Two days later.
Great Swamp City. Night.
The sound of flowing water flowed out from the official residence of the Great Swamp City's governor office. At first, the sound of the zither sounded very graceful and gentle, but if one listened carefully, it would give one a hair-raising feeling. It was as if one was looking at a beautiful woman in red from afar, but when one got closer, one would discover that she was a female ghost floating in the air with her feet off the ground.
A cultivator dressed in green from Burning Country quickly walked around the corridor to the main hall where the sound of the zither was coming from. He crossed his arms outside the door and said, "State Teacher! The watchtower on the outskirts of the city discovered that the Chong Hua army is approaching. They will arrive outside Great Swamp City in at most an hour!! "
The person inside the room didn't answer. Only the bright orange light seeped out through the white cloth covering the window.
When the eerie song ended, the door opened with a creak.
The State Teacher of Burning Country walked out calmly.
This man wore an exquisite golden mask and a golden silk crown. He was clearly just a State Preceptor, but he was unscrupulously overstepping the boundaries. He wore a silk robe embroidered with a dragon pattern. The robe was inlaid with silver edges, and the pattern was woven with silk made from the tail feathers of a spirit sparrow. Under the moonlight, the robe was overflowing with colorful light.
"So fast." The moment the Imperial Preceptor opened his mouth, he actually said in a very relaxed tone, "I thought that they would take at least three days to arrive. It seems that we have taken over the Great Swamp and angered that little brat on the Chong Hua Throne."
He smiled and said, "Since the Army of Justice can't wait to have a showdown with us, why don't you go to the top of the city and prepare? Don't disappoint the guests who have come from afar."
The cultivator still had his head down and his arms crossed. Although the State Teacher's tone sounded calm and his face looked pleasant, the cultivator didn't even dare to raise his head in front of him.
Everyone in Burning Country, even the children who just learned to speak, knew that in this dark country, the most terrifying person wasn't the ruler, but the State Teacher who used the ruler's power.
This person was temperamental and cruel. The things he did could not be measured by reason or rules. Not to mention the others, even the young Lord Liaojun was nothing but a pile of mud that he could throw away whenever he wanted.
Back then, when Jun Shang succeeded to the throne, he had wanted to unite with his mother's clan to pull out this power manipulator.
But what was the result?
In the end, before the plot could be set up, all the fangs were pulled out by the State Preceptor, and all the officials involved were chopped into minced meat. Jun Shang was in despair and broke down. He cried and ran to find his mother to rely on. But on that cold night, the State Preceptor personally came to Jun Shang's mother's palace. He seemed to be deliberately trying to test the new Jun Shang's courage. He was crazy enough to humiliate that woman in front of the young Jun Shang. Then, he laughed wildly and beheaded her.
In the dark and luxurious palace, the Imperial Preceptor lazily unbuttoned his robe, exposing a large area of his muscular chest. He dipped it in a woman's hot blood and rubbed it on Lord Liao's face.
As for Lord Liao, he was trembling, and the first emotion he felt was not hatred, but fear.
"Don't kill me … Don't kill me …"
The State Preceptor put on a fake smile. No one could tell whether he was happy or angry. "Don't kill you? You're really a coward. "
"Wuwuwu … State Preceptor … Please … Please …"
"But it's good." The State Preceptor looked at the blood on his fingertips and smiled faintly. "If you were as fierce as your mother, it would be exciting to play with you, but keeping you by my side is like raising a tiger. It's not bad that you're a coward."
At that time, even a blind man could see who was superior and who was inferior. Some of the nobles in Liaojun even suggested that the State Preceptor should replace him, but the State Preceptor did not mean to do so.
"What's so interesting about being a king? It's too tiring. The position of State Preceptor is better. It's tempting. "
"The position of State Preceptor is what I want most in my life." The man smiled sweetly. "Don't force me to ascend the throne. I'm very obedient. I don't have such ambition."
He didn't have the ambition of a wolf. He was a vicious beast that ate fur and drank blood. However, he liked to pretend to be kind. Even if he raised his head from the belly of the prey, he could still show the sweetest smile with his bloody face.
