Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 407 - 243: Die, Dog Emperor! (8000 words, soliciting monthly votes)_3

Chapter 407: Chapter 243: Die, Dog Emperor! (8000 words, soliciting monthly votes)_3

Someone actually leapt down from the rooftop beside the road, and their target was none other than the emperor’s carriage, parked right in the middle of the street!

Due to Emperor Yingzong of Qi’s need for a low-profile escape, he did not take the city’s main roads, and the street was already quite narrow. As a result, when the person leaped down from above, they were less than ten meters from Emperor Yingzong’s carriage.

Ten meters, by all accounts, was still a very difficult distance to succeed from.

On the ground, whether using crossbows or any other ranged weapons, they would be blocked by the guards putting their bodies on the line.

While in the air, it was hard to guarantee the accuracy of arrows or crossbows.

Moreover, the emperor was behind layers of curtains within the spacious carriage, making it very difficult for a single arrow to accurately pierce the window and strike a vital spot.

If it missed entirely, or merely hit an inconsequential spot like an arm, there would be no chance to kill the emperor completely.

But as this assassin was falling from the air, he held in his hands a strangely-shaped bamboo tube.

At the back of the bamboo tube, a fuse was burning.

Some guards recognized what it was, but many others showed confusion in their eyes, for sudden firearms like these were rare items still kept in the Ministry of War’s warehouses, not widely distributed to the troops, let alone commonly known.

However, soon the whole world would come to know about this thing called a sudden firearm.

As Li Hongyun was still midair, not yet having landed, his sight passed through the layers of guards surrounding the emperor’s carriage, and the dark barrel of the bamboo tube was aimed precisely at the curtain of the carriage window.

From a lofty height, the killing intent was unmistakable!

"Bang!"

A loud noise erupted as Li Hongyun’s sudden firearm belched out gunsmoke and a brilliant flash of light. In that instant, a large amount of scrap iron, gravel, and gunpowder once compressed in the barrel exploded like a volcano, radiating towards Emperor Yingzong’s carriage!

After a series of crackling sounds, the carriage curtain, which had been let down and was not very thick, was instantly riddled with holes, and the scattered sparks caught it on fire, quickly engulfing it.

Li Hongyun was not sure if he had succeeded, but soon after the sudden firearm’s loud report, a scream came from inside the carriage.

"Ah!!!"

The eunuchs and guards around had never heard the emperor emit such a sound before.

"Protect the carriage! Protect the carriage quickly!"

"Capture the assassin! Don’t let him get away!"

Instantly, the area surrounding the carriage descended into utter chaos.

But their bustle ended up being in vain.

After firing his shot in the air, Li Hongyun crashed heavily into the crowd of guards.

But as these guards drew their swords to grab him, Li Hongyun did not hesitate to pull out a dagger and plunge it into his own chest.

After being continuously thrashed in the game "Dark Sand," committing suicide without changing his expression had become a basic skill for the players.

The eunuchs hurried to check on Emperor Yingzong’s condition, dragging and pulling him out of the carriage that had started to catch fire.

But the scene before them was horrifying.

The sudden firearm fired from above at the perfect moment, igniting the fuse completely and triggering the explosion. A mass of scrap iron and gravel, propelled by the gunpowder blast, shot in through the carriage window covering everything.

Emperor Yingzong’s face was covered in horrific wounds, with many sharp pieces of iron and fragments of rock embedded into his head, neck, chest, and other vital areas, all still smoking from the heat, making a sizzling noise.

His eyes were completely blinded, and he could only blindly thrash with his hands and utter sounds of extreme rage.

"Capture the assassin! Capture the assassin!

"Who dares to assault Us! Capture him! Tear him into ten thousand pieces! Exterminate his entire clan!

"Kill! Kill..."

However, the emperor’s agonized howl gradually grew quieter, and this emperor, who had recently ascended the throne, died like that on the streets, just a step away from the city gates.

Actually, if he had simply stayed in the palace, Li Hongyun would never have found the opportunity to assassinate him.

Even with Chu Ge, the Imperial Censor, acting as an insider, there was no chance of success.

Unless one could completely bribe one of the eunuchs or switch with one of their own... but the likelihood of that was truly very low.

On the other hand, if the emperor insisted on leaving the palace and venturing onto the streets, then he had only himself to blame.

One could only say... those adept at tempting fate are often doomed to die by it.

...

Fog enveloped Li Hongyun’s vision, and just as he thought his joy for the day was over, he suddenly discovered a completely different scene before him.

At the same time as Emperor Yingzong was assassinated, the Jin soldiers pressed on their attack.

Under such circumstances, there was no time for an elaborate funeral, so they had to improvise.

A new emperor ascended the throne, and then again, Li Boxi took charge of defending the capital.

Yet the investigation into Emperor Yingzong’s assassination, conducted by the Ministry of Justice, kept progressing. Soon the origin of the sudden firearm was revealed, and Imperial Censor Li Hao was implicated, leading to his suicide at home due to fear of punishment.

However, as the scenes in his vision passed by swiftly like a carousel, Li Hongyun was astounded to discover that the capital had... not fallen!

At least, it had held out much longer than the original capital had.

Subsequent scenes did not unfold further; instead, they were replaced by a system prompt.

[Trial Illusion: Eight Thousand Li Under the Clouds and Moon]

[First phase cleared! New identities and heroic spirit summoning feature unlocked!]