Three Princes Swept Aside in a Single Night! The Second Mortal Immortal Tombstone Fragment!

Silence. The entire reception hall fell completely silent. Everyone in the hall stood with mouths agape, staring in stunned disbelief at the spot where Mister Xue had stood. No one occupied that spot now. Death energy had flooded the area, inundating everything in an instant so that no one could tell where Mister Xue had gone. Only when Lu Changsheng withdrew the death energy did they finally see him. Mister Xue lay motionless on the floor. His expression was contorted in sheer terror. It was as if not even Mister Xue himself had anticipated that he would die so absurdly. He had become an outright laughingstock. "Th-this... Mister Xue is dead?" "Wasn't he supremely confident just now, making grand promises? One move? If my eyes didn't deceive me, he couldn't even withstand a single move before dying." "Mister Xue was slaughtered by Lu Changsheng without being able to resist in the slightest. They weren't even on the same level—the disparity is simply too vast..." "So His Highness the Eleventh Prince was wrong from the very start? He trusted Mister Xue, yet Mister Xue's inexplicable confidence led only to a miserable, pathetic death." "We're finished..." For a moment, everyone in the hall looked as stricken as if they had lost their own parents. They all understood that Mister Xue had died without putting up the slightest fight. Anyone with eyes could see how massive the gulf was. With such an overwhelming gap, what could they possibly use to resist Lu Changsheng? "We yield! We surrender!" "We are willing to pledge our loyalty to the Princess Estate. Could you spare our lives?" "Indeed, as long as you don't kill us, Master Lu, we will do whatever you ask!" "The Princess Estate surely needs our service as well." "Mercy! We beg Master Lu for mercy!" Seeing Mister Xue's fate, these people harbored no lingering illusions. What a joke. If even the mysterious Mister Xue had died and become an utter farce, facing Lu Changsheng meant certain death. If they didn't beg for mercy now, what were they waiting for? To die? Clearly, none of them wished to die. They would rather surrender and serve the Princess Estate. Only the Eleventh Prince stood in a daze, utterly despondent. He seemed unable to believe what was before his eyes, refusing to accept it. "How could Mister Xue die? Didn't he claim he could sweep through all the experts in the Divine Capital? Why couldn't he even withstand a single move before dying?" "I planned for years to let the mantis stalk the cicada while I played the oriole behind them, centering everything on Mister Xue! And yet... Xue Guan, you deserve to die a thousand deaths!" "Even if Lu Changsheng hadn't killed you, I would have hacked your corpse into ten thousand pieces to vent the hatred in my heart!" The Eleventh Prince gnashed his teeth, his expression twisted into a mad grimace. All his previous plans had revolved around Xue Guan. And Xue Guan turned out to be a fraud? All that talk of being invincible. All that talk of brilliant stratagems. All lies! Yet it was this very Xue Guan who had played the Eleventh Prince like a fiddle, making him truly believe Xue Guan was a reclusive master whose emergence would shake heaven and earth, sweeping aside all opposition to help him seize the throne in the succession struggle and ascend to the position of his dreams. And this was the result? "Noisy." Lu Changsheng's brow furrowed slightly. He slapped the Eleventh Prince unconscious with a flick of his hand. Naturally, he only knocked him out, intending to hand him over to the Princess Estate for the Ninth Princess to handle. Princes, even those who failed in the succession struggle, could not simply be executed. Lu Changsheng understood this well. Killing a prince held no meaning for him anyway. With a flicker of his figure, he soared into the air above the prince's estate. "Xue Guan is dead, and the Eleventh Prince has surrendered." "Everyone, drop your weapons and await takeover by the Princess Estate." "Anyone who resists will be executed without mercy!" Lu Changsheng's voice reverberated majestically across the Eleventh Prince's entire estate. In an instant, many were stunned. "What? His Highness the Eleventh Prince surrendered?" "Even Mister Xue is dead? He was His Highness's most trusted confidant!" "Who is this man? How dare he infiltrate the Eleventh Prince's estate alone?" "I recognize him! He is the Chief Consecrated Elder under the Ninth Princess, Lu Changsheng—the one who wiped out the Sun family!" "What? He's Lu Changsheng?" "Yes! I heard Lu Changsheng kills without batting an eye. If you provoke him, the Sun family's fate will be