Chapter 65: The Shattering of Beauty

Chapter 65: Beauty Torn to Shreds

Qin Yuan glanced at Lin Dongze, who was blankly staring at Si Yunguang’s corpse.

He did not disturb him.

He gently stepped backward and exited.

Arriving outside the Stargazing Pavilion,

a fine, dense rain had begun to fall at some point.

Qin Yuan reached out to catch a raindrop, gathered it into a larger droplet, and watched it slip through his fingers.

Just like vibrant, living souls.

He pulled a flask of wine from his Qi sea and took a sip.

Looking into the distance, he murmured, "Who can drink with me, kindred spirits year after year?"

A flurry of hurried footsteps approached from afar.

Qin Yuan turned his head to look.

It was Li Shoumin, who had almost faded from his line of sight.

Unlike before, there was a combative glint in Li Shoumin’s eyes.

What was happening?

When Li Shoumin reached him, Qin Yuan asked, "Uncle Li?"

Li Shoumin pulled a stack of banknotes from the pouch he carried with him.

Denominations both large and small, he shoved them all unceremoniously into Qin Yuan’s hands.

"Sell me a piece of Dao-weapon from the Imperial Astrolabe Bureau. I'm going to Andong to join the war."

"Did one of your relatives die in battle?"

Qin Yuan asked with a solemn expression.

Qin Yuan had heard that Li Shoumin had three sons and three grandsons in the military, leaving only one grandson behind to guard the family home.

In his past life, Qin Yuan had come across a certain theory.

It said that in times of war, many contemporary people would become increasingly cowardly and afraid of death.

This was a partially incorrect statement.

People in times of war were not afraid of death because they were sustained by the power of hatred.

Imagine your elderly, kind mother being stabbed to death by the enemy right before your eyes, using her last breath to tell you to run.

Your wife and sisters being nailed to doors by the enemy and subjected to humiliating atrocities.

Your newborn child hoisted high on the tip of a bayonet.

Would you still be afraid of death then?

"Your relatives are the ones who died in battle! I just don't want to die in a bed," Li Shoumin snapped with a dark expression.

So he had grown old and wanted a hero's death.

Qin Yuan retrieved the Diamond Bracelet—the natal Dao-weapon of the deceased Chief Astrologer—from his Qi sea.

Long ago, Qin Yuan had completely altered its appearance. Even if the Chief Astrologer were to return from the dead, he would never discover the clues.

Li Shoumin snatched the Diamond Bracelet and turned to leave.

Qin Yuan handed over his unfinished flask of wine.

"Care for a parting drink for courage?"

The rich fragrance of wine wafted over them.

Li Shoumin paused, took the flask, took a large gulp, praised it as fine wine, and then smashed it fiercely onto the ground.

"See you at the cemetery."

With that, he turned and walked away.

A resolute figure growing smaller and smaller in the fine drizzle.

Qin Yuan raised his hand, then lowered it again.

When the heart harbors a fierce tiger, it cannot be held back.

But he could do something else.

A small white porcelain bottle flashed in Qin Yuan’s palm and disappeared.

"Si Yunguang reminds me of my son who died in battle."

Lin Dongze’s voice sounded.

Qin Yuan turned back to look. There was not much grief on Lin Dongze’s face.

The more one pretended on the surface that nothing was wrong, the more violent the internal rebound would be.

"When my wife died in battle, I wasn't by her side. When my son died in battle, I wasn't by his side either. I am neither a competent husband nor a competent father."

Lin Dongze took a deep breath to keep from losing his composure in front of Qin Yuan.

Others were allowed to lose their composure.

He was not.

"I'm leaving."

Lin Dongze took a step forward.

After a few steps, he stopped and said, "I bought your jujubes. The money is on your desk. I am going to Hu Bolong’s house to have a talk with him. He likes eating jujubes."

Qin Yuan: "..."

...

At Hu Bolong’s residence.

In a pitch-black secret chamber stood the envoy of the Five-Aves Immortal wearing a grey bamboo hat, and the envoy of the Gu tribe clad in black robes.

Their purpose was simple: to drag Hu Bolong into the abyss.

"Unless Immortal Zhangting and Immortal Ruiyang make a personal move, I will not make a move now."

Hu Bolong sneered inwardly.

Trying to use me as the vanguard.

Do you take me for a fool like Duan Hu or Zheng Sanfa?

The Five-Aves Immortal envoy said, "The Yuanrong does not need to worry about this. Immortal Zhangting has said that when necessary, she will descend."

