Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The evening came.
After Concubine Jing went to bed, Li Mu came out of the imperial palace.
It was quiet in the Imperial Capital.
The lights of the bustling bawdy houses had gone out.
The dullness made Li Mu a little uncomfortable.
Without staying in the Imperial Capital, he went straight to the Luoshen River.
How could the check-in rewards obtained in the Imperial Capital compare with what he could get in the Luoshen River?
As for the Xuan Sect, it was just too far away.
He was wondering if it would be useful to check in at the Xuan Sect again after it was swept?
But he decided to save the thought for later.
A round trip to the Xuan Sect would take several days.
It was until early in the morning that Li Mu returned to the Shouning Palace.
He had been checking in like this for days.
All his free time was spent on recovering his cultivation.
These days, Li Mu acquired a lot of pills through check-ins.
His injuries were almost cured by these pills.
“Ruirui should be fine, right?”
One day, Li Mu suddenly heard some people in the palace discussing the news of Ruirui. He then found out that she had disappeared together with Zhao Laoqi.
He had been focusing on recuperation these days, and simply didn’t pay any attention to other affairs.
In addition, when chatting with some eunuchs at the Imperial Horse Directorate, Li Mu heard another piece of news.
The Ninth Lord Liu Yu had returned.
“Injuries are such troubles! I didn’t expect so many important things to happen in these days!” Li Mu thought.
He did a careful estimation, and then noticed that not all these things took place in the days after he got injured.
Most of them happened while he was fighting with the Senior Grand Elder of the Xuan Sect.
No wonder he didn’t know.
Since Liu Yu was back, Li Mu decided to go and talk with him.
He asked around for a while to figure out Liu Yu’s situation.
The day before he went back to the Shouning Palace, Liu Yu came back with his experts.
Then they went to the front.
Clan Zhao certainly couldn’t resist their attacks.
When the news about the collapse of the Xuan Sect reached Clan Zhao, most of the Sect’s inner circle disciples who stayed with Clan Zhao lost their minds and ran away.
Those who stayed were merely lured by the wenches of Clan Zhao.
Those who ran away just vanished into thin air after they left.
The rest at Clan Zhao naturally became the subjects of Liu Yu and his experts’ attack and killing practice.
“I didn’t expect this young man to be so talented!”
After learning about Liu Yu’s cultivation level, Li Mu was also surprised.
But talent wasn’t a convincing explanation for his remarkable achievements in the past ten years or so.
Maybe Clan Xia was not as simple as people imagined.
At the front, Clan Zhao couldn’t afford to recruit senior inner circle disciples of the Xuan Sect.
As a result, they could only keep some disciples of the Spirit Manipulation Realm, who could barely be a threat to Liu Yu.
A few days later, a guest showed up at the Shouning Palace.
“Boohoo, boohoo… Ruirui is still nowhere to be found! I’m so humble in the palace… Boohoo!”
Noble Lady Zhen wept loudly, burying her face in a handkerchief.
“Don’t worry! Ruirui is so smart; Zhao Laoqi won’t hurt her.”
Concubine Jing put one hand on Noble Lady Zhen’s chest to support her upper body, another hand gently rubbing her back.
“I only have this one daughter! Boohoo! Damn Zhao Laoqi!”
Not knowing how to soothe Noble Lady Zhen, Concubine Jing furtively lifted the corner of her own garment to wipe the tears out of her eyes.
Half a day later, Noble Lady Zhen left the Shouning Palace. She was too exhausted to weep anymore.
“Ruirui! Boohoo!”
Concubine Jing sat on a chair, crying with a hand on her belly.
Li Mu persuaded her for a fairly long time, until she stopped for exhaustion.
She then sat quietly on the chair without a word, eyes empty.
That really scared Li Mu!
“My Lady, I will go out to find the whereabouts of the Eldest Princess!”
“Even the Secret Police and the Ceremony Directorate couldn’t find her, and what can you do?”
“Let me take a chance!”
On the ruins of the Xuan Sect.
Several old men stood there with different expressions.
“Hiss! What a harsh sword qi! There are not many people in the world who have such sword techniques.”
One of them took a breath of cold air.
“The Xuan Sect has actually been exterminated. I didn’t expect that such an expert still existed in Nanzhou. This person’s cultivation is so terrifying!”
The gray-headed old man seemed to find it unbelievable.
“In the future, our disciples must be careful when traveling outside. Don’t get into unnecessary troubles.”
The long-bearded old man said so after being silent for a moment.
