Time rewound to five days prior.
Within the Illusory Void, in the Starry River Pavilion, Jiang Wang and Chongxuan Sheng sat facing each other.
"Have you made your decision?" Chongxuan Sheng asked, hands resting on his knees.
"I cannot bear to see innocent people lying dead in the fields. I cannot bear to hear the voices of justice silenced in dark rooms. If no one holds a torch in the darkness, then this night becomes eternal night. If no one speaks out against injustice, then silence becomes an accomplice!"
"On Qingyang Town, I assumed the power to govern this place. Therefore, this is my duty and responsibility."
Jiang Wang similarly rested his hands on his knees, his spine straight as a sword. "The City Lord of Jiacheng, I will kill him!"
"The Xi Family has governed Jiacheng for centuries. You cannot treat the Xi Family Head as an ordinary Tenglong Realm cultivator. The difficulty of killing him may exceed your imagination."
"But for this act, I ask no other considerations."
Chongxuan Sheng was silent for a moment, then asked, "Want to spar?"
"No." Jiang Wang refused. "I don't want to release this pent-up energy."
Chongxuan Sheng then understood that Jiang Wang's resolve was beyond persuasion. So he asked, "When do you plan to act?"
"After I finish my current affairs and bring the plague in Qingyang Town under control." Only at this moment did a hint of weariness, impossible to fully conceal, finally show in Jiang Wang's voice.
By that time, he had been working without sleep or rest for five days and five nights.
Looking into Jiang Wang's eyes, Chongxuan Sheng finally said, "Go ahead and do what you must. I will unfurl the flag for you!"
...
Jiacheng, beneath the inner city walls.
Xi Munan pressed his hand upon the City Lord's Seal of Jiacheng. With a single command, the Thunder of Punishment arrived in an instant.
It shattered seven Flame Flowers, the Nourishing Flower, and the Vine Snake Coiling Wall, before crashing down upon Jiang Wang.
He mobilized domain power, commanding life and death.
Condensing momentum to imbre, combining authority with law — this was the orthodox method of the Legalist school.
Boom!
Jiang Wang was inevitably engulfed by the Thunder of Punishment.
Electric serpents writhed, turning everything charred black.
A faint scent of cooked meat even wafted out.
He seemed to have died. But his hand... still tightly gripped his sword!
His body looked like a piece of charcoal.
Yet standing there, he resembled a sword that refused to bend.
Even if he was about to die, or even if he was already dead!
After repeatedly mobilizing domain power, the radiance of the City Lord's Seal in his hand dimmed. To fully recharge it would require unknown amounts of painstaking effort. Xi Munan had no time to lament this; he only stared intently at Jiang Wang.
With the aid of domain power, the might of this Thunder of Punishment had far exceeded his own limits, approaching the strike of an Inner Palace Realm powerhouse.
Surviving the immediate crisis was paramount; offending the Chongxuan Family was a price he was willing to pay!
Thump-thump, thump-thump...
He heard the faintest, most delicate heartbeat.
Inhale~ exhale~ inhale~ exhale... the softest sound of breathing.
That heartbeat started weak, then gradually grew stronger, until it beat like a war drum.
That breathing started as a whisper, then steadily intensified, until it roared like wind and thunder!
Recalling the past, when the Inner Palace Realm Ji Xuan fought Miaoyu, Jiang Wang merely caught Miaoyu and withstood the negligible aftermath, yet still suffered injuries and coughed up blood. Now, he had directly withstood this Thunder of Punishment head-on.
His limited defenses were instantly shattered. He could even clearly perceive the process of his life force being extinguished. That sensation was deeply unpleasant. The sense of time was stretched, and that pain trickled through, drop by drop.
Then.
A force arose from the Heaven-reaching Palace, originating from the long-silent Dark Candle, dispersing into his four limbs and hundred bones, merging into the rushing current of his blood.
This was the Flesh-to-Soul Return Technique, previously used on Miaoyu. Because the Dark Candle had resided within him for so long, his body could now completely withstand the secrets of the White Bone Path.
Immediately after, the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise — the Four Spirits Phantom — orbited his body and vanished into his skin.
With the Four Spirits perfected, Wood energy flourished.
Green Wood energy rose from his liver, nourishing his five viscera and six bowels, from the inside out.
Finally, his heartbeat thundered like a drum, and his breathing roared like the wind.
