The Seventh Imperial Prince was in midair when hundreds of red threads sailed through the air from the sleeve of the steward. There was nowhere to hide.
No matter how hard he tried to hide his power, how strong and forceful his inner strength was, the result was predetermined when he was faced with an embroidery vigor capable of piercing through metal. Without doubt, both his legs would be pierced by the embroidery needles, and he would end plunged downward, crumple to the ground, crawl about on his limbs, and wail in pain.
That was what the steward thought. It was also what the three hundred soldiers were thinking.
Amid the overwhelming move, Xia Ji reacted at the same time. He suddenly placed his left hand at the front of this chest, and made a polite gesture with a single hand, indicating courtesy and respect. This movement commanded an atmosphere of serenity around him almost immediately.
He had made an extremely rapid movement to intercept the attack, yet his entire body was currently in an extremely still state.
Between his polarizing movements of rapidness and stillness, a strange, curious magical charm brewed in the air. It was unfathomable, yet at the same time, commanded the attention of everyone, who were unable to move their gaze away.
Right at that moment, a ring 'expanded' around his body. A black flammule shot out from tens of thousands of his pores, creating a three-feet structure in the form of Vidya-raja around the surface of his body.
The Vidya-raja struck a ferocious figure with a fiery flame burning behind its back. Its right hand was holding a bright, blazing sword while its left hand clutched a black silk cord. The sword to slay three thousand troubles, and the silk cord to imprison three thousand demons. No knife or spear could pierce through it, no water nor fire could perish it.
This was the Aryaacalanatha Form.
The red embroidery threads sailed through the air as they closed in on their target. The surging sound of splitting silk could be heard vibrating through the short distance between them. Following that, bursts of icy glow could be seen spilling all over Xia Ji's legs.
However, those chilling glints only managed to pierce the air three feet away from the Vidya-raja form, as if they had rammed into the world's strongest material, leading to a string of sharp ringing sounds, 'ding, ding, ding, ding.'
The embroidery needles fell to the ground, every one of them broken.
The steward could not believe his eyes. The Sacred Sunflower Scroll had never failed him before, but what was this black Buddha form being projected by the Seventh Imperial Prince? How could it manage to defend itself from the embroidery vigor of the Sacred Sunflower Scroll?
Xia Ji's movements did not falter. With just a single thought formation in his mind, the Buddha form holding Vidya-raja's sword came slicing down toward the steward's face.
Even though the steward was momentarily taken aback, he was, at the end of the day, still the personal attendant of the Imperial Emperor. He had put a stop to numerous assassination attempts on the Imperial Emperor in the past, and when he watched the bright, blazing sword falling upon him, a huge wave of terror that could only be caused by the threat of imminent death surged within him. This fear triggered an untapped potential within him that enhanced his reaction speed by several times.
He moved backward swiftly and utilized the phantom speed of the Sacred Sunflower Scroll to forcefully pull himself back in a shadow stance that managed to create a distance of ten feet between him and the Buddha form.
The sword came down hard on the shadow.
The shadow was obliterated.
The gigantic bright, blazing sword came dangerously close to its target, smashing down right in front of the steward's face. It destroyed his aura shield and left a light, bloody wound vertically from his forehead to the tip of his nose.
It was clear that the steward was much more formidable than Eunuch Mei was.
Xia Ji landed on the ground and his left hand immediately revealed itself holding thirty-three prayer beads. The beads overlapped perfectly with the black silk cord. He closed his eyes and focused on his thought, his heart giving in to his will, his hand motioning along with his heart.
With that, he pushed the prayer beads outward.
The beads overlapped with the left hand of Vidya-raja's form, and two forms of clear and still augmented shadows appeared in mid-air.
And then, the prayer beads vanished, and so did the silk cord—
A dense, bright, golden speck appeared from Xia Ji's left palm—
The gold speck grew at a pace that was almost perceptible to the human eye—
And grew from a tiny speck to the size of a nail—
Continued growing to the size of a palm—
Multiple rings spread out in high speed—
Until it finally formed a huge, rotating, swift-flying golden swastika!
The steward saw the golden swastika flying toward him. He wanted to evade it but his body would not yield to his will as everything was happening too quickly. It was so quick, all he could do was watch the events unfold without being able to react. He was relegated to watch with fear as the golden swastika filled his eyes completely until he was no longer able to see the Imperial City, nor any other objects anymore.
Bam!
The swastika struck the steward's body and golden lights immediately pierced into his body.
