The four Great Li Tianjin Guards columns advancing on Falling God Peak had seen the terrifying sea of fire engulfing Hundred Refinements City after the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder made their move.
The entire morale had plummeted to its lowest point, as though a layer of shadow had settled over every single person.
In that moment, including the former Commander, almost everyone had stopped seeing any hope of the Tianjin Guards winning, and saw only the bleak fate of leaving their bones in a foreign land.
Even so, the Great Li Tianjin Guards's strict discipline held, and though the columns were at their lowest point of spirit, they continued advancing toward Falling God Peak's four designated peaks according to the established plan.
Had this been any other martial world faction or force, half the people would already have slipped away in secret to save their own lives.
Throughout this period, Fu Qiwen and Hu Rui'an traveled in silence, and the atmosphere across the entire column was extremely heavy.
Especially after the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder drew the sea of fire back in, Fu Qiwen and the others were even more on guard against the possibility that, after dealing with the problem at Hundred Refinements City, the Honored Elder would come after the Tianjin Guards's four columns next.
But the retaliation from the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder never came. Instead they were left to witness the sudden arrival of the Falling God Peak grandmaster and the other honored elders descending on Hundred Refinements City.
"It must be His Highness. It has to be His Highness."
"If His Highness had lost to the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder, Falling God Peak's grandmaster and the others would have absolutely no reason to make their move. It must be that His Highness won... and perhaps even killed the other party..."
Hu Rui'an was overcome with excitement, and suddenly turned sharply to look at Fu Qiwen beside him, stumbling over his words as he said, "I remember now. I remember, His Highness said he was the number one under heaven. No one in this world is a match for him."
As he spoke, Hu Rui'an suddenly broke into laughter, drawing strange looks from the Tianjin Guards around him.
Fu Qiwen looked at Hu Rui'an in his near-delirious state, and this man, who could conceal his true feelings no matter how great the event, now wore an expression of utter bewilderment across his face.
He reined in his horse to a stop, raised his head, and looked at the terrible spectacle above Hundred Refinements City, where the thunder-clouds pressed down like divine punishment upon the world. He was completely silent.
Only the barely perceptible trembling of his hands beneath his sleeves revealed that the emotions within him at that moment were anything but calm, anything but the still water surface he maintained outwardly. In truth they were more like crashing and surging waves.
As the Great Li Tianjin Guards's Commander, Fu Qiwen held towering authority, and had been through everything imaginable and beyond. He had long since cultivated a state of mind that would not change expression even if a mountain collapsed before him, and could face even Emperor Yuanwu's fury with complete composure, calm even in the face of an order for his own execution.
But what was unfolding before him, or more precisely, the shock and joy that this Eighth Prince had brought him, was something he found himself entirely unable to meet with even a fraction of calm and steadiness.
Fu Qiwen was no fool. On the contrary, his insight was penetrating and his mind was unusually sharp, and he could naturally guess what had roughly happened in Hundred Refinements City.
Even though he found it all impossible to believe, even though he could not accept that the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder, someone he would have had to stake his life against, could have fallen at Li Musheng's hands, everything unfolding before him was without exception pointing to exactly that, leaving him no choice but to believe it.
Of course, he was more than willing to believe it and accept it. In fact, a wave of excitement and elation rose in his heart the likes of which had not appeared in many, many years.
At that moment, he even felt an inexplicable urge to throw his head back and laugh out loud like Hu Rui'an, to sweep away all the gloom from before, and recklessly release all the oppression the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder had brought down on them.
But after a moment, Fu Qiwen drew a long breath and steadied the surging emotions inside himself very well, then looked at Hu Rui'an on the horse beside him, who was practically dancing in his saddle, and said, "Do not celebrate too soon. Even if His Highness truly brought down the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder, we do not know whether he has been injured, or what his current situation is."
"And he still has to face the Falling God Peak grandmaster and the other honored elders. Whether he can hold out remains to be seen."
The sudden cold water from Fu Qiwen gave Hu Rui'an a slight jolt.
His entire being slowly settled back down, and he raised his head again to look toward Hundred Refinements City. A thread of worry began to show on his face once more.
The spectacular scene in the distance, with black clouds rolling in and thunder splitting the sky with purple lightning, looked even more frightening than the sky-wide sea of fire before.
Hu Rui'an furrowed his brow, his expression also turning grave again. He was just about to speak when Fu Qiwen glanced at him and cut him off, saying, "Do not worry. What I just said was deliberately said to bring you to your senses."
"If His Highness's martial cultivation truly allowed him to defeat the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder, then the Falling God Peak grandmaster and the other honored elders are probably also no match for him."
"Even if His Highness has sustained injuries, retreating from Hundred Refinements City before the grandmaster and the others arrive presents absolutely no problem for him."
Hearing this, Hu Rui'an shot the other man a look.
Honestly, if the man were not his superior, and if he were capable of winning against him, he would not have held himself back from saying something just now.
At that point Fu Qiwen stopped paying attention to Hu Rui'an and instead called over a messenger officer. After a brief moment of thought, he gave the order, "Pass this message from me to every member of the Tianjin Guards. The Eighth Prince of Great Li has martial cultivation that defies all measure. He alone has killed Falling God Peak's Scarlet Fire Honored Elder, and now stands single-handedly against the Falling God Peak grandmaster and the Honored Elders."
"The Prince leads the charge from the front, and we who eat the Emperor's provisions and serve in loyalty to the throne have no grounds whatsoever to retreat. We offer our lives in service to the court and the realm and swear to not retreat one step."
The moment those words faded, the messenger officer suddenly lifted his head, his eyes flooding with an expression of disbelief.
He had clearly been stunned by what Fu Qiwen had just said.
The Eighth Prince's martial cultivation defied all measure.
Alone, he had killed the Scarlet Fire Honored Elder, who could set the sky on fire with a sky-wide sea of flame.
If anyone else had said these words, he would not have believed a single one. But the person saying them was the foremost figure of the Great Li Tianjin Guards, the Great Li Commander whose authority shook the court.
Every word carried a weight sufficient to shake heaven and earth.
The messenger officer's expression went through several changes, and his eyes instinctively drifted to the spectacle above Hundred Refinements City. His entire mind and spirit trembled at what he saw.
At that moment, Fu Qiwen's voice reached his ear, "Send the order to every column by falcon without delay."
The messenger officer snapped back to himself, did not dare ask a single thing, immediately answered, and turned to rush away.
Hu Rui'an, watching this unfold beside them, felt something move in his eyes, and then turned to look at Fu Qiwen with a furrowed brow, "Commander, what are you..."
But Fu Qiwen raised a hand to stop him, saying, "Going forward, this column of the Tianjin Guards is yours to lead. Take Star Control City, but do not rush Star Control Peak afterward."
Hearing this, Hu Rui'an's expression changed sharply, and he asked urgently, "Commander, why is that?"
Fu Qiwen looked toward Hundred Refinements City, saying, "I need to make a trip to Hundred Refinements City."