Fang Chen's expression shifted slightly.
The people around them were furious yet dared not speak. After beating the scholar, the Qingsong Kingdom martial artist pointed at Fang Chen and said, "If you don't believe it, ask your so-called Military God here and see if I'm lying or telling the truth!"
"M-Military God Fang, tell us they're just boasting! How could the Xiao family possibly force you into a matrilocal marriage?!"
The scholar's face was swollen and bruised from the beatings, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, yet he stared fixedly at Fang Chen, seemingly waiting for something.
"The Xiao family did indeed propose."
Fang Chen said softly.
Hum—
Though the scholar had taken dozens of slaps and was barely managing to stand, upon hearing Fang Chen's words, he seemed to lose all the strength in his body and slumped to the ground.
The Daxia citizens around them wore looks of bewilderment.
If even the former Military God was entering a matrilocal marriage with the Xiao family, what hope was left for Daxia?
"Hahaha, hahaha! Heaven is destroying Daxia, Daxia is doomed to fall!"
The scholar suddenly burst into wild laughter toward the sky, uttering treasonous words, yet the people around him remained silent, none stepping forward to stop him.
"Who says Daxia is going to fall? Even if Heaven wants to destroy Daxia, shouldn't it ask me first?"
Fang Chen said faintly.
The scholar's laughter cut off abruptly, and he looked at Fang Chen with a mixture of shock and suspicion.
Fang Chen didn't elaborate, instead turning to the Qingsong Kingdom martial artist. "What's your name?"
"Heaven has to ask you first? How utterly arrogant! Hehe, I'm called Long Sheng. What are your orders, good-son-in-law?"
The Qingsong Kingdom martial artist sneered mockingly.
"When I take up my sword again, you will be the very first person I behead."
Fang Chen gave a faint smile and walked straight past them.
At these words, the group instinctively tensed to react, but Fang Chen suddenly turned back to look at them. His ashen, lifeless eyes seemed to condense a chilling, soul-piercing majesty, freezing them in their tracks.
By the time they snapped out of it, Fang Chen had already walked away.
"Just a useless cripple talking big."
The Qingsong Kingdom martial artist muttered resentfully.
Yet deep down, a lingering chill gripped him—just now, Fang Chen's gaze had felt capable of piercing the human heart and seeing through everything!
Strolling and drinking tea, Fang Chen eventually arrived at a small courtyard nestled on the outskirts of the Capital.
The courtyard appeared to have been abandoned for a long time, covered everywhere in dust. Fang Chen stood quietly for a moment before suddenly speaking:
"You're here."
"Young lord!"
Gaze after gaze burning with excitement locked onto Fang Chen. Unbeknownst when, dozens of figures had filled the courtyard. They were dressed in all manner of attire: some looked like street vendors, some wore scholarly robes, some were brightly and lavishly dressed, while others wore tight martial garb with long swords at their waists...
Yet in Fang Chen's heart, they were the Daxia Shadow Guards—the sharp, lethal weapons he had forged with his own hands!
Chapter 4: Purple Lightning Talisman
"Have you all been well these past five years?"
Fang Chen turned to face the crowd and smiled faintly.
In truth, he had always known what these people had experienced over the past five years; after all, whenever he had the time, his soul would ascend, and to him, the Daxia Capital held virtually no secrets.
"Young lord, we have not been well."
Someone suddenly spoke up.
"That's right, we haven't been well! Every time we heard those bastards insult the young lord, we were itching to draw our swords and cut them down, but the young lord forbade it!"
"Young lord, five years! You haven't set foot in this courtyard once in all this time. Coming here today... does this mean we are being reactivated?"
Another asked.
The crowd's spirits instantly lifted as they looked at Fang Chen with intense anticipation.
"My cultivation is now completely destroyed. If I reactivate you, are you still willing to take orders under my command? You must know that by now, any single one of you could easily defeat me."
Fang Chen said with an ambiguous smile.
"Young lord, who would dare?! As long as the young lord reactivates us, we will forever remain your loyal Daxia Shadow Guards!"
