Han Xin sheathed his sword. "By the time they set up camp, it will be dark. Chief of the guards, just protect me. Leave the rest to me."
"Alright, I guarantee you won't even be hurt by a mosquito," Zhongli Mei said with a smile.
Han Xin looked into the distance and said, "Let's wait for General Fei Hu's good news. When two tigers fight, the stronger one will win!"
Outside the wall, the night was dark and the wind was high; inside the wall, the lights were bright.
Ye City was the most prosperous city in the north during this period. The imperial palace was undoubtedly magnificent, surrounded by forty-nine tall pavilions and a covered walkway leading to the old capital, Xiangguo.
When an emperor pursues these things, the downfall of his country is not far off. Every pavilion and terrace is built with the blood and sweat of the people, and countless people have lost their lives because of it.
Shi Hu was ruthless not only to the common people and his enemies, but also to his own family. His hands were stained with blood. Needless to say, he killed many of his children and grandchildren after he seized power.
Of course, someone like Shi Hu, with his moral character, couldn't raise a good son.
Crown Prince Shi Sui was arrogant, licentious, and cruel. He liked to adorn his beautiful concubines, then cut off their heads, wash away the blood, and place them on a plate for his guests to admire. He would then cook the flesh of the concubines' bodies and enjoy it together.
Later, this prince disrespected Shi Hu, so Shi Hu exterminated his entire family, and the twenty-six people were buried together in one coffin.
The next crown prince, Shi Xuan, was no better off. After Shi Hu made him crown prince, he began to dote on his other son, Shi Tao, and even said that he regretted not making Shi Tao crown prince in the first place.
This Shi Tao was no good either. Relying on Shi Hu's favor, he didn't take the Crown Prince seriously at all, and even built a Xuanguang Hall.
Crown Prince Shi Xuan felt that the other party was deliberately offending him by using his name, so he ordered the craftsmen to be killed. However, Shi Tao was not satisfied and continued to build, even extending the crossbeam from nine zhang to ten zhang.
So Shi Xuan sent men to kill Shi Tao. Shi Hu then guessed that Shi Xuan was responsible, so he killed Shi Xuan in an extremely cruel way: cutting off his hands and feet, gouging out his eyes, piercing his intestines, and then burning him. Finally, he also killed Shi Xuan's wife and children.
He would even kill his own grandson; Shi Hu was that ruthless. Calling him a demon wouldn't be an exaggeration. Yet, this very man was a devout Buddhist.
Perhaps he felt he had done too many bad things and wanted to leave himself a way out, believing that Buddha would protect him.
Ironically, Shi Hu in history died of illness in his fifties, and legend has it that because of his great merits to Buddhism, his body was kept incorrupt.
But in this dimension, Shi Hu doesn't have that opportunity.
"Shi Hu, I'm here." Xiang Sheng put away his treasure, the compass. He had relied on this treasure to avoid getting lost along the way and arrived at the capital of Zhao with a great sense of accomplishment.
The compass could only lead him to Ye City; once he entered the palace, the compass was useless. But that didn't stop him; he could just grab a prisoner to lead the way.
Although this was Xiang Sheng's first time traveling through time to do a mission, Hao Jiu was very experienced. To complete the mission, one had to find places that differed from history. No matter how well the target system was hidden, it would still change history to some extent.
Of course, to determine the location of the target system using this method, we must first figure out the time point of this dimension before we can determine where it has been changed.
The current time in the Buddha Zhao plane is June of the first year of Tai Ning, while Shi Hu ascended the throne as emperor in January of the same year, changing the era name to Tai Ning. Before that, he proclaimed himself the Regent Zhao Heavenly King.
At first glance, there seemed to be no problem, but Hao Jiu immediately realized that there was a huge problem.
Historical records state that Shi Hu died in April of the first year of the Tai Ning era, and his son Shi Shi succeeded him. However, he is still alive and well!
It's not hard to conclude from this that either Shi Hu was the target host, or the target host extended Shi Hu's lifespan. In any case, Shi Hu deserved to die, so it wasn't wrong for Xiang Sheng to kill Shi Hu first!
"Hahaha..." Shi Hu's hearty laughter echoed from the palace.
Xiang Sheng now possesses the ability to sneak into the palace undetected with a single person. "Is the person laughing inside Shi Hu?"
"Yes, yes, brave warrior, can you let me go?" the kidnapped man asked, his voice trembling with tears.
"Are you a Jie?" Xiang Sheng asked.
"No, no." The man shook his head repeatedly.
