Qin Yi had indeed missed something.
Once ambushed, he just assumed that Donghuazi had started the whole thing and that the latter had control over everything and could do whatever he wanted.
As a matter of fact, the only thing Donghuazi had planned was the ambush to kill Qin Yi. He didn’t dare to send out any capable demons, because Minghe had been staying at his Eternal Temple…
Even the two demons that showed up at Li Qingjun’s residence had been secretly brought out by Mang Zhan.
Even when they turned against Li Qinglin, their plan was to forge a royal decree to depose the crown prince or to assassinate him when he went to court. They would never try to besiege the crown prince’s residence. This was the capital city of Nanli. Donghuazi wasn’t influential enough to hide the truth from the masses, nor was Li Qinglin so unpopular. Although some of the imperial guards in the city had shifted to Donghuazi’s side, most of them still only followed Li Qinglin’s command.
Politically, Donghuazi had taken the absolute upper hand. Almost all officials in court were on his side. However, when it came to actual fighting power, Li Qinglin had the advantage, and that was how a stalemate had been created.
The ambush on Qin Yi had failed, and some cultivators were supposed to come to their aim. They hadn’t because they had been too busy saving their own asses.
It wasn’t the crown prince’s residence that was under siege but Donghuazi’s place.
The city gate of Li Fire was wide open and fierce soldiers had rushed into the city, heading for the Eternal Temple.
Soldiers in red armor ran up all 99 stone staircases, killing all the Taoist priests in their way as they made their way into the temple.
Li Fire Army, the most elite troops of Nanli, was part of the royal central army and was stationed about 50km outside the city. Their leader was General Xie Yuan, an experienced general who had been fighting against Xihuang for the past 30 years and was a loyal comrade of Li Qinglin.
That had always been Li Qinglin’s plan. When needed, he would launch a mutiny to force his father to give up the throne.
Now that there was no need for that anymore, he could take care of Eternal Temple instead. Killing one’s own father wouldn’t be a proud thing to do, but an enemy would justify the war.
He couldn’t do it before, because deploying an army into the city would be considered a mutiny. However, his father, the king, was dying, so he wasn’t concerned with that anymore.
Li Qinglin knew that Donghuazi was planning his assassination as well, so he wouldn’t wait until the day his father really died for him and Donghuazi to show the cards up their sleeves. Maybe Qin Yi and Donghuazi both had a similar plan, but an experienced warrior who had witnessed real wars knew that speed was everything. He needed the element of surprise.
Donghuazi had never expected that Li Qinglin would deploy an army in the capital city at this point. He was still going over his plan when the elite army was right at his doorstep.
Even Qin Yi didn’t see that coming. He had thought Li Qinglin would be too busy making preparations. As it turned out, Li Qinglin, who seemed to be behind schedule on everything, had turned things around overnight with such a decisive move!
If even Qin Yi, who had talked all night with Li Qinglin, couldn’t see that coming, how could Donghuazi?
There were flames all over Eternal Temple, and numerous Taoist priests had been killed or injured. Li Qinglin led a team of men and was the first to break into the temple. Without hesitation, he headed for the Ascending Terrace at the back.
“Boom!” A flame came at him from up ahead.
Li Qinglin met it with his spear, sending out a streak of powerful energy, which blew the flame off course like a gust of wind. The flame hit a tree on one side instead with an explosive sound.
Looking up, Li Qinglin saw a few advanced priests sitting cross-legged and making hand seals. The ground in front of them seemed to be twinkling, which suggested that formations had been set up.
He raised a hand, and the charging soldiers stopped in unison. They then took out their bows and aimed their arrows at the priests.
The calm looks on their faces immediately disappeared.
Li Qinglin chuckled. “With your flames and thunderclaps, you can fool the public with your Taoist techniques, but you’ll never fool soldiers who have seen death.”
