The sound of Lin Hanzhou's horse's hooves drew nearer, each beat plucking at the heartstrings of the warriors gathered outside the palace gates.
The closer he got, the more tempting the easily won credit seemed.
When he was barely thirty paces from the crowd, someone among the Tiger Brave Guard under the Third Prince finally lost patience.
"Hahaha! The road to heaven was open, yet you refused to take it. The gates of hell were shut, yet you barged right in!"
A gruff roar rang out as a burly Tiger Brave Guard commander, built like an iron tower, strode out of the crowd.
He carried a ghost-head saber wider than a door, looking as though he possessed boundless strength.
With every step he took, the ground seemed to tremble faintly.
He released his powerful ninth-stage Houtian aura without restraint, whipping up a gale that made the torches around him crackle and flutter.
The burly commander grinned, baring a set of yellow teeth. His eyes were full of the disdain of a cat toying with a mouse.
"Eleventh Highness, long time no see!"
"Instead of living like a dog outside the city, you came back here to die? Were you longing for the beheading feast in the Capital City?"
As his words fell, the Tiger Brave Guards behind him burst into raucous laughter.
They began to chatter among themselves, their words full of insults aimed at Lin Hanzhou.
On the other side, the Ninth Prince's men from the Green Garment Tower did nothing to stop them. They merely folded their arms and watched.
As far as they were concerned, it made no difference who struck first. The outcome would be the same.
Faced with this blatant provocation, Lin Hanzhou's expression remained unchanged.
He did not even spare the burly man a second glance. He simply dismounted calmly and tossed away the reins.
That dismissive gesture instantly enraged the man.
"Brat, you're on death's doorstep and still putting on airs?"
"Fine. I'll send you on your way myself. Let's see if you can stay so calm after you meet the King of Hell."
Before the words had even left his mouth, the man let out a roar. The muscles in his arms bulged, yet the heavy ghost-head saber seemed weightless in his hands.
With a whistle that tore through the air, the saber came crashing down toward Lin Hanzhou's head.
The blow was powerful and heavy. Even a Xiantian expert would not dare take it head-on.
Yet just as the blade was about to reach him, Lin Hanzhou finally moved.
He did not retreat or dodge. He simply drew the long sword at his back, unhurriedly.
It was the very sword he had taken from Lin Yuan's guard—a perfectly ordinary sword.
But in his hands, that ordinary sword shone with a radiance it had never shown before!
"Enough noise."
Lin Hanzhou uttered the two words flatly.
At the same time, he stirred the spiritual power within him and poured it all into the sword, following a method he had practiced hundreds upon hundreds of times in his memories.
Yellow-rank, superior-grade martial art—Thunder Slash!
Hum!
The sword gave a clear, ringing hum. Blue-violet arcs of electricity suddenly lit along its blade, crackling and snapping!
A fierce Sword Qi, swift as lightning, broke free of the blade and shot toward the burly commander, striking before he could react.
The commander's sneer had not yet faded when a flash of lightning crossed his vision. Then his neck went cold.
The ghost-head saber slipped from his grasp, no longer supported by his strength, and clanged against the ground.
His enormous head, meanwhile, soared into the air, trailing a garish arc of blood.
Thud!
The headless body crashed to the ground. Blood gushed from its neck like a fountain, staining the white jade tiles beneath it red.
The entire place fell silent in an instant.
The Tiger Brave Guards who had been laughing uproariously just moments ago now looked as if someone had seized them by the throat. Their laughter abruptly cut off.
Their faces were filled with utter terror and disbelief.
The people from the Green Garment Tower were just as dumbstruck, their eyes wide with shock.
Instantly slain!
A peak ninth-stage Houtian expert had actually been killed with a single sword stroke by this prince, a good-for-nothing in all the rumors?!
That... that Sword Qi, like a bolt of lightning...
"Xiantian! He's a Xiantian expert!"
Someone let out a shrill, frightened cry, breaking the silence at last.
Panic spread through the crowd like a plague.
They finally understood what kind of being they had provoked.
Lin Hanzhou looked at his handiwork and nodded to himself.
As expected, not only could his cultivation be synchronized; even the martial arts he had practiced on Blue Star could be perfectly executed in this Dream World.
He had used less than a tenth of his strength in that Thunder Slash, and it had still produced such a result.
That gave him even greater confidence in the struggle for the throne ahead.
Yet, to Lin Hanzhou's surprise, after the initial panic, these Houtian warriors did not scatter and flee.
Though their faces had gone deathly pale and their legs trembled, they still gripped their weapons tightly and stubbornly blocked the palace gates.
They did not dare disobey the prince's orders.
The fate of deserting in the middle of battle might be even more horrific than dying here.
"Oh? You've still got some backbone?"
"Since you're so eager to be reborn, then I, your prince, will grant your wish."
Lin Hanzhou raised an eyebrow, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
This time, he held nothing back.
He raised his sword once more, unleashing a torrent of spiritual power from his third-stage Meridian Opening cultivation!
"Thunder Slash!"
With a low cry, a burst of lightning brighter and more dazzling than before erupted along the blade.
This time, the Sword Qi that broke free of the blade grew longer, its power far beyond what it had been before.
Boom!
The Sword Qi swept toward the center of the crowd like a thunderous storm, cutting through everything in its path.
"Ahhh—!"
Wretched screams rose one after another, only to be swallowed in an instant by a thunderous explosion.
Every warrior touched by the Sword Qi, whether at the seventh or ninth stage of Houtian, was torn apart as easily as paper.
In the blink of an eye, their bodies were blasted to pieces by the rampaging power of thunder, flesh and blood flying everywhere!
With a single strike, more than twenty of the several dozen warriors blocking the gates were killed on the spot, reduced to a field of charred remains.
This terrifying scene, like divine punishment, finally shattered the last scraps of resistance in the hearts of those still standing.
"Monster! He's a monster!"
"Fuck this! You expected me to fight a Xiantian expert?"
"Run! Everyone, scatter!"
Someone led the way, and fear filled the hearts of the survivors. They no longer cared about the prince's orders.
They abandoned their armor and weapons and fled in panic in every direction, wishing their parents had given them two more legs.
Lin Hanzhou watched them flee coldly and made no attempt to pursue them.
Hunting down these unimportant people would be a complete waste of his time.
He slid the pristine sword back into its scabbard, then stepped over the corpses and pools of blood toward the tightly shut vermilion palace gates.
Now, beyond those imposing gates before him lay the pinnacle of power.
And behind him, the mountains of corpses and rivers of blood were a living hell.
The two lay just one gate apart.
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