"Gululu..."
Wen Chai's corpse tumbled from horseback, rolling across the ground, caked in dust. Blood flowed freely, soaking through his garments, swiftly pooling into a puddle beneath him.
In an instant, everyone, friend and foe alike, fell into a bizarre silence. In the midst of that deathly stillness, they turned in unison, their eyes filled with horror and disbelief, staring at Chen Kuang.
Clearly, Chen Kuang's decisive act had shocked everyone present, utterly and completely.
The monstrous, half-dragon half-ox face of Kui, in his original demon form, even twitched involuntarily, his expression complicated beyond words.
That was a Saint!
A Saint had already conceded, admitting defeat and allowing the man to be spared. That was already a monumental concession. And yet, not only did Chen Kuang refuse to accept the offered ladder down, he even acted directly to kill the target.
Even if their goal was indeed to ally with the Department of Shennong against the Jiangnan King, and even if Chen Kuang had a personal vendetta against the latter.
Still, in times like this, could he not have endured a little?
After all, once the battle ended, they could've simply handed this treasonous king over to Wen Xian for punishment.
Wouldn't that have been revenge enough?
When it came to rallying others, Chen Kuang had been a silver-tongued negotiator, weaving unity and purpose with a masterful persuasion.
And now, he suddenly became so impulsive?
The others had similar thoughts. Many of the demon clan and soldiers even began trembling, slowly retreating.
A Saint's dignity had been shattered, who here could bear her wrath?
If Chen Kuang had known what Kui was thinking, he'd have likely scoffed on the spot.
Endure?
Was it because he didn't want to endure?
He'd already endured enough.
After faking his death, hiding his identity, living among the city's brothels and markets, all he hoped for was to gather a bit of money to buy a few pills and Spiritual Treasures to assist his cultivation.
He simply wanted to experience, for once, what a normal path of cultivation felt like.
Once his strength had recovered, he planned to depart for the Wugou Pure Land.
And yet, barely a few days had passed before Wen Chai had uncovered his identity, came hunting for him, and sealed off the entire prefecture!
Even that might have been tolerable.
So long as he could escape, the world was vast. He would find refuge elsewhere. Swallowing this moment of humiliation and returning for revenge later wasn't anything to be ashamed of.
He had done so before, even in the Heavenly Prison, when he had to endure shame to deceive Li Hongling, and he never once felt he lost dignity because of it.
But then, he saw that pale pink figure floating in the water..
He watched as that young girl, a servant who had once given him a golden leaf, who had shared her heart and dreams with him, who cried outside his door in the dead of night, died in front of him.
She had been a friend.
A simple, fleeting friend he might have forgotten in time.
But now she was dead.
And in that moment, Chen Kuang told himself, Wen Chai must die!
He had to die here, by Chen Kuang's hand.
No matter who tried to stop him, nothing could change that decision!
...
Even Lady Wangshu seemed caught off guard by Chen Kuang's audacity, daring to kill Wen Chai in front of her.
She fell silent for a time. Then, her voice echoed once more.
"Very well."
Wangshu gazed at the intricately detailed map hovering atop the veil of white gauze in the air. Her once-gentle, tranquil eyes turned cold.
Before she attained sainthood, before she had entered the Ancestral Temple as a tomb guardian, how many people had once called her a "femme fatale who brought down nations"?
Just because she was his sword.
Because she slaughtered for him, out in the open or from the shadows, over a million corpses had paved her way.
Had it simply been too long since she showed herself to the world?
Had the world forgotten her?
Had it come to this, where even an insignificant junior dared act presumptuously in her presence?
In her pupils, she saw the Mountains and Rivers, stretching endlessly.
She saw the city bathed in flames.
She saw the common folk crying, screaming and fleeing to no avail.
"Since you left... this world has grown terribly dull."
...
The woman sighed.
And then, her fingertip, suspended in midair, pressed gently downward, aiming at the entirety of Zhangfeng Prefecture.
"Rumble..."
The sky, branded with the character "Seal", darkened as the titanic finger above froze for a moment, and then descended rapidly!
Its vast shadow engulfed all of Zhangfeng Prefecture. Though it was still midday, it felt as if black clouds were pressing down on the city.
Birds and beasts fled alike in terror.
The finger's descent seemed slow, but its speed was terrifying.
Clouds scattered instantly, vaporizing into mist that clung to the descending divine finger, drawing streaks of faint white trails that were burned away almost immediately by friction.
Within moments, the people below were already feeling the suffocating pressure on their bodies. Many couldn't even breathe.
Crack... crack...
Buildings around them, especially the taller roofs, shattered into fragments, turning into drifting ash.
Wooden beams split with audible groans and homes began to collapse one after another.
