At that time, two squads of Transcendent guards stood watch outside the tea room.
After Steward Song had finished pouring the tea, he knelt to one side in silence.
Song Guang sat cross-legged with an air of calm composure, while a garish young woman leaned against him nearby.
Across from him sat Jiang Wang and Chongxuan Sheng, both sitting directly on the ground with their legs crossed.
Chongxuan Sheng took a sip of the tea and nodded approvingly at Steward Song. "Not bad!" he said.
Only then did he turn to Song Guang. "Governor Song, the situation in Chiwei County is on a knife's edge. We need to come to some kind of agreement as soon as possible..."
"Don't rush it." Song Guang waved his hand dismissively. His hand bore the characteristic gauntness of old age, yet the knuckles were thick and sturdy, radiating a wiry strength.
He deliberately shifted his gaze to Jiang Wang. "I remember you."
"You do," Jiang Wang replied, neither servile nor haughty. "I came to visit you regarding the rat plague disaster, Governor."
At that moment, the woman beside Song Guang shrieked, "You're Jiang Wang?"
Jiang Wang furrowed his brow. Then he heard her continue to screech: "You're the one who killed my godson?"
It turned out this was Song Guang's fourth concubine. The one who had died in Qingyang Town—Shi Jing—had taken her as his godmother to climb aboard Song Guang's ship.
Judging by the woman's demeanor, she clearly enjoyed considerable favor from Song Guang.
Jiang Wang ignored her entirely and addressed Song Guang instead. "That is precisely why I have come to offer my apologies to the Governor."
"Apologies? What good are apologies! Can the dead come back to life?" the woman shrieked again.
Song Guang gently patted the woman's hand, signaling for her to quiet down.
His eyes, however, remained fixed on Jiang Wang. "When you visited last time, did I ever treat you with discourtesy?"
There had certainly been some discourtesy, but Jiang Wang could only say, "No."
Song Guang pressed on: "Is there any enmity between you and me?"
Jiang Wang shook his head. "There is not."
Song Guang asked again: "Then, does my wife hold a grudge against you?"
Jiang Wang shook his head once more. "I do not know her."
Song Guang nodded, then turned away from Jiang Wang and addressed Chongxuan Sheng directly. "Young Master Chongxuan, you've heard everything, haven't you?"
This was a demand for Chongxuan Sheng to take a stand.
Chongxuan Sheng's smile never wavered as he looked at the woman. "Fourth Madame Song, is that right?"
The woman let out a cold huff to show her anger had not yet subsided.
"A godson past fifty—what exactly did you see in him?" Chongxuan Sheng asked, his smile gradually fading. "Were you short on his cosmetics money, or did the man actually... possess some unknown talent?"
The remark was outrageous, and Song Guang's face instantly turned cold. "What exactly is Young Master Chongxuan implying?"
"What am I implying?" Chongxuan Sheng raised his voice. "Shi Jing is a dried-up corpse in a grave, and you, Song Guang, are a withering old wreck! I set aside military affairs to come here personally and negotiate with you, giving you more face than you deserve—and you send out this filthy whore to disgust me? What exactly are you implying?"
The woman clammed up like a chicken with its neck wrung—furious and terrified, yet not daring to make a sound.
Though she was ordinarily quite arrogant, riding on Song Guang's favor, she understood all too well the weight that the Chongxuan surname carried. She could only look at Song Guang with a grievance-stricken face, waiting for her master to respond.
Being berated like this, Song Guang could hardly maintain his composure. His expression turned ugly.
But after all, Chongxuan Sheng was a young master of the Chongxuan family's direct bloodline—he did indeed have the standing to be this brazen.
Song Guang reined in his temper and said in a low voice: "I am very willing to serve the State of Qi. But before I commit to any partnership, I need to see your sincerity!"
He had no inkling of the true purpose behind Chongxuan Sheng's and Jiang Wang's visit. Both were merely at the Tenglong realm in cultivation—this itself was the ultimate disguise.
He was an Inner Fane realm powerhouse. Two squads of guards stood outside the tea room. The entire county seat was filled with his men, and seventy thousand battle-hardened soldiers were garrisoned outside the walls. What assassin would dare seek death here?
Moreover, given Chongxuan Sheng's noble status, how could he possibly take such a risk?
