Joy of Life: Me, the Second Prince? Summon Yuan Tiangang!

Faced with the thunderous blows of the two grandmasters, the old eunuch Hong Sixiang, who had been hunched over, suddenly straightened his back.

In that instant, the aura of old age and incompleteness emanating from him vanished.

Instead, there was an extremely cold and domineering true energy that seemed to freeze the surrounding air.

A terrifying glint flashed in Hong Sixiang's eyes. His hands emerged from his wide sleeves, his ten fingers like withered bones, yet gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen.

He knew how terrifying Si Gu Jian's sword was, and he also knew what he was facing.

But he did not back down, for he was His Majesty's old dog, and his mission was to shield His Majesty from all deadly threats.

"With this old servant here, who dares to be disrespectful!"

Hong Sixiang let out a sharp, long howl, and with his claws tearing through the air, he fiercely met Si Gu Jian's earth-shattering sword strike head-on.

A cold mockery flashed in Si Gu Jian's eyes.

"It really is you, you old eunuch. Today, I'll borrow your head for a bit!"

In Si Gu Jian's view, if Hong Si Xiang dared to challenge him, then he must be a Grandmaster.

Meanwhile, Ku He had already closed to within three zhang of Emperor Qing's head.

He looked at the Emperor of Nanqing, who still had his hands behind his back and didn't even glance at him. Although a hint of doubt flashed through his mind, his actions were not hesitant at all.

Ku He sighed softly and slapped down with his palm.

This palm strike, seemingly gentle and slow, actually contained the most fundamental destructive power of the Heavenly Dao.

Wherever the palm strike passed, the rainwater was instantly evaporated into white mist, and space itself seemed to distort.

If this palm strike lands squarely, it would shatter not only a mortal with no martial arts skills, but even an iron statue.

At that critical moment, when life and death hung by a thread!

Emperor Qing, who had been silent all along, suddenly moved.

He didn't look at the powerful palm strike from Ku He above him, which was capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, nor did he look at Hong Sixiang, who was about to clash with Si Gu Jian.

He merely turned his head slightly, facing Hong Sixiang, who had already resigned himself to death, and uttered two words indifferently:

"Step back."

These two words were spoken softly, without any emotional fluctuation, as casually as instructing a servant to pour a cup of tea.

However, these two words seem to possess an irresistible magic.

Hong Sixiang, who was about to clash with Si Gu Jian's sword intent, abruptly cut off the violently circulating true energy in his body the moment he heard those two words. Despite the backlash from the damage to his meridians, he forcibly twisted his body and retreated backward like a tattered sack!

Si Gu Jian was stunned.

"What's going on? Has this old dog gone mad? Does he not care about his own life or his master's?" A look of extreme astonishment flashed through Si Gu Jian's mind.

But the next moment, Si Gu Jian's astonishment turned into unprecedented horror!

Not only Si Gu Jian, but also Ku He, who was in mid-air with his palm less than a foot away from Emperor Qing's head, suddenly widened his eyes. For the first time, the emotion called "fear" appeared in those eyes that were always full of compassion!

Because, the moment Hong Sixiang stepped down, Emperor Qing made his move.

There are no fancy moves, no complicated marks.

Emperor Qing simply raised his right hand slowly, clenched it into a fist, and then, facing the palm strike from Ku He, threw a punch!

"boom--!!!"

This isn't thunder; it's the sound of true energy exploding after being compressed to an extreme!

The instant Emperor Qing threw his punch, an indescribable terrifying aura erupted from his seemingly frail body like a volcanic eruption!

The entire Taiping Villa seemed to have experienced an earthquake.

At this moment, the water on the lake surface defied the laws of gravity, being forced down several feet by this terrifying true energy. Immediately afterwards, countless water columns shot into the sky, turning into a sky full of water mist.

The raindrops falling from the sky evaporated instantly when they came within a ten-foot radius of Emperor Qing.

The bitter lotus was the first to bear the brunt.

His palm strike, imbued with the supreme mysteries of the Heavenly Dao, struck Emperor Qing's fist wind as if it had crashed into an unshakeable steel fortress.

"Snap!"

A sickening crack of bone breaking rang out clearly in the wind and rain.

Ku He's gaunt face instantly lost all color. He felt an overwhelming, domineering, and utterly unreasonable surge of true energy rushing into his meridians along his palm with devastating force.

His proud Heavenly Dao True Qi was instantly melted away like snow meeting the scorching sun in the face of this domineering True Qi!

"puff!"

Ku He spat out a mouthful of blood, and like a kite with a broken string, he flew backward at an even faster speed than he had come, crashing heavily onto the muddy ground more than ten feet away, creating a deep crater.

One punch!

Just one punch!

Ku He, the Grandmaster of Northern Qi, who was renowned throughout the world and revered as a god by countless people, was severely injured by a single punch!

This scene struck Si Gu Jian, who had just regained his footing, like a thunderbolt, leaving him frozen in place.

He stared intently at the Southern Qing Emperor, who was slowly retracting his fist and still standing there with an unyielding and insane gaze, his eyes filled with disbelief and madness.

"Grandmaster...you...you're the Grandmaster?!"

Si Gu Jian's voice became sharp and hoarse with extreme shock, as if fingernails were scraping against glass.

Only at this moment did Si Gu Jian and the severely injured Ku He finally realize the truth.

They were wrong!

Everyone in the world is wrong!

The Grandmaster who had been hiding deep within the Southern Qing Imperial Palace and intimidated the world for decades was not the old eunuch Hong Sixiang at all!

Hong Sixiang was nothing more than bait, a decoy, a ninth-rank peak expert who was pushed to the forefront by Emperor Qing to deceive people and attract attention!

Hong Sixiang is indeed very strong.

But a fake is still a fake.

The true grandmaster, the true number one person in the world, has always been the Emperor of Nanqing, who sits on the dragon throne and seems to know nothing about martial arts but only how to play power games!

"How is this possible..." Ku He struggled to his feet from the mud pit, his right arm hanging limply at his side, clearly useless. He looked at Emperor Qing, his eyes filled with bitterness and shock.

Si Gu Jian's face was so gloomy it seemed like it could drip water.

He finally understood why Emperor Qing dared to use himself as bait and come to this Taiping Villa alone.

Because he doesn't need anyone's protection at all! He himself is the most powerful shield in the world!

"What a brilliant deception! What a brilliant Emperor of Nanqing!" Si Gu Jian laughed in fury. His sword intent did not weaken because of Emperor Qing's power; on the contrary, it burned even more fiercely because of the stimulation of this desperate situation.

"So what if you're a Grandmaster? Today, I'll see whether your Kingly True Qi is harder, or my Four-Looking Sword's sword is sharper!"

Si Gu's sword was about to move.

This time, he held nothing back. He poured all his life's cultivation, his complete understanding of the way of the sword, and his obsession with destroying everything into this one sword strike.

He transformed into an extremely dazzling sword light, as if to split the dim world in two, carrying an indomitable and tragic momentum, and pierced straight at Emperor Qing's brow!