“What?” The young Brigadier General was stunned. But next second, he burst out laughing until he shed tears of laughter at last. “Hahaha, you’re killing me! I should have… haha… b.u.mped into a guy… haha even more arrogant than me… Kid, you’re the law? Haha, what do you base this conclusion on?”
“Well, what about you? What do you base your conclusion on?” Li Mu snapped back.
“Me? Haha, my base is the fact that I’m surnamed Qin, and there is the royal blood running down my veins,” the young man said with a scornful look, “What do you say? Isn’t that a good justification?”
“Not good enough.” Li Mu shook his head and continued, “For me, your justification is not only inadequate but far from solid enough.”
“Oh?” The young man narrowed his eyes. A derisive smile curled up his lips, and he said, “Not enough for you? If so tell me, what’s your justification then?”
Li Mu swung a fist up and said, “This is my justification.”
And he directly slummed his palm downward.
Instantly, violent wind surged up.
“You’re courting death!”
The expression of the young Brigadier General grew fierce. His breathing suddenly changed, and the light in his pupils began contracting like a sharp sword or broadsword as his internal qi raged inside him. The moment he lifted his right hand, his right palm turned golden-purple. In a trice, that palm lunged forwards at Li Mu’s palm.
“Look out…” Wu Beichen shouted the warning out loud from the roadside.
Since he had bounced off an arrow shot by the young Brigadier General with a hand, he knew it clearly that this seemingly slack and overbearing youth was, in fact, quite mighty. He must be a Great Master at least, which meant his power was rather intimidating.
Rumble!
The two palms clashed, causing powerful airflow to run wild.
Snap!
The brisk sound of broken bones was heard.
The bizarre golden-purple light issued from the palm of the young Brigadier General ebbed away, while his right elbow was now curved at a ghast angle. Apparently, his elbow had broken.
“You…” yelped the young Brigadier General. In that instant, the chair he was sitting in was shattered into dust. But due to his quick reaction, he backed away with a curious moving technique. Then, he straightened up, looked at his bent elbow with shock and fury before fixing his eyes upon Li Mu and hissed through gritted teeth, “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
“I have, but you don’t,” Li Mu answered. He was, honestly, also a little surprised by his opponent’s strength. This young man could not be more than thirty, but his power was unexpectedly fierce, given that the punch Li Mu threw at him did not completely incapacitate him. Nonetheless, Li Mu wasted no time to step up and launch another punch.
Rumble!
As the forceful airflow rampaged, the punch directly broke through the defense of the young Brigadier General and pummelled in his chest.
Crack! Crack!
With the sound of snapping bones, everyone saw that a distinct handprint emerged on his chest. No one knew how many of his sternums and ribs were broken. Shortly, the young Brigadier General let out a howl and blood gushed out from his mouth. Unable to keep the balance anymore, he flopped onto the ground.
“With your poor cultivation, how dare you carry on so many misdeeds in Chang’an? You do get sick of being alive, don’t you?” Li Mu shook his head again.
Although the face of the young Brigadier General was as pale as a sheet and he was spilling blood out of his mouth, no trace of fear could be seen from his countenance. On the contrary, he laughed out of utmost rage. “Hahaha, great! Hahaha, wonderful! In all my life, this is the first time someone dared to beat me up like this. Hahaha, you do have b.a.l.l.s. I hope in a while you will still have b.a.l.l.s to continue.”
In the knowledge that he had strong backing, he had no fear.
Those in the surroundings who also knew the background of the young Brigadier General were also casting pathetic looks at Li Mu.
Once he messed with the member of the royal family, he was doomed no matter how high cultivation he had.
“This youth is still too reckless,” the crowd thought to themselves.
“Hmm, good! Today, you may as well demonstrate your backing, your ace card, or whatsoever. I give you plenty of time to fetch your men. Feel free to call as many helpers as you can. I am truly eager to see who has emboldened such a mad dog like you,” hollered Li Mu, his killing intent already burning within. “Don’t say I didn’t give you any chance to fight back. Get started to find your help now!”
When those words were out, the onlookers were all startled.
“What does he want?”
“From his remark, it sounds like this youth also has amazing backing, doesn’t it?”
The young Brigadier General was astounded as well. He shot more glances at Li Mu in spite of himself and rapidly went through all the names of those in youth who could not be messed with in the current Western Qin Empire he knew or heard of in his mind. However, he failed to find anyone like this one standing in front of him. Thus, he asked in a deep voice, “Who in the world are you?”
Li Mu, still, ignored him.
He spun around, took out a stick of incense from the censer before the monument, clipped it between two fingers, and then plug it into the blue flagstone beside his feet. Then, he said, “One-fourth of this stick of incense has burnt out. In the time that the remaining three-fourths burns, you can bring here all the help you can find. Then, we shall see if they can save your worthless life.”
The young Brigadier General goggled at Li Mu without blinking. Soon, he gave a cold laugh and yelled, “Try to bluff me? Ah hahaha, bluffs and threats don’t work on me, Qin Lin. Fine, you wait here… Guards!” He summoned several of his trusted subordinates over and whispered something to their ears before ordering, “Go! Bring them all here!”
The dozen trusted subordinates immediately mounted their horses and rushed out of the memorial arch street of the military tomb at top speed.
“You son of a b*tch, wait here,” Qin Lin, the young Brigadier General, snarled and said, “I’ll let you know what kind of man you shouldn’t p.i.s.s off.”
“Very good. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” Li Mu laid delicate stress on each word.
