Chapter 843

On the night of the full moon, atop the Forbidden Palace, it naturally calls for "a single sword coming from the west, a celestial immortal flying from beyond the heavens."

Otherwise, it would be like eating fries without ketchup, sleeping without peeing first, or reading without voting and subscribing — it always feels like something is missing.

So, it definitely has to be a move of "a single sword coming from the west, a celestial immortal flying from beyond the heavens."

This is Tang Luo using the Xuanbian Sword form against Lu Bu's factor; otherwise, smashing a Sky-Piercing Halberd against a Sky-Piercing Halberd would have more impact and topicality.

But that would be a completely different image.

Tang Luo's current image is that of a powerful, lofty, supreme grandmaster, a Celestial Being.

Yes, everyone has formed a tacit default consensus in their hearts: in this battle, whoever wins is the supreme grandmaster.

Because of Tang Luo's "celestial immortal flying from beyond the heavens," a Celestial Being image has also vaguely been added.

Tang Luo himself would naturally not fly from beyond the heavens; the reason he could unleash such a gorgeous move relies entirely on Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie's illusion arts.

Yes, those phantoms are all fake, they are false illusion arts.

The real situation at the time was like this: Grandmaster Tang held the Xuanbian Sword and secretly executed the Great Hand Seal to imprison Lu Bu; the subsequent dispersed "sword-wielding phantoms" and the torrent of black sword light were all illusion arts.

Including what Lu Bu himself saw — there was no difference from what the crowd saw.

When darkness descended, Tang Luo executed the Thousand Hands Cannot Defend, heavily injuring Lu Bu.

Oh, and one more thing: that huge full moon in the sky was also an illusion art, a fake moon.

If someone calculated the date, they would discover that today actually shouldn't be the night of the full moon.

But everyone's attention was focused on the showdown between the two grandmasters, and no one really paid attention to whether tonight was the night of the full moon.

They merely sighed at how big and round the moon was.

Illusion arts combined with powerful strength, Tang Luo also successfully crafted an image of a powerful, lofty Celestial Being.

He stood high above, looking down on all beings, and lowered his head to say one sentence to Lu Bu in the ruins: "Not bad."

These words made the originally silent scene become lively again, like a pot of water slowly coming to a boil.

No one expected this peerless battle would end this quickly, without the imagined three hundred rounds of combat turning the entire Forbidden Palace Peak into ruins.

Overall, the three of them only exchanged three rounds.

The first round was a contest of strength; the sound alone injured the onlooking crowd.

The second round was profound moves; no one knew how many moves the two exchanged in those few short breaths, nor how many variations they contained.

The third round decided victory and defeat.

Lu Bu's strike that pierced the vault of heaven, and that Celestial Being sword.

Victory and defeat were thus determined.

Very short, but not disappointing.

The ruined gate tower was stomped out by Lu Bu, not like Tang Luo who directly blasted out a huge gap.

Only the gate tower was destroyed; the city wall still stands, still very intact.

Everyone still has to look up.

When Lu Bu stood up swaying, the originally low murmurs abruptly fell silent, then rang out again, and a moment later, fell instantly silent again.

Under the reflection of the fake moonlight, the center of Lu Bu's head was a glossy expanse.

A few stubborn strands of hair tried their best to comb toward the center, attempting "one side in trouble, eight sides support."

Alas, this trouble is too great, as great as the Kingdom of Women tribulation in the Journey to the West, very hard to get past.

So, those few strands of hair on the bald crown look very bleak.

Combined with Lu Bu's now shattered armor, his heavy injuries and swaying, his barely steady posture, it is even more bleak.

Cold as ice, chilly as snow, Ximen Chuixue · Lu Bu.

"How could he even shave off someone's hair..."

"Yeah."

Someone discussed in a low voice; among the Three Kingdoms, Daqian's rites and teachings are relatively stricter, while Dayin and Dading are much looser.

But no matter the place, the concept of "body, hair, and skin received from parents" is still deeply rooted in people's hearts.

The "hair" here does not include beards, it refers only to head hair.

The saying that shaving hair is equivalent to beheading exists; shaving hair is also a form of punishment — mostly superiors punishing themselves.

From a modern perspective, it's just a haircut, and subordinates weep bitterly, hearts won over, even simpler than the unlucky kid Liu Shan falling down.

But in this era, becoming a monk doesn't count; shaving hair is truly, concretely a form of punishment.

Being shaved by someone else carries the same meaning as being beheaded.

I won't kill you, but you are already dead.

It's a very good way to humiliate someone; unless it's a life-and-death blood feud, ordinary people wouldn't do this.

Everyone feels that Jia Rong high up in the sky, lofty and superior, might as well have just beheaded Lu Bu with one sword for a clean, neat finish.

Wait, has Jia Rong just been floating in mid-air this whole time?

After the shock, everyone suddenly noticed something different from the previous Void Treading — the current Jia Rong is "Void Standing."

The night wind blows his hair and clothes fluttering, leaving a deep impression once again.

You must know, martial arts masters can cross a river on a single reed, cross water by touching it, or stand on a slender tree branch swaying in the wind.

But no matter what, they all need a fulcrum every so often; it is impossible to "hover" in mid-air for a long time.

The Void Treading just now wasn't something no one else could do — it's just that no one did it as slowly as Jia Rong.

But prolonged "Void Standing," Jia Rong alone can do it.

