Firmament Sword

”Hahahaha! You’ve left my Fang Family without an heir, yet you ask such a naive question? Rest assured, I won’t kill you today. I’m taking you alive! I’ll hand you over to my nephew from the Fang Family and let him dispose of you himself!” Huitong snarled, letting out a sharp, chilling cackle.

”If that’s the case, then there’s nothing more to say.” Luo Xinlan sighed. ”From this day forward, I sever all ties with the Luoshui Nunnery. We are finished!”

”You little bitch, time to die!” Huitong completely ignored Luo Xinlan’s words. In her eyes, Luo Xinlan was little more than an ant, someone she could capture with ease.

BANG!

Huitong’s body was sent flying backward. The savage sneer was still frozen on her face, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.

The crowd from Luoshui Nunnery behind Huitong were all dumbfounded. They could have wracked their brains and never guessed that a magical elixir known as a Blood Pill existed in this world.

The Luo Xinlan of today was no longer the woman they once knew!

While she was no match for the Transformation Realm Powerhouses surrounding Huangfu Haoyue, in the wider world, she—along with Xu Ji and Xu Su—had already become a peerless master.

”Go. I don’t want to make things difficult for you.” Luo Xinlan looked at her former sect sisters, a pang of pain in her heart. ’I have no grudge against them. If it weren’t for the He Fang Hall, how would things have ever reached this point?’

The women from Luoshui Nunnery retreated in silence. They too understood the full story behind this conflict.

Seeing that Luo Xinlan had grown so powerful she was almost unrecognizable and made them tremble with fear, what point was there in staying? Someone hoisted up Huitong—who had been severely wounded and knocked unconscious by a single blow—and they all quickly vanished into the boundless night.

Luo Xinlan let out a soft sigh. ”Let’s go!”

The slaughter raged on amidst the clash of steel. Arrows rained down, and the twang of bowstrings was incessant.

Men fell, only to be constantly replaced by more.

On this path, both sides suffered innumerable casualties.

At last, Sui Yan and Liu Feng fought their way back with their men. The East Gate of the Imperial Capital was finally under their control!

The members of the great families had suffered disastrous losses. In wave after wave of raining arrows, many of the elderly, women, and children fell, never to rise again.

The private armies of the various families were nearly annihilated. It wasn’t that they were loyal enough to fight to the death without retreating, but that there was simply no way out!

Who knew how long Huangfu Haoyue had plotted for this day? His machinations probably began the very moment he set foot in the Imperial Capital!

Or perhaps even earlier!

Attacking the unprepared with a prepared force, even a Military God like Xu Ji was bound to suffer a catastrophic blow!

Xu Su watched in a panic as his father was steadily beaten back in the sky by his opponent. He wanted to rush up and help, but Xu Ji’s furious roar stopped him.

”Protect our family! Don’t worry about me! If you don’t, I’ll disown you! Xu Su, you’re a soldier! Obey your orders!”

With his eyes red-rimmed, Xu Su led the Hidden Dragon Army to crush and scatter Yuan Jing’s forces. He then had no choice but to obey his father’s command and fight his way toward his mother, Luo Xinlan, to regroup with her party.

It was a sleepless night. Rivers of blood flowed through the Imperial Capital, and the stench of gore filled the air. The slaughter lasted for the better part of the night.

The wide road leading to the East City Gate was almost completely stained crimson with blood. Countless people lay dead in pools of it.

By the time they finally fought their way out of the East Gate, the first light of dawn was breaking on the eastern horizon.

Filled with grief and fury, Luo Xinlan and Xu Su glanced back at the Imperial Capital, tears streaming down their faces.

They both knew in their hearts that Xu Ji... was likely doomed.

That outcome had been all but certain from the moment Xu Ji made his decision.

Huangfu Haoyue might let them escape, but he would never let Xu Ji go free.

Because only Xu Ji could command the loyalty of all the armies in Cangqiong.

To control Xu Ji was to control the entire Cangqiong Military!

”Go! To the fief! We’ll rendezvous with the Eldest Prince!” Luo Xinlan ordered, her face streaked with tears.

By now, every great family had lost more than half of its people.

Fortunately, the core members of each family were still unharmed.

Tears streamed down Liu Xuan’s face as he gazed toward the Imperial Capital. During the fighting, a member of the Liu Family who had previously left the Grand General’s Mansion had stumbled before him, drenched in blood. He told Liu Xuan that all those who had left were ambushed and massacred. He alone, with the power of a Tier Three Sword Venerable, had managed to fight his way out to bring the news.

After delivering his message, the man died.

In a single night, the Liu Family—a renowned family of scholars in the Cangqiong Empire—had been exterminated, save for Liu Xuan’s own branch.

Champion Marquis Xu Zhongtian was dead. More than half of the Champion Marquis’s family was dead or wounded.

Mighty Grand General Sui Wanli was dead. More than half of the Sui Clan Members were dead or wounded.

The National Guardian General King Xu Family had few clan members to begin with. But their private guard—a group of iron-willed veterans who had earned great distinction on the battlefield, yet willingly lived in obscurity as mere servants in the Xu Mansion—had lost more than half their number.

