Great Li Martial God

Li Musheng did not even glance at Mei Yan and his wife, and simply asked casually, ”What does Commissioner Hu think should be done with them?”

Hearing this, Hu Rui’an was quiet for a brief moment. His gaze swept over Mei Yan, whose eyes had gone blank from the torment, and Mu Qingxia, still held in place, and then he said with a pondering expression, ”Mei Yan’s position is a delicate one. He is the Queen’s own younger brother, a true member of the imperial family by marriage, and Mu Qingxia is the beloved daughter of Mu Tianxing, the Martial Saint of Yuming Mountain. This matter is without question extremely difficult to handle.”

Hearing this, Li Musheng raised an eyebrow, ”Difficult to handle?”

Then he waved a hand, saying, ”If it is difficult to handle, then do not handle it.”

At those words, Hu Rui’an’s expression froze, and then he looked at Li Musheng with considerable unease. Seeing that Li Musheng was busy playing with the black cat on the ground and did not seem displeased, he ventured carefully, ”Leaving the matter aside is indeed not a bad choice. Though Mei Yan has already admitted to his collusion with Falling God Peak, to dispatching the Tianjin Guards to help Falling God Peak slaughter villages and towns, and to defying and obstructing the court’s orders, with the involvement behind all of this connecting to the First Prince’s own ties to Falling God Peak as well...”

Partway through, Hu Rui’an found he could no longer continue. Everything he had just listed was enough to bring the complete extermination of Mei Yan’s entire household.

Yet because of the identities of the husband and wife, and certain presences connected to them behind the scenes, he found from the bottom of his heart that he truly did not dare touch any of it.

At that point, seeing Hu Rui’an stop, Li Musheng looked up at him, saying, ”I imagine Commissioner Hu has misunderstood me. When I said do not handle it, I meant do not waste time on this matter. Kill them and be done with it.”

He scratched the large black cat on the head and said, ”After tonight, we leave first thing tomorrow morning. Who has time to deal with these things?”

At those words, Hu Rui’an blinked, turned to look at Mei Yan and his wife, then looked back at Li Musheng, saying, ”Kill them? But...”At that moment, Mei Yan and Mu Qingxia, who had heard every word, both changed expression sharply. Even Mei Yan, whose eyes had been blank and vacant, seemed to suddenly snap back to awareness and began struggling in terror, ”No... the Queen is my...”

But before he could finish, a set of sharp claws settled against his throat and drew across it in a single motion.

Mei Yan’s windpipe was cut clean open. Blood poured out in a torrent, filling his airway, and though he struggled to speak he could only produce a wet, gurgling sound.

The large black cat let out a meow and immediately leaped back from Mei Yan’s side, as though worried the blood would splash onto its fur.

The people around them all stared for a moment. Hu Rui’an watched Mei Yan, eyes bulging wide, breathing in more than he breathed out, and his own eyelid twitched.

The life was draining from him rapidly, and very shortly he went still.

The Deputy Commander of a prefecture’s Tianjin Guards, a martial artist of Heaven-Human level cultivation, had died in such an ignominious fashion beneath a large cat’s claws. The scene was almost too absurd to be believed.

At that point the large black cat returned to Li Musheng’s side, rubbing against his robe and circling around him twice in what seemed to be an attempt to ingratiate itself.

Li Musheng shook his head and glanced at Hu Rui’an, saying, ”I said this cat was unusual. It kills so cleanly.”

Shen Anran, Wu Shang, and the others all wore strange expressions.

A cat that could kill was not merely unusual. It was downright horrifying.

”Your Highness, this cat must have some connection to those of divine nature. They are surely controlling it from the shadows.”

Wu Shang gave the large black cat a wary glance and spoke up quickly to warn Li Musheng.

Cheng Zhong also added, ”I keep feeling this cat understands everything we say. Keeping it around may be asking for trouble.”

Hearing this, the large black cat looked up. Those green eyes turned toward Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong, then narrowed slightly.

Then it raised its paw and gave a few deliberate scratches at the ground, in a manner that looked very much like a warning, as though to say that if the two of them kept speaking ill of it, they would end up like Mei Yan.

”Enough. It is just a cat. With me here, what trouble could it possibly cause?”

Li Musheng patted the large black cat on the head.

The cat immediately retracted its claws, let out several meows, began purring, and rubbed its head against Li Musheng’s palm.

At those words, Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong exchanged a glance and said no more. Beside them, Shen Anran’s expression shifted subtly, and she thought to herself, ”I have not even touched His Highness yet, and this cat has already gotten there first.”

Having just watched her husband be killed by a cat, with the tacit approval of the whole group standing before her, Mu Qingxia was now beside herself with rage, her eyes bloodshot with grief and fury. But locked in place as she was, she could only watch it happen with nothing she could do.

At that moment Hu Rui’an turned and looked toward her, was silent for a moment, and then said slowly, ”In the past it was others who were the fish on the board while you were the blade. Did you ever stop to think that one day it would be reversed?”

He walked toward Mu Qingxia as he spoke, saying, ”Since your husband has already gone ahead, Lady Mu surely has no wish to live on alone. Allow me to send you on your way.”

With those words, Hu Rui’an drove his palm directly down onto the crown of Mu Qingxia’s head, and under her terrified gaze, struck her dead in a single blow.

Having done all of this, Hu Rui’an drew a long breath, then turned back with a deeply troubled expression, looking at Li Musheng who was still playing with the cat, and said, ”Your Highness, after today I have made a mortal enemy of the Martial Saint Mu Tianxing. Tearing me limb from limb will likely not be enough to satisfy his hatred.”

Hearing this, Li Musheng gave a slight shake of his head, saying, ”The way I see it, once word spreads that Commissioner Hu struck down the Martial Saint’s daughter with a single palm, the martial world will be shaken and your name will thunder throughout it.”

”If Lady Ruan of Zhanliu Manor hears of this, she will surely admire Commissioner Hu enormously.”

At those words, Hu Rui’an’s face immediately flushed red.

Beside him, Shen Anran pressed her lips together and said, ”In truth, only those of us here know what happened. If we do not let it out, no one will ever know it was my great-uncle’s doing.”

Hearing this, Wu Shang also said, ”Sir, there is no need to worry. The Mei family deserved what they got. Even if word does get out, we are in the right. At worst you stay in the capital afterward and do not venture out. I would imagine Mu Tianxing would not dare to openly defy the Great Li court.”

Cheng Zhong beside them gave a nod, and was just about to add something when he suddenly opened his mouth wide and spat.

A concentrated bolt of True Qi, sharp and cold, shot from his mouth in an instant, aimed straight at the center of Hu Rui’an’s brow.

Seeing this, Hu Rui’an’s expression changed sharply. He raised his hand and slapped toward the bolt of energy, and at the same time shouted harshly, ”Cheng Zhong, what are you doing?”

But in the next instant, the moment his palm, wrapped in True Qi, made contact with the bolt of energy, it suddenly erupted, and the terrifying force within it cracked his palm open.