Great Zhou Martial Immortal

Chapter 77 A Thrilling Moment (Please Subscribe)

The sacrificial ceremony is still ongoing.

After Wu Zetian made her first offering, she stepped down from the high platform. Prince Wei, Wu Chengsi, dressed in a purple and gold prince's robe, ascended the steps from the east side of the Danbi.

As he ascended the platform, his eyes were fixed on the sacrificial cauldron, his hands holding the jade tablet at shoulder level, his steps measured and dignified, and he exhaled and proclaimed:

"In the first year of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the year of Gengyin, on the twenty-sixth day of the tenth month, your subject Chengsi, the King of Wei, dares to proclaim to the God of the vast Luo River: I humbly beseech the Holy Mother Divine Empress, who, in accordance with Heaven and the people, overthrew the Tang Dynasty and inherited the Zhou Dynasty. Her virtue surpasses that of Fuxi and Xuande, and her achievements exceed those of Yao and Shun. The Luo River presents auspicious omens, and a precious map emerges from it, signifying that Heaven's mandate has been bestowed upon her, and that the imperial foundation will be forever secure. Your subject Chengsi, unworthy to be among the patriarchs, respectfully performs this secondary offering. I am deeply grateful for your divine grace, and my gratitude is boundless. Now, I humbly offer sacrifices and incense..."

The expressions on the faces of the court officials below turned sour.

The word "revolution" originates from the story of "Tang and Wu's revolution" in the Book of Changes, which is fine. However, Wu Chengsi's connection of the three words "revolution against the Tang dynasty" shows a lack of respect for the Li Tang dynasty.

To put it bluntly, the key to Wu Zetian's ascension to the throne lay in Emperor Gaozong's will: "If there are any unresolved matters concerning the military and the state, the Empress shall make the decision." This allowed her to legitimately assume power and quickly force her son to abdicate.

Emperor Gaozong's original intention was for her to keep an eye on the country for her son, which was quite normal in the past. There were Empress Lü Zhi in the past, and Empress Dowager Wenming and Empress Dowager Hu in the Northern Wei Dynasty, who all did a good job.

However, Emperor Gaozong did not expect that Empress Wu Zetian wanted to do it herself.

It comes down to it.

The legitimate dynasty of Wu Zhou was the Tang dynasty. The so-called "Wu Zhou" was nothing more than a usurpation by a wicked empress. In the end, it would return to the legitimate Tang dynasty. But you brazenly declared that you were overthrowing the Tang dynasty.

It was said during a sacrificial ceremony...

The Right Chancellor of Wenchang, Cen Changqian, the Inner Historian, Di Renjie, the Minister of Earth Affairs, Lu Fuyuan, the Grand Councilor, and Ouyang Tong, among others, all looked somewhat unwell.

That's secondary. What he really implied was the phrase "honored to be a member of the clan." On the surface, it seems fine, but when viewed in conjunction with the Wu Zhou dynasty, it almost makes it clear that Wu Zhou should have passed the throne to Laozi!

The courtiers below gritted their teeth in anger.

Wu Zetian remained expressionless.

The process here is in full swing.

The battle on the periphery is also becoming increasingly fierce.

To the southeast, Ying Wuqiu stopped "Mad Tiger" Lei Wanjun.

"boom--"

The black iron dragon staff crashed down, blasting a three-zhang-deep ravine into the ground.

Lei Wanjun's muscles were bulging like pythons, his eyes were bloodshot and bloodshot, and purplish-black veins crawled all over the torn corners of his eyes. His mouth was stretched to his ears, and saliva mixed with black blood dripped down.

"Come on, you mad dog!"

Ying Wuqiu grinned maliciously, and slashed Lei Wanjun across the face with the blade.

"clang--"

The sticks and swords clashed, sparks flying like a waterfall.

