Chapter 407: I'll Do It

A thousand people have a thousand Hamlets in their eyes.

That saying could be applied to many things.

For example, the scene unfolding now.

To almost anyone else in the world, it would have been a genuine nightmare.

To Li Qian, Commandery Princess of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence it really was nothing.

Perhaps she was not as extreme as Li Fusheng, who could lose his appetite if too much time passed without killing someone and feeling the heat and stickiness of blood.

But she would certainly never be frightened by a scene like this.

After all three years ago, she had been capable of sacrificing more than a thousand laborers as bait without hesitation all to exchange their lives for victory in one battle.

She was an extraordinarily decisive woman.

Throughout history, many women who eventually became masters of imperial harems had been forged through years of intrigue, deception, and struggle for favor inside palace walls.

The Commandery Princess was different.

A childhood spent on the frontier desert had given her a starting point far higher than theirs.

“Beautiful?”

A man’s voice sounded.

The Commandery Princess turned around.

Inside her room stood a man with loose, disheveled hair and the smell of wine all over him.

A wine jar hung from his left hand.

His face was unmistakably barbarian.

The Commandery Princess tilted her head slightly.

She seemed to be searching her memory for the man’s identity.

That was why her answer came a moment late.

“Beautiful.

“Of course it is.”

The man carrying the wine jar walked to the threshold.

He now stood almost shoulder to shoulder with the Commandery Princess.

“Truly beautiful?”

The Commandery Princess nodded firmly.

“The ones being killed are barbarians.

“The ones killing them are soldiers of my Zhenbei Army.

“How could that not be beautiful?”

The man closed his eyes.

“I know who you are now.

“You’re that former Left Guli King of the Barbarian Royal Court, aren’t you?

“Why—would you appear inside my dream?”

The man did not answer.

“This is somewhat interesting.

“Back then, when you came to the gate of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence demanding an explanation from me—

“I actually intended to come out and see you.

“I wanted to give you an explanation.

“But my mother stopped me.

“She refused to let me go outside.

“Later I heard you died in battle and your corpse was hung from the memorial arch.

“After that—

“I lost interest in speaking with a dead man.”

“What... did you want... to say to me?”

All those years ago the one thing Sha Tuo Queshi had wanted was an explanation.

The Commandery Princess seemed genuinely convinced this was merely a dream.

She showed no tension.

Instead, she calmly answered:

“My explanation would have been this:

“No wonder the Barbarian Royal Court grows weaker with every generation.

“I heard stories from our ancestors.

“The barbarians of old could truly fight.

“At the slightest call, hundreds of thousands of mounted archers could gather—a dark mass thick enough to blot out the sun.

“And now?

“You, a Left Guli King of the Barbarian Royal Court—because your own tribe was slaughtered—actually abandoned everything and came alone to the gate of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence merely to demand an explanation?

“You knew perfectly well yourself.

“You claimed you wanted an explanation.

“But in truth—you were also seeking death.

“And for a man who actively seeks death—death itself is cowardice.

“Escape.

“If even the Left Guli King of the barbarians is this pathetic—then no wonder the barbarian race declines more and more with every generation.”

“Yes.”

The man agreed with her.

But immediately afterward he raised one hand and pointed toward the blood-soaked slaughter still taking place outside.

“Yet that blood—has always tormented me.

“Haunted me.

“Refused to let my heart rest.”

“How many people in this world can truly obtain peace of mind in everything they do?”

“But I want peace.

“What you said just now—was correct.

“But what your words really mean is nothing more than this:

“whoever has the larger fist possesses reason.

“Yan is strong.

“The barbarians are weak.

“So by your way of thinking—what you did was perfectly justified.”

“Natural selection.

“Survival of the fittest.

“The strong devour the weak.

“That itself is Heaven’s law.”

The man reached out.

His hand directly closed around the Commandery Princess’s throat.

Her back struck the door panel.

Her entire body was lifted from the floor.

“Then this—is this also Heaven’s law?”

The Commandery Princess struggled to breathe.

Yet mockery still curved the corners of her mouth.

“You only dare kill someone inside a dream?

“Coward.”

The man stared at her face.

The Commandery Princess continued:

“You should never have told me this was a dream.

“You should never have made me open the door and see what was happening outside.

“You thought I would feel guilty?

“You thought I would panic?

“You thought I would regret what I once did so deeply that I would no longer dare face it?

“You were wrong.

“I—

“Li Qian—carry the blood of the Li Clan.

“Forget inside a dream.

“Even in reality—if you truly came back from the dead and tried to kill me—then before you succeeded—

“I, Li Qian, would never bow my head to you.

