In the northwestern frontier, yellow sand stretches for thousands of miles, withered grass spreads across the land, and the horizon is nothing but a vast expanse of yellow. Against this backdrop, a group of men and women dressed in white, fluttering like white butterflies, stand out sharply. They followed the border of Lanzhou into Liangzhou, continuing their curved route until they reached Liuzhou, the fourth province of Beiliang. Not long after crossing the border, a unit of iron cavalry awaited them like hunters waiting for prey. Officially, they were there to escort these Immortal Master (immortal masters) from a remote island in the South Sea to Qingcang City, but in reality, it was more about surveillance.
The sect leader, Tantai Pingjing, was unfazed by this, though some among the sect’s cultivators felt deeply resentful, believing their goodwill had been mistaken for malice, and that the young feudal lord was too ignorant to appreciate their efforts. However, there was no need for the sect leader to calm the unrest, for the six hundred light-armored riders were undeniably formidable, and their commander was none other than Li Mofan, the deputy general of the Longxiang Army, a man notorious in the Beiliang military for his reputation as a butcher—”a man who kills without mercy”—and whose mounted combat skills were said to be second only to the cavalry commander Yuan Zuozong.
Amid the swirling sands, Li Mofan rode at the forefront. In addition to the standard spear, saber, and crossbow carried by all Beiliang cavalry, he had two quivers of halberds strapped to either side of his horse, each containing over twenty short halberds. At his waist, he carried two long swords. At a glance, he looked like a mobile armory on horseback. Li Mofan was no mere showpiece—he was among the top three archers in the Beiliang army, and his swordsmanship, saber techniques, and spear skills were all masterfully honed. Xu Xiao had great confidence in him, once jokingly saying that if Li Mofan ever married a woman, he would make him a deputy commander, letting him choose between cavalry or infantry. This jest stemmed from a rather unsavory quirk of Li Mofan—he had a preference for male companions, and his personal guards were always young, handsome soldiers. Xu Xiao had always turned a blind eye to this, for Li Mofan was simply too fierce and capable. In any army under the Liyang regime, he would have been a top-tier general, a pillar of strength. But as the saying goes, “Water too clear holds no fish.” The Beiliang army’s might came at a hidden cost—such as their distrust of aristocratic strategists, and the presence of men like Chu Lushan and Li Mofan, who had driven many away from Beiliang.
The Longxiang cavalry led by Li Mofan had no interaction with the cultivators of the Guanyin Sect. They rode in silence, like two serpents—one black, one white—gliding across a yellow silk tapestry.
As they neared Qingcang City, Li Mofan suddenly halted his horse, a smirk forming on his face as he spotted a lone figure in the distance. He cast a sidelong glance at the white-robed immortal masters nearby, then raised a hand. The entire cavalry unit froze in perfect silence, not a sound escaping their ranks. Li Mofan turned his horse toward the Guanyin Sect members, his hand idly stroking the halberd hidden in his leather pouch, clearly intending to watch from the sidelines.
Before the cultivators stood a horseless carriage, and beside it, a boy in black robes stood silently, a massive black tiger dozing at his feet. Even crouched, the beast’s back reached nearly to the boy’s armpit. Li Mofan instinctively rubbed his neck, recalling the day the new commander took over the Longxiang Army. He and fellow deputy Wang Lingbao had both doubted the young leader. They had challenged him in the training yard. Wang Lingbao had tried to fight head-on, only to be kicked seven or eight meters, flying out of the arena entirely. Li Mofan lasted a few more moves, but his fate was worse—he was grabbed like a chicken by Xu Longxiang, swung around in a wide arc, and then thrown out of the arena. Throughout the fight, Xu Longxiang hadn’t even bothered to brush the dust from his clothes. The boy clearly hadn’t had enough, and with a wave of his hand, he gestured for the watching officers to step in for Li and Wang. In the end, twelve officers and over forty captains had swarmed him, and every single one had been utterly defeated. During the fight, Xu Longxiang had taken over a hundred punches and kicks, yet aside from the occasional sway or step back, he never once fell. That day, he solidified his position as the Longxiang Army’s commander, paving the way for his later feat of leading ten thousand riders into the wilderness, and even indulging in the leisurely pursuit of bandit gangs with a group of officers serving as ordinary scouts.