Lei Wanjun neither dodged nor evaded. His forehead was dented by the back of the blade, but he swept his staff backhand and broke three of Ying Wuqiu's ribs. With the sound of bones cracking, Ying Wuqiu spat out a mouthful of blood, but his smile became even more ferocious—this was exactly what he wanted!
"Thirdly enter hell!"

The crimson blade light pierced into Lei Wanjun's seven orifices, and his purplish-black meridians suddenly swelled up, writhing like living snakes.

Lei Wanjun roared to the sky, the sound waves shattering the surrounding roof tiles. His dragon staff danced like a blood-red hurricane. At this moment, he had completely lost his composure and became even more violent!
"They really have been bewitched!"

Ying Wuqiu licked the blood from his lips and suddenly abandoned his knife to approach.

"puff!"

Two fingers were plunged deep into Lei Wanjun's eye sockets, and two still twitching Gu worms were pried out.

In excruciating pain, Lei Wanjun twisted his arms, and Ying Wuqiu's right arm snapped with a "crack," the bone piercing through the flesh.

"Hahahaha!" Ying Wuqiu burst into wild laughter, his left fist shattering Lei Wanjun's throat bone: "Have you gone mad enough?!"

Lei Wanjun staggered to his knees, his eyes already bloodshot, yet he still swung his cane by muscle memory.

Ying Wuqiu turned his head to avoid the fatal blow, and a headbutt smashed his nose, finally pinning the mad tiger to the ground.

To the northeast, Fu Cong stopped the "poisonous woman" Wen Ruyan.

On the long street, Wen Ruyan's crimson whip flicked like a venomous snake, but it suddenly stiffened when it touched three inches from Fu Cong's chest—before the spear arrived, the wind from the whip had already made the tip of the "Red Beauty's Calamity" whip tremble wildly.

"poison?"

Fu Cong sneered and recited the "Lapis Lazuli Vow Sutra," just like the Medicine Buddha making a vow: "When I attain Bodhi in my next life, may my body be like lapis lazuli, clear and bright inside and out, pure and without blemish!"
His skin had a glassy sheen.

The purple mist emanating from Wen Ruyan's sleeve struck him, sliding off like dew.

"Your tricks won't work!"

The spear came crashing down with tremendous force, like Mount Tai pressing down.

Wen Ruyan retreated hastily, her whip flashing like a dense net, only to be shattered by a single blow. The force of the blow, undiminished, smashed her left shoulder blade. With a cracking sound, Fu Cong's second blow swept towards her knee—

"boom!"

Wen Ruyan knelt on the ground, blood spilling from her red lips.

Her eyes were also bloodshot, but she possessed a greater degree of intelligence than Lei Wanjun. Suddenly, she gave a sinister smile, a flash of crimson on her tongue, and shouted, "Slay—"

"Crack!"

As Fu Cong's hand moved with lightning speed, and Wen Ruyan's head flew off, her lips were still forming the last character "武" (wu, meaning martial/martial).

The fingertips of the headless corpse suddenly exploded, and the three Gu worms, which had just flapped their wings, were crushed into bloody mud by the force of the stick.

Fu Cong's expression turned solemn: "The Netherworld Palace?"

In the southeast direction, Yan Jiuge blocked the "Shadow Assassin" Ye Wuzong.

As the carriage moved forward, accompanied by the long neigh of a startled horse, a line of blood suddenly bloomed on Yan Jiuge's cheek. His pupils shrank sharply, and he took three steps back—only half an inch from his throat did the sharp whistling sound of an invisible sword cutting through the air finally arrive.

"What a fast sword."

He wiped the blood from his face, and a blazing fire ignited in his golden eyes.

Ye Wuzong's figure appeared and disappeared in the morning mist. Every time the [Hanguang] sword flashed, it added a wound to Yan Jiuge's body. His arms, shoulders, waist... blood quickly soaked through his green robe, but the corners of his mouth turned up higher and higher.

"caught you!"

Suddenly, Yan Jiuge clasped his hands together, and his body burst forth with light like the blazing sun.

