The place where Su Li hid himself was very concealed.
He pushed the advantage of darkness to the extreme. The platform seemed brightly lit by the bonfires all around, yet there were still narrow, pitch-black dead angles.
The congregation of the Holy Lotus Sect repeated their chanting, their raised hands under the bonfires’ light looking like a swaying dense forest. Amid this scene of demons dancing in the intertwined light and shadow, every step Su Li took was perfectly hidden, until the blade suddenly appeared.
“Boom.”
With a loud crash, the hastily built platform collapsed in an instant.
Everyone was startled, dodging in panic.
Mo Li’s pupils contracted, and he quickly realized this was a trap. The Supreme Leader of the sect always sat high on the platform, and none of the people from the Holy Lotus Sect had gone up.
That platform had been built very tall, with no buildings around to gain leverage. Hua County was originally a small place, and its highest dwellings had only two floors.
The Holy Lotus Sect had specifically cleared away obstructive eaves and canopies for this “Heaven Worship,” so that when the congregation knelt to pay respect, they could directly see the stars in the night sky. This forced Su Li, when hiding, to choose between the crowd or the rooftops at a farther distance. That distance was not short, and to avoid early exposure, Su Li could only stomp on the edge of the platform at the last moment, muster force, leap straight up, and thrust out a fatal strike.
That thrust missed.
Because the spot Su Li used as a foothold suddenly collapsed, and the nearby wooden crates serving as steps sizzled with smoke and exploded in an instant.
The force of the explosion blasted upwards, engulfing Su Li in midair.
At this critical moment, he suddenly shrank his body, using his arms and legs to tightly shield his head, chest, and abdomen.
The amount of gunpowder inside that trap was not great, for the Supreme Leader of the sect did not intend to blow himself and his congregation sky-high. What was truly “deadly” were the hidden mechanism tubes triggered along with it.
Plum blossom needles, iron caltrops, and bone-piercing spikes flew out with choking smoke, completely covering the collapsed platform.
He only heard a series of whooshing sounds. The concealed weapons were shot from triggers, then were propelled by bursts of energy, spinning wildly in all directions. As the wails echoed unceasingly, many of the Holy Lotus Sect congregation close to the platform fell.
These people were not soldiers of the rebel army. They barely knew any martial arts but were slick talkers. Most were roaming folk who had joined the Tianshou King’s cause, only to find that serving in the army was not as easy as joining the Holy Lotus Sect to fool people. It was just as free from worry over food and drink, and granted a higher status besides.
They were quite adept at putting on airs. For the Heaven Worship, they dressed themselves in flashy, deceitful costumes—neither Taoist nor Buddhist—lined up in rows, muttering incantations and waving ritual implements in front of bonfires. Their faces were almost impossible to distinguish in the flickering light.
It would have been absurd if only those unpresentable types surrounded the Leader of the Holy Lotus Sect. Thus, eight Holy Maidens and four Protectors were also arranged to bolster the scene.
Su Li had spent quite a few days mingling in the Tianshou King’s camp. He had seen those four Protectors, even knew their names and nicknames. During the assassination, he had paid special attention to their positions, confident that he could manage it so that by his third attack, those four Protectors would only just begin to react.
——All of these maneuvers had been foreseen.
It was far easier to set a trap for a skilled assassin than for some bumbling killer.
Su Li’s foot thus landed neatly on the “perfect” spot that the Supreme Leader had prepared for him.
“Hahaha!”
The Supreme Leader laughed heartily and roared in a show of authority, “Demon, prepare to die!”
Soldiers of the rebel army heard nothing but thunderous blasts and miserable shrieks, and they ran off in fright.
“A demon has appeared!”
“Stay away!”
They shoved and pushed, like headless flies, only to be driven back by troops stationed at the perimeter.
Leading them was the Tianshou King, dressed in a golden robe and wearing a purple-gold mask.
Behind the mask, his eyes glowed with a strange purple light, eerie and chilling. With a sweep of his sleeve, those crowded, fleeing soldiers were forced aside by an invisible surge of power.
“Y-Your Majesty?”
Everyone looked at one another in confusion. A rank-holder in the Holy Lotus Sect shouted loudly, “The Ziwei Emperor is here—ordinary people, kneel at once!”
