Nightwatcher-Chapter 465: Wei Yuan’s Final Hand

# 465. Wei Yuan's Final Hand

The carving knife pierced his heart, and Sarun Agu let out an uncontrollable roar, as if suffering the torment of hellfire. The sound was piercing and desolate.

“With the Great Warlock’s watertight preparations, you must have made a divination before the battle, no? Did it foretell great fortune? If not for the Jianzheng helping me to shield the carving knife and obscure Heaven’s secrets, it would’ve been nearly impossible to ambush you.

“Arcanists evolved from warlocks, so only arcanists can contend with the divination of warlocks. Without the Jianzheng’s help, striking at you would be far too difficult.”

Wei Yuan slowly pushed the carving knife deeper into Sarun Agu’s heart, causing his spiritual power to pour out wildly, and his bodily functions to rapidly disintegrate under the blade’s corrosion.

In just two or three seconds, Sarun Agu had aged twenty years. His frame turned withered and gaunt, looking like he was on the verge of death.

The situation reversed abruptly. The two third rank Masters of Spirit paled in shock and moved in perfect sync: both raised their palms, one towards Sarun Agu, the other towards Wei Yuan.

The left palm radiated red light, stimulating Sarun Agu’s vitality to resist the carving knife’s corrosion. The right palm cast a curse of death at Wei Yuan across the air.

“Hmph!”

Wei Yuan reached out with his left hand and clutched the Great Warlock’s throat. With his right, he pulled out the carving knife and stabbed it sideways into Sarun Agu’s head.

He first used the blade’s power to drain the body’s vitality, rendering resistance impossible; then to destroy the opponent’s primordial spirit, to obliterate the first rank Great Warlock completely.

Just then, a flash of sword light.

Splurt!

Blood sprayed. Wei Yuan looked in stunned disbelief at his severed arm, from which blood gushed like a fountain.

The severed arm, along with the carving knife, was gripped by a hand.

It was a hand entwined with golden and black light, emerging from the centre of Sarun Agu’s brow.

Wei Yuan frowned and immediately retreated, pulling a great distance away. Hovering in the air, he stared at Sarun Agu.

Crack, crack… flesh writhed and intertwined, bones regenerated, and a new arm took form.

Huff! Wei Yuan exhaled deeply, his protective divine light covering his body once more, condensing into Bronze Skin and Iron Bones.

The severed arm earlier wasn’t due to weak defences. He had feigned weakness, luring the three high-ranking warlocks to cast a blood-based curse of death. Wei Yuan was heavily injured on the spot, his proud martial body disrupted.

Then he seized the opening and launched a surprise attack with the carving knife on Sarun Agu.

The entire sequence required him to feign weakness while seizing a fleeting opportunity, leaving no time to restore his Bronze Skin and Iron Bones.

He hadn’t expected that the other side also had a backup.

From within Sarun Agu’s body, a man in dragon robes slowly emerged. His features were well-defined, his brows slightly thick, and his eyes were filled with deep malice.

Upon closer look, his skin was flawless as jade, golden and black light coiling across it, both sacred and sinister.

A Yang Spirit!

The late Emperor Zhende!

“I know you, Wei Yuan, are a cunning strategist. If you dared strike at Jing Mountain City, you must have have a trump card. We've played each other this long just to see what cards the other holds, haven’t we?”

Sarun Agu grinned, “The carving knife of the Sage? Who would’ve thought you could wield it? Tsk tsk… Wei Yuan, so you do have a heart for the common people.”

Red light flashed on his skin, and the wound on his chest squirmed, regenerating in moments. The wrinkles faded from his skin.

However, the aura of this first rank Great Warlock was visibly much weaker.

Just as Wei Yuan’s vital energy fell from the peak of third rank.

Crack, crack…

The man in dragon robes gnawed on Wei Yuan’s severed arm, bones and flesh crunching in his mouth.

“Tastes quite good. I imagine your blood and qi taste even better.”

As he grinned, he grasped the carving knife in his palm. Foul, corrupted, viscous liquid began oozing out, bit by bit eroding the blade and dulling its spirit.

Just like when the Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect once briefly polluted the Sovereign Sword.

Wei Yuan looked at him deeply, with sadness, perhaps even disappointment, and sighed. “So it was you. It really was you.”

Emperor Zhende let out a low chuckle, a cruel, vicious smile tugging at his lips. Glancing at the carving knife now slowly engulfed by black slime, he said:

“I’ll need a bit of time to seal it. You’ll need time to recover. For the sake of the twenty-plus years we shared as sovereign and minister, ask what you will.”

Sarun Agu did not object, his injuries were no less than Wei Yuan’s.