A robust figure stepped forward, tiger eyes sweeping over the crowd. His aura was formidable—clearly having reached the Peak Qi Burst stage of the Human Profound Realm.
Such cultivation placed him among the very top-tier experts in the Daxia Kingdom.
"Xu Ge is right! Following the young lord, we never cared about the young lord's martial cultivation! Whatever the young lord commands—be it mountains of blades or seas of fire—we will charge through it!"
The others lowered their voices, as if afraid outsiders might overhear, yet the determination in their words was absolute.
"Young lord, the daughter of Wolf Marshal Xiao is arriving in the Capital tomorrow. If we make a move, we can ambush and kill her halfway, and we can keep casualties under thirty percent!"
Someone said viciously.
"It seems none of you have been idle; you've even caught wind of this news."
The corners of Fang Chen's mouth curved upward slightly. "But you seem to have forgotten one thing: the reason the Daxia Shadow Guards are called guards is to protect and defend, not to act as assassins. I don't need you to kill people for me. The only thing you must do is protect Daxia. With your talents, wasting them as assassins would be a pity."
"Young lord, what should we do then?"
Xu Ge lowered his voice and asked.
"My coming here today is to reactivate you. All you need to do is wait quietly. There is no need for you to act just yet. Xu Ge, stay behind; the rest of you, return to wherever you came from. If some are not currently in the Capital, you can relay messages on their behalf."
Fang Chen said calmly.
The crowd was slightly startled, but the habits drilled into them over a long period meant they never questioned Fang Chen's orders. Even with lingering reluctance, they could only quietly disperse.
"Young lord, what are your orders?"
Xu Ge's voice was steady, though the excitement on his face was unmistakable.
"I need a wolf-hair brush, top-quality cinnabar, and top-quality yellow talisman paper. Also, the Shadow Courtyard has gotten a bit dusty; it needs a good cleaning."
Fang Chen smiled.
Xu Ge paused for a second, then nodded slightly. "Please wait a moment, young lord. I will go purchase these items."
About half an hour later, Xu Ge returned with everything.
Rolling up his sleeves to begin cleaning the courtyard, he cast curious glances at Fang Chen, watching him sit in the courtyard writing and sketching on yellow paper. His expression gradually turned peculiar:
"Is the young lord drawing talismans? But isn't he blind... Oh well, thinking about it gives me a headache; the young lord must have a purpose for doing this."
Ceasing his guesswork, Xu Ge focused entirely on the cleaning. For him, the reactivation of the Shadow Courtyard today was a joyous occasion—nothing else mattered!
"Among the introductory chapters of the Three Thousand Dao Methods, there are four types of talismans: the Vajra Talisman, the Wind-Walking Talisman, and the Herculean Talisman. These three belong to the 9th grade with mediocre effects, but... the fourth, the Purple Lightning Talisman, is an 8th-grade talisman with astonishing power."
Fang Chen sat quietly for a moment, glancing at the preliminary drafts he had made. Feeling ready, he began to mobilize the spiritual qi within his body.
Talismans could only take effect when drawn using spiritual qi.
The Purple Lightning Talisman was Fang Chen's target for today. Having just stepped onto the path of immortality, his cultivation was merely at the starting line—inferior even to his past self as a martial artist.
To turn the tables and awe the Qingsong Kingdom, he needed thunderous, overwhelming means!
Thinking a few practice runs would make drawing the Purple Lightning Talisman effortless, Fang Chen discovered that the moment he truly mobilized his spiritual qi and put brush to paper, the spiritual qi inside him plummeted by five percent.
Only then did he realize that drawing talismans consumed a massive amount of spiritual qi.
Not daring to hesitate, Fang Chen intended to complete it in one go to test whether his internal spiritual qi was sufficient to draw a single Purple Lightning Talisman.
Not only was the spiritual qi consumption ferocious, but the wolf-hair brush saturated with spiritual qi also slipped out of his control. Intending to go one way, it veered off in another, and the talisman paper was ruined instantly!
