Chapter 221: As with Rise and Fall 

The old tree rustled softly in the courtyard. Across from it, no lamplight shone through the window lattice. 

On the worn bed with its peeling lacquer, the bedding shifted and turned. Li Jinhua tossed and turned, unable to sleep, her mind filled with the scenes from Erniu’s wedding feast earlier that day. 

Lu Laoshi was roused from his drowsy sleep by her movements. Rolling onto his side, he grumbled, “Not sleeping in the middle of the night—what are you trying to do?!” 

“I can’t sleep.” 

The woman simply sat up, threw on a light robe, lit the oil lamp, and leaned against the headboard. Reaching over, she pushed her husband. “You get up too. Stop sleeping.” 

“Everything was fine, and now you won’t even let a man sleep. You woman, if I don’t give you a beating every three days—” 

Lu Laoshi muttered as he climbed up. The moment his eyes met his wife’s, he hurriedly changed his tune and leaned against the headboard bare-chested. 

“What is it that’s keeping you awake?” 

“It’s all because of Liangsheng.” 

Pulling the blanket over her chest, the woman gestured with her hand. “…That Erniu’s wife has broad hips and a sturdy build. One look and you can tell she’s good at bearing children.” 

“Sigh, what’s that got to do with our Liangsheng?” 

He tugged at the blanket as well. The moment he pulled it down a little, his wife smacked his hand. Li Jinhua turned and shot him a glare. 

“Erniu is younger than our Liangsheng. After the wedding feast, didn’t you see all those relatives surrounding us, asking when Liangsheng was going to marry and when our family would have a new child?” 

“Our family already has plenty of children. Don’t you play with little Mingyue every day?” 

The woman rolled her eyes. Looking at the shadows of the two of them cast upon the wall, she hesitated for a moment before finally squeezing out a reply. 

“But he’s not our own flesh and blood.” 

At those words, Lu Laoshi pressed his lips together. With his mild and slow-tempered nature, he had no answer. He let out a sigh, reached over to pull the blanket a little higher over his wife, and patted the back of her hand. 

“Liangsheng is all grown up now. He has his own ideas. Stop worrying about things that haven’t happened.” 

“Then your Lu family can just wait for the bloodline to end.” 

With that, the woman got out of bed. From the bed, Lu Laoshi raised himself slightly. “Where are you going?” 

“Going to the latrine!” 

With a creak, she pulled open the door and walked beneath the eaves. 

What she failed to notice was a graceful figure drifting away in the darkness beyond the courtyard wall. With her head lowered, Nie Honglian floated toward Qixia Mountain west of the village, the words exchanged by the old couple lingering and echoing through her mind. 

Ascending the cliff, she saw light shining from the thatched cottage. Against the window lattice were the silhouettes of the Young Master and Toad Daoist. Forcing a smile onto her face, she pushed open the door and walked inside. 

Within the cottage, Toad Daoist sat atop the writing desk with his legs stretched straight out, clutching a bowl and shoveling food into his mouth. His cheeks bulged with rice as he spoke to his disciple by the bedside. 

“Your master was nearly starved to death. When you came in, couldn’t you have looked around first?” 

After straightening the bedding, Lu Liangsheng turned around with a smile. “How was I supposed to know Master was leaning beside the door? By the way, Master, what were you doing over there?” 

“Repairing the gourd!” Toad Daoist raised a webbed hand and pointed at the purple-gold gourd marked with black patterns sitting nearby. He patted it proudly. 

“This magic treasure is your master’s Innate Divine Ability, refined together with an Innate Treasure. It can eat… swallow all things beneath Heaven. If not for the damage to my demon core, that day with Pudu Cihang—” 

On the bookshelf, the Veiled Moon Sword suddenly sprang partway from its sheath with a metallic clang. 

Toad Daoist shot it a glance. 

“I wasn’t talking about you!” 

With a click, the Veiled Moon Sword retreated back into its sheath. 

Holding his chopsticks atop the desk, Toad Daoist continued: “…why would I have needed to pound it over there? I could’ve simply used the gourd to collect it inside and refine it into a pool of foul liquid.” 

Ever since witnessing his master transform into a gigantic demon that night and pin the centipede spirit to the ground for a beating, Lu Liangsheng had begun believing many of the things he had once thought were merely boasts. 

“Master, your Innate Divine Ability is eating things? Then what’s the origin of this gourd?” 

“Swallowing, not eating!!!” 

