Chapter 380: Schemes and Scapegoats

A pool of blood-red water, a courtyard ravaged like a hurricane had passed, a youth in a red robe crouched on a blade, scarred and tattered black armor, a ring of impermanence glowing faintly, an ancient pendant carved with golden characters.

Hidden in the shadows, a sharpness stirred, an invisible, colorless force gathering strength.

Fingers concealed in wide sleeves grasped talismans, palms tracing their uneven patterns.

The edge of the iron gauntlet bore naive flowers in bud, blooming into a chilling forest of cold intent.

Two in black, one in red, Li Jun’s great golden blade sat upon a shard of stone, its three-eyed face unmoving as it stared at the two daoists from the imperial Yong Le Palace.

Fu He’s gaze was icy and indifferent, his complex, shadowed eyes slowly drifting between Li Jun’s right hand and the corpse of Qing Fu.

The crimson-robed Huo Zao held the maimed head, his curious gaze sweeping over the arrogant warrior, his youthful face splitting into a carefree grin.

The clamor of the midnight courtyard finally fell silent, the snow seizing this fleeting moment to veil the chaos below.

“Why act today?”

The first to break the stillness was Fu He, clad in a blue daoist robe.

“What?”

Li Jun arched a brow. “Must one choose a day to kill?”

“No, but today’s coincidence is too great.” Fu He replied with a senseless remark.

“Oh, you mean your sect’s affairs?”

Li Jun suddenly recalled a message Chen Qi Sheng had once shared. His heart stirred—seemed this Yong Le Palace sect sought to borrow the power of the Wōqū Jinyiwei, just as Chen Qi Sheng had, to complete the task from Bai Yu Jing.

Today’s mishap had inadvertently aided Chen Qi Sheng.

He’d have to extract more from this bull-nosed fool.

Li Jun’s mind was set, but his face casually waved a hand. “Pure chance. I care not for your sect’s squabbles.”

The planned scheme crumbled to naught by chance.

This outcome, perhaps, was harder for Fu He to accept than if Li Jun had acted with intent.

The iron rods at his neck stood rigid, like anger’s blue veins erupting.

“If it was chance, why slay Qing Fu?”

Li Jun’s gaze turned strange, as if baffled by the other’s stupidity.

Setting aside his hatred with Yu Cang Hai, the rivalry between martial and daoist sects—was their clash not natural?

To fight without killing, merely to wound?

This daoist seemed no fool, yet every word and deed reeked of dull-witted simplicity.

Suddenly, Li Jun grasped why Chen Qi Sheng always sneered when mentioning these daoists, forever lost in yellow beam dreams, rarely walking the mortal realm.

He’d even coined them a nickname: “Three Without.”

Emotionless, sexless, brainless.

“Speak not of the ‘Supreme Forgetful Heart’—they’re but burned-out yellow beam lunatics.”

Chen Qi Sheng’s exact words.

Fu He ignored Li Jun’s eerie expression, his voice flat and grave: “We seek only the Jinyiwei’s aid from Dà Sǎn Chéng, not meddling in your grudges.”

“Is this bull-nosed fool taking us for fools?”

“It’s us three!”

The voices of Ma Wang Ye and Li Hua echoed in Li Jun’s ears.

Li Jun slowly stretched his shoulders, seizing the moment to acclimate to his growing physical prowess.

“Your Yong Le Palace seeks to recruit Yu Cang Hai. Without my head, he’d refuse.”

Li Jun’s face wore a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “So why play innocent here?”

Crack.

The red-robed youth crushed his companion’s remains, scattering them with a grin bolder than before.

“We wish no conflict.”

Fu He remained calm. “Surrender Qing Fu, and we’ll let bygones be.”

“You mean this?”

Li Jun lifted his right hand, his middle finger flashing with eerie light.

“Apologies—I arrest, not release. And the Jinyiwei has never freed those taken to the Imperial Prison!”

“Hey, warrior.”

A languid voice cut in.

Li Jun turned, seeing the fire-robed daoist pointing at Li Hua atop his shoulder.

“Your spirit seems fine—care to sell it?”

Bang!

A deafening gunshot erupted, a streak of blood blooming on Huo Zao’s cheek.

