I Shall Steal the Heavens 198 Chapter 197: Crossroads

But the conflict was inevitable. Pang Feng refused to budge, and I couldn't just let Tang Qi Hong go. Sure, she would survive, but she would be condemned to a life worse than death, enslaved by Cloud Sky Mountain and forced to forge Spirit Artifacts for them while being in captivity. As much as I wanted to believe that Pang Feng would somehow mitigate that, I knew that unless he became the next sect leader, it would be decades before Tang Qi Hong would regain her freedom. If she did regain her freedom, at that.

I decided to gamble everything on my plot armor and hope that I would find a way of reversing the situation. Besides, we still had Sect Lady Zi Da Ji in the main sect grounds. If there was anyone who was capable of turning the situation around, it was definitely her. and Lang Xie, who was supposed to be on par with her or maybe even above her in terms of martial ability, was counted as the strongest orthodox martial artist in the Great Zhou Empire, so if the two join hands, we could throw back the combined forces of the ten sects assaulting us.

Or so I hope, but deep down I knew I was being overly naïve.

Even so, without any other goal, my own thought right now was focused entirely on returning to Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. I had to find a way to link up with Sect Lady Da Ji, and hope she had a plan to counterattack. Even if we lost the sect tonight, we were going to take as many bastards as we could to accompany us to the underworld!

"…"

Those thoughts sort of disappeared when I caught sight of more burning buildings while traveling down the district. From the distance, I could see the fires blazing ferociously, and the smaller, dark shapes of martial artists from Dark Asura Sect, Divine Shadow Sect, Cloud Sky Mountain and the Seven Valley Sects massacring civilians and combatants alike, rounding up the members of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and slaughtering them in the open.

I recorded the picture and emailed it to the public domain. If the royal family saw this, even they had to act. This had gone beyond ensuring that we had no weapons of mass destruction. They were committing war crimes and atrocities and violating the Geneva Convention, or whatever convention that passed off as a treaty with regards to war in this timeline. Not that I actually expect the images to have any instantaneous effect, but every little bit counted. If I published them online, it would inspire a public outrage that orthodox martial artists were actually behind such carnage and atrocities and even the royal family would have to sanction them.

They were not going to get away with this. I vowed inwardly in my heart, fury and vengeance building inside to near uncontrollable levels.

We had reached one of the nearer districts to the sect ground, and Flame Volcano finally came into view. I paused and stared at Flame Volcano through my glasses, my lenses automatically magnifying its image for me to see it clearly.

The first thing I noticed was that it was dark. Very dark. There was no trace of lights.

Something's not right.

I felt a chill run down my back. There should be lights on, even late into the night. Flame Volcano, in particular, housed the inner sect disciples and elders, who didn't adhere to any timetable. At any point during the day, you would at least see lights on and forging fires in the workshops and labs of inner sect disciples and elders who worked no matter what time of the day or night it was. I had to admit to being one of them, working until wee hours in the morning and going to bed at 7am after staying up the entire night (and most of the morning).

Even so, many of the public facilities would remain illuminated, for communual use and all that. Unless there was a total blackout, the lights in the public facilities would never go out!

The alternative, of course, was that the facilities were all destroyed…

I shook my head violently, refusing to believe that. Even if there were ten sects assaulting our city, we couldn't possibly fall this soon. We were built to withstand a siege. Sure, even though the ten sects had invaded the outlying districts of our city, Flame Volcano was a natural fortress. We should be able to endure the invasion for at least a few weeks, if not months.

There was no way Flame Volcano would fall under a single night!

"Damn it."

I studied Flame Volcano intensely, as if hoping that just by looking, the volcano would suddenly come back to life. But it remained completely shrouded in darkness and still. There was no movement, nothing.

Biting my lip, I contemplated my options. If I turned back now, where would I go? There was no alternative place to go to. I could return home, but the ten sects would track me and Tang Qi Hong down, and I would have to fight pursuers off along the way. And my home was much further from Tushan City from Nine-Tailed Fox Sect's main grounds.

