The Empress's No.1 Lackey

Chapter 1041 - 578: Executing Xu Jingtang

Zhong Pan whispered, "Normally, the power of the Sorrow God is scattered across the land and can only be eradicated piecemeal. Now the White Clothes Sect has exhausted all its strength, forcibly converging the mourning energy to summon this powerful Sorrow God to manifest. Once it’s killed, the White Clothes Sect will suffer a backlash, and the evil forces in the world will be weakened."

Babbling so much translates to gathering a huge army for a ruthless battle... Zhao Douan complained.

His eyes locked onto the high skies.

Waiting for the result of this battle.

The moment the prison of heaven and earth formed, it seemed the chains became a single entity.

Xu Jingtang collided fiercely in the air, only to be bounced back, the space rippling outward in azure waves.

"Zhang Yan Yi! You forced me!"

Realizing he couldn’t escape, Xu Jingtang’s hair wildly danced, twisting mid-air, his eyes fixed on the mountaintop academy.

Xu Jingtang shook his armor, turning the gray smoke black. He abruptly slung his arm backward, then fiercely punched forward.

His body swept through the sky like a meteor, crashing toward Zhang Yan Yi!

At the academy’s grand entrance, Zhang Yan Yi’s expression was indifferent, his narrow eyes cold. This time, he merely raised his right hand, lazily pointing with a finger into the air:

"Execute."

It was as though he exerted the heavenly mandate. Instantly, azure clouds seemed to gather at Zhang Yan Yi’s fingertip, as chains connecting heaven and earth frantically tightened.

Xu Jingtang screamed in agony, engulfed in black clouds, like a fly swatted away, plummeting onto the mountain path. His momentum unceasing, his body plowed a deep trench from mid-mountain to the base, rocks cracking and trees falling amidst the booming noise.

Wow... Zhao Douan felt as though the entire mountain was trembling. He was speechless, wondering if this was truly Old Zhang’s power?

He even questioned if a single finger could collapse a city.

Is this the true power of a top-tier Heavenly Human?

Zhenbao could, at most, contend against a thousand troops, far from reaching this level of earth-shaking motion with mere gestures. If possessing such power, why fear that bald-headed Xuan Yin... wait, could that bald-headed Xuan Yin also unleash such might at full strength?

The thoughts in Zhao Douan’s mind were not for others to know.

At the foot of Zhengyang Mountain.

As the dense smoke slowly dissipated, in a massive crater, the blood-covered Xu Jingtang knelt, his long hair disheveled and scattered, armor shattered and stained with grime-blood. He maintained his arms crossed before him, seemingly to defend himself.

But the arm guards on his forearms had shattered into countless pieces, revealing flesh riddled with wounds.

Xu Jingtang remained still, kneeling at the mountain’s base, head lowered, arms immobile.

A cold wind blew, and scarlet blood dripped from his nostrils, landing with a "plop" onto the rubble, gradually forming a pool of blood.

Xu Jingtang had become soundlessly still, his rigid body sustaining his final pose in life.

Indeed, he had died in silence!

"Hissss..."

From the gaps in the broken armor, torrents of mourning energy suddenly surged forth, gathering straight like wolf smoke towards the sky.

The weakened Sorrow God was returning to the world after losing its "host."

Zhang Yan Yi glanced at it, casually reaching out. Instantly, the vast gray energy swept over like a storm, madly pouring into the 　Heavenly Book　 suspended in front of him.

In the blink of an eye, the world returned to brightness, the azure clouds scattered, and sunlight poured down from the vast skies above, as if after a rain.

"Xu Jingtang is dead." Yu Xiu retracted her gaze and stated firmly.

Zhao Douan was dumbfounded.

One of the court’s major hidden dangers, the commander of the Yunfu Rebel Army that split the Huai River with Prince Jing Xu Wen, threatening the Empress’s Mu Prince, had thus died pitifully.

He didn’t die on the battlefield, nor by the Huai River or in the Capital.

Instead, after days of chasing Zhao Douan, he was slain by the waiting Old Heavenly Master right before victory.

Who could have imagined?

"The Yunfu Army is finished." Zhao Douan breathed a sigh of relief, the tension from days of fleeing finally easing. Suddenly, he felt waves of fatigue, not wanting to move a single finger.

He turned around, only to see an elderly man, dressed as a common Daoist, coming down the mountain.

Zhang Yan Yi smiled as he put away the Heavenly Book, nodding at him, "We meet again."

"Disciple greets Master!" Zhong Pan, Yu Xiu, and Jin Jian stood up and saluted.

Zhang Yan Yi nodded with satisfaction, then walked up to Zhong Pan, raised his hand to press on his shoulder, and infused him with mana to soothe his injuries. He asked calmly, "In today’s battle with the Divine, did you gain anything?"

