Republic of China Era: Entering the Dao through Divine Strike.

“He’s waiting.” Austin picked up a glass jug and poured himself half a glass of whiskey. “Waiting for someone else to make the first move. That’s how the Japanese always are…”

They never fire the first shot, but they always fire the last one.

That old fox, Tsuchimikado, certainly has an extremely sharp eye; he never does anything that loses money.

“Let him wait.” Bishop Bernard turned back to look out the window at the imperial city, which was bathed in the dark gold of the setting sun. “Karl wants the ley line data, give it to him.”

Tell him that the Knights Templar of Onsa are willing to lead the charge, and after we obtain the dragon's energy, we want forty percent.

Austin paused, his hand holding the wine glass still. "The Germans won't agree."

“They will agree,” Bishop Bernard said softly, as if reciting a passage of scripture during a sermon. “Tell them that the old monk of impermanence has a black dragon in his left eye and a white dragon in his right eye…”

That dragon ball contains the true dragon soul of the previous dynasty, and its power is extremely strong.

After the great formation is broken, whoever is the first to face that dragon will have to pay with their life.

"Our Angus is willing to be the first to step forward and block the strongest attack, so what else do they have to complain about?"

Austin paused for a few seconds, then downed his whiskey in one gulp. "I'll draft the telegram. Also, let the South China Sea Fleet know..."

"If things fall in the capital, at least we have a backup plan at sea."

He stood up, picked up the iron glove from the coffee table, and paused at the door. "Bishop, what should we do with Li Xin? He also has more than two hundred taels of dragon energy."

“Li Xin.” When Bishop Bernard uttered this name, his tone was somewhat subtle, neither hateful nor fearful, but more like a chess player assessing an opponent’s brilliant move. “The moment he tore open the great formation, he had already entered the game.”

The Qing Empress Dowager wanted to send him to the south with an imperial edict... to make him take the fall for the Qing Dynasty.

The old monk Wuchang wanted to lure him into the great formation and kill him again... to avenge that spear wound.

They all treated him like a pawn, but he wasn't.

He's the kind of person who'll flip the chessboard.

He turned around, took a silver cross from his sleeve, and placed it in the very center of the imperial city on the map. "So ignore him. Let him overturn the Empress Dowager's chessboard and smash the key to the impermanent formation."

We should wait until he and the old monk are both severely injured before we make our move.

Our target has never been Li Xin, but the dragon vein. Destroying the dragon vein and seizing the nation's destiny is the most important thing.

Whoever stands in the way of the dragon vein is the enemy.

In the basement of the German embassy, ​​General Karl was looking at a blueprint that covered an entire wall.

The drawing shows a cross-section of the underground city of the imperial city, with dense lines marking the flow of the earth's veins and dragon energy, the distribution of the array bases, and the estimated location of the Wuchang Temple underground palace.

The measurement data from all twelve boreholes are summarized on this diagram, clearly marked with red and blue pencils.

Red represents the concentration of dragon energy, and blue represents the hardness of the strata.

The point where the red and blue colors intersect most densely is located directly below the main hall of Wanfu Wanshou Garden.

Herbert stood behind him, arms crossed, like an iron tower.

His Thor's hammer leaned against the corner of the wall, its head still covered in mud brought up from the ground...

He had been underground for a full day and night in order to personally go down into the borehole to collect samples.

“The result is clear.” Karl tapped the area on the drawing where the red and blue lines intersected most densely with his pencil. “The core of the dragon vein is located about twelve zhang (approximately 33 meters) directly below Wanfu Wanshou Garden.”

The Dragon-Locking Formation suppressed the Qing Dynasty's dragon energy underground for sixty years. The dragon energy was compressed again and again, resulting in an extremely high concentration.

The formation has now cracked, and dragon energy is starting to seep out, but most of it is still being suppressed...

It's like a high-pressure boiler that's about to explode; just one more tap and it'll burst open.

"After this boiler explodes, the dragon energy becomes ownerless. How do you think it should be divided?"

Herbert paused for a few seconds, then uttered a statement as weighty as a warhammer: "Seventy percent to us, thirty percent to the Onssa people. The Japanese won't get a single cent."

“Don’t be in such a hurry.” Karl took off his gloves, sat down at the table, took a box of cigars from the drawer, and slowly cut off the ends. “That old fox Bernard volunteered to lead the charge…”

Do you know what it means to be the first to face that vengeful dragon?

This means he is confident he can escape unscathed from the clutches of the Vengeful Dragon, and may even have some trump cards we don't know about.

Let the Anssa people risk their lives to fill that hole.

"Once they've finished filling in the gaps, and the vengeful dragon is almost exhausted, we'll use Germanic explosives to blast open the array's core."

He put the cigar in his mouth, struck a match, but didn't light it immediately. He just watched the flame dance on his fingertips. "Bernard thought he was plotting against us, but actually we were plotting against him too."

He wants 40% of the dragon's energy, fine... as long as his people can crawl out of the vengeful dragon's mouth alive.

