Mo Xi was stunned for a moment. He understood what Gu Mang meant, but he also did not know what to say. At this moment, he heard Gu Mang ask in a low voice, “Then what about Palace Master Shentang? How did he… ultimately have his spiritual core completely destroyed?”
Mo Xi answered, “It was because of Huapo’an.”
Gu Mang asked again, “What did Huapo’an do?”
“After establishing the Liao Kingdom on his own, he used the surviving writings of the demon clan as his basis and practiced strange and sinister arts, raising a Blood Demon Beast possessing the power to destroy heaven and earth.”
“Blood Demon Beast…”
“Yes.” Mo Xi said, “That Blood Demon Beast possessed astonishing spiritual endowment. Once it grew and matured, it would be able to devour the millions of people throughout Chonghua within an extremely short period of time.”
Gu Mang’s blue eyes widened. “Then what should they do?”
“The mutation happened without warning. Everyone else was helpless.” Mo Xi paused. “At that time, the only person within Chonghua who understood Huapo’an’s spells was Shentang. And Shentang deeply regretted having taught Huapo’an those spells. He believed that the reason Chonghua had suffered such a catastrophe was entirely because he had been incapable of judging people properly.
“So, during the final battle with Huapo’an, he ultimately chose to sacrifice himself to the demon, using the power of his spiritual core and soul to seal and destroy the Blood Demon Beast.”
Gu Mang listened blankly. He could almost imagine the scene of Palace Master Shen’s spiritual currents colliding with those of the Blood Demon Beast, with spells exploding and splashing everywhere.
“Shentang’s final fate was the destruction of his spiritual core, and his corpse was devoured,” Mo Xi said. “Forget about becoming an immortal. His soul perished together with the demon beast. He could not even reincarnate.”
“You could not possibly have met Gentleman Hui himself.”
Mo Xi’s gaze met Gu Mang’s blue eyes.
“You must have encountered someone whose appearance resembled his.”
Gu Mang lowered his head. “But…”
He said “but” for a long time, yet could not come up with anything after it. After a while, he said uncertainly, “Then… probably.”
For the next several days after hearing this story, Gu Mang was somewhat absent-minded.
He was always seeing fragmented reflections in his dreams. Sometimes they were things he had dreamed of before, while others were completely new fragments.
On several occasions, he even dreamed of Palace Master Shentang from the story. He could not see the other person’s face clearly, but he vaguely realized that it was Shentang.
Shentang wore snow-white robes and headwear, standing amid a sky full of falling flowers. But whenever Gu Mang tried to approach him and see his features clearly, the rain of crabapple blossoms would turn into blood that blotted out heaven and earth.
Shentang’s voice was cold and eerie, filled with resentment, disappointment, anguish, and hatred.
“Traitor… How could you…”
Traitor…
“When has Chonghua ever treated you poorly? When have I ever treated you poorly?”
Every word seemed to weep blood.
Traitor.
Traitor!
Gu Mang was dazed. He did not understand why he would dream of Shentang, nor did he understand why Shentang would speak to him this way.
But he thought…
Yes.
Why had he betrayed them?
In agony and struggle, his thoughts tangled together. Under Shentang’s questioning, he knelt in his own dream and clutched his head.
Why had he betrayed them?
Then suddenly, the scene shattered.
Shentang and the blood filling the sky disappeared.
Gu Mang slowly raised his head and saw himself kneeling before the Golden Hall, his entire body filthy as he cried bitterly.
Upon the throne, the Sovereign’s face was indifferent.
Inside the great hall, the expressions of the officials were mocking.
And he was like someone floating in the molten blood and lava of an Asura hell. He kept kowtowing, his forehead repeatedly striking the ground with heavy thuds.
“Please… just let us erect memorial steles for them…”
“Please, so many people died… Truly, so many people died…”
Sovereign…
Lords and kings…
Please…
Such nightmares haunted him for many days.
By the evening of the fourth day, the situation had grown even worse. Even eating could no longer lift Gu Mang’s spirits. He sat on his little stool, biting his chopsticks and staring blankly into space.
Speaking of which, ever since Princess Mengze had visited, Gu Mang had refused to sit in the seat directly opposite Mo Xi.
Later, Li Wei had given Gu Mang a little stool and a chair, and Gu Mang would sit hunched over on the stool to eat.
