The grey shadow shrieked shrilly, and this time He Lingchuan finally understood its curse:
"How dare you strike against me! My true form will never spare you!"
He Lingchuan could not help but laugh. "A petty evil spirit dares call itself a Heavenly Venerable?"
Even a nightmare formed from an ancient immortal had fallen into his hands. Would he fear the vengeance of some mere evil spirit?
The grey shadow was filled with utter bitterness. Ahhh! Why had its casting been interrupted?
If it had managed to delay for just two more breaths, it could have channeled the vital blood of all the Feather Guards into Nangong Yan;
If it had managed to delay for just two more breaths, it could have forged Nangong Yan into an incomparably formidable humanoid puppet. With its meticulous control, it surely could have beaten this so-called envoy of the Mou Kingdom until his teeth scattered across the ground.
If...
There were no more ifs. With a whoosh, the grey shadow was sucked into the divine bone necklace.
The yin tornado vanished at the same moment. The spinning top on the ground managed two feeble rotations before coming to a halt.
He Lingchuan picked up the top, brushed off the dirt, and stowed it away.
Having devoured the grey shadow, the divine bone necklace had at least satisfied its appetite, and it stopped radiating heat.
Deprived of the grey shadow's control, the few remaining Golden Feather Guards awakened as if from a dream. They froze in place for two breaths, looking first at the bisected Nangong Yan and then at He Lingchuan. Only two roared and charged forward to fight for their lives; the rest spun around and fled into the distance.
He Lingchuan got to his feet, raising his saber to meet the attackers, while speaking to Dong Rui through the eyeball spider: "Three are running your way."
***
The battle finally came to an end.
The slanting rays of the setting sun pierced through the gloomy forest, illuminating the ground strewn with corpses.
The berserk ape returned from afar. Dong Rui hopped down from its shoulder and clapped his hands. "All wiped out. Sigh, those fellows in the back were scattering every which way—killing them was a real chore. Not like you, taking down your foes with such ease."
His battle was easy? He Lingchuan twirled his blade with a flourish, and Fusheng vanished from sight. "We can switch next time. You handle the main force?"
The grey shadow had been just about to unleash its ultimate move when he shattered it ahead of time, leaving it to perish in utter grievance.
In truth, He Lingchuan was also curious about how formidable Nangong Yan would have been after absorbing all those blood beads; he should have let him trade a few blows with the ghost ape.
Dong Rui asked, "What on earth was that bizarre thing on Nangong Yan?"
"He worshipped an evil spirit as a Heavenly Venerable." He Lingchuan gestured casually at the corpses covering the ground. "He surrendered his Feather Guards to the evil spirit's control. That's why every one of them was fearless in the face of death and struck wherever ordered. No wonder they could run rampant through the Bo Kingdom."
The overbearing fear the rash, and the rash fear those who throw their lives away.
In a place like the Bo Kingdom, a force that operated in seamless coordination without fearing death or maiming was naturally without match.
"That method is certainly novel." Dong Rui stroked his chin. "If it works, you wouldn't need to drill your men day in and day out either."
The troops of Yangshan trained in the dead of winter and the heat of summer, never short on grain or pay, all so that they would respond like an arm directing fingers and act with one heart when battle came. Look at Nangong Yan—one step, and he was there.
"Absurd!" He Lingchuan shook his head. "Normal armies possess origin power. How could an evil spirit ever control them?"
Only a bizarre place like the Shanjin Plain could produce such bizarre people and deeds.
"Besides, running an army like this isn't a shortcut; it's a dead end!" It was precisely because the Bo Kingdom could neither rally hearts nor forge consensus, yet craved a quick fix, that they turned to an evil spirit.
Handing your own life and the lives of your army over to someone else would only lead to the same fate as Nangong Yan's.
At that moment, Lingguang came bounding back from the distance. He Lingchuan pointed to Nangong Yan on the ground. "Don't let him die."
