Chapter 410: Passing the Torch

Chapter410: The Fire Passed On

Deep within the Ren De Capital Tower.

Beneath the vermilion lacquered torii standing before the steps, a dense throng of Tokugawa family members packed the space, their black‑crowded heads all wearing the same expression of terror.

Boom!

The fire dragon struck the wall with a deafening explosion; the ground beneath trembled incessantly, rolling thick smoke surged through the transparent curtain outside the downpour, and the intensifying blaze began to climb from the building’s base.

The clamor of blades and battle cries grew nearer, clearer, yet the men in black haori bearing the triple‑leaf holly crest dared not move a muscle.

All of this stemmed from the solitary figure standing before them—a stooped, emaciated silhouette.

The Thousand‑Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the Wa District, Su Ce.

"You would use the lives of these clan youths to buy time? Tokugawa Hiroji, you truly have lost your mind."

Su Ce plucked the glowing ember that flickered at the corner of his mouth, tapping off the ash.

Yet even this tiny motion stirred a restless agitation before him.

Suddenly a forest of trembling gun barrels rose, the swaying blades flashing chaotic cold light.

"Lord Thousand‑Household, you misunderstand; they lack the qualification and the power to block your path."

From the depths of the steps an old voice drifted down, "Lay down your weapons; do not become senseless sacrifices."

These words were addressed to the Tokugawa kinsmen gathered below the steps.

Yet Tokugawa Hiroji’s consoling remark seemed to ignite the last vestiges of courage in these men’s bones; suddenly their eyes blood‑shot, they glared at Su Ce, throats emitting shrill, grating howls.

Like a pack of blood‑thirsty beasts cornered, they howled an oath to defend their master to the death.

"Sacrifice? A band of rebels, do they even deserve that word?"

Su Ce snorted, pressing the hand that held the cigarette butt slightly downward, "What are you howling for? Shut your mouths, all of you."

The gaunt old man’s seemingly laughable gesture was, like the decree of a Dao‑sequence adept, law made manifest; the rising and falling howls ceased abruptly.

An irresistible fear crawled up from the depths of their genes, coiling like a venomous serpent around their hearts; no matter how they struggled, they could not utter a sound.

The lord’s hand pressed down; the flanking ranks fell silent.

Thud… thud… thud.

Countless knees struck the hard floor with dull thuds; upwards of a hundred figures dropped to their knees in unison.

These men, who moments before had been ready to die for their clan, now harbored a single thought: kneel, beg for life.

Among them were martial and agricultural sequences, even a few cultivated by the New Donglin Party’s ‘civilizing’ propaganda into the Confucian sequence, not to mention those of rank six or five, mid‑tier sequence holders.

Yet now they possessed no qualification to stand before Su Ce.

Their augmentations ran amok, their hearts stalled, their neural interfaces ceased to function.

Frenzied trembling genes screamed in their minds a piercing whistle, conveying an undeniable, overwhelming command: kneel, kneel, kneel!!

"The Martial Triple Sovereign is no mundane emperor, but the master of genes. The first time I saw you act was the day the Wa District fell; you stormed the palace and drove a blade through the reigning emperor, pinning him to his throne. I never imagined the second time I would witness your hand, it would be for my sake."

Tokugawa Hiroji spoke, each word deliberate: "I, unworthy, am honored."

Su Ce tilted his head, using the nearly spent cigarette butt to light another, and walked forward slowly.

"You did not anticipate so many things—being stabbed in the back by another—did you ever consider that before?"

With each step, the figures kneeling ahead lowered their foreheads to the ground, crawling aside.

In the once‑impenetrable crowd, a blade‑like cleave split a wide avenue, leading straight to the scarlet torii and the hidden shrine at the foot of the steps.

"Man schemes a thousand ways, heaven only one. I, Tokugawa Hiroji, have ultimately misreckoned the human heart."

His voice carried an indescribable bitterness.

"Yet you too are a figure of note; to accomplish all this under my very eyelids is remarkable."

Su Ce stepped onto the stone staircase built into the tower, flicked a finger, and the massive ancient Wa‑style torii crashed down.

Perhaps because it had stood here for years, dust had accumulated on the torii; as it fell, a choking cloud of dust erupted, swallowing the Tokugawa kin who lay prostrate, grief‑stricken.

"Do you truly know nothing of these affairs?"

Su Ce said lightly, "Whether I know or not is irrelevant; I never imagined you would dare aim your schemes at my Thousand‑Household office."

"A desperate struggle, a severed limb for self‑preservation,"

Tokugawa Hiroji gave a wry smile: "These youths below have no connection to the Honghu, nor do they know of my covert deeds. Could you, in consideration of my years of service to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, grant them a path to life?"

