Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 313: The picture shows the dagger
At this time, Xiao Hong and his son led 8,000 troops and attacked outside the Xuanwu Gate unhindered.

The palace gate was still wide open, and the guards seemed unaware that the emperor had been assassinated.

"Quick, rush in and take control of the palace gate!" Xiao Hong was overjoyed when he saw this. He waved his sword and pointed it forward, and all the troops rushed towards the Xuanwu Gate at full speed.

One hundred feet, fifty feet, thirty feet, twenty feet...

It seemed that the imperial guards guarding the city gate had no time to close it.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, something strange happened. Arrows suddenly rained down from the Xuanwu Gate Tower!
Those were countless imperial guards hiding behind the parapet, who suddenly showed up and shot out crossbow arrows flashing with various colors - all of them were magic arrows carefully crafted by the palace craftsmen!

The red Fire Crow Arrows can burn the entire soldier into a humanoid form, even melting their shields. The white Ice Arrows can instantly freeze the enemy soldiers, including their armor, into ice cubes.

There are also blue thunder arrows. Although the effect is not as shocking as the first two, it is more lethal to soldiers wearing full armor and holding metal weapons. When an enemy soldier is hit by an arrow, several enemy soldiers within a few feet of him twitch and fall to the ground like puppets tied by invisible chains, and all the exposed skin is charred...

Each of these powerful magic arrows was difficult to make and expensive. In normal battles, the commander was very careful with his weapons and didn't want to waste any of them. At this moment, the imperial guards were throwing arrows at the enemy like they didn't care about money, and instantly shot the unprepared rebels to the ground.

After a volley of fire, half of the 8,000 rebels had been killed.

Xiao Hong would not be hurt, but he looked at the top of the city in shock. He saw his eighth brother, Nanping King Xiao Wei, who was supposed to be under house arrest, wearing golden armor and a scarlet cloak, looking at him coldly.

"As expected of you, you are so shameless." Xiao Wei also saw Xiao Hong and spat with disdain.

"Old Eight, I'm here to rescue you." Xiao Hong was also quite quick-witted and immediately said to Xiao Wei, "Xiao Yan treated you like that, do you still want to be his dog?"

"Stop talking nonsense. Anyone can kill the traitors." Xiao Wei was impatient. He waved his hand as if in a hurry and said, "All soldiers, listen to my orders. Follow me out of the palace to quell the rebellion!"

"Yes!" Amidst the thunderous responses, countless imperial guards in distinctive armor rushed out of the Xuanwu Gate like a tide and swept towards the remaining rebels.

Xiao Wei also flew down from the top of the city wall and went straight for Xiao Hong.

He possessed the fire of the god of war, with the power to scare away thousands of troops and the courage to resist ten thousand men. He charged into battle without dodging or avoiding! When arrows shot in front of him, they were immediately shattered into powder; the enemy soldiers tried desperately to protect their master, but no one could match him.

Xiao Wei was seen killing and killing all the way, like a god splitting the waves and seas. In a blink of an eye, he was close to Xiao Hong and chopped at him with his knife.

Xiao Hong had no choice but to hold the sword with both hands to block. In his hand was the Chixiao Divine Sword, one of the Seven Treasures of the Imperial Palace, which barely blocked Xiao Wei's powerful sword that was meant to split Huashan, without breaking it on the spot.

However, Xiao Hong himself could not withstand the overwhelming force. Both of his arms were shattered on the spot, and his body fell heavily to the ground, smashing large pieces of the thick bluestone floor outside the Xuanwu Gate.

Xiao Hong spat out a mixture of blood and internal organs, and was about to die. He didn't expect that he couldn't take a single blow despite his nine orifices.

Then I realized that this was because the Jinling formation that was specifically designed to suppress divine power had stopped. This was the true strength of a demigod...

