The ministers can't calm themselves down. How can they if they all look like cornered sheeps who are just doing some pitiful retaliation to entertain the wolf?
Would they stand a chance against the people observing above them?
Thus, they all despaired.
The emperor saw their desperation, but instead of looking grim, he just smirk, a cold glint shines in his pitch black eyes.
' Not enough', he thought.
" You're just going to let those people scare you?" the emperor incited.
" You all have private armies, don't tell me your over all number cant outnumber them? You were all usually scheming, where have your brains gone?", the emperor smirks, his voice dripping in sarcasm.
The ministers can't help but see the emperor in a new light.
' Yes, we're all scheming, that is why we know that we don't stand a chance! Your highness, where has your brain also gone?', they all mock inside their heads, but without having a choice, they all know that they have to put up their last struggle. They will not even know if they will not try.
Driven by desperation, the ministers summon their private armies through jade flare.
One by one, flares illuminated the sky, showcasing the different insignia of different families invloved.
For a few minutes the insignia remained in the sky, brighting up the already bright sky of the Black Tortoise Kingdom.
Di Xueyan silently scrutinized the emperor. She knew something is up, else why would the emperor incite the ministers to fight? Though it is understandable, but as someone who is not directly involved with the case, the emperor knew that his punishment is lighter than the ministers, thus, he does not need to do this thing. She even heard that the emperor plans to use the military seal as cannon fodder for his escape. She has been puzzled about this for days, now, as she looks at the smirking emperor, she knows that it is not as simple as that.
The emperor will be an idiot if he really execute his plan. But those who believes his stupid plan before are the real and undisputed idiots.
She observes the emperor's facial expression, aside from the coldness of his face and the entertained smirk of his lips, nothing can be seen in his eyes.
' Silly, how can you see if its all black? Idiot! It just looks like empty eye sockets', she silently scolded herself, disappointed at how useless she is.
' God, my favorite protagonists will surely know what he feels right now just by their keen senses. Should I just jump into their books right now? Hmp! I told mother that I wanted to be a secret agent before but she just laughed at me! I would have known a lot of skills by now! I should've just directly went to the police station and asked. Look at me know, so pitiful! ', she thought, depressed at her inability.
While she is in an internal dilemma, General Bai is also troubled. He feels a light shaking of the ground together with the sound of marching soldiers. He turns his head left and right and saw soldiers coming from different directions. His body unconsciously shakes at the shamelessness of the old sly men around him.
How could they heed the emperor! Surely, many civilians will be affected this time. The palace is maybe big but it won't cater hundreds of thousands soldiers at once!
Actually, he was just staring at Di Xueyan in deep thought, as if trying to decipher her, the moment the ministers activated their flares, thus he only reacted the moment he saw the hundreds of thousands soldiers.
He knows that no matter how powerful the Sangre Pavilion is, they are just very outnumbered. He looks at the people above them, he has a feeling that they will not help unless their people is a breath away from death, as ordered from their miss. He personally thinks that it is very cruel of her, but also understands her reasons. Up until now, he is still wondering who the little girl is for having this powerful allies, but he knew, based on her interaction with Jin Linkai, that she is not a foe.
The general took a deep breath and made a decision.
Unbeknownst to him, the emperor is already anticipating his next move. He smirks when he saw the general takes the military seal from who knows where, as he is not even wearing a space ring, raises his hand and activated it, making the already quiet sky, because the other insignia already vanished, shakes with a loud crackling sound again, but this time, it is more majestic than the previous ones.
' Finally', the emperor thought.
Instantly, a golden light shots out from the seal and, unlike the flares who looks like fire works, the bright golden light immediately metamorphs into the divine black tortoise, the divine sacred beast of the Black Tortoise Kindom. Signifying the military's high status in the whole empire.
Di Xueyan stares at the cutie tortoise, wondering if it will roar just like those other insignias. If her people will know her thoughts, they will surely reluctantly distance themselves from her, afraid that their brains will be infected too.
' Do tortoise roars?', she laughs at the absurdity of her thoughts. Actually, as someone who always skipped classes, she does not even know the difference between turtles and tortoises! She also didn't bother to search.
Instantly, hundreds of thousands of black clad men suddenly encircled the whole palace. Unlike the majestic marching of the previous armies, the Black Tortoise Military acts like assassins at the moment.
They won't deny, though they can't be used for personal gain, but they already regarded the general in a high pedestal, thus, they secretly went against his order and followed him stealthily in the palace. That explains their current look. As someone who had been doing lots of assignments ever since they were children, how would mere royal guards sense their presence at all?
The once widely spacious royal palace is now very cramped with the continuous surge of different soldiers.
The emperor is satisfied with the scene before him.
' Finally!', he can't help but to laugh maniacally, unaware that he said his thoughts loudly.