Therefore, in Nine Regions, everyone knew very well that the world of Liaojun was not in the hands of the king, but belonged to the man with a surly temperament.
The State Preceptor of Liaojun was the real master of this dark country.
At this moment, the messenger was serving this man. The messenger naturally knew the pros and cons. Before him, in this year, 32 messenger cultivators had died in Liaojun. Some of them even died without knowing what they said that made the State Preceptor unhappy and wanted to behead them.
Or perhaps, the State Preceptor was not unhappy at all. He just wanted to chop off their heads.
"What are you doing? Why don't you go and let the guards at the city gate get ready." The State Preceptor smiled. "You can't even handle this matter well. Do you want to disturb me playing the zither tonight?"
The messenger felt that his whole body was covered in sweat. He hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, yes! I, I'll go now! I'll go now! "
He hurriedly ran away.
The State Preceptor smiled as he looked at the messenger's back. He stood in the courtyard for a while and then turned back to the main hall.
This main hall was now a purgatory on earth. The body of the Chong Hua Lake City's governor, who had committed suicide, had not been carried out. The governor's wife, concubines, and children had also hanged themselves, but their bodies had not been put down.
He leisurely walked through the hall. His slender fingertips brushed the floating dead bodies. His expression was relaxed as if he was brushing wind chimes.
The State Preceptor liked this kind of situation very much. It was precisely because he had this perverted hobby that even though he had been in the governor's mansion for two days, he did not let anyone clean up the bodies.
In this way, he walked all the way to the end of the main hall, where a zither that belonged to him was placed. Under the bright light, one could see that the zither was made of human skin, with hair as the strings. It was inlaid with nine eyes, which were spinning crazily.
He sat down beside the zither, plucked a few strings, and then closed his eyes and leisurely stroked the zither again.
"West of the ten-thousand-mile bridge is a thatched cottage, the water of the hundred flower pool is like the blue waves. The green clouds are beautiful and clean in the wind, the red rain is gentle and fragrant. Rich wealth, the old people's letters are cut off, the hungry children look desolate. Wanting to fill the ravine, the only way is to spread it out, laughing crazily, but getting older is even crazier. "
He plucked the strings with his fingertips, playing a long song, a leisurely song, a mournful song, and a soft song … When he played a folk song that was used to coax children to sleep, the sound of magic clashing could already be heard from the distant city walls.
A long time passed. Perhaps it was two hours, or perhaps it was two.
There was a loud boom, and even the earth seemed to be trembling.
There was a vague scream from the distant city gate, "Open the enchantment! Open the defensive enchantment! "
"Deploy the guarding cultivators from the east city gate!"
The shouts of blood and fire at the city gate had already become fragmented remnant sounds by the time they reached the governor's mansion. They were even washed away by the sound of the nine-eyed zither, like the moon in the water.
At the end of the song, the state preceptor finally raised his head and ordered lightly, "The siege is quite fast. Go out and ask who are the commanders of the Chong Hua this time. "
The attendant standing at the side took the order and went out. After a while, the attendant ran back and answered with his head bowed, "Reporting to the state preceptor, the brothers in the city defense camp said that the commander sent by the Chong Hua this time is their Lord Xi He Mo Xi!"
The state preceptor said calmly, "It's not surprising at all. Mo Xi is brave and good at fighting, but he can't fight with his senior brother. Now that Gu Mang has been sent back by us, it's not strange that the Chong Hua sent him here. What about the deputy commander? "
"Murong Lian."
The state preceptor smiled, "Just a smoker."
"There's, there's one more."
"Oh?" The state preceptor was interested, "Who is it?"
"Murong Meng Ze."
The state preceptor's fingers on the zither paused, and then he sneered, "Sending a woman to be the deputy commander, is the Chong Hua going to die out? Or does their old Monarch want his sister to get closer to Mo Xi? Murong Meng Ze … a medicine practitioner with a withered spiritual nucleus to be the deputy commander — how many soldiers did the Chong Hua give her? "
"Fifty thousand."
