The moment Cen Yu saw that arrow fly out, he knew things had gone terribly wrong. Then, seeing the Imperial Guards draw their blades, he coughed up blood in panic. Covering his mouth miserably, he said, “Who fired that shot?!”
Before coming here, he had already instructed Luo Mu, strictly ordering the miscellaneous troops not to move. Once that arrow was loosed, regardless of whether Yao Wenyu died or not, Qudu was doomed beyond redemption!
Dantai Hu gripped his saber and strode forward, charging toward the front while roaring thunderously, “Faithless bastards! To hell with your city-gate negotiations!”
The Imperial Guards charged neatly through the rain, muddy water splashing beneath their feet. They wiped their blades in unison, and as the front row spun and slashed, they crashed into the mob troops. In an instant, flashing blades and sword shadows swallowed the storm. Tables and chairs on the high platform overturned with loud crashes, and the students hurriedly helped Cen Yu retreat in panic.
“Stop…” Cen Yu still clung to hope. Wiping away blood, he urgently cried, “Prefect, please hear me out!”
The Imperial Guards had already crossed the boundary line. No one listened to Cen Yu anymore. Drenched in rain, official robes hanging heavily from his body, enduring the sleet striking his face, he finally broke down choking with sobs as he faced Qudu and cried, “I have failed the trust His Majesty placed in me!”
The bronze bells of Qudu rang out thunderously. Li Jianting knew that was not thunder. Supporting herself against a pillar, she slowly stepped into the rain, the huadian between her brows dissolving in the water. Looking at Xue Xiuzhuo below the steps, it was as if she had only just met him.
“You have ten thousand taels of silver,” Li Jianting raised an arm toward the direction of Juexi, “and the support of the people as well. Go to Juexi, find a new emperor, and you can still fight Shen Zechuan again.”
Xue Xiuzhuo also looked at Li Jianting. After a long while, he raised a hand, removed his black gauze official hat, and said, “I am a minister of the Li dynasty.”
Li Jianting smiled. The more she smiled, the louder her laughter became, until rainwater streamed across her face and a trace of innocence appeared. She leaned closer and asked, “Teacher, have I learned well?”
Her entire life had been trapped in cracks and crevices. After clawing her fingernails to ruin, she had finally become a vessel. She came from the mud pit, yet carried the collapsing Heavenly River upon her shoulders. She was eager to learn, diligent, even a genius—but she was equally powerless to reverse fate.
“It could have been even better. It is this teacher whose abilities are mediocre.” Xue Xiuzhuo looked at the black gauze hat in his hand. “I am a blade that strayed from its path.”
He had known very early on that he was not clever. He could not memorize policy essays and could only rely on brute-force memorization, staying awake night after night. Even taking time to drink water felt wasteful. In the most impulsive years of his youth, Guangcheng Emperor had crushed his sharpness, making him realize that the seemingly prosperous Great Zhou was in truth barren land.
Xue Xiuzhuo had never intended to walk this path, but he had witnessed the sudden brilliance that burst forth after Qi Huilian’s fleeting flash. That momentary light ignited hope within him. He followed Qi Huilian stubbornly, believing Great Zhou could still be saved, but reality was always so disappointing. He admired and respected Hai Liangyi, yet gradually drifted onto a different road from him.
They had all wanted to save Great Zhou. None of them succeeded.
“You brought me to this position, yet nobody here is willing to speak reason. The Empress Dowager directed Han Cheng, Han Cheng hinted to Fu Man—they all wanted to kill me.” Li Jianting raised her arm and rubbed the huadian between her brows until it turned red. “Is the Emperor not allowed to fight back? If I did not kill them, then I would die.” She turned around. “We stayed cautiously inside the cage. Even with towering ambition, we had neither the authority nor the time.”
Li Jianting was very pale. This was a false image nurtured within the Xue residence. Beneath that layer of clothing, her body was covered in wounds. Once she stood here, she became Li Jianting. No one would ever ask where Lingting had gone, as if Lingting had simply deserved to die.
“In this world, people killing people actually does not require laws. Men’s strong bodies crushed my bones. I fell to the ground.” Li Jianting turned back to Xue Xiuzhuo and said, “Passersby all thought I was filthy. No one pursued justice against them, as if I had willingly lain there. Once someone dies once, they should be treated like discarded shoes and never stand before others again.”
The tolling of the bronze bell grew longer and longer. Rainwater flooded over the hems of their robes, while the heavens darkened until the palace halls could no longer be seen clearly.
Li Jianting mocked coldly, “Was that my fault? Teacher, I obeyed the teachings of books. I did not even kill those pieces of trash. The day you brought me away from Xiangyun House, I thought I would seek revenge, but you taught me benevolence and morality. Staying inside this rotten palace required endurance. During these years, I never wasted a single moment. I chased after everyone, and in the end we still gained nothing.”
