The sword stabbed into the youth’s chest, the great power on the blade starting to destroy the flesh and meridians. Because the sword was so fast, when it jabbed into the youth’s chest, it had already pierced a hole through his body.

But the youth did not die. His movements did not even change.

In Zhongshu Marquis’s perception, the blood and flesh of the youth was also filled with countless gravestones.

Then the youth’s hand came done. A giant black gravestone appeared in the youth’s hands. The gravestone smashed on Zhongshu Marquis’s body, and even hit the dwarf behind Zhongshu Marquis who had stabbed him.

Boom!

Zhongshu Marquis and the dwarf were slammed by a black mountain. The ground below the two exploded, sinking down multiple feet. Then in the next moment, the ground exploded in a wave.

Zhongshu Marquis and the dwarf vomited blood, their bodies half sank into the ground and plowed backwards.

The dwarf was behind Zhongshu Marquis, but his cultivation much lesser than the other. His body could not endure more power as he was driven backwards and in the next moment, he exploded from inside out, turning to a mist of blood.

All the cultivators who could see into the garden were extremely shocked. Even the Yan Emperor had undisguised shock.

No one knew the origins of the dwarf. In this moment, no one even saw his face, but everyone knew that he was a terrifying swordsman, a realm seven grandmaster.

This grandmaster, who most people did not even detect and know of, was killed by the youth in one blow.

The most shocking thing was the wound through the youth’s chest was still there … The blow from the grandmaster was powerful enough to kill any cultivator, even Yuanwu could not survive such a blow. But this youth was still standing there well.

Zhongshu Marquis retreated several feet, passing through the bloody mist created from the dwarf’s body. Multiple explosions erupted inside his body. Rays of energy stabbed out of his body like sharp swords.

“What method is this?” He knew he was about to die. His great discontent caused him to raise his head in difficulty. He looked at the wound in the youth’s chest and said, “How come you are not dead?”

The youth with the floor-length black hair looked at the dying warrior and said, “There is no one that cannot die but some methods can make life out of death.”

“Live from death?”

Zhongshu Marquis looked at the youth. His body shook. He seemed to have figured out the meaning of the words. But in the next moment, his head dropped and he died.

The King of Yan understood. He looked at the youth who had come with the black mountain. Thinking of everything that the other had sacrificed, he could not help but feel great respect. Then he looked up towards a hall in the palace.

That hall was where the rebel army was. Zhongshu Marquis was already dead. The rebels did not have a leader, but this did not mean there was no one new in charge.

In front of the hall were the mysterious metal towers almost the height of the hall. The three tower-like seal artifacts were engraved with simple seal scripts. Each one had dozens of lotus shaped seats.

Above were seated realm six cultivators. Their vital energy was constantly pouring into the seal artifact.

The enormous towers rang out, like lava was hitting it. The tip of the towers were growing brighter, as though something terrifying was about to erupt from the tip of the towers. There were multiple cultivators standing in front of the three towers. The leader wore bronze armor, and his cold face had a complicated expression.

He was Yu Qi, the grand marshal of the Yan borders.

The reason that many powerful cultivators from the borders had silently appeared here and created such a rebellion was because he helped Zhongshu Marquis. Zhongshu was dead, and so he was naturally the new leader of the rebels.

Yu Qu was one of the generals that the Yan Emperor valued the most. He led three of the Yan’s seven border armies. No one knew why he betrayed his sovereign.

But as the three great towers activated, everyone knew he could not stop. Everyone knew that he was willing to fight to the death, trying to kill his monarch before the surrounding army came to help.

At this time, he suddenly looked up. The sky had turned black. This was a terrifying seal essence. It twisted the sunlight above the Yan Palace, and even the primal energies of the universe controlled by the three towers were blocked.

Yu Qi’s heart suddenly felt great coldness. He sensed killing intent from behind him. As he turned around, he heard multiple shouts coming from his subordinates.

A man in black robes appeared among the Yan border army generals behind the three seal artifacts.

This man had an indescribable nobility as he walked gently among the cultivators. The cultivators curled up behind him like crumpled pieces of paper, giving of horrible bone cracking sound and falling down, dead.

Yu Qi, like Zhongshu Marquis, was not an ordinary cultivator. So in this moment, he understood that this man in black robes came from Changling. Sensing the blackness that came from the sky and covered everything, he understood why the black mountain was able to secretly come to the palace.

The old nobility of Changling, the Qi Dynasty, the black mountain…

Several short scenes flashed through Yu Qi’s mind, but a thought became usually clear. He looked at the man in black robes and laughed bitterly. “So Yan and Qi were already standing together.”

The man in black robes was not as tall as him, but looked at him with a lofty air. “If Yuanwu had not reached realm eight, he would have died at the Deer Mountain Conference, and Zheng Xiu … may also be dead.” He nonchalantly answered Yu Qi.

Yu Qi was silent for a moment, and then said, looking at the man in black robes, “I do not think as big as you.”

“Doing it for personal grievances is also very good. But you did not think far enough, and did not see far enough, so you did not succeed,” the man in black robes said seriously to him.

Yu Qi said after a moment, “You are right.”

“I do not want to kill you.” The man in black robes slowly said, “Since you cannot succeed, do not make needless sacrifices. Even if you die, you do not need to take along so many people, and the entire Yan Dynasty with you.”

Yu Qi thought for a moment, but before he spoke, the man in black robes said, “Regardless of the grievances you have with the Yan emperor, your grievances are just a part of Zheng Xiu’s plans. Since you will lose, you do not need to drag so many of your faithful subordinates, including their family and brothers with you. I can let you live. You are not living for yourself, and for these people, for the Yan Dynasty.”

Yu Qi grimaced and then said seriously, “Your words are correct, I cannot refuse.”

After saying this, he issued multiple orders.

The man in black robes bowed to him in thanks and then opened up a path for the border marshal and the subordinates loyal to him to leave.

The blackness in the sky was still there.

The blackness still remained in the garden.

The contrast of the sky and earth was terrifying.

A man in yellow robes held an umbrella and stood in the streets of the Yan capital. He looked at the darkness in the palace and his hands started to tremble.

A yellow leaf fell from the locust tree behind him, and was crushed to powder by the trembling energy from his body.

**

In the Changling palace, the yellow leaves were falling like rain.

A man in yellow robes walked over the stone path, and handed a document to the palace attendant outside the empress Zheng Xiu’s study with unusual seriousness.

In Changling, yellow robes did not mean the imperial family, but the members of the empress’s family, the Jiaodong Commandery.

The empress took the document the palace attendant handed her, and an odd emotion appeared on her perfect and cold face.

This emotion seemed to be sorrow or fury. Or just a moment of daze, to think back to other memories. Only she knew what it was.

Ever since Yuanwu’s ascension and Ba Mountain Sword Field’s destruction at her hands, she gradually felt that everything was in her grasp. Even without that person, everything was as she wanted. She seemed to have been a god who could do anything.

Yet since the start of the Min Mountain Sword Trials, she seemed to be constantly losing. The more she lost, the thicker the shadow that person left on her mind grew, and the larger it became like it took over her entire body.

She threw the document into the fire basin in front of her, slowly stood up, walking out of her study towards its rear and deeper into the palace.

There was a special torture room inside the palace.

Translator Ramblings: We have a zombie with a mountain.