Master Wenxiu’s blood ignited the fury and fighting spirit of the Central Plains Sword Society.

But without breaking the “sonic killing” technique, most of the Central Plains Sword Society would likely die under Chai Xijin’s banner.

At this moment, they heard “Descending cloud spirit rainbow, martial plum fierce soul, I alone am supreme!” Fire Cloud Stronghold’s eighty cavalry charged toward the surrounding garrison troops. Coming from the north with skilled horsemanship, they intended to tear open a gap among the thousands and charge out toward Chai Xijin.

However, eighty cavalry were far too few. Soon someone leaped from among the garrison troops wielding a meteor hammer. The meteor hammer had long chains and swept horizontally from horseback, creating wind sounds.

The chained meteor hammer cleared a section of battlefield, blocking Fire Cloud Stronghold’s path. Facing such long-range heavy weapons, Jin Qiufu could only curse loudly. Though his martial arts weren’t weak, his reach was insufficient. Behind him, Qi Xing leaped forward and handed him a longbow, “Use bow and arrows!”

In the chaotic army, there really wasn’t room for long swords and short blades. The Tang sabers and spears carried by the garrison troops were far longer than the long swords commonly used by martial world people. Having spent many years in the north, Jin Qiufu was skilled in mounted archery. Switching to the longbow, he shot an arrow, and the meteor hammer wielder rode to dodge. Fire Cloud Stronghold took advantage of his withdrawal, surging forward to surround him with chaotic blade strikes, finally cutting the horse’s legs. The meteor hammer wielder abandoned his horse and fled back to Chai Xijin’s war chariot.

In the chaotic battle, they couldn’t recognize that this meteor hammer giant was actually Master Dashi from Shaolin Temple who had been missing for some time.

Fire Cloud Stronghold’s morale surged as they pressed directly toward the main war chariot.

But while Fire Cloud Stronghold was surrounding and killing this person, Chai Xijin’s drum sounds rang out again.

Hundreds of puppets surrounded Fire Cloud Stronghold.

Bowstring sounds, horse hoof sounds, and war drum sounds continued endlessly.

Wanyu Yuedan couldn’t hear the distant situation clearly. Miss Hong stood shoulder to shoulder with Bi Lianyi. The Central Plains Sword Society’s formation was disrupted by Chai Xijin, everyone fighting individually with orders difficult to transmit. Miss Hong frowned slightly—she knew that only if Yang Guihua led troops to stabilize the situation could the Central Plains Sword Society avoid total annihilation.

But this was exactly what Chai Xijin wanted—fierce battle between the Infantry Command and garrison troops, shaking the nation’s foundation and giving him a chance to restore his kingdom.

If Yang Guihua didn’t enter the fray, who in this chaotic army could take the lead and command the heroes to submit and listen?

Miss Hong sighed, “Where is Young Master Tang?”

Though Wanyu Yuedan couldn’t see anything, he still closed his eyes.

Jin Qiufu and others soon exhausted their arrows. At their wit’s end, several were killed.

Just as Yang Guihua decided to let the Infantry Command take decisive action, string sounds arose from among the Central Plains Sword Society crowd. The sound was neither qin nor zheng, but more stirring than qin and zheng. When this music emerged, everyone’s spirits were divided, and Chai Xijin’s drum sounds no longer confused minds so much.

Everyone turned around to see Liu Yan holding a jade qin. Instead of playing it horizontally on his knees, he held the jade qin upright in his arms, one hand holding the strings to tune, the other plucking strings, producing brilliant, resonant tones from an ancient qin.

“Flowing Jade Flying Torrent” was the finest qin made by the Qiwu family in fifty years, worth a thousand gold.

Now in Liu Yan’s hands, it became a new qin. His five fingers hooked, picked, brushed, pressed, and rolled, producing sounds that thousands on Qihun Mountain had never heard.

After a moment, Liu Yan sang softly.

“Wild geese come from the east, where purple clouds scatter, who is where, waiting for the return path?

A red robe dream, how much melancholy in yellow millet, wine dissolves blue clouds in one smiling passage.

When will return come, to the fine place by bamboo, waiting to hear clear ears, asking you to taste bitterness.

Gray smoke curling, how much beauty betrayed, drunk with golden lotuses are bright pearls.”

As he began singing, the drum in Chai Xijin’s hands seemed to lose all sound, and everyone… everyone was listening to him sing.

Miss Hong looked back to see Liu Yan sitting on a black horse. The horse casually kicked its hooves, carrying him slowly through the forest.

He sat on the horse in black clothes, holding the ancient qin “Flowing Jade Flying Torrent” that Bi Lianyi had purchased for a fortune.

His eyes were full of melancholy, seeing no one.

