The Attack of the Wastrel

The King of the Fengyang Kingdom looked at Xie Jianyu, his eyes filled with disappointment and confusion, as if he had really been betrayed by someone that he trusted. However, everyone who was present knew that the King was just feigning innocence to protect whatever that was left of his reputation.

Indeed, as soon as he had said those words, the Imperial Guards rushed into the palace from all directions and surrounded the guests. When the guests started to panic, the King announced, “We need to take down this traitor right now. Those who do not wish to get hurt by the Imperial Guards should take your leave and wait outside the palace now.”

The guards that were standing by the door then moved aside to create a path for people to leave.

The guests looked at each other. Indeed, the people who stayed loyal to the King were the first to leave. Their actions prompted some other guests who were neutral to the situation to leave as well. To them, it did not matter who was the King.

After a short period of time, two-thirds of the people had left the palace, leaving a small number of people inside.

A majority of these people were Xie Jianyu’s subordinates, who had fought alongside him for many years. What shocked Xie Jianyu more was the fact that the rest of the people who did not leave were people who he had not interacted with frequently in his everyday life.

“Prince Yi has fought for the Fengyang Kingdom for so many years and faced death a countless number of times. I do not wish to see him being stripped of his pride,” one of them voiced out. The rest of the people who chose to stay nodded their heads in agreement.

In the Tianyuan Continent, strength was a trait to admire. Though Xie Jianyu was not the strongest Martial Artist that existed, he had sacrificed the most for the Fengyang Kingdom and was thus widely respected. These people were willing to help him in any way they can in such a critical moment, even though it looked like Xie Jianyu did not have a chance of winning.

The people who had walked out of the palace had heard what the man had said and guilt immediately flashed across their eyes.

To them, it was clear who was the one that was lying, but they did not have the courage to stay behind to help Xie Jianyu.

“Xie Jianyu seems to be at a disadvantage here…” Gu Lingzhi muttered softly to Rong Yuan as they hid amongst the guards.

There were only about twenty people on Xie Jianyu’s side. On the contrary, they were surrounded by hundreds of Imperial Guards.

“Isn’t that better?” Rong Yuan laughed lightly, “He’ll be even more indebted to us after this.”

That made sense…

Gu Lingzhi rolled her eyes, wanting to remind Rong Yuan that there were only four of them. Even though they had extremely outstanding Martial Skills, it was still difficult for them to deal with hundreds of people.

“Are you scared?” Rong Yuan gripped her hand and squeezed it gently. “There’s so many people here, it’s a good opportunity to test out the power of your Fenlan Painting.”

Gu Lingzhi’s eyes lit up immediately. She had gotten the Fenlan Painting from the Sacred Lands. Even though it was a half-completed object, it was still very powerful as it contained a demon beast that had spiritual power equivalent to a Martial Sage, Zi Zi. Gu Lingzhi wondered how useful it could be in such a situation.

At this moment, the tension between Xie Jianyu and the King had reached its peak. It was a matter of time before they engaged in a battle.

What shocked others was that even though Xie Jianyu was in a disadvantaged position, he did not show any signs of nervousness or anxiety. On the contrary, he looked at the King mockingly.

“Use the Painting now!” Rong Yuan exclaimed under his breath. Gu Lingzhi then raised her hand and the Fenlan Painting that was about a meter long unraveled itself in mid-air above everyone. Before anyone had time to react, the Fenlan Painting gave out a burst of pink light. The next moment, everyone in the palace had disappeared, almost as if they had never existed.

The people who had waited outside the palace realized that something was wrong. When they rushed over to check out the situation, they came face-to-face with an empty palace. Before they could react to the situation, a group of soldiers donning military armor rushed to the palace. They were led by a tall man who held two big hammers. When they interested the palace, they charged towards the people who had stayed outside the palace and howled at them, “Where’s the Prince? Where did you hide him?”

The guests were immediately scared speechless as they did not know where Xie Jianyu had disappeared to either.

The Fenlan Painting was a kind of space-dimension spiritual treasure that could trap people within the painting itself. It was a stronger weapon compared to a space-dimension ‘realm’. According to Zi Zi, if the Fenlan Painting had been completed, it would be a Godly spiritual treasure. It was a pity that it was only half-completed and thus would only contain half of its true power. Even if that was the case, it was already a high grade Heaven-Level spiritual treasure and could trap Demigods in it for up to an hour.

