Martial King's Retired Life-Chapter 132Book 14:

Incoming

The combination of pressure and disorder occurring simultaneously made it impossible to determine the catalyst. The sense of danger evoked a subconscious assumption that something worse was imminent, especially since nobody was sure state the imperial city was in. The nine gates’ forces were stationed exterior to the city walls in case a military force that never would’ve come came. While they had heard some news of events within the walls, they didn’t dare to oppose orders.

Long Zaitian’s attempts to thwart arsons in the residential area were fairly successful until a fire snake crashed down and caused innumerable casualties. The fire that spread as a result took even more lives. Nine Gates Infantry Commander Long angrily ordered his troops to fire arrows at the fire snake whilst instructing others to combat the ravenous fire. Luckily, there were a lot of them, and they were prepared for the fire attacks, so they managed to contain the spread without too many casualties.

In contrast, Song Ou had an easy time. Ye Yun eliminated the enemies and spies before Song Ou’s arrival, so even those who had yet to be detected wouldn’t show risk showing themselves. Song Ou was constantly afraid someone would shoot him down from some corner, so his men were deployed as bodyguards rather than as a search and destroy team.

Head Constable Zha, who was tasked with leading the protection squad, took out his anger on the corrupt merchants and officials without any sense of shame. While he failed to catch more than two criminals, he did make several trips of carrying chests of money back to Liu Shan Men.

Xun Feng held onto the Ice Jade box as if his life depended on it. All the work up until this point would’ve been pointless if he lost it, after all.

The deal was that Gongsun Chu would design the plan, take Shitou into battle and bear all the consequences of assassinating Emperor Yuansheng. In exchange, Liaoliao had to provide him with Nine Dragons Fire Jade. They both saw it as a fair exchange, so they allied. For that reason, Gongsun Chu detailed all of Confucianism’s members’ weaknesses and taught them how to exploit weaknesses.

Xun Feng was guaranteed to improve significantly and have counters if he had a few years to study the knowledge and surpass all of his fellow disciples. Perhaps Gongsun Chu believed it was an appealing trade. Xun Feng couldn’t make any changes to the plan, but he was fine with it because he didn’t want any mishaps to happen once he obtained the Nine Dragons Fire Jade. However, that was a cause of misery as he saw a different approach and didn’t have any wish fulfilled at the end of it all.

Liaoliao’s order for Xun Feng was to immediately escape the capital once he obtained the Nine Dragons Fire Jade and to not trust anybody with it – particularly anyone associated with Fiends’ Genesis, but he never mentioned Gongsun Chu. Although Gongsun Chu was meant to bear the brunt of the consequences, Liaoliao never had any intention of allowing Gongsun Chu to leave the capital alive. Gongsun Chu was meant to perish beside Emperor Yuansheng and explained as Gongsun Chu being rash. There was no doubting Gongsun Chu’s skill, but it wasn’t strange for him to die due to fatigue after assassinating Emperor Yuansheng even though it might’ve been unexpected.

Though Xun Feng did perceive the strategy to be ruthless, he justified it as acceptable since the victim was Gongsun Chu. If Gongsun Chu managed to get his hands on the Nine Dragons Fire Jade – and even wake Shang Bieshi – then Cold Mountain Temple was at risk. That was a potentially venomous seed Liaoliao created for them when he attacked Fiends’ Genesis twenty years ago.

Liaoliao didn’t tell Xun Feng all of the truth. Therefore, Xun Feng didn’t know that Liaoliao struggled to utilise Unfettered Mental Cultivation again ever since he fought Shang Bieshi. Liaoliao had improved since then; however, his improvements were tiny. Every time he forcibly performed Lotus Every Step, he drastically reduced the time limit and effect each successive time he performed it. Of course, there was also the fact that his appearance became increasingly hideous and had no cure for it. The collection of problems was the reason Liaoliao rarely personally engaged in combat since; even during the battle at Lawless Cliff, he was nothing more than a bystander.

