The Great Wei Music Bureau

Last time, we talked about how Xiang Ying and her two companions arrived in Luoyang and met Li Yi, but they got into an argument, and Xiang Ying ended up escaping Luoyang. While Li Yi was shopping with Qu Xia and Jing Xin, Yuan Ziyi suddenly appeared. She is now also at the Transcendent Realm, so could her appearance have another purpose? Let's find out together.

We won't dwell too much on the women's shopping spree; after all, women need to keep busy so men can be free, right? Let's turn our attention to Li Yi and Yuan Ziyi and see what they're up to.

Li Yi flew swiftly through the air on his sword with Yuan Ziyi in tow. The latter chuckled and said, "Aren't you going to explain anything else?"

"Haven't they all confessed?"

"You took her wooden sword, aren't you afraid I'll hurt your wife?"

"Although Xiang Ying has just advanced to the Transcendent Realm, she is not weak. Your mission is to buy time for the march. How can you buy time without injuring her?"

"Then you don't feel bad about it?"

"Both are my flesh and blood, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Hmph, you seem affectionate, but you're actually the most heartless!"

"Don't you know how much of a burden the word 'sentimental' is for someone in the Transcendent Realm? Will you shed tears when you see your grandson pass away in the future?"

“That’s different! Juniors are juniors, but this is…”

Li Yi suddenly interrupted Yuan Ziyi and said, "We've caught up, you can go now!"

"Hmph, just keep running away!"

"Stop talking nonsense and get down to business!"

Li Yi shoved Yuan Ziyi away, and she gave him the middle finger. Li Yi covered his face and said helplessly, "That brat Yu Jiu really doesn't learn good things! How could he teach Ziyi that gesture? I'll have to teach him a lesson later!"

On the other side, as Yuan Ziyi was falling, she drew the Lingxi Sword from her Qiankun Bag in her sleeve. With a flick of her wrist, she conjured four sword intents: ice, fire, lightning, and stone. The ice sword shone with a cold light, the fire sword blazed with flames, the lightning sword crackled, and the stone sword was incredibly heavy.

Li Yi, who was in the air, looked at Yuan Ziyi’s four sword intents and chuckled: “It seems that you have learned a lot of real skills in the Earth Sect. Xiang Ying, you must hold on to this iron mountain.”

Yuan Ziyi plummeted downwards like a missile towards Xiang Ying, who was flying westward on her sword. The latter naturally noticed her, glanced up, lightly stepped on her wooden sword, flipped herself upside down in the air, and used the wooden sword to block the stone sword intent that attacked first.

This powerful blow slammed Xiang Ying directly into the ground. Even though she mobilized all her energy to slow down, she couldn't avoid the impact. With a loud bang, Xiang Ying crashed into the mountainside, creating a deep crater.

However, Yuan Ziyi's attack did not stop. The sword intents of thunder and fire quickly drilled into the pit, triggering a secondary explosion. Flames accompanied by lightning spewed out of the pit, expanding it more than three times! Before the fire was extinguished, ice arrived. An ice sword flew into the pit and instantly sealed the entire mountain! At this moment, Yuan Ziyi slowly landed on the mountaintop, and with a gentle tap of her foot, the entire mountain collapsed rapidly.

"You can't be that weak, can you?"

Xiang Ying, emanating a black aura, leaped out of the ruins and landed opposite Yuan Ziyi. She was like a stubborn rock, her eyes filled with determination.

"So this is your Mingyi Iron Mountain? I've heard your greatest skill is taking a beating, that's quite interesting."

"Who are you, and why are you attacking me?"

"What, you don't remember me? We met at the border when Liang and Chu joined forces to besiege the demon army. You hadn't even entered the Transcendent Realm yet back then."

After that battle, you witnessed many extraordinary beings in action and gained some insights. Not long after, you found a divine secret in a life-or-death situation and entered the extraordinary realm. You have to thank me for entering the extraordinary realm; if I hadn't secretly protected you, you would have died at the hands of that great demon long ago.”

Xiang Ying looked at Yuan Ziyi's phoenix-patterned Daoist robe in surprise and said, "Since you are from the Earth Sect, why are you stopping me? No, wait, you were the one who ambushed me when I left Luoyang City!"

“That’s right. I’m just bored and wanted to have some fun with you, and also to dampen the morale of Western Chu. In the past, Western Chu was complacent because you had a lot of people at the Transcendent Realm, but now the Witchcraft Sect is gone, and the Moon Worship Sect won’t help you. The only ones who can really go all out in the war are the three Transcendent Realm experts from your Xiang family. If I kill you here, I can save a lot of effort in the future.”

"Since you are from Northern Wei, then state your name! The Xiang family does not kill nameless individuals!"

Yuan Ziyi shook her head and smiled, "Alright, Phoenix Dance in the Nine Heavens, Yuan Ziyi!"

"Yuan Ziyi? Princess Longyun of Northern Wei! I've heard you possess extraordinary abilities, so I'd like to test them out today!"

Xiang Ying swung the wooden sword, preparing to infuse it with her Qi, but the sword suddenly broke free from her hand and flew into the sky. Xiang Ying leaped to chase after it, but Yuan Ziyi kicked her back to the ground.

"What, you're afraid to fight without a weapon? Then I'll let you have your way, I won't use a weapon either!" Yuan Ziyi finished speaking and put away the Lingxi Sword, then used the "Rolling Curtain" technique on Xiang Ying, "Come here!"

For the impulsive Xiang Ying, this skill with its maximum taunt effect was a guaranteed critical hit, so she immediately rushed towards Yuan Ziyi and engaged her in combat. Seeing this, Li Yi, hiding in the clouds, turned and left.

In fact, Xiang Ying's departure was all part of Li Yi's plan. He did this to give Northern Wei another reason to send troops. "My first military campaign was to avenge your Western Chu's sneak attack on the Western Regions. As a result, the King of Chu passed away. Considering that you specially sent people to mourn when the Empress Dowager passed away, I will let you off the hook out of courtesy. Firstly, to silence the gossips of the former officials of Southern Liang, and secondly, to demonstrate the grandeur of my great nation as a Confucian and Taoist orthodox power."

We're going to try diplomacy first, but the negotiations haven't even started and the hostages you sent have already run away. What's the point of talking to you then? Let's settle this on the battlefield! That's the way of the game. I'm not only telling you I'm going to beat you up, but I'm also telling you why I'm going to beat you up, so you won't be able to say anything even after you've been beaten!

In reality, the Northern Wei had already stockpiled grain and fodder on its northern and eastern borders, but it did not conduct a large-scale troop mobilization to avoid alarming the Chu Kingdom. When Li Yi left the Junzi Pavilion, he winked at Lin Fan, signaling him to go to the palace to request an imperial decree to mobilize troops. Yuan Ziyi's delaying of Xiang Ying was intended to buy time for the troop mobilization. As a result, the Chu-Wei border, which Xiang Ying could reach in three days by flying on her sword, took half a month to traverse.

During the past two weeks, Li Yi has spent most of his time with Jing Xin and Qu Xia. Perhaps out of guilt, he was willing to fulfill all their requests.

That evening, Li Yi held a small concert at Yuefu Square, which was naturally organized to let Qu Jing and the other two experience the live concert that Xiao Yezi and Yuehua often talked about.

Once a concert is held, all the shops in Yuefu Square facing the inner stage will have to close down. But this is a good thing for them because they can sell tickets for these temporary extra shows and split the revenue 50/50. How much they earn depends entirely on their ability, so they are eager to hold more shows.

Organizing a concert was already second nature to Qu Jing and his companion, and everything proceeded smoothly. From promotion and sales to ticket sales and the final performance, it only took three days. The concert tickets were sold out in just one hour, which really surprised Qu Jing and his companion.

Accompanied by Xiao Yezi, Yuehua, and Xing'er, Qu Jing and her companion sat in the VIP middle seat, watching Li Yi interact with the audience on stage, singing one popular song after another; watching the enthusiastic audience sing along loudly, setting aside their pride and etiquette to participate; watching Li Yi chat and laugh on stage, casually flirting with the beautiful dancers, they couldn't stop smiling.

Since there were no guest singers at the small concert, Li Yi, tired of singing, pulled Xing'er onto the stage so she could sing a song to give him a short rest. Xing'er sang Li Yi's "new work," "Fallen Flowers by the West Window."

Who is it that watches the falling flowers from the west window, seeing neither the mortal world nor him?

West wind, don't blame the skinny horse for going to the ends of the earth where you are.

I wander beneath the floating clouds, while wild geese refuse to perch on branches.

A cup of tea, even if it brings sorrow, can be drunk away.

The silver moon, like gauze, reflects the beauty's sleeves as she caresses the fading sunset.

Fish in the pond, love in my heart, whose heart has longed for me?

Gently letting go of worries, a touch of vermilion between the brows.

