Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"Then hurry up."

"Great, that's awesome!"

Wang Ya was confident of victory. He was thrilled at the thought of traveling with Princess Jinyu soon, as if he had already won the competition.

After the two stepped onto the dueling platform, even more people gathered to watch.

No one expected this to be a thrilling match, given the vast disparity in strength. Wang Ya had already defeated two disciples of the Martial Marquis in succession. As for Chu Mingkong, there were rumors a few days ago that he had killed a Nightblade Guard, but with so many negative stories about him, the truth was mixed with falsehood, and no one believed he still possessed any strength; they all considered him a cripple.

However, it's understandable, as this is all for the right to travel with Princess Jinyu. If it weren't for the fact that the opponent was Wang Ya, many of the envious disciples of the Marquis of Wu would have wanted to go up as well.

Just as everyone's attention was focused on the stage, the invisible Yin energy emanating from Chu Mingkong was absorbed by the wolfhound. Its eyes gleamed with ferocity, its fur grew rapidly to needle length, and its plucked fangs grew back. The beatings it had suffered during its taming further fueled its savagery.

In the blink of an eye, it had grown to the size of a bison.

It is said that the harmony of Yin and Yang is the great way, but extreme Yin and extreme Yang clash, and the two forces are not in harmony.

After Jin Yu consumed the Golden Crow Jade Marrow, the extremely yang energy that she could not refine was released. The wolfhound sensed that wisp of extremely yang energy and instinctively regarded her as its primary target.

"Awooo—"

A wolf howl rang out below the arena. The Wang family's attendants reacted extremely quickly, immediately channeling their energy to suppress the beast. However, the wolfhound was impervious to blades and spears, and the weapons that struck it quickly rotted away.

"How did this wolfhound suddenly grow so much? Could it have broken through to a higher level?!"

"Why did its teeth grow back?!"

"It's heading straight for the princess! Stop it!"

Chaos erupted on Qing'an Street!

Wang Ya realized what was happening and wanted to go down to protect the emperor, but hesitated for two breaths as he looked at the edge of the arena—going out meant losing.

Before he could hesitate, Chu Mingkong had already sensed the suddenly strengthening Yin energy. Upon hearing Jin Yu's exclamation, he immediately stepped forward and shielded Jin Yu in his arms.

Jin Yu saw the wolf's gaping maw, its fangs almost touching her face, but none of her attendants could stop it. In her despair, she seemed to foresee the horrific scene of being crushed by the wolf's fangs.

But in just a moment, she felt herself fall into a cold yet warm and reliable chest.

She stared blankly at the man's focused gaze on the ferocious wolf, lost in thought, and murmured, "Mingkong..."

Guns, knives, halberds, longswords... Chu Mingkong quickly considered what weapons he should use to deal with this wolf. These weapons wouldn't work; he was proficient in those few, but he couldn't control his "intention" right now, especially since his opponent was a ferocious wolf transformed from the Abyss.

There are too many people on Qing'an Street; a single swing could kill or injure countless civilians.

The greatsword seems to be the weapon he's least proficient with; it's basically something the system forced him to use.

He drew a heavy sword, endured the excruciating pain in his heart, and forced himself to unleash sixty percent of his power in a single strike.

"All the skills I learned in the past were for the purpose of suppressing you creatures, you bastards, die!"

Chapter Forty-Five: Chrysanthemums in Bloom

With a single sword strike, without moving his body, a thousand armies are annihilated.

The sword intent unique to the Sword Immortal realm made everyone hold their breath. The sword was clearly aimed at the wolf, but it also gave the impression that the heavy sword was hanging above their heads.

The Abyss Wolf was impervious to swords and spears under the siege of the guards, but when its hardest skull collided with the heavy sword that only a novice could use, the former's head smashed like tofu hitting a kitchen knife, splattering red and white matter, with bone fragments mixed with juice flying everywhere.

Looking at the mangled head hanging from the wolf's neck, someone realized what was happening and exclaimed in surprise, "Dead?"

The rotten Abyss Wolf seemed to have been sucked a mouthful of milk. Its body trembled, it shook off its head, but still let out a shrill howl from its throat.

Yang gives birth to Yin, Yin dies. This wolfhound had already died once when it was initially corrupted by the aura of the extreme abyss. Simply splitting off its head was no different from cutting off its ox's antlers.

