UCTOOT CH131

“The civilians within this city were all warriors.”

As Shi Shu was inspecting the scene, a voice sounded from behind him. It was Lin Yangchun speaking.

Shi Shu was feeding water to a survivor. He could feed one, but he could not feed a whole city. His fingers were stained with sticky, filthy blood.

Lin Yangchun shook his head. “This old man asked just now. When the Wolf Soldiers looted the place, the civilians of this city refused to surrender. After the official troops abandoned the city and fled, the commoners, organized by monks, spontaneously formed a guard to defend the city gates.”

“Men wielded hoes and knives; women drew bows and arrows. After a fight to the death, the outcome was the massacre of the entire city. The old and young alike had their hands and feet chopped off and their eyes gouged out as a mark of humiliation.”

As Shi Shu continued feeding water, he heard Lin Yangchun say, “Stop saving them. Medicinal herbs are precious; keep them for the elite soldiers. Even if these people are saved, they are useless now. They are crippled.”

Shi Shu stood up, moved the person to a shaded spot away from the scorching sun, and then walked through the city with the army.

Stepping through gore and blood plasma, Shi Shu’s face was expressionless as a thought occurred to him. “In some cities, the people are looted and taken as slaves, but they are allowed to live. Yet in other cities, the people are massacred?”

He asked a nearby guard, who replied, “The Min Army has several divisions. The Grand Crown Prince is benevolent and does not kill civilians. The royal clan members like King Wushan capture civilians as slaves. But the generals under the Great Monarch of Min will inevitably massacre and commit arson whenever they pass a city, leaving no one alive.”

Shi Shu: “The Great Monarch of Min…”

The guard recalled something: “This city just happened to be on the route of the unit led by Prince Yinkun. Yinkun… the one who attempted to assassinate the Young Master last time.”

“Yinkun. It’s Yinkun again.”

That extremist hater. His hatred for the people of Jing was intense; wherever he went, he tortured and killed without fail.

Shi Shu raised his hand to shield his eyes from the blinding sunlight. The heat rose in the air; the sweltering summer was approaching.

The sky gradually turned gloomy. Ink-black clouds seemed to gather at the zenith as a torrential downpour fell, and blood flowed like a river.

A pristine shoe stepped onto the stone stairs, striding upward. The person behind hurriedly collapsed a crooked-handle umbrella: “General Xie has arrived!”

His dark-patterned robes were blown open by the cold wind as Xie Wuchi walked into the council hall. A crowd of waiting generals and high officials stood up in unison to welcome him, their majestic faces showing utmost respect.

Xie Wuchi sat down and flipped through the documents.

A scout reported: “According to integrated intelligence from all sides, the Northern Min Wolf Soldiers claim to be a force of one million, with three hundred thousand elites. However, only three hundred thousand entered the pass this time, with elites numbering close to one hundred thousand.”

Xie Wuchi: “By gathering an army of three hundred thousand, their rear must be empty. Send a message to General Xi.”

“Yes.”

“Tell him to take the army stationed at the Beicha River and move west immediately. Enter the Tribal Directorates and march toward the Western Capital of Northern Min. Strike as deep as possible. Call upon the Min tribes to occupy their new lands. If they can create chaos in our Central Plains, we can create chaos in Northern Min.”

“Order received!”

As the group left, another general rushed in: “My Lord, the Min soldiers who looted Tianzhou… we let them escape.”

Xie Wuchi tapped his chin with one hand, his brows furrowed in thought. “Chase them. Soldiers who have just looted will be laden with heavy treasures; their marching speed will be slow. Take light cavalry and pursue them with minimal baggage. Once you catch up—”

Everyone waited for him to speak. Xie Wuchi said expressionlessly, “To those who submit, grant them mercy. To those who resist, grant them punishment.”

“—The Min soldiers who surrender are to be taken as slaves. Those who resist are to be buried alive on the spot. Leave no one alive!”

A mountain hundreds of feet high, covered in dark clouds. A mass of soldiers stood at the foot of the mountain, where fresh yellow earth had been turned over, revealing fresh pits.

All the soldiers were expressionless, holding long lances, standing in perfectly disciplined formation. On the other side of the formation were the Min soldiers, bound by ropes, barely clothed, standing in a dark mass before the mass grave.

The crowd was vast, yet there was a solemn silence. Xie Wuchi stood on the high platform as a wisp of bloody wind blew through the air.

“General, the pit of ten thousand is dug and awaiting instructions!”

Xie Wuchi raised his hand but said nothing. His young subordinates understood immediately and turned to walk toward the other end: “Bury them alive immediately.”

“Yes!”

