Chapter 16: Slaughter Word Formula! Ten Thousand Swords Hanging in the Void!

Zhao Tiande collapsed onto the ground.

He stared blankly at the stone stele still suspended overhead, feeling the strength within his body continue to ebb away, utterly unable to comprehend it.

He knew that Confucian arts were incomparably domineering.

But was this merely domineering?

This was complete and utter crushing force!

“We have not lost yet! We cannot lose!”

Zhao Tiande staggered to his feet, his eyes blazing with the madness of one making a final desperate gamble.

“As long as we break out, we can infect these people with the Blood-Drinking Flower! Once we get out—”

“You are courting death!”

Xu Yong flew into a rage.

True Qi surged violently from within him. His figure flashed, and together with the pale-faced Su Can, he stepped in front of Xu Tian.

The Embroidered Spring Blade at his waist trembled faintly as he roared:

“Confucian cultivators, fall back! Embroidered Uniform Guard, hear my command! Form ranks! Kill!”

This was the true foundation of Great Xia’s battle doctrine.

Confucian cultivators suppressed, and martial cultivators charged the formation!

With the two working together, they were all but invincible on the open battlefield.

“Third Brother, Su Can, stand down.”

Xu Tian spoke, signaling the two men in front of him to retreat.

He looked at the members of the Zhao Family who were still trying to fight like trapped beasts, and a killing intent so sharp it bordered on absolute suddenly appeared in his previously calm eyes.

Back then, more people of Great Xia had died because of the Blood-Drinking Flower than in the war itself.

This was Great Xia’s taboo.

Whoever touched it, died!

Xu Tian raised his right hand, fingers together like a sword, and pointed toward the sky.

“Slaughter!”

Boom!

The great stone stele bearing the character “Suppress,” which had been floating overhead, suddenly changed.

Its heavy body instantly broke apart, transforming into countless streaks of golden light.

Each streak of light condensed into a three-chi-long sword of Vast Righteous Qi.

Dense as a forest, thousands upon thousands of them hovered above the Zhao Residence, all with their tips aimed at the Zhao Family below.

The Slaughter Word Formula!

Just as more and more swords were filling the sky—“Stop!”

A clumsy voice speaking Great Xia’s official tongue, filled with anxious fury, came from beyond the crowd.

Everyone turned in astonishment.

A middle-aged man strode in, shoving aside the Embroidered Uniform Guard at the perimeter, followed by several guards with powerful auras.

He was none other than Ding Qiu, an envoy of the Shan Kingdom.

Ding Qiu looked at the myriad swords hanging over his head. Fear flashed through his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by arrogance.

He strode to the ruins before the Zhao Residence and spread his arms, as if he meant to shield the Zhao Family behind him.

“Your Highness the Prince of Qin, you cannot kill them!”

Ding Qiu lifted his chin and shouted at Xu Tian:

“As of just now, they are no longer people of Great Xia! From this moment onward, they are all subjects of my Shan Kingdom!”

He pulled out a stack of identity plaques from his robes and held them high.

“They swore allegiance and joined the Shan Kingdom long ago. Our lord has already approved it just now. This is the proof!”

The moment those words were spoken, the whole crowd erupted.

Shameless!

But when Zhao Tiande and the others heard this, there was no hope in their eyes—only boundless terror.

“Special Envoy, no…”

Seeing this, Ding Qiu grandly waved his hand and gave them a reassuring look.

He pointed at Xu Tian and said in a hard voice:

“Your Highness the Prince of Qin, Great Xia’s laws govern the people of Great Xia. Since they are now subjects of my Shan Kingdom, then even if they have committed crimes, they should be taken back by the Shan Kingdom for judgment!”

“If you kill them here, then you will be slaughtering subjects of my Shan Kingdom. This is no longer Great Xia’s internal affair. It is a diplomatic incident!”

“Your Highness the Prince of Qin is broad-minded and loves the people as dearly as his own children. Surely you would not start a war between nations over the lives of a few such people?”

Ding Qiu spoke fluently and with absolute certainty.

Yet he failed to notice that the surroundings had grown quieter and quieter.

“If war breaks out, it is still the common people who will suffer. As long as—”

“Kill!”

A voice so suppressed it seemed to have been squeezed to its absolute limit abruptly cut Ding Qiu off.

Ding Qiu frowned.

Because the one who had spoken was not Xu Tian.

Who dared interrupt at a moment like this?

He swept his gaze around, and his heart immediately tightened.

The Prince of Qin, the Third Prince, the Prime Minister, the Confucian scholars, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the common people…

Even the Zhao Family behind him were all looking at him with killing intent in their eyes.

What had happened to these people?

Only now did he realize that something was terribly wrong.

But it was already too late.

Whoosh!

The rain of swords filling the sky had finally finished forming and came whistling down without the slightest hesitation.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Amid one shrill scream after another,

the sword rain descended like judgment from Heaven, following Xu Tian’s will and erasing every last trace of sin.

