Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 82 Gao Yang's Little Game
"I still don't understand."

Yao Xiong was holding a bucket and feeding the blue lion.

He looked at Tian Zili who was combing Bai Ya's hair and asked, "Can the powerful Murong family be eliminated by letting Kou Liu put on makeup and dance?"

Tian Zili quickly glared at him and said, "Say less!"

Yao Xiong shrank back and looked around. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I'm not County Magistrate Lu. I'm just curious."

Tian Zili combed his fur slowly and said, "If you want to ask about the black dragon of the Murong family, I know something about it."

"I heard that when the High King was still alive, a sorcerer once told him: The dead High Kings wear black."

"This made King Gao no longer dare to meet monks, thinking that they wore black clothes, which was not good for him."

"Until now, the situation has become more and more serious. His Majesty believes in these things very much. He once asked his attendants what is the darkest thing in the world. His attendants told him: lacquer is the darkest."

"He suddenly realized what was going on, so he captured King Gao's seventh son, his own brother, and killed him."

"what???"

Yao Xiong's eyes widened.

"As for the Dragon Head, you heard what Lord Lu said the other day. The Murong family is protected by the Black Dragon and the Dragon Palace..."

"Does this really work?"

"He may not care about other things, but for something like this, there's no guarantee that his army is already on the way."

Yao Xiong was frightened for a moment, "So there are so many things to consider. I saw that Gongping was smiling and looked very timid on weekdays, but I never thought that he was actually full of bad intentions!"

"If you want to survive, you naturally have to remember the many taboos and know what not to do. Speaking of these, Cheng An probably has few people who can compare to Zhang Gong."

“Even I didn’t figure it out until later.”

The two were chatting when they suddenly heard a noise outside, people shouting, and even the sound of horse hooves.

The two of them quickly shut up and walked quickly to the door.

"What happened?!"

Tian Zili asked hurriedly.

"I don't know! They told us to stay in the county government office and not go out!!"

At this moment, Gao Changgong was riding a horse and galloping out, with Lu Qubing following behind him. Surrounded by a group of knights, they were galloping towards the east of the city.

At this moment, Gao Changgong had a worried look on his face, and his hands holding the reins were not so natural.

He said nothing, but just galloped away.

Lu Qubing seemed to realize something and followed him with the same worried look on his face.

Before they got close to the east of the city, they saw the flames rising into the sky.

As they walked in, a knight blocked their way.

Gao Changgong and others told their identities, but in the end only Gao Changgong and Lu Qubing were able to continue moving forward, and the rest were left behind halfway.

The streets were on guard, there were knights everywhere, and half of the city was occupied by knights. The scale was more than ten times larger than when King Gaoyang first arrived.

When we arrived at the east of the city, we smelled a foul smell of blood mixed with a burning smell, which was nauseating.

Gao Changgong and Lu Qubing dismounted from their horses, and Gao Changgong whispered, "Don't say anything, don't say anything, don't say anything."

He said it three times in a row.

Lu Qubing opened his mouth and was about to answer, but immediately closed it and nodded.

The two of them lowered their heads and trotted inside.

There was blood flowing out of the drain, smelling and noticeable.

The doors of the houses not far away were all open, and corpses were placed there at random.

They were brought to Gaoyang's carriage.

The knights formed a "concave" formation around the emperor, protecting the emperor's carriage in the middle.

There were several incomplete corpses placed in front of the carriage. Gao Yang was sitting in front of the corpses with a smile on his face, playing the "connecting the dots" game, connecting this head with that body, and then this leg with that body. He seemed to want to try out how many arrangements there were.

He had a lot of fun and never got tired of it.

Gao Changgong took a glance and clearly recognized the head in the emperor's hand.

Murong Zeng.

There was still a look of fear on Murong Zeng's severed head, his eyes were wide open, and he died with his eyes open.

There was another person lying beside him, the only living person, Murong Guang. Perhaps he wished he were dead at this moment.

I saw blood constantly gushing out of his mouth, he was whimpering, his face was covered in blood and flesh, I couldn't tell where was healthy and where was not, I could only recognize him from his clothes.

He just lay on the ground, twitching from time to time, and Gao Yang occasionally played the "jigsaw" game with him.

"I, on behalf of Cheng'an Ling Gao Su, pay my respects to Your Majesty!!"

"I, Lu Qubing, the magistrate of Cheng'an County, pay my respects to Your Majesty!!"

The two of them bowed and greeted each other at the same time.

