HWONNGG!

A wild wind suddenly blew through the courtyard.

The stone table and chairs started shaking, and the trees rustled, their leaves blowing in the wind.

Mo Tianyu’s face was red, and his eyes were narrowed into slits. He couldn’t believe it.

The person inside the room hadn’t even shown his face, yet he was able to create a force as terrifying as if a deity had descended upon the earth!

The tremendous pressure made Mo Tianyu feel as if his very blood were turning solid.

Suddenly, he felt as he did when the Imperial Advisor was furious with him.

Mo Tianyu wasn’t weak. He was a Seventh Resonance Grandmaster. It was rare for someone of his age to reach this level, which was why he acted so arrogantly.

But despite being a Seventh Resonance Grandmaster, he felt an overwhelming sense of defeat and helplessness when faced with that palm from inside the room.

The wind blew so hard that Mo Tianyu’s robe stuck to his body, and his hair was blown back.

The palm, which was comprised of flowing wisps of light blue Qi, had its middle finger above its index finger, as if it had rolled back a sleeve to place a chess piece on a chessboard.

BOOOOM!

There was the sound of something exploding.

Mo Tianyu’s wine flask exploded into pieces.

Blood sprayed from his mouth and nose.

Above his head, the Confucianist Righteousness Qi he’d been so proud of was completely scattered by this one move. That same Confucianist Rightousness Qi that he had used to push Jing Yue back down so easily was shredded like paper in front of this one finger.

KACHA.

An undefeatable pressure as heavy as a giant mountain landed on top of Mo Tianyu’s head.

It pressed against him so hard that his neck started to bend.

HONNNGG!

An invisible wave of Qi rushed out.

Mo Tianyu could feel the ground beneath his feet crack open, and he was in great pain.

Everything went dark before his eyes, and he was left with nothing but wounds all over his body.

A terrifying pressure had just landed on the courtyard.

But the wildly blowing wind slowly came to a stop…

In the courtyard…

Jing Yue was sprawled on the ground, his face red and filled with sadness.

“Young Master… I’m one of yours!” Jing Yue barely managed to shout out.

The tremendous pressure immediately disappeared from the courtyard.

Jing Yue could feel the force pressing against his whole body slowly being lifted. Now, he could somewhat lift his neck.

Under the cold and clear moonlight…

The courtyard was a bit of a mess. There were fallen leaves everywhere, and the stone furniture had fallen over.

But what frightened Jing Yue the most wasn’t the mess… in the middle of the courtyard, there was a head sticking out from the ground.

The owner of that head was the top Confucianist disciple who had defeated him with just one move… Mo Tianyu!

He looked extremely pitiful.

His audacity and stylish carelessness had become a thing of the past.

He’d been thrust into the ground like a radish by that godlike palm’s attack.

He was left with only his head sadly poking out above the surface, and he was bleeding everywhere.

Jing Yue gasped, his entire body trembling.

He suddenly felt very afraid.

He was so glad that he’d made the choice to surrender so quickly, otherwise… he might’ve ended up no better than Mo Tianyu, who was now as good as half-dead.

Young Master’s way of doing things… was very mysterious and difficult to predict!

Mo Tianyu was a Seventh Resonance Grandmaster Confucianist filled with Righteousness Qi.

With one word, he could stop the wind and blow the clouds away, and his Righteousness Qi could shake the world.

And yet, this Seventh Resonance Grandmaster, who could pretty much do anything he liked in Great Zhou… had just been slapped by a palm as if he were no more than an onion.

Ning Zhao floated back down and landed on the ground, her icy Cicada Wing Sword gleaming brightly.

She looked at Mo Tianyu indifferently, without sympathy or pity.

He deserved what he got.

She had tried to warn him, but this Mo Tianyu was overly confident in his own abilities and refused to listen to anybody. He even wanted to calculate Young Master’s fate.

And so he eventually ended up in this tragic predicament.

Ning Zhao was actually a little surprised…

Young Master was such a petty man, but he hadn’t simply killed Mo Tianyu off.

Mo Tianyu was bleeding from the nose and mouth. He had been thrust into the ground by that palm, and only his head stuck out.

His consciousness was a little blurred at this moment.

Lu Fan had asked him if he had told his own fortune.

Actually… before Mo Tianyu left the capital, he had already calculated his own fate.

And that calculation told him that he would meet with great fortune….

When Mo Tianyu thought about that divination result, he started feeling sad deep within his heart. Great fortune, my foot!

Earlier, he felt like he’d arrived at hell’s gate.

Now, though he was in immense pain, his mind was extremely alert.

He couldn’t help but think about how once before, the Imperial Advisor had sat down in the rocking chair in the front of the study and talked to him about life and death, a sad expression on his face.

So… death was extremely frightening after all.

Mo Tianyu looked toward the dark room.

From the moment he arrived, the person inside the room hadn’t appeared. He hadn’t even shown his face. He only said three things, put down three chess pieces, and then Mo Tianyu had ended up in his current state.

Mo Tianyu took a deep breath, but this made blood pour back into his throat, and he ended up coughing on his own blood.

Young Master Lu of Beiluo City… actually had this kind of supernatural power?!

“Young Master, what should we do with him?” Ning Zhao asked, glowing in the moonlight, as she held her Cicada Wing Sword and looked into the room.

Jing Yue staggered to his feet, his heart pounding, and put his swords back into his sword box.

It was completely dark and silent inside the room. There wasn’t the slightest bit of light or the faintest sound.

After several moments, a calm voice floated out of the room.

“Kill him.”

