Caught completely off guard by the sudden attack, Qin Li had no time to dodge. He could only conjure a flash of golden light across his chest, attempting to form an armored plate.
Before the golden armor could take shape, Meng Qingze struck him squarely with a palm. With a dull thud reminiscent of rotting wood striking wood, Qin Li stumbled back several steps, slamming hard against a vermilion wooden pillar supporting Jiangbo Hall.
The golden light on his chest dissipated in an instant. His clothes fluttered away like crumbling butterflies, exposing a gruesome, dark-green palm print on his flesh.
Qin Li had initially felt only bewilderment and shock, but at this moment, rage surged through him, turning his eyes bloodshot. He swore to repay that blow and inflict grievous injuries on Meng Qingze as well.
As the two engaged in a fierce exchange, Ren Youyang's other two guards turned their eyes toward Su Chongxiao, their faces warped with vicious malice.
*Your Tiannü Sect isn't even a sect of our Great Zhao! What right do you have to contest for the huai fruit?*
*And what right do you, Su Chongxiao, have to be so handsome, so strikingly elegant, making every Zhen Manor maid and female relative we encountered along the way unable to look away?*
*Kill! Kill! Kill!*
One of them charged toward Su Chongxiao like a fierce gale, while the other seemed to merge with the shadows cast by the sunlight through the window latticework, quietly flanking Su Chongxiao from the side.
*The likes of you dare raise a hand against me?* Su Chongxiao found it both comical and infuriating, a wisp of violence stirring within his own chest.
Leaping into the air in a flash, he flicked his sleeve.
Amidst a whistling wind, the guard rushing Su Chongxiao head-on suddenly felt as though he had stepped into an autumn day:
The sun was not scorching, only radiating a comfortable warmth that ushered in a soft, refreshing breeze. Scents of wheat and ripe fruit drifted through the air, intoxicating the senses.
On a day like this, one ought to recline upon a wicker lounger, drifting off into a leisurely, blissful slumber.
Drowsiness instantly overtook the guard, draining every ounce of his strength. All he wished was to lie down right where he was and savor the tranquil autumn afternoon.
The Autumn Weariness Dao of the Twelve Dao of the Great Void!
The moment his movements slowed, the sharp crack of a lash resounded across his body, a rapid series of snaps that overlapped into a single continuous blast.
The guard was sent flying backward, his chest covered in bloody welts. Several of his ribs snapped, soft inner force seeped into his organs, and one lash struck his ear so fiercely that it knocked him unconscious on the spot.
The Tiannü Formless Whip—heard in its strikes, unseen in its path!
Su Chongxiao still retained a measure of restraint against the hostile urge in his heart, clearly holding back with this blow. Given his abilities, had all six whips struck with full lethal intent, the man would surely have died.
"The Mind-Beguiling Spirit-Deranging Art? The Boat Overturning Sect?" Su Chongxiao shifted his gaze toward the doorway.
Faced with such an extraordinary disruption, Zhen Qianfan shot to his feet from the seat of honor.
Beside him, Zhen Quanwang's eyes had turned bloodshot at some unknown point.
*You old fossil, why aren't you dead yet?*
*I've been past thirty for years, yet in this manor, I'm still only allowed to make decisions on trivial matters!*
*Once you're dead, I will be the master of this family!*
Zhen Quanwang thrust a palm forward, as though unleashing a torrent of tens of thousands of jun of rushing water.
Glimmers of faint light abruptly ignited around Zhen Qianfan, resembling undulating reflections on water.
Almost simultaneously, within a radius of three zhang, the sunlight dimmed as if layers of illusory waves were converging into a deep ocean. The dark shadow beneath Zhen Qianfan's feet expanded outward violently, like a colossal beast submerging into the abyss.
The farther Zhen Quanwang's palm advanced, the slower it became, until it ground to a complete halt deep within the heavy, illusory currents.
"Humph!" Zhen Qianfan flicked his sleeve, sending the useless wretch flying. Zhen Quanwang crashed to the ground, teeth knocked loose and blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.
Immediately after, Zhen Qianfan glared at Su Chongxiao with pure ferocity. Stepping forward, he threw a punch.
Illusory waves rippled, layer upon layer reinforcing Zhen Qianfan's fist. The floor of Jiangbo Hall grew slick with moisture in an instant, and within three to four zhang, an oppressive feeling of drowning set in, constricting everyone's breath.
