Outside of Beiluo City…
Somewhere on the endless plain, a wagon stopped there quietly. The horse was snorting and eating grasses.
The heavy moonlight shone on the plain, giving it an icy cold but beautiful silver glint.
The curtain of the wagon was lifted.
A hunchbacked old man got off the wagon with hands behind his back. He was looked at Beiluo City, which was vaguely shown in the darkness.
The wagon man was Mo Shougui, who had lost an arm. He followed Mo Beike with a pale face.
“Shougui, what time is it now?”
“It will be one o’clock in ten minutes.” Mo Shougui’s voice was a little bit hoarse.
He was also looking at Beiluo City with a pair of what seemed like cold eyes.
After all, it was Ning Zhao who cut his arm off, and Ning Zhao was Young Master Lu’s servant girl. Consequently, he certainly would settle this with Young Master Lu.
“One o’clock…”
Mo Beike took a deep breath. His eye bags vibrated.
According to what they had agreed, once Beiluo City was brought under control, Yinyang philosopher Wei Luan would give him a signal. However…
It started at midnight, and it was almost one o’clock.
Beiluo City remained terribly and eerily quiet, like a lurking viper giving off coldness in the dark.
“He failed…”
Mo Beike was somewhat disappointed. He breathed out. The wind was a little chilly, stirring his beard.
“Shougui, go to North County right away.”
Mo Beike went back into the wagon.
“Yes.”
Mo Shougui whipped the horses with his only arm. The wagon turned around instantly and drove away.
Mo Shougui’s long hair was blowing in the wind. He looked back at Beiluo City, a deep-seated hatred showing in his eyes.
******
At the edge of Hidden Dragon Ridge…
A bonfire was burning, illuminating the deep dark forest around.
A well-shaped body was lying on her side on a carpet made of hay.
Sitting beside the bonfire, Xiang Shaoyun was breathing Spirit Qi. Dark Demonic Qi was flowing in his body.
“Once an immortal method is inversed, it will become a demonic method…”
“Sometimes an immortal? Sometimes a demon?”
Xiang Shaoyun murmured.
He almost died this time, but he sold a part of his soul to Demon and demonified himself. In this way, he managed to survive and killed thousands.
Looking back, he saw Luo Mingsang asleep on the hay. Then the hostility on his face completely disappeared. What was left was gentleness.
Gazing at the woman’s peaceful face, he thought as long as she could live a tranquil and comfortable life, he would not regret anything.
Actually, he did not have the ambition to conquer the world at all.
He revolted, but it was only to make her the noblest woman in the world, a woman who could have everything.
What Xiang Shaoyun really liked to do was to keep improving in martial arts and go beyond his limits.
Even a tough man also has his tender side. Xiang Shaoyun was not an exception.
The tenderness in his heart was exactly Luo Mingsang…
The girl who he grew up with.
However, when he looked back at the burning bonfire, Xiang Shaoyun’s eyes seemed even colder. The hostility in them was surprisingly intense.
“Mo Beike…”
“What a pity. You didn’t kill me. Since you didn’t kill me, this world… It will never be yours, Mohists!”
Xiang Shaoyun’s low and profound voice tore the night sky apart.
While Xiang Shaoyun was looking at the bonfire…
On the hay, the woman, who was lying on her side, looked at the man sitting by the bonfire. With his back facing her, seeing his body full of injuries, her eyelashes slightly vibrated. A tenderness emerged in her bright eyes.
However, the tenderness was soon replaced with a mix of struggling misery and sorrow.
She shut her eyes.
Murmuring to herself painfully…
“Shaoyun, Mingsang doesn’t deserve you. I don’t deserve you.”
******
Drunken Dragon City.
There was a thick fog. Just like Beiluo, the city was also in dead silence. Everyone was asleep.
Outside of the farmer’s yard…
Jiang Li was looking at the yard with a profound look, wearing a silver armor and covering his mouth and nose with a white cloth. While holding his helmet, he could see the teenage girl hypnotized by the Yinyang Fireflies in the house.
The teenage girl was fast asleep. As if she was having some beautiful dream, a pair of dimples blossomed on either side of her lips like peach flowers. Her pretty face was a little rosy.
Jiang Li looked emotionless. He put on his helmet a minute later and then turned around to leave.
After taking a few steps, he formed a circle with his thumb and forefinger and put them against his lips. Then he made a whistle out of his hand.
A white horse galloped over in the darkness, with its magnificent mane fluttering in the wind the horse’s neck.
Jiang Li jumped onto the white horse. Tucked at his waist was a sheathed rusted sword, while a long spear hung on the horse’s saddle.
As soon as he got onto the horse, Jiang Li hooked his foot under the spear and tossed it into the air. Then he caught it with his hand.
The man and the horse turned into a bolt of white lightning running through the street of Drunken Dragon City in the dark.
Several figures, covering their mouths and noses, were following Jiang Li. In this way, they killed into the darkness that shrouded Drunken Dragon City.
On the long street…
Yinyang School’s necromancers showed up like ghosts.
Beast machines were roaring. Gu insects were flying…
A bloody rain and a wind with a pungent smell were sweeping over the whole Drunken Dragon City.
Jiang Li’s eyes were ablaze like torches in the night. The white horse’s clip-clops sounded like small dense raindrops. Jiang Li, holding his long spear and in his silver armor, led his subordinates straight into the darkness brought by Yinyang School’s necromancers like a long sharp sword.
This was destined to be a bloody night.
