Chapter 534

While Elder Hu led a large force, still hesitating above the Blue Pit, the Linghu clan in An'yang City had already taken action.

To oppose the Sima clan of the Great Jin royal family, one must possess a national divine artifact.

At the bottom of the Blue Pit lies an innate treasure comparable to a national divine artifact.

But to enter the Blue Pit, one must have protective treasure comparable to a national divine artifact; otherwise, even iron men would be ground into iron sheets, and even diamonds into diamond dust. And the Linghu clan currently possesses no treasure of national-divine-artifact level.

After much thought, the only national-divine-artifact-level treasure the Linghu clan can obtain is the Black Heaven Cauldron held by the commander of the Eastern Garden Guard, Eastern Garden Colonel Hu Xiong, seized from the Great Dark Heaven King of the Great Martial God State, one of that state's three national divine artifacts.

The Black Heaven Cauldron integrates offense and defense, can generate black smoke that transforms into countless divine weapons to slay foes, and can also form a black-smoke barrier that seals the body completely watertight. At maximum power, the Black Heaven Cauldron can protect the territories of over a dozen prefectures from any assault, making them impregnable.

If used to protect a single person… it is truly a city of molten metal and boiling water; breaking through the Black Heaven Cauldron's defense is extremely difficult. Even resisting the water pressure of a mere Blue Pit is effortless for it.

Linghu Qingqing naturally could not personally involve herself in such a matter.

Linghu Qingqing's second son, the half-brother of Elder Hu's Linghu Gu, is now the Linghu clan's outwardly most exalted Second Elder, Linghu Jian, who alone left An'yang City, displayed his divine abilities, and arrived outside the Eastern Garden in just a few steps.

Tall and thin, with a pair of whiskered sideburns, Linghu Jian stood outside the Eastern Garden, squinting as he watched the Eastern Garden Guard drilling formations high in the air, gave a mocking smirk, and shook his head.

The scale of the Eastern Garden Guard is still too small.

Not to mention compared to the regular troops of the Great Jin controlled by the Linghu clan, even compared to the Linghu clan's directly controlled private forces, the difference is like that between ants and elephants. Any hidden private force the Linghu clan casually fields could slaughter the Eastern Garden Guard in a short time.

Having controlled the Great Jin's Ministry of War for so many years, the Linghu clan has emptied all the military's best resources.

The finest warships, armor, weapons, medicines, military cultivation resources, even the most powerful battle formation diagrams and the most advanced combat doctrines—all these are not in the regular troops of the Ministry of War, but in the Linghu clan's private forces.

The Eastern Garden Guard's current drill formations are merely a weak ant turned into a slightly stronger ant—nothing more. Linghu Jian contemptuously shook his head and murmured, "How loyal to the sovereign and patriotic—what a pity, what a pity."

With a strange laugh, Linghu Jian's body flickered and he lightly slipped into the heart of the Eastern Garden.

After Wu Tie took command of the Eastern Garden Guard, he summoned many formation masters from the Ministry of War and the Works Palace, having already refined seven or eight tenths of the Eastern Garden's grand defensive formations, greatly boosting their defensive power. Yet, in Linghu Jian's eyes, these grand formations and restrictions inside the Eastern Garden are full of loopholes and gaps; he could easily slip straight into the garden's interior.

The lives and deaths of those formation masters from the Ministry of War and the Works Palace are entirely in the Linghu clan's hands.

How could the grand formations they set up possibly hinder any member of the Linghu clan?

Linghu Jian thus lightly entered Wu Tie's secluded cultivation chamber, even easily breaking through the three-layered seal of runic restrictions on the chamber's door, proceeding deep inside to intrude upon Wu Tie's secluded chamber.

Inside the chamber, with his upper body bare, radiating heat and a mighty blood aura, Wu Tie suddenly lifted his head, narrowed his eyes, and coldly stared at Linghu Jian: "Intruding into the guard's barracks is a capital offense."

Linghu Jian narrowed his eyes, surveyed Wu Tie's perfectly proportioned physique, and said arrogantly, "In the Great Jin, only one person can judge my guilt… and of course, it's not the one you have in mind."

Wu Tie gave a cold snort: "You show disrespect to the Divine Emperor!"

Linghu Jian laughed brightly: "So what?"

Wu Tie suddenly raised his right hand; with a "hualala" sound, his arm elongated seven or eight zhang, and he swept a palm toward Linghu Jian's face. His palm expanded to a zhang-wide area, and as it came down, the space around Linghu Jian trembled, a tremendous force shaking him so he could barely breathe.

"Duke of Yu Prefecture, your cultivation is fine, your methods are fine, but it's still not enough." Linghu Jian gave a strange laugh, his right index finger lightly tapping out, a piercing shriek rang out, and his finger traced a thin black trajectory in the void, as if the void itself were being torn apart by his finger.