These words were light and buoyant as they echoed within the courtyard.

Ning Zhao’s expression didn’t change. She held onto her Cicada Wing Sword and nodded. “Got it.”

But Jing Yue could feel himself trembling violently.

This man was Mo Tianyu, the top disciple of Confucianism… he was a disciple of the Imperial Advisor, so wasn’t Lu Fan afraid of incurring the Imperial Advisor’s wrath by killing him?

Jing Yue opened his mouth and tried to persuade Lu Fan to do otherwise.

But just as the words were about to leave his mouth… he chickened out.

What if Lu Fan misinterpreted his advice as him questioning his decision, and he killed him out of anger? What good would it do him to say anything, then?

So Jing Yue decided to keep quiet.

Ning Zhao’s white dress flapped in the wind as she raised her Cicada Wing Sword. Her beautiful complexion was as exquisite as porcelain as the moon shone on her.

Her sleeves rolled back as she lifted her pretty hands. She was ready to chop Mo Tianyu’s head off as if she were merely harvesting chives.

Suddenly…

From outside the room, a black figure, whose back was bent, landed on the ground in an instant.

“Young Master, you must not do this!” Old Huang urgently shouted in a hoarse voice, his heart nearly stopping as he saw what they were about to do.

Ning Zhao’s hands froze.

There was a clanging sound outside the small courtyard.

Several figures came quickly barging into the courtyard.

Lu Changkong had a cold expression on his face. Wearing full armor, he carried his helmet in one hand while his other hand was on the long sword at his waist.

Luo Yue followed behind him.

When the two of them entered the courtyard, they saw Mo Tianyu’s head sticking out of the ground with the help of the moonlight.

Luo Yue and Lu Changkong felt their hearts plummet into their stomachs. If Mo Tianyu hadn’t turned his head a little to the side, they would have thought Mo Tianyu had been decapitated.

“Sister Ning, stop.” Lu Fan’s words floated out from within the room.

He had already felt Lu Changkong rushing over to them while Ning Zhao was preparing to chop off Mo Tianyu’s head.

“Fan’er, are you all right?” Lu Changkong asked, concerned, as he looked toward the room.

If Mo Tianyu didn’t have the Imperial Advisor backing him, Lu Changkong wouldn’t have cared that Mo Tianyu was buried so deep in the ground that only his head stuck out.

Just the crime alone of trespassing Lu Manor in the middle of the night was sufficient reason for Lu Changkong to execute Mo Tianyu.

Inside the room…

There was a swishing sound.

Ning Zhao put her Cicada Wing Sword away and went into the room.

Soon enough, she emerged from the room pushing the wheelchair.

The cold moonlight shone on the red lips and white teeth of the elegant young man sitting in the wheelchair.

“I’m sorry for making Father worry about me. I’m in a good mood. Everything has gone really well today, so I’m actually very happy.” Lu Fan smiled faintly.

In the middle of the courtyard…

Mo Tianyu finally got to see what Lu Fan looked like.

This was the terrifying person who had nearly killed him so easily just moments before.

So he was actually just a harmless-looking, elegant, fragile young man who was in a wheelchair.

For a long time, Lu Changkong asked Lu Fan a lot of questions.

Father and son continued to chat under the moonlight.

As for Mo Tianyu, they seemed to have completely forgotten all about him.

“Father, this man may be the top disciple of the Imperial Advisor, but even if it isn’t necessary to execute him, he should at least be punished for disturbing my sleep… let’s just leave him here for now, and we can tell the Imperial Advisor to collect him himself later. He can come out of the ground whenever the Imperial Advisor arrives,” Lu Fan said calmly.

Once he said this, he didn’t leave any room for negotiation. He then ordered Ning Zhao to push him back into the room.

Lu Changkong laughed. He didn’t intend to put in a good word for Mo Tianyu either.

He seemed to have a tiny smile on his face as he glanced at Mo Tianyu, who looked like an onion stuck in the ground. Then, he brought Luo Yue and Old Huang out of Lu Fan’s courtyard. Afterward, he ordered Luo Yue to pass the message onto the coachman waiting outside the door.

Inside the courtyard, Jing Yue carried his sword box and breathed a sigh of relief. But just when he was glad that he hadn’t chosen to escape this time round, a calm voice suddenly surrounded him, and it felt like someone was whispering in his ear.

This low whisper carried a tone of authority that was not to be questioned.

“Watch him carefully. If he dies, I’ll look for you. If he escapes… I’ll look for you too. Watch him until the Imperial Advisor comes for him.”

…

Fragments of moonlight shone through the carved window into the room.

Lu Fan sat cross-legged as he started to move his consciousness.

Mo Tianyu’s appearance at Lu Manor was of little to no concern to him.

He had much more important things to do tonight.

He shifted his consciousness, and the stats menu appeared in front of him.

He looked at the Dao Impartment Platform under the Access Menu.

WONGGG…

A system prompt popped up.

Dao Impartment Platform activated. Automatically deducting one point from Soul Strength…

A bright light appeared in front of Lu Fan’s eyes once more, as well as an overwhelming force.

When Lu Fan opened his eyes again, he realized he was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the Eight Trigrams shaped platform of the Dao Impartment Platform, and that Spirit Qi was slowly flowing around him in vast quantities.

Suddenly…

Another system prompt popped up, and Lu Fan slightly raised an eyebrow at it.

Detected: Xiang Shaoyun (Identity: Mayor of West County) has successfully reached Second Stage Qi Core Realm. 1 wisp of Spirit Qi is available to take as commission. Confirm to take this commission?