Chapter 297: Conclusion

When Li Miao no longer hid his identity, Cao Hanyan understood that the matter of today had reached the time for a final conclusion.

Cao Hanyan didn't know much about court affairs. But the fact that the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander-in-Chief, Li Miao's direct superior, was from the imperial clan was common knowledge in the Great Ming Jianghu.

The imperial clan wanted to seize power in the court, and Lord Luo and his relatives and friends stood on the opposite side of the imperial clan.

This was political strife.

Li Miao could casually state the exact population of Lord Luo's family, which meant that from the beginning, the Embroidered Uniform Guard had murderous intent toward him. It was just that something Cao Hanyan didn't know happened during the period, perhaps some benefit exchange, which allowed him to be sent out as an official and escape a disaster.

But now, he had stuck his head under Li Miao's blade himself.

The crime of "colluding with the Embroidered Uniform Guard, bribery and corruption" might not be big enough, and the crime of "embezzling property" was also a bit lacking.

But the crime of "colluding with the Ming Cult, attempting to rebel" was enough to stuff everyone the Embroidered Uniform Guard needed to implicate into it.

What? You say you didn't collude with the Ming Cult?

Then where did the Ming Cult stronghold and martial arts manuals in your hands come from?

The Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Commander gave them to you... well, sorry, this Battalion Commander accidentally poked his little finger into his nostril while washing his face a few days ago, bled uncontrollably, and died on the spot. You say the wounds on his corpse? Oh, he fell himself when he was reanimated, and it absolutely has nothing to do with the Embroidered Uniform Guard's family law.

No accomplices? Still not clear-headed.

Otherwise, why not pull out a fingernail, grind your teeth, refresh your spirit, and then we'll continue to chat?

Cao Hanyan looked Lord Luo up and down; floating footsteps, weak hands and feet, fair skin, a weak scholar look. Once he entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard's imperial prison, within a cup of tea, even if he were asked to confess that he rebelled with his own father, he would agree.

With this blade, Lord Li could probably cut off many heads that were usually hard to deal with along Lord Luo's relationship network.

Cao Hanyan carried his blade and walked forward slowly.

He scanned the surrounding garrison troops, turned the blade in his hand, and the back of the blade faced forward.

Lord Luo's face was pale, and he had completely lost his previous official prestige. Seeing Cao Hanyan walking toward him, he couldn't help but step back, tripped, instinctively reached out to grab his side but grabbed nothing, and sat down on the ground with a thud.

He turned his head in astonishment to look at his side, but there was no one there. Looking behind him, he saw the subordinate official who had been fawning over him and supporting him just now had quietly stepped back a few steps by tacit agreement.

Seeing him look over, they turned their heads one after another. Some looked at their feet, some looked at the sky, some sighed and closed their eyes; no one was willing to look him in the eye.

Lord Luo knew that they had heard it too.

Knowing so much about the court affairs in the capital, and being able to state the number of people in the families of these high officials so accurately... the key was that when mentioning the Battalion Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who colluded with him, that sentence "traitorous beast."

Li Miao's identity was already about to be revealed.

"You, you—"

Lord Luo's lips trembled, then his face turned ashen, and finally he gritted his teeth and shouted loudly.

"Sect Master Hua, listen to me!"

"Forget about the matter over there, come over and kill—"

Hua Zhixiu, on the other side, had exchanged a blow with Gao Anyu and felt his hands go numb. He felt that the boy's martial arts foundation was so thick that he couldn't find any flaws, and the original plan to kill and capture quickly had basically failed, so he was feeling unhappy.

Just at this moment, he heard Lord Luo's shout, made a "tsk" in his mouth, didn't even have the intention to look back, and flashed to Gao Anyu's side, using the figures of the disciples to cover himself.

The black ruler was handed out silently, intending to drill into Gao Anyu's waist. Gao Anyu seemed to notice, his right fist pulled down to block, but it was already too late!

A look of joy appeared on Hua Zhixiu's face—at this moment!

*BOOM!!!

A mountain-collapsing and earth-shattering explosion, accompanied by splashing gravel and air waves, exploded behind him!

Hua Zhixiu was focused on his attack, and this scared him into a shiver.

