Unable to defy orders, the Qin soldiers forced down their pity. Faces blank, they raised their spades and flung rain-soaked earth into the trench, shutting out the Confucian disciples' screams. They did not dare look—only work, hoping the hell they were building would end quickly.
In the pit, terror filled every eye. No living thing is unafraid of death. At the end, even gods would shudder. Begging and sobbing carried clearly through the downpour—this was to be a living burial.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" one disciple shrieked. Panic tipped into madness; eyes bloodshot, he bolted for the rim.
"Hmph. How dare you."
A Qin officer's gaze went hard. His blade flashed—thump—and a head spun into the rain, a red arc blooming across the mud.
Horror deepened. This was no longer the human world, but hell.
"Li Si! Even you could do something so heartless? Aren't you afraid of Heaven's wrath?" Fu Nian's eyes were scarlet as he strained against his bonds, voice shaking with rage. He fought to rise, but Sheng Qi's grip held him immobile.
"I… do not wish this either," Li Si said, rain sluicing down his face, eyes closed. "But it is His Majesty's command. I am powerless."
The black-clad men holding Yan Lu licked rain from their lips, a bloodthirsty light burning in their eyes—feral, wicked. Even Sheng Qi's brow furrowed. He had aided Li Si only to use the Empire's reach to find his missing younger brother. Watching this… he felt like a demon's accomplice. He was a man, not a monster. For the first time in years, the rock of his heart wavered.
"Someone's escaping! Seize her!"
A shout split the ranks.
A small figure vaulted from the trench—Shi Lan. Twin daggers flashing like cold stars, she wove through the Qin lines like a midnight wraith. Screams burst in her wake as lives fell into the mud.
Under a sky black with storm, she moved like ink in rain. But there were too many soldiers. They surged and closed, hemming her in.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Shields locked, spears thrust as the ring tightened.
Shi Lan sprang, toes kissing a spearshaft; she kicked off light as a swallow, sailed over the cordon—and arrowed straight for Li Si.
"Protect the Chancellor!"
Guards flooded in, a living wall before him. Steel crashed against steel as they met the onrushing girl.
Elsewhere, the shovels did not stop—if anything they moved faster, burying the disciples beneath wet earth.
Watching, Sheng Qi's face went from storm to stone. At last he loosened the hand pinning Fu Nian. "Go."
Fu Nian blinked, startled. "You—"
"I've killed more men than I can count," Sheng Qi growled. "But serving a tyrant like this? That is an insult to Sheng Qi."
Ju Que came down like thunder, severing Fu Nian's ropes with a single smash.
"My thanks," Fu Nian said, sincere even in chaos. "It seems the world has misjudged you."
"Save it. We cut our way out first." Sheng Qi's voice was ice; nothing grated on him like scholar's chatter.
He swept Ju Que in a brutal arc. Wind howled; men screamed. A dozen soldiers flew, blood misting the rain, a swath torn open as if by a gale.
One man, one sword—Sheng Qi was a battering ram. Any Qin soldier who touched that edge bled; those struck fell and did not rise. It was like wading through reeds.
Fu Nian, free, collided with the black-clad trio holding Yan Lu; blades rang as he met them head-on.
"Sheng Qi has turned traitor!" Panic rippled through the Qin ranks.
"These rebels were never to be trusted," Li Si said, still composed amid the storm. "I prepared for this. Against Jianghu 'masters,' mercy is a mistake. Archers—ready. Kill the rebels."
At his order, archer units appeared everywhere—on streets, in pavilions, even along the banks of Ershui. In a blink, Xiao Sheng Xianzhuang was a sealed cauldron.
Thousands of nocked bolts, cold light glimmering, tilted toward the three at the center. At a word, the sky would fall.
"So—he had this in reserve," Fu Nian muttered, frown deepening. "With soldiers on all sides and thousands of crossbows—Gongshu mechanisms that punch through copper—forcing a path at this range… unlikely."
"Senior Brother—don't mind us," Yan Lu called, voice steady though a blade kissed his neck. "Go—with Sheng Qi!"
---
"Everyone fall back! Archers—ready!"
The Qin ring melted away from the center like a tide. The black-clad men withdrew as well. In heartbeats, the packed square lay open—only Fu Nian, Sheng Qi, and Shi Lan stood alone beneath the rain.
Shi Lan slid in beside them, expression chill and calm. Fu Nian spared a brief glance—since when did a Confucian disciple move like this?—but the moment for questions had passed. The three stood back-to-back, facing a forest of leveled bolts—so many, so close, that the air itself felt barbed.
"Behind me," Sheng Qi rumbled. "Stay tight. I'll cut the way."
"Loose!"
Li Si's hand fell. No speeches; none mattered now.
Whsst—whsst—whsst!
A black storm fell. Arrows blotted the sky, all of them aimed at the single point where the three stood.
"Haah!"
Sheng Qi roared. Inner force surged; a two-zhang circle around him hardened into a whirling wall of qi. Ju Que swept out—brute power and killing will made steel. Bolts shattered against that invisible gale, splintering like reeds under a flood.
"Move!" he bellowed, carving a path as he spun the great blade, wind screaming around its edge. Splinters rained. The three drove for the estate gates amid the hail.
"He truly has some skill," Li Si murmured, watching the man grind through a thousand-bolt volley. "A pity. Those who stand against the Empire end only one way."
"General Liu," he said to the officer at his side, "if we delay, they'll break free of the estate."
"At once!" Liu saluted. "Bring up the strong-bow! No one leaves this place alive!"
A crew of Qin soldiers heaved a massive siege arbalest onto the viewing platform. Its quarrel was forged iron, more than two meters long, as thick as a man's wrist.
Gongshu craftwork—pure killing intent made machine. It could punch a hole through a city gate; what was a human body before it?
Seven brawny troopers hauled the string back.
Thrum!
The cable sang as the giant bolt leapt away, a streak of black light that seemed to pierce the underworld itself—a shaft of death hurled straight at Sheng Qi's chest.
"Look out!" Fu Nian and Shi Lan cried together.
...
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