Chapter 147: Tang and His Sword

Ye Mingke pulled Ying Kui, but failed to move him. He pulled him a second time, and Ying Kui's somewhat stiff body finally yielded, moving forward one after the other through the long, narrow arched tunnel toward the inner city.

By the time they were some distance away from the rogue soldier who had been dozing against the city gate, Ye Mingke maintained his honest and rustic smile while slowing his pace. Exchanging a meaningful look, he whispered as softly as an ant to Ying Kui, "What on earth are you doing, brother? Didn't you see our wanted posters still posted right at the city gate? Putting on such a cool act will expose our whereabouts!"

Ying Kui did not answer him, his expression remaining placid. Right at that moment, the two of them finished traversing the long, narrow tunnel, and the bright spring sunlight outside poured down brilliantly.

Ying Kui stopped in his tracks, his left foot landing precisely at the exit of the tunnel.

Ye Mingke kept up a steady stream of low, nagging complaints.

"We finally crossed a thousand miles of uninhabited wasteland and walked smoothly through the mortal realm for nearly two days. This is the first time I've had such rare good luck, so don't you dare ruin it for me. It'll be a huge mess if we get exposed."

"We're already exposed." Ying Kui resumed his stride.

"What?" Ye Mingke didn't process it immediately and turned his head to look at Ying Kui.

At that exact moment, with a loud crash, the previously open city gate suddenly dropped its heavy iron portcullis. The common citizens still passing through the gate were startled into screaming and fleeing in panic, and then a harsh sound of gongs rang out from atop the city wall.

Ye Mingke and Ying Kui stopped in their tracks as soldiers wielding bronze gongs rushed out of the tunnel in a swarm, driving the citizens away.

"What is going on here?" Ye Mingke asked with a blank expression.

"Exposed."

"Tang, one of the three direct bloodline branches of Mount Fangcun." Ying Kui looked up at the city gate behind them and said, "Tang was the only dynasty that unified the entire Central Prefecture prior to the Xia. After claiming the realm, the Tang royal family abandoned the mortal world to enter the Dao of Immortality, taking refuge in Mount Fangcun. Over a millennium, they grew into one of the three largest forces on Mount Fangcun."

"Because the Tang once ruled the mortal realm, cities in the Central Prefecture are forbidden from flying flags and national emblems of other dynasties when direct descendants of the Tang clan visit. The Cyan Wood flag of the Xia dynasty on that city wall was lowered for no reason, which is how I knew a direct descendant of the Tang family was in the vicinity. Furthermore, since the Tang dynasty conquered the realm through espionage and became the largest intelligence-gathering clan in the immortal cultivation world upon turning to immortality, I don't believe our simple disguises would allow us to pass safely through the covert department led by a direct Tang descendant without being discovered."

Ying Kui resumed walking, his paces maintaining an exact, uniform interval.

Ye Mingke cast a startled and suspicious glance at the flags on the city wall, only to see a bare flagpole—the Cyan Wood flag symbolizing the imperial authority of the Xia dynasty was indeed gone.

He hurried forward a few steps to catch up with Ying Kui's pace.

"Since you figured it out, why are we walking right into a trap?"

"I already gave the reason. I don't believe our simple disguises can get us past the covert department led by a direct descendant of the Tang family without discovery. But we can lure that direct descendant into the city, and I will kill him. Once the direct descendant dies, the Tang covert department, bound by blood-determined loyalty, will inevitably fall into chaos."

"I owe you another life; this is how I'm paying you back."

"Always talking about owing one life or several... you're exactly like Jian Jiu. You guys really are from the same damn sect. Is everyone in your sect cut from the same cloth?"

"Jian Jiu and I... are different," Ying Kui said softly, taking a deep breath.

"Hah," Ye Mingke adjusted his internal Qi as he walked, rolling his eyes at Ying Kui's words. "You look pretty identical to me, stubbornly fixated on one path. But speaking of which, both you and Mount Fangcun are immortal cultivators of the Eastern Sea. Won't killing him bring you trouble? Besides, what are your chances of actually killing him?"

"Trouble... there is none." Ying Kui paused for a moment before replying indifferently, "As for my chances of success, it depends entirely on which Tang clan disciple shows up."

Within just a few sentences, the two of them walked onto the main street of the city and could barely see any other figures. The opponent had managed to completely clear out the entire city in an astonishingly short amount of time.

Ying Kui looked around, his expression solemn. "There is one person I hoped the least to encounter, but it seems I have. Yet it's strange—just as it logically wouldn't be Jian Jiu, it shouldn't be him who appears."

"Who?" Ye Mingke asked. A biting, fierce gale suddenly swept past, whipping up the drifting yellow sand accumulated on the street like a yellow curtain pulled across heaven and earth. With his vision obstructed, Ye Mingke instinctively closed his eyes while activating and expanding his spiritual sight to cover a radius of fifty zhang.

There was not a single trace of human presence within a radius of fifty zhang. Yet this only made Ye Mingke's heart sink heavier; the unknown was always the most terrifying.

"Tang." Right amidst that curtain-like, billowing yellow sand, Ying Kui said in a hoarse voice, "The only Tang clan disciple to use Tang as his true given name, and the only person among the younger generation of the immortal cultivation world whose fame surpasses Jian Jiu's, yet remains even more mysterious."

"How do you know it's him and not someone else?" Ye Mingke asked.

"His style of action," Ying Kui answered with concise brevity. "The most overbearing and the most mysterious—that is his style."

"Most Tang clan disciples hailing from an intelligence background keep their movements and identities deeply concealed, but he alone has always remained active in the public eye. Whatever he sets out to do, he does in the most direct, grandiose, and even blatantly open manner, at least on the surface."

"He is mysterious because it is rumored that he is exceptionally skilled with the sword, yet no one has ever seen his sword leave its scabbard—or rather, those who have seen it are already dead. Therefore, although he has always been active before the public, no one knows his true strength or specific combat style."

"I am going. Even if it's Tang—the most overbearing and the most mysterious—I want to try and see if I can kill him."

That massive surge of billowing yellow sand finally swept completely past Ye Mingke. Turning his head, Ye Mingke saw that the spot where Ying Kui had just been standing was now completely empty, yet Ying Kui's final words still lingered in his ears.

"Keep moving forward. He should be in the tallest building in this city."

"The most overbearing and the most mysterious?" Ye Mingke looked ahead, murmuring to himself, and his steps forward did not pause.

By this time, the howling wind had died down. Within less than a quarter of an hour, a massive, bustling city had inexplicably transformed into a silent dead city.

Walking along the street, Ye Mingke could clearly hear the sound of his own footsteps. The road beneath his feet seemed to shorten gradually with each step he took. A colossal shadow enveloped him, and as Ye Mingke slowly raised his head, he caught sight of the tallest magnificent tower in the city. There, a man dressed in luxurious purple robes with a golden headband and an extraordinarily handsome demeanor sat alone at a lavish feast, smiling and raising his cup slightly toward him in greeting.

Ye Mingke tilted his head slightly, gazing fixedly in that man's direction, while the ancient sword "Jingji" inside the scabbard on his back resonated and trembled with a long, ringing hum...