Chapter 875: Chapter 636: The Rootless Man_2
"I have a question." Yang Xiao raised his hand to interrupt, "Since this thing is so powerful and it aims to overthrow the royal power, why don’t you report it to the government? An marginalized Earl could hardly cover the sky with one hand."
"You’re right, but it’s too late, the artifact has turned into Evil Qi, even if the government believes us and sends troops to annihilate it, by the final moment, everyone in the Earl Mansion would perish together, releasing this evil creature, making it even harder to deal with."
The man sighed, "The reason why this evil creature hasn’t burst out of the mansion to slaughter and act ferociously is largely due to the restraint from those monsters of the Earl Mansion; they carry the bloodline of the deposed king. Once they kill off everyone in the Earl Mansion, this evil creature will have no more restraints."
"So that means, there’s no way to deal with this thing, we just have to let it be and watch the people of the Earl Mansion succeed?" Yang Xiao didn’t care about their success, but once the people of the Earl Mansion succeeded, it would mean their demise.
"Of course not, my master’s original plan was to weaken the roots, by spreading the Immortal Poem to reveal the true intention behind the Earl Mansion’s temple construction, and destroy the incense in the Evil Temple, but unfortunately..."
Clenching the wine cup in front of him, the man downed it in one gulp, and with bloodshot eyes left in his solitary glance, he gritted his teeth and said: "Who could have imagined that my fellow disciple, who lacks purity in his spiritual heart, would betray us and secretly inform against us to the Earl Mansion, leading to the capture of my master and four fellow disciples, and the massacre of dozens of beggars from Beggar Alley, including many children. I managed to barely escape by hiding among the dead, this damned beast..."
One could imagine the tragic scene from the wounds on the man’s body. There’s a saying in the Feng Shui lineage that only seven disciples inherit the teachings truly, and now that his master and four senior disciples are dead, betrayed by their fellow disciple, the man is almost the sole survivor of this lineage, yet also tragically reduced to this state, invoking sympathy.
"Why did you seek us out?" This question had been on Yang Xiao’s mind for a long time, and he couldn’t help but speak it out.
"I originally didn’t plan to seek you out, but after my master was captured, I had no choice. If we want to deal with the Earl Mansion, you are our last chance." The man confessed, "Before leaving, my master had cast a divination that predicted a disaster for this journey; thus, he secretly told me that if he met with misfortune, I should look for people with no roots or origins."
"Recently, I learned that a group of guests had arrived at Earl Mansion. During the day when you were out of the mansion, I secretly cast a divination for you guys using Jia Xi." The man suddenly stopped here, his face showing a subtle expression as he looked towards Yang Xiao.
Feeling uncomfortable under that gaze, Yang Xiao pretended to be calm and countered, "Then what? What did the divination say?"
"I couldn’t figure out where you come from. It’s like you never existed; this land bears no traces of you." After a moment, the man continued, "From then on, I knew that you were the people with no roots or origins that my master spoke of, and the key to breaking the situation."
Not dwelling on the issue of their identity as it was pointless and an ordinary lie couldn’t deceive a great mage like the man before him, Yang Xiao sought the way to break the deadlock, "What is the Earl Mansion’s plan, and what do you need us to do?"
"You said that the Feng Shui Master was killed by Evil Technique, I suspect it was because some of his flesh and blood were stolen, murdered by that evil creature, right?" the man counter-questioned.
"Exactly." Nalan Shuo nodded.
"Consuming human flesh and blood will increase its ferocity, not to mention killing the person, it will also annihilate his family members and relatives, did you know that?"
Suddenly, Yang Xiao’s mind flashed with an image, that of the Dragon Banner dancing wildly in the wind atop the South Gate Tower not long ago.
Just now, a member of today’s Royal Family, a highly influential Vassal King, has arrived at Fushou Manor. Linking all these together, a startling guess surfaced – this Vassal King was likely invited by the Earl Mansion under the pretense of supervising the execution of rebels, but in reality, they intended to feed the well-nourished ancestor to this Vassal King.
