191: All the heroes gathered at the city of Jubei

Chang'an City, Imperial Study.

Li Chengqian's fingers gently tapped the armrest of the Dragon Throne, producing a rhythmic sound.

Before him were two intelligence reports.

One came from the border of Liyang, detailing how Yuchi Gong had “swept through” and captured Ju Bei City overnight, as well as the shock and panic in the Liyang court.

The other had just been rushed back from Taian City, the capital of Liyang, by the Bad People over eight hundred li. It clearly recorded how Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang had spoken passionately in court and presented his venomous plan of “luring the enemy deep and annihilating them.”

“Nine Bend Yellow River Formation? Inviting the Mount Longhu Heavenly Master?”

Li Chengqian looked at the words on the report, and the curve of his lips became somewhat playful.

He looked up at Li Junxian and Xu Weixiong, who were standing below.

Xu Weixiong had just been summoned by him. Her memorial on the “mind attack strategy” was still on the desk.

“Liang Consort, take a look.” Li Chengqian handed over Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang’s report. “Your Liyang has indeed produced a Grand Marshal who dares to think and act.”

Xu Weixiong took the report and quickly scanned it. When she saw the words “Nine Bend Yellow River Formation” and “Mount Longhu Heavenly Master,” her star-bright eyes narrowed slightly.

“Your Majesty, this Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang should not be underestimated,” Xu Weixiong said in a deep voice. “He enjoys extremely high prestige in the Liyang army, and his use of troops is known for its cunning and ruthlessness. Moreover, his relationship with the Mount Longhu Heavenly Master’s Residence is not shallow; this matter is not baseless. If he truly manages to invite the Heavenly Master from Mount Longhu to set up that ancient Formation, General Yuchi Gong’s three hundred thousand strong army may be in danger of annihilation.”

Her analysis was objective and calm.

Although she had already married into the Great Tang, she had the clearest understanding of the top figures in her motherland.

“Danger of annihilation?” Li Chengqian smiled. He stood up and walked to the map, his gaze falling on the narrow area within Liyang called “Hulu Pass.”

“Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang wants to treat my three hundred thousand strong army as turtles in a jar. But how could he know that I am not playing along with his scheme, intending to wipe out Liyang’s last million elites, along with his so-called Mount Longhu Heavenly Master, in one fell swoop?”

Li Chengqian’s voice was calm.

But to Xu Weixiong and Li Junxian’s ears, it was no less than a clap of thunder from a clear sky.

Your Majesty... he actually saw through Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang’s scheme so early?

Moreover, he seemed to want to use this scheme against them?

“Your Majesty is sagacious.” Xu Weixiong’s mind was greatly shaken.

She had originally thought that her strategy, combining “open schemes” and “covert schemes,” was already a brilliant calculation.

But now it seemed that this man’s plan was far grander and more ruthless than she had imagined!

He didn't even put Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang's conspiracy in his eyes.

What he was playing was an open scheme!

It was that absolute, domineering style where, even though I know there's a trap ahead, I'll step right into it, and then crush you and your trap together!

“Li Junxian.” Li Chengqian’s gaze still lingered on the map.

“Your subject is here.”

“Pass my secret edict to Yuchi Gong.” Li Chengqian slowly said, “Tell him that the play must continue. And it must be acted more realistically.”

“Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang wants him to lure the enemy deep, doesn’t he? Then, let him have his wish.”

“Let him retreat steadily, abandoning his armor and weapons. The more disheveled the retreat, the better; the more miserable the defeat, the better. He can even sacrifice some troops to make the act convincing.”

“I want that Liyang Emperor and that Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang to both believe that victory is within their grasp. I want them to stake Liyang’s last reserves entirely into that small Hulu Pass!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Li Junxian bowed to receive the order, but a massive wave surged in his heart.

Sacrifice troops?

Make the act convincing?

Your Majesty’s move is too grand!

Those are the elites of Tiance Manor!

“Your Majesty, then... how should the Nine Bend Yellow River Formation at Hulu Pass be broken?” Li Junxian still asked the worry in his heart.

An ancient, wondrous Formation, just hearing about it made one’s scalp tingle.

