Chapter 606: Bloodbath at Xuanhua Firm

"Hayato, what business do you have with your master?"

A figure slowly walked down from the top of Fire Dragon Mountain.

This was a very ordinary middle-aged man with an ordinary build. His face was slightly round, and he wore a few small braids at the back of his head.

He wore a blue robe, with eight ribbons tied to the back of the garment, fluttering in the wind. The clothing was covered in images resembling Bagua symbols, which also fluttered in the breeze. He looked very ordinary, as if he would be impossible to find if thrown into a sea of people. Only his demeanor was light and airy, neither sad nor happy, and he possessed an otherworldly aura, as if he were a deity to be worshipped.

And this person was none other than Hayato Tianyin's master, the Great Master of Xuanhua Firm, Xiao Aoshi.

As soon as those forty-nine figures saw this person, they immediately knelt on one knee and shouted "Great Master," their demeanor extremely respectful.

"Master, previously Yu Liancheng crossed the sea and attempted to take control of the Central Plains. You had this disciple assist the Emperor in repelling the enemy and planting the Hidden Sword Stream's forces within the Imperial Court, but... a problem has occurred..." Hayato Tianyin hurriedly reported to the Great Master.

"Oh, what problem has occurred?"

Xiao Aoshi walked slowly from the mountaintop toward Hayato Tianyin with his hands behind his back, his entire person filled with a feeling of encompassing all things.

"Yu Liancheng wiped out Edo with a single blade strike. The Emperor is dead, and the imperial clan likely only has branches scattered across various regions left. The Hidden Sword Stream, which I have managed for decades, has also... also all gone down the drain; I am the only high-ranking member left." Hayato Tianyin's tone actually carried a tremor; that 'All-City' move was truly too terrifying. Even recalling it now, the hairs on his body still stood on end.

"What!?" Xiao Aoshi appeared suddenly before Hayato Tianyin as if shrinking the earth into an inch, his brows tightly furrowed: "Tell me in detail, what exactly happened!?"

"Yes, Master."

Hayato Tianyin then recounted everything that had happened at the Imperial City.

When he spoke of that 'All-City' move, a look of fear could not help but emerge in his eyes. It was as if he saw that peerless, invincible move again—a move that did not belong to this world.

"In the entire Imperial City, there was not a single survivor besides me. Men, women, old, young, rich, and poor all died under that blade. Although I relied on the 'Ten Thousand Ways of Senra' passed down by Master to escape from Yu Liancheng's hands, I was also severely wounded, *cough cough*... *cough cough*..."

"Is what you say true!?"

Xiao Aoshi looked at Hayato Tianyin and said word by word.

"If there is a single word of falsehood, this disciple is willing to be struck by lightning," Hayato Tianyin said in a deep voice.

Xiao Aoshi used the heart of the Ten Thousand Ways of Senra to sense Hayato Tianyin's injuries, and after confirming the injuries, he let out a long breath.

In reality, he also understood that Hayato Tianyin could not lie to him.

After all, this matter only required a slight investigation to find out whether the Imperial City still existed. If it were truly a lie, it would only prove that his disciple was truly too stupid.

However, to completely wipe out a prosperous capital city with one blade—let alone him, even his elder brother Xiao Aoshi, or even that old thing in his prime before his Yuan Yang was leaked, would likely never be able to do it.

However, having unleashed such a blade, Yu Liancheng must have also been severely injured.

If not for this, Hayato Tianyin would likely have found it very difficult to escape with his life.

Xiao Aoshi's face showed a look of contemplation; in reality, his mood was by no means as calm and composed as it appeared on the surface. This person seemed to have supreme cultivation and could be considered one of the top three among the current generation of experts. But just like Di Shitian, he had fought too many easy battles relying on his superior cultivation; once things exceeded his control, it left him somewhat at a loss.

After pondering for a long while, Xiao Aoshi finally uttered a sentence: "Return to Xuanhua Firm first, and find Hai Laocang to clarify the intelligence."

Xuanhua Firm.

A business firm in Dongying that had been operating for a hundred years.

In his daily life, Xiao Aoshi used Xuanhua Firm as a cover to carry out the plan for the Millennium Calamity.

Xuanhua Firm had a total of seven masters, and as the founder of Xuanhua Firm, Xiao Aoshi was naturally the Great Master.

As for the "Hai Laocang" mentioned by Xiao Aoshi, he was the Fourth Master of Xuanhua Firm, responsible for intelligence gathering, covering both the Central Plains and Dongying.

One day later.

Xiao Aoshi and the others had arrived at the headquarters of Xuanhua Firm.

In front of the simple and elegant buildings, the scent of blood was thick, and a dozen corpses lay scattered about. Each corpse had a fist-sized hole in its chest, and their hearts had long since been blasted away.

These dozen or so corpses were all guards of Xuanhua Firm; perhaps they were not famous, but the Great Master and Hayato Tianyin both knew that any one of them, if thrown into the Edo, would be an expert who could dominate a region.

"Something is wrong."

After Hayato Tianyin inspected these corpses, his brows furrowed even tighter.

"What did you discover?" Xiao Aoshi asked.

