Chapter 472: Blood-Red

**Author’s Correction Note**

A character error appeared in the previous chapter. The Prefect of Yingdu should be Mao Mingcai. This was Dragon’s oversight and has already been corrected. My apologies to everyone. —Little Dragon

The wind over Yingdu was destined to carry a sweet, bloody tang today.

The gates of the Education Administration had merely been shut and secured with a single wooden bar. Unlike a city gate, there were no piles of objects packed behind them as barricades. Nor was there a formation of spears waiting beyond. There was only a crowd of Education Administration officials trembling in fear and unease.

Once Gao Yi gave the order, more than ten armored soldiers on each flank vaulted onto the surrounding walls. Behind them, crossbowmen took position along the top and aimed inward to keep watch.

Using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken was indeed unnecessary, but years of training had already branded certain habits into their bones.

The first armored soldiers over the wall encountered no resistance whatsoever. There were plenty of people inside the Education Administration, but all they did was retreat, retreat, and retreat again. Just like that, the gates were opened from within.

The armored soldiers outside rushed straight in.

Perhaps the officials inside still believed Count Pingye merely intended to seize some people and hold them accountable. Most people understood the world according to the habits they were familiar with.

They assumed the worst outcome would be that one group was arrested, another interrogated under torture, and another dragged away to answer for the affair, while the great majority would remain unharmed.

Even among those called to account, perhaps only the two or three unluckiest would truly suffer severe punishment.

After all, the law did not punish the masses.

Unfortunately, their world and Count Zheng’s world were entirely different.

Especially after he had personally conveyed the military order beneath Yupan City that led to the slaughter of forty thousand surrendered Azure Luan soldiers, what stood before Count Zheng now truly counted as nothing more than a small scene.

His personal guards had spent the entire night sharpening their blades. Once they charged into the Education Administration, they automatically split into files of three. The men who entered first did not immediately throw themselves at the officials. Instead, they spread along both flanks and circled toward the rear. The armored soldiers following behind raised their sabers and began cutting into the assembled dignitaries without a word.

The sheer directness of it, men simply rushing in and hacking with sabers, left the officials completely unable to adjust.

Only when hot blood splashed across their faces did they finally realize what was happening and try to flee.

Then, in horror, they discovered armored soldiers behind them as well.

This was not a massacre from which absolutely no fish could escape the net. Zheng Fan had not brought that many personal guards with him.

But even if some slipped away, there would not be many.

The screams from inside continued without end.

Mao Mingcai stood frozen where he was.

For a moment, he felt as though he had returned to Yupan City a year earlier.

Back then, he had also stood in Zheng Fan’s path.

Yet Zheng Fan had still forcibly relayed the Marquis of Jingnan’s order to slaughter the prisoners.

Today was the same.

He had come.

He had tried to stop him.

And once again, he had failed.

At that time, Mao Mingcai had been Minister of War and Imperial Envoy responsible for negotiations with Chu. Now he was Prefect of Yingdu. Ever since the Marquis of Jingnan moved his command headquarters from Yingdu to Fengxin City, Mao Mingcai had become the man who truly held authority over Yingdu’s civil administration and officialdom.

Between a Minister of one of the Six Ministries and a great regional official, the latter currently held the higher position in Great Yan. Under the Emperor of Yan’s overwhelming authority, the Six Ministries and Grand Secretariat had been reduced almost entirely to instruments transmitting the Emperor’s will.

Yet the young man before him had risen as well.

Back then, Zheng Fan had only just been ennobled as Count Pingye.

Now he had abducted a Princess and brought her home. He wore golden armor bestowed by the Son of Heaven and was returning to the capital by imperial summons to receive reward.

Mao Mingcai was hardly the only one whose position had risen.

He slowly closed his eyes. His lips trembled slightly.

He did not rush inside shouting for the guards to stop the killing.

Instead, he said:

“Count Zheng, you should know that when a tree stands above the forest, the wind will surely break it.”

