Chapter 20: The Eunuch's Secret
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Father King was not a victim of this game of chess. From the very beginning, he had been nothing more than a piece on the board—a piece the Empress Dowager intended to discard the moment she had finished using it!
His so-called “rebellion” and the alleged “confiscation of his household” had both been predetermined moves in the Empress Dowager’s grand scheme. Her purpose was to draw out Qin Cang and the Emperor’s forces, then have Mo Zhai, the mantis waiting to prey on the cicada, wipe them all out in one stroke!
How ruthless! How vicious!
That old woman, secluded deep within the imperial harem and seemingly indifferent to affairs of state, possessed methods so sinister and savage!
“Xiao Zhan! What are you waiting for?! Hurry up and help me capture this witness!”
Outside the estate, Qin Cang’s roar dragged Xiao Zhan back from his shock.
On the battlefield, Qin Cang and the dozens of surviving soldiers from the capital garrison had already clashed at close quarters with Mo Zhai’s personal guards. Both sides had been driven into a murderous frenzy, engaging in the most primitive and bloody struggle around the ghost-masked leader, who was barely clinging to life.
Qin Cang knew that this ghost-masked man was his only hope of clearing his name—and perhaps even turning defeat into victory!
Mo Zhai knew even better that this ghost-masked man was the death warrant that could send both him and the Empress Dowager into eternal ruin!
“Kill him! Kill him at any cost!” Mo Zhai’s voice was shrill and piercing, his expression that of a madman.
“Protect the witness!” Qin Cang roared as he cut down one of Mo Zhai’s guards. Another wound, deep enough to show bone, was added to his armor.
Bang! Bang-bang!
Behind Xiao Zhan, his household guards continued faithfully carrying out his earlier orders. With precise bursts of fire, they suppressed Mo Zhai’s archers while skillfully hampering Qin Cang’s advance.
Because of Xiao Zhan’s presence, the entire battlefield had settled into a strange balance.
“Little Brother…” Xiao Yunshang stared at the carnage below, at the frenzied Qin Cang and Mo Zhai, her face deathly pale with fear.
“Sis, go back inside first.” Xiao Zhan’s voice had returned to its icy calm—a bone-deep chill born from seeing through everything.
Supporting himself against the cold battlement, he watched the farce below. The corner of his mouth curved into a cruel smile.
A witness?
No.
Qin Cang had misunderstood.
This ghost-masked man had never been a witness. He was merely a fuse—a sacrifice meant to expose the Empress Dowager’s conspiracy to the light of day.
As long as he lived, Qin Cang would cling to hope, and Mo Zhai would be forced to act with caution.
But if he died…
If he died in full view of everyone…
A wild thought took shape in Xiao Zhan’s mind like a flash of lightning!
He spun around and snatched a weapon from one of the household guards—a weapon utterly different from the AK-47.
It was a sniper rifle with an entirely black body, a long barrel, a bipod mounted beneath its front end, and a strange “thousand-mile scope” fixed above the barrel.
A Barrett M82A1!
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This was his ultimate trump card, the true Thunder God!
“My lord, what are you—” The captain of the household guards blanched.
Xiao Zhan did not answer. He rested the heavy rifle on the battlement, pressed its cold metal stock against his shoulder, and brought his right eye to the scope.
In an instant, the clamorous, chaotic battlefield vanished.
Within his world remained only the crosshairs in the scope—and the target slowly locked within them.
He saw Qin Cang’s face twisted with fury.
He saw Mo Zhai’s face bleached white with terror.
He even saw the ghost-masked leader, in the final moments of his life, his eyes filled with intertwined hatred and unwillingness.
Qin Cang had already fought his way to the ghost-masked man. His bloodstained hand was less than a foot from the man’s collar!
Mo Zhai’s guards had also broken through the defensive line. One of them raised his saber high, aiming it at the ghost-masked man’s neck!
It seemed that everyone’s fate hung by a single thread.
“No!” Qin Cang’s eyes bulged with desperation. He could already see the hope of turning the tables!
“Die!” A savage delight spread across Mo Zhai’s face.
At that very instant—
Bang—!
A gunshot utterly different from the AK-47’s erupted with a dull, heavy boom. It carried an even greater force of penetration and oppression.
The sound seemed to possess the power to freeze time.
Every cry of battle, every clash of weapons, every scream of agony ceased at once.
Time itself seemed to have been pressed into suspension.
Qin Cang’s outstretched hand froze in midair.
The saber descending from Mo Zhai’s guard likewise hung motionless above the battlefield.
Every gaze was drawn toward the same focal point—
the ghost-masked leader, surrounded by several men and barely clinging to life.
His head exploded from the back like a watermelon struck by a siege hammer.
Red and white matter, mingled with shattered bone and fragments of bronze mask, sprayed backward in a horrifying fan-shaped arc.
His headless body spasmed twice where it stood, then collapsed limply to the ground, utterly still.
Silence.
A deathly silence.
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Not even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard.
The thousands of men on the battlefield—Qin Cang’s remnants, Mo Zhai’s elite troops, and the household guards of the Prince of Yan’s residence—all stood frozen as though placed under a binding spell.
Every mind was blank.
He was dead?
The only witness capable of revealing the truth… was dead just like that?!
Who had done it?!
Almost instinctively, every gaze slowly lifted toward the direction from which the gunshot had come—the gate tower of the Prince of Yan’s residence.
On the gate tower, Xiao Zhan stood straight as a pine.
He slowly withdrew the terrifying black rifle from the battlement. Wisps of smoke curled from the muzzle and dispersed in the night wind, like a demon that had just devoured a life and was belching in satisfaction.
His handsome face was devoid of expression. His eyes were as deep and cold as an ancient frozen pool as he looked down upon the stunned, bewildered, horrified, and disbelieving faces below.
“Xiao… Zhan…”
Qin Cang’s lips trembled as he forced those two words through clenched teeth. His eyes were bloodshot, fixed upon Xiao Zhan with a murderous hatred that seemed intent on tearing him apart and swallowing him whole.
At the very moment hope had been within reach, Xiao Zhan had shattered it with a single shot!
“You… How dare you…”
Mo Zhai finally recovered his senses. He pointed at Xiao Zhan, his finger trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind. He wanted to roar and curse, but found that he could not even form a complete sentence.
His mind was a muddle as well.
Why had Xiao Zhan killed the ghost-masked man?
Should he not, like Qin Cang, have wanted to preserve this witness in order to deal with him?
That one shot had severed every clue. What could Xiao Zhan possibly have hoped to gain?!
“Sorry. My hand slipped.”
Xiao Zhan finally spoke. His voice was calm, yet each word struck everyone’s heart like a heavy hammer.
Carrying the enormous sniper rifle on his shoulder, he descended the gate tower at an unhurried pace and stopped before the massive gates that had just been closed. Through the doors, he addressed the people outside:
“Unfortunately, the witness is dead now.”
“General Qin, you murdered the Prince of Yan and besieged his residence. Your capital crime is now beyond dispute.”