The Saint's finger had not even landed yet. Still separated by over a thousand zhang in the sky, and yet already, cultivators of weaker constitution, whose bodies lacked toughness, were falling to their knees!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Saint, forgive us!"
"Spare us, Saint!"
"Have mercy!"
The sound of kneeling and desperate pleas rang out endlessly.
Countless ordinary citizens had already lost the strength to kneel. They collapsed, lying flat on the ground, coughing blood, their internal organs crushed by the pressure. In mere breaths, they were on the verge of death.
The earth itself roared and rumbled.
From the center of Zangfeng Prefecture, cracks spread outward like a spiderweb.
If one had to describe the sight, it was as if the Pillars of Heaven had snapped and the Threads of the Earth were torn asunder!
Boom!
At the epicenter of the pressure, beneath the descending finger, Chen Kuang's horse had already been crushed, its ribs and all four legs snapping like twigs.
The beast let out a final shriek, collapsing in a twitching heap, unable to rise again.
Chen Kuang tensed his core and shifted his weight, veins bulging across his skin. One foot remained on the horse's back, the other stomped down on its neck to anchor himself.
Crack!
The poor horse's neck was crushed underfoot, dead on the spot!
Chen Kuang barely maintained his balance as he inhaled sharply, swallowing the blood welling in his throat. Tiny cracks began to appear all across his skin.
A sign that the pressure was pushing his body to its limits.
Around him, no one else could hold on. Those who'd been unwilling to resist to begin with collapsed en masse like falling dominos.
Only Cang Xing still barely stood.
Panicking, he shouted:
"Hey, wait a minute! Damn it! I was just bluffing earlier! Those were just threats! You didn't really have to kill him!"
Even for the Martial Saint Pavilion, offending a Saint wasn't something to be taken lightly...
If the Martial Saint himself gave the order, that was one thing. But the Saint hadn't spoken yet, and Chen Kuang had already killed the man.
Now what? Wasn't this creating unnecessary trouble for their side?
Besides, this wasn't even the Martial Saint himself.
This was just a temporary descent, possessing a mortal body.
The Divine Descent Technique could be used once on a body, but if used twice on the same host, its effectiveness would diminish significantly.
Facing an enraged Saint... whether they could win or not, that was still up in the air.
Cang Xing thought of this and couldn't help but feel some doubt.
Right, what about the Martial Saint?
The Saint had already taken action, so why hadn't the Martial Saint appeared?
Chen Kuang stood on horseback, his entire body trembling involuntarily, yet he still smiled and said:
"Why panic? We have the Martial Saint on our side. It'll be fine."
"But this female Saint of Yangg, acting like this, is blatantly showing contempt for the Martial Saint, and opposing the Martial Saint Pavilion. You'd best remember this clearly."
"When we leave here, our Martial Saint Pavilion must demand an explanation from the Yang Kingdom!"
Cang Xing found himself fully resonating with these words and immediately nodded fiercely, barking in a stern voice:
"Of course! When has our Martial Saint Pavilion ever suffered such humiliation, someone actually pissing on our heads like this!"
"This matter, I will unite with the other Martial Saint Pavilion members. Unless we get a proper answer, we will not rest!"
Chen Kuang said solemnly, "This is exactly how the loyal warriors under the Martial Saint should behave. With your resolve, I am reassured."
Then, he suddenly shouted loudly:
"Huangfu Yun! Is your emperor of Yang so gutless? He has the 'national destiny' in his hands, yet doesn't even dare confront the Saint? He lets her aid a traitor and slaughter an entire province of common people at will?"
When "Quiet Night Thoughts" had been passively triggered earlier, Chen Kuang had caught a fleeting thought from Wen Chai's mind:
"Even with Grandma Wangshu's support, if Wen Xian were willing to use the 'national destiny' to restrain the Saint, my rebellion might fail... but he's just a coward. He absolutely wouldn't dare."
This was the first time Chen Kuang learned that "national destiny" could be used this way.
The power of "national destiny" wasn't just about rendering the emperor near-immortal, it could even be split and wielded according to the emperor's will.
It could even... contend with a Saint's power!
The area fell into a brief silence.
Suddenly, a voice responded.
"Of course not."
A strange cultivator stumbled out from the side, body twisted, limbs broken, blood covering his head, and only a single eye remaining.
Clearly, this was another one of Huangfu Yun's puppets, one that had perished in the earlier battle and was now temporarily controlled by him.
As for the previous puppet, the corpse of Elder "Fine Rain," it had already decayed beyond use.
Huangfu Yun looked at Chen Kuang with his only remaining eye and said:
"But now, the traitor is dead. The Saint's fury cannot be calmed. Even if it takes half a province's lives to appease her, it is not unacceptable."
"Don't you think... a traitor who claims a province, backed by countless supporters, justifies a Saint acting for the sake of the realm?"
Chen Kuang said, "So you're just using me as a knife? Done cutting, now you want to throw it away?"
