Secret Armor and a Forced Entry

As for the guards, Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou paid them even less mind.

Qie Yunzhou looked at Qie Qiong and said, "Qiong'er, although you've comprehended the Myriad Existences Realm of Metal, it would be best not to use it when the time comes."

There were only a handful of people in the entire Azure Cloud Realm who had reached the Myriad Existences Realm. If one suddenly appeared, someone might well grow curious.

"When the time comes, you only need to use the Heaven and Man Unity Realm against Xiong Li. I'll deal with Xiong Biao, who controls the array."

There were far more Title Rank experts at the Heaven and Man Unity Realm, so this would also draw a little less attention.

If not for the thousand-year grudge between the Qie and Xiong Clans, Qie Yunzhou would not have moved against them so soon.

Qie Qiong nodded to show he understood.

Just then, Lin Wantang took two neatly folded, lightweight garments from her Space Ring.

"Since you want to finish the fight quickly, a direct clash will be hard to avoid." Lin Wantang placed the two garments before them. "The Xiong Clan's Dou Qi is known for its fierce power. As it happens, the Thunder Lizard you killed last time had tough scales. Over the past three months, I've made them into these two pieces of inner armor."

Qie Qiong looked at the inner armor before him.

The armor was dark purple all over. Though soft, it had a faint metallic sheen.

It was designed as a close-fitting, sleeveless combat garment to allow the greatest possible freedom of movement.

"I made these from the hardest scales at the center of the Thunder Lizard's back armor, and refined them with mithril and thunder adamantine," Lin Wantang said, a hint of pride in her voice. "I named them the 'Thunder Scale Secret Armor.' Because the materials are extraordinary, they can even be called quasi-tier-three alchemical armor."

Quasi-tier-three armor was already worth as much as a tier-three alchemical weapon.

The best inner armor the Qie Clan currently possessed was the one Qie Yunzhou wore, but even that was only ordinary tier-two armor.

By rights, a clan like the Qie Clan, which had produced several Transcendents, should have had better armor.

But the three great empires had a common rule: when a Transcendent died, apart from the Transcendent items permitted to be kept as inheritances,

all other Transcendent items had to be stored in the large Transcendent worlds exclusive to the three great empires. Only when a descendant became a Transcendent could they be used again.

This was to prevent situations like that of the Qie and Xiong Clans, where a line of Transcendents died out, and someone from another country took a fancy to the clan's weapons and wiped them out without cause.

Of course, if the clan eventually died out naturally, the treasures would go to the Thunder Empire's imperial family. They could not go to any other faction in the Thunder Empire.

Otherwise, even if no one in another country had designs on them, it would be laughable if a faction in their own country did and wiped the clan out.

Leaving them to the Thunder imperial family posed only a very small risk of trouble.

The Qie Clan's Thunder Star Sword had been passed down in this way.

Of course, one might ask what happened if someone only wanted the inheritance items. All inheritance items were registered, and if any Transcendent dared make a move against them, the three nations would join forces to kill them.

There was a precedent for this. Back then, a Cangyun Demigod with a fourth-grade divine heart had taken a fancy to the inheritance item of a declining clan.

He threatened the clan, but they refused, so he wiped them out and took it.

He had believed himself a pillar of the Cangyun Empire, and that even if the other two nations wanted him dead, the Cangyun Empire would never agree.

But he was wrong. When the incident came to light, the Cangyun Empire contributed the most to the effort. To kill him, it even used a secret weapon passed down by the Cangyun God King.

But there was one exception: even an application to keep it as an inheritance item would not be approved.

That was Transcendent attack scrolls. Only scrolls like the ones the Xiong brothers had used to escape were allowed to be kept.

"With this inner armor to protect us..." Qie Yunzhou seemed to see the thousand-year grudge between the Qie and Xiong Clans coming to an end. "The Xiong Clan will be nothing but a mantis trying to stop a chariot. Wantang, I'll leave everything at home to you. If anyone asks, tell them Qiong'er and I are both in seclusion, and no one is to disturb us."

Lin Wantang nodded. "Don't worry. Although I can't fight alongside you and your son, I'll take proper care of everything at home. Make sure you're careful too."

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou exchanged a glance, each seeing confidence in the other's eyes.

Cangshan County City was a border county city of the Cangyun Empire, two thousand li from Cloud Sea Prefecture City, where the Qie Clan was located. The Qiyun Mountain Range also lay between them.

Although their top speed could reach a thousand meters per second, that was on level ground, and they could not maintain it indefinitely. Even so, it would take them only two hours to reach Cangshan County City.

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou did not bring any retainers.

They changed into inconspicuous gray clothes and put the Black Scale Secret Armor on underneath.

