Great Li Martial God

The Grand Manager of the Treasure Assembly Trading House looked at Zhao Muning with a somewhat dazed expression, as though he had no awareness of what had just happened. His eyes shifted faintly, "Your Highness the Princess should leave as soon as possible. The matters here are not something you should be involving yourself in."

With that, he turned away without another word and walked off on his own, disappearing slowly into the night beyond the Great Xuan imperial palace.

Zhao Muning watched his retreating figure with shifting eyes, but made no move to stop him.

Just at that moment, two silhouettes came cutting through the night sky from a distance, and in the blink of an eye two elderly women touched down at Zhao Muning's side.

"Your Highness..."

One of the elderly women was about to speak, but Zhao Muning raised a hand to stop her, "Both of you, Senior Aunts, this is not the place for conversation. Let us return to the residence first."

At those words, the two elderly women exchanged a glance, and seeing that Zhao Muning was unharmed, immediately carried her away into the air and disappeared.

...

At the same time, Li Musheng returned to the inn with Daoist Qingyu.

But at that moment, the large black cat came darting out of the darkness, having clearly sensed Li Musheng's return.

The large black cat meowed and rubbed against Li Musheng's robe, while rotating its pair of green eyes to look around in every direction.

It lingered on Daoist Qingyu for only a moment before withdrawing its gaze, appearing to know at once that this was the person Li Musheng had gone to rescue tonight. It had absolutely no interest in her.

What it was far more interested in was whether Li Musheng had come back from the Great Xuan imperial palace with any spoils.

But after circling Li Musheng once, the large black cat came away with nothing.

It immediately extended a paw and gestured about while meowing without stop, clearly asking Li Musheng whether he had brought anything good back from the palace and telling him to take it out for inspection.

The way the large black cat saw it, a visit to a palace that grand should not end with coming home empty-handed no matter what.

"This cat is quite amusing."

Daoist Qingyu, watching the scene from the side, fixed her gaze on the large black cat with its lustrous fur, and a flicker of something unusual crossed her eyes.

Li Musheng glanced at the large black cat, pushed it aside so it was no longer blocking the way, and walked up the stairs without troubling himself further.

The large black cat flicked its tail, then trotted along fawningly behind him, following close at his heels without giving up.

After spending so much time with Li Musheng, the large black cat had long since figured out his temperament. It knew Li Musheng rarely lost his temper, and when he was in a bad mood he was at most simply a little impatient. As long as it did not make any mistake that crossed a real line, Li Musheng was not going to end its life.

Just then, the large black cat's ears twitched as it padded after Li Musheng, and it snapped its mouth open and caught something Li Musheng had tossed toward it.

"It's yours. Go play with it."

Li Musheng's voice reached it, and then he paid no further attention to the large black cat.

The large black cat spat the object out onto the floor and had a look. It recognized it at once. It was the Demonic Core Bai Xiaotang had stolen earlier.

At the same time, Daoist Qingyu not far away caught this from the corner of her eye, and what had been a perfectly composed expression showed an unmistakable ripple. Even deep in her eyes, the faintest trace of something almost imperceptible surfaced, something resembling greed.

But Daoist Qingyu ultimately did nothing, and with a calm expression followed the attendant to her room.

The large black cat swiveled its head to watch Li Musheng and Daoist Qingyu depart, then poked at the Demonic Core a few times with its paw.

It had figured it out by now. Li Musheng had truly come back from the Great Xuan imperial palace with nothing of value, otherwise he would not be fobbing it off with this thing.

With that thought, the large black cat's enthusiasm dimmed considerably. But then it occurred to it that the entire demonic world of Taixuan City was probably out looking for Demonic Cores at this moment. What was sitting in front of it was undeniably a prized and sought-after commodity, surely worth a great deal. If it could sell the thing, it would probably fetch a very respectable amount of gold.

Turning the thought over in its mind, the large black cat picked the Demonic Core up in its mouth again, and while mulling over how to turn it into gold, leaped up toward the inn's roof beams.

...

The night passed without incident.

The following morning, the inn's proprietor stood behind the counter going over accounts, the expression on his face somewhat off.

The Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau had left the previous night and had not returned, which led him to suspect something had gone wrong.

But when he looked toward Li Musheng and the others eating at a table in the hall, his brow furrowed involuntarily once again.

It was plain enough that Li Musheng had already rescued the person he had come for. The problem now was that while the person had been rescued, the Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau was nowhere to be found.

