The spectators gathered at the foot of the Setting Sun Wall all stood with their heads raised, staring up at the summit in complete silence.
Everyone was in something of a daze, not quite certain yet what had just happened.
But before long, it finally came together.
The Kill-Saint had retreated.
Or more precisely, the Hidden Kill Pavilion's Kill-Saint had lost.
That earth-shaking, supremely terrifying killing palm had been extinguished in the blink of an eye before the Eighth Prince.
"This... how is that possible?"
At the Dugu family's position, Dugu Changkong's eyes filled with shock, and the sword intent pulsing around his entire body began to shudder violently.
That palm of the Kill-Saint's, seething with endless slaughter, had been perhaps the most powerful killing strike he had ever witnessed in his life. And yet it had been completely powerless against Li Musheng.
The vast majority of those present felt exactly the same.
Especially the Hidden Kill Pavilion assassins who had concealed themselves in the crowd.
The existence they revered above all others in their hearts, the Kill-Saint they had spent their entire lives striving toward, had actually failed to bring down a prince not yet twenty years old?
It shattered everything they had known, and even shook the very foundation of what they pursued in the killing path.
"How can this be? Could it be that the Kill-Saint was holding back again?"
Ghost Dwarf came back to himself and said with a thoroughly unpleasant expression.
Illusory Swan shook his head and said, "That was not him holding back."
His gaze rested on Li Musheng's figure at the summit, his expression shifting through several phases, "That Eighth Prince's martial cultivation absolutely far exceeds what we imagined. He..."
Illusory Swan paused here, and after a moment of visible struggle, continued, "As difficult as this is to believe, if I am not wrong, his martial cultivation is likely above even the Kill-Saint's."
At those words, every Hidden Kill Pavilion assassin nearby showed a change of expression, yet not one of them moved to contradict him.
Lianxing, her face masked and dressed in her black skirt, gazed toward the summit with an unusual look in her eyes. She had called Li Musheng brazen and arrogant just moments ago, but now she said nothing at all, and no one could tell what she was thinking.
At the same time, the blue-robed Daoist and the monk Shenshu both showed expressions of shock.
They had naturally seen far more clearly than anyone else, and they both understood perfectly: the Kill-Saint's supremely lethal palm, that killing strike without peer, had been broken by a single flick of Li Musheng's finger, driven back in a single blow, with every last trace of the overwhelming killing intent obliterated in the same instant.
In that one moment just now, the power Li Musheng had shown had completely overturned their entire assessment of this Great Li Eighth Prince's cultivation.
"I had always assumed the martial world's rumors about this Great Li Eighth Prince being comparable to a Martial God were exaggerated. But seeing today's events, it seems the martial world's rumors were actually true."
The blue-robed Daoist spoke with a look of surprised disbelief, shaking his head gently.
The monk Shenshu merely gazed from a distance at the young figure on the summit and said nothing, his face unreadable.
Not far away, Huo Shan and Huo Qifeng were still in something of a stupor. They had already thought Li Musheng was formidable enough, but the man had still managed to stagger them as completely as this.
Just at that moment, the raspy, ancient voice of the Hidden Kill Pavilion's Kill-Saint drifted down from above the Setting Sun Wall's summit, "This old man has lost."
The Kill-Saint's voice entered everyone's ears, and as those words fell, the dark void that had been gradually brightening revealed the blurred silhouette of an elderly figure.
The old man stood quietly in midair several zhang before Li Musheng, his frame not particularly tall, even somewhat stooped. His true face could not be made out clearly.
His eyes were fixed on Li Musheng at the summit, and that gaze, which seemed capable of seeing through a person entirely, looked as though it were trying to see all the way through him.
"You are stronger than this old man," the Hidden Kill Pavilion's Kill-Saint said suddenly.
Those words also drifted down to the spectators below, and in an instant the crowd, now coming back to itself, erupted in an uproar.
Before, they had only suspected. But now they had heard it directly from the Kill-Saint's own lips: a concession of defeat to Li Musheng.
Those who had still harbored doubts now found those doubts finally put to rest. Li Musheng had, at some point that none of them had clearly seen, already won this clash against the Hidden Kill Pavilion's Kill-Saint.
...
"You were not bad," Li Musheng said on the summit toward the old man, saying something he knew to be somewhat generous, and then shifted his tone, "Does the Hidden Kill Pavilion have anyone else who wants to make a move? If not, then the Hidden Kill Pavilion belongs to me from this day forward."