Every person in Great Xia remembered clearly

that the beginning of the war which had nearly destroyed Great Xia had been traitors who fled the country.

So traitors tainted by the Blood-Drinking Flower had absolutely no reason to remain alive.

Ding Qiu froze, then was so terrified that his soul nearly fled his body. Clutching his head, he fled in mad panic.

Several swords fell grazing his scalp, while his guards were nailed to the ground in an instant, blood splashing all over his face.

With a clang,

a flash of golden light emerged from his chest, blocking one of the swords outside his body.

His heart gave a violent tremor. He no longer cared in the slightest for the dignity of an envoy and scrambled out of the range of the sword rain on all fours.

He understood now.

That Prince of Qin Xu Tian truly would have killed him along with the rest!

What kind of Confucian cultivator was this?

He was clearly a madman!

In just three breaths’ time, the rain of swords came to an end.

Before the Zhao Residence, atop that field of ruins, not a single member of the Zhao Family remained standing.

The scent of blood had been washed thin by Vast Righteous Qi.

Only a deathly silence remained.

Everyone stared blankly at the scene before them.

There had been no negotiation, no compromise, not even one word of needless nonsense.

It did not matter whether you were a great aristocratic clan or a foreign envoy.

Once you became a ghost, then you would be sent straight to hell.

Xu Tian slowly lowered his hand, and the white light around his body gradually receded.

He did not look at the corpses strewn across the ground. Instead, he turned and looked at Ding Qiu.

“Your guards were tainted by demonic aura, so I dealt with them together. What do you intend to do about that?”

“You are acting without the slightest regard for the bigger picture! The Shan Kingdom’s Second Prince will arrive at any moment! Xu Tian, you disregard the friendship between our two nations—”

“That is not the line.”

Hearing Xu Tian’s icy voice, Ding Qiu’s face changed several times.

Had he not possessed a National Fortune Token protecting his body, he too would have died.

And now, Xu Tian could not easily act against him anymore, yet still wanted to save face through him?

As if that were possible.

He represented the Shan Kingdom!

He absolutely could not disgrace the Shan Kingdom’s dignity!

He lifted his head, saw the swords still hanging overhead, and through gritted teeth said:

“Many thanks to Your Highness the Prince of Qin for your assistance! My Shan Kingdom will certainly remember this matter well.”

“Good. Now get lost.”

“You—”

Staring at the swords above his head, Ding Qiu felt a surge of fury catch in his chest.

After coughing up a mouthful of blood, he staggered away in miserable embarrassment.

Once more, this sight shook everyone to their core.

Especially the Confucian scholars, who had always guarded their words and actions with the utmost caution.

The last trace of confusion vanished from the eyes of Li Chuan and the others.

In the past, if they had seen the Prince of Qin act this way, they might have felt lost. They might have questioned him.

But now, they never would again!

That pure and boundless Vast Righteous Qi could not be false.

And the Vast Righteous Qi within their own bodies was still repeating the circulation path from before.

The feeling was as though a teacher had personally guided them with absolute patience and care.

That resonance of all hearts moving as one had also been carved into their souls.

It was as if the doors to an entirely new world had slowly opened before them.

“I think… I understand now.”

Li Chuan murmured to himself.

He could feel some sort of change taking place within his Vast Righteous Qi.

His once unsteady aura was becoming solid, and faintly, he had actually touched a trace of the true meaning of the Suppress Word Formula.

As long as he nurtured it for a while longer, then in time, once he spoke the words of the sages, he too would be able to unleash his own Suppress Word Formula.

And it was not only him.

The several hundred Confucian scholars present—even including the Second-Rank Great Confucian Li Hongru—could all feel that something had stirred in their hearts.

Suddenly, Li Hongru adjusted his robes and stepped forward.

This Prime Minister, ordinarily revered by all, now wore an expression of solemn dignity.

Toward that figure whose back was decades younger than his own, he bent deeply at the waist.

His hands were joined in salute, hanging so low they nearly brushed the ground.

“Thank you, Teacher… for your guidance.”

That single sentence struck like thunder.

Immediately afterward, Li Chuan likewise bowed.

Then the several hundred academy students followed suit, offering him the formal salute due to a teacher.

“Thank you, Teacher, for your guidance!”

Their voices rang out loud and bright, surging into the heavens.

In their eyes, Xu Tian was no longer some deposed Crown Prince, nor merely the Prince of Qin.

He was a Confucian Sage of the present age, one who would continue leading the Confucian Dao forward!

Xu Tian looked at this scene and did not evade it.

His expression remained calm. He too straightened his robes and returned their salute with exacting seriousness.

In learning, there is no first or last. Whoever attains understanding first is the teacher.

This salute was for the Confucian Dao, and also for Great Xia’s future.

He was qualified to lead the Confucian Dao one step further.

And he had to.

In the distance, the countless common people might not understand what Confucian Dao true intent was, but they understood the weight of this bow.

It meant that from this day forward, Great Xia’s Confucian Dao and martial path would no longer stand apart.