The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 641 Dead End
Tang Lanzhou suddenly opened his eyes, and before his gaze could even focus, he reached under the pillow and shouted.

"Madam, hurry—"

He realized what he had just uttered.

There was no knife under the pillow, and no one was sleeping soundly beside me.

Three years have passed since the chaos in Yingzhou, and he still hasn't gotten used to it.

"Lord Tang."

Someone called his name, and when he looked in the direction of the voice, he was taken aback.

"Your Excellency, is...?"

The voice was familiar, but he couldn't recognize the person at all.

In the spacious bedroom, there were several large beds, and people were lying on them, though they couldn't be clearly seen through the curtains. The sound came from the bed closest to him, where a figure was lying, tightly wrapped in bandages, with only one bloodshot eye visible as it looked at him.

Even from this distance, Tang Lanzhou could smell a fishy stench.

The stench of rotting flesh and blood.

"It is I, Lord Tang."

The person spoke in a cold, piercing female voice.

Tang Lanzhou then realized what was going on.

"Commander Mei?"

"Ah."

"...What is this?"

"The serious injury has not yet healed."

"Oh...where is this?"

Tang Lanzhou stretched out his arms to get up, but then heard Mei Qinghe, who was wrapped up like a dumpling, say something.

"Don't move, Mr. Tang. You're not much better than me."

Tang Lanzhou's arms went limp, and she fell back onto the bed.

“Master Tang, you have never practiced martial arts, and you were already on your deathbed three years ago. In the past few years, you have not taken care of your health at all. In addition, the self-injury and frantic running the night before last have completely depleted your strength. If it weren’t for the Heavenly True Qi keeping you alive, you would already be dead.”

"If you lie in bed, you can live for three months; if you get out of bed and walk around, you won't even live for half a day."

Mei Qinghe, on the other hand, made no attempt to hide it.

Fortunately, Tang Lanzhou was not afraid of death.

He sighed, clenched his fist, and sure enough, he felt weak and powerless, his muscles as fluffy and limp as cotton. In just a moment, he could clearly feel his limbs turning cold. If it weren't for a warm current constantly flowing through his body, warming his icy limbs back up, he probably would have turned into a corpse in no time.

Realizing that he was no longer able to do anything, he calmed himself down and recalled his memories before he lost consciousness.

"Is this Nanjing?"

He turned around and asked.

"Yes."

Mei Qinghe replied.

What is today?

"May 23rd, the third day after Father-in-law He Shang entered the capital, and also the second day after you and I arrived in Nanjing."

"...How is the situation?"

"very bad."

If it's just casual conversation, Mei Qinghe is definitely not a good person to talk to; she's dry and cold, offering no useful information, only conclusions without any process, and completely devoid of any attitude. But if it's about introducing situations, there's no one more suitable than her.

"The capital has fallen. The two garrison commanders and Wudang masters used Gu magic to block the Tatar army, but they only managed to stop the light cavalry and half of the main force. The rest of the Tatar army has reached the capital, and the capital's garrison is leaderless and has already collapsed."

"The area north of the capital has fallen, and Nanjing is far from peaceful either."

Mei Qinghe's words were as cold as ice.

"The Tatars knew very well that if we needed to regroup and gather manpower, Nanjing, as the secondary capital, was the only option. So from the night the capital fell, alien beings began to infiltrate Nanjing to carry out assassinations and sabotage."

Before she could finish speaking, a muffled thud came from outside, and Tang Lanzhou clearly felt a violent tremor from the ground. Dust fell from the roof, and Mei Qinghe stopped talking and turned her head to look in the direction of the sound.

After a while, the loud noise gradually subsided.

Mei Qinghe then continued.

"Zheng Yi, Commander-in-Chief, and Cao Hanyan, Commander-in-Chief, are intercepting and killing the alien celestial beings who have infiltrated the city."