Witnessing this, Su Qingli darted away like a startled hare and a swooping falcon, scurrying into a corner of the hall, her maid right behind her.
When she claimed to know only a smattering of martial arts, she truly had meant it. Using shifts and illusions to tease a few Yiren was one thing, but in a battle involving grandmasters, she considered her own skills nothing more than fancy, useless posturing. She would be utterly helpless. Far better to steer clear and keep her Second Uncle from getting distracted.
No sooner had she crouched down in the corner far from the battlefield than she noticed someone else hiding beside her:
Ren Youyang, whose feathered robe and tall cap were now completely askew.
"What a coincidence," Su Qingli said, her lips twitching in greeting. She was not the least bit surprised by this performance from the Zhenling Sect's core disciple, a recognized figure on the Orchid Newcomer Ranks.
Ren Youyang offered a rather sheepish reply:
"Miss Su, the fact that the two of us are so mildly affected proves we are both peaceful of heart, lovers of flowers and grass who cannot bear to harm others. It is indeed a coincidence."
"Generally speaking, the higher one's martial arts, the more lives one has taken, so some accumulation of bloodlust is inevitable. Only people like me, with pathetic martial skills, have no desire to hurt anyone." Su Qingli bickered with Ren Youyang with a hint of irritable edge while keeping her eyes fixed on her second uncle.
Facing Zhen Qianfan's strike, Su Chongxiao tapped the ground with his toes and retreated swiftly, his sleeves billowing. Between the two of them, the sharp cracks of a whip tip breaking the air rang out incessantly, only to be swallowed by the undulating surge of water and blocked by Zhen Qianfan's fists.
Seeing himself closing the distance, Zhen Qianfan suddenly felt an overwhelming surge of joy, as if he could already see himself striking down his formidable enemy, claiming the treasure of his dreams, and finally mending his foundational flaw.
He broke through again and again, advancing without end, entering the Heaven-Human Realm, ascending to the Lingtai, and discovering the path to shatter the severing of Earth from Heaven to enter the Heavenly Realm.
A broad smile spread across his face, and his entire being grew light as a feather, floating higher and higher until the Heavenly Realm was within his very grasp.
His mind and body relaxed completely—and in that moment, a slender, alabaster hand appeared before his eyes.
The hand descended from the "Heavenly Realm," pressing toward the crown of his head.
The Ascension Dao of the Twelve Dao of the Great Void!
As the palm drew near his skull, an intense premonition of danger erupted in Zhen Qianfan's mind.
Without time to think, he commanded the pitch-black shadow at his feet, which had assumed the form of a colossal beast, to contract inward and merge with him in an instant.
Amidst a tremendous rushing sound, Zhen Qianfan thrust an upturned palm toward the sky.
Like a titanic sea creature leaping from the deep ocean, the blow carried the ferocity to overturn rivers and seas, churning the surrounding illusory water into a violent whirlpool.
The murky vortex centered around Zhen Qianfan's palm, drawing in Su Chongxiao's ascending strike until the two collided.
*Boom!*
A burst of water exploded outward. Below, it cascaded like a downpour throughout the hall; above, it surged like a soaring geyser, shattering the roof.
Having been knocked back to his senses by his father's strike, Zhen Quanwang witnessed this cataclysm and realized that staying in Jiangbo Hall was exceedingly dangerous. Scrambling on all fours, he fled toward the rear of the hall, desperate to flee outside.
At the same time, Dai Shen of the Boat Overturning Sect, wearing a conical bamboo hat, and Ma Hanjiang of the Xiaochuan Gang slipped past the retained experts, courtyard guards, and servants who were already slaughtering one another, arriving at the main entrance.
Dai Shen's birdlike, bright red lips curled into a grin. Seizing the opening when Su Chongxiao flipped upward to deflect the force of the collision and Zhen Qianfan's feet sank into the sodden floor, momentarily rooting him to the spot, Dai Shen swept his right tiger-claw forward. Tainted with a bloody sheen, sharp talons drove straight toward Zhen Qianfan's brow.
Undaunted in the face of peril, Zhen Qianfan drew a deep breath.
Like a great whale drawing in the sea, he instantly sucked all the surrounding illusory water into his body.
A fraction of a second later, lacking the time to deliver another upward palm strike, Zhen Qianfan punched at the empty air.