Furthermore, I knew for sure that the ten sects weren't stupid. The Martial Arts Alliance would have all the public transport systems and railways guarded. To try and get to a bus or train station would be to walk right into them and get caught. And Tang Qi Hong was in no condition to move on public transport anyway – we would attract far too much attention, the Martial Arts Alliance would swoop in, and the both of us would be imprisoned and enslaved until the royal family got off its ass and sent the Imperial Guard in to clean up the mess.

I glanced at my phone, but I didn't receive any new messages, not from Tong Xue or the sect elders. They obviously had more important things to do than to reply to my messages, and given the circumstances, I imagined that they would be receiving thousands of new messages from countless civilians trying to find out what to do. They wouldn't have time to filter through the messages to look for my text message or call.

And that was the optimistic scenario. The other possibility I considered was that they were all dead.

"Well, no use thinking too much about it," I muttered to myself as I spared Flame Volcano one last glance and continued toward it. There should still be Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and Blood Blades fighting. I was sure Sect Lady Da Ji and Lang Xie were still alive, at least. I was going to meet up with them and we were going to find a way to take back our sect from these greedy, jealous bastards.

Or perhaps they would want us to retreat and escape, seeking refuge under the royal family. In any case, I would rather move with them as a huge group than to go on my own. I didn't even know where the royal family was, and I would need someone to follow. It was all and well saying I would fare better escaping on my own, but I highly doubted I could fight off an army from ten orthodox sects by myself, while carrying an incapacitated girl.

Speaking of which, Tang Qi Hong needed medical treatment as soon as possible, and I wasn't going to be able to provide her by running along the shadows and avoiding everybody. The only doctors I could trust were those in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. Otherwise any clinic or hospital I went into was bound to be under the jurisdiction of the Martial Arts Alliance, and…well, you know what would happen if I walked right into them.

"Damn it…" closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, and then opened them with more determination. "Let's do this."

Tang Qi Hong looked at me inquisitively, still unable to speak, but I didn't respond to her questioning gaze. Instead, I took off, hugging the shadows and zipping through the dark roads toward Flame Volcano.

Seeing that I was going back to the sect, Tang Qi Hong relaxed. I bet she didn't want to part with her adopted family and her friends, and Nine-Tailed Fox Sect had been her home for years. Of course she wouldn't want to abandon the sect and run away by herself. And I promised to take her back, otherwise why did I fight against Pang Feng and make all those declarations? I didn't want to be a hypocrite like the Pang siblings.

Nope. Back to the sect, it was.

Unexpectedly, after fifteen minutes of weaving through the shadows using my footwork techniques and Shadow Steps (bet you forgot about that particular martial art a long time ago), I heard the roar of an engine and quickly pressed my back to the wall while holding Tang Qi Hong as close to me as possible. We cautiously waited as the vehicle zoomed past on the road, trying to navigate rubble and broken concrete while maintaining its reckless speed.

"That's…!"

I recognized the design of the vehicle. Wasn't that Da Ge's car? The one he used to chauffeur Zi Xiao Ji around?

As if to confirm my guess, my glasses captured the images of the driver, magnified them and sharpened them. There, Da Ge was in the driver's seat, fighting with the protesting steering wheel and slamming the gear abruptly while the engines grinded in complain, while Zhao Shi was leaning in the passenger's seat, watching out for enemies. In the back, Zi Xiao Ji seemed to be accompanied by a good amount of passengers, and it looked pretty cramped.

"All right!"

I felt immense relief and I quickly jumped out into the open, a good distance away to avoid being mowed down (though, with my footwork, I could very swiftly evade the onrushing car – I had come a long way since dying in that accident that transmigrated me to this timeline. Da Ge's eyes widened briefly and he slammed his foot on the brakes, bringing the car to a violent, squealing stop.

"Are you an idiot?!" he roared, winding the window down to stick his head out. "If you want to kill yourself, don't involve other people in your suicide attempt!"

"No, wait!" Zhao Shi stopped him. "Aren't they Fei Wu and Tang Qi Hong?"

"Eh?!" Da Ge blinked and he did a double take when he took a good look at us. I would have waved at him, but I was busily carrying Tang Qi Hong. "You're right!"

