Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1429 The Curtain Falls—Three Autumns Have Passed

I can keep up.

The Blood Transformation Array was still in effect, and Lu Ning's stamina was at its peak. She felt she had never been in such a good state in this situation. Li Ji's attacks were very fast, but not at a speed she couldn't keep up with. As long as Lu Ning pushed herself to her limit, she would be fine.

When their swords clashed for the first time, Lu Ning felt as if she had been hit directly by a charging rhinoceros.

I'm not making this up; she really was hit by a car during a simulated training session at the distribution center.

"An ice formation, is that it?" Li Ji forced Lu Ning back with his sword, and immediately unleashed a long, charged thrust. A stream of air flashed from the blade, instantly creating a hole in the ice wall Lu Ning had constructed.

This Demon-Subduing Hall was merely a replica created by Lu Ning; she didn't use it as the main formation in her construction, nor could she create one on the scale of Ye Cong's. Of course, it was sufficient as a one-on-one arena.

The opening was quickly sealed shut by the formation.

"Li Ji, you can't leave here before you kill me."

“This is not a difficult premise. In a one-on-one fight, I fear no one in the world.” Li Ji held his sword horizontally, his palm lightly tracing the blade. “And with you, I will fight with the highest courtesy of a cultivator.”

A soft halo began to rise from the sword, like the rising sun. Lu Ning also infused the sword with her innate purple qi, and the surrounding temperature continued to drop, compressing Li Ji's protective true qi.

Without any communication, both sides sensed the sudden change in their heartbeats and attacked simultaneously!

Sunshine and Purple Radiance clashed more than ten times in an instant, each exchanging blows. Lu Ning immediately began to feel the strain. Li Ji's attacks did not use any exquisite sword techniques or fancy skills, but simply carried out high-speed continuous thrusting, slashing, and twisting, giving Lu Ning no chance to breathe. This was different from her style when she fought against Li Duanyu that day.

However, a demon king who had already reached the level of a martial arts grandmaster could still use his swordsmanship without any flaws. Moreover, Lu Ning could no longer find any chance to retaliate. She could only ignite more of her true qi to continue fighting with Li Ji and look for opportunities to use the giant's knuckles, the substitute, or the power of life and death.

The despairing thing is that there is no such opportunity.

Even when facing Yan Rong, Lu Ning had never seen such an impeccable opponent. Li Ji's offense and defense were so seamless that any of Lu Ning's moves could be easily countered. The opportunities for Lu Ning to counterattack were fleeting, and it was impossible to tell whether he was deliberately leaving a flaw to lure her in.

Whether this is good news or not is hard to say, but her reaction time wasn't fast enough to catch these flaws.

However, Li Ji wasn't truly having an easy time. Although Lu Ning was defending with all her might, her defense was impenetrable. Ultimately, she had raised her internal energy to a level rarely matched in the entire martial arts world through the method of forcibly increasing her strength at the gathering place. Her breathing was dense, and her stamina was extraordinary, making it easy for her to withstand the rapid and fierce attacks. Moreover, her strange sensory abilities were actually helpful in this battle.

She knew she probably couldn't win, but at least she had bought enough time. Jinghong would definitely notice this place, and Qin You would surely notify Guanyuan City.

This was the best Lu Ning could do—she had no scruples left.

Numerous ice spikes continuously sprouted from the ground of the Demon Subduing Hall, blocking Li Ji's sword strikes for Lu Ning. Meanwhile, the sword in Lu Ning's hand, repeatedly infused with innate purple energy, began to draw upon the surrounding cold air, and even her arm began to emit a purple glow.

"Are you prepared to fight to the death?" Li Ji leaped back a step, having already seen the abnormal purple light emanating from Lu Ning's body.

"So what?"

“Innate true energy needs to be balanced and moderate. The maximum activation of a single type has an upper limit according to one’s constitution. One of my disciples spent a long time finding the balance between them to avoid exploding and dying.” Li Ji looked at the purple color that was beginning to uncontrollably spread across Lu Ning’s body. “And you have not found that balance.”

"What I'm going to do is stall you here. Why do you think I should fight you for so long?"

Lu Ning crouched down slightly, making a forward thrusting motion. Purple energy seeped out from every pore of her body, burning like a layer of ethereal flame on her skin, making her look like a ferocious beast ready to devour its prey.

“Of course, of course. The spirit of mutual support among humans is something the demon race will likely learn and understand in a long time. Your subordinates and colleagues are still helping you, which is within my expectations.” Li Ji sighed, twirling his sword and holding it before him, his gaze solemn. “However, to this day, how many loyal human souls lie in the grave? The price humanity has paid is not insignificant.”

