Nevertheless, all the sorrowful implores and incensed roars were of no help.
Sitting in the chair, Yingshan Snow-eagle had his eyes half-closed to rest his mind. The futile struggles and desperate howls of the weak that flew to his ears did not inspire his compassion. Instead, to him, they sounded like a piece of wonderful, intoxicating melody.
“Dear Jing, don’t blame Young Master Li… In my next life, I hope I could still be your wife.” At the last moment of her life, Dong Xue craned her neck backward with great effort to look at her husband, the honest and faithful true man.
“Swoosh!”
A jet of broadsword light flashed downward.
Dong Xue’s beautiful head was chopped off. Blood squirted.
“Plop!”
Her head fell to the deck.
Her body slumped into the pool of blood.
“No…” Ning Jing howled. His eyes were about to burst at seams in rage. His heart was broken. And he instantly felt like his soul had been sucked away!
With a force he did not know he had, Ning Jing wildly pulled him free from the clamp of the armored soldiers and dashed to his wife. As if having lost his mind, he held her blood-drenched body in his arms.
As a son of his father’s concubine, he had been treated with no respect in that family since he was born. Anyone could give him a dress down or a good beat. In the Ning Mansion, no one regarded him as a human being. Even those servants thought he was beneath them. From the beginning of his memory, he had not met anyone who was kind to him. It was not until Dong Xue came to the Ning Mansion and got to know him that he felt the warmth and kindness of mankind. After countless trying, he finally gained his father’s consent on letting Dong Xue marry him. On that day, he reckoned him the happiest man on that planet.
Later, Dong Xue changed both of their fates with her tenderness, thoughtfulness, and intelligence like only she could. Their status in the Ning Mansion gradually elevated. Although the others all joked that Ning Jing was a hen-pecked husband who always listened to what his wife said and retained no dignity of a man, such jokes never bothered him at all. Anyway, what did those people know about his life?
To him, Dong Xue was the best wife in the world.
Afterward, it was also because of Dong Xue that he got to meet Li Mu.
Young Master Li was a decent man, too. A legendary man like him had taken good care of them and taught them martial arts as if they were his own brother and sister.
“Xue’er, I won’t blame Young Master Li. I just blame myself for not being able to protect you.” Ning Jing smiled, tears of blood trickling down his chin. “God knows we have promised to accompany each other for a century. Whoever dies at the age of 97 will wait for the other for three years on the bridge leading to the underworld… I won’t breach the promise I made to you. Xue’er, I can’t let you go down the way to the underworld alone… Wait for me. I’ll join you in a moment.”
Then, Ning Jing gently laid Dong Xue’s body on the deck, held her head in both hands, and placed it back on the neck.
At that sight, some of the armored soldiers on the deck were deeply moved despite themselves.
Yingshan Snow-eagle still kept his eyes half-closed and his face aloof.
Yan Ruyun, Commander in Chief of the Flying Eagle Batallion, gave a mocking laugh and taunted, “Well, poor boy. Li Mu is the only one to blame. Even though he knows you, he didn’t come to your rescue, did he?”
Ning Jing did not reply. After placing her wife’s body in a decent position, he whipped around and charged at Yingshan Snow-eagle. “I will fight you to death!”
Whizz!
A shot of sword light blasted past.
Next second, Ning Jing collapsed in a pool of blood as well.
It was Yan Ruyun who launched that strike.
Although Ning Jing had learned some Cultivation Methods from Li Mu, due to his mediocre faculties and the short practice period, he had no way to rival a Celestial Being like Yan Ruyun, had he? So, he was vanquished in the blink of an eye.
“Humph. I’ll let you couple accompany each other in the underworld!” Yan Ruyun snorted.
Since he had been sent flying and pinned to the mast by Li Mu’s one blow and had made himself a fool in front of all his subordinates, he took it as a huge insult and hated Li Mu to the marrow. Thus, he rather enjoyed the process of killing Li Mu’s acquaintances.