Hayato Tianyin frowned and said: "These people appear to have died from having their chests pierced by a long-range fist force, but in reality, before they were struck, they had already been shocked to death by an unimaginably sharp aura."

"Oh, let me take a look."

The Great Master stepped forward, his hands still behind his back, but a mysterious ripple emanated from between his brows, enveloping a nearby corpse.

A moment later, he let out a light breath, yet he also felt somewhat relieved.

"Such a strong aura, such a powerful fist force. However, both the aura and the fist force reveal a feeling of being strong on the outside but weak on the inside. Heh, that 'All-City Love' move indeed consumed too much of his True Qi and physical strength; it will be difficult to recover without several months. But this person is truly decisive, actually dragging a severely exhausted body to come and raid my Xuanhua Firm. Let's go in."

The Great Master, Hayato Tianyin, and several Xuanhua Firm experts pushed open the gates and stepped into the courtyard.

Unsurprisingly, there were many corpses in the courtyard. These corpses were all experts of Xuanhua Firm, and almost all of them had the same cause of death: shocked to death by that aura as deep as an abyss and as vast as the sea.

Even if someone could barely withstand that terrifying aura, they would have their chests blasted open by the subsequent fist force, dying with their eyes wide open.

Besides the guards, they also saw the Fourth Master, Hai Laocang.

More accurately, it was Hai Laocang's corpse.

In his daily life, the Fourth Master always wore a bamboo hat, kept his head lowered at all times, and was shrouded in shadows; except for the Great Master, almost no one knew his true appearance.

But now, he was lying on his back on the ground, his bamboo hat shattered, revealing a pale and ordinary face, with a bloody knife wound on it that had almost split his entire face in two.

Hayato Tianyin squatted down to inspect it, his expression slightly grave: "Master, you once said that the Fourth Master's cultivation was profound and that he was skilled in light-body techniques. It seems he withstood that person's aura and used his superior movement technique to dodge the fist force. But just as he was about to escape, a blade light faster than him struck down..."

In reality, Hayato Tianyin had one more thing he did not say.

On this knife wound, he felt a familiar blade intent—the blade intent that made his entire body tremble in fear. However, it was too weak, and it lacked the destructive aura within that blade intent.

It seems this blade strike only inherited the 'speed' from the peerless blade intent.

Only such speed could instantly kill the Fourth Master.

The group continued forward; this Xuanhua Firm occupied a vast area. Along the way, there were halls, pavilions, gardens, and other buildings, connected by corridors. Each floor tile was carved with dragon and phoenix patterns, and the walls had colorful murals. It was grand, imposing, elegant, and simple. The deeper they went, the tighter the security; compared to it, the so-called Dongying Imperial Palace was nothing more than a minor witch in the presence of a great one.

But unfortunately, after this round of bloodletting, the deeper they went, the more corpses there were. The corpses of several masters could also be seen one after another, with no survivors.

The Second-in-Command, Naiteng Shengren, was in charge of all of Xuanhua Firm's expenditures. He used an abacus as a weapon, his moves were airtight, but he died after his throat was shattered by an abacus bead.

The Third Master, Mentian Jicang, was responsible for the leadership and operation of the entire Xuanhua Firm. He was famous for his palm techniques, and his movement technique was also not weak, but he had his chest shattered by a single palm strike.

The Fifth Master, Jianglong, who had connections in both the underworld and the righteous path, was responsible for recruitment and liaison. He cultivated the Vajra Indestructible Body and had reached the highest level, yet he died with all the tendons and bones in his body shattered.

The Sixth Master and Seventh Master were not in Xuanhua Firm, so they escaped this disaster.

After searching the entire Xuanhua Firm and confirming there were no survivors, Xiao Aoshi and his party rested briefly in the main hall.

"Damn it! That damned Yu Liancheng!

"

The Great Master's expression was extremely ugly; whether it was Xuanhua Firm or the Hidden Sword Stream, both were forces he had painstakingly managed for many years, and they were also important aids in pushing forward the Great Calamity of the Millennium.

Yet now, these two forces that were supposed to be one overt and one covert, complementing each other, had been destroyed by the same person in a short period of time; how could he not be enraged?

A ray of red light shot from his eyes, his killing intent fully exposed, and he said through gritted teeth: "If you dare to massacre Xuanhua Firm, don't blame me for exterminating Wushuang City, leaving not even a chicken or dog alive."

The Great Master had great confidence in his own strength, and he was by no means a magnanimous person.

Since the other party had destroyed the Hidden Sword Stream and Xuanhua Firm, he did not mind making a trip to slaughter Wushuang City, which was under Yu Liancheng's control.

However, Yu Liancheng's cultivation made him feel somewhat wary; perhaps this time he would have to invite his elder brother, Xiao Jingtian, to go with him.

"Hehe, you are thinking a bit too much."

An indifferent voice rang out, startling everyone. They turned their heads and were shocked to discover that a figure had been sitting in the shadows of the main hall. When this figure stood up and walked out from the shadows, he radiated an intense sense of oppression, like roaring waves or an erupting volcano, surging out in all directions, giving people the feeling that he was not a mortal, but something transcending Gods and Demons.

"Whether you can walk out of Xuanhua Firm today is still another matter."

……

PS: Asking for monthly votes as usual.