Of the twelve hundred soldiers led by Little Fatty Liu Feng and Sui Yan, only a little over five hundred remained after they broke out of the city.

The gang members who followed Guo Ying were almost completely wiped out, with fewer than a hundred surviving.

Their families, too, were nearly all dead or wounded.

It wasn’t that they were left unprotected due to their low status. Rather, when faced with a rain of arrows as thick as a plague of locusts, survival came down to either luck... or sheer power.

The unit with the fewest casualties was Xu Su’s Hidden Dragon Army. As expected of the Royal Family’s final trump card, they were undoubtedly the most elite force in all of Cangqiong.

The road ahead was destined to be perilous, and their survival would depend almost entirely on the Hidden Dragon Army.

”Let’s go,” Guo Ying said, tears streaming down her face. ”One day, we will settle this score.” Before this night, none of them could have imagined an outcome so difficult to bear.

It was all a senseless catastrophe!

”Gang Leader, once you’re in the Jianghu, your fate is not your own,” a surviving gang member comforted Guo Ying in a low voice. ”We live on the edge of a blade, day to day. Just surviving is a blessing. Sooner or later, we’ll make them pay it all back, with interest.”

Xia Muyao also comforted Guo Ying in a soft voice.

This night had shown the young business prodigy the true meaning of cruelty. The intellect she had always relied on seemed pale and powerless in the face of such bloody slaughter. ’I used to secretly mock Guo Ying for having muscle but no brains,’ she thought, ’but now I see how absurdly wrong I was.’

In this world, without the power to protect yourself, even the most brilliant mind was nothing but fish on a chopping block, waiting to be carved up.

...

Huangfu Haoyue sat in the Imperial Study, which had once belonged to Huangfu Haoran. Before him rested a cup of red wine from the Western Domain. In the White Jade Nightlight Cup, the scarlet liquid glowed like fresh blood, radiant and lustrous.

Huangfu Haoyue gently swirled the cup, a knowing smile playing on his lips.

In the Imperial Study, besides Huangfu Haoyue, stood six other men. Three were the Transformation Realm Powerhouses who had participated in the palace coup; the other three had never been seen before.

Judging by the attitude of the three Powerhouses from the coup, these three newcomers seemed to hold an even higher status.

Just then, there was a knock at the door of the Imperial Study, and a young man entered.

The young man was quite obese, yet his movements were surprisingly light. He entered without a single stray glance, bowed deeply to Huangfu Haoyue, and reported, ”Master, everything is under control.”

Had Xu Ji or any of his allies seen this young man, they would have been stunned. For this was none other than Wang Ziweng, the eldest son of Wang Moxuan—one of the Nine Ministers and the head of the Ministry of Revenue!

No one knew when Wang Ziweng—or rather, the Wang Family, one of the top noble houses of the Cangqiong Empire—had thrown in their lot with Huangfu Haoyue.

But judging from Wang Ziweng’s attitude, the Wang Family had likely sided with Huangfu Haoyue long ago—or more accurately, with the sect backing him!

This invisible net had been cast long ago, yet no one had noticed.

”Oh, excellent.” Huangfu Haoyue beamed at Wang Ziweng. ”You and your father’s contributions to this success are undeniable. Rest assured, once the situation has stabilized, I will recommend you to the Dubhe Sect. I can’t promise you’ll become the Sect Leader’s Direct Disciple, but becoming an Elder’s Direct Disciple is a certainty...”

With that, Huangfu Haoyue glanced at the others in the room and chuckled. ”What do you say, Elders?”

The men all chuckled. One of them said, ”A trivial matter. Young Master Wang’s innate talent may be average, but our sect has no shortage of Spirit Medicines. I can’t promise the highest realms, but reaching the Transformation Realm before the age of forty? A piece of cake!”

A look of ecstatic surprise spread across Wang Ziweng’s pudgy face. He immediately dropped to his knees and declared in a solemn voice, ”Ziweng... is willing to serve you with my life, Master!”

”Rise. You have performed a great service. I reward merit and punish failure. A clear system of rewards and punishments is the mark of a true ruler,” Huangfu Haoyue said coolly.

”However, there was a slight mishap during Xu Ji’s capture. He almost escaped,” Wang Ziweng said quietly as he rose to his feet.

”Hmm?” Huangfu Haoyue raised an eyebrow. ”Xu Ji only just broke through to the Transformation Realm. How could he possibly escape from Elder Liao?”

The others in the room also looked surprised.

Wang Ziweng explained, ”Xu Ji was naturally no match for Elder Liao. But Zhou Liang, the Dean of the True Martial Academy, suddenly intervened. It turns out his strength had also broken through to the Transformation Realm, and he fought to the death to help Xu Ji escape.”

”That old fool... I had forgotten about him,” Huangfu Haoyue said coldly.

Wang Ziweng continued, ”Fortunately, Elder Liao displayed his divine might, killed Zhou Liang, and captured Xu Ji alive!”

”Good riddance,” Huangfu Haoyue said with a sneer. ”I originally planned to give him a chance to see reason and join us. Since he didn’t appreciate the gesture, his death is of no consequence. The True Martial Academy must not be left in the hands of someone who is not one of us.”