Voices rang through the air from the distance, and the cultivators from Emperor Li’s Realm who were fighting scattered one by one. The Sacred General of Tian and the Sacred General of Dou stepped forward towards where Cao Kong was fleeing and pursued him.
The rest of them continued along in the direction of the battle, all of them moving extremely quickly.
Xia Qingyuan glanced all around the battlefield. Yaya had fallen down to the ground, and Ye Wuchen was bathed in endless sword will. In a bright, clear voice he said, “Thank you swordmaster for you sword!”
As he said this, the sword wills pierced through the air, shooting up into the sky.
This was the sword that the Swordmaster of Lihen used to enhance his perception, and that he could use to help him in battles of life and death. How he would return his sword.
Xia Qingyuan’s face was expressionless as she observed this scene. But on the inside, she still felt some gratitude to the Swordmaster of Lihen. In the past she had once gone to Lihen Heaven and asked the Swordmaster of Lihen to teach her swordsmanship, and to help her understand the way of the sword better.
Ye Wuchen descended to the ground, where he sat cross legged. His breathing suddenly became weaker. But Xia Qingyuan and the others continued forward.
All of the Saints stopped fighting. The Saint level cultivators of the Nine States had all been injured, and none of them had only been injured once. But at that moment they were only worried about how Ye Futian was doing.
Xia Qingyuan had rushed over, and the cultivators from Emperor Li’s Realm were scattering. As long as Ye Futian was alright then this would count as a loss for Emperor Li’s Realm.
Xia Qingyuan and the others strode forward. Eventually, they saw a group of people coming towards them. Among the people at the very front of the group were Ye Futian and Yu Sheng.
At that moment, Xia Qingyuan breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that nothing terrible had happened to him.
Xia Qingyuan stepped forward and walked in front of Ye Futian. At that moment, he and Yu Sheng were extremely weak. Her expression was exceedingly cold, and the warm air all around them seemed to be chilled in an instant. “Pass on my order,” she said. “Anyone from Emperor Li’s Realm in the Empty Realm is to be killed without mercy. No exceptions.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” said the people beside her.
At this point, Emperor Li’s Realm had already been defeated in the Battle of Empty Realm, but they had ordered their Saint level cultivators to launch a surprise attack on Ye Futian. Li Yao had even personally appeared as a decoy, but they had sent out Saints who had reached the peak of the Nirvana plane.
This kind of action was extremely odious. Xia Qingyuan could not tolerate it.
If Emperor Li’s Realm wanted to go to war, let it be known that it was them who had made the first move.
Many people were secretly trembling. Emperor Xia’s Realm and Emperor Li’s Realm had always been in conflict, and had clashed over and over again. And this attack had probably intensified the conflict. No one knew what would happen in the future.
“I’m going forward to take a look,” said Ye Futian. He still had not seen the others, and he was worried about the safety of the people from the Nine States.
As he went forward he finally reunited with Glass Saint, the Village Chief and Saint Xia. When he saw that they were all injured, his heart grew cold.
Simply put, the cultivators from Emperor Li’s Realm’s target had been him and Yu Sheng. They just wanted to force everyone else to retreat so they could kill them. They probably had had no heart for a fierce fight, and they would not have suffered misfortune if there hadn’t been. But the wounds on everyone from the Nine States showed that they would fight to the death. Otherwise, they would have taken a step back and their opponents would have ignored them and been able to leave directly. If that had happened, how could they have gotten hurt?
The Village Chief rushed forward, and when Ye Futian saw him moving his heart leapt. He also rushed forward, and saw Ye Wuchen kneeling on the ground with sword wills wrapped around him. There was nothing too wrong with him.
The Swordmaster of Lihen had once used Ye Wuchen’s sword. And not only sword, but his life as well.
That life should have been his.
Perhaps the Swordmaster of Lihen had thought that there would be some kind of accident up in the sky, and that was why he had done what he did.
Had he truly lent his sword to Ye Wuchen? Or had it been to Ye Futian?
There was no way to know, but no matter who he had meant to lend it to, it was enough to remind him that he owned the Swordmaster of Lihen a life.
Finally they all reached Yaya’s side. At that time she had fainted, and the Village Chief had gotten there first and was supporting her. Yaya’s mouth and clothes were stained with blood.
Yaya had not been the only one wounded in the attack; many others had been as well. Even his powerful sworn brothers had been heavily wounded, and blood poured from their ears, eyes, mouth and nose. They were all extremely weak.
“Li Yao.” Ye Futian clenched his fists. The vengeance that he owed him had just gotten even deeper.
At that moment, a group of figures came rushing through the air from the distance. The Sacred General of Tian and the Sacred General of Bu and their cultivators had returned. “Cao Kong has set all his will to fleeing,” they said. “We could not stop him. But several of the Saints who participated in the battle were stopped and killed. Li Yao of Emperor Li’s Realm is no longer in the Empty Realm. He probably started up a space matrix in order to leave. And not only that, Emperor Li’s City is now a ghost town.”
Obviously Li Yao had already made preparations before he had acted. Now matter if he was able to kill Ye Futian or not, he would be able to predict that there would be great disturbances afterward. Why would he wait in the Empty Realm for Xia Qingyuan to deal with him? Of course he had left straight away.
“Is the Princess alright?” asked Ye Futian.
These words carried deeper implications than their surface meaning.
Of course, he was not blaming Xia Qingyuan. This whole situation definitely had nothing to do with her. Moreover, when he had first set out she had sent people to protect him in order to guard against this sort of thing.
Although the likelihood of Li Yao doing something crazy was quite low, they had still been prepared for it.
But Xiao Sheng’s words had changed everything, and had nearly cost Ye Futian and his friends their lives.
