Li Chenglian’s weapon was also a horsetail whisk.
Perhaps these eunuchs’ martial arts all leaned towards the yin and soft, so they all favoured this kind of entangling weapon.
Moreover, his whisk was crafted from platinum threads, each one as sharp as a sword blade. Any weapon caught in its coils would only shatter into countless pieces.
And if a body were entangled, it would instantly be reduced to minced meat.
Sensing a terrifying sword aura rushing towards him from behind, Li Chenglian’s whisk spun out rapidly, abruptly entangling Princess Zhiyan’s sword.
Li Chenglian’s whisk was truly fearsome.
In an instant, it was as if countless grasping claws tightly bit down upon Princess Zhiyan’s sword.
Then, the two of them poured out their dragon power.
Li Chenglian was nearly seventy years old this year, having cultivated dragon power for over sixty years. How astonishing was this, like a surging river, continuous and unending.
And Princess Zhiyan, this girl like an immortal fairy, the power she released was like towering waves crashing.
Not as profound as Li Chenglian’s, but extremely cold and fierce, surging forth violently.
Li Chenglian stared at this absolutely beautiful, immortal Princess Zhiyan before him in complete disbelief. She was only twenty-six years old, yet in a contest of dragon power, she was evenly matched with him.
A young girl’s martial arts could actually reach such a level.
In this world, some geniuses truly made one despair.
Suddenly, Princess Zhiyan said, “Lord Li, my apologies.”
Then, she gave a light shake of the sword in her hand.
Instantly, the whisk in Li Chenglian’s hand completely snapped, countless platinum threads scattering across the floor.
Grand Eunuch Li Chenglian was stunned. This whisk had followed him for several decades, and now it was destroyed, broken and scattered upon the ground.
“Dragon Gold Sword?” Li Chenglian asked.
Princess Zhiyan nodded. Her sword appeared silvery white, not resembling a Dragon Gold Sword.
Because Dragon Gold Swords were generally transparent and colourless, like water.
There were five known Dragon Gold Swords in the world. Three had currently appeared, one with Jiang Xue, one with Ashi Liren, and one with Princess Zhiyan.
Princess Zhiyan pointed her sword at Li Chenglian and said, “Lord Li, having lost your weapon, you are probably no longer my match. So give up.”
Li Chenglian still gazed at the scattered whisk threads upon the ground and said, “Even if I had a weapon, how would I dare harm Your Highness the Princess? You are the master, I am the servant.”
“Then do not make things difficult for me.” Princess Zhiyan said, the Dragon Gold Sword in her hand still pointed at Li Chenglian, her other arm holding County Mistress Zhiyu. With a light leap, she exited the underground quiet chamber.
Outside, many cultivators from the Dragon Temple, as well as experts sent by Zhili, saw this scene and were momentarily at a loss as to what to do.
Although they were Zhili’s people, they still did not have the courage to act against Princess Zhiyan.
“Your Highness the Princess, please… please put down County Mistress Zhiyu.” Among them, a Dragon Warrior expert said with a slight tremble.
Several dozen experts formed a semicircle, surrounding and blocking Princess Zhiyan’s path.
“This lowly one dares not be the slightest bit disrespectful to you. Please wait a moment. His Highness Zhili will arrive shortly, and then let His Highness negotiate with you. How about that?” the Dragon Warrior said.
Princess Zhiyan glanced at him, her jade foot tapping lightly.
“Whoosh…”
This person was sent flying like a shooting star. An incomparably powerful energy suddenly exploded.
That seemingly indestructible semicircle encirclement, over a dozen Dragon Warrior level experts, were all struck by a massive force and sent flying.
After these dozen or so experts fell to the ground, they were completely unable to breathe, collapsing limply on the spot.
And Princess Zhiyan had already vanished without a trace, taking Zhiyu with her.
This woman’s martial arts had actually reached such a terrifying level. It was simply world-shaking.