"The Jie people are indeed cunning, but your appearance betrays you." Xiang Sheng gave him a light pinch, delivering a quick and painless blow. The Jie people's appearances are quite easy to distinguish; otherwise, it would be difficult to exterminate their entire clan.
"Someone, bring another jar of fresh wine." Shi Hu was completely unaware that death was approaching. He thought he was protected by Buddha, so he acted even more recklessly, drinking blood, eating and drinking beautiful women, and living a nocturnal life until almost dawn every night.
"Is that so?" Xiang Sheng slashed the neck of the last guard in the hall, and the blood flowed into the jar.
"Fool! I want the blood of a beauty! You...who are you?!" Shi Hu instantly sobered up. This person's appearance seemed familiar.
"Self-created martial art - Thousand Blade Mini Tornado!" As Xiang Sheng spoke, he approached Shi Hu, dug out Shi Hu's tongue with a single stroke, and then...
Shi Hu was engulfed by a small tornado, and one after another, countless wounds appeared on his body...
"Go to hell!"
Chapter 454 The Devil
Xiang Sheng's fusion with Zoro's card is much better than Liu Xiu's, so he can make some changes to Zoro's original moves, such as controlling their size and power.
However, to unleash a move, you have to mentally call out the name of the move.
The reason Xiang Sheng chose the weakest move, the tornado, was mainly because he wanted to vent his anger by tearing Shi Hu to pieces. He was afraid that if he went too far, he would kill him, which would be too easy for the other party.
Therefore, Xiang Sheng improved the tornado, making it weaker, so that even an ordinary person could withstand such an attack for a while.
After Xiang Sheng ripped out Shi Hu's tongue with a single stroke, he was basically certain that Shi Hu was not the target host; he was too weak!
Shi Hu's mind was filled with excruciating pain all over his body. His opponent was clearly a true master, controlling the force of each strike perfectly, causing bleeding but not fatal. Was this person a demon?
In just a moment, Shi Hu was stabbed over a thousand times. Blood and bits of flesh flew everywhere, as if a horde of ghosts were devouring him, gradually destroying him.
Shi Hu was now only thinking about a quick and painless death, so he tried his best to crash into the other's knife, hoping that even if it only deepened a few wounds, he could die sooner.
However, Xiang Sheng's swordsmanship, or rather Zoro's swordsmanship, had already reached a transcendent level. It was as steady as Mount Tai. It would take at least tens of thousands of cuts to do it, otherwise how could it live up to the phrase "a thousand cuts and ten thousand slices"?
Honestly, Xiang Sheng really wanted to make millions of cuts, but that seemed too tiring, and there wasn't enough flesh on Shi Hu's body.
Finally, Shi Hu felt that his life was coming to an end. One more blow would surely kill him. He thought that he should go to the Western Paradise after he died.
Just then, Xiang Sheng stopped wielding his knife.
Shi Hu, "..."
'Oh, I almost forgot to ask who cured Shi Hu's illness. The guy who gave Shi Hu two more months to live should be the target host.'
Xiang Sheng mentally examined himself, then took out half a healing pill and stuffed it into Shi Hu's mouth. The latter's injuries recovered somewhat, and his tongue grew back.
"Tell me, who extended your life, or who has extraordinary abilities? If you tell me, I'll give you a quick death. But if you dare to lie to me, I have plenty of this medicine, and you can experience that feeling many times over."
Shi Hu thought to himself, "Isn't this the person who extended my lifespan and has extraordinary abilities? But I know that's not the answer the other party wants. So who is it?"
“Buddha…” Shi Hu recalled that he had been ill before, but he recovered after praying to Buddha.
"You dare to play me?" Xiang Sheng covered Shi Hu's mouth and stabbed him in the body at the same time, fortunately not in a vital spot.
"Aww..." Shi Hu gritted his teeth, "Buddha sent two divine monks to help me. One is named Fotucheng, my national teacher, who lives in Yegong Temple in Ye City. The other is Master Wu, who went with the army to suppress the rebels, uh, I mean the righteous army!"
"Buddha Slaughters the City?" Xiang Sheng felt a chill run down his spine. What an imposing name!
Hao Jiu's lips twitched violently. "It's 'Tu' from 'Picture of a Painting,' and 'Cheng' from 'Clarity of a Painting.' He's from the Western Regions' Kucha Kingdom, a historically famous high monk. He should be quite old, so it's unlikely. Hurry up and kill Shi Hu to join the army. That Master Wu is very suspicious."
