Chapter Twenty-Six: The End of the Road

  The 50,000-strong Qin family's fierce tiger army had completely surrounded the imperial palace of Yanjing City. Every soldier in the fierce tiger army had pride in their eyes. In just half a year, the entire Chu royal court had fallen into the hands of the Qin family. These elite soldiers of the Qin family were also very proud of themselves.

  The Imperial Guard had long since dispersed, the leader of the Imperial Guard was an elite of the Xiang family, but he was assassinated by the cowardly and fearful deputy commander of the Imperial Guard. The deputy commander led the head of the commander to surrender to the Qin family, and the Imperial Guard was in chaos.

  At that time, Xiang Yu's relatives were all proud and arrogant, but after thousands of years of luxurious life, these royal relatives had all become corrupt and degenerate. Seeing the downfall of the Xiang family, they came to beg for mercy with their wealth and treasures, while the Qin family's approach was to confiscate their wealth and throw them in prison first.

  As for the imperial palace at this moment, it was in a state of chaos. Some members of the Xiang family were despairingly taking their own lives, while groups of eunuchs and palace maids, as well as cowardly Imperial Guards, were begging for mercy from the Liè Hǔ Jūn soldiers. Meanwhile, loyal Imperial Guards were hunting down those who were greedy for life and feared death.

  Chaos, chaos, chaos!

  The Xiang family's doomsday has arrived, the entire imperial palace is in a state of panic, snatching at the royal jewels and killing each other. Meanwhile, the 50,000 elite Tiger Troops stood by with cold expressions, watching everything that was happening in the palace without intervening.

  On top of the grand hall of the imperial palace, only Xiang Guang sat on the dragon throne, with a white-haired old eunuch standing beside him.

  "Your Majesty."

  Eunuch Wang Meng looked at the Emperor Xiang Guang of the Chu State in front of him. Wang Meng had entered the palace as a child, and his only relatives were the grandchildren left by his younger sister many years ago. Wang Meng had long since arranged for his sister's grandson to go to the Ming State. As for himself, the 90-year-old Wang Meng did not want to escape.

  Sitting on the dragon chair, Xiang Guang looked dejected and seemed to have dozed off. Upon hearing Wang Meng's voice, it took him a long time to lift his head up. His lifeless eyes glanced at Wang Meng: "Oh, it's General Manager Wang. At this point in time, only you are left to accompany me."

  Wang Mengdao said: "Why didn't Your Majesty escape? As long as you preserve your life, can't you rise again?"

  Xiang Guang shook his head: "Anyone can escape, but I cannot." Xiang Guang's eyes had a hint of coldness, "The Qin family has been preparing for so many years, yet they have not launched an attack. It is because they are enjoying the power and influence of the Eastern King. However... when I did something that year, it led to the Qin family rebelling now."

  "It's me, the Qin family's rebellion this time, and I'm their first target." Xiang Guang was completely frantic.

  "Our ancestors had long arranged for the most promising young men of our family to be hidden in other places, this was our ancestors' way of preparing for any eventuality. Now it seems that this is the only way for our family to continue. They... are now the most important ones in our family. I absolutely cannot escape, once I escape, the Qin family will stop at nothing to capture me, and even those hidden young men may be caught." Item Guang was slightly trembling.

  Then, Xiang Guang smiled wistfully: "I won't be able to escape. Without our ancestors, I absolutely can't escape the Qin family's trap. Since that's the case... I'll just wait here for Qin De. If he kills me, Qin De's pursuit of the Xiang family's descendants will definitely not last long. With our ancestors' four great disciples guarding them, those who have been hiding in secret should be able to live well. All I can do is hope that one day they will avenge our nation's destruction, and even if I die, I'll be at peace."

  Wang Meng looked at Xiang Guang for a long time, as if seeing him for the first time. He then sighed and said: "Your Majesty, I have always thought that Your Majesty..."

  "You think I'm absurd, you think I'm muddle-headed, right?" Xiang Guang said with a calm smile.

  Wang Meng did not deny it, saying: "If Your Majesty dares to wait for Qin De like this, I also admire Your Majesty in my heart. Now I am old too, and living is meaningless, I can't do other difficult things. But doing such a simple thing as rushing to death with Your Majesty is still something I can do."

  Xiang Guang looked at Wang Meng for a moment without saying a word.

  After a moment, a black-clad figure suddenly appeared in the great hall. Upon seeing Xiang Guang, he immediately bowed and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the task has been completed. All the ladies-in-waiting, consorts, princesses, including the Empress, have passed away."

  Wang Meng's face changed color as soon as he heard it, and he immediately understood that Xiang Guang had ordered the killing of all the palace women.

