an orange.

One layer.

One strip.

Then another.

And at the end... you still had to remove the white pith.

Years ago, outside the old Jin capital, this was exactly the sort of strategy Tian Wujing had used against him.

When a Third Grade expert... a spear-wielding Martial Artist... made up his mind to drag the fight out... you could still defeat him.

But you would spend enormous amounts of time and energy doing it.

Even Tian Wujing back then had fought him in a broad, forceful manner rather than hiding entirely behind defense.

Of course... in that clash... the Sword Saint had still stepped into Tian Wujing's trap.

Now... the Sword Saint could already feel the currents of qi above him drawing closer.

Open Second Grade... and only one sword would be needed to break through this defense.

Without realizing it... his state of mind calmed.

At first... he had been anxious.

If something happened to Zheng Fan today, he would feel overwhelming guilt.

Then... he began to realize matters might not be as bad as he had feared.

And now... the Sword Saint felt the whole thing was beginning to become... interesting.

...

The woman clearly understood what was about to happen as well.

There was barely any need to reason it out.

Zheng Fan... or rather, the Demon Child... had already told her outright.

He wanted her to watch her husband die first.

Then... how could her husband be killed?

The Yan Marquis before her had strange strength and strange techniques.

But in truth, he had escaped her repeatedly through tricks and opportunism.

Her husband was stronger than she was.

His realm was more solid.

His combat experience was deeper.

She did not believe the Yan Marquis possessed the ability to kill him.

And presumably... the Yan Marquis understood that too.

But here... on the frozen Wang River... there was one person who could.

...

"Madam, have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"The jianghu is talking about it everywhere. Before Snow Sea Pass, Yu Huaping fought alone with one sword and cut down a thousand Savage cavalry."

The woman laughed.

"How could that possibly be true?"

A thousand cavalry.

What did that mean?

People of the jianghu understood their own business.

Why did the imperial court tower above them?

Because once military formations closed ranks and cavalry began charging... even the tallest peaks of the martial world... could still collapse.

Outside Shangjing, the Baili siblings had once planned to ambush and kill Zheng Fan, then serving as Yan envoy.

But when Zhenbei cavalry came thundering toward them... their swords never even left their sheaths.

They turned and left.

"There are probably exaggerations in the story," Wei You said. "Especially in that situation. Those Savage 'thousand cavalry' were likely not the same as what we normally mean by a thousand cavalry."

Wei You's guess... was correct.

At the time, after the Sword Saint killed Gelimu, the Savage force had effectively collapsed.

They were numb.

Their sky had fallen.

Almost all will to fight had vanished.

Their retreat had been cut off, and many other factors combined against them.

By then... they resembled a mob.

No.

They were worse than a mob whipped into action by blood courage.

For a time... they had practically thrown themselves onto the Sword Saint's blade.

And the Sword Saint had not actually killed them all.

In the end, Liang Cheng had led troops in a charge and pulled him back out.

"One man cuts down a thousand cavalry" sounded terrifying.

But there had been plenty of water mixed into the legend.

"Even so, Yu Huaping must have stepped into that realm," Wei You said with a smile. "When he doesn't need to face a thousand cavalry and only needs to face one or two people... killing might take only one sword, two swords, or three."

At the end...

Wei You added:

"For example... killing me."

...

The woman charged toward Zheng Fan in something close to madness.

She understood perfectly well.

She had to stop this Yan Marquis from completing the spell.

Otherwise... her husband would truly be in danger.

This time, facing her charge, Zheng Fan did not interrupt the spell.

He simply stomped one foot through the ice beneath him... and dropped into the river again.

The woman stopped above.

The figure beneath had already sunk so deeply into the dark water that she could barely see him.

This time... his descent was remarkably decisive.

The woman swallowed.

She tried to calm herself and track his qi.

But she had never been particularly skilled in that area.

On top of that, the repeated illusions earlier had tortured her spirit until she felt as though she had not slept for three days.

And now... the more she tried to calm herself... the less calm she became.

She forced her senses downward.

But beneath that dark hole in the ice... there was no response whatsoever.

...

"Protect me. I'm going to repair it."

Kong Shanyang did not hesitate.