“Formation?” Li Chengqian finally withdrew his gaze. He turned around and looked at Li Junxian, a nearly cruel smile appearing on his face.

“When did I ever say I wanted to break the Formation?”

One sentence left both Li Junxian and Xu Weixiong stunned.

Not break the Formation?

Wouldn’t those three hundred thousand troops, once inside, be at the mercy of others?

“A Formation that can even isolate heaven and earth is indeed very powerful,” Li Chengqian said indifferently. “But the ones setting up the Formation are people.”

“As long as they are people, they will die.”

“Pass my second secret edict.” Li Chengqian’s voice became bone-chilling.

“Order Consort Nan, Nangong Pu She, to take my token and go to Tiance Manor to see the Wine Sword Immortal.”

“Tell him that I want him to lead all the instructors and elites from Tiance Manor who have cultivated the ‘Shu Mountain Sword Canon’ to form a thousand-person ‘Immortal Slaying’ squad.”

“Their mission is only one.”

Li Chengqian paused, then said word by word: “After Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang’s army enters Hulu Pass, and before the Nine Bend Yellow River Formation is activated, you are to kill all those hundreds of self-righteous, old Daoists from Mount Longhu for me!”

“Leave none alive!”

“Hiss—”

Even Li Junxian, a Bad People commander who wouldn’t bat an eye at killing, couldn’t help but gasp at this order.

Too ruthless!

This was simply an upgraded version of “pulling the rug out from under them”!

You want to set up a Formation?

I’ll just kill everyone who sets up the Formation for you!

Let’s see what you’ll use to set up the Formation then!

Xu Weixiong’s delicate body trembled even more. She looked at the man before her, who, while chatting and laughing, had decided the fate of hundreds of top Cultivators. For the first time, a trace of emotion called “fear” appeared in her star-like eyes.

She suddenly felt that all her previous judgments about this man were wrong.

He was not a chess player.

He was the Heavenly Dao of this game!

Anyone who dared to defy his will would be ruthlessly erased!

“As for you...” Li Chengqian’s gaze fell on Xu Weixiong. “Your ‘mind attack strategy’ can begin.”

“The ‘smoother’ Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang’s fight on the front lines, the more complacent Liyang Emperor Zhao Dun will become. And the more impatient he will grow with that troublesome Grand Tutor Grand Tutor Zhang Julu.”

“I want you to ensure Grand Tutor Zhang Julu dies before Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang ‘forces’ Yuchi Gong into Hulu Pass.”

“And he must die by Zhao Dun’s hand.”

“I want Liyang to sever its own arm before the decisive battle!”

“Your concubine... obeys the edict.” Xu Weixiong lowered her head, concealing the extremely complex expression in her eyes.

She knew that once she started executing this order, there would be no turning back.

She would personally push her motherland into an abyss of eternal damnation.

But, in her heart, not only was there no hesitation, but a morbid excitement arose.

To participate in such a monumental gamble, one that would be recorded in history, and to dance with an emperor who viewed the world as a chessboard.

Was this not her, Xu Weixiong’s, lifelong pursuit?

“Go.” Li Chengqian waved his hand. “I await your good show.”

“Your subject (Your concubine), takes her leave.”

Li Junxian and Xu Weixiong bowed and exited the Imperial Study.

Silence once again returned to the main hall.

Li Chengqian sat back on the Dragon Throne.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the barriers of time and space, seeing the Hulu Pass that would soon run with blood, seeing the Liyang monarch and his ministers who would descend into ruin amidst suspicion and madness.

He also saw that sickly scholar on Mount Qingliang in Northern Liang, holding a teacup, who believed himself to be the mantis stalking the cicada.

“Li Yishan, oh Li Yishan...”

“You think Grand Marshal Gu Jiantang is your chess piece?”

“You think I am your stepping stone?”

“But how could you know that from the very beginning, all of you were merely sacrifices on my chessboard, offered to this heaven and earth?”

A cold smile, incomprehensible to anyone, curved Li Chengqian’s lips.

His enemy was never Liyang, nor Northern Liang, nor even the West Mausoleum Divine Hall.

His enemy was this heaven, which was about to collapse!

And how could one contend with heaven without shedding blood?