A tremendous roar of rushing water erupted as torrents of illusory currents poured forth from the point where his fist met the empty air, surging like a broken levee.
The blast sent the artificial waterfall outside crashing sideways into the hall, its violent surge pushing Dai Shen back by a zhang and foiling his strike.
Ren Youyang's guards and Su Chongxiao's attendants were all swept off their feet by the impact.
Ma Hanjiang of the Xiaochuan Gang did not join in besieging Zhen Qianfan; his mind was consumed entirely by the single urge to bathe the Zhen family in blood.
Spotting Zhen Quanwang's fleeing back, bloodlust overtook his senses. The phantom of a turtle shell surfaced across his body, and he bolted in wild pursuit.
Crouched quietly in the corner near the main entrance, Su Qingli whispered to Ren Youyang, "It's getting dangerous here. We could easily get caught in the crossfire. I'm going to find somewhere else to hide."
Without waiting for his response, she pushed off the wall, burst through the wooden window lattice, and dropped lightly onto the covered corridor outside Jiangbo Hall. Moving with airy grace, leaping high and low, scaling eaves and walls, she deftly maneuvered away from the slaughterhouse behind her.
Her maid followed using the exact same movement technique.
After fleeing for a short distance, Su Qingli saw Ren Youyang barreling through various skirmishes like a stray dog, only to be blocked by a knot of courtyard guards locked in chaotic infighting ahead, leaving him with no easy way through.
*Sigh.* The young woman let out a breath, turned back, seized Ren Youyang by the shoulder, kicked off a wooden pillar, and vaulted onto the roof. Traversing the black tiles, she leapt down on the far side.
***
In the Lotus Pond Courtyard.
Having sent Cuihe away on other errands, Qin Nuansheng had followed Liu Yuzao's instructions, changing into the plain garb of a servant girl and restyling her hair into double topknots.
"Smear a bit of soot on your face in a moment, to make it look like you took a tumble while fleeing the manor," advised Qi Xiaoxiang, who went by the alias Liu Yuzao.
Before Qin Nuansheng could reply, Qi Xiaoxiang gave a slight nod. "Once the chaos breaks out, run straight out of Zhen Manor. Go to the Li Family Steamed Bun Shop on Guangsheng Street and ask to buy three plain steamed buns—one stuffed with donkey meat, one with venison, and one with fruit. Someone will be there to receive you and arrange your departure from Dingjiang Prefecture.
"You have performed exceptionally well over these past two-plus years, and the Sect Master is very pleased. Once this succeeds, would you prefer a sum of silver to live a life of leisure, or would you like to pick a consummate art to practice martial arts?"
Qin Nuansheng was taken aback. "I'm already twenty-two. Can I still practice martial arts?"
"I did not begin aperture refinement until I was twenty-four. Didn't you also undergo body tempering and qi cultivation here at the Zhen family?" Qi Xiaoxiang said in a cool tone.
Delight instantly washed over Qin Nuansheng's face. Bowing deeply, she said, "Please convey my gratitude to the Sect Master!"
Qi Xiaoxiang lapsed back into her taciturn silence, waiting with patient calm.
After an indeterminate time, a distant boom echoed from somewhere within Zhen Manor, accompanied by the faint clamor of shouting, killing, and clashing steel.
Qi Xiaoxiang gave Qin Nuansheng a nod, walked out of the Lotus Pond Courtyard on her own, and retrieved a mechanical device resembling a firecracker from her robes.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Three bursts of fireworks—red, yellow, and green—soared into the sky, blossoming into brilliant flowers of light.
***
Inside the county yamen, Qiu Chen, using the alias Ding Shengyi, was attending to documents as usual, seemingly oblivious to the colleagues watching him.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
He raised his head toward the window and saw the fireworks bursting in midair.
A bailiff who had wandered over under the guise of casual chatter suddenly felt a throbbing ache in his skull. Long, slender whiskers seemed to sprout from his nose, mouth, and ears.
His vision went black. Drawing his saber, he swung it violently at another bailiff nearby.
Within the yamen clerks' office, several other men also erupted into sudden frenzy.
***
At the docks.
Seeing the red, yellow, and green fireworks bloom in the sky, Ding Daniu broke into a broad grin.
Whirling around abruptly, he drove a fist straight into the foreman's face.
*Crack!*
The foreman's entire face caved in, his body sent flying more than a zhang away.
Chapter 49