Chapter 26: Repelling the Grandmaster, Slaying the Young Noble

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The Golden-Crowned Knight was young and full of fire, forever ready to trade his life for another’s. Gongsun Boyang, though advanced in years, had no desire to die just yet.

A warrior must possess courage, but not blind recklessness. Had Gongsun Boyang exchanged wounds for wounds at every turn, he would never have lived to this age—certainly not for the sake of a mere Gongzi Jiu.

Thus, Gongsun Boyang retreated sharply, avoiding the halberd’s edge. The power of the astral force surging from his right hand was reduced by a full seventy percent, yet it still struck the Golden-Crowned Knight squarely in the chest from afar.

“Boom!”

The heavy, resonant impact rang out like a great bell. The two plates of armor over Lu Wu’s chest buckled and caved inward, stamped with the unmistakable imprint of a palm.

Lu Wu’s body tilted slightly backward, then he sat upright again as though nothing had happened.

Innate astral force was indeed immensely powerful. But to say that, after seventy percent of its strength had been diminished, it could still injure Lu Wu’s body of golden bones and jade marrow after striking armor infused with the true energy of the Nine Netherworld Sea would have been absurd.

Black God flew into a rage!

In his heart, his master was invincible—and whenever his master sat upon his back, Lord Black God was invincible as well.

How dare this withered old man attack Lord Black God? Worse, he had struck his master! This was intolerable—an outright act of insubordination.

Black God therefore drove all four hooves into the ground, urging the blood qi throughout his body into a violent eruption. His massive frame charged forward like a maddened wild bull, his jaws opening wide as he lunged to bite the withered old man.

Black God had only a saddle. He had never worn reins or a bit.

This was not because Lu Wu spoiled him.

In truth, for a true master of military martial arts, controlling a horse without reins was merely a basic skill.

A military martial artist had to wield heavy, oversized weapons with both hands amid battle. Where could he find a hand to spare for tugging at reins?

Besides, if a warhorse needed to have the reins pulled before it could understand its master’s signal, how could its reaction speed possibly be sufficient to accompany its master through an army in chaos, where danger lurked at every turn?

Therefore, the true warhorses capable of fighting alongside great generals were all ridden without reins.

Black God was fierce, but in the eyes of a martial grandmaster like Gongsun Boyang, he was nothing more than a beast rushing to its own death.

The true threat remained the Golden-Crowned Knight on his back.

As Black God erupted into motion, the long halberd in the knight’s hands swept through the air like a war banner. The Azure Dragon Roiling the Seas Halberd churned up a vast curtain of clouds and mist before he swung it down. Wrapped in billowing vapor, it descended with the force of a collapsing sky and an overturned sea.

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The Azure Dragon Roiling the Seas Halberd—Turning Rivers and Seas, Rolling Up Giant Waves!

Before the halberd even fell, a vortex-like force had already formed, seeking to drag the martial grandmaster Gongsun Boyang beneath its blade.

Lu Wu wrapped vast quantities of the world’s vital energy in the true energy of the Nine Netherworld Sea, then used the Azure Dragon Roiling the Seas Halberd to shake the air itself, producing water vapor to serve as its medium. When the halberd came down, it truly possessed the might to crush heaven and earth beneath it.

Against an ordinary expert, even a second-grade innate master who had achieved unity between heaven and humanity, this strike would have slain its target as easily as chopping vegetables.

But against a martial grandmaster, its power was still insufficient.

Gongsun Boyang advanced instead of retreating. His palms turned like wheels, and his innate true energy surged up like raging breakers, scattering the clouds and vapor carried by Lu Wu’s halberd. His bare hands shattered the halberd’s advance, and he was about to close in on Lu Wu when Lu Wu forced him back with a technique that left both sides wounded.

Black God charged again and again with his master upon his back, only to be driven back each time.

The two men had exchanged blows for no more than a few moments when clouds and mist began to ripple and spread without end, shrouding a radius of thirty feet. The scene within gradually vanished from sight. All that could be heard was the ceaseless ringing of the long halberd, accompanied by repeated clashes that sounded like enormous thunderbolts exploding.

Fragments of bluestone shot outward like crossbow bolts, striking the armor of the surrounding Imperial Guards and leaving one dent after another.

