Chapter 160: The Blockade |
"Murong Feng, you mobilized the Sheng Province garrison without authorization and abandoned your post to travel to an adjacent province. By Great Li military law, you are to be relieved of your position and taken into custody for investigation."
"All others who do not wish to be executed on the spot are to immediately lay down their weapons and surrender."
The armored young general's voice rang out in a stern bark from the wall above, carrying clearly to every corner below, leaving the eardrums of the surrounding common people ringing and their hearts shaking.
At this point, Murong Feng lifted the carriage curtain with one hand, his phoenix eyes looking up toward the city wall. His expression was perfectly composed as he said, "Bai Liwei, today I am here to welcome my little sister home. I have no wish to have any dispute with you. Have your men stand down at once, and I can treat this as though nothing happened."
Murong Feng's voice was even and unhurried, but he channeled his True Qi into it to carry it outward, and it spread from near to far with equal clarity in every direction.
Hearing this, the young general on the wall narrowed his eyes and exchanged a look with the people beside him.
The three standing at his side were each clad in red-scale armor made from tanned shark hide, and appeared to be between forty and fifty years of age. All three had black tattoos on their necks whose full designs were difficult to make out. They carried neither blades nor swords at their waists, but each had a handle-less curved blade shaped like a crescent moon strapped to their back, and every one of them radiated an aura of lethal sharpness that warned others to keep their distance.
When the three gave him a subtle nod, Bai Liwei turned back toward Murong Feng's carriage below, and let out a cold laugh, saying, "I am acting in accordance with Great Li military law. Murong Feng, since you hold the position of Military Advisor of Sheng Province, you are bound to follow military orders."
With that, he gave a sharp wave of his hand without any further exchange with Murong Feng and issued his command directly to the assembled soldiers, saying, "Take everyone into custody. Any who resist are to be executed on the spot."
At the same time, he raised a hand and flicked his fingers, generating a streak of cold radiance before him. The gleam blazed and glittered, then split from one to two, two to four...
In the blink of an eye, several hundred glinting needle-points of cold light had materialized around Murong Feng, then shot outward like a sudden downpour of rain in every direction.
Bai Liwei let out a cold snort and gave an instruction, saying, "Remember, take him alive. His life still has use."
At the same time, the three men beside him had already acted with the speed of thunder.
Three crescent blades on their backs flew out in an instant, fast as the wind. They became three blurred streaks of movement, and in almost the blink of an eye had appeared directly above Murong Feng.
The crescent blades each expelled over a zhang of silver blade light, connecting end to end to form an enormous circular disk of blades over the heads of Murong Feng and the soldiers around him.
Driven by the powerful True Qi channeled into it, the blade disk began to spin at terrifying speed, generating a wind column that shot skyward, while spraying out streaks of blade light in every direction that cut down every last one of the needle-points Murong Feng had sent out.
Then the spinning blade disk began to accelerate further, and the tremendous suction it generated very nearly ripped the ornate carriage below clean off the ground.
The armored soldiers around it could not withstand the pull either. Despite their best efforts to resist, their bodies were wrenched off the ground and swept upward into the air.
Murong Feng's entire body surged with True Qi. He looked up at the spinning blade disk above his head, then shifted his gaze to the three men beside Bai Liwei on the city wall, and said with cold composure, "The 'Three Crescent Swordsmen.' Do you truly wish to stand against my Murong family as well?"
Hearing this, the three on the wall said nothing, but their figures shifted as they leaped from the wall and came sweeping rapidly downward toward Murong Feng, clearly intending to capture him alive.
Murong Feng's gaze turned cold, but not a trace of fear showed on his face.
As the three of them closed in near the carriage, his figure dropped from mid-air to land on the roof of the carriage. His ice-silk brocade robe snapped and billowed in the gale.
The three in red-scale armor had sharp, merciless eyes, and their hands did not slow in the slightest. All three lunged and grabbed at Murong Feng simultaneously.
Just at that moment, a golden palm print erupted suddenly from inside the carriage below, shooting upward in an instant toward the three of them as they closed to within inches of Murong Feng.
Seeing this, all three had their expressions change drastically, and had no choice but to momentarily abandon Murong Feng and deal with the sudden attack from below.
The three silver crescent blades above instantly adjusted their edge and swept downward together, sending three over-a-zhang streaks of blade light that twisted space itself slashing downward, while the three men simultaneously poured everything into their True Qi to protect every side of their bodies against the palm print from below.
At the same time, on the wall above, Bai Liwei watching the scene furrowed his brow slightly, muttering to himself, "As expected, there is a hidden expert among them."
Just at that moment, his gaze shifted toward the city gate.
In the next instant, Bai Liwei's expression changed abruptly.