"Ethnic conflicts have always been like this."

"It's just a sigh. One last sword strike. If you have no other moves, then let's end it here." Li Ji formed a sword incantation, her eyes slightly closed. Lu Ning saw the almost imperceptible demonic energy within her finally begin to boil, turning a scorching fiery red.

What did Li Ji want to see? Variables? Unfortunately, Lu Ning was ultimately an outsider, and she couldn't show Li Ji any possibilities for the future.

Lu Ning charged forward, but a tiny firefly suddenly appeared on the tip of Li Ji's sword, its flickering light instantly drawing Lu Ning's attention and causing her to change direction. Without hesitation, Lu Ning leaped, her innate purple qi, emanating a powerful, chilling aura, rapidly tearing her body apart. The ensuing purple qi indiscriminately enveloped everything around her, even dyeing the entire Demon-Subduing Hall purple. Li Ji's sword pierced Lu Ning's heart precisely, but most of her body had already been torn apart by the purple qi beforehand; this fatal wound, ironically, allowed her to die quickly.

A coin fell from the tattered clothing, making a soft sound as it struck the ice. It was then covered by the vast expanse of purple ice, and the interior of the Demon Subduing Hall began to be filled with ice strengthened by purple qi, gradually freezing Li Ji inside.

Li Ji finally showed a hint of surprise, but she quickly laughed.

=
In the early years of the Great Wilderness, Grand Tutor Qin Zhong of Wei fought a decisive battle against the army of the demon star Huang Kui at Guanyuan in Lingzhou. The battle lasted for more than three months. The Grand Tutor used human laws to deploy forbidden spells to hinder the enemy. The generals leading the Ten Deadly Formations changed several times to resist the demon army's might. By the autumn equinox, the demon-slaying incantation was deployed to the entire army, and the demon army's ability to regenerate under the law was no longer an advantage. Meanwhile, the human race had been fighting for a long time, and reinforcements from Gouchen and Lingjiang had arrived. Prime Minister Li of the capital mobilized 300,000 elite troops, and the Imperial Observatory and the Demon Suppression Bureau prepared countless anti-demon military supplies to help defeat the enemy. Although they were injured in the Great Wilderness, they were able to come to the rescue thanks to human laws.

Before the start of winter, the Great Wei army defeated three routes of the demon army, beheaded more than ten demon kings, and destroyed the demon army's sacrificial offerings to "all things." The Grand Tutor took advantage of the victory and attacked the central army's main tent on the day of Minor Snow, killing the demon army's marshal Xu Fu in this battle.

With the demon army defeated, its leader Huang Kui also disappeared without a trace. However, the winter winds were fierce and the desolate lands were impassable, so the Grand Tutor focused on recovering the lands of Lingzhou and restoring the laws of humanity.

……

The ink brush fell to the ground, and a gust of wind and sand swept by, making the shed rustle. Lou Lingzhu looked up and saw that not far away, a clear dividing line defined the boundary between survival and death.

She had thought that the war that had gambled everything for the Great Wei, the war that ended in victory, had finally brought an end to the chaos in the northern frontier. Perhaps in the future, there would be a period of time for the Great Wei to spread the laws of humanity throughout its territory and restore the environment to its former state.

But things backfired.

As Grand Tutor Qin decisively defeated the demon army and led his troops into the central command tent, Prime Minister Li Zhuoyu in the capital city suffered a fatal assassination attempt. The assassin, in a frenzy, set up a makeshift cannon in his residence two blocks away and fired it on Li Zhuoyu's route home from court, killing and injuring countless people instantly. Li Zhuoyu himself was severely wounded. After being unconscious for three days, he awoke on a suddenly chilly morning. Upon receiving the battle report of victory in the north, he laughed heartily for a long time, calmly assigned tasks to his two trusted subordinates, and then died facing north.

Five days later, a list of over one hundred criminals responsible for the shelling incident was posted outside the imperial city. Their families were to be executed, and their property confiscated. Within two days, the execution ground was filled with heads and blood.

Of course, by the time Grand Tutor Qin returned to the capital in triumph, the blood had long since dried. After the upheaval in the court, there were numerous vacancies for officials, and the entire court was operating at overcapacity. If it weren't for the fact that quitting would result in execution, many officials would probably have resigned long ago.

After returning to court, Grand Tutor Qin reorganized the court, promoting a large number of imperial students and officials, thus alleviating the immediate crisis. The following spring, he held a special imperial examination to select officials and began to further implement the "Law of Humanity" outside the major cities—at this point, apart from the cities that had received his message earlier to implement the law, there was nowhere for ordinary people to linger. Within the territory of the Great Wei, only thirty-nine cities had implemented the "Law of Humanity."

