Chapter 588: Linghu Qingqing's Killing Intent

Sima Xiu ran out of his family hall, staring blankly at the sky.

Row after row of menacing warships, unlike the standard vessels of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom's military and with their size increased by about thirty percent, joined together like a dark cloud, surrounding from all directions and covering the entire farm.

As far as the eye could see, everywhere were warships painted in a light blue hue.

Countless warriors clad in blue armor, with blue short capes on their backs, flew out from the warships, quickly forming battle arrays, letting out low roars, and filling the sky in dense ranks.

The battle arrays used by these elite troops differed greatly from those of the former Great Jin military; the condensed killing intent and army spirits took the form of various celestial foxes—one‑tailed, two‑tailed, three‑tailed…… Sima Xiu saw the celestial fox with the most tails, five, its whole body ablaze with deep‑blue flames, looming like a demon god above the array.

The terrifying killing intent crashed down; inside the farm, ordinary peasants were instantly stunned unconscious. The raised chickens, ducks, pigs, dogs and other livestock were outright frightened to death by the killing intent, and even the Kaitai sheep that had not yet been released to pasture this year were not spared.

"My lords…" After all, he bore the minor official title of overseer of the royal farm, was a relative of the royal clan, and in his usual dealings he met many nobles and princes, so he had some experience.

Seeing the army closing in, Sima Xiu's heart pounded several times faster; he forced down his tension and panic, straightened his body, clasped his fists, and shouted loudly toward the sky: "My lords… may I ask…"

A flash of cold light passed, and a general standing on a warship's bridge drew his bow and shot an arrow.

The long arrow pierced Sima Xiu's lower abdomen; he cried out in anguish, the barbed shaft nailing him obliquely to the ground, and blood spurted rapidly along the fine grooves of the arrow.

Losing blood rapidly, and with the strange lethal rune on the shaft activating, Sima Xiu's skin quickly withered and dehydrated, his body swiftly weakened, and even his divine fetus was sealed inside, leaving him unable to mobilize any magical power.

Dozens of armored soldiers plummeted from the sky, silently rushed to Sima Xiu's side, took out special leg irons and handcuffs, and bound him from head to toe with shackles. In a flash, before he could see who it was, a barrage of heavy slaps rained down on his head and face, knocking him to the ground.

The striker's force was immense; Sima Xiu saw stars, his vision went dark, and he nearly died.

Blood mixed with shattered teeth kept spraying from his mouth; Sima Xiu felt his skull throbbing violently, as if the bones of his head were about to be shattered.

Armored soldiers kept dropping from the air, rudely barging into every part of Sima Xiu's manor; cries of alarm from servants rang out everywhere, and whenever a shout of rebuke was heard, someone would soon be heard screaming in agony on the brink of death.

These soldiers… at the slightest disagreement they would kill; some of Sima Xiu's household servants fell victim to their hands.

Sima Xiu's five viscera burned like fire, and his body convulsed violently.

An extermination of the clan—this was the omen of such a disaster. Had he known, he should have taken all his kin and fled An'yang as fast as possible.

But Sima Xiu didn't understand; he was merely a distant branch relative of the Sima royal clan, a nobody not worth mentioning. To deal with his family, a single one of those huge warships in the sky, plus a few thousand elite troops, would be more than enough.

As for deploying an entire fleet, having countless soldiers form battle arrays to hunt him down—?

Could it be that this farm hides some secret tied to a major mystery of the Sima royal clan, something even the hereditary farm overseer like himself doesn't know? That makes no sense!

This is just an ordinary little farm that raises tribute Kaitai sheep for the royal family!

"My lord, spare me, have mercy…" Sima Xiu struggled, blood spraying from his mouth as he managed to utter a few words.

A heavy foot came down hard on Sima Xiu's chest, the person exerting extreme force and shattering all his ribs.

"Haven't you found it yet? You lot are useless!" the one standing on Sima Xiu's chest bellowed.

Suddenly a cheer rang out from afar, growing nearer and nearer, until it arrived nearby; several sturdy female generals in armor carefully lifted a soft chair, on which lay a fra‑bodied, pallid girl with closed eyes and faint breath.

"Found it… my lord, no mistake, this is the noble person the Grand Marshal is seeking." A female general tall as a zhang, agile like a cloud leopard, clasped her fists and reported concisely.

"Did you hear the sounds of combat?" the one standing on Sima Xiu sneered.

"Someone resisted, already captured with serious injuries… judging by appearance, he ought to be the farm overseer Sima Yan's eldest great‑grandson, Sima Yan." The female general said coldly: "The noble person was found in the hidden compartment of Sima Yan's study, together with a batch of secret correspondence documents, tallies, and seals."

Without waiting for the man on Sima Xiu to ask, the female general continued: "My lord, do you still recall how, over these years, our Fox Tail has been entangled with the Flying Swallow? In Sima Yan's study we found the 'Horse Treading Flying Swallow' mark… Clearly, as we suspected, the Flying Swallow is a secret organ of the Sima clan, and Sima Yan is a member of it."

The man standing on Sima Xiu gave a low, chuckling laugh: "Heh, heh, heh—over the years the Flying Swallow has caused our Fox Tail no small loss, and yet it left traces here? Good, good, good, interesting, interesting, most interesting—no wonder we could abduct this noble person…"

Sima Xiu's head felt heavy and dizzy, his vision a murky blur, and he could see nothing.

He heard every word of their conversation clearly, yet when strung together he could not understand what they meant at all.

"What is the Fox Tail?"

"What is the Flying Swallow?"

"What is the Horse Treading Flying Swallow mark?"

Ah, his eldest great‑grandson Sima Yan—how could he also be a member of the Flying Swallow?

What exactly has he gotten himself into?

"My lords, please see clearly, please see clearly—my little Yan…" Sima Xiu painfully shook his head, struggling to regain consciousness and the ability to speak normally.

The one standing on his chest lifted his foot, then brought it down hard again.

Sima Xiu spat out a mouthful of old blood and instantly lost consciousness completely.

Not long after, a light skiff flew up above the farm; Linghu Qingqing, dressed in a blue fur robe, leapt from the flying vessel and descended.

He cautiously approached the soft chair and called out softly.

The girl on the chair remained motionless, merely breathing ever so faintly.

Two female cultivators began examining the girl's body; after a while they reported in unison: "My lord, the noble person's soul and spirit have been sucked away by evil arts; only the corpse remains…"

Linghu Qingqing's face twitched violently; he raised his head, fell silent for a moment, then nodded slowly: "The Sima clan folk of An'yang City… first slaughter half of them, force the high‑ranking Sima to explain everything about the Flying Swallow, and compel them to hand over the soul and spirit of the Silver Fish Child."