The only tool Liaoliao knew of that could fix his problem and prevent Shang Bieshi from escaping his illusion was Nine Dragons Fire Jade. As such, he was forced to assassinate Yu Sihe back then. Alas, Yu Sihe didn’t have Nine Dragons Fire Jade on him as he was told to. Consequently, Liaoliao planted a death flag for Cold Mountain Temple without anything to show for it.

Despite hiding several times and planning to lay low until there was an opportunity to slip out, Song Chi was able to find Xun Feng every time. Fed up, he uncorked a palm strike back this time instead of hiding again. Unfortunately, Song Chi’s swing came too fast, forcing Xun Feng to abandon his counter and twist his body away. Turning away meant exposing his back, and Song Chi wasn’t a fool to give up the opportunity. Accordingly, Xun Feng had to roll in a circle to avoid the next three swings. Xun Feng leveraged the rotational momentum to spin back and uncork three variety of kicks, buying himself enough time and distance to return to his feet.

“Song Chi, are you seriously not going to give up until one of us is dead?” The question was just an act to lower Song Chi’s guard so that Xun Feng could hit him with a charged-up palm attack.

Song Chi started swinging again twelve times, forcing Xun Feng to prematurely use up his attack and back up against a wall.

Song Chi calmly responded, “You give me no choice. You can save yourself the trouble of trying anything funny. You’re not my match. Surrender now.”

Xun Feng was livid about Song Chi chasing him, but he was also angry Song Chi was a dog wagging his tail for his future master without even being asked to. “I’m not your match? You sure?!”

Xun Feng, an expert in hand-to-hand combat, wasn’t necessarily equipped to beat Song Clan’s Severing the Nine Heaven’s palm discipline, and the difference was even more pronounced since Song Chi applied it to his broadswordplay. As soon as Song Chi started performing Misty Dreams Swamp, Xun Feng lost a significant range of movement because dodging a discipline that could be fluid and hard at will was the toughest task for him. In no time at all, Song Chi had blood and flesh on his blade. In less than nine attacks, he had dropped Xun Feng and placed his blade beside Xun Feng’s neck.

Had Xun Feng not fought Confucianism’s disciples beforehand and been handicapped one hand from having to hold the box, he wouldn’t have gone down so fast.

“Song Chi, don’t you feel ashamed at all killing me?”

“We have our stances. What’s there to feel ashamed about? I tried to convince you to change your mind, but you refused to heed my advice. Why should I feel ashamed?”

“Not now of course. You’re trying to better Song Clan; I’m trying to better Cold Mountain Temple. We are both from the White Prince line. I am risking my head to protect the White Princes. As if being a bystander wasn’t bad enough, you’re assisting the imperial court in dismantling us; you’re their assassin. I’d like to hear you say the same thing when the imperial court goes after your clan. When Song Clan is relegated to the status of commoners, when your clan is split, when nobody remembers Song Clan in thirty years’ time, when you see your hands stained with blood, will you be able to say the same thing?”

Song Chi knew that the imperial court wouldn’t spare Song Clan no matter how much they contributed to the imperial court. No matter how much they did, the imperial court would never have said they contributed more than Luo Sword Manner. On top of that, there was Luo Ming’s friendship with Emperor Yuansheng to consider. The best outcome for Song Clan was being a second Luo Sword Manor. The worst outcome… Song Chi didn’t even want to think about it.

“It’s not the first day the imperial court has wanted to dismantle us… It’s been a long-time coming.” Song Chi lifted his blade from Xun Feng’s neck. “Hand it over, and I’ll let you go.”

“Really?” Xun Feng showed a surprised smile. “The imperial court won’t punish you?”

“I suggest you listen to me before I change my mind.”

Xun Feng didn’t show any intention of getting up.

“Have you made up your mind to die?”

“What makes you think I didn’t deliberately lead you here?”