"Drawing talismans is no easy task."
Fang Chen came to understand this truth.
Yet he simultaneously discovered that the spiritual qi he had just expended was recovering at an astonishing speed—a phenomenon far from normal.
"Could it be that my soul is relatively potent, causing my spiritual qi recovery rate to be far superior to ordinary people?"
With a flicker of thought, Fang Chen seemed to grasp something.
He smiled and resumed concentrating on drawing the Purple Lightning Talisman.
This drawing session lasted a full day.
Night had fallen, though it made no difference to Fang Chen; his eyes were already blind. Over a hundred failed sheets of yellow paper were stacked beside the table.
The Shadow Courtyard had been cleaned to a pristine finish by Xu Ge, who now stood quietly in the shadows of the courtyard, keeping watch over Fang Chen.
"Just how long is the young lord going to draw... Marshal Xiao's daughter arrives in the Capital tomorrow..."
Xu Ge grew inwardly anxious.
"Almost there. This one should succeed."
Fang Chen picked up a fresh piece of talisman paper. With the experience of over a hundred failures, he was gradually mastering the technique of drawing the Purple Lightning Talisman.
Fortunately, his spiritual qi could recover rapidly. Throughout the day, his qi had been completely depleted countless times, yet each time it bounced back to its peak at a visible rate.
Not only that, he discovered that every time his spiritual qi was completely exhausted, the recovered peak grew slightly stronger. In just this single day, his spiritual qi had increased by twenty to thirty percent!
Before long, it might be enough to condense a second immortal vein and break through to the 2nd Level Qi Condensation!
Though blind, Fang Chen wielded his brush with divine precision. The wolf-hair brush, brimming with spiritual qi, moved across the yellow paper like a soaring dragon, every vigorous stroke carrying a dense aura of immortality.
Time ticked away second by second.
This time, he successfully completed a Purple Lightning Talisman without a single flaw.
As the final stroke settled, a surge of thunder-attribute spiritual qi from the heavens and earth converged frantically, sinking into the talisman paper. In the pitch-black courtyard, a flash of lightning flickered and vanished!
"Was that thunder?! Or are my eyes playing tricks on me?!"
Xu Ge snapped straight, instinctively rubbing his eyes. The courtyard was dead silent, save for the straight-backed figure sitting before the table.
Yet he had clearly seen a flash of lightning just now—was it just his imagination?
"Such dense thunder spiritual qi. This Purple Lightning Talisman has indeed succeeded."
A rare smile touched Fang Chen's expressionless face.
If it took him half an hour to draw one, and with four to five hours remaining until dawn, he could produce at least eight or nine more.
Chapter 5: Goddess Xiao
Fang Chen had yet to realize that the Purple Lightning Talisman, which he currently found quite simple, was an extremely difficult threshold for ordinary Qi Refining cultivators to cross.
The talisman was far too intricate; the slightest error would render all previous efforts worthless. Beyond that, the greatest difficulty lay in the depletion of spiritual qi.
Ordinary cultivators might exhaust their qi after a few failures, requiring several days to recover their peak state.
Accumulating over a hundred attempts' worth of experience could take months, and some might fail a thousand times without ever successfully drawing a single complete Purple Lightning Talisman.
After all, this was an 8th-grade talisman with terrifying might.
Had Daoist Yunhe been present, he undoubtedly would have been shocked by the scene before him.
Already laid out before Fang Chen were nine 8th-grade Purple Lightning Talismans, and his hand was actively working on the tenth. He seemed immune to fatigue, his spiritual qi growing more abundant with every use—the only thing lacking was time.
Xu Ge had long since realized he wasn't hallucinating, for every time Fang Chen finished drawing a talisman, he could clearly see a flash of lightning cut through the air!
"In this world... talismans actually exist! I always thought they were just scams used by wandering charlatans... The young lord truly is the young lord. In five years, he has never truly given up!"
Xu Ge's spirits soared.