“Come on. Take that bitch from the Holy House to me.” Grasping the sword with blood dripping down its tip, Yan Ruyun shouted at the rear.
Two armored soldiers thrust the tied-up Bai Xuan, the madam of the Holy House, to the front.
“Li Mu, you can’t say you don’t know this woman, can you? Back then, it was she who helped you to be with Hua Xiangrong. Well, as the poem depicts, there is a beauty in the north, who is untouchable to any man; if she looks back once, a state could be overthrown; if she looks twice, a country could be overthrown… Don’t you love Hua Xiangrong very much? If she learned that her beloved madam had been killed in your presence but you didn’t even try to save her, what would she think?” “You even don’t have the balls to save your girlfriend’s mother-like friend. Are you a man or not?”
Yan Ruyun kicked Bai Xuan to the floor and held his sword at Bai Xuan’s throat.
Bai Xuan recoiled.
She was a woman in her twenties. She was gorgeous and sophisticated, bearing an air of mature that young girls did not possess. Even though she was also a celebrated woman in Chang’an, how could she possibly confront the fierce royal force? By that time, the madam already guessed what was going on.
“Sure thing that I have no way to wriggle out of this one… Li Mu, don’t reveal yourself. Just be nice to Hua’er.” Bai Xuan called out. She had seen the true color of those so-called nobles most clearly. So, she knew she would not be spared even if Li Mu turned up. At the moment, Bai Xuan held no grudges against Li Mu. Her resentment was all for those heartless nobles.
On the opposite side.
People in front of the main hall could stand no more.
“Yingshan Snow-eagle, you are an enlightened Sage. How could you do such a despicable thing to a practitioner at the Joint-thoughts level?” Qiu Yin demanded, losing his self-control.
“Humph.” Yingshan Snow-eagle smiled, “Despicable? What is despicable anyway? No one ever dared say a word when I killed all those deities, high officials, seniors, children, armored soldiers, and unarmored folks. I can kill the soaring hawk as well as the ants in the ashes… Any living creature might be killed. And in my life, there is nothing that I can’t kill.”
He gave that speech with bold confidence.
He had spent a whole life killing people after all.
Other than killing people, there was nothing that could interest him.
Qiu Yin bellowed, “Fine. Isn’t arresting me the sole purpose of your expedition here? I’ll put myself in your custody. Let the innocent go.” With that, he activated his internal qi and made to fly beyond the All-side Starlight Deployment to be the captive so that Bai Xuan and others would be released.
“Where has my third brother gone? What could have kept him from showing up?”
“If I simply watch those people die in the enemy’s hands, how will I ever have the face to see my third brother?”
However, just as Qiu Yin attempted to leap from the ground, a hand pressed on his shoulder and a familiar voice sounded. “Leave this to me.”
“Third Brother?” Qiu Yin looked back and saw Li Mu finally show up.
“Third Brother, don’t be reckless. Yingshan Snow-eagle is a man with no bottom line. You… need time to figure out a plan.” Qiu Yin cautioned. He went edgy when he saw Li Mu would go out. The funny thing was he felt nothing when he made to take the risk a moment ago, but he got worried as Li Mu did the same thing.
Xu Sheng and the others also wanted to talk Li Mu out of it.
It was obvious that Yingshan Snow-eagle was trying to provoke Li Mu to go out of the protective zone.
Once Li Mu stepped out of the deployment, he would certainly make no return.
Li Mu replied, “Don’t worry. I never do anything I’m not sure of.”
He had just arrived at the scene, so he did not witness the death of Ning Jing and his wife.
At the moment, the one whose life was at stake was Bai Xuan. Although she was not Li Mu’s family, she was his friend.
He could never leave his friend in danger.
“I’ll go with you.” Qiu Yin offered.
But Li Mu already turned into a jet of light and leaped outward. “Be patient. Stay where you are and wait for me.”
When his words were heard, he was already beyond the range of the defensive deployment.
At the same time, those on the Flying Whale Shuttle took varied reactions as they saw Li Mu finally step forward.
