"What do you know!"
Cheng Chongyu got up, ignoring the blood at the corner of his mouth. His fierce eyes were fixed on Nan Shiying as he shouted, "Great men do not concern themselves with trifles. If sacrificing a few thousand common folk can throw Liaojiang into chaos, if it can give Lin Yuan an opportunity to conquer Liaojiang, then those who have died should be proud if they knew!"
"Is that so?"
Nan Shiying kicked Cheng Zimo in the stomach. Cheng Zimo hunched over like a shrimp, the searing pain causing his eyes to bulge. He clutched his belly, gasping for air. However, his gasps didn't last long before Nan Shiying's hand shot out like lightning, grabbing his neck and lifting him up.
From her foot striking him to lifting him, the action was so fast it was less than a second. Cheng Chongyu watched his son being choked, unable to intervene.
"You say sacrifice is inevitable, then today let it begin with your son. I promise you, after I slaughter your entire Cheng clan, I will turn Liaojiang upside down. I will make the Langhuan Army trample all over Liaojiang's mountains and rivers. What do you think?"
"You..."
Cheng Chongyu's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What, does it hurt?"
"If I merely say it, you are already heartbroken?"
Nan Shiying found it utterly ridiculous. When sacrificing others, one spoke grandly, but when the blade fell upon oneself, one cried out to heaven for injustice.
Nan Shiying grabbed Cheng Zimo's arm and forcefully bent it. The sound of bone snapping and Cheng Zimo's miserable scream erupted simultaneously. Cheng Chongyu's heart was instantly twisted with pain. Killing intent surged through him. His peripheral vision caught sight of the trembling civilians hidden in the corner.
He hesitated for a second, forcing himself to look away.
"Release my son!"
Cheng Chongyu's voice was hoarse and low, as if drenched in blood. "I will bear the sins I have committed. Even if I am cut into a thousand pieces, I will willingly accept it."
"You yourself?"
"The lives of over a thousand commoners, how will you bear them?"
"If your three generations are not exterminated, the wronged souls cannot be appeased."
"Do not force me!" Cheng Chongyu's eyes turned crimson. His clenched fists bulged with veins. His shoulders trembled. His soul, having revealed its dirtiest parts without support, was uncontrollably sliding into the abyss. A voice in his mind kept screaming: Take the civilians behind you hostage, threaten her, threaten her!
"What will you do?"
"I..."
"Cheng Chongyu!"
In extreme pain, Cheng Zimo's face turned as pale as paper. He couldn't turn his head, but he still heard his father's intentions from his words. He used all his might to draw the last breath from his lungs. He called out his father's name directly, his voice filled with sorrow and grief. "You said the ruler is the boat and the people are the water, and that one must be loyal to the ruler and love the people. You said that as a soldier, your greatest duty is to protect the home and country and the people. You also said that if the Liao barbarians ever invaded, you would fight to your last drop of blood rather than let them step into Wucheng or kill a single commoner."
"You taught me this, you taught me this!"
"If... if for my life, you are to make one mistake after another, then... then there's no need for others to act, I... I... I'll kill myself!"
Cheng Zimo's voice of grief and indignation gradually weakened. After running out of oxygen, his lungs felt as if they were being sliced by knives.
His eyeballs nearly burst from their sockets. His face, swollen red, was contorted with a fierce grimace. Snot and tears flowed down his cheeks and onto his neck, about to drip onto Nan Shiying's hand. Nan Shiying disdainfully let go.
The sudden influx of air caused him to cough violently. Cheng Zimo lay on the ground, clutching his chest, as if about to cough up his lungs.
Nan Shiying stepped forward and placed her foot on his back.
Cheng Zimo felt as if a ton of weight was pressing down on him. His face was pressed intimately against the ground. The right side of his face, ground into the earth, burned with pain. His jaw seemed to be broken, his mouth couldn't close, and saliva dripped from the corner of his lips.
He couldn't kill himself.
He couldn't bite his tongue!
"Thank you!"
Cheng Chongyu's voice was choked with emotion.
"General Cheng, does it hurt?" Nan Shiying asked again, still standing on Cheng Zimo.
"It pierces my heart and bones!"
Nan Shiying turned her head and looked at the battle in the distance. "Tell me everything you know, and the innocent members of the Cheng household will be spared."
Cheng Chongyu looked deeply at the woman before him. It was only at this moment that he understood the source of the pressure and fear he felt when facing her earlier—it came from the innate authority of someone who held the power of life and death.
She was far more than just an imperial envoy!
Cheng Chongyu still didn't believe his decision back then was wrong, but he had to admit that when the identity of the sacrificed turned into his own family member, he was grief-stricken, despairing, and unable to accept it.
