The deaths of the three scholars didn't attract a lot of attention.
After all, both sides were still fighting each other mercilessly over the city gate. Light flashed continually off of swords, and the clashing sounds they made never ceased.
Besides, Ning Zhao had finished the men off in a matter of seconds. Her movements were light and simple, like those of a dragonfly on the surface of a pond.
With the addition of Spirit Qi, Ning Zhao had reached the Grandmaster stage. Even though she still wasn't completely in control of this new energy, killing off Second-Tier practitioners was a piece of cake for her.
There was shock and amazement in Yi Yue's eyes. Ning Zhao was so strong—she had become so powerful now!
She was even stronger and more imposing than an ordinary Grandmaster-level practitioner.
Yi Yue wouldn't have even managed to stop one swing of Ning Zhao's sword.
Ni Yu's face turned all red as she used both hands to grip the umbrella handle, and her eyes grew wide. Ning Zhao was amazing!
Lu Fan continued to sit in his wheelchair, his face expressionless.
It was the first time he had seen someone kill another person, and he wasn't used to it, but…
He had to get used to it sooner or later.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since he was now living in these chaotic times, he would have to get used to the rules of this new world.
Ning Zhao bent her pretty head down next to Lu Fan's ear, and her hair cascaded down around his face. She said quietly, "Young Master, if you don't want to see all this blood, it would be better for you to cover your eyes."
Lu Fan froze for a moment, and then he laughed.
"Your Young Master isn't as fragile as you think. Sister Ning, take me to the city gatehouse. And Yi Yue, open the city gate," Lu Fan instructed, his hand still gently patting the woolen throw that covered his knees.
"Sure." Ning Zhao smiled gently.
A sharp glint flashed in Yi Yue's eyes as she cracked her long whip, causing her Qi and blood to rush as she catapulted over a heap of dead bodies.
Lu Fan turned and found that Ni Yu happened to be staring straight at him. He met the girl's gaze, then rubbed his palms together and smiled faintly.
"Ni, carry the umbrella properly. This charisma of mine hasn't accomplished its purpose yet, so I can't afford to be sunburned now."
Ning Zhao was taken aback as she pushed his wheelchair along.
Ni Yu, on the other hand, rolled her eyes. Their Young Master was shameless.
There was no slope from the bottom of the gatehouse to the top that could take a wheelchair. There was only a narrow flight of stairs that was only wide enough for one person.
At this moment, the steps were strewn with dead bodies sprawled in all directions.
"Young Master, sit tight," Ning Zhao warned him.
Lu Fan raised an eyebrow.
In the next moment, Ning Zhao placed her pretty hands against the back of the wheelchair as she took quick steps forward, moving with such speed that her white clothes billowed in the wind.
She lifted the wheelchair with both hands as she went up the stairs, and Lu Fan was practically suspended in midair.
It only took a few steps to reach the top.
Ni Yu hurriedly closed the umbrella and climbed the stairs as she tried to catch up, panting.
This was tough on Ni Yu as well. She felt bitter as she swore that, after today, she would throw herself fully into practicing martial arts.
The wooden wheels bounced back to the ground, making a bright sound as they hit the old tiles of the city gatehouse.
In reality, the battle at the top of the city gate was more or less over already.
It wasn't clear which side was winning, and they were both just trying to defend themselves now.
Lu Changkong's trusted general, Luo Yue, was the leader of the soldiers guarding the city on one side, while the men belonging to the three major aristocratic families were on the other side. Each side had taken its own section of the front of the city.
The top of the steps where Ning Zhao had pushed Lu Fan came out between the two sides, though they were a little closer to the three families' camp.
Their sudden appearance drew the attention of everyone present.
The atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward.
The air was already thick with the smell of blood, and both sides were on the verge of attacking.
The two groups of men were now staring at each other with a bit of confusion.
"Oh my! Young Master, Sister Ning… Wait for me…"
Ni Yu held the umbrella in one hand. The other one flailed clumsily as she finally managed to get to the top of the stairs, still trying to catch her breath.
Once she reached the top, Ni Yu supported herself with the umbrella and caught her breath as she put her other hand on her waist.
She had climbed so many steps to get there. This was the hardest she had ever worked.
"Young Master!" shouted a cold, fierce voice.
Ni Yu's hand jerked in fright, and she nearly dropped the umbrella in her hand.
A general among Lu Changkong's troops, holding a longsword stained with blood, had suddenly let out an angry roar. His roar carried both fear and despair.
Of course they all recognized Lu Fan. That was Lu Changkong's son, their Young Master.
The Young Master was handicapped. He was paralyzed from the waist down and had mobility problems, but he had appeared up here unexpectedly.
