Scaling the City Walls with His Bare Hands

The moment he saw the Xianbei warrior's Ocher Face.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt the two beams of Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire within him being suppressed.

Though the Deep One's defenses had been breached, he was affected the least.

His blood and qi surged, and the wounds that had been pierced through quickly clotted and scabbed over.

His damaged body began to repair itself.

Facing the gleaming sabers and spears of the seven Xianbei Shock Cavalry surrounding him.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt that even after pulling out two spears, he could still keep fighting.

Unfortunately, the first wave of Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire had failed to accomplish anything.

There was no time left.

The opportunity had vanished in an instant.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed regretfully.

With his last two punches, he sent the two Xianbei riders at the front flying.

Then he calmly accepted his fate: being turned into a pincushion by the Xianbei cavalry's spears.

[You died]

From Sima Gate at Taicheng to Xuanyang Gate in Jiankang City.

He hadn't seen the White Bone Dharma Image that Faci had transformed into after his death along the way.

"Your token is fake. The Xianbei deliberately let it fall into your hands so they could capture the powerful members of the Xiao Liang court in Taicheng and extort ransom."

Looking at Xuanyang Gate, where Yang Kan's arrangements had left its defenses thin.

Zhu Yuanzhang spoke in a low voice.

Fu Qi's expression changed. He murmured,

"No wonder those Xianbei barely even haggled before handing over the token."

Fu Qi looked at Prince of Yuzhang beside him, his face full of regret.

"I was careless. I nearly got Your Highness killed."

"Commander Fu was only doing his utmost for the court, laboring tirelessly on its behalf. How could you be at fault?"

Xiao Dong reined in his horse and shook his head gently at Fu Qi.

"Our urgent task is to find another way out."

Watching Fu Qi and Xiao Dong exchange words like a harmonious ruler and his loyal subject.

Zhu Yuanzhang raised two fingers and said,

"We have two choices. First, return to Taicheng and find another way out. Second..."

But before Zhu Yuanzhang could finish, both Xiao Dong's and Fu Qi's expressions changed.

"Returning to Taicheng is absolutely out of the question." Fu Qi and Prince of Yuzhang exchanged a look, their eyes filled with an indescribable fear. Without the slightest hesitation, he said, "Zen Master Minghe, please tell us about the second plan."

"Very well."

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his fingers.

He had only been testing the two of them.

After all, there was only one day left before the mission ended.

Until he knew exactly how large an area the system considered to be [Taicheng].

Zhu Yuanzhang was even more anxious than the two of them to leave the city.

And from Fu Qi and Xiao Dong's expressions, it was easy to tell.

They thought Taicheng was more dangerous than Hou Jing.

Fu Qi's reaction was especially pronounced.

He had probably seen something at the Hualin Garden Office that had overturned everything he thought he knew.

Zhu Yuanzhang gave Fu Qi a long look and asked,

"Since we can't return to Taicheng, that leaves only one option: force our way out."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't ask Fu Qi what he had seen at the Hualin Garden Office.

He knew Fu Qi wouldn't tell him even if he asked.

So he didn't bother asking at all.

They found an empty house the Xianbei had already stripped bare, slipped inside, and concealed themselves to discuss their next move.

Zhu Yuanzhang pushed open a window to let the fresh air flow in.

Looking into Fu Qi's eyes, he asked,

"When will the reinforcements outside the city arrive?"

Fu Qi glanced at the night sky outside and silently calculated the time using the star-gazing method in Heguanzi.

Taking the Big Dipper as the central constellation, the positions of the twenty-eight mansions showed that it was now around the middle of the Zi hour.

"About half an hour."

After checking his calculations again and arriving at the same conclusion, Fu Qi replied.

"Then we'll wait half an hour."

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was firm.

Without a doubt, the safest approach was for the group to leave without alerting the guards at Xuanyang Gate and join the royalist army.

The next safest option was to coordinate from within and escape amid the chaos.

The second approach involved far more uncertainty than the first.

But as things stood, it was actually more likely to succeed.

The only question was—

"Can the royalist army really break through Xuanyang Gate?"

But seeing Fu Qi's confidence.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't voice his doubts.

Whatever the royalist army's fighting strength or plans.

That was a problem for much later.

Zhu Yuanzhang only needed a little chaos.

