Free Web NovelChapter 465: Chapter 282: I Want All Martial Artists Under Heaven: To See This Blade Is to See the Ancestral Hall
Lu Mingyuan had slain the Giant Dragon with a single move and soundly defeated the Silver Frost Emperor’s Son, Wuxun. Now, he was spouting such outrageous words.
The Crown Prince of Great Sui stepped forward to halt any further duels, advocating for an immediate, all-out war. He insisted they should ignore Lu Mingyuan’s words, arguing that Great Yan was unqualified to even accept the challenge and could only take a beating. The representatives of the various powers all wore thoughtful expressions.
The Nanli Sword Saint walked up behind Princess Li Muwan and said, "Princess, the New Emperor of Great Yan’s actions clearly have an ulterior motive. He intends to seize the upper hand in public opinion. Should I lead our army to suppress him now? Or perhaps I should strike directly and deny any of Great Yan’s experts the chance to act?"
This towering, white-haired Sword Cultivator, the foremost expert of the Nanli Sword Dao and the Sword Saint of a nation, now had a murderous glint in his eyes. He made a throat-slitting gesture.
The mere overflow of his killing intent sent a chill down the spines of the nearby Cultivators. They all looked toward Li Muwan, wondering what the Princess would decide.
Could it be that the Nanli Dynasty was also about to make its move?
Li Muwan’s eyes were clear and cold as she released her aura. The dignity and pressure of a nation’s princess were on full display. She said coolly, "Are we to do whatever that fellow Cao Zongxi says? The Nanli Dynasty is not some other country’s pawn. This is a textbook case of borrowing a knife to kill someone. Can you not see that, Sword Saint?"
"Borrowing a knife to kill someone..."
The Nanli Sword Saint pondered for a moment.
Cao Zongxi was dissuading the prodigies of the Six Kingdoms from dueling Lu Mingyuan, instead advocating for them to overwhelm him with sheer numbers and simply surround and kill him. He told them not to listen to Lu Mingyuan’s nonsense. On the surface, this seemed like sincere advice.
But the intention behind it was worth pondering. Ganging up on him was fine, but someone had to make the first move, right?
Yet the Great Sui Dynasty, the one who proposed the idea, remained completely motionless. Pushing everyone else to attack together certainly smacked of an attempt to ’borrow a knife to kill someone’.
Let the other Dynasties wear down Great Yan’s strength first, and then the Great Sui Dynasty would swoop in at the end to pick the fruit.
That was most likely what Cao Zongxi was thinking.
And the Princess had seen right to the heart of the matter in an instant.
’Her shrewdness truly is unfathomable.’
Regardless of the situation, the Cultivators at her side simply chimed in, "That’s right. It’s definitely ’borrowing a knife to kill someone.’"
The Nanli Sword Saint finished his contemplation and sighed. "But we can’t just let Great Yan brazenly suppress the morale of the Six Kingdoms’ expeditionary forces, can we? This war was in fact sparked by the Song Dynasty, with the Great Sui and the Golden Crow Country as the main instigators. It is a solemn and immensely influential conflict. If the Six Kingdoms become hesitant and suspicious of one another, their morale plummeting to the point where they are too timid to act, all because the New Emperor of Great Yan’s strength is unfathomable—that would be a huge blow to every nation involved."
After hearing this, Li Muwan felt that he had a point.
If they attacked together, some would slack off, and others would just try to pick up the scraps.
They would end up playing right into the hands of a petty schemer.
But if they didn’t act, letting Lu Mingyuan do as he pleased wouldn’t be good for the Six Kingdoms either.
The combined strength of the Six Kingdoms was undeniably immense.
But if this same atmosphere of disunity persisted among the Six Kingdoms on the battlefield, they would undoubtedly be defeated.
After all, Great Yan was not weak either.
Even if Great Yan’s national power was not what it was in the early Yong’an Era, with its current strength and number of Cultivators, it could still crush any single one of the other Dynasties without issue.
Li Muwan took a deep breath and said, "No matter what, the Nanli Dynasty cannot be the one to stick its neck out first. If we were to spare no effort in dealing with Great Yan just because of a few words from Cao Zongxi, then even if we managed to suppress or kill Lu Mingyuan, the other Dynasties would just swoop in to reap the rewards. And if we were defeated by Lu Mingyuan, the humiliation would be even greater. The Nanli Dynasty’s prestige would plummet."
She believed she wasn’t the only one.
This was a problem that the representatives of all Six Kingdoms were grappling with.
In truth, Li Muwan’s thoughts ran even deeper.
She felt that there was something strange about this war from the very beginning.
Setting aside the conflicts between the nations and the current situation, she felt the very choice of the Six Paths of Celestial Mandate in this cycle of Reincarnation was strange.
On what grounds was Great Yan considered unworthy of the Celestial Mandate’s favor?
Looking back through history, the previous Celestial Destiny Dynasty had always been qualified to inherit the Celestial Mandate again—in fact, they were usually the most promising candidate.
The Great Zhou had inherited it for two successive generations.
And the current Great Yan was in no way inferior to the Great Zhou.
Not in any aspect—from its King and its people to its national power and the number of its Cultivators.
Li Muwan wasn’t siding with the Great Yan Dynasty; she was simply thinking objectively.
She had a feeling that, in the shadows, someone was targeting Great Yan.
With the information she currently had, she still couldn’t deduce the truth.
Not everyone could think as deeply as she did.
The attitudes of the Six Kingdoms were all different.
Some, having received the Celestial Destiny and Fortune, celebrated as a nation and enthroned a new emperor.
Some resolved to mend their ways, planning to govern diligently and risk everything on this one chance.
...
But very few nations delved into the deeper questions.
She was the cautious type.
"Lu Mingyuan is a Martial Artist of the Celestial Human Realm, placing him in the Twelfth Realm. Martial Artists value momentum and courage above all else; what they fear least is being besieged. Trying to defeat him by surrounding him will be no easy task."
The Nanli Sword Saint said in a low voice, "But if the experts of the Six Kingdoms were to strike as one, especially with Qi Cultivators of the Human Immortal Realm among them, they could easily suppress a Twelfth Realm expert."
"That is a given."
Li Muwan nodded, then her point shifted. "But who’s to say Great Yan doesn’t have such experts as well?"
The Nanli Sword Saint fell silent.
Clearly, the two of them had a difference of opinion on whether to attack.
But Li Muwan was the Nanli Princess, so he could only listen to her.
「Above the canyon.」
After the exchange between Cao Zongxi and Lu Mingyuan ended, still not a single country made the first move to launch an all-out assault.
Cao Zongxi’s expression soured.
This was not the situation he had hoped to see.
’I can’t let Lu Mingyuan continue to fight. A full-scale war must begin.’