“The human trafficking ring run by the Earl of Pingyuan… it was working for you, wasn’t it?” Wei Yuan asked.

Emperor Zhende nodded and sneered, “You pride yourself on serving the country and the people, but if you hadn’t pressed the Earl of Pingyuan so hard, I wouldn’t have needed to eliminate him. The massacre at Chuzhou might never have happened.”

“And should I have let you continue preying on innocent lives unchecked?”

Wei Yuan calmly took out a porcelain vial, popped the cork with a “pop”, and downed the entire bottle of restorative pills.

A few seconds later, colour returned to his face. He sighed, “When did you become like this?”

The man in dragon robes smiled grimly and replied, “In Zhende 26, the Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect corrupted me.”

He paused, gazing into the distance where war blazed, and slowly said:

“My health was always poor. Those miraculous pills that revive the dead and regrow flesh never worked well on me. As emperor, I bore the fortune of a nation, so my lifespan was set.

“In the past, I didn’t think immortality was anything good. Birth, old age, illness, death, that's the order of Heaven and Earth. But as I aged, I began to fear death, and long for eternal life. Yet not even the Sage could defy the rules of Heaven and Earth, what hope did I have?

“Until Zhende 26, when the Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect polluted me. He told me that mortal emperors cannot achieve immortality; not even those beyond first rank could change that fate. But he could help me live far longer than any normal sovereign.

“My body was already failing. I couldn’t resist his temptation, so I agreed.”

Wei Yuan narrowed his eyes and said, “So in Zhende 26, you ate the King of Huai.”

Emperor Zhende’s face twisted with extreme malice as he shook his head:

“No, it was assimilation. I refined his soul and absorbed his memories. He is me, and I am him. That is one of the secrets of the One Qi Transforming into Three Purities.

“If it were merely possession, the physical body and primordial spirit would be incompatible, leading to endless future troubles, it would be equivalent to cutting off the path of cultivation. How could I do something so self-defeating?

“Unfortunately, I am not a true Daoist. Even with the Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect helping me, after forcibly refining the King of Huai’s primordial spirit, my original soul still ended up with a flaw.”

Without the help of the second rank Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect, he could never have performed the One Qi Transforming into Three Purities technique.

Wei Yuan considered for a moment. “Then what about Yuanjing? Was he also assimilated by you back then?”

Emperor Zhende shook his head and sneered:

“The two brothers were supposed to be assimilated together at that time. But as I said, after refining Prince Huai’s soul, I failed to repair the portion of my own soul that had been split off, it left a flaw.

“Under those circumstances, how could I go on to devour Yuanjing as well? I had no choice but to alter the plan. The Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect used a Daoist soul-bewitching technique to erase Yuanjing’s memory of those events. Then, he planted the seed of demonic thought within Yuanjing’s sea of consciousness.

“And I, once everything was prepared, faked my death and abdicated, hiding within the underground dragon ley I had opened. That was the only place that could escape the Jianzheng’s gaze. There, I lay dormant, waiting, waiting for the opportunity to refine Yuanjing.

“What surprised me was that Yuanjing, taking me as a warning, never delegated real power to the Prime Minister. He strove diligently to govern and balanced all the cliques. The Great Feng flourished, its national fortune rising, and under that fortune, I had no opportunity to devour him. Not until you appeared…”

Wei Yuan froze.

“You’ve forgotten?”

Emperor Zhende stared at Wei Yuan, the curve of his lips growing wider and wider:

“In the sixth year of Yuanjing, General Dugu of the north passed away. You personally led the army to the front lines and drove back the barbarian forces, rising to prominence from then on. Think carefully, why did you go to war in the first place?”

Wei Yuan’s pupils dilated abruptly, as if struck by lightning.

“Hahaha…” Emperor Zhende burst into crazed laughter:

“The dignified empress of the Great Feng, mother of the nation, was secretly sharing meals with a eunuch in the palace, and that eunuch just so happened to be her childhood sweetheart. What man could bear such a blow, let alone someone as self-righteous and obstinate as Yuanjing?”

He laughed wildly, without restraint, doubled over in delight.

“From that moment, the demonic thought in Yuanjing’s mind finally awakened. It gradually eroded him, corrupted him. That’s why he didn’t kill you and the empress back then, under the influence of the demonic thought, he became cold and cunning. Upon learning about your past with the empress, he changed his stance and sought to use her to control you.

“Then came the Campaign at Shanhai Pass. That war shook the national fortune of the Great Feng. At the end of that battle, I seized the opportunity to refine Yuanjing and take his place.