Even Chu Mingkong rarely saw a creature from the Abyss that would back down and try to survive. This ferocious wolf took a few steps back, bent its four legs, and leaped into the air, attempting to escape.

There were many disciples of the Martial Marquis and quite a few cultivators at the scene, but few dared to chase after it, because the intelligence displayed by this abyss-transformed wolfhound was beyond their imagination, and no one dared to take the risk.

Besides, even if we catch up, what can we do if they are still impervious to swords and spears?

The threat of extreme Yin transformation is not uncommon. Occasionally, their sect's masters would take them on training missions to kill these extremely Yin creatures. However, a wolfhound the size of a wild buffalo like the one just now could only be dealt with by the sect's elders or the top ten inner sect prodigies.

The method to judge the strength of an extremely yin entity is very simple: just look at its size.

Chu Mingkong, exhausted from unleashing a sword strike under the influence of overload, saw them looking at each other in bewilderment, with no one following him. He had no choice but to sheathe his heavy sword and take out a giant bow instead.

"Jinyu, spit some saliva onto my hand."

What he wanted was the lingering yang energy of Jin Yu, the medicinal effects of the Golden Crow Jade Marrow had not yet completely dissipated, which was extremely toxic to yin substances. Chu Mingkong had no time to communicate with the system to purchase it.

"what?"

Jin Yu blushed. Even setting aside her status as a princess, it was extremely unseemly for a young lady from a respectable family to spit in the street. How was she any different from a shrew? But she understood that he was not joking. She still brought her small mouth to his palm, stuck out her pink and delicate tongue, and a clear liquid dripped from the tip of her tongue.

Understanding her daughter's thoughts, Chu Mingkong planted the giant bow into the rock bricks on the ground, freed his arm to wrap around the back of her head, and used his large hand to cover her face, preventing others from seeing her delicate expression of sticking out her tongue.

To outsiders, this action looked like he was embracing the most beloved and sought-after goddess princess of the Tianji Empire.

"Okay, that's enough."

Chu Mingkong wiped the arrow with the princess's saliva, nocked the bow, drew the string, and aimed at a direction in the sky.

That wolf didn't have the ability to fly; it simply used its physical strength to leap into the air, attempting to jump to the outer city and then use the same method to jump out of the capital.

If you just jump, you're bound to fall eventually.

In the northwestern sky, a black dot became increasingly clear; it was the Abyss Wolf descending from the direction of the outer city.

Under the watchful eyes of the assembled cultivators, the arrow in Chu Mingkong's hand shone with the color of a golden phoenix, its extremely yang aura intoxicating.

A gasp rippled through the crowd: "Princess Jinyu's phoenix saliva actually possesses extremely yang energy!"

"Saliva" refers to saliva. "Phoenix saliva" is a euphemism for the saliva of a princess, demonstrating the scholar's skillful flattery.

Jin Yu blushed when she heard someone talking so loudly about her saliva.

Suddenly, the bowstring snapped, a thunderous roar, and the golden arrow, like a blazing sun, was shot out, piercing precisely through the black dot in the sky and plummeting straight down into the outer city.

With the greatest threat gone, Chu Mingkong breathed a sigh of relief and tried to calm the tearing pain in his spiritual veins. The porcelain-crack-like patterns that spread from his heart climbed up his neck and stopped on his angular profile, and his dark starry eyes were tinged with a dark purple.

He exhaled a cold, turbid breath, and the purple cracks on his face disappeared, but he also coughed up a mouthful of black blood. The blood fell to the ground and corroded several pits.

"Mingkong! Are you...are you alright?" Jinyu asked anxiously.

"It's alright, I won't deal with the follow-up situation, I'll go back and rest first."

He patted Jin Yu's shoulder to reassure her, and as he was about to leave, he turned back to look at the group of Wuhou disciples who were participating in the coming-of-age ceremony test.

"You're not tough enough. You're weak but want to show off. You can use silver pads to cover your shame, but if you want to tame a Yin creature from the Abyss to put on a show and demonstrate your abilities, you should first check how strong your fists are. Be careful not to get your whole family wiped out in the middle of the night."

After saying that, he had no intention of giving any more earnest advice to these people not to keep these things. He would be overjoyed if these little pets broke through to new heights and caused chaos in the capital.

