Chapter 661

He gritted his teeth and replied, still unable to shake the fear in his heart. He dreaded that if Ye Qin's hand trembled even slightly, he would be doomed.

Mengge then seized the opportunity and hurriedly said, "You, you can let me go now?"

He dared not provoke Ye Qin further, merely swearing to himself in secret: "Once I regain my senses, I'll make you pay!"

Whoever it is, they will have to pay a heavy price.

He was a prince, a descendant of the Old Tie Clan's khan, born with the blood of battle, possessing the unique vigor of the Golden Family. Yet his killing intent could not escape Ye Qin's notice. Ye Qin couldn't help but smile: "Still want to kill me?"

Excellent!

Then let you have no chance to kill at all.

With a slight curl of his lips, Ye Qin moved his arm slightly and slit Mengge's throat with a knife, intending to give him no chance to survive.

Bang!

Mengge fell to the ground unwillingly. Even in death he never understood why Ye Qin did not spare him, and he ultimately died a miserable death. His eyes stared wide open, dead without peace.

"The fourth tent? It seems to be arranged in order of seniority. I just don't know if Hubilie is inside the tent. But for me, time is short. Mengge's death will surely be discovered sooner or later; I must kill Hubilie before anyone finds out, otherwise my plan will fail."

Ye Qin was well aware that the news of Mengge's death would likely be discovered soon. This was within his expectations. But then his identity would be exposed, and by then he would not be able to kill Hubilie.

He quietly left the tent, seeing no patrolling personnel. He guessed it was because the Jin had been destroyed and the Song had not invaded, so everyone felt safe. He also saw hardly any of Mengge's soldiers, not knowing where they had gone.

Ye Qin quickly found the fourth tent. There were two soldiers guarding the entrance, but that was all; there were no others.

"This situation can only indicate one problem: there is someone inside, and it is very likely to be Hubulie, the grandson of the Old Iron family. Otherwise, there would be no one guarding, and there would be no outsiders. Otherwise, there should be more guards."

He quickly figured out that Hubulie was most likely inside.

"In that case, then we can only blame your bad luck." Ye Qin thought to himself. If he really couldn't find Hubulie, he might just kill a few random people and call it a day. But now he had an opportunity.

Hubulie, death is certain.

"Death!"

Seeing the two guards, Ye Qin's body flickered and he pounced on them like a ghost. In the blink of an eye, he ended their lives. A huge gash was torn across their throats; they tried to shout something, but in the end could only succumb.

In the end, only twitching corpses remained on the ground.

Ye Qin sneaked into the tent and saw a young man reading a book. His intuition told him the man was reading a military text. He took a closer look and, unable to curb his curiosity, asked: "Is he Hubulie, the fourth grandson of Tiemuzhen?"

Mengge was brave but reckless, not a true lord. Only this fourth son of Tuolei possessed great talent and strategy, making him a genuine lord.

Mengge was sleeping, while Hubulie was reading.

This comparison makes it clear.

After confirming that this man was Hubulie, Ye Qin drew the longsword at his waist and went straight for Hubulie. He executed two major sword techniques, and his figure became increasingly eerie. The unprepared Hubulie suddenly lifted his head, his face showing utter terror.

He even smiled and said, "You really came."

Ye Qin: "..."

What on earth is going on?

Thud!

Inside Hubulie's tent, corpses lay scattered in disarray like scattered stones. Hubulie had anticipated that Han people might come to assassinate him, so after the Jin were destroyed, he almost daily arranged for sword-and-axe soldiers to lie in Ambush in the tent as a precaution, and he specially invited several martial arts masters to serve as guards.

However, he underestimated Ye Qin's strength, and even more so the destructive power of an Innate Realm martial artist. The twenty sword-and-axe soldiers lying in Ambush and the five martial artists from the Tibetan border were all slain one by one by Ye Qin. When Hubulie finally came to his senses, he saw corpses strewn everywhere, a scene of utter chaos.

"You..." he stared wide-eyed, looking at Ye Qin in shock, momentarily frozen in place, his heart filled with fear and panic. Although he had once imagined being assassinated by Han assassins and made preparations for it, he never expected this person to be so ferocious, killing with ease, even more ruthless than an executioner.

"Death!" Ye Qin coldly spat out a single word; he would never forgive Hubulie. During the Ambush of the sword-and-axe soldiers, Hubulie should have realized that some people cannot be dealt with by ambush alone, and some crises cannot be overcome by mere composure. The strength of the Innate Realm cannot be won by numbers alone.

