Chapter 82: The End

After waiting for a long while outside the main gate of Mount Tai Sect, and hearing that the thunderous blasts in the distance had finally ceased, Wang Hai and the others exchanged uneasy looks.

After a moment, Zhou Yingxue asked, “Is... it over?”

Deng Baixuan shook his head. “Let us wait a little longer. If we rush over now, we will only be adding trouble for the Thousand-Household Commander.”

By then, the three sect masters had already settled their minds. Like Liu Baiyun, they had consciously placed themselves in the role of subordinates to Li Miao.

They were genuinely convinced.

To be honest, if Li Miao had simply used his identity as a member of the Imperial Brocade Guard to pressure them, they would still have found it hard to resist, but that would not have been true submission; at most, they would have yielded only to the circumstances and secretly disobeyed him later.

Cheng Yuanzhen was also an extraordinary master, yet the three sect masters had still dared to draw their swords at him.

But Li Miao’s martial skill had truly crushed them into obedience.

In the jianghu, most people carried a little of the thought: So what if you have power or money? Can you really take my sword? Even the masters of the three great sects were no exception.

But martial strength alone was something they respected.

Today, even by merely hearing the thunderous sounds from afar, the three sect masters could imagine how terrifying the battle must have been, a battle they did not even dare to look upon.

After another while, Wang Hai said, “Let’s go. The Thousand-Household Commander should have already killed that Plum Bandit.”

The rest exchanged glances and could only trust Wang Hai’s judgment.

The group slowly made their way toward the main hall of Mount Tai Sect, though aside from Wang Hai and Little Four, who both looked relaxed, the others were all secretly gripping their sword hilts, with true energy stirring quietly within them, ready to unleash their lightness skills and flee at any moment.

As they walked, Little Four suddenly clutched her chest and slowly crouched down.

“Brother Hai... it’s the Thousand-Household Commander...”

“The gu poison in me can only be forced into temporary suppression. Right now I’m extremely sensitive to outside influence. I can’t go any farther...”

Wang Hai nodded, then turned to the others and said, “I’ll stay here and look after Little Four. I won’t go any farther. You go find the Thousand-Household Commander.”

The others nodded and agreed, continuing onward.

As they drew closer and closer, they began to understand why Little Four had stopped.

They too began to feel it.

The true energy within their bodies seemed to be pulled by some mysterious force, and the pull grew stronger and stronger, as though it were about to be torn bodily from them.

Although daylight had already fully broken, the farther forward they went, the darker everything seemed to become.

Their usually nimble hands and feet also began to tremble of their own accord.

The sword hilts in their hands vibrated faintly.

The first to stop were the disciples of the three sects who had followed them.

“Sect Master... I can’t go on...”

A middle-aged man in his forties spoke, fine beads of sweat breaking out across his face.

The true energy in his body had already been forcibly dragged out of its regular circulation by that strange force and was now running wild through him.

If he went any farther, he feared his energy would go awry and he would descend into madness.

The three sect masters glanced at one another.

Zhang Jingfeng said, “I will go forward with the two sect masters. The rest of you stay here.”

With that, the three of them slowly continued ahead.

At last, they reached the entrance to the square outside the main hall of Mount Tai Sect.

By then, Deng Baixuan, the weakest of the three, was already breathing in disorder, gasping for air.

In truth, he had not wanted to move forward for some time, but since neither Zhang Jingfeng nor Zhou Yingxue had stopped, he could only force himself onward so as not to shame his sect.

The three stepped onto the square.

With that single step, wind and clouds changed.

The three of them felt their vision plunge into darkness, as if they had been transported to an endless black beach.

Before them lay a vast black ocean, and above its surface a storm was slowly gathering and turning.

Among the three, Zhou Yingxue had the steadiest mind. She decisively bit through the tip of her tongue. The sharp pain jolted her free of the illusion.

Then she thrust the flat of her sword into the other two, rousing them as well.

“What... what was that just now?” Deng Baixuan panted.

“Look,” Zhang Jingfeng said softly.

Ahead of them lay a field of ruins.

At the front of the ruins, on the ground, rested a head, half flesh and half skull.

Beside that skull sat Li Miao, leaning slightly in a chair, his eyes closed.

At the moment, one hand rested on the armrest, while the other supported his face, as though he were merely asleep.

Yet the three sect masters could feel it: the true energy within them, still being tugged relentlessly, was surging toward Li Miao’s direction, and with their level of martial arts, they could hardly control it at all.

“If one isn’t first-rate... one doesn’t even deserve to come and take a look...” Zhou Yingxue said hoarsely.

The three remained silent. Deng Baixuan simply sat down on the ground and devoted himself to controlling his true energy.

And on Li Miao’s side, he was in the midst of a fragmented dream.

Blades and guns.

Official robes and towering buildings.

Winding fields on the earth, and in the sky sheets of steel streaking past with a deafening roar.

Then he woke calmly.

Li Miao flexed his fist and felt the true energy within his body.

He had originally thought this assignment was nothing more than a trivial matter, so he had taken it slowly all the way, never giving it much thought.

What it had become now was, aside from the task he had handled fifteen years ago, the greatest undertaking of his life. It was also, fifteen years ago, the moment he broke through to first-rate and stepped into the peerless realm.

He had saved a city of common people, crippled half of the Demon Sect, and killed Yuan Zelin, a man who had unified the three branches into one.

As for Cheng Yuanzhen, he had fled on his own, and the Great Shuo court’s Eastern Depot might even cease to exist because of it.

The “reward” that followed was equally immense.

Li Miao could feel that he was already able to perfect any one of his peerless arts at will, without any sign of the Five Signs of Celestial Decline appearing.

His golden finger was simple enough.

Each day, he had four shichen during which he could do things. He could choose any time he liked, or choose nothing at all; if he did not choose, his golden finger would not appear.

The running around he had done tonight had already far exceeded four shichen. It was a loophole he had discovered through trial and error: he could choose the last four shichen of one day and the first four shichen of the next, stitching the two days together.

After four shichen, he would begin to dream.

When he woke, he would receive his reward—the greater the assignment, the more he would gain.

And this assignment was judged neither by good nor evil, only by the scale of its impact.

If he were to go and kill the emperor right now, perhaps he could directly become a true martial legend.

Of course, that was the sort of thing only a madman would do.

Besides, he might not even succeed.

Reality was not a storybook. Great Shuo was a world that truly existed, flesh and blood and all. Martial arts had long seeped into every corner of this age, and must surely have changed certain things.

Zhenren Sanfeng attained enlightenment in the early Yuan era. Why had he not killed the emperor of the Yuan dynasty?

Did he not wish to... or could he not?

Li Miao had considered these things countless times. There was no need to dwell on them now.

He had already reached the state where perception and divinity were one, and with time, he could slowly climb to the summit of the world. One day, he would truly transcend.

Li Miao stood up, and the oppressive atmosphere vanished with him.

He smiled and greeted the three sect masters. “Gentlemen, are you ready to serve the Imperial Brocade Guard?”

He no longer said “the court,” but rather “the Imperial Brocade Guard.”