We made a pun, the Saintess of the Holy Lotus Sect——
A sinister aura filled the fields, blocking out the sky.
The slowly advancing Tianshou King’s army did not maintain neat ranks; they were driven by endless greed and unwillingness in their hearts, driven by the followers of the Holy Lotus Sect, pressing forward step by step toward the Huaxian city walls.
Their attire looked chaotic, with armor or cloth armor, even silk robes stained with blood, and a wide array of weapons in their hands—every kind imaginable.
At first glance, they seemed worlds apart from those disciplined, imposing armies, seemingly unworthy of fear. Yet the malice and killing intent gathering around them resembled a pack of vicious and starving beasts, eyes fixed on flesh and blood, saliva dripping from their mouths, roaring as they charged.
The followers of the Holy Lotus Sect mingled among the army’s ranks, holding ritual flags, copper bells, and other instruments. They listened to the sounds coming from behind, then shook their instruments together, chanting loudly.
The rebel army began to shift formations. Their footwork seemed chaotic yet had order, for they followed the flagpole beside them.
The army took a “mountain” shape, leaving two wide paths. Then, crude wooden frames bound by ropes were pushed forward.
They did not look like catapults, nor cannons. Such heavy contraptions would slow the march. The Tianshou King would not have carried them on a forced march.
But Mo Li dared not be careless, because from the cities overrun by the routed troops and two rebel forces on the flanks, Fengxing Pavilion had already learned that the Tianshou King likely possessed a new type of siege weapon of great power, suspected to be a variant of the Thunderfire Bombs from Pili Hall, looking crude perhaps due to a temporary assembly base, so it could be disassembled and transported.
Mo Li stroked the bow in his hand, though it felt too light for him.
But to kill the rebel generals from a distance, a bow and arrow were essential.
Mo Li fixed his gaze on the jumbled flags in the Tianshou King’s army, trying to see how those Holy Lotus Sect followers shaking their ritual flags received orders.
——If it was through passing commands, who was actually giving them? If they relied on watching signal flags or listening to the instruments, how did they transmit the orders?
He needed to locate a key node. Cutting it off would throw the entire chain of command into temporary disarray.
The Tianshou King’s army looked too disorganized. Mo Li did not understand strategy, so he used a brute-force method: he watched every move of a single Holy Lotus Sect follower, tracing it step by step. Fortunately, his eyesight surpassed others’, or it would have been impossible to find anything.
“Destiny has arrived!”
“The Ziwei Emperor!”
The shouting outside the city grew clearer.
“Saintess, please grant blessings!”
“Grant us bronze arms and iron bones, protect our three souls and six spirits, impart the wondrous paths of all arts!”
As the army advanced, the Holy Lotus Sect followers shouted more frantically, their faces consumed by mania.
Most of those followers merely knew some basic martial arts. Like the others around them, they fanatically believed those crazy words. Their vehement shouts in unison most stirred people’s emotions, making believers believe even more, and even those who did not believe had bloodshot eyes, because the wealth, women, and even power they sought lay ahead.
Whether they were timid by nature or filled with selfish desires, under those cries, they gradually lost the will to think for themselves. Their minds held only——
“Kill!”
Their voices thundered on all sides, and their malice soared into the sky.
The soldiers on the city wall paled. Even the veterans who had witnessed the internal strife among the Three Princes of Old Chu back then suddenly changed countenance.
“Pull yourselves together.”
The gray-haired veteran steadied himself, spat fiercely, and roared in a harsh voice.
The soldiers still could not snap out of it. Now they finally understood why fifteen thousand troops from Jingzhou had crumbled, and why the refugees arriving in Huaxian brought horrifying rumors of “Fengdu Luoshan manifesting, ten thousand evil spirits arising.” Fengdu was said to be in Yizhou, and these people looked like ghosts rushing out from the Gates of Hell, did they not?
“……You’re not asked to fight hand to hand. If you can’t shoot an arrow, can’t you throw stones? Don’t let your hands shake, you cowards! Maybe I misspoke—if they do shake, so what, with so many targets, you’ll hit someone eventually!”
Seeing trouble, the veteran smacked each person’s shoulder, cursing a string of local slang.
“Don’t just stand there! As long as they’re flesh and blood, they fall once struck. If they’re not afraid to die, are we supposed to go easy on them? A bunch of fakes playing gods and spirits—send them down to the Yellow Springs. Don’t forget to ask King Yan if he’s heard of their Ziwei Emperor, or of that nonsense about the Saintess’s blessing……”
Passing by Mo Li, the veteran choked mid-sentence.
He had only paused because it felt improper to speak so crudely in front of this unfathomable master.