“Nor would I offer you even the smallest trace of repentance.”

...

*Hummm! Hummm! Hummm! Hummm! Hummm!*

Inside the underground prison—

Sha Tuo Queshi’s body began trembling continuously.

The clarity inside his eyes gradually disappeared.

Blood and murk began replacing it.

Seeing this the Demon Child, whose true stone body was still being gripped in Sha Tuo Queshi’s hand revealed an excited expression.

...

Inside the bedchamber the Blind Man suddenly set down the teacup he had just picked up after eating.

He frowned.

Closed his eyes.

Then immediately said:

“Master.

“Something’s happening.”

“What?” Zheng Fan asked.

“A tremendously powerful mental force has appeared inside the residence.”

“Whose?”

“The Demon Child’s.”

“The Demon Child?”

“Yes.

“No mistake.

“He is a pure soul-body.

“Resentment is essentially the source of his existence.

“He can also transform that resentment into a medium similar to mental power and radiate it outward.

“Only—this time the Demon Child’s resentment seems extraordinarily abundant.

“Far too abundant.”

What the Blind Man did not know was that Sha Tuo Queshi had poured his zombie baleful qi and resentment into the Demon Child.

The Demon Child then converted that force and broadcast it outward.

At this moment, the Demon Child had gone from shit-stirrer to router.

“So what exactly is he doing?” Zheng Fan asked.

“This subordinate can try going inside and taking a look.

“We’re acquaintances, after all.

“He probably won’t reject me.”

After saying this the Blind Man fell silent.

...

“Huu...”

At that moment, the scene had frozen.

Sha Tuo Queshi’s hand remained around the Commandery Princess’s throat.

Because of the words she had spoken the entire dreamscape had begun flickering.

Signs of collapse spread through it.

Back inside the underground chamber—

Sha Tuo Queshi’s physical body was already beginning to twitch uncontrollably from instinct.

He was on the verge of completely breaking free of the coffin.

The Blind Man entered the dream but appeared in the adjoining room.

This was a mental world.

The appearance each person took here represented the way they defined themselves in the deepest part of their heart.

For example, Sha Tuo Queshi wore exactly the clothing he had worn before dying.

The Blind Man wore a dark-red hoodie.

The hood concealed most of his face.

In the comic *Blind Man Bei*, this had always been the Blind Man’s appearance.

Zheng Fan was not the only shut-in artist who liked hoodies clothing capable of making a person feel protected.

And so while the Commandery Princess and Sha Tuo Queshi confronted one another in the main scene a man dressed in strange clothing resembling that of a Westerner walked out from the neighboring room.

It was obvious that the Commandery Princess was suffering.

She was being held by the throat.

But because the dream had not ended she had no choice but to continue enduring the suffocation.

You could call this woman arrogant.

Willful.

But her arrogance and willfulness existed on an entirely different level from those of ordinary sheltered daughters of wealthy families.

She could be arrogant enough to treat human life like grass.

Willful enough to feel no fear even inside a terrifying nightmare.

So when she saw the Blind Man walk out she actually gave a derisive little laugh.

“Why is there even a foreign slave inside my dream?”

*Foreign slave* was a contemptuous Yan term for people from the Western Regions.

Aside from a small number of envoys and other officially recognized people of status, most Westerners in Yan made their living performing “acrobatics.”

And quite a few Western-region women worked inside the Red Tents.

The Blind Man stood there.

He said nothing.

He simply observed the surroundings in silence.

After a while he deliberately lowered his voice and changed its tone.

“Apologies.

“Wrong door.”

Then, he retreated back into the neighboring room.

His figure gradually disappeared.

The Commandery Princess turned back toward Sha Tuo Queshi, who still held her in the same posture as before.

The only thing changing in him seemed to be his eyes.

Deep within those pupils a flame appeared to be rising continuously.

As though he were deliberately suppressing something.

“This dream—is becoming somewhat interesting.”

The Commandery Princess raised one hand.

She almost completely ignored the fact that Sha Tuo Queshi had her pinned against the door by the throat.

Instead she pointed one finger at his face.

Almost as though she deliberately wanted to provoke him.

“A barbarian—will always remain a barbarian.”

The smile on her face grew broader and broader.

“This is—an Inner-Demon Art, isn’t it?”

Everyone who cultivated faced inner demons.

Martial Artists had them.

Swordsmen had them.

Qi Refiners had them.

As long as you wished to cultivate you could not avoid that threshold.

But practitioners outside ordinary worldly traditions understood and used the concept of “inner demons” more thoroughly than most other paths.

