Taiping Magic
My thinking had been too short. I figured sending Liu Eun alone wouldn't raise any suspicion, but He Yi was far more meticulous than I'd given him credit for.
"Wow, I seriously can't believe this. A princess? Don't tell me that princess is the one from the Chen royal house?"
"I don't know who you sent or what you ordered, but maybe you misheard? Common sense says someone of a princess's standing wouldn't come all the way out to a village just to buy drugs."
"No. Honestly, I never really trusted you either. Claiming to be Zhang Jue's son? Even a bluff needs some restraint."
"You used me to grow your force and now you're stabbing me in the back? So deep down you were terrified of me all along?"
Granted, in the game he was nothing more than a second-rate Yellow Turban, but he was still a bandit chief who had once commanded tens of thousands. My appearance had helped him expand—that much was true—but I should have calculated that he would also fear the rise of a powerful rival.
He Yi smiled. He had sold a considerable amount of cannabis and, borrowing my name, taken in a large number of Yellow Turban refugees. Everything he wanted, he already had.
"Liars... deserve to die, don't they?"
And now he meant to boil the hunting dog that had outlived its usefulness. The worse part was that exposing Liu Eun's identity would only accelerate his uprising.
Reaching Yangxia would take a single day. But even with the camps already established, Liu Chong would still need time to bring his troops. He Yi, on the other hand, could rise right now with nothing but the men of his mountain stronghold. Seize the village administrative office, raise the yellow banners, and tens of thousands of Yellow Turban remnants who had been waiting for exactly this moment would come pouring in.
Slowly... slowly...
They were tightening the encirclement inch by inch. Yuan Huan, terrified out of her wits, edged up behind me.
"W-what do you intend to do, Lord Do?"
"What else? If they pick a fight, we take it."
"Do you even know how many there are?"
"Just the ones I can see—over thirty."
The one silver lining was that it was the dead of night, so He Yi had only brought a small force. More importantly, I still had no shortage of supporters inside the stronghold; his plan was clearly to execute us quietly and invent an excuse later.
Of course, fewer numbers was nothing to celebrate. More than ten thousand Yellow Turbans were already gathered here. The moment a commotion woke them, every last one would become an enemy.
Shhhk...
I drew my own sword. Fighting with Yuan Huan at my back was hardly the smartest tactic, but if I could just break the circle, we still had a chance of surviving.
"Attack!"
Shashashak!
At He Yi's command they charged as one. I immediately drove toward a single point and swung.
Slash!
I deflected the blade of the man charging hardest and took his head clean off. In the brief stun that followed their unexpected, agile movement, I shoved Yuan Huan hard through the gap I had opened.
"Run!"
"L-Lord Do, but—"
"Just run already!"
Clang! Clang!
And so began a twenty-nine-to-one brawl. Yuan Huan kicked her feet forward; I backpedaled after her, holding them off.
"What the hell are you doing?! There's only two of them! Only one even has a sword!"
He Yi grew frantic the moment I dropped three or four men in an instant and broke the encirclement. At the same time the uproar jolted every Yellow Turban awake.
"Wh-what's going on? Why the sudden fighting?"
"Isn't that Lord Zhang Ye? Why is Lord He Yi suddenly fighting Lord Zhang Ye...?"
Still half-asleep, they eyed He Yi with open suspicion for attacking the son of Zhang Jue. Realizing the situation was slipping, He Yi bellowed.
"He's a fake! That man borrowed the Great Virtuous Teacher's name to deceive us! Seize him at once!"
Slash!
In that same breath I carved open another man's chest and dropped him. Yuan Huan was fleeing in a panic; I stayed right on her heels.
Waaaaah!!!
The chase was on. Yuan Huan cleverly angled toward the mountain path. The moment the trail narrowed, superior numbers lost most of their force.
Crack! Crack!
Using the dense trees as a defensive line, I sent them to the afterlife one by one. Even so, I had only managed to drop maybe a dozen.
Even if I brought Lü Bu fully geared, cutting down ten thousand Yellow Turbans would be impossible. All we could do was keep narrowing the escape route and minimize the pursuit force.