  Xiang Guang, however, was expressionless and calmly waved his hand: "Alright, I'll give you one last order for this life. Each of you, put on the Imperial Guard uniform. When the Qin family army enters the imperial palace, kill as many Qin soldiers as you can."

  "Yes."

  The figure in black said expressionlessly and then quickly left the grand hall.

  "Your Highness!"

  Rumbling, the dense and numerous Liehu troops outside the palace gate almost uniformly knelt down on one knee. In a glance, among the tens of thousands of people, only Qin De and a few others were standing. At this moment, Qin De led the three Qin brothers and Xu Yuanzheng to walk straight towards the imperial palace, followed by the 50,000 Liehu troops who majestically entered the imperial palace behind Qin De.

  At this moment, Qin De's face was cold and expressionless, without a hint of a smile.

  Qin Feng, Qin Yu, and Qin Zheng, the three brothers, as well as Xu Yuan, also had no smile on their faces. The crowd directly walked towards the imperial palace's grand hall. It was as if they already knew where Xiang Guang was, while the Liehuo Army was fully focused.

  "Pffft!"

  A sword flashed out, and one of the Imperial Guards was split in two. The soldiers of the Lietu Army sheathed their swords with a cold indifference.

  As he walked towards the imperial palace, there were many fearless Imperial Guards of the Tiger Army who came to kill him, but they all ended up dying one by one. In a short while, the grand hall was already in sight, and a glimmer of light flashed across Qin De's eyes, his footsteps unconsciously quickening slightly.

  Suddenly——

  Originally, the three Jinyiwei from the Item family who had been running from a distance suddenly increased their speed, as if three phantoms directly rushed into the Liehu Army, only to see a piece of blood splashing, limbs falling, and in just an instant, six or seven Liehu Army soldiers were killed.

  "Hmm!"

  Suddenly, a cold hum rose, and only three sharp whistles were heard. Then, three silhouettes fell to the ground without getting up. There was a hole on their foreheads, which was the hole pierced by the stone. One of them was the black-clothed man who had an audience with Item Guang in the great hall.

  Qin De turned his head and glanced at the three corpses without saying a word. He then walked straight to the entrance of the grand hall.

  Qin De stood outside the grand hall, while Xiang Guang was inside. The two locked eyes. Qin De walked into the grand hall step by step, with Qin Feng, Qin Yu, Qin Zheng and Xu Yuan following closely behind him.

  Qin De was below the grand hall, while Xiang Guang was above it. Although Qin De slightly tilted his head to look at Xiang Guang, there was a hint of disdain in his eyes.

  "You're here......" A faint smile appeared at the corner of Xiang Guang's mouth.

  Qin De said coldly, "Right, I'm here. At this point, you're still pretending to be fearless of life and death. Xiang Guang, I know you didn't leave because you want to protect those elite young masters of the Xiang family. Am I right?"

  Xiang Guang slightly narrowed his eyes and smiled faintly: "I said it's wrong, do you believe me?"

  "I am the one, and you still dare to call yourself that." Qin De's eyes were filled with disdain. Xiang Guang, however, was completely unbothered: "I am who I am, Qin De. Are you here to kill me? If so, then do it, don't waste any more time. I'm tired too."

  Qin De looked at Xiang Guang carefully: "You call yourself 'I', then just call yourself 'I'. However... I didn't expect that you wouldn't be afraid of death."

  "You let me call myself 'I', and I will. Qin De, you can never command me for the rest of your life. Even if I die, you still won't be able to intimidate me." Xiang Guang instead called himself "I", and at this time he was in a state of constant opposition with Qin De.

  "Oh...... I remember, some of the Item family's young elites..." Qin De wanted to see Xiang Guang's panic.

  However, Xiang Guang was not in the least bit concerned: "Qin De, I clearly told you that those elite Xiang family sons had long since gone into hiding and have nothing to do with me. How you deal with them has nothing to do with me."

  Qin De's face fell.

  Xiang Guang continued to smile and said, "Let me tell you something, even if I were to die, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Because..." Xiang Guang smiled, but his face quickly turned purple, and then a dark purple blood flowed out of his nostrils.

  Before he could finish speaking, Xiang Guang had already died, but on his face was only a cold smile. Wang Meng, who was beside him, also smiled slightly, took out a small bottle from the cup, and poured its contents into his mouth in one gulp.

  "Your Majesty, your old servant has arrived with you."

  Wang Meng also had seven apertures bleeding. Later he also fell to the ground and died.

  Qin De looked at the dead Xiang Guang, his face was very complex, and for a moment, outsiders couldn't imagine what Qin De was thinking in his heart. Was he happy about Xiang Guang's death? Or did he feel sorry that he couldn't personally torture Xiang Guang?