Yet when he sang one song, it made Miss Hong remember why she had been so devoted back then, generating the determination to protect this person for life.

His qin playing was too beautiful, his singing too heart-penetrating, so…

It made so many people develop inner demons.

And stray onto paths of no return.

Hearing Liu Yan’s voice, Chai Xijin trembled slightly. His subordinate exerted more force, and the drum sounds suddenly increased. The red-robed woman became serious, circulating her qi to sing loudly, “…Imperial winds cover the four seas, virtue’s waters clear for a thousand years. War robes need no more wearing, today we announce success.”

The drums shook heaven, the singing was bright and clear, quickly suppressing Liu Yan’s song.

After all, Liu Yan’s martial arts were already ruined. His qin and song contained no true qi. Though it was sonic killing, its power was insufficient.

Just then, someone sang softly in the distance.

“Last night’s dissolution, meeting your feelings possible, that time’s missed opportunities, what are they now?

Frost through white dew, phoenix roosting on old autumn parasol, bright pearls covered in dust remain bright pearls…”

That voice wasn’t loud but was exceptionally clear. Every sound and word was like breathing in the depths of the soul.

Miss Hong trembled—she thought only Liu Yan could sing to claim lives, but this person sang softly in the wind. Compared to Liu Yan’s melancholy, this person was very earnest and could actually enter the soul.

It was as if a soul whispered in her ear, every sigh clearly audible.

Who was this again?

In the distance, two white horses came side by side. One person played a horizontal flute with a hood covering his face, making his features unclear.

The other sang softly on horseback, while Liu Yan’s black horse turned its head toward the two.

After that person began singing, Liu Yan stopped singing.

He concentrated on playing qin while the hooded person calmly played flute.

That soft melody became increasingly like a single sigh.

“…Who once listened to wind and rain, experienced frost and dew. Kindness and hatred have failed, endless return paths under heaven’s edge. Asking where in the world’s desolate places, who can ferry across? Who reflects on the coming path, living souls yet given to death, gazing where glazed gold shatters, no white bones.”

Tang Lici and his companion’s white horses moved through the garrison troops as if entering an uninhabited realm. Their music and song completely suppressed Chai Xijin’s great drum. Even Chai Xijin put down his drum mallets, staring blankly as they advanced.

The white horses crossed the battlefield, passed the war chariot, and headed toward the black horse.

“This is… the Royal Plum Blade.” Cheng Yunpao was very surprised. The Royal Plum Master had intimidated the martial world with blade techniques, yet who would have thought that when he opened his mouth to sing, it would have this kind of presence.

Three horses converged before the Central Plains Sword Society camp. Fu Zhumei and the hooded person had many bandaged wounds, clearly having experienced fierce battle. Their ability to arrive in time must have been because they heard the news. Seeing Liu Yan cooperate with Fu Zhumei against enemies, after Chai Xijin’s sonic killing technique was restrained, the Central Plains Sword Society crowd was in uproar—Liu Yan was after all a major figure from Fengliu Store, an evil heretic that everyone could punish. Even if Liu Yan had developed an antidote for Nine Heart Pills, this enmity couldn’t just be written off.

“Someone falsely used Emperor Gong’s name to commit treason.” The hooded person was naturally Tang Lici. Still bearing the great name of “Master of Fengliu Store,” he naturally couldn’t show his true face. Ignoring the uproar behind him, he said quietly to Wanyu Yuedan, “But I’ve already killed that person. There were sixteen ‘evidence’ pieces for treason, now delivered to the Court of Judicial Review.”

“So Prince Ji before us came to profit as the fisherman?” Wanyu Yuedan also replied quietly, “But with so many people afflicted with ‘Bee Mother Condensed Frost Dew,’ even if we capture Chai Xijin, what about these scattered garrison troops?”

“The Gu King… ‘Summoning Lamp Order’ Wang Lingze.” Tang Lici said slowly, “Capture Wang Lingze and use the ‘Gu King’s’ power to order them to stop. Detoxification methods can be considered at length.”

“Wang Lingze?” Wanyu Yuedan said strangely, “This person isn’t dead yet? Hasn’t he been dead for over twenty years?”

Tang Lici looked toward the smoke-billowing Floating Brow Garden and said softly, “I only hope Venerable Bai will show mercy and can dig out a living Wang Lingze from this great fire.” He pulled his hood over his face, swept his sleeves across his face, and vanished from his horse.

Wanyu Yuedan frowned, listening to a faint landing sound. Tang Lici disappeared from before him, then leaped up, using his hooded robe as wings like a wild phoenix suddenly spreading its wings and flying half the sky high.

