Many thanks to all my brothers and sisters! Here is the first update for today! The second update, Sixteen will be up all night, and we'll continue the explosive release tomorrow!)

It was the day after the main army set out—or, to be precise, in the dead of night on the very day the army departed—that His Majesty the Emperor, the grand master behind the Blood Sword Sect, finally received the long-awaited dispatch. Only then did he learn that everyone from the Zhao family of the Martial Cultivation Aristocracy who had entered the capital, along with all personnel previously hired from the Jiangnan Guild, and the Divine Wind Guards of the Second Prince, had been utterly annihilated!

This report was not unexpected for His Majesty; anything less would not have made sense, as it would have rendered his meticulous planning pointless. However, the report did not stop there, because the losses extended beyond that contingent—every single assassin from the Blood Sword Sect who participated in the operation had also met a violent end!

A total force comprising three Profound Heaven experts, fifteen high-level Earth Profound assassins, and forty Jade Profound-level Blood-robed assassins. The complete destruction of such a formidable fighting force sent an astonishing shockwave through the capital!

What scale of power would be required to wipe out such an array of strength completely? This was not merely a defeat, scattering, or rout; it was a genuine, total annihilation, with not a single survivor!

Furthermore, the true objective of this entire affair—the repeating crossbows that several factions had been eagerly awaiting, superb killing implements meticulously crafted from Mystic Beast sinews and refined steel—had vanished without a trace, spirited away!

His Majesty slammed his desk, shattered his teacup, and spent several days with a grim countenance, unable to recover. Both the repeating crossbows and the strength of the Blood Sword Sect were matters the Emperor held in the highest regard. He had never imagined that something he had planned flawlessly, something practically secured, would ultimately slip away, while simultaneously losing nearly half of his most elite fighting force to an inexplicable disaster!

What enraged him most was that this entire incident offered absolutely no leads! He had suffered a devastating loss yet had no idea who the perpetrator was! Not a single shred of trace remained. How could the sovereign of the Tianxiang Empire not be frustrated, not be furious? This surge of anger and vexation immediately cast a pall of gloom over the entire Imperial Palace, causing everyone to tread on eggshells, terrified of accidentally provoking the "unhappy" Emperor.

As for the instigator of this entire affair, His Highness the Second Prince, upon hearing the news, promptly fainted dead away! Not an exaggeration in the slightest; he simply collapsed!

His collapse was entirely understandable. His losses were the most substantial among all parties involved, and the scale of his prior investment was simply too immense for him to bear! After all, the materials for the entire batch of items were supplied entirely at his expense. Moreover, these materials were acquired at their most exorbitant market prices—or perhaps, outright purchased at sky-high rates—and then he had to cover double the manufacturing costs, deploying vast amounts of manpower, material resources, and political connections. In the end, not only did he gain nothing, but he also lost his entire Divine Wind Guard contingent—the most elite force under the Second Prince's command!

All this expenditure, enough to ruin him, had served only to line someone else’s pockets! What infuriated him most was that he didn't even know who these "others" were. If he hadn't fainted, the Second Prince truly wouldn't have known how to react!

And equally despondent was Li Youran! Although Young Master Li’s losses were not as catastrophic as the Second Prince’s total ruin, his investment this time was still considerable. To use a crude phrase, he had suffered a complete loss of capital!

Half of the elite warriors secretly trained by his family had been dispatched at once, only to be completely wiped out. On top of that, another one of his senior martial brothers was now permanently interred as a bloody pulp!

But the truly agonizing part for him was not knowing who to seek revenge against. Should he target the Blood Sword Sect? Taking vengeance on an organization of assassins? That would require his brain to be filled with water. Hadn't he heard that they didn't even seem to care much about the Cold-Blooded Supreme, Lei Wubei? If his Eldest Senior Brother hadn't possessed the presence of mind not to insist on retrieving the Second Senior Brother's corpse, perhaps his last remaining Senior Brother and Senior Sister would have been left behind there as well!

Ten people—nine senior brothers and one senior sister—had come to Tianxiang City a month and a half ago to assist him. In that short time, eight of them were already dead! The remaining two were now utterly terrified, like startled birds.

All these devastating events filled Young Master Li Youran with immense bitterness!

And just as he was stewing in this anger, another spark was added to the fire: the corner of the underground forces in Tianxiang City, which had been firmly secured through the powerful efforts of his senior brothers, was suddenly attacked that very night. After continuous retreats, the territory was finally swallowed up by the Jinyang Gang, the reigning power of Tianxiang City's underworld!

With this, the Jinyang Gang became the undisputed sole power in Tianxiang City, facing no further competition!

