Chapter 842: Urgent Military Report

Song and Han's abrupt departure surprised the Four Seas people. They had pursued them for so long, and now they were simply leaving?

The people from Jin, Wei, and Qi, however, all sensed that something must have happened.

Whatever the reason, five factions had suddenly become three.

The Four Seas side immediately felt more confident facing them.

They argued back and forth, yet no one admitted to having dealt the killing blow to Jin. At last Taishu Feihua simply stated his demand outright.

"Hand over the three hundred million gold coins, and we'll consider this matter settled!"

His reasoning was straightforward.

It was obvious that no amount of arguing would produce a result. Better to be practical and take the money first. They could investigate the account properly afterward.

The Demon King of the Western Sea reached into his sleeve and took out the draft from the All-Under-Heaven Money House. Holding it up for everyone to see, he shouted, "There are three factions left on your side. Giving this money to any one of you would be inappropriate. Since matters have reached this point, we Four Seas don't want to offend anyone either. So let's make it simple—none of you gets it!"

Everyone was still wondering what he meant when his hands moved twice in quick succession.

Rip! Rip!

Before their eyes, he tore the draft to pieces.

Then he opened his mouth and blew.

The fragments scattered down like snow.

"..."

Everyone fell speechless.

They were utterly stunned, as though frozen solid in an icy wilderness.

That was three hundred million gold coins!

The Nether Lord of the Northern Sea suddenly let out a piercing shriek. "Have you gone mad?"

The Great Sage of the Eastern Sea and Dharma King of the South Sea both looked furious. If they had not needed to present a united front against outsiders at that moment, the two might already have attacked him.

Taishu Feihua's face turned black.

He was so furious that his teeth showed.

Naturally, both sides exchanged another round of angry denunciations, but it remained only words.

Han and Song had already left.

The draft for three hundred million gold coins had been destroyed.

If they started fighting now, Jin, Wei, and Qi would gain little advantage.

After another bout of shouting, the three states finally threw out a series of threats and began leaving one after another.

How they might retaliate against the Four Seas later was anyone's guess.

The Four Seas group watched as the flock of large flying birds rose into the sky and receded into the distance.

The moment the outsiders were all gone, the Nether Lord of the Northern Sea and Dharma King of the South Sea immediately confronted the Demon King of the Western Sea.

The Dharma King's face was livid. He shouted, "That wasn't money belonging to the Western Sea alone! What right did you have to destroy it?"

The Demon King of the Western Sea sighed repeatedly. "I had no choice. You all saw the situation. Those three hundred million gold coins were the root of the trouble. If we didn't destroy them, none of the Four Seas would know peace."

"I did it for everyone's good. Our strength simply isn't enough to contend with them. Do you want the money, or do you want the lives of our brothers? Are you really willing to watch the Four Seas suffer terrible casualties?"

He looked like a man grieving for all living beings.

The Nether Lord of the Northern Sea said sharply, "We don't need you teaching us grand principles. That was money belonging to all four of us. Before destroying it, shouldn't you at least have told us?"

The Great Sage of the Eastern Sea, standing nearby, watched the Demon King of the Western Sea's reaction with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow.

Then suddenly he whistled toward the water below and made a hand signal.

Among the demon cultivators controlling the sea beasts, one man immediately jumped into the water.

His body swayed beneath the surface while both palms gently patted the water in a strange rhythm.

The atmosphere and the movements were eerie enough to draw everyone's attention.

Before long, great schools of fish appeared at the surface.

Small fish churned above and below the water, flashing pale bellies from time to time.

The demon cultivator in the sea spread both arms and continued patting the surface rhythmically.

The surrounding fish swam back and forth as though searching for something, then gradually gathered around him.

One after another, they seemed to spit things from their mouths.

Soon, a patch of debris was floating around the cultivator.

When the schools of fish finally submerged and disappeared, the demon cultivator scooped up a handful of the floating material, shot from the water, and landed beside the Great Sage of the Eastern Sea.

He opened his palm and revealed a pile of wet scraps.

