Chapter 159 I looked at him with a cold face.
"There should be ten eyes," I muttered to myself as I ate my thin porridge. The porridge was my daily meal; my treatment was similar to that of the five generals, except I had two more bowls of porridge than them each day. I ate three bowls of porridge three times a day. They usually left it at the stairwell, so I could just go and get it myself and wouldn't notice me digging up the wall.
They probably thought that a woman, who didn't know martial arts and had "supervisors" around, couldn't cause too much trouble.
After finishing the porridge, I regained my energy and continued digging. I unearthed four more eyes. The plaster on the wall became looser and easier to dig. Finally, three eyes fell out, and I was overjoyed.
I placed the ten eyes in the abandoned earthen fireplace, bowed several times to thank them for their help, then picked up a burning candle and carefully lit the eyes. As the flame ignited, I closed my eyes and softly hummed the tune that summons vengeful spirits. I knew the tune well enough to hum it, but due to nervousness, I hummed it off-key several times. After many attempts, I finally hummed it correctly.
After I hummed the tune correctly, a sudden gust of cold wind blew in from the open door, and a large amount of white mist surged in like a tide. Before I could react, I felt myself turn into a wisp of white mist, the thickest wisp.
I dashed out of the room, down the corridor, and downstairs. With just a glance, the remaining white mist surged towards the group of guards who were dozing off. The guards awoke with cries of pain, saw the vast expanse of white mist, screamed in agony, and some even blew emergency whistles, creating utter chaos.
Heavy footsteps came from afar; they were the guards standing outside the palace. Under my command, a group of white mist surrounded the rushing guards, while another group of white mist escorted me out of the palace.
I rushed through the palace chambers at breakneck speed and soon found Manberia, who was trapped in the bedchamber of the former king, that boy. The boy lay dying on the bed, coldly staring at him, and said, "You'd better not die, or your position will be taken by your brother. They have found your brother who was living in exile and secretly raised by a high-ranking official."
"I...I want to die." A weak smile appeared on the lips of the boy.
“You’re really useless.” Mamboya’s voice was extremely cold.
I rushed in with the white mist. Manboya looked over in shock. I joined forces with the other white mist and used a tremendous force to lift him into the air and carry him out of the palace.
Unable to control his body, he could only let us carry him out of the palace, filled with fear and dread. More pursuers caught up, and I sent most of the white mist to deal with them, while I and a small group of white mist carried him to the northern border.
“Fly me another fifty kilometers south of the border,” he suddenly realized we were there to help him, though he didn’t know who we were. “Thank you.”
I didn't know if I had any strength left, or if I had enough time, but I still forced myself to fly forward with him, using all my strength. I don't know how long we flew, but finally I saw a royal city in the distance. Could it be the royal city he had planned to take me to that night?
I threw him at the gate of the royal city and was about to flee to the royal city near the western border when I saw him muttering incantations. A bad feeling rose in my heart. Just as I was about to speed up, he raised his palm, and a silver-blue light emanated from his palm. My eyes were stung by the light, and I screamed as I fell from mid-air. The other white mist suddenly dissipated.
I was terrified, thinking that I had regained my human form and would fall to my death upon landing. However, when I landed, I was still enveloped in white mist. He quickly took off his outer robe, chanted a few incantations, and I was sucked into the robe. He immediately tied a knot, sealing me inside, and then took me into the royal city.
Half an hour later, I returned to human form and appeared in a cage. Yes, a cage sealed on all four sides, but made of completely transparent sealing material, so people outside could clearly see who I was. I suspect this kind of cage was specially prepared for capturing vengeful spirits.
When I appeared, Mamboy burst into laughter, laughing so hard he could hardly breathe. "So it was you!"
I stared at him coldly, showing no reaction whatsoever.
With a clang, the cage opened, and Manberia grabbed my hand, trying to pull me out. I shook off his hand and tried to get out on my own, but suddenly my fingers felt like they were being electrocuted, and a sharp pain shot through my body.
A strange scene appeared in my mind.
In the howling blizzard, Manberia, draped in a thick black cloak, gave the order. Tens of thousands of lightly dressed guards were pushed by their armored counterparts into hundreds of massive pits. The guards tried to resist, but the pits burst into flames. They had no chance to escape and were burned to death in the inferno… Heart-wrenching screams echoed: “Manberia, you actually killed surrendered soldiers!” “We have already surrendered, why do you still kill us!” “Killing surrendered soldiers is an omen of misfortune!”
On a makeshift execution platform not far away, a dozen naked men trembled and wept as they looked at the large, smoking pit.
Standing on another high platform, Manboa sighed, "How pitiful! Who told you to be my father's illegitimate children?"
At another command, the dozen or so men were beheaded, their blood splattering everywhere.
Thus, Mamboy killed the tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers and all his illegitimate sons that his father had intended to use to annihilate him. He originally intended to spare the surrendered enemy soldiers, but his subordinates worriedly reminded him that if his father were to rise again one day, these tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers would become his death warrant. Just in case, he had no choice but to order them to be buried alive.
His bloody methods secretly alarmed some nobles in the North, who feared that the same tactics might one day be used against them. Could a man who imprisoned his own father, killed all his half-brothers, and massacred surrendered guards truly be trusted and followed? The seeds of unrest had already been sown.
These nobles were known as royalists. They were loyal only to the monarch, not to the powerful prime minister.
However, the new king was only five or six years old and was a minor. They dared not act rashly, fearing that the prime minister would try to take the king down with him. They could only wait in secret.
Two or three years later, the king suddenly developed a coughing up of blood, which worsened over time, but the prime minister deliberately concealed it from him. Finally, one day, the most powerful duke in the royalist faction learned of this and was terrified, fearing that the entire northern territory would fall into the hands of the prime minister. He immediately sent people to search everywhere for any other bloodline that was qualified to ascend the throne. After three years of searching, he finally discovered a clue.
He found the current king's younger brother, who was believed to have died years ago in an assassination attempt against the king. In reality, he had been abandoned in a mass grave by his mother's rival, the former queen's chief mistress, and later rescued and raised by two elderly scavengers. The chief mistress's aim was to devastate the child's mother, forcing her, already ailing, to succumb to the devastating news. After this incident, the former queen's condition indeed worsened, and she died within three days.
The strange scene disappeared, and I sat there blankly in the cage when the frowning Mamboa cat entered and picked me up.
In the warm room, Manboya and I sat facing each other, with two cups of hot tea and several plates of exquisite pastries in front of us. The aroma of the hot tea filled the air, soothing my tense emotions.
"How do you manipulate vengeful spirits?" Mamboa asked me.
I lowered my eyelashes and did not answer.
“It’s alright if you don’t want to answer,” Mamboa said gently. “I still thank you anyway.”
I still didn't say anything.
"Can you help me again, Lana? Help me control the vengeful spirit. I desperately need your help right now."
I suddenly looked up and said bluntly, "Why did you kill tens of thousands of your father's surrendered soldiers back then? You sowed the seeds of future trouble by doing so."
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Author's note: Today's post is a bit short, sorry, my train of thought wasn't very smooth.
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