Chapter 1441: City of Sorrow

Under Gu Yuanda’s repeated questioning, the secret envoy asked only one thing: “Matters have already come to this. The army outside the city has completed its siegeworks. At one order from the Supreme General, the army can storm into the city at any time. What need would the Supreme General have to waste time here trading false courtesies with you?”

That was precisely what Gu Yuanda could not understand. Could Huyan Wuhen simply be trying to reduce battle losses by deceiving him into surrendering first, then punishing him once he was in their hands?

If that was the plan, did they truly take him for a fool? How could he fall for something so obvious?

The secret envoy answered frankly. Huyan Wuhen did indeed want to reduce casualties. But with Qi reduced to its present state, anyone who knew Huyan Wuhen’s character should understand that he was not a man who put private grievances above public duty. If something benefited Qi, he would not let the deaths of his two sons stand in the way.

The same applied to Hao Zhen, Emperor of Qi. If it benefited the state, he too could set old grudges aside. How many people had Hao Zhen already pardoned?

Once the city was attacked, the rebel army would inevitably fight like cornered dogs and resist to the death.

Qi now needed to concentrate its strength against enemies outside. Rather than expend that strength here, it would be better to accept the rebels’ surrender and turn their forces outward together.

Of course, that did not mean everything that had happened could simply be forgotten. After surrendering, Gu Yuanda would have to hand over military command. Once he had surrendered, refusing would no longer be an option anyway.

The Qi army would break up the rebel forces and distribute the soldiers among its various commands for further use. As for Gu Yuanda himself, he would be demoted to an idle post and never again given command of troops, but his life and basic livelihood could be guaranteed.

As for the people of Lingxu Mansion and the other two sects, Qi’s Three Great Sects did not trust them. Things had reached such a state that some people would inevitably have to be made examples of. How those three sects were dealt with was the Qi army’s concern and need not trouble Gu Yuanda.

In short, if Gu Yuanda agreed, that was how matters would be handled. If he refused, the Qi army would attack immediately. At that point, no courtesy would remain. They would tear him to pieces!

No matter how reasonable the envoy made it sound, Gu Yuanda remained half convinced and half suspicious. Disaster was already upon him, so naturally he hoped there might still be a way out, but he could not possibly trust the offer lightly.

Without an absolute guarantee of his safety, how could he believe them?

That was easy enough. The envoy told him to write a letter setting out exactly what guarantees he required, then wait for the Qi army’s response.

Gu Yuanda did not know whether the Qi side would agree, but if there was even a chance of surviving this disaster while preserving the men beneath him, there was no harm in treating a dead horse as though it might still be cured.

He immediately wrote a confidential letter listing his demands, handed it to the envoy, and arranged for him to leave secretly.

The envoy had not gone far, however, when Chang Linxian, Zang Feng, and Luo Yanzhen appeared and intercepted him while he was disguised as a rebel soldier.

The three sect leaders had received secret word that Gu Yuanda was negotiating privately with the Qi army and preparing to sell out their three sects to save himself. After learning that the envoy had arrived, they had been waiting for him.

They seized the envoy and searched him, discovering Gu Yuanda’s letter.

In it, Gu Yuanda demanded a formal pardon from Hao Zhen, Emperor of Qi. He also demanded Huyan Wuhen’s command token and a written military guarantee, along with sworn documents of surety from Qi’s Three Great Sects. Only after receiving all of those would he dare agree to surrender.

Seeing that Gu Yuanda truly had been negotiating with the Qi army behind their backs, the three sect leaders flew into a rage and immediately headed for the central command hall where Gu Yuanda was staying.

The captured envoy gave a slight nod toward a certain soldier standing in one corner.

Seeing which direction the three sect leaders had gone, that soldier immediately turned and hurried away.

At that moment, rumors began spreading that the three sects intended to move against Gu Yuanda.

Gu Yuanda was badly startled. True or false, protecting himself had to come first. He immediately summoned his own men along with some of the Jin cultivators accompanying the army to guard him.

The three sect leaders were stopped outside the hall by a large force and found themselves unable to meet Gu Yuanda directly. Their suspicions deepened. This looked very much as though he had been guarding against them for some time.

Seeing what was happening, disciples of the three sects naturally began converging on the area at speed.

That only made Gu Yuanda feel more threatened.

The two sides fell into a standoff, arguing fiercely while neither could determine the truth of what had happened.

