Starting as a Grandmaster, all of my cultivation techniques are at max level.

The imperial guard felt a chill on his neck and involuntarily reached up to touch it, only to find his hands covered in blood. His eyes widened in terror.

"you......"

He merely opened his mouth before collapsing to the ground and dying.

Just as the imperial guard fell to the ground, Commander Zhao, who was not far away, changed his expression and shouted to the imperial guards beside him, "Fire arrows! Kill her!"

The hundred or so Imperial Guards, who had been on guard for some time, reacted extremely quickly. Almost simultaneously, they drew their crossbows from their waists and fired arrows at the figure in the pavilion at the same time.

In an instant, hundreds of crossbow bolts completely enveloped the small pavilion.

"Even the heavy crossbows of the army can't do anything to this leader, so what can you little hand crossbows do?" The figure wearing a bamboo hat in the pavilion just sneered.

With a flourish of her longsword, she caused all the crossbow bolts that were shot at her to lose their force and scatter on the ground with a clanging sound.

Before Commander Zhao and the others could react, the figure wearing a bamboo hat had already disappeared!

"Not good!" Commander Zhao's heart pounded wildly, a chill running straight to the top of his head.

He roared with almost all his might, "Quick! Quick! Form a formation! Charge forward and kill her!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than he suddenly spurred his horse and galloped off in the opposite direction like an arrow released from a bow.

"Trying to leave? Too bad, I'm not the only one who came this time!" The figure wearing a bamboo hat glanced at Commander Zhao, who was fleeing, and then looked away.

She moved like a butterfly flitting among flowers, plunging directly into the ranks of the Imperial Guards.

With a flash of sword light, screams of agony echoed wherever her sword passed. These imperial guards, usually considered elite, were as fragile as straws before her blade.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Commander Zhao galloped several hundred meters away and couldn't help but look back. Seeing that the other side was not chasing him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Damn it! Who was it?! Who leaked my whereabouts? I've only been away from the palace for a short time, and I've already been ambushed..." Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but the deeper he guessed, the more chilled he felt.

"Sir, why are you in such a hurry? Where are you rushing off to?"

Just as he was secretly making plans, a soft, feminine voice suddenly rang in his ear.

Commander Zhao felt a chill run down his spine. Before he could fully recover, he felt a hand behind him pressing on his back. Then, a soft and strange force penetrated his body!

"puff--!"

Commander Zhao was struck as if by a giant hammer, and was thrown involuntarily from the galloping horse, crashing heavily onto the official road.

"Who goes there?! Hiding like a coward, get out here and face the world!"

Despite the excruciating pain from his displaced internal organs, Commander Zhao rolled to his feet, drew a pair of bronze maces from his waist, held them protectively in front of his chest, and warily looked ahead.

Just as he got into a defensive stance, the yin-like force that had invaded his body erupted again. Commander Zhao felt his vision blurring, and he had to grit his teeth to keep himself from fainting.

"Sigh! Still want to resist? Too bad, now that you're in our hands, you won't have the chance." That soft, feminine voice rang out behind him again.

Commander Zhao was startled and grabbed the bronze mace in his hand, intending to smash it behind him.

But before he could turn around completely, a cold hand gently gripped his neck.

"In my next life, I hope I can be reborn into a better family! Ideally, I'd like to be born in the Great Xia Dynasty!"

This was the last thing Commander Zhao heard before he died.

After he fell, a figure stood behind him. This person was none other than Eunuch Wei, who had left the Great Xia Dynasty under Xia Jin's arrangement.

Eunuch Wei bent down and rummaged through Commander Zhao's corpse for a few moments. He quickly pulled out a military tally and a scroll of imperial edict from the inner pocket of Zhao's body.

At this time, the sounds of fighting on the official road had also ceased.

The figure wearing a straw hat and carrying a blood-dripping longsword walked slowly over.

She casually removed her bamboo hat, revealing a familiar face—it was none other than Su Xuanji.

She glanced at the object in Eunuch Wei's hand, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes: "Eunuch Wei, what is this...?"

