The dead of night was the best time for a cultivator to carry out meditation cultivation.

Zhang Lingyun was a cultivator from Thunder Academy, so he naturally understood the importance of cultivation. However, he just couldn’t calm down and enter meditation cultivation no matter how he tried to today.

Master Painter was a powerful cultivator not many people could face in all of Sunrise Roost Province. Someone like Master Painter, unless it was a great cultivator from Judicial Sector or a Central Continent Grand Court Consecrator that targeted him, he could go wherever he wished. Killing a merchant company’s shopkeeper, in his eyes, wouldn’t be more difficult than killing a chicken.

However, why did Master Painter end up running into Liu Family’s strategist?

Even though Master Painter was dead, Zhang Lingyun understood clearly that Su Zhongwen was the strategist Liu Family cared about the most. This way, Liu Family’s investigation might bring him quite a bit of trouble in the future.

A journey of a thousand li, but ultimately ruined because of an ant nest; whenever he thought about how there were some great figures in the royal court who, oftentimes because of a tiny bit of negligence, or being linked by some extremely small matter, would be forced off the stage, their stories ending miserably, when he thought about this matter, how everything was just because he wanted to deal with Chen Feirong, Zhang Lingyun couldn’t help but feel vexed and furious.

Suddenly, there was a slight tremble by his ears. There seemed to be some slight noises coming from his residence’s eaves.

Pa!

His hand immediately landed on the green sharkskin scabbard at his side.

However, after this slight noise, he couldn’t hear any other irregular movements.

“Nothing much, should be a stray cat just like last time. This is an official residence, soldiers everywhere outside, the distance from the garrison army not far either, so how could anyone dare come? It is my own anger attacking me, making me lose my cool.” When he didn’t sense anything unexpected, Zhang Lingyun calmed down. Then, he instead produced a sinister cold smile, saying to himself, “When I think about a great criminal like Master Painter, this reminds me… Chen Feirong, could it be that you think I have no ways of dealing with you? I don’t even need to kill you. I’ll just arrange for a serious criminal to join your Auspicious Virtue, and then you will be charged with sheltering a serious criminal! Revenge is a dish best served cold, one day, I will still make you beg me for forgiveness!”

Kacha!

However, right at this time, his room suddenly exploded. The door bolt was directly snapped. An unknown individual entered this room with a single step.

“Who are you?!”

Zhang Lingyun’s movements were far faster than a normal person’s imagination. With a shua noise, he already drew his blade.

This was a white long blade, the blade’s fine tempered steel clearly visible. Meanwhile, extending from the center of the blade to the handle was a long streak of winding lightning-like runes.

When this blade was drawn, blade radiance flickered, immediately releasing flashing brilliance in this dark room.

However, in the breath of time it took for him to draw this blade, he immediately fiercely swallowed back down the latter half of his words.

It was because the instant this individual entered this room, before he even made any movements, a wave of tyrannical iron-blooded crazy aura already filled this entire room.

This was the aura of someone who had fought in countless life and death battles, someone who experienced the slaughter of great armies, this type of mountain of corpses and sea of blood presence. Moreover, Zhang Lingyun was sure that the other party’s cultivation was far above his own. Only when soul force released by a State Knight crushed the air like this, would there be this type of terrifying aura.

Zhang Lingyun knew that when facing this type of cultivator who was far greater than himself, regardless of whether it was cultivation or combat skill, if he instantly made this situation irreversible, fight to the death, he might already be dead under this cultivator’s hands before the outside guards rushed in.

The one who charged through his door and appeared before Zhang Lingyun’s eyes, face covered by a sheet of black cloth, was naturally Lin Xi.

When he saw that Zhang Lingyun’s scream came to a screeching stop, he thus coldly said, “Previously, I only wished to simply kill you… However, it is quite unfortunate, you shouldn’t have said those words just now, shouldn’t have let me hear them. I changed my mind.”

The moment he spoke coldly, Lin XI also didn’t stop in the slightest. His figure advanced forward, the entire room as if erupting with powerful winds, blowing around Lin Xi like a leaf in the wind, immediately arriving before Zhang Lingyun.

“You only have State Knight level cultivation! Even if you kill me, could it be that you can escape?!”

As soon as he heard Lin Xi’s first sentence, Zhagn Lingyun already sensed the biting cold killing intent radiating from Lin Xi’s body, knowing that there was no leeway in this matter.

In that instant, the symbols on the long blade in Zhang Lingyun’s hands became covered in golden thunder radiance.

However, this thunder radiance only flickered for an extremely short amount of time. Originally, in this instant, Zhang Lingyun was trying to gather all of his body’s soul force, and then hack out at Lin Xi. However, in reality, this was just a feint. He directly threw this soul weapon out. At the same time, his body huddled together, actually quickly rolling on the ground, wishing to immediately escape from this room.

“How is this possible?!”

However, at the same instant, there was only this type of thought that filled Zhang Lingyun’s mind.