With the full power of the Light Waterfall Palm, the entire battlefield seemed to sink into a furnace, the sand and gravel on the ground began to melt, and the air twisted and steamed—and the invisible [Han Guang] finally revealed a glass-colored sword shadow in the blazing light!
"die!"

Ye Wuzong shouted and thrust forward as if he were one with his sword. Yan Jiuge neither dodged nor evaded, but instead struck out with his right palm to meet the sword's edge!

"clang!"

The palm struck the sword blade, producing a metallic clang.

The intense palm force spread along the sword, turning the transparent blade red-hot!

Ye Wuzong groaned, his tiger's mouth splitting open, only to see Yan Jiuge's left palm already at his face.

"punish--"

Ye Wuzong suddenly opened his mouth, his eyes flashing with a blood-red light.

"Oh!"

His response was a cascade of light palm strike.

The head exploded like a watermelon, the headless corpse still in a thrusting posture. The [Han Guang] sword clattered to the ground, dense incantations appearing on its blade before quickly turning to ashes in the residual heat of the palm strike. Yan Jiuge shook the blood off his hands and glanced at the convulsing corpse on the ground: "Too much nonsense."

In the blink of an eye, more than ten deadly attacks had been quietly extinguished.

In the southeast, a mad tiger shatters its throat; in the northeast, a poisonous woman is beheaded; in the southwest, a shadow assassin's skull is split open...

As each corpse fell, its lips remained strangely in the shape of the word "诛" (zhū, meaning to punish), yet no one could utter the full phrase "诛武逆，复李唐" (zhū wǔ nì, fù lǐ táng, meaning to punish the traitor Wu and restore the Tang Dynasty). The assassins hadn't even gotten close enough to disrupt the state sacrifices, so even if they had shouted it from the outside, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But even this small threat was extinguished without a trace!
The meticulously prepared Gu worms, incantations, and poisons were like child's play in the face of Lu Chenyuan's inescapable trap.

High up on the building, Lu Chenyuan's gaze was calm as he searched for the puppeteer.

He didn't need to look down on the battlefield. These carefully selected guards were undoubtedly loyal, highly skilled in combat, and had absolute counter-techniques. There was no reason for them to lose, nor was there any reason for those people to utter words that were detrimental to the princess or the imperial heir.

The rhythm of every clash of weapons, the location of every burst of blood and qi, were all clearly outlined in his mind.

Twenty-four assassins, twenty-four ways to die, no need to worry. The only trouble is the person controlling the puppet behind the scenes.

This person did not use any magical artifacts.

This alone is enough to show that this conspiracy was absolutely meticulous, minimizing the influence of the goddess.

If it weren't for Lu Chenyuan's observations in the Ghost Market, the Empress's keen eyes, and today's meticulous and precise arrangements, if anyone had broken through the Kite Guard's defenses, entered the ceremony, clashed with the Imperial Guards, and shouted the slogan "Kill the traitor Wu, restore the Tang Dynasty," the situation would have been completely different...

Even if Wu Zetian knew that these people had nothing to do with Li Dan, she would still deal with them in order to completely suppress the other old ministers who were outwardly loyal to Wu Zhou but in fact plotting for Li Tang.

Disabling these twenty-four people is just the beginning.

We must find the person hiding in the shadows.

If he can control these outlaws, he can control the court officials!

If, among the officials performing the sacrifice, there were any loyalists to the Tang dynasty who were caught off guard and launched an assassination attempt, shouting those six words, the situation would almost spiral out of control!
If the "assassination" was truly a pretense, it would certainly be during Wu Chengsi's solo performance of the second offering.

Time is of the essence, we must be quick!
Lu Chenyuan's brain was working at high speed.

Shangguan Wan'er, Yuan Qingshuang, and Xie Tingyun were also nervously watching the movements.

Yuan Qingshuang recounted the clues left by everyone after they killed the enemy, and everyone brainstormed together.

"Gu worms, blood eyes..."