"Hah... hah... L-Lord Do? I don't know if we should keep climbing like this."
"What choice do we have? We head somewhere they can't easily reach."
Waaaaah!!!
But the number of Yellow Turbans waking up kept growing. I kept batting blades aside and stabbing bellies, yet more men were joining the chase than falling.
"L-Lord Do?"
"Just keep climbing, damn it!"
"That's not it! There's nowhere left... to climb!"
"...!?"
I looked back. Exactly as she said, we had already reached the top of the cliff. The pursuit was delayed a little by the corpses they had to climb over, but reforming the encirclement would not take long.
Hah... hah...
All we had managed was to scramble onto the sharp outcrop of cliff jutting from the mountainside. Realizing there was nowhere left to run, Yuan Huan turned her head and spoke.
"There's truly nothing left to do now."
"If this is another round of that 'I've already transcended life and death' nonsense, save it for later. I have to get back alive no matter what."
"That isn't what I mean! I... I will draw them off. While I do, slip away down a side path, Lord Do."
"...?"
Was she in her right mind? She had started the morning with awkward honorifics that didn't suit her; by evening she had become my fervent disciple, chanting the name of the peerless Lord Do.
"Have you lost it? Why would you die in my place? If it weren't for me you never would have been dragged here in the first place."
"No... At first I thought the same, but as you said, all of this is my own doing. Fleeing the court was my choice. Betraying my clan's expectations and sinking into ruin was also my choice. So I was always going to end up here."
"..."
It was belated repentance. Transparent tears she had never once shed while endlessly debating whether what she did was right or wrong now filled her eyes as if they meant to soak heaven and earth.
Crack!
In the same moment I drove my blade into the neck of a man trying to scale the cliff. Pop! Dark blood sprayed as I yanked the sword free and readied for the next.
"Why did you run from the court?"
"Because there was nothing I could do. Thieves had seized the nation. Unqualified men filled the offices and gorged themselves on the people's granaries. There were only two choices left: endure to the end and become one of them, or withdraw to the countryside and protect myself..."
Kyaaaah!!
I severed the hand of another climber. Thud-thud-thud... five severed fingers tumbled down the cliff face.
"Doesn't look like you managed to protect yourself very well."
"Because that is the kind of woman I am... Before I left home I mocked those who drowned in pleasure and neglected a scholar's duty. In the end I was no different. I simply studied for a dream I could never realize, wasted time at court, and finally wanted to set everything down."
Ugh...
This time the groan came from me. Two blades flashed out at once; I parried one, but the other lightly scored my side.
Crack!
I answered instantly and sent them both tumbling. Clutching the bleeding wound, I turned back to Yuan Huan.
"I understand. But I won't agree that you're no different from them. At least you know enough to feel ashamed of yourself."
"If in the end you produce no results, what meaning is there? I am not someone who can draw a sword for the realm the way you do, Lord Do. I lack even the courage to obey the Son of Heaven's command and charge into enemy lines."
"That's not true. You refused to follow the refugees, and right now you're ready to throw your own life away to save mine."
"I am merely discarding a worthless life in a worthless way. If it can save you I will gladly abandon myself, yet I have only thrown it away—I have taken nothing in return."
"Then don't throw it away. Take something. You have a great deal of work ahead of you, because you are going to help me carry out the Son of Heaven's command."
"What?"
Crack!!
I cut down another. At the same time the Yellow Turbans packed the base of the cliff completely.
"Hey, you fraud who claimed to be the Great Virtuous Teacher's son! Why not just give up already?"
He Yi's mocking voice drifted up from a distance. Convinced they held the upper hand, they no longer bothered trying to force the climb.
"I never claimed anything. Are you people actually brain-damaged? You dare try to kill the son of the Great Virtuous Teacher?"
"Shut your mouth! If you truly are his son, show proof! Stop bewitching us with words we can't even understand and produce undeniable evidence that you can only be his son!"
For years He Yi had operated in the shadows, building this force. Some of the newer arrivals supported me, but for the moment his word was law.
Hah... hah...
I was exhausted too. Panting, I looked back at Yuan Huan.
"Yuan Huan. If I gave you a chance, what would you do with it?"
