Lu Zhanxing smiled and said, “I already killed him. What else is there to say?”
“Lu Zhanxing!” Mo Xi’s dark brows rose furiously as he shouted, “Do you know what the situation outside is right now?”
“What situation?”
“After the defeat at Fengming Mountain, seventy thousand of your brothers-in-arms died in battle. The remaining thirty thousand are still being held under guard, awaiting judgment. Those who died don’t even have gravestones, while those who are still alive don’t know what they will do with the rest of their lives! And then there’s Gu Mang… All his accomplishments have been erased. He will never receive His Majesty’s trust again. Almost everything he cared about has been completely destroyed, and all you have to say is ‘I already killed him’?”
Lu Zhanxing listened in silence. His rough fingers kept rolling the dice in his hand. After a while, he stretched the corners of his mouth into a teasing smile.
“Never receiving His Majesty’s trust again—isn’t that a good thing?”
Mo Xi suddenly froze.
What did Lu Zhanxing mean by that?
He knew far too little about Gu Mang’s sworn brother. Perhaps it was because Lu Zhanxing had grown up alongside Gu Mang. The two had always been extremely close. Mo Xi had seen Lu Zhanxing countless times pin Gu Mang down in his arms and ruffle his hair while laughing heartily. He had also seen Gu Mang tend to Lu Zhanxing’s wounds and apply medicine to him many times.
It made his heart feel clogged.
Although he had repeatedly confirmed that Lu Zhanxing was absolutely crazy about women and that Gu Mang had no feelings for him beyond brotherhood, Mo Xi still felt stifled whenever he saw Lu Zhanxing. For some reason, every inch of his body felt uncomfortable around him.
And likewise, Lu Zhanxing had never particularly liked Mo Xi.
From Lu Zhanxing’s perspective, his childhood friend had inexplicably acquired a noble young master as his closest companion. Naturally, he had felt somewhat displeased, as though a third party had barged into their relationship. Not to mention that this noble young master was always monopolizing Gu Mang’s free time. He wanted Gu Mang to accompany him on night patrols, wanted Gu Mang to accompany him in cultivation, and sometimes, whenever he himself got injured, he would need Gu Mang to take care of him.
As a result, the noble young master would immediately get himself scraped or bloodied as well, forcing Gu Mang to run back and forth between the two of them.
Once might have been a coincidence. But when it happened every single time, Lu Zhanxing began to suspect that this brat surnamed Mo was doing it on purpose.
So at first, Lu Zhanxing had treated Mo Xi with courtesy. Later, he gradually stopped bothering with him. Whenever the two met, they would pretend not to see each other. Otherwise, if Gu Mang happened to be present, they would perfunctorily nod at each other as a greeting.
This relationship directly resulted in Mo Xi having only a superficial understanding of Lu Zhanxing. Mo Xi had originally thought that Lu Zhanxing would at least feel some remorse over the trouble he had caused. He had never imagined that the other man would actually have this attitude of, I couldn’t be happier to see things turn out this way.
Seeing Mo Xi’s face turn pale, Lu Zhanxing shifted into a more comfortable position on the bed and continued tossing his two dice into the air.
“Anyway, I’m a man who’s about to die. There are some things I might as well tell you honestly.”
Mo Xi gritted his teeth. “What other bullshit last words do you have to spit out?”
Lu Zhanxing chuckled. “I wouldn’t call them bullshit. I think I’m pretty clever myself. I merely paid a little bit of a sacrifice that I shouldn’t have had to pay. But as for the goal I wanted to achieve, I’ve more or less accomplished it.”
“…What do you mean?”
Lu Zhanxing bared his teeth like a wolfhound and cast Mo Xi a provocative sidelong glance.
“Didn’t all of you think that I killed that envoy because I suspected he had ulterior motives, and because his disrespectful words angered me, so I lost my temper and impulsively beheaded him inside the military tent?”
Mo Xi’s lips moved. He said quietly, “Wasn’t that the case?”
Lu Zhanxing shook his crossed leg and sneered twice.
“Lord Xi and He, are you looking down on me, or are you looking down on Mang’er?” His voice was lazy and unruly, with a hint of defiance in his eyes. “Mang’er grew up with me. If I were truly such a dull-witted, stupid, impulsive person, do you think he would have appointed me his deputy commander? He is a genius of war, not some hot-blooded fool.”
The dim candle in the Heavenly Prison silently shed tears of wax.
The implication behind Lu Zhanxing’s words was enough to horrify Mo Xi.
“You did it on purpose…”
“All those years, I followed him through countless campaigns. When have I ever done something irreversible simply because I lost my head in a moment of emotion?” Lu Zhanxing said leisurely. “That’s right. I did it on purpose.”
Suddenly, the wind rose.