Now that it had trapped people who had not even reached the rank of a Martial Sage, they stood no chance against it.

Stepping on the flower-filled grass, Gu Lingzhi looked around her. Her surroundings were exactly how it looked like on the Fenlan Painting. There were trees all around her that were diverse and rich in color. Flowers bloomed in all kinds of colors and petals fell when a breeze swept over them.

On the other side of the Fenlan Forest were two groups of people – Xie Jianyu with his supporters and the King with his Imperial Guards, who had been separated by Gu Lingzhi when they entered the painting. She trapped both the groups within the Fenlan Forest which had been enchanted with an Illusory Spell and they were currently struggling to find a way out.

After ensuring that they had no way of escaping the forest until half an hour later, Gu Lingzhi brought Rong Yuan, Hua Qingcheng and Yuan Zheng to a particular Fenlan Tree where Zi Zi was asleep.

“Who is it? Who dares to bother me when I’m sleeping?” Zi Zi called out drowsily, before realizing that the only people who could freely enter and leave the Fenlan Painting were only Gu Lingzhi and itself.

“It’s you. Tell me, what was so important that you had to wake me up?” Zi Zi’s beard suddenly moved rapidly and looked more awake. When it saw the two groups of people that were trapped within the forest, it smacked its lips and asked, “Lingzhi, why did you trap so many people in here?”

Zi Zi looked excited, which meant that Gu Lingzhi had guessed correctly – trapping these people in the Fenlan Painting would bring a lot of fun to Zi Zi.

“The group with less people is on our side, whilst the group with more people are our enemies. Zi Zi, I need you to teach me how to accurately manipulate the Fenlan Painting.”

“That’s easy,” Zi Zi responded proudly, “There is no one in the world that knows this Painting better than I do.”

Zi Zi then walked towards the bigger group of people who were trapped in the Fenlan Forest. As he walked, he said, “Under the Illusory Spell, the Fenlan Forest can only trap those people for up to two hours before they find a way out, so we have to limit their ability to retaliate in these two hours. First of all, we should secretly split them into smaller groups…”

Following Zi Zi’s explanation, Gu Lingzhi nodded occasionally whilst manipulating the Illusory Spell, splitting them into smaller groups of about ten people each. Using their knowledge of the place, they got rid of these smaller groups systematically.

Even without Zi Zi, Gu Lingzhi knew how to use the Fenlan Painting. However, with its help, Gu Lingzhi could quickly familiarize herself with the Painting. When they had killed off about three quarters of the Imperial Guards, Gu Lingzhi no longer needed Zi Zi’s guidance to know how to create the best opportunity to assassinate people that were trapped in the Fenlan Forest.

It had only been half an hour since they had entered the Fenlan Painting and they had levelled the playing ground without Rong Yuan exerting much of his power.

Yuan Zheng was speechless at the efficacy of the Fenlan Painting. Was this the power of the ancient spiritual treasures? It was just a half-completed spiritual treasure, yet it already held such formidable power.

Zi Zi noticed his shock and laughed, “Don’t overestimate the Fenlan Painting’s powers, it is just a supplementary spiritual treasure. It had only managed to trap so many people in here due to the element of surprise. If met with more powerful Martial Artists, it would not be easy to trap them in here.”

Rong Yuan nodded his head, “Its power lies in the element of surprise. Even though the Illusory Spell cast over the Fenlan Forest may seem impressive and give surprising results, it would be useless against people that are familiar with such spells.”

“Even if that’s the case, this Fenlan Painting is still an impressive spiritual treasure,” Hua Qingcheng sighed to himself.

Apart from Rong Yuan and Hua Qingcheng, there was another Martial Sage that was trapped in here. If it were the outside world, the both of them would have to spend a lot of effort to kill another Martial Sage. However, under the protection of the Illusory Spell, they could effortlessly kill off the most powerful guard serving the King. They had taken longer than usual only because Gu Lingzhi had wanted to familiarize herself with manipulating the Fenlan Painting.