Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 133 - 130: By the Turbid River, the flower drums play, the Red Dragon falls off Yunhe Bridge!

Chapter 133: Chapter 130: By the Turbid River, the flower drums play, the Red Dragon falls off Yunhe Bridge!

"Ah ah ah—!"

"Mom! Don’t, please!"

"Help..."

Even as the border army atop the city walls still desperately resisted, the occasional corpses that broke through the defenses continued to send endless screams into the City God Temple.

The Winter Official, quietly kneeling before the statue, had aged so much in just half a two-hour period that he hardly looked the same.

It seemed like a mere gust of wind could take his life right there and then.

His appearance was withered and frail, but his eyes still glowed with a frightening intensity.

A dragon shadow still circled above his head, using the six lines as a foundation, continuously evolving one divination diagram after another.

"Cough cough, the extraction of the Dharma Prohibition is only temporary, a stronger ’Dragon Qi Prohibition’ will re-cover this city in a quarter of an hour.

Regrettably... I can’t wait any longer, and neither can the people of Luoyang.

However, Yunjing City can wait, the cities of Jiuzhou can wait, hundreds of prefecture cities can wait, and the vast majority of the thousands of county cities can wait, too.

As long as the essence of the Dynasty isn’t lost, Great Yan still has hope to survive the great disaster and be reborn from the ashes!

Your Majesty, Great Sacrificial Officer, I hope you are right!"

Regarding the current state of the "Dragon Qi Prohibition," perhaps there are only a few people in Red County Divine Land who are clearer about it than the Winter Official who is currently "taking the pulse."

At this moment, although the dragon energy is scattered, it is injured but not dead, and is gradually re-conglomerating.

Moreover, the concentration of dragon energy is being redistributed in accordance with the plan set by the Emperor and the Imperial Observatory Bureau.

Yes, in accordance with a "predetermined plan"!

The consequence of invoking the Sacrificial Technique should be apparent to the Emperor, shouldn’t it?

Even General Wu Yi, Nie Renxiong, knows that Great Yan has become a paper tiger; as a monarch renowned for his diligence over fifteen years in power, Emperor Jianming, Zhou Wenrui, is clearly well-aware!

Even all potential risks had been demonstrated and debated countless times by the gentlemen of the Five Senses Spirit Platform of the Imperial Observatory Bureau and the Great Sacrificial Officer.

Even scenarios worse than the present had been anticipated by them.

The reason why the Emperor insisted on making this decision in the end was that he weighed the pros and cons from a height beyond ordinary people’s understanding, with his mind on gains and losses, not on right or wrong.

You should know.

This year marks the fifteenth year of the Great Yan Jianming era, but ever since Emperor Jianming, Zhou Wenrui, ascended the throne, the entire Great Yan seems to have sinned against heaven, suffering disasters almost every year.

In Jianming’s first year, the country experienced great floods; in January, heavy rain and snow, Qiongzhou suffered intense cold, crops withered, and livestock froze to death!

In Jianming’s second year, from north of the Heavenly Barrier River, several states were afflicted by drought, thousands of miles of parched earth.

In Jianming’s third year, Yu State and Junzhou suffered locust plagues, the south had great floods. In Huaiyin, New Year’s Day brought heavy snow, several feet deep, and countless livestock froze to death.

In Jianming’s fourth year...

In Jianming’s thirteenth year, there were springs of famine in Jinei, Yu State, Dai State, and Junzhou, swarms of locusts everywhere.

In Jianming’s fourteenth year, a great epidemic spread across thousands of miles north and south, reaching beyond the Great Wall to the north and beyond the Turbid River to the south, leaving barely one in ten households unscathed.

In Jianming’s fifteenth year, which is this year, the north suffered great floods, the south severe drought, locusts, famine, chaos, and cannibalism, with corpses of the starved littering the fields.

During these fifteen years, revolts caused by people unable to survive have been countless.

Though the Great Yan Dynasty is a giant, it has been gradually drained of its life force with each successive natural and man-made disaster.

It seems to be only a step away from sudden death.

When the situation has reached this point...

In the eyes of the rulers, since the more remote and inhospitable a region, the more endless the troublesome people, and the more rampant the rebellions.

Then these people who dare to defy the imperial authority and the exploitation of the scholar class are not my subjects but mere troublemakers.

Therefore, the Court outwardly claimed to invoke the Sacrificial Technique for "Five Grains Harvest."

In reality, using "Five Grains Harvest" as bait, they pulled the nation’s dragon energy and did not send it back, instead focusing it to guard the most important dragon energy hubs and major cities.

After a brief period of pain, it forced the Dynasty to continue its life through pockets of good weather.

And the price... was to let the remaining remote areas fend for themselves or perish!

This deception was kept strictly confidential, known only to a few high-ranking officials at the core.

At least so far, the progress has been satisfactory.

While the appearance of "Weird · Singing Rhyme Child" and the siege of the zombie horde are unexpected, they are all acceptable surprises.

To ensure the continuation of the Dynasty, these prices are not unaffordable.

However.

Just then, the national fate that had been inferred by "Great Yan Skill" to near completion suddenly encountered a huge setback.

The divination diagrams also abruptly stalled.

"Hmm? Not good!"

The Winter Official’s face suddenly turned pale.

In the prognostication from his "Great Yan Skill," a chilling dagger suddenly appeared above the Turbid River, one of Red County Divine Land’s ancestral veins of the water dragon, ruthlessly slashing at the Dynasty’s dragon energy.