He froze, touching his face’s viscous fluid, the malice gathering in his brows and eyes not yet unleashed when a gauntleted fist swallowed his sight.

Boom!

Red walls collapsed into ruins, smoke and dust rising as two figures—one black, one red—entwined and crashed into the distance.

Fu He’s face darkened, the thin jade pendant at his earlobes swaying.

The clashing sounds behind him never ceased, yet he showed no sign of seeking aid.

Not unwilling, but too overwhelmed to do so.

Fu He studied the bare-handed man before him, the sharp gene-scream having long since stripped his heart of desire, stirring strange ripples anew.

“This feeling… must be fear.”

Fu He chewed on this long-forgotten negative emotion, his mechanical fingers hidden in his sleeves clenching and releasing.

More than that.

Beyond the shattered “Supreme Forgetful Heart” state, Fu He grasped something even more baffling.

Why had his hypnotic illusions, cast since entering, failed against this warrior?

Why did the Six Trigrams divination always foretell great calamity?

Li Jun, unaware of Fu He’s turmoil, swung his arms, his bones crackling with relentless resonance.

“Best not move, or you’ll die too.”

Dà Sǎn Chéng, northern outskirts.

“Your Highness, the Jinyiwei from Himeji and Shiga have breached the outer lines, advancing swiftly toward the Gulf Estate.”

Soma bowed, pausing. “Shall we send more hands to intercept?”

The Prince he calls him, a handsome man of about thirty, clad in a pristine white official robe, wearing a netted cap, his jet‑black hair gathered at the crown with a bamboo hairpin, graceful and otherworldly, his bearing refined.

He appears, in no way akin to the fierce rebel troops heralded by the Patrol Office, but rather like a scholar‑official who has risen through the literary ranks, a man of jade, gentle and refined.

Thus he is, among the two great lords of the brigands’ quarter, the only two of true noble rank.

Prince of Peace, Sugawara no Hirama.

"No need for that; even an ordinary adept cannot withstand the onslaught of the two hundred households of the brocade‑clad guards unleashed in full force. Moreover, now Su Ce has clearly ignited true fury, and the Dragon‑like and the Wild Ones dare not hold back; to stir their brows at such a moment is no wise choice."

Flick.

Sugawara no Hirama swept aside the luxurious cypress fan he held, its surface painted with a majestic scene of a towering ancient city.

Upon closer inspection, one can still see the characters ‘Edo’ inscribed in seal script upon the gate towers.

"At this point we have deliberately exposed so many hidden stakes, even sacrificing a value‑inestimable hundred‑household of the brocade‑clad guards, exceeding the modest benefit promised by the Kamakura King’s affairs. By this point, he is hardly at a loss."

"Yamashiro may die ignorant, having been nothing but a bait we cast from start to finish." — Forest's tone was contemptuous.

"No, he knows it well. In fact, from the moment you first encountered him, that Dao school cast out by the Qingcheng Group likely already sensed our purpose."

"Does he know?"

Forest was startled, a hint of frustration and shame rising in his brows.

He had thought that Yamashiro’s joining the phoenix was largely due to my three‑inch tongue and my ability to sway and contend.

But now, from Sugawara’s words, the man was merely drifting with the current.

Forest asked, bewildered: "If Yamashiro truly as you say has guessed our purpose, why would he still agree?"

"Because he desperately needs a talisman of life."

Sugawara smiled faintly, full of poise: "Even if he knows this talisman may also be a death curse, he has no choice but to clutch it for now."

"For Yamashiro, Li Jun’s desire to kill him is inevitable. At the newly established evaluation conference of the brocade‑clad guards, Li Jun’s rapid progress and prowess left Yamashiro as if a knife hung over his head, a nail of anxiety."

"Thus he willingly risks incurring the wrath of the thousand‑household Su, to loudly side with the lord of Edo Castle."

Sugawara seemed to have been present at that very conference, recounting events with uncanny clarity.

"Alas, the lord’s methods are no less cunning than his own, so Yamashiro realizes that turning the waters eastward is no easy feat."

"Moreover, as Su’s attitude in the series of events within the Wasteland Group becomes clear, he knows that if he were to clash with Li Jun, the lord’s indifference is likely."