He began forming seals.

The arts beyond the mundane world were mysterious and unfathomable... to outsiders.

To those already inside the gate... many of the principles were almost simple.

If the man below wanted to punch through one lid... then Kong Shanyang would simply add another lid above it.

Under the river...

Zheng Fan was still sinking.

His hands began weaving seals again.

His mouth did not open.

Yet incantations could be heard sounding from all around him.

At this moment... the Demon Child and Kong Shanyang were directly contesting mystic arts.

The question was simple: who could better manipulate the changing currents of celestial qi?

Above the Wang River... as the two "Qi Refiners" clashed... visible traces of their struggle began to appear.

Two orderly layers of white cloud covered the sky overhead.

Below them... a black pillar rose... trying to pierce through.

The woman on the ice grew frantic.

Just as her husband had worried for her while fighting the Sword Saint... she worried just as deeply for him.

But once Zheng Fan sank beneath the river and the Demon Child began contesting Kong Shanyang... the force surrounding his body also concealed his qi.

He was down there.

She knew he was down there.

But she could not find him.

The Wang River was deep.

Its water beneath the winter ice was black as ink.

Without locating the enemy's qi first... jumping down after him would be no different from searching for a needle in the sea.

On the Sword Saint's side... he continued dismantling the net woven by the Lilong Spear while devoting more and more attention to the celestial struggle overhead.

Kong Shanyang had withdrawn from directly supporting Wei You in order to repair the "hole."

That meant Wei You no longer had room to divide his attention.

He could only rely on himself and his spear to slow the destruction of his defensive net as much as possible.

An assassination born from a sudden impulse... had now fallen into an increasingly passive situation.

For a moment... it was becoming difficult to tell who exactly was trying to assassinate whom.

Kong Shanyang took out an incense burner.

The ritual artifact came from Qian's Back Mountain.

It had once belonged to Master Cang himself.

Before Master Cang entered Yanjing to sever Great Yan's dragon vein... he had essentially distributed his possessions.

What needed to be passed down... he passed down.

What should be given away... he gave away.

That alone proved Master Cang had never truly believed one man's strength could halt the vast momentum of the age.

Purple smoke began rising from the incense burner.

Kong Shanyang held it in one hand.

With the other... he cut open his palm and let blood drip inside.

"I never imagined the mighty Marquis Pingxi of Great Yan would also understand arts beyond the mundane world. What fortune. What fortune indeed."

He was not building himself a stage.

Nor deliberately pretending to be carefree or lofty.

Wei You had come to him and said:

Help me kill someone.

Kong Shanyang asked:

Who?

Marquis Pingxi.

Will it work?

If we can catch him, we'll kill him.

If we cannot... forget it.

Kong Shanyang said:

Fine.

One sentence.

One invitation.

And he threw aside an official robe already within reach.

Abandoned the opportunity to establish a new ancestral center in Jin under Great Yan's support.

A man like this... had earned the right to call himself detached and free.

Even while fighting... the Sword Saint still had attention to spare for conversation.

He laughed.

"I said something like that years ago."

The Sword Saint naturally was not referring to Marquis Zheng.

He meant... that man.

The man who had once placed such enormous pressure on the proud Sword Saint... that for a time... the Sword Saint had no choice but to admit inferiority within his own heart.

As for Zheng Fan... perhaps they were simply too familiar.

The Sword Saint was the protector.

Zheng Fan was the protected.

At a moment like this... it was difficult to suddenly imagine the Marquis wrapped in mystery or divine grandeur.

The Sword Saint knew there was something unusual inside the red stone.

But he did not simply assume every change in the current situation came from the stone and had nothing to do with Zheng Fan himself.

Because during ordinary conversation...

Zheng Fan would casually speak principles about Heaven and Earth that often inspired the Sword Saint into moments of sudden comprehension.

People of the mystic paths loved gnawing on exactly that kind of world-viewing language.

Back in Shangchuan County, the Sword Saint had even asked him:

Isn't this the sort of thing Qi Refiners like talking about?

You believe in this too?

If Zheng Fan had truly cultivated some hidden path... perhaps it was not impossible.