They left the Qie residence.

Like two streaks of light, they sped toward Cangshan County City in the Cangyun Empire.

Along the way, Qie Yunzhou also used the Wind of Myriad Existences to increase their speed.

In less than two hours, the gray walls of Cangshan County City appeared before them.

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou concealed themselves in a secluded patch of woods outside the city.

Then they walked onto the main road.

Like ordinary residents, they mingled with the crowd and passed through the inspection at the city gate without trouble.

Although inspections in Cangshan County City were strict, how could they catch members of the Qie Clan, their thousand-year enemies? The same was true in Cloud Sea Prefecture City, of course.

After entering the city, they did not go straight to the Xiong Clan. If the two Xiong brothers were not at home, killing everyone else would still count as a failure.

Qie Qiong followed Qie Yunzhou, who led him with practiced ease to the city's largest restaurant, Cloudwatch Pavilion.

The two went upstairs.

Qie Yunzhou chose a window seat and sat down with Qie Qiong. An ordinary person might not have been able to see the Xiong residence from here, but as Title Rank experts, they could just make it out.

While waiting for their tea and food, they used the keen hearing of Title Rank experts to catch every conversation around them.

As the largest clan in the county city, the Xiong Clan was also bound to be the city's biggest topic of conversation.

The two ate and drank, and after half an hour, they did indeed hear something useful.

If they had not heard it, Qie Yunzhou would have wanted to go to the Bloodshed Tavern to buy information before long.

This Bloodshed Tavern was, of course, a branch of the Bloodshed Tavern in the Divine Realm.

It was also the only major Transcendent power independent of the three great empires.

If Qie Qiong had not been a transmigrator, he might not have understood how a major power like the Bloodshed Tavern could survive. After all, the three great empires were too powerful.

But Qie Qiong was a transmigrator, and he understood that they had someone backing them. When operating in the world, it was all about who stood behind you.

"Have you heard? The Xiong Clan's head steward went to collect rent in the south of the city and crippled a few more people who resisted."

"That's right. Steward Xiong Zhendong died for no clear reason, and the new head steward is busy making a name for himself. He's getting more and more overbearing."

"Keep your voice down. These past few years, because of something in the east, those two from the Xiong Clan haven't been going out much."

"My eldest maternal uncle's son's younger aunt's second uncle's wife's son works for the Xiong Clan. He said it was something about practicing new moves."

"Shh! You dare talk about the Xiong Clan like that? Do you have a death wish?"

Having heard the crucial information, Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou silently exchanged a glance.

The targets were home!

Once they had learned what they needed, the two wasted no time and headed straight for the Xiong Clan.

Unlike the Qie Clan's, the Xiong Clan's imposing signboard was clearly visible even from a distance.

For several generations, the Xiong Clan had more than one member in each generation, so its residence occupied a large area. For some reason, the Qie Clan had only a single heir in each generation.

This alone showed how formidable the Qie Clan was. Its line had almost never been broken, and every generation had produced a genius of some degree.

At the entrance to the Xiong residence stood two stone statues of bear-type demonic beasts, posed as though roaring at the sky.

They were Earth Demonic Bears, the symbol of the Xiong Clan. The clan's first Transcendent had a Title Rank Earth Demonic Bear as a pet, and it later became the clan's symbol.

Two guards in earthen-yellow armor stood on either side of the gate, spears in hand.

When the two were still a few steps from the Xiong residence's gate,

one of the guards saw their gray clothes and snarled, "This is no place for country bumpkins like you. Get lost!" As he spoke, he raised his spear to strike them.

Because the new head steward Xiong had been busy collecting rent and had crippled many people, people had been coming to the gates of the Qie residence these past few days to cry out about their grievances.

What a joke. Even if he crippled these two, he would not have to answer for it, much less head steward Xiong.

Seeing the guard's spear coming at them, Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou exchanged a glance and abruptly accelerated.

Terrifying auras erupted.

The two yellow-armored guards saw only a flash of light. When their vision cleared, they saw the hand of the guard who had swung his spear at Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou trace an arc through the air.

"Ah! My hand!!! Ene-" Before the man whose hand had been severed could finish, both guards suddenly felt a chill at their necks. They saw only two headless bodies lose their support and topple backward.

Then darkness swallowed their consciousness.

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou shot toward the Xiong residence like two arrows.

The two guards inside the gate had no time to react after hearing the noise. They lost consciousness and fell to the ground.

Although the pair had dealt with them quickly, they had not concealed themselves, and a Silver Moon Knight standing on higher ground to the left spotted them.

"Enemy attack!"

The Silver Moon Knight's pupils contracted sharply as he roared.

As he shouted, he drew a refined-steel javelin from his side and hurled it at them.

