83: Chapter 83 Waiting for a command, waiting for an opportunity!

Three months later.

In the northern border of Great Li, a remote little city.

Zhao Heng, using the excuse of inspecting the Blood Tribute, dismissed all his attendants and came alone to a ruined temple outside the city.

Waiting for him in the ruined temple was a middle-aged man with one arm.

It was none other than Zhou Tiezhu.

The person in charge of the Mortal Resistance Army in the northern border.

When Zhou Tiezhu first met Zhao Heng, he almost drew his sword.

A prince of the royal family, coming to find the Resistance Army on his own initiative?

If this wasn't a trap, what was it?

But Zhao Heng only did one thing.

He rolled up his sleeve, revealing a hideously jagged scar on the inside of his left arm.

That was what he had carved into his own arm with a knife on the night he learned of his mother's death.

The character for "Hatred".

The scar had healed, but the character was still clearly discernible.

"My mother was refined alive into a dried corpse by that beast."

Zhao Heng's voice was very calm, so calm that it didn't sound like a sixteen-year-old boy.

"My father, the Emperor, didn't even dare to say a word."

"I came to find you all, not because I am noble, nor because I want to be some hero."

"I just want revenge."

"This life of mine, I can give it to you."

Zhou Tiezhu stared at that scar for a long time.

Finally, he put his sword away.

"Follow me, and meet our people."

...

In the secret chamber of the mine.

Su Yu looked at the Crown Prince Zhao Heng kneeling before him, silent for a full half-stick of incense time.

A six-year-old child and a sixteen-year-old boy looked at each other.

In those youthful yet bottomless eyes, Zhao Heng saw something he had never seen in anyone else.

It wasn't pity, it wasn't sympathy, nor was it that condescending mercy.

It was an extremely pure scrutiny.

As if this six-year-old child before him was using a gaze that transcended age, experience, and even this era.

Just like an onion, peeling away all his disguises layer by layer, looking straight into the deepest part of his soul.

"You hate the demons, I believe that."

Su Yu finally spoke.

"But do you hate your father, the Emperor?"

Zhao Heng was stunned for a moment.

"I do."

He answered without hesitation.

"I hate him for his incompetence, I hate him for his cowardice, I hate him for not even being able to protect his own wife."

Su Yu shook his head.

"That's not right, it is not his incompetence that you hate."

"What you hate is that you are afraid that you will become like him in the future."

Zhao Heng's pupils shrank violently.

The secret chamber was quiet for a long time.

Then, this sixteen-year-old boy's eyes reddened in front of someone for the first time.

"The Immortal Master is right."

His voice trembled slightly.

"I am afraid."

"I am afraid that one day, when it is my wife's or my child's turn to be taken away."

"I will also be like him, saying 'I understand', and then continue eating."

Su Yu looked at him and said softly.

"That is why you came."

"That is why I came."

Zhao Heng kowtowed heavily.

"I came so that I would not become that kind of person."

Su Yu nodded slightly.

"Good."

"From today on, you will be a nail we have buried in the imperial palace."

"But I have one condition."

Zhao Heng raised his head.

"Immortal Master, please speak."

"Live."

Su Yu's tone was extremely flat.

"Before I need you to die, you must live."

"Your life is not your own; from today on, your life belongs to these billions of Mortal."

"Unless it is a last resort, you are not allowed to seek death, not allowed to be impulsive, not allowed to be exposed."

"Can you do that?"

Zhao Heng was silent for a moment, then nodded heavily.

"I can."

For the next year.

On the surface, the Great Li Dynasty returned to its past "calm".

The new emperor, Prince Anping Zhao Yansi, was content with pleasure and bowed to the demons.

Crown Prince Zhao Heng was diligent and obedient, sharing his father's worries, and gained the trust of Xue Du.

The Zhenfu Division continued to hunt down the "remnants" who spread the Mortal Self-Severing Method, hanging a few heads on the city walls every few days as a warning.

Everything seemed to be under the control of the demons.

But beneath this dead-water-like calm, undercurrents had long since surged into a river.

Su Yu spent a year weaving a huge and secret net across the entire territory of Great Li.

This net had no name, no flag, not even a unified organizational structure.

It was composed of countless small nodes that were independent of each other and did not know of each other's existence.

Each node had only three to five people; they only knew their companions within their own node and did not know of the existence of other nodes.

Communication between nodes was carried out through single-line transmission, separated layer by layer.

This way, even if any one node was destroyed, it would not affect the safety of other nodes.

Even if the Zhenfu Division caught people, it would be of no use.

Because the information they tortured out would always only be the names of three to five people.

This net was woven by Su Yu using the statecraft and espionage methods from the era of the Prince of Zhennan in his past life.

No, it was even more precise than that.

Because he had lived too many lives, he had seen too many forms of power struggles and underground organizations.

He understood better than anyone else in this world.

How to let the sparks of fire not be extinguished under the crushing weight of absolute power.

And Crown Prince Zhao Heng was the most critical link in this net.

He used his identity to do three things.

First, using the power to inspect the Blood Tribute, he planted members of the Resistance Army in key prefectures and counties.

These people used the cover of being subordinate officials of the Zhenfu Division, nominally searching for remnants for the royal family, but actually secretly protecting those Mortal who remembered the incantation.

Second, using the authority of the Crown Prince, he obtained the troop deployment and magic array distribution maps of the demons within the territory of Great Li.

This intelligence was continuously transmitted to Su Yu through secret passages.

Third, and the most important thing.

Within the imperial palace, he found a group of royal family members and imperial guards who hated the demons as much as he did, but had to bow their heads.

These people all had their own deep blood feuds.

Some had their mothers taken away by the demons, never to return.

Some had their brothers chosen as Blood Tribute, screaming for three days and three nights in the Blood Refining Workshop.

Some had their wives treated as toys at the demons' banquets, humiliated to death.

They were all trapped beasts in a cage.

And Zhao Heng gave them a key to open the cage.

...

Another half a year passed.

It had been a full year and a half since Leader Li Zizai generously went to his death in the square.

In this year and a half, the Mortal Self-Severing Method had almost disappeared from the surface.

The secret report of the Zhenfu Division read: "Remnants cleared, incantation extinct."

Xue Du was quite satisfied with this.

But what it did not know was that in this year and a half, Su Yu's net had spread across the entire territory of Great Li.

The Mortal who remembered the incantation of the Mortal Self-Severing Method had not decreased.

Instead, they had spread from the millions in the square...

To tens of millions!

Only this time, no one recited it publicly anymore, and no one blew themselves up in a martyrdom-style manner.

Because they were all waiting.

Waiting for a command.

Waiting for an opportunity.

Waiting for every node on that net to be ready, waiting for that thunderous strike that would make the demons unable to ever turn the tables again.