Of course, if Hubulie could muster tens or hundreds of thousands of troops, even Ye Qin with Grandmaster Realm strength would struggle to resist. But now, even if Hubulie shouted for the patrolling soldiers outside to come and protect him, it would already be too late.

Ye Qin was only five steps away from Hubulie; this distance was enough for him to easily employ his means, slay Hubulie, and still have a chance to escape. With a Pfft!, a sword pierced Hubulie's chest, ending the life of this generation's emperor. Before he could even ascend to become the new Great Khan of the Mongols, he met his death at Ye Qin's hand. To ensure Hubulie's complete death, Ye Qin swung another sword and severed his head, utterly cutting off his vitality. "This time you will have no opportunity left." He said coldly.

Leaving the tent, Ye Qin spared no luxurious tent like those of Mengge and Hubulie. He knew that relying solely on Tiemuzhen could not sustain the future of the steppe. He was already old, and Ye Qin's mission was to slay the descendants of Tiemuzhen.

According to the plan, he was responsible for slaying the descendants of Old Iron, while Pass-True Monk would go on to resolve the Vajra Dharma King of the Esoteric Sect. After completion, if he were still alive, he would go on to resolve Old Iron. As for whether Pass-True Monk could make it out alive, Ye Qin had no idea and hadn't even considered the question.

"We had previously planned that, once he succeeded, he would withdraw and not worry about me; if I succeeded here, I would also withdraw and not worry about him." This way, Ye Qin reduced many risks. With his own strength, he could freely disguise himself on the steppe and evade inspections. But bringing another person would not necessarily work.

In the following days, Ye Qin slaughtered the steppe nobles to his heart's content. He believed that their greed had ingrained in them the habit of heading south to graze horses and plunder grain. If they truly wanted to develop their own clans, all they needed was large-scale trade and interaction, with mutual restraint, and the steppe could also prosper. But the steppe people were accustomed to plundering; when they lacked food and clothing, they would head south to loot.

"So, them being killed by me today is just desserts!" Ye Qin thought. Upon returning to the Qingxuan Continent, there would naturally be a solution. The Haoran Immortal Sect he belonged to was a great sect with countless years of inheritance, having seen all sorts of strange and wondrous things.

"The wolf cubs on the steppe all deserve to die!" Keeping them around would only cause trouble for the Han people; in a few decades they might launch a large-scale southern invasion. And after slaughtering the Golden Family headed by Old Iron, the various major tribes on the steppe would effectively have no supreme leader, inevitably leading to chaos, and infighting over power would be common.

Thinking this through, Ye Qin no longer concerned himself with Pass-True Monk, and slaughtered every steppe noble he discovered. At this moment, Pass-True Monk had already slain the Vajra Dharma King and burned his corpse in a blaze, not even giving the Vajra Dharma King's brother a chance to collect the body.

"I have already used the forbidden art, but there should still be some time left. If I can settle their Great Khan, even death would be enough." Pass-True Monk thought. He understood that, given his current condition, completely leaving the steppe was impossible. Once those steppe wolf cubs preparing to rest and recuperate reacted, he would have no chance to walk out of the steppe.

"In that case, then let's go all out! If we don't go all out, there's no chance." The exalted Great Khan was like a deity, his status even surpassing that of sacrifices, second only to Eternal Heaven. Know that the people of the steppe are extremely devoted to Eternal Heaven.

!

The Great Khan rose from humble beginnings, fought countless great battles, and after wandering east and west built a cavalry of extraordinary combat strength—but now his life hangs by a thread.

"Ye Qin, I hope you succeed over there," Monk Dùzhēn thought silently. Although he and Ye Qin had some unpleasantness in the capital, even to the point of being opposed, this time their goals are the same.

Three days later, Ye Qin, alone and in disguise, hid on the steppe, preparing to leave for Lin'an Prefecture to take care of some matters. However, steppe patrols would occasionally catch up to him, and he had no choice but to kill them one by one before changing direction and pressing on. As for Monk Dùzhēn, he never saw him.

"I don't know whether that monk killed Temüjin or if he's still alive," Ye Qin thought as he walked. After this journey, he still felt some respect for Monk Dùzhēn, because the Vajra Dharma King had already died, and a generation of Tantric genius had fallen just like that.

"Besides, it would be better if he also died on the steppe. Then all the blame could be pinned on him. After I leave this realm, I could only pin the blame on him as well. Perhaps even the Shaolin Temple would suffer along with him. Hehe, that's quite interesting," Ye Qin thought to himself.