Sugawara, fanning his cypress fan, Forest was astonished as the image upon it had, unbeknownst to him, transformed from the ancient Edo city into four towering skyscrapers.

"Since this foundation is unstable, we must seek another path. Our arrival, however, offers the Osaka Castle hundred‑household a new choice."

"If the brocade‑clad guards grant him no life, then defecting to the enemy is only natural; moreover, we have granted him the white‑jade capital’s authority he has long coveted."

"In Yamashiro’s mind, joining the phoenix is perilous yet profitable. Especially now, in the era of new policies, crucial intelligence can reward him handsomely in one stroke."

"Thus he can amass capital while patiently awaiting the unfolding of events and unforeseen variables."

Boom!

At that very instant, dazzling firelight accompanied a deafening explosion that rolled in from the distance.

At the same time, a projection leapt from Forest’s fingertip, kneeling on one knee, but before it could speak, Forest brushed it away with a sweeping sleeve.

The matter of Jin‑ro and Shiga’s entry into the city was, after all, predictable; there was no need to waste time listening further.

Compared to that, he was more interested in Sugawara’s words.

"Prince, might the variable you speak of refer to the Perpetual Palace?"

"Indeed."

Sugawara smiled: "Regardless, the brocade‑clad guards of the foreign quarter and our phoenix cannot be compared to the empire’s own top six scholarly houses, the Perpetual Palace. Should Yamashiro cling to this great tree, all difficulties will naturally be resolved."

"Alas."

He could not have imagined that Li Jun would disregard the identity of the brocade‑clad guards entirely, resorting to a reckless,jianghu riffraff method to settle their grudge.

"Killing one’s own kin is a capital crime."

Forest’s eyes flickered coldly: "Li Jun this time will likely escape death. One life for one life, all for a fleeting taste of vengeance—truly foolish."

"Do you think Su will kill him?" — Sugawara suddenly retorted.

Forest paused, then answered with certainty: "Certainly; otherwise he cannot command obedience."

"It seems you still do not understand this Su thousand‑household."

Sugawara smiled, tapping Forest’s shoulder with his fan: "Since the day he entered the foreign quarter, he has not ruled by intimidation nor by virtue, but by this!"

"By force to subdue!"

"As long as the genetic lineage of this martial school has not wholly withered, as long as he draws breath, the grand affairs of the brocade‑clad guards cannot be overturned. Any dissent will be but a minor disturbance, quelled with a few tricks."

Forest suddenly grasped, then sneered: "A martial school actually dotes so on a lone practitioner—truly a grand irony, laughably absurd!"

"After the division of the world’s martial arts, Su had long grown disillusioned with the school factions. Now, in his eyes, there is only martial art, no distinction of school or lone practitioner. To Li Jun, he is not merely a junior; he is a beacon of hope."

Sugawara reined in his smile, adopting a solemn countenance.

Though Forest found this hard to accept, he nevertheless appended a half‑hearted commendation in response to Sugawara’s words.

"Thus we must once again offer Su face, allowing him to retain Li Jun legitimately. Otherwise, when the Kamakura King’s forces assail Edo Castle, this old man will bear all the enmity upon himself."

Sugawara sighed deeply: "That black pot is far too large; I cannot bear it."

"What face?"

Forest stood frozen, at a loss to comprehend what the Prince meant.

"Certainly."

Sugawara turned, fixing his gaze upon Forest, speaking each word deliberately: "It is to hand over your unilateral scheme, your audacious daring that even the brocade‑clad hundred‑households dare to scheme against the phoenix, to him."

Forest’s complexion shifted abruptly, yet before he could act, his vision was obscured by a crimson fan.

What lay before him, unlike before, was now different: blazing flames enveloped the four towers, surrounding them in a fiery vortex, while a colossal bird flared its wings against the night sky.

Sugawara cast the head he had held upon the fan to the ground, shaking the fan to fling away the spilling blood.

"Su thousand‑household, the chief culprit, I have delivered. The guilty have their heads, the debts their due; if you bear any wrath, let it not be directed at me."

Sugawara gazed toward the distant heavens, muttering to himself.