knife

Chapter 653 The Death of Xiang Ying
Xiang Ying pushed open the door, walked out, stood on the steps, and stared coldly ahead.

A misty fog drifted in from outside.

Rapid footsteps sounded, and several men dressed as servants, their faces contorted in pain, ran frantically toward them.

However, the color of their faces had turned into an eerie blue. After running a few more steps, they stumbled and fell to the ground. They dug their hands into the ground, tried to crawl forward a few more steps, then their bodies twisted and they stopped moving.

As the fog rose, the full moon in the sky became somewhat blurry.

The fog extended forward by more than ten feet, then suddenly seemed to encounter some obstacle and could no longer move forward. It tumbled and rolled, its color growing darker and darker.

"Witch, what are you doing pretending to be a god? You know these little tricks are useless against me!" Xiang Ying waved his one arm, and the thick fog in the arena suddenly swirled back.

The fog lifted, and people appeared.

Suddenly, a man holding a wooden staff with a snake's head appeared in the arena.

The snake's head was pointing upwards, constantly extending and retracting, looking extremely eerie.

"General Xiang, I've come to see you off!" the shaman said with a smile.

Xiang Ying sighed: "Na Wei's vision is ultimately too narrow. Can't he see through Li Dachui's simplistic scheme of using someone else to kill him? If I die at your hands, Chu will surely be thrown into chaos. Is the Chu that Na Wei wants to control a chaotic state? This doesn't align with his original intentions, does it?"

The shaman said calmly, "As long as the general is alive, he cannot fully control the Chu Kingdom. Even if there is chaos for a while after the general dies, it can eventually be brought under control. How much trouble can a bunch of shrimp soldiers and crab generals without a leader cause?"

"So that's what he was thinking!" Xiang Ying said, "Fratricide hurts our own people and pleases our enemies. With Na Wei taking this step, Great Chu will no longer have the resources to contend for supremacy!"

"Who cares?" The shaman chuckled. "So what if we don't have it? It's much better than us hiding in the southwest corner. Besides, General Xiang, with your death, the Xiang family will collapse, and the enormous wealth you control will change hands again. Who knows if the person who gets this wealth won't change the world? Back when the Chu Kingdom was first established, it only had twelve counties!"

"Since that's the case, what's the point of talking nonsense!" Xiang Ying shouted, and in a flash, he pounced forward and threw a punch at the shaman.

"General Xiang is getting impatient!" the shaman laughed, and the misty atmosphere in the courtyard suddenly rose again.

They separated in an instant, and the green aura in the courtyard was swept away once again. The small snake that had been coiled on the tip of the staff disappeared without a trace. Xiang Ying's large hand actually grabbed the snake's vital spot. The snake's head struggled incessantly, while its body tightly coiled around Xiang Ying's wrist.

With a soft pop, the little snake was crushed into a pulp by Xiang Ying's large hand.

The shaman's pale face turned slightly white at this moment.

"The innate talent borrowed from external things is nothing more than this!" Xiang Ying said disdainfully.

The shaman's wooden staff slammed down, and he said coldly, "That's still much better than you are now. If I had known you were in this state, why would I have gone to so much trouble to set things up? I was wondering why you didn't run away, but it turns out you knew you couldn't escape! Xiang Ying, prepare to die!"

A strong aura of green filled the courtyard, making the figure of the shaman appear blurry and indistinct, and it was impossible to see where he was.

On a hilltop not far from the village, Li Dachui watched intently as the fierce battle raged inside.

Standing beside him was a man, none other than Zhu Chi's brother, Zhu Cheng. "The sorcerer has quite a reputation, but he's nothing special!" Li Dachui sneered.

“Protector, if they both suffer heavy losses, wouldn’t it be perfect for you to take care of them both at once?” Zhu Cheng said. “Anyway, Xiang Zhuang has already escaped, and it’s a done deal that Xiang Ying was killed by the sorcerer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the two of them fought to the death?”

Li Dachui shook his head and said, "The shaman can't die yet. The waters of the Great Chu are deep. Who knows what kind of big crocodiles are lurking at the bottom? Without this person to keep Na Wei in check, someone might jump out and devour Na Wei alive at any time!"

Zhu Cheng let out a sigh, looking somewhat disappointed.

"Tell Zhu Chi that the action must be swift, but the timing and intensity must be carefully controlled. We cannot allow the Xiang family to fully gather their strength, but we must also ensure that they have enough strength to protect themselves and resist Na Wei. How to do this depends on the situation!" Li Dachui glanced at Zhu Cheng and said.

"Don't worry, Protector-General, my brother has made thorough arrangements and will surely make sure the Xiang and Na clans fight fiercely!" Zhu Cheng nodded repeatedly: "I hope Xiang Zhuang will live up to the Protector-General's expectations!"

Li Dachui couldn't help but burst into laughter, "Zhu Chi is really going all out this time, is he planning to swallow the Xiang family whole and make your Zhu family a dominant force?"

Zhu Cheng's expression changed slightly, and he said, "You're overthinking it, Protector. My brother has always followed your orders. He wouldn't dare to disobey in the slightest!"

Li Dachui laughed and said, "Go back and tell Zhu Chi that I don't care about his petty thoughts, nor do I care whether it's Xiang Zhuang fighting Na Wei or your Zhu family. What I want is for the Chu Kingdom to be in constant turmoil. If your Zhu family can take advantage of this opportunity to rise, that's your ability. If one day your Zhu family can replace Na Wei, or even go further and become my opponent in the final unification of the world, I won't care either."

"Protector, the Zhu family has absolutely no such intention!"

"It doesn't matter whether we have it or not!" Li Dachui smiled. "It's not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe I'll lose the battle with Linghu Ye and have to retreat to the border. When that happens, we can still help each other out!"

Zhu Cheng swallowed hard, looked at Li Dachui, his expression shifting. After a long while, he bowed and said, "Protector, then I shall take my leave!"

"Go!" Li Dachui waved his hand.

In the darkness of night, Xiang Zhuang and Wang Fang fled frantically, like stray dogs or fish that had escaped a net.

"General, look!" Wang Fang suddenly stopped. On both sides of the road, several men with headscarves and wearing brightly colored clothes lay dead on the ground. A snake-snake staff was lying to one side, with a snake coiled on the head of the staff. When the two men approached, the snake hissed and flicked its tongue.

These people were all shamans under the command of the divine shaman. They were all quite skilled, and the weakest among them was at the peak of the eighth rank of the Profound Origin Realm. The more colorful their clothes were, the higher their status.

Xiang Zhuang and Wang Fang approached and looked at the two dead men on the ground. Their faces were filled with surprise and uncertainty. These two experts had been killed in one blow, without even having a chance to fight back.

"Who killed them?" Wang Fang asked in a trembling voice. "General Xiang, who is helping us?"

Xiang Zhuang shook his head: "It doesn't necessarily mean they're helping us!"

Wang Fang was somewhat confused.

Looking back in the direction we came from, we saw raging fires that illuminated half the sky.

Tears streamed down Xiang Zhuang's face as he knelt down with a thud. Wang Fang immediately understood what was happening and knelt down after him, bowing her head heavily to the ground.

(End of this chapter)