"Sister!" Zi Xiao ji scrambled out of the car, kicking the back door open and running toward us. "What happened?"

"Blood Shadow happened," I replied. When Zi Xiao Ji gave me a bewildered look, I promptly elaborated. "He used some blood technique to incapacitate her, and somehow immbolized her body. She can't speak or move."

"I think I know how to treat that," Zhao Shi spoke up. She frowned at me. "So should you. We're all Blood Blades."

"I only learned Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula," I reminded her. "Lord Lang Xie didn't have the chance to teach me any blood techniques before…this happened." I indicated the fires, grisly deaths and destruction around us with a jerk of my head.

"True." Da Ge nodded. "Get on."

I carried Tang Qi Hong into the car, where a bunch of other passengers waited in the cramped compartment. Realizing that I could barely fit inside, and if I forced my way in, Zi Xiao Ji wouldn't be able to ride with us, I emerged out again.

"Eh?" Zi Xiao Ji looked at me, confused. "What are you doing?"

"After you," I replied. Zi Xiao Ji nodded, still not comprehending, and she stepped into the car. Then she realized there no more space when she tried to squeeze in.

"Oh no," she murmured, her face paling.

"What is it?" Zhao Shi asked, and then turned around. "Oh."

The other passengers glanced at each other worriedly, and I realized they were about to beg us not to leave them behind. They evidently recognized me and Tang Qi Hong as having a high status in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and were resigned to Da Ge and the rest prioritizing us over them, but my conscience would not allow such a thing.

"It is fine," I assured them. "I'll go on foot." Then I suddenly realized something. "Where were you guys going, anyway?"

"Back to the sect." Da Ge nodded at the passengers. "We were picking up refugees and strays and bringing them back to our sect for shelter."

"We're a rapid response and rescue unit," Zhao Shi added. She glared at Zi Xiao Ji. "Even though it's dangerous, our mistress insisted on coming along."

"Well, it was her idea in the first place," Da Ge pointed out. Zi Xiao Ji puffed her chest out proudly and nodded.

"But thanks to that, it seems we can't fit you in," Zhao Shi remarked rather pointedly. Zi Xiao Ji's face fell.

"I think Xiao Ji made the right decision," I assured the daughter of the sect leaders. "From what I can see, she's applying first aid, and she'll be able to treat Qi Hong." Zi Xiao Ji's expression improved tremendously. "I'll leave them to you guys and move on foot. I'll see you back in the sect. Besides…" I glanced around. "I might want to check the districts out and gather some intelligence on the enemies' movement, so that I have something to report to Lord Lang Xie and Sect Lady Da Ji when I return."

"Lord Lang Xie?" Zhao Shi frowned. "Has he returned yet? I thought he was with you, and the last thing I heard, he was fighting off the leaders of Divine Shadow Sect and Dark Asura Sect. I didn't know he was back."

"…you're right." I had totally forgotten about that. It felt like ages ago, since I had been so occupied fighting Blood Shadow, and then Pang Feng, and moving on foot for what seemed like hours, I completely forgot that Lang Xie had troubles of his own. Since I hadn't seen him for a long time, I had assumed that he had already defeated his enemies and returned to the sect. I guess the sect leaders of Divine Shadow Sect and Dark Asura Sect were not to be underestimated. "Nonetheless, Sect Lady Da Ji is still around, and I gather she's coordinating our counterattack?"

"If there's a counterattack to be executed." Da Ge looked grim, his normally affable smile visibly absent. "The sect might not survive the night."

"It will!" Zi Xiao Ji insisted, her cheeks red. "We will not fall to these despicable orthodox sects who only want our resources for themselves!"

"I'm wiith Zi Xiao Ji," I agreed, even though my rational mind told me that Da Ge was telling the truth. "We can't let them get away with this. Even so, if we have to, we'll escape to live to fight another day, and any information I can get back might be important."

"Don't be reckless," Zhao Shi warned. She glanced at the district further down. "We'll be taking the long way, but if you're moving on foot, you'll probably cut through the Rainbow Valley Road. That's where the Dark Fiend Valley Sect people are. According to the reports from the Blood Blades who were in the area about an hour ago."