This place was now extremely dangerous. It could become hell on earth at any moment.
The three major aristocratic families had betrayed Beiluo City and had no intention of turning back. By appearing in front of the traitors' camp, Lu Fan was basically sending himself to his death.
On the other side, the fighters of the aristocratic families started celebrating. They had gotten over their initial shock.
"Isn't that Lu Changkong's only son? The cripple of the Lu family?"
"Hahaha! Capture him, and control of Beiluo City will be ours!"
"Be careful! Lu Changkong gave his precious son a First-Tier practitioner as a maid!"
There were many martial arts practitioners dressed like scholars among the traitor camp. Their eyes lit up.
Their arrogance didn't last long.
BOOM!
There was a rush of Qi and blood as some of the fighters from the traitor camp rushed out to attack as if they were wild animals that had caught a whiff of blood.
From the other side, Lu Changkong's general quickly dashed out to protect Lu Fan.
Lu Fan had suddenly become the target of both sides.
But this unsuspecting target remained very calm.
Even though the aggressive Qi and blood in the air made his face slightly red, he wasn't panicky at all. He still had a good grip on the sort of elegance he was supposed to have.
"Ni, open the umbrella," Lu Fan said. One of his hands supported his chin, and his other hand stayed on the throw on his legs.
Ni Yu hurriedly opened the umbrella and gripped the handle hard, her legs trembling as she shielded Lu Fan from the sun.
"The three major aristocratic families are in cahoots with the enemy, so everyone guilty should be executed. Chop their heads off and hang them from the city gate as a warning to the rest."
Lu Fan said these words coldly as he looked at the fighters coming for him.
After he spoke, Ning Zhao's eyes burned with fire. The longsword in her hand was as thin as a cicada's wing, and in an instant, it sprang out from the wheelchair handle once more.
An approaching First-Tier practitioner from the traitor camp laughed contemptuously.
"You're just a cripple who's half-paralyzed, but you're good at pretending to be imposing!"
This person was Chen He, the head of the Chen Clan, one of the three major aristocratic families. He had studied the ways of Confucius under the Imperial Advisor and normally looked like a well-mannered scholar. But today, he looked threatening and terrifying.
Ning Zhao's demeanor was cold, as if she had been frozen for thousands of years, and she moved forward elegantly and lightly.
Chen He didn't let his guard down. He knew that Ning Zhao was the First-Tier practitioner that Lu Changkong had provided to protect Lu Fan.
Moving at top speed, Ning Zhao and Chen He drew close to one another in a matter of moments.
Since he knew that they were both First-Tier practitioners, Chen He was confident that he had an advantage over a woman.
Lu Changkong's trusted general, Luo Yue, quickly ran over and stood in front of Lu Fan.
He watched the battle that was about to happen in front of him very carefully.
In the next moment, he blinked.
The reflection of the sword shone like a shooting star flying past.
Before anyone could react, the battle was over.
Chen He clashed head-on with Ning Zhao.
Chen He was immediately alarmed when he heard the Internal Blasting Resonance, but Ning Zhao flew up swiftly, and that sword as thin as a cicada's wing exploded with a force as strong as the heaviest hammer.
Chen He's hand exploded, sending his sword flying.
He hadn't even had the chance to scream in shock when Ning Zhao's sword cut his head off.
His head flew upward, and Ning Zhao used the flat of her blade to whack it, sending it bouncing over to stop at Luo Yue's feet like a rubber ball.
Ning Zhao kicked the rest of Chen He's body, and it tumbled to the side.
One move was all it had taken to kill a First-Tier practitioner.
But Ning Zhao behaved casually, like she had done something that wasn't worth mentioning at all.
She landed gently back on the ground as her slender body resounded with the sound of Internal Blasting Resonances.
The other two clan heads from the three families stared in disbelief.
"A Grandmaster practitioner?!"
"He's mad! Lu Changkong is completely mad!"
"He let a Grandmaster be a maid? Lu Changkong, you wily old fox!"
The instant death of the Chen Clan's leader suddenly jolted the rest of them awake.
Fear gripped them, and they cursed angrily.
The other two clan heads realized things weren't looking up for them, so they turned to escape.
Judging by how easily Ning Zhao had dispatched Chen He, she wasn't an ordinary Grandmaster!
Ning Zhao gripped her Cicada Wing Sword, and a cold glint flashed in her eyes.
"My Young Master sentenced you to die today."
"So you shall die," Ning Zhao declared.
A wisp of light-blue Spirit Qi flowed from her dantian and filled her entire body.