Shangguan Wan'er said in a deep voice, "A Miao formation? What kind of formation can control so many people at the same time? How did they fall for it? As Lord Lu said, the formation was set up in the Golden Goblet Tower in the Ghost Market, concealed by gauze curtains. Even so, those people should have noticed something was wrong when they went to the appointment, so why..."

Xie Tingyun said, "Deputy Commander, you may not know this, but transactions in the Ghost Market are always clandestine, so it's not surprising that they're concealed by veils. The key is the formation. These twenty-four people must have been on high alert when they entered Tingtao Pavilion, yet they were still managed to be caught off guard at the same time. Such a powerful formation is extremely rare!"

Xie Tingyun comes from a family of corpse-driving people in western Hunan, so he knows more about this kind of thing.

Yuan Qingshuang nodded: "They must be two-faced. They certainly won't reveal the details of disrupting the ceremony beforehand. These people are just short of money; they won't risk their lives for it. They'll probably lure them here with huge rewards, then use pre-arranged traps to turn them into puppets. But what kind of formation can do that?"

Xie Tingyun frowned: "There are indeed several, but the conditions for setting up each one are extremely demanding! The Three Souls Mind-Capturing Array uses sound to confuse the mind and incense to bewitch the soul. When the three souls are unstable, the seven spirits become slaves. But this requires at least seven days and seven nights of playing music and burning incense to devour people's minds. It cannot be accomplished in a day."

There is also the "Blood Moon Puppet Array". This array is simple to set up. Just draw the array with the blood of the Five Poisons on the night of the full moon, and then use [Qian Si Rao] and Blood Gu to achieve the effect. However, the person being targeted needs to 'voluntarily' drink the blood wine containing Gu eggs, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve the effect.

Furthermore, the "Shadow Soul Array" involves attaching a puppet talisman to the shadow of the target. The talisman's power gradually erodes the target's physical form over time, allowing the target to control others through their shadow after three days. Even with a powerful talisman, shortening the time frame, there is still an erosion process. These people have only been in the Listening Waves Pavilion for a quarter of an hour; even a Hidden Immortal talisman would likely be ineffective in such a short time.

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, their brows furrowed and their thoughts in turmoil.

Wu Chengsi's prayers continued during the ceremony.

"First prayer: May the Luo River be calm and tranquil, and may it forever protect the capital. May it nourish the people and benefit all regions."

Second prayer: May His Majesty the Holy and Divine Emperor enjoy boundless longevity and divine prowess. May his might extend throughout the land and his virtue reach the eight directions.

Thirdly, I pray: May the Great Zhou Dynasty endure as steadfast as a mountain, unshaken for a thousand generations. May the Wu family prosper, their descendants flourish, and may they forever enjoy Heaven's blessings!

As his prayer continued, a subtle, unsettling feeling crept into everyone's hearts.

Li Lingyue sensed something was wrong. It was as if a divine weapon had been unsheathed; even before the sword was drawn, its aura permeated the heavens and earth. An ominous premonition suddenly rose in her heart. Hearing the faint sounds of fighting from the surrounding area, she became even more uneasy.

What exactly is Wu Chengsi up to?

Her gaze swept over the court officials.

On the other side, a flash of inspiration struck Lu Chenyuan, gradually connecting all the details. His eyes flashed like lightning, scanning all the scenery in the central area before finally focusing on a house in the southeast. He decisively ordered, "Southeast, Xun position! That old locust tree, quick!"

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Wan'er made a hand seal with her jade fingers, and the [Cloud Dragon Leading Ink] sword at her waist was drawn with a clang. A black sword light soared into the sky, transforming into a black shadow like a dragon that swooped down. Before the sword tip even arrived, the sharp sword energy had already uprooted the old locust tree!
"boom--"

Beneath the locust tree lay a secret chamber, in the center of which lay a clear, mirror-like pool.

The water reflected the scene of the assassins' battle!