Habit moved faster than thought, and they all crowded together and knelt down. Upon realizing the danger in this place, they scrambled to show loyalty.
“Ziwei Emperor, please leave—there is a demon here.”
“Yes, Ziwei Emperor must avoid this calamity…”
Several generals at the Tianshou King’s side revealed unspeakably twisted expressions.
——Though they normally found it convenient to deceive the commoners into risking their lives, as it guaranteed troop supply with no need to pay wages, at times it felt like they were dealing with idiots. A few words from the Holy Lotus Sect could swindle them completely. Once success was achieved, these soldiers would be replaced if possible.
The people from Thunderclap Hall followed at a distance.
The elder-like Lei Xian lectured the younger members of the Lei family beside him, “See that? I have long suspected that the Tianshou King we saw these past few days was just a stand-in. This one must be the real deal. It turns out the King’s martial arts were not too shabby at all, truly hidden and unfathomable.”
At this moment, the one wearing the purple-gold mask was none other than Zheng Tu.
Unfortunately, Zheng Tu’s martial arts were far stronger than Lei Xian had guessed. His soft mumbling reached Zheng Tu’s ears.
Zheng Tu paused, and in his mind, he looked down upon this group of Thunderclap Hall people just a bit more.
——Indeed, the stand-in from the past two days was nothing special, but the one they had met before that was also a puppet!
At best, that one was better at posturing, quick-witted enough to satisfy both him and the Supreme Leader.
“If one did not dare to face the demon, how would one get through this calamity?” Zheng Tu pressed his voice down, emitting a tone of authority completely different from usual.
No one dared speak this time, and they looked fearfully toward the rubble where the platform had been.
Smoke churned, and it was clearly visible that there was a blood-red silhouette within the swirling haze, moving rapidly in a slanted sweep.
However fast it moved, it remained firmly trapped in that small section of space, unable to escape.
“The Supreme Leader has subdued the demon!”
The rebel soldiers began to cheer, and fervor once again overpowered their reason.
Meanwhile, the people of the Holy Lotus Sect looked at one another in lingering fear, failing to shout out those words that would bewitch the soldiers in time.
Seeing that crowd of Holy Lotus Sect followers lying everywhere, it turned out that following the Supreme Leader in this so-called “Heaven Worship” had seemed like a cushy job. Those who had not been chosen even felt a bit regretful. In the blink of an eye, however, they had become sacrifices—only a fool would fail to see that this was a trap to catch the demon.
Yet in the next moment, they settled down again, believing this was a tribulation that those of high fate had to experience, and that the matter of dying on someone’s behalf would never fall to them.
Even a Holy Maiden who lay injured on the ground stopped struggling. She endured her pain to crawl aside, preparing to pull out the concealed weapon lodged in her body bit by bit. Naturally, being riddled with holes did not feel good, but as long as she survived, having been attacked by the demon would gild her identity.
The others who survived also reacted, desperately crawling in all directions. They even forced out smiles, smiling at the rest, as though they felt a sense of relief at witnessing the demon’s emergence, and that dying for the Ziwei Emperor was worthwhile.
“……”
Mo Li watched all of this, and his heart sank slowly.
Although he knew Su Li had fallen into a trap, Mo Li did not feel it was an impossible task when the rebel soldiers and the Holy Lotus Sect congregation were fleeing in panic.
Then he realized he was wrong.
The enemy lurking in the shadows, that person he and Meng Qi had guessed about many times, stood right before him!
A trap targeting an assassin, a stance intimidating the foolish masses, and even that seemingly absurd lie which, when carried out, made people willingly endure pain, disregarding their near-death, all for the sake of maintaining the façade…
If Qiu Si’s manipulation of minds had been subtle and masterful, the Tianshou King used blunt, straightforward benefits to keep his subordinates in line.
Yet the benefits offered by the former had at least been something tangible; even if in the end one lost everything, at least one could take a bite of real meat. The wonder of that taste was no lie. The latter, however, was merely an empty promise, a ploy of pulling in something for nothing, making those who fought to the death for it lose all they had.
This was by no means a path to truly controlling one’s followers for the long term.
