Chapter 439

"Attack!"

Tianmen Daoist couldn't be bothered with so much; after Feng Buping gave the order, he raised his sword and charged straight in.

Behind him, Taishan disciples immediately raised their swords and rushed forward.

The Huashan disciples were caught off guard, and on top of that their Wu Gong was nothing special.

The moment they engaged, they were slaughtered into utter chaos.

"What, Left Sect Leader Zuo didn't hear my words?"

Feng Buping gave a cold snort and cast a hostile glance at Zuo Lengchan.

"Enough! They're just his Huashan disciples anyway…"

Zuo Lengchan's heart skipped a beat under his stare, and he immediately waved his hand and barked,

"Go! Every last one on Huashan — leave nothing alive, man or beast!"

"Kill…"

The Songshan Sect had the most disciples, and also the most experts.

At Zuo Lengchan's command, the Songshan Sect disciples surged out in unison.

Before long, Huashan had become a living hell.

273 — Besieging Wu Dang!

Great Ming, the Forbidden City!

Since throwing in with the Qinglong Society, the changes in the Great Ming court had actually been minor.

Apart from the Emperor being swapped for the Prince of Nan's Shizi, who looked exactly like Zhu Houzhao, there were no other major differences.

Only today, the Great Ming Realm had fallen into chaos.

"Your Majesty! We just received word from the Embroidered Uniform Guard — the Huashan Sect has already been destroyed, and Yue Buqun is dead."

In the imperial study, the Prince of Nan's Shizi listened quietly to his subordinate's report.

"Additionally, near Mount Wudang, both the righteous and the unrighteous have gathered no fewer than five thousand men."

"By our estimate, they'll strike within the next few days."

"Have they lost their minds?"

The Prince of Nan's Shizi had actually been somewhat calm — after all, the Huashan Sect was dispensable.

But the Great Ming Wu Dangpai was nothing like the Qitamen Sect!

The founding patriarch of the Great Ming Wu Dangpai was one of the Qinglong Society's Seven Dragon Heads!

Destroying the Huashan Sect wouldn't draw an especially fierce retaliation from the Qinglong Society.

But if Wu Dangpai were destroyed, the Qinglong Society would surely show the world what truly savage meant.

That wasn't even the crux.

The crux was that the Prince of Nan's Shizi was now the Great Ming Emperor on the surface.

Wu Dangpai was under his rule.

If he sat by and watched Wu Dangpai be destroyed, not only would the throne he'd only just gotten his hands on be gone, his life would be forfeit too.

"Quick — send orders to Lu Xiaofeng, take the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the Western Depot men, and rescue Wu Dangpai for me immediately."

"Your Majesty…"

The Eastern Depot's Provincial Military Commander Cao Zhengchun suddenly spoke up,

"We just received scout reports — the Nine Borders' heavy defense, the Ten Great Generals seem unstable."

"What's the exact situation?"

To the north of the Nine Borders' heavy defense lay the Great Yuan Dynasty.

The Ten Great Generals were also the ten generals of the Nine Borders' heavy defense who hold significant power.

Seventy or eighty percent of the Great Ming realm's armies were in their hands.

Previously, Zhu Wushi had relied on the secret reports of the Shanzhuang to get the measure of the Ten Great Generals and nearly brought them under his control.

After the Prince of Nan's Shizi took the throne, he carried out a reshuffle of the Ten Great Generals.

Not to say they were absolutely loyal now, but at least there shouldn't be any major problems, right?

"Zhu Tie Dan has returned."

There was a hint of excitement in Cao Zhengchun's tone.

He had wrestled with Zhu Wushi for half a lifetime; last time Zhu Wushi had fled in disgrace, he'd even felt a twinge of regret.

Now that Zhu Wushi had returned, it was as if he'd found an opponent again.

"Didn't I already reshuffle some of the generals?"

"How can this Zhu Wushi still influence the Ten Great Generals?"

The Prince of Nan's Shizi found it very strange.

"But even if the Nine Borders are unstable, Wu Dangpai's safety is paramount."

"Here's what we'll do! Lu Xiaofeng takes the Grand Palace Secret Agents and the Western Depot men to Mount Wudang."

"And dispatch two of the three National Guardian Revered."

"Wu Dangpai's safety is the top priority."

"Cao Zhengchun, you go and get to the bottom of the situation at the Nine Borders' heavy defense."

"I grant you the authority to act on your own judgment — if Zhu Wushi really has come back, just kill him on the spot!"

Even if Zhu Wushi had incited the Ten Great Generals to force him off the throne,

The Prince of Nan's Shizi could at worst pack up and run, and go find the Qinglong Society.

The Qinglong Society would absolutely not sit by and watch the Great Ming Emperor they had propped up be replaced by Zhu Wushi.

But if he ignored the Wu Dangpai, he, the Emperor, could absolutely forget about keeping his throne.

Therefore, after a brief moment of thought, the Wang Shizi threw the bulk of the Great Ming forces into rescuing the Wu Dangpai.

"As you command!"

The assembled civil and military importance ministers of the Great Ming naturally could tell which mattered more, and accepted the order at once before departing.

……

A few days later, the five thousand experts from both the orthodox and unorthodox paths gathered at the foot of Mount Wudang, and true to form began their assault from all directions.

Last time, the five great sects had gone up Mount Wudang together, hunting for Zhang Cuishan to press him about Xie Xun's whereabouts and the whereabouts of the Dragon-Slaying Saber.

Zhang Sanfeng had gone with the flow and joined the Qinglong Society, becoming one of the Seven Dragon Heads.

The Qinglong Society then struck, nearly slaughtering the five great sects to the last.

Only these five great sects had always been among the most prominent sects of the Great Ming, Yunzhou Shaolin in particular.

Their core disciples and disciples had, in that great calamity, been almost entirely killed off.

But many outer disciples, affiliated powers, and their relatives and friends were all still alive.

The reason so many as five thousand experts had gathered this time was that these people formed the core of that force.

After Zhang Sanfeng departed the Wu Dangpai, the position of sect leader had been taken up by Song Yuanqiao.

And because of Zhang Sanfeng, countless Wu Zhiren wished to join Mount Wudang.

Only Wu Dang Wu Gong placed great emphasis on innate comprehension.

So much so that, after all this development, the Wu Dangpai's disciples had only just barely passed the two hundred mark.

When something unusual appeared at the foot of the mountain, the Wu Dangqixia had already sensed that something was off.

They invited out the Seven Elders of Wu Dang to discuss countermeasures together.

Only the most crucial among them, Mu Daoren, was not on the mountain, having gone off on a Qinglong Society mission.

After several days of discussion, beyond assigning disciples to hold the various passes and going to seek aid from the Qinglong Society, they had come up with nothing else.

With so many experts now charging up the mountain, Song Yuanqiao could only assign experts to go intercept them.

The great battle began; on Mount Wudang, beacons of war flared everywhere.

After half a day of bloody fighting, several passes had already fallen.

Yu Daiyan, whose arm had originally been healed by the Qinglong Society, now with one arm broken, retreated to the Hall of True Warrior with several disciples drenched in blood.

"Daiyan, how could you be wounded so gravely?"

Song Yuanqiao looked at his junior brother's grievous injuries, grief welling in his heart.

"Big Brother, of the Seven Elders, apart from Mu Daoren, all have died in battle…"

Yu Daiyan's expression was wretched and panicked; just now, had it not been for a Wu Dang elder who fought to the death to cover the retreat, his injuries would have been far worse than a single broken arm.