Chapter 733: The Great Instructor Ximen Qing (5)

With anything you do together, it only gets fun if the other side plays along properly.

Qing’s slaughter was the same.

If the other side has no spine—if you’ve only just pulled out one fingernail and they start bawling, confessing, screaming for forgiveness—nothing drains your mood faster. At least pretend to hold out a little.

If someone piled up bad karma until they were saturated with it, then can’t endure even a pinch of pain, how disappointing is that?

The reverse was the same, too.

If the other side’s will is a brick wall—if they look like they’ll die any second but still refuse to bend—then you get gloomy in a different way.

The whole point of an ending like this is for a villain to finally be repaid for their life. It’s not enough for them to just die painfully. You have to smash their mind and soul to pieces too, or they didn’t really get the ending they deserved.

And if you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t regret a thing they’ve done—

and you don’t even have enough time?

“Khh... you bitch. I’m looking forward to your end, too. I know your kind. You’ll piss yourself, begging to live, spreading your legs.”

“Wow. You’re vicious.”

Qing clicked her tongue.

She’d gone at him seriously, and he was still alive and snarling back.

She’d skinned him, slowly crushed bones, ground the tips of his limbs against stone until they were worn down, tied his limp arms and legs into neat little knots—and he was still sulky as hell.

Either his pain threshold was abnormally high.

Or he converted pain into rage, dumping out more narcotic neurotransmitters than normal people.

Or maybe he was sincerely shameless enough that, even with his body in agony, he wasn’t afraid of death or what came after.

“Kkhk—KOF! KULLUK! Khh... is that all you’ve got?”

Yeah. This guy’s a problem. A real problem.

Qing reflexively crossed her arms—then went “ACK,” her face twisting as pain exploded from the harmful posture. She let her arms drop in an awkward hang and rolled her brain for a second.

This is that thing. Yeah. I can’t remember the term, but in pop psych.

People, by default, don’t want to admit their own wrongdoing.

So they dodge responsibility with all kinds of methods.

One of those methods was religious fanaticism—types who really believe their actions are absolutely necessary, sublime, righteous.

Like, say, “Villains must meet miserable ends soaked in tremendous pain so the world can become better, so I’m nobly enduring torture as part of that heavy duty.” Yeah. That kind of thing.

Mm. Ow. A little painful. Why am I attacking myself? Whatever.

I didn’t want to go this far.

Qing wiped her hands clean, then pulled out a palm-sized jade plaque from her satchel.

Then, with Youngban’s limbs knotted and his body plastered to the floor, she slid it down in front of his face.

“Khh... what now—”

His mocking voice cut dead.

Her Majesty the Empress’s identity plaque.

A genuine article.

The Son of Heaven is allowed one Empress, three Consorts, nine Concubines, twenty-seven lesser consorts, and ninety-one wives. So just as there is only one Son of Heaven under the sky, there is only one Empress in the world—mother to all.

“T-this... what is this? Why—how...”

The Son of Heaven’s partners carry phoenix plaques, each distinguished by feather number and length, claw count, and posture. It is the palace’s strict law—an iron hierarchy set by heaven.

Youngban inspected it desperately.

No. Impossible. It couldn’t be—

but no matter how he repeated it, no matter how hard he stared, it was a genuine plaque so sacred that even doubting it would be blasphemy.

Honestly, Qing didn’t want to use this thing if she could help it.

Her Majesty the Empress... right. I mean. I can’t just—whatever. But she gave it to me to use. And this bastard’s going to die anyway, so he can’t run his mouth about it. So... that makes it justified. Mm. Did I pull it out for no reason...?

Qing was just starting to feel uncomfortable—

when Youngban suddenly roared.

“You—so you were an Eastern Depot woman! But why—how dare the Eastern Depot interfere with His Majesty’s affair!”

Eastern Depot? What the hell is that now? Eastern Depot is “east,” so do they have north-south-west depots too? If they do, the South Depot sounds kind of miserable.

Anyway, context says it has to be a group connected to Her Majesty the Empress.

“You bastard! You’ve confessed your crime! Treacherous rats like you gnaw at the country and lead it to ruin—how could you not deserve death!”

Qing shouted in a stern voice.

“What—why would I—”

“Conquer the martial world? There are already tens of thousands of martial-world people in the empire. If you move to exterminate them, do you think they’ll sit still and die obediently? If they draw blades to survive, what happens to the state? What happens to the chaos? And if that happens, do you think the foreign enemies at the borders will just watch? You lunatic, you’re possessed with wanting to drive the country into collapse!”

“That...”

Youngban’s mouth opened and closed.

Because it wasn’t wrong.

That was the exact reason the palace used schemes in the first place.

Crush them little by little with “legitimate pretexts” to shave down their power.

Back in Sichuan, they tried to frame the Tang Family of Sichuan for treason and erase them.

This time, they blocked the Righteous-Proper Martial Academy, punished anyone involved, pressured the Martial Alliance, and weakened it.

The reason they couldn’t just mobilize troops and wipe out the martial world was this exact reason.

“T-then His Majesty should just leave those butcher bandits alone? He should be afraid of people who defy the will of heaven?”

“Stupid bastard! Officials who eat His Majesty’s salary squeeze civilians dry to fill their own bellies—so the poor people end up praising martial-world men as chivalrous heroes. If His Majesty swept away these country-rotting officials and governed with fairness and mercy, the civilians would naturally turn their backs on the martial world and praise the imperial house’s virtue. Then even martial-world people could be embraced as loyal citizens of His Majesty!”

Youngban’s mouth opened and closed again.

