Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 506 - 500 Blessings Banquet

Chapter 506: Chapter 500 Blessings Banquet

In one of the eight prefectures of Yu State, the state capital—Xiaqiu Mansion.

Besides King Jing, Zhou Jinhuan, who had seized the territories of Dengzhou Prefecture, Dongchang Mansion, Wuding Prefecture, and Yizhou Prefecture in one breath before the New Year,

it was the Wave Flipping Army, which originated from Jiyin Prefecture and smoothly took over this state capital of Xiaqiu Mansion, that had the greatest power.

This Wave Flipping Army was originally a band of seasoned water bandits active on the Dongping Lake, Turbid River, and the Grand Canal, with their leader Ink Qilin, Song Xingyun, coming from a long line of giant bandits.

It was said that when Martial Saint, Qi Yuanjing, exterminated the Moluo pirates, his ancestors were also among those who pretended to be the Moluo People, pillaging their own Great Yan compatriots as fake bandits.

Their cruelty was so intense that they were even more ruthless than the real bandits.

Last year, when Great Yan collapsed and the Tai Bai Star crossed the sky, Song Xingyun, who had men, money, and military skill at his disposal, took the opportunity to rise up.

He led his well-trained Daoist Soldiers to break through the prefectures and counties, routing the Garrison Soldiers of Yu State.

Even when heavy snow blocked the roads, he still continued his attacks by relying on his innate divine ability, "Wave Jumping," using the harsh environment to his advantage.

Finally, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, he breached the Prefecture City of Xiaqiu Mansion.

Now, commanding territories across two prefectures, with the vast Dongping Lake as a boundary, he has made it clear that he stands opposite to Zhou Jinhuan, who holds control over four prefectures.

After breaching the city.

The grand scale of the King Fu Mansion, akin to a city within the city, naturally became the General Mansion of the Ink Qilin, Song Xingyun.

At noon, under the majestic gilded eaves of his palace, the spacious stone-paved square in the main hall of the Prince Mansion was already buzzing with voices.

The core Daoist Soldiers and Dao Generals of the Wave Flipping Army, along with the outer ring of mortal auxiliary soldiers, had already encircled the area in several layers.

With thousands gathered, the heat waves rising from their bodies were enough to melt all the snow on the eaves of the mansion.

"Hurry and start the fire, hurry and start the fire, I’m practically starving to death!"

"Such a fine piece of fat meat, I butchered pigs for ten years back home and never saw such thick layers of fat. It’s going to taste amazing!"

"Slurp, finally we get to eat meat for the New Year, following the general, there’s always meat..."

The blaze was fierce on the square. The valuable wood used for the Prince Mansion’s furniture, in the hands of these bandit soldiers, became nothing more than common firewood.

Relentlessly fueling the flames was a huge "Thousand-person Pot" brought in from the Ying’en Temple outside the city.

For the first time, this cauldron used for cooking vegetarian meals for the faithful was filled with ingredients like scallions, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, saffron, ginseng...

And countless top-tier spices and tonics sourced from the mansion’s stores, with the fragrance assailing the senses as soon as the water became slightly warm.

Shockingly, within this massive pot soaking alongside seven or eight whole sika deer, their skins peeled, horns removed, and bellies slit open from the Prince’s deer garden,

there was also a completely hairless fatty who weighed at least over three hundred pounds!

Unable to swim, he floundered about, kept afloat by his own fat, splashing like a dog paddling.

Now and then he would surface, then sink again. As the temperature of the water steadily rose, he howled and screamed tragically.

Whenever the fat man tried to climb out of the pot,

laughing soldiers would jab at his creamy white, tender arms with spears still stained with blood from before,

forcing him to let go in agony and continue to struggle in the boiling water.

"Mercy! Mercy! General Song, spare my life.

All my family’s wealth, concubines, and daughters are yours, even the treasures I’ve hidden away—all yours.

My flesh is not tasty, not tasty at all!"

In the water, the fat man kept kowtowing in the direction of the main hall, desperately begging, hoping that the vicious bandit leader would spare his life.

Underneath the colorful glazed roof of the main hall, a lean young man with a dark complexion, clad in bloodstained black heavy armor, sprawled carelessly on a grand chair.

In his arms, he held a plump and beautiful concubine from the King Fu Mansion, casually toying with her.

Clearly, for him, the pleasing woman in his arms attracted his attention far more than the fat man did.

No matter how pitifully the person in the pot wailed, he didn’t so much as glance in his direction.

Additionally, what made this person stand out the most was that he was born with "Innate Strange Phenomenon - Yin Yang Eyes."

His eyes were different sizes—one abnormally large, the other abnormally small, also known as yin yang eyes.

A person with such characteristics is unfathomable, with tremendous ambition, cold and calculated, and also possesses the ability to see through people’s hearts at a glance!

Gradually, the pleas for mercy from the fatty grew fainter, and only then did the young man lift his head to offer a cold smile towards the cauldron:

"Heh, Your Highness, King Fu, without you as the main dish, how could we complete this ’Blessings Meat Banquet’ that provides such nourishment for this general?

I not only want your wealth, your concubines, your wives, but also your fatty flesh to reward my brothers.

In these times of calamity, even the meticulously bred pigs from rich households are not as fat as you.

Brothers, wouldn’t you agree?"

