Chapter 30: 22nd Stroke

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

Forbidden City, Great Council Hall.

Lin Tianyuan looked relaxed upon his return, there was even a smile on his face.

With Uncle taking action, his stress instantly vanished.

He—who had lived with Lin Jiufeng for ten years—knew exactly how scary Lin Jiufeng was better than anyone else.

In the Great Council Hall, the court officials were arguing without end.

They were discussing how exactly to cope with the plunder at Xianbei.

Some voted for war, some voted for peace.

They were divided in opinion, no one could convince the others to agree on the other’s opinion.

A group of old men, scholars at that, were hot in dispute, all that was left in their arguments at this moment were throwing punches at one another.

But the important key here was that each of them had their own reasoning for their decision.

As it was winter, the borders were all the more terrifyingly cold.

If they really went to war, the losses might regress the Yuhua God Dynasty’s development so far by 10 years.

This was the reason why Lin Tianyuan was previously anxious to the point that he even considered acquiring strength by cultivating that demonic cultivation technique.

After all, what if he succeeded in cultivating that demonic cultivation technique without repercussions?

But now, he was calmly walking into the Great Council Hall.

The court officials all looked toward Lin Tianyuan.

“Your Majesty, how exactly should we handle the Xianbei army? We ask Your Majesty to come to a decision,” the Cabinet Chief asked in a low voice.

Whether they chose to go to war or to make peace, no outcome would come out of arguing.

They had to come to a decision as early as possible.

“There is no need to worry anymore, ministers. There is no need to worry about Xianbei. I have already hired an expert to go kill that Tumen Martial Sage, Xianbei will immediately be fragmented upon his death. They will be unable to come and plunder our lands.”

Lin Tianyuan announced in a great mood.

The court officials looked at Lin Tianyuan in surprise.

“Your Majesty—is the expert you hired—the same mysterious expert who has been living in seclusion in the imperial capital?” The Cabinet Chief asked, agitated.

The others looked expectantly at Lin Tianyuan.

“Yes!” Lin Tianyuan immediately nodded.

“Everyone. Please wait at ease for the news of that Martial Sage Tumen’s death!”

Lin Tianyuan was very confident.

With that, the court officials stopped arguing.

All of them became akin to biological brothers as they started smiling at the same time.

Without Martial Sage Tumen, Xianbei was no cause for worry.

…

Lin Jiufeng walked out and closed the gates of the Cold Palace.

In front of the Cold Palace’s gates, fallen dead leaves covered the ground.

Once the cold wind blew, they danced with the breeze.

Lin Jiufeng would be rushing to the Northwest Plains.

He did not bring anything with him.

One man, one sword!

The sword with him was still the Demon Slaying Sword.

It was a set with the bone swords.

They were effective against a crowd of enemies, but when fighting a single target…

The Demon Slaying Sword was still the best.

Meow!

The white cat called out from the top of the courtyard walls.

It was unwilling to let Lin Jiufeng leave.

Not because it missed Lin Jiufeng but because it wanted Lin Jiufeng’s help to find more information.

After all, the white cat had been in the underground palace for hundreds of years. As a result, it was extremely unfamiliar with the outside world.

But Lin Jiufeng merely glanced at the white cat.

Then, he waved his hand and charged into the sky.

Meow!

The white cat let out a resigned cry.

It used its claws to scratch out some crooked words.

“Second day of hating him!”

…

The Northwest Plains was very far from the Yuhua God Dynasty’s imperial capital.

Considering that it was the dead of winter, the winds whistled so cold that it seemed to be able to penetrate through one’s bones.

Sweeping his gaze around him, the panoramic view looked so white and picturesque that one couldn’t bear to destroy it.

With True Qi wrapping his entire body, Lin Jiufeng became akin to an arrow that left its bow as he shot into the direction of the Northwest Plains.

Wild winds howled, his True Qi engulfed his entire body as he moved at lightning speeds.

Lin Jiufeng never managed to make a breakthrough into the next step of the Martial Sage Realm after these five years.

However, the True Qi that he had accumulated in liquid form was terrifying.

Despite moving so fast through the air and wantonly expending his True Qi like this, Lin Jiufeng’s heart didn’t feel a sting at all.

One day!

One whole day!

It took Lin Jiufeng one whole day before he arrived at the Northwest Plains’ borders.

This proved that the territory of the Yuhua God Dynasty truly was too vast. Lin Jiufeng finally understood why the court officials had to argue so fervently with each other in regards to the decision of going into war or making peace.

It was all because this place was just too far from the imperial capital.

Moreover, the temperatures here were much lower than that of other places in the Yuhua God Dynasty. As a result, the troops wouldn’t be accustomed to the climate.

The Xianbei residents were used to it, so war was scary.

So the best solution to everything was to behead that man.

When Lin Jiufeng arrived, he directly approached and asked a few Xianbei residents as to where the famous throughout the plans—Martial Sage Tumen—was at.

