The words caused the Zhu family members to turn pale. Zhu Wensong's face turned ashen:
"Chen Jiuyang, don't you consider your own interests at all?"
"Liu Hanguang, you were injured by us back then and still haven't recovered your Earth realm cultivation. My Zhu family can offer a Half-Mark Pill to help you recover from your hidden injuries and return to the Earth realm."
Liu Hanguang chuckled, "A Half-Mark Pill, that's sky-high priced. A good item that money can't buy."
Pills were classified as mortal, then ascended to Three-Revolutions, Six-Revolutions, and then to One-Mark pills.
Pills with marks meant their primary medicinal effects were maximized. Pills with 'marks' could only be refined from at least spirit herbs.
Liu Hanguang said, "It's a pity. I am very tempted, but Marquis Xuanyang has already healed my hidden injuries, and I have already returned to the Earth realm."
Zhu Wensong's face turned ashen and he stared grimly at Chen Jiuyang.
Chen Jiuyang lightly swung his Yan Sheng Saber, his voice as cold and stern as a deity's:
"The world bustles for profit. I, Chen Jiuyang, am not a saint detached from worldly affairs. I also need what you speak of."
"But these things, I, Chen Jiuyang, will obtain them with my own fists, with the saber in my hand, and with my own capabilities."
"I don't need bribes from scum like you."
"I'll ask my previous question again: what is the price for the lives of your Zhu family members?"
Zhu Wensong pondered for a moment, his face ashen, then he roared angrily:
"My Zhu family's Ziyang County lineage is descended from sages. We can die, but we will not be disgraced!"
"Attack! Kill them!"
"If I had known this, why bother with so many words," Chen Jiuyang said with a stern face, sneering coldly. He raised his Yan Sheng Saber and slashed down.
"Whoosh—"
"Crack—"
Immediately, a dozen Zhu family martial artists with low martial cultivation died under Chen Jiuyang's saber strike.
"Officer Liu, please keep an eye on the common folk, and prevent them from doing what happened during the Song and Ming dynasties."
During the Song and Ming dynasties, how the borders fell step by step, by pushing unarmed common farmers to the front, forcing defending generals and officers to hesitate. The most famous was the Manchus forcing the Ming capital with a hundred thousand common farmers.
"I understand," Liu Hanguang responded loudly. "Brothers, control those ordinary people without martial cultivation. Make sure Marquis Xuanyang doesn't accidentally injure a single commoner."
Chen Jiuyang's purpose was righteous, to clear out these aristocratic families that were like tumors. Killing martial artists was acceptable, but killing an unarmed commoner would cause immense trouble.
As Liu Hanguang's voice fell, hundreds of Six Doors constables from Ziyang County appeared and guarded the surroundings.
"Chen Jiuyang, you country bumpkin, die!"
From the crowd, a furious shout erupted. Zhu Wensong, holding a golden spear, his true qi erupting, revealed his Earth realm cultivation. He lunged towards Chen Jiuyang with a spear strike.
"Well met!"
Chen Jiuyang leaped thirty feet into the air. Facing Zhu Wensong's fierce spear thrust, he met it head-on with his Yan Sheng Saber, imbued with Chen Jiuyang's terrifying strength and vital energy.
"Rumble!"
The pure force collided, erupting with terrifying air explosions nearby.
Liu Hanguang, watching the battle from a distance, frowned slightly. "What is Marquis Xuanyang doing? Why isn't he using true qi techniques and is instead relying purely on close-quarters combat?"
"Could it be due to the issue of his martial path creation?"
Chen Jiuyang and Zhu Wensong exchanged dozens of blows. Chen Jiuyang was constantly suppressing Zhu Wensong with his immense strength, yet he didn't use any martial techniques to finish him off, like a cat playing with a mouse.
"You brat! How dare you humiliate me like this!"
Zhu Wensong was so enraged he felt like spitting blood. Fighting against Chen Jiuyang, he understood best that Chen Jiuyang was using him as a whetstone for his martial path, even a stepping stone.
The more he sparred with Zhu Wensong, the more Chen Jiuyang felt a surge of exhilaration. Stepping out of his comfort zone and returning to the feeling of walking on the edge of a blade, as he did when he first began cultivating martial arts, deepened his understanding of his own martial path.
This path was not wrong!
However, the method of using true qi seemed to be flawed.
The Heavenly King Alliance was right. After entering the Earth realm, if martial artists followed the ancient Qi cultivator methods, focusing on the power of the soul, they neglected the tempering of their own vital energy and physical body.
The power of the soul, the techniques might be terrifying, but it seemed to have lost the original meaning of a martial artist.
In the Medical Immortal's inheritance, Pure Yang Medical Immortal followed the ancient cultivation methods. But after Chen Jiuyang created Yuan Dao, he discovered that martial artists might not need to develop reliance on the power of the soul, but should instead focus on tempering their physical bodies and vital energy.
The feeling of "qi that pulls mountains and covers the world" surged into Chen Jiuyang's heart as the true path of a martial artist.
Divine might like a prison, ethereal like an immortal – that was the path of a cultivator, and perhaps not ideal in the current world.
In the depths of his being, Chen Jiuyang gained enlightenment.
Divine intent like might, the soul combined with true qi, was a divine intent technique.
Then, conversely, what about it?
Chen Jiuyang's soul combined with the vast true qi within his body and unleashed a saber strike—
"Rumble!"
The earth shook and mountains trembled. A saber light that reached the heavens flashed, dazzling and mesmerizing.
"Holy cow..."
Liu Hanguang's eyes were wide with disbelief.
Chen Jiuyang unleashed a saber strike, and a massive saber projection appeared, slashing down at Zhu Wensong.
"Ah..."
After a scream, Zhu Wensong was reduced to dust. This was not what shocked Liu Hanguang.
What shocked him was that after Chen Jiuyang's saber strike, the Zhu family mansion was completely destroyed, and a terrifying saber scar appeared on the entire mountain.
Seeing Chen Jiuyang unleash that strike, all the Zhu family members were stunned. Their gazes towards Chen Jiuyang were filled with fear.
With such terrifying and formidable strength, how could they possibly fight Chen Jiuyang?
It would only be courting death.
"Clang—"
Some Zhu family members holding weapons immediately dropped them, then knelt down with a thud, surrendering.
"Marquis Xuanyang, spare our lives! My Zhu family is willing to forfeit all our wealth and accept legal judgment and the sanctions of Six Doors!"
Chen Jiuyang frowned, a flicker of disappointment in his eyes. "As expected, they are spineless. You didn't let me have my fill."
The remaining Zhu family members shivered. This Chen Jiuyang was truly as bloodthirsty as rumored. As Marquis Xuanyang, raising his butcher's knife against the Four Clans and Sixteen Sects of Ziyang County, it wasn't to uphold justice in his heart, but to satisfy his killing intent, to let him kill to his heart's content, wasn't it?
The surrender of the entire Zhu family under Chen Jiuyang's single powerful move made Liu Hanguang's task easier. "Brothers, arrest them and take them back for interrogation one by one."
Then Liu Hanguang walked up to Chen Jiuyang, his eyes filled with admiration. "Marquis Xuanyang, your martial path is truly extraordinary..."
"It's nothing much," Chen Jiuyang replied calmly.
Liu Hanguang pointed to the saber scar on the mountain. "How did you achieve that move just now? Even a Grandmaster of the Earth realm, though powerful, cannot achieve such a feat..."
"Nothing," Chen Jiuyang said faintly, looking at the massive saber scar. "Just a bit of enlightenment."