Chapter 198

"My initial instinct was right!"

"I wonder how the Qin Huang Society will react?"

Saying this.

Suddenly, he let out a soft laugh.

Yet he suddenly remembered.

Several days had passed.

Hearing Ying Zheng had still not given him an answer.

This left him in a foul mood.

But now.

He wanted to know.

After learning this news.

Would Hearing Ying Zheng still be able to sit still?!

Would he still dismiss the idea of an alliance?!

He laughed for a while.

Tie Muzhen's expression grew solemn once more.

After a brief pause, he spoke softly with a command.

"Send someone to investigate this matter thoroughly!"

"Find out whether this was done solely by the Qinglong Society or if other powers are involved!"

"As the Khan commands!"

In the darkness.

A voice suddenly rang out.

Tang Dynasty, Fengxuan Pavilion.

"Hss!!!"

"Could the Qinglong Society really be this terrifying?!"

She drew in a sharp breath.

Wu Zetian's face was filled with stunned disbelief.

Even though she thought the same as Hearing Ying Zheng.

She did not believe this incident was entirely the work of the Qinglong Society alone.

But even so.

The power the Qinglong Society had displayed was simply outrageous!

So outrageous that, even as the female emperor of Tang.

She was still shaken!

And.

Most chilling of all was this:

Who could guarantee.

That the power the Qinglong Society had shown was all they possessed?!

With this thought.

Wu Zetian felt a quiet sense of relief.

Fortunately.

Fortunately, she had not foolishly launched a full-scale war against the Qinglong Society last time.

Otherwise,

Even if Tang was not afraid,

The outcome would likely have been mutual destruction.

Leaving Qin and Yuan to profit.

She exhaled slowly.

Wu Zetian calmed her emotions and spoke with her crimson lips.

"Send someone to investigate thoroughly!"

"I want detailed intelligence!!"

"Yes!"

She heard the solemnity in her words.

Shangguan Wan bowed low and hurried away to make arrangements.

And not long after she left.

The Heavenly Dao Golden List, spanning the sky, suddenly trembled slightly.

Immediately after,

Boundless golden light illuminated the Nine Provinces.

Wu Zetian raised her slender eyebrows.

She knew this meant the Heavenly Dao Golden List was releasing a new ranking.

Curious, she rose and walked toward the palace courtyard.

The same scene unfolded across the Nine Provinces.

People everywhere tilted their heads upward, gazing in unison at the void.

A few breaths later.

The golden light dispersed.

The Heavenly Dao Golden List, as usual, displayed line after line of small characters.

【Nine Provinces Combat Power Ceiling Ranking — Second Place…】

110 — The people of the world are shaken, questioning their very lives! (Begging for subscriptions)

【Nine Provinces Combat Power Ceiling Ranking — Second Place: Ling Donglai, Cultivation: Early Mythology.】

【Identity: Wushang Sect Master, Second Dragon Head of Qinglong Society.】

【If Sect Master is merely a realm, then Wushang Sect Master is a title, an honor!】

【As the most enigmatic Wushang Sect Master on the Nine Provinces Continent — a dragon seen only at its head, never its tail — Ling Donglai is, however, little known.】

【Or rather, only those whose cultivation has reached a certain realm will have heard of this man!】

【He began learning the sword at ten, the Yi at fifteen, and achieved great mastery at thirty, glimpsing the Way of Heaven and Man; thereafter, on the Nine Provinces Continent, there was no one left who could match him.】

【He was proficient in musical instruments, the martial Dao, the Book of Changes, astronomy, and telepathy, all in one person.】

【Having roamed the jianghu for decades, he never met a true opponent; he traveled the world seeking the worthy, yet found none who could discuss the Dao with him!】

【The only two times he struck out, neither was known to the world.】

【One of those times was when he took action to suppress the "Blood Hand" Li Gong, the foremost figure of the Central Plains demonic sects.】

【In days past, the "Blood Hand" Li Gong — long called the foremost figure of the Central Plains demonic sects — had committed countless evils and killed beyond counting, which finally drew out the "Wushang Sect Master" Ling Donglai to suppress him.】

【Outside a villa in the wilds beyond Lin'an, Ling Donglai appeared to the accompaniment of a flute's melody, and Li Gong could only, without realizing it, discover that his white robe was covered with the methods to break his "Heavenly Demon Hand."】

【In the lower left corner were written the words: "Ling Donglai breaks the seventy-two forms of the Yingui Sect's Heavenly Demon Hand — specially to congratulate you."】

【That had already transcended the scope of the martial Dao, yet was in truth the very pinnacle of the martial Dao — truly terrifying beyond compare!】

【The second time he struck out was against Ximen Wudi, the Great Dragon Head of Qinglong Society.】

【Fifty years ago, Ling Donglai — who had been in seclusion at Shijue Pass, contemplating heaven and earth — was lamenting the slowness of his cultivation advancement when Ximen Wudi appeared.】

【After a discussion of the Dao with him, 【Ximen Wudi】 invited him to join Qinglong Society.】

【To this, Ling Donglai, who had nothing and no one in the world, did not refuse, but only proposed a contest.】

【He plainly meant: if you win, I'll join; if you lose, then Qinglong Society is not worth joining.】

【Ximen Wudi smiled, and so he engaged him in combat.】

【In that battle, Shijue Pass was destroyed.】

【What was startling was that Ling Donglai had actually taken one strike from Ximen Wudi in full.】

【Although part of the reason was that 【Ximen Wudi】 had not exerted his full strength.】