"What the general said is true. Why call him King Fu when Pig King would be more apt."

"All the fat in this pig-king’s belly has been scraped off our backs, the fat of the people. Today, it rightfully returns to its original owner."

"..."

With each remark, they frightened the pale, plump man to no end.

Clearly, the one being cooked in the pot was none other than the master of this Prince Mansion, Emperor Jianming’s uncle, Zhou Jingliang - the half brother of Great Yan Ancestor Emperor Zhou Wenrui!

The Great Yan Ancestor had enfeoffed many of his sons across the land as vassal kings, and successive emperors continued the practice, resulting in a Great Yan Dynasty with vassal kings as numerous as cow hair.

By the time of the Great Yan’s extinction, there were still fifty-eight vassal kings with bloodlines that endured.

And this King Fu was one of them.

Throughout the history of Red County Shenzhou, never had a dynasty borne so many royal offspring as Great Yan, each with their own title and salary.

To sustain them, the entire Great Yan Dynasty had long been crushed under the heavy burden.

During the Jianming Period, the annual grain revenue of Junzhou was less than one million shi, yet the salaries of those surnamed Zhou princes alone demanded a staggering 1.92 million shi.

Even if the people went without eating or drinking at all, it wouldn’t be enough to sustain them.

It was only natural that these members of the Great Yan Imperial Family became sinners with the blood of the common people on their hands, like rats feeding on the populace.

Compared to the corrupt officials, the people harbored even more bitterness.

Since ancient times, when dynasties fell, the former imperial families were mostly despised by Human Dao and the people, burdened with great causality. The backlash they faced from all sides was particularly brutal, and few met a good end.

With such a large base, the number of royal family members from Great Yan who exploited the people was countless, leading to a fate far more tragic than any previous generations.

Unlike Zhou Jinghuan, who commanded six camps of Daoist Soldiers and a Martial Saint, and had also tied marital bonds with "the world’s number one blade," who not only could protect himself but also expand his territory.

This King Fu, weighing over three hundred pounds, spent his days in seclusion, drinking to his heart’s content, miring himself in pleasure with prostitutes and living a life of debauchery.

Even as droughts persisted and people turned to cannibalism, he remained indifferent, focussing solely on extorting more wealth.

Even when military uprisings erupted and local officials urged him to open the granary to aid the starving people and arrange military pay, this fool, who valued wealth over life, turned a deaf ear.

That’s what led to his end today.

The King Fu, once known among his brothers for his money-making acumen and even more favored to succeed the throne than Zhou Wenrui, finally became the "blessings" dish at the "Blessings Banquet."

A few soldiers, formerly master butchers, gently scraped him down, removing all his hair and then his nails, then flushed out his bowels with an enema.

After scrubbing him clean inside and out, they threw him into a large pot with deer meat to simmer slowly in cold water.

The entire Wave Flipping Army watched with laughter as he rolled in the white soup amidst spices, his fat and the deer meat whirling about, the soup blending into a single hue.

Soon, as the soup came to a boil and the screams of King Fu ceased, a rich aroma of meat spread throughout.

A soldier in charge of cooking stepped forward to pick the choicest pieces of "blessings meat" and served them on a plate to Song Xingyun.

Only then did the other salivating soldiers of the Wave Flipping Army line up to get their share.

In no time, chants rose from within the Prince Mansion.

"The General has removed a scourge for the people, his merit will last for all time!"

"Long live the General!"

"Long live, long live!"

"..."

Your run-of-the-mill refugees and the combat strength of the rebel armies were completely negligible; toppling the remaining government offices would be a bitter struggle.

And yet, they were continuously emerging.

This was because, in these years of disaster during the end of a dynasty, if there was even a sliver of hope for survival by fighting, to not make an attempt meant only a miserable death awaited them.

They didn’t care what the so-called rebel leaders did; as long as they could lead them to survival and incidentally avenge the suffering caused by the old dynasty, surges of human willpower would come flooding in.

Especially since Ink Qilin Song Xingyun had led his troops to devour King Fu Zhou Wenxun, the highest authority in all of Yu State, eliminating a vast amount of karmic debt.

A tidal wave of human willpower from half of Yu State began to thunder towards him, constantly cleansing his thoughts.

It was like thousands of hammers forging fine steel, allowing this Military Leader at the Great Success Stage to continuously refine his military strategy will, propelling him rapidly towards the fifth realm of Martial Saint and thinning the barrier to that realm.

This was also the advantage enjoyed by every rebel leader in times of anarchy.

As long as they pit-killed members of the former dynasty or officials who owed a great karmic debt to the people, dragon energy would be conferred upon them.

And it was at this time.

In the murky waters outside the city, a red talisman suddenly burst forth from the surface, turning into a blinding streak of blood light that shot into the sky and landed in Song Xingyun’s hands.

The unmistakably cold voice of a One-Eyed Stone Man resonated in his heart:

"By decree of the Old Buddha’s Law, ’build up forces over a thousand days to use them in a single moment.’ ’The One who Defeats Heaven’s Son’, Qi Buyu, will soon arrive with reinforcements.

Join forces with him and dispatch troops to Dengzhou Prefecture to kill King Jing Zhou Jinghuan with all your might!

Act boldly. When the critical moment comes, I will make my move!"