Chapter 125: Night

Zheng Fan held his saber and charged along with the armored soldiers.

He did not try to command anyone.

Unlike during the day inside the Princes’ Residence, he no longer enjoyed the sensation of those elite guards moving in perfect coordination with him.

Now he felt more like a withered leaf trapped inside the waves.

Being beaten.

Being carried.

Simply moving.

Simply drifting.

Without knowing what he was actually supposed to do.

The Marquis of Jingnan’s command—

“Leave not even the chickens and dogs alive” had struck like a thunderclap.

Even now, Zheng Fan’s ears still seemed to buzz from it.

This was different from Xiao Yibo.

Xiao Yibo had killed his own father under Feng Siniang’s threat of death.

He had done it to survive.

You could despise Xiao Yibo.

Despise his nature.

Despise his choice.

But to some extent, you could still understand it.

It was the survival instinct of an animal.

It did not belong to human ethics but at least it still belonged to the realm of beasts.

The Marquis of Jingnan’s command was different.

He had personally ordered the extermination of his own clan.

Had someone coerced him?

Held a blade to his throat?

Forced him to act?

Was he doing it merely to preserve his own life?

The most frightening part was no.

The Elegant Garden was surrounded by a small river built into the estate.

Originally it had been designed to complement the cultured atmosphere of floating wine cups along winding water.

Now that river had become the perfect terrain for surrounding the Tian clansmen inside.

Nearly a thousand members of the Tian Clan still clustered around Old Master Tian and the Tian matriarch.

Flattering them.

Drinking.

Laughing.

Hoping.

Men and women alike wore joy across their faces.

In this era, everyone understood the saying:

When one man attains the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascend to Heaven.

Tomorrow the Marquis of Jingnan would become a Prince.

The Tian Clan’s position would rise another level.

From then onward, every member of the Tian family would enjoy greater advantage both among the common people and within the Imperial Court.

When group after group of Jingnan armored soldiers surrounded the four exits, most people still did not understand what was happening.

They remained immersed in the family’s celebration.

Children surrounded Old Master Tian and the Tian matriarch.

They played around the knees of the elders.

This was exactly the kind of scene old people loved most.

The Tian clansmen knew that well.

So they had deliberately brought their children forward to keep the ancestors company and make them happy.

Several Tian clansmen sitting farther out noticed the soldiers who had suddenly appeared.

But before they could question them the Lieutenant Commanders positioned at the four exits had already issued their orders.

“Bows!”

At all four exits, armored soldiers raised crossbows or drew longbows.

Against the indulgent, joyous scene before them, these cold soldiers seemed to belong to a completely different world.

Two images that should never have touched were forcibly stitched together.

Like black ink poured into clear water.

“Loose!”

The ink began to spread.

“Puh! Puh! Puh! Puh!”

One Tian clansman after another fell with arrows through their bodies, cups still raised in their hands.

Many died without ever understanding what was happening.

This was the Tian family’s own estate.

It stood beside the capital.

The estate possessed numerous guards.

More importantly, more than a thousand elite Jingnan soldiers had returned today together with their own Marquis.

How could enemies possibly have infiltrated this deeply without sound?

Arrows tore through the air.

At this distance with the archers even able to aim carefully their killing power was terrifying.

Zheng Fan saw several Tian clansmen flare with the radiance of ranked Martial Artists the moment arrows struck them.

Some were hit directly in vital points and collapsed.

Others survived the first arrow, but whether they could still draw a saber afterward was difficult to say.

And besides this was a banquet.

Her Majesty the Empress had been present.

None of the clansmen gathered here had dared bring weapons.

Arrows had no eyes.

Yet the seats occupied by Old Master Tian and the Tian matriarch received more arrows than anywhere else.

Zheng Fan saw that clearly.

Rather than merely trying to maximize casualties with the first volley everyone had reached the same silent understanding.

Old Master Tian and the Tian matriarch their own Marquis’s birth parents had to die immediately.

The Tian matriarch, Old Master Tian, and the people around them were all shot dead where they sat.

The old couple themselves were pinned to their grand chairs by arrow after arrow.

Zheng Fan understood why.

The order came from the Marquis.

The soldiers would not disobey.

They did not dare disobey.