After all their direct combat strength was often lacking.

Naturally they had developed other ways to compensate.

“The Drunken Immortal Elder is an honored retainer of my household.

“He once told me that an Inner-Demon Art can be broken by holding firmly to one’s true heart.

“Push far enough—and the caster may even suffer backlash.

“I don’t know exactly who is attacking me.

“But I would like to see whether you can truly break my mind.

“Master Zang of Qian once transformed white lotuses—one lotus, one world.

“Truth and falsehood intertwined until no one could tell one from the other.

“The Drunken Immortal Elder once said even that supposed method of severing a dragon vein carries the same principle.

“The old Grandmaster in the palace gave me a Heart-Guarding Jade Pendant before he died—to protect me from evil influences.

“The anklet around my foot was forged by Father from the fang of a Pixiu—all evil recoils from it.

“You want to attack me?

“You make it sound far too easy.

“My martial cultivation failed.

“My Daoist cultivation is mediocre.

“That is because there are not many people in this world who dare openly attack me.

“So from childhood—

“I trained specifically to guard against underhanded methods like these.

“You want to shatter my mind?

“Come!

“If you fail—the Pixiu Anklet and Heart-Guarding Jade Pendant on my body will reflect the backlash onto you.

“And when that happens—

“I’ll make you my slave!”

...

It had to be said even to Seventh Uncle, a man who had spent most of his life living inside the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence and could certainly claim to have seen the world—

Count Pingye Residence was astonishing.

From its overall layout to the details of its design it possessed an almost uncanny craftsmanship.

That was natural.

The aesthetics of the Demon Kings had been poured into the construction of the residence.

But when Seventh Uncle finished a short circuit nearby and returned to the small courtyard of the western residence he saw two men sitting on the steps outside the Commandery Princess’s room.

They were Qi Refiners accompanying her convoy.

Da Hu and Er Hu.

Both were disciples of the Drunken Immortal Elder.

But this position should have been occupied by the Commandery Princess’s personal guards not the two of them.

Seeing Seventh Uncle return—

Da Hu and Er Hu rose together.

“Seventh Uncle.

“We sensed the Commandery Princess being trapped in a nightmare.”

Seventh Uncle knew the Commandery Princess carried a Heart-Guarding Jade Pendant given to her when she was young by the old Grandmaster in the palace.

The sacrificial techniques of the desert barbarians were extremely troublesome.

Especially when they could not win directly on the battlefield they often enjoyed using vicious hidden methods.

As a direct descendant of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence the Commandery Princess naturally required defenses against such things.

“A nightmare?”

Seventh Uncle was a swordsman.

He did not understand these matters especially well.

He immediately said:

“Then hurry and free the Young Mistress.

“Why are you sitting out here?

“Surely this isn’t the time to start worrying about propriety between men and women?”

Er Hu scratched his head.

“Seventh Uncle—the Commandery Princess does not want us to go in.

“My senior brother and I each refined a thread of our blood essence into the Commandery Princess’s Heart-Guarding Jade Pendant long ago.

“That allows us to sense her condition and protect her.

“But when the two of us were preparing to cast a technique just now—the Commandery Princess sent her will through the pendant and ordered us not to interfere yet.”

“Nonsense!”

Seventh Uncle became angry.

Then immediately asked:

“Do you know where the nightmare came from?”

“Perhaps the journey was exhausting.

“The Commandery Princess is a woman, after all.

“Her body may have become weak enough for some evil influence to slip in—”

“Bullshit.

“I may not understand all the mystical nonsense you outsiders practice.

“But even I know that with both of you brothers accompanying the Young Mistress all the way here—how could some ordinary evil thing possibly approach her?”

Da Hu said:

“Seventh Uncle, this is also the first time my senior brother and I have come here.

“The Tianduan Mountains have always carried stories of demons and strange spirits.

“Perhaps through one moment of carelessness—”

“One moment of carelessness?

“Nothing happened earlier.

“Nothing happened later.

“And the instant she enters Count Pingye Residence—something happens?”

Seventh Uncle’s gaze immediately shifted toward the rear residence.

Then he pressed one hand downward.

“You two continue guarding the Young Mistress.

“If the situation changes—act immediately.

“She may be willful.

“But we cannot stand by and watch her genuinely place herself in danger.”

As he spoke—

Seventh Uncle gripped his sword.

“I’m going to find Count Pingye.

“I don’t care whether this so-called nightmare has anything to do with him.

“But at a time like this—he certainly does not get to lie comfortably in bed asleep.”

He was just preparing to walk out of the courtyard when suddenly—

*HUMMMMMM!*

Seventh Uncle stopped dead.

