157 Buried alive

The gatekeeper was completely unaware that the Jiang Nan delegation had arrived with their own ulterior motives. [I have no idea why so many people are flocking to the Tian Xiang City in this time of turmoil….. What is going on here?]

[Now even my own people are trying to steal from me?] Jun Mo Xie frowned, sensing that something was amiss.

The entire Capital was in a state of chaos at the moment.

The days were as normal, peaceful and calm as ever since no one would dare to cause a commotion in broad daylight. But the City's night patrol had been finding an increasing number of dead bodies in every part of the city with each passing night. Often the City's patrol would find unknown and strange devices on the bodies of the deceased. The department of justice and the Imperial army had been keeping a close eye on the movements inside the city, and were completely confused by these events since the major gangs within the city didn't seem involved.

However, all the major gangs of the city seemed to be aware of this instability, and had already tightened their securities, which was making it even harder for the authorities to investigate into the matter. The result of the final investigation left everyone shell-shocked:

The deceased don't belong to the Tian Xiang City; they comprise of every major faction outside the city, and many of the dead bodies discovered belonged to renowned and accomplished foreign individuals. Even though the encounters which lead to their deaths happened in silence, the majority of the deceased were advanced Xuans. In fact, all the dead bodies procured so far are above the base of silver Xuan realm.

These incidents are becoming more and more frequent, with the most recent one involving the Mu Rong Family.

Then as the investigation continued, we were able to discover that three out of the City's five major families were involved in the fray; namely, the Song Family, the Mu Rong Family, and the Meng Family. Although there is no concrete evidence of the roles of these families, but it is evident that they are involved! Even the third prince seems to be faintly involved...

How can we investigate our own houses? Although the officials weren't able to get to the bottom of the matter, but they couldn't help muttering to themselves: [are we witnessing a major revolution in the capital?]

The secrecy with which these factions were operating was making them even more nervous.

On one particular night, a variety of Xuan beasts flew over the capital city concealed in the dark curtains of the night, causing fireworks, and leaving only corpses in their path.

The Solitary Eagle had been the most active rogue on the city's streets over the last couple of nights. He had ventured out in this chaos out of sheer curiosity, and even though he was quite disheartened on not finding anyone worthwhile to cross sword against, but he still crushed any opposition he faced to sate his mad desires. In fact, it could be said that he had been killing every person he encountered in the street at night, irrespective of the strength of his victim. Of course, the Solitary Eagle didn't consider his action unjust: [I never intended on killing you. I was simply trying to learn something from your skills….. it isn't my problem that you're so useless that I couldn't even learn a single thing from your useless experience. How can I be blamed for someone else's incompetence?]

Had he been able to learn anything from a person he dueled against, then he would have allowed them to live on, but unfortunately, no one was able to show sufficient skill to deserve that chance, and were hence massacred by him..... this was another reason behind the chaos in the city. He was one of the main reasons behind the deaths of several Silver, Gold, Earth Xuans…..

The whole city was in a mess!

The Solitary Eagle was walking towards a large building at the moment. He hadn't been able to learn much in the two nights he had spent exploring the talent on the city's streets so far, after all, it was quite hard for him to find inspiring talent at his level.

Therefore, the Solitary Eagle had decided that he would focus his attention only on people above the Earth Xuan realm from now on. But finding such experts was a hard task, and he needed to find himself a large network of spies who were capable to finding such people…..

[There is no way I'll find skilled experts roaming around the streets of this city…]

Therefore, the Solitary Eagle had decided to approach one of the largest gangs of the Tian Xiang City: The Jin Yang gang.

This was the only shortcut that he could think of. He was confident that the Jin Yang gang's network would be sufficient to give him an insight on the whereabouts of high level Xuan experts within the city. [They might be one of the largest factions in this city, but even they cannot reject the offer of currying a favor with a man like me!]

The Solitary Eagle was obviously very confident….. or maybe a bit overconfident!

"Boom!"

The thick door of the Jin Yang gang's building was suddenly shattered to pieces, and the sawdust from its remaining fragments filled the atmosphere of the lobby. The handful of people who were sitting and drinking tea in the lobby weren't expecting company, and naturally stood up in shock.

[Who would dare to walk into the Jin Yang gang's building in such a manner?!]

A figure slowly emerged from the within the cloud of sawdust; long hair, black clothes!

"I'd like to see the leader of Jin Yang gang!" the Solitary Eagle stated his demand in a rather dominating fashion since he could clearly see that the men in front of his eyes weren't capable enough of calling the shots for such a large organization.

Even though these men belonged to the one of the largest gangs in the city, but they were no more than mere ants in the eyes of this intruder. The Solitary Eagle was well aware that he could decide the fate of their existence at his whims and fancies, so why would he bother being polite to such men?

