Chapter 1140: Public Exhibition

The grey shadow shrieked. This time, He Lingchuan finally understood its curse:

"If you dare to lay a hand on me, my true self will never let you off!" He Lingchuan couldn't help but laugh: "A petty evil spirit, yet you dare to style yourself a Heavenly Venerable?"

Even a nightmare transformed from an ancient immortal had fallen into his hands; would he be afraid of an evil spirit seeking revenge? The grey shadow was filled with such unwillingness. *Ah, ah, ah*, why had its spellcasting been interrupted? If it could have delayed them for just two more breaths, it could have poured the essence and blood of all the Feather Guards into Nangong Yan; if it could have delayed them for two more breaths, it could have forged Nangong Yan into an incomparably formidable human puppet. As long as it controlled him with precision, it would surely have beaten this so-called envoy of the Mou Nation until he was begging for mercy.

If only...

There were no "ifs" left. With a *whoosh*, the grey shadow was sucked into the Divine Bone Necklace.

The Yin tornado vanished simultaneously. The spinning top on the ground managed two more wobbly turns before coming to a stop.

He Lingchuan picked up the top, brushed the dust off it, and put it away.

The Divine Bone Necklace had devoured the grey shadow, at least satisfying its craving, and it stopped heating up.

Lacking the grey shadow's control, the remaining few Golden Feather Guards awoke as if from a dream. They stood rooted to the spot, stunned for two breaths, looking first at the waist-severed Nangong Yan, then at He Lingchuan. Only two shouted and charged forward to fight to the death, while the others turned and fled.

He Lingchuan stood up, raised his blade to meet them, and said to Dong Rui through the Eyeball Spider: "Three are running toward you."

The battle finally ended.

The setting sun slanted through the gloomy forest, illuminating the corpses strewn everywhere.

The Violent Ape returned from afar. Dong Rui jumped off its shoulder and clapped his hands: "All killed. *Sigh*, these guys at the back ran all over the place; it was really exhausting to kill them. Unlike you, your battle was so effortless?"

His battle was effortless? He Lingchuan twirled his blade, and *Fusheng* vanished. "Let's swap next time. You take the main force?"

The grey shadow had been about to unleash its ultimate move, but he had shattered it beforehand; it had died feeling utterly stifled.

In truth, He Lingchuan was also curious about how formidable Nangong Yan would have been after consuming all the blood beads. He should have let it spar with the Ghost Ape.

Dong Rui asked: "What exactly was the strangeness about Nangong Yan?"

"He served the evil spirit as his Heavenly Venerable." He Lingchuan gestured casually at the dead men on the ground. "He handed his subordinates, the Feather Guards, over to the evil spirit's control. That's why they were all fearless of death, striking wherever they were pointed. No wonder they could run rampant in the Bo Nation."

The fierce fear the reckless, and the reckless fear those who don't value their lives.

In a place like the Bo Nation, being able to produce an army that coordinated perfectly and feared neither injury nor disability meant others were naturally no match for them.

"This method is certainly novel." Dong Rui stroked his chin. "If it works, you wouldn't need to drill your subordinates every day."

The Yangshan army trained through the three nines of winter and the three dog days of summer, and their provisions were never allowed to fall short—wasn't that all to ensure they would be as responsive as an arm and as united as one when battle came? Look at Nangong Yan; he achieved it in one step, *ha*.

"Absurd!" He Lingchuan shook his head. "Normal armies have true Qi; how could they tolerate control by an evil spirit?"

Only a bizarre place like the Glittering Gold Plain could produce such bizarre personnel matters.

"Besides, governing an army this way isn't a shortcut; it's a dead end!" It was precisely because the Bo Nation couldn't gather the hearts of the people or form a consensus, yet wanted a quick-fix method, that they sought help from an evil spirit.

Handing one's own life and the lives of one's army into the hands of others would only lead to the same end as Nangong Yan.

