Chapter 866: Despicable Means

One actor left the stage and another took his place.

The attention that every major power had fixed on Song rapidly shifted once more, this time toward the territory of Zhao.

With the Yan army dragging out the war for so long, Zhao had been unable to free enough effective strength to suppress the rebellion. Tian Zhengyang and Ma Chang'an finally seized the opportunity to finish reorganizing the troops under their command, while Xiaoyue Pavilion gathered large numbers of independent cultivators.

Xiaoyue Pavilion's own manpower was nowhere near enough to support the conquest of an entire state.

But Xiaoyue Pavilion had spent many years scheming and preparing. It had always investigated the situation throughout the cultivation world. It already knew perfectly well which people could be recruited and which could not.

The time the Yan army bought for them allowed years of preparation to bear fruit.

Following the map straight to the targets it had long identified, Xiaoyue Pavilion absorbed great numbers of independent cultivators into its ranks.

Xiaoyue Pavilion had never been a traditional sect passed down from master to disciple generation after generation.

It was an organization from the beginning.

Now it had discarded its identity as an assassin organization and openly emerged into the light, calling on ambitious people to join together and build a great undertaking.

That appeal held considerable attraction.

The present situation was obvious.

Many independent cultivators saw hope and came to join them one after another.

Everything was ready.

Tian Zhengyang and Ma Chang'an's rebel armies launched a ferocious offensive against Zhao.

Their reason for attacking was actually unpaid military wages.

During this period, Tian Zhengyang and Ma Chang'an had deliberately withheld the soldiers' pay. At the same time, the backbone of their officer corps cooperated by tightly sealing off information and spreading rumors through the army that Zhao's imperial court was withholding their wages.

After the soldiers went long enough without pay and resentment built to a peak, a little deliberate agitation was enough to ignite mass fury.

They then used that anger to launch the offensive, claiming they were marching to demand an explanation from the court.

The thief was crying, "Catch the thief!"

With Zhao's main army pinned down by Yan, it had no strength to suppress the rebels.

Tian Zhengyang and Ma Chang'an's offensive swept forward like splitting bamboo. They encountered no effective resistance at all.

After taking cities and territory, Tian and Ma allowed their soldiers to rape, abduct, and plunder for a time.

The troops divided up gold and silver with tremendous satisfaction.

These men were sons of Zhao.

Whether they later understood what had truly happened no longer mattered.

The moment they raised their hands against the state, they became rebels.

And once they had raped and plundered as well, there was no longer a road back.

A little intimidation was enough to leave them with no choice but to follow the same road all the way into darkness.

Wherever the rebel armies went, some local commanderies and prefectures fought to the death.

Others, seeing no hope of rescue from the imperial court, surrendered in large numbers.

The former died.

The latter preserved their lives, property, and official positions.

Only the object of their loyalty changed.

The rebels swept onward, accepting surrender and recruiting defectors.

They claimed an army of three million and marched straight toward the Zhao capital.

The capital was in danger.

Pang Teng could only withdraw at any cost and rush back to rescue it.

The price of that rescue was five hundred thousand troops left behind to cover the retreat.

How could five hundred thousand men possibly hold back the several-million-strong Yan army under Meng Shanming?

Yan tore them to pieces in a single bite.

The Yan army then launched a rapid pursuit of Pang Teng's forces.

What no one on Zhao's side knew was that the rebels had already received Meng Shanming's instructions.

Their advance on the capital had only been a lure.

It was also meant to force Pang Teng into abandoning those five hundred thousand men to die, weakening his army.

At the crucial moment, the rebel forces judged the timing precisely.

They abruptly abandoned their rush toward the capital, changed direction, and moved to intercept Pang Teng's returning army.

They blocked Pang Teng head-on.

The Yan army arrived from the rear.

Caught between attacks from front and back, Pang Teng's forces were trapped.

The two sides joined together and launched the final decisive battle across the vast lands only eight hundred li from the Zhao capital.

...

"Waaah! Waaah!"

A baby's piercing cries rang through the dawn.

Feng Ruonan lay on the bed drenched in sweat, her face pale and exhausted, yet filled with relief.

The entire Prince's residence instantly erupted in celebration.

Shang Shuqing held the swaddled infant and looked at him again and again, occasionally touching a finger to the tiny mouth searching instinctively for something to suck.