But if the first volley failed to kill Old Master Tian and the Tian matriarch then after the melee began, someone would eventually have to walk up and personally cut them down.

Whoever did that would have a difficult burden to carry afterward.

So everyone simply accepted the fiction that Old Master Tian and the Tian matriarch had died beneath stray arrows.

Everyone loosed those arrows together.

Everyone shared the responsibility.

Zheng Fan’s mouth remained slightly open.

He breathed heavily.

His head felt hot.

After the first volley, the Jingnan soldiers at all four exits discarded bows and crossbows and drew their melee weapons.

Then they charged.

Their coordination was superb.

They were already elite soldiers.

And there was no shortage of ranked Martial Artists among them.

The Tian Clan also had capable fighters.

But under these circumstances, they could not possibly contend with the Jingnan Army.

This was a one-sided massacre.

And the man who had ordered the massacre was the young master of this very clan.

Zheng Fan was not pretending to be delicate.

Truthfully, he had killed quite a few people himself.

He had led troops through Qian cities.

After entering Mianzhou, he had strolled into the Prefect’s yamen and cut off the heads of officials to bring back for merit.

One event after another had already proven Zheng Fan was no compassionate saint.

He barely brushed the edge of being called a “good person.”

But now, the Blind Man’s face appeared inside his mind.

Then the Demon Child.

Then Siniang.

Then A’Ming.

One face after another.

And Zheng Fan suddenly wanted to ask himself a question.

Compared with people like the Marquis of Jingnan were he and the seven beneath him truly the Demon Kings?

Screams.

Crying.

The wet sound of weapons entering flesh.

Everything echoed from every direction.

Zheng Fan killed no one.

He did not raise his saber.

He was not frightened by the sight itself.

Instead everything happening before him suddenly felt absurd.

Almost laughable.

The slaughter continued.

Nobody paid attention to what Zheng Fan was doing.

Or perhaps even if some soldier noticed that Zheng Fan had done nothing, he would not suspect him.

The command they had received and the people they were now killing were already enough to destabilize their minds.

What still drove them to keep raising their weapons was an instinct the Marquis of Jingnan had spent more than ten years planting into the soldiers of the Jingnan Army.

Because of the example established by the Marquis of Zhenbei’s estate in the north, every generation of Yan Emperors had been cautious about the office of Marquis of Jingnan.

The man appointed had to be a trusted confidant.

And even then, if necessary, the Emperor might transfer him away.

Checks and restraints were basic imperial craft.

No Emperor wished to accidentally raise another Marquis of Zhenbei’s estate in the south.

Yet less than three months after the current Yan Emperor took the throne, he had appointed his own brother-in-law Tian Wujing as Marquis of Jingnan.

And the entire Jingnan Army had been handed over to Tian Wujing alone.

Training.

Rewards and punishments.

Even the selection and promotion of officers within the Jingnan Army’s own command structure the Marquis of Jingnan decided everything.

The Yan Emperor never interfered.

The person responsible for the Secret Intelligence Department in Yinlang Commandery had even become the Marquis’s woman.

Meaning not only the Jingnan Army in Yinlang Commandery, but even the commandery’s intelligence apparatus itself, rested in the Marquis’s hands.

More than ten years was enough time for Tian Wujing’s influence to penetrate the entire army.

The middle-ranking officers especially had largely risen through his personal promotions.

To say something ugly forget massacring the Tian Clan.

If the Marquis of Jingnan issued an order right now telling these soldiers to attack the imperial palace, they would probably execute it immediately.

The Jingnan Army did not serve imperial edicts.

It recognized only the military commands of the Marquis of Jingnan.

Zheng Fan sat down on a chair that had fallen onto its side.

He placed his saber near his feet and rubbed his forehead with his left hand.

At this moment, he wished Siniang or the Blind Man were beside him.

He wanted someone to talk to.

The stone at his chest slowly began heating.

Zheng Fan lowered his head.

Then he noticed thin streams of bloody mist gathering from every direction and drifting toward the stone at his chest.

The Demon Child was consuming the fresh blood qi filling this place.

The movement was extremely subtle.

No one would notice.

And with screams and killing all around them, no one possessed the attention to look.

Zheng Fan gave a soft laugh.

“Heh.”

He did not stop the Demon Child.

