Chapter 664 – Divine Dynasty? Demon Dynasty? Tang Nian’s Fate - Part 1

KLANG!

A sword flashed from its scabbard.

Guo Xi held the edge to his neck and cried out in anguish, “Lord Yu! This is all my fault. My daughter knew nothing. I beg you, let her go!”

CLACK!

Before the words had even left his lips, his sword flew from his hand.

It was only a small stone, but that tiny pebble was all it took to disarm him.

Li Yuan cast him a cold glance and said calmly, “You discovered a small group of enemy scouts. To avoid alerting them, you sent Guo Qin to inform me. We joined forces and killed both the Lord of Arms and Heavenly Master. Unfortunately, your personal guards were all killed.”

“...” Guo Xi froze.

He looked at Li Yuan, then at Guo Qin. His eyes grew red.

His head drooped. His knees buckled, and he knelt before Li Yuan. But he turned his head aside and let out a long sigh, at a complete loss for words.

Guo Qin’s eyes were red too. She looked at her father kneeling before her, and for a moment, she didn’t know what to say. She knew everything now. She knew her father had used her.

But.. he was still her father. What could she do?

Slowly, she too began to kneel before Li Yuan, but he caught her and lifted her up.

“No more kneeling. Let’s get back to the city. There might still be enemies around.”

Li Yuan spoke simply, then turned and strode off.

The Guo father and daughter followed closely behind.

Suddenly, Guo Xi spoke up. “Would it not be better if Qin’er stayed by your side from now on, to serve you?”

Li Yuan paused and glanced sideways.

The girl in green, who had only been tearful a moment ago, now had a faint flush across her cheeks. But when his eyes met hers, she mustered her courage and whispered, “I-I’m willing.”

Don’t be fooled. Before Li Yuan, Guo Qin might seem like a shy little girl, but out in the world, she was the proud Jade Lotus Fairy, admired by countless young generals in the Green Forest Alliance.

If she so much as hinted at marriage, matchmakers would be lined up outside her home from the east gate of the Western Capital all the way to the west.

And yet here she was, willing to serve Li Yuan without even asking for the title of wife.

Everyone knew what

to serve

meant.

At best, she would be a concubine.

For someone like Guo Qin, becoming a concubine was supposed to be impossible. Wherever she went, she would be the main wife.

Li Yuan shook his head gently.

“Miss Guo, you don’t need to follow me. You deserve a better life.”

Guo Qin froze, stunned. She was just about to say something more when Li Yuan had already turned and floated away, like a breeze.

Her eyes flickered with confusion, then dimmed with disappointment and loss.

But before long, she gathered herself and silently followed her father.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month later.

Just before the first heavy snows of early winter, word came from afar.

The Emperor had relocated the capital, moving it from the Central Capital to the former capital in Hidden Dragon Province, the Jade Capital.

As for the Central Capital, a famous general from the Ministry of War had been left behind to hold it.

Meanwhile, the rebels had also caught wind of the defeat of both the Lord of Arms and Heavenly Master and their morale soared.

Many of the Divine Generals and their troops roared with laughter.

“This winter, we’re moving into the Central Capital’s imperial palace! Let’s see what kind of bed the Emperor sleeps in, and what kind of women share it!”

The rebel army was a mixed crowd. A good number were common folk, but even more were wild rogues, drifters, and desperate men with nothing to their names, no possessions, no family, just a belly full of pent-up rage.

That rage burned in them day and night. They dreamed of storming the capital and laying waste to everything inside. Women. Gold. All the things they’d ever craved. They believed it all waited for them in the Central Capital.

Break through that city, and everything they ever wanted would be theirs.

And so, even as winter deepened, rebel forces all over were seizing every moment to attack towns and strongholds.

Wherever they broke through, the mansions of the local elite became prime loot. Many Divine Generals would charge in first, slaughtering the men, snatching up gold and silver, and dividing the women like spoils of war.

Meanwhile, the name of Lord Yu rang louder and farther than ever. After all, everyone knew or at least believed that it was he who had slain the Lord of Arms and Heavenly Master.

As long as Lord Yu was around, no one dared even whisper about assassinating the Divine Sovereign.

In truth, the assassination plot had already failed. If even the Lord of Arms had died, if the Emperor himself had been scared enough to relocate the capital, what hope did the rest have?

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Deep winter.

The Central Capital was covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Li Yuan now sat wrapped in a lavish fur blanket. Even his wine had changed, from the cheap, watered-down stuff to aged spirits once locked away in the cellars of the wealthy and powerful.

The room he stayed in sparkled with extravagance. The shelves gleamed with coral, ancient relics, and jade carvings, treasures once hoarded by nobles, now on display in his residence.