He saw that Hu Rui'an's group, who had been traveling alongside Murong Feng, had at some unknown point simply continued moving forward.
They had broken through the encirclement of the hundred-odd soldiers ahead of them, leaving soldiers flying in their wake one after another, as the carriage wheels rolled steadily on and the group entered the provincial city as a matter of course.
They cared nothing for the obstruction of the Sheng Province garrison, and had not moved to help Murong Feng contend with his attackers in the slightest. They acted as though the whole affair had absolutely nothing to do with them.
Bai Liwei felt a stir in his heart, and was just about to act and stop them, when behind him a cold gust of wind suddenly blew through. A white-haired old serving woman appeared at his side and said slowly, "Young Master, the Master has sent word that if the matter cannot be pursued further, we should not force it. Have our people fall back for the time being."
Hearing this, Bai Liwei glanced at the departing figures of Li Musheng's group, his brow furrowed. He then turned back to look at Murong Feng's position.
At this moment, the three swordsmen, struck by the unexpected golden palm print, had managed to resist without taking heavy damage, but had been forced to fall back. The expert inside the carriage still had not shown their face throughout the entire exchange.
Murong Feng stood atop the carriage, locking in a standoff with the three swordsmen for the time being.
Seeing this, Bai Liwei thought it over briefly, but in the end raised his hand and gave a gesture toward those below.
The armored soldiers below, seeing the signal, began to slowly fall back, and then in orderly, measured fashion retreated like a receding tide back through the provincial city gates.
Murong Feng watched all of this in silence and made no move to stop them. He only raised his head and looked up at Bai Liwei on the city wall with an icy expression, saying, "Since the Bai family has decided to be the first to step forward, I hope you can bear whatever retaliation comes from the Murong family."
Hearing this, Bai Liwei only let out a cold laugh, said nothing further, and disappeared from the wall under the old serving woman's protection.
At the same time, the three swordsmen each recalled their crescent blades and, keeping a wary eye on Murong Feng and the carriage beneath him, carefully withdrew back through the city gate.
Only after Bai Liwei and all his people had completely vanished did Murong Feng lightly leap down from the carriage roof. He glanced at the carriage before him, then looked toward the city gate, and stood with a furrowed brow for a moment.
"That Commissioner Hu from the Tianjin Guards has no small martial Dao cultivation, but he acts without sentiment. He thought only of getting himself into the city without giving the slightest thought to lending us any aid."
Murong Feng said in a low voice, and from inside the carriage an old man's voice responded, saying, "Never mind them. Let us get back to the estate first. Today's affair was the Bai family declaring their position and cutting ties with the Murong family. It seems that within just a few days' time, the situation in Sheng Province has shifted again."
Hearing this, Murong Feng's expression was blank, his voice calm, saying, "The Bai family is offering a loyalty token to that General. Everyone believes the Murong family is in decline and wants to take a share of what remains, but the final result will surely leave them bitterly disappointed."
With that, he waved a hand, signaling the remaining soldiers to continue forward, then stepped into the carriage and pulled the curtain shut.
Before long, the soldiers escorted the ornate carriage through the city gate, as though what had just happened moments ago had never occurred at all.
...
At the same time, Hu Rui'an and his group were moving along the main road within the provincial city, following the directions Murong Xiaoya provided toward the location of the Murong family estate.
After being surrounded by those soldiers who had appeared out of nowhere, Hu Rui'an and the others had naturally understood they had been caught in the crossfire.
Li Musheng had no intention of being dragged into Murong Feng's troubles, so he had Hu Rui'an clear the path and leave, unwilling to waste any time and utterly disinclined to concern himself with Murong Feng and the others.
Murong Xiaoya had no objection to this, and seemed entirely unconcerned about her brother's safety.
And Hu Rui'an, having known from the moment they encountered Murong Feng that the man's carriage had a formidable expert hidden inside, understood perfectly well that nothing would happen to him.
Shen Anran had continued following on her white horse behind Li Musheng's carriage throughout. Along the journey, she had developed a very agreeable relationship with Hu Rui'an, since he was her maternal great-uncle and they shared a family connection however distant.
Though things had been somewhat awkward at first, as Shen Anran made deliberate efforts to draw closer to everyone in the group and with Hu Rui'an's care and attention, she had grown fairly familiar with almost everyone except Li Musheng himself.
Even the socially anxious Murong Xiaoya, who often did not dare speak with Li Musheng and the others, was occasionally willing to share a few words in private with Shen Anran.
Li Musheng had taken all of this in. The label of "hopelessly infatuated" he had already attached to Shen Anran in his mind now gained a new addition: "calculating young woman."