"Master Su," Eunuch Wei handed over the military tally and imperial edict with a smile, "please take these two items back and present them to the Prince as soon as possible."

Su Xuanji nodded, said nothing more, and simply said, "Farewell."

Before he finished speaking, his figure vanished in the blink of an eye.

Only then did Eunuch Wei slowly turn around and scan the more than one hundred corpses of the Imperial Guards lying haphazardly on the official road.

He clapped his hands.

In an instant, dozens of figures dressed in black rushed out from the woods on both sides of the road.

One group quickly dragged some of the Imperial Guards' corpses deep into the forest to bury them, while another group carried out more than twenty pre-prepared corpses from the forest and dumped them in a conspicuous place on the official road.

All of these newly discovered corpses were dressed in uniform light blue tight-fitting clothes.

Eunuch Wei stood with his hands behind his back, watching his men quickly set up the scene, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"Hmph, Dayuan... you should feel honored to be the first stepping stone for my Great Xia."

……

Meanwhile, within the Jade Balance Sect, Sect Master Qiu Changtian looked at a letter before him, a hint of murderous intent flashing in his eyes.

"The Qingyun Sect has been destroyed, and Lin Xiao's whereabouts are unknown..."

His gaze swept over the last two sentences of the letter, and the temperature in the entire hall seemed to drop a few degrees.

He slowly raised his right hand and gently waved it, turning the letter into a pinch of dust.

"It seems that among the seven kingdoms of the Eastern Region, there are indeed some who don't take my Jade Balance Sect seriously." Qiu Changtian looked outside the hall, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger.

He withdrew his gaze and said calmly to a disciple below, "Notify the Third Elder to set off immediately for Dayuan."

"Tell him to find out the truth and locate Lin Xiao. Execute the murderer immediately upon discovery!"

"Yes!" The Yuheng Sect disciple nodded and quickly left the sect master's hall.

……

On the edge of a medicinal field in the back mountain of the Jade Balance Sect, on a huge rock, lay a thin old man with white hair and beard.

There was a huge wine gourd lying on its side, and even before you got close, you could smell a strong aroma of wine.

"Hoo... snoring..."

The old man had his eyes closed and was snoring loudly, clearly very drunk.

"Third Elder, Third Elder." A disciple of the Jade Balance Sect cautiously approached, standing three feet away, and called out several times, but there was no response at all.

"Oh no! We've run into the Third Elder when he's drunk again!" The disciple sighed helplessly. Every time the Third Elder was forcibly woken up after getting drunk, he would yell at the person who had come.

If it weren't for the sect leader's order, he would have preferred to wait until the other party sobered up before coming.

The disciple gritted his teeth, steeled himself, stepped forward, grabbed the other person's arm, and shook it vigorously.

"Third Elder! Wake up! The Sect Master needs you to go out on important business!!"

"Hmm...?" After shaking for a good while, the Third Elder finally clicked his tongue, opened his eyes with difficulty, and looked at the Jade Balance Sect disciple with an unfriendly expression. "It's you again, you little brat? Disturbing my sweet dreams... What did you just say?"

The disciple quickly took a half step back. "Third Elder, the Sect Master has ordered you to set off immediately for the Kingdom of Dayuan."

"Dayuan?" The Third Elder slowly sat up, grabbed the wine gourd next to him, shook it, found it was empty, and casually tossed it aside.

"What are we going to Dayuan for?" He rubbed his forehead, clearly puzzled.

"I...I heard that the Qingyun Sect was destroyed, and Senior Brother Lin Xiao, who went to the Qingyun Sect, also...disappeared."

"What?!" The Third Elder instantly sobered up, his eyes, which had been slightly drunk, instantly turned icy cold.

He grabbed his wine gourd and vanished from the disciple's sight in the next instant.

"This is the first time I've seen the Third Elder so serious. It seems things have gotten out of hand!" The disciple watched the other's departing figure, a bead of cold sweat involuntarily trickling down his forehead.