Agaruka Bodhisattva stood with his palms pressed together, half his body embedded in the ground, towering and motionless like a statue that had been smashed and sent flying.
His robes looked as though they had been waxed, giving off a dense, hard texture.
“Xu Qi’an!”
Ji Xuan’s face changed abruptly. In his eyes flickered fury, hatred, fear, bewilderment, and a trace of despair.
The National Teacher had said before that the tribulation-crossing battle in the northern frontier had gone extremely badly for them. Xu Qi’an and Luo Yuheng had both advanced to first rank.
It was a bolt from the blue.
When Ji Xuan suddenly heard the news, he had nearly gone mad, unable to accept such a reality.
But with the great battle at hand, he suppressed all emotions, including jealousy and panic, and threw himself into the war.
After all, Agaruka Bodhisattva and Baidi were still there. The two first ranks were immensely powerful. Even if Xu Qi’an and Luo Yuheng had both advanced to first rank, at most it merely turned a disadvantage into a balance of power. If they wanted to decide victory or defeat, it would still take time.
And during that time, as long as they beheaded the female Emperor, crushed the armies of the Great Feng, and seized the capital.
Then the National Teacher could take the opportunity to charge at Master of Heaven’s Mandate… once he succeeded, the Yunzhou army would gain another first rank, while the power of all living beings that Xu Qi’an wielded would certainly be weakened by the fall of the capital. With one side rising as the other fell, Yunzhou would still have hope.
Before he saw Agaruka Bodhisattva smashed into the imperial palace and crashing down right before his eyes, that was what Ji Xuan had thought, and what Xu Pingfeng had thought too.
The only thing that had gone wrong here was that both he and Xu Pingfeng had misjudged Xu Qi’an’s combat strength.
First, since Emperor Wuzong, the continent of Jiuzhou had not seen any public record of a first-rank martial artist fighting for five hundred years. The only brief glimpse had been Shenshu, but as he had been half-step Martial God, he was not of much reference value.
Second, over the past several hundred years, there was only one first rank Earthly Immortal, the Heavenly Venerable, and he had lived in seclusion. How much combat power could erupt from the cooperation of an Earthly Immortal and a first-rank martial artist? No one knew.
Lastly, Xu Qi’an’s make-up was far too complex. The Sovereign Sword, the Stupa tower, the power of all living beings, the Sevenfold Gu, he had far too many skills, and he was certainly different from an ordinary first-rank martial artist.
With all these factors piled together, Xu Pingfeng had found it difficult to estimate his eldest son’s true strength.
It was not only Xu Pingfeng. Agaruka and Baidi had likewise misjudged the strength of Xu Qi’an and Luo Yuheng. Before the battle, the latter had confidently declared that he wanted to taste the blood essence of a first-rank martial artist.
In the end, his innate divine ability had been countered by the Earthly Immortal, while the strength of his flesh could not rival that of a first-rank martial artist.
A sullen death.
“You really are the stinking stone in a latrine!”
Xu Qi’an looked down at Agaruka from on high and offered that comment.
Then he looked towards Ji Xuan, whose face had turned ashen, and said with a smile that did not reach his eyes:
“Long time no see, Seventh Cousin!”
Ji Xuan clenched his teeth without the slightest hesitation. A jade talisman slipped from his sleeve, and he crushed it hard in his palm.
The National Teacher always liked to leave a backup plan in his actions, and Ji Xuan was the same. He never lacked for life-saving jade talismans. The greatest distance of a teleportation array was a whole province. By crushing the jade talisman, he could return directly to Yongzhou.
And not just him. Several key figures in the Yunzhou army all had teleportation jade talismans on hand.
No clear light rose. He was still in the imperial palace. In the next moment, Ji Xuan felt a sharp pain in his right arm. At some point, the entire arm had already separated from his body.
And the Xu Qi’an in the sky had been torn apart by the gale. It had only been an afterimage.
“Hey, cousin! Killing cousins is my favourite activity.”
