Chapter 153: Twists and Turns

Chapter 153: Twists and Turns

From the moment Zhao Changhe disguised himself and entered the Lu family’s forbidden grounds to the sudden soaring of the ancient sword, it might seem an expansive sequence of events, but the actual duration was brief, lasting no longer than the time it takes a single stick of incense to burn.

At roughly the same time Zhao Changhe and Sisi reached the depths of the forbidden ground and encountered the elder of the Lu family, the atmosphere before the gates of the Tang residence had finally reached a fever pitch.

Tang Wangsheng was naturally doing everything in his power to bar entry, but fueled by the constant provocations of the Lu family and the hidden Maitreya sectarians, the other major clans and the oblivious masses grew increasingly convinced that the obstructing Tang family harbored dark secrets.

In truth, putting oneself in their shoes, who could possibly allow a mob of thousands to go charging into their own home?

Yet at this precise moment, reason could find no purchase.

Tang Wangsheng spoke until his lips were parched to no avail whatsoever, until he finally resorted to harsh threats: "You all had better look closely at where you stand! This is the Tang estate! Are you attempting to rebel?"

It had to be said that his handling of the situation was thoroughly deficient; even now, he failed to comprehend the true nature of his predicament. The moment these fierce words left his mouth, all was lost. The crowd grew only more inflamed, and led by the Lu family, they began to storm the main gates of the Tang residence, while some even exerted their lightness skills to leap directly over the walls.

Furious, Tang Wangsheng roared, "Stop them!"

The Tang family members and their courtyard guards, having endured the long standoff, were already fully prepared. They rushed forward to meet the assault, and an intense battle inevitably erupted at the gates of the Tang estate.

The situation dissolved into utter chaos.

The Tang family remained indeed the most formidable clan in Gusu, possessed of deep heritage. Leaving aside the family members themselves, the experts and unconventional masters they had recruited were countless. Single-handedly holding off multiple factions, they maintained a fierce, seesawing struggle at the gates.

Yet as Tang Wangsheng beheld this chaotic spectacle, an unease finally began to bloom within his heart.

Even if they held the line, what then? How would this end?

"Swish!"

A sword thrust came from the flank. It was Lu Yuanting, the patriarch of the Lu family, directly seeking out Tang Wangsheng with a flying strike.

Tang Wangsheng was utterly enraged. "Capturing you, thief, shall bring this to an end!"

Lu Yuanting merely sneered.

The two patriarchs swiftly locked themselves in combat.

Both were at the ninth layer of the Mysterious Pass, unranked on the Mortal Rankings, and evenly matched. Originally, Tang Wangsheng believed himself slightly superior to Lu Yuanting, but as the fight progressed, he began to sense something amiss.

Lu Yuanting possessed no extraordinary skill, yet strangely, within the surrounding melee, someone would inexplicably swing a blade toward Tang Wangsheng, or a moment later, someone would stumble forward and thrust a sword at him. A few exchanges more, and one of his own men would be hurled directly into him.

Every distraction was aimed squarely at him, while his opponent, Lu Yuanting, remained entirely unaffected. It was as though unseen hands were constantly tipping the scales against him, yet whenever he tried to look, he could not discover where the problem lay.

That the rioting crowd was interspersed with Maitreya sectarians was a fact Tang Wangsheng remained blind to from beginning to end.

Under the covert machinations of the sectarians, the Tang family guards began to cede ground before they knew it. Moments later, the main gates fell, violently blasted open as a countless tide of people surged inside.

Sensing imminent disaster, Tang Wangsheng barked out, "Protect the families in the rear courtyard!"

Yet the crowd paid no heed whatsoever to the so-called dependants; the immediate destination of every single person was the rear mountain, Tiger Hill.

Lu Yuanting’s purpose was to create the illusion that the baleful aura of the Tang family was infecting Gusu, inciting the masses to overthrow them, thereby aligning with the Maitreya Sect to overturn the heavens. Naturally, he would not leave himself open to censure by harming civilian families. His objective had remained crystal clear from the start: to reach the Sword Pool of Tiger Hill and draw forth the baleful aura within.