Outside, the courtyard boasted winding cloisters and flanking side halls.

The maids and handmaidens who served him? All carefully chosen gifts from the various factions.

Because in every battle, no matter who broke through a city first, the richest, most succulent spoils were always sent straight to Li Yuan’s estate.

It wasn’t just about his overwhelming merit. Half the fiercest, most capable generals in the resistance had once been taught or guided by him.

So when it came time to divvy up the spoils, even if Li Yuan hadn’t been anywhere near the battlefield, his share was never overlooked. No one dared to slight him.

Among the women sent to him were the daughters of noble families, wives of high-ranking officials, even exquisitely beautiful concubines famed for their dancing.

If Li Yuan wished, he could lock his doors, play the tyrant, and force these women, those once called

Lady

or

Madam,

to strip down and frolic barefoot in the snow, like playthings in some grotesque game.

However, he didn’t.

As for accepting these women? He did so only because he knew if he didn’t, if he refused them...then those poor, terrified women would be handed over to someone else. And what awaited them after that...he didn’t want to imagine.

In times like these, beauty was a curse, especially for the conquered. That curse could mean a fate worse than death.

So yes, Li Yuan took the choicest spoils.

But not once did he lay a hand on them. He simply...kept them safe.

He suddenly thought of the old histories from before he crossed over, those vast, sweeping chronicles that spanned thousands of years.

When a dynasty rises, the people suffer.

When a dynasty falls, the people suffer.

Back then, he never imagined he’d one day find himself inside that very cycle, taking part and living through it.

Now, the rebel army had barely achieved anything, yet already their true natures were showing.

Li Yuan could already picture what it would be like if they actually broke through the imperial capital.

Flames roaring across the city. Smoke choking the skies. Cries of anguish echoing through the streets.

The capital overrun with uncouth generals, storming into the palace, clawing for the concubines, court ladies, and noblewomen who hadn’t made it out with the fleeing emperor.

Debauchery would spread like rot. Murder would become routine. Every household would bolt its doors, only to be broken into, ransacked by the chaos outside.

And that...that would just be the beginning.

Once people realized that all it took was force to smash open the gates of the capital and enjoy the spoils of an emperor, rebellion would become a wildfire.

The whole world would descend into chaos.

In the past, ordinary people never dared imagine they could shake a dynasty. Numbers didn’t matter back then. One powerful figure could hold off ten thousand. And the imperial family, backed in secret by the Northern Dipper and Polaris, held all the resources, all the secrets. No one could touch them.

But now? All of that was gone.

The people were forced to rebel and then discovered that the once-untouchable imperial family wasn’t so fearsome after all. Now they had hope. They were about to witness the fall of the capital with their own eyes.

And once that precedent was set, there would be no turning back.

Li Yuan had only meant to go fishing. But not only had he failed to catch the fish, he now found the so-called

righteous

rebel army mutating into something just as monstrous as the tyrant they claimed to fight.

He wasn’t in a good mood. So when generals like Guo Xi and Sun Juli returned from the front to visit him, he gave them a stern message.

“You came from the common people. If you break a city, do not allow your men to loot or pillage.”

Some of the Divine Generals were thoughtful types. They nodded solemnly and said nothing more.

But Sun Juli? That brute had no filter. He blurted out, “We’re fighting with our heads tied to our belts. We gotta have something to look forward to, something sweet at the end. You take a city and say no plundering? Who’s gonna keep fighting like that? The brothers need a good time too, y’know!”

In just two years, Sun Juli had already earned a nickname across the land, The Demon King of Chaos. His twin battle axes were the stuff of nightmares.

There were even tales of him cleaving straight through enemy weapons and shattering arms in one brutal swing.

That kind of monstrous strength had made Sun Juli one of the most fearsome of the Divine Generals, a true butcher, a walking terror who could silence a crying child just by name alone.

Yet despite his fearsome reputation, this so-called Demon King of Chaos turned downright docile in front of Li Yuan. Whenever he spoke and saw Li Yuan sitting, he’d squat down like a guilty child, as if afraid to breathe too loud. That fierce, bloodthirsty face of his, on the battlefield a vision of terror, would soften into an almost goofy expression.

Li Yuan looked at him and asked flatly, “Are you a soldier of the people or just a bandit?”

Sun Juli scratched his head and squatted there, completely at a loss.

Someone nearby quickly whispered, “Old Sun! Hurry and apologize!”

Only then did Sun Juli come to his senses and drop to his knees, bowing over and over with a loud

thud

on the floor.

But once they left Li Yuan’s presence, those so-called Divine Generals all went right back to their usual ways. They were simply a bit more restrained, and followed one unspoken rule. Whatever they did, they absolutely wouldn’t let Li Yuan hear about it.