Ice Cold

Since it was already nearly ten o'clock at night, traffic was light. In just half an hour, Yaoguang arrived at Griffin Garden. Due to its poor location, this was a villa development that had been left nearly abandoned. Coupled with the late hour, nine out of ten villas were completely dark. Yaoguang observed for a moment and soon made his way outside a villa near the main road. Through his Perception secret technique, he locked onto a qi and blood fluctuation of at least the Martial Saint level. "There's actually a mimic guarding the chest." Then... Concealing his presence with the Formless secret technique, he quietly crept toward the Martial Saint stationed there. Along the way, he spotted several other guards, two of whom were at the Grandmaster level, but none of them detected Yaoguang's silent infiltration. At that moment, the Martial Saint in charge was conducting a patrol. After gauging the man's route, Yaoguang stood silently at a corner, lowering his aura to the absolute limit with the Formless secret technique. Thanks to Yaoguang's wealth of experience, the Martial Saint remained completely oblivious even as he approached his hiding spot. Just as he turned the corner... A chilling light tore through the air. Under the stark white lights, the Shenying Sword pierced the void like a phantom, striking in an instant. The Martial Saint detected the incoming sword light immediately, but... It was too late. His body simply could not react in time. All he could do in that split second was unleash his spirit intent, channeling it into a spirit intent secret technique that seemed to coalesce into a terrifying blaze, aiming to completely ignite Yaoguang's mental world. It had to be said that this Spirit Intent Martial Saint acted with exceptional decisiveness and resolve. Caught in a sudden ambush where his physical reflexes were too slow, he gambled everything without hesitation by unleashing a spirit intent secret technique. If the opponent couldn't withstand it, he would swiftly break out of this disadvantageous ambush and launch a counterattack. And if the opponent withstood it... It would prove the attacker's cultivation realm was hardly inferior to his own. Having lost the initiative against an ambush by a powerhouse of the same realm, the situation would already be nearly impossible to reverse. The only thing he could do was gamble. The result... He lost the gamble. An even more violent, dazzling, and searing brilliance instantly lit up his mental world. The mental backlash from the spirit intent secret technique plunged him into utter despair in an instant. *It's over!* At that moment, even as his heart turned ice-cold, it was flooded with indignant rage. Spirit intent! A fellow Spirit Intent Martial Saint was actually so despicable that, when facing a warrior of the same realm, he didn't even have the courage for a direct confrontation, resorting instead to an ambush... If they had clashed head-on, he would never have ended up so utterly powerless to fight back... ... "There's movement!" "Who's there!" The clash between Yaoguang and the Martial Saint instantly drew the attention of several people below. At once, the entire villa blazed with lights, and shouts erupted. Yet as Yaoguang charged down to confront the Martial Masters and Grandmasters on the grounds, the uproar lasted only a few minutes before falling into dead silence. ... "I need to pick up the pace." Yaoguang flicked the Shenying Sword in his hand, shaking off all the blood. He glanced at the crack that had formed along the blade... A touch of regret surfaced. "Time to replace it." This divine weapon, which had accompanied him through several fierce battles, was about to reach the end of its journey. Although the Shenying Sword was classed as a divine weapon, there were clear grades among them. Its quality was visibly inferior to artifacts like Heavy Star and Crescent. Not to mention comparing it with the battle weapons held by the upper echelons of the Crimson Star Empire. Pondering this, Yaoguang soon followed his memories to the entrance of a basement. There was a keypad lock at the door. Thanks to Jiang Shengtian placing immense importance on this transit depot and memorizing the code thoroughly, Yaoguang quickly entered the correct numbers, and the door swung open. However, once the basement door opened, what appeared before him was neither divine weapons nor gold and silver treasures, but rather... Cultivation resources. A vast stockpile of materials used for condensing spirit intent. This anomaly took him somewhat by surprise. "Related to the Demon Lord Plan?" Yaoguang thought for a moment and quickly pieced it together. The demon weapon the Crimson Star Empire was originally supposed to deliver to the Artifact Sect had already been forged during the period of upheaval, but due to various factors—such as insufficient strength and realm—Chixing couldn't fully master it. And to wield immortal weapons and demon weapons... Spirit intent—or rather, divine sense—was evidently an essential metric. For this exact reason, they required vast amounts of spirit refining resources to pile onto a single person, bringing that person's divine sense to great attainment so they could control the demon weapon, crush the Rebirth Society with its power, and forcibly open the Star Gate. "No wonder Chixing held a near-total monopoly on spirit nurturing and spirit refining materials over these past decades. I thought it was because Chixing feared other nations producing Spirit Intent Martial Saints..." The true reason lay here. Having deduced the cause, Yaoguang quickly set to work, organizing and gathering the processed herbs and medicines. Because there were simply too many materials, he ultimately had to select the most valuable ones to pack together, while the rest... He regretfully left behind. Half an hour later, Yaoguang left Griffin Garden carrying a sack as tall as a man. He didn't set fire to the remaining herbs he couldn't carry. After all, using up these materials would take some time, and perhaps... He might come back again by then. ... At the Chixing military base stationed in Dayu. Inside the conference room, the Sixteenth Prince, holding the highest status present, wore an exceedingly grim expression. "This