105: I'll send you off first, then send him off! [Explosive update, please give me good reviews (＾ω＾)]

The Emperor looked up, his gaze fixed on the tightly shut palace doors, as if he could pierce through the thick palace walls and see the figure on the city wall, single-handedly turning the tide.

The shouts of “Long Live the Great Ming! Long Live the Sword Saint!” now sounded particularly grating in his ears.

“Grand Companion Feng,” the Emperor’s voice suddenly deepened, carrying an undeniable gravitas, “Let’s go. To the city wall, to see my brother.”

“Yes! This old servant obeys Your Majesty’s command!”

Feng Bao’s heart trembled. Without daring to delay, he bowed and quickly backed out.

“Sword Saint, Your Majesty has arrived!”

“Big Brother.”

The Emperor walked over with a smile, embracing Lu Jiuyuan tightly and patting his shoulder.

“Second Brother, you’ve worked hard. Seven days and seven nights, your sword held the capital, one man and one sword, blocking one hundred thousand rebel troops at the city gates. This achievement will be glorious for a thousand autumns!”

“Brother, you are a myth!” The Emperor’s voice suddenly rose: “You have accomplished what countless others could not.

Brother, you helped me guard the empire, and I will help you become a god, help you become a myth, unparalleled throughout history, written into the annals of history.”

“Second Brother, the central army is less than a thousand zhang away! I want you to enter the enemy camp again! Pass through those tens of thousands of rebel troops and bring me Zhu Zaiye’s head!

Let everyone in the world see that my Great Ming is protected by a Celestial Being. Those who dare to defy me, even if they hide among a myriad of soldiers, will not escape divine retribution!”

Lu Jiuyuan followed the Emperor’s finger and looked towards the central army camp.

“Big Brother, are you sure you want me to go there?” Lu Jiuyuan asked softly.

“My brother is invincible under heaven. Taking the head of a general from a million-strong army is like taking something from one’s pocket. Brother, I believe in you! You can do it!” the Emperor said with a smile.

“I will wait for your return, and I will personally officiate your marriage with Xue’er. Xue’er is a good girl; I’ve decided to recognize her as my sister, the Eldest Princess of my Great Ming.

Brother, what do you think?”

Lu Jiuyuan looked ahead and sighed in his heart. He had already decided to leave this world and had intended to leave behind a good story, a myth!

However, this Big Brother, recorded in history as stingy and ungrateful, ultimately disappointed him.

“I think it’s excellent!”

“Big Brother, just watch from here and wait for my return!” Lu Jiuyuan gently caressed the Guhong Sword.

“Good brother, I’ll be right here, waiting for your return!”

Lu Jiuyuan’s gaze swept over the dense rebel camp, landing on the high-flying apricot-yellow banner of the central army.

A thousand zhang distance, killing intent boiled like hot soup.

Lu Jiuyuan said nothing, merely gently brushing off the Emperor’s hand.

He straightened his clothes, touched the three remaining embroidered needles, and his azure robes flapped loudly in the bloody wind.

He moved.

He did not leap from the city wall, but rather, as if riding the wind, he stepped out of the parapet, his toes touching a point in the Void Realm!

“Om—!”

The Guhong Sword swung in response!

There was no earth-shattering sword cry, only a streak of condensed, ultimate cold light, tearing through the murky air, and also tearing through the terrified gazes of countless rebel soldiers below!

“Shoot arrows! Stop him!”

“The Sword Devil is coming down! Shield formation! Form ranks!”

Piercing screams instantly erupted!

The archers in the rebel rear reflexively raised their bows and crossbows. A cloud of arrows, like a dark swarm, shot towards the azure figure descending through the air, accompanied by an ear-splitting whistle!

Arrows tore through the air, dense as a sudden downpour!

Lu Jiuyuan was in mid-air, but his figure strangely twisted!

Triple speed!

Time in his perception suddenly became viscous and sluggish.

The trajectories of the shooting arrows became clearly visible, like slowly swimming fish.

His toes tapped several times on the shafts of arrows that brushed past him. With each light tap, his body gained leverage and rose higher, twisting again!

His azure robes weaved and fluttered through the dense rain of arrows, so fast that only afterimages remained, like a gravity-defying phantom dancing gracefully in the gaps of death!

“Stop him! Form a shield wall!”

The rebel soldiers on the ground finally reacted. Several elite infantry units closest to the central army roared, their massive iron-clad shields clanging together, “Clang, clang, clang,”

Instantly erecting a ten-foot-high steel barrier in front of Lu Jiuyuan’s landing point! Spears, like a forest, thrust out menacingly from the gaps in the shields, glinting with deadly cold light!

Lu Jiuyuan’s figure finally descended, but not in front of the shield wall.