Linghu Jian's fingertip struck Wu Tie's palm center, a deep muffled boom rang out, the chamber's strong wind surged, Wu Tie's palm was pierced by Linghu Jian's fingertip, spraying hot blood that splattered onto the floor with a "hiss-hiss" sound.

Wu Tie withdrew his hand, his face grim as he looked at Linghu Jian: "Who are you?"

Linghu Jian gazed at Wu Tie with a satisfied smile: "The one who brings you great wealth and honor, Duke of Yu Prefecture, you should set out a feast, prepare a fine spread of food and drink, let me eat and drink to my heart's content, and then lend me the Black Heaven Cauldron for a while."

Linghu Jian said arrogantly: "Sima Xian is stingy, granting only a mere marquisate to the Duke of Yu Prefecture. If the Duke were to ally with our house, we would not grudge bestowing a kingship, granting him a fief to govern over ten or even dozens of prefectures—how wonderful would that be!"

Wu Tie gave Linghu Jian a cold look: "You want to borrow the Black Heaven Cauldron? Come over, come, get closer!"

Wu Tie, acting twitchy, hooked his finger at Linghu Jian.

Linghu Jian narrowed his eyes, approached Wu Tie cautiously, and said with a grin: "Duke of Yu Prefecture, what do you have to say? Or if you have any conditions, just tell me. As long as they are reasonable, we can discuss them—there's nothing we can't talk about."

Wu Tie gave a few "keke" laughs, then spat a mouthful of saliva onto Linghu Jian's face.

Being so close, Linghu Jian never imagined that the esteemed Duke of Yu Prefecture, the esteemed Eastern Garden Colonel, would behave in such a vulgar manner, like a street ruffian. A spit on his face made the pampered Linghu Jian, who never touched manual labor, feel a wave of nausea, almost making him vomit.

He stared at Wu Tie in shock, his sideburns twitching violently, his eyes rapidly filling with blood, almost as if they could spit fire.

"You!" Linghu Jian shouted sternly: "Are you seeking death?"

Wu Tie let out a manic "hahaha" three times, then bellowed sternly: "Activate the formation, kill!"

The surrounding earth trembled violently; the mountain peak housing the chamber cracked with countless tiny fissures, a terrifying aura surged from all directions, millions of Eastern Garden Guard troops and over twenty million five-element spirits formed a massive battle array, everyone's cultivation at least at the high stage of the Chonglou Realm, and among the five-element spirits there were tens of thousands of Tai Cang Realm experts serving as formation eyes.

The power emanating from this battle array coalesced, its might terrifying to the extreme, causing Linghu Jian's face to turn deathly pale.

Although Linghu Jian looked down on the Eastern Garden Guard, in his view the Linghu clan's private forces could easily annihilate it, yet if the Eastern Garden Guard targeted a single person… no one in the entire Great Jin Divine State could withstand the crushing pressure of a ten-million-strong battle array.

Unless one possesses a national divine artifact, no one can directly oppose a ten-million-strong battle array.

"Hu Xiong, you've got guts!" Linghu Jian shouted fiercely: "You've got guts, you Hu family…"

The battle array had already linked with Wu Tie; a tremendous force continuously poured into his body, Wu Tie's physique rapidly swelled, his aura suddenly surging to a level that almost made Linghu Jian suffocate.

Three streaks of spiritual light flashed on Linghu Jian's body as he urgently activated three defensive secret treasures.

Wu Tie pressed a palm down on him; the three defensive treasures emitted piercing shatters, and with just that strike two were shattered, while the last, the heart-protecting mirror, cracked with countless fissures. Linghu Jian, a half-step Divine Realm expert whose divine fetus had fused at least dozens of Dao laws, and who was already formidable even at that stage, spat blood mouthful after mouthful, his bones nearly all pulverized, and he was blown flying out of the chamber by that single blow.

"I am… Linghu…" Linghu Jian spat blood, a life-preserving talisman on his body activated on its own, his body vanished in a flash of bright light and was directly transmitted back to the Linghu family's nearest stronghold.

Outside An'yang City, in a manor secretly purchased by Linghu Qingqing, she smiled, sitting beside Silver Fish, quietly watching Silver Fish embroider a picture of orioles and spring willows on a frame.

Around it stood beautiful flowering trees; beneath one's feet lay a transparent seven-colored glass platform, under which clear water trickled, a school of red-and-white koi swimming happily. The water babbled, ever-flowing, and on the trees, brilliantly plumaged warblers constantly cast flirtatious glances; the manor's structure was exquisitely refined, even to the point of being somewhat fussy, yet perfectly suited to the sensibilities of a little girl like Silver Fish.

