"Oh, right. The wedding is the priority. Ying, ng, we can discuss the details later. Let’s finish the ceremony first."
"...Yes, yes." Ying Jiuxin snapped back to his senses and cupped his fist. "The wedding has only just begun. We can talk after it’s over."
"Indeed." ng Ao cupped his hands in salute, then soared into the air and quickly vanished.
Ying Jiuxin also cupped his fist before flying back toward the Royal Palace, his great shout booming at the sa ti.
"The wedding continues!"
The echo of the last word lingered, ringing in everyone’s ears.
The crowd, still stunned, shocked, and dazed, was suddenly jolted from their stupor. A commotion was about to erupt instinctively.
"Enter the palace!"
Ying Jiuxin’s voice rang out at just the right mont, an invisible force perating the air in and out of the Royal Palace gates, blanketing the entire street.
Everyone who heard him felt a tremor in their very spirit, and they subconsciously resud their previous actions.
The orchestra started playing again, the guards resud their march, the flower-strewers began to strew, the drumrs began to drum...
It was as if everyone was being controlled, chanically proceeding with the rest of the wedding ceremony.
Of course, there were a few exceptions.
Riding his horse alongside Gu Zheng, Cao Qingsong had twisted his body to the side. His eyes were wide and his mouth was agape as he stared dumbly at Gu Zheng.
"You... You..."
"...You’ve ascended to the King’s Body Realm?" Cao Qingsong asked as if in a trance, letting his tall steed walk slowly onward as he sat astride it.
"I just had a fortunate breakthrough," Gu Zheng replied softly.
Cao Qingsong: "..."
His head was spinning, as if a dozen drums were being beaten inside his skull, rattling his very soul.
’Fortunate?’
’Damn it all, since when was ascending to the King’s Body Realm sothing you could achieve through sheer ’fortune’?!’
Cao Qingsong recalled what Gu Zheng had told him last night: he had gone on a trip to a Domain, had so sort of harvest, and had therefore entered seclusion to cultivate for half a month.
’So his so-called ’harvest’ was ascending to the King’s Body Realm!’
’And he possesses three Domains right after breaking through!’
’Three Domains, attacking from above and below, crushed his opponent’s Domain in under thirty seconds.’
’Is that sothing a human is even capable of?’
’Especially since Gu Zheng is only in his early twenties...’
’A King’s Body in his early twenties!!’
Cao Qingsong scread internally, his face slack and his throat feeling as if it were choked shut.
The other Heroic Body Realm cultivators had much the sa reaction.
For the marriage alliance between the two countries, the Wind Kingdom had dispatched about twenty Heroic Body Realm experts to maintain order.
Every single one of them had been completely stunned by the battle between King’s Body experts.
It wasn’t that they had never seen King’s Body experts fight before.
It was that this particular battle had begun with shocking suddenness and ended just as swiftly.
Especially since one of the combatants possessed three Domains!
Three Domains had ganged up on one, and the latter had shattered far too quickly.
In their astonishnt, they all looked at Gu Zheng.
Gu Zheng, the Escort General from Jing Country who was supposed to be in the Heroic Body Realm.
’How in the world did he suddenly beco a King’s Body?!’
"Zhong... Zhong, the fact that... Grand General Gu is a King’s Body... You’ve been hiding it all this ti, haven’t you?" At the entrance to the Royal Palace, a Vice Director of the Dragon Guard Bureau stared at Zhong Zhengao in amazent, his voice filled with disbelief.
"I..." Zhong Zhengao opened his mouth but didn’t answer.
’He desperately wanted to say he didn’t know.’
’Because before this, he had no idea either!’
’Gu Zheng is a King’s Body?’
’A powerful King’s Body who possessed three Domains and could defeat another’s Domain with such ease?’
’This... Damn it all, he didn’t want to believe it either!’
"Three Domains..."
Inside the Royal Palace, Ying Jiucang gazed toward the entrance, his face a mask of astonishnt, his eyes filled with yearning.
"If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would find it impossible to imagine that a newly advanced King’s Body could shatter an opponent’s Domain so quickly."
"...Indeed," Ying Jiuyue agreed from the side, sighing in admiration. "Three Domains. I truly have no idea how Gu Zheng managed to manifest them."
"Father Emperor, the King’s Body from the Changsheng Clan... he was cut into more than a dozen pieces, but he isn’t dead, is he?" Ying Ziqi couldn’t help but ask. "Gu Zheng used his three Domains in a pincer attack from above and below to shatter Changsheng Zhentai’s Domain. But how did he manage to tear Changsheng Zhentai’s physical body into over a dozen pieces?"
"It seed... he used a weapon?"
Hearing this, Ying Jiucang recalled, "There’s no mistake. It was a powerful weapon, one on par with a Divine Weapon!"
HISS...
