The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

Seeing that the attacker was forced to show up under the pressure he brought, Zheng Canghai felt relieved. The barrier of heaven and earth set up by the golden talisman of scapegoating began to slowly shrink and press down. However, the sword intent of heavenly punishment was suspended in the air, pressing against the area dozens of feet below him, like a gate knife facing the enemy, waiting for the opponent to come to the door.

"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

His eyes were fixed on Zhao Qing who was still hiding in the black fog. He shouted continuously. Every time he uttered the word "kill", the true energy and blood in his body exploded. The whale-tooth sword in Zheng Canghai's hand continuously burst out blue-green runes, circling around the tip of his sword.

From a distance, what he held in his hand did not look like a long sword, but rather a giant green spear that was dozens of times larger than his body. With the strong surge of heaven and earth energy, it swirled out thunderclouds and golden light, and vibrated out one spiral sound wave after another that was visible to the naked eye.

Countless brilliant colors suddenly appeared between heaven and earth. These were the auroras stimulated by the collision of vast primordial energy and high-energy rays.

Relying on the blessing of the secret method of "Big Dipper Seven Killing Curse", Zheng Canghai's strength has increased again while burning his potential, and he has already entered a realm close to the peak of the seventh realm.

But there is no doubt that after this battle, no matter how many precious elixirs the Zheng family has, no matter how hard he tries to stay alive, he will hardly survive for more than a year. It can be said that he paid with his life in order to kill the current enemy and deter all parties, so as to prevent the enemy from escaping by chance and causing endless troubles.

At the same time, the military talismans "Golden Crow Burning" that had been prepared also received the order. Under the calculation of the positions and trajectory calibration by many observers and formation masters, the four Golden Crows spread their wings at the same time, and the silent cries in their mouths instantly turned into a deafening roar.

Just like a traditional flame catapult, four balls of scorching flames, propelled by the wind-binding magic array, streaked across the golden sky, dragging trails of gray and white smoke, falling like meteors and accurately hitting the area where Zhao Qing was.

There were also unknown thousands or tens of thousands of burning phosphorescent arrows, hundreds of spinning moon blades, blazing lightning and fire pillars, and clustered lead and mercury projectiles, which then poured down like a violent storm, completely submerging the area within a hundred feet centered on Zhao Qing in this devastating blow.

"This sword has quite a bit of momentum..."

Completely ignoring the threats posed by the magical weapons, Zhao Qing looked up at the sky and used his eye sword to block the heavy sword energy hidden in the sound waves. A huge gray-black water ball naturally appeared on the surface of the river below his feet, floating up. The shell of the ball unfolded layer by layer like onion petals, as if it had turned into a dark black lotus platform.

The faint black mist spread outward, covering the sky and earth, tumbling and dancing up and down, left and right, like longer and longer demonic ribbons. Inside it, there were layers of collapsed Taiyin auras, and faintly visible purple light flashed, differentiating into many tiny figures dancing with swords, and the solemn images of gods, ghosts, immortals, and Buddhas.

This is exactly the "Twenty-Four Gods and Demons Sword Dance" she created by integrating the essence of the ten volumes of "The Heavenly Demon Strategy", combining it with the understanding of Buddhist connotations, taking the Heavenly Demon Secret, Cihang Sword Classic, Purple Blood Great Method, Four Correct Heavenly Gang and other skills as the main axis, and supplementing it with the use of the vital energy of "Lingxu Sutra" and "Black Water Sutra".

Once this method was revealed, as the demonic ribbons that extended to hundreds of feet swirled and danced, countless attacks from talismans, including the Golden Crow Burning, were either pulled away, deflected, and swept away, or corroded, crushed, and swallowed. None of them could get within ten feet of Zhao Qing.

The talismans controlled by practitioners at a low level usually have extremely rigid attack trajectories and changes. The fireballs thrown by the strongest "Golden Crow Burning" are designed only to explode and burn large groups of enemies. No matter how many such things there are, they will never pose any threat to her.

Those originally ferocious flames, flying arrows, moon blades, and lightning pillars not only lost their effectiveness, but some of them became Zhao Qing's aids. After being captured by the Heavenly Demon Ribbon, they condensed into arms with flowing purple flames, each transforming into a different magical weapon.

