Night Raid

The early hours of the morning. Fully equipped and resting with his eyes closed, Yaoguang opened his eyes. "Move out!" he ordered. Also clad in full combat suits, nine men—including Lü Jianfeng, Jiang Sheng, Li Cunyu, Xu Dengfeng, and Yue Xingzhou—stood up in unison. Outside the entrance, a vehicle was already waiting. The ten quickly boarded, and the vehicle drove forward into the night. As it vanished into the dark, more than a dozen other vehicles surged out from every direction under cover of night. In this decapitation strike, the ten led by Yaoguang were tasked with storming the palace to strike at the Liao family's core, while an armed force of over a thousand fighters tied down the royal capital Liao family's rapid reaction forces on all fronts. Additionally, the aristocratic families would deploy a variety of trump cards to ensure the decapitation plan went smoothly. Had preparations not been made on every front, these Grandmasters would never have put themselves in harm's way. Inside the vehicle, a palm-sized light screen flickered to life on the helmet display of Yaoguang's combat suit, detailing the route ahead. With a slight touch, he could toggle the display to view temperature, ambient light, wind speed, and other relevant data. At the same time, voices came through the open comms channel in his ear. "Prosecutor General Kong Fang's position confirmed." "General Lü has arrived at Commander Zhang Jian's office." "Liao Zhenguo is still inside the royal palace." The Liao family commanded a considerable number of Martial Saints and Grandmasters, but not every Martial Saint remained stationed in the palace around the clock. At this moment, the only ones holding the palace were Prince Liao Zhenguo and the guardian hidden in the shadows, Bian Liancheng. As for Kong Fang and Zhang Jian... One oversaw the day-to-day operations of the Supreme Procuratorate. The other was stationed in the military, handling the deployment of the armed forces. According to Lü Jianfeng, Lü Tianhe would personally confront Zhang Jian and keep him in check, so there was little need to worry. As for Kong Fang, it would take him some time to rush from the Supreme Procuratorate to the royal palace. If they were fast enough, they could exploit that window of time. While reports came over the open channel, Lei Yun's voice sounded on another line: "Spotters in position." "Feed linked." "Target locked." ... Beyond her own voice, other voices echoed over the channel. They belonged to Yue Xingzhou's logistics team. Lei Yun and her small group could no longer keep pace with Yaoguang on their own. In fact, it wasn't just Lei Yun; even Yue Xingzhou's team wasn't truly prepared to support a Martial Saint. Still, with the Lü and Jiang families not fully trusted, having Yue Xingzhou's team step up to fill the gap was an unavoidable compromise. The vehicle drove forward, soon entering the estate complex where the Liao family resided. Dayu Royal Palace. The entire palace spanned more than three square kilometers, with a security perimeter that extended even further. Yet the aristocratic families had infiltrated the capital so deeply that the vehicle proceeded without the slightest obstruction, neatly bypassing every patrol route and checkpoint before arriving outside the palace with utter ease. ... Meanwhile, inside the royal palace. Head of the Liao family and ruler upon the throne, King of Yu Liao Shanhe was pressing Liao Ming: "What's going on? Still no word? His Excellency Mo Guang is still waiting for an answer from our Liao family! We cannot afford to make the same mistake twice!" "I contacted Ji Pingtian personally," Liao Ming replied, his expression tense. "According to him, they detected traces of Rebirth Society members and gathered a team to pursue them..." Communication had been lost. Fang Lu, the highest-ranking operative planted by the royal family inside the Jishi Society, had dropped out of contact. Worse, she had been tasked with a mission of borrowed-blade murder. To go completely dark for over twenty-four hours left him with a dreadful foreboding, even with Ji Pingtian's explanation. "Fang Lu would never genuinely move against the Rebirth Society," Liao Shanhe said. "She knows full well who those prominent figures truly are. Even if she put on a show of investigating to gain Ji Pingtian's trust, she would have left us clues... Or at the very least told us to notify His Excellency Mo Guang..." As Liao Shanhe spoke, he pulled out a dossier sent a few hours earlier by Lu Zhenhai of the Tiannan High Procuratorate. Many core members of the aristocratic families were congregating in the Tiannan provincial capital. Although the Yue family had done everything possible to suppress the news... Too many core family figures had arrived in the capital; no matter how strictly the Yue family clamped down, word was bound to slip out. At most, they had delayed the intelligence by a few hours. Linking Fang Lu's disappearance with the abnormal gathering of core family figures... "Could it be... Ji Pingtian already found out about our collaboration with the Rebirth Society and is using his influence to mobilize the aristocratic families against our Liao family?" Liao Shanhe's expression shifted. Then he dismissed the thought. Impossible... Fewer than five people in the entire royal family knew that secret. And while Fang Lu was one of them, she was... trustworthy! Unless that secret had leaked, Ji Pingtian would never dare risk universal condemnation by turning the Jishi Society—an organization founded with the backing of royal houses like theirs—against the royal house! If they did that, it would mean the Jishi Society had run out of control. The royal