He saw a foot suddenly step over from the corner of his eyes. Before he had any room to make any more movements, this foot trampled down on his body with tremendous power.

A kacha noise sounded.

Half of Zhang Lingyun’s backbone was directly crushed into pieces!

With a thud noise, the long blade that lost the infusion of soul force passed by Lin Xi’s body, nailing itself into the wall next to the door.

In that instant, Zhang Lingyun couldn’t understand how the other person seemed to have completely read his next movement in the instant they faced each other. However, what he did know was that from their very first exchange, this simple stomp already seriously injured him.

Moreover, he also understood clearly that for a cultivator, the spine was a ‘great dragon’. When this most important structure was completely shattered, it wasn’t only equivalent to destroying a cultivator’s strength, it also completely destroyed their mobility. Even if he could live, he might only be able to spend the remaining half of his life paralyzed.

The other party’s foot clearly had the ability to directly kill him, yet he only directly crushed half his vertebra. He precisely wanted him to live a life where he wished he was dead instead.

AHHHH!!!

That was why in this instant, Zhang Lingyun who understood this screamed out more miserably than ever before, starting to howl crazily.

However, unknown if it was intentional or otherwise, Lin Xi’s second foot also descended.

This foot’s power didn’t seem that great, but it just happened to step on his lower genitalia.

Ka!

In Zhang Lingyun’s ears, he seemed to have heard the sound of eggs shattering. Then, his entire body went rigid. Immediately afterwards, he directly fainted from excessive fear and pain.

Lin XI didn’t even give him another look, directly turning around and leaving this room.

Because of the disturbance produced by his meeting with Zhang Lingyun and because Zhang Lingyun’s miserable howl before he fainted, this official residence was completely alarmed.

Candle flames shone in this room one after another, the guards outside sounded the alarm.

Soon afterwards, several small troops quickly rushed over. At the same time, this alley was locked down and searched.

However, Lin Xi was instead already walking in the darkness, not too fast nor too slow, as if none of this had to do with him. He casually walked from one courtyard to the next, moving through the alleys.

It was as if he became a transparent person.

There were several times where he had just passed, the soldiers who were searching the area also already arrived, several times where right after the soldiers just left after their search, he would appear again, pass through that place.

He left this official residence in a manner that wasn’t too fast or too slow, removing the black cloth covering his face.

“Why have I never seen you before… who are you?”

In a brightly lit street, someone threw themselves to Lin Xi’s side, laughing while saying this to Lin Xi, and then rolled up to Lin XI’s feet.

Several men ran out from the street facing shop, supporting and bringing this person who seemed like he was about to fall asleep back, moreover expressing their apologies to Lin Xi from time to time.

This was an ordinary drunk man.

Under the agreement of the late emperor and Principal Zhang, Yunqin’s cities became much more open. There was never a night curfew, no restrictions on carrying weapons at one’s side, nor were there any restrictions on drinking at night.

When faced with this type of drunkard who became completely intoxicated with his friends, to the extent where he almost didn’t recognize his own friends, Lin Xi obviously didn’t need to reply to his question, didn’t need to tell him who he was.

However, when this drunkard was brought away by his friends, Lin Xi instead smiled, using a voice only he could hear to quietly reply, “I am a priest.”

…

In the military camp surrounded by the darkness of night, Li Anting coughed quietly, using his hand to continuously rub his own temples.

He who had displayed powerful military commanding abilities in the encirclement of Master Painter was sitting together with Deputy Officer Mo Qingfeng and several other commanders.

Zhantai Qiantang’s alias ‘Du Siguo’ didn’t have any issues, but the records stated that this should be a small trader from Qiantang Province, yet he went to Central Continent City, and then headed to Clear Distant City. His cultivation didn’t seem to match his behavior and status, so this was a huge issue. For Li Anting and the others, their direct judgment was that this individual who killed Master Painter was precisely an enemy country cultivator who took over Du Siguo’s identity.

“Sir, are we going to let Judicial Sector’s people start the trial?”

Mo Qingfeng looked at Li Anting whose body and mental state were both extremely strained, unable to help but ask this.

Li Anting naturally knew that right now, when this enemy country cultivator insisted that he was Du Siguo, the most often seen methods and procedures were precisely to start a trial to extort a confession.

However, after remaining silent for a moment, slowly releasing an exhale, Li Anting instead shook his head and said, “Forget it.”

“Forget it?”

Mo Qingfeng and several other commanders were all stunned, looking at each other in dismay. They couldn’t understand what Li Anting meant by these two words.

“This person’s cultivation is too high, so it is linked to too much. We will escort him to the provincial city tomorrow.” Li Anting gave his own commanders a look, saying with a sigh. “We obviously can’t let him go… But he helped take action for three Yunqin children. Even if we are going to extort a confession, I don’t want to watch it happen here, watch this type of torture.”

Mo Qingfeng and the other commanders no longer said anything else, only nodding and saying, “We will follow your orders.”