Chapter 146: Plummeting Into The Palace
When the Evil Moon eclipsed the sun, waves rose in the ditches within Yao Capital City. After several meters high waves surged from the rivers, the fish school boiled. After experiencing the Great River Case, Yao Capital residents were quite sensitive to changes in the city’s water flow and discussed this fervently.
In the process of one speaking after another, the residents discovered that these fish were tumbling, yet their bodies gradually elongated; then these small fish, originally only as long as a child’s palm and as thin as noodles, actually devoured each other and turned into snakes one by one. These giant snakes swung their ten-meter-long tails, coiling some curious residents into the water. Immediately, the people by the river fled in panic, while the snakes in the river began surging onto the shore, preying on people.
The scales of these mutated demonic creatures reflected the green light cast down by the Evil Moon in the sky. Meanwhile, in the Heavenly Prison, Su Kang’s corpse-like body was ignited like a wooden figure and began to smoke. Then, during the burning process, runes emerged one by one and floated toward Emperor Shu in the Heavenly Palace.
At this time, Yao Capital was shrouded in the dark light of the Evil Moon. The Nine Palaces overhead had their Yao Calculation sundials stopped due to the absence of the great sun. Now, massive black qi emerged from the originally golden-roofed and red-walled palaces. Within this black qi were faces of people who had suffered endless torment, namely vengeful spirits.
On Earth, when people and animals die, they leave behind corpses, which then produce a rotten smell. The rotten smell is information emitted from the corpses.
But in this world, if large numbers of people die in fear, besides producing physical “corpses,” they also produce mental corpses, namely souls. Ghosts also have a “rotten smell,” which is resentment. The smell of resentment will make passing living people paranoid and hateful toward everything.
Under the irradiation of the Evil Moon in the sky at this time, the souls of the “loyal ministers and fine generals” killed in the Heavenly Prison over the past half year suddenly seemed to have bodies again. They were no longer dazed but retained the fearful and hateful thoughts from before death.
The prison guards who originally whipped criminals in the Heavenly Prison, and the Imperial Guards, after being possessed by these vengeful spirits, began gnawing at each other, with screams unceasing; one by one, the maddened prison guards crawled out of the Heavenly Prison with twisted bones. These vengeful spirits were not satisfied and set their sights on the golden great hall, surging toward the palace where Emperor Shu was.
…Like the Magpie Bridge, the ghosts built a “Bridge of Helplessness” between the Heavenly Prison and the palace…
In the core great hall of Ziwei Palace, the divine light was dim, like a candle swaying in wind and rain. The guards held the hall, maintaining clarity amid the palace bells and chimes, guarding the gate desperately.
Emperor Shu was the Son of Heaven, originally possessing “Heaven’s Mandate,” which allowed him to turn danger into safety. Thus, he had always avoided disaster before great calamities. But now, he could grasp the Imperial Seal with his hand yet could not steady the shaking great hall.
The origin of Heaven’s Mandate came from the protection of “Xi Huang Star.” When the Evil Moon from beyond the sky blocked the sunlight shining on Xi Huang Star, it temporarily locked the Heaven’s Mandate mechanism. Moreover, Emperor Shu was now corresponding with another Heaven’s Mandate inheritor (Prince Zhou), which was exploited, allowing this witchcraft and sorcery to succeed.
Currently, within the heavenly palace walls, runes of various evil spirits were spreading.
Su Kang’s method of using himself as a bewitched puppet was extremely vicious. All the palace people in the palace, after contacting the runes, turned into forms possessed by vengeful spirits. These palace people influenced by the Evil Moon had exaggerated and distorted expressions, with movements disregarding bone structure.
A tea’s time ago, one by one palace people outside the palace gate looked at the ghosts in fear and begged to enter the hall for protection, but were refused. After they were possessed, suddenly scenes of being whipped and humiliated in the palace emerged. The Evil Moon amplified their resentment in the palace.
In the end, these palace people no longer feared but crawled like puppets with creaking sounds, bearing eerie cheek rouge, stiffly climbing toward the palace walls. When they scaled the palace walls, mad laughter, fearful shouts, and bone-tearing sounds came from inside.