He lowered his eyes, accepting the fate that awaited him. "Alright!"
Nan Shiying did not deliberately lower her voice. Her conversation with Cheng Chongyu reached the ears of the black-robed figures. The black-robed figures were unsettled and, under the fierce attacks of Ying Yi and the other three, were forced to retreat. They no longer had the will to assassinate, only wanting to break through and send a message.
However, after Nan Shiying issued the kill order, their chances of survival were already zero.
For how could there only be Ying Yi hidden in the tunnels?
When Er Gou, playing the role of Feng Luan, successfully retreated, the shadow guards quietly returned to Wucheng, back to Nan Shiying's side.
When the black-robed figures were pushed into a corner, they began to recite their incantations again. However, the shadow guards did not give them time to finish—only fools would stand by and watch their enemies grow stronger!
The battle ended much faster than Cheng Chongyu had imagined. As for casualties, apart from the remains of snakes strewn everywhere, none on Nan Shiying's side died. Tangled with the snake carcasses were the corpses of the black-robed figures.
Cheng Chongyu knew how formidable the black-robed figures were, so he was even more aware of how formidable the people beside him were.
Shou Yi grabbed the cook's right arm and pushed it upwards, re-attaching her arm which had become dislocated from swinging her boning knife. The cook's wounds on her back and chest were bleeding profusely, but she acted as if she felt no pain, not even a frown.
Shou Yi had several injuries, but they were all superficial. The bleeding from his wounds was less than a tenth of the cook's.
Ying Yi stood with his sword drawn amidst the sea of corpses, completely unharmed, not even stained with much blood.
Snake Shadow had suffered some minor injuries and looked somewhat disheveled. In terms of combat power, she was far inferior to Ying Yi and the other shadow guards.
Nan Shiying threw a bottle of healing medicine to the cook, who immediately tucked it into her chest.
She glanced at Snake Shadow, then turned to Shou Yi and said, "Monk, I'll help you apply medicine later. Sister's healing medicine is the best in the world. With your injuries, one dose will heal you completely!"
Shou Yi clasped his hands together and chanted, "Amitabha." The Vajra bracelets on his wrists jingled together. Shou Yi quickly took them off and put them back into his chest.
The moment the Vajra bracelets were removed, Shou Yi transformed from a violent monk into a gentle and serene one, his eyes seeming to be infused with a divine radiance. The cook smacked her lips, finding it impossible to connect the monk who was now humbly bowing his head and chanting a prayer for the dead black-robed figures with the violent monk who had just smashed a man's chest with his fist.
How could he kill someone and then chant prayers?
The cook poked Shou Yi's waist. The wound on her chest bled even more with her movement, bloodstains dripping at Shou Yi's feet. Shou Yi didn't stop chanting, but his chanting became faster and faster, to the point where the cook thought she was hearing a foreign language—she simply couldn't understand it!
Shou Yi finished his task within a minute and then looked up at the cook. "Little benefactor, you should tend to your wounds first!"
The cook waved her hand, replying casually, "It's fine, it's fine, these little injuries are nothing."
"Besides, I'm not a little benefactor anymore. I'm already of age."
Shou Yi looked down at her small stature and the two small buns on her head. The cook reached up and tugged at her hair, explaining, "This is the hairstyle I use for fishing."
Shou Yi: "..."
"None of that is important. I wanted to ask you, don't monks have to observe precepts and commandments? How can you still kill?"
Shou Yi glanced at her wounds again. Her face had turned somewhat pale, but her eyes were still bright, gleaming with a desire for knowledge.
Shou Yi said, "This humble monk did not kill them!"
The cook glanced at the black-robed figure at Shou Yi's feet. Wasn't that the one whose chest he had smashed with his fist?
"This humble monk merely severely injured them. It was their own physical condition that was problematic, and they failed to survive, thus leading to their deaths. Since it was not an immediate demise, how can it be counted as this humble monk killing them?"
The cook: "..."
The cook never expected that this monk, who seemed to understand Buddhist principles so well, could utter such shameless words. So, the fact that you didn't deliver the final blow to end their suffering, but instead left them severely injured, was considered an act of mercy?
Hmph!
Nan Shiying found Shou Yi's sophistry both amusing and exasperating. However, compared to those monks who always spoke of 'letting go of the butcher's knife and becoming a Buddha immediately' and showed compassion to all wicked people, he was much more likable. Of course, there were indeed high monks who acted in accordance with their words, but Nan Shiying simply disagreed with certain Buddhist philosophies.
The cave was becoming increasingly crowded with corpses, no longer suitable for habitation. Fortunately, they didn't need to stay.