And many of the Zheng clan's sixth-level practitioners, including "Zheng Liren", who rushed over to try to contain and support Zheng Canghai, were quickly repelled by the ribbons and flame arms. They were injured on the spot, and even several weaker ones died.

Many ironclad ships were also badly damaged. The hulls of the ships where the magic array protection was weak were charred and full of holes. Hundreds of low-level practitioners were killed or injured.

Supported by the dark black lotus platform, the beautiful girl was seen floating in the air, with a purple halo surrounding her body and hundreds of arms and hands on her back, like a demon god descending to the earth. Her eyes seemed to be able to see through all the vanity in the world, revealing an inviolable majesty.

Each purple flame arm held a different magical weapon, be it a long sword, a treasure wheel, a golden spear, a treasure wheel, or a pipa, each of which exuded a faint spiritual light, and echoed with Zhao Qing's own breath, and stimulated circle after circle of gorgeous colorful halos when waved.

"You don't have the spirit of an emperor, but you use the power of the 'Golden Scapegoat Talisman' without authorization. You have already fallen into the lower level... If you can't summon Zheng Xiu's Starfire Comet Tail Sword, you will stay here forever today!"

As her cold voice rang out, thousands of magical weapons pointed straight to the sky.

At the same time, streamers of the devil fell below the river surface one after another. There was no movement seen, but giant bubbles starting from ten feet in size naturally emerged from under the water, staggering towards the barrier in the distance that was engraved with golden runes.

Then, they suddenly exploded, and the splashing dirty black water washed away the ancient characters into a blur, as if a filthy thing was blaspheming the sacred power. The rune barrier also trembled, as if it could not withstand the erosion of the true water from the underworld, and the light gradually dimmed.

The effect of the golden scapegoat talisman transformed this place into an independent little world. It seemed to have an amazing suppression on Zhao Qing, but since she had already launched an ambush here, how could she not make preparations in advance and leave corresponding backup plans?
Almost all areas that change the vital energy environment mainly target the vital energy of heaven and earth in the air and the paths of their circulation, rather than the vital energy dissolved in liquids or condensed in solids. Naturally, they are unlikely to have much effect on true water-based exercises.

Essentially, it was not made for combat, and no one in the You Dynasty back then dared to deliberately destroy the activated scapegoat golden talisman, so there was no need for self-protection, and therefore it was easy for the Yin Sha to erode the seal of the talisman array it had constructed.

"You...what kind of evil magic is this?"

Zheng Canghai roared, his face turned ashen, and the true energy in his body rushed into the Whale Tooth Sword like a river bursting its banks, causing the blue-green rune to glow brightly, as if it was going to pierce the sky. The sword intent of heavenly punishment that had been accumulated for a long time was finally released again!
No matter what, no matter how clever the enemy's moves are, no matter how subtle the changes are, in terms of the level of strength displayed, he is still one level lower than him who is now slashing from above. Once we fight head-on, the advantage is still mine! Zheng Canghai thought so in his heart.

Then, a huge sword beam formed by green runes came down with all its strength. Wherever it passed, even the golden light in the sky seemed to be torn open, and a long, thin, slightly rippling glass lens appeared out of thin air, ethereal and pure.

That was the bright line revealed at the intersection of the vacuum and the external energy. Through the line ran an infinite amount of sword energy that was enough to cut a mountain in half. It could be said that there was no leakage of power, and all of it was concentrated on a thin line. And Zhao Qing was in the center of this line.

Then, the line of sword light suddenly shifted, as if the space itself was distorted. The green sword light passed through a sudden crystal fold at the moment when it was about to touch Zhao Qing, and strangely shifted its trajectory, brushing past her side and cutting into the empty space on the edge.

Along with the sharp sound of tearing cloth, a bottomless gully appeared on the water surface below, and countless mud flew out like arrows.

When the Heavenly Punishment Sword unexpectedly missed, the cold and gloomy Heavenly Demon ribbons, the purple flame arms that separated from Zhao Qing's body and the various magical weapons they held, flew past from a distance and simultaneously launched a massive offensive from dozens of other directions, surrounding and killing him.

