Chapter 173: Borrowing the East Wind

Daoist Yuan was extremely sharp-eyed. While that small object was still in the air, he saw it clearly. He gave a low “Yi” and after a moment, whispered: “That is a Small Tiger Tally. How does this small Commandant have it?”

“Small Tiger Tally, what does that mean?”

“The current Emperor loves carpentry, everyone knows that. Rumor in the palace says the Emperor carved a few Small Tiger Tallies based on the Great Tiger Tally and gave them to several important figures. Although they can’t mobilize the soldiers and horses in the city, they have the right to temporarily use the Imperial Guard and the Nine-City Constables. Last night, Eunuch Wei used a Small Tiger Tally to mobilize the Imperial Army to help at that residence. Otherwise, even if Eunuch Wei’s power reached the sky, how could he mobilize the city’s troops?”

Xiao Fen nodded slightly, feeling a ripple in his heart. It seemed the Emperor wasn’t the rumored carpenter emperor who was muddled. Just looking at the motive for making these Small Tiger Tallies, one could tell this Emperor had methods of dividing power and checks and balances. He was also good at playing dumb, so even elite figures like Daoist Yuan and Wei Zhongxian hadn’t seen through these methods.

Or perhaps they knew these small tricks but had to obey. If so, these weren’t small tricks, but grand methods.

These random thoughts rose and fell quickly. What the Emperor was like had nothing to do with Xiao Fen. Good or bad, he was a historical figure. What Xiao Fen cared about most right now was how to get out of this desperate situation and get a huge reward.

“Aren’t you going to the backyard to wake those monsters?”

Seeing Xiao Fen slightly dazed, Daoist Yuan suddenly asked.

Xiao Fen shook his head. In a flash of thought, he already came up with a new idea. He answered in a low voice: “I cannot go. We must let these people wake the monsters themselves. Only when they are caught off guard can we make our entrance. If not, they might bite back later, accusing us of deliberately leading monsters to chaos the Capital City. How would we explain that then?”

Daoist Yuan stared at Xiao Fen and said: “You are a person with such deep thoughts. That is not good, not good. However, regarding this matter, your thinking is good. Let me think about how to make those people break the Seal themselves.”

“The Seal is in the water.”

Xiao Fen reminded: “There is a blood pool underwater, covered by a layer of clear water. People of the Mortal World cannot see it at all.”

Daoist Yuan was stunned again and whispered to himself: “No wonder, no wonder. I came to this house yesterday and looked around but found no problem. It turns out it was hidden underwater. Indeed, it was hidden cleverly.”

After a pause, Daoist Yuan smiled slightly. A ferocious look occasionally appeared on his face, fleeting, and he returned to his original pure face like a girl. He said again: “Fine, let’s set a total extermination trap. Let these people enter but not leave, and die cleanly.”

Xiao Fen shivered. He looked carefully at Daoist Yuan. There was no joking meaning on the young Daoist’s face. Killing an entire family did not seem like a very important matter to him.

“We cannot exterminate them all. Not all those Constables are enemies. If we kill them all here, the Capital City will be in turmoil afterwards, and we will still have plenty of trouble.”

Persuaded by Xiao Fen, Daoist Yuan frowned slightly and said: “This is a constraint, that is a restriction, yet you still want a clean outcome. That is the real trouble. Fine, fine. This poor Daoist does not love killing. I will let some live and reduce some sins.”

Xiao Fen smiled bitterly. This Daoist, who talked about extermination every time he opened his mouth, claimed he did not love killing. Then Eunuch Wei must truly be a good man.

The two stood on the roof arguing slightly. Below them, there were changes among the Constables and the Imperial Guard. After waves of commotion, several Imperial Guard wearing Flying Fish uniforms separated the crowd and walked forward, shouting loudly: “Wait for me to open this door.”

Daoist Yuan heard the noise below, lowered his head to take a look, and frowned again: “Why is there a Southern City Hundred Household? What has Tian Ergeng been doing all this time? Was he really scared by that group from the Donglin Party, hanging high and caring about nothing?”

Xiao Fen was about to speak when Daoist Yuan suddenly whispered: “Silence. A Big Shot has arrived.”

Xiao Fen did not know what a Big Shot was, but the next moment, he only felt a powerful force sweep over his body. If Daoist Yuan had not tightly gripped his hand, that force alone would have been enough to push Xiao Fen off the roof.

This power reminded Xiao Fen of the first time he met Farrah in the Trial World of London. Just by being glared at by Farrah, his entire body was shaken away. Although his body did not fly up this time, that power did not seem much different compared to Farrah’s.

Daoist Yuan stayed quiet for a while. After that power disappeared from the roof, he let out a long breath and said: “The Retainer of the Cabinet Scholar indeed has some methods. Originally, our goals were the same, and such dirty tricks were unnecessary. Just because the methods are different, such a dispute has arisen out of nowhere. Eunuch Wei was right. Those people have read books into the stomachs of dogs.”

As soon as the voice fell, Daoist Yuan let go. He flipped over and jumped down from the roof lightly and skillfully. He whispered to Xiao Fen: “I will go to the back and take a look, and make some arrangements. You stay here and continue to watch. If anything happens, clap three times, and I will naturally come.”