is absolute mutiny!" Jiang Zhengming's eyes burned with uncontrollable fury. "We, Chixing, have always been the ones pushing others around. No one has ever dared to push us around!" He slammed his hand heavily onto the table. "A mere Jishi Society had the audacity to go this far, forcing us to release captured terrorists alive... Such an act is a direct challenge to Chixing's dominion over the Artifact Nurturing Realm! If they aren't severely punished, where is the dignity of our imperial family?! Where is the majesty of our Crimson Star Empire?!" "Please calm your anger, Your Highness," Shangguan Xiong said hastily from the side. "His Majesty's order to let these Jishi Society remnants go was surely just an expedient measure. That madman from the Jishi Society dared to run wild in our imperial capital; there is only one fate for him—death. He might already be a prisoner right now, ordered by His Majesty to be sliced into a thousand pieces." "Are our people still tailing the Jishi Society?" Jiang Zhengming asked. "They are," Shangguan Xiong nodded, pausing for a moment before adding, "However, those remnants possess some strength after all. For now, we are merely keeping them under surveillance so they don't slip out of our sight entirely. If we truly want to recapture them, Your Highness will need to issue orders to mobilize some experts from the surrounding regions." "No matter. I have already dispatched directives to several neighboring countries; ten Martial Saints are currently heading our way." Jiang Zhengming let out a cold laugh. "A pack of clowns! Do they really think leaving the military base means they're safe? All lands under heaven belong to the crown! In this world, there is no one Chixing cannot capture, and no one escapes unscathed after crossing us!" Hearing this, Shangguan Xiong nodded with a hint of envy. Compared to his Shangguan family, Jiang Zhengming, as the Sixteenth Prince, carried far greater authority. The neighboring nations did not dare disobey his orders. Sure enough, once the order went out, ten Martial Saints responded immediately. Among these Martial Saints... Some had even been former members of the Jishi Society, who now scrambled to prove themselves to draw a clear line between themselves and the society, hoping to avoid being purged later. Right then, Shangguan Xiong's trusted subordinate in the conference room seemed to receive a message and suddenly spoke up: "General, Martial Saint Fang of the White Tower Federation reports a sudden severe illness and cannot make it." "The White Tower Federation?!" Shangguan Xiong snorted coldly upon hearing this. "Fang Quan, right? I'll remember this. Looks like the Fang family thinks life has been too comfortable... Since they don't want to live peacefully, there's no need for them to exist." Jiang Zhengming nodded slightly. Yet before long, the subordinate spoke again: "Word has also arrived from the Longque Kingdom. Their Martial Saint encountered an issue during cultivation and cannot render assistance..." "Longque Kingdom?! Chixing calling upon him is his greatest honor, yet he dares defy an imperial decree?! Fine, very well!" A flash of anger crossed Jiang Zhengming's eyes. And as news from the Longque Kingdom came in, the remaining countries sent word one after another, as if by prior agreement—the Martial Saints from their respective nations... Had all been delayed by various matters. In short: none of them could come. When just one or two replied this way, Jiang Zhengming and Shangguan Xiong merely sneered. But when a third and fourth said the same, the two realized something was amiss. By the time every single country responded with excuses, showing complete disregard for the Sixteenth Prince, even Jiang Zhengming, slow as he was, grasped the gravity of the situation. He immediately tried to contact his imperial father. The result... No answer. Next, he contacted Qi Renjie, the man in charge of intelligence processing. Still, no one responded... All at once, a terrible premonition gripped Jiang Zhengming's heart. "Something has gone wrong," Jiang Zhengming said in a heavy voice. Could it be... That the madman who barged into their imperial palace had escaped? Was that what gave the Martial Saints of these nations the courage to defy the Chixing imperial family? *Ding-dong!* Just as the two realized how precarious the situation had become, both of their phones received a message forcibly pushed through from an unknown number at the same time. Crucially... The image attached to the message. With just a single glance, Jiang Zhengming and Shangguan Xiong, who had brimmed with the arrogance of Chixing elites only a moment ago, both turned pale as ash. "Impossible!" "That is absolutely impossible!" The two hastily opened the photos, zoomed in, and examined them closely. The more they looked, the more their bodies trembled uncontrollably. The pictures sent from that unknown number showed none other than the corpses of Jiang family head Jiang Shengtian and Shangguan family head Shangguan Jinlong. Dead! The Emperor of Chixing and the head of the Shangguan family were dead! At that moment, a dizzying sensation hit them, as if the heavens had collapsed and the earth had split open. "How dare he! Just who was it... how could he dare..." "Lawless! Utterly lawless!" The two stammered, their hands shaking incessantly. For the first time, an emotion other than cold arrogance, mockery, and rage appeared in their eyes—terror! *Ring-ring-ring!* Not long after the photos arrived, Jiang Zhengming's phone rang first. Seeing the caller ID, he could not wait to answer, demanding frantically, "What on earth happened?!" "You know already?!" An elderly voice came through the phone: "Forget everything else! The situation has changed—return to the imperial capital immediately!" Almost at the same time, Shangguan Xiong's phone rang as well. "Mom..." "A catastrophe has struck! The Shangguan family's power must not fall into the hands of the collateral branches—come back quickly!" Hearing the voices on the phone and cross-checking them against the images they had received, Jiang Zhengming and Shangguan Xiong felt as though they had been plunged into an ice cave. Throughout their entire bodies, not a shred of warmth remained.