families of each nation would swiftly withdraw their support and crush them, causing the entire society to collapse in no time. "Could it be... that Ji Pingtian wants to stand up for that kid Su Yaoguang, using external pressure to force us to back down and ensure his safety?" Liao Ming offered the hesitant guess. "Su Yaoguang?" Liao Shanhe frowned. A nineteen-year-old Grandmaster... carried tremendous weight. Yet if Ji Pingtian truly wanted to protect him, he could have simply spoken to Liao Shanhe directly. Even if Liao Shanhe agreed only to immediately send men to dispose of the boy and deliver him to the Rebirth Society... Ji Pingtian wouldn't act without even giving a word of notice. "Regardless, the situation has clearly changed." After considering it, Liao Shanhe cautiously instructed his assistant, "Tell Kong Fang to deploy all his personnel and find out what these aristocratic families are up to. At the same time, raise our alert level and prepare for potential attacks. In addition, send word to Zhang Jian to stay on guard against any contingencies..." Here he paused. "Never mind, I'll message them myself." With that, he rose to his feet. At that exact moment, a startled and furious shout echoed from outside: "Enemy attack!" Immediately, sirens blared, and gunfire erupted. Screams followed in waves. "Enemy attack?!" Liao Shanhe's face drained of color. Could it be... Suddenly, his keen Grandmaster senses registered a prickling numbness coursing through his entire body. From the corner of his vision, he caught a clear flash of purple light. An instant later, sparks danced through the building, plunging it into total darkness. Sparks burst out across the room, the unmistakable sign of fried electronic systems. "An electromagnetic pulse?! No! A metamagnetic talisman!" Liao Shanhe realized at once. A metamagnetic talisman! Derived from the Snow Dragon Federation's immortal weapon—the Metamagnetic Divine Light Device! A formidable treasure forged by the Snow Dragon Federation specifically to counter Chixing's technological weaponry! Over the years, the Snow Dragon Federation had studied the device to develop weapons classified as "electromagnetic pulses," seeking to lower the threshold for martial artists to wield such power. The metamagnetic talisman, which stored electromagnetic pulse energy within a spiritual talisman, was one such creation! Yet talismans were exorbitantly expensive to make, and even in the Snow Dragon Federation, these weapons were restricted to experimental laboratories. How could one... appear here?! *Tat-tat-tat!* Rapid gunfire erupted once more, and this time... it was less than a hundred meters from his main building! In other words, the intruders had infiltrated the palace and reached within a hundred meters of its innermost core before being detected. To penetrate so deeply into a palace fortified like an iron fortress... These were no ordinary enemies! "The nine great families?! How dare they?!" Liao Shanhe was both shocked and enraged. He barked an urgent order: "Summon Zhenguo and Bian Liancheng immediately—" Before he could finish, a thunderous roar tore through the air: "How insolent!" Immediately following came a boom like muffled thunder, so deafening it drowned out the gunfire and explosions. This was... the terrifying shockwave unleashed when a Martial Saint detonated their dan jin with everything they had! Someone was clashing with the royal family's pillar of strength, Liao Zhenguo?! Liao Shanhe rushed outside at once. In the faint glow of the emergency lights, he saw a solitary silhouette holding a sword in one hand, leaping into the air to collide head-on with the surging, torrential momentum of Liao Zhenguo. A visible shockwave rippled and burst outward between the two combatants. Then Liao Zhenguo—the Liao family's cornerstone and supreme combatant—was hurled backward like a cannonball. Defeated?! The one flung back wasn't the mysterious enemy, but... the strongest warrior of the Liao family! A living Martial Saint! An extraordinary being who had broken the shackles of human limits—Liao Zhenguo! Even though he hadn't had time to equip himself in full gear, equipment only yielded maximum benefit when a Martial Saint faced an army. In one-on-one combat, a Martial Saint's greatest weapon was always their own body! Yet right before his eyes... Liao Zhenguo, who had already begun nurturing his spirit to break through into the Divine Realm, had been overpowered in a direct clash?! Who was it?! Ji Pingtian?! Liao Shanhe whipped his head around to look at the attacker. Yet... In the dim light, the figure standing before him was neither the president of the Jishi Society he had imagined, nor the Martial Saint representing the Lü family's prestige. It was a youth! A youth whose dossier he had examined only recently because of the Rebirth Society! "Su Yaoguang?!" Liao Shanhe's eyes widened in disbelief. "How is this possible?!" ... "Impossible!" On the battlefield, Liao Zhenguo, knocked backward in that direct collision, let out the exact same cry. Su Yaoguang—he recognized him too! This was the prey that prominent figure in the Rebirth Society personally wanted to hunt! Although word had come from the Jishi Society that the hunt had failed, he and every high-ranking member of the Liao family had assumed the Jishi Society had intervened; none of them had even considered Yaoguang himself. Yet now... This boy, who in their eyes was at best a piece of game that had caught the Rebirth Society's curiosity, had displayed the power of a Martial Saint! What was more, the skill and power the youth had unleashed in their direct clash surpassed his own. Things... seemed about to spiral out of control.