The instant the Demon King of the Western Sea saw what they were, his expression twitched slightly.

The Great Sage picked through the material carefully, examining it piece by piece.

Then he suddenly turned toward the Demon King of the Western Sea and sneered.

"Nicely played. You nearly fooled us."

The Dharma King of the South Sea and Nether Lord of the Northern Sea immediately realized something.

They hurried over and fingered the retrieved scraps, examining them for themselves.

Their suspicion was correct.

Fake.

The money-house draft the Demon King of the Western Sea had torn apart was a fake!

One man whipped his head around.

The other turned slowly.

Both stared coldly at the Demon King of the Western Sea.

The Nether Lord of the Northern Sea said in a shrill voice, "Kun Bao, what exactly do you mean by this?"

Fortunately, drafts issued by the All-Under-Heaven Money House were specially made.

The torn scraps clearly did not match the genuine article.

Otherwise, he truly might have fooled them.

Even the Great Sage of the Eastern Sea had only become suspicious because the Demon King of the Western Sea's earlier expression of compassion and concern for everyone had seemed distinctly unlike his usual style.

The fake draft itself was astonishingly convincing.

Without taking it into one's hands and inspecting it carefully, it could pass for the real thing.

Otherwise, it never would have deceived everyone so easily.

The crucial point was that the group had traveled together almost the entire way and had barely separated.

No one had any idea when this old demon had found the opportunity to switch the real draft for a fake.

The others were both angry and amused.

No wonder he had torn up the draft so decisively.

His attitude had been completely different from when he first snatched the genuine article from Niu Youdao outside Tiangu.

Now that he had been exposed, the Demon King of the Western Sea felt endless regret.

He had been so close.

Just that little bit more, and he would have gotten away with it.

Outwardly, however, he looked utterly unconcerned.

"Ah, it was only a temporary expedient. If I hadn't done that, how could we have sent those annoying fellows away so easily?"

"Why are you all looking at me like that? I went to such trouble to preserve the money and spared everyone a great deal of trouble besides. Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

The Western Sea contingent, including Fuhua, could not bear to look.

They all turned their heads aside.

Catch a thief with the stolen goods on him.

Their own Demon King had been caught red-handed.

It was embarrassing.

"Hmph, hmph!"

"Heh!"

The Great Sage of the Eastern Sea and Dharma King of the South Sea sneered repeatedly.

Only a fool would believe his nonsense about a temporary expedient.

If the trick had worked, he would not merely have deceived Taishu Feihua and the others.

He would have deceived the three of them as well.

Once everyone believed the draft had been destroyed, this thieving bastard would have swallowed the entire three hundred million gold coins himself!

The Nether Lord of the Northern Sea said in a strange tone, "Thank you? How exactly would you like us to thank you?"

"Ah, forget it. This is a time when we need to face outsiders together. We're all on the same side. There's no need to speak of thanks."

The Demon King of the Western Sea waved magnanimously.

Fuhua suddenly said, "Damn it. I'm afraid Niu Youdao fooled us!"

The situation was painfully awkward.

She too was trying to change the subject for her Demon King before the dispute over the draft became serious.

After all, they were currently in the Great Sage of the Eastern Sea's territory, with one side facing three.

Everyone's gaze shifted toward her.

The subject moved to Niu Youdao, successfully drawing attention away from the money.

Lang Jingkong asked, "You suspect Niu Youdao stirred up the conflict between us and the seven states inside the Secret Realm?"

Fuhua replied, "If you're asking me that, doesn't that mean you suspect it too?"

Hong Gaitian frowned suspiciously. "But it was a fact that the seven states attacked us first."

"The people from the seven states say we attacked first!" Fuhua swept her gaze over everyone. "We'd already boarded the thief's boat back then and were thoroughly taken in. Think about it now. Toward the end, that bastard Niu Youdao always seemed to have an arrangement here and an informant there. Don't you find that suspicious?"

Hong Gaitian still did not understand. "What is suspicious about it? If he hadn't arranged people everywhere, we might not have gotten out safely this time."