One by one, the Min soldiers were shoved into the mud pit, their bodies contorted into strange shapes. Wails echoed in waves. The faces were young; among them were brutal soldiers who had participated in the looting, as well as kind-hearted ones who had never raised a hand.

But right now, the individual no longer mattered.

Xie Wuchi looked cold. The civil official from the Jing Dynasty who had come with him was trembling in his legs, terrified beyond measure.

“Help! Help! I don’t want to die…”

“Please spare me, spare us!”

“Gen… General Xie…”

The crowd was pushed down, and shovel after shovel of sand and soil covered their faces. Xie Wuchi stood on the high platform, wearing plain white mourning clothes for the millions of casualties of the Jing Dynasty. He spoke coldly: “For the innocent civilians who died unjustly—this General avenges you today.”

The crying and shouting shook the heavens.

The bloody wind blew again, brushing the hair at his temples.

The envoy from the Jing Court went weak at the knees and finally couldn’t hold on, kneeling on the ground: “General Xie.”

The heat was scorching, the sun blazing.

Inside the city pass, which had been slaughtered and burned, footsteps were chaotic. Shi Shu and a group from the Medical Bureau sprinted through the streets, shouting loudly: “Move them quickly! The weather is hot now; bodies cannot pile up, or plague will breed!”

“Quick, move them!” “Move them outside the city to be buried!”

“Do not let the corpses remain in the city; move them out to be burned immediately! If a plague starts amidst this great war, it will likely spread across the whole country and last for decades! Move them!”

Shi Shu slapped the cart board: “Lift them up.”

“I’ll do it, I’ll help!”

Under the dry, hot sun, Shi Shu’s spirit had long approached numbness. Together with the soldiers, he lifted the corpses onto the cart; the stiff bodies hit the wooden boards like blocks of ice.

Shi Shu put on a mask made of cotton cloth and brewed medicine in the heat of the Medical Bureau. Sweat poured down his face, the firelight reflecting in his pupils.

Only when he had a moment of leisure, dripping with sweat, did he check the System.

[Current Survivors: 7]

Shi Shu looked up and around, seeing the charred city walls. “Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?”

Shi Shu felt like he was having a nightmare. No matter how he ran, he couldn’t reach the end.

His conversations with Xie Wuchi played like a voiceover, ringing in his mind.

“I can’t stand it anymore.”

“I know you can’t stand it, and you are unwilling to stay under my wing. If you stayed in Yanzhou right now, you could enjoy wealth, peace, and joy.”

“I won’t be that kind of person.”

Du Zihan’s letters still arrived once a week. Sometimes two days late, sometimes two days early.

Every time Shi Shu opened one, he read it word by word—Little Schoolbag, I learned to ride a horse. Sinan and I galloped under the moonlight at midnight. We also hid on the mountaintops to intercept Min soldiers and attacked enemy camps at night. We barely sleep, but this life is fulfilling, and every day feels meaningful. However, I still don’t dare to kill anyone… Sinan has learned to look behind him, to look out for my safety; he will never forget a companion again.

Shi Shu wrote back to him—You have to be okay. If you can’t win, run. This isn’t a game; there is no ‘next match’ and no revival round. You have to stay alive.

Stay alive.

Smoke signals rose everywhere. On a vast plain, many people pushing and pulling carts walked in a long line. Their dark faces were numb as they dragged their feet forward.

Beside them, a horsewhip cracked with a whoosh. A tall soldier on horseback tightened his reins: “Move faster! No stopping! We need to enter the city before dark!”

Someone stumbled.

“Fuck! I told you to walk!”

“Stinking refugee! I’ll beat you to death today—” Just as the soldier was about to dismount, someone beside him stopped him and winked in Shi Shu’s direction.

“Don’t mess around. There’s a VIP traveling with us,” the man said. “Military discipline rules that we aren’t allowed to beat or kill civilians without cause. You behave yourself too.”

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, even the high-ranking officials above have to bow and scrape to him.”

“He’s not one of General Xie’s men, is he?”

“I don’t know, stop talking.”

Three years later, Shi Shu arrived in Shukang Prefecture for the third time.

The first time was the plague. The second time was exile. The third time, the Central Plains had fallen.

Carrying his travel bag, Shi Shu walked on the same road as many commoners.

Shukang Prefecture had been occupied by Wolf Soldiers for half a month before being retaken by Xie Wuchi’s army. Stepping into the city once again—the fires of the King of Chu, leaving only pitiful scorched earth.

The entire prefecture city had been destroyed by fire, leaving only broken walls and ruins. The civilians in the city had all been slaughtered in a bloodbath—three hundred thousand dead. Now the city was empty. The Xie Army had to drive refugees into the city to settle and rebuild it.