…
Princess Zhiyan moved very quickly, bringing Zhiyu to a safe place.
She first turned over Zhiyu’s wrist to look at the wound there, then pressed her neck artery to feel the force of her pulse.
And Zhiyu gazed at Zhiyan with an extremely complex expression, and finally called out, “Elder sister.”
She truly had not expected that the one who would come to save her in the end would actually be Princess Zhiyan.
When studying at the Dragon Temple in Flame Capital, her relationship with Princess Zhiyan was not good. She had even deliberately drawn Meng Tuoluo into ostracising Zhiyan.
Yet every time, Zhiyan looked at her as if she were looking at a child.
At that time, studying together with them were also several royal family members from the Northern Wind Kingdom, the Western Liang Kingdom, and the Flame Empire.
Among them was a mischievous nuisance, Prince Ji Min of the Flame Empire. Zhiyu was the youngest among everyone at that time, and Ji Min always liked to bully her. Once, in front of many people, he tried to pull down Zhiyu’s trousers. Zhiyu was only six years old at the time. Although she still had a layer of small trousers underneath and was not publicly exposed, Zhiyu still wailed loudly.
Her elder brother Zhili was much older than her and did not study with them, so he could not come to help her in time.
And although Zhiyan was ten years old at the time, she had arrived at the Flame Capital Temple several months later than Zhiyu, so she studied with them.
When she saw Ji Min bullying Zhiyu, she went straight up and slapped him several times across the face.
Instantly, Ji Min was frozen in fright. After quite a while, he wailed loudly. Then for a full five or six days, Ji Min dared not come to school.
Later, it was the Empress of the Flame Empire herself who brought Ji Min to the Temple, making Ji Min apologise to Zhiyan and saying that he would not bully Zhiyu anymore. Only then did Zhiyan say, “Very well, then I shall not hit you anymore.”
From that day on, Ji Min still acted like a mouse seeing a cat when he saw Zhiyan. And when he saw Zhiyu, he still bared his teeth and claws, but dared not actually bully her.
But even so, Zhiyu still drew other children in the class to ostracise Zhiyan, because Zhiyan’s nature was very aloof and she was too beautiful, so her relationship with everyone had always been rather distant.
But Zhiyan still did not mind, always striving to take care of Zhiyu.
Every time she looked at Zhiyu, it was like today, as if looking at a child.
“What do you plan to do?” Zhiyan asked.
“Run away.” County Mistress Zhiyu said, “Give birth to the child, then foster it with a good family.”
“You will not raise it yourself?” Zhiyan said.
“If I raise it by my side, he will not survive.” Zhiyu said, “My elder brother will certainly kill him.”
Zhiyan asked, “Where do you plan to run to?”
Zhiyu thought for a moment and said, “Run to the Flame Capital Dragon Temple and seek refuge with Priest Moluo. What do you think?”
Priest Moluo was the chief instructor of the royal children from the five kingdoms at that time, holding a very exalted position in the Dragon Temple.
“Yes, he is very protective of his own.” Zhiyan said, “I shall send you to Mentor Byron, and then he shall personally take you to Flame Capital.”
“Alright…” Zhiyu said, then after a slight hesitation asked, “Elder sister, before you returned, did you still see His Highness Ji Min?”
“I have seen him.” Zhiyan said.
“How is he?” Zhiyu asked.
Zhiyan said, “Still the same. Jumping about like a monkey, timid as a mosquito.”
“Pfft…” Hearing this description, Zhiyu could not help but burst out laughing.
In her impression, Prince Ji Min of the Flame Empire had always been an oddball. It was as if he had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, unable to stop all day long, as if constantly restless. And he was completely a chatterbox, going on and on about anything. Very pretty to look at, but his personality was like a woman’s, easily startled.
Zhiyan took Zhiyu to the Zhi Capital Dragon Temple, directly rousing the door of Grand Mentor Byron, and told him everything.