"What happened to the Blood Blades there?" I asked, even though I could guess the answer. Zhao Shi's solemn expression told me everything.

"MIA…or dead."

"Let's hope they managed to escape and will meet up with us later," I said, forcing a calm I didn't feel. Glancing at the terrified refugees and inert form of Tang Qi Hong, I took a deep breath. "Well, I'll see you guys then. We should get moving."

"Good luck," Da Ge told me. "And Godspeed."

"We'll be seeing you." Zhao Shi made the sign of the Aquila.

"Stay safe, Brother Wu!" Zi Xiao Ji added worriedly. "We'll come back for you."

"Don't," I replied. "By the time you come back here, I'll be long gone. I'll meet you back at Flame Volcano."

"Roger that." Da Ge wasted no time gunning the engine, and the car shot off, disappearing from view around a bend. I watched the now empty space for a minute, and then began jogging in the direction of Flame Volcano, but not too fast that I would deplete my stamina.

It was going to be a long journey, and I should pace myself accordingly. I didn't want to be out of breath when I inevitably encountered another enemy.

*

Under the darkness of night, tragic screams rang incessantly about Rainbow Valley Road. The stench of blood hung heavily over the streets as merciless killers added yet another dispassionate murder to their tally, uncaring of whose lives they took, civilian or combatant.

Atop the tallest skyscraper in the vicinity, which provided a bird's eye view of the bloodsoaked district, several figures stood arrogantly near the edge as they condescendingly watched the scene of carnage unfold below them. they watched coldly as the people within the buildings were mechanically rooted out and slaughtered, hunted down in the apartments they had foolishly sought refuge in, deluded that their killers would never find them locked inside a room.

"Lu Li has been by Grandma Jiu's side for a very long time, so she is quite used to seeing such horrors. That's why she remains so calm and unmoved." Shi Jing Yun chuckled as he cast a glance at Lu Li before turning back to the Ling sisters. "Yu Mei, Yu Xuan, are you two all right? I don't think either of you are used to this yet."

Atop the rooftop of the imposing skyscraper, Shi Jing Yun stood beside Lu Li, Ling Yu Shi and Ling Yu Xuan. They were all watching the martial artists from the Seven Valley Sects massacring the civilians and members of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect below. Shi Jing Yun was supposed to be the leader, and he was using his position to slack off and flirt with the three beautiful girls.

Lu Li's gaze was as cold as frost, her eyes not displaying even the tiniest trace of emotion. She snorted as she watched the massacre below, as dispassionate as ever.

"The strong eat the weak. This has always been the truth since the beginning of time. Nine-Tailed Fox Sect can only blame themselves for their own demise today. They were arrogant for many years, iinsisting on retaining a large amount of autonomy and independence from the Martial Arts Alliance and refusing to subordinate themselves. They didn't respect those more powerful than them, nor were they willing to obey orders passed down to them that weren't from the royal family. They prospered for so many years and were slowly rising up."

WHAT FUCKING BULLSHIT IS THAT!?

I would have yelled that if I was present, but obviously I wasn't. But that logic was baffling. The strong eat the weak? What kind of nonsense was that? So only martial artists were allowed to live? They didn't need farmers, artisans, mechanics, engineers, merchants, blacksmiths and service industry staff to live? If you eat all the farmers, who's going to grow crops for you? If you kill all the blacksmiths – like what you're doing right now, who's going to forge weapons for you?

In the end, an army who was willing to respect and cooperate with blacksmiths who do their best to forge the best weapons for clients on equal ground was going to be more powerful and hold the advantage over an army who enslaved blacksmiths and forced them to forge subpar weapons for them. And they obviously had not studied history. In many civilizations, farmers had taken arms to protect themselves and overthrow kingdoms and armies through bloody revolutions. The whole strong eat the weak was just bullshit. It didn't matter how strong you were – when 90% of your population was farmers, if you abuse them, piss them off, and oppress them in tyrannical manners, they would riot, raise a revolution and overthrow your rule, no matter how strong your military was.

