Great Li Martial God

With both Mu Qingxia and Mei Yan in hand, there was no one left in the Mei estate who could stand in Hu Rui’an’s way.

Under the control of the Life and Death Talisman, Mei Yan could offer no resistance and spoke without reservation, disclosing everything, things he should say and things he should not say alike.

As deployment orders issued personally by Mei Yan went out from the Mei estate one after another, the Tianjin Guards within the city began to move, setting out through the night toward Lan Province.

The Tianjin Guards in other cities and towns throughout Sheng Province would receive the orders by falcon messenger in turn and act according to Mei Yan’s commands.

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At the garrison of the Sheng Province army, atop a tall watchtower, a figure of a man past fifty stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

The night was dark as ink, and the wind howled all around him.

The man wore a plain dark robe, its hem snapping in the wind. No military blade hung at his waist, only a bronze tiger seal.

His gaze was like a blade cutting through the darkness before him, driving straight toward the lights of the city in the distance.

At that moment, a figure came racing out of the darkness, scaled the watchtower lightly, and dropped to one knee behind him, saying, ”General, the Yuan, Zhu, and Cen families have all been destroyed and set ablaze. The Bai family is unlikely to escape the same fate.”The very instant those words fell, Han Cuiyuan’s gaze shifted toward the direction of the Bai estate, where a sky-reaching blaze suddenly erupted, lighting that entire part of the night sky a deep, brilliant red.

The bronze bells hanging from the eaves of the watchtower rang softly in the wind. Across Han Cuiyuan’s face, as cold and hard as cast iron, an unusual expression passed briefly.

Then he reached into his robe and drew out a yellow silk message scroll, then flicked it with his hand. The scroll flew toward the kneeling figure, who caught it.

”Leave the city tonight and deliver this to the imperial palace in the capital.”

Han Cuiyuan’s voice was calm, but the figure in the darkness hesitated for a moment and said, ”General, that person destroyed the four great families in so short a time. It must be on account of the Murong family, and her strength is beyond imagining. We should withdraw now and avoid the edge of her blade.”

Hearing this, Han Cuiyuan said nothing, his gaze resting on the direction of the four great families within the city.

At that moment, a night owl swept past the battlements, its wingbeats lifting Han Cuiyuan’s robe, sending the tiger seal at his waist swaying gently, and in the dead silence of the night it struck out a ringing sound like the clash of steel on a battlefield.

Han Cuiyuan let out a sudden sigh and said, ”Look carefully. The Murong family, once the foremost martial household in Sheng Province, is gone. The four great martial families are now seas of fire.”

He glanced back at the figure in the darkness and said, ”Who do you think is the greatest winner in all of Sheng Province tonight?”

The figure in the darkness was silent for a moment, then said with a bow, ”Naturally it is you, General. From this night forward there is no martial world power in all of Sheng Province that can stand against us. If you take over the assets of the five great families tomorrow, from then on all of Sheng Province answers to you alone.”

Hearing this, a meaningful smile crossed Han Cuiyuan’s face, and he slowly turned his head away, saying quietly, ”You are wrong about that. I have spent my life on the battlefield and in warfare. I have my private interests, but I have never been ambitious. I have never once thought of controlling Sheng Province.”

The figure in the darkness furrowed its brow, and at that, Han Cuiyuan waved a hand, saying, ”Go.”

Hearing this, the figure glanced at Han Cuiyuan’s back and asked, ”You are not leaving, General?”

Han Cuiyuan shook his head slowly, saying, ”Everything that needed to be done has been done. I have never in my life fled from the field of battle. A general falls amid a hundred battles. Whoever it is, however strong they may be, nothing in this world could ever make me retreat a single step.”

At those words, the figure in the darkness paused briefly, but in the end said no more, bowing and saying, ”I will carry out your charge, General.”

With that the figure swayed and descended from the watchtower, then disappeared into the night.

