Chapter 318: Fall Out
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Year of Hong Wu.
The previous capital city of Da Chu had now been renamed to Wu Xing.
Although they had a lot of rebuilding to do, the city was after all a royal capital. With their new Emperor, the lively atmosphere was restored and more and more people came to the city and roamed the streets.
In the royal palace.
The original young Emperor was casually given an appointment of a lord and could no longer remain in the palace. He was relocated to a specific holding in the palace and would spend the rest of his life there.
In the royal garden, Li Luan stared at a plum blossom quietly.
With the accession of Xu Ting, Li Luan was given the title of a spiritual concubine. She was ranked after the Queen and the Royal Concubine, but her servants were comparable to those serving the Royal Concubine. Therefore, the treatment which she received was still rather good.
What shocked her was the fact that Xu Ting had become a completely different man after the passing of his father, Xu Ren.
Although he was still courageous and brave, he became increasingly unpredictable.
"Lady!"
A eunuch rushed towards her in baby steps. "Previously, the Emperor had agreed to accompany you to enjoy the plum blossoms, but now that he is in a bad mood, he will not be coming!"
"I'll respect that decision!"
Li Luan bowed before signalling to a servant. The servant brought over a piece of gold ingot.
Such a heavy ingot made the eunuch grin from ear to ear.
In such a big palace, everyone had to fight for their own survival and to survive, they had to earn gold or silver.
Although Li Luan felt sorrowful inside, she did not display her emotions. "What is affecting the Emperor's mood?"
The eunuch thought for a while. After all, it was no secret. Without further hesitation, he answered. "I did not get the full story, but it seems like the messenger who was sent to convince the Xinfeng Army to surrender has returned..."
"Baili Xuandu only has 6 prefectures under him. How dare he go against us, with more than half of the country in our possession?"
Li Luan was shocked but did not probe further; the eunuch could not possibly know more.
"There's nothing else!"
After dismissing the eunuch, there was a look of worry on Li Luan's face.
Indeed, not long after, more news came in.
The military governor of the Xinfeng Army, Baili Xuandu, had rejected the offer to surrender. Instead, he had directly contacted the stronger districts in Qi Country and Liang Country [1] with the intention to borrow their troops!
Of course, this had angered Xu Ting. He had decided to muster is 10,000 soldiers to settle this once and for all!
This would be the final war for Wu Country!
"Although there is chaos in Qi Country and Liang Country, if they were to unite with the Xinfeng Army, they would be a force to be reckoned with... I should advise the Emperor!"
Li Luan had a solemn look on her face as she mumbled to herself.
However, Xu Ting was the reason why the other countries could possibly unite!
He had enlisted in his small prefecture when he was 10. But now, he was only in his 20s and yet, he had already managed to establish Wu Country! No one in history could match up to his achievements!
If they did not combine forces, this person would take over the entire world!
With this common objective, they were easily swayed by Baili Xuandu's words. In addition, they might have been affected by demons casting spells on them.
Thinking about demons, Li Luan appeared down.
Although she was the concubine of the Emperor, there were many restrictions and therefore, she felt more restrained than she was before. She could only dream of looking for the two dragon gods to discuss their plans.
"In history, demons only appear when the country is weakened! Now, Wu Country is prospering with the auspicious vibes. With the assistance from the powerful daoists from Xuan Zhen Sect, there are restrictions everywhere in the royal palace. All dao techniques are banned and I am not even allowed to send a letter. The dragon gods would naturally not risk their lives to come here..."
Deep in her thoughts, Li Luan took out a squarish napkin and wrote a few lines of words before handing it over to a servant. "Leave the palace and throw this in any river will do!"
"Yes Ma'am!"
The servant respectfully took her leave. Looking at her back view, Li Luan felt uneasy.
...
In the royal study.
Xu Ting now had a moustache and an awe-inspiring look. He looked different than he was before.
At this point in time, in the study, there were a few other daoist talking. "... Therefore, the uprising of the humans is just merely part of the heavenly trend. Emperor, by following the heavenly trend, you can start a new empire!"
"Are the demons really experiencing a downfall?"
Xu Ting was hesitant.
After all, he could only achieve all that he had through the help of demons. This explained his hesitation and scepticism.
Seeing this, the head of Xuan Zhen Sect continued. "Daoist are still human. We are still passionate and loyal. However, we must always be on guard against the cunning schemes of the demons..."
Although the demons had invested fate energy on Xu Ting, the increasingly concentrated people dao's dragon energy had become more prominent. Together with the energy from Emperor Sun, Xu Ting was confident.
Now, he wanted to end the source of all his power!
"Let me think about it..."
Xu Ting was still indecisive.
The head of Xuan Zhen Sect saw this, and his eyes glistened.
He only approached the Emperor because he had the confidence to convince him and the fact that the Divine Predictor Elder had planned everything out for him.
"Emperor!"
At this point in time, a guard requested to see the Emperor as he presented a squarish napkin.
Seeing it, Xu Ting's face was filled with anger. "What audacity! How dare she spy on our secrets and help the outsiders! Dragon gods indeed, demons indeed!"
The sect head of Xuan Zhen Sect could not help but laugh inside.
He knew that the spiritual concubine might not have any ulterior motives for delivering the letter, but even so, it was a fact that she was communicating and colluding with outsiders!
Furthermore, she was communicating with a dragon god! This was even more severe.
After all, the previous country, Da Chu, was a prime example of how things could go wrong.
"Pass down my command..."
