Da Xuan Martial Saint

Chapter 791: Chapter 436: I, Am the Heavenly Mandate

“How could this be?”

King Jin, Ji Xuanchu, stood in a detached courtyard, listening to the report from his subordinate, a hint of astonishment crossing his features.

Although the movements of King Han and King Liang were meticulous, he still had noticed some traces. However, the ultimate outcome was entirely different from any he had predicted. By his estimation, the combined forces of his two royal brothers and the powers behind them were formidable enough to give Chen Mu a hard time; even if Chen Mu managed to escape, it would still lead to chaos.

By then, both the tactics of Chen Mu and the two princes would have been exposed, allowing the other Eight Princes to intervene with ease while he could sit back and reap the benefits of their strife.

After all,

if one were to ask who among the Eight Princes was the calmest about Chen Mu’s rise, it was naturally none other than himself. After all, his mother’s family and the Qin Family of Yu State had shared a lineage, and Qin Mengjun, a member of the Qin Family, was Chen Mu’s teacher. Though the connection was somewhat distant, it was still intricately tied.

The only concern he had was if Chen Mu, with his peerless martial arts, harbored thoughts of usurping the throne and reshaping the Qiankun, there would be no benefits for him. His status was already revered to the utmost; if Chen Mu were to establish a new dynasty, even if he were bestowed a princely title, it would never surpass his current honor.

Thus, he was also measuring the pros and cons and had not acted prematurely.

Moreover,

although Chen Mu had previously been powerful enough to rival those in the Blood Exchange Realm, he was ultimately still struggling at its threshold. No one knew how many years it would take him to complete the Blood Exchange; even if he were to successfully step into the Blood Exchange Realm, another threshold of Celestial Human still loomed above.

It was unclear how many years Chen Mu would need to walk these two steps. If decades passed by, the struggle for the throne would likely have been settled long ago. As the oldest among the Eight Princes, even if he were not close to the end of his life by then, he would be approaching his later years, so he had not considered such a distant matter.

Who would have known that Chen Mu’s martial arts would be so incredibly advanced, crossing two realms to be able to fight a Celestial Human with Marrow Cleansing!

“How did he manage to do it?”

King Jin muttered to himself, his eyes full of confusion and perplexity.

As the earliest among the Eight Princes, he had entered the path with a complete understanding of Yin Yang and had soaked in the Marrow Cleansing Realm for decades, and had also been at the top of the grandmasters’ list for many years. Even when facing ordinary masters of the Blood Exchange Realm, he was confident in managing a few moves, but that was his limit.

Even if he were to resort to some secret techniques or forbidden weapons of the Royal Family, at most, he could retreat in the face of a Blood Exchange Realm master. To defeat a Blood Exchange by himself was absolutely impossible, let alone contesting with a Celestial Human!

In what aspect did he lag behind Chen Mu?

How could there be such a huge disparity within the same realm?

…

King Han’s residence.

Inside a solemn mansion, built from heavy, dark purple wood, King Han, Ji Xuanfei, sat in a rattan chair, holding a green jade teacup, his grip so tight unconsciously.

Crack!

It was only when the teacup shattered in his hand, with tea and fragments splashing everywhere, did he realize it.

“How could this happen?!”

The fragments of the green jade teacup were ground to powder in his palm, his forehead vein bulging, momentarily struggling to control his restless emotions.

Chen Mu!

This man, who seemingly emerged from nowhere, had never entered his eyes before, yet within a short span of time, had become so thorny to the eyes, even after he had followed the advisor’s suggestion to join hands with King Liang to make a move against him, it ended in failure. Seven Blood Exchange Realm masters joined forces to ambush but failed to take down one from the Marrow Cleansing Realm!

Useless.

All useless.

If he had known this would happen, perhaps he should not have listened to the Pavilion Master of Mysterious Mechanism Pavilion’s instigation to hastily make a move with King Liang. It would have been wiser to ensure foolproof planning by drawing in more princes to join the effort.

In the past, there were no direct grievances between him and Chen Mu, the irreconcilable differences stemmed from Mysterious Mechanism Pavilion, where he still had some leeway. But now, with this step taken, there would be no turning back, mainly because the Pavilion Master had been utterly confident, and he also believed that Chen Mu, despite his exceptional abilities, could not escape this assassination. There was no need to worry too much about a dead man.

Who would have thought it would turn out like this!

Now, once Chen Mu advances to the Blood Exchange Realm and possesses invincible martial prowess, even if he didn’t have the capability to reconstruct the Qiankun, he would at least have the capacity to influence the Imperial Court and even the dynamics among the Eight Princes. He and King Liang would inevitably find it difficult to contend with him.

After all, even in the heyday of the Imperial Court, the top Celestial Human masters were still treated with respect. Although not feared, if such top Celestial Human masters wished to cause trouble, they could indeed bring calamity to a region, difficult to restrain.

Given Chen Mu’s current capabilities, once he steps into the Blood Exchange Realm, his strength would surely be on par with the top Celestial Humans, and in the future, he might even achieve the Unity of Heaven and Man, pushing his martial arts to an unprecedented level.

“No.”

“We cannot sit and wait for death…”

A sharp glint flashed through King Han’s eyes.

Despite Chen Mu cultivating his Martial Body to an unbelievable level, he still had yet to cross the threshold of Blood Exchange. No matter how capable Chen Mu was, when attempting to break through to the Blood Exchange Realm, he would still show vulnerabilities. If they could strike him at that critical moment, it wouldn’t even require a Celestial Human to act; a mere ordinary Blood Exchange Realm master might severely wound or even completely halt Chen Mu’s path!