(Note: The silver support is a sex prop that appears in "Jin Ping Mei". It is equivalent to attaching a support to a penis that is not functioning well. This thing appears throughout the story of Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian, so Ximen Qing probably...)

Jin Yu felt heartbroken seeing Chu Mingkong coughing up blood, and her eyes reddened.

She glared angrily at the Wang family members, her beautiful eyes wide with fury. For the first time in front of everyone, she lost control of her emotions and blurted out:

"You insolent fools! Your Wang family had better find a way to give me an explanation!"

She clearly wanted to say something more, but worried about Chu Mingkong, Jin Yu ran to his side, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to her carriage.

------------

Chu Mingkong returned to his residence and immediately lay down on the bed, seemingly asleep, but in reality, he was doing his best to suppress his injuries.

His limbs and bones were groaning in pain, but his mind was perfectly clear as he pondered the recent events and the current situation.

His injuries were not right; they shouldn't have deteriorated so quickly. Even though Xiao Yunhan had come over and forced him to use more of his skills, it shouldn't have worsened to this extent. The skills he used today weren't actually much more than when he competed with Xiao Yunhan last time, but the backlash afterward was on a completely different level.

This time it has worsened a lot, and it has worsened a lot in a short period of time. There is no reason for it to be like this.

The capital city is the dragon vein of the nation, the place where the nation's fortune resides. This mysterious power can nurture the phoenix's charm. In other words, the capital city can be said to be the most suitable place to cultivate the power of extreme yang.

This place helps to curb his injuries from the Abyss, because the extreme yin energy will aggravate his injuries, while the extreme yang energy, which is like poison to yin things, can actually curb the injuries.

This life-or-death situation initially gave Chu Mingkong a huge headache, but he eventually calmed down.

The capital city is merely a place with heavy dragon energy. The fact that it can nurture extreme yang energy does not mean that extreme yang energy is very strong here. The capital city, a place where the emperor is eyeing him covetously, is actually the best place for him to heal his injuries.

But now his Abyss Injury is worsening abnormally, and the wolfhound's breakthrough today is also abnormal.

It's possible that the extreme yin energy he emitted was absorbed by the wolfhound, leading to the subsequent disaster. However, his limited amount of extreme yin energy alone wouldn't be enough, otherwise the plants in his house would have already turned into abysses.

That wolf must have absorbed a lot of extremely yin energy somewhere.

Could some bastard be hiding a huge bomb in the capital? Is he planning to blow the city to smithereens?

Could the culprit who caused the abyss disaster in Xiling be in the capital?!

The emperor wouldn't keep such a time bomb hidden in his own home. Based on this speculation, could it be someone else?

The Wang family is a clue; we'll definitely have to go there to check things out.

That's it. From today onwards, all my previous efforts to smear myself by pretending to be a coward have been in vain.

Having served as a hostage so cautiously and steadily for so long, my terrible reputation is now completely ruined.

Having endured so much in the capital, he also intended to use this place as a place to recuperate. Concealing his excellence and staying in the capital peacefully for a while longer would be good for him, provided that the emperor's attention to him did not escalate to hostility. Otherwise, he would be recuperating in the tiger's den.

However, there is still a way to remedy this situation: cough up blood outside to give people the impression that "the prince is about to die," thus prolonging the time as long as possible.

But he was still unwilling. He used to be carefree in Xiling, so why did he have to act like a grandson now? How could he not have any temper?

If things really come to a head, I'll risk my life to storm into the emperor's harem and make sure his empress, noblewomen, and beautiful maids all have his offspring!

The Chu family cannot always be passed down through a single line.

Just as a trace of anger arising from his injuries rose in his heart, Chu Mingkong suddenly heard a whimper of pain. Only then did he realize that he was holding a soft, tender lump of flesh in his hand. It was quite large, too big to be held in one hand, but smaller than his master Zuo Qiuchi's.

"Mingkong...it hurts. Has your injury flared up again?"

Hearing Jin Yu's whisper, he realized that his hands had somehow wandered inside the princess's bodice to warm themselves.

Jin Yu propped herself up in Chu Mingkong's arms, thinking that his injuries had flared up and his muscles were twitching from the pain, which was why he was exerting so much force.

He was about to pull his hand away when the beautiful and shy Jin Yu covered his hand, preventing him from taking it out.

"You can keep it there."

Then I would be impolite to refuse—that's what he really wanted to say.

"So I should keep pushing myself?"