"Quick! The young prince has been born. Hurry and send the good news to His Highness!"

Lan Ruoting's excited voice rang out.

The celebrations had barely begun when several large flying birds swept across the night sky.

More than a dozen figures dropped from above, plunging directly toward the Prince's residence.

Before they could even land inside, the vigilant cultivator guards discovered them.

A fierce shout rang out.

"Enemy attack!"

Several dozen figures shot skyward from inside the residence.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A furious battle erupted in midair.

The tremendous commotion shattered the quiet of the provincial capital.

"Princess Consort, enemy attack! We have to go!"

Several cultivators burst into the room.

One female cultivator directly scooped the exhausted Feng Ruonan from the bed.

Shang Shuqing followed while holding the infant.

There was a secret passage inside the room itself.

A mechanism was pressed.

A section of floor in the corner flipped open, revealing an entrance.

Several cultivators protected Feng Ruonan and rapidly descended to escape.

"Sir, quickly!"

Beneath another set of eaves, several cultivators flashed over, grabbed Lan Ruoting, and hurriedly carried him away to safety.

Boom!

Not long after Feng Ruonan and the others escaped from the room, the roof was ripped apart.

An old man flashed inside and swept his gaze around.

Finding no one, he immediately clashed violently with the cultivator guards who rushed in after him.

There were not many attackers.

Their strength, however, was terrifyingly high.

The defending cultivators surrounding them were beaten into complete disorder.

A veteran powerhouse from Xiaoyao Palace stationed here was besieged by three men.

He vomited blood and flew backward, smashed into the ground, then spun quickly back to his feet.

Looking around, he suddenly recognized the attackers and paled in shock.

"It's you!"

No wonder so many experts had been unable to stop them.

To carry out this raid, the Supreme Elders of Luoxia Villa, Guiyuan Sect, and Juxian Sect—the veteran powerhouses of Zhao's three great sects—had actually abandoned their duty to guard their own sects.

They had abandoned every strategic stronghold in Zhao.

Their highest-level forces had come out together and rushed here in a joint operation.

The same three enemies charged him again.

The Xiaoyao Palace Supreme Elder was already badly wounded.

He could not withstand them.

He was killed on the spot!

A Supreme Elder from Dachan Mountain likewise died there.

The other attackers fought while searching everywhere for their target.

They could not find her.

"Waaah! Waaah..."

A faint baby's cry suddenly drifted through the air.

An old man who had just blasted two cultivators away snapped his head around.

His gaze locked onto an artificial hill in the courtyard.

The faint crying seemed to be coming from one of the hollow sections inside the rockery.

Boom!

The artificial hill exploded.

The ground collapsed, revealing an entrance.

The baby's cries immediately became much clearer.

The old man flashed inside.

He did not know where the underground passage led, but he rapidly followed the sound.

The cultivators inside the tunnel also realized their mistake.

No one had expected the infant to suddenly start crying.

In the emergency, one of them quickly pressed an acupoint and silenced the child.

It was already too late.

The escorting cultivators immediately split off men to block the pursuer, but none of them was a match for the old man.

Boom!

The tunnel collapsed during the fighting.

The old man brutally smashed through the cave-in and reached the severed passage on the far side.

His Dharma Eyes flashed.

He saw a woman partly buried beneath a layer of dirt, crouching in a corner.

She bent over with one arm extended protectively around a swaddled infant, shielding it desperately for fear the falling earth and stones would strike the child.

The woman holding the baby was Shang Shuqing.

She lifted her head at precisely that moment and met the old man's gaze, vaguely sensing someone standing before her.

She had no Dharma Eye.

Even at close range, she could not clearly see whether the person in front of her was friend or foe.

But she felt an intense threat.

She rose with the infant in her arms and ran.

The old man froze briefly when he saw her frighteningly ugly face.

Then his gaze shifted to the child.

The infant was obviously newly born.

Joy had only just risen in his heart when Shang Shuqing tried to escape.

His five fingers spread.

A tremendous suction force dragged Shang Shuqing backward through the air.

At a bend farther down the passage, a female cultivator clamped one hand firmly over Feng Ruonan's mouth.

Driven by desperation, inspiration struck.

She pointed a finger and knocked Feng Ruonan unconscious, then shouted loudly, "Quick! Over here!"

The old man who had seized Shang Shuqing was startled.

He swept one hand upward and blasted open the ground above.

