Great Li Martial God

On the roof of the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion.

Li Musheng glanced down, saw the person the silver-haired elderly man had sent riding off on horseback, and gave a slight nod, saying to himself, ”Two sons killed one after another. If the Peak Master of Hundred Refinements Peak does not come in person to take revenge, that would be somewhat difficult to explain.”

Li Musheng had not particularly intended to pay attention to the martial artists from the City Master’s residence below, but the moment those words left his mouth, the silver-haired elderly man below suddenly felt something at the edge of his hearing, and immediately snapped his head up to look toward the roof of the pavilion.

The silver-haired elderly man caught sight of Li Musheng sitting on the ridgeline and froze for a moment, then his aura immediately surged upward, and he demanded in a sharp voice, ”Who are you?”

Hearing this, Li Musheng let out a sigh.

...

A short while later, the silver-haired elderly man and more than a dozen of the City Master’s residence’s martial artists were all dead.

...

Hundred Refinements Peak.

The dark mountain rose in strange, jagged formations, its rock faces craggy and precipitous, fierce and imposing in the night.One face of it was a sheer cliff of a thousand yards, wrapped in massive iron chains, and on its smooth surface the four gilded ancient characters for ”Hundred Refinements Becomes Peak” glowed with faint luminescence in the darkness.

On the other face, midway up the mountain, halls and buildings stood in ordered rows, with countless exquisite chambers and courtyards layered together in a scene of flourishing prosperity.

At that moment, Hundred Refinements Peak from top to bottom was decorated with lanterns, lanterns hung in every direction across the peak, blazing as brightly as daylight.

At that point, a young woman drenched in sweat came riding hard on a horse and came to an abrupt stop before the towering mountain gate archway.

Without bothering with the proper ceremonial greetings for entering the mountain, she threw herself off the horse and called out urgently, ”Something has happened to the young city master!”

The Hundred Refinements Peak disciples guarding the mountain gate had been about to lash out with their whips in reprimand at the woman’s lack of propriety, but the moment they heard that something had happened to the young city master, they immediately stopped and said with a sharp, frowning demand, ”What has happened?”

”The young... city master... has been killed!”

The Hundred Fragrance Pavilion courtesan said between heaving breaths, and at those words the disciples guarding the mountain gate immediately went pale.

They urgently questioned the courtesan for the full account of what had happened, and then rushed away quickly.

After that, the matter was reported up through each successive level, until it eventually reached the First Wife of Hundred Refinements Peak’s Peak Master.

Upon hearing that her own son had been killed, the First Wife was overwhelmed with grief and fury at the same time. She immediately had someone inform Zheng Yunfeng of the matter, while simultaneously summoning the peak’s senior martial artists to accompany her as she set out at once for Hundred Refinements City.

”With the Peak Master’s great birthday at hand, the Peak Master should not leave the mountain. How dare someone kill my son? I will personally grind his bones to dust and scatter them to the wind!”

The First Wife was a woman of dignified and aristocratic bearing, with a full head of white hair, yet at that moment her eyes were red-rimmed and dried tear tracks marked her creased face.

Zheng Zi had been born to her in middle age, and she had doted on him from childhood. Now she had lived to send a son to his grave before his time, and how could that not drive her to grief and madness?

Very shortly, the First Wife of Hundred Refinements Peak set out in a carriage, bringing two Enforcement Hall elders and a group of skilled disciples down the mountain, driving hard through the cool darkness of the night directly toward Hundred Refinements City.

At the same time, at the very peak of the thousand-yard cliff face of Hundred Refinements Peak, a small courtyard built from iron and stone stood on the misty summit above the clouds.

The courtyard’s iron gate was sealed shut. There were no lights, no sign of any person, and not a single flower or blade of grass anywhere around it.

Before long, a shadowy figure drifted silently up to the courtyard, revealing an elderly man in black robes with a stooped and hunched frame.

But the old man stopped only at the foot of the grey stone steps before the courtyard gate, bowed where he stood, and remained there rigidly without making a sound and without stepping forward.