Xu Ting paced. After a while, he calmly gave his command. "By infringing the rules of the palace, the spiritual concubine will now be demoted to become a servant. Relocate her to Chunnuan Court so that she can reflect on her wrongdoings!"
This was, in fact, throwing her into isolation.
The sect head of Xuan Zhen Sect was secretly elated upon hearing this news.
"Also... Instruct those that are constructing dragon temples across the prefecture to stop their construction. Xuan Zhen, you shall be the messenger. I want the Qi Lake Dragon God and the Golden Court Dragon God to start eradicating all the evil gods and demons!"
Through advice from the daoist, Xu Ting now knew that in order to deal with the gods, he had to first curb the faith towards these gods.
Furthermore, as Emperor, he had the protection of Emperor energy and it would be extremely hard to harm him. Therefore, he had nothing to fear.
"Yes... Yes, Emperor!"
Xuan Zhen [2] kneeled down and was overjoyed.
In his consciousness, he could see the silhouette of Kong Luo flashing by.
This daoist was already submissive. He could take the Green Qiu Sword back after forcing the dragon gods into submission.
...
The Fourth Month of the Year of Hong Wu.
Xu Ting had mustered his 10,000-strong troop and was advancing towards Xinfeng Army.
Baili Xuandu could only hastily defend. Even if he were to receive aid from Qi Country and Liang Country, his mental instability would mean that he could not mount a proper defence. At most, he could only gather 50,000 to defend with all their might.
At the same time, the sect head of Xuan Zhen Sect had led a group of elite elders and had arrived at Qi Lake.
"We must take revenge for our late elders!"
As the few elder daoists gathered, their eyes burned with rage as they glared at the imperial decree on Xuan Zhen's hands.
The decree was 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. It was a pure yellow and there were dragon engravings on the scroll of the decree. Around there dragons were decorative clouds, giving the decree a majestic vibe from a dragon.
"We are tasked by the Emperor to do this and therefore will be strengthened by the blessings of the Imperial Court. The soldiers of the Qi Lake are severely injured from the previous battle, so this is our chance!"
Divine Predictor Elder stroked his beard. "I have already shielded us from the detection of the two dragon gods. This is the time to strike!"
"Alright! Let us reduce him to ashes!"
The few elders exchanged glances with a look of hatred on their faces.
"Reduce them to ashes? That's too good of a deal for them. We need to make them agree to become our servants for the next thousand years to come before we shall kill them to eat and make use of..."
"Let's go!"
The few daoists transformed into streaks of light and disappeared from the surface of the lake.
...
Fang Yuan could not detect anything.
At this point in time, he was looking at the big turtle ahead of him and was speechless. "Even though my water soldiers are dead, I am still the Qi Lake Dragon God, an official one nonetheless... How dare you guys go against me?"
There were numerous living things in Qi Lake and there were about 20,000 of them worthy to be regarded as demons!
Among the 20,000, half of them were working in the dragon palace. The other half were lone demons who would not submit to the dragon god.
Seeing that the dragon god's water soldiers were wiped out, these lone demons came out to cause trouble and were vying for the position of water god as well!
Seeing this, Fang Yuan was speechless but secretly, he was ecstatic.
This was the perfect excuse for him to wipe out those who were unwilling to submit to him!
There were too many demons in Qi Lake. Even if he were to kill 8,000 of them, there would be 10,000 remaining. Therefore, he could afford to go on a killing spree. At least, he would have to kill the leader of the rebellious group of demons.
"You... the heavens are blind!"
The turtle retracted its head and 4 limbs as a voice travelled from the shell. "As the dragon god, why are you helping the humans and sacrificing 8,000 of our demons on the battlefield? Do you think you are worthy of the position?"
"Keke... Is this the reason for your rebellion?"
Fang Yuan appeared calm as the Sundering Thunder Sword appeared in his hands. "Will you ever understand the reasons behind my actions?"
The battle at the capital city resulted in 20,000 water dwellers being killed. However, amidst all the bloodshed, he had gained huge amounts of karma.
With recognition from the heavens, he could undoubtedly continue to be the dragon god!
The rebellion of the water dwellers only gave him a reason to continue his killing of evil demons.
As soon as he swung his sword out, a streak of lightning struck through the shell. There was a shriek coming from inside the shell and a flash which disappeared immediately.
"To think about it, all of these is enough..."
After killing them, Fang Yuan looked at the glow above him and smiled. However, his expression quickly changed. "However... It is worrying as to what is happening to Xu Ting!"
He had progressed too quickly. He should have experienced another setback, but that has yet to actualise. This must be due to the fact that he had the protection of the dragon energy!
To those who invest fate energy in him, it was a depressing thing.
"Does he really think that the whole world is his just because he is an emperor of a mere country?"
Fang Yuan snickered. "I need to let you experience retribution so that you'll understand my power!"
As his spiritual will shook, he became a streak of light and arrived at the lakeside.
A few daoists were standing in a group with scheming looks on their faces. One of them suddenly raised the imperial decree towards the sky and shouted. "This is the command of the Emperor. Qi Lake Dragon God, kneel down before the decree!"
As soon as he spoke, all of them could feel a huge pressure and an unbelievable might.
This was the power of dragon energy, harnessed from half of the entire territory of Da Chu and the citizens living in it!
[1]: Qi Country and Liang Country were previously mentioned as Da Qi and Da Liang.
[2]: Xuan Zhen is the sect head of Xuan Zhen Sect