Zheng Fan drew in a breath, as though savoring the faint smell of blood already drifting outward.

Then he replied:

“Let the winds blow from east, west, south, and north.”

...

Inside the relay station, the Blind Man and the Savage King, neither of whom had gone out with Zheng Fan, sat facing each other over a board.

Black and white stones filled it.

They were playing five-in-a-row.

“It still isn’t enough,” the Savage King said. “One Education Administration alone is not enough.”

The Blind Man nodded.

Gou Moli continued:

“Yingdu is a good place. First, anything that happens here spreads effectively. Second, it still is not sensitive enough to truly touch a nerve.”

Yingdu was a great city. Anything that happened here would inevitably make its way to Yanjing.

Whatever song you sang here, whatever dance you performed, the powerful people in Yanjing would hear about it.

But Yingdu was also far from the capital. Politically, it still ranked beneath the cities of Yan’s old heartland.

This was a large flatbread, but not one hot enough to burn the mouth. Acting overbearingly here would not strike at the true reverse scale of the Yan court.

If they missed this opportunity, it would be gone.

The farther west they traveled, once they reached Litian City, crossed the Horseshoe Mountains, and entered Yan’s old territory, Count Zheng would need to put on an entirely different face.

He would have to be gentle.

Well-behaved.

Obedient.

And kind.

The military review at Snow Sea Pass and what they were doing in Yingdu were a matter of posture.

Once they entered Great Yan’s original borders, what needed to be displayed instead was their position.

The Blind Man placed another stone.

“So long as the position is firm, posture becomes negotiable.”

The Savage King laughed.

“That is the art of an Emperor.”

The Blind Man shook his head.

“Emperors are never constant. There is no single fixed art. A young Emperor, a middle-aged Emperor, and an old Emperor are entirely different.

“An Emperor preserving an inherited realm is different from an Emperor expanding it. An Emperor overshadowed by powerful ministers is different from one constrained by the people below him.”

The Savage King sighed and nodded.

“The Emperor of Yan is old. I once heard that after Master Zang entered Yanjing and severed Great Yan’s dragon vein, rumors that the Emperor of Yan did not have long to live spread everywhere.”

The Blind Man said:

“Later, the old master in the palace dissolved himself on Tianhu Mountain. The fortune he had borrowed from the Yan Cauldron, together with centuries of accumulated power from Tianhu Mountain’s Daoist ground, all flowed back into it. Apparently, that repaired what had been damaged.”

“Mr. Bei, do you believe that?”

“If you believe, it exists. If you do not, it does not. Simply declaring that man can always overcome Heaven is a little too absolute. I think people still need a measure of luck when living and doing things.”

“That is true. Once I learned the Jade Figurine Token of my Holy Race was in the Count’s hands, I understood that.

“I have even begun to think our Count is my fate.

“I played a game all the way into the middlegame.

“One step forward, and the entire board would open into a magnificent position.

“One step backward, and the sea and sky would still stretch wide before me.

“Yet the moment our Count appeared, I could neither advance nor retreat.

“I never believed in fate before. After all, in the eyes of you Xia people, my Holy Race are beasts. Since when do beasts have the right to speak of destiny?

“But now...

“I believe it a little.”

The Blind Man smiled faintly.

“We are playing five-in-a-row, not Go. Using the board to pour out your feelings like this is a bit forced.”

“If I want to say something, I say it. The object is merely an excuse.

“Actually, Mr. Bei should understand what I am thinking. How much longer can the Emperor of Yan’s body hold out?

“I refuse to believe all those rumors came from nowhere.

“And most importantly, the Emperor of Yan is an extraordinarily ambitious and capable Emperor.

“Mm.

“How should I put this?

“I’m the same.”

The Blind Man smiled.

“Don’t laugh. Be serious. I’m begging you!”

The Blind Man put away his smile.

“Fine. I won’t laugh.”

“Good. What I mean is that the Emperor of Yan trampled the aristocratic clans beneath his cavalry, annexed the Three Jin, drove out the Holy Race, and pressed down upon Qian and Chu.