Given the man's personality... hiding a few methods was perfectly believable.

And he had once been taught by an elder brother like Tian Wujing.

Learning a few mystic arts from him would be entirely reasonable.

Perhaps... this was simply what people meant by darkness beneath the lamp.

"Suppress!"

Kong Shanyang roared.

Radiance began appearing inside the clouds above.

It pressed downward... forcing the black pillar beneath them to sink.

By now... the assassination had completely changed flavor.

Zheng Fan could have fled.

He chose not to.

Originally... breaking the situation would have been simple.

But because of that willfulness... the relationship between assassin and target had been turned on its head.

Kong Shanyang was no longer acting merely to delay them long enough to kill Marquis Pingxi.

He had to stop the Sword Saint from regaining access to the celestial phenomena above.

Once the Sword Saint stepped into Second Grade...

Wei You might survive several swords.

Kong Shanyang himself... would probably die to one.

This contest of mystic arts... was now a fight for his own life.

With the incense burner supporting him... the lid overhead became heavier and heavier.

A Qi Refiner from Qian's Back Mountain could not be underestimated.

And contests between Qi Refiners were often exactly this peculiar.

They could create enormous spectacle... while in the mortal world below... the actual effect was sometimes thunder without rain.

When Master Cang made his move years ago... half of Yanjing had been shaken.

Eunuch Wei personally left the imperial palace and confronted Baili Jian.

The Palace Elder appeared.

Every senior eunuch in red robes entered formation and stood on alert.

Imperial Guards filled the palace grounds.

Troops mobilized to the capital gates numbered in the tens of thousands.

But afterward... how many people had Master Cang actually killed?

How many bricks had he broken?

In practical terms... the disturbance might not even have caused as much direct harm as one heavy rainstorm.

At least a storm could soak a few commoners and leave them with chills.

But to those directly contesting that path... one small mistake really could mean ten thousand calamities without return.

Above them... white cloud began crushing the black pillar.

The pillar gradually dissolved.

Kong Shanyang smiled.

Yes.

That was more like it.

Able to command armies.

Able to fight wars.

A minor master of martial cultivation besides.

If this man could also become equally proficient in mystic arts... how were other people supposed to live?

Great Yan producing one Prince of Jingnan... had already been enough.

The world could hardly endure another Tian Wujing emerging from Yan.

Otherwise...

Heaven itself would be favoring one side far too much.

On the ice... the woman looked toward the sky and released a long breath.

At this moment... her earlier obsession with killing the Yan Marquis suddenly faded.

She wanted to leave.

Leave with her husband.

The world was vast.

If Jin could no longer hold them... they could flee to Qian.

Or Chu.

Wei You had no room to speak.

Without Kong Shanyang directly supporting him, all of his attention had to remain fixed on the point of his spear.

The pressure the Sword Saint placed on him... was simply too great.

Kong Shanyang spoke instead.

"Sword Saint, why don't we end matters here?"

End it now.

Both sides withdraw.

It would preserve a measure of dignity.

Neither side would be completely satisfied.

But one side consisted of a husband and wife from the jianghu.

The other... was a Great Yan Marquis of immense status.

Surely the latter should value his life more.

Once things ended... the three assassins would naturally have to flee.

Yan and Jin could no longer be entered again.

The Sword Saint hesitated.

By reason... he should accept.

Withdraw Longyuan.

Complete the unspoken agreement.

But the problem was... he had the feeling Marquis Zheng might not agree to end things here.

Ordinarily, the Marquis would hide if he could hide.

He cherished his life and personal safety to an almost absurd degree.

But once someone genuinely ignited his temper... what followed was often a fight to the death.

During the war against Chu, when Chu's Pillar of State led an army to strike...

Marquis Zheng personally held the central formation.

He endured the collapsing situation by force.

Fought to the death.

Refused to retreat.

But... forget it.

There was no time to care about all that now.

First end the matter here.

Whether the Marquis agreed or not... get him safely back to Fengxin City.

If Zheng Fan remained angry afterward... then the Sword Saint could simply owe him another favor.

Next time something happened...

Longyuan could answer another summons.

The Sword Saint was just about to agree and withdraw his sword... when... something changed.