Even if he left Fu Qi and Xiao Dong behind, he still had to get out of here before the first day of the eleventh month.

At the third quarter of the chou hour.

Shouts of battle rose from outside Xuanyang Gate.

"The moment has come."

Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes.

"Zen Master Minghe."

Fu Qi watched the fighting atop Xuanyang Gate. His eyes, dulled by his approaching death, now shone faintly.

"Stay close to me."

Zhu Yuanzhang said no more.

He picked up his monk's staff.

Experience had proven that the Deep One's physical strength could shrug off shoddily made iron weapons and farm tools.

But the fine-iron spears used by Xianbei cavalry in a charge could still pierce him.

"Two ahead, one front left, one behind, one rear right."

When they reached Xuanyang Gate.

Zhu Yuanzhang called out the positions of several Xianbei scouts in the darkness with pinpoint accuracy, as if he had wallhacks.

There were five in all, half as many as in his previous life, thanks to the royalist army.

But they were still stationed in their original positions.

With the Deep One's night vision, locating the sentries was much easier once he knew where to look.

Outside Xuanyang Gate, the waters of the moat, drawn from the Qinhuai River, surged and foamed.

Ever since he had seen Guixu, the call coming from the eastern sea had grown stronger and stronger.

As he listened to the sound of the Qinhuai River flowing through the moat outside the city.

It was as if the final piece of a puzzle had fallen into place.

The Deep One's body and Minghe's soul, fully transformed after confronting the Bitter Sea, merged perfectly.

Zhu Yuanzhang had never felt his body move with such ease.

"Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire."

Flames flickered before him.

He "saw" the disdain on the Xianbei elite cavalryman's face behind his mask.

As if he were saying,

"Unorthodox trickery."

"All it does is make your eyes flicker..."

"How could it break the Ocher—"

"Urgh!"

But in that split second of distraction.

Zhu Yuanzhang leaped high, and his monk's staff, backed by immense force, struck the Xianbei rider clean off his horse.

A deep depression had appeared in the fallen rider's chest.

Blood seeped through the gaps in his chain mail.

His chest bones had broken, and his organs had been crushed into pulp.

His body convulsed on the ground, bits of his innards spilling from his mouth. He clearly wouldn't last long.

The other four Xianbei cavalrymen saw this, and a look of alarm flashed across their faces behind their bronze masks.

They tightened their reins, turned their horses, and drew their bows, preparing to put distance between themselves and Zhu Yuanzhang.

Sensing them move, Zhu Yuanzhang simply abandoned his horse and charged on foot.

The Deep One's short-range burst of speed was actually greater than that of the Xianbei steeds.

He leaped onto the back of the nearest Xianbei rider's horse.

Then, while two Xianbei soldiers scrambled in panic to switch weapons again, he swung his monk's staff sideways through the air and knocked the two beside him off their horses.

Then he clamped both hands around the head of the Xianbei rider in front of him and twisted hard.

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

Three screams rang out.

Blood gushed like a fountain from the necks of the headless bodies.

Zhu Yuanzhang shoved the bodies off the horses, drew a bow, and nocked an arrow.

Although all Zhu Yuanzhang knew about archery came from his university martial arts club.

Still...

When your stats are maxed out, the skills you're so proud of look laughable.jpg

Besides, at this range, even a beginner might hit.

The bowstring snapped.

The four-edged armor-piercing arrowhead pierced the heart of the last Xianbei rider trying to flee.

With a thud, the rider fell from his horse.

It was all over in the blink of an eye.

Several frightened cries came from among the Zahu soldiers.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand the language of these Zahu.

But from their expressions.

They probably meant something like "monster" or "ogre."

Zhu Yuanzhang ignored the Zahu soldiers, who were already scared out of their wits. Relying on the suppression of his Deep One bloodline, he rode a Xianbei warhorse straight toward Xuanyang Gate.

His path was clear. Not one of the hundred or so Zahu soldiers dared to stop him.

Behind him, the envy in Xiao Dong's eyes was impossible to conceal.

Zhu Yuanzhang reached the city wall.

By then, each of his two pairs of Deep One webbed limbs had grown three-inch-long bone claws.

As he reached out, the claws, sharp as knives, sank savagely into the rammed earth of the wall.

Leaning forward, he began climbing the towering southern city wall with nothing but his own body.