The city had been reduced to a devastated ruin, where despairing wails spread to every corner of the ancient town alongside the encroaching flames.
The battle between the withered elder and the attractive, middle-aged woman raged on. Manic laughter and the roar of techniques shook the heavens without pause; each shockwave of their clashes brought apocalyptic destruction upon another district.
Watching the brilliantly dazzling rays of technique light across the horizon, the eerie crimson gleam in Xu Yuan's eyes gradually faded into emptiness, until all was dead silence.
Before his vision sank into darkness, the last thing he saw was the black death creep fluttering and drifting down through the air like silk.
Much like the ordinary folk in the city who could never perceive the shockwaves that claimed their lives, Xu Yuan never did see what had pierced his brain before his consciousness dispersed.
Watching the brocade-robed youth whose lifeforce was fading amidst the rubble several li away, Taishi Ran finally let his heart settle back into his chest. Yet the motions of his hands did not pause for even a moment.
Delivering the finishing blow was an essential virtue of an assassin.
As the origin of the Great Calamity of the world, no amount of caution could be excessive. He could not afford the slightest complacency.
Now that Xu Changtian's vitality had been severed, he had to be ground to dust and scattered to the winds.
In the very next instant, however, Taishi Ran realized he no longer had the chance to strike again.
Earlier, in order to evade Lou Ji's scrutiny, the lightning arc he had condensed in his palm had used only the bare minimum of Source Qi, quiet enough to escape notice. But once released, its fluctuations were impossible to conceal.
For cultivators of their caliber, even claiming that it took a single heartbeat to pin down someone's location from a released technique felt like an exaggeration.
Lou Ji had already locked onto where he was hiding.
A terrifying pressure weighed down upon Taishi Ran like an immense mountain. If he forcibly moved against Xu Changtian under these circumstances, he would likely be severely wounded by the Chief of the Black Scales in an instant.
With split-second resolve, Taishi Ran abandoned the idea of destroying the corpse.
The gulf between Transcendent and Soul Condensation was like heaven and earth.
Though Xu Changtian appeared to have suffered only an inch-wide hole between his brows, the moment that wisp of purple lightning had contacted his body, the Dao charm and Intent enveloped within it had already extinguished all vitality inside him.
Unless this Xu Changtian was the kind of aberrant ghost that appeared once in ten thousand years—which he clearly was not.
Before acting, Taishi Ran had used his qi dynamic to confirm that the boy was purely human.
And as a human, even an expert who had reached the heights of the Origin Realm could not survive the destruction of their brain, let alone a mere Soul Condensation cultivator.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Taishi Ran cast an imperceptible glance toward where Xu Yuan's body lay, and his relaxed brow instantly furrowed.
In his perception, the brownish-red substance that had manifested around Xu Changtian to form a shield against that wisp of lightning had not dissipated with Xu Yuan's death.
He had previously assumed it was a lifesaving artifact bestowed upon Xu Changtian by the Chancellor's Manor, but now it appeared to be a spiritual essence spirit with a mind of its own.
And now, that spiritual essence spirit was actually attempting to use itself to repair the hole between Xu Changtian's brows.
Even though Taishi Ran was certain Xu Changtian had become a corpse, the young man's identity as the origin of the Great Calamity and this bizarre sight before him still stirred an uneasy tremor in his chest.
"Are you spacing out right in front of me?"
A split second of distraction, and an enchanting figure materialized abruptly. An indifferent, chilling female voice echoed from behind him.
Hearing the voice, Taishi Ran showed not the slightest panic in his eyes.
What he had been waiting for was precisely for Lou Ji to lose her composure.
For mortals, rage might allow one to forget physical pain in hand-to-hand combat; but for cultivators, rage during a life-and-death clash only sped one toward the grave.
Without hesitation, he unleashed the technique he had already prepared. Purple lightning surged from his arm in a flash, its formidable might sweeping through several burning streets. The flames and the broken debris within were thoroughly plowed by the purple lightning, blasted into a vacuum!
Yet after the strike, Taishi Ran's heart sank abruptly.
It had hit nothing.
He whipped around to look. Lou Ji's figure still stood suspended in midair, having not shifted by even half a step. The enchanting purple gleam in her serpentine eyes, however, had deepened into something eerie and unfathomable.
Seeing this, Taishi Ran realized in an instant that the voice and qi dynamic from earlier had been the workings of Lou Ji's bizarre Dao domain.
He had already been dragged into her Dao domain.
Staying wary of his surroundings, Taishi Ran projected his voice clearly:
"The rumors of Chief Lou's cold blood certainly hold true. It seems even Xu Changtian was nothing special to you, Chief Lou. Now that he is dead, you can still remain so utterly detached."
As he spoke, Taishi Ran unfurled his own Dao domain. Lightning arcs materialized out of thin air, blanketing a radius of a hundred fathoms around him.
Lou Ji's methods were an unknown, and he was already enveloped by her Dao domain; failing to counter would leave him vulnerable to being picked off by some lethal trap.
