The young voice was neither loud nor forceful, but when it fell on Bai Changfeng's ears it struck like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, deafening him to everything else.
Bai Changfeng snapped his head up and looked toward the carriage before him, but when his gaze swept over Shadow Crow and the other four at his sides, his entire frame suddenly went rigid.
Then, visibly to the naked eye, a look of horror spread across that face as sharp as something hewn by axe and blade. His pupils contracted sharply.
At this moment, Bai Changfeng's gaze fell on Shadow Crow and the other four, and what he saw was unmistakable. All four of them, who had been positioned at the four corners of the carriage in a pincer formation, were standing exactly where they had been, not having moved so much as a fraction.
Yet what shook him beyond measure was that on the center of each of their foreheads, at some unknown moment, a blood-soaked hole had appeared, punched clean through from front to back.
All four of Shadow Crow's companions had long since ceased to breathe, each killed in a single strike, and Bai Changfeng, standing no more than a body's length away, had not sensed a single thing.
The full impact of this struck him all at once, and with an expression of pure horror Bai Changfeng stared at the carriage before him.
The young voice echoed in his mind. He opened his mouth silently, and from his throat came only a tight, trembling sound, saying, "I..."
But before the rest of his words could come, the carriage before him suddenly had its wheels turning again, and it continued rolling forward along the main street ahead.
In the next instant, Bai Changfeng's entire frame went rigidly still, the focus fading from his eyes, his vital force draining away in almost the same instant.
And the hundred armored cavalrymen arrayed in neat formation behind him could see, plainly visible, a hole punched clean through from front to back appearing on Bai Changfeng's head.
Creak, creak.
The empty main street was utterly silent. The iron cavalry stood motionless in their dark armor, weapons gleaming cold, and the only sound that rang clearly was the turning of carriage wheels.
The lead black-maned warhorse shifted its iron-shod hooves with uneasy anxiety. The cavalry officer immediately pulled the reins taut, pressing his other hand firmly down on the horse's head.
His other hand moved at once to hover over the sword at his waist, and his breathing stopped entirely in that single instant.
The next moment, with a sharp ringing of steel, a hundred broad swords were drawn simultaneously, their cold gleaming light weaving a blazing silver river across the quiet street.
For a moment, the trembling of blade edges produced a dense, resonant hum, warhorses screamed and reared, and the clash of iron armor was like a rainstorm hammering iron basins.
The stillness of the entire main street was shattered at once, and the hundred armored cavalry blazed with a killing spirit that surged to the sky. The paving stones beneath the warhorses' iron hooves cracked with a sharp splitting sound in every direction, sending spurts of dust and shattered fragments flying.
Yet for all the terrifying force and momentum the cavalry radiated, the only thing that could be heard was the carriage wheels growing more distant. The hundred armored riders remained rooted to the spot the entire time, frozen as though made of clay, and not a single horseshoe moved a step forward.
In this moment, an indescribable feeling settled over the minds of the hundred soldiers like a shadow that would not lift, making it feel as though taking so much as one more step would mean their instant death.
At the same time, every warhorse beneath them was trembling so violently it was as though sieved, letting out low, mournful whimpers. Every last one of them had been frightened out of their courage.
"Captain?"
One cavalryman slowly turned his head toward the officer in charge, his throat trembling as he spoke.
The officer in charge was inwardly shaken to the core, his face deeply grave.
Hearing his subordinate's voice, he drew a sharp, steadying breath and fought down the terror in his heart, then immediately gave his order without hesitation, saying, "Send someone back at once to report the situation here. Everyone else fall back ten zhang."
...
The carriage reached the end of the road and was on the verge of disappearing around a corner.
Cao Gaoshan, riding ahead, looked back at the armored cavalry retreating behind them, then shifted his gaze to the carriage behind him.
Then his eyes met the eyes of Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong sitting in the coachman's position, and all three of them saw the same unusual look in each other's eyes.
In this moment, almost simultaneously, a single thought surfaced in all three of their minds: "His Highness kills anyone he faces in a single strike. What level has his martial Dao cultivation actually reached?"
At the same time, inside the carriage, all three of the others kept glancing toward Li Musheng.
Though everyone already knew his martial Dao cultivation was fathomlessly deep, killing Bai Changfeng, the head of the family that ranked second only to the Murong family among Sheng Province's martial world lineages, with such casual ease was still something that made it difficult for any of them to contain their shock.
What was more, all three had been right there in the carriage with Li Musheng the entire time, and not a single one of them, Hu Rui'an included, had detected any sign of him making a move.
