vstars Chapter 803 How come you have Jinwu Guards?
Chapter 803 How come you have Jinwu Guards?
Upon hearing this, the Prince of Yan immediately dropped his sword, the scabbard scratching the gold brick with a long, sharp sound. As he knelt on one knee to support Prince Feng, his palm felt the old man's bony shoulder bones trembling beneath his official uniform.
Prince Yan's voice was hoarse as if it contained coarse sand: "Uncle Wang, you have embarrassed your nephew." When he stood up, he caught a glimpse of the moss from the red steps on Prince Feng's lapel. It was a shameful mark that he had gotten when he knelt just now. He hurriedly helped him pat it off.
Prince Jing turned around to face the officials. The officials who bowed their heads to His Highness were like waves of wheat blown down by the wind. They shouted one after another, "The Supreme Emperor is wise, and the Prince of Yan should succeed to the throne in time." Someone banged his forehead on the cold floor tiles, making it blue and purple.
"If there are still people who don't believe the late emperor's will, feel free to line up and verify the handwriting."
Prince Jing's voice was low and cold, like the thousand-year-old ice in the Golden Palace. He turned slowly, the dark patterns on his black robe gleaming with a cold light, and his gaze, like a blade, swept across the kneeling ministers on the steps.
Those officials pressed their foreheads against the gold bricks and mechanically repeated, "The Emperor is wise, the Prince of Yan is the legitimate heir and should ascend the throne promptly."
Each voice trembled like a dead leaf in the autumn wind, as if if they raised their heads even a little, their eyes would be burned by the cinnabar imperial seal on the will.
"Your Highness, this is bad. The palace is surrounded by the Imperial Guards. There are suddenly a lot more people inside the palace. They look like the Jinwu Guards! They are about to rush in."
The palace door was slammed open, and a personal soldier stumbled in, his armor splattered with blood, and half a broken arrow was embedded in the depression of his breastplate.
He knelt heavily before the King of Yan, the dull thud of his knee hitting the tile floor making everyone's heart tremble. His breathing was as heavy as a broken bellows, and the bloody smell escaping from his throat condensed into a white mist in the cold air.
"Hahaha! You forced the emperor to abdicate and usurped power. You are plotting rebellion. You all deserve to die!"
Xu Dingjia's wild laughter, like the cry of an owl, pierced the dead silence in the hall. He hadn't known when the cloth had escaped from his mouth, and blood had rubbed the corners of his mouth, but he was completely unaware.
His Adam's apple rolled, and his hoarse voice was filled with crazy excitement: "Didn't you expect it? There are still 50,000 swords buried under the ground in the capital! What are 20,000 imperial guards? I still have 5,000 Jinwu Guards-"
He twisted his neck violently, which was locked by the guards. Purple veins slithered under his skin like snakes. "None of you will survive!"
"Take off the heads of the King of Yan and those traitors above for me!"
His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the Imperial Guards commander's face, and saliva mixed with blood splattered out: "Promote him three ranks! Thousands of acres of fertile land! Tens of thousands of taels of gold! All the other Imperial Guards will be rewarded."
Each word was like a poisoned arrowhead, piercing the sword-wielding hands. The commander of the imperial guards retreated three steps with the heels of his boots. The sword at his waist clanged half a foot from its sheath, its cold light illuminating his tense jaw. The guards holding halberds at the corners of the palace tensed their muscles, the clash of armor like the thunder before a rainstorm.
The civil servants fled in all directions. A second-rank official in a purple robe and jade belt had his crown thrown off his head, his gray hair tangled like a mess. Someone, in his panic, knocked over a bronze crane lampstand, and the spilled lamp oil ignited a faint blue flame.
Some officials clung to the golden dragon-shaped pillars, the peacock emblazoned on their official uniforms faded from cold sweat. In the pillar's shadow, a young official's ivory tablet snapped in two, its cross-sections jagged like tusks.
"Golden Guards, step out!"
The sudden turn of King Yan brought up a gust of fierce wind, and his black python robe drew a sharp arc in the air.