"What... sort of chance?"
"I told you. I'm gathering strong comrades to carry out the Son of Heaven's command. If I offered you one of those seats, would you be willing to dream of governing again?"
"Of course. If only that were possible..."
Her gaze swept over the Yellow Turbans thronging below. She probably thought I was leaving a final will.
If it was never going to happen anyway, she at least wanted to return to her true self at the end.
But you're wrong about one thing, Yuan Huan. I have no intention of dying here.
"I will show you proof!"
I gathered every scrap of strength into my dantian and roared. A murmur rose; the Yellow Turbans who still held some faith in me began to stir.
"Ha! What proof could you possibly show?"
"What else? Proof that I can only be my father's son. Six years ago he promised you a world where people could live like people. I'm going to show you that dream again, right here in front of you."
"Ha! Fine, do it. Fucking do it!"
Woooo!!
He Yi's personal guard led the jeering. Most of the Yellow Turbans figured this was just a dying man's last thrash.
But think about it for a second. Do you really believe I walked into the tiger's den without any preparation at all?
Do I look like the kind of man who would casually accept unexpected variables like Yuan Huan and Liu Eun?
Absolutely not. I value my own life more than anyone under heaven.
Whatever order Liu Xie gave me, it does not come before my survival.
Shhh...
I closed my eyes and raised both arms. Desperately I dug through memory until I found a single illustration from a children's Romance of the Three Kingdoms I had seen as a boy.
A madman with disheveled hair bound in a yellow turban, arms lifted in prayer toward the sky. A figure none of them had ever seen, yet every one of them had imagined at least once—the unknown leader who stood at the origin of everything.
Murmur murmur...
No one spoke his name, but I knew. The moment they had pulled out those yellow turbans again in desperation, every last one of them had been waiting for this instant.
So let me show you exactly who I am. Pouring the madness that would dye the blue sky bright yellow into a shout aimed at the darkened heavens—
Flash!
Brilliant light blazed from my wide-open eyes; from my outstretched fingertips came the flash that announced the opening of a new world.
Like Moses parting the Red Sea, I too would tear open the sky and live.
Taiping Magic
KRA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM!!!
In that instant a vibration like thunder crashing from the heavens rolled through the air. At the same time light began to leak, little by little, into the darkened sky.
Gwaaaaaah!!!
Next the bright yellow earth that carpeted the ground rose into the air. It gathered into one vast whirlwind, then surged upward with ferocious force.
"..."
When people witness something truly astonishing, they fall silent. Even before a phenomenon so bizarre that shrieks would have been natural, they all lifted their heads as if they had already previewed the scene about to unfold.
Bwooooo...
The mighty whirlwind that had climbed into the sky looked exactly like a yellow dragon ascending to heaven.
The very earth and soil that every person gathered here had lived by as their foundation blanketed the heavens, then overturned heaven and earth themselves.
"Y-Yellow Heaven..."
It was, quite literally, a yellow sky. As if the positions of heaven and earth had been swapped, waves of yellow soil swallowed even the moonlight and filled the empty darkness.
"The Great Virtuous Teacher... the Great Virtuous Teacher has returned..."
No further explanation was needed. Without waiting for anyone to lead, they tore off their yellow turbans and dropped to their knees before me.
Unable to hold back the tears that overflowed, they sang of the messiah who had at last descended upon the world once more.
"Hiiik!!"
He Yi staggered backward in despair and terror. Instinct had already told him I was no fake.
Sob... sob...
Below the cliff, tears began to replace the soil. I slowly lowered my raised arms. Darkness returned with them.
"Lord Do... what kind of miracle is this?"
A stunned Yuan Huan asked. I turned my head lightly and answered.
"Miracle? This is just sleight of hand. Want me to teach you what a real miracle looks like? A woman who blamed her own powerlessness and gave up on life takes the ten thousand bandits handed to her and reforms them into laborers who will nourish the realm. That is a real miracle."
"..."
That's right. I'm giving you the ten thousand Yellow Turbans gathered here.
Until the day I return, turn them into your people and wait for me.
Only then will I bring you before the Son of Heaven.