Great Li Martial God

Li Musheng let out a laugh and reached out to pat the big black cat’s belly, saying, ”Whether you are a calculating cat or a cat full of hidden motives, as long as you are useful, you are a good cat.”

At those words, the big black cat’s green eyes spun around, and it immediately let out a flattering meow and rubbed its head against Li Musheng’s arm.

The look and the sound were as though saying it was absolutely a useful and good cat.

At that, Li Musheng gave the cat’s belly a rub, then lightly hooked his finger upward.

In the next instant, the big black cat immediately looked down, and saw a small lump forming from within its belly and pressing outward, then moving along its underside toward its mouth.

Very quickly, the big black cat felt something surge up in its throat.

It instinctively opened its mouth, and watched as a round ball of golden liquid flew out and sailed toward Li Musheng.

But in the moment it left the big black cat’s mouth, the golden liquid was still emitting a golden glow, which faded the instant it cleared the cat’s teeth.

By the time it arrived before Li Musheng, all luminescence was gone, and it had become an unremarkable little copper ball barely the size of a palm.

At that moment, the copper ball hung motionless in the air before Li Musheng. From the faint traces of tarnish still visible on its surface, it could just about be identified as the dissolved and recongealed form of the Hidden Kill Order.At the same time, both Shen Anran and Cao Gaoshan looked at the copper ball floating in the air with expressions of wonder.

”What is going on here? The Hidden Kill Order can dissolve and glow on its own, but only when it comes into contact with this cat. Could there be some connection between the two?”

Shen Anran caught the key issue at a glance. The unusual nature of the token’s reaction was startling enough, but the big black cat itself also seemed quite problematic.

At those words, the big black cat shot Shen Anran a sideways glance with a wary look, and immediately let out a sharp meow.

It seemed somewhat afraid of this woman saying something else unfavorable about it, something that might create friction between itself and Li Musheng.

At that point Li Musheng examined the copper ball for a moment, rubbed his chin, and said, ”This world truly has no shortage of strange things. But the stranger things are, the more the advantage falls to me.”

After all, Li Musheng was someone pursuing transcendence through the martial path. If this world of flourishing martial cultivation truly were as still as a dead pool with nothing surprising or unexpected in it, breaking free of its constraints would be, to put it plainly, a matter of having the will but not the means.

On the contrary, the more unusual things there were, the more opportunities there were for Li Musheng.

Opportunities might not always prove useful, but accumulated experience and knowledge of this world’s workings would undeniably help Li Musheng build toward truly comprehending and transcending the martial world he inhabited.

With that thought, Li Musheng drew his gaze from the copper ball and looked at the big black cat to one side, ”It seems this Hidden Kill Order and your cat have a certain affinity. Why not let me do you a good turn and simply give it to you?”

At those words, the big black cat’s eyes immediately lit up.

But very quickly it clearly thought of something, and immediately began shaking its head back and forth like a rattle drum, frantically refusing.

After all, something like the Hidden Kill Order, a great source of disaster that invited a death sentence, was far more than one cat could bear.

Li Musheng, seeing the cat capitulate so immediately, reached up and caught the copper ball floating in midair, then gave it a pull and a stretch and shaped it into a copper ring.

Right at that moment, Li Musheng had in fact quietly infused the copper ball with a trace of the divine power stored within himself.

But there had been no reaction from the copper ball whatsoever, which meant divine power was not what activated the Hidden Kill Order.

What truly interacted with the token was this big black cat.

This also led Li Musheng to sense that the person with divine nature behind this seemingly affectionate and clingy large cat might be somewhat unusual, and different from the Falling God Peak grandmaster and the four honored elders.

With that in mind, Li Musheng beckoned the big black cat over, then placed the shaped copper ring around its neck.

The big black cat looked down at the ring on its own chest. This time there was no burst of golden light and no dissolving, and it looked no different from an ordinary copper ring.

Seeing this, the big black cat curiously batted at it with a paw, but the ring again gave no reaction.

Then it raised its head and looked at Li Musheng, and Li Musheng narrowed his eyes and said, ”This thing is yours to keep for now. Just do not stray too far from me, or those Hidden Kill Pavilion assassins will have to settle for killing a cat instead.”

At those words, the big black cat instinctively shrank its neck back in. Then its eyes began to roll about, and it immediately pressed itself snugly against Li Musheng’s side, making clear it had no intention of going anywhere.

Li Musheng gave a small nod. This cat was something out of the ordinary, and before he had only kept it around for the pleasure of having something to pet.

But from now on, beyond serving that purpose, the big black cat also had new value as a subject of study.

