Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 416 - 338: Li Zhetian’s Void Blade_1

Chapter 416: Chapter 338: Li Zhetian’s Void Blade_1

When Li Xuan left the Guozi Bureau, Emperor Jingtai was in the Taihe Palace, receiving a report from Wei Bailong of the Xiuyiwei.

"So the anomaly that appeared in the sky above Guozi Bureau was indeed the result of Minister Li Xuan’s work?"

The Emperor murmured with eyes as bright as torches, "Purple Air comes from the east, the heart shines like the sun. The spirit of Heaven and Earth shakes, the light of the sun and moon is obscured—"

An hour ago, an omen occurred at the northwest corner of Beijing. Emperor Jingtai was aware of it at the time. However, because he was healing from his injuries, he couldn’t personally investigate the situation.

"In the past, when Lu Zijing and Master Yu achieved enlightenment, it was just such a commotion. But all Master Li does is consolidate his literary spirit, and already the light of the sun and moon is obscured."

Wei Bailong detailed the entire situation to the Emperor, "I predict this matter will cause quite a stir in the scholarly circles of Beijing. Many people are curious about the fundamental text Li Xuan had at his disposal, and what it contained."

"Understandably so, throughout history, those who can cause such a commotion while establishing their literary spirit, providing they do not die prematurely, invariably end up being revered masters of Confucianism. I also hold high expectations, perhaps after Shaobao Yu, Minister Li Xuan will become the pillar that supports our Jin Dynasty."

Emperor Jingtai nodded slightly, "And what about Kong Xiude? How did he end up?"

"His literary spirit was nearly shattered by Master Li, and was rescued in the end by someone from the Jinque Palace."

Wei Bailong thought for a moment before explaining, "During the altercation, Kong Xiude brought out the seal of ’The Great Sage King Wenxuan’ and accused Master Li of being a pseudo-confucianist. Master Li retorted by criticizing Kong Xiude for disloyalty and lack of filial piety, harboring nostalgia for the previous dynasty. He declared himself a direct disciple of Zhongliegong, a true Confucianist."

"The seal of "The Great Sage King Wenxuan"?" Emperor Jingtai squinted, emitting a cold snort, "Since Minister Li is approved by Duke Wen Zhonglie, if he is considered a heretic, then there aren’t any true Confucians in this world."

Wei Bailong was not surprised, compared to the Kong family from Qufu who lacks integrity, the Jin Emperor naturally has more affection for Duke Wen Zhonglie, who bent over backward for Zhao, and ended up with a loyal heart, loyally serving till death.

Even after the Jin Dynasty’s Northern Expedition and the expulsion of the Mongols, the Kong family from Qufu still maintained relations with the Mongol Emperor, naturally not favored by the Jin Royal family.

The reason for acknowledging the canonization of Duke Yansheng from the previous dynasty is purely for the sake of keeping in the good graces of the saint, not because it is desirable.

"Then what about Jinque Palace?" Emperor Jingtai questioned again, skepticism in his pupils, "They are also part of the righteous path, why would they target Minister Li out of the blue?"

"I must beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I am unable to fathom the reason." Wei Bailong slightly bowed, "Please give me more time, the Xiuyiwei will investigate everything to uncover the truth."

※※ ※※

At the same time, outside Beijing, in a manor belonging to the Kong family, a girl dressed in golden armor, with a serious expression, walked out of a warm house.

At this time, a young man with a sword was standing on the stairs with his hands behind his back.

When the curtain was lifted, he turned his head to look at his junior sister apprentice.

"How is he doing now?"

"It’s terrible, his literary spirit was nearly destroyed." The golden-armored girl responded with a bitter smile, "He had relied on a secret technique to purify his vast moral integrity to the state of being a loyal-hearted person. Now that the secret technique has backfired, the situation has become much worse. Judging from the current situation, even if he eventually recovers, his vast moral integrity will likely only be one-tenth of what it was."

The young swordsman couldn’t help but frown, "Without his literary spirit, he won’t be able to hold the position of Duke Yansheng, nor handle ’The Great Sage King Wenxuan’s Seal’".