"Very well; if they can escape Edo today, I will spare them."

"That is enough; I thank you on their behalf, Lord Thousand‑Household."

After a pause, Tokugawa Hiroji continued: "The New Donglin Party’s new policies this time are digging graves for the twenty million Wa people."

Su Ce ascended the steps, sneering: "From the day the Wa District was conquered, this outcome was already sealed; the only difference is sooner or later. You have lived this long—how can you still fail to see it?"

"When the ‘civilizing’ began, they promised to lift the Wa District out of the sinner‑zone, incorporate it into the imperial homeland’s administration, make its people true imperial subjects, never again inferior."

"Do you also believe their words?"

Su Ce replied coldly: "The Two Capitals and Thirteen Provinces of the Great Ming Empire, set down since the founding emperor, are the true mountains and rivers of Ming, the foundation of the Ming people. Which New Donglin high official, which Confucian clan gate, possesses the audacity to lift the Wa District into that realm?"

"If they speak falsely, why then do you still aid them in guarding the Wa District?"

Tokugawa Hiroji’s voice rose sharply: "A dying rabbit, the hound is cooked; exhausted birds, the fine bow is stored. Once the new policy is fully enacted, you and your Embroidered Uniform Guard will become the greatest threat to Wa stability, the prime target in the New Donglin conspiracy. Only your death will make their civil‑military achievement truly complete."

The old yet resonant voice echoed across the vacant floor, lingering, shaking the deaf and stirring the hearing.

Su Ce raised a hand to scratch his ear, smirking: "Put away your petty cross‑sequence tricks; you still lack the fire to try and outmaneuver me."

"Whether it’s stratagem and poison or sincere counsel, I know it, and you, Lord Thousand‑Household Su, know it too."

Tokugawa Hiroji proclaimed loudly: "The division of martial affairs has been only a few decades past; now the martial sequence tiger may fall but its corpse does not lie. If we do not eradicate you utterly, the three teachings will find no peace. Rather than sit and await death, let us seize the moment; Tokugawa Hiroji offers to hold your stirrup and mount your horse."

Su Ce’s steps did not halt: "Interesting. Continue."

"If you will join me, with the High Heaven Plain as our shield, neither the Yin‑Yang sequence of the Celestial Observatory nor the immortals of the Jade Pure Capital can track us. Within ten years I can cultivate in the ten cities of the Wa District a multitude bearing the martial‑sequence genes of the schools, reviving the glory of the Liaodong martial‑sequence chief who once shook the barbarian courts. Then even the present three teachings will have to bow low and submit."

"Nonsense."

Su Ce’s expression was contemptuous: "What is this ‘High Heaven Plain’ of yours, and how many tracks can it conceal? As soon as the Empire lays the Yellow‑Clay Dream over the land, any living soul will be unable to escape their surveillance! Even setting that aside, the martial sequences of the schools have already been irrevocably eliminated; where would you cultivate them? How could the three teachings ever grant you an opportunity?"

"Your worries are needless; perhaps not even five years are required. Once the new policy ends and the New Donglin Party’s leadership undergoes its succession, the three teachings and nine streams will inevitably be reshuffled."

Tokugawa Hiroji’s voice burned with fervor: "Then they will have no leisure to attend to the Wa District; we will have ample time and space to plot and develop."

"What do you want me to become, a puppet emperor for your band of Wa pirates?"

By now Su Ce had mounted the final step, lifted his gaze to the towering gate, and beheld the plaque bearing the four scarlet characters ‘Mountains and Rivers Reborn’.

"Still dreaming of restoration? Tokugawa Hiroji, you old Wa pirate, truly are a frog in a well, your treacherous heart unquenched!"

"It seems Su Ce, you have lost your daring, utterly crushed beneath the three teachings’ heel. Since you refuse to walk with me, today I shall test what it means to be the Martial Triple Sovereign!"

Before the solemn, majestic shrine, the silver‑haired Tokugawa Hiroji rose from his kneel, eyes flashing open.

At the same moment, from the vast ukiyo‑e that covered the wall behind him came echoes of substantive battle cries; each Wa warrior locked in bloody combat with the Great Ming’s bright‑armored troops turned his head and fixed his gaze.

Every pair of eyes seemed alive, burning hot, brimming with pure hatred and a yearning for revenge, locked unblinkingly upon Su Ce’s figure.

In an instant, a Yokusei no larger than a fist burst forth from the canvas, a spear in hand, a banner bearing a three‑leafed hollyhock fluttering behind, and shouted curses at Su Ce in the Wok tongue.