Eldest Senior Brother Lei Jianhong and Third Senior Sister Fang Piaohong engaged the enemy that night, facing off against two of the opposing faction's Profound Heaven masters. Although the strength of those two opponents was indeed superior to Li Youran's own senior brother and sister, these two disciples of the Supreme Master performed miserably. They were flustered and panicked, showing no will to fight—a stark departure from the composure expected of Profound Heaven experts! This particularly infuriated Li Youran. The two clearly sensed their own shortcomings and, feeling they had failed their junior brother, shamefully requested leave to travel south to find their Master, Lei Wubei, to discuss countermeasures!

Li Youran readily agreed, of course, accompanying their departure with a substantial sum for travel expenses, seeing them off with great attentiveness.

However, after these two departed, the usually composed and elegant Young Master Youran’s face darkened. He muttered several curses under his breath before suddenly kicking out with his foot, shattering his own massive front door into splinters.

Hmph, he really has reached the Jade Profound realm; he is powerful indeed. A single kick and even such a sturdy door is ruined...

What a sharp kick!

"The Jinyang Gang, you say?" Li Youran clenched his fists, his eyes gradually calming as he murmured, "Do you truly believe I don't know that you are merely the power of Jun Moxie in disguise? Now that Jun Moxie is not in the capital, you think I can't deal with you? I have plenty of methods to handle you. Even if a direct confrontation is difficult, a flanking maneuver will achieve the same goal!"

Young Master Jun Moxie, filled with surging excitement, participated in the oath-taking ceremony for the mobilization. For the first time, he fully experienced the hot-blooded heroism of the men in the army. But after marching out of the city for half a day, Young Master Jun could no longer tolerate the army's stifling regulations—there were simply too many!

This was not allowed, that was forbidden. Eventually, Jun Moxie realized that in the eyes of his Third Uncle, he couldn't even walk correctly, and finally, he wasn't even allowed to speak!

Jun Wuyi had been away from military life for over ten years. Now, wielding military authority, his bearing surpassed that of previous times. He was decisive and ruthless in all matters, wearing a perpetually grim expression, seemingly finding fault with everyone. This was especially true for the throng of profligate young masters led by his nephew, Jun Moxie. He scrutinized them from every angle, finding fault everywhere, cursing one upon meeting them, and rebuking a pair upon seeing two.

He drove the scions of the influential families—Jun Moxie, Murong Qianjun, Meng Haizhou, Meng Fei, Li Zhen, Li Feng, and the rest—to utter despair! Jun Moxie understood that his Third Uncle, now reinstated to military command, needed to establish authority first! He needed to create an image of strict discipline so that orders could be carried out without question during marches and battles! If the army began undisciplined, they might as well be marching to their deaths!

Since authority needed establishing, there would inevitably be a few scapegoats.

Was it necessary to make an example of one to discipline a hundred, to strike the chicken to frighten the monkey, thereby enforcing military discipline?

But Jun Moxie never expected that the first unlucky soul chosen to be the example would be himself!

The circumstances leading up to this were rather dramatic. After being jolted around on horseback for half an afternoon, Young Master Jun suddenly felt an urgent need to relieve himself. He glanced around. They were long past the city gates. To the left was a thicket of trees, and to the right, open fields, with small villages visible in the distance. The formation was still moving forward. How to handle this? This was hardly a challenge for Young Master Jun. He dismounted instantly, darted to a large tree by the roadside, unfastened his trousers, and proceeded to urinate with great vigor.

Before him lay a forest of tens of thousands of trees, and just a stone's throw behind him marched an army of tens of thousands. In fact, the soldier positioned at the very edge of the rear formation could likely reach out and pluck a bird's egg from the vicinity!

So, Young Master Jun felt quite spirited as he finished this stream; it was truly satisfying!

After this unrestrained release, he quickly shook himself off and was just about to pull up his trousers when two hands suddenly landed on his shoulders.

"Unauthorized departure from formation, disregard for military discipline, public urination—a breach of public decency! Young General, please come with us." Two law enforcement officers appeared like heavenly soldiers, catching him red-handed.

"What? Are you people even reasonable? I was clearly facing away from them! What do you mean by 'public urination'?" Jun Moxie argued his case, but the two enforcement officers were stone-faced and dragged him away. Poor Young Master Jun hadn't even managed to pull up his trousers yet—his private parts were still vaguely visible—when he was hauled before the standard of Jun Wuyi.

The result was inevitable: Marshal Jun Wuyi performed a grand spectacle of punishing his relative outside the main gate: a solemn sentence of twenty years' worth of bamboo strokes!