Grand Mentor Byron said in astonishment, “You, you are pregnant with Suo Lun’s child?”
Zhiyu said ashamedly, “Yes, teacher.”
Grand Mentor Byron said, “You wish for me to send you to Flame Capital to give birth to the child?”
Zhiyu knelt down on both knees and said, “Teacher, I beg you. My elder brother will certainly kill this child.”
Grand Mentor Byron said excitedly, “Good, excellent…”
Instantly, Zhiyu was taken aback. What was so good about this?
Grand Mentor Byron said, “Suo Lun possesses unparalleled artistic talent, and you are not bad either. But both of you are obsessed with power struggles, wasting your great artistic gifts. The child you bear is a bastard, perfect to be fostered in the Dragon Temple. I shall personally instruct him, and certainly make him the greatest artist in the Dragon Temple.”
Uh!
Instantly, Zhiyu was speechless. Grand Mentor Byron’s mind truly jumped about too much.
“Come, I shall immediately take you to Flame Capital, and have a team of Temple Warriors escort us.” Byron said, “Even if Zhili had ten times the courage, he would not dare attack a Dragon Temple procession.”
Grand Mentor Byron was extremely decisive in his actions. After requesting leave from the Red-Robed High Priest of the Zhi Capital Temple, he immediately set off with a team of Temple Warriors to return to the Flame Capital Temple, on the grounds of preparing for next year’s Dragon God Tribute performance.
Before leaving, Zhiyan asked, “Zhiyu, will you not see Suo Lun one more time?”
Zhiyu shook her head and said, “From now on, he and I shall have no further connection. This child is the end of our ill-fated entanglement.”
Then, Zhiyu followed Grand Mentor Byron, travelling north to the Flame Empire under the protection of the Temple Knights.
…
Within the royal palace.
King Zhihuan’s mind was relatively clear, but half his body was still paralysed. Yet there was not the slightest trace of dejection on his face. Instead, he spoke with great interest about his past with Suo Long.
“You know, Zhilan was the people’s choice at that time, and I had two outstanding elder brothers above me. I had no hope of inheriting the throne.” King Zhihuan said, “So I did not go to study at the Flame Capital Dragon Temple, but studied at the Royal Academy, in the same class as your father, Gui Xingfu.”
“At that time, your father was highly skilled in martial arts and fair-minded in his dealings. Everyone in the class respected him and completely looked to him as their leader. You also know that I have always been temperamental and sensitive by nature, so I greatly envied your father’s sunny fairness. Therefore, I proposed to my father, requesting that your father become my attendant, and then my father agreed.”
“After graduating from the Royal Academy, I still had no possibility of inheriting the throne, so I left the capital to travel the world. And at that time, your father was still only the heir of Tianshui City, and your grandfather was still on the throne. So the two of us had nothing to do, wandering everywhere. My martial arts were terrible, but I had Gao Yu by my side, and your father’s martial arts were very high. We went everywhere, travelling through the entire human kingdom, and visited many places overseas as well. Except for the barbarian territories which we dared not venture deep into, we truly went everywhere.”
“I was very lecherous at that time, sleeping wherever I went, sleeping with every kind of woman. Truly, if barbarian women did not look too strange and were hard to get it up for, I would have slept with barbarian women too. And your father was an old stick-in-the-mud, feeling from a young age that he should remain chaste for his future wife for a lifetime. But one day, I played a trick on him.”
Recalling that past event, King Zhihuan could not help but laugh heartily. Laughing too hard, he coughed incessantly.
“That day we were going out to sea to some place, on a ship. Do you know of a race called the Rock Clan?” King Zhihuan asked.
Suo Lun shook his head.
King Zhihuan said, “The Rock Clan lives on island groups in the sea very far from the human kingdoms. Lacking food, they survive by raiding and fishing. They are a very savage and fierce race, born sea bandits, the most ferocious race of humans, and they never set foot on the mainland.”