Only then did Han Cuiyuan turn his head slightly and look in the direction of the city gate.

There, a band of people disguised as an escort were quietly and swiftly leading a group of women, children, and elderly out of the city under cover of darkness.

After a long while, Han Cuiyuan slowly withdrew his gaze and looked toward the sky-filling flames blazing in the city below.

”It has always been my way to strike others down. Sitting and waiting for death is not how I do things.”

Killing intent flooded Han Cuiyuan’s eyes, and in the next instant he shot into the air. The terrifying True Qi radiating from his body drove straight down into the watchtower beneath him, crushing it into rubble and sending it crashing apart.

Han Cuiyuan stood suspended in the night air and reached out his hand.

In an instant, a thundering metallic resonance erupted from a hall below, and then a streak of blue-green light pierced straight through the roof of the hall and flashed into Han Cuiyuan’s hand in an instant.

Han Cuiyuan glanced at the spear in his hand, and in the next moment his figure vanished, driving straight toward the Bai estate with murderous intent.

Murong Xiaoya, who had been heading toward the Han estate, seemed to sense something. In the darkness of the night she stopped her advance, turning her head to look to one side.

A flash of cold intent crossed her bright eyes. Her figure shifted and was gone.

”Han Cuiyuan!”

Her clear, cold voice rang out from above, and Han Cuiyuan, driving toward the Bai estate with killing intent, snapped his head upward.

He wasted no words. He stepped out through the air, his figure like a bolt of black lightning tearing through the sky.

Then the spear in his hand, wreathed in blue-gold radiance from end to end, suddenly thrust forward. In an instant the cold light at its tip blazed up and pierced through the darkness, as though it could bore through mountains themselves, carrying limitless killing intent, its edge without equal.

With that thrust, the spear surged out like an azure dragon breaking free into the world. Before the tip even arrived, the air ahead was already compressed into rolling shockwaves, and as it passed, the True Qi of heaven and earth all around was swept up in the spear’s momentum and whipped into a vortex that sought to grind everything in its path to nothing.

Murong Xiaoya’s figure appeared in the air above. Red-gold fire markings flowed across her skin, the Vermilion Bird phantom flickering into half-existence behind her back. As the twin wings spread open, they scattered a sky full of flowing fire.

Facing the fearsome spear light driving toward her through the air, Murong Xiaoya’s expression did not change. She simply extended a finger and pressed it downward.

A thunderous crash rang out.

A line of fire erupted from her fingertip and collided with the spear tip in an instant. A blinding burst of crimson and blue-green exploded outward, and the shockwave engulfed the entire space for a hundred yards in every direction.

And right at that moment, the momentum of Han Cuiyuan’s spear suddenly changed. The Blue-Gold Coiling Dragon Spear split in an instant into hundreds and thousands of phantom images, each one solidifying into substance, each driving a point of blue-green light, weaving together into a vast net of slaughter.

In that moment, the blazing space around them cracked and fractured in every direction, as though it could not endure the extremity of that edge.

Murong Xiaoya’s expression remained without feeling. The Vermilion Bird phantom swept a wing downward through the air, and the surrounding space twisted and seethed. The so-called net of slaughter dissolved without a sound beneath a flash of red-gold fire.

The Blue-Gold Coiling Dragon Spear in Han Cuiyuan’s hand warped silently, the spear’s body turning red and glowing, and then it melted into threads of red-hot liquid that streamed downward through the air.

Seeing this, Han Cuiyuan’s eyes showed a look of shock. Murong Xiaoya’s black robes snapped in the air around her, the space at her sides burning and twisting and collapsing inward, already becoming a terrifying vortex.

She looked at Han Cuiyuan and said slowly, ”It is time for you to die.”

The moment those words fell, a flash of fire streaked through the molten streams of liquid below, entered Han Cuiyuan’s body, and began burning from his arms outward, spreading through the rest of him in every direction.