The atmosphere in the great hall was exceptionally oppressive. Lin Beichen and the crowd stared fixedly at Lin Haoran, who was glaring right back at Lin Huang. Lin Huang, however, spoke with absolute composure.
"I’ve been in a standoff with the Seven Evils Gu Insect for two years, and I’m still not allowed to step into the Human Element Realm? What kind of logic is that!"
In that instant, Lin Huang’s aura surged. A presence that was not overpowering, yet incredibly distinct, spread through the hall as a faint Martial Pattern emerged on his forehead.
The Human Element Realm!
Lin Haoran stared at the Martial Pattern on Lin Huang’s forehead. The smile froze on his face as he spaced out for a split second. At that exact moment, Lin Huang tilted his neck back, widening the distance from the blade in Lin Haoran’s hand.
Lin Haoran’s expression changed drastically. He was about to slash out and kill Lin Huang when he suddenly realized he had lost control of his arm. It was falling toward the ground.
"ARGH!"
Accompanied by a spray of blood, Lin Haoran let out a miserable, blood-curdling scream. His entire arm had already been severed.
A ghostly figure quietly appeared in the hall, clad in a skin-tight pitch-black outfit and wielding two short daggers. A cold and stern face was hidden beneath a dark mask, exuding an indescribable aura of ruthless malice.
Everyone’s heart skipped a beat as they stared at this sudden intruder.
"Many thanks, Mr. Yee Sha!" Lin Huang smiled and cupped his fists in salute. As Lin Beichen’s biological grandson, he naturally knew there was a certain person who always stayed by his grandfather’s side.
He was the top assassin in the Great Xia Dynasty. He was the head of the Divine General’s Mansion’s Dark Department, Yee Sha!
Yee Sha looked at Lin Huang and nodded silently.
"Since Mr. Yee Sha has appeared, please do Xiaohuang one more favor," Lin Huang said with a smile. "I know Mr. Yee Sha has an interrogation method that can inflict three thousand seven hundred cuts on a person without killing them!"
Yee Sha remained expressionless. After sweeping his gaze over the crowd in the hall, he hauled Lin Haoran up by the collar. Wielding his two pitch-black daggers, he sliced into the man’s flesh, one cut at a time.
Blood splattered across the great hall, accompanied by endless shrieks of agony and pleas for mercy.
"I gave you a chance just now to die with dignity, but you refused. My hands are tied," Lin Huang said, shaking his head. However, his eyes were ruthless and cold.
Ten years of being hunted by Liu Cangsheng had taught him a profound truth: mercy to the enemy was cruelty to oneself. There were some people who simply would not repent unless their faces were sprayed with blood.
Watching the gruesome scene unfold in the hall, the crowd was filled with horror. The female dependents had long since fled the area.
"Do you have anything else you want to say to me?" Lin Huang asked.
In just a short moment, Lin Haoran was covered entirely in blood. His gaze had become numb and hollow.
"I’m merely dying one year earlier than you! Don’t forget your three-year pact with the Crown Prince. My fate today will be your cause of death a year from now! Hahaha... His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will definitely avenge me!"
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Lin Haoran laughed maniacally. There was no longer a single piece of intact flesh on his face.
"You don’t need to worry about that!" Lin Huang waved his hand, signaling Yee Sha to drag Lin Haoran out of the hall.
Before long, the blood-stained hall was thoroughly cleaned, and a luxurious new carpet was laid down. Had it not been for the lingering stench of blood in the air, the crowd would hardly believe the scene they had just witnessed.
"Generals, you haven’t eaten much yet. Would you like to have a little more?" Lin Huang asked with a smile.
Lu Hexi snorted coldly, his face full of disdain. "When I was marching in battle back in the day, I even ate rotting flesh from corpses. This little parlor trick of yours isn’t enough to disgust me. Rather, it’s your vicious and ruthless nature that makes you entirely unfit to inherit the Divine General’s Mansion. Even without Lin Haoran, you are still unworthy!"
Lin Huang clapped his hands and laughed. "Whether I am worthy or not is not for you to decide! However, Elder General Lu, you are sixty-three years old now. Shouldn’t you be considering retiring and returning to the countryside?"
"Retire? What an absolute joke! Throughout history, famous generals have only ever died on the battlefield. Those who retire are nothing but cowards who cling to life and fear death," Lu Hexi mocked. He was confident that Lin Huang’s petty tricks wouldn’t be enough to deal with him.
"If I remember correctly, Elder General Lu has a grandson who once did something—something that warrants his head being chopped off ten times over!
"The Madam of Yingchun Tower once mentioned that there used to be a princess of a defeated country in her establishment. Later, that princess was summoned into the palace and became a concubine. But before she became a concubine, certain things happened. I wonder if an investigation could bring those events to light!