“With his temperament, surely he would be unable to resist coming out to see it all with his own eyes.

“For example, he could tour Jin in the imperial carriage.

“An imperial progress is certainly enormously expensive, but it is also extremely effective at stabilizing hearts and intimidating the region. If you calculate the cost, it can actually be worth it.

“But he never did.

“He remained in Yanjing the entire time.

“He remained inside his imperial palace.”

Hearing this, the Blind Man nodded thoughtfully.

In the history of another world, the First Emperor of Qin had likewise toured his realm many times. Later historians often condemned him for extravagance and an obsession with grand displays.

But it was not really that simple.

After the Ancestral Dragon died, the empire rapidly collapsed.

That meant the Emperor had, in effect, used himself as an instrument of “stability maintenance,” personally traveling through the realm to hold the empire together.

If the Emperor of Yan had toured Jin once or twice during the previous two years, it would undoubtedly have helped the region enormously. The people of Jin would have felt the Emperor’s pressure far more directly, and it would have helped gather their loyalty.

Of course, leaving politics aside and looking at the matter purely from a personal perspective, that kind of imperial tour was itself incredibly alluring.

The Savage King continued:

“So what we may be facing is an old Emperor whose remaining years are few.”

“Mm.”

“We should spend another two days discussing this carefully, so our Count can adjust properly when he meets the Emperor.”

The Blind Man shook his head.

“This is Master’s strong suit. On this particular point, he is better than every one of us.”

The Savage King blinked.

“Are you praising the Count?”

Even with Gou Moli’s intelligence, for a moment he could not determine whether this was mockery or sarcasm.

The Blind Man explained:

“The way you conduct yourself around others can easily become cloying. Master is different. Master leaves people feeling refreshed and hungry for more.”

“Then I should study under the Count carefully.”

“No need. Master is numb to it now.”

Round after round of shameless flattery from the Demon Kings had steadily raised Master’s threshold for excitement.

The Savage King said:

“Back to the matter at hand. One Education Administration is not enough. The smell of blood will dissipate too quickly.

“We need to dig out a batch of the families involved in substituting candidates.

“At minimum, we need enough heads lined up for execution to create the spectacle of a proper execution ground.”

“To do that, the Count’s personal guards alone are not enough.”

“Then we mobilize troops,” the Savage King replied.

The Blind Man placed another stone.

“Outside Yingdu are three major military camps.

“One contains more than ten thousand Jin auxiliaries.

“One contains six thousand men left from the old Eastern Expedition Army.

“One contains three thousand Jingnan troops.

“Which do you choose?”

Yingdu was the most important city in Cheng State and the center radiating influence throughout the entire region. In wartime, it also served as a transfer hub for money, grain, and supplies.

Only twenty thousand troops around such an important city might appear somewhat light.

But other garrisons stood around Yingdu, along the Wang River and in surrounding cities. If anything happened, reinforcements could arrive quickly from every direction.

The Savage King toyed with the stone in his hand.

Naturally, he understood that this was the first time he had been released outside to handle real affairs.

Whether Count Zheng or Mr. Bei before him, both clearly intended to test him.

He answered at once:

“Heh. The Jin troops are children of a lesser wife. They think of themselves that way too. They would never dare move recklessly. There is no meaning in bullying them.

“Use the three thousand Jingnan troops.

“Three thousand Jingnan troops entering the city to search, arrest, and seize people will be more than enough.

“Once the Jingnan Army moves, the Jin troops and old Eastern Expedition troops outside the city will not dare stir even if the Prefect orders them to.

“They certainly will not dare interfere.”

The Blind Man placed another stone and formed a row of four.

“Under what authority do we mobilize them?”

The Savage King tossed down his stone and conceded defeat.

“Naturally, under the Marquis of Jingnan’s authority.

