Chapter 424 (Part II) An Eye For an Eye
By that time, even a fool would have realized that the boy was the Li Mu they were condemning.
In fact, many people were quite familiar with Li Mu’s image. His two most distinct features were his short hair and white clothes. Those reclusive factions and clans were not really completely isolated from the rest of the world. Instead, their forces had stealthily penetrated the mundane world and made certain control of the land in secret. Thus, how could they have no understanding of Li Mu before they opted to deal with him?
It was just that the boy was now holding a baby girl, and his hair was a mess, his chin covered with stubble, his white s.h.i.+rt stained with mud, and his face bearing a trace of exhaustion. It just did not match the vigorous image of the teenager Sage they had imagined or heard of. So, the crowd failed to immediately a.s.sociate him with the Li Mu described in their files.
It was not until Zhang San, Mu Qing, and the others saluted Li Mu that the crowd finally registered who he was.
Those experts, who were clamorous and indignant a moment ago, were instantly silenced like a duck being gripped around the neck.
Many people’s eyes flickered away, for they dared not look at Li Mu.
Those who were the most indignant retreated most rapidly.
Zhou Wu, the Supreme Guardian of Rules of the Northern Brilliance Sect, cowardly retracted his neck and backed away.
He just launched a strike against Li Mu, didn’t he?
It was like gloating his longevity right in front of death, wasn’t it?
Zhou Wu was terrified.
His biggest fear had befallen as if on cue.
“It is him! He sneak-attacked Brother Zhang today and took him away…” A soldier of the Great Moon Empire drenched in blood rushed out of the gate of the main government and bellowed, his finger unwaveringly pointing at Zhou Wu.
Li Mu’s gaze fell on that Supreme Guardian of Rules at once.
“I… I just asked him some questions. I didn’t kill him.” Although Zhou Wu had shouted fiercely when demanding that Li Mu surrender the treasures and secret methods, he suddenly became as humble as a dog when Li Mu showed up in front of him. He was obviously walking on eggsh.e.l.ls so as not to offend Li Mu.
When Li Mu’s spiritual force swiftly scanned him, he immediately knew that the man was lying and that the officer of the Great Moon Empire was perhaps dead now. Without further ado, Li Mu cast a jet of invisible Broadsword Qi and cut off Zhou Wu’s head.
Blood squirted out profusely.
Zhou Wu’s body collapsed, his blood gurgling down the street.
Exclamations of horror were heard.
The atmosphere at the gate was gruesome.
“You…” The head of the Northern Brilliance Sect flared up. He glowered at Li Mu in rage.
Zhou Wu was an important expert in the Northern Brilliance Sect. And he had been famous for years. But now, In front of so many reclusive factions and clans, Li Mu killed him without even blinking his eye. If the Northern Brilliance Sect did nothing about this, they would lose face big time.
“Li Mu, you just killed a member of our Northern Brilliance Sect without asking our permission. You are just too unscrupulous, aren’t you?” The head of the Northern Brilliance Sect said with a sneer, “Today, you’ll have me to answer to!”
“Answer to you?” Li Mu smiled coolly. “Okay, I’ll give you an answer.”
A shot of chilling broadsword light flashed by.
The next second, the head of the Northern Brilliance Sect froze on the spot, his face full of incredulity.
His eyes widened, riveted on Li Mu. A fine thread of blood appeared on his neck. Then, his head quietly dropped from his neck and hit the ground. Blood sprayed out like a spring. A second later, his body flopped down as well.
Li Mu’s Broadsword Intent had invaded his body, destroyed his organs and brain, and annihilated all his vitality. Yes, he was already as dead as a doornail.
“What?”
“The head of the Northern Brilliance Sect has also been killed?”
“How did he kill him?”
“With only one strike of his broadsword?”
“The head of the Northern Brilliance Sect was already at the first tier of the Saint Realm. But…”
The rest of the experts all felt that the scene had scared the life out of them and they were shrouded in a chill that could not be contained. A Sage had just been killed like a chicken. And Li Mu did not even raise his hand… It was too ridiculous!
“Head…”
“Let’s fight him to death!”
“Kill him!”