Wrapped in earthen-yellow Dou Qi, the javelin shot toward Qie Qiong.

Just before it struck, Qie Qiong casually turned sideways and flicked his sword. Sword light flashed, and the refined-steel javelin snapped in midair.

The Silver Moon Knight's roar rang over the Xiong residence like a thunderclap.

Piercing alarms immediately sounded from every direction.

Countless earthen-yellow figures swarmed out from all parts of the Xiong residence.

The first to charge out were more than a dozen Meteor Rank knights of the Xiong Clan.

"Looking for death! What madmen dare come to the Xiong Clan and kill people?"

The burly man leading them was at the Silver Moon Rank. Wielding a giant axe wreathed in the Xiong Clan's earthen-yellow Dou Qi, he chopped down at Qie Yunzhou's head.

"Chop these two up and feed them to the dogs!"

The knights behind him shouted in unison and lunged at Qie Qiong. Dou Qi of every kind swallowed the two men in an instant.

The Xiong Clan's retainers and guest elders were especially eager.

In their eyes, the pair were merely desperadoes with a little strength.

Most likely, they were not quite right in the head either.

Here in Cangshan County City, someone actually dared run wild at the Xiong residence?

Besides, there were so many of them that this was practically free merit.

If they killed these two, they might be able to exchange their merit for higher-grade cultivation methods and martial techniques.

Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou did not let them daydream for long, however.

Qie Yunzhou watched the Xiong knights charging toward him without even drawing the sword at his waist.

He merely raised a hand slowly. A wisp of blue-green light appeared at his fingertip, and he drew a line through the air.

There was no earthshaking collision.

The giant axe wrapped in Dou Qi, along with the arm of the peak Silver Moon Knight wielding it, was instantly severed.

The vicious look on the burly man's face froze, then gave way to horror and agony.

Then some unknown force swept up his massive body and hurled it into the Xiong knights following behind him.

Almost at the same time, Qie Qiong moved as well.

His figure became a bolt of black lightning, weaving among the charging knights.

His sword erupted with dazzling thunderous sword light.

He unleashed the second level of the Flowing Light Sword with effortless ease, sending several streaks of sword light at the Xiong knights.

The sword light was precise and deadly, faster than most of the knights could react.

Every flash of cold light was accompanied by a muffled grunt.

The charging figures fell together like wheat before a scythe.

The standard-issue yellow armor the Xiong Clan had equipped them with seemed less like tier-one alchemical equipment than something made of paper.

In just a few breaths, the dozen or so knights who had charged in first were all dead.

Bodies lay sprawled across the ground, and the thick stench of blood instantly filled the air.

In an instant, the surviving knights who had yet to charge seemed rooted to the spot. They appeared to have realized that the two men before them were no easy merit.

"Unity of Heaven and Man! They're Title Rank experts!" The peak Silver Moon Knight from the start lay on the ground and cried out in terror.

"Wait, that's the Flowing Light Sword! It's Qie Yunzhou! Notify the clan heads!" At last, a veteran knight recognized Qie Yunzhou. They were old enemies, after all, and Qie Qiong and Qie Yunzhou had done nothing to disguise themselves.

He was an opponent neither of the Xiong Clan's two heads could defeat.

"That masked man beside him is frighteningly fast, and his swordsmanship is incredibly strong too." Others, of course, were looking at Qie Qiong.

Although Qie Qiong had not invoked Unity of Heaven and Man, some people could already guess his realm from those lying on the ground.

"Could that masked man be Title Rank too?" Everyone was overwhelmed by fear. Qie Yunzhou had appeared at the Xiong residence with someone who was likely another Title Rank expert at his side.

Whistle-

Just then, a whistling arrow shrieked from deep within the Xiong residence and shot high into the sky.

It was a special arrow, pitch-black from end to end and engraved with alchemical runes.

With a piercing whistle that tore through the air, it soared into the heavens.

This was the Xiong Clan's highest-level assembly signal. Once it rose into the sky, every member of the Xiong Clan or its subordinate forces who could see it, and even the city guard of Cangshan County City, had to gather at the arrow's location.

The instant the signal went up, the entire county city was shaken.

Every faction that witnessed the signal, the city guard's garrison, and the Xiong Clan's subordinate strongholds throughout the city immediately erupted into activity.

Large numbers of figures raced toward the Xiong residence.

At the Xiong residence's main hall, two powerful auras burst out from within.

They belonged to the brothers Xiong Biao and Xiong Li.

Seeing the corpses strewn across the ground and the two figures moving as though no one stood in their way, both men's eyes nearly split with rage.

Xiong Biao's furious demand rang out. "Qie Yunzhou, how dare you force your way into my Xiong residence?!"