“False within truth, truth within falsehood. Even if anyone with eyes can see that all of it is our Count acting arrogantly on his own initiative, so long as the Marquis of Jingnan does not deny it, then however sharp their eyes may be, they will still have to think twice.”

“But we do not have a Tiger Tally.”

The Savage King burst into laughter.

“As though the Marquis of Jingnan had given our Count a Tiger Tally back when he ordered him to relay the command to massacre the prisoners!”

...

The killing inside the Education Administration continued.

The Sword Saint, dressed in white, sat beneath a roadside tea awning drinking tea.

Chen Daole sat cautiously across from him.

“Clueless and Grumpy,” the two-man pair, had also been folded into the personal guard battalion.

He Chunlai had been brought because he knew how to make candied hawthorn. The Sword Maid liked eating it and wanted He Chunlai to come along again. Fan Li therefore put in a word for him with Zheng Fan, and Zheng Fan agreed.

Once He Chunlai was mentioned, bringing Chen Daole along followed naturally.

Across the street, Hero Chen crouched on a rooftop.

Yingdu was not Count Zheng’s home ground.

Once the three hundred personal guards charged into the Education Administration, the protective strength immediately around Count Zheng naturally thinned.

The Demon Kings were either staying behind, assigned elsewhere, or injured. Even the Blind Man needed to keep an eye on the Savage King.

As a result, Count Zheng’s protective strength on this excursion was actually quite weak.

Of course, Count Zheng had always been cautious.

Even when all the Demon Kings were beside him, he still never felt entirely secure.

No one had ever complained about being too safe.

Blood dripped from Hero Chen’s sword.

He had already driven away three rooftop scouts who came to investigate.

Their martial arts were not especially strong, but their movement skills were good. Great clans often employed men like this as “ears and eyes.”

Hero Chen did not kill them.

He merely sent them back bleeding.

In Count Zheng’s words, that would deepen Yingdu’s “blood-red atmosphere” and let the great families throughout the city feel more directly what was happening here.

Hero Chen did not quite understand the logic.

Fortunately, he possessed one excellent trait.

If he could not understand something, he stopped thinking about it.

He thoroughly enjoyed using his sword in front of the Sword Saint.

Even though the Sword Saint merely sat there drinking tea without once raising his head to look toward the roof, Hero Chen believed the Sword Saint should still be able to sense what he was doing.

In reality, Chen Daole knew the truth.

The Sword Saint had been resting his chin on his right hand and had been asleep for quite some time.

Chen Daole had even waved away flies for him several times.

Most people looked up toward the Sword Saint from far below.

Chen Daole swept his gaze across the surroundings.

Yingdu.

He had returned again.

It still felt as though only yesterday he had come to Yingdu and been captured by Fan Li.

As a son of the Chen Clan, he had once devoted his entire heart to restoring the state.

But after going to Snow Sea Pass, after seeing everything there, and then following Count Zheng into Chu, some of his thoughts had quietly changed.

The Sword Saint opened his eyes.

He sighed faintly.

Then he lifted his cup and drank the now-cold tea.

“Does coming back here feel strange?

“The same people.

“The same affairs.

“The same scenery.

“Yet somehow everything feels different?”

The Sword Saint had spoken to him.

Chen Daole immediately felt overwhelmed by the attention and answered respectfully:

“Yes.”

The Sword Saint slowly rotated the cup between his fingers.

“A person should not live too tired a life.

“Because you may discover that even if you exhaust yourself to death, whatever was meant to happen may still happen anyway.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I like Snow Sea Pass.

“Everyone there has a place to live.

“Everyone there has food to eat.”

During that winter, the Sword Saint had felt exceptionally comfortable at Snow Sea Pass.

Not a single person had frozen to death or starved.

Even in peaceful years, that was extremely difficult to achieve.

Chen Daole badly wanted to say that the living conditions of Snow Sea Pass’s soldiers and civilians had been purchased through campaign after campaign of outward plunder.

For example, to let every soldier and civilian drink a little meat broth during winter and let the children drink goat milk, the Naiman Tribe had selflessly donated everything it possessed.