"The Foundry Department forges two hundred thousand weapons every year, of which thirty thousand are designated as scrap. I wonder if anyone can trace the whereabouts of those thirty thousand top-quality scrap blades...
"If you don’t want anyone to know, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place."
In the great hall, Lin Huang made these seemingly unrelated remarks.
With every sentence he uttered, Lu Hexi’s expression darkened a fraction more. The old man’s face turned from pale to purple, shifting from initial rage to a trace of apprehension, and eventually to deep fear hidden just beneath the surface.
"Elder General Lu, some mistakes don’t just result in the execution of one’s entire extended family; they also bring down curses for ten thousand generations to come. Wouldn’t you agree?" Lin Huang smiled faintly.
In his past life, after Lin Haoran became the Mansion Master of the Divine General’s Mansion, the very first person he made an example of was the man standing before him, Lu Hexi.
His grandson had defiled a princess of the current dynasty and found a scapegoat to take the blame. The sentence: Secret execution!
Lu Hexi had laid his hands on Lady Yun. The sentence: Secret execution!
The Northern Garrison General’s Mansion had secretly sold weapons to the Great Chu Dynasty, committing treason by colluding with the enemy. The sentence for everyone involved: execution of their entire extended families via Instant Decisive Cut!
In the great hall, Lu Hexi’s body swayed as an icy chill pierced his heart. He had no idea how Lin Huang knew these things, but every single word was absolutely true. As long as someone bothered to investigate, the Northern Garrison General’s Mansion would not escape the fate of total annihilation.
"Mansion Master, Hexi is retiring!"
After a long time, Lu Hexi raised his head, his face filled with sorrowful resignation. He had already forgotten when it began—when he started walking step by step into the endless abyss, never to turn back.
Lin Beichen gave a nonchalant hum, watching helplessly as Lu Hexi surrendered his military power and retired from service.
He had also been quite shocked by every word Lin Huang just said. This general, who had once charged into enemy lines and slaughtered his way out seven times over, was no longer the Great Vanguard he used to be.
"To all the generals present, if you have a guilty conscience, I advise you to retire now," Lin Huang said. "Leave a little bit of your past bonds with the Divine General’s Mansion so we can still face each other in the future. I am only giving you the time it takes an incense stick to burn to relinquish your armor. After that time has passed, if there are still any stubborn fools left, don’t blame me, Lin Huang, for being ruthless!
"By the way, I know you are all experts of the Earth Element Realm, but don’t even try to mount a joint rebellion. Let alone the eight thousand troops of the Profound Armor Army guarding the outside of the Divine General’s Mansion under Zhao Changfeng’s command, even my grandfather and Mr. Yee Sha are not people you can contend with!"
Turning his wheelchair, Lin Huang looked at the crowd and spoke with a smile on his face.
Not long after Lin Huang finished speaking, a general let out a long sigh, handed over his Military Token, and retired.
One...
Two...
More and more stepped forward!
An incense stick’s time later, less than half of the Military Generals remained in the great hall. Lin Huang narrowed his eyes and pointed at two Military Generals who still harbored delusions of luck before nodding in satisfaction.
Having witnessed the fall of the Divine General’s Mansion in his past life, he knew exactly who was loyal and who was treacherous. The only reason he let off those generals who voluntarily retired was so that Lin Beichen wouldn’t feel too much sorrow in his heart.
"Well then, thirteen men retiring in a single day. Half of the Divine General’s Mansion’s foundation is gone just like that." Lin Huang laughed self-deprecatingly, his expression carrying a hint of helplessness. "But please rest assured, Generals. Without that scum, the Divine General’s Mansion will be at its absolute strongest in ten years, starting from today!"
The generals present remained entirely silent. Even though they felt uplifted, they couldn’t bring themselves to be happy.
They hated factions pursuing selfish interests, and they hated being entangled in webs of profit. But the men who had just retired were their comrades-in-arms; brothers they had once gone through life and death with.
The only thing worth rejoicing over was that those men hadn’t been slaughtered to the last, and that the Divine General’s Mansion was about to usher in a new life.
The Divine General’s Mansion that was once glorious and awe-inspiring, whose might shook the world, would finally return!
Following that, Lin Huang turned his head and swept his gaze across the crowd in the hall again. His expression was calm, yet it made the atmosphere even more oppressive and solemn. Even the high-ranking dignitaries couldn’t help but slow their breathing.
"Anyone who offends my Divine General’s Mansion will share Lin Haoran’s fate. If you have forgotten what it means to put a city to the sword or to trample a nation into dust, as the heir of the Divine General’s Mansion, I wouldn’t mind letting you see it with your own eyes once more!"