…Under the Evil Moon’s irradiation, a force on the periphery was pushing through thorns and brambles…
At the initial stage of the drastic change, Mu Xingyu’s military camp also suffered the impact of vengeful spirits. But as the soldiers formed battle formations and crossbow bolts infused with killing intent were fired at these things in unison, the spears in the army then formed arrays to block the impact of the commoners possessed by resentful souls. As blood flowed out, the commoners sobered up instantly, while the ghosts were flung out. With the wave of killing intent, they scattered soul and spirit, turning the area around the military camp into a vacuum zone of evil things.
Just as Mu Xingyu, holding his spear and leading the Dragon Horse Regiment, tried to impact the heavenly palace forbidden area to rescue the emperor, upon reaching the palace gate, they were blocked outside the palace walls by another group of people from the palace.
Mu Xingyu cursed at the dead soldiers of Prince Zhou’s Mansion on the suspended palace tower: “You seal the palace walls—can you seal the hearts of the people under heaven?”
Just as Mu Xingyu was about to order a strong attack, Prince Zhou appeared, standing on the city battlement and saying to Mu Xingyu: “General, please return. The palace affairs will be managed by me on his behalf.”
Mu Xingyu was very confident facing the palace wall garrison; he had even brought the ballistae for breaking formations outside the palace walls. The officers cranking the crossbow mechanisms prepared to attack the city tower.
But Mu Xingyu halted upon Prince Zhou’s appearance.
Because Emperor Shu had recently stirred up major cases, and discerning eyes could see they were all aimed at striking Prince Zhou’s faction, yet so many had been imprisoned without deposing Prince Zhou. — Emperor Shu’s other sons were all born to concubines, with no clear prospect of becoming crown prince yet.
Just as the border officers and soldiers now could not gauge whether the emperor was protecting his calf or had other intentions regarding the matter of “Prince Zhou seizing Wu Fei’s betrothal.”
Mu Xingyu similarly could not gauge Emperor Shu’s final disposal plan for Prince Zhou.
Was Emperor Shu now just a father disciplining his son, or truly an emotionless emperor toward family? If merely a father disciplining his son, what to do if the army tore face and charged against the future emperor? Even if he really killed Prince Zhou, whom should he enthrone?
Thus, at this moment, Mu Xingyu fell into hesitation.
If Wu Fei were here, he would curse Mu Xingyu as a fool. In politics, one must never expect the unknown; once openly confronted, one must proceed without hesitation. Having decided to rescue the emperor, even aiming bed crossbows at Prince Zhou’s eunuchs, do not be swayed by other influences.
Wu Fei’s thinking: Even if Emperor Shu truly did not want to depose Prince Zhou, upon reaching the palace gate, like an arrow on the string, force Emperor Shu to depose him.
So Mu Xingyu was still too young; if he followed Wu Fei longer and received more guidance, it would not be like this.
Mu Xingyu confronted at the palace gate for a full shichen. Finally! A huge thunderclap sounded from Ziwei Palace, with bolts of lightning spreading out, while a meteorite fell from the Evil Moon beyond the sky, ultimately striking the central palace.
Emperor Shu’s location was completely engulfed in flames.
On the city tower, a core advisor’s eyes flashed with excited blue light, gazing at the evil star he summoned striking, and said to Prince Zhou: “Your Highness, it’s done!!!”
Prince Zhou looked at the destroyed palace, his eyes wooden, the great mountain pressing on him for decades suddenly removed. For a moment, it felt unreal, and he stared blankly.
However, these Prince Zhou’s Mansion retainers did not stop. Su Wang immediately came to the city tower and shouted loudly: “Mu Xingyu is rebellious, entered the palace to assassinate His Majesty—everyone can slay him! You all turn against him immediately!”
Prince Zhou snapped out of his daze and became alert, preparing to reprimand the eunuch beside him to stop his reckless words.
It was already too late. He vaguely saw behind his eunuchs and many advisors a blue smiling face, as if mocking everything.
…Some words, once said in certain situations, have consequences worse than an earthquake…
Outside the city, Mu Xingyu was also watching the falling meteor, momentarily unable to accept it. After hearing that damned Prince Zhou’s lackey slander him so, he instantly realized he had committed a grave error.
Amid the chaos of morale, Mu Xingyu cried out in grief and indignation: “Prince Zhou has slain the sovereign; this subject dares not live alone.”
Thereupon, he drew his sword and slit his throat in front of the palace gate. The sound wave spread through Yao Capital, echoing long without end.
Before dying, Mu Xingyu mockingly looked at this group of rebellious traitors on the city walls—his death was outside the palace walls, blocking the sewage splashed at him, while capping this heaven-defying calamity on these rebels.