This number seems acceptable, but it is far from enough to accommodate the entire population of the world. As spring arrives, the great famine finally begins.

Enco, in the end, never opened.

Lou Lingzhu stared at the book she was using for taking notes. Two pageboys stood beside her, sitting somewhat timidly to the side. These two children were the only ones she had chosen from among the refugees who could read. They weren't as clever as some of the children she had taught at Gouchen Sect, but they were honest enough.

Ten days ago, news of Grand Tutor Qin's death spread throughout the capital.

With her innate keen intuition, Lou Lingzhu knew that a storm no less devastating than the emperor's death was about to erupt in the capital. The rare period of peace that had lasted for over a year was likely the last gasp of the Great Wei Dynasty. The implementation of the Laws of Man was already fraught with obstacles, and without Grand Tutor Qin's coordination, the limited resources would probably lead to another round of life-or-death struggles.

For a fleeting moment, she even missed the tense yet fulfilling time spent in Gouchen City amidst the atmosphere of war.

After closing the book, Lou Lingzhu took out the first volume of "The Great Wilderness Strange Classics", the general record, from the book basket next to her.

Following the catalog were a list of names, along with messages signed by the owners of those names. Most of them were no longer alive, and of the few still alive, Lou Lingzhu could hardly find them now; it was simply a matter of times having changed.

Early this morning, an urgent report arrived in the capital. Given the current state of chaos in the capital, the contents of the report were known to almost everyone within two hours.

—Dong Tian said that due to natural disasters and man-made calamities, the emperor was young and weak, the Grand Tutor was dead, and treacherous officials had not been eliminated. Therefore, he should not obey the emperor's orders when he was in the field, and should no longer accept the imperial decrees from the capital.

It was obvious to everyone that Dong Tian was about to declare himself emperor.

Fortunately, the land is now vast and distant, so even if someone were to declare themselves king, it would be impossible for a war to break out. However, Lou Lingzhu was a perceptive person, and this signal already made her feel somewhat uneasy.

Roads were cut off, and only a few people had the ability to travel through them. With natural disaster raging, there was nowhere to farm except in the suburbs and surrounding areas. Grand Tutor Qin had said it would pass, but Lou Lingzhu saw no end in sight.

She still remembered when Fang Huaisu reappeared before her and took away Jinbao and Yinbao.

"The general is dead."

At first, Lou Lingzhu thought that Lu Ning might be using some strange trick again, like in the thrilling stories she had told her, to fake her death in order to gain more victory. Then, Lou Lingzhu suddenly realized what Fang Huaisu was talking about.

Doctor Zhao disappeared without a trace after a war.

General Qin Luo became increasingly taciturn.

After witnessing all that, Lou Lingzhu didn't believe that everything would pass easily. Although she was young, she had read many history books and knew that chaotic times never ended in just a few years.

"Let's go," she said to her two pageboys as she put her belongings into the book basket.

"Where are you going, Miss? The Great Wilderness lies just ahead..."

"Take this talisman. It will allow you to retain the protection of the human law for fifteen days after you have escaped its reach." Lou Lingzhu tossed the talisman to the two pageboys. "But it's only protection. The Great Wilderness invasion is still fierce. We should choose to travel at night and find places to rest during the day where we can be shielded from the sunlight. Now that it's late autumn, the nights are longer, which is a good time to travel."

Although the capital is in chaos, there is nothing left to record. It would be better to head west and see if Dong Tian can serve as a model of a wise ruler.

=
Now, within the territory of Fanzhou, with Cang'er City, where the Law of Humanity was first implemented, as the center, the Law of Humanity spreads outwards, and villages are beginning to be rebuilt. The harvest of the grains sown last season was not plentiful, but the Western Regions were already sparsely populated, and after absorbing some of the foreign ethnic groups, it was still barely enough to supply them.

In ordinary times, Governor Lu Qingxu's achievements over the past three years would be considered remarkable. He subdued seven tribes, rapidly implemented the Law of Humanity, and when the Great Wilderness invaded, he promptly relocated nearly 70% of the state's population to Cang'er. In the following two years, thanks to the state's granary reserves and his strict policies, he managed to reduce the damage from the Great Wilderness to almost nothing.

When Dong Tian was welcomed into the city, he was quite surprised by Lu Qingxu's abilities. In his memory, this censor had almost no remarkable achievements in the capital, and most officials in the capital did not have much of an opinion of him. Only some people in the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue had a relatively good relationship with him.

Lu Qingxu, with his head of white hair, calmly scrutinized the man who was rumored to be the next emperor.

He knew, of course, that it wasn't just a rumor, since the messenger was his daughter.