...

Beneath the Wang River...

Zheng Fan had already finished the hand seals.

Kong Shanyang had suppressed his previous attempt.

Yet not the slightest frustration appeared on Zheng Fan's face.

He had decided... the woman would regret what she said earlier.

And once the Demon Child decided something... he intended to accomplish it.

How?

Simple.

There was a lid in the sky.

He could not punch through it from below.

Fine.

Then let Heaven itself punch through it.

The Demon Child was a ghost.

A spirit-form being.

A spirit needed a living body in order to display certain kinds of strength.

But that did not mean a spirit on its own was useless.

The opposite was true.

Freed from the restraint of flesh... a pure spirit could use a wider variety of methods... and in some respects become even stronger.

There was only one problem.

A spirit wandering too freely for too long... could easily draw heavenly tribulation.

The Demon Child could sense this world.

Why did he normally hide inside the red stone?

One reason was convenience.

The other... was that he had long sensed this world's hostility and vigilance toward him.

Ghost stories throughout history were full of murderers possessed by spirits.

But stories where the ghosts themselves directly committed murder were far rarer.

Because the second kind... might do one evil deed and immediately be struck by lightning until nothing remained.

The Demon Child's figure emerged from Zheng Fan's body.

He began recklessly, arrogantly venting his aura.

He had just advanced two Grades in one breath.

His arrogance... was understandably enormous.

Faintly... the sky began accumulating the oppressive weight that came before a thunderstorm.

Kong Shanyang abruptly raised his head.

Above his white cloud layer... dark thunderclouds had begun to gather.

Lightning was Heaven and Earth's tool of purification.

It did not target only evil spirits.

All falsehood and illusion... could be shattered beneath it.

"Why are thunderclouds forming now? Why is there thunder now?"

Shock filled Kong Shanyang's eyes.

Could the Yan Marquis truly be chosen by destiny?

Protected by spirits and gods?

Had Heaven itself become unable to resist helping him?

Beneath the river... the Demon Child let out a sinister:

"Heh-heh... heh-heh..."

Then... with extreme arrogance... he shouted:

"I'm right here... come strike me!"

...

Once lightning appeared overhead... even one muffled thunderclap would be enough to punch a hole through Kong Shanyang's lid.

Kong Shanyang himself could create spectacular thunder and lightning phenomena as well.

When Master Cang entered Yanjing, the disturbance he created had shaken half the capital.

But Kong Shanyang was currently maintaining a barrier specifically meant to isolate celestial phenomena and suppress the Sword Saint.

He could not do both things at once.

Smoke still rose from the incense burner.

But Kong Shanyang's heart filled with disappointment.

He had lost.

There was no resentment.

He did not blame Wei You and his wife for coming to him.

This had been his own decision.

If the attempt failed... then it failed.

A Qi Refiner cultivated the Heavenly Dao.

One still needed a certain measure of freedom and detachment.

Carry too much obsession... and the obsession could easily become a heart demon.

Above them... the thunderclouds continued gathering.

There was even a faint flavor of tribulation cloud.

Kong Shanyang shook his head.

He did not intend to investigate where that trace of tribulation came from.

Ordinary thunder.

Tribulation lightning.

It made no difference.

Once thunder appeared... the Sword Saint would inevitably sense the celestial qi above.

At this moment... the Sword Saint, who had nearly agreed to stop... smiled.

He no longer thought about ending things.

Did not mention it.

He did not understand mystic arts.

But he could clearly sense the changes taking place between Heaven and Earth.

So he knew what was about to happen.

And what it meant.

Right now...

Yu Huaping was almost impatient.

This day should originally have been a happy one.

He was hurrying home.

Going back to accompany his wife through childbirth.

For a man... few days could be more important.

The Marquis who was usually cautious beyond reason and terrified of death had even been willing to ride hard with him, the two of them alone.

And then... they ran into this.

If one wanted to speak of hatred... of resentment... the Sword Saint's was actually even deeper than Marquis Zheng's!

The Sword Saint of Jin had never possessed a particularly mild temper.

He had killed the old patriarch of the Situ family.

Killed the Chancellor of Great Yan.