The remaining troops looked at each other but did not scatter. Some non-commissioned officers from Bo Prefecture shouted: “Fight out, to the North!” Under the non-commissioned officers’ organization, the soldiers snapped out of their daze, picked up weapons to seek a way out, spreading the cries of “Prince Zhou slew the sovereign and usurped the throne” in all directions.
In the Imperial Ancestral Temple, before the incense table enshrining incense and fire for the previous emperors, Prince Zhou, who was fusing with Heaven’s Mandate qi, suddenly showed abnormality.
The “Heaven’s Mandate” inherited by the Da Yao Emperor allowed foreknowledge of fortune and misfortune. At this point, fusing halfway, he felt the Heaven’s Mandate weakening.
As he tried to sense the “Heaven’s Mandate” blessing, an extremely evil and debilitating force seemed to surge toward him from beyond the sky.
Instantly, images flooded his mind: souls falling to death in the palace, palace maids and consorts sticking out long tongues staring at him, Mu Xingyu grimly holding a sword denouncing “Prince Zhou usurped the throne!”, and finally Emperor Shu seated on the throne, staring coldly at him: “How dare this rebellious son!”
Outside the palace, Xian Daoren raised his head to gaze at the bright moon, then took out an axe, raised it high against the moonlight, and fiercely swung it toward the suspended palace where Prince Zhou was. As the axe swung down, the Evil Moon in the sky shot out a meteor, unerringly following the axe’s descent trajectory toward Prince Zhou’s palace.
This palace seemed to sense the crisis and began descending to evade, but the heavenly meteor turned direction accordingly, as if already locked on.
In the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Prince Zhou suddenly jumped up in fear, and as he did, the originally lit incense fire in the temple silently extinguished. This meant the Heaven’s Mandate fusion was forcibly interrupted.
This half-fused Heaven’s Mandate informed him that what followed was no “fortune and misfortune interdependent” fickle change, but pure retribution.
As he clutched his head, trying to clear the maddening fear, he suddenly felt light, with the palace bricks and tiles beginning to float slowly.
The Palace Attendant outside the palace then stumbled in shouting the reason: “Your Highness, Your Highness, Ziwei Palace is descending.”
…National fortune plummeted from here…
At the moment of the evil sun eclipsing the moon, all the citizens of Da Yao saw Ziwei Palace shrouded in black qi, then struck by a meteor, and finally falling.
The energy-filled bricks and tiles at the bottom of the central palace shattered houses and tiles in western Yao Capital City, with massive smoke and dust engulfing half of Yao Capital.
As the Evil Moon no longer blocked the sun, Da Yao palace guards rescued Prince Zhou from the palace.
Su Wang led Prince Zhou’s many confidants to rescue him from the ruins, but Prince Zhou and his eunuchs did not notice the gazes of the capital city’s citizens toward this carriage.
For a millennium, the Son of Heaven had stood loftily on the heavenly altar, directly communing with the Way of Heaven.
Yet now, after the heavenly altar was struck by a foreign star and fell from high altitude, clearly someone had lost virtue. And emerging from the heavenly altar ruins was not Emperor Shu, but Prince Zhou! — Linking this to the fleeing soldiers shouting “Prince Zhou slew the sovereign,” everyone understood well what had caused such “heaven’s wrath and people’s resentment.”
Prince Zhou heard countless whispers in the carriage, the citizens’ gazes full of suspicion making him uneasy as if sitting on pins.
Once, he felt the throne incomparably wonderful, itching to sit on it the next second, but now his wish was fulfilled, yet he was not so happy.
…Emperor Shu’s final words gazing outside the palace before death were “You are too hasty”…
In Prince Zhou’s Mansion, Li Shi protected her son nicknamed “Zhu Ge’er,” while the mansion also suffered invasion by other evil things. Prince Zhou’s other male offspring perished without exception: some gouged out their own eyeballs with fingers, some smashed their heads against fake mountains; everyone in the mansion tried desperately to protect these noble children, but even pinned down, these children still madly bit off their own tongues.
Li Shi set up a barrier for Zhu Ge’er. Some ghosts were outside, seemingly protecting him firmly, but Li Shi herself knew this was not to protect her son, but to prevent the fiery qi on her son from purifying the entire Prince Zhou’s Mansion.
