Jiang Chen had expected Yin Guan to kill him. After all, he had ruined the man's plan.
But Yin Guan had turned instead to face Zheng Chaoyang.
What astonished Jiang Chen even more was that Yin Guan could fight Zheng Chaoyang to such a degree.
How many prodigies walked this world!
By now, Jiang Chen understood what Yin Guan had been after.
He must have prepared for this day for a long time.
He had not only seen through the weaknesses of the Guardian Sacred Beast, but also the Upper City's grand formation.
He had laid his plans across the Twenty-Seventh Castle with meticulous precision, and at the moment the Sacred Beast carried the Upper City on its tour and arrived here — at the moment every insider was waiting for him to be devoured, waiting for the Sacred Beast to be satisfied — he had struck.
The Guardian Sacred Beast could never truly be controlled by him, but driving it into a frenzy was enough. The Thousand-Absolute Curse would do the job admirably.
The ideal outcome: the State of You's strongest forces and the Sacred Beast would wound each other gravely, and then he would reveal the true power he had hidden for years, destroying the Upper City in a single stroke and toppling the state's existing political order.
He would rebuild the State of You upon the ruins.
But a twist of fate had triggered events ahead of schedule, and the Upper City's trump cards exceeded what he had known. After all, he had always lived in the Lower City, with no opportunity to learn the full picture.
Not only had Zheng Chaoyang alone managed to temporarily restrain the Sacred Beast, the beast itself had not descended into total madness. And throughout it all, Grand Preceptor Zhao had not yet moved, ready at any moment to handle contingencies.
Yin Guan recognized the operation had failed, and so he withdrew decisively.
But why had he appeared outside the city to fight Zheng Chaoyang before leaving?
On the surface, it appeared to be a refusal to accept defeat, a trial to see if he could cut down Zheng Chaoyang.
But to Jiang Chen's eyes, there was only one reason. Su Muqing.
The cursed paper effigy, the curse laid by Su Muqing's wet nurse — none of it would actually take Su Muqing's life. What it would do was sever her connection to Yin Guan, so that she would no longer be implicated by his actions.
His battle with Zheng Chaoyang was a display of force.
That way, even after he departed, anyone who still harbored designs on Su Muqing would have to weigh whether they could withstand his wrath.
Once he had fought Zheng Chaoyang to a standstill, no one in the State of You would dare test his limits.
Perhaps he still cared about Su Muqing. Perhaps he did not. It no longer mattered.
What mattered was that he was still so young, yet could fight Zheng Chaoyang to a deadlock. In five years, in ten years, in twenty years — what would he become?
More terrifying than his demonstrated strength was his genius.
More terrifying than his present was his future.
This also explained why, despite Jiang Chen being one of those who had disrupted his plan, Yin Guan had not killed him.
Because Jiang Chen had saved Su Muqing.
His time in the State of You had been brief, but it left an indelible impression on Jiang Chen.
Especially the fact that Yin Guan — so brilliant, so powerful, so long in preparation — had still failed. The Upper City of the State of You was virtually unscathed.
The State of You had operated this way for centuries past, and it would continue to operate this way going forward.
Nothing had changed.
And as for Jiang Chen himself — how long, how difficult was the road he faced?
He raised a finger before him, and a Blossomfire bloomed.
He had grown accustomed to this, to summoning and extinguishing Blossomfire at will, anywhere, anytime.
Along his journey, he had repeated this tens of thousands of times.
He needed to master every detail of this Dao technique if he hoped to glimpse the vistas of greater power.
Flowers bloom and wither, each in their season.
He leapt into the air, hand on his sword, and crossed the mountain ridge.
The road through wind and frost had not diminished his fighting spirit in the slightest.
A journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step.
The road is long and full of thorns — but I shall seek it, high and low!
The Guardian Sacred Beast rumbled in, and then rumbled out.