The Jin Yang gang's men looked at each other in confusion for a long time, unable to decide the course of action, and then suddenly started shouting as they withdrew their weapons and charged towards the Solitary Eagle. The Solitary Eagle grunted as he withdrew his sword, and then painted the room in the bloody colors of a setting sun. The room quieted down as soon as the swords of his victims fell to the ground...

~ Jun Mo Xie's courtyard ~

Jun Mo Xie's infatuation with the Yin Yang Escape law hadn't diminished yet, and he was still busy practicing the method diligently. In fact, it seemed that his desire had been propelled further, almost to the point where he seemed willing to suffocate himself in the process of achieving his goal!

Guan Qing Han's kick had enlightened Jun Mo Xie, and he had suddenly realized something. As a result of his realization, he had prohibited everyone from coming into his courtyard. So much so, that even Little Ke wasn't allowed to witness his training at the moment. He had realized that the Yin Yang Escape law was beyond the imagination of the men and women of this world; so naturally, if he was able to succeed, then it would cause a sensation…. Jun Mo Xie was well aware that this news would spread faster than any other.

Jun Mo Xie had made tremendous progress after some arduous experiments over the course of the evening: he had succeeding in traversing up to ten feet while holding his breath for a period of three seconds…. Obviously, while being invisible!

The ability of being invisible for a span of three breaths shouldn't be underestimated by any means since this time frame was enough to kill a dozen men!

Delighted by his achievement, the young master Jun had started practicing the ability to escape into the ground. [Escaping into the ground ah, now that's the stuff legends are made out of! Imagine if I could vanish into thin air while fighting an enemy, and then my sword sticks out from the ground and kills them all in one swoop! What could be more fun than the sight of their comrades' expressions?]

With this thought controlling his mind, Jun Mo Xie accumulated all the energy he could muster, and then suddenly zapped his body into the ground below his feet, leaving no trace of his existence on the ground above. It was at this point when he realized that he suddenly realized his mistake: he had successfully managed to escape into the ground, but what about getting out...

For the fear of failure, Jun Mo Xie had used the entire energy which he had been able accumulate and had managed to escape several feet into the ground. Obviously, he couldn't help feeling pleased with the result, but soon started to realize the problem he had landed himself in: He had used the entire energy he had accumulated in order to escape into the ground….. but he would need the same amount of energy to get out as well...

[What now?]

[What do I do now? Stay calm, stay clam; it's just soil!]

As he started to feel the enormous pressure of the soil on his body, Jun Mo Xie began to realize something for the first time in his life... [the earth is extremely powerful!] But that wasn't the least of his concerns; the biggest concern was the fact that there was almost no air in the soil which he was stuck in. Obviously, there is no way one can live without air. [Will I have to rely on brute strength to climb out now? I don't even know how deep I'm buried…]

Moreover, Jun Mo Xie's courtyard's ground was no longer made of average soil. At the time when the Hongjun Pagoda had gone berserk, his courtyard's ground level had sunk by almost three feet due to the enormous pressure of the aura, making his courtyard's floor even stronger than the average everyday granite due to compression. Climbing out of such solidified soil was obviously not an easy task!

Jun Mo Xie frantically called upon the Hongjun Pagoda, but it seemed that the Pagoda was feeling a bit lethargic at the moment... Jun Mo Xie had used the Hongjun Pagoda almost a hundred times today in order to assimilate the aura he needed for his practice since he was itching to succeed in his endeavor….

[Are you mad at me Pagoda? Damn it, you just had to pick this time for taking it out on me? Ah, I'm suffocating here! …..you want me to beg?]

He started to choke due to the lack of air, while the enormous pressure of the soil started to interrupt his blood flow, and it seemed from his heartbeat that his heart would pop out of his mouth at any time. It started to seem as if the Hongjun Pagoda had abandoned him in this moment of need. The hitman could barely even move his fingers due to the pressure of the soil….

At this time, Jun Mo Xie's thoughts started taking a bizarre turn, and he started cursing the Pagoda within his mind: "Nothing good has happened ever since this damned broken Pagoda has waltzed into my life! You can shake the entire city in one go, but now you're choosing to sit idly while I'm being suffocated to death?"

It wasn't long before Jun Mo Xie was no longer able to endure the pressure. Soon, all he could feel was the pulse in his brain….. he had already started feeling dizzy, and he was certain that he would lose consciousness very soon. He desperately tried to push his energy into his Dan Tian in the hope of kick-starting the Hongjun Pagoda several times…. No response.

His mind started becoming increasingly unstable, and soon he had given up the rational way of thinking...

At this point, a golden image suddenly appeared inside his mind, and the Hongjun Pagoda gradually started to rotate at a very leisurely pace. The young master Jun didn't even have enough strength to curse at this point, so he just quietly waited… and prayed.