yours! Lu Changsheng leveled the entire Sun family estate with a single palm!" "Surrender! We surrender at once!" When the people of the Eleventh Prince's estate learned that the man in midair was Lu Changsheng, shivers ran down their spines. Lu Changsheng was no unknown figure now. His fame was vast. Yet it was a fearsome reputation. After all, he had annihilated the Sun family with one palm strike. Leveling the Sun family estate was far too shocking. Anyone who heard of it felt terror take root in their heart. Lu Changsheng found sweeping aside the Eleventh Prince even easier than wiping out the Sun family. In truth, Xue Guan's strength was by no means negligible. Lu Changsheng, however, was far stronger. With four bodies fused into one, not to mention a single Xue Guan, several Xue Guans together would have suffered the same fate. Coupled with Lu Changsheng's terrifying reputation, who would dare oppose him? Therefore, once Lu Changsheng spoke, the people of the Eleventh Prince's estate dared not offer any resistance and obediently waited to be absorbed by the Princess Estate. People from the Princess Estate arrived one after another. Seeing everyone had discarded their weapons, they found them all remarkably compliant. Looking up at Lu Changsheng in the sky, their admiration grew deeper still. "It's Master Lu again. I heard that after the Sun family incident last time, the Ouyang family reaped enormous gains." "Indeed! When the Ouyang family took over the Sun family's assets, their influence ballooned overnight. Most importantly, the Sun family didn't dare resist." "Resist? The Sun family's core members were reduced to paste by a single palm strike from Master Lu. Who would dare rebel?" "Yes, and now look at the people in the Eleventh Prince's estate. Every single one is docile, quietly throwing down their weapons without the faintest thought of defying him. They've been utterly subdued by Master Lu." "Following Master Lu makes life so effortless..." "Tell me, with Master Lu assisting her, can Her Highness win the succession struggle?" The Princess Estate's personnel were all in high spirits. Normally, moving against another prince's faction would result in heavy casualties on both sides, bound to be a series of brutal battles where ordinary people died in droves. Yet now, these people from the Princess Estate brimmed with confidence. None of them felt any sense of crisis. Some even wished to keep following Lu Changsheng. It was as though they were not heading into bitter combat, but going to share in the spoils of war. And indeed, that was precisely the case. Seeing that the Princess Estate's people had arrived and begun taking over the Eleventh Prince's estate, Lu Changsheng no longer needed to deal with trivial administrative matters. He returned to the reception hall. "If you wish to live, there is only one way: divine items!" "Surrender as many divine items as you can. Use whatever means necessary to present them to me." "Offer divine items, and you may live. Have no divine items, and you die." "Furthermore, if anyone provides a powerful divine item—such as one at the divine body level—I can guarantee you become a trusted confidant of the Princess Estate." With that, Lu Changsheng fell silent. Whether they could seize this opportunity depended entirely on their performance. "I do! I have a divine item!" "I have one as well, but it's kept in my family estate!" "Though I possess no divine item, I know there are divine items in His Highness the Eleventh Prince's treasury! I can lead Master Lu to His Highness's treasury..." Instantly, anyone who had divine items scrambled to offer them up, terrified that a moment's hesitation would cost their lives. "Oh?" "If you have divine items, notify your subordinates immediately to deliver them here." "As for you, lead me to the Eleventh Prince's treasury," Lu Changsheng said to a middle-aged man. That was the man who had just claimed to know there were divine items in the prince's treasury. "Yes, Master Lu." With that, the people set about writing letters. They could not leave the hall, but they could write letters and provide personal tokens for messengers to carry back. Once their subordinates or families saw the letters and tokens, they would certainly bring the divine items. They held nothing back now, doing everything within their power. If Lu Changsheng was unsatisfied, not only would he execute them, but their families and factions would be completely eradicated as well. After all, this was failure in the succession struggle! If they failed to satisfy Lu Changsheng, their end would be wretched beyond belief. Led by the Eleventh Prince's subordinate, Lu Changsheng entered the prince's treasury