The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 198 A Confrontation

Chapter 198 A Confrontation

Wuyazi suffered a dreadful injury and returned. Once he entered the city, he fainted in the street. The soldiers who guarded the city gate rescued him. When he woke up, the first thing he wanted to do was not to find a place to treat his wounds but to see Zhu Wen as soon as possible. Wuyazi told Zhu Wen everything that happened in Xuzhou. He suggested that Zhu Wen prepare for war in case Prince An was plotting something.

Besides, Wuyazi was deeply fearful of Li Ye’s strength, and that of the Senior and Junior Priestesses, and others with them. So he urgently contacted the Taoist sect of Zhongnan Mountain by using their secret method. He also asked them to send cultivators who had higher cultivation here to help Zhu Wen stabilize the situation in Dengzhou. They must never give Li Ye any opportunity.

The Taoist sect of Zhongnan Mountain was located in the Central Government where there were many cultivators. The Taoist sect was even more powerful than Penglai. Cultivators in the sect had assisted Huang Chao to take Chang’an. Then, they established the Imperial Court of the Qi Empire and grabbed a great deal of Luck which originally belonged to the Tang Empire. By taking advantage of this opportunity, the cultivators in the sect greatly enhanced their cultivation.

Most of the cultivators, who were originally at Level 9 of Qi-refining and were in semi Foundation-building Stage, showed promise of achieving the Foundation-building Stage. And now all of them had successfully reached the Foundation-building Stage.

After Wuyazi spent two days having his wounds treated, his situation remained basically stable. But he still had a long way to go before full rehabilitation. What was worse, Wuyazi felt a dull pain where his missing arm was. Wuyazi needed Spiritual Masters to heal his wounds fully. If cultivators in Zhongnan Mountain in the Spiritual Master Realm could not hurry here within three days, his realm would drop sharply. Wuyazi was very clear about his own situation. Moreover, he would never fully recover, let alone make further progress.

Walking out of the room, Wuyazi raised his head to look at the sky. Suddenly, his brows wrinkled and his heart fluttered. He sensed something terrible was going to happen.

He quickly performed Incantation Gestures with his fingers and calculated silently. In the process, his brows drew closer and closer, and his face lost more and more color. After a while, a mouthful of blood spilled out of his mouth. He staggered a few steps back. Now his face looked as pale as dying embers, and he could barely stand.

The few Taoist priests who guarded outside of the door were shocked when they saw him. They hurried over to help him up. “Uncle Wuyazi, are you okay?”

The few Taoist priests helped Wuyazi to his feet, and supported him. With all his effort, Wuyazi seized the arm of one of the priests. His eyes were like a wolf’s eyes, which looked very terrifying. While gnashing his teeth, he said, “Go quickly and ask where General Zhu went!”

A Taoist priest responded and left. Wuyazi said to another one, “Call all the disciples above the middle level of Qi-refining together. Hurry!”

The people did not know what Wuyazi was up to, but they did not doubt his words. One after another, they started to move.

More than 20 cultivators who were above the middle level of Qi-refining got the message and came to Wuyazi from all sides. After that, the Taoist priest, who went to ask Zhu Wen’s whereabouts in the army, also rushed back.

“Uncle Wuyazi, General Zhu went to the east. And he only took more than a hundred personal guards. Nobody knows what he is going to do!”

Wuyazi’s expression changed dramatically. He struggled to get up and took three steps in succession. Suddenly, he stopped and turned to look at everyone. His eyes looked as sharp as an eagle’s. With his teeth clenched, Wuyazi said word by word. “General Zhu is in trouble. You and I need to rush there immediately to rescue him. Remember that General Zhu is the key to the rise and fall of Zhongnan Mountain. You and I should escort General Zhu back to the city even at the risk of our lives! Do you understand?”

“Understood!” The Taoist priests answered in unison.

“Let’s go!”

“Uncle Wuyazi, your wounds... You’d better not go. We have enough people.”

“I just said that compared with the prosperity of the Taoist sect, our life and death, glory and humiliation is nothing!” As Wuyazi said these words, everyone saw a decisiveness in his eyes.

They did not ride horses. Instead, they flew out of the city. When cultivators reached the middle-level of Qi-refining, they could certainly run faster than fine horses. But it was just that they could not maintain high speed. Fortunately, Zhu Wen could not go too far. So they just ignored their cultivation and ran at full speed.