Xu Qi’an’s sneer came from behind him, followed at once by another line:
“And younger cousins too.”
With the Heaven Gu’s shifting constellations spell, he had deceived Ji Xuan’s martial artist danger sense.
Ji Xuan stumbled forwards, his body lurching as he instantly dashed dozens of metres, roaring:
“National Teacher…”
Now the only one who could save him was Xu Pingfeng.
Amid the fading echo of that roar, Xu Qi’an once more appeared before Ji Xuan at an exaggerated speed, as though teleporting. Using his left leg as the pivot, he twisted his waist.
Bang!
His right leg turned into a whip and swept through Ji Xuan’s waist, severing it. The lower half of his body kept running, while the upper half flew some distance before crashing heavily to the ground.
“Agaruka, take Ji Xuan and go!”
From high in the sky came Xu Pingfeng’s low shout, filled with shock and fury.
This second-rank Arcanist rationally chose not to show off his techniques in front of his eldest son, keeping his distance to the utmost.
The moment he saw Xu Qi’an return to the capital, he knew the overall situation was lost.
Xu Qi’an stepped on Ji Xuan’s upper body, turned to look at Agaruka, and sneered:
“Do you dare move?”
Agaruka frowned and said nothing.
The two had fought all the way from the northern frontier to the capital, violence against violence. Agaruka knew very well that relying on the Vajra Dharma Aspect alone, he was no match for Xu Qi’an. The dark golden blood on his body was proof enough.
A first-rank martial artist plus the power of all living beings, Xu Qi’an’s combat power had already surpassed that of the Jianzheng in Qingzhou.
He could stand unmoving before the Jianzheng, yet before this newly advanced first-rank martial artist, he had been tossed about like a stone.
Even so, the current Xu Qi’an was still inferior to Shenshu, and thus had not, like the latter, smashed his Immovable Lord dharma aspect to pieces in three punches.
But Agaruka could only just manage to protect himself.
If he withdrew the Immovable Lord, then relying only on the bodily enhancement brought by his Vajra divine skill, he could not withstand this first-rank martial artist’s fists and the Sovereign Sword.
“Hand Ji Xuan over to me. You do not dare fight me in the capital.”
Agaruka spoke in a deep voice.
At this moment, Agaruka’s attitude would decide Ji Xuan’s life or death, and would also decide the life or death of most of the ordinary people in the capital.
Xu Qi’an raised his brows.
“You can use the capital to threaten me. That is indeed my weakness. But do you think that if you destroy the capital, I will let you leave the Central Plains alive?”
Xu Qi’an refused to bend to that threat and reminded him:
“If you destroy the capital, Zhao Shou will not let you go, Luo Yuheng will not let you go, al-Asura does not care about the capital, but if there is a chance, he will absolutely stake everything to keep you in the Central Plains. Daoist Jinlian will be even less willing to miss such an opportunity to reap boundless merit.
“I want to know whether the Immovable Lord can withstand attacks from so many experts.
“You have two paths now. One, get up and fight me to the death, destroy the capital, but once the beyond-mortal experts of the Great Feng return, you will undoubtedly die. Or two, get out now, and I will give you the chance to leave the capital. Choose for yourself.”
Agaruka wanted to use the capital to threaten him, and he could use death to threaten Agaruka in return. It would depend on who was the more ruthless.
“Agaruka Bodhisattva, do not let him deceive you. He doesn’t dare gamble with you, he doesn’t dare!” Ji Xuan struggled to raise his head and shouted at Agaruka.
Xu Qi’an’s face remained calm, everything under control, as he said:
“But even if you, Agaruka, are willing to throw your life away for Xu Pingfeng’s grand cause, do you think he still has any hope of entering the Central Plains? With only a second-rank Arcanist and this piece of rubbish under my foot? Baidi has already fled back overseas. Yunzhou’s cause is lost.
“No matter what benefits he promised the Buddhist sect, they are destined never to be realised.”
Agaruka might be ruthless enough, but he would absolutely not throw away his life for Xu Pingfeng, because even Xu Pingfeng himself might not be willing to throw away his life for his own grand cause.