Mo Li had never understood so clearly what Meng Qi meant by saying, “The Tianshou King needed to defeat Jingzhou as quickly as possible and incorporate its power.”
Before Qiu Si died, he intended to hand over Jiangnan for the Tianshou King to ravage. Even Qiu Si himself, along with everyone else, believed that the Tianshou King could not establish a foothold in Jiangnan, because this ragtag group could not last. Like locusts, they gathered because the time and place were right, sweeping across the land with unstoppable force, yet once the cold wind blew, they would fall apart and vanish without a trace.
Could the Tianshou King himself be unaware of this weakness?
How did he plan to complete his metamorphosis?
Taking Jingzhou was only the first step. How could he quickly shake off the bad reputation of ravaging Jiangnan and colluding with a heretical cult?
So-called disregard for background—only by defeating every faction could that be done. Even so, many would be unwilling to serve such brigands. It was easy to fool the ignorant masses, but if the Tianshou King wanted to advance further, it would not be so simple.
Mo Li’s intuition told him that this answer was tied to the King’s true identity.
Mo Li strove to restrain himself. Even though he saw Su Li’s body covered in wounds, locked in a bitter struggle, and saw the Tianshou King appear in his mask, he knew that acting rashly before confirming there were no other traps would lead him straight into the enemy’s schemes.
When Mo Li’s gaze swept for the third time across the rebel generals with their varied expressions, he suddenly realized one person was missing.
Where was Zheng Tu?
Right then, the elder of the Thunderclap Hall deliberately brought up Zheng Tu’s shortcoming, saying smugly, “Such a huge incident has happened, yet General Zheng is nowhere to be seen?”
The Tianshou King cast a cold glance to the left, and the troops under Zheng Tu inwardly cursed and wished they could slap that old man from the Lei family.
“Our General took up station outside the city before nightfall,” Zheng Tu’s personal guard explained, head bowed. “Not only General Zheng, but several other Divine Martial Generals as well. Heaven Worship is significant, we had to catch the demon, and we must guard against Jingzhou’s army and the realm’s assassins.”
——Indeed, others really were patrolling. But since yesterday, Zheng Tu had been studying the blade marks on the city walls.
He seemed completely fascinated, which many people, Mo Li included, had witnessed firsthand.
Mo Li had also hesitated to act rashly because he was on guard against Zheng Tu.
Mo Li held his breath, scanning for any places nearby where someone might be concealed. Under normal circumstances, this would have been simple, yet the crowd hindered his assessment. Meanwhile, Su Li could hardly hold on any longer.
The blast had shattered Su Li’s protective inner energy, leaving him unable to repel the hidden weapons.
By now, Su Li’s entire body was covered in wounds. Even though he had reacted swiftly and none of the hidden weapons struck a vital spot, the countless small wounds on his limbs, still bleeding profusely due to the turbulent flow of inner power during his desperate fight with the Supreme Leader, refused to close.
From a distance, he looked like a demon’s bloody shadow caught in rolling motion.
“Something’s off.”
Mo Li snapped awake.
Zheng Tu had not hidden himself nearby. Zheng Tu could not be an assassin more elusive than Su Li, to the point that even the Dragon Vein would fail to sense him.
“This was a baseless trap. If we delayed further, it would have become real.”
——Thunderclap Hall and the rebel army would have formed layer upon layer of encirclement.
Mo Li drew his blade, and the force he released without reservation instantly stirred up a violent gale on the flat ground.
People were dragged and pulled by the wind, crying out in alarm,
They were merely affected by its aftershock, whereas the Tianshou King directly faced that terrifying blow.
The scene before his eyes twisted and distorted, the bonfires were swept in, and the air currents surged violently.
Guided by two blades, two distinct spheres of energy took shape, spinning and colliding.
Yin and Yang gave birth to each other, one like a blazing sun, one like a bottomless abyss.
It seemed as though from sky to earth, everything had fallen into the gaping mouth of a ferocious beast whose face alone was visible. It spewed endless flames, behind which lay an infinitely dark throat; once swallowed, one would be crushed to dust.
The Tianshou King’s expression changed dramatically. He had nowhere to evade, and he could only go all out with his entire strength to meet that move head-on.
