"The Pei Family... they dared to commit regicide? This is high treason, an act that angers both gods and men!"
Zhao Lan's fists clenched, his eyes bloodshot.
But Xiao Lin only gave a miserable smile.
"What does it matter? The Pei Family and the Empress now hold absolute power in the Imperial Court. There is no one, from the highest minister to the lowest official, who does not bow to them. How could I have reported it? And who would have believed me?
"After I escaped, I secretly met a dear friend from the Northland. He was shocked and furious when he heard the news. He immediately resigned from his post and returned to the Northland, vowing to inform King Chen of the truth. I took out the Dragon Sparrow and gave him the single drop of His Majesty's blood that remained on the blade's tip...
"After that, I heard nothing from him. It wasn't until two years later that I learned from a drunken military commander that my dear friend's entire clan had been executed. The charge was 'colluding with King Chen with the intent to rebel'.
"That was the day I truly woke up. I spent months making my way back to the Xiao Clan's ancestral home in Ganzhou, only to be met with a scene of utter devastation. It turned out that I..."
His eyes reddened, and his voice trembled.
"...had also had my entire clan exterminated..."
At this, Xiao Lin covered his face and began to sob.
"My poor wife and child... dragged down with me..."
"Xiao Bo..."
Hearing this, Zhao Lan's eyes also turned red as he gripped Xiao Lin's hand tightly.
"Lan'er," Xiao Lin placed a hand on Zhao Lan's head, his voice growing weaker. "I know this may be unfair to you. If you are unwilling, I will not force you... The poison has entered my lungs. I don't have long to live. I... want to entrust the Divine Blade Dragon Sparrow to you."
Xiao Lin pulled the black cloth from his back, revealing a heavy, ancient blade. He placed it before Zhao Lan.
"Prime Minister Pei murdered his master and framed the loyal. The Empress manipulates the government. The court is overrun by treacherous villains, and the world is on the brink of chaos! The Emperor has met a tragic end and the Nine Provinces are in turmoil, but the curtain has only just risen. If you take this blade, you must hide your strength and bide your time, endure hardship and nurse your hatred..."
Xiao Lin's face was ashen. He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood.
"The root of the world's ills is the Pei Clan! You must face that terrifying, thousand-year-old sect alone, until the dark clouds scatter and you can restore justice for the Emperor, bring clarity to the state, and return... a just and peaceful world to this land!"
******
"I'm rather curious, how did His Majesty die?"
Pei Su looked at Old Wu with a faint, unreadable smile.
To an ordinary person, the Emperor's death would be like the sky falling. But for Pei Su, it was not so difficult to accept.
"His Majesty's cultivation was indeed unparalleled. Even after the Old Master schemed for decades to temporarily sever the Royal Dynasty's fortune, and our family sent three high-level Dharma Forms, we still couldn't subdue him. In the end, we had to use the celestial artifact, the Kongtong Cauldron, to suppress and refine him."
As he said this, there was no condescension in Old Wu's voice, but rather a trace of admiration and respect for the Emperor.
A celestial artifact... No wonder!
Pei Su didn't press further. He knew the Pei Sect had a legacy of several thousand years; its resources were far beyond what the world could imagine.
"Then why was the Emperor's head escorted to the Northland?"
"Young Master, what do you think was so special about Tianque Pass back then?"
Before Pei Su could answer, Old Wu let out a sinister laugh. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
"Mountains of corpses and rivers of blood. The sanguine aura of hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers soared to the heavens, blotting out the sun and moon, making the mountains and rivers weep. A thousand miles of land was transformed into a living hell. And by using this endless essence of flesh and blood, we can forge a Blood God Body for the Emperor's head..."
If anyone else had heard these words, they would have been horrified beyond measure. A respected, ancient sect of the Imperial Court was actually studying forbidden blood sacrifice techniques that only evil cults and demonic sects would practice...
No, even those heretics would feel a chill run down their spines and be plunged into an icy abyss if they witnessed the Pei Sect's handiwork.
After all, a typical evil sect would cause a massive uproar among the righteous powers if they so much as sacrificed a single village.
But the Pei Family? They operated in the heart of a warzone, with hundreds of thousands of corpses, a river of blood stretching three thousand miles, and a sanguine aura rising thirty thousand feet!
And to top it all off, the core blood-skull was the fucking Emperor himself!
No one could imagine what a world-shaking, terrifyingly monstrous thing this Blood God Body would be!
Old Wu's answers were all suggestive, and Pei Su didn't probe deeper.
He knew that what Old Wu described so casually was the culmination of decades of scheming and careful maneuvering by the elders of his clan.
"So that commander, Xiao Lin, he saw the Emperor's head back then?"
"When the Pei Mansion's shadow guards discovered it, the ebony box had been opened. The Emperor's head was on the ground, covered in mud, and the Dragon Sparrow was gone...