Little did he expect Mo Li to sense the tension and, unwilling to keep it so stiff, casually responded, “Worthless.”
Everyone turned dumbfounded gazes on him.
This time, Mo Li realized he had used the same slang. After a moment’s silence, he awkwardly switched to official speech: “It’s said the Holy Lotus Sect has thirty-six Saintesses. Once one died, they replaced her. There’s…an old saying in the jianghu that the Saintesses of the Holy Lotus Sect weren’t worth much.”
Last year in Zhushan County, they had even captured a Saintess—Fengxing Pavilion did not know of this. Partly because Pingzhou was too remote for their information network, but mostly because there really were too many Saintesses, all going around masked. No one knew when one died or when another took her place.
In any case, none of those Saintesses had proven formidable. Their martial arts ranked second or third rate, hardly worth noting.
The Holy Lotus Sect needed them simply because the people especially believed in “the White-Clad Saintess.” Looking back, whether it was the Maitreya Cult’s True Immortal Lady or the foreign Zoroastrian worship, there always had to be a veiled White-Clad Saintess with a ritual implement.
The Holy Lotus Sect was ambitious and had spread far. One Saintess certainly was not enough.
Mixing in the jianghu often required stating one’s affiliation. Claiming to be a Saintess of the Holy Lotus Sect now only invited ridicule.
Mo Li’s mind remained focused on the rebel vanguard commanders, so he spoke without thinking.
“T-That many?”
The young soldier from a craftsman’s family, who had insisted on giving Mo Li some arrows, gaped and asked, “Thirty-six Saintesses—could they afford them?”
Mo Li: “……”
Right. Only someone from a poor background would ask that kind of question. Very practical.
The Holy Lotus Sect’s leader, suspected of being unable to feed those thirty-odd Saintesses, sat in a carriage at the rear of the formation. The outside boasted luxurious decorations, while the inside was lined with an expensive woolen carpet imported by Western merchants—one foot cost ten taels of gold.
He did not have a Night-Illumination Cup for fine grape wine because it broke too easily and was inconvenient to transport.
Leader Luo was drinking alone, imbibing a jar of Nu’er Hong presented by the followers. The more he drank, the paler he looked, as agitation clung to him.
The shouting in the distance roared like thunder, an awe-inspiring momentum. On any other day, Leader Luo would have smiled complacently, intoxicated by this sense of wielding life and death over countless people. But not today. Today, he felt only irritation, and even found the noise grating.
“How much longer until we enter the city?” Leader Luo flung the wine jar away in anger, roaring, “What are you dawdling for?”
All those near the carriage were high-level members of the Holy Lotus Sect. They enjoyed the best treatment, and anything Leader Luo disdained naturally fell into their hands. Now they watched the half-finished jar of Nu’er Hong smash to the ground before their very eyes, its aroma spreading everywhere, and they could not help feeling distressed. If he did not want to drink, then so be it—why smash it?
The Tianshou King had long planned to send troops into the Central Plains, stockpiling grain and forbidding all wine-making.
Of every ten people in the jianghu, eight had a drinking habit. Cooped up too long, they would rather go out to expand territory for the Holy Lotus Sect than continue squatting in Yizhou.
“Calm yourself, Leader. With the fire weapons from Pili Hall, the city gate would soon be broken down.”
Was Leader Luo troubled by not being able to enter the city? Of course not. He felt that someone was watching him.
——That assassin had set his sights on him.
——That assassin clearly had not been fooled by the puppet and still lurked around the camp, even mixing into the army.
On the first day, Leader Luo had sneered at that fool who delivered himself to the doorstep. He himself was no silly puppet; if the assassin dared show himself, Luo would give him no chance to escape unscathed.
On the second day, that sense of being spied upon had not only failed to intensify but had lessened. Leader Luo wondered briefly whether the man had resolved to assassinate the Tianshou King. Since he found no sign of the Tianshou King near the Holy Lotus Sect’s leader, the assassin had decisively switched targets.
Leader Luo dared not rashly seek out Zheng Tu to discuss this matter. Deep down, he even held a trace of eager anticipation, hoping that assassin might bring him a pleasant surprise and give Zheng Tu a bit of trouble.
Yet this morning, at first light, that sense of being watched returned, clinging to him like flesh on bone.
Leader Luo’s face went white with rage. He did not need to think to know Zheng Tu must have done something to make the assassin suspect him again.
He certainly did not fear a mere assassin, but this one was too slippery. Leader Luo had looked several times but never spotted him among the crowd. For the sake of morale, he could not reveal the matter, so he tried using random moves to probe and force an opening from the assassin—such as smashing that wine jar just now.