Using his spiritual power to hold both the adult and the infant, he shot out through the opening.

Before his feet even touched the ground, his broad sleeve swept through the air.

As he continued soaring upward, he shouted, "Got them! Delay invites trouble. Withdraw!"

The other assassins fighting throughout the Prince's residence immediately shot skyward.

Every one of them was an expert capable of rising into the air and climbing the void without borrowing external support.

The defenders who leapt upward in pursuit could not catch them.

Outside the residence, the protective army had already rushed various heavy weapons into position.

But no order to attack ever came from inside.

Without that order, and with their own people unprepared, the troops did not dare blanket the residence with heavy weapons for fear of killing allies.

A unit of archers rushed in, only to discover that the fighting had already stopped.

Above them, six people controlled six large flying birds.

They caught the more than ten attackers rising into the air, then rapidly disappeared into the depths of the night.

"Didn't you say you got the target? You didn't capture the pregnant woman?"

"This infant should be Shang Chaozong's son."

"You're certain?"

"I already checked him with spiritual power. His navel is still fresh. He was obviously born moments ago. And take a look at this one."

The old man held the infant in one arm.

With his other hand, he seized Shang Shuqing by the hair and yanked her head backward.

Pain twisted her face, exposing the ugly features clearly.

"Oh. This should be Shang Chaozong's younger sister."

"A newborn inside the Prince's residence, protected with her life by Shang Chaozong's own sister—if he isn't Shang Chaozong's son, whose son could he be?"

"Good. We failed to capture the pregnant woman, but Shang Chaozong's son and sister will serve just as well."

The Xiaoyao Palace Supreme Elder killed in the residence had not been mistaken.

These attackers were precisely the peak forces of Zhao's three great sects.

For this operation, the Supreme Elders of all three great sects had come out in full strength and acted together.

Their original goal had been to capture Feng Ruonan.

They had heard that she was pregnant and intended to use her as a hostage to threaten Shang Chaozong.

As members of so-called upright and orthodox sects, abducting a pregnant woman to use as a hostage was truly beneath contempt.

Such despicable methods would invite scorn.

They also knew perfectly well that the matter was too important for a single pregnant woman to have much hope of forcing the Yan army to withdraw.

Under normal circumstances, they could never have done something like this.

But Zhao's three great sects had been driven into a dead end.

Once Zhao collapsed, the three great sects would be finished as well.

Zhao was the foundation on which they depended to maintain the strength of their sects.

Their power was considerable.

But using that power merely for stealthy tricks, murder, and combat was nowhere near enough to control an entire state.

Once defeated, they would not only become homeless dogs and lose their authority in Zhao.

Without the state behind them, their voice inside Misty Pavilion would disappear as well.

Driven to this point, they had to try even though they knew the plan offered little hope.

Earlier they had wanted to beg Niu Youdao.

Once that hope vanished, naturally they no longer needed to show him courtesy.

They prepared to move against Niu Youdao instead.

Unfortunately, that bastard had moved first and hidden himself inside a heavily defended army camp filled with experts.

With no other option, they retreated to the next-best target and tried their hand here instead...

The Prince's residence was a wreck.

Lan Ruoting emerged from hiding.

Feng Ruonan was carried out as well.

Seeing her still unconscious, Lan Ruoting asked heavily, "What happened to the Princess Consort?"

The female cultivator carrying her replied, "She's fine. I made her sleep. I'll release the acupoint now."

Lan Ruoting raised a hand to stop her.

His expression was cold.

"The Princess Consort has only just given birth. If she learns the young prince has been abducted, I'm afraid she might..."

He waved a hand and left the sentence unfinished.

The female cultivator understood.

She carried Feng Ruonan away to be settled elsewhere.

"Who recognized the attackers?" Lan Ruoting turned and asked.

Someone replied, "I only recognized one of them. He was a Supreme Elder of Luoxia Villa."

"Zhao..."

Lan Ruoting raised his head toward the night sky and murmured, "A cornered dog has jumped the wall."

"Until their scheme has either succeeded or failed, the Commandery Princess and the young prince should not be in immediate danger."

Someone else said, "This is going to be troublesome!"

Lan Ruoting abruptly turned his head.

"Quickly. Contact Master Dao at once!"

"No—contact His Highness. Master Dao is right there with him!"

[End of Chapter 866]