Apparently, neither did he believe that the Xuan Sect, which had a number of experts, had been swept.
“As far as I know, many Xuan Sect disciples have escaped from here. But why are they all missing?”
“I wonder too! Have you noticed that many independent cultivators have disappeared in Nanzhou recently, as well as some cultivators of small clans?”
“Could it be that the Demon Sect has appeared again?”
“How is it possible? The Demon Sect has disappeared for tens of thousands of years. If they could have appeared, they would have appeared long ago.”
…
The White Dragon Creek was a stream deep down the mountains of Mangshan.
It was a quite plain stream, but there was a crisscross of underground watercourses beneath it.
Surprisingly, one of these underground watercourses led to a huge underground palace.
The underground palace was a busy place, with many people walking around.
Deeper into the palace, there was a small courtyard looking incongruous with the palace.
In the dark courtyard sat a woman in royal garment.
She was holding a guqin with broken strings.
“Ruirui, it won’t take long for my Black Dragon Gang to be the largest power in Nanzhou. The State of Xia, in my eyes, is just an ant.”
“Humph! You just relied on sucking other people’s essence and blood to improve your cultivation. Was your Black Dragon Gang only capable of doing such things?”
“Those warriors all deserved to die! The Xuan Sect disciples even assassinated your father! What I have done not only enabled you to take revenge, but also improved my own strength. It was great!”
Zhao Laoqi stared at Ruirui, running his eyes up and down.
The more he looked, the more satisfied he was!
He used to think that there was no woman in this world who was good enough to be with him.
But the Eldest Princess was so versatile and intelligent. Moreover, she also had quite remarkable cultivation. It was really beyond his expectation.
Such a woman was rarely seen in the world.
She was a good match for him, Zhao Laoqi.
“You are shameless! You just did it for yourself.”
“It’s not all for myself. You see, I caught an inner circle expert of the Xuan Sect for you. If you suck his essence and blood, your cultivation will surely achieve a higher level.”
“You’re a beast!”
“Suck his blood and cultivation. When the time comes, you will have a better chance to escape! Look at the blood. It’s so fresh and smooth…”
Zhao Laoqi was trying to persuade her.
“I’m human. I’m different from you beasts!”
“Don’t you want to see your father and brothers? If you don’t go back now, I’m afraid you won’t have a chance anymore.”
Zhao Laoqi continued his temptation.
“You bastard!”
“Since you can’t think it through, I’ll let you take your time. These Xuan Sect disciples also grabbed other people’s resources and chances for their own achievements. There is a greater number of warriors who are blood-sucking demons. We are so way better than them…”
“Stop! You are just a group of devils!”
Liu Rui covered her ears and shouted.
“Hah! It won’t be long before my cultivation reaches the Saint level. By then, the entire Nanzhou will be mine.”
“Think about how the Xuan Sect was destroyed. You guys are so rampant. Sooner or later, you’ll just end like the Xuan Sect.”
Liu Rui raised her head and said.
“You…”
“Chief, we have captured a Xuan Sect disciple named Zhao Wu. I wonder if he is your…”
A row of black-robed men appeared outside the courtyard.
“Where is he?”
Zhao Laoqi looked stunned for a moment and then immediately opened the courtyard door to ask.
When the Xuan Sect was destroyed, Zhao Laoqi ordered a search for Zhao Wu.
On the ruins of the Xuan Sect.
The old men gathered again.
“I have acquired some information. The one who slaughtered the Xuan Sect was a green-robed eunuch from the imperial palace of the State of Xia.”
“A eunuch?”
Everyone froze for a moment.
It was even a green-robed eunuch.
Could the message be wrong?
Other old men stared at the one who brought the news.
“It is definitely a green-robed eunuch, and I don’t believe it either. But that’s all the information I got.”
“Could it be the one who established the State of Xia?”
Someone said.
Recalling that founder of the State of Xia, they shook their heads.
“Liu Ling is indeed a supreme genius, but unfortunately he didn’t have many resources. His saint-level cultivation was no more than a favor from the God!”
“Liu Ling didn’t have such terrifying sword techniques!”
“Then who the hell is this eunuch?”
The old men felt the burst of sword will on the ruins.
They were all confused now.
The sword will was still strong after such a long time.
Liu Ling was not a sword cultivator at all.
There wasn’t such a powerful sword cultivator in Nanzhou.
“Such a powerful expert suddenly appeared in Nanzhou. I don’t know whether it’s good or bad.”
