Great Li Martial God

”The White King, deeply moved by the gratitude he owed the ancient savage beast White Tiger for saving his life, oversaw the construction of a city on this very spot after pacifying the Western Desert rebellion. This is none other than what is now White Emperor City.”

”Though the name White Emperor derives from the honorific title given to the savage beast White Tiger, there’s another version of the story as well. According to this legend, after the White King put down the rebellion, the Tianqi Emperor granted him the title of ’White Emperor’ and gave him White Emperor City as his fief, charging him to guard the Western Desert for the rest of his life.”

”This is why, in the words of later generations, the name ’White Emperor’ also refers to the Tianqi Emperor’s younger brother, the White King.”

...

Ah Xiu finished recounting the origin and history behind White Emperor City, but this clearly wasn’t what Li Musheng wanted to know. What he was actually more interested in was information about the ancient savage beast White Tiger.

Li Musheng glanced at Ah Xiu and waved a hand, ”Tell me about the Hidden Kill Pavilion and the savage beast White Tiger instead. That’s the actual reason I came to White Emperor City.”

By this point, Li Musheng’s group had arrived before the Muli River that encircled the oasis. The path leading into White Emperor City crossed a single wooden bridge spanning the river, the only way across for travelers.

Perhaps because of the upcoming discipleship gathering for that prodigy from White Emperor City, various factions from across the Western Desert, along with martial world figures who simply wanted to watch the spectacle, had been arriving in White Emperor City recently.

As a result, when Li Musheng’s group arrived near the Muli River, the area was far from quiet, with quite a number of people gathered to cross the river.

The martial world figures around them paid Li Musheng’s group little attention, since the group’s faces were unfamiliar to them, and even the three Yellow Spring Holy Lords among them, the Rakshasa, Blood Spring, and Ghost Prison Holy Lords, weren’t necessarily faces everyone would recognize on sight.

What was more, the three of them currently looked utterly disheveled and dust-covered, their true appearances nearly unrecognizable, identifiable only to those who knew them well.

At this point, Ah Xiu, having heard what Li Musheng said, turned to look at him, an unusual expression crossing her pretty face, ”It seems Your Highness, the future Pavilion Master of the Hidden Kill Pavilion, isn’t aware that the White King I just mentioned, who personally founded White Emperor City, was also the founder of the Hidden Kill Pavilion itself, its very first Pavilion Master in the organization’s history.”

At those words, Li Musheng’s eyebrow shot up. This particular detail, as Ah Xiu described it, was something he was genuinely hearing for the first time.

After all, back in the Great Li imperial capital, he had only met the current Pavilion Master of the Hidden Kill Pavilion briefly, and the conversation had never touched on the organization’s history. He genuinely had no idea about any of this.

At this point, Cang Yinyue, who had been listening to the exchange between Ah Xiu and Li Musheng, furrowed her fine brows and suddenly spoke up, ”The Hidden Kill Pavilion actually has this kind of connection to the Tianqi Emperor’s younger brother? Does that mean the Hidden Kill Pavilion is secretly part of the Great Qi remnants as well?”

At those words, Ah Xiu shook her head, ”From what I understand, the Hidden Kill Pavilion was established privately by the White King back then, and seems to have had no actual connection to the Great Qi dynasty. In fact, when Great Qi fell, the Hidden Kill Pavilion was even hired by what are now the five kingdoms to assassinate no small number of Great Qi’s own experts.”

As she said this, Ah Xiu paused briefly, then continued to Li Musheng, ”Even so, I’m not a member of the Hidden Kill Pavilion myself, so I don’t truly know their actual position on these matters. If Your Highness is interested, perhaps you might look into it yourself?”

Li Musheng’s expression turned thoughtful. The Hidden Kill Pavilion’s deep connection to the ancient savage beast White Tiger, and the legend that the White King himself had once shared a life-and-death bond with the White Tiger, suggested that if there truly was a connection between all three as Ah Xiu had described, it wouldn’t actually be too surprising.