Could it be the Mingjing Sword Body? This unique secret method of Lingxu Sword Sect flashed through his mind, and Zheng Canghai had no time to make any extra judgments. His mind was shocked, and he quickly activated a piece of Jihanxing stored in the depths of his Qi Sea, stirring the will of another person in his body.

……

Queen Zheng Xiu sat behind the desk in the study deep in the imperial palace, facing the spiritual spring surrounded by white spiritual energy.

There was a distance of a hundred steps between her and the spiritual spring, so her study seemed unusually empty, or rather... lonely.

Ever since she put on the crown and sat on the throne of the empress of the Qin Dynasty, she has always been so lonely. Today seems to be no different from usual. However, at this moment, she sits here quietly on the surface, but her thoughts and perceptions in the dark are rising straight up into the sky, going upstream through the starlight that is hard for people to perceive in the daytime, reaching the endless void that is hard for the eyes to reach.

In Zheng Xiu's perception, the starlight turned into pale sparks, falling continuously in the void, from invisible to visible, and then disappearing into nothingness, constantly changing.

The next moment, in the waters of the Wei River over a hundred miles away, in the cold and silent space thousands or even tens of thousands of feet above Zheng Canghai, countless comet-like starlight emerged, and then turned into pale, slender pillars of fire without any temperature, floating down one after another.

Countless beams of pale sparks fell, crossing the distance at an incredible speed. They were about to pass through the clouds that were flashing with colorful auroras and fall on the whale-tooth sword in Zheng Canghai's hand. Then they were refracted by the sword and launched an extremely fierce attack on Zhao Qing.

Just like Zheng Canghai used the "Heavenly Punishment Sword Sutra" before, drawing down a beam of light from the sky and refracting it for his own use, because the two sword sutras actually have similar origins, the "Heavenly Punishment Sword" is the basis for cultivating the "Starfire Comet Sword". In this case, Zheng Xiu's sword intent should be able to cooperate better.

But neither of them expected that the falling pale sparks would encounter an unexpected barrier on the way. It was a cloud dyed with colorful clouds and containing millions of rotating ice crystals. It seemed to be passing through this area.

The colorful cloud looked ordinary, but the moment the pale sparks touched it, it burst into dazzling light. The sparks collided with the cloud, but did not penetrate it immediately. Instead, they were refracted one by one by the rotating ice crystals, and the direction became chaotic.

Although it set half of the sky on fire and burned all the black ice in an instant, and the clouds disappeared immediately, it eventually lost its original trajectory and could not accurately fall on the whale-tooth sword. Instead, it scattered in the vast space and its power was greatly reduced.

"It seems that your reinforcements are not reliable."

Sensing that the means he had prepared were successful, Zhao Qing smiled slightly, his body turned lightly in the air, his ten fingers constantly changing, controlling the ribbons, flaming arms, and magic weapons to attack the panicked Zheng Canghai.

The most crucial time and the remaining true energy were wasted on summoning the sparks, but to no avail. Zheng Canghai was no longer able to defend himself at this moment. When he was about to tear open the golden scapegoat and make a last stand, a sword intent like a sledgehammer hit his head hard, causing him to stagger.

Immediately afterwards, the colorful true sword energy swept across the area where Zheng Canghai was, turning him into ashes. Only the dull whale-tooth sword, the scapegoat golden talisman, several talismans representing the identity of the head of the Zheng family, and several bottles of rare elixirs that he had not had time to take during the battle remained.

"All in all, there's still plenty of time to collect spoils..."

The black lotus platform under Zhao Qing's feet slowly dissipated. She looked towards the riverbank that had been destroyed beyond recognition by the explosion and huge waves. There, Zhao Yi and Zhao Si, who were roaming the battlefield for this battle, were hiding.

……

At the same time, deep inside the Great Qin Imperial Palace, in a square bronze palace, Emperor Yuanwu, who was dressed in casual clothes, with untidy hair and beard, and unkempt yet the most powerful emperor in the history of the Great Qin, slowly raised his head and then let out a long sigh.

There seemed to be countless stars flowing in his pupils.