In the entire Cheng'an, the only officials who were qualified to pay homage were Gao Changgong, Lu Qubing, and Changsun Jiaye.

Hearing the voice, Gao Yang raised his head and looked at Gao Changgong with interest.

He didn't look for long, and then he looked at the knights again. "Hurry up! I won't leave Cheng'an until I find the black dragon!!"

"Murong Huang has been dead for many years, but his black dragon is still alive?!"

Another group of knights rushed towards the palaces.

The mansions in the east of the city are in disarray. They are not built along the roads, but spread outward with the inner courtyard as the core. It is really not easy to find something here.

Gao Changgong and Lu Qubing maintained their salute postures.

Gao Yang had no intention of letting them get up and continued to play his own little game. Finally, after suffering inhumane torture, Murong Guang was completely motionless.

Seeing that the toys were motionless, Gao Yang seemed to be fed up. He finally raised his head and shook his hands in disgust, "Chang Gong, come here."

Gao Changgong stood up hastily and walked quickly to Gao Yang's side, "Your Majesty!"

Gao Yang put his arms around his neck. Gao Changgong lowered his head. The blood was smeared directly on his body, and he could only endure it.

"Chang Gong, the black dragon of the Murong family escaped, why didn't you tell me?"

"I am your uncle, why are you hiding this from me?"

This was the first time Lu Qubing saw the emperor.

He had never imagined that the emperor would look like this.

He was still naked, and even though there was a cold wind blowing, he didn't care at all. Even though he was naked, his hair was messy and his face was ugly, making him look a little fierce, especially when compared with Gao Changgong, who he was hugging, his ugliness was even more obvious.

He was lost in thought at the moment, not knowing what he was thinking about.

But fear appeared in Gao Changgong's eyes.

When Gao Changgong was still very young, his uncle was not like this. At that time, he was always wearing armor and looked particularly strong. He could lift Gao Changgong with one hand and use his stiff beard to tease the younger generations.

At that time, I always heard people praising him, saying how brave he was, how many victories he had achieved this month, and how he made the surrounding Hu people flee in fear and made Yuwen Heita cry bitterly.

At that time, his uncle was still a hero in Gao Changgong's mind.

I don’t know when it started, but my uncle suddenly became a little different.

His personality and character became stranger and stranger, until now he was completely unrecognizable and it was impossible to guess what he was thinking.

"Uncle, I don't believe in this theory of ghosts and gods, so I didn't report it."

Hearing the word "uncle", Gao Yang loosened his arms around Gao Changgong's neck a little.

"You have to believe it, you have to believe it, understand?"

"understood"

"How about this, if the knights can find the black dragon here within an hour and let me kill it, I will pardon you."

"If you can't find it, I will kill you."

"how?"

Gao Changgong's lips trembled but he didn't say anything.

Lu Qubing stood up suddenly, "Your Majesty!!"

Gao Changgong shouted hurriedly, "I am talking to my uncle, how can you, a little Han official, speak? Come on, take this guy out, shut his mouth, and watch him!!"

A knight looked at Gao Yang, and seeing that Gao Yang did not speak, the knight stepped forward, grabbed Lu Qubing, covered his mouth, and took him away.

Gao Yang didn't say anything, just looked into the distance with a smile.

Time passed little by little, but the fire in the distance did not diminish. A knight came out pulling a cart full of corpses.

Gao Yang didn't move, just looked over there. When he got tired of standing, he sat down, but he was still staring into the distance.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, the knights finally pulled out the bodies.

There seemed to be no living things in the entire east of the city.

"did you find it?"

"Where's the black dragon?"

"Your Majesty, we have searched the entire eastern part of the city, but we have not found any black dragon."

Gao Yang suddenly looked at Gao Changgong beside him, grinned, and slowly raised the long sword in his hand.

Gao Changgong closed his eyes in despair.

"Snapped!"

The long knife hit Gao Changgong on the head horizontally.

Gao Changgong opened his eyes, only to see Gao Yang laughing so hard that he fell backwards. "Look at how cowardly you are. How can a coward like you be considered An Ling?"

His expression quickly became solemn again, his laughter stopped abruptly, and he tapped Gao Changgong's face with a knife, his eyes cold.

"You are so timid. Aren't you bringing shame to my family? The prince is like this, and so are you."

"They all look like men, without any blood in them."

"Killing is easy. Just pick up your knife and chop it down. Don't be a softie and lose face for your grandfather!"

“Return to the court!!”

(End of this chapter)