His expression hardened instantly.

Da Hu and Er Hu immediately asked:

“Seventh Uncle?

“What happened?”

“Longyuan...

“Killing intent...”

Seventh Uncle murmured.

His gaze turned south.

“That Sword Saint—has returned?”

...

Near the southern city gate stood the largest pork shop in Snow Sea Pass and the only one operated directly by Count Pingye Residence.

At this moment, inside the rear courtyard several butchers had tied down a pig.

Xiao Yibo gestured for them to withdraw.

The Sword Saint held his sword.

With slightly trembling hands he stabbed Longyuan into the pig’s neck.

The pig immediately began thrashing violently.

It struggled with all its strength.

Xiao Yibo stared at the sight of the legendary Longyuan Sword being used to slaughter a pig.

He was genuinely stunned.

Longyuan was one of the famous swords of the age.

A dream for practically every swordsman beneath Heaven.

“Sir, what exactly are you...?”

Xiao Yibo finally could not help asking.

The Sword Saint pulled the blade free.

His body staggered two steps backward.

He raised one arm and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

His body still had not recovered.

Something this minor had actually made him sweat.

Even so, he was already far better than when he had been paralyzed in bed.

“If you want to ask—ask your Count.

“He wanted me to manufacture some killing intent.”

Human debts were difficult to repay.

And so to repay one the Sword Saint had no choice but to personally use Longyuan to slaughter a pig.

...

Inside the bedchamber the Blind Man’s body moved slightly.

Zheng Fan was eating the orange he had earlier stolen from the Blind Man’s pocket.

While chewing he asked:

“How was it?”

The Blind Man answered:

“Master, this matter is becoming rather interesting.

“The Commandery Princess’s arrival seems to have stimulated Sha Tuo Queshi.

“And somehow—the Demon Child has become the medium allowing Sha Tuo Queshi to connect with her.”

“Explain it more vividly.”

“Roughly speaking—

“Sha Tuo Queshi poured power into the Demon Child.

“Then the Demon Child created a ‘dream’—and dragged the Commandery Princess into it.”

“A dream?

“Like those mental illusions you create?”

“Yes, Master.

“Even low-level ghosts can create ghost walls and make people walk in circles.

“The Demon Child can naturally do the same.

“In certain respects—his talent in this field may even exceed mine.

“Because he is a pure soul-body.”

“Why bother making a dream?”

“Master should have heard stories about killing people inside dreams.”

“Cao Cao?”

“Er...

“I meant Wei Zheng beheading the Dragon King of the Jing River in a dream.

“Sometimes, things that cannot be done conveniently in reality—can be accomplished inside dreams.

“Only...”

“Only what?”

“The Commandery Princess possesses an exceptionally firm will.

“This subordinate entered and took a look just now.

“The illusion itself is also very crude.

“It cannot possibly touch the Commandery Princess’s true psychological defenses.

“To put it more precisely—

“Sha Tuo Queshi was a Martial Artist while alive.

“Even after dying and becoming a zombie—that has not changed.

“He simply does not specialize in this sort of thing.

“And in clashes on the mental level—the difference in overall strength between the two sides matters very little.

“What matters most—is willpower.

“Worse—with this kind of clash, one careless mistake can fail to injure the enemy while severely exhausting the attacker instead.”

“Then why doesn’t he simply come out and attack directly?” Siniang asked.

The Blind Man hesitated.

Then replied:

“Most likely—

“Sha Tuo Queshi is afraid that appearing directly and attacking the Commandery Princess would implicate Master.

“After all—the other party is still the Commandery Princess.

“And Master is still an official of Great Yan.”

Zheng Fan drew in a deep breath.

Siniang bit her lip.

She had to admit the “godfather” Master had once kowtowed to acknowledge truly left nothing to criticize.

Then Siniang looked toward the Blind Man.

“Blind Man.

“Why don’t you go lend a hand?”

The Blind Man smiled bitterly.

“I can enter.

“But I cannot control or alter the environment inside the dream.

“The Demon Child simply will not hand the power over to me.

“And there is no chance he would let me take control and become the dominant force.”

What none of them knew was that there were two reasons the Demon Child had agreed to help Sha Tuo Queshi perform something this exhausting, inefficient, and almost comically roundabout.

One he was doing it for his “god-grandfather.”

The second and far more important was that the stone containing the Demon Child’s true body was still clenched in Sha Tuo Queshi’s hand.

At that moment, Zheng Fan raised his head.

He looked at the Blind Man.

And said:

“I’ll do it.”

[End of Chapter 407]