This punishment—neither excessively harsh nor overly lenient—drew no pleas for mercy from anyone. This was perhaps unsurprising: firstly, those familiar with the situation knew Marshal Jun was merely putting on a show using this incident as an excuse; secondly, Young Master Jun's popularity was genuinely somewhat lacking...

The Young Master, who prided himself on never shedding tears, nearly wept. He looked up at Jun Wuyi, gritted his teeth, and managed, "Third Uncle, you truly are 'wielding authority once gained, issuing orders forthwith.' Your little nephew is terribly unlucky... the very first one!"

"Silence! In the military camp, there are only generals and subordinates. Who is your Third Uncle? Whose nephew are you? Deputy General Jun, your disrespectful words disrupt military order! Ten extra strokes!" Third Master Jun's expression was grave.

Young Master Jun wisely kept quiet. He understood that if he continued to speak out, he would certainly receive even more beatings!

The thirty strokes were administered with a flurry of cracks, leaving everyone stunned into silence. Although the other pampered young masters felt a perverse sense of schadenfreude, they too remained mute. Indeed, the desired effect had been achieved.

Third Master Jun knew his nephew's capabilities well. Despite the appearance of a swollen, red backside and seemingly severe injury, there was fundamentally no serious damage. In fact, even three hundred strokes probably wouldn't truly injure him. But at this moment, he needed to make an example of him. Simultaneously, Third Master had another thought: this boy was far too undisciplined, which was unacceptable. After all, the Jun family was a lineage of military generals; this was an opportunity to properly temper his character and lay a foundation for him should he ever be tasked with leading troops in the future.

This was not just Third Master Jun's intention; it was also the Old Master’s final instruction before leaving: During this journey, train this boy rigorously for me! Armed with the supreme command token, Third Master Jun felt unrestrained in his intention to 'abuse' his nephew a little.

But this first transgression resulted in a major problem.

Jun Moxie, nursing his backside which had just received thirty heavy strokes, walked out of the command tent filled with resentment, glaring sideways at everyone with unconcealed annoyance.

"Oh! Isn't this the powerful Third Young Master of the Jun family? Why the long face? Did you catch the Marshal's ear? Hahaha! Young Master Jun, the way you were clutching your backside just now was truly magnificent! This Young Master admires you and yields in defeat!" Murong Qianjun, a former rival of Jun Moxie's during his pursuit of Princess Lingmeng, spoke with saccharine sarcasm, exaggeratingly shaking his shoulders and forcing out strange cackling sounds that drew mocking laughter from Meng Haizhou and the others nearby.

Jun Moxie didn't respond. He slowly walked up to Murong Qianjun, suddenly snatched a spear from a nearby soldier, and used it like a cudgel, bringing it down across the crown of Murong Qianjun's head. A surge of energy shot rapidly through the spearhead as it connected.

Young Master Jun’s belly was already full of frustrated anger that desperately needed an outlet, and now this man dared to provoke him. Wasn't that courting disaster?

If nothing else, Young Master Jun would not tolerate it!

Murong Qianjun could never have anticipated that this fellow, having just been disciplined for violating military regulations, would dare to strike a colleague in broad daylight! Caught completely off guard, he was instantly struck!

In truth, even if he had been prepared, evading the blow would have been impossible. He took the full force of the spear across his head, and his vision instantly filled with glittering lights, as if a galaxy of stars had materialized before his eyes.

The skulls produced by the Murong family were known to be quite hard, and the spear cracked audibly upon impact. However, Murong Qianjun's forehead proved even tougher. With a visible and shocking speed, accompanied by a sharp whoosh, a bright red lump instantly sprang up. It was nearly the length of a finger and as thick as an egg, standing perfectly rigid, resembling the horn of a unicorn.

"Ah! Isn't this the dashing Young Master Murong? How is it that in the short time I haven't looked, a bird has sprouted on your forehead? Perhaps Young Master Murong is uniquely gifted, and this appendage grows on his forehead instead of his groin? A pity, though, it's only a single one! Such an elegant appearance is unparalleled, a spectacle to last for ages! I am truly impressed, deeply impressed." Jun Moxie burst into laughter, gesturing toward the swelling on Murong Qianjun's head with his hand, then casually tossed the half-broken spear aside and strode away, no longer feigning a limp.

The wave of spiritual energy he had channeled ensured that, despite taking the full blow, Murong Qianjun's skin did not break, but the tissue beneath swelled to its maximum extent, creating the frankly 'miraculous' and startling appearance before them.

When the onlookers gazed over, the lump on Murong Qianjun's forehead was indeed vividly red and perfectly upright, uncannily resembling the object it mimicked. What was most remarkable was that, apart from being slightly shorter, the girth achieved a considerable standard. It possessed a striking, lifelike resemblance.

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