Ying Ziqi sucked in a sharp breath, his face filled with envy. "What incredible luck! What amazing fortune! Gu Zheng went into a Domain and not only found a treasure that let him break through to the King’s Body Realm, but also acquired a weapon on par with a Divine Weapon. His luck is unbelievable!"
"Not necessarily," Ying Jiuyue said, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "A weapon on par with a Divine Weapon... Gu Zheng might have had it all along. He just chose today to reveal it."
Ying Ziqi fell silent. "That’s a real possibility."
For soone not yet at the King’s Body Realm, revealing a weapon on par with a Divine Weapon is simply courting death.
"Alright."
Ying Jiucang exhaled. "Forget about Changsheng Zhentai. The key is to get on good terms with Gu Zheng. The wedding is about to resu. I’ll go see him now and invite him to be the officiant!"
...
Be the officiant?
Gu Zheng politely declined without a mont’s hesitation.
He was indifferent to the marriage alliance between the Jing and Wind Kingdoms.
He had no connection to either the Ninth Princess or Ying Zishou, and certainly no fondness for them.
Under these circumstances, Gu Zheng had neither the ti nor the inclination to serve as their officiant and potentially invite future trouble upon himself.
Compared to that, thoroughly dealing with Changsheng Zhentai was the more pressing matter.
The speed at which his three simultaneously-unleashed Domains had shattered Changsheng Zhentai’s Domain had been faster than even Gu Zheng himself had anticipated.
Thinking back, he realized that a major reason for Changsheng Zhentai’s swift defeat was that there was sothing wrong with the man himself.
His mind wasn’t right!
His thoughts were unfocused and his mind was in turmoil, preventing him from unleashing his Domain’s true power after activating it.
After all, maintaining a Domain was linked to one’s mind and willpower.
Whether they were at the Super Body, Heroic Body, or King’s Body Realm, everyone from the Changsheng Clan had so sort of ntal problem.
Therefore, even when they manifested a Domain, they couldn’t operate it at full strength.
This gave Gu Zheng an opening. His three Domains, attacking from above and below, shattered it with ease.
The mont Changsheng Zhentai’s Domain shattered, Gu Zheng summoned the Heaven-piercing Halberd. With a series of rapid flashes, he diced Changsheng Zhentai into more than a dozen pieces.
The physical bodies of the Changsheng Clan were such that they wouldn’t die imdiately even if cut into dozens of pieces.
Gu Zheng wrapped the dozen-odd mutilated body parts in his Divine Wondrous energy, scattered them, and flung them into the air, sending them shooting off in different directions.
He then resud escorting the procession into the Royal Palace, completing the final leg of the journey and fulfilling his last duty.
Only then did he leave the Royal Palace to locate Changsheng Zhentai’s scattered remains.
He gathered all the pieces and began to sense for the Tunnels Between Two Realms in the surrounding area.
He then flew to each tunnel entrance he found, tossing one piece of Changsheng Zhentai’s body into each one, sending them flying toward the Demon Realm on the other side.
This had been an experint.
Changsheng Zhentai was a King’s Body expert, and conventionally, the physical body of a King’s Body could not pass through a low-level tunnel.
Gu Zheng hadn’t been sure if it would work if the body was cut into over a dozen pieces.
As it turned out, a single piece of Changsheng Zhentai’s shattered body was indeed small enough to enter a tunnel and fly through to the Demon Realm on the other side.
The only issue was that as each piece passed through a Tunnel Between Two Realms, it forcefully carved a clear trajectory through the fabric of space.
In a third-rank tunnel, the trail was relatively faint.
In a first-rank tunnel, however, the trail was very deep.
If Gu Zheng hadn’t thrown the pieces with his full power, they nearly wouldn’t have made it through the first-rank tunnels at all.
Piece by piece, Changsheng Zhentai’s entire body entered the Demon Realm.
Even if he wasn’t dead yet, he could forget about ever recovering.
Scattered across more than a dozen Tunnels Between Two Realms, how could he possibly reassemble himself?
Not unless other mbers of the Changsheng Clan went into the tunnels and retrieved each piece of his body.
But Gu Zheng had no intention of giving them that chance.
...
「Back in the Wind Kingdom Capital.」
Gu Zheng went directly to Ying Jiuxin. "Ying," he asked, "do you happen to know where the Ancestral Land of the Changsheng Clan is located?"
"..."
Ying Jiuxin’s heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained unchanged. "Gu, what are you planning?" he asked.
"You should be aware of the enmity between myself and the Changsheng Clan by now, Ying,"
Gu Zheng replied calmly. "As far as I’m concerned, since an offense has been made, it’s best to resolve it sooner rather than later to avoid future complications."
Ying Jiuxin was silent.
’...So decisive! So ruthless!’
’If you don’t want to leave any loose ends, you have to rip the problem out by the roots!’
User Comments
0 comments from readers