Demon Emperor

Chapter 40 Xing Tian Dances with Axe and Shield?
Carrying the lantern, the man walked ahead. After a few steps, a gust of cold wind blew, and his head immediately cleared up considerably.

It's fine to show off in front of so many people, but walking in front feels like being all alone, and that desire to show off immediately fades away.

At this moment, my mind became rational.

"What if there really is a ghost?"

As I hesitated, someone behind me asked.

Why aren't you leaving?

The pale-faced, round-faced man had no choice but to keep walking forward, while secretly making a mental note of the person urging him on from behind.

The voices coming from afar grew clearer and clearer; by then, it was possible to hear what the other person was saying.

"Jingwei carries a tiny twig in her hand to fill the vast ocean."

"Xingtian dances with relatives, and the strong will is always there."

"Same thing..."

Upon hearing this voice, the fair-skinned, round-faced man revealed a look of delight.

He said, "Judging from the voice, the person reciting the poem must be a living person."

Others also assumed that someone was hiding somewhere they couldn't see, perhaps a servant in the house.

However, upon closer inspection, the pale-faced, round-faced man was standing motionless.

Seeing that he had stopped moving, the people behind him asked.

Why did it stop again?

After a long while, there was no response.

The person behind him stepped forward and pushed the pale-faced, round-faced man, but little did they know that this gentle push would lead to something terrifying.

The other person leaned forward, but their head tilted back.

Everyone's eyes widened, and they all let out a loud shout.

"what!"

The pale-faced, round, and plump man who had just spoken of the Master's righteous indignation and said that he did not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits, now had his head separated from his body.

His body fell forward, and his head rolled to the front of the group.

His eyes were wide open, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.

"died!"

"His head, his head fell off."

"There's a ghost! There's a ghost!"

At this moment, upon hearing the recitation of poetry again, the group wished they could cover their ears.

The group dared not return to their secluded courtyard through the bamboo grove and ran back in a panic.

Huang Hui had not yet gone to sleep and was being served by several servants from the estate.

Then they saw several people push open the door and come in, shouting loudly.

"A ghost! There's a vengeful ghost lurking outside the courtyard."

Huang Hui frowned, looked at the people who had scrambled in, and shouted sternly.

"This is utter nonsense, what kind of behavior is this?"

Then, he asked the pale-faced, round-faced man.

Several people pointed outside: "Dead, their heads are all gone."

One of them, panting heavily, said, "The ghost took my head."

Huang Hui was initially somewhat suspicious, but seeing that these people didn't seem to be faking it, he carefully observed them before asking a question.

"Is that really true?"

These people, including the pale-faced, round-faced man, were not from any prominent background; they were merely local tyrants.

They may have some wealth, but no reputation, and most of their ancestors were not officials.

He got his official position by attaching himself to Huang Hui, but it was just a sinecure where he did nothing but shout slogans and make a lot of noise.

You can't count on them when you need them to do things, but they can be useful in crucial moments to boost morale. For example, when Huang Hui needed someone to put Chen Guang down, they did a good job.

The group kept wiping the sweat from their foreheads and explained it in detail again.

Then, they asked Huang Hui what to do, and one of them even invited Huang Hui to come and take a look.

After hearing this, Huang Hui dared not go.

He quickly came out of the courtyard and stood in the corner annex, looking at the night outside through the courtyard wall.
The bamboo forest was vast, and at its end it connected to the emperor's private residence. The night wind rustled through the bamboo, and a chill wafted from afar.

Without hesitation, Huang Hui immediately spoke to one of them.

"Go and report this matter to His Majesty immediately, and see how he will handle it."

"Remember, don't mention that you've been here before."

Several people nodded, then asked another question.

"What should we say when we meet His Majesty?"

Huang Hui: "Tell His Majesty the same things you just said to me."

He then said to one of them, "You, go inside and shout, tell the others."

This estate is not a manor, but a town that houses hundreds or even thousands of people and manages a large area of ​​farmland.

However, this town did not belong to the imperial court, but to the Li family, to which Li Hongdao belonged.

In some parts of the central area, there are even low walls.

In times of war and chaos, this would be a small town. Right now...

Emperor Ruan Hu lived in a villa at the foot of a nearby mountain.

The officials were on the left, and the imperial guards were stationed on the right.

The man asked, "How should I put this?"

Huang Hui was very impatient. Didn't this idiot understand what he meant? Why did he have to spell it out so clearly?

"Go shout outside now, the way you crawled in here shouting like that."

Huang Hui wanted to escalate this matter and see how Ruan Hu would handle it.
Didn't the emperor say that he received a dream from the late emperor, which is why he came up with this move to give the civil and military officials a hard time? Then let's make this a big deal out of it.

