Chapter 52: End of a Reign

Lu Bu's Fang Tian Hua Ji or Heaven Piercer washed across the front yard, disintegrating any terracotta soldiers in its path, and engulfing the stunned Qin Emperor and his entire chariot. They vanished in a blinding explosion, consumed and annihilated down to atoms. The golden wave of energy continued onward before finally arcing up, taking the form of a colossal spear that appeared to pierce the heavens.

"What the hell?!" Wang Ni Tian shouted in disbelief, his eyes bulging when he caught sight of what had happened to his summoned spirit. There was no trace left of the Qin Emperor or his chariot. As proof of his demise, his terracotta soldiers were crumbling into dust, falling apart where they stood even without being smashed apart by Gan Jiang, Mo Ye, Huang Fei Hong and Mu Rong Shu. "How is that possible!?"

"Well, Lu Bu's Fang Tian Hua Ji is an anti-fortress attack that is ranked A++," I explained, only for everyone to give me a weird stare.

"Aren't you mixing up something?" Mu Rong Shu asked, trying not to sound too annoyed. "You're in the wrong universe and using the wrong noble phantasm…ahem, divine treasure."

"Oh, sorry about that." I scratched my head. Lu Bu, on the other hand, smply shrugged, as if to say he didn't care.

"Same difference."

"See? The person himself says there's no problem, so let's continue ripping off a famous anime series that's based off a visual novel."

"No matter how much you wish for it, Ufotable will not be animating this story, so stop dreaming," Mu Rong Shu told me flatly. I winced. Sometimes it was better to receive a dose of reality head-on. But a man could dream, couldn't he?

Unfortunately, whatever dreams I wished to entertain were cruelly cut short when Wang Ni Tian and Wang Ling Er attacked.

Wang Ni Tian was lunging at me while Wang Ling Er headed for Mu Rong Shu. It was clear from their actions that, even if they were to die here, they were determined to bring the both of us down with them. Wang Ni Tian, in particular, believed that I was vulnerable because Lu Bu was too far away to protect me. He was confident that he could best me in a fight as long as I didn't have Lu Bu to help me.

How naïve.

I shifted to the side, allowing his sword to pierce the air beside me, the blade slashing through the empty space that I had occupied a millisecond ago. I moved my hands and struck him in his midriff before spinning him around and using his momentum against him. Wang Ni Tian cried out before his world reversed and he was sent toppling to the ground. I then stomped on him for good measure, though I failed to break his spine.

At least I ensured that the wind was knocked out of him and that he wouldn't be getting up for a while.

Meanwhile, Mu Rong Shu faced off against a furious Wang Ling Er. They seemed to be bantering, exchanging harsh words while trading fierce blows with each other.

"You really think you can steal my husband from me?" Mu Rong Shu asked dryly before she slammed a palm into Wang Ling Er's abdomen. A Kun trigram flashed below her, the earth element lending her brute strength. Wang Ling Er folded over and flew several meters away, blood spurting out of her mouth. But Mu Rong Shu was not done yet. She leaped over and landed on the sprawled Wang Ling Er, stomping her to the ground. The poor girl vanished in an explosion of soil and grass, her body pulverized into a crater as more blood burst out of her mouth, staining the ruined dirt around her. Mu Rong Shu stared down at her, a sneer curling her lips. "Are you worthy?"

"You…you can't kill us!" Wang Ling Er spluttered. She had caught sight of her fallen brother as well and was panicking.

"Why not?" Mu Rong Shu was thoroughly amused. "Have you forgotten that I come from a family of assassins?"

"That's not what I meant!" Wang Ling Er coughed and glared defiantly at Mu Rong Shu. "You had best let us go now! The imperial family is someone you cannot afford to offend! If you kill us, the imperial family will definitely not let you off! They will hunt you down and kill you and everyone related to you!"

"…so, rather than trying our best to delay our deaths for as long as we can, we should just stand still and let you kill us immediately instead?" Mu Rong Shu raised an eyebrow. "Are you…sane?"

"YES!" Wang Ling Er shouted. "That's what you should do, you trash! Your lives aren't even worth a millionth of us from the imperial family! You're commoners! Just trash! Know your place, filth! You are born solely to prop us royals up! Your lives are cheap and expendable! You're nothing compared to us chosen ones, we who have been destined from birth to rule!"

She clutched at Mu Rong Shu's foot, literally foaming at the mouth, but defiant to the last.

"Now die!"

Before Mu Rong Shu could obliterate her chest with a second stomp, Mo Ye showed up and beheaded Wang Ling Er. The so-called princess's head flew off in a bloody arc before landing some paces away. Mu Rong Shu blinked and removed her foot, staring at the red-haired spirit in disbelief.

"Sorry," Huang Hong Lin said, striding forward, her arms folded. "But that bitch was getting on my nerves. So I shut her up."

"That's fine. I would have killed her if you didn't."

"I hope I didn't steal your kill."

"Not at all. I don't care about that, really. I left my killing days behind. If anything, I'm grateful that you didn't allow me to dirty my hands."

Her hands looked plenty filthy to me, but I decided not to say that. Instead, I glanced at the fallen Wang Ni Tian, but Gan Jiang was already on the case. The prince of the imperial family raised his hands, begging for mercy, tears streaming from his eyes.