In truth, up to this point, Song Guang had merely assumed Chongxuan Sheng was throwing a young lord's temper tantrum.
But Chongxuan Sheng looked at him and said softly: "The distance between us is not ten paces."
Song Guang had deliberately brought his concubine along and brought up Shi Jing.
Perhaps he was looking for a quarrel. Perhaps he was probing. Perhaps he simply wanted to drive up the price.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Halfway through his sentence, Chongxuan Sheng had already sprung to his feet.
"This is my sincerity!"
Chongxuan Sheng was very fat, and so his movements required considerable effort.
Precisely because the effort was so great, when he moved at all, he demanded a return!
How strong was Chongxuan Sheng after he had pushed open the Gate of Heaven and Earth?
At the very least, Jiang Wang—who had once had a shot at being the strongest of the Celestial Palace realm—had not possessed a shred of victory against Chongxuan Sheng. Remember, when Jiang Wang was at the Celestial Palace realm, he could kill ordinary Tenglong realm powerhouses as easily as killing a chicken.
And the moment Chongxuan Sheng rose, his massive hand was already reaching forward.
An invisible, formless force instantly enveloped Song Guang, who had just sensed the danger.
What was the Inner Fane?
The Five Fanes of the human body—each one opened like a new Celestial Palace!
Though Song Guang had not grasped a Divine Ability, he was already a two-Fane powerhouse. Having opened two Inner Fanes, along with his Celestial Palace, there were three wellsprings of power within his body.
Both Inner Fanes and the Celestial Palace roared to life simultaneously, channeling an inexhaustible stream of Transcendent power throughout his entire body.
But.
He was still being pulled helplessly toward Chongxuan Sheng!
That invisible, formless, yet overwhelmingly powerful force surged in from every direction.
Behind him was a ferocious repulsive force. Before him was a terrifying suction.
As though the entire world were "rejecting" him, "crushing" him, squeezing him into Chongxuan Sheng's grip.
In an instant, Song Guang realized what this force was.
This was the Chongxuan Secret Art.
The very origin of the Chongxuan surname!
Before opening the Gate of Heaven and Earth, Chongxuan Sheng could only augment the Chongxuan art onto basic Dao Arts. But after pushing open the Gate, he could now use the Chongxuan art directly against his enemies.
This was the bloodline secret art upon which the Chongxuan family stood supreme in the world—nearly equivalent to a Divine Ability!
Why could the great noble houses endure for a thousand years? It was because they did not need to grasp a Divine Ability to wield the fighting power of one.
Song Guang understood the situation perfectly. He knew his cultivation had stagnated for years and had long since begun its decline. The reason he had desperately plundered wealth was solely to accumulate resources in exchange for rare treasures that might help him.
If he were to face Chongxuan Sheng, who had cultivated his bloodline secret art to this degree, he would stand no chance. But the guards were just outside the door, and the army was stationed just beyond the city walls—as long as he could carve out the slightest opening, it would be enough to turn the tide.
And now, with all three wellsprings unable to halt his body's forward pull, Song Guang steeled himself and detonated one of his Inner Fanes outright!
BOOM!
A muffled detonation like a deep thunderclap exploded within his body. Violent and colossal force burst outward from the ruptured Inner Fane, finally allowing Song Guang to break free, if only momentarily, from that all-encompassing gravitational pull.
But almost in the same breath, Jiang Wang's mind stirred and his Dao Art was unleashed.
After stepping into the Tenglong realm, having exhausted all his accumulated merit, he had used the Dao-Witnessing Altar—unsealed to the second layer—to exhaustively deduce Tiger Bind. The resulting advanced Dao Art had reached the First-Grade tier of Dao Art classification: Five-Qi Tiger Bind!
Song Guang's Inner Fane had just detonated, and the Five Qi within his body had scattered in an instant—but in the very next heartbeat, under Jiang Wang's guidance, they "reconverged," forming five chains of elemental qi that bound the exploding Song Guang from the inside out!
The restraint lasted only a fleeting instant.
But in that single instant, a flash of cold light streaked across the tea room!
Clatter. A severed head tumbled onto the tea table, rolling several times before coming to a rest.
And only then did Song Guang's headless corpse follow—blood erupting wildly!