Author note: I wont lie I had half this chapter written on Monday intending to release it then. I started reading Ancient Strengthening Technique however and couldn't stop. Almost caught up with the translated chapters for that though so no more binge reading that delays chapters.

~~

In a carpeted room inside the third prince’s palace the true owner of the palace, Sun Yu, watched the scene play out.

A circle of smoke floated in the center of the room and a light screen that contained the scene of Sun Qing collapsing played out over and over.

With a frown Sun Yu waved her hand and the smoke drifted away taking the picture with it.

Meng Fai had observed the image as well and turned towards Sun Yu.

“It seems she’s exhausted her strength. Gu Long’s defense should truly be praised for having pushed her so far. If I move out now I can handle them without worry.”

Sun Yu frowned for a moment and then sighed. As though considering the matter she took a drag of her long stemmed pipe causing the red ember at the end to glow. The light caused her face to appear even more charming.

Having reached a decision she exhaled the smoke softly.

“No. You think he could push her that far? It must be trick. He’s vicious and cruel, but not stupid and she certainly isn’t weak. Only I can’t see why they would bother with this act.”

“Perhaps they are trying to draw me out or maybe they’re afraid we would run?”

“You would move regardless and running would cause us to lose too much face. Besided I’m confident the two of us could stall long enough for my husband’s soldier to arrive. Her pretending to collapse only causes us to be more cautious.”

Sun Yu took another drag and forced herself to think of the possible reasons for them to act it out as they did, but was unable to come up with any reasoning. She then began to voice her thoughts hoping input from Meng Fai would help.

“If this hadn’t happened I would have sent you out to delay and moved my children here. Now that this has happened the simple response would be the same. Send you out while they are weakened and bring my children here. The only difference is your response. You would be more aggressive and possibly overextend. However, I don’t believe this move is that simple.”

Then with a sneer. “He is her son after all.”

Meng Fai had been listening, but couldn’t figure out the plan either. He decided to give a simple response.

“If he knows that you won’t fall for the simple move, then he must know what you would do when you don’t fall for it. What would you have me do then?”

“If I thought this trick was something simple as that? I would be even more defensive. Bring my children here and then have the two of us defend together.”

“Then isn’t that what he expects you to do?”

“Not necessarily. He might have known I would reason it out this far and planned for one step further.”

Meng Fai could still follow along to this point, but a small fear of the second prince started to creep up. Sensing that fear he could only rely on his strong martial heart to drive it away. More to himself than to Sun Yu he spoke his thoughts.

“What good is all this planning? All that matters is strength. If we are strong enough to resist together then we should fight together and his plans will be crushed.”

A single one of Sun Yu’s lascivious eyebrows rose. At first she dismissed it, but the more she thought about it the more she liked the idea.

If she was in a weaker position she would plot and plan around the opponent and hope to avoid a direct confrontation. In fact since he was resorting to a plan such as this it showed that he was on the weaker side.

“Good. My daughter has had a breakthrough since recovering correct?”

“Yes.”

“She’ll be able to handle him and we can handle the girl.”

“Should I bring them here?”

Sun Yu considered for a moment. She took a long drag and with the ember still red hot she turned the pipe over spilling the contents onto her soft jade hand.

Crushing the ember in her hand she then opened it and blew out the smoke. As the smoke mixed with the ember it took the shape of a phoenix which then soared out a small window at the top of the room.

“No. That would be to defensive. We’ll meet them in the courtyard. I’ll head out first.”

The phoenix made of ash and smoke flew towards the center of the city leaving the scent of smoke and a hint of perfume trailing behind it.

At the center of the city one would expect a giant palace or magnificent building of some kind. Instead the phoenix arrived at an ancient looking gate that was decorated with many symbols that glowed with energy. Other than the symbols the gate appeared to be a simple gate with one other unique feature.

From a distance the gate appeared as an ordinary sized gate, but as one approached space would distort and the size of the gate would grow.

When the phoenix arrived at the gate it was a hundred times larger than the gate Sun Qing had kicked down to enter the Third Prince’s palace.