Not that this "calculating" carried any negative connotation as far as Li Musheng was concerned.
After all, it was obviously nothing more than a deliberate strategy of gradual infiltration, employed in order to win him over.
"Your Highness, it seems we have been followed."
While the carriage was on its way to the Murong estate, Hu Rui'an suddenly showed a shift in his expression and looked toward Li Musheng sitting across from him in the carriage.
Hearing this, Li Musheng simply waved a hand and said, "Let them follow. If Commissioner Hu wants to deal with it, go ahead and handle it yourself. I have no spare time to be getting involved in other people's business."
Hu Rui'an's expression turned thoughtful, but in the end he said nothing further and let the carriage keep moving.
However, as the group turned off one main road and rounded a corner into another, they suddenly noticed the surroundings going quiet at an unusual speed. The vendors and passersby on the street were all hurrying away in a rush, emptying the road ahead in visible panic.
Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong's expressions changed, and they immediately eased lightly on the reins, slowing their horses to a more cautious pace while surveying their surroundings with wary eyes.
Cao Gaoshan, sitting up front on the carriage, swept his gaze around, narrowed his eyes slightly, then turned back to look at Shen Anran who had been following and said, "There may be danger ahead. Miss Shen, please stay toward the middle."
Having watched Shen Anran's feelings toward Li Musheng become increasingly unmistakable throughout the journey, and seeing that Li Musheng had shown no clear sign of rejection, in this rough old man's view, an absence of a clear refusal could only mean a tacit acceptance.
Besides, Shen Anran had a good character, and he had quite a favorable impression of her.
Just at that moment, Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong riding ahead suddenly hauled their horses to an urgent stop.
On the road ahead, a man in a gray robe had appeared at some unknown moment.
The right half of his face was covered by a bronze mask. Above his left eye, iron-gray scar tissue had grown over the brow, and his beard was coarsely matted and twisted, with frost-white at his temples.
In his hand he held an iron flute horizontally, and he stood directly blocking the road ahead of Wu Shang and the others.
At the same time, on the carriage's other side behind Hu Rui'an, another man appeared as well. This one was clad in bronze armor with a bronze helmet, and held a purple bronze battle-axe in his grip.
He drove the axe blade down into the ground, and cracks split through the paving stones in every direction from the impact point, the sharp cracking sounds ringing out with jarring clarity across the deserted street.
The two men had blocked both the front and rear of Hu Rui'an's group, and from the martial Dao aura flowing from both of them, neither was anything less than formidable.
"If everyone simply hands over the young lady from the Murong family, you are free to go on your way."
At that moment, a voice drifted down from a nearby rooftop, and Wu Shang and the others only then snapped to attention and looked up.
There on the eave tiles stood a white-haired old serving woman and the young man who had appeared on the city wall earlier, looking down on the group below.
Seeing this, Wu Shang and the others all had their expressions change. They had clearly not expected that after engaging with Murong Feng's group, the opposition would not stand down but had instead turned their sights on Murong Xiaoya.
For a moment, every one of them looked grave, and turned back toward the carriage behind them.
After all, whether the men with the iron flute and the battle-axe, or the old serving woman and Bai Liwei on the rooftop, none of them were adversaries that Wu Shang, Cao Gaoshan, and Cheng Zhong could handle. They could only appeal to Hu Rui'an and Li Musheng in the carriage.
After the events at Zhanliu Manor, Wu Shang and the others had in fact already come to realize that Li Musheng must be concealing his martial Dao cultivation, and that his true strength was likely fathomlessly deep.
What was more, they had even overheard vaguely from Shen Liancheng that Zhanliu Manor's old Master appeared to have been defeated at Li Musheng's hands as well.
Though they found this difficult to believe, Hu Rui'an's manner toward Li Musheng was something they could not simply dismiss.
The only regrettable thing was that they had never personally witnessed Li Musheng make a move themselves.
Unlike Wu Shang and the others, Shen Anran at this moment looked entirely calm and composed, her gaze even sweeping over the old serving woman and the others with unhurried leisure.
After all, she had personally witnessed Li Musheng strike with her own eyes, sending her grandfather flying out of Zhanliu Manor with a single punch, and punching clean through the river beside the manor in the process.
These people before them were naturally nothing compared to her grandfather, and were even less worth mentioning in front of Li Musheng. Their so-called act of blocking the road was, to be honest, rather ignorant and presumptuous.
At this point, the old serving woman swept a glance at the carriage, saw that no one was responding, and narrowed her eyes slightly, saying, "This old one is aware that there is a formidable expert among your party. However, this matter concerns the feud between the Murong family and the various factions of the provincial city. It is not something an outsider is in a position to interfere in. I advise you not to cause yourselves trouble."