As the tenth Purple Lightning Talisman was completed, the thunder phenomenon manifested once more. Once the thunder qi sank into the paper, Fang Chen put away the ten talismans.
"Xu Ge, you've reached the peak of Qi Burst, your fame in the Capital is gradually rising, and many people know you. Have you ever thought about stepping down as a Daxia Shadow Guard one day?"
Fang Chen looked at Xu Ge and smiled.
Panicking, the burly man instantly felt his eye sockets burn hot. "Young lord, what have I done wrong? Why are you trying to chase me away?!"
"When did I say I was chasing you away?"
Fang Chen smiled.
Xu Ge breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly asked, "Then why did you say that? Your subordinate is a Daxia Shadow Guard for a day, and a Daxia Shadow Guard for life!"
"Five years ago, the soldiers by my side fell one by one. I need someone to stand by my side, to step into the limelight and handle matters out in the open. If that happens, you can no longer remain hidden in the shadows."
Fang Chen said calmly.
The reason the Daxia Shadow Guards had the word 'shadow' in their name was because no one knew of their existence—not the Emperor, not the Daxia citizens, and not the Qingsong Kingdom.
Aside from Fang Chen, only his father, Fang Canghai, knew a few inside details, and even then, merely the tip of the iceberg.
Normally, the Shadow Guards performed their respective duties without anyone knowing their connection to Fang Chen. To outsiders, they were complete strangers.
If Xu Ge stepped into the limelight, he naturally could no longer serve as a Shadow Guard.
"Does that mean I'll be able to follow by the young lord's side day and night?"
Xu Ge asked in shock.
Fang Chen smiled and nodded.
"I'm willing! I'm willing!"
Xu Ge said excitedly.
"The sun is about to rise. Let's return to the General's Estate."
Fang Chen walked out of the courtyard.
Xu Ge hurried to keep pace, asking casually, "Young lord, how did you know the sun is about to rise? Is your vision..."
"I still can't see a thing, but there are many things in this world that don't require eyes to see."
Fang Chen smiled mysteriously.
Xu Ge half-understood, finally murmuring, "Only the young lord could pull that off. If I were blind, I probably wouldn't even be able to walk down a road."
In his heart, the young lord was invincible—the ultimate goal he would chase for the rest of his life!
As the two left the Shadow Courtyard, a special procession arrived outside the gates of the Daxia Capital.
The contingent numbered over a hundred people, every single one riding giant wolves the size of an adult human's shoulders. These wolves possessed coat-fur of pure silver and a magnificent, striking appearance!
Atop their backs sat martial artists wreathed in dense, chilling killing intent. Their movements were perfectly synchronized and expressionless, their eyes occasionally flashing with a hint of faint contempt.
Though it was early morning, the city gates were already open, and Daxia soldiers were stationed at their posts, with citizens constantly flowing in and out.
Upon spotting this procession, the expressions of the crowd shifted drastically, terror washing over their faces. Some even turned and fled in panic.
This contingent belonged to the Wolf Army, which had clashed with Daxia countless times!
Their commander was Wolf Marshal Xiao of the Xiao family, hailed as the premier wolf marshal and strongest expert of the Qingsong Kingdom!
"Goddess Xiao has arrived!"
"We respectfully welcome Goddess Xiao!"
Qingsong Kingdom martial artists, alerted by the news, rushed over and immediately displayed ecstatic, thrilled expressions, bowing repeatedly.
Seeing these Qingsong martial artists—who usually ran roughshod over the Daxia Capital—acting so deferential toward the procession, the faces of the Daxia citizens grew even more complex and fearful.
At the center of the wolf pack stood a silver wolf even larger and more majestic than the rest. A young girl sat upon its back, looking to be barely seventeen or eighteen years old. Her eyes were bright and lively, and her bronze-colored skin reflected a dazzling, intimidating luster under the rising sun.
A closer look revealed slender, shapeless legs and exquisitely natural facial features. She gazed at the Daxia Capital before her, the corners of her mouth curling into an elusive smile.