The eyes of the remaining experts of the Northern Brilliance Sect went scarlet with fury. They frantically activated their Cultivation Methods and sprinted at Li Mu to drag him to h.e.l.l together.
However, as soon as they began to move, several rays of broadsword light gleamed in the void. In a flash, their bodies were chopped into pieces right on the spot like weeds slashed in half. Ling Li’s sharp Broadsword Intent quickly penetrated the wounds in their bodies and crushed their souls and consciousness.
The Northern Brilliance Sect was wiped out.
“Those who have killed any members of the Great Moon Empire, no matter who they are, should get ready to be punished by the method of ‘an eye for an eye’.”
Li Mu had just attacked relentlessly and taken out all the members of the Northern Brilliance Sect.
Standing beside Li Mu, Zhang San and Mu Qing only felt that His Honor at that time was somehow different from how he used to be, like the blade of a peerless broadsword had suddenly been sharpened. It was just like before the battle with Emperor Qin Ming. Li Mu’s aura was getting increasingly fiercer and overbearing. As an air of indescribable sharpness swept toward them, they felt Li Mu had grown into a totally different person.
The members of those reclusive factions and clans all felt the same thing.
The immense strength of Li Mu made them shudder.
Many people began to get cold feet.
Lord Ming Shan of the Western Qin sneered in the crowd and continued to egg the others on. “Guys, no need to fear him… Well, Li Mu, if you dare, just kill all of us. Hmph! Justice is in the heart of everyone. If you start to murder people and wipe out factions for the slightest offense, G.o.d won’t spare you… You guys, don’t be afraid. We can fight him together. What the worst that could happen anyway?”
“That is Lord Ming Shan from the Western Qin. He sneaked into our city three days ago. And Lord Ming Shan seems to have something to do with the disappearance of dozens of our soldiers,” Zhang San whispered in Li Mu’s ears.
He and Mu Qing knew perfectly well about what those experts had done. Yet, considering Li Mu’s special mental state, they could only bear the harsh fact and make sacrifices, lest the bad news influence or jeopardize Li Mu’s health.
Li Mu looked at Lord Ming Shan and asked, “Where are our men?”
Lord Ming Shan grinned. “How can I possibly know where your missing men are? Maybe they feel that the Great Moon Empire is too weak and can’t last much longer and ran away without permission. Besides, in this chaotic world, it is quite normal to squash a few insubordinate ants, isn’t it?”
Lord Ming Shan seemed rather confident and fearless.
The tone he adopted was clearly provocative.
The crowd was astounded, for Lord Ming Shan was merely a Semi-Sage, whose cultivation was inferior to the head of the Northern Brilliance Sect. So, did he have some trump cards that Li Mu did not know about?
That did make sense. Now that Lord Ming Shan still dared come to Li Mu’s place after Emperor Qin Ming had been killed, he had to have some powerful backup supporting him.
“You idiot!” Li Mu gave out a cold laugh.
In the void, the broadsword light flickered, and the Broadsword Intent ran rampantly. As a series of strange swooshes sounded, an absurd dark figure emerged in the rippling air and was immediately chopped up.
A piece of broken black armor dropped to the ground.
10 black-armored demonic guards hidden in the dark void were almost instantly torn up by the Broadsword Intent. They had no time to put up any defense. Like weeds, Li Mu rooted them out without effort.
“Those are all you count on to challenge me?” Li Mu snorted.
Lord Ming Shan’s expression changed dramatically.
“How could it be?”
The10 black-armored demonic guards were the backup he had that encouraged him to come to Longcheng Pa.s.s this time. They were one of the secret trump cards of the royal family of the Western Qin. Each of them was a well-trained fighter in the Sage Realm. Their bodies were strong as if made of iron, and they had no sense of fear or pain. The 10 black-armored demonic guards were the most terrifying combat machines.
But they were all ripped up by Li Mu in an instant.
How could that happen?
Sensing that things would lead to no good end, Lord Ming Shan roared, “You’ve already murdered His Majesty! Are you also trying to kill me? Well, this time it is me who is at fault. But as we are all from Western Qin, let’s settle this amicably…”
“Splatter!”