Her chest rose and fell violently. There were too many things she could not accept. Amid that extreme endurance, she finally exploded.
Li Jianting pointed at her own eyes and said, “I do not live because of these eyes. I am not like anyone else. I am Li Jianting.” Suddenly, she ripped the golden hairpin from her hair and threw it into the rain, saying disdainfully, “To hell with virtuous and gentle womanhood. I am an emperor. I am the last emperor of the Li dynasty!”
Thunder exploded across the heavens, illuminating every face in the rain ghostly white. Li Jianting stripped off her soaked cloak and even tore away the complicated hairpins, saying coldly, “I shall live and die alongside Great Zhou.”
Qudu had eight city gates, all now sealed shut. The mechanisms atop the walls shifted with clacking noises. The former Eight Great Camps’ armories were emptied out, and battlements overflowed densely with archers. The Zhongbo Defense Army focused its main assault on the eastern gate.
“Madam has command over Qidong, Jiang Wanshao cannot return,” Yao Wenyu breathed unevenly. Leaning against the bedside, he said to Shen Zechuan, “The road ahead has opened. I will remain here, awaiting the Prefect’s triumphant return.”
Shen Zechuan removed his Yangshan Snow saber and set it beside Yao Wenyu’s hand. “I entrust this blade to you. When I return, you may give it back to me.”
Yao Wenyu smiled sorrowfully. “Why make things difficult for me?”
“Xun’er is still in Cizhou.” Shen Zechuan’s gaze dimmed slightly. “You are still his teacher.”
Yao Wenyu could only say, “Yuan Zhuo will do his utmost.”
Fei Sheng helped Shen Zechuan remove his cloak. Shen Zechuan stepped back twice, locked eyes with Yao Wenyu for another moment, then turned and left the tent without a word. While tidying the tent casually, Fei Sheng picked up Yao Wenyu’s handkerchief and discovered it soaked through entirely with blood.
Outside the tent, wet snow fell thickly as violent winds surged.
Shen Zechuan strode down the steps. The Imperial Guards lining both sides stared straight ahead. As he walked, he tightened the bindings around his arms. When passing by Dantai Hu, he heard Dantai Hu throw back his head and roar, “Tonight we kill our way into Qudu! From this day onward, the world shall follow the tide! The Prefect leads from the front, and we shall answer with our hearts and courage!”
The Defense Army, together with the Imperial Guards, struck their chests in unison, voices louder than thunder itself. “We shall answer with our hearts and courage!”
Luo Mu heard the roar. Sprinting through the torrential rain toward the city walls, he grabbed a deputy general who had fled back into the city and demanded, “Who fired that arrow?!”
The deputy general had been wounded amid the raging assault of the Imperial Guards and now dragged a crippled arm as he answered, “The rain was too heavy, Governor! No one could see clearly!”
Luo Mu indeed had instructed the miscellaneous troops they could act, but only after the Defense Army moved first. Even Luo Mu had never imagined Yao Wenyu would dare use the Empress’s origins as leverage in battle. That single arrow shattered Qudu’s defenses, as if Heaven itself had tilted its head in favor of the enemy!
“Shut the gates and fight to the death.” Luo Mu released the man and violently shoved the deputy general again, shouting sharply into the rain, “If we cannot hold Qudu, every one of us will die!”
The streets were empty. The common people had barred doors and windows, hiding in cellar pits trembling in fear. Filthy water flowed through the drainage ditches. Pleasure boats on the Kai Ling River rocked with the waves. For the first time in hundreds of years, Qudu sensed the crushing pressure of an approaching storm.
“The Shen forces stand beneath the city walls!” Pages from the Imperial Academy scattered everywhere as students clutched their heads and wept. “Great Zhou has no hope left!”
As Luo Mu urgently ordered the war drums beaten, he spotted several figures in the distance. Dropping the drooping banner, he stepped forward and knelt, loudly declaring, “This minister has failed Your Majesty’s grace. Tonight I shall repay the nation with my death and swear never to share the same sky as the traitors!”
Kong Qiu staggered forward, gripping Li Jianting’s arm as he choked with emotion toward the surrounding crowd. “The Emperor is here, and I am here as well. If we win tonight, all gathered here shall become the backbone ministers of Great Zhou! If we lose, when the city falls, I, Kong Qiu, shall be the first to leap from the tower and die for the nation!”
Luo Mu broke into cold sweat at Kong Qiu’s tragic tone. Looking up, he saw every elder minister of the Cabinet solemn-faced. They were not pretending to comfort anyone—they had already resolved to die! Luo Mu had never imagined they would go this far for Great Zhou. For a moment he felt ashamed beyond measure, yet still clung to hope.