He did possess compassion for the suffering of the world.

But he had never been stingy with using his sword to kill.

Especially against people who chose today... of all days... to come touch his bad luck.

Once he opened Second Grade... not one of them... was leaving!

Wei You suddenly shouted one word.

"Go!"

Under the Sword Saint's tidal pressure... that was all Wei You had time to say.

He meant... he would hold the Sword Saint.

Let Kong Shanyang leave first.

Wei You had been the one who invited him.

If the job failed... the guest ought to leave before the host.

As for Wei You himself... once he chose to do this... he had already accepted the possibility of failure.

That word "Go"... was also meant for his wife.

He would remain.

Drag things out while the Sword Saint still could not open Second Grade.

Buy time for the other two to flee.

Kong Shanyang shook his head.

He did not want to leave.

At this stage... leaving or remaining made little difference.

The woman did not leave either.

She remained on the ice... still desperately searching for the Yan Marquis beneath the river.

As for the three children at home... whether they would be left with no one to care for them if both parents died... it no longer mattered.

Abandoning her husband now in order to raise the children alone through years of hardship?

Too bitter.

Too boring.

Better to die here with her husband.

But then... the smoke rising from Kong Shanyang's incense burner suddenly changed color.

At the same time... the clouds overhead thickened.

They even began swallowing the thunderclouds.

It looked almost like an egg cracked into soup... then stirred apart with chopsticks.

Once the thunderclouds were dispersed... the thunder naturally disappeared.

Kong Shanyang turned.

Looked toward Yingdu.

And bowed deeply.

...

Yingdu.

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

Yingdu was a vast city.

After all, it had once been the capital of Great Cheng.

The population within the walls and around them remained enormous.

To Marquis Zheng...

Yingdu might have seemed to consist of little more than one Prince Cheng Residence and one Prefectural Yamen.

But that was only because Marquis Zheng's position was now so high.

The number of people qualified to stand beside him... no.

Qualified merely to stand upright and speak to him... was extremely small.

Everyone else had to kneel and say:

"May the Marquis enjoy peace and health."

In reality...

Yingdu remained an enormous administrative system.

Even now... its structure still resembled that of a secondary capital.

Under that framework... there were naturally many government offices.

And many different kinds of people.

Inside the rear courtyard of the Yingdu Imperial Astronomical Bureau... a group of Qi Refiners born in Jin sat cross-legged.

An elderly man sat on a cushion before them.

"The situation is roughly as I have explained. I imagine many fellow practitioners have already sensed the unusual currents of qi to the east. Sigh. If I had not noticed something wrong, I would never have brought this matter before everyone. Now, I intend to lend Fellow Daoist Shanyang a hand. No one is being forced. Those willing to remain and assist may remain. Those unwilling to become involved in this affair may leave freely."

"River-Reversing Elder, are you looking down on us?"

"We cultivate for a lifetime. Shouldn't we seek one moment of satisfaction in this mortal world?"

"Exactly. Exactly. My cultivation may be low, but I'm still willing to lend Fellow Daoist Shanyang a hand."

"Everyone, let us cast together."

"Come, come. Let River-Reversing Elder serve as the anchor. We'll all cast together and help Fellow Daoist Shanyang isolate the celestial qi."

"Anyone who wants to leave should hurry up. Don't delay the rest of us."

Not one person in the courtyard left.

That did not mean every Jin-born Qi Refiner inside the Imperial Astronomical Bureau had been willing to wade into this muddy water.

Rather...

River-Reversing Elder had already filtered the people before gathering them.

Before Kong Shanyang departed, he had told the old man what he intended to do.

He had not asked the Elder to join.

Nor hinted that he wanted help.

But River-Reversing Elder had taken the matter to heart.

So early today, he gathered this group under the pretext of opening an altar and discussing the Dao.

In reality... they had been preparing.

The Wang River was some distance away.

But to currents of celestial qi... that distance truly did not mean much.

So when the Demon Child made his first attempt to punch through Kong Shanyang's "lid"... the people here had sensed it.

River-Reversing Elder stroked his beard.

Smiled.

"Good. Let us begin."