Even so, this thought sparked something in Li Musheng’s mind, and he turned to Ah Xiu and asked, ”Xiu’er, hearing what you just said, a question has suddenly occurred to me. Does the Tomb of the White Emperor refer to the tomb of the ancient savage beast White Tiger, or the burial site of the White King who was granted the title of ’White Emperor’?”

At those words, Ah Xiu’s expression went briefly blank, but she quickly recovered.

She then hesitated for a moment before speaking, ”Legends concerning the Tomb of the White Emperor have circulated throughout the Western Desert for a very long time. But exactly where it is, and whose tomb it actually is, no one can say for certain, not even within White Emperor City itself.”

As she said this, Ah Xiu’s eyes settled on Li Musheng, ”Even so, based on what I’ve gathered through my own investigations over the years, I do have a theory. The Tomb of the White Emperor is very likely both the White King’s burial site and the resting place of the ancient savage beast White Tiger’s remains.”

At those words, Li Musheng glanced at Ah Xiu and raised an eyebrow, ”Xiu’er, that’s quite the clever theory. If that’s truly the case, then I don’t need to worry about whether or not to make the trip there at all.”

At those words, Ah Xiu’s eyelid twitched, ”This theory of mine isn’t pure speculation. It has its basis. The most obvious point is that the ancient savage beast White Tiger embodies the path of killing and slaughter, and the Hidden Kill Pavilion is similarly a path of killing.”

”And since the Hidden Kill Pavilion was founded by the White King, this leads to the inference that when the White King faced certain death back then, he very likely stumbled, by chance, into the resting place of the savage beast White Tiger’s remains, and from there obtained its legacy, which allowed him to turn the tide against the rebel forces’ top martial experts and emerge victorious against all odds.”

”And the tomb the White King built for himself was very likely located atop the savage beast White Tiger’s burial site as well. After all, the so-called Heaven-Sealed Earth-Bound Heavenly Martial Formation, said to be capable of sealing even a Martial God, was unable to do anything against that particular location. Burying himself there would naturally have been the safest possible choice.”

Li Musheng rubbed his chin, neither agreeing with nor rejecting what Ah Xiu had said, since her reasoning wasn’t actually without merit.

Even so, Li Musheng’s attention had shifted to a different point entirely at this moment.

”Xiu’er, you’ve consistently referred to the Tomb of the White Emperor as the burial site of the ancient savage beast White Tiger. The implication of that, both in what you’re saying and what you’re not saying, seems to be that you believe the ancient savage beast White Tiger no longer exists in this world.”

Li Musheng’s eyes turned to Ah Xiu. At those words, she gave a nod and said, ”Your Highness may not know this, but among the ancient texts preserved by my clan, there are records stating that the ancient savage beast White Tiger was a world-ending creature, leaving mountains and rivers crumbling and countless lives lost in its wake wherever it passed. Before the rise of the human race, even the formidable barbarian and wasteland ancient races fell prey to it as nothing more than food.”

”It was precisely because of this that, long, long ago, the barbarian and wasteland races exhausted countless resources and threw their entire civilizations into the effort, ultimately invoking heaven’s judgment to destroy the savage beast White Tiger, which was the only way they managed to avoid the extinction of their own peoples.”

”This is why I say that the savage beast White Tiger perished long ago, leaving behind nothing but its remains and a fragmentary legacy. What’s more, in all the thousands of years since, there has never once been any sign of the ancient savage beast White Tiger reappearing in this world, which also serves as indirect evidence supporting this conclusion.”

After hearing Ah Xiu’s explanation, Li Musheng fell into thoughtful silence for a moment, then turned his gaze toward her once more and continued, ”According to the legends of this world, beyond the ancient savage beast White Tiger, there are also the divine beasts Azure Dragon, Qilin, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. I wonder, does your clan have any records concerning these other four divine beasts?”