The black-robed figure by the pool had his ten fingers submerged in the water, with blood-red threads twirling between them, each thread corresponding to a reflection on the water's surface.

The moment the sword light pierced the pool water, all the blood vessels snapped simultaneously!
The man in black robes suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood, shattering his reflection in the water.

Shangguan Wan'er's eyes lit up. She made a sword gesture and aimed her sword straight at his throat, but a small, snow-white beast suddenly darted out from the man's sleeve.

"Roar--"

The small beast grew rapidly in the wind, transforming in an instant into a ferocious behemoth with piercing eyes and a white forehead. With its gaping maw, it swallowed the man in black robes whole. Shangguan Wan'er's sword energy slashed down, severing only half of the behemoth's tail. The beast had already darted out of the secret chamber, turning into a bolt of lightning and disappearing without a trace, leaving only a pool of foul-smelling black blood on the ground.

at the same time.

The puppets that were still fighting on the periphery suddenly stopped moving, like puppets with broken strings.

On the altar, Wu Chengsi's prayer was coming to an end.

He held the jade tablet aloft with both hands, his wide purple-gold robe sleeves fluttering in the wind: "I humbly beseech the Goddess of the Luo River to accept this offering and witness my utmost sincerity. May she bestow blessings and prosperity upon my Great Zhou! May she accept this offering!"

Before the words had even finished, the officials below the stage—

Cui Xuanwei suddenly staggered half a step, his eyes beneath his wide crown turning bloodshot. This official, known for his uprightness, unconsciously raised his right hand in a sword-finger gesture, secretly gathering his energy to unleash the Boling Cui Clan's ultimate technique, "Severing Mountains and Dividing Rivers Finger." A three-inch blue light flickered between his knuckles—this finger technique, capable of piercing through iron armor, was now uncontrollably aimed at Wu Chengsi's heart!

Beside him, Yuan Shuji's face was even more distorted. This former official who had risked his life for Prince Li Dan had his right palm unconsciously raised three inches, the edge of his palm gleaming with a metallic cold light. Before the palm blade was drawn, his sleeve was already torn into strips by the overflowing energy, and his foot unconsciously moved forward half a foot.

Li Dan noticed it, his pupils contracted sharply, and his fingers behind his back suddenly dug into his palm!
He could see clearly that the two men were heading in the direction that Wu Chengsi was at the Yaxiantai!
Li Lingyue's heart trembled. She knew all too well what this meant. If these two former officials of the Li Tang dynasty assassinated Prince Wu in public, her fourth brother and she would be unable to defend themselves! If she pointed out the "elimination of traitors" now, she could clear her name, but it would also inevitably put her fourth brother in a desperate situation, leaving her in a state of utter confusion.

Wu Chengsi maintained the posture of bowing and offering a gift.

His lowered face was shrouded in the prince's crown, but a barely perceptible smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Almost there... just one more step...

suddenly!

Cui Xuanwei trembled violently, the bloodshot in his eyes receding like a tide. He stared blankly at his sword finger, which was gathering true energy, as if he had just woken from a dream. Yuan Shuji was even more startled, looking at the palm strike he was about to unleash, a layer of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Wu Chengsi's back suddenly froze.

Li Dan's tense shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly, and the fingers that had been pinching blood from his sleeve finally unfolded.

Li Lingyue lowered her long eyelashes and, while adjusting her phoenix hairpin, wiped away a drop of cold sweat from her temple.

"Ok?"

Wu Zetian seemed to sense something. Her phoenix eyes swept over the officials below the stage, whose expressions varied. Her gaze passed over Cui Xuanwei's pale face, over Yuan Shuji's shredded sleeves, and finally settled on Wu Chengsi's stiff back.

Wu Zetian smiled slightly: "King Wei."

When Wu Chengsi turned around, he had regained his respectful demeanor: "Your subject is here."

"The incense ash from the bronze cauldron has dissipated."

Wu Zetian said calmly, "Relight the incense."

(End of this chapter)