After a brief silence, Agaruka slowly rose. The injuries on his body healed in an instant. Covered all over in dark golden blood, he pressed his palms together and said slowly:
“Amitabha. Xu Pingfeng, the alliance between the Buddhist sect and you ends here. Take care of yourself.”
He looked at Xu Qi’an, retreated slowly by three steps, and seeing no obstruction, suddenly shot into the sky, turning into golden light and fleeing west.
Xu Pingfeng seemed to have long expected Agaruka’s choice. He cast a cold glance down at the imperial palace and teleported away directly.
Ji Xuan’s face was full of despair.
Whew… Xu Qi’an let out a long breath of turbid air.
He had the ruthlessness to perish together with his enemy. The very existence of Broken Jade was proof enough of that.
But if the capital could be preserved, he was willing to compromise and give ground, allowing Agaruka to leave.
Sooner or later he would have to make a trip to the Western Regions anyway. That account could be settled in future.
“Time to end this. I’ll send you to meet your brother.”
Xu Qi’an looked down at Ji Xuan and gently pressed his palm down.
The veins at Ji Xuan’s temples bulged violently. There was anger, fear, and unwillingness. From birth he had been a son by a concubine. In order not to steal the limelight from the legitimate son Ji Qian, he had hidden his abilities and bided his time for more than twenty years.
Only after Ji Qian’s death had he truly begun to rise rapidly. After risking life and limb, he had finally advanced into the beyond-mortal realm, becoming the second beyond-mortal martial artist among the younger generation.
Just one step away, just one step away from killing the female Emperor and achieving the grand design of Emperor.
At the end of his life, he reviewed his whole life as though watching a lantern parade of memories.
“XU—QI—AN—!”
Ji Xuan let out a shrill roar, and in the next moment, the sound cut off abruptly, the savage expression frozen on his face.
His primordial spirit was shattered by a palm strike from Xu Qi’an, and his soul was utterly dispersed.
“Let me borrow your head.”
Xu Qi’an summoned the Sovereign Sword and cut off Ji Xuan’s head. Then he turned to the female Emperor and said:
“Collect his body. I want to refine a Blood Pill later.”
Ji Xuan’s body was still alive, brimming with vigorous vitality, but it was already an empty shell.
…
“Damn it!”
Chu Yuanzhen’s face turned livid. He resisted the urge to turn and look at Hengyuan, only to find the same anger and sorrow in the latter’s eyes.
To the experts locked in fierce battle outside the city, the collapse of the bronze artefact had not revealed that many details.
From the outer city to the imperial palace, because of the distance, the bronze artefact had looked enormous. But to those on the city wall, it had seemed as small as a serving dish, let alone Xu Qi’an, who had the size of an ordinary human.
The eyesight of fourth rank experts was not enough to observe too many details across such a great distance.
Thus, the disintegration of the bronze disc had looked more like it had been withdrawn after completing its mission.
Zhang Shen and the other Great Feng experts were grief-stricken, furious, or bewildered, and all began to suspect that the Emperor had fallen victim to Xu Pingfeng’s plot.
It’s done? A flicker of delight rose in Yang Chuannan’s heart. His eyes gleamed with excitement, and his emotions stirred.
Once the Emperor was slain, the Great Feng defenders would inevitably fall into chaos. Once hearts wavered, what war could they still fight? The resistance afterwards would also weaken.
Taking the capital meant the victory was already half won.
Standing on a wind-riding artefact, Ge Wenxuan gazed towards the imperial palace from afar. In that instant he thought of many things. Once Yunzhou entered and ruled the Central Plains, he could be granted a princedom or appointed a Minister. Not only would there be enough fortune to aid his cultivation, he could advance to Master of Prophecy, formation master, and even attempt to become a Master of Heaven’s secrets.
For him, the true road of cultivation had only just opened.
The other fourth rank martial artists on Yunzhou’s side were also elated.