Then, the king’s gaze grew heated as he said, “You have no idea about Rock Clan women. Although they are dark-skinned from years of wind and sun at sea, their figures are so fiery and powerful, their passion burns like fire. The thing they do most often is come to the mainland in groups, seize strong and handsome men onto their ships to sleep with, and after becoming pregnant, release these men back, then run off to the Rock Islands to give birth to the children and raise them alone.”
Hearing this, Suo Lun’s eyes trembled.
“Nice, isn’t it? Sleep for days and nights, with no responsibility.” the king said, “And if a man is especially handsome and outstanding, he will be slept with by several Rock women together to borrow his seed. That day there were several Rock women on our ship. I had my eye on the prettiest one, the one with the highest status. But she took no interest in me, her gaze entirely fixed upon your father, flirting with him in every way. But your father, that old stick-in-the-mud, sat upright and proper, actually meditating and cultivating, completely unmoved.”
Recalling his “father’s” serious appearance, Suo Lun could not help but laugh inwardly.
King Zhihuan said, “I was instantly furious. To have a beauty offer herself and waste it by not sleeping with her, that is to be struck by lightning. So I decisively put an aphrodisiac in his wine, and that night it was truly like heavenly thunder stirring earthly fire. Your father and that most beautiful Rock woman practically fucked the bed apart. I was no coward either. That night I slept with three Rock women. But I had finished with all three, and your father was still going at it. I counted. Your father had at least seven times that night. That is the power of a twenty-one year old virgin.”
Suo Lun could not help but ask, “And the next day? Did my father beat you up?”
“He did.” King Zhihuan said, “He beat me into a pig’s head, and Gao Yu stood by without helping me. But after the beating, that very night, he asked me for wine again. This time I did not put any aphrodisiac in it, yet he deliberately pretended to be under the influence of the drug and went to battle that beautiful Rock woman for another three hundred rounds.”
At this point, Suo Lun also could not help but burst out laughing.
“Your father, what a hypocrite.” King Zhihuan said, “We stayed on that ship for nine days. Your father proposed to that beautiful Rock woman, which stunned her. Then after a night of intense passion, they disappeared the next day. Those nine days were our most thrilling time. I still often recall them.”
“Alas…” King Zhihuan sighed and said, “Perhaps I slept with too many women in my youth, so later I suffered retribution. Someone poisoned me, and I could never have children again, nor could I even sleep with women anymore.”
Then, the two fell silent.
Suo Lun finally spoke and asked, “My father, how exactly did he die? His martial arts were so high before, so why did he suddenly become paralysed in bed?”
King Zhihuan beckoned, and Gao Yin entered, holding two cups in his hands.
These two cups were very beautiful, carved from blood jade. Only one was inlaid with a golden dragon, and one with a fierce tiger.
King Zhihuan said, “The Golden Dragon Blood Jade Cup was for my use. The Fierce Tiger Blood Jade Cup was for your father’s use.”
Suo Lun took these two cups and did not feel anything unusual. Suddenly, the Demon Star trembled and said, “Master, there is a terrifying chronic negative energy within these cups that can devour a person’s vitality. It is very similar to that radiation energy in the Ancient Yellow Spring City. But normal people cannot sense it at all.”
Suo Lun instantly understood the cause of his father Suo Long’s death. It was chronic poisoning.
Zhihuan said, “Your father was an invincible war god. One day on the battlefield, he inexplicably fell from his horse, then became completely paralysed. I was baffled and dispatched countless people to search for the cause. I swept through your home no less than ten times, yet found nothing amiss. Finally, my gaze fell upon these cups.”
Gao Yin said, “His Majesty also had a similar cup. We too found nothing unusual about this cup. Even His Majesty used it to drink honey, until one day a bee landed on the cup to drink honey and died shortly after. Then we sought out the most powerful sorcerer to analyse these two cups, and finally determined that there was a terrifying negative energy within them that would gradually devour vitality. And your father used the Fierce Tiger Blood Jade Cup for several years, unable to go a day without wine. Over time, his vitality was finally exhausted.”