Yet, despite Li Mofan’s admiration for Xu Longxiang’s battlefield prowess, he still harbored some quiet concerns. After all, sparring in the training yard was not the same as real combat. The more eye-catching the commander, the more likely they were to be surrounded and overwhelmed. Li Mofan had fought over sixty battles, and his most harrowing moment wasn’t a duel with a famed enemy general in the chaos of war, but rather a sneaky knife strike from an unremarkable old soldier who had crept up on him. That blade had nearly pierced his armor and torn open his abdomen. To this day, Li Mofan still didn’t know who that old knife-wielding soldier was. He had seen too many arrogant martial experts meet their end—not in glorious combat, but buried beneath a rain of arrows or trampled by horses. Closer to home, the Beiliang army had the Yufu Treadbow, a weapon specifically designed to target enemy vanguard warriors. During the Spring and Autumn Wars, countless skilled martial artists had been pierced through by that bow alone. Many martial artists avoided the battlefield precisely because individual martial prowess could easily be swallowed by the tide of war. Moreover, the military was a place of strict discipline, and most martial artists preferred freedom over confinement. After years of struggle, why would they willingly enter a cage?
Li Mofan sighed, gazing at the motionless second son of the general, his mind wandering. He remembered the time he had followed the general to Beiliang. Midway, at a celebration banquet, the general, drunk and grinning, had raised his cup and pointed toward Tai’an City. “The legs of those scholar-officials kneel all day long. We rough soldiers who fight on the borders—we’ve walked all over the frontier! Of the Nine Spring and Autumn States, only the Southern Tang was left as scraps for Gu Jiantang. We’ve been everywhere else. Now there are only the three provinces of Beiliang left. One day, even if I, Xu Xiao, can’t personally lead you to the royal court of the Northern Barbarians, my son will take you there.”
Li Mofan exhaled deeply, his eyes hardening with determination. Nearly twenty years had passed. He was already in his forties. His own five-year-old grandson already knew how to flirt with neighbor girls. Finally, a great war was coming!
Xu Longxiang gently twisted his neck.
Not only the Guanyin Sect cultivators skilled in sensing spiritual auras, but even the sect leader Tantai Pingjing, who was from the same era as the sword-sage Su Xiegǔ, felt a sense of dread and halted their advance. The tall woman furrowed her brows. The girl known as the charcoal-seller rolled her eyes. What was this skinny, clueless kid planning? Did he really intend to take on the entire Guanyin Sect alone? Was he unable to distinguish friend from foe? Ever since she had failed to capture a yellow dragon in Shu, her mood had been terrible. To hunt that dragon, Mei Yingyi’s apprentice had gained the rare boon of sealing her breath into a bottle, and Sun Ya, who carried the Dragon’s Perch, had suffered no loss. But she had been the unluckiest of all, losing two precious Chi Talisman jade pendants she had painstakingly retrieved from the tomb of the Great Feng Emperor. Each jade pendant, when crushed, could summon a living-like spirit chilong—a treasure of inestimable value. The charcoal-seller grew irritated just looking at the black-robed, skinny boy whose identity she now knew. With a flick of her mind, she darted forward. She refused to believe that this boy, brimming with killing intent, would dare to kill her.
Xu Longxiang had not fully awakened his martial potential, but he had indeed begun to awaken.
He remembered the lake outside Youyan Villa, where his older brother had clashed with these people. Later, a young woman known as the “sword embryo” had repeatedly tried to harm them.
Xu Longxiang had come alone to block their path—not as the commander of thirty thousand Longxiang cavalry, but simply as Xu Fengnian’s younger brother, the “Huang Man’er.”
As for whether the Guanyin Sect understood or was willing to accept this “welcome gift,” Xu Longxiang didn’t care.
He had originally hesitated between simply beating them or something else, but when he saw a barefoot woman, brimming with sword intent rather than sword qi, dart toward him, he looked down at his own bare feet and smirked.
Looks like we both hate wearing shoes.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t knock you down.