He felt no attachment to the Tian Clan.

Naturally, he would not feel aggrieved on their behalf either.

Perhaps he had always tried too hard to keep himself clean.

Assassination and counterassassination.

Scheming against others and being schemed against.

Leading cavalry through Qian territory.

Truthfully—

Zheng Fan had always approached many of these things with the mentality of playing a game.

The massacre at Chahe Village had not been his doing.

He would never have done something like that.

Because killing women, children, and common civilians did not fall inside the boundaries of his “game.”

If reality could truly be like a game something you could enjoy without psychological burden how good would that be?

Suddenly, Zheng Fan’s gaze fell upon a piece of preserved fruit beneath his boot.

It looked familiar.

And now, it had been stained red with blood.

Zheng Fan drew in a deep breath.

Then he raised his head and rapidly breathed several times.

A desire to curse filled his chest yet he had no idea who exactly he should curse.

He had only just begun indulging in a little self-reflection.

Then a basin of ice water had been poured over his entire body.

Everything he had been thinking shattered.

Reality was not a game after all.

Zheng Fan bent down and picked up the preserved fruit.

He did not want to search.

He did not dare search.

He did not even dare look too carefully around him.

He did not want to see the figure of that little girl called Little Spicy Girl anywhere here.

In his previous life, Zheng Fan had been an original comic artist.

At this moment, he suddenly understood something.

No matter how absurd a fictional story might be no matter how elaborately designed it always possessed the logic of its creator.

Reality often possessed no logic at all.

Zheng Fan no longer wanted to remain here listening to screams.

Because of that preserved fruit, he no longer wanted to look behind him either.

He picked up his saber.

Stood.

Then walked toward the stream, intending to scoop up some water and wash his face.

When he lowered his head he found that the blood of the Tian Clan had already turned the stream red.

The waterway once designed to embody cultured elegance and floating wine cups now ran with blood.

“Heh…”

Zheng Fan straightened and began walking away.

“Tian Wujing!

“Tian Wujing!

“You beast!

“You beast!”

A woman’s shrill scream suddenly came from outside.

Fury.

Heart-rending grief.

At the same time, Zheng Fan saw a squad of armored soldiers drenched in blood rush past him.

He immediately raised his saber and ran after them.

The woman wore a purple dress.

Her hair had come loose.

Clearly, she had been sleeping earlier.

Now she knelt on the opposite side of the stream outside the Elegant Garden, hair hanging wildly around her shoulders.

Around her stood a crowd of terrified eunuchs and palace maids.

When the blood-covered Jingnan soldiers charged over, the palace servants screamed.

“Insolence!

“Stop!”

Zheng Fan roared.

The dozen or so soldiers at the front halted.

They turned to look at him.

Their eyes looked blood-red.

Zheng Fan could not tell whether that was merely because too much blood had splashed across them.

But he understood.

They had killed too much.

They had begun slipping into madness.

They were approaching the state where anyone not recognized as one of their own might be cut down.

That was not unusual.

Even the best-trained elite troops could lose themselves once slaughter began in earnest.

“The Marquis ordered that not even chickens or dogs remain alive inside the Elegant Garden!

“Outside the Elegant Garden— not one person is to be killed!”

One soldier dropped to one knee before Zheng Fan.

They recognized him.

Once one man knelt, the remaining dozen followed.

They had almost violated the Marquis’s military command.

“Where is Tian Wujing?

“Tell Tian Wujing to come out and see this Palace!

“Tell Tian Wujing to come out and see this Palace!”

The Empress tore free from the palace maids trying to restrain her and charged toward Zheng Fan with her hair disheveled.

Zheng Fan held his saber horizontally and blocked her path.

The Empress crashed directly into him.

Between Zheng Fan’s armor and the fact that he was at least a ranked Martial Artist, the collision sent the Empress falling backward onto the ground.

“All of you, rise!

“Hold this position!”

Zheng Fan ordered.

The dozen soldiers immediately stood and formed a line with sabers in hand.

“Get out of this Palace’s way!

“Get out of my way!”

The Empress rose and began pounding Zheng Fan’s armor like a madwoman.

“Waaaah…”

A little girl’s crying suddenly sounded nearby.

Zheng Fan looked over.

