Great Li Martial God

Yiyangzi watched the two uninvited visitors in silence. Though neither the Undying Scholar nor the Mountain Tiller had particularly good reputations in the Western Desert’s martial world, being figures who straddled the line between the righteous and the unorthodox, their actual martial strength was genuinely formidable, and he did not dare underestimate them.

Moreover, as the Mountain Tiller had said, this time’s discipleship gathering in White Emperor City had not placed any strict restrictions on who from the martial world might attend. By all rights, anyone had a chance to take the young genius as their disciple.

With that thought, Yiyangzi withdrew his gaze, lifted the wine jar in his hand and took a long pull from it, then turned his head to look down at the street below.

”Since you’ve both come to White Emperor City for the discipleship gathering, why not go about your own business? Why seek me out?”

Yiyangzi spoke with his back still to the Undying Scholar and the Mountain Tiller, his tone betraying not the slightest hint of emotion.

At those words, the Mountain Tiller, seated at the wine table, let out a sudden snort of laughter, ”We didn’t come here specifically looking for you. We just happened to be passing by, and seeing you wanting to act yet not daring to was simply too amusing to resist, so we showed ourselves for a look.”

The Undying Scholar beside him waved a hand and said, ”Brother Yiyang, don’t misunderstand. You have the True Yang Sect behind you, and the weight of your sect’s affairs to bear. Having reservations is entirely understandable to us.”

”You understand nothing,” Yiyangzi shot back suddenly. He turned to face the two of them, his irritation now beyond concealing, ”You two reclusive old relics, do you actually know who that person is? Here you are mocking me, so why don’t you go down there and try your hand against him yourselves?”

At those words, the Undying Scholar and the Mountain Tiller exchanged a glance, their expressions perfectly composed, ”Of course we know who he is. We’ve heard plenty of the stories about him too. But since we have no particular grievance with him, why would we make a move?”

At that, Yiyangzi was visibly left without a retort. But both men before him were people who had lived long enough to see through everything, and since both of them clearly already knew who Li Musheng was, his earlier probing and attempts to goad them into action had clearly been wasted.

At this point, the Undying Scholar stepped to Yiyangzi’s side and followed his gaze down toward the section of street where Li Musheng’s group had come from, saying slowly, ”Brother Yiyang, I won’t make a move myself, but I find myself deeply curious about this prince of Great Li.”

At those words, Yiyangzi turned his head and gave the Undying Scholar a sideways look, ”Curious all you want, but without actually making a move, how would you ever learn what he’s truly capable of? How would you know exactly where his strength lies?”

The Undying Scholar shook his head, then turned to glance at the Mountain Tiller seated at the wine table, and spoke with a meaningful air, ”White Emperor City has gathered no small number of martial world experts right now. Perhaps neither Brother Yiyang nor we two need to act at all. There may well be others here who won’t be able to hold themselves back and will try testing him first.”

At those words, the Mountain Tiller gave a quiet nod and said, ”Yiyangzi, there’s no need for us to take any unnecessary risks. We just sit back here and watch. Even if no one acts, we won’t come away empty-handed.”

Yiyangzi shot the two of them a sidelong glance but said nothing more. After all, with the persuasion from his several middle-aged disciples earlier and the situation as it was, he genuinely was not going to actually go and test himself against Li Musheng right now.

...

At the same time, Li Musheng’s group, the center of everyone’s attention, made their way along the main street. Curious eyes from all directions tracked their every movement.

The commotion caused by the earlier river of killing intent had been enormous, and the various factions throughout White Emperor City had all received word in rapid succession. Everyone wanted to come and get a look at this future Pavilion Master of the Hidden Kill Pavilion.

After all, beyond being the Hidden Kill Pavilion’s future Pavilion Master, Li Musheng’s one astonishing, world-shaking exploit after another had only made the martial world figures of the Western Desert all the more curious about him.

”Your Highness, now that we’ve reached White Emperor City, might we take our leave?”

The young girl Ah Xiu, perched atop her camel, swept her eyes briefly over the surroundings, then turned to Li Musheng with an unusually strained expression.

She had originally planned to fulfill her agreement by guiding Li Musheng’s group to White Emperor City, and to take the opportunity to build some goodwill with him along the way.

What she had not anticipated was that the Hidden Kill Pavilion would make such a grand, conspicuous show of coming out to welcome him.

At first, with the Hidden Kill Pavilion’s assassins present, Ah Xiu had had little choice but to continue accompanying Li Musheng into White Emperor City. But once they were actually inside, she gradually became aware that more and more probing eyes were being directed at their group from every direction around the street, and some of those gazes clearly belonged to martial world experts of considerable power.

Even when those gazes merely swept past her in passing, Ah Xiu felt the hair on her skin stand on end.

This made her realize just how conspicuous Li Musheng had become, and that being so openly exposed to the scrutiny of so many powerful martial world figures was an extremely dangerous situation for herself and the Fifth Elder, given the secrets and plans they carried on behalf of the ancient city of Jingjue’s survivors.

It was this realization that had prompted her to ask Li Musheng urgently if they might be allowed to leave.

”Xiu’er, only now thinking of leaving? Isn’t it a bit late for that?”

Li Musheng turned his head slightly and looked at the young girl, raising an eyebrow, ”You’ve been walking alongside me, which means you’ve already been noticed by anyone paying attention. They might not dare make a move against me, but that doesn’t mean they won’t move against you.”

”If you leave now, how is that any different from walking straight into a tiger’s den?”

In truth, it made little practical difference to Li Musheng whether Ah Xiu stayed or left, since she had already completed her role as guide. However, Li Musheng still had his eye on the secrets the ancient city of Jingjue’s survivors held concerning the savage beast White Tiger, and had no intention of letting her go just yet.

After all, he would need to find his way to the survivors of the ancient city of Jingjue through her later.

At this point, having heard Li Musheng’s words, the look on Ah Xiu’s pretty face noticeably darkened, because she knew perfectly well he was not exaggerating.

If she and the Fifth Elder left now and lost Li Musheng’s protection, the powerful experts of White Emperor City truly would move against them. And given those people’s strength, she and the Fifth Elder would most likely be unable to hold their own.

With that thought, Ah Xiu turned to look at the Fifth Elder, who gave her a slight nod in return, clearly agreeing with what Li Musheng had said.

If they were captured and interrogated by those unknown, powerful old figures, even though they didn’t actually know all that much, their captors wouldn’t know that. If those people assumed they were deliberately concealing things, who could say what kind of torture and questioning would follow?

”Then... very well. We’ll trouble Your Highness a little while longer.”

Ah Xiu ultimately chose to stay rather than leave, and Li Musheng simply waved a hand, his expression completely unbothered as he said, ”Rest easy. I’m doing this for your benefit too. Nothing will go wrong while you’re with me.”

At those words, Ah Xiu and the Fifth Elder both expressed their gratitude once more, entirely without any suspicion that Li Musheng had an ulterior purpose in keeping them with him.

They simply felt that this great demon lord was actually a rather decent person.

At the same time, among everyone in Li Musheng’s group, the ones enduring the most agonizing predicament were undoubtedly the three Holy Lords of the Yellow Spring Tribe.

All three of them were crammed together atop a single camel. Their disheveled figures had their heads buried almost entirely in the camel’s shaggy fur. With the eyes of people all around the street bearing down on them, they might as well have been paraded through the streets for public display.