Volume One: The Chaos of Yan and Yun Chapter Fifty-Three: As If We Had Just Met (Part Five)

Such a great commotion could not possibly go unnoticed by the others.

When the wind shattered the roof, everyone traveling with the Murong family awoke at once.

Murong Chengzhang was the first to rush outside. At that moment, a cold sword light flashed through the rain, piercing his right shoulder and nearly severing his arm.

“What a righteous spirit you possess! Otherwise, that strike would have gone straight through your throat,” a low voice resounded in the rainy night. A black-clad figure in a bamboo hat approached from afar, the faint glow of starlight swirling around him.

Starlight Manifestation!

Star-Slashing!

Murong Chengzhang raised his brows, thinking that the journey home would not be so easy after all.

With no Unity cultivators emerging and Void Path experts rarely seen, the pinnacle of the mortal world now lay with Starlight Manifestation. Yet that was but a joke. Whenever great events transpired, how could the strongest not appear?

Suddenly, a furious shout echoed from the sky.

Murong Chengzhang and the black-clad man both looked up.

Feng Qi stood atop the inn’s eaves, his upper garments in tatters, black hair flying wildly, his whole body suffused with earthen yellow energy. He stood atop a corpse, surrounded by several fallen black-clad assailants scattered around him. He gripped his spear, the weapon unwavering and straight.

At the tip of the spear hung a man, blood streaming down with the torrential rain from above, staining the ground a pale red.

“This youth is truly unrivaled among his peers. The so-called third on the Soaring Clouds List has clearly underestimated him,” the black-clad man remarked. “The Weeping Blood Pavilion once organized an assassination against that young lady of the Snowcloud Sect; she never displayed such unstoppable might.”

Murong Chengzhang was equally astonished. He could see clearly that the man impaled by Feng Qi was filled with weapon intent, clearly at the Insight Middle Stage… For someone at the Core Middle Stage to easily handle many opponents and even slay those at higher realms, this youth was indeed terrifying!

Even though he had been confident Feng Qi would not be harmed, Murong Chengzhang could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“It seems you lack confidence in the Heir of Yanbei,” the black-clad man chuckled softly. “Or perhaps you place too much faith in the Weeping Blood Pavilion?”

Murong Chengzhang fell silent.

The Weeping Blood Pavilion’s fearsome reputation was well-deserved; before the Blood Moon Chaos, they had never failed a single contracted kill.

As long as one could pay their price, even the Divine Emperor himself could be marked for death.

However, the greater the target’s strength and status, the higher the price, and the longer it would take.

Seeing Murong Chengzhang remain silent, the black-clad man said no more.

The torrential rain continued, but a closer look would reveal that where it fell within a certain range, its descent slowed; the raindrops were sliced by energy—split once, then twice, then into eighths—before finally reaching the ground.

The houses lining the road shared a similar fate, though for now, they remained unscathed.

Perhaps it was a single raindrop, or perhaps a surge of energy; something finally became the straw that broke the camel’s back.

A house groaned and creaked, the sound soon turning shrill, until one after another, crashes reverberated through the night.

Who knew how many homes collapsed, or how many lives were lost.

…

…

Feng Qi stood atop the roof, gazing coldly down below.

He could not interfere in a battle at the Starlight Manifestation level.

Yet he could roughly discern the flow of the fight, and even count the number of moves exchanged.

The assassins from the Weeping Blood Pavilion were indeed formidable; had he been in their place, it would have taken him at least twenty bouts to slay that Star-Slashing expert.

Judging that the battle below would not end soon, he slowly sat down, closed his eyes, and began to restore his energy and spirit.

Observing a battle at this level had drained him greatly.

Sounds of fighting still echoed from the inn—unsurprising, for the one just below him was second only to him on the Elegance Ranking, holding his ground against four Insight Initial Stage assassins and already gaining the upper hand.

Unrivaled Under Heaven—what a domineering technique.

Even the opponent’s attacks become part of the world itself, allowing him to see through every intent and strike.

This bore a certain resemblance to the method of Enlightenment.

Come to think of it, the former emperor had close ties with the Zen Sect; perhaps Unrivaled Under Heaven had incorporated this feature after his innovation.

Yet the assassins that had appeared were still of relatively low rank. He did not believe that the Weeping Blood Pavilion could field only this level of force.

When they hunted his mother in the past, far more had been dispatched. There were surely greater threats waiting ahead on the road.

Unity cultivators were unlikely, for their strategic value to the cult was immense. In such an obvious trap, they would not risk such important figures. If they were locked down by the Ten Thousand Swords Formation or the Abyssal Formation, escape would be nearly impossible…

If they truly intended to meddle in the Bohai rebellion, they would not be so reckless as to send a Unity-level master to die.

Void Path—this was the highest level the cult could send.

But the crucial question was: how much protection had the Divine Emperor granted the Crown Prince? To what extent would those experts act before being compelled to reveal themselves?

Perhaps this situation would truly ensnare the Divine Dynasty as well.

Could His Majesty truly be mad?

As these thoughts raced through his mind, the battle below was already drawing to a close.

Not the fight of Murong Chengzhang, but that of the Crown Prince.

Unrivaled Under Heaven—truly worthy of its name as the greatest technique in the world!

…