Dao Sin

What was that incense burner?!

Rising from his inn bed after a peaceful night, Zhu Yuanzhang recalled Faming's methods from the day before, and his heart sank.

He had a feeling.

The meditation room had been able to repair itself, and Faming had survived a strike in which Zhu Yuanzhang had poured out all the power he had cultivated over a lifetime.

It had all been because of that incense burner.

"Word is that today, while the navy was changing shifts, Hou Jing took the chance to force a crossing at Heng River, seize Caishiji, and kill General Chen Xin in battle."

After three knocks at the door, Huzi entered as usual to tidy Zhu Yuanzhang's room.

Then he began his daily report on the enemy's movements.

"In my view, the court's plans are in complete disarray. The eunuchs who buy supplies for the palace say that this morning the court sent Xiao Ning, the governor of Huainan, to retake Caishiji. By noon, it had ordered the Huainan troops to return and defend the area. Before half a day had passed, it changed its mind again and sent Xiao Ning to replace the Crown Prince's Guard and defend Dangtu."

"Alas..."

Huzi's mood had clearly sunk as he spoke.

Fortunately, though, as a hardworking lackey, he had plenty of experience motivating himself.

"But all this panic was caused by a minor defeat by the vanguard. Hou Jing might have won for now through trickery, but the court has a full thirty thousand elite troops at Zhuque Passage, while Hou Jing has only eight thousand."

Huzi's spirits rose again as he spoke.

"The advantage is ours."

Watching the young servant cheerfully analyze the current battle situation,

Zhu Yuanzhang could almost see an old general with a back full of flags, ready to take the stage and give a performance.

Zhu Yuanzhang chatted with him for a while longer.

Thanks to the experience of his previous two lives, Huzi felt that he and Zhu Yuanzhang were getting along better and better.

Even obscure legendary tales passed around by Jinling locals came readily to Zhu Yuanzhang.

They talked until noon, when the sun was at its brightest.

After seeing Zhu Yuanzhang to the gate of Taicheng, Huzi looked at him as if they had met too late in life.

"If the officials in the city hadn't seemed to catch wind of something in the past half month, the prices of salt, dried vegetables, and cured meat wouldn't have shot up. Otherwise, buying all these things wouldn't have cost even a single silver ingot."

He shoved the pouch of remaining silver into Zhu Yuanzhang's hand, then quickly turned the carriage around and drove away.

"?"

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes slightly.

Something was wrong.

Leading his donkey, he headed as usual for the nine-story Pagoda in Taicheng.

Historically, during the siege of Taicheng, there had been no shortage of grain, but salt and meat had run scarce.

The history books explained that the Xiao Liang nobility had been short-sighted. When they retreated into Taicheng, they had brought plenty of grain and gold and jewels, but not enough salt, vegetables, or meat.

But—

Considering what Huzi had just said, prices for supplies in the city had nearly doubled.

And this had started half a month ago.

That meant the Xiao Liang nobles and officials had realized long ago that the city might be besieged.

And they had begun stockpiling supplies.

Zhu Yuanzhang had specifically instructed Huzi to buy salt, vegetables, and meat separately.

That was to prepare for the possibility of shortages of salt, meat, and vegetables during the siege of Taicheng.

But...

All of this depended on the Xiao Liang nobles truly being so short-sighted that they hadn't even thought to stock up on vegetables, meat, and salt.

What if the shortages in Taicheng weren't caused by the Xiao Liang nobles' foolishness, but by something else?

At the thought, Zhu Yuanzhang's heart sank again.

"How strange. How strange."

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed.

He pushed open the gate of the Zen Courtyard.

This time, he didn't bother unloading the goods.

He simply tied the donkey up in the courtyard, then headed for the meditation room on the far right.

If he stayed in the courtyard and waited for the monk in the central room to wake, he would die!

Entering the room on the left or the middle room would also mean death!

Other than leaving the Zen Courtyard outright or trying the room on the right, Zhu Yuanzhang had no other options.

"I bear the hope of preserving Tongtai Temple."

"Fahui has no reason to harm me."

"If this were a death trap, he wouldn't have used a Blood Sutra—a work that takes most monks a lifetime to write—to guide me to seek help from his three fellow disciples."

"That means at least one of Tongtai Temple's eminent monks means me well."

"And the reason Fahui didn't spell it out is that these meditation rooms block his ability to observe them."

"He probably doesn't even know which room his kind-hearted senior brother is in, what state he's in, or whether he's conscious."

With that, Zhu Yuanzhang no longer hesitated.

He knocked on the door of the room on the right.

"Your disciple Minghe, following Master Fahui's orders, has entered Taicheng to seek refuge. I beg you, Martial Uncle, to take me in."

Suddenly, a river of blood surged up from the ground.

Inside the central room, shadows shifted behind the bright yellow curtains.

It was as if something was trying to wake ahead of time.

But when the blood spread to within ten feet of the room on the right—

"Why must you two senior brothers be so merciless..."

A sigh sounded from inside the room on the right.

Then the door before Zhu Yuanzhang opened on its own.

The voice seemed to speak directly into Zhu Yuanzhang's ear.

Just two words.

"Come in. Quickly."

Looking into the room before him, where an oil lamp cast no more than a faint glow over a foot of space,

Zhu Yuanzhang thought of the things in the other two rooms and hesitated.

But he still made up his mind.

The worst that could happen was having to start over.

"Thank you, Martial Uncle."

Zhu Yuanzhang cupped his hands, then strode into the room.

As he crossed the blackened threshold, he looked back at the tide of blood behind him.

In the blood, the things that resembled hair or threads rapidly withered when they came within ten feet of the room.

"Faci—"

The voice from the central room grew increasingly furious.

But as the blood receded, the voice gradually died away as well.

It was as if some power had sealed it away.

The door to the room shut with a thud.

Seeming to sense Zhu Yuanzhang's wariness toward the tide of blood, the voice explained:

"The three meditation rooms support one another, yet keep one another in check. This prevents the Dao Sin within their bodies from reviving too quickly."

"The Xiao Liang Royal Aura is nearly exhausted. The two of them have suffered a backlash. They can only cling to life by relying on this formation to devour fortune and blood offerings every day."

"As long as you stay in my room, they won't dare to act recklessly."

"Still, you really are lucky. You came straight to me without any hesitation."

"If you'd chosen wrong even once, or hesitated in the courtyard until Fajue awoke, you'd have been doomed."

In truth, he had already died many times.

Only through his own courage and wit had he found the one path to survival in that desperate situation.

"Thank you for saving me, Martial Uncle."

Zhu Yuanzhang bowed toward the darkness.

"But I have a question. What is Dao Sin? Since the two Martial Uncles are on the verge of passing away, why don't they return to Tongtai Temple? Why stay in Taicheng instead?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was in a hurry.

This was a timed quest.

Though the system hadn't said when it would end,

it clearly wouldn't let Zhu Yuanzhang do as he pleased, the way an ordinary Secret History would.

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's question,

the voice showed no sign of annoyance.

Instead, it answered with great patience:

"A collateral child born out of wedlock is called a bastard."

"Since it's called Dao Sin, that's naturally because my two senior brothers took a wrong turn somewhere along their cultivation paths..."

"As for staying in Taicheng, naturally, they couldn't bear to let all their cultivation end in death."

"They mean to turn the land into a river of blood and fight for a sliver of hope for themselves."