Chapter 1665

His roar was indeed deafening; the Imperial Guards and patrol troops below the city heard it and showed hesitation for a moment. But those thousand-plus temple soldiers were charging forward, smashing the gates with a 'bang, bang', ignoring everything else. Others saw that those around them were already wielding blades and fighting, and people have a herd mentality—seeing what everyone else is doing, they follow suit, and they likely won't make a big mistake.

Look at General Bai, who has spent half his life in the army, fighting for the country, and is now a favorite minister of the King and a high-ranking official; why would he give up the glory and wealth that ordinary people can hardly reach in a lifetime, and risk his head and the risk of his clan being wiped out to stage this rebellion?

How could he be so short-sighted?

Besides, if he really had the face of a rebel, could the King have trusted him for decades?

Is the King stupid?

So, it's fine, it's fine, just keep fighting! The guards on the city wall took several lashes from Zheng Da and were infected by the atmosphere of war, so they had to pull themselves together and shoot arrows.

Casualties began to appear above and below the city, and the battle finally became serious.

As Bai Tan's army launched a massive attack, the palace walls also emitted light—the defensive array had been activated.

The Yao Nation had been established for nearly two hundred years; although there were occasional turmoils, it was mostly prosperous. Successive Kings of Yao added bricks and tiles whenever they had nothing to do, willing to spend both labor and materials, building the palace walls like an iron bucket.

Not to mention its own quality, there were eleven defensive arrays, large and small, not only nested within each other but some could also compensate for each other; if one broke, another would automatically fill in.

With so many layers of defensive arrays activated, money flowed like water, but if the flames of war could reach here, there was no need for the King of Yao to save money.

So as long as it was operated properly, a mere hundred people on the city wall could block thousands of troops below, without any exaggeration.

It was unknown how long it had been since these arrays were last activated; the current City Patrol troops didn't know their power at all. But Bai Tan understood that with the strength he had on hand, it was impossible to break through the palace gates in a short time!

He stared fixedly at the three statues embedded in the wall.

These three statues were giants with bulging eyes and fangs, over five zhang tall. They looked like decorations, but Bai Tan knew that these three things were battle puppets, and they could be activated in two quarter-hours! If they crawled out, they wouldn't need to do anything else; just lying down and rolling on this crowded main street would crush many people.

Originally, his wishful thinking was to win without bloodshed, charging directly through the palace gates with Xu Yankun's help, and then the hardest part of this rebellion would be over.

As long as this hard shell was torn open, the Yao royal palace would only be able to expose its soft belly to him.

What made him wring his hands was that Zheng Da had preemptively beheaded Xu Yankun, destroying his best strategy.

What a pity; this should have been the strategy with the fastest action and the least bloodshed.

The worst part was that Zheng Da had suddenly regained power and rushed to guard the south gate of the palace city, which meant that the King of Yao had discovered their uncle-nephew rebellion in advance! He and Bai Hengbo had always been cautious; until this evening, the King of Yao had still entrusted them with heavy responsibilities, giving them the power to command troops both inside and outside the palace city.

What kind of favor was this? Why did he suddenly change his face at night? Was it by following the clues of Shi Song Wei to find the Shi brothers and then to him, or had someone tipped him off?

This time, the conspiracy to stage the uprising was known to very few; Qingyang's plan for him was "hide the sword deep and borrow the momentum," almost separated from the actions of other participants, minimizing the possibility of leaks to the greatest extent. Otherwise, why hadn't the King of Yao implicated him when he arrested so many officials earlier? It was because Qingyang's methods were truly brilliant.

That was a massive and meticulous piece of work; Bai Tan watched from the sidelines and was full of admiration.

If the King of Yao were to be defeated by this old woman, it wouldn't be unjust.

But since she had achieved such extremes, who else could have traced it to Shi Song Wei?

The worst part was that Zheng Da had regained the power of the Minister of Justice, so what about Bai Hengbo? Had Bai Hengbo already met with an accident?

Bai Tan's heart sank. The situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse; his control over the army under his command was not firm, and he absolutely could not waste any more time under the palace gates! Fortunately, he had a backup plan.

When Qingyang and he formulated the plan in advance, they had considered the possibility of the city gate general being replaced and Xu Yankun being unable to carry out the mission.

Such a major plan could not have only one set of solutions. They had carefully scrutinized every detail in advance.

Bai Tan took out a pure black talisman from his bosom, only the length of an index finger, but the runes on it were golden, particularly eye-catching in the firelight.

There was also a pattern on the talisman, looking like a small flower basket.

His confidant helped him block the fire arrows shot down from the city wall; Bai Tan bit his index finger, smeared blood on the black talisman, and prayed in a low voice.

After the last word was spoken, he heard a 'puff' sound; the black talisman suddenly self-ignited and turned into ash after a few moments.

Only that flower basket pattern hung in mid-air, shimmering, and disappeared after five breaths.

After finishing this set of actions, Bai Tan actually had sweat on his forehead because reciting the incantation was exceptionally strenuous, as if a large stone were pressing on his chest, and his throat was also clogged, making it very difficult to make a sound.

Bishop Liang of the Miaozhan Heavenly Temple had explained to him that this was resistance.

The incantation he recited had to penetrate the resistance of the two realms to reach the ears of heaven. Therefore, this process consumed a large amount of essence, qi, and spirit.

Fortunately, the black talisman took effect, and his efforts were not in vain.

It was also at this moment that another team of people rushed out from the end of the long street, the sound of hooves like thunder!