Although Wuyazi’s wounds hadn’t healed, he took the lead and rushed forward in front of others. Just a few could keep up with his pace, and even then, they barely managed.

In the tea shed, Zhu Wen hit the wooden table with his sword. Broken chips of wood and dust flew in all directions. Sitting on the bench, Li Ye slipped back a few steps. “Pa!” He opened his folding fan. Casually, he waved it before him. Out of nowhere, a gust of wind appeared. It rushed toward the wood chips and dust and blew them back to Zhu Wen.

However, Zhu Wen continued hitting once, twice, and he kept hitting. In an instant, he waved his sword a total of seven times. Like raging waves pounding on the shores, Zhu Wen’s attack gained tremendous momentum. It enveloped Li Ye and the other three respectively. Though the Knife Qi only spread just a few dozen meters away, the power of cultivation was concentrated, which made it even more powerful. It was apparent that Zhu Wen’s understanding of cultivation was much deeper than ordinary people’s.

Li Ye took the fan as a shield and put it in front of him to protect himself. The Knife Qi fell with a loud bang. In front of him, a gully deeper than 3 meters formed. At first glance, it looked like a massive sinkhole, pitch black and seemingly bottomless. It was indeed peculiarly horrible. But under Li Ye’s feet, the gully disappeared abruptly. The bench under him had not been affected at all. Only the tyrannical Spiritual Qi broke the folding fan in his hand. After all, it was an ordinary thing.

The Senior and Junior Priestesses as well as Song Jiao flew back in quick retreat. Just like birds, they floated up to the treetops. They dodged half of the Knife Qi and warded off the other half. So they were not wounded. But the whole tea shed had vanished under the Knife Qi.

The old man in the tea shed fell to the ground shivering. He was horrified. However, in the cracked wood and mud, he was safe and sound. He didn’t get a scratch because Li Ye diverted his attention to protect him.

Zhu Wen exerted all his strength to hit seven times, without the slightest reservation of his cultivation. But when his Knife Qi fell upon his opponents, he found that no one was injured. Moreover, Li Ye and the people with him exposed their strength and cultivation immediately after they moved. It turned out that all of them were at Level 9 of Qi-refining.

When Zhu Wen realized this, his heart fluttered. Originally, he wanted to fight with all his might to see if he had any chance to defeat Li Ye. But at this time, he could not help thinking, “Prince An, he is worthy of the name. He is indeed a man of outstanding martial skill. Not only has he reached Level 9 of Qi-refining, the beauties around him are also very tough. It seems that I have no chance today and I should escape quickly. Otherwise, I will die on the spot.”

Zhu Wen was a person who acted decisively. There was not a moment’s hesitation after he made up his mind. After hitting seven times, he seized the opportunity and got away instead of rushing to attack. He retreated more than 70 meters and instantly pulled himself closer to his personal guards.

Zhu Wen’s personal guards were real elites who had gone through hundreds of battles. The leader of those guards had ordered them to rush ahead the moment Zhu Zhen raised his hand. Zhu Zhen was not the leader of Zhu Wen’s personal guards, so he didn’t know the guards’ temperament. In fact, when they saw Zhu Zhen making the gesture and felt that Zhu Wen might be in danger, they had already pulled out their swords.

The personal guards would rush ahead and bring their opponents under control whenever possible, whether the chief commander was really in danger or not. As for whether they would kill or release the opponents, the matter would be resolved later. They would do whatever they could to protect their chief commander from any hint of danger.

Zhu Wen retreated to the front rank of his personal guards. Then, he got on the fine horse in the forefront with a leap. The cavalry who was on that horse was also a cultivator. He flew to one side sensibly, unwilling to cause any trouble to their Military Formation.

Once Zhu Wen got on the horse, he felt that his heart settled down. Now he obtained the confidence of galloping freely and confronting any powerful enemy, which was the basic strength of a veteran general.

However, the enemies Zhu Wen faced this time were not soldiers on the battlefield, but four masters at Level 9 of Qi-refining.

Li Ye got up and went to the official road. Standing face to face with Zhu Wen, he had no folding fan in his hand. Instead, he held his Luke Sword, which was sparkling with the green light.

Zhu Wen and Li Ye first faced each other and talked cheerfully. Then, the two suddenly turned hostile and drew their swords against each other. The development of things was beyond imagination, but it was reasonable.