Mo Xi abruptly seized Lu Zhanxing and slammed him hard against the stone wall! The fierce gust extinguished two of the candles in the prison. The room became even darker, but Mo Xi’s eyes seemed brighter instead, burning with fire and flashing with light in the gloom, filled with fury and disbelief.
His knuckles cracked as he tightened his grip, nearly crushing Lu Zhanxing’s throat.
“Lu Zhanxing! Are you fucking insane?! Do you know what you’re doing?! Do you know you’ve practically ruined his entire life?!”
Lu Zhanxing’s face flushed crimson beneath Mo Xi’s palm. He held his breath, his eyes glancing downward. Even in such a state, he somehow managed to force out a brazen, mocking smile.
“I’d rather ruin his entire life than watch him destroy himself and the lives of even more people.”
Every word was forced through his clenched teeth. Light flickered in Lu Zhanxing’s eyes.
“I’d rather that… than let him carry a dream that is destined to receive no good in return, leading a bunch of fools… to throw themselves into life-and-death battles… for you people…”
Mo Xi was choking him too tightly. The veins on Lu Zhanxing’s forehead bulged, yet he still managed to sneer.
“Fools… throwing their lives away! His authority being stripped by His Majesty was the right thing to do!!”
It was as though he had been bitten by a mad dog. Upon hearing those final, naked words, Mo Xi abruptly released him. He stood where he was, breathing heavily, his hands trembling with rage, yet his entire body was chilled with shock.
Just how many unknown truths had been concealed beneath the blood and death eight years ago?!
The moment Mo Xi released him, Lu Zhanxing bent forward, hunching over as he coughed violently. He took great gulps of air for a long while before finally turning his face and lifting his eyes.
Mo Xi’s voice sounded almost ethereal.
“You deliberately brought him to this point?”
“You’re wrong.” Lu Zhanxing licked the corner of his lips and slowly straightened himself. “I was saving him.”
Mo Xi looked at him as though he were looking at the most absurd joke in the world.
“Saving him?”
“Yes.” Lu Zhanxing said, “How could a pampered noble young master like you truly understand our circumstances? Ever since the late ruler made an exception to promote Mang’er, he has fought countless battles, both large and small, and never suffered a true defeat. Yet the higher he climbed, the more inexplicable criticism he received. Lord Xi and He, have you ever heard what those people said?”
“……”
Those rumors had come from nowhere, like countless demons and monsters dancing wildly in the darkness of night. How could Mo Xi never have heard them?
When Gu Mang had first been merely a young commander, those whispers had amounted to only a few scattered remarks. But later, as Gu Mang became increasingly valiant and distinguished, his military achievements became powerful enough to threaten his ruler. Those cold, vicious words began to resemble countless slippery snakes, emerging from who knew whose tongue before winding themselves tightly around Gu Mang.
—
“He is building up his own faction and wielding power with an iron hand.”
“What kind of monster from the altar? I don’t think he’s anything special. Some of his military strategies and illusions even seem to have the flavor of unorthodox sorcery. Don’t you think he has no scruples about anything, and that he doesn’t seem particularly wary of the Black Magic Arts of the Liao Kingdom?”
“He was a slave to begin with. He isn’t some cultivator born into a prestigious orthodox family. Naturally, it’s only normal that his intentions are impure. If His Majesty continues trusting him so much, hehe, let me say something treasonous—Chonghua will fall sooner or later.”
There were even those who directly compared Gu Mang to the demon of the past.
“He’s the next Hua Po’an!”
“Raise a tiger and invite disaster! Raise a tiger and invite disaster!”
Lu Zhanxing looked at Mo Xi’s expression, pursed his long, curved lips, and chuckled twice.
“Looks like Lord Xi and He hasn’t been completely unaware of the rumors either.”
He walked to the small table and sat down beside it. He tossed the two dice onto the tabletop, then poured himself half a cup of wine and slowly brought it to his lips.
“Mang’er has heard some of these things himself, more or less. I was furious about it, but he always told me not to take it to heart. He said that as long as we did well enough, these voices would gradually grow weaker. More and more people would come to understand that slaves in this world weren’t limited to Hua Po’an. There was also Gu Mang. There was also Lu Zhanxing.”
Lu Zhanxing gave a bitter smile.
“That’s the kind of person he is. Perhaps ‘naive’ isn’t quite the right word. It’s just that he always wants to think of things in the best possible way. Clearly he lives in a quagmire, yet he insists on raising his head and looking toward the blazing sunlight.”
Mo Xi said softly, “Yes. He has always been like that.”
“You should also understand why he is the God of War,” Lu Zhanxing said. “He never gives up. No matter how difficult the battle is, the moment people see him, they feel that perhaps it isn’t so difficult after all. It’s as though he has an inexhaustible supply of passion, enough to…”
He paused, then sneered.
“Enough for this leech called Chonghua to suck him dry.”