This person carries the bloodline of the dynasty, and after devouring them, the crazed ancestor will seek out the current Royal Family and exterminate them entirely.
Such actions will inevitably lead to great chaos, and with this opportunity, the people of the Earl Mansion could rise in arms, raising the name of the previous dynasty, whether a change of dynasty occurs remains unknown.
Subsequently, the man confirmed Yang Xiao’s guess, openly admitting that the Vassal King, Prince Qi, is just a poor creature deceived by the Earl Mansion, with his life hanging by a thread.
"Senior, you seem to be taking this too lightly." Suddenly, Nalan Shuo chuckled, "This matter is probably not so simple. The creature carries the blood of the previous dynasty, and the Vassal King has the Dragon Energy of the current dynasty. If allowed to devour the Royal Family, integrating the bloodlines and clashing Dragon Energies, the ancestor might instantly lose control. By that time, not to mention killing following the current Royal Bloodline, the first to be destroyed would probably be the nearest Earl Mansion."
"Those monstrous creatures are quite sinister, but after a hundred years of planning such a grand scheme, Marquis Mansion surely wouldn’t have such a major oversight," Nalan Shuo continued.
Hearing this, the man looked at Nalan Shuo somewhat surprisingly and couldn’t help but nod, "It seems I underestimated you, you know quite a bit."
"It’s only superficial, please enlighten me, senior," Nalan Shuo once again bowed, offering the other a way to step down, as their lives were at stake here.
"You’re right, the people of the Earl Mansion also understand this point, so they won’t carry out such dangerous acts within the mansion. They will first transport the evil creature and the living Vassal King out of Marquis Mansion and find a sufficiently remote and suitable location to proceed."
"That’s even less possible. The ancestor’s current state is already extremely dangerous. Once it leaves the Earl Mansion, escaping the restraint of the mansion’s bloodline, it might go mad immediately, and the first to suffer would be the Earl Mansion. Even this Fushou Manor would be erased from the maps," at this moment, Jiang Qingluan, who was not old but skilled in Feng Shui, spoke up.
After being interrupted and questioned twice in a row, the man was not annoyed but merely sighed softly and looked down at the Divine Turtle Fragment wrapped in cloth on the table, "Have you ever thought why my disciple insisted on finding this Jia Xi?"
At these words, Nalan Shuo and the others’ expressions changed instantly, and Yang Xiao also snapped back to reality, "He wants to use this Divine Turtle Shell to suppress the Evil Qi of the ancestor, ensuring the evil creature is successfully transported out of Marquis Mansion, out of Fushou Manor!"
"Exactly, that is their plan, and you, have been chosen by them to carry out this plan," the man stated bluntly.
As the fog in his mind gradually cleared, Yang Xiao quickly put together the whole situation, realising this was essentially a suicidal mission. Those chosen to escort the ancestor were merely expendable; once the ancestor freed from suppression, would inevitably become wildly aggressive, and these "outsiders" around him would surely die.
Moving aside the dishes and wine on the table, the man dipped his finger in some wine and drew a crude map on the table, "Look, this is Fushou Manor, this here is Lingzhou City, less than a hundred miles apart. This is a vital military town housing 30,000 of the empire’s most elite armored soldiers, guarding the southeast and posing the greatest threat to the Earl Mansion’s rebels. The town’s leader is also a member of the Royal Family."
"This location is a must-remove target for the Earl Mansion, so I deduce, those monstrous creatures will definitely have you bring along the evil creature, suppressed by the Jia Xi, along with the controlled Vassal King, Prince Qi, to Lingzhou City."
"Once in the city, lift the suppression, release the evil creature, which upon devouring Prince Qi will go into a frenzy, causing chaos within the city, and the town leader will also be killed by the creature."
"After slaughtering both you and the soldiers and civilians of Lingzhou City, the creature will turn you into Chang Ghosts, follow the scent of the bloodline northward, slaughter and lay waste to the cities, killing all members of the Royal Family it encounters on its way directly assaulting Royal City."