The Qi Refiners within the courtyard differed greatly in Grade and ability.

But now... they cast together.

River-Reversing Elder reached out.

Using a disciplinary ruler as the anchor... he forcibly gathered the scattered currents.

Then used the ruler as a medium.

Within emptiness... something like an enormous invisible hand formed... reaching toward that distant place and covering it.

To ordinary people... the entire process would have looked like mystical nonsense.

But in their own sight... they were helping conceal and suppress something for a friend across a distance common people could barely comprehend.

Outside the Imperial Astronomical Bureau... armored troops from the City Patrol Office had already arrived.

They gradually surrounded the entire complex.

Not everyone inside the bureau was a Qi Refiner.

There were plenty of clerks and officials.

There were also many Yan and Jin Qi Refiners who had not participated in this affair.

When they saw troops surrounding the place... all of them were stunned.

Outside... a senior eunuch in red robes from the Yan imperial palace stood at the front of the City Patrol troops.

The skin on his face kept twitching.

He was the Supervisor of Yingdu's Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

His duty... was to keep watch over this mixed, complicated institution.

He did not know what the people inside were doing.

But he could sense... they were doing something.

At that moment... the Director of Yingdu's Imperial Astronomical Bureau walked out.

He was a Yan man.

Refined in manner.

Seeing rows upon rows of soldiers outside... he asked:

"Supervisor, what is the meaning of this?"

The Supervising Eunuch smiled at him.

"Director, you should be asking what the people inside are doing. Not questioning this eunuch."

"This official has already sent someone to inquire. We will know shortly."

"What a coincidence. This eunuch has also sent someone to the Prefectural Yamen. We too will know shortly."

"The Prefect is not one of our people."

"The Prefect... is a Yan man."

"Am I not?"

"Director... you truly seem to have forgotten something."

"Impudent! The Imperial Astronomical Bureau is an office of great importance. You are its Supervisor, yet you bring armed troops against it. This is... this is..."

"Other offices may be one thing. But an office this important should never have admitted so many Jin people in the first place. If it is truly a state instrument, how can it be placed in the hands of outsiders?"

"Then allow this official to personally go inside and ask what is happening."

"This eunuch checked the calendar. Today there is no grand ritual, no grand ceremony, no great court observance. If they were merely discussing the Dao, fine. But with currents of qi this violent... are they really just discussing the Dao? Director, this eunuch did not come today to fight you for authority or steal your benefits. I am a castrated man. I cannot hold your regular office. There is no reason for me to covet your seat. But His Majesty appointed me Supervisor here. Then I must properly watch this place on His Majesty's behalf."

At that moment... a rider galloped toward them.

"Reporting to the Supervisor! The Prefect says everything is to proceed according to the Supervisor's judgment."

Xu Wenzu had little idea what was actually happening.

He knew claypot chicken tasted good.

But he knew nothing about the methods of Qi Refiners.

Even so... he understood this red-robed senior eunuch would not act without cause.

And he understood something else even more clearly.

The Supervisor desperately wanted merit.

Wanted a chance to return to the palace and win promotion.

Of everyone here... this eunuch would be the least willing to do anything that could harm the Imperial Astronomical Bureau without reason.

Since the man had chosen to act... then in his judgment... the matter had to be extremely serious.

So when the Supervising Eunuch sent someone asking Xu Wenzu for authority...

Fatty Xu barely hesitated before approving it.

"All of you listen!"

The Supervising Eunuch's voice rose.

"This eunuch has received the Prefect's order. Enter the Imperial Astronomical Bureau! Every person inside... Qi Refiner, clerk, official, servant, even the ones sweeping floors... line them up one by one for this eunuch! This eunuch would like to see... exactly what kind of damned ghost trick... they are playing!"

...

On the frozen Wang River... the thunderclouds had almost completely vanished.

The lid overhead... became even thicker.

At the same time, with remote support from Yingdu, Kong Shanyang had more strength free to help Wei You again.

A Third Grade spear Martial Artist devoted entirely to defense... plus a high-level Qi Refiner helping him devote himself entirely to defense.

No matter how sharp Longyuan might be... with the Sword Saint's realm restricted, achieving a decisive result quickly remained extremely difficult.