"That’s the tricky part." The golden-armored girl rubbed her brows, feeling somewhat of a headache, "After this incident, Li Xuan’s reputation in Confucianism will only rise. We cannot allow him to go unchecked within Confucianism."

"Then we should find someone else to take on the role of Duke Yansheng." The young swordsman folded his arms across his chest, "Kong Xiude had his vast moral integrity crushed by Li Xuan in public and was accused of being a heretic, disloyal and not filial, his reputation is bound to decline immensely, making it hard for him to compete with Li Xuan."

"The problem is that the Kong family from Qufu doesn’t have a suitable candidate for the position, or rather, there are too many suitable candidates. Kong Xiude fathered a child in his middle age. The eldest is currently only fourteen years old, too young to assume the position of Duke Yansheng."

The golden-armored girl shook her head, "Once Kong Xiude steps down, the Kong family from Qufu will definitely fall into internal strife. Where will they find the resources to deal with Li Xuan? It’s all my fault. I underestimated him, which ended up benefiting him."

The young swordsman thought for a moment then sighed, "I’ll return to Heaven Palace as soon as I can to plead with him for a special treasure. However, since his literary spirit has shattered, the only thing to do is to practice the demon way and adopt the techniques of the pseudo-confucianists."

He continued to comfort his junior sister apprentice, "It’s not your fault, sister. Before this, who could have guessed that he held such a bright and colorful mind, enough to move heaven and earth. Right now, the most pressing matter is to think of a good plan to get rid of him as soon as possible. Once he works on strengthening his Golden Body, it will be even more troublesome. I predict the strength of his Golden Body will not be more inferior to that of his literary spirit —"

Just then, the golden-armor girl put a horn-shaped magical artifact in front of the young swordsman.

"What is this?" After the young swordsman took the magical artifact, his face changed slightly. Inside was information from their shared master.

The golden-armored girl let out a bitter smile, "Shaobao Yu has joined forces with Duke Zhongliegong, and collectively, they wrote to the Heaven Palace, asking for our intentions. They want the Jinque Heaven Palace to clarify the situation for both Li Xuan and the Liudao Division.

There has been a lot of discussion in Heaven Palace about this matter. Shaosiming thinks we have acted without authorization and have been reckless in our actions. There has been a proposal to recall us. Our master is trying to delay this. He wants us to put this matter to rest before then."

The young swordsman’s face suddenly became pale. He also sensed the information from the magical artifact using his Divine Consciousness. The urgency in his master’s voice was much more desperate than what the golden-armored girl had described.

"With things as they are now, we have no other choice. I prepare to use that secret technique."

The armored girl removed her mask, revealing a beautifully painted face as beautiful as a city: "At present, we can’t rely on any external force temporarily, we can only take action ourselves. I have thought about it, only this technique can preserve three or four of my mana while temporarily escaping the oath of the Book of Jinque."

"I should be the one to do it." The eyebrows of the sword-controlling young man were already frowning into a ’Sichuan’ character: "I heard that this technique is extremely dangerous, if you are not careful, it will affect the Primordial Spirit."

"No matter how dangerous it is, what’s the difference between you and me? Moreover, you are a sword cultivator, your strength after using the secret technique is far less than mine."

The armored girl shook her head with determination: "The root of this problem is me. It is not my arrogance, you and I were supposed to continue hiding in the dark, and I must shoulder the responsibility."

At this point, she said with a comforting smile: "Don’t worry, my senior brother, this person has not yet grown mature, I will personally take action, and it must be easy. The only hidden danger is the counterattack of the Primordial Spirit during the secret technique period, if my consciousness sinks, I will have to trouble you, my senior brother, to wake me up."

※※ ※※

As it happened, Li Xuan, who had returned to the headquarters of Liudao Division, was also thinking about how to rescue the armored girl who had rescued Kong Xiude.

"Jinque Palace?"

Li Xuan looked seriously at Yue Qianqian: "Does such power exist in this world? Why haven’t I heard of it before?"

"That’s because they have erased all rumors and texts about them."

