At that moment, Bai Zihua, who had been halfway to the small courtyard where Shangguan Qingqing was, froze in place and looked toward what lay ahead, an expression of overwhelming shock filling his face.
The martial will that had descended was like a mountain range that could not be crossed. Even from a great distance, the faintest outflow of its presence had suppressed him so thoroughly that he could not move forward by even a single step.
"What... what has happened?"
Bai Zihua was shaken to his core, and felt a fear rising inside him that he could not suppress.
At the same time, every person throughout the entire Celestial River Blade Sect, just like him, was suppressed in place, their consciousness held under by that martial will, completely unable to command their own bodies.
...
Inside the small courtyard.
The figure of Shangguan Qingqing, blade drawn and lunging toward Linghu Yue, stopped abruptly at the courtyard gate.
She stared with wide, stunned eyes at the split token and the faint wisp of aura that had emerged before Linghu Yue, and her clear eyes went suddenly wide.
His entire being could not withstand the weight of that will pressing down upon it, and his body went soft as his knees struck the ground with a heavy thud.
At that moment, Linghu Yue was completely engulfed by that wisp of martial awareness. He felt neither fear nor shock.
He had no idea what was happening. He did not know why he had suddenly fallen to his knees.
His consciousness was suspended at the instant he had tried to crush the Tianjin Guards token, and beyond that, the entire world seemed to have stilled and everything had stopped.
With a soft hum, the Celestial River Blade shadow that had been hovering above Linghu Yue suddenly began to tremble, and threads of blade intent cascaded down to envelop him entirely.
At that, Linghu Yue shook his head slowly and finally began to come back to himself.
He looked down at the split token in his hand and realized he was somehow kneeling on the ground, and immediately frowned.
"What is happening?"
Linghu Yue jerked his head up and looked around in startled confusion.
He noticed the unusual state of the elders and hall masters surrounding him, and of Shangguan Qingqing at the courtyard gate.
But in the end, Linghu Yue's gaze was drawn to the formless wisp of aura floating above them.
In the next instant, even with the brilliant Celestial River Blade Intent wrapped protectively around him, Linghu Yue was as though struck by lightning.
"That is... something from inside this token?"
Something seemed to suddenly come back to Linghu Yue, and an inexplicable and uncontrollable dread rose in his heart from nowhere.
And once that dread took root, it would not be stopped. It spread at alarming speed and swallowed him whole in an instant.
Linghu Yue's body began to tremble involuntarily. He stared blankly at the wisp of aura above, his face white, "Who does that martial aura belong to? Why does even this one wisp fill me with such terror?"
In the next instant, Linghu Yue's hand snapped open, and he released the Tianjin Guards token as though from a snake, stepping back to put as much distance between himself and the aura above as possible.
But Linghu Yue found that while his hands could move, he could not take a single step.
When he tried to command the Celestial River Blade Intent to help him leave, the brilliant blade shadow hovering above his head shuddered violently, straining in midair and unable to move even a fraction.
Only at that moment did Linghu Yue finally understand. The Celestial River Blade Intent could protect him from that wisp of aura's martial will, but the Celestial River Blade Intent itself had been pinned down by the martial will and was struggling in its own right. There was absolutely no possibility of leaving.
"How is this possible!"
Linghu Yue was both gripped by fear and utterly incredulous, and began shaking his head hard, "This is nothing but a lingering wisp of martial energy inside a token. No matter how powerful, how could it hold down the Celestial River Blade Intent that has been gathering through nearly a thousand years of the Celestial River Blade Sect?"
He forced down the dread inside him and looked up at the wisp of aura above, clenching both fists.
Then Linghu Yue suddenly turned to look back at Shangguan Qingqing at the courtyard gate, his expression shifting through several phases. He abruptly said, "You just accused me of not daring to strike against the Alliance Under Heaven. Let me show you right now exactly who the coward is."
With that, Linghu Yue turned back, drew a deep breath, and began to drive the Celestial River Blade Intent, trying to slash through the wisp of aura that had enveloped the Celestial River Blade Sect.
At the sight, several of the elders and hall masters, along with the injured Sect Leader, all changed expression sharply. Shangguan Qingqing immediately cried out to stop him, "Do not do it. That is something His Highness left within the token. His Highness's martial cultivation is beyond fathom, the greatest in the world. If you want to die, do not take the rest of us with you!"
At that moment, Shangguan Qingqing had already realized what was happening.
Li Musheng had told her that bringing out the Tianjin Guards token might be enough to resolve the Celestial River Blade Sect's crisis. But His Highness was undeniably a kind and thoughtful person who cared about her safety, and must have quietly left this safeguard within the Tianjin Guards token to protect her without saying a word about it.
With that thought, even as she stood suppressed and trembling with fear beneath that wisp of martial will, Shangguan Qingqing's heart was filled with a profound warmth that words could not reach.
In her own eyes, she was just an ordinary woman of the martial world who had encountered Li Musheng, the future greatest in the world of blade cultivation, entirely by chance.
That alone had already been fortune beyond what she deserved. And now, how extraordinarily fortunate it was that someone she held as an idol in her heart would regard her with such genuine care.
In that moment, Shangguan Qingqing felt as though she had spent the luck of eight lifetimes all at once, simply to meet a figure like Li Musheng.
And her heart could not stop turning over the question of how she could ever repay his kindness.
Right as Shangguan Qingqing was lost in her thoughts, Linghu Yue turned to glance at her.
He had already been wavering a moment before, and Shangguan Qingqing's words had just dealt him another sharp blow.
He had of course heard the disciples talking earlier about how the Tianjin Guards token had been a gift to Shangguan Qingqing from the Great Li Eighth Prince.
And the story of that Eighth Prince had been making waves throughout the entire Great Li martial world. Linghu Yue had naturally heard it.
But in his view, the other party was nothing more than a prince who had been living among common people. The real influence behind any of it belonged to the Tianjin Guards.
Even so, having just learned from Shangguan Qingqing's own words that the wisp of aura before him had actually come from that Eighth Prince, everything that was happening was upending everything Linghu Yue thought he understood.
"I do not believe it!"
Linghu Yue said to Shangguan Qingqing through gritted teeth. But Shangguan Qingqing had drifted into her own thoughts and paid no attention to him whatsoever.
Seeing himself ignored, Linghu Yue felt an irrational surge of fury rise in him from nowhere.
He spun back, and drove the Celestial River Blade Intent in another slash toward that wisp of aura.
"Stop!"
"Stop at once! Do you want to see the entire Celestial River Blade Sect destroyed?"
The elders and hall masters called out in desperate urgency, all of them trying to stop Linghu Yue.