This was not a duel.

From beginning to end... it had never been a duel in the traditional sense.

It was much like Great Yan's iron cavalry over the past several years.

They would have loved nothing more than for every enemy army to meet them in the open field.

But against someone like Nian Yao, who cleared the countryside and refused battle behind fortified cities... even Great Yan's cavalry could only grit their teeth and grind away at towering walls one piece at a time.

"You actually invited reinforcements."

The Sword Saint could clearly sense the many different Qi Refiner auras that had burst from Kong Shanyang's incense burner.

They had even suppressed the thunderclouds.

"Yu Huaping, are you still unwilling to stop?" Kong Shanyang shouted.

At that moment... from the other side... an immense surge of blood and qi suddenly rose.

The Sword Saint's expression changed.

That aura did not belong to Zheng Fan.

It belonged to the woman.

Wei You's eyes reddened.

His body continued moving with the long spear.

The tears could not remain in his eyes while he fought... but he truly was crying.

Kong Shanyang sighed as well.

"Stop now. I will call my fellow practitioners away from Jin. They can take their children and leave this place too. If another opportunity comes someday, you can seek one another out and settle the grievance then."

The Sword Saint hesitated again.

The reason was simple.

The woman had forcibly raised her blood and qi.

She had undoubtedly used some method that stimulated her potential at terrible cost.

She was trying... to reverse the situation.

"Heh-heh. This fight... really is damned frustrating."

The Sword Saint's gaze grew sharper and sharper.

He had always preferred direct people.

Direct swords.

Direct enmity and gratitude.

Today... the situation had twisted once... then twice... then again and again.

If he could choose... the Sword Saint would rather do what he had done outside Snow Sea Pass.

Use his own body to receive Second Grade power directly.

Spend his own life-force in exchange for reducing every one of these people to pieces.

Ever since entering Shengle City years ago... the Sword Saint's state of mind had gradually been polished until it was clear and natural.

Today... for the first time in a very long while... he had been provoked again and again until control itself was slipping.

But... what exactly was happening over there?

The decision... had always rested in the Sword Saint's hands.

All he needed to do was stop attacking.

Wei You and the Lilong Spear would gain breathing room.

Most of the attritional progress the Sword Saint had made earlier would be wasted.

But for the Sword Saint... none of that mattered compared with Zheng Fan's safety.

...

On the ice... the woman reversed the flow of her own blood and qi.

The move amounted to trading away her entire future cultivation for a brief eruption of potential.

A simpler.

More brutal version... of driving silver needles into acupoints.

At this moment... her sharpness and perception returned to their absolute peak.

She closed her eyes.

Her heartbeat sounded in a steady rhythm.

Then... at last... she found the presence beneath the river.

Once the direction was confirmed... the woman leapt.

Entered the Wang River.

And began plunging rapidly downward.

An assassination that should have produced a fast result... had gradually become a war of attrition.

One side... refused to accept a draw.

The other... could not afford to lose.

...

Beneath the river... everything was black.

Everything was dark.

Zheng Fan lay quietly in the water.

Below his body... a rusted spear stood buried upright.

The riverbed here should have contained plenty of bones and armor.

After all... those great battles had taken place only a few years ago.

The Demon Child remained inside Zheng Fan's body.

But he no longer moved.

Father and son were now sharing one body.

Their emotions could be sensed more directly than ever before.

The old saying about human hearts being separated by bellies... did not apply here.

Marquis Zheng could clearly feel his son's disappointment.

The Demon Child did not care whether he killed the woman.

What he cared about... was forcing her to watch her own man die first.

He had thought for so long.

Calculated for so long.

Finally found a way to answer the insult she had thrown at him.

A way to respond to being called a bastard.

He had been excited.

Almost jumping with anticipation.

And then... he failed.

To the Demon Child... this failure mattered more than life and death.

Truthfully... this was the first time Zheng Fan had ever directly "understood" his son like this.

Every work is the crystallization of its creator.

Every work is the creator's child.

It was a beautiful saying.

And yes... when referring to the work itself... it was true.

Not the protagonist inside it.

The comic Demon Child had been extremely successful.