It had been the same when he used a single pointing of a finger to kill the White-Haired Specter and the others last time. It was the same again this time. The only difference was that Bai Changfeng was in an entirely different league from the White-Haired Specter.
As far as Hu Rui'an and Shen Anran were concerned, the one time they had personally witnessed Li Musheng act was when he sent Shen Juesheng flying with a single punch.
"Miss Murong, stop looking at me and pay attention to the road. We do not want you pointing us in the wrong direction."
Li Musheng glanced at Murong Xiaoya, and her pretty face immediately flushed all the way down to her neck. She immediately withdrew her gaze and hurriedly lifted the carriage curtain to look out the window.
Seeing this, Li Musheng turned to look at Shen Anran beside him. Her features were exquisite as a painting, and she was staring at him with bright, shining eyes, making no effort to look away.
Li Musheng cleared his throat quietly and thought to himself, "This one is hopelessly infatuated. There is no reasoning with her."
He turned his gaze to Hu Rui'an across from him, and the moment Hu Rui'an felt Li Musheng's eyes on him, he quickly said, "Your Highness is perhaps wondering whether killing Bai Changfeng will have any consequences?"
"Your Highness may rest easy. We killed his son before this, and Bai Changfeng was already sworn to settle things with us to the death. So killing him does not change our situation much, and if anything it will put fear into the rest of the Bai family."
"The only complication is that we had no real entanglement with the Murong family before. But after this, the martial world families opposing the Murong family, along with the General Han Cuiyuan behind them, will most likely consider us to be on the Murong family's side..."
Seeing Hu Rui'an about to continue, Li Musheng quickly raised a hand to stop him and raised an eyebrow, saying, "Are you certain I wanted to ask you about any of this?"
At that point, having heard Hu Rui'an's words, Shen Anran beside Li Musheng furrowed her brow slightly and looked at him, asking, "His Highness is a Great Li prince. Surely General Han Cuiyuan would not dare to raise his hand against one of higher rank?"
Hu Rui'an shook his head, saying, "That is not easy to say. Though I do not know the full details, from the current situation it looks as though the conflict between the Murong family and General Han Cuiyuan has already become irreconcilable."
"If he becomes convinced that Your Highness is aligned with the Murong family, there is no guarantee he would not take a desperate gamble."
Hearing this, Murong Xiaoya turned back, gave Hu Rui'an a brief look, then let her gaze settle on Li Musheng. She hesitated for a moment before saying quietly, "Your Highness and Commissioner Hu do not actually need to concern yourselves with the Murong family. We have our own way of dealing with what is in front of us."
The moment those words fell, all three people in the carriage looked toward her at once.
Li Musheng rubbed his chin. He was fairly certain he had never at any point said anything about helping the Murong family.
Killing Bai Liwei had been because the man had been first to stop them on the road, and killing Bai Changfeng had been because the man had tried to kill him in revenge for his son.
From beginning to end, neither incident had anything to do with the Murong family. At most, it could be said he had helped Murong Xiaoya as an incidental gesture.
He had never had the slightest intention of getting tangled up in the feuds of these martial world factions. Even so, the current situation appeared to be drifting somewhat from what he had in mind.
Perhaps this was what people meant when they said that once you were part of the martial world, it would not let you go.
Li Musheng furrowed his brow slightly. Even so, after thinking about it, he found he did not particularly care. None of this trifling nonsense could affect him in the least.
At this point, Hu Rui'an looked at Murong Xiaoya with a thoughtful expression, saying, "It seems the Murong family has reserves of their own. As the foremost martial arts lineage of Sheng Province, they must have foundations we are not aware of."
Hearing this, Murong Xiaoya neither denied it nor offered any detail, and simply gave a quiet nod.
From there, the carriage continued on its way. With Murong Xiaoya directing them, the group encountered no further obstruction and finally arrived before the Sheng Province government office.
...
At the same time, Bai Changfeng's clan uncle had led two hundred armored cavalry and two thousand infantry to the Murong estate.
He waved his hand and gave the order. The soldiers poured forward like a tide, surrounding the Murong estate in orderly formation until it was as tightly sealed as an iron barrel.
The forces of the Yuan, Zhu, and Cen families were also arriving in succession. The heads of all three families had come out personally for this siege of the Murong estate, and upon seeing the Bai family forces arrive, the three family heads rode over with several martial world experts in tow.
But when the three of them arrived and saw only Bai Changfeng's clan uncle with no sign of the man himself, all three of their expressions shifted and became somewhat less than pleasant.
The one who had taken the lead in pushing for this preemptive siege of the Murong family was Bai Changfeng himself.
Part of the reason was that the Bai family was the most powerful of the four major martial world families in the provincial city outside the Murong family, with the other three families broadly looking to them as their leader.