They did not have personal grievances. However, neither of them hesitated even the slightest before they started. They met each other on the battlefield, and each of them had their own master. Needless to say, they would not give each other the chance to talk before the life-or-death struggle, which was bound to happen.

Before Song Jiao and Senior Priestess took the shot, Junior Priestess had already made a seal with both hands. More than ten chains of green leaves darted forth from the two sides of the road. Billowing, they shot at Zhu Wen’s personal guards who were running.

Screams sounded and the cavalrymen fell off their horses one after another. In an instant, more than ten people were killed or wounded. Cultivators made up a large part of Zhu Wen’s personal guards. A cultivator at mid-level Qi-refining lifted his broadsword and cut at the chain of leaves in front of him. Though his broadsword touched the chain of leaves, it didn’t break the chain.

The cultivator only felt as though what he cut was a piece of metal or stone. The rebounding force made his internal organs churn and whipped his broadsword off his hand. Out of his control, a mouthful of blood spurted out. Before his horrified and desperate eyes, the chain of leaves penetrated his throat. Like a long snake, it darted out of the back of his neck and flew to the next personal guard.

The distance between the cavalrymen and Li Ye was very close, so they could not pick up speed. But they still managed to run in front of Li Ye in a short time. Anyway, they were more than a hundred elite cavalrymen. Even if they didn’t run at full speed, they had great killing power.

Li Ye was unmoving; his facial expression didn’t change. He looked quite peaceful. He didn’t appear solemn, nor did he sneer at his opponents. He lifted the Luke Sword. The dense runes on the sword lit up one after another. There seemed to be countless stars embedded in the sword.

It looked like that Li Ye wielded his sword down slowly. But in fact, he did it very quickly. The wind that the sword brought instantly whistled. The tips of trees disappeared all of a sudden. They turned into flying ash and vanished into the air. The sky shaded by the trees revealed his original blue face. Under the sky, a stream of Sword Qi as long as 70 meters suddenly fell on to the Military Formation.

The moment Li Ye lifted his sword, Zhu Wen had a burst of palpitation. It was an instinctive horror he would feel when he faced an invincible opponent. When the stream of green Sword Qi popped up in the blue sky, Zhu Wen’s heart raced uncontrollably all of a sudden. The pressure of the Sword Qi instantly bore down on Zhu Wen with the weight of Mount Taishan. His hand holding the broadsword began to tremble.

Both of them were at Level 9 of Qi-refining. Under the intimidating attack of Li Ye’s broadsword, Zhu Wen thought that he was no match for Li Ye’s strength. This made him feel ridiculous and terrified.

Harsh neighing of horses suddenly came from the running cavalry formation. Many horses could not withstand the enormous pressure and knelt on the ground on their forelegs. The cavalrymen on the horses fell. Now the scene became chaotic. At the time, the Sword Qi fell on the Military Formation.

The glare of the green light covered the bursting blood fog. Before the cavalrymen could scream, they all died on the spot. When the green light faded away, the dirt was still flying in all directions at high speed. Soil blocks crackled when they hit the leaves and branches. A huge gully appeared on the official road, and blood flew everywhere. Bodies of those cavalrymen spread all over in the confusion. Some of their horses were not yet dead, their weak wails ringing out continuously.

Only at this moment did the Senior and Junior Priestesses see that Zhu Wen had already fled toward the wilderness while covering his chest and bowing his body. They only had a view of his back.

Li Ye intended to blow all the enemies with his sword strike so that not enough strength of it fell upon Zhu Wen giving him a chance to escape. Zhu Wen was also very decisive. If he could not do anything, he would retreat without delay.

However, facing the four masters at Level 9 of Qi-refining, could Zhu Wen really escape? It would not be too difficult for Li Ye to catch up with him even if the Senior and Junior Priestesses didn’t hunt Zhu Wen down, and the two Priestesses were known for their speed. Besides, Zhu Wen was injured, so he couldn’t have run very far.

Li Ye did not intend to let Zhu Wen escape like this. It was true that Li Ye talked quite happily with him today and they appreciated each other. But in the general situation of the world nowadays, they belonged to different masters. In the battlefield, they had to exert all their strength to defeat the other when they met. If the other refused to surrender, then they would fight to the death.

The others followed, and were about to chase Zhu Wen. At the other end of the barren cropland, there was a forest at the turn of the official road. Suddenly, a man in a black robe jumped out of the forest. He skimmed over Zhu Wen’s head and charged straight towards Li Ye and others.