Fuhua shook her head repeatedly. "How have you still not realized it? It proves he had traitors planted among the seven states. He had the means to make every one of them misunderstand us!"

Once she spelled it out that clearly, none of them were fools.

Understanding struck them all at once.

Every one of them grasped what she meant.

Duan Wuchang hesitated. "That's only your guess..."

"It's more than a guess!" Fuhua cut him off. "Think about it. Sha Rulai had already driven him into a dead end. Then Yan's three great sects expelled him from their group. Taking first place should have been impossible for him."

"Us!"

"Of all the powers left, only we remained. We were the best possible faction for him to cooperate with. He had no choice but to think of every way possible to pull us over and make us help him!"

Hong Gaitian bared his teeth. "And that bastard still had the face to become sworn siblings with us!"

The Demon King of the Western Sea gave a heh and clasped his hands behind his back. "So the factions inside the Secret Realm were basically all played by that fellow?"

"Then outside Tiangu, he dug another pit for us and got several states to chase us all the way here without rest. And you actually believed he would help you settle things with the various states?"

...

A large flying bird descended from the sky and landed among an enormous army camp.

Shang Chaozong jumped down from its back.

Once arrangements in Nanzhou had been settled, he had immediately rushed to the front.

He was the army's rightful commander in both name and fact.

There was no possibility of him hiding in the rear forever.

Lan Ruoting remained behind to oversee logistics and supplies.

"Your Highness!"

Meng Shanming led rows of generals forward to receive him.

There were no elaborate courtesies.

Shang Chaozong invited all the generals into the central command tent and questioned them in detail about the current battle situation.

The war had been frozen for a year.

Although Zhao had been caught unprepared by the opening surprise attack, that year had also given Zhao time to concentrate enormous manpower and resources.

Under the all-out resistance led by Zhao's Grand Commander-in-Chief Pang Teng, the war had temporarily entered a stalemate.

After Shang Chaozong finished asking about the fighting, he dismissed everyone else.

When only he and Meng Shanming remained in the tent, Shang Chaozong faced the map hanging on the wall and suddenly raised his face with a sigh.

"Ah..."

Meng Shanming asked softly, "Is Your Highness troubled over Master Dao?"

"The one who knows me is Marshal Meng." Shang Chaozong slowly turned around. "You saw Master Dao's later message, didn't you?"

Meng Shanming nodded slightly.

Shang Chaozong said, "I don't understand what Master Dao is trying to do. I've already explained the situation to him very clearly."

"Things are different from when the war first began. Zhao has spent an entire year making full preparations. Breaking through them now will be extremely difficult, and even victory would cost us tremendous losses."

"Yet Master Dao's meaning is that we are to fight Zhao to the bitter end."

"Doesn't he know we simply don't have the strength to annex Zhao?"

"At present, beating Zhao back until the original situation is restored and returning Jinzhou to Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion as a defensive barrier for Nanzhou would already be enough. Continuing to fight desperately beyond that is not wise."

"There's more. By openly defying the three great sects like this, Master Dao has probably made them unwilling to let him off afterward. That poses an enormous threat both to him and to us."

"I truly don't understand why he insists on doing this!"

Meng Shanming's heart was likewise filled with enormous concern.

Slowly, he said, "Perhaps he has made other arrangements."

Shang Chaozong said, "For something this serious, if he truly has arrangements, shouldn't he tell us first?"

Meng Shanming smiled bitterly. "Master Dao is that kind of man. With many matters, no one knows what he intends until the very end. Has Your Highness still not gotten used to it?"

Shang Chaozong did not know whether to laugh or cry. "This concerns the lives and deaths of so many people. How could I not worry? How am I supposed to get used to it?"

He had barely finished speaking when a communications officer hurried in from outside.

"Your Highness! Marshal Meng! Urgent military intelligence from our agents in Zhao!"

Meng Shanming's expression sharpened.

"Report!"

The officer's voice rose and fell clearly as he announced, "Our agents report that Tian Zhengyang and Ma Chang'an, the Zhao commanders guarding the western front, have rebelled!"

[End of Chapter 842]