Huangfu Yun replied, "Of course not."
He calmly looked up at the crumbling sky and said, "At the very least... we must make you give up the location of the Elixir of Immortality."
"You used me to kill Wen Chai, and now you want to use the Saint to squeeze the truth out of me. Well-played, Huangfu Yun. No wonder you so readily agreed to cooperate with the demon clans."
Chen Kuang laughed coldly: "The Saint acts at will, and your emperor can't even let out a fart. So, who exactly does Yang belong to?"
"Once there's a first time, there will be a second. I'm starting to think maybe it's not that you don't want to fight back... but that you can't."
Huangfu Yun fell into a brief silence.
Chen Kuang continued, "You probably don't know. I already consumed the Elixir of Immortality."
Huangfu Yun's head shot up, eyes fixed on him.
Chen Kuang said calmly, "If I die, the Elixir of Immortality disappears from the world. If I live, maybe you'll have a chance to study it."
Huangfu Yun took a deep breath, as if communicating with Wen Xian. Then he said:
"His Majesty can act. While he may not be able to stop the Saint, he can at least preserve your life."
In the sky, the descending finger had already fallen to five hundred zhang. One could even clearly see the immense fingerprint patterns etched into it like a maze.
All of Zangfeng Prefecture had fallen into utter darkness.
Chen Kuang said: "Not enough."
He pointed a finger at the sky, grinning widely: "Don't you people want to teach that lawless hag a lesson?"
Huangfu Yun's face twitched: "Do you even understand what you're saying?"
Calling a Saint a "lawless hag"? Was this man just tired of living?
Chen Kuang took a long breath. "Of course I know."
Huangfu Yun finally couldn't hold it back: "You know jack shit!"
"The Yang Kingdom's 'national destiny' has stagnated for years, while that Saint, Wangshu, has been cultivating in the Ancestral Temple for two thousand years, her strength has always remained at its peak. You think she can just be suppressed?"
Chen Kuang grinned:
"But what if... I can stop her from being at her peak?"
Huangfu Yun froze.
For a moment, he even thought his ears were malfunctioning. Had he just heard the most absurd joke in existence?
Chen Kuang repeated it again: "What if I can injure her, not lightly, but severely?"
Huangfu Yun truly wanted to laugh. You? Wound a Saint?
Ant lifting a mountain? Know your limits!
But then he saw, Chen Kuang was serious!
Huangfu Yun's heart skipped a beat.
This Chen Kuang wasn't someone who spouted nonsense. Could it be... he really had a way?
...
"He really said that?"
Wen Xian's eyes widened as he looked at Huangfu Yun.
Huangfu Yun nodded.
Wen Xian burst into laughter, his expression bordering on deranged: "He's absolutely right. We've provided that Saint for so many years, and she still went to aid a rebel. Ridiculous!"
"Whether what he says is true or not, let him try. If it's true, then I'll help him. If it's false, I still get the Elixir of Immortality. I have nothing to lose."
Wen Xian's face turned sinister and cold: "'National destiny'? The realm is practically hers already. What's the point in hoarding this 'national destiny' any longer?"
Huangfu Yun cupped his hands: "Your Majesty is wise."
...
Huangfu Yun stood in silence for a long moment. The sky above had been completely shrouded in black.
The ground below had already sunken a full inch, and every structure in the province had been reduced by at least one story in height.
The people were like ants, countless dead and wounded.
Huangfu Yun drew a deep breath, looked at Chen Kuang, and said solemnly:
"Then, our sword is drawn. Let's see if it can reach the heavens!"
"Good!"
In that instant, Chen Kuang's eyes burned with brilliance, like blazing fire.
He straightened his back and under this low-hanging sky, he seemed impossibly tall, as though he had broken free from unseen shackles.
Huangfu Yun's pupils contracted. It was then that he realized, Chen Kuang had actually shaken off the seal of Zangfeng Prefecture!
Chen Kuang clenched his fists. Spiritual Energy surged violently through his body, rushing back into his meridians and acupoints like a tidal wave, scouring every inch of him.
In that instant, he broke through to Tower Ascension Realm, Seventh Stage!
It wasn't that the Saint had sealed the entire province's Spiritual Energy.
She had simply made it so that cultivators couldn't sense it!
Under the threat of death, Chen Kuang's "Last-Second Reversal" passive had been pushed to the limit, greatly amplifying all his capabilities.
It was as if he had once more become the man who borrowed Shen Xingzhu's cultivation with the Divine Mountain Borrowing Jade.
In such extreme conditions, he had forcibly broken through the seal's limitations.
Chen Kuang raised his head.
The Saint's divine finger, was now right before him!
BOOM!
Chen Kuang shot into the air like a blazing meteor, streaking straight toward that pitch-black sky!