The expressions of everyone present changed. No one dared to respond, nor would anyone try to. They knew these words were not just meant for them, but more importantly, for Crown Prince Lingyun.
"This Lin Huang is absolutely insane! How dare he threaten the Crown Prince!"
"With such arrogance, he’ll forfeit his own life sooner or later."
"It seems he has already forgotten about his life-or-death battle with Crown Prince Lingyun in a year’s time. Otherwise, he’d never dare be this impudent, lest he die an even more miserable death!"
Thinking of the dynasty’s Crown Prince, the dignitaries, who had been suppressing their emotions, finally smiled inwardly. Lin Huang could rely on the Divine General’s Mansion to punish Lin Haoran and force out a group of generals, but against Crown Prince Lingyun, he still didn’t have enough weight.
Moreover, in the life-or-death battle a year from now, his death was absolutely certain.
Lingyun, the Crown Prince of the Great Xia Dynasty, was a youthful genius at the Human Element Ninth Heaven.
Later that evening.
After causing a massive uproar at his coming-of-age ceremony, Lin Huang returned to his room and focused his attention entirely on himself.
Now, the Gu Insect in his body had been eradicated. Resisting it for two years had allowed him to step into the Human Element Realm, but compared to others, he was still lagging far behind.
Lin Haoran, who was the same age as him, was at the Human Element Seventh Heaven, while Crown Prince Lingyun was at the Human Element Ninth Heaven.
A year from now, he would have a life-or-death battle with Crown Prince Lingyun, yet currently, he didn’t even possess a Martial Soul.
In the past, Lin Huang had a hedonistic and lawless temperament. Because he secretly slipped a laxative to Crown Prince Lingyun, causing the latter to make a huge fool of himself in the royal court, Lin Huang was subsequently taught a lesson by a Martial Artist in the Earth Element Realm.
That time, Lin Huang was almost beaten to death.
Following that, his older sister Lin Cangxue rushed back from Piaoxue Palace. Armed with just a single sword, she stormed the Eastern Palace alone and hacked that Earth Element Realm Martial Artist into eight pieces.
However, when Lin Cangxue walked out of the Eastern Palace, the Martial Soul in her Profound Sea had been shattered. Overnight, her cultivation realm plummeted to the Earth Element Second Heaven, and from then on, she never took a single step out of Piaoxue Palace.
Ever since then, Lin Huang had never seen Lin Cangxue again.
The day after Lin Cangxue’s Martial Soul was shattered, Lin Huang slipped a challenge letter into Lin Beichen’s imperial memorial. In front of all the civil and military officials in the royal court, he established a three-year pact with Crown Prince Lingyun.
A battle of life and death!
From that moment on, Lin Huang, the prodigal son, turned over a new leaf. He cultivated Martial Arts day and night. He could tolerate others bullying him for his incompetence or mocking him for being a pampered second-generation heir.
But if anyone dared to utter half a bad word about Lin Cangxue, he would absolutely fight them to the bitter end!
At the time, this incident caused a sensation throughout the Imperial City. Perhaps the laxative was the catalyst for the entire event, but anyone with discerning eyes knew that even without the laxative, there would have been poison, or a sleeping draught...
From the very beginning, the Royal Family’s goal had been to cripple Lin Huang and Lin Cangxue, ensuring that the Divine General’s Mansion would have no successors!
"Cangxue..."
Lin Huang gazed at the bright moon overhead, an inexplicable bitterness swelling in his heart. In his past life, there were two most important women in his life. One was Jun Qingcheng, who had pined for him for ten long years.
The other was Lin Cangxue, who had spent her entire life protecting him.
"Cangxue, even if I only have one year left, and even if I end up losing, I swear I will avenge you!"
Lin Huang looked in the direction of Piaoxue Palace, his expression filled with melancholy. For a once high-spirited genius, what kind of mockery and ridicule must she have endured since her Martial Soul was shattered?
How could a woman bear such vicious verbal abuse?
"Let everything start anew!"
Gazing at the bright moon beneath the heavens, Lin Huang’s expression turned resolute. Despite all the hardships in his past life, he still managed to become "Bei Linhuang," a name as renowned as Liu Cangsheng. In this life, he would definitely not yield.
Even if the path is treacherous and fraught with thorns, it just means starting over from scratch!
At this moment, Lin Huang’s Mental Realm underwent a quiet transformation, and a towering, heroic spirit surged within him. He was going to change the fate of the Divine General’s Mansion and rewrite his own destiny. He would seek out Jun Qingcheng and protect Lin Cangxue.
He needed to become strong—incomparably strong!
Right at this moment, Lin Huang’s Profound Sea suddenly quivered. Like a raging ocean churning, a profound and mysterious aura slowly emerged amidst the furious waves, steadily growing stronger...
"Hmm? A Martial Soul entering my body?"