Yan Ruyun and the crown prince felt their hearts shuddered and subconsciously took a step back. It seemed that their breathing had quickened, too.
Yingshan Snow-eagle, however, leaped to his feet with a swoosh. His wobbling, fragile body that might collapse in a blast of wind suddenly over-spilled with killing intent like a peerlessly sharp blade. For a second, the sight of his body went fuzzy. Next, he was already right before Li Mu and lifted a hand to shove the palm at him.
It happened fast.
Too fast!
Entering the Sage Realm was, indeed, a step to an enormous reservoir of power.
Yingshan Snow-eagle did not give Li Mu even a second to argue with him but took his killing move straight away, lest Li Mu escape to the All-side Starlight Deployment again. During the past few weeks, the longer he deliberated it the more convinced he was that he could not allow Li Mu to keep breathing. Anyway, the order from the imperial court also said Li Mu must be killed. And that was put before the tasks like attacking the Yue Mountain Faction and capturing Qiu Yin.
“Good timing!”
Li Mu did not duck down or anything. Floating in midair, he raised his fist and threw a punch right off.
It was the Rocking-sky Hammer of the Zhenwu Boxing.
The fist seal Li Mu produced was transparent. It brought no smoke or fire, no terrifying energy fluctuations. It simply barged into the middle part of Yingshan Snow-eagle’s palm.
Burp!
A noise like the burst of a bubble was heard.
Yingshan Snow-eagle felt nothing but a wave of extremely immense force spewing into his palm, which surprisingly rendered half of his arm numb and forced him to step backward in the void.
Li Mu, on the other hand, had to take three steps back before he regained balance.
“Huh?” Yingshan Snow-eagle’s ghostly pupils reflected the utmost disbelief. “This is the power of a Sage. You’ve entered the Sage Realm?”
“That can’t be!”
When he dueled with Li Mu before, even though Li Mu demonstrated the powers way more impressive than a normal Celestial Being could have, he knew the boy was a far cry from his level. In a head-on fight, if he did not reserve any of his strength, he could get Li Mu killed within one strike. But now…
“The da*n erratic boy is already able to confront me fair and square?”
Unlike the chief eunuch, Li Mu had been prepared for that.
Taking advantage of the second when Yingshan Snow-eagle was too overwhelmed to react, Li Mu lowered his shoulders and did a somersault-like move. Thanks to the Somersault Cloud, at the next moment, he already surpassed Yingshan Snow-eagle and soared to the Flying Whale Shuttle. With a flash of broadsword light, the armored soldiers holding Bai Xuan hostage were thrown backward…
“Go!” Li Mu grabbed Bai Xuan’s should and turned to take off.
Getting Bai Xuan out of danger was his priority at the moment.
Bai Xuan never knew Li Mu could really come to her aid against all odds. She involuntarily darted her eyes at where the bodies of the Ning couple lay and muttered, “We can’t leave them there…”
Li Mu followed Bai Xuan’s eyes.
Then, he went all petrified.
He thought he heard a bomb exploded in his head. By no means could he believe what he saw.
Bai Xuan distinctively sensed that the hand Li Mu put on her shoulder stiffened.
By that time, Yingshan Snow-eagle already came to himself and rushed back to the Flying Whale Shuttle in Li Mu’s wakes. He conjured a seal with his hands, which triggered the magic restriction covering the void within a kilometer that he set up weeks ago. Layers of star tactical deployments cast by warlocks gleamed. Meanwhile, eight bright yellow Taoist instruments rose to the sky and sealed that patch of the void.
Those were all measures preventing Li Mu from fleeing.
“You’re dead meat!” Yingshan Snow-eagle cracked a smile. “Well, well, well!”
Li Mu slowly turned back. His eyes ejected flames of rage like volcanoes before an eruption and were fixed unblinkingly at Yingshan Snow-eagle. An indescribable look burst out as he snarled, “You… You are dead meat! I’ll make you… never ever get a chance to reincarnate!”
