#980 - Clouds cover the sun and swallows return to their nests (Part 8)
"Strange."
In a small alley in the south of the city, behind a half-open courtyard door, Cui'er leaned against the doorframe, peering out with a look of confusion.
For the past half hour, she had been hearing muffled, thunderous sounds from afar, seemingly coming from the direction of the Imperial Palace.
Moreover, the sky over there had turned cloudy, and it seemed as if divine dragons were appearing and disappearing within, making it quite frightening.
Because she was too far from the Meridian Gate, Cui'er couldn't clearly see what was happening in the sky above it, only some vague illusions.
Naturally, she was extremely curious, but because Wei Changtian had told her not to go out, she hadn't taken a single step out of the courtyard, merely standing at the door, constantly looking out.
And just as she was watching, a young boy suddenly appeared at the alley entrance, hurrying towards her.
Bending down slightly, Cui'er pulled the young servant closer and asked, "What's happening in the city?"
"Sister Cui'er, something terrible has happened!"
The young servant looked panicked, gesturing wildly as he said, "It's Wei Yanluo! Wei Yanluo is trying to kill the Emperor!"
"Ah?"
Her mouth opened wide in shock, Cui'er was startled by this sudden news.
"Re-really?"
"Sister Cui'er! Would I lie when I saw it with my own eyes?"
The young servant pouted unhappily, "Besides, it's not just me, many people at the Meridian Gate saw it too!"
"That Wei Yanluo summoned three ferocious beasts from hell, each one more vicious than the last, killing many, many Imperial Guards, and now the Imperial Way is covered in corpses!"
"Fortunately, I heard others say that the Emperor seemed to have escaped... Oh dear, Sister Cui'er, I can't talk to you anymore."
"I have to hurry back and tell my young master about this."
"..."
After quickly explaining a few more sentences, the young servant quickly ran away, leaving Cui'er still standing there in a daze.
Wei Yanluo has come to the capital, and he's trying to kill the Emperor...
Clearly, even though Cui'er was just an ordinary maidservant, she wasn't completely ignorant of current events, and had long heard of Wei Yanluo's ferocity and evil.
That he loved to eat children, that no young woman he set his sights on could live past the night, that he could summon evil ghosts and monsters from hell, and so on and so forth.
In short, in Cui'er's mind, Wei Yanluo was the worst and most evil person in the world.
And now such a villain had appeared in the capital...
"G-Young Master!"
Her face immediately turned panicked, and she didn't even have time to close the courtyard door. Regaining her senses, she stumbled into the study, urgently saying to He Jing, who was sitting in front of his desk in a daze:
"Young Master, something bad has happened! I just heard Xiao Zhu Zi say that Wei Yanluo has appeared in the capital..."
"..."
He Jing's body trembled, and he suddenly looked up at Cui'er, his reaction both normal and abnormal.
His expression was indeed shocked, but it didn't seem to be because of the event itself, but rather the shock of "I actually guessed correctly."
On the other hand, Cui'er naturally didn't notice this, but hurriedly repeated what the young servant had said, and then said with lingering fear:
"Young Master, I heard that many people died at the Meridian Gate."
"Fortunately, Young Master Wei told us not to go out this morning, otherwise..."
Her voice suddenly stopped, Cui'er hadn't reacted just now, but now she finally realized something was wrong.
Her eyes suddenly became blank, and after a pause, she asked He Jing softly.
"Young Master, how did Young Master Wei know...?"
"..."
He Jing opened his mouth, but didn't answer, and didn't know how to answer.
Recalling the poem left by Wei Changtian, he was silent for a long time, and finally just softly instructed.
"Go and close the doors and windows."
"After today, I'm afraid there will be no more Great Qian."
Meanwhile, at the Meridian Gate.
The scorching sun hung high in the sky, golden light shining for miles, and there wasn't a trace of wind around the vast Imperial Palace.
The dazzling sunlight fell on the dense scales of armor, and the bright spots merged into a golden ocean.
Not long after Wei Changtian entered the Imperial Palace, reinforcements from the four city gates had arrived one after another. So far, no less than 100,000 soldiers had come, and they were still increasing.
Although the Imperial Palace was large, so many people were enough to surround it layer upon layer, making it quite a spectacle to behold.
However, even though more and more people were coming, just like before, not a single person dared to step into the vermilion walls.