That was why the Qin Dynasty fell after mere decades, after the tyrannical Qin Emperor oppressed his subjects to the breaking point. The Edo government too had to placate the peasants rather than just massacre them with samurai, when there were famines and taxes. And during the Sengoku Jidai, farmers actually took arms and became part of the army, and it was a time where the lower ranks usurped the higher ranks (gekokujou) – it didn't matter how strong you were or how individually skilled you were in martial arts. An army of farmers armed with spears or muskets would run you through or gun you down with overwhelming numbers. And the French Revolution too – it consisted of the common people getting fed up with the corrupt royalty and nobility, and they overthrew them and executed the royal family after a bloody revolution. The common people, not the military. Not through arms or strength or martial skill, but commoners rallying together for a single purpose.

Let's be honest. Piss off the majority of your population, and no matter how powerful your army was, you would be shooting yourself in the foot. No matter how strong and skillful your soldiers individually were, they still needed eat. They still needed to be armed with weapons, armor and ammunition. They still needed people to handle logistics such as transporting supplies or selling and buying stuff. They needed barracks and tents to live in. And who provided all these food, weapons, armor, ammunition, supplies, transports, barracks, tents and more? The common people. If you were going to kill and "eat" them just because you were strong and weak, you were going to starve yourself to death before long. And external enemies who treated their commoners well would step in, take advantage of your stupidity, and conquer your once-great empire. Such stories were common throughout history. Look at the Mongolian Empire. They had strong soldiers and a terrifying army, but because they didn't have the support of commoners and proper logistics, they stretched themselves too thin over the decades of conquest and ended up falling apart in the end.

The authors writing these wuxia and xianxia novels and spouting this "strong eat weak" logic definitely did not learn history – kind of ironic, since they were always setting their stories in historical settings.

Lu Li continued, because I wasn't there to correct her highly inaccurate and untrue logic.

"Unfortunately, there isn't even a single invincible martial artist within the sect able to defend themselves. Although Lang Xie is strong, he still has yet to reach that level. That's why the fall of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect is inevitable."

Excuse me? Lord Lang Xie, Sect Lady Zi Da Ji and even Instructor Hai Rong were all formidable martial artists that were stronger than most of the people from the invading sects put together. Was something wrong with Lu Li's brain? Or was she clearly deluded?

Fortunately, Shi Jing Yun shared my view. He glared at Lu Li and shook his head with a snort.

"If we had given Nine-Tailed Fox Sect twenty years…no, ten years, they will transcend the other major sects and become the most powerful sect in the Martial Arts Alliance. They have Tang Qi Hong, who shows the most promise in forging spirit armaments in decades. And they have Blood Blades, who has always been getting stronger, especially recently. In fact, Blood Blades are stronger than the military branches of all the other seven major sects, and they have proven that over and over again. Not only that, they have just recruited that young man…was his name Fei Wu? I heard that he made it to the finals in Wu Ling Academy's tournament last year, and attained a high level of Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula."

Lu Li's expression grew cold when she heard my name. Shi Jing Yun noticed it, but he continued sternly.

"And Lang Xie is much stronger than you think. Even when Liang Yang Zu, Di Shi Jiu and Yuan Tian Ya attacked together, they were still unable to kill him. I had just received the news a few minutes ago, but Lang Xie has already escaped."

Lu Li looked a little shocked. "Is Lang Xie truly that terrifying?"

"Let me put it this way. Right now Lang Xie is currently the strongest martial artist in the Great Zhou Empire." Shi Jing Yun sounded confident. "The Sect Leader of Dark Asura Sect, the Sect Leader of Cloud Sky Mountain Sect, and even the Sect Leaders of the four Celestial Creature Sects are not even close to being Lang Xie's equal in a one-on-one fight! It's precisely because of Lang Xie's overwhelming prowess that Bood Blades are becoming increasingly terrifying. Not only that, we still have Zi Da Ji, who's said to be his equal in combat, and the overall commander of the Blood Blades! Although Lang Xie has surpassed her recently, she's still a force to be reckoned with. I heard that she had convincingly defeated the Sect Leader of the Incendiary Ifrit Sect earlier today!"

He sighed and shook his head.