"That year, when the entire Xiao Clan of Ganzhou was executed, the Old Master deliberately waited two months for that Commander Xiao. A pity. The man was a real piece of work. He just watched, stone-faced, as his wife and child were beheaded, and didn't make a single sound..."
Pei Su sneered.
"He always was a piece of work."
Didn't he use Zhao Lan before without any regard for the consequences?
"So, Old Wu, you left your poison mark on him and deliberately let them go. Does that mean Xiao Lin still has some other card up his sleeve?"
Old Wu was silent for a moment before answering—
"Barely a month after he escaped, our mole in King Chen's manor sent word. They had intercepted a frantic court official. Under interrogation, we learned that he was carrying... a single drop of the Emperor's blood."
Pei Su understood.
That was, without a doubt, conclusive evidence.
"Unfortunately, the man's will was unnaturally strong. Even when we threatened him with his wife and daughter, he refused to betray Xiao Lin's whereabouts. As he died, he was still shouting about the common people, the state, and the citizens of the world..."
Pei Su was astonished. "Even his wife and daughter couldn't sway him?"
Old Wu gave a cold, mocking laugh.
"Young Master, there are fools in this world who value the so-called righteous path and grand justice more than their own flesh and blood. They are nothing but frogs in a well, fish in a shallow pond. How could they possibly know that our Pei Family's regicide was not also for the sake of the common people?"
Pei Su said nothing.
In this world of millions, everyone walks their own path.
At this point, Old Wu didn't need to say more; everything was clear.
Even if a thousand times more people spread rumors of the Emperor's death, it would not cause any significant waves. It would always be baseless hearsay, and anyone spreading it could be executed for insulting the monarch at any time...
But conclusive evidence was a different matter.
In recent years, the other five of the Imperial Capital's six great sects have grown increasingly dissatisfied with our family's dominance. The Crown Prince's faction in the court grows stronger by the day, and resentment for the Empress is mounting. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
Now is not the time for an open confrontation. If one of our rivals were to obtain that evidence, it would be a problem...
When the Emperor was in power, although the Pei Sect was the head of the great sects, we were not yet all-powerful and still had to show His Majesty deference.
But since the Empress took power, the Pei Sect has grown ever stronger, to the point where we now stand supreme in the Great Jin. How could those other terrifyingly ancient families, who were once only a step behind us, be content to remain in our shadow?
If they were to get their hands on evidence that the Pei Sect assassinated the Emperor, it would surely shatter the current delicate balance and trigger the most brutal conflict this world has ever seen.
Xiao Lin once had a drop of the Emperor's blood. Who's to say he doesn't have a second?
Now, after Old Wu allowed him to escape, Xiao Lin has fled Lin'an County and gone into hiding again, thinking he has escaped our clutches.
But he is riddled with poison and does not have long to live. When he is on the verge of death, if he still possesses that drop of imperial blood that could sway the fate of the world, will he... tell his adopted son?
******
Amidst a desolate village and overgrown weeds, a young man walked with a blade on his back.
His expression was cold, his long hair dancing in the wind. The ancient blade was mostly covered by black cloth, but the exposed portion still radiated a soul-shaking sharpness.
In the wake of great shock, sorrow, and a life-or-death crisis, Zhao Lan felt his state of mind break through its cocoon, ascending to a new realm.
Before today, he was just a minor guard in the governor's mansion, just another admirer trailing after the Liu Clan's daughter.
He had never imagined that one day he would hold the Divine Blade Dragon Sparrow in his hands, carry the fate of the Common People and the State on his shoulders, and hold the entire world in his heart.
It was as if he had been reborn. From this moment on, he would no longer live for himself, but for the countless people of the world.
And in his heart, he held the greatest secret in all the world!
Hah!
Zhao Lan took a deep breath. He felt that in his twenty years of cultivation, his mind had never been so clear.
To think that before, he had devoted his heart and soul to that Liu Zhi, bickering jealously with the Heir of the Northern Marquis, played like a fiddle... He had been no different from a clown. How utterly laughable.
But where should he go next?
Zhao Lan glanced at his waist, where an unremarkable black and white token hung. He stared at it for a long moment before raising his head again.
The Imperial Court was the Pei Clan's domain. The entire Great Jin was rotten to the core. His foster father was still a wanted criminal of the court, meaning no county or prefecture city would be safe for him.
Zhao Lan's gaze swept over the distant mountains and rivers.
There was still the Martial World. A world the Imperial Court had little influence over. He would...
Step into the Martial World with his blade!
Zhao Lan shot forward. In his wake, a silver thread, fine as a spider's silk, appeared on the fallen leaves. The next moment, they burst apart, the force of the slash echoing through the forest. It was—
The fourth level of the Eight Desolation Blade Scripture.
One Line Sky