Like a meteor, he violently smashed directly onto the top of the shield wall!

The Guhong Sword in his hand drew a cold, desolate arc of light!

“Tear—!”

An ear-splitting sound of metal tearing erupted! Sparks flew everywhere!

The giant iron-clad wooden shields, forged from fine iron and several inches thick, were easily pierced by the Guhong Sword’s edge as if they were rotten wood!

Where the sword light passed, blood gushed like a fountain!

Lu Jiuyuan’s figure had already passed through the gap in the shattered shield wall like a ghost!

“Kill!”

“Stop him!”

Behind the shield wall was a square formation of heavy infantry, already poised for battle, clad in heavy armor and wielding long weapons!

Blades, spears, swords, and halberds, accompanied by dull whooshing sounds, fiercely thrust and chopped from all directions towards the azure figure in the center!

They intended to grind this audacious madman, who dared to charge the formation alone, into a pulp!

A cold glint burst forth in Lu Jiuyuan’s eyes!

Triple speed! Heavenly Demon Disintegration!

Boom! A surge of incomparably violent Internal Energy instantly erupted from his body! His azure robes billowed like sails without wind!

The Guhong Sword in his hand vanished!

No, it didn’t vanish! It was just so fast that it transformed into a flowing silver light screen, enveloping an area of about ten feet around him!

Clang, clang, clang! Thump, thump, thump, thump!

The dense, scalp-numbing sound of sharp blades entering flesh instantly exploded!

There was no collision, only the sound of flesh being pierced,

And all rebel soldiers who approached this silver light screen, whether clad in heavy or light armor, had a bloom of blood burst almost simultaneously from their throats, hearts, or foreheads... their vital points!

Hot blood shot into the sky!

Lu Jiuyuan was like an arrow. Wherever he passed, within three zhang around him, the area was instantly cleared! Leaving behind only a path of corpses spouting blood fountains.

The Guhong Sword drank blood, and a warmer, more scorching current flowed from its blade, surging into Lu Jiuyuan’s limbs and bones, dispelling the immense damage caused by Heavenly Demon Disintegration, and sustaining his superhuman speed and strength!

His footsteps did not falter, as if he were treading on waves of blood! Killing ten men with each step!

Wherever he passed, men and horses fell, and corpses lay everywhere!

He forcibly ploughed a path of flesh and blood through the dense army formation!

“Stop him! Protect the Prince Taiping!”

“Form ranks! Stop him even if you die!”

Several figures with deep, concentrated Qi and bulging temples surged out of the chaotic army formation!

Sword light like silk, palm winds like thunder!

They were clearly the top experts recruited by Prince Taiping with great wealth!

They formed a formation, attacking or defending, entangling or locking, with intricate combined techniques, intending to halt Lu Jiuyuan’s advance!

Lu Jiuyuan’s eyes were cold.

His left hand flashed, wiping across his waist, and three embroidered needles were held between his fingers!

With a flick of his wrist! Three subtle silver glints tore through the air, silent!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Three experts, about to unleash their killing moves, suddenly stiffened!

A crimson dot on their foreheads instantly expanded, the light in their eyes rapidly dimmed, and they fell to the ground without even a grunt!

Yamas Summons!

Fast! Accurate! Ruthless! Ignoring defenses! Striking directly at life!

The remaining experts were greatly shaken, and their combined attack formation instantly revealed a huge flaw!

How could Lu Jiuyuan miss this opportunity?

The Guhong Sword light surged! Like the Nine Heavens Silver River pouring down!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

As the sword light swept past, blood fountains gushed! Several heads flew into the sky! Experts lay dead!

The last barrier was shattered!

Lu Jiuyuan’s figure finally penetrated the layers of the army formation, like a meat grinder, and stepped onto the central army’s high slope!

Beneath the apricot-yellow banner, Prince Taiping, Zhu Zaiye, stood with his hand on his sword.

He was clad in dark armor, his beard and hair bristling. His former heroic demeanor, which had once awed the northern frontier, was still present, but now, on his weathered face, there was only a pale desolation mixed with shock, despair, and a final realization.

He looked at the azure figure, who had trodden a path of blood and descended before him like a god or demon.

He looked at his robes, unstained by blood, and at the strange sword in his hand, which looked more like a mace.

There was no angry roar, no struggle of a cornered beast.

A bitter smile, utterly bleak, almost of relief, appeared at the corner of Zhu Zaiye’s mouth.

“He truly is a cold-blooded and ruthless Emperor!” His voice was hoarse: “And you are truly his good brother! Do you know that he is scheming against you, that he wants you dead!”

“I know!” Lu Jiuyuan nodded: “So I came to send you on your way first, and then I’ll go send him!”