This girl was none other than Wolf Marshal Xiao's daughter—hailed as a goddess since birth, Goddess Xiao!
At that moment, a squad clad in Daxia military uniform approached the gates. The commanding general, seeing the Wolf Army, shifted his expression slightly before looking toward Goddess Xiao and cupping his fists.
"I am You Longchang, Deputy General of the West Tiger Camp, here by imperial decree to welcome Lady Xiao!"
"You people should have been waiting here long ago."
Goddess Xiao said offhandedly.
"It is my fault for arriving late. Please forgive me, Goddess Xiao."
You Longchang's expression twisted slightly as he suppressed his inner anger and offered a low explanation.
"Give him two slaps."
Goddess Xiao said indifferently.
Boom—
A figure shot up from the Wolf Army, materializing in front of You Longchang in a flash. *Slap! Slap!* Two sharp blows landed across his face before the figure zipped right back.
The movement was as fluid as flowing water; You Longchang hadn't even had time to react.
"Now I've forgiven you."
Goddess Xiao smiled.
Dead silence gripped the surroundings. You Longchang's face burned red with humiliation, and his soldiers trembled with rage.
This Qingsong Wolf Army dared to openly strike a Deputy General of the West Tiger Camp?!
"General!"
Unable to take it, a West Tiger Camp soldier rested his hand on the hilt of his waist saber.
"Don't act rashly. The one who just struck is at least an Early Qi Control expert, and Goddess Xiao is an honored guest named by His Majesty. Any rash provocation will cost you your head."
You Longchang said in a low voice.
He then looked toward Goddess Xiao and cupped his fists. "Since Lady Xiao has forgiven us, I will say no more. His Majesty is already waiting in the palace. Please, Lady Xiao..."
"Remember to send someone to notify the Fang General's Estate. I expect to see Military God Fang in your imperial palace today. After all, I've prepared a grand palanquin to marry him."
Goddess Xiao smiled.
"Rest assured, Lady Xiao, someone has already been sent to deliver the message to the Fang General's Estate. You will meet Fang Chen in the palace."
You Longchang said solemnly.
"Very well. Lead the way."
Goddess Xiao smiled sweetly.
Chapter 6: Both Tiger and Sovereign
The Fang General's Estate.
Fang Canghai sat squarely in the primary seat. To his left sat a middle-aged matron, while to his right sat a middle-aged man bearing a five-to-six-part resemblance to Fang Canghai, seated in a wooden wheelchair with a fox-fur blanket draped over his knees.
"Big brother, sister-in-law, I hear Goddess Xiao has entered the Capital. Have you truly decided to let Chen'er marry into the Xiao family?"
The middle-aged man spoke indifferently.
"Third brother, I know you blame your big brother, and my heart aches for Chen'er too, but given the current situation, our Fang family has no other choice."
The middle-aged matron sighed softly. "With the hundred thousand wolf troops of the Qingsong Kingdom, Daxia no longer has any military force capable of resisting them. Since the battle five years ago, our Daxia has grown weaker day by day while Qingsong has continued to grow stronger. If Wolf Marshal Xiao truly leads an army to attack, Daxia probably won't last a year."
"Won't last a year... Heh... Heh..."
The middle-aged man muttered to himself with a self-deprecating chuckle.
Just then, Fang Zhixue walked in and spoke in a low voice: "Father, Mother, Second Uncle, Big Brother went out yesterday and hasn't returned..."
"Could Big Brother have already left?"
"Given your big brother's temperament, even if Wolf Marshal Xiao arrived in person, he would meet him face-to-face. How could he possibly fear Wolf Marshal Xiao's daughter?"
The middle-aged man smiled faintly. "Chen'er is probably taking the opportunity before leaving Daxia to handle some personal matters."
"Indeed."
Fang Canghai and his wife nodded slightly, knowing their son well.
Sometimes, they almost wished Fang Chen would simply vanish without a trace, where no one could find him. As for the consequences, they lacked the heart to think about or care for them.