To be honest, in the current situation he did not know what to do, and could only choose to hold his position and wait.

At that moment, an attendant hurried to the proprietor's side and whispered something in his ear. At those words, the proprietor's expression changed sharply.

At the same time, word spread throughout Taixuan City: the Great Xuan emperor had passed away. The entire city was under martial lockdown in mourning, the whole nation observing a period of grief, with all gatherings and activities prohibited.

Throughout the Great Xuan imperial capital, the streets and alleys that had already grown quiet under the city lockdown became even more desolate. Beyond the patrols of court soldiers, almost no carriages or pedestrians could be seen.

From the moment the inn proprietor learned the news, the occasional glances he directed at Li Musheng became deeply uncertain.

He could roughly guess that the Great Xuan emperor's death was most likely connected to this man. What he truly could not work out was how someone who had gone to the palace simply to rescue a person had managed to get the Great Xuan emperor killed in the process.

As far as Li Musheng was concerned, Daoist Qingyu had now been rescued, and what he needed to do next was wait in Taixuan City for Daoist Qingye to arrive, so he could exchange Daoist Qingyu for the key to the Tianqi Secret Treasury that Daoist Qingye held.

How long the wait in Taixuan City would last was something he could roughly estimate from the distance involved: no more than ten days, and given how desperately Daoist Qingye wanted his Senior Sister rescued, that time would likely be considerably shorter.

That was, of course, assuming Daoist Qingye had managed to obtain the Tianqi Secret Treasury key.

The days of waiting naturally would not be dull. He still had no small number of demonic texts and demonic arts in hand to study, more than enough to pass the time.

At the dining table, the enormous black cat lay sprawled in a chair, yawning repeatedly.

It had been busy all through the previous night yet had not managed to sell the Demonic Core. The biggest problem was that it could not find a buyer anywhere.

After all, the people who would want a Demonic Core were without question those of the demonic path, and finding a member of the demonic world in a locked-down Great Xuan imperial capital was, honestly, no easy task. Under the current circumstances, the demonic cult members in the city had gone into hiding and would not show their faces.

This left the large black cat somewhat frustrated, and its plan of trading the Demonic Core for gold had suffered a serious setback. It had hardly eaten any breakfast as a result.

Li Musheng glanced at the large black cat and gave it a tap on the head, "Stay nearby. Do not wander too far."

At those words, the large black cat let out a meow. Daoist Qingyu, seated to the side, ate a few simple bites of her vegetarian meal, then excused herself and returned to her room.

Once Daoist Qingyu had gone, the coachman Cao Gaoshan hesitated briefly, then leaned toward Li Musheng with a curious look and asked quietly, "Young master, when you entered the Great Xuan imperial palace last night, did you happen to see their national divine artifact, said to be the finest defensive weapon under heaven?"

At those words, Shen Anran and Cang Yinyue both glanced over as well.

Cang Yinyue in particular already had the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword of Great Li, one of the divine artifacts, in hand, and was naturally somewhat curious about Great Xuan's own.

Li Musheng shook his head. Throughout the entire previous night, he had genuinely not seen anyone in the Great Xuan imperial palace bring out any divine artifact against him.

Of course, even if someone had tried to use that divine artifact to stop him, it would not have made a difference.

Even so, Li Musheng swept a look over the three of them and the cat, and narrowed his eyes slightly, "If you are truly interested in that weapon, I will take you to have a look at it sometime."

At those words, the large black cat, which had been preoccupied with how to trade the Demonic Core for gold, suddenly perked up and let out several meows, its meaning unmistakable: just looking at it was not nearly enough. The right move was to grab the Great Xuan national divine artifact and take it.

After all, it knew perfectly well that Li Musheng had even taken his own Imperial Dragon Divine Sword. Grabbing Great Xuan's divine artifact would be just as easy. And once Li Musheng had grabbed it, the cat could shameless enough to ask for a turn playing with it.

Li Musheng ignored it, and transmitted quietly to Cao Gaoshan, asking him to have someone watch the agreed meeting point for Daoist Qingye's arrival. Then he returned to his room to study Daoist Qingyu's demonic text and the Demonic Patriarch's legacy arts the Great Xuan emperor had obtained.

Shen Anran and Cang Yinyue had planned to take a look around Taixuan City, but with the streets practically empty and most shops closed, there was nothing worth going out for. Both of them returned to their rooms to cultivate instead.