“The Emperor is dead. The capital will fall today.”
“Throw down your weapons. Those who surrender will not be killed.”
Several unruly martial artists shouted loudly.
Qi Guangbo did not need to ride the wind to inspect the situation. From the reactions of his side’s experts atop the wall, he could already guess that things had gone smoothly. The National Teacher and Ji Xuan had succeeded in their decapitation strike.
Wei Yuan, next it is time for the two of us to decide victory and defeat…
Qi Guangbo narrowed his eyes, a smile at the corner of his lips.
To him, killing the Emperor had merely been a necessity of war. In essence, it brought him no sense of achievement.
His true target was Wei Yuan.
That was also the reason he had been willing to follow Xu Pingfeng and join Qianlong City all those years ago.
He and Wei Yuan had never known each other, but just like many renowned experts of the jianghu, even if they had never met, they would still cross thousands of mountains and countless rivers to challenge one another.
Because in this world, both a kindred spirit and a worthy opponent were the rarest things.
In the barracks not far from the city wall, Wei Yuan set down the Huntian Divine Mirror and stretched lazily.
“Prepare the carriage. We are going to the Tower of Noble Spirit for a rest.”
In the scene reflected by the Huntian Divine Mirror, the city wall had fallen utterly silent. A young man in azure robes, garments fluttering, stood there holding a head in his hand, overlooking the smoke-filled battlefield below.
Xu Qi’an stood in mid-air and said slowly:
“Ji Xuan is dead. Yunzhou’s defeat is decided. Those who surrender will not be killed!”
“Xu—Xu Qi’an…”
Ge Wenxuan’s lips trembled as he forced out the three words with difficulty.
Then his gaze fell on Ji Xuan’s head, and his face instantly turned deathly pale. Only now did he realise that the collapse of the disc of heaven’s secrets did not mean that Ji Xuan and the National Teacher had killed the Emperor. Quite the opposite, Xu Qi’an had returned.
The National Teacher and Ji Xuan had encountered him in the imperial palace.
Ji Xuan was dead, then where was Teacher?
“Ji Xuan is dead?!”
Yang Chuannan’s emotions flipped from one extreme to the other. The more triumphant he had felt just now, the more despairing he became now.
“Impossible. Even Baidi and Agaruka Bodhisattva couldn’t kill him? Why did this happen, why…”
Ji Xuan was dead, the National Teacher was nowhere to be seen, and Yunzhou’s army had lost all momentum. This gamble, in which he had staked the fate of his entire clan, had ended in catastrophic defeat.
It was not only Yang Chuannan. The experts in Yunzhou’s army all went pale as clay, both bewildered and desperate, unable to understand why the situation had suddenly become like this.
Their defeat had come for no apparent reason.
In the distance, the smile had not yet faded from Qi Guangbo’s lips before it gradually stiffened with the rest of his face.
His heart slowly sank to the bottom.
In an instant he understood the situation. The tribulation-crossing battle in the northern frontier had ended early. Xu Qi’an had returned to the capital and foiled Ji Xuan and the National Teacher’s operation.
Ji Xuan was dead. The National Teacher had most likely fled.
Yunzhou was finished.
Miao Youfang dropped to the ground with a thud, leaning against the battlements. He wiped his blood-smeared face and said weakly, as if drained of all strength:
“He finally came back.”
Beside him, Zhang Shen, Li Mubai, Xu Xinnian, and the Imperial Guards all felt true relief, as though they had found their pillar once more, as though a giant stone had been lifted from their hearts.
Chu Yuanzhen and Master Hengyuan exchanged a glance, smiling as they both let out a breath.
The disturbance just now had not been Huaiqing dying at Xu Pingfeng’s hands. Xu Ningyan had returned.
That also meant the result of the northern frontier tribulation-crossing battle was victory for the Great Feng.
“Silver Gong Xu has returned.”
“Silver Gong Xu has killed Yunzhou’s Beyond-rank experts.”
On the city wall, the Great Feng defenders erupted in deafening cheers. The soldiers looked upon the figure in the sky as though he were a god.