Yue Qianqian fell into thought and said: "Although they have never appeared in official history, they have existed a long time ago. I have only heard a bit about them, knowing that they have many heavenly levels, and they think they represent the ’Heavenly Dao’, maintaining the order of heaven, earth, and human world.

In ancient times, some people thought they were the heavenly realm, the Heavenly Court. Do you know why the heavenly levels in this world have always been between twenty and forty?"

Li Xuan thought for a while, then shuddered: "Jinque Palace?"

"Exactly." Yue Qianqian nodded her head, her voice solemn: "It is said that when a heavenly-level cultivator reaches a certain realm, a certain age, they must leave this world, otherwise they will face the siege of Jinque Palace. The purpose is to avoid any disaster caused by a confrontation between the heavenly levels.

Not only do they have many sub-heavenly-level beings, but also a true Divine Artifact, called ’Book of Jinque’. Once this tool is used, even the middle-heavenly-level in the legend have no power to resist. Only when Emperor Tai of Jin established the country, the court was full of famous generals who could contend with it. Moreover, when there are heroes in troubled times, those hero-kings could gather military strength to confront Jinque Palace."

At this time, Luo Yan was also stroking his chin, falling into memories: "I seem to have heard of them before, they seem to be an organization similar to the Liudao Division, but they are much stronger, at a minimum they are heavenly-level."

"They are different from the Liudao Division."

Yue Qianqian shook her head: "Jinque Palace believes that it represents ’Heavenly Dao’, so when it comes to maintaining the order of heaven and earth, they do not allow heavenly level powerhouses to massacre on a large scale in the human world, nor to change the terrain of mountains and rivers on a large scale. They also slay demons and kill those demons who have committed heavy killings, so they are regarded as members of the righteous path.

But Jinque Palace’s position leans more towards nature, not the human race, focusing more on maintaining the balance of the whole world, with a taste of ’The world is unkind, and everything is a straw dog.’ As long as it does not threaten ’nature’ and ’Heavenly Dao’, even if there are demons slaughtering millions in the mortal world, they will not care."

Seeing Li Xuan frowning and looking serious, she comforted him again: "That armored woman might not be from Jinque Palace, my guess might not be true. And even if it is Jinque Palace, you don’t need to worry too much.

Although they have a long life, nearly immortal, they are bound by the ’Book of Jinque’ and cannot directly act on beings below the heavenly level. They can only rely on the power of others. Additionally, there seems to be different factions within Jinque Palace, and their understandings of ’Heavenly Dao’ are not the same, there will also be conflicts between them."

Li Xuan was slightly relieved after hearing this, but this matter was still like a stone pressing at the bottom of his heart.

If there is such a heavenly level master watching, anyone would feel uneasy.

He thought that if possible, he still needs to figure out as soon as possible what the identity of this armored girl is and why she is targeting him?

Then Li Xuan put this matter aside and immersed his consciousness deep into his own Primordial Spirit and felt those memories belonging to Li Zhetian.

Not long after forming the ’Wenxin’, Li Xuan found that these memories from Li Zhetian were no longer untouchable.

He planned to take advantage of this idle time to master this technique as soon as possible and add to his own hole cards.

This is the essence of Li Zhetian’s martial arts, condensing his strongest intent and sword move.

This knife demon practiced a very peculiar sword technique, which emphasized the accumulation of invincible momentum, using unparalleled belief to turn everything into nothingness.

What delighted Li Xuan was that Li Zhetian’s faith was frustrated, so this move was greatly reduced in power in Li Zhetian’s hands.

But Li Xuan didn’t have this problem, on the contrary, he had grown to the best state after experiencing many ups and downs.

He thought, if the power of "The Song of Integrity" scroll could be further stimulated by him, and then with the power of the two broken Immortal Artifacts, ’Taotie’ and ’Wuqu Pojun’, he might be able to slash the sword from Li Zhetian, reaching a strength comparable to ’heavenly level’, or even close to the peak period of the Knife Demon ’Li Zhetian’.

And the Knife Demon before the battle of the Guozi Bureau was one of the few heavenly levels in the world that could compete with Shaobao Yu.

Although the consumption of this sword is also great, it is too great, but this will be the foundation of his future stand in this world.