Linghu Qingqing naturally favored grand halls, ancient bronze cauldrons, and displays of countless ancient divine weapons standing together.

But such displays are of aristocratic bearing, which a little girl does not like; therefore Linghu Qingqing forced herself to smile while appreciating this somewhat fussy, delicate, and refined manor.

Silver Fish was embroidering; the terror of having her eyes gouged out by Princess Jing Sheng on the street a few days prior had been dispelled by medicinal elixirs. Silver Fish had regained her innocent, lively nature, though a faint worry lingered in her brow.

Linghu Qingqing treats her extremely well, and she knows that.

But she does not know what Linghu Qingqing is called, his surname, his occupation, or his origins… nor does she know how reliable the promises Linghu Qingqing has made actually are.

If he truly intends to formally marry her and bring her home, why has there been no movement after all this time?

Silver Fish feels a bit anxious.

Although Linghu Qingqing looks quite aged, Silver Fish doesn't mind; his kindness to her is enough. She also faintly suspects that his great age might mean he already has many descendants, and that the obstacle to him formally marrying her and bringing her home may well come from his own offspring.

It is also difficult for him.

Thus, when Silver Fish embroiders, she puts in extra effort; as a little woman, what else can she do? She can only offer Linghu Qingqing a bit of comfort using her sole skill—her embroidery—and that is all.

Linghu Qingqing lifted her teacup and took a sip of fragrant tea.

Yin Yu'er had a hint of worry between her brows; he naturally noticed, and he said softly: "I've never told you what I do… Well, I and another old fellow are the left and right stewards of a great landlord."

Ah, my family has served that great landlord generation after generation, managing their estate and making their wealth grow day by day.

But lately, that great landlord has… has begun to suspect us two stewards of embezzling his property, stealing silver from his storehouse. So he's resorted to various petty tricks, sneaking around, trying to do something to us.

Yin Yu'er's heart jolted; the extremely fine embroidery needle in her hand trembled, pricking a tiny drop of blood on her finger.

Linghu Qingqing quickly grabbed Yin Yu'er's delicate finger and gently wiped away the speck of blood. He looked at Yin Yu'er warmly and chuckled softly: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid; I also feel that being a steward is really meaningless. Over the years, I and my descendants have been fairly diligent and have accumulated some property. So I want to break free from his household's constraints and establish my own estate."

"If I can become independent, then no one will be able to constrain me anymore; by then, your matter will naturally be without any problem."

Linghu Qingqing smiled happily: "Yin Yu'er, if it weren't for you, I really couldn't have made this decision, hehe."

Yin Yu'er stared blankly at Linghu Qingqing and asked softly: "Is it all right?"

Linghu Qingqing narrowed his eyes and slowly nodded: "When I take action, you just rest assured. Only, the money involved will be quite a lot, after all the master is rather domineering, so he probably won't let me leave easily. However, I have spent a lot of money and already hired some very capable negotiators… When they act, even if the master disagrees, he will have to agree."

"Spend some money, spend some time. Once I succeed in becoming independent, I will marry you into my home. Then, those little brats…"

Light footsteps approached; when they came within about ten zhang, the steps were deliberately made heavier.

Linghu Qingqing then set down his teacup and turned his gaze toward a small path among the flowers.

After so many years of master-servant interaction, he naturally recognized it as Linghu Ayi's footsteps; only Linghu Ayi could possibly be approaching here at this time in this estate.

"Ayi, what's the matter?" Linghu Qingqing lightly patted the little hair bun on Yin Yu'er's head and asked gently with a smile.

"Master, Second Master is badly injured; the other party spoke most impolitely, and the talks broke down." Linghu Ayi's voice came from behind the trees: "Second Master said the other party is obstinate and wouldn't even give him a chance to give his name."

Linghu Qingqing drew a deep breath.

He raised his head and muttered: "Well, this is really a headache. The overall situation is settled, but these little rascals keep jumping out to cause trouble… then… let's just crush them."

"Yin Yu'er, behave yourself and play here; if you want to eat, drink, or play anything, just tell the servants—if they don't serve you well, feel free to punish them as you see fit… Master, I'm off now to earn you a respectable bridal gift."

Linghu Qingqing smiled warmly and lightly tugged at Yin Yu'er's hair bun.

He turned around, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked slowly along the path.

Having left Yin Yu'er's sight, Linghu Qingqing's smiling face suddenly stiffened, turned icy, and darkened with anger.

He lowered his voice and said darkly to Linghu Ayi: "If he doesn't appreciate the favor and refuses the wealth and honor we offer, then we might as well send him a coffin. I, for one, don't want to wait too long… tell those juniors that for any matter, I must handle it myself."

"Be ruthless, be decisive… tell them I'm waiting to see their performance."