Let's see if Ruan Hu can subdue this vengeful ghost that can take a person's head without them even realizing it.

If the emperor cannot be subdued, then everything that has happened before will be for naught, and the emperor's prestige will plummet.

Even if they win, the fact that a court official under the emperor's nose died because of the ghost story proves that the emperor has lost his virtue.

The scene that Ruan Hu caused at the Vermilion Bird Gate made Huang Hui extremely dissatisfied with Emperor Ruan Hu.
-
Before the group could even reach the emperor's villa, they saw that the bamboo grove and the villa were completely surrounded by layers of imperial guards.

Yuchi Chongwu glanced at the group and immediately ordered his men to stop them. He quickly learned their purpose.

The guard clasped his hands and knelt on one knee: "General, someone has reported that there is a demon."

Upon learning of the death of the pale-faced, round-faced man, Yuchi Chongwu exclaimed, "Good heavens, so he was hiding in the woods on the other side!"

Yuchi Chongwu immediately led his men over, but they could not find the corpse of the pale-faced, round-faced man at the spot; they only saw a pool of blood.

Yuchi Chongwu immediately ordered his men to surround the grove, light incense for the tomb, and even set fire to the bamboo forest.

Soon, the creatures in the bamboo forest escaped.

"Fire arrows!"

Yuchi Chongwu acted decisively, using the same method he had used to deal with the evil spirits to fight the opponent.

Lately, Yuchi Chongwu seems to be dealing with these evil spirits and malevolent beings, but he's just using it all as training.

This campaign of destroying mountains and temples to annihilate various evil spirits not only honed the courage of the soldiers.

It also allows for better training in military formation coordination and practice of commands such as gongs and drums.

Moreover, the losses were not significant.

For the Imperial Guards, whose military preparedness had long been lax, this was actually the most suitable battlefield.

If we hastily lead our troops into battle against the enemy, we will likely be defeated in the first battle and never be able to recover.

but.

Unlike the usual smooth sailing, some unusual things happened today.

The demon-slaying arrows, crafted using secret techniques and coated with chicken blood, had no effect when they struck him.

"what?"

Yuchi Chongwu was startled; the fact that the demon-slaying arrows had failed to work was secondary.

More importantly, the arrows made a clanging sound when they hit their target.
This thing is not some ethereal illusion, but a real and tangible thing.

"This is not a ghost."

Upon closer inspection, Yuchi Chongwu discovered that the evil spirit was incredibly tall, clad in a bear skin, with armor covering its body underneath.

He held a shield in one hand and a long spear in the other.

He wore a leather hat on his head and his face was covered with a four-eyed golden mask, making him look quite mysterious.

"Array up!"

Yuchi Chongwu immediately ordered the soldiers, who had been preparing for a long time, to line up and move forward.

But as the thing drew closer, they realized they had underestimated its size; it stood before them like a small mountain.

When his shield pressed forward, it was as if a mountain had collapsed, instantly crushing the dozen or so people in front of him.

With a single swing of his long spear, he swept a large group of people to the ground.

Many of the soldiers in the ranks were new recruits, and upon seeing this, they were instantly terrified and cowered, not daring to step forward.

That thing also knows how to seize opportunities. Finding an opening, it charges out from among the new recruits with its shield raised. In the darkness of night, if it gets away, it will be impossible to find it again.

Seeing that the creature was about to escape, Yuchi Chongwu immediately led his personal guards forward.

However, once they clashed, Yuchi Chongwu also felt his scalp tingle.

This thing was incredibly strong. After only a few rounds, Yuchi Chongwu felt he couldn't even lift his sword and was almost killed by its spear.

In that instant, Yuchi Chongwu was reminded of a group of generals who were only recorded in historical annals and whose names were etched in history for their martial prowess.

He was a man who could single-handedly break through enemy lines and take the head of an enemy general amidst thousands of troops.

The so-called enemy of ten thousand men.

On the road not far away, Huang Hui broke out in a cold sweat upon witnessing this scene, his eyes filled with a mixture of excitement and fear.

“This means Yuchi Chongwu is going to die.”

Huang Hui wanted to cause the emperor to suffer a major setback and weaken his authority.

But now it seems that this fall is going to be too big.

If Yuchi Chongwu were to die, Huang Hui could imagine the upheaval that would follow.

He was excited because if the emperor's power was weakened, he could gain even greater power, and it was even possible for him to regain the power of the prime minister.

What's frightening is...

If the turmoil becomes too great, to the point that the emperor can no longer hold his throne, how can the situation be stabilized?
(End of this chapter)