The Tongue

With one slash, the sword-wielding military strategist gravely wounded Zhang Yu, but he did not spare him a glance. His icy eyes were fixed on the military treatise in Zhang Yu's hand.

Only when the book was completely covered in blood and everyone had clearly heard it burp did he nod in satisfaction and say softly, "Finally, enough."

He withdrew his long saber and shot his left hand forward like lightning, thrusting it into Zhang Yu's mouth. He seized Zhang Yu's tongue and yanked hard.

Zhang Yu's tongue, trachea, and vocal cords were violently torn from his mouth, along with his crushed gums.

Then the strategist flung the bloody mass onto the blood-smeared military treatise.

"Hahahahaha~~~~" Now that the military treatise had a tongue, it began to laugh.

It had come to life.

Without waiting for the strategist to summon him, Jin Jun stepped up to it and asked, "What exactly went wrong tonight?"

But the military treatise did not answer. It just kept laughing, as though it had seen the most amusing thing in the world.

Jin Jun turned to glance at the strategist, who nodded at him.

A pair of scissors appeared in Jin Jun's hand. He slowly raised his left hand and snipped off his left little finger over the military treatise.

Blood streamed down, and the military treatise finally stopped laughing.

"Not enough." Its blood-red tongue flicked as it uttered those two words.

Jin Jun gave it a long look, then reached out and pulled over the nearest Demon-Slaying Bureau squad officer. With a snip, he cut off the man's ear.

Then came the second ear, the nose, the fingers, and the tips of his elbows.

The squad officer began to scream and struggle wildly. Annoyed by his thrashing, Jin Jun slipped his left hand into the skin of his back, gripped his spine with three fingers, and gave it a gentle twist. The spine snapped, and the squad officer went limp at once.

He lay twitching on the ground like a fish awaiting slaughter on a chopping board.

Jin Jun snipped away, cutting off every protruding part of the man's body, one by one, until he was a human stick.

Everyone, including Xu Chunliang, began to back away from Jin Jun, putting as much distance between themselves and him as possible.

Fortunately, the military treatise was finally satisfied. Its tongue flicked, and a raspy voice sounded.

"Someone is using the uncanny to slaughter the city."

With that, the military treatise stood up and looked at Xu Chunliang.

Though it had no eyes, everyone could feel its gaze. It was looking at Xu Chunliang.

"Have him give me his left hand, and I'll tell you everything," the military treatise said gleefully, its tongue wagging.

Whoosh!

In an instant, only Shi Qin remained beside Xu Chunliang.

Shi Qin looked at Jin Jun, who was eyeing them like a predator, and opened his mouth, unsure what to say.

Jin Jun beckoned with a finger, and the strategist also raised his head to look at Xu Chunliang.

"You there, come here. Yes, you."

"You heard what Lord Military Treatise just said, didn't you? For everyone in the city, so we can all stay alive, why don't you cut off one of your hands yourself?"

Xu Chunliang burst out laughing. Once again, he grew excited beyond his control.

"Interesting, interesting..."

"Hahahahaha..."

Laughing freely, Xu Chunliang stepped out of the crowd and came before the military treatise.

"You want my hand? Why be so polite? How about I give you my life?"

With a turn of his wrist, a small brass knife appeared in his hand. Xu Chunliang placed it against his neck, blade turned inward.

"Just say yes, and I'll cut my own throat. How about it?"

Everyone stared at Xu Chunliang with wide eyes, thinking that the sudden upheaval tonight had scared him mad.

Even the strategist, who had always killed without batting an eye, raised his head to look at Xu Chunliang, wondering what kind of madness had seized him.

"Th-that wouldn't be good, would it?" The military treatise instinctively backed away.

"Hm?" Xu Chunliang's eyes widened, his gaze growing even more deranged. He laughed and said, "How about we talk another way? If you hurry up and give me the answer, I won't cut my own throat. What do you say?"

"I'm counting down..."

"Three!"

The blade broke the skin on his neck. Bang! A black crack appeared on the military treatise.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Madman! Madman! You madman! I'll talk!"

Xu Chunliang laughed, swung the knife in a wide arc, and drove it down, pinning the tongue firmly to the military treatise.

"Talk. Talk just like that."

"I want to know the whole story behind every unexpected change tonight..."

Everyone stared at Xu Chunliang in shock, looking him up and down as though seeing him for the first time.

Xu Chunliang, however, did not care at all.

In Xu Chunliang's eyes, there were only two kinds of uncanny beings in this world:

Those he could kill, and those he could not.

There was no need to negotiate with those he could kill. He would find a way to kill them.

As for those he could not kill even after trying, he would go around them for now and come back to kill them when he was stronger.

That was why he would not satisfy the demands of these strange things as Jin Jun and the others did.

The rules were for him, Xu Chunliang, to set.

Before long, the crowd learned from the military treatise about the blood pool and forest of corpses, and about the Three Corpses Life-Prolonging Pill...

Some of them broke down...

"Your Majesty~!"

"So it's the emperor who wants us dead... We're finished..."

Four or five squad officers fell to their knees, sobbing. The [death-row prisoners] bound in chains also collapsed to the ground at that moment, their faces devoid of any desire to live.

The others, including Jin Jun and the strategist, looked dejected as well, evidently having lost some of their will to fight.

Imperial authority was supreme in this age.

Hearing that the one who wanted them dead was the representative of imperial authority, news akin to divine punishment, shattered everyone's mental defenses in an instant.

When the ruler commanded a subject to die, the subject had no choice but to die.

That was the rule, and it was also brute authority.

Everyone broke down, save for one!

Xu Chunliang snipped the tongue off the military treatise with a pair of scissors and cursed at the crowd, looking at them with contempt. "Are you idiots?"

"So what if he's the emperor? Is he so noble? Does he have two lives?"

"If the emperor wants to kill us, then we'll kill the emperor."

"If someone wants to use our lives to curry favor with imperial authority, then we'll kill them."

"Let's see whether these people who think they're so noble are any harder to kill. Can they still live with a knife through their hearts?"

As he spoke, Xu Chunliang seemed to come to a realization. He looked up at the pitch-black sky and murmured softly, "Before death, all beings are equal..."

"Of course, except me."

With that, he turned and strode toward the crowd.

Shi Qin trembled incessantly, his right hand gripping the hilt of the saber at his waist.

Emperor, slaughtering the city, Human Cook.

Those words kept flashing through his mind, then became his wife, his child, his dead master, his childhood sweetheart... everyone he knew and cared about.

He saw them slaughtered like pigs by a fat man, who laughed as he threw them into a huge blood pool.

A surge of anger rushed to his head!

"No! This isn't right!"

"Why should my wife's and child's lives be used to make medicine for the emperor?"

"We dare to kill even the uncanny, and we aren't even afraid of death! Why should we fear the emperor?"