Nangong Yan was writhing and wailing.
Bisected by He Lingchuan, he had not died immediately, and the ground beneath him was soaked red with fresh blood. His eyes were still red, but this time from engorged veins. "Kill me! I beg you, kill me! Give me a swift death!"
He wept with tears and snot streaming down his face, reaching out to clutch He Lingchuan's boot. Where was there any trace left of the Royal Presence's Chief Supervisor?
"Weren't you fondest of bisecting people at the waist or severing their knees?" He Lingchuan gave a light kick, sending him sprawling onto his back. "Taste it yourself. Is it comfortable? Is it swift?"
He had heard plenty of rumors about Nangong Yan. This Chief Supervisor's methods for dealing with "criminals" were varied and monstrously cruel; he rarely granted anyone a swift death, prolonging their torture instead. It was said that the members of the Mai faction arrested a few days ago had their bones snapped piece by piece, wailing for two full days and nights.
That was why He Lingchuan had been particularly meticulous when bisecting Nangong Yan, deliberately avoiding most of the vital internal organs.
"Gently, gently!" Lingguang was frantically trying to staunch the bleeding. This was bisection at the waist, after all; its master truly knew how to test it. "One more kick from you and he really will die!"
With massive hemorrhaging like this, organ failure could easily follow.
Another figure emerged from the woods:
Jin Bai walked toward He Lingchuan with saber in hand, breathing heavily, the tip of his blade still dripping blood.
He Lingchuan saw that his expression was unnatural, carrying both savagery and manic rage. He already understood most of it, but still had to ask, "What happened?"
Why was Jin Bai alone? Where were the other Shadow Tooth Guards?
"My men were all..." Jin Bai pointed his blade at Nangong Yan on the ground, his face twisted in grief and fury. "They were ambushed and murdered by this wretch!"
He Lingchuan and Dong Rui exchanged a glance, both putting on a look of shock. "What?"
Indeed, the ruler and court of the Bo Kingdom had gone mad, daring even to assassinate He Lingchuan, an envoy of the Mou Kingdom. How would they ever spare the Shadow Tooth Guard?
Jin Bai hauled Nangong Yan up by the front of his garments and demanded, "What in the world is going on?"
As a cultivator, Nangong Yan would not necessarily perish instantly from bisection. Lingguang gave him no pain medicine, so he was rolling in agony on the ground, yet with every movement, waves of torment crashed over him, boundless and unending!
Facing this inhuman torment, he would rather be dead!
He gripped Jin Bai's arm with all his might, the searing pain making him forget who was who. "Please, I beg you, kill me!"
"Why did you frame us as rebels? Speak!"
"Someone reported... reported that rebels were at Rulin Inn. The Feather Guards went to investigate, and there was evidence!"
"What evidence?"
"Books by Mai Liansheng, and several ornaments!" Nangong Yan screamed, "His Majesty instructed me to kill you! Since the Shadow Tooth Guards were already killed by mistake, we might as well silence all of you! We were to say you made off with the Bright Lantern Cup and were killed within the territory of the Xiaoyao Sect! There would be no living witnesses to contradict it! I was only following orders! Spare me, kill me! I beg of you!"
Seeing him a weeping, snot-streaked mess, Jin Bai hurled him to the ground. "Worthless scum!"
This wretch had murdered countless people and tortured who knew how many brave men, yet when his own turn came to endure punishment, he proved so utterly pathetic.
He Lingchuan asked him again, "Who was that 'Heavenly Venerable' you invited into your body?"
"That was the Lord of the Screaming Forest! It was... it was invited by the King! An avatar invited into my body!" Nangong Yan's mind was unravelling, his speech turning incoherent. "My crimes are monstrous! I deserve death ten thousand times over! Show some mercy, grant me death!"
Jin Bai suppressed the urge to finish Nangong Yan off himself and said to He Lingchuan, "He is your prey. What do you intend to do with him?"