“Shen Zechuan only has twenty-five thousand troops. This battle can still be fought! Your Majesty and honored ministers, please—”
Before Luo Mu could finish speaking, the catapults moved. Massive boulders smashed into the city gates with thunderous force. The hundred-year-old stone plaque engraved with “Qudu” exploded instantly, shattering into pieces.
Xue Xiuzhuo spread an arm to shield Li Jianting and shouted, “Shen Zechuan is attacking the city! Protect the Emperor!”
Qiao Tianya clamped a dagger between his teeth, inching himself forward with his elbows through the dark and filthy drainage ditch.
After the drainage scandal years ago, Pan Lin had once given Xiao Chiye the engineering blueprints for Qudu’s drainage system. Xiao Chiye then left those blueprints at the Mei residence. When Shen Zechuan rebelled and fled Zhongbo, Qiao Tianya and Fei Sheng had escaped Qudu’s encirclement using those very maps. Long ago, they had memorized Qudu’s crisscrossing drainage tunnels by heart.
Qiao Tianya buried his chin in the foul-smelling sewage. Tilting his head slightly upward, he rammed his shoulder against the wooden board above.
The chains atop the board clanked aside. Ge Qingqing, now clean-shaven, exchanged a glance with Qiao Tianya before smiling and pulling him out.
“It’s been over a year since we last met,” Ge Qingqing said. “Has the Prefect been well?”
Qiao Tianya removed the dagger and answered briefly, “Safe and sound.”
“We’ve been monitoring movement inside Qudu these past few days.” Ge Qingqing stopped exchanging pleasantries and spread out a map covered in markings and circles. “‘Scorpion’ is here.”
Looking at the densely overlapping circles, Qiao Tianya felt his scalp go numb.
“These people can’t establish roots, so they can only wander Qudu waiting for orders. Most are from the lower underworld classes.” Ge Qingqing covered the crossed-out areas. “The Prefect guessed correctly. They have a ‘leader’ directing their movements.”
Qiao Tianya stared at the marked location of the “leader.”
“Scorpion wants to hold the Prefect back for Amur.” Ge Qingqing circled an area with his finger. “Before they act, we need to strike first. Leave not a single one alive.”
His finger stopped at the imperial palace.
Qiao Tianya did not put away the dagger. Hoarsely, he said, “Back to our old trade, old rules. The master issued a death order. Once the Embroidered Spring Blade is drawn, no survivors remain. We split up.” He stabbed the dagger onto the palace location. “I’ll go here.”
The eastern gate had not even held for half an hour before the southern gate near Fengshan Drill Grounds was smashed open by the Defense Army circling around. The city troops guarding the eastern gate had no idea that Shen Zechuan’s rapid assault tactics were learned from Hasen—not only fast, but vicious.
The soldiers at the southern gate braced themselves against the doors, not even having time to shout battle chants before blades jammed into the gaps.
“Send word!” the young commander of the city troops shouted. “The southern gate’s breached—!”
The city gate immediately tilted inward from the impact, smashing the soldiers behind it to the ground. The Imperial Guards waiting outside seized the opening, spread their legs like monkeys, and flipped inside just like that. The archers within prepared themselves, but the Imperial Guards reacted even faster. They ducked back and hid behind the gate panels.
The city troops had barely relaxed when they heard the horrifying screech of the gate creaking apart. That carefully crafted heavy city gate was actually dismantled by Imperial Guards climbing atop each other’s shoulders!
“Works great!” One Imperial Guard knocked against the gate panel and shouted to the brothers below, “This damn gate was repaired by Second Master leading us for the Ministry of Works! Great stuff! Carry it up to block arrows and smash these little idiots to death!”
The morale surge the city troops gained from the Empress personally appearing lasted only a moment before Shen Zechuan brutally crushed it flat. Once the southern gate broke, the Imperial Guards moved like fish in water.
Amid the crowding chaos, Kong Qiu shielded Li Jianting. Her temples were disheveled, her whole body soaked in mud and water. Continuous bombardment from the catapults against the walls had left her ears ringing endlessly. Through clouds of mud and ash, amid countless cries and shouts, she saw the Zhongbo Prefect spoken of in legend.
Two years ago, Shen Zechuan escaped through the eastern gate, leaving behind Qi Huilian raising his arms and shouting beneath the sealed gates. Now he rode across the official road, bringing not only his advisors, but thousands upon thousands of troops.
Li Jianting clenched her teeth and said, “Traitor!”
Shen Zechuan looked at her indifferently, using the most direct method possible to tell her—mere schemes and calculations were not enough. A young emperor could never outplay a true overlord. From here, he would personally trample open the gates of Qudu.