Although he had only recently officially broken through to the eighth realm of Qitian and was not yet able to fully utilize his newly gained strength and new abilities, Emperor Yuanwu's cultivation at this time had already surpassed the imagination of most of the seventh realm masters in the world.

Many secret techniques that were considered extremely difficult to practice or even conflicting to practitioners at the Moving Mountains Realm were now in his hands. He could master them once he learned them and achieve success once he practiced them. In just a few days, he could surpass the attainments of an ordinary master who would take several years to achieve.

If he used the Starfire Comet Tail Sword that he had initially cultivated successfully with the advantage of his realm, and combined it with the Starfire Flame Flow of Queen Zheng Xiu, he could theoretically forcibly penetrate the obstruction of the flowing cloud and provide timely support to Zheng Canghai who was in trouble, allowing him to survive and even turn defeat into victory.

But on the one hand, Jiaodong County openly used such a powerful weapon as the "Golden Crow Burning" on the Wei River, which was really a slap in the face of him who issued the relevant regulations; secondly, Yuan Wu had just swallowed a Youlongzhu that he obtained when he exterminated the Gongsun family in the past, and was preparing to make a final effort to enter the middle level of the eighth realm, but he did not want to consume too much true energy along the way.

Therefore, Emperor Yuanwu, who chose to be supported only by Zheng Xiu, could only watch Zheng Canghai's death because he had no mark to lock his life energy. He couldn't help but feel a little regretful, knowing that his relationship with Zheng Xiu might have become worse from then on.

The death of the head of the Zheng family and the apparent leader of Jiaodong County will undoubtedly cause considerable turmoil, disrupting the delicate balance of power established between him and the queen. The situation in the entire Qin Dynasty will become even more complicated and unpredictable.

"Pass the order down, block the news immediately, and do not let the news of Zheng Canghai's death spread throughout the court and the country."

Emperor Yuanwu gave the order in a deep voice, then closed his eyes and immersed himself once again in the mysterious changes brought about by the Youlongzhu that was decomposing in his body. That was the key to a higher realm, and also the cornerstone for him to consolidate his imperial power and suppress the four directions.

As for why he did not express his intention to immediately investigate the cause and people involved, it was naturally because, as early as when the nuclear torpedo exploded and the mushroom cloud rose, Ye Celeng who was patrolling nearby and many UFOs anchored at the Weihe Military Port had already set off at full speed and rushed to the scene.

……

According to Zhao Qing's agreed plan, it would only take Ye Celeng about half a quarter of an hour to arrive here and successfully take over the Zheng family fleet that had suffered heavy losses. In comparison, those ships that had just left the naval port would take at least half an hour at night.

After all, the "Water-Leaving Array", the driving force used by the Qin Dynasty's UFO ships, should be closely related to the "Water-Leaving Divine Art" that she practiced in Tianyi Pavilion. Under Ye Celeng's urging, the speed is much faster than other ships, and the distance itself is also closer.

But no one noticed that another master had arrived at the location where the fleet was intercepted earlier than Ye Celeng, and even witnessed the process of Zheng Canghai's defeat and killing on the way. More importantly, he was wearing a yellow robe exactly the same as the one worn by the people in Jiaodong County.

"Fourth Uncle... So you've long been a member of the Queen's faction... My brother and I have been kept in the dark by you! You deliberately concealed this matter, could it be that you wanted to trick us at the critical moment?"

The Seventh Realm Grandmaster named Zheng Bainiao came very quickly at first, but when he saw the pale sparks summoned from the sky, he immediately slowed down and whispered to himself: "But now it seems that you made the wrong choice, Fourth Uncle. No wonder you ended up dying in a foreign land."

"Jiaodong County is our Zheng family's Jiaodong County after all, not the Queen's Jiaodong County... The disputes and disturbances in Jiaodong County will depend on my eldest brother to personally quell them!"

Zheng Bainiao pondered secretly in his heart, looking around with cold eyes. After confirming that no one noticed his presence, he disappeared into the dense forest on the river bank, full of worries about the future of his family.

At this moment, in addition to the major internal factional conflict that has not yet broken out, there have also been some actions of backstabbing "relatives and friends" among the severely damaged ironclad fleet.

...(End of chapter)