"..."
Listening to the sneer from the man below, Lou Ji's expression remained as calm as ever.
"Are you certain you still have the leisure to provoke me?"
The corners of Taishi Ran's lips curled beneath his iron mask, his voice tinged with a smile.
"So, Chief Lou intends to take on the five of us all on your own? If you also die here, Duke Xu will truly have lost an arm."
"Fool, don't waste your breath trying to provoke a cold-blooded woman like Lou Ji."
Before he could finish, Luo Bingli's icy voice rang abruptly by Taishi Ran's ear. "Watch your feet."
"..."
Taishi Ran's pupils contracted violently. Lowering his gaze, he saw a colossal, magnificent red spider lily appear beneath his feet without any warning, its slender, blood-hued petals already unfurling.
The abrupt emergence of this technique nearly threw Taishi Ran into disarray.
Even beneath the shroud of his own Dao domain, he had not sensed when this red spider lily had taken form.
Glancing sideways,
he saw Fatty Zhou, the middle-aged woman, and even the now-frenzied withered elder all facing the exact same predicament.
Four red spider lilies radiating an eerie glow had blossomed beneath the feet of all four simultaneously.
And four Transcendent Realm experts, who had each unfurled their respective Dao domains, had remained completely oblivious!
Lou Ji's Dao domain could actually impair their senses even within their own domains.
Yet now that it had been discovered, this technique in the guise of a red spider lily could no longer harm them.
No technique under heaven was flawless. Great concealment inevitably came at the cost of raw destructive power, not to mention that Lou Ji had unleashed it against all four of them at once.
The moment Luo Bingli's warning fell, the blooming red spider lilies were instantly shattered by the methods of their respective Dao domains.
Even the withered elder, lost entirely to madness, swung Xu Yuan's willow ghost blade to reduce the flower to countless specks of dust that scattered into the sky.
After only an instant's probing clash, a deep layer of wary dread settled into Taishi Ran's gaze as he watched Lou Ji.
The Chief of the Black Scales truly lived up to her name.
Had Luo Bingli not called out a warning, that single strike upon their first encounter would have left all four of them wounded to varying degrees. If that had happened, this woman truly might have held off all five on her own.
With his thoughts flashing, Taishi Ran glanced at the ancient city already reduced to ash, made his decision instantly, and sent a voice transmission to the other four:
"Hold Lou Ji for me for a single heartbeat. I'll go grind Xu Changtian's corpse to dust. By then, Xu Yinhe—"
Before he could finish, the withered elder locked in combat with the middle-aged woman suddenly burst into a manic cackle:
"Destroy Xu Changtian's corpse? Let this old man do it! I'll roast that brat's corpse to a crisp and deliver it to Xu Yinhe... Hehehe, haha, his expression should be quite magnificent, wouldn't you say?"
Hearing the elder's words, the gaze beneath Taishi Ran's iron mask grew sunken and bleak.
He knew a bit of the truth behind that bizarre plague. He knew what state the withered elder was currently in, and naturally understood how to provoke him.
Since the man was already an abandoned pawn, he might as well squeeze every last bit of utility out of him right here!
The instant the words fell, the Source Qi roiling in midair nearly tore space apart!
"..."
As the battle among the five erupted, Luo Bingli had no intention of joining the fray again. She merely stood quietly where she was, cradling Jing Xuelan's corpse, the gaze beneath her iron mask filled with endless complexity and exhaustion.
Xu Changtian, the origin of the Calamity, was dead. But her daughter was dead as well, having perished in this grand assassination.
She knew well that Jing Xuelan's death was inextricably tied to Taishi Ran.
One could even say it was Taishi Ran's intervention to prevent the enemy from using Jing Xuelan's life to blackmail her that directly caused her daughter's demise.
Yet regarding this matter, Luo Bingli could understand Taishi Ran's dilemma.
This concerned the Great Calamity of the world. If she had been restrained by the enemy using Jing Xuelan as leverage, the operation to eliminate the source of the Great Calamity would likely have ended in total failure.
Even so, that understanding did not diminish the urge within her to slaughter Taishi Ran.
Only her allegiance and her reason reminded her that this debt could not be laid upon Taishi Ran's head.
After all, the true instigator of everything was the prince below, and the woman who had struck without hesitation upon his command.
Her complex thoughts drifted through her mind, and Luo Bingli's cold gaze quietly settled upon a courtyard on the outskirts of the ancient city.
There, a man of indolent bearing sat before a stone table.
He seemed utterly untouched by the earth-shattering roars in the sky, sipping wine in solitude as though completely blind to it all.
The courtyard was serene.
Li Junqing was pondering how he should flee.
Yet after mulling it over again and again, he ultimately found that only a single dead end lay before him.
Jing Xuelan's death would unquestionably be pinned on his head by the black-robed woman.