Whoosh!

A signal arrow suddenly shot into the sky from somewhere inside the city.

Then another two signal arrows rose in quick succession from other parts of the capital.

Almost immediately, warning bells rang frantically throughout the city.

Enemy attack!

The Qi army, which had been preparing for so long, finally launched its assault...

What followed was entirely predictable. The rebels could not hold.

With internal disorder already breaking out among them, command and troop movements became confused. The Qi army smashed through the city defenses in one stroke and poured into the capital like a flood.

Gu Yuanda failed to escape.

There was no way for him to escape.

This time, the people of Lingxu Mansion and the other two sects abandoned him without the slightest hesitation. The three sects concerned themselves only with fighting desperately toward the city outskirts.

Once even the main body of cultivators on Gu Yuanda’s side had fled, the few remaining Jin cultivators knew perfectly well that they could not possibly carry Gu Yuanda through the layers of enemy troops outside. They also understood that Gu Yuanda had become an abandoned piece for Jin.

They had done what they could.

With the situation beyond saving, they too left Gu Yuanda behind and fled.

Without cultivator support, the rebel army had no power to resist. The battle became a one-sided rout.

Protected by his personal guards, Gu Yuanda was eventually driven into a dead end. He drew his sword intending to kill himself. He knew that if he fell alive into Qi’s hands, what awaited him would be worse than death. Better to end it himself.

But Zha Hu, trusted follower of Huyan Wuhen, personally fought his way in.

He had come precisely to capture Gu Yuanda with his own hands.

Zha Hu charged in alone, knocked the sword from Gu Yuanda’s hand with a single strike, and seized him on the spot.

How could they allow Gu Yuanda the clean and honorable death he wanted?

Fighting still raged inside the capital. Some rebels continued their desperate resistance...

Gu Yuanda, however, had already been dragged outside the city to the central army encampment.

Hao Zhen, Huyan Wuhen, and the others slowly walked out, all staring at him coldly.

A filthy, battered Gu Yuanda was forced to his knees. He looked up at Huyan Wuhen and the others.

Hadn’t they said they would accept his surrender?

There was no need to ask.

With matters already at this point, he understood.

He had fallen into a trap.

A sowing-discord stratagem.

Accept his surrender? To hell with accepting his surrender. Huyan Wuhen had never intended to do any such thing. All those elaborate tricks had been aimed at obtaining one thing from him:

A written reply.

Gu Yuanda had never imagined it. Truly never.

A single letter had cut off his road behind him. A single letter had severed the last thread of his hope for escape.

The towering earthworks outside the city had remained unused for so long that they had lulled him into complacency. Then the secret envoy arrived, and Gu Yuanda had truly believed another sliver of hope had appeared. Foolishly, he had let that hope draw a written reply from him.

In the end, that one reply had become his death warrant.

It had caused the cultivators accompanying his army to abandon him and flee. It had also stripped the men beneath him of their ability to make a coordinated final resistance.

Prepared long in advance, then used at precisely the decisive moment.

The move had been executed beautifully.

One stone had struck several birds.

“Supreme General truly deserves to be the Supreme General. What methods! This defeated general admits defeat wholeheartedly. Hahaha... hahaha...”

His face desolate, Gu Yuanda threw back his head and laughed wildly.

Tears streamed from his eyes.

The grief in that laughter could not be concealed.

Huyan Wuhen had no interest in questioning him further. He said heavily, “Drag him away. Execute him by lingchi in public. Make it last one month, as a warning to others!”

They would slice flesh from him day after day, refusing to let him die quickly. He was to remain alive for an entire month on public display so everyone could see the fate of a traitorous general.

Several fierce-looking soldiers rushed forward at once. The first thing they did was bind a rope tightly across Gu Yuanda’s mouth so he could not bite off his own tongue.

Then they dragged him away, stripped him, and bound a fine net tightly around his body.

The punishment began immediately.

Small knives sliced away pieces of flesh bulging through the mesh.

Among the leaders of Qi’s Three Great Sects, some snorted and some smiled coldly. Yuwen Yan stroked his beard and said, “Cut off every road he had, then capture him in one stroke. Supreme General’s plan was indeed brilliant.”

...

Deep inside a remote mountain forest, a group of frightened fugitives flashed into one clearing after another before finally gathering together.

Chang Linxian and the people of the other two sects had successfully broken through the army surrounding the capital.

