121 The Fire at Wuchao

The inner room was unlit, shrouded in complete darkness. After Xu Qian crept inside with extreme caution, he saw a figure lying on the bed; the snoring was coming from this person.

"He's on the bed!" Xu Qian whispered to Su Ming.

The figure was facing away from Xu Qian, but since this was Chunyu Qiong’s room, Xu Qian subconsciously assumed it was Chunyu Qiong lying there. Su Ming had never seen Chunyu Qiong and had no idea what he looked like. Upon hearing Xu Qian’s confirmation, Su Ming drew his saber with a sharp metallic ring without a second thought.

With one swift motion, he severed the man’s head. With a sickening squelch and a spray of blood, the head rolled across the floor and came to a stop at Xu Qian’s feet. Only then did Xu Qian see the face clearly. His mind went blank, and his head began to buzz.

"Wrong!"

"This isn't Chunyu Qiong, it's Lü Kuang!" Xu Qian exclaimed, pointing at the head on the floor.

"What? This is Lü Kuang?" Su Ming was shocked to learn they had killed the wrong person. He quickly asked, "Then where is Chunyu Qiong?"

Accidentally killing Lü Kuang was of little consequence; it was just a matter of convenience, and one life more or less didn't matter. The real issue now was the whereabouts of Chunyu Qiong.

"Check the nearby rooms; he might be sleeping elsewhere!" Su Ming urged. "In any case, we must find Chunyu Qiong."

As Su Ming and Xu Qian were searching the other rooms, they heard loud shouts echoing through the courtyard: "Murder! Murder! General Chunyu Qiong has been assassinated! General Chunyu Qiong has been assassinated!"

Shortly after Su Ming and Xu Qian had left, a maid had come to deliver wine to Chunyu Qiong. Upon entering the room, she was hit by the thick, metallic stench of blood. Summoning her courage, she followed the scent into the inner chamber, where she saw a pool of blood and the severed head resting within it. Too terrified to look closely, she fled in a panic, screaming as she ran. Being timid and failing to get a good look, she had mistaken Lü Kuang’s head for Chunyu Qiong’s.

Hearing the commotion, Su Ming realized they had been exposed. There was no time to continue searching for Chunyu Qiong; they would simply have to roll with the chaos.

They decided to burn the government office first. In ancient times, the front courtyard of an office was for official business, while the rear was for living quarters. With everyone's attention drawn to the murder in the back, Su Ming and Xu Qian took the opportunity to circle to the front and set fire to the archives. From the archives, they moved to the grain stores, and from the grain stores, they moved to the treasury. Within moments, the entire compound was engulfed in flames.

The place descended into utter pandemonium, with people screaming to catch assassins and others shouting to fight the fires. Looking up from the grain depot, the sky above the government office was glowing a deep, ominous red.

"General Wenyuan, the office is ablaze!" Taishi Ci said to Zhang Liao. "It is time for us to act as planned."

Zhang Liao nodded. "Move out."

As soon as he gave the order, the eight hundred elite soldiers of the Trap Formation retrieved their gear from the wagons. While they did not bring their heavy armor, they were fully equipped with round shields, axes, and crossbows. Furthermore, each man wore a ghastly, demonic mask.

In ancient warfare, to defeat a superior force with a smaller one, one must first shatter the enemy's morale. Since the ancients were deeply superstitious, Zhang Liao and his men intended to pose as soldiers from the underworld. With the government office and grain stores suddenly burning, followed by the appearance of a group of masked, ghost-like soldiers, the Yuan troops were paralyzed by terror.

Following Su Ming’s instruction that the fire would be their signal, Zhang Liao, Taishi Ci, and Qu E launched their assault without delay. They killed anyone in their path and set fire to every grain silo they encountered. The Yuan soldiers guarding the granaries, seeing these masked figures emerging from the dark, fled in terror, unable to mount any effective resistance. The officers in charge scrambled to defend their positions and fight the fires while desperately trying to locate their commander.

However, Lü Kuang was headless, and Chunyu Qiong was still hiding in the latrine. The only person available to take command was Lü Xiang.

Soon, one grain store after another was set ablaze. Lü Xiang, who had been guarding the city gate, saw a messenger rushing toward him. "General Lü! The government office is on fire, the granaries are on fire, the city is on fire—it's burning everywhere!"

Lü Xiang thought to himself that he didn't need to be told what he could already see. "Why are you reporting this to me instead of General Chunyu Qiong?" he demanded.

"We have searched everywhere, but we cannot find General Chunyu Qiong," the messenger replied.

"What?" Lü Xiang felt a sinking sense of dread. "Then where is my elder brother? Report this to him at once!"

The messenger looked completely bewildered, thinking, *Your brother is already dead, how am I supposed to report to him? Even if I died right now, I couldn't catch up to him.*

"General Lü Kuang was killed in the government office; he has lost his life," the messenger reported truthfully.

After the maid’s screams, guards had swarmed into the office. They had identified the head as Lü Kuang’s, not Chunyu Qiong’s. But the soldiers were too busy dealing with the fires and assassins to check the latrines for the missing general.

"What! My brother has been killed!" Lü Xiang roared in fury. "Who dares to cause such chaos in Wuchao? How bold! Quick, follow me to the government office!"

With Chunyu Qiong missing and Lü Kuang dead, Lü Xiang was the only one left to hold the line. As he led his troops through Wuchao, the sounds of battle echoed from all sides. In the dead of night, it was impossible to tell how many Cao troops were actually present.

*It's over,* Lü Xiang thought. *Wuchao cannot be saved.*

Even knowing this, he continued toward the office. He hoped to find Chunyu Qiong—if only to have someone to blame for the disaster. And if he couldn't find the general, he intended to at least secure the gold and treasures Chunyu Qiong had been hoarding.