Every day, Mo Xi would order someone to divide some of the dishes from his own table and give them to Gu Mang, using reasons such as, “I don’t like it, don’t want to eat it,” or “I can’t finish it.”
Gu Mang was happy to take the burden off Mo Xi’s hands.
Today was no exception.
After moving his chopsticks a few times, Mo Xi pointed at the roast duck, sweet-and-sour crispy pork, and steamed mandarin fish on the table and said to Li Wei, “Give them to him.”
Needless to say, “him” referred to Gu Mang on the little stool.
Gu Mang had previously been very obedient. He had already learned to say “thank you” every time he was given food.
But today, he did not say it.
He stared blankly as the servants placed the delicious dishes in front of him, without showing the slightest trace of happiness.
Mo Xi dismissed the servants, drank a few mouthfuls of hot soup, and said, “In the past, even a single meat bun would make your eyes light up. Now you have fish and meat, yet you don’t even know how to say something nice.”
Gu Mang turned around, still holding a steamed bun stuffed with meat in his hands.
“I’m thinking about something.”
“What?”
Gu Mang lowered his head and said gloomily, “I’ve been thinking all day about why I betrayed them.”
Mo Xi was silent for a moment.
“I already told you before. Lu Zhanxing was the fuse, and your ambition was the sulfur gunpowder. The Sovereign stripped you of your authority, and you were unwilling to remain beneath others.”
But Gu Mang quietly said, “But… but I remember that a lot of people died.”
Mo Xi was startled. He abruptly raised his eyes, his gaze turning cold.
Gu Mang said, “I can only remember a little. I remember kneeling in the great hall. I kept kowtowing, begging you all to show mercy…”
He spoke softly.
“No one listened to me.”
Mo Xi was silent for a long while before a low question emerged from his throat, carrying the oppressive feeling of wind and rain gathering.
“When did you remember this scene?”
Gu Mang said, “Yesterday. Why?”
Mo Xi’s heart pounded. An extremely complicated light flashed in his eyes.
He had not expected Gu Mang to already possess this fragment of memory. Although it was still unclear, the news alone was enough to make all of Chonghua uneasy.
One had to understand that the dispute in the court had precisely been the greatest cause of Gu Mang’s complete despair. Right and wrong were also extremely difficult to explain clearly.
If Gu Mang only recalled one fragment of it in pieces, he would clearly be even more likely than before to develop resentment and hostility toward Chonghua’s nobles.
“Mo Xi?”
“…”
After a moment of silence, Mo Xi decided it was better to explain everything openly and clearly.
First, he truly was not good at lying or fabricating stories. Second, speaking everything openly earlier would at least give Gu Mang some preparation in advance.
So he said, “Listen, Gu Mang. This matter is not as simple as you think. No matter what related memories you flash back to later, come and ask me about the reasons first. Do not make your own assumptions.”
Gu Mang nodded.
After a while, he raised his hand.
“Then I have something I want to ask now.”
“Go ahead.”
“When I was kneeling in the great hall, was I pleading for mercy for Lu Zhanxing?”
Mo Xi said, “Not entirely.”
Mo Xi himself had not witnessed that dispute in court back then.
When Gu Mang had returned to the capital to report on the campaign, Mo Xi had still been on the western battlefield and could not get away. He had later seen this incident in the historical recording mirror maintained by the court historians.
He only knew that back then, Lu Zhanxing, Gu Mang, and Murong Lian had set out from Fengming Mountain.
Gu Mang and the other two split their forces into two routes. Gu Mang went directly into the heart of Liao Kingdom’s southern city, while Lu Zhanxing and Murong Lian commanded the central army.
It had originally been a flawless attack.
But because Lu Zhanxing had a fiery temperament, when words were exchanged, he impulsively killed an envoy from a third kingdom that was still wavering between neutrality and alliance.
As a result, the third party immediately sided with Liao Kingdom and, after Fengming Mountain, launched a furious attack on the Chonghua camp.
The Chonghua army suffered devastating casualties.
At that time, Gu Mang was fighting desperately on the front line with his army. Their original plan had been to enter the enemy formation alone and break apart Liao Kingdom’s iron troops.
But this could never last long.
Therefore, Murong Lian’s royal army absolutely had to arrive within three days to provide reinforcements. They would attack from inside and outside and break through the enemy in a single strike.
