Compared to the Dragon Bone Mask, who was at his peak, Song Guang had opened two palaces but was still not as strong.
Yet the difficulty of Chongxuan Sheng's mission lay in killing Song Guang within the briefest possible window, leaving him not a single breath to recover.
And Fourteen, as a death warrior of the Chongxuan clan, would certainly be regarded with suspicion.
That was precisely why he had invited Jiang Chen along — born of absolute trust in Jiang Chen's strength.
Jiang Chen's cooperation was perfect, not wasting half a breath of time, answering his trust with nothing but raw power.
Everything happened suddenly, and ended just as suddenly.
In the blink of an eye, Song Guang's head had rolled to the ground.
No matter how many tricks or contingencies he might have had, none could be brought to bear — all of it scattered like smoke.
Steward Song, a Soaring Dragon realm cultivator at the very least, couldn't even react in time. He had barely risen to his feet when the fight was already over!
"Ah!"
Song Guang's fourth concubine screamed.
Only then did the two squads of Rizhao County guards stationed outside the tearoom finally burst through the door.
Smack!
Chongxuan Sheng slapped the woman flying into the wall with a single backhand. Her scream cut short, her body sliding down the wall — she was clearly dead.
Jiang Chen wasted no words. Having finished Song Guang, he unleashed Five Qi Binding Tiger again, spun around, and thrust One Sword Piercing Sun and Moon straight through Steward Song's vitals.
At this point, dealing with an unremarkable Soaring Dragon realm cultivator was as simple as slaughtering a chicken.
He sheathed his sword, formed a seal with one hand, and unfurled the Sea of Flame Blossoms, dragging every Rizhao County guard who had charged inside into his battlefield of flowers.
These guards had to discern their bearings, search for illusory blossoms, and guard against attacks from real flame blossoms all at once.
But in this Sea of Flame Blossoms, Chongxuan Sheng and Jiang Chen saw everything without obstruction.
Chongxuan Sheng stepped forward with a mighty stride — one palm, one kill.
Jiang Chen cut left and right — two swords, a pair.
In just five short breaths, the Sea of Flame Blossoms dissipated, and both squads of transcendent guards had been completely slaughtered!
At this moment, although County Magistrate Song Guang and the county steward were both dead, and both squads of transcendent guards had been wiped out, the commotion in the tearoom had already been noticed by others in the county estate. Transcendent cultivators were converging on the area one after another.
Then, from the direction of the guest quarters, a streak of sword light suddenly shot skyward.
Its brilliance was unmatched in sharpness — it was Xiang Qian's flying sword. After witnessing the commotion here, he and Fourteen had wasted no time in springing into action.
Inside the tearoom, Jiang Chen asked only one word: "What now?"
Chongxuan Sheng didn't bother with the door. He smashed straight through the wall and strode out: "To the military camp outside the city!"
Song Guang was dead, but the seventy thousand war soldiers had not yet dissolved. The moment any figure of authority from the State of Yang arrived, they would become a disaster.
What they needed to do was seize the moment while Song Guang had just fallen and the army outside was leaderless and unaware — charge straight into the camp, kill the commanding officers, and scatter the army on the spot.
Song Guang might truly have wanted to surrender to the State of Qi, only his greedy nature had driven him to seek more.
Or perhaps he had been a hidden hand placed by Yang Jiande all along, every bit of his greedy facade meant to blind the people of Qi, to deliver a final stab in the back and wrest the fate of the State of Yang from the jaws of defeat.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Chongxuan Chuliang didn't need a double-edged liability — surrender or die.
For Chongxuan Sheng, by this point, surrender was no longer necessary either. Kill the man, scatter his army. Let Chongxuan Chuliang fight Yang Jiande without a single worry hanging over him — that was his sole objective, and his greatest merit.
Song Guang was dead. No one would care what his intentions had once been.
...
Rizhao County was packed with powerful cultivators, and transcendent fighters surged forth without end.
Yet Chongxuan Sheng and Jiang Chen charged out of the tearoom one after the other, then split into two lines.