The two people running in the very front were also familiar faces; as soon as Bai Tan saw them, his brows furrowed, and he thought to himself that it was bad.

Tu Han, Shan Zezhong!

This fellow Tu Han was also a great general of the Yao Nation, as famous as Xue Zongwu, and had been leading troops in the south, but had recently returned to Tianshui City to handle affairs.

Shan Zezhong was conferred the title of Wuling Captain the year before last and was Tu Han's good friend and fellow townsman. Tu Han was ordered to suppress the rebellion, and he had followed along.

When Bai Tan and Qingyang discussed the grand plan earlier, they had highlighted four or five military generals including Tu Han. But these generals had at most two hundred personal guards in the capital, and the King of Yao did not trust these foreign generals as much as he trusted Xue Zongwu, never letting them lead troops to suppress refugee riots, so Qingyang decided to ignore them for the time being and concentrate all power on the outbreak in the palace city.

After all, there were too many idle generals in Tianshui City at this time, and they couldn't eliminate them one by one.

But now Tu Han had at least over a thousand troops behind him, and judging by their uniforms, they were also composed of City Patrol troops and Imperial Guards. That meant Tu Han had received the King of Yao's special permission to temporarily lead the military power!

Although that old fellow was muddled, the power in his hands was truly a good thing, allowing him to appoint generals at will! And this was the shortcoming of Bai Tan and Qingyang: it was not easy for them to get any military strength in Tianshui City.

Tu Han had practiced the Lion's Roar, and his voice was even louder than Zheng Da's on the palace wall; as soon as it rang out, it was like a thunderclap: "Bai Tan has been dismissed from his post and has no primordial power! You bunch of idiots are still throwing your lives away for him; could it be that you want your whole clan to be executed?"

Some guards below the city heard this and couldn't help but look at Bai Tan.

General Bai has no primordial power?

In the Yao Nation, only the sovereign could dismiss the position of a high-ranking military general, thereby stripping him of the primordial power generated by his official position!

And such stripping and dismissal had to be effective through formal documents.

That is to say, if Bai Tan lost his primordial power, it could basically be determined at the moment that he was indeed rebelling!

Under the gaze of everyone, Bai Tan didn't change his expression and smiled coldly: "Nonsense! Look at this army; does it look like it has no primordial power?"

Staging a rebellion today meant putting his head on his belt; if he didn't succeed, he would become a martyr. He had long since prepared his psychological construction and wouldn't be easily startled.

Besides, he had a powerful backing; why fear the King of Yao's lackeys?

When everyone heard this, it was true; when they were attacking the palace city, they all had primordial power.

In fact, Bai Tan had swapped the concepts.

Just as everyone's attention was drawn away by the newly appeared Tu Han's army, a green light suddenly flashed in the pupils of an archer on the palace wall, and the person froze.

At the same time, there was also a flower basket-shaped mark on his arm that was glowing slightly, but it was covered by his armor, and no one noticed.

This pause lasted for about two breaths.

The first thing he did after regaining his movement was to take a few steps back, turn the direction of the bow and arrow in his hand, and suddenly aim at Zheng Da! He released his hand, and the arrow left the string.

Zheng Da caught a glimpse of it from the corner of his eye and hurriedly dodged to the side; the arrow hit the battlement, only a foot away from him.

But this arrow was an explosive arrow.

The moment it hit the battlement, it exploded, blowing everyone in the surrounding circle away.

The battlement was sturdy and protected by an array, leaving only a shallow dent. But others weren't so tough; although they had primordial power to protect their bodies, they were still blown into a daze and had ringing in their ears.

Zheng Da was closest to it; although he wasn't in danger of losing his life, he was also shaken until he saw stars and had a long nosebleed.

The guards beside him were also shaken to the ground.

Taking advantage of this gap, another guard behind him rushed forward and stabbed his spear into his heart! It went in from the back and out from the front, piercing him through.

Two faint lights flashed on Zheng Da's body; these were two protective magic treasures exploding one after another, but they couldn't block this fatal blow.

The guard's strength was outrageously great; after piercing through Zheng Da, the spear tip didn't lose its momentum and nailed fiercely into the wall battlement, the spear shaft trembling incessantly.

Looking at his eyes at this moment, not only was there a wisp of green light hidden, but his pupils were also completely dilated.

These two guards suddenly turned against them and joined forces to kill; there was no warning beforehand, and others were shocked beyond words. Especially the person who assassinated Zheng Da; his build wasn't sturdy, and his temperament was relatively gentle and cowardly—he was a good person in everyone's eyes. How could he suddenly rise up to kill his superior at this critical moment? These two succeeded in one blow and snatched Zheng Da's key.

Zheng Da's personal guards were shocked, barely stood up, and shouted: "Stop them, kill them!"

The guard who had shot Zheng Da with an arrow earlier turned back, expressionless:

"Bai Tan follows the mandate of heaven; you are not allowed to block him!"

Clearly only he himself was speaking, yet it was as if thousands of people were speaking in unison, majestic and vast; both the enemy and our side above and below the city heard it! Everyone was startled and looked up, only to see a huge green-purple phantom emerging behind this guard, shaped like a flower basket.

There were dozens of fresh flowers in the flower basket swaying in the wind, but upon closer inspection, they were actually colorful poisonous snakes sticking out their tongues! As soon as they appeared, everyone felt a heavy weight pressing on their hearts like a large stone.

This pressure was definitely not fake.

Someone screamed: "Goddess Feng He!"

The flower basket and the poisonous snakes were exactly the mark of Goddess Feng He. Who in Tianshui City didn't know?

(End of chapter)