He had thought this journey would be extremely difficult, but he hadn't expected it to be so easy. He had a rough guess: "The reason it's so easy might be that the Jin have just been destroyed, so although the honeymoon period between the steppe and the Great Song has ended, there's still residual warmth; second, the various tribes on the steppe may need time to rest and recuperate, letting their guard down and lacking defenses; third, other Qinhu people might have had the idea of assassinating these steppe nobles, but none have acted on it yet, and we got there first."

These several reasons combined are what made this journey so easy. Of course, the steppe has now been stirred up into a great commotion, with the major tribes on the verge of falling out. And Ye Qin doesn't know any of this; he only knows one thing: "A conservative estimate is that, within the next sixty years, the Mongols probably won't dare to move south! If we tell the emperor about this, I don't know how pleased he'd be."

Lin'an Prefecture, deep within the imperial palace.

Returning from the steppe, Ye Qin felt refreshed all over. The original purpose of this trip was to seek martial arts manuals, to enter the Dao through martial arts, then establish a foundation to pursue immortality and eternal life. He had originally planned to rely on the Imperial City Guard's power to gradually realize this plan, but the appearance of Old Huang disrupted his steps.

Regarding the Great Song state, Ye Qin felt he had the ability to bring about some changes. With his own safety assured, he aspired to make a difference—this was precisely his original intention in coming to this world. Although worldly affairs are unpredictable, there are some things he simply must do.

"Fortunately, the Jin have been annihilated, and the Mongols on the steppe—Mongke and Kublai—have been dealt with by me, so at least within the next sixty years they won't dare to move south lightly. Moreover, the genius-like Vajra Dharma King has died, so the Great Song's future external threats will be greatly reduced. This could be considered a surprise for the emperor, after all he trusts me so much." Ye Qin reflected silently, feeling indebted for the patron's kindness and determined to repay it. Once he has repaid this favor to Emperor Zhao, he will be able to bring Huang Rong away from this world without any worries.

After leaving the steppe, he still needed to return to Lin'an Prefecture, report the results of this journey to the emperor, and arrange some follow-up matters. Once those were settled, he planned to return to Peach Blossom Island, take Huang Rong back to the Qingxuan Continent—that would be the ascension Old Huang spoke of.

As for whether Monk Dùzhēn had survived, Ye Qin neither knew nor intended to find out. "If I go to rescue him, I might not be able to extricate myself unless I leave this world outright, but that clearly wouldn't serve my interests," he thought to himself. After making a cold calculation, he steeled himself, mounted a swift horse, and rode straight for Lin'an.

That day, Emperor Zhao was in the palace reviewing memorials when suddenly a black-clad person came to report, "Your Majesty, something major has happened."

"Oh?" Zhao Guanjia raised his eyebrows slightly, gesturing for the black-clothed person to continue.

Recently, some officials in the court who opposed imperial authority have died one after another, easing his pressure a little. This might be the opportunity for him to achieve the restoration of the Great Song; which emperor wouldn't wish to become the lord of restoration?

Thus, after Shi Mi'e and others died, he did not investigate deeply, and the military officers merely went through the motions, unwilling to get overly involved.

The black-clothed person nodded and said slowly: "According to reports from the Imperial City Surveillance Office's scouts, Qin Tiju joined forces with the Shaolin monk Duzhen to cause a great disturbance on the grasslands, beheading the State Preceptor Vajra Dharma King, and also dealt with Mongke and Kublai, grandsons of the Great Khan of the Mongols. It is said that the Great Khan himself fell ill because of this."

"What?" Upon hearing this, Zhao Guanjia was greatly startled, delight showing on his brows, and he hurriedly asked, "Where is Qin Aiqing now?"

The black-clothed person stared, then replied: "He is currently on the road back to Lin'an Prefecture."

Zhao Guanjia nodded and then ordered: "Wait until he returns to Lin'an, then immediately bring him to see me, and have him give a detailed account of this incident. The Imperial City Surveillance Office has performed an indispensable service this time; I never expected that after Qin Aiqing's disappearance for a year, he would bring me such a great surprise. He truly is my loyal subject; the restoration of the Great Song is within reach!"

Although he has long been suppressed by the civil officials, he also understands that this is the best opportunity, and now this opportunity has arrived. His heart filled with mixed joy, he muttered to himself: "Qin Aiqing has achieved great merit this time; I will surely reward him handsomely. Now that the obstacles have been removed, surely no one will dare to hinder my plans." (End of chapter)