This feud had grown colossal.
A feud between the Bo Kingdom and the Mou Kingdom, a feud between the King of Bo and He Lingchuan.
He Lingchuan had originally come only on a mission, acting as a peacemaker on the side, yet the King of Bo wanted his life.
He was someone who believed above all in returning courtesy for courtesy.
He Lingchuan looked at Nangong Yan, then gazed into the distance toward the border of the Bo Kingdom.
"I have an idea."
Night was about to fall.
***
Wucheng, on the border of the Bo Kingdom, opened its city gates near the end of the Tiger Hour every day.
Early this morning, a gate guard took the keys, yawning as he walked out to unlock the gates. But the moment he lifted his head, before his mouth could open all the way, he let out a terrified shriek:
"Ah!"
Hanging from the gate tower was a dead body.
Strictly speaking, half a dead body, draped with a banner of cloth bearing four bold characters:
*Blood for blood!*
The city wall was painted red with fresh blood. A few drops trickled down, nearly landing right in his gaping mouth.
Before long, the soldiers untied the corpse and laid it on the ground.
Its face was smeared with blood, its hair disheveled, and no one recognized it at first.
Yet when the gate guard took hold of its chin and studied it against the rising morning sun, he suddenly collapsed backward, scrambling back several paces in frantic terror.
"Ch—Ch-Ch-Chief!"
He stammered for what felt like an eternity before finally shouting:
"Chief Supervisor!"
"Which Chief Supervisor?"
The gate official pointed at the corpse, his finger trembling like a leaf in the wind, struggling to find the words: "It... it looks like the Feather Guards' Chief Supervisor!"
The crowd erupted in an uproar, completely in disbelief.
"What nonsense are you spewing?"
"You dare curse the Chief Supervisor? Mind your worthless neck!"
The gate guard leaned closer to look again, then squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away. "It really looks like him! The Chief Supervisor actually came by yesterday, surrounded by his grand entourage... H-His men even instructed us to shut the city gates!"
No matter what he said, the others refused to believe him.
Stop joking, will you? How could the Chief Supervisor have his lower half cut off and be hung upside down over the city gate?
Usually, it was the Chief Supervisor hanging other people up there.
By then the gates were open, and several people came sprinting inside, pointing outward and yelling, "There are dead bodies in the valley—more than a hundred of them! They died gruesome deaths, and every one of them was wearing Feather Guard armor!"
At first light of dawn, this explosive news took wing, flying straight toward the capital of the Bo Kingdom.
***
By this time, He Lingchuan and his companions were already on their way to the Xiaoyao Sect.
Dong Rui asked He Lingchuan in a low voice, "You're usually cautious. Why the sudden slaughter?"
The other side had over a hundred men and more than two hundred legs. "Leaving no survivors" was a remarkably demanding task.
"We are in the Shanjin Plain."
Right. "And so?"
"So we follow local custom," He Lingchuan said flatly. "This is a lawless land that honors the rule of might. You have to deal with them using their own methods. Besides—"
"—shouldn't a vicious scourge like Nangong Yan be killed?"
He had come to tour the Shanjin Plain with hidden motives of his own.
Now, he had seen what he wanted to see, and had also felt the lingering oppression and restlessness. His mindset had undergone a subtle shift.
Why had this place turned into a quagmire? Why had everyone who tried to transform it failed?
He Lingchuan had been pondering this question all along. Scattered notions had surfaced in his mind, but they remained piecemeal, forming no coherent system.
He needed more verification and reflection.
He needed to let loose and experiment.
Perhaps in this chaotic, masterless land, he could act according to his own heart without needing to be so exceedingly cautious.
Heh. Dong Rui called him cautious, but deep down He Lingchuan knew: was he truly a cautious man?
No, he was an opportunist.
To sail a ship through a tempest, what was needed was boldness, a sharp eye, and just a little bit of luck.
Chapter 1118