The canvas rippled like a water curtain, one Yokusei after another leapt out, and in the blink of an eye they had gathered around Tokugawa Kōshi.

Not only that, those members of the Tokugawa clan who should have fled were now crimson‑eyed, pupils dilated, suppressing the fear encoded in their genes, surging up the stairs like a flood.

"Mòxù's Heaven‑crafted Mechanical Specter? Or Nóngxù's Dwarf War‑Soldier?"

Su Ce's mocking smile showed no sign of dimming: "All this flamboyance, thinking a handful of junk can rival me?"

Tokugawa Kōshi's expression was maddened: "We must try, is it really waiting for you, Su Ce, to kill me?"

"Want to try?"

Su Ce plucked the cigarette at the corner of his mouth, snapped his fingers, and said, "Then I shall make you die a peaceful death!"

The cigarette fell to the ground, scattering sparks.

Su Ce pressed his knee down, and a thunderous roar echoed as the steps beneath him collapsed like a mountain crumbling.

Far off, the glass atrium shattered, and the torrential rain outside poured in, as if a deluge had begun within this tower.

Tokugawa Kōshi could not react in time; a pair of blazing eyes suddenly pressed upon him.

Boom!

That profoundly significant Wok‑style shrine exploded into a rain of fragments.

A fierce flame erupted from the ruins, whipping the cold wind that swept into the tower, coiling into a fire dragon that scattered the immobilized miniature soldiers.

Beneath the collapsed steps, the Tokugawa clan warriors clutching weapons shed the state of "dissipation" and stared, horrified, at the chaotic lights afar.

Clang.

Like a chain reaction, sword after sword fell to the ground, clattering in a chaotic chorus.

"Even a pack of dogs cannot be tamed without resorting to pathetic pleas for mercy, only to flee when the hypnosis lifts—every last one of them. Tokugawa Kōshi, your rise has been a failure!"

Amid the raging fire dragon, Su Ce lifted his gaze, watching Tokugawa Kōshi held aloft by a single arm.

Crimson blood seeped from Tokugawa Kōshi's ear, vessels in his eyelids swelled and burst, he blinked laboriously, striving to refocus his scattered pupils.

The Fourth Sequence—within a blink—had already met defeat and death.

A head of white hair, scorched to ash‑black by the fire, rolled in his throat; his lips moved, and just as he was about to speak, Su Ce's token of the Underworld Book sprang forth with neural filaments, thrusting into his eye sockets.

Unlike other prisoners facing the Imperial Court, Tokugawa Kōshi showed no violent reaction; only tears of blood sliding down his cheeks testified to the unimaginable pain of his consciousness being ripped away.

"Susu Ce."

Tokugawa Kōshi trembled as he spoke, his blood‑streaked eyes straining downward to behold the same gaunt, aged face.

"You will soon be finished; they will not spare you."

"You are not the first to die by my hand in the Fourth Sequence, nor the first to utter such words to me."

Su Ce's countenance remained calm, his eyes still as a placid lake, void of any ripple.

The filaments of the Underworld Book delved deeper into Tokugawa Kōshi's flesh, and the ensuing marrow‑splitting agony forced his body to convulse uncontrollably.

"When you enter the Imperial Court, I shall have the time to hear you speak slowly."

"You have no time left. The Three Teachings have sensed the rise of the solitary martial sequence and will not grant you a chance to rise again. The ember you cherish will be extinguished in their hands!"

Tokugawa Kōshi let out a long laugh, "The ember and the flame succeed one another; I have no chance, and neither do you, Su Ce!"

Bang!

Tokugawa Kōshi's skull exploded, the neural filaments embedded in flesh and bone flung outward, twitching in futile defiance before retracting into Su Ce's ring.

To avoid being drawn into the Imperial Court, Tokugawa Kōshi chose to self‑detonate.

Su Ce discarded the twitching corpse in his hand, wiping the blood droplets that splattered his face with the back of his hand.

"Opportunity? For a lifetime of war, I still need someone to grant me one?"

Su Ce's gaze was icy, his hands clasped behind his back as he turned to gaze at the tumultuous rain beyond the tower, "Who extinguishes my fire, I will take their lives!"

Boom!

A thunderclap cracked, a cold, cruel light illuminated the dark tower.

Bullets embedded in skulls, blood‑stained flying fish armor, broken swords piercing mechanical bodies!

The grim‑faced guards of the brocade, the Tokugawa clan fleeing in panic.

"Surrender and you shall live; cling to delusion and you shall fall into the Imperial Court!"

The blood‑soaked battle that erupted within this tower was now laid bare, its deafening roar echoing to the heavens.