“After replacing Yuanjing, I took that pain as a lesson, I no longer indulged in women and focused solely on cultivation. I refined pills, consumed elixirs, and had the Earl of Pingyuan continue abducting people. After more than forty years, I finally cultivated a Yang Spirit and stepped into the second-rank Transcending Tribulation. Wei Yuan, don’t you think I ought to thank you?”

The real Yuanjing had been gone for over twenty years.

“Oh, and let me give you one more secret. The one who secretly reported your affair with the empress to Yuanjing back then, the one who betrayed you, was Consort Chen, the crown prince’s mother,” Emperor Zhende added another bombshell.

*Consort Chen…* Wei Yuan was silent for a long time. “The Daoist Leader of the Earth Sect went to such lengths to help you, what was his goal?”

Emperor Zhende sneered, “At the time, the Daoist Leader was already showing signs of demonic corruption, but his good side was still stronger than the evil. He kept it suppressed. The evil thought, not wanting to be refined or erased, came up with a solution.

“During that Daoist debate, the evil thought sensed my desire for immortality and secretly tainted me, amplifying that craving. Later, when it briefly gained control over the body one day, it lured me into conspiring for all of this.

“Afterwards, the Daoist Leader returned to his sect to seclude himself. His good and evil thoughts tangled for forty years. Forty years later, the Daoist Leader succumbed to the demonic path, his primordial spirit fractured. The good side barely escaped with its life. Think about that.”

Wei Yuan produced another porcelain vial, took a pill, then said thoughtfully:

“Seducing a sovereign with dreams of immortality, devouring your own kin… For forty years, the people have suffered, and the nation has declined. You will surely reap the bitter fruit of this. So forty years later, the Daoist Leader fell to demons. But there’s still something I don’t understand. Even with One Qi Transforming into Three Purities, even with such cultivation and long life, you’re still a mortal emperor. How do you attain true immortality?”

Emperor Zhende’s malicious eyes glanced at the Sage’s carving knife and murmured:

“Later, someone taught me how to achieve everlasting life as a mortal sovereign. His words were a revelation to me. Everything I’ve planned for the past twenty years began with him. Including today, using the Warlock God as bait to lure you in, this is the most crucial step in my plan.”

The carving knife had been fully corrupted and lost all its spirit.

“Though I can only pollute it for half a quarter of an hour, that’s enough.” Emperor Zhende casually tossed it off the cliff, then turned to Wei Yuan with a sinister grin:

“So, how will you get past us and seal the Warlock God?”

Present were a Great Warlock, two Masters of Spirit, and a transcending tribulation cultivator.

Wei Yuan stood alone, just a lone martial artist barely considered second-rank.

Emperor Zhende raised his hand, as if plucking something from the air, pinched it between his fingers, and flicked it.

A sword qi howled forth, one becoming two, two becoming three, three becoming countless thousands.

The dense sword qi surged like a school of fish beneath the sea, like a raging tide crashing down on Wei Yuan.

Each strand of sword qi could easily slay a fourth-rank cultivator. Moreover, mixed within was a spiritual attack targeting the primordial spirit.

This was the Human Sect’s union of the Qi Sword and Heart Sword.

Wei Yuan crossed his arms before his chest and advanced through the rain of blades. _Ding ding ding…_ brilliant, dazzling light erupted from his body.

In the next instant, the sword qi tore him apart, and his figure vanished like an illusion.

Emperor Zhende retreated swiftly in golden light.

Wei Yuan’s figure reappeared, his strike had missed.

Aside from warrior monks of the Buddhist sect, no other system’s high-ranked cultivators dare let a martial artist get close.

The two chased each other through the mountains, layers of explosive qi tearing the terrain apart. Mountains collapsed, massive rocks tumbled. At one moment, a vast stretch of forest suddenly “slid off,” its break perfectly clean.

The sound of qi explosions occasionally echoed from the sea, raising towering waves and tsunamis.

Yet no matter how hard others tried, they couldn’t see the figures of the two peak experts.

In this battle, even third rank experts like Irbu and Uda Batu could only assist from the sidelines, seizing rare chances to cast death curses on Wei Yuan to disrupt him.

Or, using a Master of Spirit's core ability to imbue Emperor Zhende’s sword qi with spiritual sentience, so they wouldn’t miss, slowly draining Wei Yuan’s blood and energy.

Outside of grinding attrition, most systems had no way to swiftly kill a martial artist above third rank.

Sarun Agu didn’t participate in the fight. He sighed, “Martial artists who can break through formations really are a headache.”

His figure grew hazy again, as though veiled behind a curtain that made him indistinct.

Sarun Agu called out, “Zhende, I shall lend you the power of this land. Do you have the confidence to slay Wei Yuan?”

