So the question now was... of the thirty thousand troops shrouded in mist back then, how many had been replaced?
Lin Qiye's gaze swept across the surroundings. Everywhere he looked, the expeditionary army was slaughtering people in a frenzy. They trampled over the corpses of the Imperial Guards and surged into Chang'an, setting off a crimson tide within the city cloaked in night.
His heart immediately sank.
Every expeditionary soldier within his sight was burning and killing civilians in Chang'an's streets. That meant every ordinary person who had encountered the Iridescent Mist back then had already been silently replaced.
Moreover, although they possessed the concept of "being replaced by monsters," something strange had happened—their understanding of what constituted a "monster" seemed to have been deliberately altered.
In the eyes of the "monsters," ordinary people were the monsters that had been replaced... while the Willow Branches they turned into after dying were regarded as a normal sign.
It was as if an invisible hand were freely manipulating their perceptions. If Lin Qiye was right, the reason they had suddenly believed everyone in the city had been replaced by monsters and stormed the city was also because they had been guided by that mysterious manipulator.
Lin Qiye raised his head toward the incomparably radiant Crimson Star, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"It was you..."
"What's happening outside?"
Hearing the commotion in the distance, Chloe frowned and looked out the window.
"I don't know... Maybe someone's rebelling?" a missionary said uncertainly.
"Probably another struggle for power. The Han people love playing these political games, but it shouldn't have anything to do with us."
Just as they spoke, several figures came galloping down the street on horseback. They held torches in one hand and bloodied spears in the other, their eyes brimming with savagery.