The speed of the flow suddenly increased. She flew swiftly over the heads of everyone in the traitor camp on the narrow path of the gatehouse and caught up with the fleeing clan heads.
PFFFT!
Blood fountained toward the sky.
With a light slash of her Cicada Wing Sword, two more bloodied heads rolled over to Luo Yue just like Chen He's head had. They lay in a neat row at Luo Yue's feet.
As for their bodies, they fell limply to the ground.
Ning Zhao gripped her Cicada Wing Sword in her hand. She wore a long, light dress, her hair flying in the wind as she carried herself with an elegance like no other.
All the practitioners and soldiers watching this were shocked to the core.
This Grandmaster-level fighter had picked out their leaders from among thousands of soldiers, jumped straight to them, and chopped off their heads.
They had witnessed this with their own eyes.
Ning Zhao walked out from among the soldiers in the traitor camp, her sword in hand as blood dripped from the tip. She walked to Lu Fan's wheelchair and resumed her position behind him.
Nobody dared to block her way.
There was absolute silence at the top of the gatehouse.
Luo Yue stared in shock at the neat row of three heads at his feet.
Had Ning Zhao taken drugs or something?
How was she so powerful?
At this moment, there was a loud creaking sound at the bottom of the gatehouse.
A deafening noise filled the air.
The city gate, which the three families had forced close, was being opened once more by Yi Yue.
The city gate was very heavy, but Yi Yue was a Second-Tier practitioner, after all. Qi and blood filled her entire body, and she managed to open the heavy gate just a little.
***
Outside the city.
Lu Changkong was still mounted on his horse, and his eyes lit up when he saw, through the flapping mane of his horse, a gap in the reopened city gate.
The horse was galloping so quickly, it became merely a moving, bloodied shadow.
"Open up!" Lu Changkong roared at the gate.
Planting one foot on the back of the horse, he flew up into the air. One palm landed on the heavy city gate, and he used all his strength to force the gate open even wider.
He then scrambled into the widened gap like an agile monkey and made it back into the city.
His horse, covered in sweat and blood, dashed back into the city as well. The moment the horse made it through, Lu Changkong rolled over, bent one knee, and slammed both palms against the gate. His Qi and blood levels rose so much that his clothing and armor exploded into pieces.
BOOM!
The city gate was forced shut once again.
"Lower the poles!" Lu Changkong commanded in a low voice.
Yi Yue was already waiting by the side of the gate, and her eyes glowed. Her face had turned all red from the powerful force of the Qi and blood radiating from this Grandmaster before her. She relaxed her grip on the long whip in her hand, and the heavy poles came down to lock the gates. Her body suddenly felt weak, and she collapsed to the ground.
Everything happened in a split second.
The four Grandmasters outside attacked together.
They all dealt a blow to the heavy city gate at the same time.
There was a loud blast from the gate, but it was unable to break through the solid surface.
Lu Changkong's muscular upper body was bare as he sat with his back against the gate. He turned a grim face to look at all the bodies of his trusted soldiers, lying on the ground with spears thrust through them.
Feng Shi had come chasing after Lu Changkong excitedly on horseback.
He had come just in time to watch Lu Changkong go back into Beiluo City. The big man instantly started cursing and swearing furiously.
"Bloody hell! He actually managed to escape!
"D*mn this useless lowlife, this son of a b*tch!
"Hand that fair-faced crippled son of yours over! My troops are still waiting to dote on him!"
Feng Shi pulled his horse to a stop at the city gate as he continued cursing.
He intended to provoke Lu Changkong into leaving the city again.
But… no luck.
There was no sound from behind the city gate.
Feng Shi's temples started throbbing. He continued to glare at the city wall, cursing furiously, and he hurled all sorts of horrible insults and false accusations without stopping.
***
At the top of the gatehouse...
Lu Fan could hear everything that Feng Shi was yelling.
He clutched his chest and started making a great show of how much pain he was in.
He was angry, and he wanted someone to pacify him.
Ning Zhao focused her gaze on him.
Her pretty hands hit the wheelchair handles.
The sword that was as thin as a cicada's wing flew out once more.
"Young Master, don't be angry. I will deal with him for you," Ning Zhao said flatly. "How would you like him to die?"
Lu Fan narrowed his eyes as he placed one hand on his chest and used the other to smooth the creases on the throw over his legs.
"Break both his legs and bring him back into the city. I… will kill him myself," Lu Fan replied.
Ning Zhao was stunned for a moment, then she broke into a beautiful smile.
"Sure."
"Go ahead. And if those Grandmasters try to block your way, just chop their heads off." Lu Fan smiled faintly and lifted a hand to pat Ning Zhao's waist lightly.
"Don't be afraid. I have your back…"