Suspended high in the air, Emperor Zhende laughed wildly. “Then I thank the Great Warlock for aiding me in killing this traitor.”

Sarun Agu stomped his foot. “The earth grants me spirit.”

Rock weathered away, soil turned to yellow sand. Waves of earth and metal essence flowed into the void through Sarun Agu, pouring into Emperor Zhende.

“The plants grant me spirit.”

Grass, flowers, and trees withered at a visible rate. Lush green wood essence poured into Emperor Zhende.

“The ocean grants me spirit.”

From the rippling sea came dark, watery essence, pouring into Emperor Zhende.

“Flame and smoke grant me spirit…”

Streams of power from heaven and earth were drawn forth, and Emperor Zhende’s aura soared. In this moment, he seemed to become the master of all, coldly overlooking the traitors below.

Emperor Zhende slowly “drew” a sword, pulled from the void itself, its blade interwoven with five elemental colours: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, the foundation of all things.

Irbu, Uda Batu, and Sarun Agu all extended their hands, using the Master of Spirits’ core ability to grant the sword spirit.

Once finished, Sarun Agu, this Great Warlock of the Church of the Warlock God, the towering first rank, felt his aura plummet.

A dignified first rank, nearly exhausted.

For the next century, the lands around Mount Jing would become a wasteland.

The sword’s power surged again.

This strike faintly surpassed the boundaries of the nine ranks.

Even Emperor Zhende’s hand trembled slightly, struggling to control it.

This sword was forged from the combined strength of two third ranks, one first rank, and one second rank expert.

In an era with no beyond-rank beings, it was nigh unstoppable.

On the distant battlefield, whether Great Feng’s army or the Northeastern army, every soldier felt the overwhelming might from above. Fear gripped them, some clutched their heads and fled, some soiled themselves, some died on the spot from heart failure.

Experts like Zhang Kaitai felt their scalps go numb. They forced themselves to endure the fear, gazing toward the source of that pressure, to that five-coloured sword light that seemed capable of severing heaven and earth.

And beneath that sword light stood Wei Yuan, in tattered azure robes.

“Duke Wei…”

The Gold Gongs’ eyes turned red, faces ashen.

This sword left them no will to resist, no thought of fleeing.

The battle had unfolded far beyond the military’s expectations, layer upon layer, twist after twist, leaving them terrified and lost.

The warlocks led by Nalan Yan raised their heads, gazing at the sword qi in the sky, their hearts stirred.

“Kill him, kill Wei Yuan…” Nalan Yan’s eyes were bloodshot.

The hatred of a slain father, finally, it could be avenged.

“Kill Wei Yuan!” a warlock shouted.

“Kill Wei Yuan…”

“Kill Wei Yuan…”

The cries came wave after wave, louder and louder. Even those with strength remaining, or those who had shut their eyes in dread, joined in.

All the voices united: Kill Wei Yuan!

Wei Yuan stood upon the sea, head raised, looking up at the sword light that seemed invincible, at the equally unstoppable Emperor Zhende.

In his mind echoed the scene before he set out for battle, how that boy had ridden his horse onto the hill and sang a farewell tune.

By his ears, that voice seemed to ring out again:

*Smoke rises, my gaze turns northwards,*

*Dragons stir, horses cry, swords flash like frost!*

*My heart flows vast like the Yellow River,*

*In twenty years of battle, who could challenge me!*

*In twenty years of battle, who could challenge me…* Wei Yuan laughed. “Then this time, I’ll have to be invincible amongst mortals.”

From his tattered robes, he pulled out a Confucian cap and slowly put it on.

The second treasure of Cloud Deer Academy: the Confucian Cap of the Lesser Sage!

“Come!”

He beckoned gently.

The Confucian carving knife revived, dispersing filth, turning into a streak of light that flew into Wei Yuan’s hand.

He looked up and shouted, “Come!”

From the clear blue sky, a beam of light fell upon Wei Yuan.

This light came from Dean Zhao Shou, the blessing of a third rank Confucian scholar who had nearly perished.

The crown and carving knife blazed with blinding brilliance.

Finally, from his sleeve he drew a page of paper, upon which was recorded a spell, a common spell, so often seen it was unremarkable to warlocks.

The core ability of a Miracle Priest, to summon a Heroic Spirit.

At this sight, Sarun Agu and the three warlocks felt their foreheads twitch, a deep sense of foreboding rising.

_Hiss!_

As the paper burned, Wei Yuan stood tall and bold, shouting aloud: “I SUMMON THE CONFUCIAN SAGE—!”

In an instant, clear light filled heaven and earth!