The colossal turtle beast of Baxi bloodline would always carry its burden and press onward. It had grown accustomed to the territory of the State of You, to this relationship akin to symbiosis.
Regular meals of essence-rich nourishment meant its strength would keep climbing.
Today it had thrown what seemed a minor tantrum, but in the grand scheme of its vast life, it meant nothing.
For most of the people of the Twenty-Seventh Castle, today had been dramatic, terrifying, and utterly unexpected.
A routine administrative review had somehow shaken the heavens.
They would talk for a long time about Yin Guan — why he had betrayed the state, why he was so powerful, what dark sect he had joined, what evil deeds he had committed... and of course, there would be the occasional voice suggesting he had been forced into it.
Some would also mention the pompous, high-browed scholar who spoke in doggerel verse. They would mention the white-haired youth. They would mention Zhao Che's profligate behavior.
But no matter how people discussed it all,
they would soon forget.
In the Upper City, though the colossal turtle beast was on the move, not a single tremor could be felt. The city rode with perfect stability.
The lord of the Upper City was the ruler of the State of You.
But everyone knew that the current ruler possessed neither the bearing of a cultivator nor the wisdom to govern. His true talent lay in drinking and revelry — making him and Grand Preceptor Zhao's son, Zhao Che, a matched pair of profligates.
He never attended court sessions. He never concerned himself with state affairs. At most, during ceremonies, he would make an appearance and serve as a figurehead.
There was nothing to be done. He was the sole bloodline of the previous ruler, born to privilege.
The loyal ministers could only place their hopes in the next generation. Fortunately, the current ruler of the State of You was far more prolific than his predecessor. He already had three sons and seven daughters — there would be no shortage of candidates to groom.
As for those who were not loyal... there was nothing for them to do but grit their teeth.
After all, both Grand Preceptor Zhao and Zheng Chaoyang, commander of the Stele-Bearing Army, were unwavering royalists.
Their loyalty to the late ruler had transferred without hesitation to the current one.
Since the current ruler refused to attend to governance, it was Grand Preceptor Zhao who administered the state.
In the great hall, Grand Preceptor Zhao sat alone in his seat.
Aside from the ruler himself, only he and Zheng Chaoyang held seats in this hall — placed at the very head of all officials.
But Zheng Chaoyang never sat. He said he was not accustomed to it.
At this moment, only Grand Preceptor Zhao and Zheng Chaoyang were present. No third person.
Tortoiseshell fragments lay scattered across the desk.
Grand Preceptor Zhao did not study the divination. His eyes closed, he spoke: "Commander Zheng, why did you let Yin Guan go today?"
Like the vast majority of cultivation traditions across the world, the path of the Military Cultivators had its origins in the Dao School.
The most ancient Dao traditions were simply the unified body of methods by which humanity had explored cultivation.
Over the long ages, they had diverged in different directions, giving rise to different schools.
Nearly all cultivators, regardless of school, progressed through the same series of realms: Roaming Meridian, Cycle, Heaven-Piercing, Inner Palace, Outer Tower, Divine Descent, True Vision...
The differences lay in philosophical emphasis and combat approach.
The Military Cultivators focused on the power of vital blood and excelled in the manipulation of battlefield malice, claiming supremacy in killing power among all traditions.
Today's battle between Zheng Chaoyang and Yin Guan had certainly displayed fearsome strength, yet the killing power that set him above his peers had not been fully revealed.
In other words, he had not gone all out.
Zheng Chaoyang stood like a tower of iron, silent for a long time before he spoke.
"I have never seen such a genius cultivator in our State of You."
He said: "I was thinking — if a talent like this were given the chance to grow, could he not become a pillar of the State of You? Could he not be enough to protect the nation?"
Grand Preceptor Zhao lifted his eyelids slightly. "There have been those even more gifted. But none had the chance to grow. They all died in battle."
He added: "Before the Guardian Sacred Beast appeared."
A long silence filled the hall.