Chapter 943

He had intended to storm the city and seize the stronghold, but he hadn't expected Xiangpang to have gathered five thousand troops—the rest of his forces were scattered across the four directions to pacify and reorganize the interior, and he had scraped together these five thousand by shifting them from various places. For now, he kept his banners furled and moved stealthily, thinking, "No matter how many paths you come from, I shall go by but one!" Because it was an operation behind enemy lines, Xiangpang had directly ascertained the enemy's marching route. He had set his sights on the Da Wu Chao army located on the left flank.

The commander of this army was none other than the Governor himself, while the Marquis was on the other side. The Governor, of course, was leading his elite troops and fierce generals in a rapid march south, but even he had not expected to encounter Xiangpang's forces pouncing head-on. "Shouldn't he be cowering in the back, waiting for our great army to encircle and annihilate him?" This Governor was not ignorant of military affairs, nor was he a man without strength; he was a Grandmaster of Confucianism, the kind whose words carried the mandate of heaven.

In the pre-battle simulations, shouldn't Xiangpang have followed the path they had predicted? How could he have suddenly led his troops in a surprise attack? It was completely contrary to the art of war.

"Angry Thunder Tears the Heavens and Splits the Earth!" As the roar resounded through heaven and earth, a Pu Dao drew forth ten thousand thunders from the void, and boundless lightning instantly covered the entire Da Wu Chao army. Xiangpang stepped through the air, raised his hand to grip the hilt, and slashed down with a single stroke. The blade radiance was prominent for dozens of miles and hundreds of feet wide. As that heaven-supporting, earth-standing blade radiance fell, the five thousand troops were also driven by the angry thunder, descending from the zenith of the Wu army in an instant.

As they fell, they carried the indestructible blade radiance. Five thousand blade radiances landed, and the Wu army's formation collapsed entirely. He was worthy of being a Celestial; with a single strike, he had broken the formation. Afterward, Xiangpang sought out the Governor. The Governor was tough; he directly took out a brush, wrote in the void, and chanted loudly. This was the ability of a Confucian Grandmaster to imprison the world and make his own law supreme. This was originally an extremely powerful offensive ability and the source of a Confucian Grandmaster's confidence that he was no weaker than others.

Unfortunately, the opponent was a martial artist so tyrannical it was absurd...

The thunder blade crisscrossed in thousands of ways, tearing his world into a complete mess. Even if the Governor had staked his life, it was useless. He was beheaded by Xiangpang in one clean stroke, and his soul was collected by the Investiture of the Gods. The five thousand elite troops attacked fiercely, routing the Wu army in an instant. They pursued them for dozens of miles, gathering over twenty thousand prisoners and killing more than ten thousand. The rest fled, and Xiangpang did not search further, instead rapidly gathering his troops to strike directly at the Wu army besieging the pass.

Those fellows were caught completely off guard. Xiangpang took the lead, driving his five thousand troops to charge and kill with abandon, reaching their camp and shattering it. The Pu Dao in his hand swung out infinite thunder-force blade radiance, directly killing his way into the central army and sending multiple civil officials and noble generals to the Investiture of the Gods. Before him, there was not a single general who could withstand a single blow. "How bold!" Two sharp roars rang out, and two Celestials arrived.

One from the Wang family and one from the Xie family, both had achieved the Celestial realm through martial arts derived from Confucianism. Seeing that Xiangpang had completely ignored military strategy yet had broken two of the imperial army's flanks, they were instantly enraged and swore to kill this villain on the spot. Xiangpang, his spirit soaring, laughed loudly, "Well come!" He flew up and met the two Celestials directly.

Bai Lang felt something in his heart. Sitting on an armchair in the Prince's mansion, he rotated two gold balls in his hand, which made a pleasant sound—these were trinkets made in the palace. The gold balls were hollow, and there were clever mechanisms inside that collided to produce beautiful melodies when in motion. This thing had been bestowed by the Jingtai Emperor, perhaps with the intention that this fifth brother might lose his ambition through playing with trinkets...

Bai Lang rotated the gold balls and looked up at the distant sky. "The collision of Qi and heavenly secrets; it is the Celestials starting to fight again." Amidst the tinkling sounds, Bai Lang's tone was very light. "I just don't know how many will fall this time?" He leaned back against the soft couch. This martial arts Celestial, who currently held the most fierce reputation, still had a wound exposed on his chest and abdomen; he had not yet fully recovered.

This Celestial, with his chest and abdomen exposed, closed his eyes slightly to sense the changes in the world's vital energy. He figured the other Celestials should be about the same, all sensing the decisive battle between the three Celestials in the distance, all "watching" this battle in their own ways. In the distance, there was a faint sound of thunder. "Deep thunder shakes ten thousand miles! This kid's thunder technique has actually reached completion. Those bastards really don't spare any cost for the empowerment."

Outside the gold balls in Bai Lang's palm, faint red flames leaped, but the two gold balls remained ice-cold; not a bit of the fire's heat was transferred to them. "My Three Fires Returning to Origin Skill is not for show either! What is strong is ultimately the person, not just the martial art."

Suddenly, the world went quiet, silent and soundless. Bai Lang's expression changed slightly. "It has actually reached this point? Great music is soundless; hearing thunder in the place of silence!" The thought had just passed when thunderous sounds erupted. Bai Lang tightened his palm, and the two gold balls collided, emitting a sound like a great bell.

"Good kid! This is no less than me!" Bai Lang knew that the two Celestials had already fallen, because he saw two souls flying toward the Investiture of the Gods in a daze. They probably hadn't figured out why Xiangpang was so powerful that he had directly beheaded them, two Celestials? Celestials, they were hard to kill—oh, it was a martial arts Celestial who acted; that was understandable.

As for these two Celestials, it was hard to say whether their corpses would take root and become dangerous places. But if they were not properly buried and did not go through burial rituals, it would be terrible if they turned into old zombies after a long time. Even the tomb where a Celestial was buried would surely become a place of danger and opportunity in the future. "Zombies probably won't happen. Dying under the thunder blade, the corpses were washed clean by the rolling heavenly thunder; not a bit of Yin energy could remain. They can only be stiff dead ghosts. It's just hard to say if they will absorb Yang energy later and become some other kind of monster."

Bai Lang recalled that quite a few demons and monsters were transformed from corpses. If a Heavenly Demon could attach itself to a Celestial's corpse... oh my, that would require hundreds or thousands of Heavenly Demons to sacrifice themselves, one after another, to grind away the martial will on the corpse.

What kind of Heavenly Demon would do such a thing for a companion?

"I suppose the Wang and Xie families will still pay a large sum of money to redeem their own Celestial's corpse," Bai Lang thought. "Damn it, should I listen to the order that might come from the eldest brother and lead the army south? Hahaha, I'm not going!"

Xiangpang's actions were quite to his liking; let this person turn the Da Wu Chao upside down. It was absolutely impossible for him, Bai Lang, to go and suppress the rebellion. Didn't he see that the Northern Barbarians were about to march south? Everyone knew this point; they knew that the Great Khan leading hundreds of thousands of cavalry south would happen in an instant. "Two months at most." Bai Lang was also a veteran of many battles; he knew that two months later would be just after summer, when the grass was long and the horses were fat, a good time for cavalry to gallop freely. ===== CHAPTER 944 =====