Along the way, whether they were Roaming Meridian realm, Cycle realm, Heaven Connecting realm, or Soaring Dragon realm — not a single one could withstand a single exchange!
Booming roars without ceasing. The whistle of swords unbroken.
Before long, Fourteen and Xiang Qian had also fought their way out, each diverging on their own.
The former fought with sweeping, crushing force, charging in every direction, nearly dyeing his black armor blood-red. The latter was incomparably sharp, a streak of sword light flickering back and forth, severing lives without pause.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Jiang Chen rode the speed of Flame Meteor, weaving back and forth, hunting down every strong cultivator capable of giving orders, picking them off one by one. He landed, spread the Sea of Flame Blossoms, fired Five Qi Binding Tiger in an instant, and followed with One Sword Piercing Sun and Moon — this combination left no one who could resist.
Chongxuan Sheng was even more terrifying. Whenever he spotted someone acting out of line, he'd simply reach out a hand, yank them before him, and slap them dead with a single blow.
In the heat of battle, Rizhao County's estate had no shortage of transcendent powerhouses.
But what Jiang Chen and his allies needed to do was sever their backbone, shatter their will to kill, and reduce these fighters to scattered stragglers and a rabble.
"No need to chase!"
"Outside the city!"
Jiang Chen and Chongxuan Sheng shouted almost in unison.
They left Fourteen and Xiang Qian behind to continue their roaming slaughter, preventing the county estate cultivators from organizing or sending word.
Chongxuan Sheng and Jiang Chen cut straight through the county magistrate's estate, took flight, and headed directly for the military camp outside the city.
They moved with such decisiveness that the county magistrate's estate was still mired in chaos, with no one having time to warn the camp.
Song Guang had never imagined he could be assassinated while seventy thousand troops were stationed right outside the city. And no one in the camp could have imagined it either.
Seventy thousand war soldiers sat just beyond the walls. Song Guang was a cautious man, and a Inner Palace realm powerhouse who had opened two palaces himself. Under such circumstances, how could a handful of Soaring Dragon realm cultivators possibly kill him?
Sending information took time, and that time gap was exactly what Jiang Chen and Chongxuan Sheng were exploiting.
The moment they reached the camp's perimeter, Chongxuan Sheng bellowed in a booming voice: "Where is the commanding general? I am Chongxuan Sheng, young master of the Chongxuan mainline and Vice Commander of the Autumn Kill Army! I have reached an agreement with Song Guang and have come personally to take command of the army!"
The title was imposing enough to give the camp pause in its defensive response.
Immediately, an armored general shot into the air to face them: "Who are you? Why is the county magistrate not here? Do you have his seal of authority?"
Behind him, five more generals rose into the air in succession.
They were cautious enough, but —
Jiang Chen said nothing. He had already unfurled the Sea of Flame Blossoms.
Chongxuan Sheng unleashed his gravity arts in full, pulling them all together, while Jiang Chen rode his long sword forward and pierced through in a single pass.
Bang bang bang.
Most of the soldiers in camp saw only their generals ask a single question, and then a sea of flowers bloomed in the sky.
When the blossoms faded, several armored corpses tumbled to the ground one after another.
Right above the camp, Chongxuan Sheng and Jiang Chen had killed every last one of those generals!
Shock. Then fury.
The entire army camp erupted.
Transcendent cultivators rose into the air one after another, voices roaring: "Form the formations! Form the formations!"
But —
Bang bang bang bang!
Wherever a shout went up, Jiang Chen's Flame Meteor exploded into view. Beneath his long sword, no one survived.
Chongxuan Sheng controlled the field with his gravity arts — slapping with his palm, smashing with his fists, simple and brutal, killing every transcendent cultivator who took to the air, one by one.
They could only watch as figures rose into the sky, then fell back down, like rain falling from the heavens.
Only every single drop of that rain was a life extinguished.
Simple. Clean. Brutal. Devastating.
This scene would linger as an inescapable nightmare in the minds of every soldier present for a very long time to come.