One maid who hid in the barrier happened to see this scene during its operation: a vengeful spirit approached and, upon touching “Zhu Ge’er,” smoked all over and burned away.
By the time Prince Zhou rushed back from the palace, he suddenly discovered his offspring reduced to only “Zhu Ge’er” and two daughters similarly protected by Li Shi.
…Under heaven, all stirred restlessly…
At the same time as the palace fall incident, the major sects under heaven were all shocked.
Many immortal sects gathered in the Lotus Treasure Gate on Ming Heng Mountain to discuss matters. Unlike the city gods’ banquet, cultivators sat on clouds to communicate.
The convener, Dao Venerable Xingrong: “Everyone has calculated the result—Da Yao’s auspicious qi suddenly dropped sharply.”
The many immortal sects nodded one after another. Regarding Da Yao’s princes seizing the throne, as otherworldly people, they did not care. But now with great chaos under heaven and Da Yao’s auspicious qi plummeting, it meant military affairs would arise.
The military strategists originally suppressed by Emperor Shu would clash, and human conquests would unsettle mountains and rivers.
Since the Inviting Heaven Sect and Nine Yao Faction’s sect gates were razed by the Evil Moon, the many immortal sects already knew the terror of this Great Tribulation. All sides had dispatched disciples into the mortal world. The last meeting discussed entering the world by approaching nobles and prefecture officials, with everyone tacitly avoiding military strategists.
In Xuan Cheng’s previous life, this was like global turmoil, but as long as a certain bottom line was not broken, no one talked nukes.
Now, however, all sides had to talk, and the last time major sects actively entered the world and widely cooperated with military strategists was when the Yao Dynasty replaced the Cheng Dynasty, when the Human Realm fell into the ideological strife of Elucidation and Interception. Now, the major immortal sects had not taken sides by ideology, but all hoped their orthodox lineage would grow in this Great Tribulation.
Northern Cloud Gate took the lead in accusing Qinghua Sect of overstepping. Qinghua Sect now dispatched disciples to join Wu Hengyu’s branch of military strategists, entering various waters along the great river, and extending to the North.
Qinghua Sect preemptively took the strongest military strategist and strongest auspicious qi, naturally drawing envy from all factions.
Qinghua Sect sword immortals snorted coldly: “Rectifying under heaven should involve slaying demons and removing evil in one’s domain. You contributed nothing—do you intend to sit and wait for Da Yao to collapse, harming rivers and lakes?”
Immortals had their immortal path disputes. The more disputes, the more turbidity gradually entered the pure spiritual places.
…Era of great contention…
Shu Tian Calendar, 5th month, 4th day: Heavenly Palace fell. The remnant army led by Mu Xingyu straggled back to Bo Prefecture in late 5th month.
Regarding this matter, Xuan Cheng gathered all non-commissioned officers and also called Bo Prefecture advisors before him to discuss together.
As for Wu Hengyu coming uninvited to inquire, Wu Fei immediately told him to stay far away and patiently explained “it’s best he not know such conspiracies.” And had Wu Hengyu best keep his army strictly arrayed in vigilance against him.
With all non-commissioned officers present, they all fell silent. After emerging from the capital, they could not say they shared life and death, but were like half-brothers.
After Mu Xingyu died, everyone felt grief like losing a fellow, but very bewildered. Some impulsively thought “rebel damn it” “kill back, reestablish emperor!” Such impulses rested on self-proclaimed invincibility under heaven.
Of course, such impulsive thoughts would not be endorsed by most Eastern Market Army members now.
Eastern Market Army non-commissioned officers, in this upheaval, considered more how to ensure family in the capital. Thus, amid fruitless panic, they ultimately turned their “seeking direction” gazes to Wu Fei.
Wu Fei summoned them to discuss not to “decide matters”—fewer is better for deciding, otherwise it’s leaky plotting.
Wu Fei’s strategy: All remnant troops who escaped back go incognito, then find a few unfortunates from the death prison, behead them, and send to Prince Zhou as a step down for “Prince Zhou persuading surrender,” while proposing demands hoping Prince Zhou not implicate capital families.
Everyone praised this. However, though Wu Fei handled it, letting everyone breathe easy without risking, the troops’ resentment toward the Imperial Court did not dissipate: “Fought so many years, merits not yet rewarded, and Court does this? Rebuild power core, kick us out?!” Thinking too much, at night, they would feel stifled and sleepless.
“Prince Zhou, truly damnable!” The generals’ inner thought.