Among the palace maids and eunuchs stood a porcelain-doll-like child, crying loudly.

Who else could it be but Little Spicy Girl?

Had the Empress found her adorable and taken her along when she left the Elegant Garden to rest?

Zheng Fan suddenly felt slightly better.

People possessed a natural instinct to search for some form of comfort inside tragedy.

Everyone laughed at Ah Q.

Yet every person carried an Ah Q inside.

Then, Zheng Fan suddenly saw the Empress pull a phoenix hairpin from her hair.

He immediately reached out and seized her wrist before she could stab downward.

Across two lifetimes this was the first time Zheng Fan had ever grabbed the hand of a woman with such exalted status.

“Insolence!

“Do you know who this Palace is?

“Do you believe this Palace can exterminate your nine clans!”

Hearing that a smile tugged at the corner of Zheng Fan’s mouth.

Could you threaten people with even the slightest use of your brain?

Or perhaps open your eyes and look around?

Whose nine clans were currently being exterminated?

The moment the Empress saw the smile at the corner of Zheng Fan’s lips, her face turned deathly white.

This was not powder.

This was rage surging into the heart.

Zheng Fan thrust his arm forward.

The Empress staggered backward several steps before the palace maids and eunuchs caught her.

Zheng Fan himself retreated as well.

He had no interest in continuing to stand there as the Empress’s target.

If she wanted to pound on his armor with her fists fine.

He could treat it as some kind of imperial SPA massage.

But if she started opening holes in his body with a hairpin that was a loss Zheng Fan had no intention of accepting.

Once he had retreated several steps, Zheng Fan shouted, “The Marquis commands:

Inside the Elegant Garden, leave not even chickens or dogs alive!

“Anyone who dares enter the Elegant Garden— kill without mercy!”

“We obey!”

“We obey!”

The dozen soldiers roared.

Their blades pointed forward directly at the Empress.

The display finally frightened her.

She understood.

At least right now her status meant absolutely nothing.

If she dared continue forward, these army brutes might genuinely kill her.

Then, a muffled thunderclap suddenly sounded in the distance.

Immediately afterward came an extremely hoarse roar.

“This old man smells blood!

“What petty villain dares offend my Tian Clan!”

……

This New Viewing Garden had been rebuilt by the Tian Clan under the name of welcoming Her Majesty home.

Originally, the Tian family residence had been divided into eastern and western estates.

For this project, the western estate had been renovated and expanded into the New Viewing Garden.

Inside the Elegant Garden, the massacre of Tian clansmen continued.

The smell of blood thickened.

Bloodwater followed the little stream and began flowing toward the eastern estate.

Within the eastern estate stood a Daoist temple.

The Tian Clan had always passed down a particular story.

According to legend, when the previous Tian patriarch—Old Master Tian’s father—died of illness, Old Master Tian had been only a little over twenty.

He was considered too young to command the clan.

So the family originally intended to give the patriarch’s position to his father’s younger brother.

That man—

Old Master Tian’s uncle was also the granduncle of the current Tian generation.

But he hated worldly affairs and was obsessed with the Dao.

When the clan tried to make him patriarch, he simply hid inside the Daoist temple of the eastern estate and refused to come out.

Only then did the position of clan head fall to Old Master Tian.

Setting aside everything happening today—

Old Master Tian truly had managed the clan well.

“Who is that?”

Du Juan asked from beside the Marquis of Jingnan.

Someone capable of making a single shout sound like thunder was unquestionably no ordinary person.

Even a normal expert could not achieve something like this.

The Marquis released Du Juan’s hand.

Then answered, “Our granduncle.”

“Granduncle?”

“For decades, Granduncle has locked himself inside the Daoist temple in the eastern estate and devoted himself entirely to seeking the Dao.

“Very few outsiders know of him.

“Even most people in the family believed he had gone mad long ago— an old lunatic shut away inside the estate.

“But I knew he was not mad.

“When I was young, he once tried to lead me into the Dao.

“He also tempered my body for me.

“Unfortunately, I had no affinity with Daoist cultivation in the end.

“I preferred armies and conquest.

“Wait here.

“Your husband will go take a look.

“The smell of blood from the Elegant Garden has probably disturbed Granduncle’s cultivation.”

……

“What petty villain!