The charred black skin sloughed off, revealing new skin as white as snow.
Hair fell like ashes, and without waiting for the spring wind, it had already grown anew!
The newly grown black hair reached his shoulders, cascading down his back.
Jiang Wang shot up from the ground, springing instantly before the wide-eyed, horrified Xi Munan.
"Do you know why this seal failed to kill me?"
Jiang Wang's voice rang out sharp and clear. One sword strike! Like mountains toppling and rivers reversing, it crashed down.
Clang!
It was the City Lord's Seal of Jiacheng, raised by Xi Munan to block Everlasting Longing.
Crack.
An extremely fine, infinitesimal sound of a crack, which, heard in Xi Munan's ears, was louder than thunder.
Because this City Lord's Seal was the convergence of Jiacheng's fortune, the embodiment of the hearts of hundreds of thousands of its people.
It should have been indestructible, unbreakable.
How could it crack?
Xi Munan was a clever man; he could certainly think of the reason.
But precisely because of that, he refused to believe it!
"Listen." Jiang Wang's voice grew softer. "This is the sound of the people's hearts shattering, the sound of your Xi Family's fortune breaking. You treat the people like grass, so the people treat you like an enemy!"
With a reverse flick of his sword, it swept like a meteor across the sky, its trail faint yet leaving a mark. It illuminated the shocked and furious eyes of Xi Munan.
"How is this possible!"
Xi Munan flipped his hand and summoned the Carp-Patterned Red Flag. The flag unfurled like floating waves of crimson blood, engulfing Jiang Wang's sword strike.
"My Xi Family has nurtured this land for centuries. We hold the hearts of the people, the mandate of the masses! How can that be undone by a single moment or event? Ignorant fools, witless brutes!"
The normally composed City Lord of Jiacheng was now somewhat flustered and exasperated.
Losing soldiers and generals was not terrifying, and a temporary defeat was not severe. But it was precisely the shattering of the City Lord's Seal that made him realize what he had truly lost.
He had discarded the Xi Family's past and thrown away its future.
"You think it was your Xi Family that sustained the hundreds of thousands of Jiacheng's people? You are wrong!"
In his fury, Jiang Wang drew his sword back.
"The farmers till their fields, the craftsmen practice their trades. Commerce thrives across the roads, and scholars speak out with righteousness! This is the root of Jiacheng's prosperity. It is the people of this land who have supported your Xi Family for centuries!"
Everlasting Longing was drawn from the blood-waves churned up by the Carp-Patterned Red Flag. Without pausing, Jiang Wang lunged forward, thrusting his sword straight ahead.
The masses were like a raging sea, their hatred like the hatred of the sea.
The waters that can float a boat are the same that can capsize it!
With the sound of tearing silk, the Carp-Patterned Red Flag's banner was rent asunder.
The long sword continued forward, as if it had never been obstructed.
Xi Munan shifted his position three times in an instant, but each time was forced back by this sword.
The sword pierced the man.
With the will of the people, it pierced the City Lord's heart.
Jiang Wang pulled back his long sword.
Pfft!
Xi Munan spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, splattering dots of red across the Carp-Patterned Red Flag.
He clutched his chest, but could not hold together his shattered heart.
Had he not deceived the people, causing untold suffering and completely losing the City Lord's Mantle, the Thunder of Punishment unleashed with the City Lord's Seal would have surely killed Jiang Wang on the spot. The Flesh-to-Soul Return Technique, no matter how mysterious, and the Four Spirits Body Tempering Art, no matter how formidable, would have been water without a source. There would have been no outcome like this.
At such a moment, he suddenly recalled a passage of words.
It was what he had said to admonish his proud son—
"If your eyes can only see three feet in front of your body, then you might as well not look. If your ears can only hear what is within one wall's distance, then you might as well not listen. The observation methods of East King Valley have instead made you blind, deaf, and foolish, trusting only that tiny sliver of what you think you understand!"
"And how am I any different... letting everything I have seen, heard, and experienced block off the future I could imagine?" he thought.
The City Lord's Seal of Jiacheng slipped from his grasp and fell, striking the stone bricks of the city tower and shattering into pieces. Countless faint motes of light scattered, spreading across every corner of Jiacheng's domain.
Thus was the family fortune returned to the city's fortune.
With blood, a sacrifice was offered to the Red Flag.
Le Wen