King Zhihuan said, “I was not as fond of drinking as your father, so I used the Golden Dragon Blood Jade Cup less frequently. Therefore… I did not die, but could no longer have children, nor could I sleep with women anymore.”
Suo Lun convulsed and said, “These two cups, who gave them to Your Majesty and my father?”
“Gui Xingfu.” King Zhihuan said.
Suo Lun’s heart trembled. It was indeed this person.
The viciousness of Gui Xingfu was simply outrageous. Father Suo Long had shown him nothing but the utmost kindness, yet over a decade ago, he had already begun secretly plotting against Father Suo Long.
And it was he who had caused the king to be without heirs. No wonder his Linhai City was only a middling-ranked fief, yet he was so heavily favoured by Zhili, virtually the banner among all the feudal lords.
Zhihuan said, “And these two cups were given to Gui Xingfu by Zhili. At that time, Zhili was only in his teens.”
Zhili, merely in his teens, yet with such deep scheming.
Zhihuan continued, “And these two cups were manufactured by Demon Continent.”
Suo Lun said nothing, fully feeling that this conspiracy was simply unfathomably deep.
Zhihuan said, “If Zhili were merely scheming and malicious, that would be nothing. At worst, I would die and hand the throne to him. But… behind him is Demon Continent, Hidden Continent, and the Dragon Temple. Once he ascends the throne, in a few decades the Kingdom of Furious Waves will already be a possession of those powers. Suo Lun, do you know? Our four kingdoms and one empire, although they openly and secretly struggle against each other, there is one point on which they hold a clear banner, and that is resisting the Dragon Temple’s control over the human kingdoms. This was the goal that His Majesty the Dragon Emperor strove for his entire life. Any human kingdom must inherit the Dragon Emperor’s will. I cannot let the Kingdom of Furious Waves become the culprit of the entire human kingdom.”
“Your subject understands.” Suo Lun said, “Your subject shall certainly do his utmost to assist Her Highness the Princess.”
The king nodded and said, “Be careful of Gui Xingfu. This person cannot be overestimated enough. He is far, far more terrifying than you imagine. Even I cannot see through him.”
“Yes.” Suo Lun said.
Then, seeing that the king was somewhat weary, Suo Lun could not help but say, “Then your subject shall take his leave.”
Although the king was somewhat reluctant, he still nodded. Then after a slight hesitation, he said again, “Suo Lun, it is possible that your father had another bastard son or daughter besides you and Suo Ningbing. Because that beautiful Rock woman who had several nights of passion with your father should have become pregnant. These Rock women all come to borrow seed during their most fertile periods.”
Suo Lun could not help but be taken aback, then nodded.
…
At this time, on the sea surface several hundred li from the Chaos Stone Island salt fields, there were over a hundred strangely shaped ships.
Each ship flew a skull flag.
These ships were different from those of the human kingdom fleets. They were not large, but very fast, and had terrifyingly sharp ramming prows.
Every person on the ships moved upon the sea surface and the vessels as if walking on flat ground.
Every one of them was lean, yet also very strong, bare-chested, their muscles like steel.
Their gazes were fierce as beasts, their skin dark.
They were the Rock People pirates that struck terror into all fleets, the bandits of the heavens upon the sea, the wolf packs of the sea, the sea race.
And on the flagship was a young man. Although his skin was slightly dark, his features were extremely handsome, his eyes flashing with fierce and cunning light.
And most crucially, his features… actually bore some resemblance to Suo Lun!
“Up ahead is the Chaos Stone Island salt fields, with countless salt, countless gold coins. Charge up, seize all the women, kill all the men, rob all the salt, all the money.” the Rock People pirate leader roared loudly.
Then, over a hundred pirate ships surged towards the Chaos Stone Island salt fields a hundred li away like a wolf pack.