“How dare you act recklessly inside my Tian Clan!

“Tian Bokai!

“Where are you?

“Where are you!”

An old man with completely white hair and beard stood atop the Daoist temple and roared.

Seen from close range, his eyes were almost entirely clouded.

If Zheng Fan had been present, he probably would have diagnosed the old man with severe cataracts.

Untreatable ones.

Of course, Zheng Fan would never discriminate against blind people.

There was already a very troublesome Blind Man at home.

“Someone!

“Come!

“Where is Tian Bokai?

“Where has everyone died to!”

The old man’s mind was clearly no longer entirely lucid.

Even the Daoist robe he wore had long since become torn and ragged.

He had confined himself for decades, wholly focused upon the Dao.

In his earlier years, the Tian Clan had regularly sent him food and water.

Later, servants discovered that he had suddenly stopped eating.

Whatever meal they sent in one day would be collected unchanged the following day.

Tian Bokai had personally entered the temple to investigate.

After coming back out, he simply ordered that no more meals be delivered.

Had the temple not occasionally echoed with laughter or scripture recitation, the Tian clansmen might genuinely have believed their granduncle had died.

Yet this refusal to eat or drink was strange beyond explanation.

“Someone!

“Where is Tian Bokai?

“Where have you all died!

“Someone!”

The old man continued roaring.

Threads of green light visible to the naked eye swirled around him.

“Granduncle.”

The Marquis of Jingnan walked to the temple entrance and bowed.

“You…

“Who are you?”

The old man turned toward the Marquis.

His nose twitched.

“This smell…

“So familiar.

“Little Mirror?

“Is that you, Little Mirror?”

“Reporting to Granduncle.

“It is Wujing.

“I have returned to see you.”

“Ahahaha!

“Little Mirror!

“So you’re home!

“Hahaha!

“Good.

“Good.

“Although you refused to seek the Dao with this old man back then, I know perfectly well that your talent for martial cultivation was always exceptional.

“If you are home— then nothing serious can have happened to the family.

“The blood I smell must belong to the little villains who came here to invade, right?”

“Reporting to Granduncle.

“The petty villains have already been killed by Wujing.”

“Mm!

“They deserved death!

“Of course they deserved death!

“Then good.

“Good.

“This old man thought something terrible had happened.

“Heh.

“If you are home— what do I have to worry about?

“Right.

“Speak to your father for me.

“He is already old.

“Tell him not to cling so tightly to power.

“And tell him to stop taking concubines every few days.

“He is already so old.

“Does he feel no shame?

“Isn’t he only delaying those poor young women?

“Tell him to come see this old man tomorrow.

“If he wants to live a few more years, he can recite Daoist heart scriptures with me.

“The family’s affairs— he should hand them over to you.”

“Reporting to Granduncle.

“Father cannot come tomorrow.”

“What?

“He’s sick?”

“Father should already be gone.”

“What?

“That little brat Bokai already left?

“When did that happen?

“Why did no one tell this old man?

“Oh.

“Right.

“This old man told you all to stop sending food twenty years ago.”

“Today.

“Just now.”

“Just now?

“Little Mirror— you’re saying those petty villains who came here killed Bokai?”

“He is dead.”

“Outrageous!

“Who dared!

“Which clan moved against us?

“The Situ Clan?

“The Wu Clan?

“No…

“Could it be the barbarians?

“No, no.

“Could it be— the Ji Clan?”

“It was Wujing.”

“…”

The old man fell silent.

“My eyes have been blind for many years.

“Now even my ears are growing worse.

“I couldn’t hear clearly.

“Little Mirror— what did you say?”

“It was Wujing who led the Jingnan Army to exterminate the Tian Clan.”

“You— you you!

“Absurd!

“You are absurd!”

Green light exploded violently around the old man.

The tiles of the Daoist temple roof shattered apart in an instant.

A terrifying pressure surged outward.

“Little Mirror…

“Little Mirror!

“Why?

“Why would you do such a thing?”

The Marquis of Jingnan reached up and undid the clasp at his neck.

His blood-red cloak slipped free and drifted to the ground.

Then, he slowly said, “For centuries, we people of Yan have guarded the East against the barbarians.

“It is time— to go out and take a look.”

(End of Chapter)