Facts proved that the martial world was no match for the imperial court.
In the beginning, the major sects barely clung to life beneath the iron hooves of the court. Once numerous sects were wiped out, the court ceased deploying its armies. Instead, it established an organization known as the Hall of Martial Suppression, dedicated solely to tracking down and capturing jianghu practitioners.
This was an exceptionally ruthless organization. To hunt down martial artists, they stopped at nothing; the old code where harm did not extend to one's family did not exist within its ranks.
The families of many martial artists were rounded up in one fell swoop and used as bait to lure their targets into a trap.
Furthermore, they truly slaughtered entire clans. Even if a martial artist was captured, their family was not spared. The conflict between the two sides was irreconcilable—a fight to the bitter death.
As the saying goes, when the heavens grow wild, rain falls; when man grows reckless, disaster calls.
One day, agents from the Hall of Martial Suppression blasted open the gate to Yu Xian's courtyard. Several hideously ugly bruisers filed inside. Frowning slightly, Yu Xian rose from his rocking chair.
"Confess honestly—where did the old man who used to live here go?" One of the men drew his blade and pressed it against Yu Xian's neck, demanding fiercely and violently.
Yu Xian suddenly understood. It turned out this trouble had been brought upon him by his earlier disguise as an ugly man.
The Hall of Martial Suppression was hunting martial artists throughout the realm, and at the same time, they were mobilizing the common folk. As long as someone reported a suspected martial artist in their vicinity, they would be rewarded once the suspect was confirmed to be one.
While the martial world was drenched in blood and slaughter, the ordinary populace kept their eyes glued to their surroundings, wishing every one of their neighbors was a jianghu practitioner, since reporting just one meant striking it rich.
Evidently, Yu Xian's previous appearance had been highly suspicious, leading someone to report him to the Hall of Martial Suppression, which brought about this visit from unwelcome guests.
Yu Xian wore an innocent expression. "I don't know."
"Hmph, still trying to hide it? The deed to this house is still under his name, and you don't know?" the lead brute sneered.
With that, he turned to walk outside, barking orders as he went, "Take him back and torture him severely. Let's see how long his mouth stays tough!"
"Looks like... playing dumb won't work."
Yu Xian sighed, murmuring with a touch of helplessness.
He then reached up and moved the blade away from his neck. Only then did all the surrounding members of the Hall of Martial Suppression belatedly realize that they couldn't move an inch.
"I'll go have a chat with your dog emperor. As for you lot... let me think." Yu Xian idly turned the long saber in his hand, which resembled a spring-embroidered blade, momentarily undecided on how to deal with these imperial lapdogs.
In truth, he wasn't angry. After all, that was simply the premise of this world. In the past, the court had been helpless against the martial world, and the martial world had committed plenty of acts where the chivalrous violated the law through force. So now that the court was driving them to utter extinction, he was merely an onlooker watching the show.
But when watching the spectacle ended up dragging him into it, it stopped being fun.
"Got it!"
An idea struck Yu Xian.
Since these men loved catching people so much, they should be quite adept at catching mice.
And so, beneath the terrified gazes of every Hall of Martial Suppression member, Yu Xian turned them into cats one by one. At the same time, he set rules for these felines: they were forbidden from harming humans, forbidden from eating normal food, and their sole food source would be mice—eating anything else would cause them to vomit incessantly.
This was, in reality, the power of rules of order. When Yu Xian was sufficiently powerful, the power of Grand Dao Myriad Phenomena could formulate rules, and even supplant the Heavenly Dao and the Grand Dao, establishing whatever rules he desired in these worlds.
His ability to capture the Heavenly Dao and turn it into a puppy was simply because he was strong enough.
In fact, he could lay down rules for this world right now—for instance, decreeing that humans here had to walk on their hands, and every single person would walk upside down.
He could even establish a rule that water would never fall, only rise, while mist and vapor were what fell from the sky to the ground. Then this world would turn into one where the sea drifted through the sky while vast clouds and mists covered the earth.
Turning a few men into cats and restricting their diet to mice was truly nothing more than a single thought to Yu Xian.
After dealing with the troublemakers from the Hall of Martial Suppression, Yu Xian vanished in an instant. When he reappeared, he had already arrived at Jinzicheng—the imperial palace of this world was called Jinzicheng.
Moving as if through an uninhabited land, he easily located the ruler of this realm inside one of the palace halls.
The imperial court of this world had a setting somewhat reminiscent of the Ming Dynasty, though it was not actually the Ming Dynasty, but an empire called the Xi Dynasty. Its current ruler was known as Emperor Kanglong.
The name sounded like a mash-up of Kangxi and Qianlong, but in truth, it had absolutely nothing to do with either.
Emperor Kanglong was a middle-aged man, neither ugly nor handsome. Likely due to holding high authority for a long time, he possessed an innate, imposing dignity. He sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, cultivating.
It was perfectly normal for an emperor to cultivate. After all, this was a mid-level martial world; cultivation strengthened the body and was also an official metric of assessment. Any imperial prince with poor cultivation was utterly unqualified to lay claim to the throne.
After all, no emperor wanted their successor to be a weakling easily swayed or controlled by others.
"Divine Art of Purple Qi from the East?"
"Why aren't you cultivating the Hands of Total Disfigurement?"
Looking at the cross-legged Emperor Kanglong, Yu Xian spoke up.
At that instant, Emperor Kanglong shuddered violently, nearly suffering cultivation deviation. Snapping his eyes open, he saw Yu Xian and shouted, "Who goes there?! Imperial guards, protect the emperor!"
"Save your breath. They're just standing right outside the doors," Yu Xian said faintly as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
Realizing that the intruder possessed extraordinary martial arts, Emperor Kanglong took a deep breath and said, "May I ask what brings you here, sir?"
"Submissive and polite on the outside, yet your head is filled with thoughts of sending an army to besiege and slaughter me afterward. Tsk tsk, you really are a dog emperor," Yu Xian remarked, rather exasperated as he looked at Emperor Kanglong.
Emperor Kanglong was startled, hurriedly suppressing those forbidden thoughts.
"Actually, I just wanted to eat melon and enjoy the show. I was even the one who spread the Hands of Total Disfigurement, thinking it would make the whole martial world more amusing. But you took things too far, turning a perfectly good drama into this wretched mess.
"Of course, the most important part is that your running dogs disturbed me. It didn't really affect me, but it's like a dog taking a dump by the corner of your house—just plain disgusting," Yu Xian said casually, looking at Emperor Kanglong.
Emperor Kanglong immediately realized that the Hall of Martial Suppression had offended this mysterious expert, which was why he had come knocking.
"I'm not particularly generous, nor am I some kind of good person. Whoever offends me... as long as I have the power, I usually pay them back. How do you think I should punish you?" Yu Xian asked with a smile.
Emperor Kanglong quickly said, "I truly had no knowledge of the Hall of Martial Suppression's—"
"Cut the crap. It's pointless," Yu Xian interrupted.
He didn't care in the slightest whose fault it actually was, so shifting blame was entirely meaningless.
At a time like this, the emperor would do better to honestly think of a punishment he could endure, and pray that Yu Xian might nod and grant that small mercy.
Chapter 661