Chapter 32: The Meaning of Three

In truth, the matter of the passphrase didn't require Qingcuo to come in person. It would've been much simpler to relay it the way she had just now, through someone else.

However...

Chen Kuang hadn't asked for it out of convenience.

He had wanted to give Qingcuo a way out, a chance to turn back.

If she had come as promised, it would have meant that she still had a will to live.

But she didn't return.

Chen Kuang thought of that yellowed old paper crane and sighed in his heart.

National enmity and personal hatred, some things simply cannot be let go.

At this very moment... she should have already returned to Li Hongling's side.

The cultivator spoke again, "If you have any further instructions, we will do everything we can to assist."

Chen Kuang looked at him.

Now possessing grandmaster-level cultivation, he could tell with a glance that this cultivator was at the Tower Ascension Realm.

The others arriving were of the same level. The higher-ranking cultivators were likely still engaged with the main forces of the Three Calamities Sect, delaying them.

Chen Kuang asked, "To what extent will you cooperate? No matter the task, even if it means death?"

The cultivator paused for a moment, then smiled:

"Though we of Lingtai Mountain reside in Liang, we've always distanced ourselves from worldly matters. Our sect is now closed off. The Sect Master has decreed that no one will be seen and nothing interfered with. Only after the storms outside have passed will disciples be allowed to descend the mountain."

"We who descended during the initial war declaration from Zhou have already been treated as outcasts."

The cultivator sighed.

"The rise or fall of mortal kingdoms has nothing to do with Lingtai Mountain. We could have continued cultivating in peace and quiet."

Behind him, every cultivator landing bore the same resolute look.

"But... we are Liang people. Bloodline alone cannot be discarded."

He cupped his hands and said, "We cultivate not to be invincible in solitude, but to attain clarity of purpose."

"Now we are alone in this world. Life or death makes no difference."

Chen Kuang understood.

These cultivators likely had family or clans still living among the ordinary people of Liang, caught up in the chaos of war.

Perhaps not all of them, but to abandon Lingtai Mountain's peaceful seclusion and come to save the nation meant they had already put their lives aside.

"Very well."

Chen Kuang nodded. His voice lowered and grew firm. "I don't need the passphrase, nor do I need you to clear a path. But I do need a way to stay in contact with you."

"That's simple. We can give you our life tokens, connected to us by secret art. Just recite your thoughts in your mind, and we will hear you."

The cultivators each raised a hand, placing their tokens in his palm. They turned into radiant golden runes, sinking into his skin and lighting up the center of his palm.

The lead cultivator, surprised, then asked, "Then the passphrase...?"

Chen Kuang replied, "The passphrase controls the explosives buried throughout the city. Now that the defenses are weakened, you need to hurry and locate every tunnel where the powder has been planted."

What Li Hongling had buried, of course, wasn't ordinary gunpowder, but a Spiritual Treasure known as Mountain-Breaking Thunder. That's why it required a trigger phrase to activate.

There was more than one tunnel, and more than one sealing node.

To truly break the seal beneath the Heavenly Prison, all the nodes would have to be destroyed simultaneously.

With that much explosive force, it could stir the vast Spiritual Energy bound by the formation and blow open the prison's underground seal.

He swept his gaze over the cultivators present:

"I need you to wait near each tunnel. The moment you hear my command, ignite the powder."

It was cruel.

It was effectively ordering them to blow themselves up at close range.

He'd asked Huo Hengxuan about this before. The old man had said that if someone detonated the explosives on the spot, the first to die would undoubtedly be the one triggering it.

And the true cruelty of this Spiritual Treasure's design was that the passphrase had to be spoken nearby to activate it.

That meant that even if you knew the passphrase, you'd have to be ready to die to use it.

Of course, most people would rather not. They'd prefer the trap malfunctioned and never went off.

As expected, several cultivators revealed hesitant expressions.

"It's not that we won't agree... but what exactly is this for?"

Chen Kuang shook his head. "I'll say just one thing: I was personally entrusted by Huo Hengxuan to take the Madam and Princess out alive."

If Shen Xingzhu had once been capable of underestimating him out of arrogance, she certainly wasn't now. She would be watching him closely.

She might ignore what these cultivators did.

But if she knew what Chen Kuang intended, she would absolutely step in to stop him.

The cultivators exchanged glances and ultimately chose to believe him.

And to believe in Huo Hengxuan.

Especially with Chen Kuang's cultivation now overflowing, each word like a temple bell pounding against the soul, it was difficult not to be swayed.

One by one, the cultivators lifted into the air, turning into streaks of light that shot toward various corners of the capital.

"Huuh..."

Chen Kuang exhaled.

Now, only one thing remained, he had to break through the encirclement of fifty thousand Black Armor Guards!

Chen Kuang turned and looked at Chu Wenruo, who had been silently standing beside him.

"Let's go. I'll get you out."

Chu Wenruo clutched the little princess tightly and nodded with all her strength.

She had lost her voice, but entrusted him with all her faith.

Outside the city gate, black-armored soldiers stretched for miles like a tide, banners snapping in the wind.

Cultivators have their Dao and so do mortals, they have their own way.

Mortals may be small, but together they become a wall.

And that wall, forged of shared resolve, was called the Battle Formation.

A nation's army, its full battle formation, its might could rival a grandmaster!

"Roaarrr!!"

At this moment, the massive formation had formed. Amid the thunderous battle cries, a massive phantom coalesced in the sky above, an armored general holding a long halberd, towering like a mountain, blotting out the sky.

"Rumble..."

The general raised his halberd high and brought it crashing down like thunder.

Tens of thousands of Black Armor troops began their charge. Iron hooves kicked up blinding clouds of dust.

Directly ahead, a wave of Spiritual Energy surged across the earth, brilliant white flames blooming like lotus petals, cutting through the black tide in a straight line, like wind through grass.

Wherever it passed, people fell like wheat.

One full day had passed, but the sky had not changed. The stars above remained locked in a strange, silent stillness.

The city wall was now nothing but ruins.

"Cough, cough... pffft-"

Li Hongling spat out a mouthful of blood.

Before her, Huo Hengxuan knelt, barely clinging to life, a blood-drenched figure whose gaze was vacant and whose breath was faint.

She cast aside the shattered Scroll of Mist and Waves Across a Thousand Miles.

Her mask was gone. Long hair fell loose around a sharp, androgynous face, pale and crisscrossed with wounds.

Li Hongling turned back, her expression cold, watching as her personal guard stepped past her.

That person walked up to Huo Hengxuan, crouched, and gently wiped the blood from his face.

"Qingcuo."

Qingcuo rose and gave a soft hum. She took two steps forward and lowered her eyes, calmly drawing the longsword at her waist.

"So, you came to kill me."

Li Hongling sighed. "You have the Blood Parasite Seal in you. If you kill me, you'll die too."

Those same crimson eyes, once a symbol of closeness, now meant total life-and-death control.

Qingcuo smiled gently, her voice soft.

"That's fine."

"So long as you die... that's enough."

She stepped forward, sword in hand, but suddenly halted.

Her right arm had been grabbed by a bloodied hand.

Qingcuo froze.

Li Hongling's expression twisted in horror. She shrieked, voice shrill with disbelief:

"No... No... Impossible!!! You should be dead!!"

The mutilated old man trembled as he slowly stood up, lifting his eyes. His voice was raspy and exhausted.

"That day, that brat tested me. Asked what my plan really was."

Huo Hengxuan straightened his back like an old sword drawn from its sheath.

"I told him: three."

He took a deep breath, looked up at the starry sky, and murmured:

"I didn't tell him what it meant, so I'll tell you."

"Today, three people must die."