After fifteen years of cultivation, he finally reached the pinnacle of the first rank!

Chapter 159 State Capital
The armored cavalry consisted of about a hundred people, with strict discipline and unstoppable morale.

The difference between this group of people and those from Luoshen Peak was that they came from the direction of Shengzhou, and judging from the armor on the soldiers and the weapons they held, they should be from the Shengzhou garrison.

A group of soldiers stopped in front of Hu Ruian and others, and the uniform sound of weapons colliding stopped abruptly.

Seeing this scene, Hu Ruian's eyes moved slightly, but his expression was normal.

Murong Xiaoya, who had been quietly staying in the corner, stood up at this moment and looked at the gorgeous carriage among the armored soldiers and cavalry.

At this time, a nobleman dressed in ice silk brocade and wearing a jade crown on his head reached out to lift the curtain of the carriage. His eyebrows were like swords and his eyes were cold.

He glanced at the collapsed cliffs and the cracked earth around him, but he didn't pay much attention to them. Instead, he looked at Murong Xiaoya and said lightly:
"Little sister, my father received your letter and ordered me to take you home."

Hearing this, everyone turned their heads and looked at Murong Xiaoya, which made her face turn red.

She stood there, pinching the corner of her clothes and hesitated for a while, then turned to look at Hu Ruian next to her.

Hu Ruian glanced at the noble young man and asked:

"But the 'Master of Divine Needle' of the Murong family?"

The young master raised the corners of his narrow, almond-shaped eyes slightly, and looked at Hu Ruian in front of him. He seemed to remember something and said with a bow:
"It is I. You must be Lord Hu. Father has instructed us that Lord Hu has taken great pains to look after my younger sister along the way. We have prepared some wine to welcome you. Please join us."

Hearing this, Hu Ruian did not reply immediately, but turned to look at Li Musheng and said in a low voice:
"Sir, the Murong family is the foremost martial arts family in Shengzhou. We are on this trip to handle matters in Shengzhou, and we may need to use the Murong family's resources. The commander informed us of this before we left the imperial capital."

Li Musheng raised his eyebrows slightly, glanced at Hu Ruian, and waved his hand:
"You can make the decision on this matter. I have only one request: you must not stay in Shengzhou City for more than two days. Once the time is up, I will no longer care about it, regardless of whether the matter is handled or not."

Hu Ruian immediately nodded in agreement, and then said to the nobleman in the gorgeous carriage:

"Then it's too much trouble!"

Murong Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, glanced at Li Musheng beside Hu Ruian, and then frowned.

He guessed that Li Musheng's identity must be unusual, but he did not say much. Instead, he turned to wave at Murong Xiaoya and said:

"Little sister, why don't you come over?"

Seeing this, Murong Xiaoya was obviously hesitant. She looked at Murong Feng for a while, but did not go over immediately. Instead, she suddenly mustered up the courage and asked in a low voice:
"Have you ever taken 'Que Yan Dan'?"

After these words were spoken, Murong Feng in the carriage opposite was slightly stunned.

Hu Ruian's face showed a strange expression. He looked at Murong Xiaoya, wondering why she suddenly asked such a question?
At this time, Murong Feng's expression returned to normal, and he said calmly:

"Little sister, I haven't seen you for a year. Have you become estranged from me?"

As he spoke, he waved his hand and said:
"Since my younger sister doesn't want to ride with me, then you can just go with Master Hu. I won't force you."

After saying that, Murong Feng lowered the curtain and said no more.

The hundreds of cavalrymen around remained silent and waited, standing in front of the cliff without moving at all until they received the order.

Seeing this, Murong Xiaoya bit her lip lightly, took a deep look at the gorgeous carriage opposite, and her face seemed a little unhappy.

Then, her eyes passed over Hu Ruian and Li Musheng imperceptibly, but she quickly lowered her head, and instead of continuing to enjoy the cool air, she got straight into the carriage beside her.

Seeing this scene, Hu Ruian frowned slightly, looking thoughtful, while Li Musheng beside him sighed.

Sure enough, his handsome face is still very charming.

Look, the socially anxious girl even rejected her brother's invitation in order to stay with him for a while longer.

At this time, the old man in hemp clothes and the little girl in pink clothes on the other side saw that the matter had nothing to do with them, so they simply packed up their things and prepared to lead the mules and horses to continue on their way.

"How old is this year?"