Zhong Pan pondered and nodded, "Thank you, Master."

In his mind, Zhao Douan unexpectedly thought of the line, "He should be thanking me," feeling a strong urge to ridicule. Yet he was well aware that since Zhang Yan Yi knew what was happening at Zhengyang Mountain but did not intervene, instead letting the eldest disciple be seriously injured, it seemed deliberate—to find an opponent for Zhong Pan?

This seemingly brutal, yet rare battle would undoubtedly be greatly beneficial for Zhong Pan’s future cultivation.

"It’s such a pity about my sword..." Zhong Pan looked painfully at the twisted lump of iron on the ground in the distance.

Zhang Yan Yi smiled faintly, "Reliance on external objects is harmful to cultivation. It’s merely an ancient sword, it can be reforged."

Ha, your words sound so wise, yet aren’t you reliant on the Heavenly Book? Zhao Douan rolled his eyes, too lazy to expose Zhang’s pretentiousness.

However, the next moment, it seemed Zhang Yan Yi understood his thoughts. As if to demonstrate his abilities, he raised his hand and grabbed!

The twisted, scrap metal longsword fell into his hand, then was enveloped in white flames and melted...

Gradually, it reformed into the shape of a broad longsword.

That wasn’t all—Zhang Yan Yi suddenly clasped Zhong Pan’s wrist with his other hand. With a tiger’s roar, the [Mountain Lord] sealed within his body was forcibly extracted by the Old Heavenly Master and thrown into the sword wrapped in flames. The Mountain Lord roared angrily within the flames, but to no avail, ultimately merging unwillingly into the longsword.

A moment later, Zhang Yan Yi tossed the brand-new longsword to his disciple: "Now with this Wild God of a century’s incense as its Artifact Spirit, this weapon is finally worthy of notice."

Zhao Douan was dumbfounded, fooled by the old man...

"Thank you, Master!" Zhong Pan held the regained longsword, both astonished and delighted.

Yu Xiu and Jin Jian watched with envy, but unfortunately, they hadn’t captured a Wild God.

At this moment, Lu Cheng, the scholar who had been standing foolishly to the side, responsible for leading the way, finally regained his senses. The scholar had clearly been terrified by the earlier battle, now stuttering nervously as he looked at the Old Heavenly Master: "You... you are... the one from the Heavenly Master Mansion...?"

"It’s me." Zhang Yan Yi replied with the smile of a master.

The fact that the teacher’s friend was actually the contemporary old Immortal from the Heavenly Master Mansion left Lu Cheng feeling dazed.

My cheap disciple’s friend Mr. Zhengyang was the old Zhang? Zhao Douan was also astonished, then upon careful thought, it wasn’t surprising.

Mr. Zhengyang, as the contemporary Great Scholar, was a figure at the pinnacle of scholarship.

Aside from cultivation, he was indeed qualified to befriend Zhang Yan Yi.

Moreover, Zhang had a habit of sneaking out on "disguised visits"...

Zhao Douan thought: Zhengyang is my disciple, and being friends with old Zhang, doesn’t that elevate my rank above Zhang’s?

"Master, were you waiting here for long? When did you leave the Capital?" After surviving the ordeal, Jin Jian was beaming with joy, running towards Zhang Yan Yi as if returning home.

She hadn’t seen her master for a long time.

Suddenly, Zhong Pan, Yu Xiu, Zhao Douan and the others all turned their inquisitive gazes towards him.

Zhang Yan Yi chuckled, patting Jin Jian’s head, then turned to Zhao Douan and the others, smiling slightly: "This is not the place to talk, let’s head up the mountain first."

Everyone nodded, Zhao Douan somewhat reluctantly glanced at Xu Jingtang kneeling at the mountain’s base, slightly worried: "Wait, I need to collect the body first."

Everyone: "..."

...

Moments later.

Zhao Douan and the others followed the Old Heavenly Master to the gates of the academy.

An elder dressed in a loose Confucian robe bowed to Zhao Douan, smiling warmly: "Scholar Zhao’s visit to Zhengyang Mountain is an honor to our humble dwelling."

Zhao Douan was displeased: what happened to calling me ’half teacher’? He couldn’t accept this disciple, couldn’t understand respecting one’s teacher anymore.

Unenthusiastically he grunted, then stepped into the academy amid Zhengyang’s bewildered gaze.

Soon after.

In a hall within the academy, everyone took their seats. Zhao Douan picked up a tea bowl and, looking at the Heavenly Master Zhang, curiously asked: "What exactly is going on?"

...

In the Capital’s Imperial Study Room, Xu Zhenguan set down the imperial brush, the beauty frowned, her eyelids twitching uncontrollably.