With this shiver, his move slowed by a point and was dodged by Gao Anyu.

But Hua Zhixiu had no time to regret this missed opportunity and turned his head to look behind him with a pale face.

He had attended the Moon Appreciation Banquet at Mount Song.

Such a huge commotion, if it wasn't someone firing a cannon to blow up his Profound Clarity Sect's mountain gate... then it was a Heavenly Human making a move!

A middle-aged man's face flashed in his mind... he knew it! How could Gao and Cao follow a person who didn't know martial arts? There must be something strange!

But he didn't know it was—hmm!?

Hua Zhixiu's eyes widened.

A blade mark extended from the mountain gate to behind him, fully dozens of zhang long, the widest part fully a foot wide, and at the end of the narrowest blade mark, it was also a palm wide.

Along the two sides of this blade mark, the garrison troops had all fallen to the ground, some with broken limbs, some with blood overflowing from their mouths and noses, all rolling on the ground. Although they were all alive, they had no strength to fight again.

The blade mark continued to extend forward, bringing Hua Zhixiu's gaze from the ground to the back of the blade, and finally brought the person who slashed this blade into his line of sight.

It wasn't Li Miao as he had thought.

It was Cao Hanyan.

He was leaning on the hilt of his blade, sweat flowing down his face, panting heavily, seemingly at the end of his rope.

But with the previous blade, no one dared to test whether he still had any strength left. Everyone who witnessed that blade was silent as a cicada, looking at him.

That blade used the back of the blade, and it didn't hack a human body, but the ground. Just the aftermath blew away all the garrison troops guarding in front of Lord Luo, and they fell to the ground like dumplings.

If he had used the edge of the blade... I'm afraid that inside this Profound Clarity Sect's mountain gate, a real rain of blood would have fallen.

After a long while, Cao Hanyan seemed to have caught his breath, slowly straightened up, and walked toward Lord Luo.

Lord Luo had been scared out of his wits, was grabbed by the back of his neck, struggled twice, was kicked in the ribs again, rolled his eyes, and fainted, and was dragged to Li Miao like a dead dog by Cao Hanyan.

*Thud.

Cao Hanyan threw Lord Luo on the ground, looked at Li Miao cautiously, clasped his hands, and bowed.

"My lord... I..."

"Forget it, you have this kind of temperament, it's not wrong."

Li Miao waved his hand.

Cao Hanyan was kind-hearted after all. Li Miao had passed an internal energy to him with the Wedding Dress Divine Art, intending for him to capture Lord Luo and Hua Zhixiu, and by the way, conclude the Profound Clarity Sect matter.

Fighting such ruffians, Li Miao was too lazy to do it one by one. Letting Cao Hanyan experience the realm above the peak in advance was also beneficial to his martial arts progress.

But Cao Hanyan was unwilling to hurt the lives of these garrison troops; he didn't have the capacity to care before, so he could only minimize the damage. But with the internal energy Li Miao gave him, he had a choice.

He chose to use the back of the blade, stimulate the internal energy at once, and use the aftermath to shake away those garrison troops.

But doing so also exhausted the internal energy Li Miao passed to him, and also left hidden injuries in his meridians, so he couldn't receive Li Miao's internal energy for the time being.

He went against Li Miao's meaning and also pushed the trouble of concluding the Profound Clarity Sect matter back to Li Miao. So he bowed to Li Miao, wanting to plead guilty.

What could Li Miao do?

His subordinates were a bunch of bad seeds; as long as he gave an order, they wouldn't hesitate to do anything harmful.

Taking such a good person as Cao Hanyan as a subordinate was originally to rectify the atmosphere. Li Miao could only accept the mistakes he made because of his kindness.

Li Miao turned to look at Hua Zhixiu, smiled, wiped his face, secretly operated the "Li Family Wedding Dress Divine Art," moved the flesh and blood that had changed position back to its original place, and revealed his true face.

The black ruler in Hua Zhixiu's hand fell to the ground with a *clatter*.

He said in despair.

"My, my lord..."

Gao Anyu widened his eyes and looked left and right.

"Who? Who is the lord? How many lords are there here?"

"Where is my Uncle Li?"

"Brother Cao! Where did Uncle Li go?"