As he said this, Li Musheng reached out with one hand.
The copper ring around the big black cat's neck beside him flew instantly into his grip.
The big black cat had been lying flat on the ground. Having faced the Kill-Saint's killing intent directly, it had been thoroughly terrified, and the lingering dread had not yet fully passed. It was still somewhat dazed.
"This is your Hidden Kill Order. The Hidden Kill Pavilion will not go back on its word, I trust?"
Li Musheng held up the copper ring and fixed his narrowed eyes on the old man across from him.
The Hidden Kill Pavilion's Kill-Saint, his figure still indistinct, looked carefully at the copper ring in Li Musheng's hand. Though he did not quite understand why Li Musheng had fashioned the perfectly serviceable Hidden Kill Order into what was essentially a cat collar, he still gave a nod and said, "This old man has confirmed your strength. There is no further need to act."
As he said this, the Kill-Saint let out a quiet sigh, "This old man has lived most of his life, half a century and more, and only today have I truly come to understand what it means that there is always someone stronger and a mountain beyond every mountain."
"But to see that the Hidden Kill Pavilion will have a new Pavilion Master like you presiding over it in the future, this old man's journey here has not been in vain."
With that, the old man's indistinct figure took a single step forward, merged into the void, and vanished from before Li Musheng entirely.
"This matter is concluded. This old man takes his leave. Someone will be in contact with Your Highness regarding the arrangements that follow."
The old man left those words hanging in the air above the summit.
Li Musheng raised an eyebrow, but made no move to stop him.
Whether the Hidden Kill Order or the matter of the Hidden Kill Pavilion itself, neither was something that could be explained or settled in a short time. Leaving those matters for later was perfectly fine.
Besides, he was not particularly pressed for time. Even so, Li Musheng swept a look over the area around the Setting Sun Wall, then turned back and said to the big black cat still lying on the ground, "I have something to take care of. Make your own way down. And do not cause any trouble."
With that, Li Musheng vanished from where he stood without a trace, and no one could tell in which direction he had gone.
The big black cat then came back to itself and immediately stood up.
It looked left and right. The Kill-Saint, with his seething killing intent, was already nowhere to be seen, and finally its fear fully melted away.
Then it walked a lap around the edge of the summit, looked down for a moment at the crowd that had not yet dispersed below, and leaped from the cliff, landing on a protruding rock face, then bounded from stone to stone in rapid succession as it made its way down toward the foot of the cliff.
Since Li Musheng had told it to make its own way down, it naturally had to go back on its own, though of course the speed would be nothing like when Li Musheng had brought it up.
The big black cat felt genuinely sorry about this, deprived of the chance to experience Li Musheng's staggering speed again.
Terrifying as it was, it could not deny that it had been absolutely thrilling, and the memory still made it itch for more.
Before long, the big black cat had descended from the Setting Sun Wall's summit and arrived at the foot of the cliff.
By now the spectators had naturally all seen that both the Kill-Saint and Li Musheng had left.
The clash between Li Musheng and the Hidden Kill Pavilion's Kill-Saint had been brief, but it was something that would stay with everyone who had witnessed it for a long time.
To see a Kill-Saint, an existence that almost never showed itself in the martial world, act in person was a first for everyone present, and perhaps the only such occasion any of them would have in their lives.
Witnessing those staggering, awe-inspiring techniques was more than enough to make the journey worthwhile.
And beyond that, today they had also seen with their own eyes the true measure of Li Musheng, Great Li's Eighth Prince.
Though none of them had been able to make out exactly how he had acted, or what formidable technique he had used, the sight of him stopping the Kill-Saint's every move with relaxed ease and a flick of his fingers, and making the man concede defeat before everyone, had carved itself into their minds.
That composure, that bearing of absolute invincibility, had left a deep and lasting impression on everyone present.
And even now, though the spectators could see that both the Kill-Saint and Li Musheng had already gone, many of them still stood where they were, unable to bring themselves to leave.
Then, all at once, someone in the crowd let out a startled cry, "Look, it is the big black cat, the big black cat that was with His Highness the Eighth Prince!"
At those words, heads turned immediately throughout the crowd, and eyes shifted toward the source of the shout.
At that very moment, the big black cat had just come down from the summit and was about to slip into the crowd to find Li Yuanling and the others and catch a ride back to the Tianjin Guards headquarters.
But before it could make a single move, it felt every hair on its body stand on end, and suddenly sensed an enormous number of gazes landing on it all at once.
