611 Choices (1/2)
When the cavalry first arrived, many people assumed that they were helpers.
It wasn't entirely fair to blame these kung fu practitioners for being careless. They were not gullible fools but rather martial artists who strictly followed the rules of Jianghu. They only trusted the news they heard from their friends. Otherwise, even the senior officials of Norland who had invited them here in person would be severely questioned and doubted.
The arrows fired by the tens of thousands of Norland Cavalry poured down in torrents, forcing the crowd to move closer to the center. Soon, nearly a thousand people were huddled into a ball. Panicking, they didn't understand how things could have turned out this way. They were actually working for the kings of the Norland, so why were they under siege?
The cavalry stopped just outside the area filled with arrows and didn't continue their offensive, which reassured the besieged martial artists a bit, allowing them to finally find out the truth.
So, one after another, the 'friends' of the 'friends' were exposed. In the end, they all pointed to the kung fu masters from several well-known sects of the Central Plains, signifying that they had been the ones to first spread the news and promise with an assurance that the operation was perfectly justified and risk-free.
There were, in total, nine famous sects in the martial arts world of the Central Plains, seven of which had sent disciples to the Norland. They had then changed their names to be an honored guest of the kings. They had witnessed and participated in the chaos of the fight for the throne. Therefore, when the kings hinted that the Khan was already dead and that they needed outsiders to remove the 'masters,' they immediately felt it was fifty or sixty percent credible. When they learned that the news was confirmed by the others kings who were extremely opposed to each other, the news became eighty or ninety percent credible.
The appearance of the cavalry, however, proved that everything was a hoax.
The dozens of disciples of the seven sects quickly became the targets of public criticism, and the recriminations were far tenser than the arrow rain of the Norland Cavalry.
The reaction of the seven sects was very fast, who soon all gathered together to strengthen themselves. After stabilizing the panicking crowd, they selected a representative to talk to the soldiers to find out what was going on. When they found out that the commander in chief was King Shengri, they finally understood that this could not be a misunderstanding.
Among the ten kings of the Norland, only this alcoholic and bird-lover had never hired a kung fu expert from the Central Plains or the Western Regions.
King Shengri watched all this from a distance. These people had already fallen into his snare. No matter how they struggled, there was no way for them to escape. It would be too boring to just shoot them to death; he had a much better method in mind.
”Your Majesty, there must be a misunderstanding. We are loyal to the Norland.” The representatives of the seven sects were in the midst of 'struggling' for the last time.
King Shengri snorted. Half of these kung fu experts of the Central Plains had come to fish in troubled waters and the other half wanted to bring back the Khan's head for a big reward from the Emperor of the Central Plains. How could they possibly be loyal?
”Loyalty cannot be achieved by mere talk. You have to show it.”
”What does that mean?”
”If you want to prove yourself a wolf, go kill a few cows and sheep. If you want to show your loyalty to the Norland, kill all of the people from the Central Plains for me. The more you kill, the more loyal you are. Do it now, as I'll only keep the last fifty people.”
Everyone was stupefied when the news spread through to the core of the crowd. The Norland actually wanted them to kill each other to demonstrate their loyalty. But there were nearly a thousand people who were either friends or fellow disciples. How could they do such a thing?
Dozens of sabermen from the Western Regions suddenly threw away their weapons and ran towards the outside, shouting, ”We are not from the Central Plains.”
The answer of the Norland calvary was a round of shots, telling the group of sabermen that they were not from Norland either.
More than a dozen people fell to the ground. Those who wanted to break out of the circle immediately dispelled the idea from their minds. Faced with tens of thousands of bows, even immortals could not escape.
It was already impossible to run away. Mutual suspicion among the crowd was getting worse. Everyone felt that they had been tricked by their 'friends'. So those whom they had felt reluctant to attack were now the most damnable person.
The killing covertly began. No one talked about showing loyalty, and instead the pretexts they used were something like 'tricking me into this death operation,' 'borrowing too much money from me,' and 'staring at me for no reason'.
The cavalry of the Northern forbidden zone had started many torches and they now lit up the northern forbidden zone as if it were daylight. But King Shengri still felt that it was not clear enough. If not for fear of his own personal safety, he would have run to the inner circle to watch it more closely.
There was a tendency for the killing to spread into melee range, but King Shengri's excitement did not last long. People of the Central Plains always seemed able to find a way to make rules quickly even in the face of danger. Although the seven major sects had lost their credibility, there were still other prominent figures who stood out to stop the meaningless slaughter and instead turn it into a rotating kung fu competition.
King Shengri was bored and wanted to force the prey to fight more fiercely. But he soon changed his mind and thought that it wouldn't bad this way as the killing would continue until dawn, at which point he could see it more clearly. He only sent one message to the crowd: those who acted earlier were more loyal to the Norland.
Old Man Mu had at least achieved one of his purposes; Shangguan Fei could now kill at will.
He didn't run away. If it was the old him, he was sure to safely break through the horse hooves even when facing ten times the cavalry. But now he was too weak to do what he wished and had no choice but to rely on the protection of others.
Shangguan Fei tried to explain that he was the Dragon King's man and was not an accomplice of these conspirators, but he only received contemptuous replies from the underlings of King Shengri. ”Who is the Dragon King? There's no such king in the Norland.”
After being forced by Old Man Mu, he could only join in on the kung fu competition. One round after another, until he had killed nine people in a row. At the end, he was so bloody that no one dared challenge him again.
This was the situation that Gu Shenwei and the four elders of the Jade Pure Sect had arrived at. It was just dawn but nearly a hundred people had already been killed. King Shengri also issued the order to put out all the torches and was ready to apply more pressure to make the killing become bloodier.
The Dragon King was exactly the man he wanted.
”Why are my men trapped in there?” Gu Shenwei asked, already understanding the general situation at heart.