The rebels were about to collapse, and when they saw King Linchuan being killed in one move, they completely lost their will to fight, dropped their weapons, and turned around to run. Xiao Wei did not pursue them, but rode on the horse brought by his personal soldiers and ordered in a deep voice: "Follow me!"

He then led tens of thousands of fully armed imperial guards and marched towards the northeast in a mighty force.

At the same time, another even larger army came from the direction of Stone City in the west, led by Poyang King Xiao Hui!
The two armies met on Xuanwu Street, and Xiao Wei and Xiao Hui, the two enemies who were "fighting to the death", finally met.

But the two men did not become jealous of each other like enemies meeting each other, nor did they fight each other. Instead, they tacitly joined forces and marched into Purple Mountain!
~~
The soldiers under his command only saw the two princes riding side by side, with faces full of hatred for the common enemy. How could they look like enemies at all?
The reason is very simple. In fact, the discord between the two was pretended from the beginning to the end.

At Xiao Yan's instruction, the two pretended to fight for the position of commander of the Northern Expedition. Xiao Wei even put Xiangliu's blood in Lao Jiu's wine at the instigation of Xiao Hong.

But in fact, he had already told Lao Jiu the secret of the 'Falling God's Formless Tribulation' in private. Xiao Hui was prepared and naturally did not get poisoned.

This is not accurate, because Xiao Hui did have one arm poisoned. But he cut off a good arm in order to make Xiao Hong and his gang believe it, and then poisoned the broken arm...

So just looking at Xiao Hui's severed hand, he was indeed hit by the 'Meteoric God's Formless Tribulation', but he himself was not poisoned. The subsequent appearance of the poison attack was completely faked by him.

Naturally, Xiao Wei was placed under house arrest by Xiao Yan because of the poisoning case, which was also a double act between the two brothers.

Before leaving the palace to offer sacrifices to heaven, Xiao Yan had secretly summoned the chief generals of the Imperial Guard and the Mengzhang Guard, and in front of them, he gave the scepter and tiger talisman to Xiao Wei, ordering them to obey Xiao Wei's orders today and not to disobey!
The three brothers were so deliberate and calculated in staging this grand drama, their motives were certainly not ulterior - looking across the capital and even the entire Daliang, only the Tongtai Temple on the Purple Mountain was worthy of the efforts of the royal brothers.

~~
In the God-Slaying Formation, Xiao Yan tried his best to resist the endless attacks of Earth, Water, Fire and Wind, while speaking calmly:

"I have long known that the Buddhist sect has been dissatisfied with me for a long time. But am I not the same?"

"Twenty years ago, if Wu Yang hadn't suddenly stabbed him in the back, how could the God of War have died in the battle of Zhongli?"

"Ten years ago, if Wu Xian hadn't been secretly doing something wrong, how could Fushan Weir have collapsed?"

"They are always like this. They keep saying they support me, but every time I am about to accomplish my mission, they will secretly sabotage my cause." Xiao Yan's calm face was filled with uncontrollable anger, and he gritted his teeth and said:
"Then they offered me conditions that were humiliating and detrimental to my country, forcing me to kowtow and beg them for help. This way, they destroyed my authority and eroded my power time and time again."

"Don't try that." Xiao Baoyin spat with disdain, "When you tried to get the skin of a tiger and used their power to seize my kingdom, you should have thought that this day would come! Emperors as wise and capable as Emperor Wu of Song and Emperor Gao of my Great Qi couldn't beat these old monsters who have lived for thousands of years. Why do you think you can do it?"

"Yes, people always have a lucky heart and have to go through a process of 'first thinking they are different, then finding out there is nothing different'." Xiao Yan laughed at himself, but raised his eyebrows and said:

"So I am just like them, and I will fight those old monsters to the end."

"After being forced to worship Buddhism and abandon Taoism, I have been waiting for an opportunity, and today I finally got it. I have to thank you and my good-for-nothing brother for finally helping me create this chance to turn the tables!"

(End of this chapter)