It was worth keeping close and observing carefully. Perhaps some unexpected discoveries awaited.

Right at that moment, the big black cat seemed to sense the somewhat unusual quality in Li Musheng’s gaze, and its back instinctively went a little cold. But it could not work out what Li Musheng was thinking.

All it could do was let out a few flattering meows, as though hoping Li Musheng would take its good behavior into consideration and not entertain any strange ideas about it.

Li Musheng drew his gaze back. He had left a thread of his martial imprint on the ring formed from the Hidden Kill Order. As long as that imprint remained intact, the ring would always remain just a ring, incapable of becoming anything else.

After that, everything settled back to normal.

Only now the big black cat, rather than fiddling with the Hidden Kill Order, had turned its attention to poking and fussing with the copper ring around its neck.

And on the inside of the ring, invisible to the eye, tiny points of light occasionally blinked to life. But those points of light seemed to be held in check by something and could not spread outward, too dim to detect with the naked eye.

Having rested and attended to things, Li Musheng and the others left the small city’s tavern and continued on their way toward Shangyang City.

The entire tavern was still full of people discussing the destruction of Falling God Peak, and not a single person had realized that the Great Li Eighth Prince everyone was talking about so animatedly had been sitting right there beside them, this close.

Perhaps it was the closest any of them would ever be to Li Musheng in their entire lives.

With a faint whoosh, a barely perceptible sound of a blade cutting through the air rang out somewhere in the rowdy tavern.

And in the next moment, the rough-faced large man whose acupoints had been sealed earlier collapsed to the floor.

A short blade had passed clean through his heart, and as the shock faded from his eyes, so did the last of his life.

The entire tavern seemed as though no one had noticed. And yet it also seemed as though everyone had.

When a wall is falling, those nearby all push. With Falling God Peak destroyed, the martial world figures who had long endured its oppression would naturally take the chance to settle old scores.

Had the news been fully confirmed already, someone would likely have decapitated the large man without hesitation, spilling blood three feet high.

Such was the way of feuds and vengeance in the martial world. You kill me, I kill you. A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years.

...

The Primal Yin Origin Sect.

The mountain valley was cold and dark, shrouded in mist that never dispersed through the year, ringed on all sides by sheer cliffs and towering mountains, as though sunk at the bottom of a dim underground abyss.

At the center of the valley, a vast main hall of pure black stood silent and still. Before the hall, a sect-anchoring stone stele towered more than ten zhang high. On its face, the words ”Primal Yin God-Slaughter” were carved in seal script, and the stele’s surface emanated threads of bone-chilling cold that spread in all directions through the valley.

The current sect leader of the Primal Yin Origin Sect, the Dark Master of Primal Yin, sat at the head of the main hall. He stood eight chi tall, his hair and beard half-white, his black robes embroidered with the orbital patterns of the celestial sphere, and his face as still as moonlight on a cold pool.

Below his seat of honor sat five of the Primal Yin Origin Sect’s Supreme Elders.

All five were dressed in black robes, the symbol of the Primal Yin Stars stitched across their chests. Every one of them radiated a cold and ominous aura as deep as an ocean abyss.

”Dark Master, what has prompted this urgent summons? What is it you wish to discuss?”

One of the five Supreme Elders, a one-eyed elder known in the martial world as the ”Infernal King of Yin Darkness,” spoke slowly, his glass-eyed socket turned toward the Dark Master sitting at the head of the hall.

The other four Supreme Elders also opened their eyes slightly, all of them looking toward the Dark Master together.

At those words, the Dark Master propped his chin on one hand, resting it against the millennium cold-jade armrest, and his deep, still eyes swept slowly around the assembled elders.

He was visibly silent for a moment before speaking slowly, ”Falling God Peak has been destroyed.”

The Dark Master’s voice was somewhat soft and quiet. Yet falling on the ears of five Supreme Elders of unfathomable martial cultivation, it caused every one of them to lose their composure for just an instant.

Among the five Supreme Elders, the stooped old man known as the ”Ghost Elder of the Warden’s Hell,” with a black ice coffin nine chi tall standing upright behind him, radiated a cold so deep it dropped the temperature around him several degrees below even the other elders.

”When did this happen? And who acted?”

The Ghost Elder of the Warden’s Hell spoke in a chilling rasp, his clouded eyes fixed on the Dark Master, an unmistakable flicker of shock and disbelief surfacing in their depths.

At that point, one of the five Supreme Elders, a white-haired old woman with her hair wound in a high coil, let her expression shift, then spoke in a grave voice, ”Could it be that the Alliance Under Heaven made their move? Though this old one truly cannot imagine they would have the ability to destroy Falling God Peak.”

