Chapter 56 - The Death of Zhao Steven
“And what happened after that? All those that died by your hands… were they innocent? Even if you wanted to do so, I don’t think Zhao Steven would allow it!”
Li Mu’s gaze fell on Zhao Steven again.
His look seemed to say “we have finally met.”
“I…”
“Don’t bother with your explanation! You shouldn’t even exist in this world if you practice such a vicious technique.”
“Did you hear that? He just wants to kill us all today. Either he dies or we die. Kill him!”
Zhao Steven suppressed his inner fear and shouted.
He immediately rushed towards Li Mu.
The other Elders were spurred on by his roar.
They were convinced by Zhao Steven’s words.
This man didn’t look like he had any intention of letting them go.
So let’s just kill him!
They didn’t care how powerful he was back then!
Or how his cultivation had improved so quickly.
He was, at best, at the upper level of Perfected Person.
With so many people attacking him, killing him would not be impossible.
They fanned out to encircle Li Mu.
“You guys hold him off and stick to the original plan,”
Zhao Steven said.
Upon saying that, he disappeared.
“Master, just leave him to us! We can stall him for as long as it takes two incense sticks to burn,”
Elder Qin said.
The other perfected experts looked uplifted.
They were not nervous anymore.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
Their original mission was to stall this sword cultivator.
It turned out that there was someone who wanted to kill this sword cultivator and suck his essence and cultivation.
It was a pity that this wish was not granted.
Still, with so many people fighting against him, they were confident that they could stall the sword cultivator for two incense sticks of time.
They just needed to wait for that man to come out.
In that case, they could survive and still get away with their sins.
“You are such a bunch of fools! Zhao Steven tricked all of you into surrounding me, and then he escaped. Huh!”
Li Mu scoffed.
“You don’t know anything!”
“Even if he wants to escape, he should see whether I’ll allow it or not. Last time around, I let him escape in advance because I wasn’t familiar with the underground stream. This time, he won’t have such an opportunity.”
Li Mu threw out his longsword, and with a flash, he ran out from the circle of Elders.
The Elders didn’t even have time to react.
Li Mu had already disappeared before they realized what had happened.
“He is so fast!”
The Elders froze for a moment.
With such a speed, how could they hold him off?
In the distance, Zhao Steven was running towards the Imperial Capital.
His eyes were constantly fixed on Li Mu and the others in the manor behind him.
He sensed that he was in danger when he saw Li Mu dash out from the circle that had surrounded him.
How could this man be so fast?
He was so much faster than he used to be.
This meant that his cultivation was…
Zhao Steven didn’t dare to think about it.
“Master Shifu, forgive me!”
Burning his essence and blood, he continued to run towards the distance.
As for rescuing the Master Shifu, he could only put that thought away for now.
His own survival was more important at the moment.
“Zhao Steven, do you really think you can escape?”
“Senior, please don’t kill me!”
Zhao Steven cried.
Though he was running further and further away, Li Mu was getting increasingly closer to him.
Zhao Steven was overwhelmed by the fear of death.
Burning his essence and blood again, he summoned his power and ran away from the Imperial Capital in a flash.
“I don’t know how you ran away last time, but you won’t be able to get away this time! Sword Technique 23!”
Li Mu struck with his strongest sword technique.
He was determined to catch Zhao Steven.
If he didn’t kill Zhao Steven now, there would be no end of trouble!
The last time, he was just an ordinary saint-level warrior, but in less than thirty years, his cultivation had reached the fifth level of Perfected Person.
In order to fulfill his cultivation, he must have killed countless warriors.
“Master Shifu, save…”
Zhao Steven was so terrified. He attempted to avoid Li Mu’s attack.
In terms of cultivation, he was at the fifth level of Perfected Person. He reached this level by using the essence and blood of other warriors. His cultivation was nowhere near Li Mu, who was a sword cultivator reaching the perfection level of Perfected Person.
And now, Li Mu was attacking him with his strongest sword technique.
With two broken legs, Zhao Steven watched the sword coming right for him. The iron sword stabbed directly into his chest, and there was nothing he could do.
There was no way for him to dodge aside!
There was no way for him to escape!
“How…did your cultivation…”
He didn’t expect that his cultivation could be so much lower than this sword cultivator.
“Zhao Steven, with your talents, if you could take the right path to improve your cultivation, you would have a prospect of infinite possibilities. What a pity!”