The faint murmurs lowered again.

Someone strangely turned their head to look at those cavalry; they didn't move a muscle. At this time, shouldn't it be "when the lord is humiliated, the minister dies"?

These cavalrymen, spear in left hand, sword in right, great bows and feathered arrows on their backs.

Yet few dared to show off their lightness skill before them — doing so would get you shot into a sieve.

Why weren't they reacting?

Everyone stared at Lü Bu, then suddenly spotted a blind spot: the top of Lü Bu's head was far too clean.

Clean in a way that didn't look freshly shaved.

"What are you looking at?" Lü Bu's voice pressed down the noisy chatter. He turned his head, looking down from above. "Never seen a martial expert who's bald?"

The voices stopped at once. Everyone keenly caught a thread of annoyance in his tone.

True enough, no one ever said a martial expert can't be bald.

A martial expert must be handsome, must not be bald — that's the world's prejudice!

Practicing martial arts cures baldness? No such thing — even cultivation can't cure it.

Everyone averted their gazes, pretending they hadn't seen a thing.

Tang Luo landed on the city wall, glanced at Lü Bu's bald head: "The outcome is decided."

Lü Bu's expression was aggrieved. To tell the truth, though he rarely lost, he had lost before.

Victory or defeat he truly didn't take to heart; what he pursued was the martial peak.

But having his secret exposed publicly, Lü Bu was furious — the consequences... not severe at all.

Because he knew he couldn't beat the other party — even the Sky-Piercing Halberd that had followed him half his life had shattered.

Others could tell Lü Bu had lost rather miserably.

Lü Bu knew he had lost extremely miserably.

"Huu—" He exhaled a long breath of turbid air. "I'll come challenge you again."

"Welcome." Tang Luo smiled. "Though next time it may not be in this form."

Lü Bu didn't understand those words, and couldn't be bothered to guess.

He had a good habit: what he couldn't figure out, he stopped thinking about — tossed it to Chen Gong to ponder; he just had to pass the message to Chen Gong.

In this, he and Tang Luo were uncannily alike.

"Kongming, I discovered a new rule of the God-Demon Game." "Kongming, I found another." "Old Kong, you won't believe this..." "Old Kong, about fate format — listen to me."

Kongming always felt everything was predestined — like Tang Luo's meteoric rise, and his own incurable baldness.

Fortunately in modern society, not only monks and nuns can be bald.

But here, the bald Lü Bu jumped down from the city wall, half-crouched on the ground, slowly stood, climbed onto Red Hare, and led his cavalry away.

Everyone could see Lü Bu was heavily injured.

Otherwise, dropping from such a height, he wouldn't have bent his knees even once.

The myth of the Martial Madman of Heaven shattered tonight.

From now on, only one figure remained in the sky — the Celestial Being Jia Rong.

Lü Bu went to find trouble with Jia Rong.

Lü Bu trampled across Great Qian's territory; Emperor Kaiyuan's men ate dust behind him.

Lü Bu and Jia Rong arranged a duel!

On the night of the full moon, atop the Forbidden Peak, a sword comes from the west — a celestial immortal flying from beyond the heavens!

The Martial Madman of Heaven crushed in defeat, the myth shattered, only the Celestial Being Jia Rong remains.

Jia Rong didn't kill Lü Bu; Lü Bu returned heavily wounded.

Lü Bu had been bald early on, so he always wore armor and a helmet.

Lü Bu's bald! Lü Bu's bald! Lü Bu's bald!

All kinds of news spread and spread — for some reason "Lü Bu's bald" kept appearing in everyone's "view."

The dignified Martial Madman of Heaven turned into Baldy Lü Bu.

The blow to Lü Bu's prestige was undoubtedly huge — worrying Chen Gong until his hair fell out in handfuls.

Soon to become a pair of kindred sufferers with Lü Bu.

Fortunately, no one is currently kicking Lü Bu or his fief while he's down.

On one hand, Lü Bu's fief isn't an important place, not a strategic key point — just an ordinary fief.

A dead camel is bigger than a live horse; fighting Lü Bu to the death for this place would be more trouble than it's worth.

On the other hand, Lü Bu was defeated by Jia Rong — if someone moves now, wouldn't it be seen as picking the peaches?

Provoking the Celestial Being Jia Rong — that wouldn't end well.

What is Tang Luo doing now?

He's discussing "returning power to the Cheng clan" with Great Yin's former royal family, the Chengs.

Words spoken must naturally be fulfilled.

But it won't be that simple — just handing power back to the Chengs.

The Cheng clan must pay a certain price — summed up in two: one is land, two is money.

On the land side, the Cheng clan was very pleasantly surprised.

Tang Luo simply tapped the map, indicating "this place I've contracted."

The place Tang Luo "contracted" is called the Land of Chaos — the name fits. Where three states meet, nominally belonging to Great Yin, actually a no-man's-land all three want but none can take because of the other two.

They can only leave it be, yet can't completely leave it be.

There, all walks of life gather — including martial artists wanted by every state with nowhere to stand, spies and agents of every state.

No stable order, no lasting boss — a new boss every few days.

Great Yin, Great Ding, and Great Qian all have a hand in that.

They can't control it, but they can make sure no one else controls it either.

Let it stay like this, it's fine.

Now, with Tang Luo pointing like this, this chaotic place has become his.

Soon, this place will bear the surname Jia.