Hundred Refinements Peak, its lanterns hung and blazing as brightly as daylight, was filled from top to bottom with a festive air.
Before the towering mountain gate forged from black iron, a lone rider came galloping out of the darkness and came to an abrupt stop.
The Hundred Refinements Peak martial artist carrying the message swung down from his horse and, bypassing the disciples guarding the gate without slowing for a moment, charged straight into the peak.
The disciples guarding the gate recognized him, and since he was their martial uncle by seniority, naturally none of them dared to stop him.
Only they all found it puzzling. From the look of his frantic urgency, it seemed as though something terrible had happened.
Yet Hundred Refinements Peak had gone so many years without any serious trouble. The one thing that had recently drawn any attention was the Great Li Tianjin Guards suddenly moving against Falling God Peak, though as Falling God Peak's disciples they had never for a moment considered that reckless act by the Great Li court any real threat. Beyond feeling a great deal of anger about it, they had no genuine worry that anything would actually happen to Falling God Peak.
"It is probably still about the young city master's business. Perhaps the culprit has already been dealt with and Martial Uncle is rushing back to report."
One of the disciples guarding the gate said this, and the others around him put no more thought into it either.
Very quickly, the Hundred Refinements Peak martial artist carrying the message entered the peak and headed directly toward the summit of the cliff at speed.
But the current situation was unlike ordinary times, and furthermore, he had received the Chief Elder's permission during the journey to personally report the situation in Hundred Refinements City to Zheng Yunfeng.
The truth was that the Hundred Refinements Peak Chief Elder had harbored a calculation of his own in arranging this. He knew that the deaths of the First Wife, Zheng Zi, and Zheng Shangzong would inevitably draw Zheng Yunfeng's fury, and whoever reported the matter would be the first to bear the brunt of that anger. He naturally had no wish to take that on himself, and so had conveniently used this messenger as a stand-in to absorb the initial blow.
After that, once Zheng Yunfeng calmed down, he would have avenged him, and the matter would be concluded. He might even earn greater standing in Zheng Yunfeng's eyes as a result.
What he had calculated at great length and still never managed to factor in was that Li Musheng's terrifying nature was beyond all imagining. Not only had he failed to avenge anyone, but had been tormented thoroughly before being killed.
"Peak Master, something terrible has happened!"
The Hundred Refinements Peak messenger, having no idea of the protocols for appearing before Zheng Yunfeng at this location, called out urgently the moment he arrived before the small courtyard at the summit.
"Insolence. Who gave you leave to come here?"
Zheng Yunfeng's voice came from within the courtyard, carrying anger, and at that moment the thick cloud layer pressing low over the summit began to surge and churn.
It then condensed into a white iron chain made of cloud-vapour, which descended from the clouds and came lashing toward the messenger with a howling shriek.
Seeing this, the messenger was badly startled, and called out at full speed, "The First Wife and City Master Zheng have both been killed!"
At those words, the cloud-vapour iron chain that had been about to come down suddenly stopped.
The messenger then pressed his forehead to the ground and, without waiting for Zheng Yunfeng to ask anything, hurried to continue reporting, "A group of us followed the First Wife and the two Enforcement Hall elders to Hundred Refinements City to take revenge for the young city master, but upon arrival we found that City Master Zheng had also been killed by the same person."
"The First Wife, overwhelmed with grief, led us with the two elders to confront the person and avenge the family, but the First Wife and both elders were killed by that person with a single finger each, while the person deliberately left nine of us alive and had us carry a message to the nine peaks..."
The messenger spoke at great speed, laying out the full cause and course of events, afraid Zheng Yunfeng might not understand that he had broken the rules only because the situation had demanded it.
What he had not anticipated was that the moment he finished speaking, the cloud-vapour chain came crashing down and blasted his entire body into a mist of blood.
He died without ever understanding how, after running his heart out over that entire journey, he had ended up with no corpse left to speak of.
At the same time, the entire summit of Hundred Refinements Peak was suddenly engulfed in wind and surging clouds, with rolling thunder-like booms echoing through the air, as though some extraordinarily fearsome power was building.
Disciples of Hundred Refinements Peak all across the peak felt it at once, and regardless of whether they were resting, cultivating, or already awake, every one of them stepped out of their quarters and looked up toward the direction of the summit.
In that moment, silence fell across all of Hundred Refinements Peak.
Only the small courtyard at the summit, half-hidden in mist and cloud, poured out a suffocating and terrifying aura that slowly seeped outward, like a great devouring beast awakening.
At that point one Hundred Refinements Peak disciple suddenly turned and looked back at the bronze wind chime hanging from the eave of a building below.
It was shaking violently, and then with a crack it shattered, its countless fragments flying outward in every direction, piercing through the walls of the surrounding buildings and even slashing the cheek of the disciple watching it.
"It is the Peak Master!"
Someone among the peak's disciples suddenly cried out in alarm, and very quickly all the disciples on the mountainside dropped to their knees in unison, crying out Zheng Yunfeng's title in reverent salutation.
From within the darkened clouds above the peak, a blazing sphere of golden True Qi rose from the small courtyard at the summit.
Its golden light radiated in brilliant rays, shining like a great sun over the entirety of Hundred Refinements Peak, and the surging clouds at the summit transformed into a sea of golden cloud.
But Zheng Yunfeng gave no response to his disciples. What swept toward all of Hundred Refinements Peak was killing intent that covered heaven and earth.
In that instant, the entire mountain peak trembled in resonance.
A grove of pine trees near the summit had every needle on every branch simultaneously leave its bough, suspending in the air with all their points directed toward the small courtyard at the summit.
The falls ran backward, water droplets hung frozen in the air, and the mist that had covered the peak churned and rushed outward, forming a vast swirling vortex of fog that stirred up gusts of wind so fierce it seemed they might shake the entire Hundred Refinements Peak.
In that moment, almost every single disciple across Hundred Refinements Peak finally understood. This was not the Peak Master emerging from seclusion and displaying the power of a Heaven-Human martial cultivator. This was the Peak Master's fury and killing intent.
The disciples of Hundred Refinements Peak had no idea what had happened. They could only tremble and kneel in every corner of the peak, pressing their foreheads to the ground and not daring to breathe a sound.
The next instant, all the hovering pine needles in the grove exploded into powder at once, drifting down in a fine shower.
The frozen waterfall droplets suspended in the mountain air were crushed by a terrifying force and burst simultaneously into mists of water vapor.
Then the pine powder and water mist alike were drawn into the surging fog vortex and swept through all of Hundred Refinements Peak. Every disciple on the peak was soaked through by the vapor, and a cold chill rose across their entire bodies.
In that moment, every one of them seemed to dimly feel something of the Peak Master's extreme and ice-cold state of mind.
And right at that point, the sphere of golden True Qi suddenly descended rapidly from the summit, coming to a stop at the mountain gate.
"Prepare the carriage. The Peak Master is going personally to Hundred Refinements City."