When some unlucky soldier was struck in the palm, the face, or another unarmored place, the result was bleeding at best and collapsing on the spot at worst.

Gongzi Jiu had already leapt from his horse and begun backing away.

He had practiced a little martial arts, but only to strengthen his body. He had chosen the Harmonious Qi Method, which emphasized health and longevity, rather than the military martial arts skilled in horsemanship. If one were to rely on the King of Wu to charge into battle and slay the enemy, the state of Wu would not last long.

Thus, remaining on horseback was unsafe.

Ahead, the Golden-Crowned Knight and Gongsun Boyang were fighting with lethal intensity. Gongzi Jiu retreated step by step, taking care—as though playing a game of eagle catching chicks—to remain cautiously within the dead angle behind Gongsun Boyang.

Only after retreating more than a hundred feet did Gongzi Jiu finally breathe a sigh of relief. At that distance, he was more or less safe.

Yet when he looked at the dense fog shrouding half the street, contracting and expanding by turns, he felt a headache coming on again.

He had brought the Imperial Guards to reinforce General Yang Hu of the Eastern Defense Army and deal with the great general Luo Gan. But now these two monsters were blocking the way and battling furiously. How was he supposed to get past them?

The bluestone road had been lowered by a full foot, exposing the yellow earth beneath. The surrounding Imperial Guards had long since withdrawn far into the distance, terrified of being swept into the battle and reduced to corpses without remains.

This was no needless fear. Several unlucky men, unable to retreat because trees stood behind them, had already been swallowed by the fog. They then collapsed silently to the ground, looking in no way as though they could possibly have survived.

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Hiding far behind a martial grandmaster was certainly safe. But if that old bastard Luo Gan broke out of the city and raised the banner of rebellion, putting down the revolt would become exceedingly troublesome.

At that thought, hatred rose once more in Gongzi Jiu’s heart—not toward the Golden-Crowned Knight, but toward Gongsun Boyang, the martial grandmaster of Chu who had just saved his life.

By appearing so openly and speaking those words, Gongsun Boyang had effectively placed Gongzi Jiu’s collusion with Chu in full view of the world. Wu and Chu harbored a deep enmity toward one another. Though a ruler put profit first, this was still a vulnerable point that could be exploited.

Apart from the trusted guards at his side, even the royal court’s retainers were looking at him strangely.

If that old bastard Luo Gan seized upon this weakness and called upon the military to rebel, Gongzi Jiu would indeed find it difficult to explain himself.

The ideal outcome would be for the Golden-Crowned Knight and Gongsun Boyang to suffer mutual ruin. Then, with a single order from him, the Imperial Guards and the royal court’s retainers could attack at the same time and surround and kill them both.

That would eliminate the threat posed by the Golden-Crowned Knight while also clearing his name of collusion with Chu. It would be perfect beyond imagining.

But such good fortune existed only in his thoughts.

The hotheaded young Golden-Crowned Knight was one thing. Youths acted on impulse; perhaps he truly would fight until death. But Gongsun Boyang, the martial grandmaster of Chu, was an old fox. He would never place himself in danger.

Something was wrong!

The instant this thought occurred to him, Gongzi Jiu understood. Without another word, he turned and ran, abandoning even the retainers, guards, and two battalions of Imperial Guards around him.

But from within the clouds and mist shrouding half the long street came a sudden clear whistle. A figure burst through the fog, soared three dozen feet into the air, then crossed nearly a hundred feet through the void before vanishing behind a tall wall. In the blink of an eye, he was gone without a trace.

The sound of hooves rang out once more as a man and horse burst from the mist.

The golden crown atop the Golden-Crowned Knight’s head had long since disappeared. Only half his armor remained, hanging from his body in tatters. The crescent blade of his long halberd appeared slightly bent, and even the enormous black horse beneath him seemed unable to put much strength into one of its forelegs as it ran.

Even so, the black horse’s charge remained astonishingly swift. Two loyal guards and a retainer who had failed to get out of the way were struck by a single sweep of the Golden-Crowned Knight’s halberd—one dead and two wounded. Nothing could delay him for even a moment.

Gongzi Jiu had just opened his mouth when the slightly warped long halberd swept across his throat.

He felt only a faint chill at his neck. Then darkness descended before his eyes.

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