"Moreover, with promising new disciples entering the sect such as Fei Wu, Tong Xue, and even that Pang Feng from Cloud Sky Mountain, the Martial Arts Alliance had gotten alarmed at the potential growth of the sect as a whole, and that's why the various sect leaders have come to an unanimous decision to ally together and eradicate Nine-Tailed Fox Sect once and for all!"

And in doing so, decide to ally with a demonic sect and overlook their crimes just to destroy a fellow orthodox sect. Yeah, you've got to love the hypocrisy of the so-called just and honorable Martial Arts Alliance.

Lu Li, to her credit, was stunned speechless. Beside her, Ling Yu Mei and Ling Yu Xuan looked very uncomfortable. They, like me, were probably scoffing at the absurd logic and realized the sheer hypocrisy of the Martial Arts Alliance.

No doubt they wanted out of this chicken shit outfit. There was brutal reality, and there was bullshit reasoning that was contrived just to throw the protagonist in the most ridiculous crises for the sake of drama and plot. This most definitely fell into the latter.

Shi Jing Yun sighed, recognizing their worries.

"You're probably right," he told them in a low voice while Lu Li was still too stunned and dumbfounded, trying not to let her hear him. "That's the reason why the other six major sects, with the exception of Snow Valley Sect, are not participating. All of them are starting to have second thoughts about the Martial Arts Alliance. After all, if they can so callously resort to such atrocities and crimes right under the nose of the Great Zhou Empire, who's to say they won't be next? What if they become more powerful? Then the Martial Arts Alliance will immediately gather a group of sects to destroy them because of their greed, paranoia and selfishness. This also isn't good for the future of the Great Zhou Empire. If you are always stunting the growth of your fellow countrymen and orthodox sects out of fear of them growing more powerful than you, the empire and martial artists will stagnate, and one day, when an external enemy from the other empires or kingdom attacks, we will be overrun very easily."

"We have to do something." Ling Yu Xuan was horrified when she realized that Shi Jing Yun was right. If the Seven Valley Sects became too strong, what if the Martial Arts Alliance got afraid of them and convinced the remaining six major sects to destroy them? Then there was no way they would be able to defend themselves.

Moreover, after participating in this massacre, it wouldn't be surprising if none of the other sects in the Martial Arts Allaince allied with them. They would call it karma and relish in the destruction of yet another major rival.

The selfishness and ugliness of these hypocritical martial artists had been made clear for her to see.

Ling Yu Mei sighed heavily. "There's nothing we can do, is there?"

"No," Shi Jing Yun agreed. "The higher-ups are too short-sighted and blind to their own greed, desires and selfishness that they have backed themselves to a corner. When the time comes, we would be attacked if we try to overstep our boundaries. If we don't want to get destroyed, we've to comply by the rules and restrictions placed on us by the Martial Arts Alliance. Unlike Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, who fought for their freedom, autonomy and independence, we have to obey the Martial Arts Alliance and stunt our own growth. The moment we try to be ambitious and increase our power, even slightly, like the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, the Martial Arts Alliance will immediately destroy us."

Clearly Shi Jing Yun did not approve of the methods and decisions of the sect leaders of the Seven Valley Sects. He had seen the consequences and ramifications of playing into the Martial Arts Alliance's hands, and saw nothing but trouble and increasing restraints. They would have to toe the line now, or their invasion of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect would not be justified. And thanks to that, they would have to forever shackle their own growth.

Ling Yu Mei and Ling Yu Xuan looked even more dismayed than before. Shi Jing Yun forced a smile.

"Don't worry. I'm sure your generation will figure something out. It's too late for us old folks to change anything, but your generation shows a lot of promise. Perhaps you'll reform the Martial Arts Alliance before it's too late."

He then turned away.

"And as such…I'll be leaving this sector to you, Lu Li. I'll be checking the other areas out."

Shi Jing Yun had confirmed that the present scene was completely under the control of Dark Fiend Valley Sect, and feeling reassured, issued his orders to Lu Li. He then left the area in a relaxed manner, leaving the sector to the three girls, who were solemn and tense in contrast.

Chapter end