A System reminder popped up before Shi Shu’s eyes.

[Current Survivors: 6.]

[Notice: The number of survivors has decreased, entering the final contention period. Some players possess a commanding lead in Merit Points. Please pay attention to the Main Mission: Eliminate other transmigrators to achieve the title of Ruler of the World—]

[Xie Wuchi · Merit Points: 90% (Most Valuable Player)]

Shi Shu closed the System and looked at the corpses piled like mountains. Within this pile, how many were people who had inadvertently been swept into this chaotic ancient world?

Shi Shu entered the city and arranged housing for the people. The Medical Bureau where he once stayed had also been burned to the ground. They could only build temporary shacks. After boiling rice porridge in several sturdy large cauldrons, amidst the rising steam, he distributed the thin gruel to the queuing people.

Only the last ring of porridge remained in the pot. Shi Shu scraped the bottom, scraping out even the burnt rice paste, and handed it to the person in front of him: “Finish your work early tomorrow and come then; there really is no more.”

“It’s so thin, how can I drink this? I’ve been hungry for days.”

“There’s no other way. It will be better once the autumn harvest comes. It wasn’t easy to find even this much grain right now.”

Shi Shu put the ladle back into the pot. Suddenly, his vision went black, and the world fell into silence—

A cold, emotionless mechanical voice spoke—

[Current Survivors: 5]

[System active notification enabled. Players, please respond actively.]

The voice echoed against his eardrums. Shi Shu tilted his head, then looked up at the gloomy sky.

Shi Shu’s handsome face was pale. Just as he came back to his senses, a group of people suddenly rushed over, rudely pushing aside the crowd. Their strength was robust; clearly, they were elite soldiers from the army.

Upon seeing Shi Shu, they dropped abruptly to one knee: “Second Young Master! The General requests the Second Young Master to return to the central army immediately!”

Shi Shu’s heart contracted violently: “What happened?”

Stepping out of the crowd, the elite soldiers finally said, “The General led an army of one hundred thousand to breach Baiyu Pass. On the return journey, he was hit in the shoulder by a cold arrow. He is now bedridden. Please, Second Young Master, return to see the General!”

Shi Shu wiped his sleeve. Without time to say more, he mounted a nearby horse and rode through the starry night back to the central army encampment.

Outside the camp gate, the banner with the character “Xie” fluttered.

The central army camp now had many new faces. They were increasingly respectful toward Shi Shu; upon meeting, they would kneel and bow. Shi Shu ignored all that and entered the tent.

“Bro!—” Shi Shu stopped halfway through his shout.

Xie Wuchi was having his dressing changed. The clothes on his upper body were stripped down to his waist. His powerful shoulders and neck, accustomed to bow and horse in the army, were exposed. Due to the recent summer heat, his skin had tanned a deeper shade. He was sitting upright on the bed, brows slightly furrowed, with a doctor applying medicine beside him.

Shi Shu approached and said, “Xie Wuchi.”

Cold sweat slid down Xie Wuchi’s brow, and his lips were pressed tight as if enduring pain. The arrow had pierced flesh and injured the bone. When it was time to apply the poultice and bandage it, Shi Shu said, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it. I know how.”

Shi Shu took the gauze and wrapped Xie Wuchi’s shoulder. Xie Wuchi said, “Everyone out.”

After the group left, Shi Shu reached out and touched his face.

Xie Wuchi’s eyes were dark as lacquer as he asked, “How is the outside world?”

“Not great.”

Shi Shu bit off the other end of the gauze. His chin was gripped by a hand covered in thin calluses. Xie Wuchi’s thumb brushed past his lips: “Will you stay by my side?”

In an instant, Shi Shu seemed defeated by this sentence. His eyes turned red immediately. Perhaps it was everything he had seen recently. He tried hard to wrap the gauze properly, but his vision was already blurred.

Xie Wuchi reached out and pulled Shi Shu into his arms.

Shi Shu hugged him back, feeling the gauze on his back and his hair. Xie Wuchi raised his eyes and said, “I know this era causes you pain. But at least half of that pain is caused by a few foolish people.”

“They represent the Heavenly Dao for the common people, dominating their life and death. To make you stop suffering, the only way is to kill them.”

Xie Wuchi cupped his face. “I will shatter this Heavenly Dao.”

Shi Shu took a deep breath to calm himself, gently stroking the arrow wound on Xie Wuchi’s shoulder.

Xie Wuchi looked at him. “Shi Shu, I have no sense of responsibility toward any grand meaning. So—”

“Do you want to be the Crown Prince, or the Empress?”

—

Author’s Note:

1. Reference to Genghis Khan.
   
2. Similar expression found in Foundation (Galactic Empire).
   

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