Luan Juzi glanced at Mr. Lu who was sitting on the other side of the emperor. The old man immediately stood up and started to channel the mystical yin and yang power of the Lu Clan to conceal the area they were in. This made it even harder for others to use the power of their mind or distance observation mystical abilities to detect what was happening here.

Only then did Luan Juzi speculate, "It's extremely likely that this calamity was caused by the schemes of the other schools of thought. At the very least, they played a part in helping it along. Perhaps even A'Liang's coincidental arrival was the result of someone secretly delivering a message to him. 

“After all, to coincidentally charge into the Great Li Empire not long after Qi Jingchun passed away? There are definitely people in the Hundred Schools of Thought who don't want to see my branch of Mohists and the School of Naturalists represented by the Lu Clan to help the Great Li Empire smoothly conquer the entire Eastern Treasured Vial Continent!"

The emperor unclenched his fists and rubbed his cheeks. His expression was ice-cold as he chuckled coldly and said, "Heh, an atmosphere of war and a state of impending chaos that hasn't been seen for a thousand years!"

"Since things have already come to this, it's even more important that we don't lose heart," Luan Juzi warned quietly.

The emperor smiled and shook his head, replying, "No, I definitely won't! So be it if it's 10 years, and so be it if it's 15 years. This is enough time to do many things! Thinking back to the previous emperors of the Great Li Empire, just how much humiliation and disdain have we suffered? My internal wounds are nothing compared to this."

His speech was calm and casual, yet the man forcefully swallowed a mouthful of blood that had rushed to his throat. He lowered his head and used his fingers to massage his neck. There was ferocity and remorse on his face, though the expression of remorse quickly vanished to leave only ferocity. In the end, all that remained was an expression of resignation.

As it turned out, that man had unleashed a supreme secret technique to secretly sever the emperor's heart meridian before ascending above the sky. This had comprehensively obliterated the emperor's path to immortality. Once a hidden 10th Tier cultivator brimming with vitality, the emperor's life force was now so fragile that it was shocking.

Not only this, the six flying swords...