As the smoke ash phoenix passed through the gate a ripple appeared as though a pebble was dropped into water and the phoenix disappeared.

~~~

While Sun Yu contemplated Sun Qing and Sun Jiao’s plan, Sun Jiao was also contemplating what his plan would be.

Gently placing Sun Qing on the ground he looked at the faces of the surrounding guards and began to sweat internally. Thankfully his face was saved because cultivating gave him quite a bit of control over his body allowing him to hide his fear so well it gave the impression that everything was under control.

Sun Jiao thought for a moment that if he was ever able to return to his old life even without cultivation he could become a legendary actor.

Slightly annoyed at Xiaobo’s misunderstanding Sun Jiao’s brow slightly furrowed. This single look caused the remaining guards to take a step back.

All the First Layer cultivators had passed out due to the battle between Sun Qing and now deceased Gu Long and even the Second Layer ones had been slightly injured. This had damaged their morale and made them extremely cautious.

At this moment, when the guards morale couldn’t get lower, a striking looking man stood forward and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“The girl is exhausted! Now’s our chance to strike!”

Almost immediately a similarly striking man shouted as well.

“Yeah! Boss Gu’s defensive is so strong how could she not be exhausted! It’s just that useless second prince who has been stuck at the First Layer for so long!”

The first man then spoke up just as the second man finished as if the two had practiced.

“So what if the rumor he broke through the Second Layer is true. Trash will always be trash! Revenge for Boss Gu! Revenge for Boss Gu!”

The second man joined in and others quickly followed.

“Revenge for Boss Gu!”

The two men were Gu Long’s lieutenants and had also attended the Heaven Elements Academy. They had failed to reach the second layer by 15 and had been disqualified from continuing, but were able to stay on as Gu Long’s attendants until he too was disqualified. They had since reached the peak of the second layer and both had acquired fire attributes.

This was a clever move by the two lieutenants working in sync to turn the death of their boss that was causing panic to a morale boost. With Sun Qing out of the picture the effect was amplified and the guards were able to have faith in their victory again.

Riding the wave of confidence the two lieutenants used this to charge forward and attack Sun Jiao from the front left and right at the same time. Their two attacks were well practiced, their blades emitted fire, and bloodlust seeped from their veins.

They could already see Sun Jiaos burning corpse. With their boss gone and Sun Jiao dead they would be rewarded heavily. They could even cripple Sun Qing and take turns with her. Cruel smiles simultaneously passed on these two sworn brothers lips.

Without Xiaobo prompting Sun Jiao gave a snort which infuriated the two lieutenants causing them to increase the strength of their attack.

Sun Jiao had wanted to test his new ki and now was the perfect opportunity as Xiaobo hadn’t warned him to be careful. That alone was enough to give him confidence.

Withdrawing his silver blade he filled it with ki. Not wanting to put the sleeping Sun Qing in danger he stepped forward intending to meet the attack head on.

This also fell under the two lieutenants expectations. They had planned to attack so that if Sun Jiao moved Sun Qing would take the attack instead.

Some might consider this underhanded and cheap, but in battle the loser would die and had no right to complain.

Some would consider this method intelligent and call the tactics brilliant.

Sun Jiao didn’t consider it at all.

His blade swept out horizontally and passed through the two incoming sabers effortlessly.

The fire and colorless ki mixed and a the space appeared to distort. When light passes through hot air it will wobble and distort..

The surrounding guards saw this and began to praise the heat of the lieutenants fire attribute. Before the thought could be voiced however it was quickly cut to pieces.

The distortion was not caused by the variation of the refractive index due to hot air temperatures, but because of the space was unstable.

As though an invisible cheese grater passed by cracks in the air began to appear which swallowed the fire ki and ripped apart the blades as though they didn’t exist.

Sun Jiao quickly stepped back, but the lieutenants could only continue forward as their moment carried them.

The blade had passed right in front of their heads and they could see the distortions in space. They knew if they didn’t avoid it they would die and could only regret having attacked without thinking. Was Sun Jiao not calm and collected? How could he have been so calm and not be confident of winning.

There was no medicine for regret and there was definitely no medicine for a shotgun full of almost invisible razor blades to the face.

The surrounding guards looked on as the leaders that had instilled confidence in them were unable to block a single move. Not only that, but the heads that had entered that space were shredded beyond recognition. Over half the remaining guards turned and emptied their stomachs while the other half had pale faces.

Even Sun Jiao had to suppress the urge to vomit he was closest and a bit of brain matter had reached the bottom of his robe.

Turning the blade over in his hands he examined it and found it exactly the same and without scratches. He then turned his attention to the surrounding guards.

This gave the guards the impression that he wanted to use his blade some more. Those that weren’t vomiting dropped their weapons and fell to their knees in despair.

Sun Jiao was pleased with the attack and not at all surprised at their surrender. Xiaobo’s next words caused him flinch.

Next chapter we'll briefly meet a sleepy but arrogant cultivator that causes things to go not as planned. Also, hints at the next arc.