  "This was all for the sake of preserving those hidden elite sons of the Item family, wasn't it?" Qin Feng looked at Item Guang's corpse, his eyes filled with cold intent.

  Qin De shook his head and said, "Feng Er, you're wrong. The person who knows someone's character best is their enemy. This Guang Sheng is heartless and ruthless, he can even kill his own wife and daughter. How would he care about the children of other families?"

  "Why didn't he escape early instead of waiting for us here?" Qin Feng asked.

  Qin Zheng said coldly, "Big brother, just listen to Xiang Guang's last words and you can guess it. Xiang Guang knew that we were determined to capture him, he couldn't escape anyway. He might as well show off his military prowess to Father King one last time before taking his own life."

  Qin Zheng saw it very clearly. What he wanted to make Qin De understand was that his life and death were not in Qin De's control, even if it meant death, it would be suicide.

  Qin Yu smiled calmly and said, "Xiang Guang is extremely foolish. Isn't his life and death in the control of the Emperor? If it weren't for the Emperor's great army pressing down on him, how would he have ended up like this? Even if he did take his own life, wasn't it still because of the Emperor's coercion? And yet Xiang Guang still thinks he has control over his own life and death."

  "It's just self-deception," said Xu Yuanyi with a wave of his feather fan.

  Qin De, however, took step after step towards the dragon throne, kicking aside Xiang Yu's corpse. He looked at the dragon throne for a long time before suddenly turning around to face outside the grand hall and loudly declaring: "The King of Chu, Xiang Yu, is dead. From today on, the Kingdom of Chu is completely annihilated."

  After hundreds of years of preparation, and eighteen years of meticulous planning by Qin De, the Qin family rose to power with three counties in the eastern domain, controlled two counties in the northern domain, and brought three counties from the southern domain. Then, with a swift and decisive momentum, they launched an attack. At the critical moment, the ancestor of the Xiang family, Xiang Yang, appeared.

  However, in the next legendary "Double Moon" station, Qin Yu and Xiao Hei joined forces to kill Xiang Jia's first emperor in substance, Xiang Yang.

  Then, with a single order from Qin De, the last tyrant of Chu, Xiang Yan, was also controlled by the Xiang family. From then on, the Xiang family was exterminated and the Chu dynasty collapsed.

  The next month, all 12 counties of the Chu kingdom were rectified, and all remaining members of the Xiang family were arrested and killed. The hidden forces of the Qin family among the people also played a huge role in capturing the remaining members of the Xiang family.

  The Han and Ming dynasties originally wanted to take advantage of the situation, but unfortunately, the Chu dynasty's internal war had almost no loss of actual military strength. On the contrary, the four major forces that were originally divided were completely gathered together this time.

  The two northern counties of the Shangguan family are completely under the control of the Qin family, while the Mu family is willing to hand over three southern counties. Compared to the Xiang family in the past, the Qin family now truly controls all twelve counties. As for why the Mu family rebelled and handed over the three southern counties so easily...

  The real reason is...

  The wooden house of the three counties in the southern domain was actually a branch of the Qin family back then.

  The Mù family has been secretly lurking, even to the point of being extremely loyal to the Xiàng family for hundreds of years. The Mù family has always followed in the footsteps of the Xiàng family, making Xiàng Zhōng think that the Mù family is truly very loyal. The secret that the Mù family is a branch of the Qín family is only known by each generation's head of the Mù and Qín families, as well as their family elders.

  The imperial palace of Enjou City.

  Qin Yu was cultivating peacefully, recovering the losses he suffered in his battle with Xiang Zhong, while discussing matters of cultivation with Feng Yuzi and Qin De. As for Qin Yu's own injuries, they had long been healed by Liu Meng'ers tears.

  In the Wangfu Qin Yu's solitary courtyard, Qin Yu, Qin Feng, Qin Zheng, Qin De and Feng Yuzi sat around a stone table. At this moment, there were three secret books placed on the stone table, which were exactly the three cultivation secret books left by Qin Yu back then.

  "Xiao Yu, these three secret books, both I and your Uncle Feng have read them. Your Uncle Feng said that each of these three secret books is the top-level cultivation method in the Cultivation Realm. He has abandoned his previous cultivation methods and adopted the ones from these books." Qin De said with a smile.

  Feng Yu Zi also sighed and said, "Xiao Yu, these are actually the original sect's transmission of cultivation methods. I only knew the secrets of Yuan Ying Qi, but it's clear that they're not as good as these secret books. Such profound and mysterious cultivation methods, I estimate they're even more powerful than our sect's Town Treasure Classics."

  Qin Yu remained silent, instead stretching out one hand, and five mid-grade spiritual artifact short knives as well as a black long spear floated above his palm.