After a while, a voice full of vital energy came from within the courtyard, ”What brings Elder Wu to the Peak Master’s door at this late hour?”

The elderly man in black robes immediately folded his hands in a bow toward the courtyard before him and said plainly and without elaboration, ”Zheng Zi has been killed at the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion. The killer has specifically demanded that the Peak Master come in person to take revenge. However, the First Wife has already taken people and set out for Hundred Refinements City.”

Hearing this, the small courtyard fell suddenly silent.

Faintly visible, the clouds and mist wreathing the thousand-yard cliff began to turn and swirl at a visible rate, and a wind seemed to be rising across the entire Hundred Refinements Peak.

Then the voice of the Peak Master Zheng Yunfeng came from the courtyard again. No emotion could be heard in it at all. ”At this time when so much is pressing on Falling God Peak, the Great Li court, whatever courage they have found, has decided in haste within less than a month to launch an attack on our sect.”

”That Zi should meet with misfortune at such a time is almost certainly connected to the Great Li court.”

Hearing this, the elderly man in black robes looked up at the courtyard for a moment, saying, ”The Peak Master’s assessment is correct. The young city master died without cause, and this matter must be laid at the feet of the Great Li court.”

The voice within the courtyard suddenly let out a sigh, and high above the cliff peak, the cloud layer pressing low rumbled with a faint distant thunder.

”My birthday is nearly upon me, which should have been a joyous occasion. Now I bear the pain of losing a son, and I have no heart for it whatsoever.”

Zheng Yunfeng’s voice was extremely cold, and the elderly man in black robes on the stone steps immediately lowered his head in a deep bow, saying, ”Would this old one go personally and capture the culprit alive, to be returned to the Peak Master for his own handling?”

At those words, Zheng Yunfeng continued mildly, ”That will not be necessary. Leave the matter in the First Wife’s hands.”

”What the Peak Master means is for Elder Wu to go himself. Every person in Hundred Refinements City who has any connection to the Great Li court, without leaving a single one, is to be killed without mercy.”

The elderly man in black robes stirred slightly, raised his eyes just barely, then immediately replied, ”This old one receives the command, and will use the lives of the court’s dogs to bring some consolation to the young city master in the next world.”

With that, he did not linger on the stone steps, but bowed and stepped back three paces, and then his figure vanished from the summit of the cliff.

After the elderly man in black robes had gone, the small courtyard that had fallen silent again was suddenly filled with a woman’s voice, ”Brother Zheng, my condolences.”

Only the voice was heard. No person could be seen.

Hearing this, Zheng Yunfeng, who sat cross-legged on a stone rush cushion within the courtyard, did not open his eyes or speak, his entire form wreathed in threads of golden True Qi that concealed his true appearance. After a moment, he asked, ”What brings Martial Sister here from Jade Wave Peak?”

The voices of the two of them were confined within the iron-gated courtyard, and outside the courtyard there was not a sound.

”The Great Li Tianjin Guards is attacking four of Falling God Peak’s peaks in four separate thrusts, and Jade Wave Peak, which this one oversees, is among them.”

The woman’s voice floated lightly through the air, saying, ”As this one has come to understand it, the Tianjin Guards Commander Fu Qiwen has invited the previous Commander of the Great Li Tianjin Guards to join them, and it is this person who is leading the assault on Jade Wave Peak.”

Hearing this, Zheng Yunfeng, wrapped in his golden True Qi, seemed to open his eyes and fix his gaze on a particular empty patch of air in the courtyard, saying, ”Could it be that Martial Sister fears she is not a match for this person, and has come to ask for my assistance?”

At the patch of empty air, True Qi threads continued to gather invisibly, and then a woman’s voice drifted through, saying, ”This one does not fear this person. Rather, he has not long to live, and his willingness to act for Fu Qiwen at this time is almost certainly driven by a wish to die.”

”He intends to take this one down with him. This one has no wish to spend herself in a fight to the death with him for no reason.”