"No, wait! Please! I'll give you anything! Money, women, men, whatever! Whatever the imperial family has, you can have it! Just spare my life! Please!"

"Nope."

Huang Hong Lin's word was final. At her silent command, Gan Jiang swung his sword and decapitated the stunned and horrified Wang Ni Tian. His head also flew off before rolling to a stop right next to his sister's. They both faced each other, staring into each other's glazed eyes in horror.

"Well, that solves the problem of the imperial family, at least." Huang Fei Hong clapped his hands, watching their heads roll. He then sighed and rubbed his head. "But they aren't wrong. Now that you've killed them, the imperial family will come after you."

"What, they are allowed to attack us and try to kill us, but we are not allowed to defend ourselves?" Mu Rong Shu snapped, her hands on her slender waist and slightly above her wide hips. "Even if we spare their lives, they won't appreciate the mercy we show them. They will definitely return in the future to take revenge and kill us again. How many attempts do we have to repel before they finally succeed, huh?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Huang Fei Hong assured her, holding both his hands up in a placating manner. "I actually agree with you. But that doesn't change the fact that the imperial family will come after us all for revenge. I'm simply stating the facts and suggesting that we prepare some countermeasures, so that we won't be caught off guard when they come to retaliate."

"Yeah, that's a great idea." I nodded in agreement. "Best to prepare, just in case. Even though I'm hoping we can hide the fact of their deaths for as long as possible, we need to assume the worst and prepare for it."

"How do you intend to hide their deaths?" Huang Hong Lin asked dryly. "Their family must know that you are their targets. They'll definitely find out eventually."

"That's true." I sighed. "And I doubt they would be in any mood to question us. The first thing they would do is attack us straight."

That was the type of unreasonable and ruthless people the imperial family was. Well, no matter. It was time to settle the debt with them and wiped them out. They had been sitting at the top of the country for too long, and had grown corrupted and excessively greedy. They treated human lives like nothing more than cattle, recklessly expending them to fuel their own selfish desires.

There was no way we could survive, not with them behaving like tyrants. Like I said regarding the heavenly mandate, the moment such corrupted and tyrannical rulers were proven unfit for their reign, they would be overthrown and replaced. The many dynasties that rose and fell throughout history were evidence of that.

"A king has his reign, and then he dies. It's inevitable. That is the natural order of things."

"Why are you quoting Ridley Scott's Prometheus now?" Mu Rong Shu asked, annoyed. I was even more surprised that my wife knew what I was referencing, but hey…she was my wife. She completed me.

"I thought it was relevant. The downfall of the imperial family is inevitable. Their reign is over."

Long overdue, in fact. I was happy to see them fall. After what they did, the atrocities they committed under the name of "rulers" of this country.

"Wang Ni Tian is the only summoner in their ranks right now," Huang Hong Lin mused, considering our options. "But they have many strong cultivators in their ranks. They have dozens of grand masters and at least three Saints. We are no match for them at all."

"Ho…" I smiled. "I always fancied a challenge."

"This is no laughing matter!" She stormed.

"Huan Shi has a point, though," Huang Fei Hong pointed out. "There's no use worrying excessively over what we have no control over. They attacked and provoked us first. They are tyrants who cannot be reasoned with. Whatever we did, it would have only ended either in our destruction or theirs. If that's the case, I would prefer to be on the victorious side."

He smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder, his grip warm and firm.

"I'll be standing on your side, regardless. I'm also sick of the tyranny and corruption of the imperial family. They have been doing whatever they want and getting away with it for far too long. It's time to overthrow them."

"Yeah! Agreed!" I nodded wholeheartedly, glad that I had such a reliable ally on my side. Huang Fei Hong was really similar to his namesake.

"There is one good thing, though," Huang Fei Hong continued, turning to also address his sister and my wife. "Given that this is the arrogant imperial family we are talking about here, they will underestimate us. They won't send out their whole force or strongest people after us, at least not at first. They will be sending strike forces or kill teams piecemeal, one small squad at a time. They won't see us as a threat, not until it's too late. We'll take advantage of that."

"Sounds like a plan." I nodded thoughtfully, already formulating a few strategies. "Divide and conquer. Their pride will be the cause of their fall."

"Exactly."

"That means we will have time," Mu Rong Shu said, thinking hard. "They probably won't know about the deaths of Wang Ni Tian and Wang Ling Er, at least not at first. It wouldn't even occur to them that their prized children prodigies have been defeated. They would assume that the two of them are having fun hunting other summoners, and they wouldn't look for them until maybe a week or so later when neither of them make any contact with the main family."

"That gives us plenty of time to make our preparations." Huang Hong Lin smiled. "We can use this to rest and take a break. Now that we've eliminated the biggest and strongest threats to us in the Summoner War, all we need to do is withstand the inevitable retaliation of the imperial family, destroy them, and then we would have as good as won the war."

"But we can't afford to underestimate the other summoners," I warned, placing a hand on my chin. "No doubt, by the time we've dealt with the imperial family, the strongest and most cunning of the summoners would have survived…and they will prove to be the most dangerous."

"That's why we allied with you." Huang Fei Hong chuckled. "Together, we'll face those threats and hopefully emerge victorious."

"…but first, we'll have to survive the imperial family." Huang Hong Lin looked as if she had a headache. "So…any ideas on where we are going to start?"