Cang Yinyue in particular had, since obtaining the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword, found that while the divine artifact was not as astounding as the legends claimed in terms of granting an instant breakthrough to the Heaven-Human Realm, it more than lived up to its name. For her as its master, its benefit to her martial cultivation was extraordinary, advancing her at a rate that could only be described as staggering.

Cang Yinyue had a feeling that within two or three months, she would likely break through to the Heaven-Human Realm. The Imperial Dragon Divine Sword had spent years sealed at the bottom of the lake in Shangyang City without a master, and the accumulated sword-path energy within it was considerable.

With Li Musheng and the others having left one by one, the large black cat stretched out a long yawn, considering taking a nap through the day to make up for the previous night's missed sleep.

But it reconsidered. Selling the Demonic Core for gold sooner rather than later was the safer course. So it roused itself and leaped up to the inn's rooftop, deciding to venture out and try its luck at finding a few manageable members of the demonic world.

...

The inn proprietor had not been idle either. He quietly contacted the Hidden Intelligence Bureau's agents in Taixuan City to search for the missing Director.

At the same time, somewhere in Taixuan City, deep beneath an unremarkable courtyard in one of the market wards, a labyrinth of tunnels burned with lamplight.

A number of powerful figures from the three great demonic sects had gathered here, clearly preparing to discuss a major matter that would require all three sects acting in concert.

"How did word of the Demonic Cores leak so quickly and reach those court dogs? There must be a traitor within our ranks."

A heavyset man in red robes, his teeth stained with bright red blood, bared them at the assembled elders and enforcers of the three demonic sects with a savage expression.

The red-robed man was from the Blood River Demonic Sect, and held a bamboo tube in his hand. The blood inside, taken from those he had killed, was running low, so he sipped from it sparingly from time to time.

With the Great Xuan court's lockdown of Taixuan City, these demonic experts were hemmed in at every turn and dared not cause any significant disturbance, for fear of leaving traces that the Great Xuan court and the seven major sects could track.

"The question of the traitor must be resolved quickly. Our original reason for choosing Taixuan City, beyond the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult Master holding four of the Demonic Cores, was the principle of hiding in plain sight, to throw off the eyes and ears of the Great Xuan court and the seven major sects."

A gaunt-faced elder from the Ten Thousand Malice Demonic Sect spoke with cold menace, his voice sharp, "But now our presence here has become a trap of our own making. We are turtles in a jar. If we cannot root out the traitor, we will all likely be swept up in a single net by the Great Xuan court before long."

At those words, the assembled demonic experts all wore dark expressions. At that point, an enforcer from the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult swept a glance over the gathered group and said in a low, firm voice, "The three cult masters will all be attending shortly and will certainly discuss how to handle this. Talking about it now serves no purpose. You would be better off spending the time thinking about whether anyone around you has behaved strangely in recent days."

As he said this, the black-robed enforcer let out a cold laugh, saying with confidence, "To be candid, our Holy Cult completed an internal inspection before today, going through every single member who was aware of the three sects' plans, checking each one inside and out."

"Anyone who showed the slightest irregularity during that period, regardless of whether they were truly a traitor, was put to death on the Cult Master's orders. Our Sun and Moon Holy Cult is now completely clean, and is the least likely to harbor a traitor."

"In my view, the true traitor who leaked our plans must be within one of your two sects."

At those words, many of the demonic experts in the underground space furrowed their brows and said nothing.

Among the three great demonic sects of the Great Xuan martial world, the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult was without question the boldest.

And with good reason. They had actually established their central headquarters within Taixuan City itself, and after all these years, had somehow never been discovered by the Great Xuan court or the seven major sects.

Honestly, the members of the other two demonic sects regarded the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult with equal measures of envy and admiration.

Though all three demonic sects had a somewhat complicated arrangement with the Great Xuan court, which largely turned a blind eye to their growth, actually planting themselves directly in the Great Xuan imperial capital the way the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult had was something even these lawless demons had not dared imagine.

"Enforcer Han's words are not without reason. Both of our sects will conduct thorough investigations of our memberships and give everyone a satisfactory accounting."

A demonic expert from the Blood River Demonic Sect spoke, and the others voiced their agreement in turn.

After all, the location where they were now gathered had been provided by the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult. If the cult truly had a problem, they would almost certainly have been rounded up by the Great Xuan court already.

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