Among all the books once produced by their studio... it had achieved the highest sales, popularity, and reputation.

But that did not mean Zheng Fan had ever genuinely treated the Demon Child as a biological son from the beginning.

No matter how beastly a parent might be... who would willingly force his own child through that much suffering?

Then came the awkward part.

After waking in this world... beings who had originally existed in separate dimensions... met.

The Demon Child... truly appeared.

That was the knot between father and son.

The Demon Child hated him.

Zheng Fan knew the Demon Child hated him.

Yet because of the bond between Master and Demon King... the Demon Child still had to block one hidden blade after another for Zheng Fan.

Disappointment... spread through their shared consciousness.

Marquis Zheng suddenly wanted to laugh.

Only now... did he finally understand.

The Demon Child was different from the other Demon Kings.

The Demon Child... was only a child.

And he... only wanted to be a child.

He hated this father.

Yet he also wanted to possess this father.

Did not want other women coming near him.

All the traits of a child existed inside the Demon Child too.

They had simply been pushed to extremes.

He was... in some ways... the most genuine child of them all.

"Son..."

By rights, Marquis Zheng should have been reminding him right now:

We really cannot just AFK here.

Floating motionless beneath the river like this... was an unbelievably stupid thing to do.

But touching that depth of disappointment...

Marquis Zheng instead said:

"They outnumbered you. It wasn't fair. You've already done incredibly well."

"That woman is coming down. You're scared?"

The Demon Child's voice was thick with contempt and mockery.

In the eyes of outsiders...

Great Yan's Marquis Pingxi possessed glorious military achievements and a name that shook the realm.

In the Demon Child's eyes... he was selfish.

Hypocritical.

Melodramatic beyond belief.

Marquis Zheng answered:

"No. Dad means... when it comes to having more people... we've never been afraid of anyone."

...

The woman had locked onto Zheng Fan's qi.

She descended rapidly.

Then... a terrifying tide of resentment suddenly swept upward from below.

In one instant... it felt as though she had entered Avici Hell itself.

...

The water across this stretch of the Wang River... began turning black.

Resentment surged upward like spilled ink.

"What is happening?"

They had only just resolved the problem overhead.

And now... something had appeared below!

"How can there be resentment this vast?"

The Sword Saint noticed the change beneath his feet as well.

He said:

"Have you forgotten how many people died here only a few years ago?"

Battlefields had always been places where resentment gathered.

Killing aura lingered for years.

Kong Shanyang immediately shouted:

"Do you think battlefield resentment is something an ordinary person can casually mobilize?"

The Sword Saint continued attacking Wei You.

And shouted back:

"I, Yu Huaping, don't understand mystic arts. But I do know... the man you're trying to kill today is no ordinary person."

...

The Demon Child's power spread outward.

This was an art of Qi Refiners... stimulating the surrounding resentment and killing aura until they rose.

That was the original principle behind grand purification rites.

To cleanse dust.

To dissolve resentment.

But if you wanted to cleanse resentment... first... you had to bring it to the surface.

Beneath the Wang River...

Zheng Fan reached out.

His hand closed around the rusted spear beside him.

With the Demon Child's help... his voice roared through the realm of souls.

"Savages! It was me. I seized Snow Sea Pass. I cut off your road home. I left you to die here. Your king... serves as a dog beneath my feet! And those stars you worship... in my eyes... are the most ridiculous trash beneath Heaven!"

Mud across the riverbed began churning.

"Soldiers of the Azure Luan Army! Do you still remember me? I... gave the order to slaughter the prisoners. Now... I'm right here. Have all of you... gone mute? Are Chu men... all spineless cowards without balls?"

The resentment boiled.

Those soldiers had surrendered after the city gates opened.

They believed they had found hope of life.

Then Zheng Fan issued one order... and every one of them was slaughtered along the Wang River.

Their blood and corpses had choked the river.

How could their resentment not run deep?

Marquis Zheng roared again:

"Soldiers of Great Yan! In the name of Great Yan's Marquis Pingxi... I command you! Put on your armor again! Raise your spears once more! Follow this Marquis... and kill our way back up!"

"YES!"

[End of Chapter 748]