Demon Emperor

Chapter 49 Borrowing Your Head

On the Nuo altar.

The old, powerful shaman with the ring-headed head is performing a ritual.

He was holding a paper figure and chanting, but before he could finish, the paper figure in his hand was suddenly blown away by the wind.

"Ok?"

The shaman stared wide-eyed and reached out to grab it, but missed, and could only watch the thing drift away.

The statue of the Horse King on the Nuo altar moved and spoke.

"What's wrong? Have you caught that brat Ruan Hu?"

The old shaman looked terrible, but he still forced himself to stay upright.

“Some unknown deity has broken my law.”

Lord Ma laughed, mocking the old witch.

“It must be the divine master Miaoxiang from the Kunlun Western Regions.”

Before he could finish speaking, the other party not only broke his Nightmare Suppression spell, but also exposed his disguise as a headless person created from the head of the late emperor.

The old shaman's expression changed drastically, and he burst into curses.

"A mere extraterrestrial deity dares to display his supernatural powers in my Central Plains! I will surely..."

Using witchcraft to deal with Emperor Ruan Hu was merely a trial.

It's unrealistic to think that such a simple technique could kill an emperor.

In fact, this was merely an unauthorized action on his part.

It is a mortal who considers himself to be a master of witchcraft and is showing off his power.

However, it is of utmost importance to have the "former emperor appear" to reveal the evil identity of "Emperor Ruan Hu".

It was a crucial task entrusted to him by someone else, and he absolutely could not afford to make a mistake.

At this moment.

The old witch, in her eagerness to show off her witchcraft, caused a blunder in what should have been the most crucial step, so how could she not be anxious?

The old shaman immediately tried to find a way to remedy the situation, but before he could find a solution, bad news kept coming.

Nearly half of the headless barbarians, who had been descended from ancient times, were caught in a single net by Ruan Hu's men.

The old shaman was overwhelmed by a mix of emotions: anxiety, anger, regret, and hatred, which, combined with the resulting backlash, caused him great distress.

He instantly coughed up blood and collapsed onto the jar.

at this time.

He still forced himself to stand up, leaning on the table as he spoke to the guardian children below the Nuo altar.

"Quickly, go and inform the general that something has gone wrong."

Once he recovered, the old shaman immediately relied on the Nuo altar to prepare to cast another spell to control the remaining headless people and make them fly back.

These people are beings evolved from ancient bloodlines. Their names alone reveal that they are the people of the ancient Wu Kingdom during the wild and untamed times of the mountains and seas, and each one of them was hard-won.

Now that nearly half of the former inhabitants have been lost, the old shaman is heartbroken and must bring the remaining inhabitants back.

But, looking back...

The paper statue of Lord Ma, which had been trapped in a trap, suddenly burst into flames on its own.

"Damn it!"

Seeing that things were going badly, the three-eyed horse-faced god had already fled.

This deity is related to another important plan. Only with his help can we take down the Donkey Army, which was still rampant during the heyday of the Great Sheng Dynasty. We absolutely cannot let him escape.

The old shaman looked behind him, and at the same time, he heard a series of rapid hoofbeats.

"Da da da!"

At first, you could only hear the sounds but not see the figures.

As the sound faded into the distance.

A ghostly horse galloped away in the darkness, and the voice of the Horse King echoed over.

"Don't chase after them. It seems that you alone are no match for that brat Ruan."

"Why don't we join forces to create chaos in this Western Cheng region, and then each rely on our own abilities?"

Everything happened in a flash of lightning.

One wrong step leads to another, leaving no time to react.

The old witch could no longer hold back, spitting out another mouthful of blood before collapsing to the ground unconscious.

The children below the Nuo altar immediately came up and massaged him until he finally woke up.

The old shaman then remembered that he needed to perform a ritual to control the headless people and bring them back.

He immediately rose and ascended the altar again.

But in the end.

As dawn approached, only four of the surrendered people were recalled; the whereabouts of the others were unknown.

The old shaman placed the people who had been beheaded into pottery jars on the Nuo altar, sighing and wondering how to report this matter to his superiors.

Overwhelmed by anxiety and fear, another wave of anger surged through him.

His body, which he had barely managed to hold up, finally collapsed from illness.

But he soon didn't need to report it anymore.

The next night.

A head fell from the sky, circling the bamboo and wooden houses, which were full of the style of a barbarian tribe, again and again. Finally, it stopped in front of the window and called out his name.

The old witch opened her eyes, only to find that she couldn't move at all.

He was struck by a soul-summoning spell.

But he recognized it; the head outside the window was the same head that had belonged to him before, the headless man created with ancient witchcraft.

At that moment, the head outside the window spoke loudly.

"I'll borrow your head for a moment."

Before the old shaman's horrified eyes, the flying demon pounced down and bit the ailing and weak old shaman to death.