The steward stood where he was in a daze.
He stood until the light evaporated and everything ended.
The steward was now kneeling on the ground, a layer of golden light binding him beneath his skin. The slightest movement would trigger the golden light to surge and it would bind him slightly tighter with every trigger.
Xia Ji strode lightly toward the steward.
Slam.
The Imperial Emperor's personal attendant finally lost his balance as he was completely shackled and bound by this unseen energy. He fell onto the ground in front of Xia Ji face-down with fresh blood flowing.
Eunuch Mei watched in astonishment from afar. He had surmised that the steward might not be a match for the Seventh Imperial Prince, but he never expected that the steward would be overpowered with just one move.
Even though the steward did not get the chance to fight with his full strength, was this the Seventh Imperial Prince's full power?
The guards standing outside the city gates could not believe their eyes either. Was this really the Seventh Imperial Prince who was under house arrest within the archive chamber for more than two years?
Such a formidable charisma…
Xia Ji walked toward the steward and looked down at the personal attendant. He lifted his boots suddenly.
Slam.
His foot was now stepping on the head of the steward.
A vicious look crossed the steward's eyes. He wanted to struggle but every movement only meant that the golden light would tighten its grip further, even going so far as to create a deadly shackle on his nerves. It was just like he had been stripped of all his martial arts.
Xia Ji said, "I will ask you a question, and you will answer me."
The steward grunted coldly. He had been careless because he did not expect the Seventh Imperial Prince to be so powerful. He had never thought that anyone would be able to overwhelm him so easily after he had successfully cultivated the skills of the Sacred Sunflower Scroll. He screeched shrilly, "Buddhist practitioners are compassionate by nature. You've studied Buddhist scriptures for two years, yet your ways are vicious. Aren't you contaminating your very nature?"
Crack.
A focused thought appeared in his mind.
The golden light beneath the steward's feet suddenly tightened and even though the bones in those legs had been beaten down to the ground long ago, they were still sturdy, but under the tightened shackles of the golden light, an obvious collapse could be seen happening to the bones in his legs.
The searing pain from the attack came suddenly and even the steward could not take it as he shrieked in agony, "Ah, ah, ah ah!!!"
Xia Ji had not an ounce of mercy in his heart. Retaining any mercy would be equivalent to passing a dagger to his enemy. It would be an act of a lady's soft nature. He had stayed in the archive chamber for two years, just like the monkey named Sun who had been suppressed under the Five Finger Mountain for two years.
Monkey Sun had at least been led to the Western Heaven and attained immortality, but what about him? Someone had led him too, but it was to his death.
If he was not able to lift this particular 'mountain', he would have been a worthless loser who had been used as a tool his whole life by the Imperial family to only end up dying in vain.
Xia Ji did not bother to explain.
All he did was said casually, "Any more nonsense out of you, and next up are your hands. Your legs are broken now, but you can still utilize the embroidery vigor while in a wheelchair. If your hands are shattered too, you would truly end up as a worthless man with no value whatsoever. Am I correct, steward?"
The steward's forehead beaded with sweat as his entire body trembled. His face was pale.
Xia Ji continued, "Nod if you understand. Curse me again if you don't understand me."
A chill spread from his heart as the steward listened to this eerily calm voice. He nodded quickly while gulping breathlessly for air.
"The tiger tally and authority seal, where are they?"
"In my pockets."
Xia Ji bent down directly and searched around the man's pockets, removing a complete piece of metallic tiger tally and a jade seal wrapped within a red silk cloth bag.
He stowed them into his own pockets before smiling warmly. "Very good. See, we're able to build trust between us, aren't we?"
This warmth helped relax the atmosphere somewhat.
Xia Ji suddenly asked another question, "How did my mother die?"
The steward was taken aback. It was clear that he did not expect the Seventh Imperial Prince to ask this. The steward was about to reply.
However, Xia Ji interrupted him immediately. "Don't bother mentioning death by assassination. It'll just end with you having your hands destroyed."
The steward's mouth was open but he could not bring himself to say the words because he had indeed planned to say that it was an assassination. In fact, the story about the assassination was so seamless that it was capable of withstanding any investigation.
Xia Ji noticed his silence and asked abruptly, "Did Imperial Concubine Wan kill her?"
The steward reacted immediately by shaking his head.
Xia Ji gave a moment's pause before suddenly smiling warmly. "Then, was it the Imperial Emperor who killed her?"
The steward was dumbstruck.