The battlefield of thousands was stunned. His flight was much higher than Master Wenxiu’s. The high winds blew away his hood, that hooded robe going with the wind, and everyone could clearly see Tang Lici’s gray hair and magnificent face, that beautiful and wildly gorgeous countenance.

Arrows paused slightly before attacking him. These weren’t just garrison troops’ arrows but also various hidden weapons, sleeve swords, and even flying swords from the Central Plains Sword Society.

On the ground, millions of people’s shock and resentment transformed into thousands of arrows, accompanied by inaudible curses and imprecations, heading toward Tang Lici in mid-air.

Tang Lici acted as if he saw nothing. He paused slightly in the air, then suddenly accelerated, diving straight toward Chai Xijin’s war chariot.

Chai Xijin raised his longbow. With Master Wenxiu’s leap, he knew it was absolutely impossible to reach the war chariot, but if Tang Lici dove down—that was absolutely impossible to fail.

But how could Tang Lici’s martial arts compare to Master Wenxiu’s? As soon as Chai Xijin raised his longbow, he knew he had miscalculated—he shouldn’t have reached for the bow but should have immediately used “Layered Petals Heavy Magnificence.” He had no time to draw the bow and shoot arrows before Tang Lici was on the war chariot.

He pounced toward Chai Xijin. Chai Xijin saw golden light flash on his body, stabbing straight between his eyebrows—that was a golden thread hollowed-out sword! That sword was gorgeous to the extreme and hollow to the extreme! He immediately released the bow, neither dodging nor avoiding, using “Layered Petals Heavy Magnificence” hidden weapons to strike directly at Tang Lici’s heart!

He bet that Tang Lici still valued his life and couldn’t exchange lives with him here!

Sure enough, Tang Lici’s sword missed, circling behind him to avoid his “Layered Petals Heavy Magnificence.” The hollow, gorgeous sword in his hand vanished—Chai Xijin simultaneously leaped back, standing together with the red-robed woman and meteor hammer wielder.

Tang Lici pounced onto the war chariot. In that lightning-quick exchange of swords, most people didn’t see it at all.

Everyone only saw him fly up to heaven, stand at the war chariot’s main position, then smile brilliantly and say one sentence.

Tang Lici said, “In heaven above and earth below, in the human world and immortal realm, only Tang is supreme, regardless of life and death.”

Thousands of troops and horses were in uproar. The Central Plains Sword Society crowd was filled with righteous indignation, some so angered they nearly vomited blood.

Tang Lici smiled at Chai Xijin, “I’ll return to Fengliu Store first. If you can’t finish killing these people, don’t come see me.”

Chai Xijin was still in the aftermath of his earlier sword strike, just managing to say one word “You—” when the red-robed beauty and Dashi behind him both struck at Tang Lici.

However, Tang Lici leaned backward, fell from the war chariot, and sank into the thick smoke billowing from Floating Brow Garden behind him.

He was truly like a brilliant nightmare, constantly wandering between human and non-human.

The Central Plains Sword Society, scattered like sand, were furious and charged toward Chai Xijin’s war chariot. The evil Tang Lici of Fengliu Store was right here, and Chai Xijin was his accomplice. These two killed our martial world comrades, poisoned the elderly, weak, women and children, released poison to control innocent people. If we don’t kill them, these demons will turn around and kill us!

Everyone had only wanted to escape and break through, but now they turned back to attack together, charging toward Chai Xijin’s war chariot.

Miss Hong stared blankly as Tang Lici sank into the thick smoke.

Who could command heroes in such chaos?

A saint perhaps could.

But a villain… might be even better.

Wanyu Yuedan said, “Young Master Tang is injured.”

Miss Hong realized, “How do you know?”

Bi Lianyi frowned tightly. Though he had lost all internal power, his eyesight remained. “Young Master Tang is seriously injured. Otherwise, when he exchanged one sword strike with Chai Xijin earlier, he couldn’t have been forced back a step by Chai Xijin. Chai Xijin was intimidated by his presence and didn’t discover it. Otherwise, with three people joining hands, Young Master Tang might have been detained.”

“But he’s now taking risks to go to Floating Brow Garden…” Miss Hong said, “He’s going to find ‘Summoning Lamp Order’ Wang Lingze. That person claimed to have been dead for over twenty years. If not dead, he must be an extremely treacherous and careful person.” She bit her lip, “Who can assist him?”

Bi Lianyi shook his head and said quietly, “Our most important task now is to use the resentment Young Master Tang created, regroup our forces, and defeat Chai Xijin.”

Miss Hong smiled bitterly, “I’m not as steady-minded as you.” She steadied herself, “Please ask the Royal Plum Master and Liu… Liu Yan to come over. We can rely on sonic killing techniques, fighting fire with fire to counter-kill Chai Xijin.”