Li Mu said from afar as he waved his hand.
The sword came out from Zhao Steven’s body and flew back into Li Mu’s hand.
“I…”
Zhao Steven looked around.
He seemed to have a lot to say.
But when he opened his mouth, his entire throat was filled with blood.
He wanted to say something, but he could no longer utter a word.
Looking at Li Mu, the emotion in his eyes changed.
At this moment, he suddenly had a lot of things in his mind.
Clan Zhao, Liu Rui, and the bronze mirror he picked up in the corner of the family’s library tower when he was a child.
It was this bronze mirror that allowed him to meet his Master Shifu.
Eventually, bewitched by that Master Shifu, he took the path where there was no turning back.
At that time, he knew he had unique talents.
He knew the situation of Clan Zhao.
He hid himself, waiting for the day when he could do great things.
It had been more than 50 years.
Even members of Clan Zhao could fail to imagine what he could achieve.
Unfortunately, it was all over.
He couldn’t go back now!
If he hadn’t listened to the Master Shifu in the first place… if he had chosen to practice the methods of Clan Zhao and live as a dandy, would he have a different story?
Would he have a happy family?
Would he have kids with Liu Rui?
After decades of practice, would he become a saint-level expert?
Would he still be a powerful figure in Nanzhou in the years to come?
All these seemed like a dream now.
His heart stopped beating, and his body gradually became cold and stiff.
But he was lost in his reminiscence.
“Run!”
The Elders watched how Li Mu killed their strongest master with just one strike.
They immediately turned around and ran away.
They would never come here again.
It was too scary.
This man was not human at all.
Swish!
An Elder’s head fell off after taking just one step.
“Even a Level-1 Perfected Person wanted to fight against me. Decades ago, you could barely resist a single strike of my sword!”
Whoosh!
Outside the Imperial Capital, one could hardly see how Li Mu moved.
Heads fell off on the ground one by one.
Gulp!
Corpses were dropped on the beach by the city moat.
Half a day later, Li Mu appeared outside the northern mountain.
A strike!
The mountain began to collapse!
The ground began to sink!
The body of the Level-5 perfected expert who escaped to this place was split into two parts.
Li Mu worried that they might have some other ways of escape.
So he stayed with each corpse for a while.
He wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t come back to life again.
“How exactly did Zhao Steven get away in the first place?”
He checked the dead bodies again while thinking about Zhao Steven’s escape.
He confirmed that every corpse was still in its place.
“It seems that there is still someone behind the Dark Yin Sect!”
Li Mu took a deep breath.
If it was not the case.
How did Zhao Steven disappear right in front of him?
Li Mu ran towards the border right away with his sword.
Inside the imperial palace of the capital.
Liu An and others were looking at the sky outside the capital. The sky was changed by an immense aura, which burst out like huge waves.
Everyone had a grave look on their faces.
“Your Majesty, it’s a fight of experts!”
“Why did they choose this moment to engage in a fight in the land of the capital?”
Liu An seemed to have something in mind.
This was the time when the Xia was fighting against sects and the allied forces of other five states.
At such a special moment, so many experts appeared outside the capital.
Could it be that those sect experts were coming to attack?
How about the other expert?
Whoosh!
Liu An suddenly disappeared and then reappeared up in the Shouning Palace.
“Eunuch Li, are you there?”
After looking around, he didn’t see Li Mu.
In the past, Li Mu always showed up when he came.
He was either in a daze or was sweeping the floor.
After walking around in the Shouning Palace, Liu An laid under the peach tree.
The tension on his face slowly faded away.
At this moment, he could stop worrying.
Li Mu was there.
He didn’t know why, but with Li Mu out of the Shouning Palace at this moment, he felt particularly relieved.
He stayed in the Shouning Palace for the whole night.
The next day, Liu An returned to Taihe Palace.
“Xuanwu Guards, go outside to the place where the fight took place yesterday and bring back any dead bodies you find.”
“Your Majesty, Eunuch Wang from the Ceremony Directorate brought back all the corpses last night.”
“Where are the corpses now? Are there any familiar faces?”
Liu An suddenly straightened his back as he waited for a response.
“We have to ask Eunuch Wang. But from the look on his face, there should be good news.”
“Well! Let’s go to the Ceremony Directorate.”
Liu An was overjoyed.
He took the lead and rushed towards the Ceremony Directorate.