Chapter 052
Chapter 52: Killing the Great Martial Grandmasters with a Single Finger
At this very moment, the great eunuch Sun Chang Yu stood frozen in shock.
He stared back at the ruined street behind him, the devastation of battle evident, his expression wavering between confusion and disbelief. Almost instinctively, he gasped aloud:
“Have you broken through?”
Upon hearing this, the coachman glanced down at the broken handle of his blade, then at the distant pit where the two swordsmen dressed in azure had been cleaved cleanly in half by his strike.
“I haven’t made a breakthrough yet. That strike shouldn’t have—”
But before the coachman could finish speaking, Li Mu Sheng’s languid voice drifted from behind:
“Remember the feeling of that strike. It might be the only glimpse of the Heavenly Union you ever get in this lifetime.”
With that, Li Mu Sheng, who had remained unmoving on the carriage, casually waved his hand and said:
“That’s enough. We should keep moving.”
He lowered the carriage curtains once more, reclined against his soft cushions, and paid no further attention to the happenings outside.
Both the coachman and Eunuch Sun Chang Yu stood stunned for a moment.
Sun Chang Yu couldn’t quite grasp Li Mu Sheng’s meaning, but the coachman seemed to sense something. Gripping the broken sword handle, he muttered to himself quietly:
“The feeling of that strike…”
He pondered deeply, trying desperately to grasp the faint wisp of Blade Intent he’d released in that instant. Yet perhaps due to a lack of understanding, it slipped from his grasp each time, elusive and unclear.
Meanwhile, Eunuch Sun Chang Yu had little time for such contemplation. The coachman’s shocking strike had indeed shaken him deeply, slaying two powerful swordmasters instantly.
Yet they still had three more powerful enemies to deal with.
Thinking of this, Sun Chang Yu quickly turned his gaze forward toward the old man wearing the straw cloak. But suddenly, his pupils shrank in shock.
The Skull Tapping Bamboo Elder had stopped moving, standing utterly still about ten feet from the carriage.
He was leaning on his bamboo staff with one hand, his elderly face stunned and frozen, staring blankly toward the carriage’s rear through the hazy mist raised by the falling rain.
Clearly, the Skull Tapping Bamboo Elder had also been stunned by the coachman’s earlier strike.
Yet that was not the main point. The key issue was that the elder remained motionless, and on his forehead was an empty, finger-sized hole.
Without question, he had been dead for some time.
Moreover, he had been silently slain by someone’s finger strike, entirely unaware and unable to resist.
“This…”
Eunuch Sun Chang Yu’s pale, refined face was filled with astonishment. He quickly turned toward the rooftops of the shops on either side.
The two masked assassins in black who’d previously crouched silently on the rooftops were now also utterly still. Each bore an identical finger-sized hole on their foreheads. Clearly, they had likewise been killed instantly, and long ago at that.
“What is happening here?”
Sun Chang Yu cried out, deeply shaken. The coachman finally came back to himself and turned his gaze toward the three dead martial masters, his eyes filled with astonishment.
“No wonder those two assassins never moved. It turns out they had been silently killed much earlier.”
Realizing this, the coachman’s mind cleared up.
He and Sun Chang Yu exchanged glances, each wanting to know just one thing now—who exactly had helped them?
More frightening was the realization that this mysterious figure had killed three powerful experts without any of them sensing the slightest trace.
“No, to be precise, all five were probably killed by the same person,” the coachman murmured, shaking his head. His weathered face showed deep thought as he remembered his earlier strike. “That blade strike wasn’t truly mine. It was Blade Intent borrowing my strength to manifest itself. Almost all of my martial Qi was drained in that single moment!”
Saying this, he suddenly turned to look toward the carriage.
Eunuch Sun Chang Yu, noticing this action, followed suit.
Together, they stared through the curtain at Li Mu Sheng, who rested quietly inside the carriage amidst the falling rain.
For a time, their faces shifted silently with mixed emotions.
At this moment, Li Mu Sheng’s voice drifted from the carriage again, tinged slightly with irritation:
“How much longer do you plan to linger here?”
Hearing this, Eunuch Sun Chang Yu and the coachman exchanged quick glances, abruptly remembering their duties.
Their hearts jolted into action, clearing their minds of distractions.
Immediately, the coachman leaped onto the driver’s seat, while Eunuch Sun swiftly ducked back inside the carriage.
“Yah!”
The coachman tucked the broken blade handle beneath his seat again, lashed the whip, and spurred the horses forward. They quickly passed by the corpse of the long-dead Skull Tapping Bamboo Elder without a second glance.
Right now, they had no energy left to deal with these assassins’ bodies. To prevent further mishaps, they must rush to the Heavenly Brocade Guard Headquarters without delay.
The wheels spun swiftly, splashing through countless puddles on the rain-drenched streets.
Inside the carriage, Eunuch Sun Chang Yu and Li Mu Sheng sat opposite each other, the atmosphere heavy with silence.
Li Mu Sheng leisurely sipped tea, deep in thought about the secrets of the Life Death Talisman martial art. Meanwhile, Sun Chang Yu glanced quietly toward him from time to time, carefully sizing up the young man who might truly be the Seventh Prince.
After a long moment, Eunuch Sun Chang Yu could no longer restrain his curiosity. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Li Mu Sheng suddenly shot him a casual glance, saying flatly:
“Yes, it was all my doing.”
All the questions Sun Chang Yu had wanted to ask got stuck immediately in his throat.
His expression shifted drastically, confusion, doubt, shock, and suspicion flickering across his delicate, pale face.
Finally, Eunuch Sun Chang Yu breathed out heavily and said:
“Since Young Master Li puts it this way, then I, your humble servant, shall simply believe you. If those five hadn’t died, perhaps it would have been me and the coachman outside instead.”
“In any case, I am grateful to Young Master for saving our lives.”
As he spoke, Eunuch Sun Chang Yu bowed deeply to Li Mu Sheng, sincerely expressing his gratitude.
Yet in his heart, Eunuch Sun understood clearly that such a terrifying strike, instantly cutting down two masters and silently killing three Great Martial Grandmasters with a single finger, could only be done by someone who had at least stepped halfway into the Heavenly Union realm—or perhaps even higher.
But could a mere young man barely twenty years of age possibly attain such martial prowess?
Martial cultivation required continuous effort, daily breathing of Qi, and diligent training over countless years to achieve significant progress.
Even the false prince within the prison, known as a martial prodigy with abundant resources and secret methods, had only reached the Half-Step Great Grandmaster stage by age twenty.
Truthfully, Sun Chang Yu did not fully believe Li Mu Sheng’s words. He suspected a hidden martial expert was secretly protecting Li Mu Sheng. Because of Li Mu Sheng, he himself had survived the assault of five Great Martial Grandmasters.
Thus, to say Li Mu Sheng saved his life wasn’t entirely incorrect.
“Enough, Eunuch. Just pour me another cup of tea,” Li Mu Sheng said, calmly shaking his head, ending the conversation with quiet authority.