without a hitch. Inside was a dazzling array of treasures. Gold, silver, and jewels were naturally abundant. There were even more precious rarities that money could never buy. Though the Eleventh Prince kept a low profile, he had always harbored ambitions to play the oriole, constantly accumulating strength; essentially all of his accumulated wealth was stored here. After so many years of stockpiling, it all benefited Lu Changsheng. Lu Changsheng stood alone in the treasury. The subordinate only knew there were divine items in the vault, not where the Eleventh Prince had stored them specifically. Lu Changsheng had to search for himself. Yet this posed little difficulty; sweeping his consciousness through the treasury gave him a clear picture of everything. "Hmm?" "Three divine items?" "These three divine items were placed so solemnly in the treasury rather than bestowed on his subordinates to bolster their strength." "In that case, there is only one possibility. These three divine items are extraordinary; even if given to his subordinates, they likely could not refine them. Thus, these three items are very likely precious divine items capable of forging a divine body foundation!" A sharp glint flashed in Lu Changsheng's eyes. Although this was merely his deduction, it was almost certainly the truth. Yet this was astonishing. Three divine-body-level divine items! The Eleventh Prince had truly hidden them well! Without further hesitation, Lu Changsheng reached out and grabbed the three divine items into his hands. They were stored separately in three boxes. Lu Changsheng extended his consciousness into the divine items inside each box. Boom. Three streams of unfamiliar information flooded into his mind. The descriptions made it abundantly clear: all three divine items could indeed forge a divine body foundation. However, according to the descriptions, ordinary people would find it nearly impossible to do so. They simply could not refine them. An ordinary person's physical body could not endure the strain. Unless they were blessed with great fortune. Under the blessing of great fortune, many people experienced bizarre and incredible occurrences. For example, tumbling off a cliff and finding a supreme cultivation method, or consuming natural treasures that caused their physical constitution to advance by leaps and bounds in a single day. Or perhaps turning every misfortune into a blessing whenever trouble arose. And in the Kunwu World, a "bearer of great fortune" possessed another prominent trait: Refining divine items! The greater one's fortune, the higher the likelihood of refining a divine item. Even when a body clearly could not withstand it, under the blessing of fortune and through fortuitous coincidences, a person could still miraculously refine the divine item and forge a divine body foundation. Such feats defied ordinary logic. For Lu Changsheng, however, this was not an issue. With his flesh avatars, his Earth Saint cultivation, and the continuous support of his true body, refining the divine items to forge divine body foundations presented no problem whatsoever. "Three divine items equate to three avatars with divine body foundations." "This trip has yielded quite a harvest!" Lu Changsheng was thoroughly pleased. Yet this was not the end. This was only the Eleventh Prince. There were still the Fifth Prince and Seventh Prince. Lu Changsheng intended to strike while the iron was hot, paying visits to their estates as well. Sweeping through the forces under the Fifth and Seventh Princes would firmly establish the tripartite balance of the Three Chieftains in the succession struggle. Wasting no time, Lu Changsheng immediately set out and headed straight for the Fifth Prince's estate. Time ticked by. By the time dawn broke, the Ninth Princess's eyes were bloodshot as she waited anxiously in the Princess Estate. She had gone an entire night without sleep. This showed how much importance she attached to sweeping through the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Princes. This was the "purge," after all. If the purge went poorly or ran into trouble, every advantage she had previously secured would vanish into thin air. "Report!" "Your Highness, Master Lu... has breached the Eleventh Prince's estate! Everyone under the Eleventh Prince has surrendered!" The Ninth Princess rose to her feet in an instant. "Excellent!" She was overjoyed. The first target had been eliminated so swiftly, and it was the Eleventh Prince—a deeply dangerous rival. The Ninth Princess then inquired about the details. Upon hearing that the Eleventh Prince had harbored an expert with a divine body foundation, lingering fear crept into her heart. The Eleventh