The charcoal-seller suddenly sensed a surge of overwhelming killing intent. She closed her eyes and, instead of charging directly at the second son of the “Butcher of the South,” whose fame had even reached the Southern Wilds, she lightly tapped mid-air during her flight, twisting her body into a half-circle before swiftly descending. Just as her toes were about to touch the ground, she sensed Xu Longxiang’s attack and quickly arched her body, accelerating forward another few zhang. Throughout, she moved in a series of graceful leaps, as if lotus flowers bloomed beneath her feet.
Li Mofan, watching from the sidelines with a lazy smirk, chuckled. Not bad—this little lady had at least grasped a technique of the Zhi Xuan school. With such a graceful yet practical lightness skill, she could easily dominate the martial world.
Xu Longxiang’s left foot slid an inch across the sand, and at that exact moment, the charcoal-seller changed her trajectory again, soaring several zhang upward, then twisting her body backward. Her white sleeves fluttered like clouds, her aura ethereal, making her attack unpredictable.
Xu Longxiang moved.
He charged straight like an arrow, directly at the girl who danced through the air.
As Xu Longxiang bent his knee, the charcoal-seller was still deciding whether to summon her sword or evade with her lightness skill. Then, in the next instant, she had no chance to act.
Xu Longxiang launched a brutal knee strike mid-air, slamming into the charcoal-seller, who seemed to have flown into him on her own.
The speed was so fast that only Tantai Pingjing could follow it!
At the moment Xu Longxiang lifted his knee, the charcoal-seller had already lost her advantage. Still, as they collided, she managed to raise her hands to block. But Xu Longxiang hooked his fingers into claws, grabbed her forehead, and pulled her toward his knee, sending her flying once more.
Tantai Pingjing narrowed her eyes, slowly gathering her breath, ready to strike.
The charcoal-seller tumbled mid-air, dissipating much of the force, but soon she was horrified to find the unassuming black-clothed boy suddenly appearing behind her.
Then came another kick to her back, sending her face-first into the sand with a humiliating crash.
A shadow of gloom passed over Tantai Pingjing’s brow. The boy’s kick had paused several times imperceptibly, building up inch-force like rolling thunder upon thunder—an act that defied conventional martial principles. Normally, a martial artist who had reached a certain level understood the importance of continuous, unbroken force.
Xu Longxiang was like a ghost, appearing and disappearing. After a moment of dizzying sight, the cultivators saw the boy dragging the charcoal-seller by one leg, slowly walking toward the hundred or so Guanyin Sect cultivators.
The charcoal-seller wanted to die. It wasn’t that she didn’t resist—it was that the bastard’s kick had shattered all her inner energy, leaving it chaotic and uncontrollable. And worse, her instincts told her that if she dared to summon her sword and fly it, this skinny black boy would really kill her.
Xu Longxiang dragged her for a while, then, as if bored, tossed her aside like garbage back to the Guanyin Sect. Then he turned to Tantai Pingjing and beckoned with a finger.
The message was clear: the young ones aren’t worth the trouble. Try your hand, old one.
Tantai Pingjing showed no anger, only calm inquiry. “Have you been deliberately holding yourself at the boundary between the Diamond and Zhi Xuan realms? Are you trying to skip the Tian Xiang realm entirely and become a land-bound immortal in one leap? No one before you has ever done that.”
Xu Longxiang said nothing.
He had always listened only to his older brother. When he was young, his brother told him stories of martial heroes—how speed was the ultimate martial art, how brute force could overcome any technique. At the time, he didn’t understand, but he remembered every word. After awakening, it all made sense naturally.
And his brother had also said that when you fight someone, you can chat as you fight. But if you kill someone, don’t waste words. The fists are the words.
A rider came galloping up, reaching Li Mofan and reporting.
Li Mofan’s expression turned odd. He cleared his throat and shouted to Xu Longxiang, “Commander, the Prince says you can fight, but no killing!”
Li Mofan couldn’t help but laugh as he added, “And the Prince also said—if you lose, he’ll beat you himself!”
Li Mofan suddenly straightened, realizing his words, and quickly added, “Commander, I’m just passing on the Prince’s message! Don’t beat me up later!”
The charcoal-seller, now cradled in the arms of an elder from her sect, was close to tears, wanting to curse the heavens. Neither of the Xu brothers—Xu Fengnian and Xu Longxiang—had any sense!
More than anything, she wanted to return to the South Sea and never set foot on the Central Plains again.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage