The poorest member of the Imperial Guard, the Empress begged me to embezzle.

Liangzhou, located northwest of the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, was a place where the Dugu clan of Wuwei had held sway for many years.

Even when Zhao Wuyang, the military genius who now commands the capital's army, was serving as the deputy governor of Liangzhou, the two were merely equals, with Zhao Wuyang even being slightly overshadowed by Zhao Wuyang.

Finally, Zhao Wuyang was transferred to the capital for suppressing the barbarian tribes in the Investiture of the Gods war, and Liangzhou completely fell into the territory of the Dugu clan.

When Chu Xiu first discovered the 50,000 private soldiers under the command of the King of Qi at Shimen Village, he suspected that the King of Qi was colluding with Dugu Ba, the governor of Liangzhou.

as predicted!

According to the intelligence network under the Empress, after fleeing the capital, the Prince of Qi went straight to Liangzhou and traveled without hindrance.

This not only shows that King Qi and Dugu Ba were in cahoots, but also suggests that there should be a second or even more private army training grounds within Liangzhou!

"Princess Nangong, if Prince Qi still has private troops in Liangzhou..."

"If we rely solely on the Embroidered Uniform Guard, I'm afraid we'll suffer heavy losses..."

Chu Xiu frowned. He and Nangong Yijian flew ahead on their swords to scout out the enemy's situation, while the other commanders of the Imperial Guards led the remaining elite troops to follow behind.

These Imperial Guards were extremely important to him, and he did not want to see any of his men sacrificed in the conflict with the Prince of Qi.

Nangong Yijian explained, "Champion Marquis, rest assured, His Majesty knows that you love the people like your own children. He has already ordered the God of War Zhao Wuyang to lead more than 100,000 elite troops from the capital garrison and the troops from the surrounding counties and prefectures to blockade the border of Liangzhou."

"What do you mean by 'loving the people like one's own children'..." Chu Xiu smiled helplessly, "I'm just a commoner with a higher official rank and a bigger fist..."

With Chu Xiu and Nangong Yijian's speed of escape, they arrived at the border of Liangzhou in less than half a day.

The first thing that catches the eye is an endless black desert.

Thick thunderclouds filled the sky above the desert, and the thunderous energy here was extremely dense, as if a magical battle between thunder magicians had just taken place.

Nangong Yijian and Chu Xiu suddenly looked to their right at the same time.

There, faint fluctuations of spiritual energy caused by a battle could be heard.

Through the lightning mist, Chu Xiu swept his divine sense across the area and saw that a hundred miles to the east, hundreds of cultivators had split into two camps and were fighting to the death.

The dominant party, though barely human in appearance, were all blue-faced and fanged, completely naked, and devoid of any sexual characteristics, neither male nor female.

The weaker party was someone dressed in the uniform of the Beijing garrison.

"They are soldiers under the command of General Zhao!"

"Please do as you please, Lord! I'll go rescue the people first!"

Without hesitation, Chu Xiu transformed into a streak of sword light and sped off toward the direction of the battle.

Nangong Yijian nodded, and with a flash, he disappeared from the spot.

He appeared above the two sides of the battle at the same time as Chu Xiu, standing in mid-air.

"This is... a demon from the Heavenly Demon Sect?"

Looking at these inhuman monsters, Chu Xiu felt an intense loathing for the Heavenly Demon Sect.

These monsters have human-like features, and presumably they were all subjects of the Great Zhou Dynasty before being transformed into this form.

These monsters, even the weakest among them, are at least at the Immortal Ascension Realm, and the strongest among them, the leader, is a terrifyingly powerful being at the peak of the Earth Immortal Realm.

No wonder the soldiers of the Beijing garrison were in such a dangerous situation. Even the elite Imperial Guards under their command would suffer greatly here.

A cold glint flashed in Chu Xiu's eyes, and the Taiqing Zhenyue Blade appeared in his hand. In a flash, he appeared above the monster at the peak of the Earth Immortal Realm.

He immediately circled around and slashed the monster in two, head and arm in one stroke. He then stepped on the corpse and looked at the other monsters with a compassionate gaze.

Those who have been altered by the Heavenly Demon Sect have no chance of recovery; only by killing them can their suffering be ended.

Seeing someone appear out of nowhere and even kill the monster leader with a single blow, the soldiers of the Beijing garrison raised their arms and shouted:

"It's the Marquis of Champion!"

"The Marquis has come to our rescue!"