A streak of broadswords light cut his head off.
A dozen guards around him were all beheaded.
“Even Emperor Qin has died in my hands. You, a mere lord with the strength of a Semi-Sage, dared come to Longcheng Pa.s.s and scheme against our Great Moon Empire?” Li Mu remarked coldly.
Lord Ming Shan’s head made coa.r.s.e noises, still struggling.
Even after he had been beheaded, he could not believe that he was killed just like that.
He still could not take it. “Didn’t they say Li Mu was already dying because of the injuries remaining from the last battle? Why is he still so strong? In front of so many people, he launched attacks and killed several people in a row. Does he really have no scruples?”
At the last moment of his life, Lord Ming Shan regretted his decision very much.
It suddenly occurred to him that he seemed to have been used by that man in Qin City to bear the brunt.
“Anyone else got anything to say?”
Li Mu’s eyes, sharp like blades, swept over everyone present.
Those experts from several hundred reclusive factions and clans fell silent like cicadas in cold weather, as each of them was under tremendous pressure.
Earlier, they all shouted their request that Li Mu should come out and discuss martial arts with them. But when Li Mu did show up, many of them could not feel more regretful about shouting that request out. They sincerely hoped that if they closed their eyes and then reopened them, they would find themselves in another place and all this was just a dream.
“Clap! Clap! Clap!”
Gentle applause came from the attic opposite.
Qi Huai, the second strongest of the Southern Chu, who had been watching the whole event in the attic, slowly stood up and applauded. He then exclaimed, “You are surely the person who has beheaded Emperor Qin Ming. Your broadsword-using method is remarkable. Your Broadsword Intent is peerlessly sharp. That was indeed breathtaking!”
Li Mu’s eyes screwed up slightly.
“Here comes another show-off?”
Li Mu did not know the man named Qi Huai or his background, but he detected that the aura of the dark injury in Mu Qing’s body was exactly the same as Qi Huai’s. Apparently, Qi Huai had attacked and injured Mu Qing before.
“Sage Li is famous all over the world and admired by all parties. I am Qi Huai, Princ.i.p.al of the Wendao Academy in Southern Chu. I’ve crossed thousands of miles to come here in the hope of posing a few tricky questions about martial arts practice to Sage Li. Please enlighten me, Sage Li,” Qi Huai said with a smile. His face was gentle like jade, his aura benevolent. And he also made an obeisance to Li Mu, displaying his courtesy and kind att.i.tude toward him.
But as he was on the second floor of the attic, he had lowered his gaze to look down at Li Mu the whole time.
“Get your a.s.s down here!”
Li Mu did not bother to even pretend being polite to him. With a stir of his mind, invisible forces lunged forward in the void, and the Broadsword Intent erupted. Jets of broadsword light formed a glinting net and charged straight at Qi Huai in the attic.
“You…” Qi Huai choked with rage.
He never knew that Li Mu would be so rude to him as to launch a strike the moment he met him. That was completely different from what he had expected. After all, Qi Huai believed that he was not playing a supporting role like the others below.
“The Gold Armor of the G.o.d of War accompanies him in every battle… Defend!”
Qi Huai bellowed. He had taken out an ancient-looking book, opened it in an instant, and read out the first line in it. The words in the book flew out from it and became strings of magic figures swirling around Qi Huai before turning into a solid gold armor.
“Clink! Clank! Clink!”
In a storm of crisp splatters, the Broadsword Intent sped about, and the entire attic was reduced to ashes. But when the Broadsword Intent hit the gold armor, transparent ripples surged wildly like raindrops plummeting in a lake. Soon, the gold armor’s color began to fade rapidly.
“What?”
Alarmed, Qi Huai hastily read out the second line. “Boundless desert turns into a sea of ice!” The words zoomed out of the ancient book again and condensed into thick ice, which formed a magic ice wall that perfectly s.h.i.+elded Qi Huai.
But almost at the same time, numerous chopping marks appeared on the magic ice wall.
Nevertheless, the ice wall wasn’t broken.
Qi Huai finally breathed a sigh of relief. But then—
“Kaboom!”
A fist cut straight through the would-be indestructible ice wall and seized him by the neck.