However, each time he failed to catch the assassin’s trail. To outsiders, it simply looked like Leader Luo had lost his temper that day, making him impossible to please.
Leader Luo’s gaze swept over his subordinates, each wearing a different expression. He gave a cold snort and yanked the carriage curtain closed.
“Bring more wine!”
Bringing wine was easy, but delivering it to him risked provoking his wrath. Everyone declined in silence.
In the end, the hot potato fell into the hands of a Saintess.
A large bruise had bloomed around this Saintess’s right eye. She was the victim of Leader Luo’s morning rage, so she had been hiding in the corner, terrified to approach him. Yet no one in the Holy Lotus Sect took pity on her, shoving the wine jar into her arms without explanation.
Her arms shook. Head lowered, she approached the carriage slowly.
“Whoosh.”
The curtain was suddenly pulled aside, and the Saintess cried out in fright as Leader Luo grabbed her by the whole body. Her white veil fell to the ground, revealing a delicate face.
Leader Luo scrutinized her for a moment, then casually tossed her aside. Suddenly recalling something, he asked with a livid face, “Wait, where is the other Saintess?”
The crowd looked at one another, unsure of what Leader Luo meant.
The other Saintesses glanced around swiftly, realizing at once they were missing a companion.
“Leader, someone has infiltrated us!”
“…Gather all the Saintesses!” Leader Luo’s forehead bulged with veins as he gritted his teeth and spoke.
Su Li hid beneath a carriage loaded with grain. He quickly tore off his white veil and white dress, wrapped them around the axle, pulled out something resembling a stick, and lay on the ground knocking against the wooden wheel. Then he slowly crawled out from underneath, face smeared with dusty dirt, pretending to push the cart.
The wheel was stuck and difficult to move. Soon, some soldiers came over to help.
Su Li used a bit of trickery so that both soldiers exerted too much force and stumbled, ending up no better than he.
Casting a furtive glance at the Holy Lotus Sect incense masters and protectors who strode about, questioning people with fierce expressions, Su Li knew he had lost his chance for the day. He could only leave the camp and plan again at night.
Although Leader Luo had excellent martial arts, and the Holy Lotus Sect’s experts had unique abilities of their own, there were over fifty thousand people here. Catching a first-class hiding assassin in time proved truly difficult. Su Li quietly changed identities several times until he escaped undetected. Just as he considered the distant city wall, weighing whether to hide somewhere outside until dark or slip into Huaxian amid the chaos, a silhouette faster than lightning let out a sharp, wailing shriek as it shot into the sky. It seemed to hurl itself at the sun, then fell swiftly and stuck itself right in the center of the army.
Su Li’s pupils contracted. Despite the risk of exposing himself, he lifted his body to follow the arrow’s landing point.
The arrowhead could not withstand the immense force and shattered midair, its shards scattering like hidden weapons and instantly taking four lives. Ten more people cried out and collapsed, and while they were fortunate not to have suffered fatal wounds, the bright, bloody holes in their limbs and torsos were still terrifying.
The arrow shaft, now missing its head, continued forward. When it pierced one of the Holy Lotus Sect protectors, it carried the man backward more than ten steps, toppling a crowd behind him and plunging the center of the formation into chaos. Those at the front had no idea what had happened and kept operating the machinery to continue their siege. The thunderfire bombs struck the city gate and walls in brilliant flashes.
The city gate was on the verge of collapsing, revealing numerous stones piled behind it as a barricade. Clearly, the people of Huaxian had never intended to repel the enemy fully but only to buy time.
Though the gate was wooden, it was very heavy and underwent special lacquer sealing every year, making it difficult to burn.
Logs and stones were continuously hurled down from the city walls, though not in great enough quantities. Otherwise, by relying solely on that defensive measure, they might have held out for a while longer.
“This…”
Su Li stared at the distance between the city wall and the army’s center in shock. He had heard of sharpshooters beyond the passes who could hit prey at remarkable ranges, yet this distance and power definitely exceeded a bow’s normal scope. Without inner power at a transcendent level, it was impossible. Could Huaxian have an unparalleled master?
Author’s Note:
Su Li: “Masking my face and earning the soldiers’ respect? That disguise was good.” [Resolute cross-dressing]
But I still did not manage to complete the mission.
It told us cross-dressing was not a cure-all [Nope]. It told us that though the swordsman’s face was ruined, his figure was not bad.
————
Su Li: “I got stuck, need outside help?”
Mo Li: “…I shot wide. The arrow was not strong enough. I did not kill the one giving orders, but killed the protector next to him.”
