Chapter 245: The Arrival

Shen Tang nestled softly in his embrace, her heart brimming with tenderness and contentment, too languid to speak.

Her shoulder injury was bandaged with her clothes pulled down, revealing a large expanse of her fair, smooth shoulder. After Lu Xingzhou finished bandaging it, his hand instinctively moved, slipping inside her undergarment.

Shen Tang hummed, twisting gently to adjust her posture, allowing him to fondle her.

Then, she murmured intimately, “Kiss me.”

Lu Xingzhou leaned down and kissed her.

If people knew that the formidable Shen Tang, who had just fought a first-rank expert and destroyed magic artifacts with her bare hands, was privately this sweet and soft, their eyes would surely pop out.

“Can I get wet now?” Shen Tang asked, still hazy.

Lu Xingzhou asked, “What’s wrong? Do you want to bathe?”

“Yes, I’m all bloody from fighting like this. You won’t want to hold me; I don’t smell good.”

Lu Xingzhou chuckled, “I think you’re saying I smell bad.”

“Not at all.”

“Well, I don’t think you don’t smell good, so where did you get that idea from, if not from me?”

“No, no…” Shen Tang turned her head and kissed his neck. “I’ll prove it to you.”

Lu Xingzhou flinched. “Alright, alright, your shoulder can’t get wet for now, but I can. I’ll go wash first.”

He seemed to feel sweaty and was embarrassed to let his wife kiss him.

In the adjacent rooms, A’nuo was eating, and Ye Tinglan remained expressionless.

Regardless of whether their business here was finished, Ye Tinglan felt he couldn’t stay any longer. He hadn’t intended to eavesdrop, but at his level of cultivation, unless he actively shut himself off, their undisguised conversation naturally seeped into his ears.

Was this truly how humans lived?

Lu Xingzhou also felt that having a ‘Mister’ like Ye Tinglan around made things less convenient. For instance, under normal circumstances, he could now simply bathe in the spirit pond, but instead, he had to bring water into the room.

While he soaked in the tub, Shen Tang rested her chin on the rim, grinning as she admired his chest and abdominal muscles.

Lu Xingzhou resisted the urge to pull her into the tub with him, sighing helplessly, “Don’t look at me like that. You make me so self-conscious, I don’t know where to put my hands and feet.”

“Put them on me,” she suggested.

“Then how can I wash…”

“I’ll help you wash! It’s a good excuse to touch your muscles more.”

Ye Tinglan furiously tried to block them out. *I was wrong. You cannot embody the Qian trigram. No such ruler exists. Even a Saintess of the Joyful Union Sect might not be as sensual as you.*

*And if you’re like this, should Lu Xingzhou ever harbor ill intentions, a few whispers through pillow talk would turn him into a truly foolish ruler.*

“Sect Master,” Shen Qi’s voice came from outside. “Lei Chong has been executed.”

Shen Tang, still scrubbing Lu Xingzhou in the room, didn’t answer Shen Qi directly. Instead, she continued to ask Lu Xingzhou, “What’s the next step? If Prefect Zhang and Commander Wan all side with us, I think the East River Gang can be annihilated.”

Lu Xingzhou said, “If I were to choose, it would be the Lingyun Sect we annihilate.”

“Why? There’s a blood feud now,” she questioned.

“Because the Lingyun Sect is in the wilderness mountains, so the commotion would be small. The East River Gang is located in a bustling city. We are a righteous sect—oh, we’ve always been a righteous sect—and our actions would draw unfavorable public opinion. My meaning is, we don’t need to annihilate them ourselves…”

“Borrow a knife?” she prompted.

“No, the East River Gang is a gang, and gangs are different from sects. We just need to continuously apply pressure, create fear, and their members will gradually abandon them. Once Shi Tielong can’t stand it and plans to relocate, that’s when we can act discreetly…”

Just as he was speaking, a Heavenly Sword Sect disciple reported from outside, “Sect Master, several members of the East River Gang have come, saying they wish to surrender.”

Not only Shen Tang and Shen Qi, but even Ye Tinglan, who was listening nearby, fell silent. This timing was uncanny, making Lu Xingzhou seem like a master strategist whose words held prophetic power.

Lu Xingzhou said, “Go on, Sect Master. Accept their surrender, then arrange for them to spread fear and poach members… I can wash myself here.”

The door creaked open, and Shen Tang hurried out. “Where are they? Take me to them.”

The disciple was speechless. *Did I just see Elder Lu bathing in there when the door opened? Sect Master, what are you doing, Sect Master…?*

Actually, without Shen Tang, Lu Xingzhou could bathe much faster. He quickly finished, feeling refreshed, and then went to Ye Tinglan’s door. “How are you, Mister?”

Ye Tinglan replied irritably, “I told you I don’t need greetings.”

“No, I came to ask when you’re leaving.”

“Do you intend to stay for days?”

“At least until we tie up loose ends, including annihilating the Lingyun Sect.”

“If you ask me, I don’t approve of annihilating other sects.”

Lu Xingzhou explained, “During the battle at the Incense Pavilion, we didn’t kill many people; most were taken captive. In the early stages, the Incense Pavilion captives were mainly used for growing herbs and refining pills. Later, the more capable ones were gradually absorbed into the sect, becoming the Heavenly Sword Sect’s Alchemy Hall. We would likely apply a similar approach to the Lingyun Sect.”

“Are you trying to say you are a righteous army?”

“It’s because Tangtang’s situation is complex, and she particularly needs a good reputation. Whether the methods are ruthless or peaceful, this battle is inevitable. One cannot sleep soundly with another’s head on their pillow, let alone when an enmity has already been formed. Being soft-hearted would only harm ourselves.”