No response. Is that you outside the door?

The drums and gongs resound, but the voices of the actors in the play are hoarse.

To dye one's hair blue with snow—life is but a fleeting moment.

Capture the fleeting years in a painting: that time, that place, and that him.

Hard to leave behind, prosperity becomes empty words.

Halfway through the song, Li Yi suddenly returned to the stage to sing a duet with Xing'er. When he sang the line "Who is watching the falling flowers through the west window, seeing neither the mortal world nor him," he deliberately pointed to the private room directly opposite on the second floor, and immediately, cheers and jeers came from inside the room.

Qu Xia looked up at the sound and was surprised to see a familiar figure. Who was it? It was Zhang Hongchen!

"Jingxin, look! Isn't that my husband's half-sister?"

Jing Xin looked in the direction she was pointing and exclaimed in surprise, "It really is her! This woman always gives me a bad feeling, like something terrible is going to happen whenever she appears."

"I remember the last time she went to Chu, not long after, my husband went to Miao territory, right? My husband is a Transcendent Realm cultivator, he can't just attack mortals. Do you think she might be his henchman?"

"do not know."

At this moment, Li Yi sang "Silver moon like gauze, beautiful woman's sleeve caresses the lingering sunset", he deliberately changed the lingering sunset to Qu Xia, and gestured to Qu Xia, who immediately screamed in response, thus interrupting the conversation.

Shortly after the concert ended, the audience hummed Li Yuefu's songs as they left. On stage, Li Yi warmly greeted the band, dancers, and backing vocalists, saying thank you for their hard work. Xiao Yezi and Yuehua were handing them their wages. Jing Xin, however, kept her eyes fixed on Zhang Hongchen on the second floor; she clearly had no intention of leaving.

After the audience had left and the stage lights had been turned off, Zhang Hongchen suddenly leaped down from the second floor and landed beside Li Yi. She bowed and said, "This servant greets Your Majesty. May I ask what Your Majesty has summoned this servant for?"

Li Yi looked at Qu Jing and the other man who were staring at him nervously and smiled, "It's nothing, I just haven't seen them in a long time and I miss them a bit." On the other side, Li Yi transmitted his thoughts, "We're going to destroy Chu. Some of the dirty work has to be done by the Asura Hall. You also have to keep an eye on the other Transcendent Realm cultivators in Western Chu. I'm afraid one or two tactless people will show up and interfere."

Zhang Hongchen turned to Qu Jing and the other woman, smiled and waved, then said to Li Yi, "Then Your Majesty, please keep the two ladies company. This servant will take her leave now." With that, she leaped up to the second floor.

A purple light shone from the private room, and then there was silence. There was a teleportation array that Li Yi had set up long ago.

"She just left like that?"

Li Yi laughed and said, "Why don't we leave? I'm not providing meals. Let's go back to the manor."

Three days later, Xiang Ying returned to Baidi City, and the Northern Wei army arrayed itself on the northern and eastern borders the very next day. Because of Yuan Ziyi's harassment, Xiang Ying had no time to gather intelligence, so the Wei army caught Chu off guard, and the important military towns of Hanzhong on the northern front and Yong'an on the eastern front were captured in just three days.

Upon learning this news, the Chu court was thrown into chaos. After discussing the matter, the three families immediately split into two groups: Xiang Xiong and Xiang Ying each led a team to reinforce Jianmen Pass on the northern front and Jiangzhou on the eastern front, while Xiang Ying, due to her injuries, was left to guard Baidi Town.

On the Northern Wei side, Dugu Yan and Dugu Long were sent to play a head-to-head match against the two Transcendent Realm experts from the Xiang family. Xiang Xiong in the north was suppressing Dugu Yan, while Dugu Long in the east was suppressing Xiang Ying, but neither side was able to determine a winner in a short period of time.

On the other hand, due to the restrictions of the mountain roads, the Northern Wei's large-scale siege weapons could not be transported, so neither front could break through the dangerous pass. For now, they could only wait for the Transcendent Realm to determine the winner.

When news of the attack on Western Chu reached Luoyang, Yuan Jun immediately sent a eunuch to summon Li Yi to the palace. At that moment, the talented Li Yi was boating on the river with his two wives when a fast boat caught up with them.

Before the boat had even come to a complete stop, the eunuch hurriedly called out, "Chief Li, the battle report from the border army has arrived. The two-pronged attack is going poorly. His Majesty requests that you come to the palace immediately to discuss military affairs."