"Since that's the case, then I'll give you a quick death. This time, I'll chop you down quickly!" Xiang Sheng said, unleashing the Little Tornado move once again.
Shi Hu, "..."
Puff puff puff...
This mini-tornado was indeed very fast, but Shi Hu still didn't die, and his blood even turned golden!
"Stop playing around, something bad is going to happen," Hao Jiu warned.
Xiang Sheng also noticed the problem and quickly slashed Shi Hu's neck with his sword.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing... Was Shi Hu's bone made of iron? Xiang Sheng was somewhat bewildered.
"Hahaha... Buddha has appeared! I have achieved the Golden Body and am immortal!" Shi Hu exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh my god, this stone tiger has actually cultivated a golden body, is there any justice in this world?" Hao Jiu couldn't help but complain.
"Divine Skill: Six Paths of the Tsuji!" Xiang Sheng knew he had gone too far, so he immediately used the ultimate technique of the Three-Sword Style.
Clang clang clang...
Shi Hu was now completely enveloped in golden blood, his flesh and blood had turned golden, and a rich incense scent filled the palace.
"How is it possible that I can't cut it down?!" Xiang Sheng's eyes widened.
“I think I understand now. This is the Buddha Zhao plane, their home ground. All the temples, all the monks, and even that high monk Fotucheng are their source of power.”
Hao Jiu thought to himself that it was fortunate he arrived early. If he had been given a few more decades, the whole world would be filled with temples and monks and nuns, making it even more difficult to fight him.
The power of willpower is something that relies on quantity; the more believers there are, the stronger the power.
"Buddha actually protects someone like Shi Hu?" Xiang Sheng had also spoken with Xuan Cheng and others, and in his impression, Buddha shouldn't be like that.
"Why not? It's only natural for Buddha to protect Buddhist believers, right? Even if Shi Hu killed many people, Buddhism would value his contribution to promoting Buddhism even more."
"Buddhism teaches reincarnation, right? These people died at Shi Hu's hands, which is a contribution to the spread of Buddhism. They might be rich and powerful in their next life. Consider it as Shi Hu's salvation." Hao Jiu sneered.
"Hahaha... I'm invincible! Watch me punch you to death!" Shi Hu put all his strength into a punch and smashed it into Xiang Sheng's chest.
Bang!
"You call this invincible?" Xiang Sheng put away his ordinary ring-pommel sword and took out three Emperor's Swords.
These three Emperor Swords were naturally from the system shop that Hao Jiu had placed in Xiang Sheng's inventory. Although ordinary ring-pommel swords, when infused with Armament Haki, were comparable to divine weapons, they still couldn't break through Shi Hu's golden body defense.
Therefore, Hao Jiu's system naturally had to step in to help; they couldn't let Shi Hu get too cocky.
Xiang Sheng needed to control his strength when using an ordinary ring-pommel sword to avoid damaging it, so he couldn't unleash his full power. But the Emperor's Sword was very sturdy, so he could use as much force as he could.
If Xiang Sheng's cultivation level reaches a higher level in the future and he is able to use real magic weapons, perhaps he won't need the Emperor's Sword to save him in an emergency.
Xiang Yu and Hao Jiu obtained many magical flying swords from A Jiao, but those swords were all quite tiny...
Generally, cultivators swallow swords and release them from their dantian when needed, allowing them to grow as large as they wish. It's rare to see them made into the size of a normal weapon, since few cultivators wield swords for close combat.
Most of them control their swords remotely, sometimes even controlling multiple flying swords simultaneously. Naturally, their power is much greater than holding them in their hands. Even if they had one in their mouth, it wouldn't compare.
"I'll show you what true invincibility is!" Xiang Sheng said, biting the hilt of his sword. He thought to himself, "Only the Overlord is truly invincible, but unfortunately you won't see it."
"Where did you get all these swords?" Shi Hu's eyes bulged, and he stammered, but he quickly realized that he could speak now. Wouldn't it be stupid not to use his soldiers? "Assassins! All of you, come here and tear them to pieces!"
"Assassins inside the palace! Quick, save the emperor! Charge!" Groups of guards rushed in, however...
"Divine Skill: One Hundred and Eighty Troubles Phoenix!"
The Phoenix Sword Wave swept out, instantly cutting all the guards in half, and then no one dared to enter again.
The sheer number of corpses the enemy had created was truly shocking. With a single strike, they had cleaved over a hundred elite guards in two, armor and all. It was terrifying; they were simply demons!