Everyone was watching the undulating eaves and palace roofs with tense expressions, tightly gripping various weapons in their hands, waiting for the final result.
At first glance, this scene was actually quite ridiculous.
Wei Changtian was only one person, and he was clearly chasing after Jing Guoqing in the Imperial Palace.
Yet more than 100,000 Great Qian soldiers were watching from outside, not daring to enter the palace to rescue the Emperor.
For the soldiers who had arrived later, they naturally couldn't understand why, couldn't understand why the generals were hesitant to order the army to enter the palace.
But for those military officers who had witnessed, or even participated in, the great battle with Wei Changtian, perhaps from the moment Wei Changtian suddenly appeared above the Meridian Gate, forcing the old eunuch to barely save Jing Guoqing in such a way, they had already lost all hope.
Regardless of whether Jing Guoqing would die, Great Qian had already lost this battle.
This could be clearly seen from the corpses of the Imperial Guards all over the streets, from the fear on the faces of the people, and from the more than 100,000 soldiers who dared not enter the palace to rescue the Emperor.
Of course, even so, no one wanted to see Jing Guoqing really die at the hands of Wei Changtian.
Many people still held a glimmer of hope, waiting for a miracle.
What if the Emperor wasn't dead?
What if the Emperor not only wasn't dead, but even killed Wei Yanluo?
The Jing family had been managing Great Qian for over a thousand years, how could they not have any trump cards?
That's right, the Emperor must still have a way, Great Qian wouldn't perish at the hands of Wei Yanluo alone...
With this thought in mind, most people were pessimistic at the moment, but not completely desperate.
And seemingly to prove that their thoughts were indeed correct, the rumbling sound coming from the depths of the Imperial Palace had not stopped since it began an hour ago.
There was no doubt that this showed that the battle within the Imperial Palace was not only extremely intense, but also extremely anxious, otherwise the victor would have been decided by now.
Then, this also meant that Jing Guoqing and the Jing family were not without a chance...
Pairs of wide eyes, tense faces, the place where more than 100,000 people stood could not hear a single sound, only the muffled roar echoed in the sky and earth.
At this time, every minute and every second was as long as a century for the people of Great Qian.
Then, at a certain moment, when the scorching sun in the sky was even gradually setting in the west, the rumbling finally stopped.
"...En-ended?"
Someone stammered a murmur, but no one answered.
Everyone held their breath, staring intently at the wide-open city gate until a figure appeared at the end of the spotless white stone road beyond.
The person didn't have a trace of blood on them, walking slowly towards the Meridian Gate, step by step.
Although the distance was still far, countless people recognized who it was at first glance.
“It’s, it’s the Emperor!!”
“The Emperor isn’t dead!!”
“Heaven bless Daqian! Waaah! Heaven bless my Daqian!!!”
“...”
After a moment of pause, chaotic and excited shouts suddenly erupted, wave after wave crashing towards the sky.
Countless commoners howled loudly, their faces filled with excitement, and some even wept with joy, covering their faces and crying bitterly, the gloom suppressed in their hearts finally vanishing in an instant.
“Your Majesty!!”
At the same time, accompanied by urgent shouts, several martial generals who had come back to their senses immediately rushed towards Jing Guoqing.
Although they hadn't dared to lead troops into the palace to save the Emperor just now, they would inevitably face death if Jing Guoqing decided to settle accounts in the future.
But at this moment, they couldn't care less about all of that, their hearts filled with a sense of relief as if they had escaped death.
No matter what, the Emperor wasn't dead, Daqian hadn't fallen!
“Swish! Swish swish swish!”
In this way, several figures swiftly swept past layers of military formations, rushed into the tall city gate, and the distance to Jing Guoqing rapidly shortened.
However, just when the two sides were only a dozen feet apart, the several martial generals suddenly stopped without any warning.
Because only at this moment did they finally see Jing Guoqing's pale face, and finally hear what the latter was saying with his constantly opening and closing mouth...
“Save, save me, save me...”
“...”
“Your, Your Majesty...”
Their expressions instantly became terrified, and all the martial generals subconsciously took half a step back, feeling a bone-chilling coldness suddenly rising up their spines.
They stared blankly at Jing Guoqing, not understanding why the latter, despite having no injuries on his body, would be so desperate.
And the next moment, when a long sword suddenly appeared behind Jing Guoqing, and then fiercely pierced into the five-clawed True Dragon embroidered on his robe, everyone knew the answer.