“Initially, we wanted to gather manpower in Nanjing and then go back to fight after the commander returned, at least to stabilize the current situation… But with the current manpower, we are already struggling to deal with these infiltrated alien celestial beings.”

Tang Lanzhou remained silent for a moment.

He hadn't expected...the situation to get this bad.

It could be said that they were already teetering on the edge of an abyss, and could collapse at any moment. Because there was one more person Mei Qinghe hadn't mentioned—the old man from the river.

The situation is barely holding on for now because this person hasn't appeared since entering the capital. But if he were to reappear, if he went north, An Ziyang, Wang Hai, and others who were involved with the Tatar army would immediately die at his hands; if he went south, it wouldn't be difficult for him to breach the walls of Nanjing. At that point, both the northern and southern capitals would fall, and the legitimacy of the Great Shuo would collapse. Even if he possessed the Tiger Tally and the Imperial Seal, it would be difficult to win over the people's hearts.

"Just one person... just one person..."

Tang Lanzhou murmured.

"Just because of this one person, the situation has deteriorated to this extent...?"

Mei Qinghe said calmly.

"That's not all."

"Lord Tang should know that His Majesty's recent years of diligent governance are due to the Gu worm."

"And now he has fallen into the hands of the old man on the river."

Tang Lanzhou closed her eyes.

Yes, that's the key point.

If the River God removes the Gu worm controlling the emperor, given the emperor's previous temperament, he certainly wouldn't care about the world or the ancestral legacy. If the River God uses coercion and enticement, the emperor would probably bow down and call him "Father Emperor."

At that point, it would truly be a case of "We are ready to fight to the death, why has Your Majesty surrendered first?"... People's hearts would immediately crumble, and the idea of ​​retaking the capital and restoring the dynasty would become an even bigger pipe dream.

"time is limited."

Tang Lanzhou murmured.

The goal is to break the deadlock before the emperor turns against him.

But right now, they're just barely holding on... Kawakami is like a sword hanging over their heads. No one knows when or where he will appear, but as soon as he does, any city will fall immediately. No matter how many experts and famous generals they gather, it's all meaningless in the face of such an opponent.

He might even appear at the gates of Nanjing right now, smash the city wall with a single palm strike, and then fight his way into the city, killing everyone inside. No one could stop him.

To break the deadlock, we must at least restrict him.

Tang Lanzhou turned his head to look at Mei Qinghe.

"Master Li..."

"No news yet."

Mei Qinghe's voice lowered.

Tang Lanzhou sighed.

"Is there any other way? For example, that Wedding Dress Divine Skill, aren't many of your Embroidered Uniform Guards practicing it? Could you concentrate all the power of that skill..."

"No."

"What about Gu techniques and cultivation methods at the Celestial Realm? Could you create a master who could contend with Elder Riverside?"

"not enough."

Tang Lanzhou slammed his hand on the edge of the bed.

"Then why did you bring me to Nanjing, just to wait to die?"

His body was already weak, and now he was overwhelmed with anger and anxiety. It took him a while to catch his breath and calm down before he asked, trying to suppress his emotions.

"Assuming the father-in-law on the river doesn't come, how many more days can Nanjing hold out?"

Mei Qinghe replied.

"three--"

The conversation was only halfway through.

boom! ! !
A deafening roar, loud enough to shatter eardrums, suddenly rang out.

Even Tang Lanzhou could clearly hear that the loud noise came from outside the house.

Mei Qinghe shut her mouth, slowly got up, and reached out to pull the sword that was leaning against the bed.

As she moved, several pools of dark red blood immediately seeped into the bandages covering her entire body.

Tang Lanzhou called out.

Can you handle it?

Mei Qinghe took a breath and replied calmly.

"It's alright, my [Edge Bone] is a method of fighting for one's life."

"As long as I am alive, I can at least replace a Celestial Being who is stronger than me."

Having said that, she picked up her sword and walked away, pushing open the door and going out.

A trail of bloody footprints was left on the bluestone slab inside the house.

(End of this chapter)