Yet because Lu Zhanxing had lost his head for a moment, Murong Lian’s main camp became trapped in battle with the third kingdom and was completely unable to rush to Gu Mang’s aid.
Gu Mang waited bitterly for reinforcements that never came.
The attack plan they had originally devised had become a dead end.
While Gu Mang was surrounded, he learned that the reason the third kingdom had suddenly allied itself with Liao Kingdom was because Lu Zhanxing had killed their envoy.
He was so furious and devastated that he cursed aloud.
“Lu Zhanxing, are you fucking trying to get me killed?! Why the fuck are you so stupid! Are you selfish or not?! Are you fucking selfish?!”
But what use was complaining?
An army of one hundred thousand had lived and died alongside Gu Mang. From having nothing to achieving yesterday’s glory, they were now facing annihilation overnight.
No one knew how many would return.
At that moment, Gu Mang had no time to think of anything else.
After cursing, after hating, he wiped away his tears, gritted his teeth, and lit up his already shattered heart, illuminating the road home for his one hundred thousand brothers.
He could save one, he would save one.
If one person could live, then one person would live.
Gu Mang had fought so many battles for victory.
Only this battle was fought for the sake of going home.
Actually, afterward, Gu Mang thought again.
The mistake in this battle was not really Lu Zhanxing’s.
It was his own.
He had known Lu Zhanxing’s fiery temperament, yet he had still believed that this brother of his was capable of shouldering such a great responsibility.
He himself had been wrong.
Wrong to an absurd degree.
Gu Mang had never intended to shirk responsibility.
He had already prepared himself to repay everything with his life.
But he could not let the one hundred thousand comrades-in-arms share his crime.
The fault belonged to him alone.
Those passionate lives, that blood spilled across the battlefield, were innocent. They were worthy of respect. They should not be erased.
He was willing to offer all his former military achievements in exchange for one thing:
A grave with a name for every brother who had died unjustly.
He had ruined them.
Whenever he closed his eyes, he could remember those simple names, those dirty smiling faces, their eyes shining with light and filled with unconditional trust.
Some of the cultivators were even so young, only fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in ragged clothes, looking at him with admiration and hope as they called:
“Marshal Gu.”
Marshal Gu…
Marshal Gu.
The voices echoed again and again, every word soaked in blood.
Was he worthy?
He was not worthy!
The Marshal Gu they had admired was nothing but a useless fool who cared only about brotherly loyalty.
He had caused them to die on the battlefield and be wrapped in their burial shrouds.
He could not allow himself to cause them to die without even leaving their names behind.
So he begged.
He knelt in the Golden Hall, his entire body stained with blood and his face covered in mud, begging.
Give them a name.
I will bear all the guilt myself.
Give them a tombstone.
The defeat was caused by an incompetent commander, not by the soldiers’ fault.
Please…
Please…
But the Sovereign did not agree.
The spectators throughout the hall offered his sorrow nothing but cold laughter.
This impoverished tyrant had finally reached Gaixia. He was surrounded by songs of Chu on all four sides. What did it have to do with Liu Bang and the others that he had no face to cross the river?
They almost wished they could give him a sword and, with their eyes red from hatred, wished he would immediately slit his own throat and die.
Only when he died would their hearts be at peace.
Only then could they be certain that no slave would overturn the heavens again within the next hundred years and climb onto the heads of the old ruling class.
Some people were even secretly delighted in their hearts, almost wanting to cheer and raise their arms in celebration of Lu Zhanxing’s mistake.
If not for this defeat, how could they have found such an easy opportunity to deal with Gu Mang and his slave-born army?
This defeat had come at exactly the right time.
“No memorial steles. No state burial. Deputy Commander Lu Zhanxing will be executed after autumn. Commander Gu Mang will be stripped of his military rank and position. The remaining troops will be temporarily detained to prevent a riot.”
This was the Sovereign’s final judgment and punishment for that battle.
There were countless changes and uncertainties on the battlefield. In truth, there was no God of War who could never lose a battle.
Murong Lian could lose.
Yue Chenqing could lose.
Mo Xi could lose.
Because they were all people standing alongside royal authority. The same blood flowed through their bones.
Only Gu Mang could not.