He raised his right leg high and slammed his gilded boot hard into the magnificent Nine Dragon Wall behind the throne. The moment the sole of his boot collided with a bump on the wall, the entire hall shook, and the gilded palace lanterns hanging from the ceiling swayed violently, casting a dizzying light and shadow.
"boom--"
Amidst the deafening roar, the seemingly indestructible golden brick wall slowly moved to both sides as if under a spell.
The friction between bricks and stones made a creaking sound that made one's teeth ache, and the gold powder falling from the cracks in the wall sparkled like stars in the candlelight. The officials in the hall were horrified to find that there was a secret door hidden behind this wall, and what was even more shocking was -
“Click, click…”
With the sound of a mechanism operating, the ground suddenly cracked open, revealing a massive, square hole. The edges of the hole were as neat as if cut by a sharp blade, and the bluestone steps were covered in frost that hadn't melted for years.
In this secret passage that was large enough to accommodate five war horses running side by side, the sound of uniform footsteps could be faintly heard, and the clanging of armor colliding came from far away, like the roar of a giant beast awakening from the ground.
"Obey His Majesty's orders!"
Four black shadows shot out of the cave like arrows, and did not make any sound when they landed on the ground and knelt.
They were all clad in light black iron armor, their legs and hands bound, framing their figures as swift and agile as a leopard. The black tiger patterns embroidered in silver thread on their cuffs and collars were lifelike, gleaming coldly in the candlelight.
The leader was wearing a bronze animal-head mask, revealing only a pair of eagle-like eyes. The soft sword in his hand hissed like a venomous snake when it trembled.
"Whizzing--"
Subsequent shadows leaped out of the cave one after another, each in groups of four, their movements mirror-like. The first thirty-two quickly formed themselves around King Yan, their breath from beneath their black iron visors condensing into frost within the hall.
The rest of the people rushed towards the palace gate in two directions like a black tide. The sound of their footsteps on the golden bricks was dull and regular, shaking the dust on the beams to fall.
"You...how do you have the Jinwu Guards?" He tried his best to exploit and utilize the Jinwu Guards left by the previous emperor, but he didn't expect that they were in the hands of Prince Yan.
Xu Dingjia collapsed on the ground, blood flowing from his neck, and the hem of his dragon robe was soaked with stains of incontinence.
His eyes bulged as he stared intently at the hole where dark shadows continued to pour out. His Adam's apple rolled with difficulty as he squeezed out a few broken syllables. His earlier arrogance had long since vanished. Now he was like a stray dog with its spine removed.
The Prince of Yan's slender fingers gently stroked the black tiger talisman at his waist. The tiger's eye, inlaid with Persian cat's eye stone on the black iron token, shone eerily in the firelight. "I'll ask the Emperor when the time comes." Before he finished speaking, a thunderous response suddenly echoed from underground:
"Your servants will obey the orders of the True Dragon Emperor!"
The sound was so loud that it made the twelve dragon-carved doors of the palace buzz.
What was creepy was that this response did not come only from the Jinwu Guards in front of them, but seemed to come from all over the underground at the same time, and the entire imperial city turned into a giant cauldron of resonance.
"Kill all the fake Jinwu Guards. If the imperial guards dare to take action, they will be killed without mercy!" Prince Yan pointed his sword straight outside the hall, and the sword tip drew a cold arc of light in the firelight.
The imperial guards in the hall, who had just been eager to fight, immediately wailed, and blood dyed the side of the hall red.
The Prince of Yan suddenly leaned over again, grabbed the back of the collar of the personal guard who reported the news, and whispered in his ear: "Go tell Master Chun -"
As he spoke, the ten large camphorwood boxes filled with sleeping pills and poisons that Jing Chunxi left for him before he left flashed before King Yan's eyes.
When his five hundred personal soldiers sneaked into the capital's camp last night, the colorless and odorless powder was blown away by the north wind. The moment the generals inhaled it, fifty thousand elite soldiers surrendered to him.