Prince had truly been patient and calculating. He had possessed strength nearly comparable to the Three Chieftains, yet had kept it concealed so deeply. Unfortunately for him, he had run into Lu Changsheng. His plans had fallen short at the final hurdle, ending in complete collapse. "Where is Master Lu now?" the Ninth Princess asked. "Uh... Master Lu said to strike while the iron was hot, so he headed to the Fifth Prince's estate." "..." The Ninth Princess was rendered speechless. Lu Changsheng was exceptional in every way, save for one thing—he was far too confident. What was this? He had only just swept aside the Eleventh Prince, and now he was off to sweep through the Fifth Prince? Did he intend to purge the Eleventh, Fifth, and Seventh Princes all in a single night? This was simply... insane! Yes, utter madness. Not even the First Prince or Third Prince would dare claim they could eliminate three princes overnight. "Report!" "Master Lu has crushed the Fifth Prince's estate! All forces under the Fifth Prince are willing to pledge allegiance to the Princess Estate!" The Ninth Princess parted her lips in disbelief. How long had it been? Lu Changsheng had already broken the Fifth Prince as well? This was truly... an astonishing surprise. When the Three Chieftains had divided their tasks, each had their own purge assignment. The Ninth Princess's task was to purge the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Princes. Now, Lu Changsheng had already swept through both the Eleventh and Fifth Princes. Only the Seventh Prince remained. It seemed clearing him would not take long either. If so, the Ninth Princess was very likely to become the first faction to complete the purge. "The Seventh Prince... I shall go personally to support Master Lu!" The Ninth Princess could sit still no longer. Only the Seventh Prince remained. Hoping to wrap up the purge as quickly as possible, she preferred to lead reinforcements to Lu Changsheng herself. "Uh..." "Your Highness, there is no need." "On my way here, I received word that Master Lu has already breached the Seventh Prince's estate." "It's just that the formal transmission might take a bit longer to arrive, so..." The messenger left the rest unsaid, but the implication was unmistakable. Even if the Ninth Princess rushed over now, she would only be cleaning up the aftermath. The Seventh Prince was finished as well... The Ninth Princess opened her mouth, lost for words. At that moment, in the Seventh Prince's estate. Lu Changsheng felt somewhat disappointed. Poor! The Seventh Prince was far too poor! The Fifth Prince was poor as well, but at least he possessed a single divine-body-level divine item. And the Seventh Prince? Not a single divine-body-level divine item was to be found. Thus, even though Lu Changsheng had swept through three princes in a single night, he had acquired only four divine-body-level divine items in total. Three of them had come from the Eleventh Prince's estate. It turned out there were paupers even among the princes. Lu Changsheng shook his head. In truth, his expectations had simply been too high. How could there be so many divine-body-level divine items? The Eleventh Prince possessing three was proof of his profound foundation. The Fifth and Seventh Princes clearly lacked such backing. They were the truly marginalized princes. Just like the Ninth Princess in the beginning. Why had she traveled tens of thousands of li to Xia Province? Was it not for the Reincarnation Bead—for a divine item at the divine body level? Aside from that, she had possessed no other divine-body-level items either. "Hmm?" Suddenly, Lu Changsheng felt something twitch slightly against his chest. He drew the object from his robes. It was none other than the Mortal Immortal tombstone fragment. "The Mortal Immortal tombstone fragment suddenly stirred. Does that mean there's another fragment nearby?" Delight surfaced on Lu Changsheng's face. A tombstone fragment! After all this time, Lu Changsheng had almost given up on the Mortal Immortal tombstone fragments. He had felt the prospects were simply too bleak. Gathering all nine tombstone fragments was an immense challenge. During all his time in the Divine Capital, he had failed to find another Mortal Immortal tombstone fragment. To this day, he carried only a single fragment on his person. He had never imagined that the fragment would react here in the Seventh Prince's treasury. Could there be a tombstone fragment stored here? Lu Changsheng began searching at once. The fragment only reacted when another piece was nearby. The treasury held a vast number of items, making it far too difficult to inspect them one by one manually. Fortunately, Lu Changsheng