Chapter 362: Chapter 1: Ways to Break the Bottleneck
Once, the land of the Great Zhou had entered a phase of three-way stand-off.
The three forces were essentially in a balance where no one could do anything to the others, much like the period of the Four Great Dynasties, and the lives of the common people were even better than before.
However, this was merely the surface of things.
Ordinary people, for the most part, did not have contact with the world of Martial Artists.
The Ming Dynasty had secretly dispatched many Martial Artists to begin searching for something, even led by a top-tier Great Grandmaster.
“Wang, we’ve gradually located those people, do we need to take action directly?”
King Jiang Dao of the Ming Dynasty nodded, “Go ahead and make your move, activate the backup plan, let’s not cause too much of a scene… Forget it, it’s up to you. The extent of the commotion no longer matters!”
He thought of the current situation and knew that hiding it was meaningless.
Someone went straight down to give the notice.
Tai Zhou, Wenxing Prefecture—one of the most historically developed places for literature in the Great Zhou, where several Great Scholars in the history of the Great Zhou had originated, and even now, it was still sought after by scholars everywhere.
In this atmosphere, there were not many Martial Artists in Wenxing Prefecture; most were ordinary people.
Today, a group of people entered the city of Wenxing Prefecture and came to the front of a large mansion with a sign hanging on the main gate reading “Shen Mansion.”
“Who would have thought that the once prominent Shen Family would be hiding in plain sight here? If it weren’t for our special methods, we might not have been able to find them.”
“No more useless talk; let’s go in, prepare the ‘Soul Loss Smoke,’ and offer no opportunities!”
“Do you still worry about how I handle things? It’s already prepared!”
At that moment, inside the Shen Family, the Clan Leader’s heart was racing, feeling that something bad was about to happen.
At his level of strength, such premonitions could not be easily ignored.
Yet before he could act, thick smoke enveloped the entire Shen Mansion.
He knew, diverting water during broad daylight affecting his area was impossible without any noise outside; something was definitely wrong.
He did not hesitate, and temporarily held his breath.
Ever since the Shen Family’s defeat and concealment, he had been extremely cautious.
Unfortunately, this time the enemy was also well-prepared.
Because he held his breath, he did not inhale any smoke, but the moment the smoke touched him, he felt the Qi Blood Power inside him shrinking and converging intensely.
This was not a good sign.
Though it was called convergence, it felt more like a siphoning of power, drawing away all his strength.
He felt his strength waning as if he had returned to the state before using the family’s heirloom artifact.
“How is this possible?!”
At that moment, a voice came through, “There’s nothing impossible here; the power that doesn’t belong to you will eventually return to the origin. But we do thank you for nurturing it so well, it’s grown quite plump!”
The Shen Family Patriarch wanted to say something when a flash of a blade cut through the smoke.
If it had been before, he might have resisted, but with his power siphoned away, he had no strength to resist and was beheaded with a single strike.
“That was really easy, no resistance at all.”
Another voice emerged.
“The thing passed down for thousands of years, trust had been embedded deep in their minds, naturally making it easy for us to find a gap. How about your side?”
“Problem solved; the Shen Family is exterminated.”
“Good, let’s leave. We still have other targets!”
Confirming the completion of their mission, the two left the Shen Mansion.
“It’s said that the Shen Family was once planning to straight up take over the Great Zhou, to become a National Guardian-level powerhouse overnight. Who knows what they were thinking.”
“Naturally, they must have acquired some information, but sadly, they still don’t understand that out with the old, in with the new is…”
The voice faded, and a day later, the news spread throughout Wenxing Prefecture.
The well-known Shen Family of Wenxing Prefecture had been exterminated, the perpetrator unknown.
Simultaneously, another family was destroyed, and still, no perpetrator was found.
Such events, though rare in the Martial Artist World, didn’t impact too many people.
Wang Sheng was initially unaware of this.
Until Zhu Xiao found him.
“One of our Zhu Family’s top-tier Great Grandmasters was killed, his body disappeared, and from the scene, it looks like the Great Grandmaster didn’t resist at all.”
“A top-tier Great Grandmaster? What secrets are there in Zhu Family’s depths?” Wang Sheng knew Zhu Xiao wouldn’t bring this up without reason.
“That top-tier Great Grandmaster was promoted through the Incense Fire Pearl, not a normal promotion.”
Wang Sheng’s expression turned grave.
If it involved the Incense Fire Pearl, the matter was not so simple; most likely, someone was targeting the Incense Fire Pearl.
“Jiang Family? Or others?”
This was the first possibility Wang Sheng thought of; the appearance of the Incense Fire Pearl was itself abnormal.
And the Jiang Family, a family from the first dynasty, was his first suspect.
“Most likely. It’s not just our family’s Great Grandmaster; in fact, two other families were exterminated, one being the Shen Family and the other being the Zhou Family represented by the former Crown Prince Zhou Qinghai…”
The Imperial College, the Great Zhou Crown Prince, and Zhu Xiao’s clansmen.
The directionality of these points was too obvious.
All of them were from the once nine influential families.
“If I’m not mistaken, the Zheng Family from the Cang Dynasty and the Wu Family from the Wu Dynasty didn’t escape either after the war, did they?”