Although this voice was whispered by Daoist Yuan on the ground, it echoed in Xiao Fen’s ears, as if the Daoist was whispering right beside him.

Xiao Fen smiled. He took out two knives from his leather bag. Without saying much, he wiped his left hand over the knives. Instantly, a blazing fire burned on the knives. It was Xiao Fen using the Greek Fire Skill on the knives.

Although this caused great damage to the durability of the knives, before long, this waist knife would automatically shatter because its durability dropped to zero. However, during this time, once it cut an enemy or even stabbed into an enemy’s body, the Greek Fire would burn violently inside the enemy’s body. That would be truly terrifying.

This method was one Xiao Fen accidentally thought of after obtaining Berela’s Lingering.

Since Greek Fire could burn for a very long time without extinguishing, it was better to use this method to create a burning fire knife. Although its piercing ability and corrosive killing ability were not as good as the Heart of Yarlann and the Corrosive Flower, the advantage was that the Energy required to make it was extremely low. It was considered a compromise method.

Seeing Xiao Fen had such means, Daoist Yuan’s eyes also lit up. After glancing at the leather bag at Xiao Fen’s waist, the child-faced Daoist smiled slightly. His body flashed, and in the blink of an eye, he merged into the corridor and disappeared.

Xiao Fen looked at the fire knife burning in his hand and heard someone shouting from below: “There is fire above, there is fire above. It must be that the evildoer saw the situation was bad and wants to burn this house. You boys, why don’t you act quickly? If it is late, I fear the surroundings of this house will suffer disaster.”

Hearing this, Xiao Fen’s heart turned cold. He knew that the person who spoke just now had probably long planned to burn this house, destroying the surrounding residents together to destroy the evidence and corpses.

Although he knew those enemies were already almost crazy, stopping at nothing to prevent him from pulling the plug, he did not expect them to be so insane. Xiao Fen secretly hated that he should not have persuaded Daoist Yuan earlier. He really should have given these people a total extermination.

But thinking back, those people who spoke earlier might not necessarily rush into the back house. If it really was a total extermination, these people probably would not be the ones to suffer.

Since he figured this out, Xiao Fen did not dwell on it. He suddenly exerted force. His body swayed, and his toes stepped consecutively, as if treading on water duckweed. With a few leaps, he appeared silently right above the middle gate. With a smile on his face, he looked down upon the group of people below.

He moved to the very top of a big tree, held onto the treetop, and quietly stared at the movement outside the courtyard.

Someone had just said that there were evil cults deceiving the public inside. In the blink of an eye, a person holding a blazing fire knife appeared and stood on the middle gate. Although he said nothing, this silent answer was truly more direct and intense than a thousand words.

“If I am deceiving the public with evil words, then let me show you. Has this fire knife ever lied? Has it ever deceived the public?”

Although the knife could not speak, amidst the rising flames, one could feel such an answer.

The Commandant’s face outside was tight. He shouted in a low voice: “This is sorcery. This is the sorcery of an evildoer. Do not believe him. That fire is just a blind trick.”

Xiao Fen heard this and smiled again. He casually threw the fire knife on the ground and said: “I give it to you. Extinguish this fire and see if it is really just a blind trick.”

Seeing Xiao Fen say this, and looking at the fire knife still burning on the ground, the Commandant’s heart thumped. However, at this moment, how could he weaken his momentum? He hurriedly shouted to everyone: “Bring sand and soil, bring sand and soil, and extinguish this fire.”

Several obedient Constables hurriedly found sand and soil and splashed it violently onto the knife. But unexpectedly, this splashing made things worse.

This Greek Fire was originally Xiao Fen’s Skill, a type of forced burning. Within the specified time, as long as the attached object had not died or been destroyed, it would burn continuously, and it also had a certain spreading effect.

Only a “whoosh” was heard. Hit by the flying dust, the flames on the knife not only did not extinguish but suddenly became more vigorous. The flames curled extremely high and moved fast. Someone was caught off guard and had their eyebrows curled by this flame. The hair in front of their forehead was also burnt quite a bit. Their face was pitch black, indescribably weird.

The Commandant’s face looked ferocious for a moment. He shouted: “Continue splashing! Do not be confused by this sight. This is sorcery, all sorcery.”

As soon as the voice fell, there was a “bang” inside the fire knife. It was the Greek Fire causing the knife’s durability to drop to zero, and it happened to shatter open.

Although the weapons Xiao Fen obtained from the Key were also natural items, they were slightly different from those natural items obtained by soldiers in the Trial World. After durability dropped to zero, they would not just shatter into fragments but would directly turn into colorful particles and dissipate in the air.

The same was true for the fire knife. As soon as it shattered, it broke into powder, sprinkled violently in the air, and then gradually disappeared. It was truly incomparably beautiful. However, the more it was like this, the more iron-green the Commandant’s face became.

No other words were needed. Just by using this fire knife, Xiao Fen had completely answered the Commandant’s earlier words. In front of this disappearing knife, everything the Commandant said became a joke.