Ye Futian also did not blame those cultivators who had left. The two sides had no relationship with each other, and in Emperor Xia’s Realm he was nothing more than the Princess’s valet. He had no right to ask them to do something for him.
Moreover, since Xiao Sheng had sent a message saying that Princess Xia QIngyuan had met with a surprise attack, they had to go, even if there was only a one percent chance of that being true.
They were Emperor Xia’s people. They were the Princess’s people. They weren’t Ye Futian’s people.
“Li Yao sent some Saint level cultivators from the Empty Realm to the holy mountain to create an illusion to confuse me. They did not actually dare to act, but delayed me for some time. It was my fault for being too slow,” said Xia Qingyuan. She knew that if she had been only a moment later, Ye Futian would have really been in danger.
And the fact that Ye Futian and the others had survived this battle was already a miracle.
It was truly a miracle. If Yaya had not counterattacked with all of her power, and if the Swordmaster of Lihen had not lent his sword to Ye Wuchen, Ye Futian would not have survived. He knew this all too well.
“Princess, this is all my fault,” a voice range out. When she heard this, Xia Qingyuan’s eyes flashed with cold light. She turned her cold eyes slowly, looking towards the figure from which the voice had come.
It was Xiao Sheng.
“When the Saints that Li Yao had sent appeared, I panicked. I didn’t wait for orders, but directly sent the message to Xuanji Mountain, leading to Brother Ye and the others suffering a surprise attack. But fortunately nobody came to any great harm.” Xiao Sheng bowed to the Princess. “Please forgive me, Princess.”
Xiao Sheng had actively admitted his mistake.
At that moment his head was bowed very low, as if he were truly admitting that he had done something wrong, and begging the Princess for her forgiveness.
Ye Futian’s gaze fell upon Xiao Sheng. He had just asked if the Princess was alright, but what he was really asking about was Xiao Sheng’s message.
He had previously guessed that Xia Qingyuan would not have sent people to call back his guards. Li Yao would not dare to attack Xia Qingyuan. So he had asked if something had happened to Xia Qingyuan.
Xia Qingyuan had said that it was just Li Yao trying to confuse her, and that war had not really broken out.
So, Xiao Sheng had come back with the message, and had stated that there were no orders from Xia Qingyuan. What did he mean by this?
Well, if that was all that it was, then it was alright.
When Xiao Sheng had rushed to Xuanji Mountain, Cao Kong and the other cultivators from Emperor Li’s Realm had all been there. When he saw that, Xiao Sheng must have thought that something had happened, and that Li Yao’s target was him, not Xia Qingyuan.
But Xiao Sheng had summoned people to go out without any hesitation, and moreover had said that the Princess was under attack!
It could be said that he was extremely decisive at that time. He had been determined to send people, and to have them gather the people from Divine Cloud Valley along the way.
If Xiao Sheng had said that he meant nothing by this, could Ye Futian really believe it?
And it was not only Ye Futian. The other people from the Nine States were all looking at Xiao Sheng extremely coldly. He had seen that Ye Futian was surrounded by the cultivators from Emperor Li’s Realm and had still said that the Princess was under attack and sent people to her. Broadly speaking, didn’t this mean that he had tried to kill Ye Futian?
He had just tried to use others to do it.
“You have indeed done wrong,” said Xia Qingyuan coldly. “You said ‘The Princess is under attack’. When was I under attack?”
“Li Yao sent Saints to surround the holy mountain. The situation was dire, so I immediately sent people from the Xiao clan to get people to come help. I naturally thought that Li Yao was moving against you.” Xia Sheng still had his head bowed. “Under such circumstances I could not take too much time to think.”
“You could not take too much time to think?” Ye Futian said suddenly. A sharp look flashed in his eyes. He still remembered Xiao Sheng’s expression when he had relayed his message. Cold, without a hint of emotion.
At that time, it had not looked like Xiao Sheng had cared about the Princess’s safety at all.
“Either way, this situation is my fault. No matter how you punish me, Princess, I will not complain.” Xiao Sheng bowed again, still sounding honest and sincere.
“What do you think, Ye Futian?” Xia Qingyuan turned her gaze to Ye Futian. The one who had really been in danger here was Ye Futian. He would probably not let Xiao Sheng off too easily.
This was a thorny problem.
Ye Futian would most likely want to kill Xiao Sheng. She did not think that it would be strange for him to want this, nor would she blame him for it.
But even though Xiao Sheng was in the wrong, if they killed him they would never be able to explain it to her mother and the Xiao clan.
“I think that you should thoroughly investigate this matter, Princess. I believe that you will handle it well,” said Ye Futian. He did not give his own opinion on the matter.
“I will.” Xia Qingyuan nodded. “Many people have been injured. Have them return to Emperor Xia’s Realm.”
They could slow down when handling this matter. But many people in Ye Futian’s group had been wounded, and it was not suitable for them to stay in the Empty Realm!
“Alright.” Ye Futian nodded. Then they all gathered together and left in the direction of Emperor Xia’s City where they prepared to depart.
“You are just going to let him off like that?” Luo Fan’s voice was extremely cold. Everyone could see it clearly. Xiao Sheng had plotted against Ye Futian, and had tried to have him killed.
The Princess was Xiao Sheng’s cousin, and Queen Xiao was his aunt. Even if the Princess wanted to act against Xiao Sheng, the matter would not be easily decided.
By handing the affair over to Xia Qingyuan to handle, Ye Futian had made things difficult for her. It would be extremely difficult to act against Xiao Sheng.
“Let him go?” a cold, murderous light flashed in Ye Futian’s eyes. “He must die.”
Li Yao wanted to kill him because they were enemies. So if Xiao Sheng wanted to kill him, it was even more unforgivable!