Firmament Sword

”Wrong about what? I’m not joking. I’m leaving because Huangfu Haoyue would only use me to stabilize his new regime and eliminate his dissenters. I’m just a trash can to him. Once it’s full, the can is useless—an eyesore. It’ll either be burned to ashes or tossed far, far away,” Wei Feng said with a bitter laugh, his eyes full of self-mockery.

”If you’re gone, then me staying in the Imperial Capital is a dead end, isn’t it? Am I even your real son?” Wei Ziting grumbled, a wronged look on his face.

”Bullshit!” Wei Feng roared in fury. ”It’s precisely because you are my son—my only son, at that! If you don’t stay in the Imperial Capital, how could he possibly be assured enough to spare the Wei Family?”

”So you’re leaving me here in the Imperial Capital to be a hostage!” Wei Ziting fumed. ”And you have the nerve to say I’m your son? Is this any way to treat your own flesh and blood?”

”What do you know?” Wei Feng glanced coldly at Wei Ziting. ”Even a vicious tiger won’t eat its own cubs. If I had any other choice, would I leave you here? Don’t worry. Not only will he not kill you, he’ll place you in a position of importance! Because people like you—stupid, from a prominent family, and capable of doing his dirty work... are a very rare find indeed!”

As if he hadn’t heard the mockery in his father’s tone, Wei Ziting asked, ”Really? He’ll really give me an important post?”

”He has to use someone!” Wei Feng said wearily, then waved his hand. ”Go back to the mansion. Take my name card and invite Lords Leng Mengde, Sun Yunpeng, Wang Moxuan, and Zhao Wenzhao. Tell them the political climate has changed, and that they must come over at once to confer.”

”Why invite them? I thought you were on bad terms with them,” Wei Ziting said.

”Do you still think... this is the same as when the Emperor was alive?” Wei Feng no longer had the energy to rebuke his foolish son. He simply waved his hand. ”Just do as I say!”

”Fine...” Wei Ziting nodded. ’No matter what,’ he thought, ’I have to survive. And I will personally witness the destruction of the Xu Family!’

As he thought this, Wei Ziting couldn’t help but feel a surge of smugness. ’Whatever happens, my Wei Family has survived this cataclysm. But Xu Luo... when he returns to the Imperial Capital someday, the look on his face will be absolutely priceless! I have to see that... I have to see it with my own eyes!’

...

Xu Ji led Xu Su, cutting a bloody path as they fought their way out. Heedless of the commotion they were causing, they flew through the sky toward the General’s Mansion.

In the distance, he saw two groups fighting to the death right outside his home. Vermilion Bird Avenue was a river of blood, and the acrid stench of gore filled the sky.

Xu Ji’s eyes were incredibly sharp. He saw his wife, Luo Xinlan, leading a group of men from the General’s Mansion to block the gates, staring in confusion at the two warring parties.

The scene left Xu Ji stunned for a long moment. He could tell one of the fighting factions belonged to the Sixth Prince. The other group, however, though dressed in the uniforms of the Cangqiong Army, had none of the bearing of a soldier!

Having spent decades in the military, Xu Ji could be almost certain that these men were not Cangqiong Soldiers.

’Then... who are they?’

For a moment, Xu Ji was completely bewildered.

Luo Xinlan watched from a distance as her husband and son flew back through the air. The heart that had been lodged in her throat finally dropped, and she let out a long sigh of relief.

Just moments before, a troop of elite soldiers had surrounded the Grand General’s Mansion like a pack of wolves, proclaiming they were there to arrest the family of the traitor Xu Ji. They announced that Xu Ji had conspired with a group of Military Generals and the Crown Prince to rebel, assassinating the Emperor and Empress, but was heroically stopped by the Sixth Prince...

After announcing the charges, the elite soldiers gave Luo Xinlan no chance to speak, attacking at once.

They weren’t there to make arrests; they were clearly there to silence them!

They just hadn’t expected that while Luo Xinlan might be a woman, she lacked neither strength nor conviction. Seeing them attack, she immediately struck back without hesitation.

After she killed several of them, another group arrived and immediately began fighting the elite soldiers, shouting slogans that were the complete opposite of theirs.

”The Sixth Prince launched a palace coup! He killed the Emperor and Empress, then the Crown Prince! It’s high treason!”

”The Grand General King is loyal and true! He did not conspire with those Military Generals and has struck down the Sixth Prince!”

”We must protect the Grand General King’s family!”

The entire process was incredibly dramatic, yet the blood-soaked ground reminded everyone: this was a cruel coup, a true and bloody slaughter, not some play!

From the slogans of both sides, Luo Xinlan had more or less deduced what had happened, but this only left her more confused.

’My husband would never have sided with either the Crown Prince or the Sixth Prince!’

Of that, Luo Xinlan was absolutely certain.

’My husband has always been the Emperor’s man!’

’So, it seems the second group is on my husband’s side. But the question is, who do they actually serve?’

’If they were the Crown Prince’s men, they should be leaderless and in chaos now that he’s dead. So why are they still so disciplined?’

’If they aren’t the Crown Prince’s men, then who are they? And why is it that I can’t find a single trace of a soldier’s aura about them?’

Although Luo Xinlan didn’t know soldiers as well as Xu Ji, she had, after all, lived her entire life in a family of decorated generals.

She was quite familiar with the unique aura of a true soldier!

Only when she saw her husband and son return did Luo Xinlan finally feel at ease. No matter what had happened, at least her husband and son were alive. ’Everything else can be dealt with later!’