The state preceptor laughed, "Fifty thousand? Even if she's Murong Meng Ze, she's so weak that she's not afraid of dragging others down. This girl is so thick-skinned. "
"You're right, state preceptor."
"Oh right." The state preceptor paused for a moment and suddenly asked, "How's Gu Mang? I heard that his relationship with Mo Xi is getting better. Mo Xi even brought him back to his residence and took him in as a servant. Did he come to this battle? "
"Reporting to the state preceptor, Gu Mang." The retainer knew that he had misspoken and hurriedly corrected himself, "I misspoke, it's Gu, Gu Mang —"
The state preceptor smiled, "No matter, he has served Daliao for five years. Daliao doesn't have as many rules as the Chong Hua. If you want to continue calling him Gu Mang, there's nothing wrong with that."
Although that was true, how could the retainer dare to call Gu Mang Gu Mang Marshal?
The retainer immediately said, "State preceptor, please forgive me. According to the information obtained by Daliao's Military Council, Gu Mang was sent by the Chong Hua's monarch to be the body for the Hei Mo Trial. When he came out, he was already on the verge of death. Unless he had the help of an immortal, even if he was soaked in the Heavenly Fragrance Life-prolonging Dew, he wouldn't be able to recover in such a short time to come to the front line."
The state preceptor did not feel relieved after hearing this. He narrowed his eyes, which flashed with an unpredictable light, "Who said that there are no immortals in the Chong Hua? Isn't Jiang Fuli a saint who can revive the dead? "
There was a hint of a sneer in his words.
The retainer quickly said, "The spies keeping an eye on Jiang Fuli said that Jiang Fuli has gone out to travel again and is not in the Chong Hua capital."
"His Light-body Technique is excellent, and he has always been elusive. If he doesn't want to be discovered, he can always find a loophole no matter how hard you keep an eye on him." The state preceptor said, "In this enemy army, the Murong Lian and Murong Meng Ze don't have to worry too much. Just keep an eye on Mo Xi. Also … if there's anyone who seems to be Gu Mang, report to me immediately. "
"Yes!"
The state preceptor flicked his sleeves, "Go, let them guard the city well. I will be in seclusion for three days. After three days, I will personally deal with these young people. "
The retainer responded respectfully, and quickly bowed and left.
The Imperial Tutor's fingertips rested on the strings of the zither again. He plucked a few times and then continued to play a long tune.
"Rich wealth, the old people's books are cut off, and the hungry children are desolate. Wanting to fill the ravine, the only way is to spread it out, laughing arrogantly, but the old man is even more arrogant … "
The night was deeper, and the roar of fighting and explosion in the distance was so clear that it could be heard.
Outside the city wall, the cultivators of the Chong Hua and the Liao Country were in a stalemate, and gradually blood flowed like a river. In the governor's mansion deep in the city, the state preceptor's music never stopped.
When the Wu hook was hanging high and white frost fell on the roof tiles, an oil lamp in the governor's mansion burned to the extreme. It burst into a string of sparks and suddenly went out.
With so many dead bodies floating in the air, the governor's mansion looked even more ghostly and the light was dim. But it was also because of this sudden dim light that one could see behind the curtain — behind the curtain that was ten feet away from the state preceptor, there was a blurry light ball floating in the air.
But the light ball was too dim. It was not eye-catching before. It hid in the corner and floated and sank, as if it would disappear at any time.
The state preceptor raised his eyes, and his gaze shot out from behind the golden mask, and fell on the faint light ball.
He clenched his white teeth and said to it in a low voice, "… Pure Dust, look. I have coaxed you for so long, are you still not willing to wake up? "
The light ball that he called "Pure Dust" flashed dispiritedly, and slowly, it dimmed again …
The state preceptor narrowed his eyes slightly, and said in a low voice, "There should be a limit to your willfulness. Recover as soon as possible, and then go back with me. If you fall into the hands of the Chong Hua people, then they are a group of hypocrites, and they won't understand you as well as I do. "
"You don't want to be sealed again. Am I right? "
"Good, wake up …"
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