“Martial Sage Tumen. He’s currently in the middle of a sacrificial ritual on the Celestial Mountains. The army is gathered at the foot of that same mountain,” said the Xianbei residents.

This was a matter known to all on the plains.

“Where are the Celestial Mountains?” Lin Jiufeng asked.

The Xianbei people pointed the way, not daring to withhold any information from him.

Lin Jiufeng spared their lives as he rushed toward the Celestial Mountains.

The Celestial Mountains weren’t far and it was very conspicuous.

After all, it was a mountain whose peak had broken through the skies. Furthermore, it had tens of imposing mountains surrounding it, as if there were more than a dozen dragons encircling and protecting an extremely terrifying divine being.

Tumen’s army could be seen at the foot of the Celestial Mountains.

All sorts of tents stretched on for hundreds of miles.

In fact, their numbers were still increasing as time passed by.

Lin Jiufeng’s eyes went cold upon seeing this sight.

This Martial Sage Tumen really was planning on sweeping through the Yuhua God Dynasty’s borders.

He truly was planning on plundering the land—millions of miles beyond the borders and causing a situation that would incur widespread indignation and dissatisfaction.

“Given how strong you already are, wouldn’t it be better if you had continued your pursuit of the martial path’s peak? Why bully the small and weak?” Lin Jiufeng’s heart became filled with killing intent.

He charged into the sky and entered from a different side of the mountain.

No one discovered him.

He landed on the Celestial Mountains.

In the middle of the mountain was a milky white celestial lake.

The celestial lake was constantly changing.

One moment, there were swells made from underwater geysers stacking upon each other. But in the very next moment, the entire lake would become serene and silent. Its surface even gleamed resplendently as if it was a mirror in the sky.

A burly man knelt at the edge of the celestial lake.

Draped in hide, his hair was thick, similar to a lion, his disposition seemed ferocious and tough.

He was none other than Martial Sage Tumen.

Right now, he was in the middle of a sacrificial ritual.

There were all kinds of patterns drawn on the ground as he constantly chanted under his breath.

Lin Jiufeng stood ten miles away as he unsheathed the Demon Slaying Sword.

Ultimate Heaven Slashing Sword Skill!

Directly cutting to the chase, Lin Jiufeng was here to kill.

Since he had confirmed the man’s identity, he would kill him directly.

With his eyes blazing and True Qi surging, his Martial Will emerged behind him.

An extremely frightening longsword, a hundred feet long stood in the sky.

Then, it slashed together with the Demon Slaying Sword.

Clang!

A streak of sword energy split the wind and snow.

It swept through the celestial lake and a tornado abruptly formed.

This strike of his was extremely powerful.

It flashed across ten miles, killing everything in its path.

However, Tumen who was in the middle of the sacrificial ritual suddenly opened his eyes.

The wilderness inside him exploded as he opened his mouth and let out a raging roar.

Roar!

This was the sound of a wild beast, but it didn’t belong to a single beast.

It was the roar of hundreds of wild beasts.

After this deafening sound reverberated, the phantoms of hundreds of savage wild beasts appeared behind Martial Sage Tumen.

Wild bear, white tiger, lion, silver wolf, giant spider, raging bull, python…

All of these were the souls that Martial Sage Tumen was worshiping.

He offered sacrifices to them and in return, he gained strength.

Using such a method, he was able to quickly rise up in strength and was able to ultimately unite Xianbei.

The sword energy that Lin Jiufeng had sent, trembled at this angry roar.

But it did not break in the face of the roar.

The sword energy continued to move forward.

“What a powerful swordsman!”

“But coming to assassinate me here is your greatest mistake…”

“I am the king of all animals on the plains!”

Martial Sage Tumen became as nimble as an ape as he leaped up and reached out to strike in the air.

Boom!

He broke Lin Jiufeng’s sword energy and the violent windstorm swept everything above the Celestial Mountains, forming a tempest.

The scene was very frightening.

Wild winds whistled forlornly.

Icy snow blew sharply against one’s face.

The snow mountain released its might in this instant.

This was the strength that belonged to nature.

And it was extremely terrifying.

Martial Sage Tumen howled like a lion. He went down on his four limbs and ran at high speed as he pounced over to Lin Jiufeng to kill him with a bite.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Martial Sage Tumen’s True Qi surged. His might skyrocketed as he went past the Profound Insight Step and directly reached Life Knowing.

A strangle glow flickered in Lin Jiufeng’s eyes.

He took all of that in, but he remained calm as usual.

“The intensity of your True Qi is already at Life Knowing, but your Martial Will is pitifully weak.”

Lin Jiufeng calmly said with the Demon Slaying Sword in hand.

“After absorbing the energies of so many wild beasts, you have also become an ignorant beast like them, unable to even operate your own Martial Will. You’ve nurtured strength as vast as the universe, but you’ve ultimately remained as a mere passerby in this world.”

As he spoke, Lin Jiufeng slashed out with a shocking stroke.

The last move of Sword Twenty-Two.

The 22nd stroke that was both divine and demonic.

This move was also called ‘Holy Spirit Sword Technique’!