At this moment, Ling Guang also ran back from afar. He Lingchuan pointed at Nangong Yan on the ground: "Don't let him die."

Nangong Yan was rolling and wailing.

He had been waist-severed by He Lingchuan and had not died immediately; the ground beneath him was dyed red with blood. His eyes were still red, but this time it was from congestion: "Kill me, I beg you, kill me! Give me a quick end!"

He was weeping with snot and tears, reaching out to grab He Lingchuan's boots. Where was there any trace of the demeanor of the Grand Prefect of the Imperial Court? "Didn't you love waist-severing and knee-severing people the most?" He Lingchuan gave him a light kick, sending him sprawling on his back. "Taste it yourself. Is it comfortable? Is it satisfying?"

He Lingchuan had heard plenty of rumors about Nangong Yan. This Grand Prefect's methods for dealing with "criminals" were varied and extremely cruel; he rarely gave people a quick death, preferring prolonged torture. It was said that the *Mai* party member arrested a few days ago had had every bone in his body broken one by one, wailing for two full days and nights.

That was why He Lingchuan had been especially careful when severing Nangong Yan, avoiding most of the vital internal organs.

"Gently, gently!" Ling Guang was busy trying to stop the bleeding in a panic. This was a waist-severing, after all; the Proprietor really knew how to test it. "If you kick him one more time, he'll really die!"

With such massive blood loss, it was easy for internal organs to fail.

Another figure emerged from the forest: Jin Bai was also walking toward He Lingchuan with his blade, panting heavily, blood still dripping from the tip of his sword.

He Lingchuan saw the change in his expression—there was madness amidst the brutality—and understood a bit, but still had to ask: "What happened?"

Why was Jin Bai alone? Where were the other Shadow Tooth Guards?

"My subordinates were all by this bastard—" Jin Bai pointed his blade at Nangong Yan on the ground, his face full of grief and indignation. "He set an ambush and killed them!"

He Lingchuan and Dong Rui exchanged a look, both feigning shock: "What?"

Indeed, the Bo Nation's monarch and ministers had gone mad; if they even wanted to assassinate He Lingchuan, the envoy of the Mou Nation, how could they spare the Shadow Tooth Guards?

Jin Bai grabbed Nangong Yan from the ground and interrogated him: "What is the meaning of this?"

Nangong Yan was a cultivator; being waist-severed didn't necessarily mean instant death. Ling Guang wasn't giving him any painkillers, so he was rolling on the ground in agony, but every movement brought waves of endless, overwhelming pain! Yet, compared to this inhuman suffering, he would rather be dead!

He grabbed Jin Bai's arm tightly, the extreme pain making him forget the other's status: "I beg you, I beg you, kill me!"

"Why did you frame us as rebels? Speak!"

"Someone reported, reported that the rebels were at the Rulin Inn. The Feather Guards went to investigate, and there was evidence!"

"What evidence?"

"Mai Liansheng's books and several strings of ornaments." Nangong Yan shouted, "It was the King who instructed me to kill you all. Since the Shadow Tooth Guards had already been killed by mistake, it was better to silence you all! Just say you took the Bright Lamp and were killed in the territory of the Carefree Sect! Dead men tell no tales anyway! I was just following orders, spare me, kill me! I beg you!"

Seeing him covered in snot and tears, Jin Bai threw him to the ground: "Trash!"

This fellow had killed countless people and didn't know how many brave men he had tortured, yet when it came to his own turn to be punished, he was so pathetic.

He Lingchuan asked him again: "Who is the 'Heavenly Venerable' you invited to possess you?"

"That is the Lord of the Shrieking Forest. It is, it is a clone invited by the Monarch, invited to possess my body!" Nangong Yan's mind was scattered, and he began to ramble incoherently. "I have committed heinous crimes, I deserve to die ten thousand times. You kind souls, grant me death!"

Jin Bai suppressed the urge to finish off Nangong Yan himself and said to He Lingchuan: "He is your prey. What do you intend to do?"

This grudge had grown deep.