“Pfft!!”
The sword pierced through flesh, the tip piercing through his chest.
Blood instantly soaked Jing Guoqing's dragon robe, also causing his life force to rapidly drain away.
He lowered his head to look at the cold sword tip in front of his chest, then laboriously raised his head, looking at the several generals in front of him with terrified faces, and the vast military formations standing behind them.
Jing Guoqing's eyes held some unwillingness, some sorrow, some disappointment.
No one knew what exactly happened in the palace during the past hour.
Perhaps if the soldiers outside the palace had really rushed in to help Jing Guoqing, the result would have been different.
It was just a pity that now everything was meaningless...
Slowly closing his eyes, Jing Guoqing didn't say a word until the very end.
His body swayed a few times, and then slowly fell to the ground, not even kicking up a speck of dust.
“...”
All the commotion outside the Meridian Gate came to an abrupt halt at this moment, even time seemed to stagnate in a deathly silence at this moment.
All that remained was endless silence.
“Tap, tap, tap...”
“Pfft...”
“Clang...”
Walking to Jing Guoqing's corpse, Wei Changtian pulled out the Longquan sword and returned it to its sheath.
When Wei Changtian, covered in blood, finished all of this, the several generals not far away were still standing there blankly, seeming to have even forgotten to run away.
But Wei Changtian didn't care about them, didn't even look at them, just slowly walked past them, walked out of the city gate, and walked slowly along the long street.
The setting sun, already falling in the west, cast slanting rays of light, making his shadow very long.
At this moment, besides his footsteps, there seemed to be no other sound in the world.
If one only listened and didn't look, probably no one would believe that there was actually more than just him standing here.
And in this deathly silence, Wei Changtian quickly walked to the entrance of that teahouse.
Stopping, he glanced at the teahouse guests who were standing there blankly in the front hall.
Wei Changtian stepped over the threshold expressionlessly, walked to the position he had previously sat in, and then reached out and picked up the three boxes of mung bean cakes that were still on the table.
Logically speaking, he had already exposed his identity, and had just killed so many people, so at this moment, these teahouse guests should have fled in all directions upon seeing him.
But as if their souls had been lost, until now, no one in the entire teahouse dared to move.
Everyone just stared blankly as Wei Changtian carried the mung bean cakes and walked out step by step, and then suddenly stopped again when passing in front of the storyteller.
“Oh right, you haven’t finished telling that story just now.”
“Actually, I’m quite curious to know what happened afterwards.”
In everyone's astonished eyes, Wei Changtian actually smiled and asked the storyteller: “Sir, I wonder how I killed Lü Hongji back then?”
“...”
How did I kill Lü Hongji back then?
Without a doubt, no one could have imagined that Wei Changtian would actually ask such a question.
The storyteller was even more frightened, his legs went weak and he fell directly to the ground.
“Lord, spare me, Lord, spare me...”
“I, this humble one, will never dare to do it again, please, please spare this humble one...”
The storyteller's brain had long been blank, and he no longer remembered the answer to the question Wei Changtian asked.
Even if he did remember, he naturally wouldn't dare to answer at this moment, and just kept kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly.
And Wei Changtian didn't ask any further upon seeing this, just gently waved his hand.
“Alright, stop kowtowing, I won’t kill you.”
“If you don’t want to say, then forget it.”
“But whether you believe it or not, in short, Lü Hongji was indeed not killed by me, so there’s no need to tell that part again when storytelling.”
His voice was calm, his tone gentle.
In the storyteller's terrified yet bewildered gaze, Wei Changtian paused slightly, and then smiled and pointed to the Meridian Gate in the distance.
“Anyway, you have personally witnessed today’s events, so just talk about these things in the future.”
“Jing Guoqing was indeed killed by me, and the entire Jing family, there isn’t a single living person left now.”
“So, everyone...”
His gaze shifted away from the storyteller, sweeping around the teahouse, and Wei Changtian's voice gradually became serious.
“Your emperor is already dead, and the 300,000 rebel army will arrive at the latest tonight, by then this city will have to be in chaos for a while longer.”
“I have no intention of engaging in mass slaughter, so those who don’t want to die should quickly go home.”
“Perhaps you can’t accept it for the time being, but your Daqian has indeed already...”
“Fallen.”