However, at this time Li Musheng came to the little girl in pink, looked at her suspiciously and asked.

Hearing this, the little girl in pink frowned slightly, glanced at Li Musheng, pursed her lips and said:

"I'm not going to tell you I'm seven years old."

As she said this, she snorted softly, turned around and climbed onto the mule and horse herself, no longer paying any attention to Li Musheng.

The old man in hemp clothes beside him narrowed his eyes and said to Hu Ruian:
"I'll go ahead. We'll meet again in the future."

After saying that, he led the mules and horses towards the road ahead.

Li Musheng didn't mean to stop them. Instead, he touched his chin, looked at the two people's backs as they left, and said to himself:
"What do you mean seven years old? I think it should be more than that."

At the same time, the old man in hemp clothes and the little girl in pink clothes walked a distance away. After they climbed over a hill and could no longer see Li Musheng and the others, the little girl in pink clothes suddenly looked back and said solemnly:
"Grandpa, I don't know if it was my illusion, but that person seemed to have seen something about me."

Hearing this, the old man in hemp clothes pondered for a moment and said:

"That's unlikely. The technique you practice is too special. If I didn't understand your situation, even after spending so much time with you, I wouldn't be able to detect any clues about you."

As he spoke, he shook his head and turned his gaze to the stone on the mule's back, saying:
"They have no grudge against us and shouldn't pose any obstacle to us. We can ignore them for now. We have been tracking this person for over half a year. He was among those who took action back then."

"Kill him, and our revenge plan will be completed one step further. Now, the only ones left are the leader of Luoshen Peak and his disciples who aided and abetted him!"

The old man in hemp clothes had no expression on his face at this moment, but his cloudy eyes were filled with murderous intent.

Hearing this, the little girl in pink withdrew her gaze, a hint of sadness appearing on her face for a moment.

She turned to look at Beishi, whose eyes were already wide open. After hearing what the two said, he looked terrified, but he had been mute-pressed and could not say anything.

"Don't you understand why we want to kill you?"

The little girl in pink restrained her emotions, stared at the other person with clear eyes, and said:

"Don't worry, I will slowly tell you the reason why I want to kill you, but during this time, I will make you suffer a life worse than death."

As she spoke, the little girl in pink raised her hand and flicked it, and a black pill the size of a fingernail flew directly into the mouth of Beishi.

And in the next moment, Beishi's eyes suddenly bulged out, and his eyeballs were covered with dense, swollen blood vessels, as if they were about to burst the entire eye socket.

On the contrary, the originally sturdy body of Beishi was shrinking, and the blue veins and blood vessels exposed by the withered skin and flesh turned into a creepy black.

A wrenching pain ripped through Beishi's body, causing him to convulse and twitch uncontrollably. Meanwhile, the pink-clad girl and the hemp-clad old man, leading their mules and horses, turned onto a side road beside the main road. Soon, they disappeared deep into the forest.

……

After the rest, Li Musheng and others continued on their way, and the hundreds of armored cavalrymen and Murong Feng's carriage followed behind them.

In the afternoon, everyone officially entered the border of Shengzhou. After continuing forward for about a day, they would reach the capital of Shengzhou.

At the same time, Old Man Wuxiang, Xu Qingcang and others continued to follow the direction of Li Musheng and others since they left Zhanlu Villa.

Before, Old Man Wuxiang was itching to fight Shen Juesheng after seeing him take action last night, so he took the initiative to find Shen Liancheng, the owner of Zhanlu Villa, and expressed his desire to try to compete with Shen Juesheng.

However, he was directly rejected by Shen Liancheng. There was nothing Old Man Wuxiang could do about it. After all, Shen Juesheng's martial arts skills were too powerful, and he could not force him to do anything.

After trying in vain, he had to give up and let Xu Qingcang take him forward to continue tracking Li Musheng and others.

"That Eighth Prince is quite interesting. He left the imperial capital without any warning, accompanied by a master of the Tianjin Guard. Is he really on the run from the crime?"

Old Man Wuxiang sat in the carriage with a thoughtful look on his face. The news of the Third Prince's death had begun to spread everywhere in the past few days.

Naturally, Old Man Wuxiang had heard people talking about this matter along the way. It was not until recently, after receiving a secret letter from the Second Prince, that he realized that this matter was actually related to Li Musheng.

"He is a ruthless man. No wonder he caused my disciple to die so miserably. But, so what? If I want to kill someone, it will be useless no matter where I run away."