To Luo Xinlan’s surprise, the moment her husband and son returned, they didn’t even bother to speak to her. They immediately launched an indiscriminate attack on both of the battling factions!

Two Sword Kings of the Transformation Realm attacking a group that didn’t even have a few Sword Venerables was, frankly, like adults bullying children.

However, Xu Ji and his son, both true soldiers, were gritting their teeth as if they bore a deep-seated hatred for these men. Wherever their blades passed, severed limbs flew through the air!

Barely a scream was heard; almost everyone caught within the range of the father and son’s attacks died on the spot.

”What... what is happening?” Luo Xinlan stared at the scene, dumbfounded.

The two warring factions finally realized that these two men, like a pair of Gods of Slaughter, intended to annihilate every last one of them right here.

Forgetting everything else, they scattered and fled in a mad panic. In less time than it takes to burn an incense stick, not a single person was left.

On Vermilion Bird Avenue, in front of the National Guardian Grand General’s Mansion, lay several hundred mangled corpses. Fresh blood had dyed the entire street red.

”Don’t say a word. Pack immediately. Take only the most important things; abandon everything else! Summon all the Household Generals, summon Qianlong, summon the old guard of the Xu Family! The two of us are going to rescue people. You must have all of this done before we get back!” Xu Ji instructed his wife rapidly. After so many years of marriage, he trusted that Luo Xinlan would be able to do it.

”What exactly happened?” Luo Xinlan asked. ”You have to tell me what’s going on, otherwise how can I do what you’ve commanded!”

”The Sixth Prince and Huangfu Haoyue launched a coup. Huangfu Haoyue has four Transformation Realm Powerhouses by his side; they’re incredibly strong. After they killed the Emperor and Empress, they killed the Crown Prince. But then Huangfu Haoyue suddenly turned on his partner and stabbed the Sixth Prince to death...”

Xu Su quickly recounted the events from the side. ”That’s the gist of it,” he said. ”Originally, Huangfu Haoyue was colluding with the Sixth Prince in secret, but who would’ve thought Huangfu Haoyue would actually kill the Sixth Prince... When Qianlong’s people told Father and me, we could hardly believe it. Huangfu Haoyue is incredibly scheming and deep. If Qianlong hadn’t had agents hidden in the palace, we would have all been deceived by him!”

Luo Xinlan nodded blankly. Knowing the course of events left her even more bewildered than she had been in her ignorance.

”The Sixth Prince... is Huangfu Chongxiao? That Prince always seemed so sharp and clever. How could he do something so foolish?” Luo Xinlan couldn’t help but shake her head and mutter. Immediately after, she composed herself and began to methodically carry out Xu Ji’s instructions.

As the wife of the Xu Family, a great military house with a legacy passed down through generations, she certainly possessed that much self-control.

...

The first place Xu Ji and his son rushed to was the Champion Marquis’s Mansion, also located on Vermilion Bird Avenue.

The poor Champion Marquis Xu Zhongtian. A hero his entire life, a veteran of a hundred battles, he didn’t die on the battlefield, but was instead assassinated by a villain, dying at the hands of his own countrymen.

What made Xu Ji and his son’s hearts ache even more was that the Champion Marquis’s branch of the Xu Family currently lacked a single male heir to serve as its pillar.

Xu Luo’s sworn brother, Xu Jie, had disappeared without a trace after fleeing an arranged marriage and leaving the Imperial Capital. In contrast, the girl from the Liu Family, Liu Ruyu, was loyal and true. She had stayed behind to serve her would-be mother-in-law, acting as a daughter-in-law without a single complaint.

Now that Xu Zhongtian was dead, his family was surely in a panic. Considering the friendship between their families that spanned generations, from fathers to sons, Xu Ji had to ensure the safety of everyone in the Champion Marquis’s Mansion, both for Xu Zhongtian’s and Xu Jie’s sake.

However, to the great surprise of both Xu Ji and his son Xu Su, the attackers hadn’t even managed to breach the main gate of the Champion Marquis’s Mansion!

A seemingly frail and delicate woman in a white dress stood at the main gate of the Champion Marquis’s Mansion. Each time the elite soldiers lunged at her, she would casually flick her sleeve, her movements the picture of elegance.

Yet these soldiers, men whom even Xu Ji considered elites, were sent flying backward by the woman’s fly-swatting-like motions, landing in a dizzy, disoriented heap.

”Is... is that Liu Ruyu?” Xu Su said in astonishment. ”How could she possibly know martial arts? What’s more... a group of elite soldiers with the strength of Great Sword Masters can’t even get near her... This... how is this possible?”

’That girl from the Liu Family is a hidden master...’ Xu Ji thought. ’Her only weakness is that she’s too soft-hearted. She doesn’t have the heart to kill. Otherwise, this problem would’ve been solved long ago!’

However, this was clearly not the time to satisfy their curiosity. Xu Ji and his son, Xu Su, exchanged a glance of tacit understanding and charged directly at the group of elite soldiers.

To be honest, if they had a choice, the father-son duo would never have wanted to attack these men, who were true soldiers.

For they themselves were true soldiers of the Empire.

But they knew better. Although these men were soldiers, they had long been trained by the Sixth Prince to be his Death Warriors. They were loyal only to the Sixth Prince and would never obey another’s command. If they couldn’t be suppressed with bloody slaughter, getting them to leave would be impossible.

SCHLICK! SCHLICK! SCHLICK!

With two Transformation Realm Powerhouses striking at once, the result was easy to imagine. Instantly, seven or eight men had their bodies blasted to pieces, flesh and blood flying everywhere.