The other part was that having seen Bai Changfeng devastated by the loss of his son just yesterday, the three of them had found it difficult to refuse him outright, and had agreed to his proposal that the four major martial world families of the provincial city strike together and take down the Murong family in one day.
What they had not expected was that while all three of them had turned out in person today, Bai Changfeng himself was nowhere to be found. This was simply too unreasonable.
"Where is the Bai family head? Why is he not here?"
Yuan Shaobiao, head of the Yuan family, was a straightforward man. He urged his horse forward, swept a look around, and immediately called out to Bai Changfeng's clan uncle without ceremony.
Bai Changfeng's clan uncle looked at the three arriving family heads, saw their unpleasant expressions, and appeared to understand what they were thinking. He quickly said, "Please be patient, everyone. Changfeng found out where the killers of his nephew are and has taken people to deal with them midway. He should be back before long."
Hearing this, the three family heads of Yuan, Zhu, and Cen exchanged glances, and their expressions became considerably more agreeable.
"I see. With Brother Changfeng personally taking action, the killers will certainly have no hope of escape, and this grievance will surely be avenged."
Yuan Shaobiao's tone shifted and he said this in a measured voice.
The Zhu and Cen family heads also nodded, adding their agreement.
But just at that moment, the sudden sound of urgent hoofbeats erupted from the main street behind them.
Very quickly, a Bai family armored cavalryman came galloping up and jerked the reins hard, causing the warhorse to rear and come to an abrupt halt.
Then the soldier leaped from the saddle, rushed to Bai Changfeng's clan uncle in a scramble, dropped to one knee, and reported, "Something terrible has happened. The Bai family head is in trouble."
The moment those words fell, Bai Changfeng's clan uncle's expression shifted, and a deep foreboding immediately rose in his heart. He immediately demanded in a low, sharp voice, "What happened?"
At the same time, the other three martial world family heads beside them, seeing this, all looked over with unusual expressions.
The armored soldier's face was somewhat pale. He swallowed, then lowered his head and said, "The Bai family head and four martial experts went to surround and kill the perpetrators, but the other party was far too powerful. The Bai family head and the others... they are all dead."
The moment those words fell, the surrounding area went abruptly silent. Bai Changfeng's clan uncle came back to himself, and his figure, seated upright in the saddle, moved in an instant, appearing directly before the armored soldier.
The terrifying martial Dao aura pouring off him pressed down on the soldier as he demanded, "Repeat what you just said. What exactly happened?"
The soldier dared not refuse, and immediately laid out everything he had witnessed from beginning to end.
After hearing him out, the three martial world family heads, who had somehow drawn close without anyone noticing, all reacted at once with expressions of sheer disbelief, saying in unison, "How is this possible?"
It was clear that all three of them found the news entirely beyond what they could accept: that Bai Changfeng had gone with four martial world experts to carry out an encirclement, and had been wiped out entirely.
After all, they had some understanding of Bai Changfeng's martial Dao cultivation. Among all the martial world families in the entire provincial city, apart from a handful of old patriarchs who rarely appeared in public, his cultivation was only marginally below that of the Murong family head Murong Hong. Yet here he had been casually eliminated by a group that seemed to have come from nowhere. It simply did not add up.
"Take me there immediately. I must confirm this myself."
At this point, Bai Changfeng's clan uncle fought down the panic rising in his heart, and with a deeply unpleasant expression gave the order in a low, firm voice.
He knew in his heart that the armored soldier before him would never dare fabricate something like this. But unless he confirmed it with his own eyes, he simply could not bring himself to accept such a devastating piece of news.
Very quickly, Bai Changfeng's clan uncle took his people and followed the soldier away at speed.
The three family heads who remained watched the departing figures, then exchanged glances with one another.
At this moment, all three of their expressions were equally unpleasant. Though the news of Bai Changfeng's death left them struggling to believe it, from what they could see, the likelihood that it was true looked very high.
"Brother Yuan, if this is true, what should we do?"
The Zhu family head looked toward Yuan Shaobiao, who thought for a moment, then beckoned a trusted aide over and gave him a few instructions, sending the man away at speed.
Then he swept his gaze over the two family heads beside him and said, "I have already passed this to General Han. I trust he will have a course of action in mind."
Before long, Bai Changfeng's clan uncle confirmed the news of his death, and the Bai family made no attempt to conceal it, notifying the other three major martial world families at the first opportunity.
Upon learning of this, the three family heads, while still reeling from the shock, were simultaneously confronted with an extremely thorny problem: whether the siege of the Murong family should still go ahead.