“That’s what you think!” Those words were painfully grating. Mo Xi stared coldly at Lu Zhanxing. “That is why he is the God of War and you are not. He once willingly chose to expand the borders and open up new territory. He once said he wanted to prove something for himself.”
Lu Zhanxing merely sneered.
“Not everyone who goes to war feels as though they are being sucked dry,” Mo Xi said. “Gu Mang has said that he has his own thoughts. He willingly chose this path.”
“Haha… Hahaha, willingly… willingly…”
Lu Zhanxing threw his head back and laughed. The chains around his hands and legs clattered as they swayed.
“That’s why I said he’s a fool! Look at him. After all these years of glorious achievements, what has he proven? Have those voices criticizing him stopped? All he has done is make the old aristocratic clans increasingly fearful, seeing a face that grows more and more similar to Hua Po’an’s. All these years, as he continued proving himself, I never saw those who hated him change their minds and start liking him. I only saw those who had once been tolerant of him begin to grow suspicious and uneasy.”
Lu Zhanxing stared at Mo Xi.
“Lord Xi and He, tell me—what exactly did he prove? That he has the strength to raise an army just like Hua Po’an?!”
Mo Xi suddenly became furious as well.
“Then what do you want? To stop him from being so foolish, you’re going to force him into a desperate situation and make him truly walk down Hua Po’an’s path?!!”
Lu Zhanxing slammed his palm onto the table.
“I only want him to stop!!”
Wine splashed from the cup when he struck the table, and the dice rolled clattering across the mottled, battered surface.
“…I only want him to stop in the end.”
Lu Zhanxing repeated himself. Those words seemed to pierce some soft place deep inside his rough heart. His gaze gradually became unfocused, and his voice slowly softened into a murmur.
“I wanted so badly for him to wake up… to stop… to stop being so naive.”
Lu Zhanxing closed his eyes. The flush from his emotional outburst had not yet faded from his face, but his voice had already become hoarse with helplessness.
“All these years… He seems to have enjoyed boundless glory. Look at him—his slave status was removed, and his reputation spread throughout the realm. But when I look at him, I feel as though he is standing atop an iceberg that is about to melt, surrounded by vicious sharks waiting for the moment he falls into the water so they can tear him apart.”
“The words ‘meritorious achievements that shake the ruler’—not to mention him, even you…”
Lu Zhanxing raised his head and looked at Mo Xi.
“Lord Xi and He, can you afford to bear those words?”
“……”
“And yet he simply doesn’t care.”
As Lu Zhanxing spoke, he raised his hand again, pinching one of the red-lacquered dice with a white base and slowly spinning it on the table.
“So look at him. He has never lost a battle, and neither has his army. No one can truly find a reason to do anything to him—but he cannot go his entire life without losing a battle. And when he finally does fail, his fate is destined to be more miserable than that of any other general whose achievements have threatened his ruler.”
Mo Xi’s heart tightened.
Lu Zhanxing said bluntly, “Because from the very beginning, he was nothing more than a dog you people chose.”
Before entering the Time Mirror, if anyone had dared say such words to Mo Xi, all they would have received was his denial. But the meaning behind the words Gu Mang is nothing more than a dog—he had just heard it from His Majesty eight years ago, and he could not refute a single word.
The more truth he learned, the more his heart hurt, and the colder his blood became.
The fire in his heart seemed to be gradually dying out.
Lu Zhanxing sighed.
“The new ruler has only just ascended the throne, so Mang’er hasn’t offended him in too many ways yet. This time, because of my mistake, he lost. At most, his authority will be stripped and he will be demoted. It won’t cost him his life. But if he continues walking forward like this without restraint, once he reaches the pinnacle of power, if he loses then, all that will remain for him will be a death without even a whole corpse.”
Mo Xi’s throat felt bitter.
“So you deliberately…”
“Yes.” Lu Zhanxing smiled faintly and folded his arms. “I, Lu, am a master diviner who can glimpse the will of Heaven. Yes, I deliberately wanted him to lose. I deliberately wanted to cut off his future. And the facts proved that my guess was correct—look at him. He really has nothing left.”
Mo Xi’s fingertips trembled. He stared at Lu Zhanxing’s face, and only today did he finally begin to understand this man.
A madman.
A madman who had staked everything on a single throw.
Every word was forced through clenched teeth.
“Lu Zhanxing! Do you know… seventy thousand lives filled with hot blood—died because of you?”
Lu Zhanxing said, “That is still better than seventeen hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand dying in the future.”
“Do you know that everything Gu Mang sought throughout his entire life… was ruined because of you?!”
“Still better than having him dismembered by a thousand cuts and torn apart by five horses someday.”
A furious torrent of rage suddenly engulfed Mo Xi. His heart pounded violently. He seized Lu Zhanxing and yanked him upright, his fingertips trembling as he raised his hand and viciously slapped the other man across the face!