At those words, the Dark Master sitting at the head of the hall shook his head, ”Our honored elders have devoted themselves to cultivation and remain largely removed from worldly affairs. It is natural you would not know that several days ago the sect received word that the Great Li court’s Tianjin Guards had quietly moved against Falling God Peak.”

At those words, the Infernal King of Yin Darkness immediately furrowed his brow, ”If that is the case, are you saying it was the Great Li Tianjin Guards that destroyed Falling God Peak?”

But he quickly shook his head as well, ”No. That makes even less sense. What would the Tianjin Guards Commander, a figure of such modest standing in the martial world, be able to do against Falling God Peak’s four honored elders?”

The Dark Master let out a quiet sigh and waved a hand, ”There is no need to guess, honored uncle. The sect just received a report, and it was passed back by the Profound Yin Three Elders personally. The Great Li Tianjin Guards destroyed all nine peaks of Falling God Peak in a single night.”

”From this point on, the name Falling God Peak will exist no longer in the martial world.”

At those words, the entire hall went abruptly silent.

The Infernal King of Yin Darkness’s expression shifted rapidly, then settled into something dark and heavy, ”There must be an Emperor Yuanwu behind this, lending his personal assistance. Otherwise the Tianjin Guards alone could never have brought down Falling God Peak.”

As he said this, his glass eye fixed on the Dark Master, and he asked, ”Does the report say how many eunuch experts Emperor Yuanwu dispatched from the imperial palace this time? Did Zhuge the Divine Marquis, the Hidden Intelligence Bureau Director, or the Great Li Martial Preceptor make an appearance?”

At those words, the Dark Master looked at him and shook his head, ”No. None of the people honored uncle mentioned appeared among the Great Li Tianjin Guards.”

”Impossible!”

The Infernal King of Yin Darkness’s gaze darkened sharply, ”Then I would very much like to know. If Emperor Yuanwu did not act personally, how did the Great Li Tianjin Guards manage to destroy Falling God Peak, a sect whose strength is comparable to our own Primal Yin Origin Sect?”

At those words, the other four Supreme Elders in the hall all looked toward the Dark Master.

Clearly none of them could believe that the Great Li court had brought down one of the four top-tier martial world sects, a sect equal in name to the Primal Yin Origin Sect, with nothing more than the Tianjin Guards.

At that, faced with the gazes of the five Supreme Elders, the Dark Master’s brow furrowed slightly.

He seemed as though, even now, he had not entirely come to terms with what he was about to say.

Even so, after a moment of silence, the Dark Master finally spoke, ”According to the report, the Great Li Tianjin Guards was only able to destroy Falling God Peak because of one person.”

”As for that person’s identity, I too am hearing it for the first time. He is said to be an Eighth Prince, newly recognized by Emperor Yuanwu.”

”The Eighth Prince?”

The Ghost Elder of the Warden’s Hell spoke instinctively, and the other four Supreme Elders all went still as well.

Evidently five people who had largely withdrawn from worldly affairs had never once heard of any Eighth Prince among the Great Li imperial family.

And yet the Great Li Tianjin Guards had apparently relied on this prince who had appeared out of nowhere to destroy Falling God Peak.

Each of these two facts on its own was enough to upend everything they thought they understood.

The Dark Master naturally understood the five Supreme Elders’ confusion, and proceeded to give a general account of what he knew about Li Musheng.

”The Profound Yin Three Elders would not send back false information. As unbelievable as this sounds, it should be true.”

The Dark Master’s face showed no particular emotion, ”The reason I summoned all of you honored elders is on account of this matter. With Falling God Peak destroyed, the Great Li martial world’s four great sects have been reduced to three.”

”I need to discuss with all of you how the Primal Yin Origin Sect should position itself going forward.”

At that moment, the vast main hall was completely quiet, and not one of the five Supreme Elders said a word.

Their thoughts were still fixed on the Great Li Eighth Prince the Dark Master had mentioned.

”Not yet twenty years old, alone he cut down the Falling God Peak grandmaster and all four honored elders. Does such a person truly exist in this world?”

One of the Supreme Elders finally spoke.

All the earlier shock and disbelief seemed to have settled away. The words that came out now were remarkably quiet.

The others, including the Infernal King of Yin Darkness, were all silent, as though each was turning the same question over in their minds.

At that point the Dark Master narrowed his eyes and said, ”Whether we believe such a person exists is not the important thing. What is important is that such a person does in fact exist right now.”