“……!!”
No sound was heard, nor was there an earth-shattering boom.
Countless people, however, collapsed onto the ground, writhing in agony. They could not even articulate what had happened, only felt chest tightness, nausea, and a skull-splitting headache as though they had been bludgeoned.
The soldiers fared better. The higher a person’s martial skill, the fiercer the invisible shockwaves they endured, causing blood to ooze from their noses and mouths, and their eyes to bleed.
Mo Li staggered a step, braced his hand against the ground, and barely stood upright.
His face was ashen. That strike had exhausted all his inner power.
The Tianshou King’s legs were completely sunk into the ground, his right arm was broken, and his attire was reduced to dust, leaving only scraps below his chest and abdomen. His mask shattered piece by piece and turned to powder in an instant. His face and hair were covered in blood, making his features indistinguishable. His upper body looked just like his face, half of him practically a bloody figure.
Even so, the Tianshou King still managed to withstand that blow without retreating a single step.
“……I did not comprehend the blade marks in vain,” the Tianshou King spoke through clenched teeth.
Blood streamed continuously between his teeth, making him look even more terrifying.
“Who were you, exactly?” the Tianshou King asked, word by word.
Mo Li gave no answer, his trembling hand barely able to grip his blade.
Of course, the Tianshou King saw the appearance of those two blades. He moved slightly, then vomited a mouthful of blood.
The two fell into stalemate. At that moment, far away, the Supreme Leader was the first to recover. Clutching his faintly aching head, he rushed over and struck a palm toward the top of Mo Li’s head.
Mo Li, who appeared to be out of strength and incapable of squashing an ant, suddenly gathered energy and rushed forward. Not only did he evade that palm, but he also managed to grab the half-fainting swordsman and sprint toward the city’s outskirts at high speed.
At first, Mo Li did not move too fast, yet the more the Supreme Leader chased, the wider the distance became. Gritting his teeth amid his throbbing headache, he spat out curses in frustration.
——There was nothing he could do. The Dragon Vein possessed spiritual energy that could restore him.
Mo Li felt his internal energy becoming ever smoother. He tapped several of Su Li’s critical acupoints to staunch his bleeding without pausing his steps, fully employing his lightness skill, swift as a pale and hazy streak.
“I’m sorry……” the swordsman murmured groggily. “It was all my fault……dragged you into trouble, Doctor Mo……”
The moment he had fallen into the trap, Su Li had wanted to slap himself.
He lost too much blood and his vision blurred. He did not know what happened afterward, only that everything went dark and he collapsed.
Now, with the wind whistling urgently, it was obvious they were fleeing for their lives. Su Li struggled to speak softly, “Leave me behind……”
Mo Li wanted to laugh and found it exasperating at the same time. He even felt Su Li was particularly unlucky, and could not help saying, “I’m fine. In fact, this turned out fortuitous. I discovered the Tianshou King’s identity.”
The swordsman was taken aback.
Mo Li did not give him another chance to speak. With a single finger, he sealed Su Li’s acupoint, causing him to slip into unconsciousness and prevent his wounds from worsening.
Turning his head back to look at the Hua County city walls—now just a palm-sized shadow—Mo Li, who had fully shaken off the Supreme Leader, wore a somber expression.
The moment Mo Li made his move, he already knew Zheng Tu had been standing right there; the Tianshou King was Zheng Tu.
——When rebels wanted to alter their background, the most common route was official absorption by the imperial court. In any case, if they surrendered today, they would be granted titles, and tomorrow they could rebel again.
And in that sort of absorption, it usually took the bandit leader’s death for his followers to be recruited.
From the very start, the Tianshou King had been fated to “die.”
It was an identity meant to be discarded. Among the King’s ranks, who best fit the image of someone “capable,” “forced by circumstance to join the rebels,” and who could take over all the elite forces once the Tianshou King was dead?
Only Zheng Tu.
Throughout the ages, those who rose in revolt under banners of bizarre heresy seldom met a good end as the first leader. After that leader died, someone else often used his legacy to gather the remaining troops in the chaos, seizing dominion. Such a formidable figure would often be the one who laughed last.