“So why are you deliberately telling me all this? I’m just a guest.”

“Because I don’t want Mister to have a negative opinion of Tangtang… or of me.”

Ye Tinglan remained expressionless. “I have no opinion of her. I have always had a very strong opinion of you.”

Lu Xingzhou cried out in injustice. “Hey, I’m your disciple.”

“I have no such disrespectful disciple.”

“A’nuo and I are both like this…”

Ye Tinglan was silent for a moment. “Do as you please. It has nothing to do with me.”

“Alright.”

“However, I believe that with Jingxu Daoist heavily injured, the Lingyun Sect is now utterly vulnerable and doesn’t need your elaborate planning. On the contrary, pressuring the East River Gang might require you more, but that would be a longer-term operation. Do you intend to linger here for months?”

Lu Xingzhou thought for a moment. “Perhaps. This kind of battle indeed might not require my direct involvement. But letting Tangtang fight a sect-destroying battle on her own makes me uneasy. I always want to help.”

“She is the leader of a faction. More matters require her to stand alone. Don’t coddle her into laziness. In fact, when you were not here, she performed admirably; the peaceful merger with the Elixir Cauldron Gang was not your doing.”

Lu Xingzhou scratched his head. “That’s true.”

Ye Tinglan immediately urged, “So, you could actually leave tonight.” He genuinely didn’t want to listen to them for another night.

Lu Xingzhou chuckled apologetically, “Well, even if I try to offer less strategy for the Lingyun Sect battle, I am still a combat force. How could I run off before a major sect battle? Wouldn’t your own sect slap such a disciple to death?”

Ye Tinglan was silent.

“After this battle, ah…”

“What’s with that tone? Are you coaxing a child?”

Lu Xingzhou took a half step back.

Ye Tinglan grabbed a brush from the table and threw it at him. “Scram.”

As it turned out, Lu Xingzhou’s “combat force” value wasn’t really needed in this matter.

The Lingyun Sect was inherently weaker than the East River Gang. Their Sect Master, Jingxu Daoist, was only a third-rank lower-tier cultivator, and there were only two or three other third-rank members in the sect. Their overall strength was already vastly inferior to the Heavenly Sword Sect’s current might. With Jingxu Daoist severely injured by a young girl’s punch and still bedridden, their fighting strength was even weaker, and the Lingyun Sect’s morale had long since crumbled.

The smarter disciples had already begun to flee, while the remaining ones believed the Heavenly Sword Sect wouldn’t dare to casually launch a sect-destroying battle and could still survive. After all, righteous sects needed justifiable reasons for their actions, unlike demonic cults, who were outlaws. When the Heavenly Sword Sect destroyed the Incense Pavilion, it was because the Incense Pavilion had attacked first, and they were also branded with the grave accusation of “colluding with demons to rebel,” only then did the Heavenly Sword Sect dare to attack their gates.

No matter what, the Lingyun Sect couldn’t be branded with such an accusation, so under normal circumstances, they couldn’t be attacked.

However, that very night, the Lingyun Sect found itself surrounded by figures in solemn white robes.

Shen Tang floated in mid-air, her robes fluttering, calmly observing the slaughter below. The Lingyun Sect was secluded in the mountains, so no one would know what happened. She didn’t even need to invent an excuse; they simply fought.

Zhang Shaoyou and others, who hadn’t had a chance to perform during the day, were burning with the desire to earn merits and fought with incredible zeal. Conversely, the Lingyun Sect lacked a core leader and had no morale whatsoever; their members simply wanted to flee. With one side eager and the other demoralized, the battle was almost a complete massacre, even simpler than the one against the Incense Pavilion.

Not only Lu Xingzhou, but even Shen Tang herself didn’t have to make a move.

“Shen Tang!” the angry roar of Xuanhe Zhenren, an elder of the Lingyun Sect who had attended Shen Tang’s sect establishment ceremony, came from the mountaintop. “You have no reason to incite a sect-destroying battle! You are acting against the natural order! Do you no longer wish to establish yourselves as a righteous sect?!”

Shen Tang spoke calmly, “Reasons? Shall we write one for you?”

With the Prefect, the Demon Suppression Office, and the garrison now fully aligned, the entire East River Commandery—no, Xia Province Commandery—was now Shen Tang’s domain. Like those first-rank major sects that dominated a region, their will was supreme for a thousand li around.

Before Xuanhe Zhenren could say anything more, Zhang Shaoyou’s sword swept across his throat, silencing him completely.

“We surrender!” another senior elder shouted loudly. “We surrendered willingly, voluntarily offering the mountain to Sect Master Shen! Jingxu and Xuanhe were acting against reason; we had long resented them. They were killed by us, killed by us!”

Lu Xingzhou sighed, “There are many clever people in the world. See, they even thought of the reasons for us.”

The words of this senior elder had a fatal impact on the battle. A few who were still resisting immediately surrendered upon hearing this. *Resist for what?*

Watching the battle cease almost instantly, Shen Tang quietly said, “Who would have known this day would come, after they challenged us at the sect establishment ceremony?”

Lu Xingzhou turned to her, seeing a hint of nostalgia in her eyes, and smiled slightly. “Congratulations, Your Royal Highness… you reign over Xia Province.”

Shen Tang whispered, “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

“Yes… I was originally on a trial, just taking a detour home to visit. I haven’t finished my studies and returned permanently…”

Shen Tang pursed her lips. “Aren’t you going to help me finish up with the East River Gang before you go?”

Lu Xingzhou reached out to brush a stray strand of hair from her temple. “I am only your chief aide. You must learn to govern with sole authority.”

Shen Tang ground her teeth. “If I’m a decisive ruler, are you my concubine?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Then come serve in my bedchamber tonight!”