Because anyone’s “upright words” are hard to refute. They’re moral fantasies with no real plan—“if you just do good, everyone will be happy.”

But if you argue against them, you become the immoral one.

“In the past, Emperor Yang of Sui invaded Liaodong for petty resentment and lost three times, so the country collapsed. In the past, Hailing of Jin invaded Song for selfish greed, shaking the country to its roots and nearly destroying it. You call yourself loyal while leading the way onto a ruinous path like that—are you not the most treasonous rebel under heaven?!”

“I only... followed orders—”

“Shut up! Lady Yu of Qi was ready to die as she remonstrated with King Wei, and he awakened and revived Qi. Wei Zheng of Tang opposed Emperor Taizong hundreds of times, and while ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) he lived he became the country’s bedrock; after he died the country became dangerous and Taizong longed for him. A true loyal minister risks his life to remonstrate—isn’t that what loyalty is?!”

If Ximen Surin heard this, she’d be thrilled. That thief taught you well. Really well.

Cheon Yuhak would be satisfied too—that’s the level you need to claim you learned from me.

Qing was, after all, a woman who’d come out of the Hanlin Academy.

“You dared to borrow His Majesty’s name to butcher civilians. That means you were scheming to disgrace His Majesty’s name. I will kill you, exterminate your nine generations, and hand this to the histories so you remain a criminal forever. You’ll go down as a subject who shamed his lord. Your name will be cursed in every record.”

“Wait—I—I only acted out of loyalty—”

“Shut up. What does your loyalty matter?”

Qing flashed a wicked smile.

“Evidence is easy enough to fabricate. You will become a butcher who squeezed the people for private gain, a killing demon who raped and murdered women, and a traitorous rat who profaned His Majesty’s name for profit. I will make you that way. The world will spit when it speaks your name. Congratulations. You’ll get what you wanted—your name in history.”

I’ll make you that way. I’ll invent sins that don’t even exist and turn you into the empire’s most cursed bastard.

If a man can endure his body’s pain and his death, he’s chasing some value beyond his own life.

So you just stomp that value until it breaks.

Only then did fear finally bloom in Youngban’s face.

This is tyranny. Insane tyranny.

What did I do wrong? I only gave my loyalty, for His Majesty, to repay his grace—

“AAAGH!!”

Qing suddenly stomped down on Youngban’s sprawled arm—on the blunt back of his hand where the fingers had been ground away.

See? Even the volume of the scream is different now.

Keeping her heel pressed there, Qing picked up the jade plaque, wiped it clean, and put it away.

Mm. This isn’t what Her Majesty the Empress meant for it to be used for, but... she’ll understand, right?

Qing hummed a little tune—

a sound only she could hear, buried under the screams.

****

When Qing opened the iron door of the underground storage and came out, her face looked bright and crystal-clear.

If you only looked at her expression, you’d never believe she was the one who’d just gotten her revenge while walking around with a thousand steel shards lodged in her torso.

“Tsk. Don’t go around smiling like that.”

“Huh?”

What was happening down there was silencing witnesses. Not something you could do proudly. And when the person doing it was the orthodox martial world’s Heavenly Flower Sword, of course her acquaintances would be standing guard.

Peng Daesan pulled out a handkerchief and wiped Qing’s face—swift, then firm.

Because it wasn’t just blood; it was blood mixed with people-grease, and it didn’t come off easily.

“Ah. Guess I had something on my face.”

Back in the day, Qing even liked the heat of having blood splashed over her face.

But after training Beauty Bearing, she’d started avoiding it instinctively.

The moment you walk around with something on your face, a sudden Ximen-Surin-Style Nuclear Forehead-Flick Bomb could come down from nowhere.

Still, blood had splattered on her face.

Meaning she’d gotten excited and absorbed.

Mm. The last part was especially fun.

He’d ended up begging, saying it was all a misunderstanding, that he never meant that kind of thing—

he couldn’t physically bow and beg with his arms shattered, but the vibe was there.

After all that stubborn resistance, in the end he cracked like that.

God, it was funny.

“...Don’t do that again.”

“Hm? Do what?”

“You didn’t need to block Heaven-Shaking Thunder. And anyway, that’s the Minor Water Witch’s behavior, not yours.”

Right.

The one who blocked Heaven-Shaking Thunder with her body was the suddenly appearing Minor Water Witch, not the Heavenly Flower Sword.

I mean, yeah, sure, but—

“Come on. If you can do it, you do it. And even if I’d dodged, would my heart feel at ease? I’d rather lie sick for a while if it means I’m the one paying the price. And if it looked impossible, I wouldn’t have tried at all. My life is the most precious thing to me too, you know?”

Peng Daesan’s face crumpled hard.

Qing poked him in the ribs with her elbow.

“Oh, how adorable. You’re even worrying about me.”

“That’s great coming from someone who—”

“What? San! Did you just call me a bitch? I mean, sure, we’re close, but wow, so we’ve reached the stage where we talk like that to each other now? That’s what ‘close friends’ are, right? Friends who curse each other out.”

A vein popped on Peng Daesan’s forehead.

Qing giggled, going full gremlin.

Because what’s the point of getting serious about it?

If he said “don’t do it again,” all I can answer is “I’ll try not to.”

Better to keep it light. No reason to pick at a resolved thing and sour the mood.

It was summer, yet even the long daylight was already drooping toward evening.

We’d gone underground right after an early lunch, so I’d been down there for close to four and a half hours without noticing time pass.

And that thought suddenly made Qing—

mm. hungry.

Even with her intestines swollen to hell, her stomach was still hungry.

Ah, whatever, I’m on rice gruel anyway...

Qing’s shoulders slumped.