And as if to confirm his suspicion,
that very woman in black was standing in midair, gazing down at him from above. The look directed at him from beneath that strange iron mask was filled with bottomless chill.
To be frank,
Li Junqing did not believe Qianxi could protect him from that black-robed woman, nor did he believe the other party would hesitate out of respect for his imperial status at this point.
Therefore, unless that Chief of the Black Scale Guards suddenly rushed over and staked her life to protect him, he had only death left to face.
As for whether Lou Ji would do so?
Li Junqing doubted it.
Xu Changtian was probably already cold. Why would she have any heart left to protect an outsider like him?
With his thoughts trailing off,
Li Junqing let out a faint sigh, yet there was little panic in his leisurely, sharp eyes.
Though he feared death—feared it intensely—
as a member of the imperial house,
Li Junqing had to preserve the dignity of the Great Yan imperial lineage.
To remain graceful in the face of death.
As for how to remain so...
Exhaling a long breath, Li Junqing sat quietly back before the stone table in the courtyard, produced a flask of fine imperial tribute wine and two porcelain cups, and filled them both.
The first cup he poured onto the ground.
The black-robed woman wore an iron mask, hiding her expression, but Li Junqing had seen the look on Lou Ji's face with utter clarity.
It was an emptiness born of emotions stretched to their absolute limit.
Judging by that display, that Xu Changtian brat had almost certainly met his end.
Having poured it, he tossed the cup aside.
This wine was quite expensive; letting the Xu Changtian brat get a taste was good enough.
Still, this cup of wine
counted as his final toast to that kid.
After all, whether the fellow was dead or not, he himself would likely be dead soon.
Because Qianxi had just sent him a voice transmission.
She said the black-robed woman's qi dynamic had already locked onto her, telling him to flee quickly while she held her back.
Truly a foolish woman.
Where could a mere Body Integration cultivator run?
Shaking his head faintly, Li Junqing picked up the other porcelain cup from the table, hesitated for a moment at his lips, and then poured the precious liquid onto the ground as well.
This cup
was for that foolish woman in advance.
To tell the truth, he really had been quite fond of Qianxi.
High cultivation, beautiful, great figure, and obedient.
Yet unfortunately,
no place was more heartless than the imperial clan. Her background in the Crown Prince's Manor meant it was impossible for the Third Prince to trust her.
If she had come from a different background, perhaps...
Heh, it mattered little to speak of such things now.
The wine seeped into the soil, giving off a gentle fragrance. Pouring himself another full cup, he took a small sip, letting the bittersweet wine spread across his palate, and then cursed under his breath:
"Damn it, that kid truly is a bastard. He had to go and interrupt my final moment of warmth."
With that,
Li Junqing chuckled softly.
He felt that this journey along the yellow springs probably wouldn't be too lonely.
At least that bastard Xu Changtian had gone down ahead of him.
Moreover,
though he did not know whether his imperial father would avenge his son, he knew for certain that Duke Xu would send plenty of grand figures down to be buried alongside Xu Changtian.
Well, even if the nature of it was different, those grand figures would still serve as company in death for him as well.
Quite a lavish burial indeed...
Thought after thought surfaced in his mind, and cup after cup of wine went down his throat.
Then,
after Li Junqing poured what proved to be his last cup, he suddenly discovered that the flask he had brought out was empty. Just as he prepared to retrieve another, he heard a cool voice come from beside him:
"Are you finished drinking?"
Looking back, Li Junqing took a sharp intake of breath.
The black-robed woman was already standing behind him at some unknown moment, cradling Jing Xuelan's corpse, gazing at him with an indifferent look.
Meeting her eyes for a fleeting instant, Li Junqing turned his head back, took a tiny sip from the rim of the cup, and said:
"Senior is quite courteous, actually willing to wait for this Prince to finish his execution wine. Where is Qianxi?"
Luo Bingli stepped slowly over from where she had landed and took a seat opposite Li Junqing, still holding the deceased Jing Xuelan in her arms. Her reply was brief:
"Dead."
"..."
Silence fell for a moment. An indescribably complex look surged into Li Junqing's eyes, his voice trembling slightly:
"Senior truly has formidable means. A Transcendent Realm expert..."
"Someone who has only just entered the Transcendent Realm and has not even stabilized their Dao domain is not difficult to slay."
"Heh..."
Li Junqing rubbed the smooth rim of the porcelain cup, lifting his head to glance at the sky.
"Since that is the case, this Prince cannot keep Senior waiting long.
"If you wait too long, it will be unsightly for both of us."
With those words,
Li Junqing prepared to down the contents of his cup in a single gulp, but suddenly noticed that the once cloudless sky had darkened abruptly.
A bizarre fog engulfed the entirety of Huizhou County with lightning swiftness.
It resembled a black ghost mist, yet also seemed like a crimson Inter-Abyss.
Then,
the withered elder's shocked, uncomprehending, and frenzied voice resonated through the fog:
"Why aren't you dead, you little brat?!"
Chapter 430