After saying that, he turned to look at that bearded officer.
Noticing Li Mu’s glance, he instantly realized that was not good and his legs began to tremble.
“You,” Li Mu pointed at that bearded officer and commanded, “come over here. On your knees, and apologize!”
The bearded officer looked undecided. He sneaked a peek at the young Brigadier General and then held his chin up and shouted, “Who do you think you are? How can you boss me around…”
However, before his voice even died away, Li Mu had attacked!
He waved at the air, touching off the Dragon Whirlwind at once, which whirled the target up and sent him flying over.
Smack! Smack!
Li Mu landed two slaps on the face of the bearded officer, whose cheeks immediately reddened like ripe watermelons.
Flop!
Li Mu tossed him straight on the ground, then, gestured at the nearby Wu Beichen, Granny Cai, and the others who were still in a daze, and growled, “If you want to live, go there, get on all fours and apologize to them!”
Those words made that bearded officer almost jump out of his skin. With his face covered in blood, he hurriedly crawled over and made kowtows as he mumbled, “I’m sorry! Granny, and those buddies… I’m sorry. You are all the big men, please pardon my offense… I was only acting on the order…”
“A dog whose spine has long since been snapped is imitating a doughty man. How ridiculous!” Li Mu shook his head disgruntledly.
“Yes, yes, yes, I’m a dog. You big bosses, please spare me as in sparing a dog. Let me go…” begged the bearded officer with a miserable look.
Wu Beichen and the other frontier soldiers all seemed incensed and did not speak.
Such a spineless guy who only bullied the weak but feard the strong never sat well with them.
Granny Cai and her granddaughter, by contrast, were sort of at a loss what to do.
Only by this point did little Caicai caught a clear view of Li Mu’s face. All of a sudden, her eyes lit up, and she blurted, “Brother, it’s you? You also came to Chang’an! Are you here to visit your dad, too?” She had recognized that Li Mu was that monk who had helped them out at Peace County.
Granny Cai wiped her eyes hard, and then, also identified him. “Master Madcap?”
Li Mu gently rubbed Caicai’s hair and then nodded at Granny Cai before saying softly, “Don’t worry. Today, you can certainly go into the military tomb. I shall see who dare to block you.”
In truth, Li Mu was a contradictory body.
When he was really frightened, he did chicken out.
But when he decided to man up, he would not lower his head even if the king was here. He certainly would fight it through.
Today, after witnessing all that happened here, Li Mu was seized by wrath and killing intent.
He could not bear the wrath anymore and just had to vent it out.
At this scene, Wu Beichen and his company came to understand that this young man who looked between a monk and a Daoist actually knew the granny and her granddaughter. It was no wonder he stuck up for them. Nevertheless, today’s matter was unlikely to be settled amicably. Nor did they antic.i.p.ate that the Brigadier General of the Defending Warriors was a member of the royal family. Now, the trouble was really serious.
They could only wish this weird youth did have some background.
Li Mu nodded at those frontier soldiers and said, “I have met Granny Cai and Caicai once before. I thank you guys to stand up for them today.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s just what we soldiers ought to do.”
The young frontier soldiers all bowed back.
It was their custom in the frontier force to respect the expert who had both extraordinary strength and unyielding spirit. Thus, they held Li Mu in reverence, though he seemed to be just a fifteen-year-old adolescent.
“Your Honor, I’ve done the kowtows and made the apology. Is it okay if…” Shakily, the bearded officer looked up at Li Mu and gave him an ingratiating smile.
Li Mu simply flung a leg and kicked the officer out, letting him collide with the stone base of the Monument to Martyrs of the empire.
Wham!
Like a huge watermelon crashed against a rock, streams of scarlet liquid began flowing down the stone base a second later.
Now, the bearded soldier was indeed dead.
“If apology could wash off all sins, what do we need the laws of the empire for?” said Li Mu blandly.
Judging by the previous behavior of the bearded officer, he was definitely not a good man. He had attempted to kill Granny Cai and the little Caicai for utter trivial. That was practically inhuman. Li Mu could imagine how many people had fallen victim to his atrocity in the past aside from Granny Cai and her granddaughter.
Men like him were as brutal as beasts. Only by killing them could he show his benevolence—the benevolence to the victims at large.
Scarlet blood gurgled down, dyeing the monument red.
The onlookers around turned a little pale at the murder, but their reactions varied.
Some screeched when they saw the blood.
Some could not help but mutter their gratification. They felt the scene did dissolve their indignation.
The military tomb was a divine and sacred place. However, for the past whole year, such a sacred place was taken up by those sinister and vicious men, who blackmailed and extorted the money of the family members of martyrs, resulting in widespread indignation and resentment. They should have long been killed, only that no one dared to execute them. But today, this evildoer finally got what was coming to him.
As to Wu Beichen and his company, well, they also had quite a moment of shock.
“He really killed him?”
Those frontier soldiers stared numbly at the blood-drenched stone base of the Monument to Martyrs. Then, as they turned back to gaze at Li Mu, the look in their eyes altered again.
In Li Mu, they saw the real resolute, decisiveness, and uncompromising dominance that a soldier of the Qin empire had with him on the battlefield. They now started wondering if this young man could be a descendant of some n.o.ble military officer.
On the other side, the young Brigadier General had propped himself up with the help of his trusted man. At this scene, his expressions changed again and again.
Flickering his eyes to him, Li Mu said, “You go there and get on your knees, too.”