Even until his death, the old witch's eyes remained filled with incomprehensible brilliance.

Despite being under his control, these "local tyrants" have now returned to kill him.

How is that possible?
As soon as the old shaman died, the jars on the Nuo altar outside began to shake violently, and one after another, the headless people broke through the jars and came out.

"Run away!"

"Run away!"

"The witch is dead."

"Good riddance."

"From now on, no one can restrain us."

Those peasants, having lost their masters and with no one left to control them, immediately scattered and fled.

The flying-headed ghost immediately targeted one of them and chased after it relentlessly.
-
Ruan Hu is still in the Lotus Temple.

The matter of offering sacrifices at the imperial tombs has caused such a huge mess; there must be a resolution.

From the pavilion on Lotus Temple Mountain, one can see monks practicing martial arts at the foot of the mountain, while Zhou Kaigu reports on recent findings in front of the pavilion.

"I have already investigated, and the people who have the custom of wearing gold rings around their necks should be the Ring-Headed Barbarians of Wu County."

"Our family has lived in the southern Chu region for generations, and only recently migrated to Wu County."

“Normally, these barbarians are under the jurisdiction of the Wuxi Patrol Office. In times of war, the Western Barbarian Righteous Army Office is established to summon these barbarian soldiers to fight.”

Ruan Hu realized something: "Is Pei Yuanxiao behind this?"

Zhou Kaigu: "Your Majesty, I dare not speculate. I do not know whether the Pillar General is involved in this matter, but the Huan Shou Barbarian Tribe is indeed related to it."

"Many of his soldiers belonged to this unit."

Although Pei Yuanxiao retreated several times, hesitated and wavered, and did not confront or break with Ruan Hu directly, he would not sit idly by and watch Ruan Hu grow stronger step by step.

"He's about to make his move."

Ruan Hu had already sensed the impending chaos; the entire Xicheng region was likely to descend into turmoil.

Ruan Hu dismissed Zhou Kai and then sent someone to summon the other two to an audience.

"Summon the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue to see me."

The Wuxi Patrol Office was a department that managed the barbarians and was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue.

This office was not actually established now, but was set up during the heyday of the Dasheng Dynasty. It was later taken over and retained by the late emperor after he fled to Xicheng.

Their primary duties were to monitor these barbarian tribes and to collect cinnabar, rhinoceros armor, animal hides, and medicinal herbs from them.

As soon as the Ministers of War and Revenue arrived, Ruan Hu asked them questions.

"Since these Huan Shou barbarians migrated from elsewhere, what is their relationship with other barbarian chieftains and tribes in the surrounding area?"

The Minister of Revenue replied, "Disputes have occurred frequently."

Ruan Hu then asked, "Didn't the other barbarian leaders and tribes ever think of driving them out?"

It's not so easy for a new tribe to settle down and recuperate in a newly arrived place.

Let alone the difficulties of adapting to the local environment and the challenges of clearing land, didn't your original place already have an owner? And would the other surrounding forces be willing to let you take over the interests that originally belonged to them?
The Minister of War said, "These barbarian tribes cannot unite and are afraid of General Pei Yuanxiao, so there is no way to deal with them."

Ruan Hu understood, and immediately got up and took a few steps.

"I have investigated and found that the evil spirits that offended the late emperor's mausoleum were summoned by the ghost shaman of the Huan Shou Barbarian."

Then, he issued an imperial decree.

"deliver an imperial order."

"Ask Pei Yuanxiao, when he was in dire straits and on the verge of death, it was the late emperor who took him in."

"Now the Huan Shou barbarian tribe is causing trouble and disturbing the late emperor's mausoleum. Their sorcerers are using witchcraft to plot against the emperor. How should I deal with them?"

Below the stage, an official was writing furiously.

“Your Excellency Pei, when you were in distress, it was the late Emperor who personally donned armor and welcomed you to his presence at the foot of the steps.”

"Now, the barbarian bandits have encroached upon the mausoleum of the late emperor, and their sorcerers are using witchcraft and magic to harm me. How should we deal with such rebellious and cunning villains?"

While Ruan Hu issued an edict to inquire about Pei Yuanxiao's opinion on the handling of the Ring-Headed Witch, he also directly issued an edict on the punishment.

"Issuing an edict to all officials of the Wuxi Patrol Office, and preparing to establish the Western Barbarian Righteous Army Prefecture to supervise the barbarian troops and righteous armies in attacking the Huanshou Barbarians."

After Ruan Hu issued the decree, he did not stay at Lotus Temple any longer.

"Go, go back."

Let's start by taking action against the Huan Shou barbarians and see what Pei Yuanxiao is up to.

But before that, Ruan Hu needs to get his hands on something else.

White-haired donkey.

(End of this chapter)