The Sword Saint continued:

“Now, I only ask that I myself feel comfortable.

“I only ask that wherever my eyes can see, what I see allows me to feel comfortable.”

Chen Daole was somewhat surprised that such words had come from the Sword Saint who once stood alone against an army outside Snow Sea Pass.

Yet when he considered them carefully, there was not much negativity in those words at all.

Instead, they carried the freedom of a man who had already let go.

Even a Sword Saint needed only one bed to sleep in and one pair of chopsticks to eat with.

What mattered was the few people around him.

At that moment, a father and son walked down the street.

It was easy to tell they were father and son because they looked very much alike.

Both carried swords.

Chen Daole looked over and immediately recognized his old friend Zhang Yiqing.

When Chen Daole first arrived in Yingdu, it had been Zhang Yiqing who received him and even gifted him a sword.

Zhang Yiqing also saw Chen Daole.

He had never expected to meet here the friend who had suddenly disappeared all those years ago.

But neither Chen Daole nor Zhang Yiqing stood to greet the other.

Neither had the standing to speak here.

Zhang Yiqing’s father was Zhang Pinghang, Assistant Prefect of Yingdu.

His office was neither especially high nor especially low.

Very few people knew that he was also a sword fanatic.

Otherwise, Zhang Yiqing would never have been able to casually pull out a sword and gift it to Chen Daole back then.

Their household possessed many fine swords.

Zhang Pinghang walked to the table and cupped his hands toward the Sword Saint.

“I truly never imagined I would find you here, sir.”

The two men knew each other.

Years ago, when Situ Lei wanted to kill his father, he had found the Sword Saint through Zhang Pinghang.

Who could have imagined that this Assistant Prefect, a minor official who had managed to remain in office even through the fall of one dynasty and rise of another, had once participated in regicide?

The Sword Saint took another sip of tea.

“What do you want?”

Zhang Pinghang replied respectfully:

“I have two nephews serving as officials in the Education Administration.”

“Oh.”

The Sword Saint answered once.

Then he seemed to think his response had been a little too cold.

After all, the man before him counted as an old acquaintance.

So the Sword Saint decided to add a few more words.

“Then pretend you never had those two relatives.”

“...”

Zhang Pinghang.

After hesitating for a while, Zhang Pinghang said:

“Sir, I think Count Pingye is acting improperly in this matter.”

The Sword Saint nodded.

“You think so too, sir?”

The Sword Saint nodded again.

“Then, sir, could you perhaps...”

The Sword Saint continued nodding.

“You cannot beat me.”

“...”

Zhang Pinghang.

You could possess ten thousand arguments.

But one sentence—

*You cannot beat me.*

—was enough to block every road in front of you.

Zhang Pinghang sighed.

He turned and signaled his son to leave with him.

He no longer intended to save anyone.

Even though, from Hero Chen’s position above them, Zhang Pinghang was clearly a swordsman more skilled than Hero Chen himself.

But among all the people beneath Heaven who used swords, how many dared draw a sword against the Sword Saint unless they were merely seeking instruction?

Yet just as Zhang Pinghang and his son turned to leave, the Sword Saint spoke again.

“Wait.”

Zhang Pinghang stopped.

“Years ago, when you served as Situ Lei’s intermediary and came asking to borrow my sword, you promised me I would see a better State of Jin.

“You broke your promise.”

Was the State of Jin before them good?

No.

It truly was not.

In fact, it was very bad.

Zhang Pinghang drew in a deep breath.

Then he bowed deeply toward the Sword Saint.

“I am willing to accept whatever punishment you see fit, sir.”

Afterward, Zhang Pinghang removed the sword from his waist.

Clearly, he did not intend to resist.

Beside him, his son Zhang Yiqing watched anxiously.

“Fine.”

The Sword Saint set his teacup down.

He pointed toward the table before him.

“Pay for my tea.”

[End of Chapter 472]