The old man Wuxiang looked indifferent, turned to look at Xu Qingcang in the carriage, and said:

"Are you sure those people are heading towards Shengzhou City?"

Hearing this, Xu Qingcang nodded and said:

"According to our investigation, they should have been moving along the main road and not leaving from the middle road."

"However, we discovered that the other party seemed to have had a fight with Luoshen Peak's elder Beishi and others. In the end, all the disciples of Luoshen Peak were killed, and Beishi disappeared without a trace."

As he spoke, Xu Qingcang glanced at the old man Wuxiang, and then analyzed aloud:
"You don't even take the people from Luoshen Peak seriously and kill them at will. The person you want to deal with seems to be quite powerful. Moreover, among those people is a master at the Tianren realm. His strength may even be greater than mine and that Beishi."

Old Man Wuxiang narrowed his eyes slightly. Li Musheng dared to kill even the prince in the imperial capital, so what was the big deal about killing an elder of Luoshen Peak?
However, he did not explain much, but said expressionlessly:
"Don't worry about who they are. Just do your job well. Once this is done, if the old man is happy, he might even spare your life."

As he spoke, he slightly turned his eyes to look at the second son of General Shengzhou and said:

"What do you think about what the old man told you last night?"

Hearing this, the young man with a heroic face trembled and glanced at Xu Qingcang secretly.

Seeing the other party nod slightly, he immediately knelt down with a plop and kowtowed:
"I am willing to become your disciple."

After saying this, he kowtowed three times in the carriage.

The old man Wuxiang looked indifferent and said:

"This old man has always accepted disciples on a voluntary basis and never forced anyone to do anything. If you agreed because you were afraid of death, then there is no need for that."

Hearing this, the heroic young man kneeling on the ground hesitated for a moment, but soon he said in a firm voice:
"Senior, your divine power is invincible. Being able to study under your tutelage is a great honor for me, a golden opportunity that I would never be able to obtain."

After saying that, he kowtowed several times again and said in a deep voice:

"Master, I will follow you till death."

Seeing this, Old Man Wuxiang nodded slightly.

He was quite lucky, for by chance he discovered a promising young man who was practicing Wuxiang Magical Art.

Now, his wish of finding an apprentice to inherit his skills has been fulfilled ahead of schedule.

As long as he could kill Li Musheng later to avenge his eldest disciple's death, his worries would be basically resolved.

I have to say that this trip out of the imperial capital was unexpectedly smooth.

Thinking of this, Old Man Wuxiang also felt much more relieved and no longer urged Xu Qingcang to hurry on.

In his opinion, it was only a matter of time before Li Musheng was killed.

……

One day later, as dusk approached, Hu Ruian and his group hurried and arrived just outside the city of Shengzhou.

Although the provincial capital in front of us is not as majestic and huge as the capital of Dali Empire, the gap between the two is not too big.

Especially as the center of the entire Shengzhou area and a transportation fortress connecting the surrounding areas, this city has an endless stream of merchants and travelers, and many people from the martial arts world come and go. Its prosperity and bustle are no less than the imperial capital Shangyang City.

But its only shortcoming is that the entire state capital is not as orderly as the capital, but rather looks quite chaotic, and even the guards of the state capital are lax.

Apart from "diligently" checking and squeezing out profits from some ordinary people and merchants, they would not dare to provoke any martial artists who looked a little stronger, and would let them come and go freely.

Except for Jingzhou, the situation in other provinces is similar.

Hu Ruian and others were no longer surprised. As long as Wu Shang showed off his martial arts skills, the guards at the city gate would automatically give way.

However, when they arrived at Shengzhou City this time, it was a little different from before.

Just as they arrived at the city gate, they saw hundreds of heavily armored soldiers suddenly disperse the group of people queuing at the city gate and rush out of the city.

In just a few breaths, they surrounded Hu Ruian and others like an iron barrel.

Or, to be more precise, that group of soldiers surrounded Murong Feng and the hundred soldiers he led.

It seems that Hu Ruian and others were caught in the crossfire, but perhaps the other party knew that they were traveling together, so they did it on purpose.

After Hu Ruian and others were surrounded, several figures in armor appeared on the towering city gate wall in front of them.

The leader among them looked to be about thirty years old, with a resolute face and bronze skin, and he looked down with a stern gaze.

(End of this chapter)