After Lin Dongze became the regent, Hu Bolong had assumed the position of Yuanrong.

"Really?"

Hu Bolong wore the expression of someone who refused to let go of the hawk until he saw the rabbit.

"Really," the Five-Aves Immortal envoy said with absolute certainty.

Hu Bolong nodded in satisfaction, then cast his gaze toward the Gu tribe envoy: "And the Gu tribe?"

"The chieftain of the Strength-Gu clan and the chieftain of the Sorcery-Gu clan will personally participate in the war," the Gu tribe envoy stated.

Hu Bolong smiled. "The Gu tribe is always straightforward."

With Immortal Zhangting and the two Gu tribe chieftains,

he had a ninety percent chance of replacing Lin Dongze and returning things to the right path.

Soon, Hu Bolong put away his smile and said coldly, "The three hundred thousand Great Harmony soldiers of Eastern State are yours."

Trading the lives of three hundred thousand Great Harmony soldiers in exchange for support from both sides was the previously agreed-upon condition.

"Not three hundred thousand. One million three hundred thousand," the Five-Aves Immortal envoy corrected.

Then, he produced a map.

It marked that two million four hundred thousand demon and Gu tribe armies would assemble in the northern part of the Andong Kingdom, south of Eastern State.

"Two million four hundred thousand?"

Hu Bolong was startled. After carefully examining the map, he drew a sharp breath. "Southern Andong Kingdom, Haidong Kingdom, the various nations of Haixi, the Southern Heavenly Continent, the Far Western Continent—you have conquered them all."

Aside from conquering so many nations, Hu Bolong could not imagine where the Five-Aves Immortals and the Gu tribe could gather so many cultivators.

"We conquered them long ago," the Five-Aves Immortal envoy grinned, revealing sharp, stark-white fangs. "The Yuanrong need not be nervous. We are friends, not enemies."

"Indeed," the Gu tribe envoy nodded.

The reason they had conquered so many nations so quickly was because as long as they were willing to cooperate, not only would they spare the upper-echelon cultivators of those nations, but they would also grant them immense benefits.

"Friends."

Hu Bolong suppressed the anxiety in his heart and nodded.

He now harbored no second thoughts about overthrowing Lin Dongze.

As for all those years of friendship—

"Dongze, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too stubborn," he thought to himself.

The trace of guilt in his heart vanished into thin air.

Suddenly, he raised his head. "Lin Dongze is here. I'll go out and meet him."

The Gu tribe envoy and the Five-Aves Immortal envoy nodded.

The moment he stepped out of the secret chamber, a warm-as-spring smile appeared on Hu Bolong’s face.

Unlike the persona he had just displayed,

among the upper echelons of the Great Harmony army, Hu Bolong had always been known for his pleasant temper and willingness to share the spoils.

Two months later.

An advance army of four hundred thousand demons and Gu tribesmen appeared in northern Andong Kingdom.

At the same time, they explicitly sent word to the Great Harmony Kingdom that another two million troops were on the way.

Upon receiving the news, the Great Harmony Kingdom issued a combat directive to repel the enemy beyond the nation's borders.

One million Great Harmony troops marched in batches toward Eastern State, and the great war commenced.

Four hundred thousand demon and Gu forces pounced on the three hundred thousand Eastern State Great Harmony troops.

Instantly, the slaughter shook the heavens and earth, obscuring the sun and moon.

Time flew, and another year passed—the second year of Dragon Slaying, when Qin Yuan was seventy-four years old.

West Third Alley.

The Qin residence.

A hundred underground.

Qin Yuan was in arduous cultivation.

A single consciousness dominated multiple avatars.

One was practicing the Tyrannical Saber technique, capable of unleashing a thousand-meter blade aura (and that was with his power suppressed).

Another was practicing the Dragon Slaying Art. Within an illusion, Qin Yuan faced the encirclement of two white dragons.

Lightning, dragon breath, and terrifying force constantly assaulted him, yet Qin Yuan fought two opponents single-handedly without losing the upper hand.

A third was practicing the Five-Aves Killing Art. Because it was self-explored, its might fell far short of the Dragon Slaying Art.

A fourth was casting the Nail-Head Seven-Arrow Book. A demon that had been running amok near the capital became Qin Yuan’s target. After performing rites toward the straw effigy for twenty-one days, Qin Yuan loosed an arrow, and the demon shrieked and perished.