Chapter 222
Chapter 222
Wen Chong failed to persuade Ji Yan’an to work with him, so in the end, he could only remain locked up.
In truth, he did not care who became emperor. He had no desire to take the throne himself, either.
He had caused all this trouble simply because something inside him had twisted, leaving him wanting to destroy the world.
His own life had been ruined, so he could not stand to see anyone else live well.
After Wen Chong was captured, the prefect and garrison commander of Dali watched the Human Gu spread ever farther. The creatures were difficult to kill and horrifying to behold, every one of them resembling an evil spirit. What normal person would not be afraid?
That was especially true of guilty men who feared ghosts knocking at their doors.
When their requests for outside reinforcements drew no response, they decisively packed their belongings and fled.
The local powerful clans and gentry fled with them.
The common people who could not leave remained trapped in unbearable misery.
It was at this moment that Ji Yan’an led the mountain people he had trained for half a year down from the mountains.
After months of training and study, they had developed a method specifically for killing Human Gu.
They worked in pairs: one person restrained the creature while the other waited for an opportunity to cut off its head.
Only decapitation could kill a Human Gu for good.
“Charge!”
Jiang Yunsui sat with Ji Yan’an on an elephant’s back, Little Mushroom brimming with fighting spirit.
More elephants followed behind them.
One day, while Jiang Yunsui was romping through the forest, she had found an entire herd and lured them back with Imperial Flowing Essence and fresh fruit.
The elephants had been trained into an elephant corps. Whatever their actual combat ability, their sheer size and strength made them enormous living tanks.
The Human Gu were controlled by people. Although Wen Chong was gone, some of those people had never truly supported him. He had been no more than a tool to them.
When those secretly directing the Human Gu assault saw Ji Yan’an’s force-with their excellent equipment, formidable fighting ability, and elephants-they panicked. They immediately summoned every Human Gu, intending to eliminate this army first.
“What’s going on? Where did these people come from?!”
“I don’t know, but judging by their clothes, they look like mountain people.”
“How could mountain people be this rich?!”
Their armor and weapons were better than those of Dali’s own garrison!
“Kill them first!”
Roughly three thousand Human Gu gradually assembled.
Their original plan had been to attack the city once they had more than ten thousand.
But some physician had appeared from nowhere and taken most of the poisoned people away for treatment. Worse, it had actually worked. The Human Gu poison had been suppressed, and the victims had not transformed according to plan.
Other Human Gu had been killed after scattering elsewhere.
With Wen Chong captured and missing, these people had no choice but to act hastily.
This paltry number of Human Gu fell far short of what they had envisioned.
Fortunately, the prefect and garrison commander were useless fools. At the sight of the Human Gu, they had screamed about demons and ghosts, frightened themselves senseless, and fled in panic.
With no garrison army, even a mere three thousand Human Gu should have been enough to seize Dali with ease. Then their masters could rule as local emperors, wait for their chance to march on Great Liang’s imperial capital with the Human Gu, and take the whole realm.
It was a lovely fantasy.
In reality, this army that had appeared from nowhere-and its obvious familiarity with killing Human Gu-sent the masterminds into a panic.
The Human Gu were controlled with an instrument called an ocarina.
When Jiang Yunsui heard its notes, she chuckled.
They were using an instrument? That made things easy.
Jiang Yunsui pulled out a little suona horn.
Ji Yan’an fell silent.
Just what had Song Jin and the others been teaching this child?
The next instant, the suona blared-not a tune, but a glorious, chaotic racket.
“Bwaa, bwaa, bwaa… toot, toot… bwaa-toot-toot…”
Little Mushroom blew with all her might, puffing out her cheeks. When she got tired, she rested for a moment and started again. Who cared about melody? If a horn made noise, it was a good horn.
Expressionless, Ji Yan’an expertly inserted a pair of cotton earplugs.
The sudden blast of the suona made the ocarina falter, though its player soon steadied the tune.
Song Jin stood there holding a feather fan, the very picture of pretentious elegance.
“Everyone, take out your instruments. Let’s play them a funeral song.”
The others produced their own instruments. Some had gongs, some had drums, and others had suonas like Jiang Yunsui’s.
An even louder, more chaotic din soon erupted.
Sweat poured down the faces of the ocarina players controlling the Human Gu, but they dared not stop. If they lost control, the creatures would turn on them!
The elephants swayed their trunks to the noise, occasionally trumpeting along.
Their calls were even louder than the suonas.
They trampled Human Gu underfoot. Sometimes a foot landed squarely on a head and crushed it outright.
When a Human Gu leaped, an elephant lashed out with its trunk like a whip and knocked the creature down.
“This is bad! We’re losing control!”
The ocarina players blew until their faces turned crimson and their heads swam from lack of air.
“Damn it! Who came up with the idea of controlling Human Gu with ocarinas in the first place?!”
Who would have imagined the method had such a glaring weakness?
“Forget it. We need to run.”
There was no way they could win.
“But I can’t accept this! Dali was nearly ours. I-”
Before he could finish, he felt a sudden chill in his chest, followed by a burst of agony.
He lowered his head and stared at the hand that had punched through his torso, its nails black and razor-sharp. With difficulty, he turned and found himself facing something grotesque and horrifying.
The Human Gu glared at him, hatred blazing in its bloodred eyes.
It opened its mouth and bit savagely into his neck without hesitation.
The other controllers turned deathly pale at the sight.
When they had refined other people into Human Gu and watched the creatures kill, they had laughed merrily. No amount of begging had stirred a shred of pity in them.
Only when the weapons they had created turned on them did they finally panic and regret their actions.
The Human Gu had lost all reason, but they still hated the people who had refined them even more than ordinary humans.
The moment they broke free of control, their first instinct was to devour their masters.
“Huh? Are they fighting among themselves?”
Jiang Yunsui’s head filled with question marks as she watched several figures wrapped head to toe in black like rats flee in panic, Human Gu chasing behind them.
Weren’t they on the same side?
“Ji Yi,” Ji Yan’an ordered. “Take advantage of the chaos and destroy their ocarinas.”
Ji Yi accepted the order and silently approached the men with a crossbow.
Once the ocarinas were destroyed, they lost their last means of controlling the Human Gu. In the end, every one of them was killed by the creatures they had fashioned into weapons.
It was fitting retribution.
“Kill every Human Gu that has broken free of control,” Ji Yan’an ordered.
Those who had reached this late stage of poisoning could no longer be restored.
Even if they could return to themselves, their present appearance would make them outcasts among humanity. No one-not even their families-would want to accept them as they were.
Living that way would be more painful than death.