“Now we’re safe. Fuck, we don’t have to die after all.”
A one-armed defender leaned against the wall, grinning to reveal blood-red gums.
“We don’t have to die, we don’t have to die…”
The wounded covered their faces and burst into tears, crying aloud.
Amid the cheers of the Great Feng army, Ge Wenxuan, Qi Guangbo, Yang Chuannan, and more than ten other core figures of Yunzhou’s army all drew out teleportation jade talismans from their robes at the same time.
These were life-saving artefacts given to them by the National Teacher. The corresponding teleportation platform had been set at the border between Yongzhou and the capital. Once they reached Yongzhou, they could then use several more teleportation spells, passing through the teleportation arrays along the route all the way back to Yunzhou.
At most, the whole process would only take a quarter of an hour.
Teleportation jade talismans were extremely troublesome to refine. The materials were not quite priceless, but they were by no means cheap, so only the army’s core figures had been issued with them.
“Teleportation is forbidden here!”
Another figure appeared in the air above the city wall. It was Zhao Shou, wearing a Confucian cap.
He was the first to return to the capital, which showed that Confucian spells were unquestionably among the very finest of all the systems, outstanding above the rest.
The jade talismans in Qi Guangbo and the others’ hands had already shattered, yet no clear light rose to carry them away.
Their last hope was gone.
Zhao Shou gave Xu Qi’an a slight nod.
“Boom!”
With an ear-splitting sonic blast, Xu Qi’an vanished from everyone’s sight at once. His speed had now reached the absolute limit of a martial artist.
Or rather, the absolute limit of wind-riding flight.
Apart from teleportation spells, which involved the laws of space, no flight art in the world could be faster than him.
The reason he had not immediately gone after Xu Pingfeng was that he had feared Agaruka Bodhisattva might turn back halfway and strike at the root of the matter.
Now that Zhao Shou had returned, al-Asura and Daoist Jinlian would not be far behind. The three of them, together with Kou Yangzhou and Sun Xuanji, would absolutely be able to contend with the greatly exhausted Agaruka Bodhisattva.
Even if Agaruka Bodhisattva had intended to strike at the root of the matter, seeing such a line-up would make him abandon the idea.
Besides, Xu Qi’an knew where Xu Pingfeng would go. He was not afraid of being unable to find him.
Between father and son, there had to be an ending.
For a son to see his father off, that was only natural and right.
…
Western Garden, the underground secret chamber.
A file of Imperial Guards opened the heavy iron doors. Fresh, crisp air poured into the chamber, refreshing the spirits of the assembled women.
The Imperial Guard officer at the front bowed and said:
“By His Majesty’s command, the Empress Dowager, Your Highnesses, and all madams and young ladies are invited to return.”
We can leave?
A noblewoman, her make-up ruined by tears, asked tentatively:
“Have the rebels been driven back?”
As the Empress Dowager and the other women all fixed their eyes on him, the officer replied:
“One rebel leader is dead and the other has fled. The rebellion outside the city has also been put down, and the rebel generals have all been captured.”
Wang Simu, standing beside her mother, frowned and asked:
“So quickly?”
The officer smiled.
“Silver Gong Xu is back. How could it not be quick?”
Cheers broke out, and only then did the women truly put their minds at ease. Their tears turned to smiles as they praised Heaven for protecting the court and offered thanks to Silver Gong Xu.
Beside Consort Dowager Chen, Lin’an, who had been keeping a stiff face, no longer needed to pretend to be calm. Relieved, she put her hands on her hips.
Auntie had originally wanted to collapse, the sort of limp collapse that came after everything was over, but the noblewomen beside her all turned in unison to look at the women of the Xu family, forcing Auntie to lift her chin, square her shoulders, and maintain her dignity.
She accepted the flattery and praise of the noblewomen and noble daughters.
Mu Nanzhi glanced at Lin’an and also put her hands on her hips.
Xu Lingyue wore a harmlessly delicate expression.
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