Cradling his bowl, Toad Daoist waved his chopsticks indignantly as he corrected his disciple. Raising his toad-like face proudly, he said: “As for this gourd, back when your master was being pursued… touring the famous mountains and great rivers, I discovered a spirit vine atop Kunlun Mountain. This gourd grew upon it. There was another one beside it, but unfortunately, it was empty. Someone must have picked it before I arrived. Otherwise, they could have made a matching pair. Quite a pity. If only your master had gotten there a little earlier.” 

Amid the animated gestures and flying spittle, the door creaked softly open.

Toad Daoist’s voice came to an abrupt halt as Honglian stepped inside. Seeing him looking over with a bowl in his hands, she smiled.  

“Toad Master, you’ve got rice stuck to your mouth.” 

Her gaze then shifted to Lu Liangsheng sitting by the bed. She gave a slight curtsy. 

“Young Master.” 

Still smiling, she turned around, shed her painted skin, flicked her sleeve, and slipped into the painting. 

The man and the toad stared at one another in bewilderment, neither understanding what had happened to her. 

“Women are always this troublesome. Liangsheng, don’t pay it any mind.” 

Toad Daoist set down his bowl, hopped off the desk, and climbed onto the bed with his short little legs. “Your master is a man of experience. Come, come, let’s continue where we left off…” 

“Once I saw it, I immediately took a liking to it. So your master plucked it and brought it back to my cave dwelling on Qishan…” 

“But simply leaving it there didn’t seem right. I pondered it for half a year, then one day, while stuffing medicinal pills into it, I suddenly thought of an idea…” 

“Liangsheng, guess what happened next… In the end, your master merged it with my Innate Divine Ability and refined them into one. If I meet a god, I kill a god; if I meet a Buddha, I kill a Budd—” 

Amid the endless stream of chatter, Lu Liangsheng listened with a smile as his master recounted stories from the past. Every now and then, his gaze drifted toward the painting hanging on the wall. He had noticed Honglian’s expression when she entered earlier, and could tell that something was troubling her, though he did not know what. 

The bean-sized flame of the oil lamp flickered, illuminating the window lattice. 

As Toad Daoist’s ceaseless voice filled the cottage, beyond the distant mountains, the young Emperor stood atop the city wall, staring toward the northern night sky above the great river, where a vast crimson glow stained the horizon. 

Chen Jing clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles whitened against the battlements. His teeth were gritted, and beside him lay a military dispatch delivered at full gallop. 

How is this possible…? 

Are the armies of my Chen Dynasty truly this weak? 

Far beyond the reach of his gaze, the surging waters of the great river had been dyed red by fire. A long line of ships burned fiercely upon the river, the towering flames illuminating both banks. 

Having disembarked from the massive five-deck warships, Sui soldiers raced across the riverbanks. Led by their commanders, they charged toward the high ground and collided head-on with the defending Southern Chen troops. 

“Kill—!” 

Hysterical battle cries echoed across the battlefield. 

One defensive line after another was torn apart, together with the shattered corpses strewn among them. The fighting boiled into a frenzy. 

The towering and powerfully built Han Qinhu led his troops relentlessly forward. Before long, the Chen soldiers rushing in as reinforcements broke apart and scattered in collapse. 

The defenses along the riverbank were breached. 

Beacon fires were lit to carry warnings down the line, summoning more Chen forces to reinforce the front. Yet before those reinforcements could arrive, ever greater numbers of Sui soldiers had already landed ashore. 

In the darkness, ranks upon ranks of troops spread outward without end, carving a bloody path deeper into Chen territory. 

The Chen Dynasty’s armies stationed along the entire river defense line continued to rush to the front, collapse, retreat, regroup, and charge forward once more. As the night deepened, blood gradually soaked into the earth beneath their feet, spreading and advancing toward the imperial capital of Tianzhi like a devouring tide. 

“Ahhh—!” 

Xiao Moke slammed the butt of his weapon into the ground and stared at the Chen soldiers falling across the battlefield one after another, his teeth clenched tightly. 

“The military has been neglected for far too many years. How can they still fight a war? All this does is needlessly throw away the lives of the sons of Chen!” 

As dawn gradually broke, battle banners fluttered in the distance. Standards bearing the characters ‘Sui’ and ‘Yang’ closed in from all sides. 

Xiao Moke pressed his lips together. After a long silence, he removed the iron helmet from his head and spoke in a hoarse voice. 

“Surrender.” 

“The Chen Dynasty cannot be defended any longer.”