The grudge between the Bo Nation and the Mou Nation, the grudge between the Bo King and He Lingchuan.

He Lingchuan had originally only come to complete a mission and act as a peacemaker, yet the Bo King had wanted his life.

He was someone who most valued courtesy, which demanded reciprocity.

He Lingchuan looked at Nangong Yan, then gazed toward the direction of the Bo Nation's border.

"I have an idea."

It was almost dark.

At Wucheng, on the border of the Bo Nation, the city gates were generally opened at the end of the *Yin* hour every day.

This morning, the city gate guard took the keys and went to open the gates while yawning. But just as he looked up, before his mouth could even open fully, he let out a terrified "Ah!": A dead man was hanging from the city gate tower.

Strictly speaking, it was half a man, with a piece of cloth hanging on his body bearing four large characters: *Blood for Blood! *

The city wall was dyed red with blood, and a few drops flowed down, nearly falling into his wide-open mouth.

Soon, the dead man was taken down by the soldiers and placed on the ground.

His face was covered in blood and filth, his hair disheveled, and for a moment, others couldn't recognize his features.

But the city gate guard held down his chin, took a few more looks against the rising morning sun, and suddenly fell backward, hurriedly crawling back two steps: "Gr-Gr-Grand!"

He stuttered "Grand" for a long time before shouting: "Grand Prefect!"

"Which Grand Prefect?"

The city gate official pointed at the dead man, his finger trembling like a leaf in the wind, and only with great difficulty found the next sentence: "It seems to be the Grand Prefect of the Feather Guards."

The crowd was in an uproar, but they didn't believe it.

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

"Dare to curse the Grand Prefect, watch your dog life!"

The city gate guard leaned in for another look, closed his eyes, and turned his head away: "It still looks very much like him! The Grand Prefect really came here yesterday, with that grand entourage... He, he even ordered us to close the city gates!"

No matter what he said, the others didn't believe it.

Don't be ridiculous, how could the Grand Prefect be intercepted, cut in half, and hung upside down on the city gate?

Usually, it was the Grand Prefect who hung others up.

At this time, the city gates had already opened, and several people ran in, pointing outside and shouting: "There are dead people in the valley, over a hundred of them! They died in such a miserable way, and they're all wearing Feather Guard armor."

As soon as the sky brightened, this explosive news sprouted wings and flew to the capital of the Bo Nation.

￥￥￥￥￥

At this moment, the three of He Lingchuan were already on their way to the Carefree Sect.

Dong Rui asked He Lingchuan quietly: "You are usually cautious, why did you suddenly start a massacre?"

The other side had over a hundred people, over two hundred legs; "leaving no survivors" was a high-difficulty technical job.

"We are on the Glittering Gold Plain."

"Right, so?"

"So we must do as the locals do." He Lingchuan said indifferently. "This is a place of disorder that respects the winner as king; you have to deal with them in their own way. Besides—"

"—shouldn't a scourge like Nangong Yan be killed?"

He was traveling the Glittering Gold Plain with ulterior motives.

Now, he had seen what he wanted to see, and he had also felt the lingering oppression and restlessness; his mindset had undergone a subtle change.

Why had this place turned into a quagmire, and why did everyone who wanted to reform it fail?

He Lingchuan had been pondering this question, and tiny thoughts had emerged in his mind, but they were scattered and lacked a system.

He needed more verification and summary.

He needed to let go and try.

Perhaps in this chaotic, masterless land, he could act according to his own heart without needing to be so cautious.

*Heh*, Dong Rui said he was cautious, but He Lingchuan knew clearly in his heart: was he really a cautious person? No, he was an opportunist.

Sailing in a storm requires boldness, meticulousness, and a little bit of luck.

Things hadn't gone smoothly since early this morning, and his mood was a bit irritable, making his writing efficiency particularly low. I hope everyone will be understanding.

I hope all the unpleasant things stay in 2023 and are not brought into the New Year.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1141 =====