possessed his divine consciousness. His consciousness could distinguish every treasure. Before long, Lu Changsheng retrieved a broken shard from the bottom of a large chest. He brought out the tombstone fragment from his robes once more. The moment the two fragments drew near, an unexpected change occurred. Hum. The tombstone fragment vibrated violently. At the same time, the two fragments drew swiftly toward each other and completely fused together. The tombstone fragment shone with dazzling radiance. In the end, the pieces coalesced into one, becoming a larger fragment. "Two merged into one? Equivalent to two tombstone fragments..." Lu Changsheng examined the larger fragment closely. He indeed noticed something intriguing. Across the fused tombstone fragment, faint patterns and characters were discernible, though largely incomplete. Yet deciphering even these limited characters and patterns would undoubtedly prove helpful. "I wonder what script this is?" Lu Changsheng inspected it over and over. Apart from the characters and patterns, he found nothing else. Yet at least he now had a lead. If he could find someone to translate the script, perhaps more clues would emerge. Though he had failed to find a divine-body-level divine item in the Seventh Prince's estate, finding a Mortal Immortal tombstone fragment was not a bad harvest at all; Lu Changsheng was well satisfied. After all, this concerned the immortal body. Lu Changsheng naturally cared about it all the more. "Time to head back." Lu Changsheng felt no attachment to the other treasures in the vault. Aside from divine items and tombstone fragments, none of the rest held any use for him. Without a backward glance, he departed the Seventh Prince's estate and returned to the Princess Estate. Upon his return, the Ninth Princess sought him out immediately. "Master Lu, you truly are... earth-shattering!" Looking at Lu Changsheng, the Ninth Princess let out a wry chuckle. She was naturally overjoyed. Yet Lu Changsheng's display had been so astonishing that it bordered on terrifying. Previously, Lu Changsheng had said he feared no divine-body-level expert in the Divine Capital. At the time, the Ninth Princess had thought it wiser to remain cautious. Looking at things now, Lu Changsheng had not exaggerated in the slightest. Perhaps divine-body-level experts truly meant nothing to him. After all, what divine-body-level expert could treat other divine body experts as though they were nothing? Unless a national divine item was brought to bear, few people in the Divine Capital could possibly be a match for Lu Changsheng. "Your Highness, I believe you should be more concerned with the First and Third Princes," Lu Changsheng said. "Their power is formidable, and they possess divine-body-level experts as well—perhaps more than one." "Now that the purge is complete, the Three Chieftains must settle the matter between themselves to decide who truly ascends the throne and claims that seat..." Lu Changsheng's words gave the Ninth Princess a jolt. Indeed, the First and Third Princes were the true threats. The purge sounded pleasant enough on the surface—simply eliminating the other princes. Yet could the Three Chieftains—the First Prince, Third Prince, and Ninth Princess—truly remain on cordial terms? That was impossible. Conflicts ran deep among the Three Chieftains. Now that the Ninth Princess had been the first to complete her purge, she needed to prepare for dealing with the First and Third Princes. Contending with those two would be anything but simple. Who knew what trump cards they had hidden away? "I understand." "I will make preparations at once." "As for you, Master Lu... if you have any need, please come directly to me." "And one final thing." "Thank you, Master Lu!" The Ninth Princess had come specifically to express her gratitude. Sweeping aside three princes in a single night—what a magnificent feat! After today, the prestige of the Ninth Princess and the Princess Estate would skyrocket. When that time came, both prominent families and court officials would flock to the Princess Estate in droves. Only now had their ascendance truly solidified! And all of this was Lu Changsheng's doing. Lu Changsheng smiled but said nothing, accepting the Ninth Princess's bow with graceful composure. "Four divine-body-level divine items are still not enough." "Besides, what about the prominent families offering divine items?" A sharp gleam flickered in Lu Changsheng's eyes. All he had to do was wait quietly. The families and factions under the three princes would obediently deliver their divine items to him, just as they had promised. Lu Changsheng wanted to see whether he could obtain another divine item or two.