Puh!

The old man, who was already nearing the end of his strength, suddenly spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood, and his breath instantly withered away.

The divination chart above his head disappeared at once.

With cloudy eyes and a body extremely weak, the Winter Official knelt on the ground and wailed,

"Your Majesty! Great Sacrificial Officer!

We have been deceiving the heavens to cross the sea, but others have long been counteracting our plans!

Though consolidating the ’Dragon Qi Prohibition’ benefits the continuation of the Dynasty, it also retracts the scale armor and sharp claws, exposing our national fortune’s dragon’s vital point!"

The bloodstains he spat out formed an unintelligible line of divination on the ground, winding and twisting like a strange insect or a flood snake:

Leaping Dragon Gate, eating the heart and liver, the flood snake devours the Holy Infant Pill!

By the Turbid River, flower drums sway, the Red Dragon falls from Yunhe Bridge!

The Winter Official strained to open his eyes wide, staring at the pivotal point of the nation’s fortune deduced on the ground, but from any angle, it seemed an omen of great misfortune!

Breathless from exertion, as if explaining to himself and to others, he said,

"Heh...heh... There are upper, middle, and lower ’Dragon Gates’ above the Turbid River, it is said that carp and flood snakes that cross the ’Dragon Gate’ can transform into dragons, and that Red Dragon is the Fire Dragon Qi of Great Yan!

Yunhe Bridge? Yunhe Bridge?

Huff...huff... This bridge is located in Yunhe County at the mouth of the Turbid River entering the sea, which is also where the third ’Dragon Gate’ lies!

I remember, fifteen years ago, the Imperial Observatory Bureau received an imperial decree and was responsible for overseeing the construction of this bridge, and I was the one in charge.

Whether Great Yan can extend its national fortune for another ten years depends on this place! Hurry! Hurry!"

Upon hearing these words, a shadow suddenly appeared from a dark corner of the City God Temple, gave the Winter Official a deep bow.

Then, with a shake of his body, he transformed into a dark green, hornless coiled dragon, soared into the clouds, and shot out the window.

It was one of the four innate Divine Abilities of the ’Coiling Dragon Military Skill’, inherited by the Clan – "Flight of the Eight Extremes".

Observing the person’s skilled transformation, he must be not merely a third realm ’Spirit Communication Transformation’ ’Dao General’, but a fourth realm ’Military Dao Dharma Image’ ’Military Leader’!

Thereupon, the Winter Official used up his last bit of strength to ring a copper bell beside him, and with eyes wide open, he suddenly passed away.

Upon hearing the bell.

Nie Hongying, who had been standing guard outside, oblivious to everything, immediately rushed into the room.

"Official Winter?!"

After the cry of alarm, she saw the divination on the ground, remembered her grave responsibility, took it to heart, and then exhaled a puff of white, chillingly bright light.

"Innate Divine Ability - Geng Metal Divine Wind"

In the blink of an eye, the bluestone floor seemed to have endured a thousand cuts and completely turned into gravel.

At this moment, with the outside world fraught with danger from battles and countlesss evil spirits possibly killing their way in at any moment,

she had no time to gather the Winter Official’s corpse, let alone listen to the increasingly loud helpless wails of the people.

Stepping out of the City God Temple, she shouted to her subordinates, the "White Tiger Elite Soldiers",

"Break camp! Return to the capital!"

To a commander, military orders come first; even if the city’s three hundred thousand people were facing disaster, she could not delay her steps for even a moment.

If the deduced fate of the nation could not be successfully returned to Yunjing, the number of people who would die as a result might far exceed three million!

...

At the same time.

Wang Yuan, who had no idea of the Dynasty’s schemes and nation’s fortune calculations, and didn’t know they were connected to "Yunhe", stepped into Luoyang City ahead of everyone with a "Five Ghosts Moving Mountain".

He began to race against time to set up a deadly trap.

Wuwuwu...

Mr. One-Eyed, clad in armor and a flag on his back, appeared one after another, each holding a "Rashamon Bone" in his hands.

Three of them came from those three Seventh-Rank officials who acted as the "Official Energy" blood vessels, one from the "Yin Yang Unity Bell", and one from the "Money Box".

As the residue cast off by various "Deceit Objects", the power of "Deceitful Heart" in them was stronger than the others.

The Five Ghosts, holding the glittering "Rashamon Bones", positioned themselves at the ends of the streets to the south and north in front of the gate of Luoyang Royal Mansion, and on the main roads of the city’s east and west gates.

To ensure that the evil spirits breaking into the city would see these treasures at the first opportunity.

To allow their greed for treasure to overcome the bloodlust for slaughtering people, so they wouldn’t spread into the homes of over three hundred thousand people right away.

Lady Peach Fairy, with the "Money Box" in hand, rushed straight into the defenseless depths of Luoyang Royal Mansion.

The burial offerings on Beimang Mountain were unclaimed, as were the "three thousand carts" inside the Luoyang Royal Mansion!

If given more time, this astounding wealth would likely be mostly carved up by the city’s big officials, but the recent calamities left them with no time to concern themselves with such extraneous possessions.

Lady Peach Fairy did not need to break open each secret vault; simply circling on the ground, she could collect all the unclaimed wealth with the "Money Box".

To replenish the "ammunition depot" of the "Money Box".

"Taken from the people, to be used for the people, Zhou Wenye, oh Zhou Wenye, today I shall use your tremendous wealth to atone for the debts of Yifan spanning two hundred years!"