Compared to the overwhelming attack in Beiluo City…
The battle in Drunken Dragon City was harder.
Yinyang School’s necromancers showed how pretty horrible they were this night, alongside the beast machines of Jiguan School and the Mohist rangers.
The three were like a horrific giant hand breaking down the Great Zhou Dynasty’s firm defense.
When the sun rose from the horizon and the first strand of morning light shone on the earth…
On the street where the killing had lasted the whole night, cling-clangs of armors could be heard.
Jiang Li walked out of the dead bodies step by step. He threw the spear on the ground. With his hand grasping the handle of the sheathed rusted sword he was carrying at waist, he breathed out. Behind him were broken beast machines and the dead bodies of Yinyang School’s necromancers, which were everywhere…
Of course, there were dead bodies of his subordinates as well.
Jiang Li was kind of insensitive. He had witnessed too many deaths, and he had been used to this sight.
He narrowed his eyes involuntarily when the morning light shone on his face.
Behind him, a woman covered with blood, was following him.
“Clear the bodies…
“Guard the city when everybody wakes up,”
Jiang Li said.
“Yes.”
The woman replied in an exhausted voice. A franticness emerged in her eyes when she had seen the sheathed rusted sword at Jiang Li’s waist.
The fact that Master Jiang’s rusted sword had never been unsheathed meant this crisis was nothing at all.
The franticness faded in her eyes when she saw Jiang Li leaving covered with blood. It was replaced with complexity. She knew where Jiang Li was going, so she did not follow him so that he would not be disturbed.
In the farmer’s yard…
Jiang Li put off the helmet and removed the cloth stained with blood that he had used to cover his mouth and nose. His hair was a little bit messy.
He went into the house and saw that the candle was almost spent, so he blew it out. Gazing at the teenage girl’s tranquil sleeping face, he extended his hand. However, afraid that her face would be stained with blood, he retracted it.
He walked to the door and sat down on the edge without taking off his sword. With his back straightened up, he looked at the morning glow shining through the ragged clouds on the horizon.
Watching the clouds changing quietly, he waited for the girl to wake up.
In the room…
The teenage girl woke up andsaw the giant figure sitting on the edge right away.
Shouting in surprise, she sat up immediately. The chick Lil Phoenix One sleeping on her chest was instantly thrown out.
It fell next to the figure covered with blood sitting on the edge.
Jiang Li glimpsed at the chick emotionlessly. Then he looked at the teenage girl on the bed. He raised his eyebrow.
“Is this… Is this the chicken for the chicken soup?”
Bai Qingniao flushed because of embarrassment.
“Uncle Jiang, when did you come?”
She was startled. Picking Lil Phoenix One up and tucking it into her clothes, she hurried to run into the kitchen.
“The soup will be ready very soon. Uncle Jiang, just a little while…”
A little while later…
Jiang Li left the blood-stained helmet on the ground and started to enjoy the yellowish chicken soup and the delicious chicken.
Cupping her hands around her chin, Bai Qingniao watched watching Jiang Li eat the chicken soup. Her eyes were like two crescent moons.
It did startle her when she had seen Jiang Li covered with blood for the first time.
However, little by little, she got used to it when she had seen it quite a few times. And her fear of blood was gone as well.
She liked to see him eating soup before her. What he did or who he killed, why would that matter to her?
He ate all of the soup.
Jiang Li wiped the oil off the corners of his lips.
He got to his feet.
“I’m leaving.”
He always left as soon as he finished the soup. He would never linger.
“That chicken… Feed it more,” said Jiang Li at the door.
He glanced at Lil Phoenix One, who popped its head out of Bai Qingniao’s collar, and curled his lip.
He was absolutely not jealous of the chick.
He just thought Bai Qingniao could make some good soup with it.
******
Capital city, Great Zhou.
At daybreak…
The warm morning sunlight spilled on the earth.
Outside of the capital city, six horses were galloping into the capital city without slowing down. Their clip-clops sounded like raindrops.
These six horses were from the six cities guarding the capital city. They were bringing a piece of urgent news.
Main Hall, Imperial Palace.
Yuwen Xiu threw the six urgent letters away when he had finished reading them. Flying into a rage, he swatted at his throne, making a loud noise that echoed in the hall.
The ministers looked at one another. Some of them had learned what it was about. Lowering their heads down, they did not even dare breathe hard.
The old eunuch picked up the urgent letters from the ground.
“Read!”
Yuwen Xiu ordered with a cold face.
The old eunuch did not dare disobey. He read the news in the urgent letters in a high-pitched voice.
Instantly, all of the ministers were shocked!
The six cities guarding Great Zhou’s capital city were attacked.
Beiluo, Drunken Dragon, Wangtian, and Pingnan, these four cities managed to stay safe. The City Masters of Yuanchi and Tong’an were all killed. The aristocratic families in these two cities revolted, and the citizens were living in fear.
Staring at the ministers, whose only reaction was mere shock, Yuwen Xiu felt very disappointed.
He waved his hand. The ministers were thus dismissed. Then he headed for the Book Pavilion.
******
The capital city was in shock brought by the news that the six cities had been assaulted.
Lu Manor, Beiluo City.
The morning light spilled onto the earth…
Bringing the gentleness and comfort of the early morning.
Sitting on the wheelchair, Lu Fan was eating rice porridge.
Before him, Ni Yu, wearing a bun and with tears welling up in her eyes, was looking at Lu Fan eagerly, full of regret.