When they saw there were no pursuers behind them, everyone finally breathed a little easier.

Zang Feng circulated his art and gave his body a violent shake. Three arrows lodged in his back shot out in reverse and clattered to the ground. Blood poured from the three wounds.

Disciples immediately came forward to help.

Only after fleeing this far could they finally treat their injuries without fear.

The three sect leaders stood before the remaining disciples and quickly counted those present.

Fewer than five hundred people from all three sects had survived the breakout and reached this place.

With no rebel army to provide cover or confusion, they had forced their way through an army numbering in the millions using only their own cultivators, all while facing repeated interception by enemy cultivators.

Heavy losses had been inevitable.

They had killed many enemies as well, but the price was the pitiful handful now standing before them.

All three sects combined were reduced to only a few hundred people, fewer than the membership of many minor sects.

Perhaps those who remained were the elite.

What difference did that make?

The inheritance built over generations by all three sects had been destroyed in their hands. They had no face with which to meet the founders and patriarchs of generations past.

Everyone looked at one another.

Each was covered in blood, bedraggled and exhausted, with dejection written across every face.

They all understood.

The former Three Great Sects of Wei were finished.

If they ever wanted to rise again, it would require many years of patient rebuilding.

“Where do we go now?” Luo Yanzhen asked with a sigh.

“There is no place for us in the three western states anymore. We shouldn’t remain here. Let’s go.” Chang Linxian shook his head bitterly.

The group disappeared deeper into the mountains.

They did not head toward Jin.

At this point, they no longer expected to receive those promised three prefectures. Even if those territories were handed over, they would not be able to sit on them for long before someone took them away.

The war here had not ended, and it was not yet time for Jin to distribute territory anyway. If they presented themselves now, Jin’s army would almost certainly drive them back onto the battlefield to risk their lives again.

These few hundred people were the last embers of all three sects.

They could not afford further losses.

And so they simply left, flying far from this land of trouble.

There were advantages to having few people.

They no longer carried so many burdens and entanglements and no longer had as much to consider. Everyone’s ambitions had also been crushed. They had lost the desire to compete for supremacy.

They could go almost anywhere.

Almost anywhere was enough to scrape out a living.

Thus the former Three Great Sects of Wei fell completely into decline and withdrew in silence, leaving the center of power in the cultivation world behind.

Only later, when they learned that Gu Yuanda had been captured alive and subjected to lingchi by the Qi army, did they finally realize the truth.

They too had been tricked...

Inside the Qi capital, the rebels were either killed or surrendered.

Without cultivator support, most of the rebel soldiers driven into hopeless positions ultimately laid down their arms.

The blocked city gates were dug open.

Hao Zhen, Emperor of Qi, led the army back into the capital.

The once-prosperous city was now filled with collapsed walls and ruined buildings. Everywhere lay devastation, and bloodstains could be seen almost anywhere one looked.

When the rebels had first seized the capital, most of the court officials had failed to escape.

Those who resisted fiercely had been killed. Most of those who did not were imprisoned.

What use did Gu Yuanda have for them? He had never intended to govern the capital. Leaving them free would only give them opportunities to communicate with the enemy, so naturally he locked them away.

As the rebel army found itself trapped with no road out, discipline steadily collapsed.

Gu Yuanda found it difficult to control them and eventually began turning a blind eye, letting his men enjoy themselves while they still could.

The common people of the capital suffered for it.

Nearly three hundred thousand rebel soldiers were all strong, able-bodied men.

What sort of “pleasures” they went looking for could easily be imagined.

Whether a household had once been high in rank and power, whether it belonged to some wealthy and illustrious clan, or whether it was an ordinary commoner’s home made no difference.

Doors were kicked in all the same.

Virtuous wives, sheltered young ladies—nearly every woman in those households was violated. Even the families of court officials were not spared.

Wealth and honor could not withstand the ravages of a lawless army.

The flowers of the capital trembled.

Some women, unable to endure the humiliation, killed themselves.

Others endured in order to survive.

Under blood and chaos, everything that had once seemed permanent became nothing more than a dream.

Listening to weeping all along the road, Hao Zhen ordered the imprisoned court officials released and pardoned.

Yet few of them could feel any joy.

Most simply stood there numb.

A city of sorrow.

What Hao Zhen had recovered was a capital ravaged into mourning—a City of Sorrow.

[End of Chapter 1441]