How could Tang Wangsheng fathom any of this? Drenched in sweat, he led the Tang forces in a fighting retreat, gradually pulling back to Tiger Hill and making a stand upon the Thousand-Man Rock.

Lu Yuanting, conversely, called the crowd to a halt and shouted, "Brother Tang! We came here solely to verify the baleful aura of Tiger Hill, not to move against your Tang family. Can you not see clearly by now?"

Tang Wangsheng laughed out of sheer fury. "Then this old man would like to ask if you all see clearly by now? There is not a shred of baleful aura in the Sword Pool of Tiger Hill!"

"That remains to be seen!" Lu Yuanting waved his hand coldly. "Bring Shaoxiong forward!"

Tang Wangsheng froze as he saw several men escorting Lu Shaoxiong through the crowd. The young man, who had previously been driven into mindless madness, showed no signs of insanity now. His expression was merely haggard and weak, though a lingering baleful aura clung to him, looking as though it had been temporarily suppressed.

An ominous premonition welled up in Tang Wangsheng's heart.

The Lu family truly seemed prepared. Could Lu Shaoxiong genuinely trigger some sort of resonance here?

Lu Yuanting spoke, "If Brother Tang has no guilt in his heart, do you dare let my son approach the edge of the Sword Pool to test it?"

Under the watchful eyes of the public, Tang Wangsheng instinctively felt something was wrong, yet he could find no justification to refuse. He could only say, "If there is no issue, how do you intend to settle this?"

Lu Yuanting sneered. "This Lu shall forfeit his own head in recompense!"

Tang Wangsheng took a deep breath, left with nothing more to say, and could only watch helplessly as Lu Shaoxiong walked to the brink of the Sword Pool.

Before the gaze of the thousands gathered, Lu Shaoxiong approached the water’s edge, crouched down somewhat weakly, and lightly traced his hand through the pool as if testing its temperature. He then slowly waded into the water, venturing deeper until only his head remained visible above the surface.

The crowd held its collective breath, watching for any change in the pool.

They waited a while, but nothing seemed to happen.

Just as a look of joy began to appear on Tang Wangsheng's face, the crowd suddenly erupted into a clamor: "It's moving! It's moving! The water is moving!"

Shocked, Tang Wangsheng looked over. Sure enough, the surface of the pool began to oscillate, rippling outward in ring after ring as though brushed by a breeze. Yet the night was still and windless; not even a strand of human hair was stirred.

How was this water moving?

Sensing carefully, a faint tremor seemed to travel from deep below, like the far-reaching aftershocks of an earthquake occurring in some incredibly distant land.

Had anyone with experience from the shores of the Ancient Sword Lake been present, they would have known that an alternate dimension overlaid upon this spot was currently in tumult.

But ordinary people did not know, and even Tang Wangsheng himself was at a loss before this inexplicable tremor. Even though no one had actually perceived any baleful aura yet, the looks everyone directed at Tang Wangsheng were already filled with absolute suspicion.

In truth, the reason was exceedingly simple:

The sword qi left within Lu Shaoxiong's body had once been capable of exciting the Dragon-Sparrow, so it could naturally trigger a resonance with sword qi of the same origin. It was as if a clone existed across the boundaries of worlds, signaling that it had "finally glimpsed the outside world." Thus, the sword qi below began to gather, stirring with a desire to break outward.

This location corresponded precisely to the position of the main mausoleum; the ancient legend that "beneath the Sword Pool lies the resting place of the Sword Emperor" was rooted in this very principle. The sword qi currently gathering below was the very same sword qi Zhao Changhe beheld at the entrance of the main mausoleum.

When Lu Shaoxiong brought the sword qi within his body to the upper Sword Pool, it triggered answering vibrations from the sword qi below. The slight trembling of space was the prearranged signal agreed upon with the elder of the Lu family.