The other monsters, seeing their leader dead, became ferocious and drooled over his corpse, as if the body of their own kind was a rare and highly nutritious tonic for them.

The monsters opened their blood-red maws, roared loudly, and spewed out bursts of lightning as they attacked Chu Xiu.

Each of these lightning bolts was enough to annihilate everyone present below the Earth Immortal realm, yet despite the sheer number of bolts striking Chu Xiu, his flying fish robe remained completely undamaged.

"Your lightning is nothing compared to the heavenly lightning I suffered last night."

Chu Xiu's physical body has long been tempered and transformed by heavenly lightning, making him immune to ordinary lightning spells. Even the spiritual power within his body has been fused with a trace of heavenly lightning, causing all the damage he inflicts to have a certain degree of paralysis effect on the enemy.

The Five Elements can be transformed into the Eight Trigrams. Chu Xiu, who possesses the true meaning of the Five Elements, can also, to a certain extent, use the true meaning of wood to derive the Zhen and Xun trigrams, namely thunder and wind, as auxiliary attack methods.

Chu Xiu raised his sword and swung it towards the direction of the monster horde. A golden arc of lightning shot out from where he gripped the sword, enveloping the Taiqing Zhenyue Sword.

In an instant, the Golden Thunder Arc multiplied into ten thousand, manifesting as countless bolts of lightning that bombarded the monsters of the Heavenly Demon Sect.

In an instant, the monsters were all annihilated!

"It's alright now. What happened here? Where is General Zhao?"

Chu Xiu approached the soldiers of the capital garrison and began to ask questions.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nangong Yijian still standing in mid-air, his brows slightly furrowed as he looked towards Liangzhou.

"The general has set up camp a hundred miles to the north. We, your humble servants, were scouts and were attacked by these monsters while surveying the border of Liangzhou. Fortunately, the Marquis saved us from death!"

Faced with the soldiers' gratitude, Chu Xiu waved his hand and continued, "These monsters are from the Heavenly Demon Sect."

"It seems that the Heavenly Demon Sect has also deployed all its elite forces, joining forces with King Qi and Dugu Ba, preparing to launch a war!"

"Chu Xiu!" Nangong Yijian suddenly exclaimed, "The Heavenly Demon Sect has sent a Xuanxian Realm expert into Liangzhou!"

"Five people at the fifth level of the Profound Immortal Realm! Three people at the sixth level! And one more... should be at the peak of the eighth level!"

"Peak of the eighth level of the Profound Immortal Realm?!"

Chu Xiu gasped. The Heavenly Demon Sect had been hiding its strength for so long, how could it possess such power?

Nangong Yijian said solemnly, "That eighth-level Xuanxian realm cultivator should be an old acquaintance of mine. Just leave him to me!"

"As for the others, I have already sent a message back to the capital with my sword, requesting His Majesty to send the other palace masters here to provide assistance. There is no need to worry too much."

Chu Xiu nodded. Now that his internal and external cultivation and primordial spirit realm had reached the peak of the True Immortal Realm, dealing with a fifth-level or even sixth-level Xuan Immortal Realm expert was no problem for him.

However, there are as many as five people at the fifth level of the Profound Immortal Realm and three at the sixth level within the city!

If no other branch hall masters come to the rescue, this battle will likely be extremely fierce!

"I'll enter the city first; you can wait until the other palace lords arrive before we talk!"

Nangong Yijian left behind only one sentence before transforming into a streak of sword light and fleeing thousands of miles away into Liangzhou.

Chu Xiu then prepared to go with the soldiers of the capital garrison to Zhao Wuyang's camp to await reinforcements.

But at that moment, a thundercloud suddenly descended from the sky, accompanied by lightning and thunder, and appeared before everyone.

Chu Xiu used his Qi-gazing technique to probe the area and saw a huge humanoid beast dwelling in the thunderclouds, exuding the aura of a peak third level of the Profound Immortal Realm.

Seemingly sensing Chu Xiu's probing, the ferocious beast suddenly opened its eyes, roared to disperse the thunderclouds, revealed its true form, its eyes flashing with ferocious lightning, and spoke in human language:

"Haha, that person is finally gone!"

"Boy, hand over the Heavenly Thunder Essence, and I'll leave you with a whole corpse!"

Chu Xiu looked at the ferocious beast, somewhat eager to try it out.

Level 3 of the Profound Immortal Realm, skilled in lightning magic...

It must be the Heavenly Demon Sect, and the Eastern Zhen Dharma King!

"Want it? Then come and get it yourself!"