Di Xueyan is now more than sure that the emperor is not planning to escape. He is planning something!
The emperor turns his gaze to general Bai, seemingly mocking.
Di Xueyan unconsciously follows his line of sight and saw the battered state of the general, but what attracts her the most is the blood that is constantly dripping, ever drop produces a faint gold light, very faint that it can't be discern by normal eyes due to the bright light of the day unless if you really pays attention, before it vanishes everytime it reaches the floor, as if it is being sucked.
She looks at the floor, it is spotless white jade stone.
' Is it normal for the whole hallway of the palace to be made of very spotless white jade stone? Wow, so extravagant', she thought, but she knows that it is not normal as she has seen a lot of chinese historical dramas before. Or maybe those dramas had low budgets?
Something is not really right.
" Attack!", as she is musing, the emperor suddenly shouted, making the private armies of the ministers to be extremely touched as never had they imagined that they will be led by an emperor in a battle. If they will know the real reason behind it, surely, they will cry their blood out.
Left with no choice, the men from the pavilion and the military of the kingdom face those private armies. Who would know that these families will have this number of armies secretly. The ridiculous thing is that the emperor is not even indignant and even ordered them to fight.
All of them are frowning, but they also understand that dangerous moments call for desperate solutions. That maybe explains why the emperor did such thing.
But the Sangre Pavilion's people are skeptical. They knew that there is no need as they knew that the emperor is only punished to step down on his throne. Or maybe he doesn't want to?
The emperor is very satisfied with the gruesome scene before him. He felt at ease as he stares at the continous bloodshed of the people around him. This is the moment that he has been waiting for!
" More! More! More!", he maniacally chanted, as if he is not in his right mind anymore, as he saw how blood splatters everywhere.
Because it already happens in a large scale, the disappearance of the bloods in the floor is more apparent. If one will be observant enough, they will see how the blood of those from the Black Tortoise Military emits a very faint golden hue whenever it drips on the floor before it vanishes.
Di Xueyan is now petrified. With a large battle such as this, how come there's no blood in the floor? Those who are fallen even looks like their bloods are being sucked, as if the floor is alive. Di Xueyan is having an ominous feeling about it.
As a novel reader and with her understanding of the dark arts, of course, though she is not practicing it, she knows that this might be a blood ritual!
Spirit qi of different colors fly in chaotic directions. The place is filled with war cries, anguish voices and laugh of madness. The ancestors of the different families are fighting with the higher ups of the pavilion fiercely. They never imagined that they are just being played with some youngsters. Neither of them knew about the techniques they are using and they can only counter it with the experiences they accumulated for the last centuries. How can these little brats compare with sly old fox?
The ancestors are complacent with their thoughts, how would they know that the youngsters they very much despised have been trained with much stronger opponents?
Those blue leveled folks from the pavilion turned blank for a good few seconds. They want to cry for their foolishness as to why they were anxious when they knew about the arrival of the ancestors moments ago?
Now that they are currently fighting against these old bones, something suddenly dawned to their tortured brains.
' Miss, why haven't you told us that those sturdy puppets that you made us conquered was even stronger than a blue leveled cultivator?!', they all silently lament as they realized how embarrassingly foolish they were.
Whenever someone advance in blue level, it is a must for them to take down a puppet that Di Xueyan prepared in the training room. They never asked about the power of the puppets, as they know that maybe it was just in their cultivation level. As cultivators who just recently advanced in blue level, they thought that they are only fighting with blue leveled puppets, as the puppet hadn't emitted any air of cultivation, thus they got indignant when they failed continuously . What made it more impossible to defeat those shitty things is that the techniques that those puppets had used were the secret techniques of the big family clans in the empire!
Of course as cultivators, they can easily distinguish the difference of power, but they don't know why, whenever they enter that cursed training room, their judgement about the disparity of the puppet and them is very vague.
For a whole month, some of them completely destroyed their designated puppet, however with their bones dislocated in different directions, their skulls not in the right places and with every breathing felt like it was the last. That was the harshest training they all had. Some even say that it would be better for them to just be thrown in Heavenly Hall than to encounter that damned puppets again!
They were even excited but at the same time also dreaded the day that they will become indigo leveled cultivators.
But since when did heaven became fair? The moment they were fully healed, their mistress will immediately informed them that they will be fighting with the same puppets again, making them almost gave up living. But they know that living their lives has never been an option, because it's a must, a priority, thus they went with the same agony again but more shorter, until they were able to defeat the puppets in one day.
Now, at the present, all they want to do is cry because they were scammed.
'Those puppets were not blue leveled! Those are indigos!', they all cried inside their minds for their pitiful past selves.
But, they are actually feeling very proud and arrogant right now, as they know that these little old bones is very inferior from them despite having same cultivation.
They are all fired up.
And then a gore scene began again.
Without spilled blood, of course.