A mere resonance of sword qi might not have been enough; it might have failed to cause the sword qi to surge upward. But if someone were to enrage the mausoleum at this moment, causing the baleful aura to sweep and gather, would this condensed, unyielding aura simply dissipate after slaying the transgressor? Once a baleful aura took physical form, it could not be so easily quelled; it would only rage violently, continuing to tear apart every living thing in its sight!

And across the spatial isolation, what living things could it "see"?

Naturally, it would be the object above that resonated with it, surrounded entirely by living beings! It was originally equivalent to a clone on the outside, and rushing forward at this moment meant a "reunion."

It was a very simple theory, and the only method the Lu family could devise to break through this space. From the moment Lu Shaoxiong accidentally absorbed that strand of sword qi, the Lu family had begun planning for this exact moment.

They had never considered the possibility of the Sword Emperor's revival, nor had they pondered what consequences would arise if the baleful aura broke loose and ravaged Gusu.

They desired only to breach this space, while seamlessly pinning all the consequences upon the Tang family, thereby fulfilling the century-old aspiration of the Lu clan.

Whatever followed could easily be handled by the Maitreya Sect, who possessed an expert on the Heaven Rankings!

Yet amidst the suspicion of the crowd, the dumbstruck state of Tang Wangsheng, and the ecstatic expression of Lu Yuanting, a dozen breaths passed, and the pool water continued merely to ripple gently. Nothing further occurred.

Naturally, it was because Zhao Changhe was currently engaged in a fierce battle with the elder, interrupting the process.

Lu Shaoxiong was drenched in sweat within the water, wishing he could dig the sword qi out of his own body, but the pool water merely ebbed and flowed, refusing to erupt.

The joy on Lu Yuanting's face froze. What was happening? They had tested it repeatedly at the entrance beforehand; the sword qi would indeed gather and rush outward due to external sword qi. Could it be that the corresponding exit did not work the same way?

Or had something gone awry with the ancestor below?

While he was wavering in doubt, the sound of battle cries suddenly drifted from afar, sounding as if thousands of troops were clashing outside, accompanied by flames that lit up the sky.

Tang Wangsheng abruptly commanded the nephews at his side, "Go see what has happened!"

There was no need for his kin to go; very quickly, a guard from outside the Tang estate came running in at full speed to report, "Master! The Young Master has led the army into the city! Near our city gates, they discovered Maitreya sectarians fully deployed and waiting, looking as if they were biding their time to seize the city in one fell swoop. Having been discovered in advance by the Young Master, the army and the Maitreya sectarians have clashed... Now, Maitreya sectarians are rising all over the city, seizing the gates everywhere. Even... even Abbess Puxin of the Hall of Quiet Meditation turns out to be of the Maitreya Sect..."

Tang Wangsheng glared savagely at Lu Yuanting. "So this is why you gathered a mob to falsely accuse my Tang family today! To pluck out my Tang family, this stubborn thorn, so that you might cooperate with the Maitreya Sect to take control of Gusu!"

Lu Yuanting stood frozen in astonishment. How could things have turned out like this?

Not only was there no movement from the pool water, but how could that famously worthless Tang Buqi have led the army into the city ahead of time and uncovered the traces of the Maitreya Sect?

Right at this moment, an exceedingly obese figure came flying through the air beneath the moonlight, laughing with fierce madness: "The baleful aura pierces the heavens! It is, of course, triggered by the Tang family!"

Maitreya Sect, the Lord Maitreya!

With these words, Maitreya suddenly flung something from his hand, which, before anyone could stop him, accurately crashed into the pool water.

The pool water roared wildly, and the baleful aura finally overflowed. Below, at the main tomb gate, the elder of the Lu family had just breathed his last; the baleful aura swept madly, and the form of an ancient sword began to pierce the heavens.

Maitreya laughed uproariously to the heavens: "The Tang family summoned the baleful aura to slaughter the city; Maitreya saves all sentient beings. What further doubts remain?"

A stretch of spring water appeared under the moonlight, and from the clouds seemed to come a fairy's soft sigh: "If you had truly suppressed the entire scene, perhaps in the future this tale would have spread throughout Jiangnan... But alas, though I have come a little late, I have still arrived in time."