The moment he fell once, the nobles would swarm over him, trampling him until he could never stand again, never raise his head again.
Therefore, the Sovereign was not wrong.
“Your life was given to you by me. That you have come this far is already the sacred grace of the previous Sovereign. Do you think your life alone can exchange for a respectable burial for this utterly defeated army?”
The cold voice drifted down from the ninth-level throne and became the final straw that crushed Gu Mang.
“You have no right to negotiate with me.”
Thus, this dispute in court, Gu Mang’s final struggle, and his sole request were all mercilessly rejected by the Sovereign.
In the end, Gu Mang could not fulfill his promise.
His dead could not be remembered.
His living comrades were detained and held for observation.
His brothers’ bodies were separated and exposed in the Eastern Market for three days and three nights.
Overnight, everything was gone.
Mo Xi had not been in the capital at that time.
When he later held the historical recording mirror and finally saw this past event, he saw Gu Mang kowtowing until his head was covered in blood.
He saw Gu Mang crying as he knelt and curled up on the ground.
He saw Gu Mang go from being filled with hope to complete despair, from fiercely arguing back to losing his soul and becoming speechless.
When he saw all of this past, Gu Mang had already left.
Everything had already become settled.
Perhaps it was because the obsession ran too deep.
For so many years, whenever midnight dreams came, Mo Xi would dream of this scene.
He dreamed of Gu Mang crying out in anguish, repeatedly smashing his head against the ground, of the mocking faces of the civil and military officials filling the hall, and of the Sovereign’s merciless judgment falling.
And in Mo Xi’s dreams, he was often standing in the court.
Perhaps it was because he had always wondered—
If he had been there at the time, would everything have been different?
Or perhaps, if after returning to the capital he had been able to discover Gu Mang’s budding intention to rebel in time, could everything still have been salvaged?
He had been too foolish back then.
After returning from the front line, he had clearly seen Gu Mang’s fall.
He had seen Gu Mang’s sorrow.
But Gu Mang had been idle at that time, looking as though he intended to waste away the rest of his days.
So Mo Xi had always worried about Gu Mang becoming completely despondent.
He had never once considered that Gu Mang might rebel.
He had never imagined that Gu Mang could rebel.
All along, Gu Mang had been like a god to him.
And at that time, Mo Xi was still young.
He did not know that even gods would one day collapse, that they too could crumble.
He had regarded Gu Mang as too indestructible.
So he could not bring himself to believe that the upright, passionate, smiling Senior Brother, that Marshal Gu who seemed capable of enduring anything and overcoming every hardship—
This time, had truly lost all hope.
Shattered into fragments.
Ground into dust.
Never to return.
“Actually, I would have had nothing to say if you had left the nation,” Mo Xi said. “But among the twenty-eight kingdoms of the Nine Provinces, why did you have to choose the darkest place of all?”
Gu Mang did not answer immediately.
After a long time, he finally murmured softly, “…I don’t know.”
After hearing Mo Xi’s account, he still could not properly empathize with the version of himself in the story.
His mind was a mess.
To some extent, he could understand his former despair and motives.
But just as Mo Xi had said, he could not understand why he had insisted on going to Liao Kingdom.
What could he do by going to Liao Kingdom?
Even if he tried to guess his own motives, the only answer he could think of was revenge.
Only Liao Kingdom could help him take revenge.
Only by rising to prominence in Liao Kingdom could he retaliate against the Sovereign who had once humiliated and disregarded him.
But if that were the case, then he truly was, just as Mo Xi had said, a person willing to see more blood spilled in pursuit of his ideals and hatred.
Gu Mang almost became confused as he buried his head deeply into his palms. His fingers clutched at his hair as he murmured,
“I don’t know… I can’t think of any other reason…”
“I can’t think of one either. Gu Mang, you have your brotherly loyalty and your promise worth a thousand pieces of gold. I have mine too.”
Mo Xi said, “Since you chose revenge, then you and I, and you and Chonghua, were destined to have this ending.”
Gu Mang fell silent.
He sat blankly on the little stool, staring through the gaps between his fingers at the brick floor before him.
“Drink two more doses of the calming medicine today.”
Finally, Mo Xi stood up.
“The Sovereign will not want you to remember too many details about the time of your rebellion. If you want to live a few more days, then stop thinking about this matter.”