The next second, arrows showered down like a thunderstorm. The priests didn’t have time to activate the hand seals they had just made and could only set up a protective shield, but it wouldn’t hold against a continuous barrage of arrows.
Before long, the shield was shattered, and a few priests screamed as the arrows pierced through their bodies.
A few priests sitting at the back scrambled into the Ascending Terrace.
High up on a platform, Donghuazi spoke with a livid face. “Li Qinglin, this is mutiny!”
He had never expected that Li Qinglin would send an army in at this point. Not only did it surprise him, but it had caught him at his weakest moment, for the demons he had been raising in secret were almost wiped out by Minghe’s seven-star formation. The surviving ones were barely breathing. Otherwise, he would’ve been able to meet Li Qinglin’s army with his own.
Minghe just happened to strike down with such a lethal move that Donghuazi’s power had been decreased by 90%. Before he had time to recover, Li Qinglin’s army was at his doorstep.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Li Qinglin said casually, “I can say the same thing about you. I’m the crown prince of the kingdom, and you have been plotting against me. That’s mutiny as well.”
He threw two human heads on the ground as he spoke. “You must be wondering why you haven’t heard about me deploying my troops. You’ve done a great job, trying to buy over my ‘confidants’.”
Donghuazi said, “Have you never trusted these people?”
Li Qinglin grinned. “I don’t trust any officials working in the capital city. Even if Qingjun didn’t stop that General Liu from entering my residence, he would’ve still died miserably. Even Night Wing herself doesn’t know how many strong arrows I’ve set up around her house.”
Donghuazi studied Li Qinglin for a while and suddenly chuckled. “Your Royal Highness, you’re such an outstanding young man, but unfortunately, you’ve been sitting at the bottom of a well and imagining the tiny sky overhead. There are a lot of things in this world that can’t be solved by any strategy.”
“Such as this formation?” Li Qinglin walked around the formation in front of him and threw a stone into it. Flames suddenly surged up from the ground, burning the stone into ash.
“Impressive. That’s why you’ve been searching everywhere for flaming flint stones,” Donghuazi said. Li Qinglin smiled, looked over his shoulder, and gave an order. “Start digging from around the formation and see if there are any formation cores underneath this area. If not, dig back up through the formation.”
The soldiers started digging without hesitation, and Donghuazi paled.
Li Qinglin waited patiently as the soldiers dug and he said, “I admit that amazing skills that no army can fight off do exist, but unfortunately, you don’t have such capabilities. Maybe you’re still hiding some powerful demons who have reached the Transformation Stage like Night Wing, but you can’t have too many of them and they can’t be too advanced. Even if they’re very capable, a few demons can’t change things around when they’re facing an army of ten thousand. The same goes with you.”
Gritting his teeth, Donghuazi suddenly sent a signal into the sky.
Looking up, Li Qinglin asked casually, “What was that for?”
“Just like you said, those demons wouldn’t make much difference here, so I told them not to come here to help me but to go to your place instead.” Donghuazi gave him a grim smile. “I wonder which is more important to you, killing your enemy or protecting your family?”
“You really sent them to my residence?” The look on Li Qinglin’s face was quite strange. “Go ahead, then.”
The ground fell in after that, and something beneath seemed to have been destroyed. The formation at the center of the yard faded, and when Li Qinglin threw in another stone, nothing happened.
He looked up and smiled. “It’s time for us to start a fire. You lot, take the logs over there and burn this Ascending Terrace.”
Donghuazi was furious. The nine-story terrace was filled with gadgets and formations, and he had thought that they would be enough to stall the army until the king arrived. However, Li Qinglin just wouldn’t play by the book!
He stopped talking and went back inside before running down the stairs.
After years of construction, this terrace already had an underground palace beneath it.
That place wouldn’t be burnt down by any fire, and he would like to see Li Qinglin go inside.
As the fire grew stronger, Li Qinglin whispered to the men next to him. “Go have a look at my residence. If things are done over there, ask Mr. Qin to come here to give me a hand.”