And the big black cat could tell at a glance that the heat behind those gazes was intense. Some of the onlookers were staring at it with eyes that had gone quite fixed.
Up on the summit earlier it had not quite felt it, but now, finding itself at close range with a crowd of people staring at it, the big black cat started to feel somewhat uncomfortable.
It immediately tried to dart away quickly and not linger.
But the crowd surged forward, and in the blink of an eye it was surrounded three layers deep on every side.
"My lord cat, where are you headed? I have a fine carriage here, and if you would not object to it, I would be delighted to offer it for your use."
The people at the very front of the crowd were nobles and wealthy families of the first rank, none of them without martial experts at their sides, and all of them were pressing around the big black cat.
None of them bore it any ill will, however. On the contrary, every one of them was brimming with eagerness to please.
After all, the spectators had just personally witnessed Li Musheng's martial strength, which had made even the Kill-Saint bow in defeat. Who in all of Great Li's martial world could compare?
And beyond that, Li Musheng was a Great Li prince, which made him someone that every powerful faction and prominent family in the capital had every reason to curry favor with.
With his current level of cultivation, plus the Hidden Kill Pavilion now under his control, there was virtually no other prince in Great Li who could stand against him.
It followed naturally that the Great Li throne would in the future belong to no one but Li Musheng.
In appearance, they were fawning over a prince right now. In reality, they were fawning over the future Emperor of Great Li.
"My lord cat, my carriage is drawn by eight horses. It is spacious and smooth, and will carry you wherever you wish in perfect comfort."
"My household has raised rare golden dragon fish for several decades. If my lord cat would enjoy them as a snack, I will have every one of them delivered immediately."
"I keep a noble snow cat of northern wilderness bloodline. If my lord cat desires a companion, I will present it myself."
...
The crowd pressed around the big black cat, each person speaking in turn. No one was entirely sure whether the cat could understand them, but they kept at it with enthusiastic chatter regardless.
After all, Li Musheng came and went without a trace, and getting so much as a glimpse of him was basically impossible. For now, the best they could do was direct their attention toward the cat he kept, in hopes that it might serve as a way in and eventually earn them the Eighth Prince's favor.
The big black cat heard every word the crowd was saying. It could naturally understand every last one of them.
Having been about to rush away, it found it was suddenly in no hurry at all. Its green eyes darted back and forth, and all of the things people were mentioning, the fine carriage, the delicious golden dragon fish, and even the noble snow cat...
It was interested in all of them. It wanted everything.
And in fact, that is precisely what it did. Whenever someone offered it something it liked, it responded with a very human-like series of nods. As for things it did not want, it simply pretended it had not heard, ignoring them entirely.
Seeing the big black cat respond with such understanding, the crowd's faces all lit up at once, and everyone thought to themselves that the Eighth Prince truly was something else, because even the cat he kept was so remarkably extraordinary.
In an instant, the crowd became even more enthusiastic in their eagerness to please the cat. Even those who had previously been scoffing inwardly at the sight of people groveling before a cat had undergone a swift change of heart and joined in.
At that moment, the Dugu family contingent had still not departed. Since witnessing what had just happened and hearing the Kill-Saint personally concede defeat to Li Musheng, a shadow had settled over every one of their faces and refused to lift.
The talented young swordsmen who had been shooting off their mouths just moments ago now stood pale and silent, every one of them.
Dugu Changkong and the family elders watched the dense crowd before them, listening to people from every powerful faction in the capital lavish flattery on a cat, and the feeling in their hearts was beyond description.
"It is just a cat. All this groveling for nothing. Would it not be simpler to just kill it, and give that Eighth Prince a taste of suffering?"
One arrogant young member of the Dugu family, apparently unable to stomach the sight any longer, suddenly spoke with a darkening look in his eyes.
But before his words were even out of his mouth, a Dugu family elder backhanded him across the face, sending him flying to land covered in blood and scrambling to find his teeth.
"If you want to die, do not drag the Dugu family down with you. The next person who runs their mouth without thinking will cut out their own tongue and present it as an apology."
The elder who had struck him said in a sharp voice. There were people everywhere around them, and no shortage of people eager to win the Eighth Prince's favor.
If anyone overheard and reported the words back to the Eighth Prince, given the man's utterly unrestrained manner and the terrifying cultivation that surpassed even a Kill-Saint, wiping out the Dugu family would be nothing more than a casual afterthought for him.