On the third day of the first lunar month in the tenth year of Chengping, Jiang Liu was startled by news coming from Mo Province.
The tranquility of the Great Qian Jianghu, which had been restored for several days due to the New Year, was completely shattered by this news.
It turns out that the news indicated that the Martial Prohibition Hall had launched a surprise attack on the Ji Family on New Year's Eve, and in one strike, they wiped out the entire Ji Family.
Apart from Ji Xingfeng, Ji Qiang, and those who went to provide support, Liu Yihang and Wang Dali escaped in the chaos; almost everyone else in the Ji Family was killed.
Although all the forces in the Great Qian Dynasty already knew that the Martial Prohibition Hall would take action.
However, no one expected that the Martial Prohibition Hall would take action on New Year's Eve and wipe out the entire Ji Family.
This news spread throughout the entire Daqian territory in an instant.
Meanwhile, Tian Province, Qian Province, Feng Province, Gen Province, which are near Mo Province, were the first to receive the news.
The different states reacted very differently to this matter.
First, there are the forces in Tian Province: the Confucian School and the National Preceptor's Mansion.
The Confucian school had suffered greatly from the attacks by the major powers of the Great Qian Dynasty. When they heard this news, the entire Confucian school was overjoyed and praised the Martial Prohibition Hall for acting on behalf of Heaven and eliminating evil forces.
This argument was met with hostility from the major powers of the Great Qian Dynasty, especially the alliance of the five great families.
Subsequently, a series of even more severe crackdowns on Confucianism were launched.
As for the National Preceptor's Mansion, it declared that it would stand with the Martial Prohibition Hall to crack down on lawless individuals who infringe upon the interests of the imperial court.
This statement, however, poured cold water on the hopes of other Jianghu factions.
If the National Preceptor's Mansion and the Martial Prohibition Hall join forces, then apart from the three sects, the situation of other forces will be extremely precarious.
After learning of their patriarch's defeat, the Wang Family of Feng Province completely shrank their sphere of influence and even showed signs of withdrawing from the city.
They secretly transferred some of the Lineage's direct descendants, because they were afraid that the Martial Prohibition Hall would take advantage of the situation to attack Feng Province and wipe out the Wang Family.
It should be noted that the Wang Family is now just as vulnerable to a single blow from the Martial Prohibition Hall.
As the earliest force to rise up against the Great Qian Dynasty, the White Saint Society had already taken these situations into account, so they didn't care at all.
They even took advantage of the Wang Family's shrinking territory to send people to take over.
The personnel from both factions remaining in Feng Province did not engage in battle for the time being, and for a period of time, things appeared extremely harmonious.
Taking advantage of the Liu Family Liu Yihang, Exotic Poison Valley in Gen Province launched an attack and forcibly seized another prefecture.
After hearing the rumors that their patriarch had fled, the Liu Family also became more restrained and did not retaliate against the attack from Exotic Poison Valley.
The most unusual reaction came from the three clans in Qian Province, who showed absolutely no reaction.
It's as if the destruction of the Ji Family had nothing to do with the three sects.
In fact, neither Flowing Cloud Matriarch nor Gongsun Haoyue has time to deal with such trivial matters right now.
The same goes for the Grandmaster and elders of both sects; all the high-ranking members of the Flowing Cloud Sect and the Star Moon Sect are currently immersed in frantic cultivation.
Aside from the routine patrols and guard duties, there were hardly any Grandmaster out and about.
This has resulted in the fact that during this period, the most active figures have been the Grandmaster of the Haotian Sect.
This led the Grandmaster of Haotian Sect to believe that the people of the Star Moon Sect and Flowing Cloud Sect had changed their nature and no longer wanted to compete with them for power and profit.
That's why the Haotian Sect itself had no intention of getting involved in what happened to the Ji Family.
This is why the three sects didn't react at all to the Martial Prohibition Hall annihilating the Ji Family.
Because the three sects did not react, other forces in the Jianghu were privately speculating about what the three sects meant by doing this.
Does this mean the Martial Prohibition Hall is openly targeting Jianghu forces and they're not going to care?
When we discussed having various forces attack the Martial Prohibition Hall before, it wasn't discussed like this.
Lu Tianheng of the Martial Prohibition Hall was dealt with by the Peak Grandmaster of the Three Sects, while the remaining Grandmaster were dealt with by the various forces separately.
Although Lu Tianheng did not openly attack the Ji Family this time, who knows if he secretly attacked them?
But now that Lu Tianheng has shown himself, shouldn't the three sects at least step in to stop him?
Now, however, they are ignoring the situation, which immediately puts other Jianghu forces on edge, making everyone feel insecure.
When the news reached the authorities in each state, the states reacted differently.
However, most of them are considering their own interests, strengthening alliances or tightening their spheres of influence to prevent being suddenly attacked by the Martial Prohibition Hall.
Jiang Liu wouldn't care how the various Jianghu forces of the Great Jianghu Dynasty reacted.
In Jiang Liu's mind, it would be best if these forces were eliminated one by one by the Martial Prohibition Hall, and then he would see if there would be more of those Special Essence Particles when cultivating the Saintly Sky Art.
If all these Jianghu forces are eliminated, but the Special Essence Particles he needs to cultivate the Saintly Sky Art do not increase, then it means that the Martial Prohibition Hall can also be eliminated.
Jiang Liu didn't want to speculate too much about the events that were happening in Mo Province, but he did feel a little strange.
Lu Tianheng was already Grandmaster hunter back in Qian Province.
Now that such a good opportunity exists, why would they let go of the four Grandmaster Ji Xingfeng, Ji Qiang, Liu Yihang, and Wang Dali?
Has Lu Tianheng changed his ways? Or has he already hunted enough Grandmaster?
However you look at it, Lu Tianheng doesn't seem like that kind of person. After all, he chased me for a very long time back then.
Jiang Liu only learned after arriving at the Flowing Cloud Sect that Lu Tianheng had actually chased him all the way to the vicinity of Qian Prefecture before giving up the pursuit.
This proves that Lu Tianheng's determination to hunt down Grandmaster will not be easily shaken.
This is what puzzled Jiang Liu, but Jiang Liu didn't say anything about it.
Jiang Liu couldn't figure out why the three factions knew about this matter but hadn't revealed it.
However, this did not stop Jiang Liu from speculating about the matter.
If Lu Tianheng wasn't hunting Grandmaster for the benefit of the imperial court, then it must have been for his own sake.
As Peak Grandmaster, Lu Tianheng disregarded his status to hunt down Grandmaster, so there is only one answer: he was practicing evil arts.
This is probably why the three sects didn't make it public. They were afraid that if they did, and since they couldn't stop Lu Tianheng, it would be a fatal blow to their prestige.
All of this is one of the chain reactions caused by Duanmu Haotian's disappearance.
In fact, Jiang Liu's guess about Lu Tianheng was completely correct, because Ji Xingfeng, Ji Qiang, Liu Yihang, and Wang Dali were precisely the ones Lu Tianheng intentionally let go.
The reason he let them go was simply because there were too many people present, making it inconvenient for him to act.