If they can't climb out, then 40% is ours.

So, don't rush, let them fight first, we'll wait.

……

The quiet room in the Japanese embassy was dark.

Tsuchimikado sat cross-legged on a futon, with an ancient bronze mirror in front of him. The mirror surface was decorated with sun patterns, which were the reflections of the Yata no Kagami.

The mirror did not reflect the scene inside the quiet room, but rather a chaotic golden mist...

That was the dragon energy intercepted from the dragon vein last night, a full eighteen ounces, which is now slowly settling in the mirror world, separating into black and yellow colors.

Miyamoto Musashi stood at the door with his back to him, the two katanas at his waist still sheathed, but his fingers gripping the hilts never loosened.

"The hexagram has changed." Tsuchimikado's voice came from the darkness, hoarse and dry, carrying a kind of exhaustion from overexertion.

His face looked even older than the night before, and his once gray hair had turned completely white: "Before last night, the divination result was 'a dragon trapped in the abyss'... The dragon vein is locked, and no one can take it away."

After last night, the trapped dragon broke free of one of its chains, and the hexagram changed to 'a group of dragons without a leader'.

The secrets of heaven are in chaos, and everyone wants to take a piece of the pie in this mess.

But the one who bites the most isn't necessarily the one who survives in the end.

Miyamoto Musashi didn't turn around, his voice low and sharp like the whistling of a blade: "Momoi Kensei's meaning is very clear..."

While the Ansaras and Germanic tribes are besieging the main formation, they will attack from the flank and seize the Dragon Ball. The Hokushin Ittō-ryū school is ready.

"Momoi Shusui only knows how to kill people; he doesn't know how to clean up the mess afterward." Tsuchimikado's tone carried a subtle hint of contempt. "Bernard wants to use the vengeful dragon to weaken the Germanic people, Karl wants to use the Anssa people to fill the hole, the Empress Dowager wants to use Li Xin to block the guns of the various nations, and the old monk Wuchang wants to use the Empress Dowager's grand formation to lure and kill Li Xin..."

Everyone is using others to do their dirty work, but a knife is still a knife, not the hand that wields it.

The real mastermind is the one who survives until the very end.

He extended his finger and gently touched the mirror's surface. Within the Yata Mirror's illusory image, the golden mist surged violently, gradually coalescing into a blurry human figure.

The figure had its back to the mirror, holding a broken spear in its hand.

“Li Xin.” Tsuchimikado murmured the name, as if reciting a divination that had not yet come true. “Everyone is plotting against him, but he is the biggest variable in this game.”

My divination can only predict the fate of others, not his.

Every time I try to probe his destiny with my mind, the divination results shatter...

It was as if it was being blocked by some force.

He is not one of those within the Heavenly Secrets.

Therefore, we neither rush to be the first nor the last; as soon as we see an opportunity, we make a quick buck and run.

Once they all... the Qing Empress Dowager, the monk Wuchang, Angus, the Germans... have all revealed their cards, we absolutely cannot stay any longer.

The moment the Dragon Balls change hands, that person will appear.

He will definitely come.

"Is it really necessary to be this cautious?"

"Being even more cautious wouldn't be too much. You don't understand, this enemy is different." Tsuchimikado paused, then added, his voice so soft it was as if he were speaking to himself:

"Because he is different from us..."

………………

The lights of the embassies of various countries flickered in the night, each person calculating their own interests.

Meanwhile, deep underground in the southwest corner of the capital, the deathly aura that Li Xin had detected through his celestial connection was seeping out bit by bit as the cracks in the dragon vein widened.

It was as if something that had been dormant for countless years had finally opened its eyes for the first time.

………………

The next morning, an unsigned letter was delivered to the gate of Li Garden.

The envelope was made of ordinary kraft paper, with a drop of red wax on the seal, and a lotus flower pattern pressed onto the wax.

The messenger slipped the letter under the door and left. By the time the night watchman noticed, the man had vanished without a trace.

When Zhuang Hongxiu entered the bamboo garden with the letter, Li Xin was practicing his sword.

The blade flashed like snowflakes, falling in fragments.

Countless golden flames, like threads, flickered around him.

It shines brighter than the first rays of the morning sun.

“Young Master.” Zhuang Hongxiu placed the letter on the stone table, her expression not very good. “It was slipped under the door, unsigned, but sealed with the Red Lotus Seal.”

Li Xin sheathed his sword, took the envelope, and opened it.

The letter was written on a thin sheet of paper, with neat and beautiful handwriting, and was printed with the finest pine soot ink.

His words were polite to the point of being almost respectful, but every line of text exuded a chilling, sinister aura.

The letter essentially said: I heard that Young Master Li obtained the treasure of the Azure Dragon in Guangping, which was originally the treasure of the founder of my Red Lotus Sect.

I urge you, young master, to deliver the Mosasaur Horn and the Water Path Book to the Land God Temple in the south of the city within three days, otherwise the people of the capital may face unforeseen circumstances.

The letter specifically mentioned...

I heard that Li Garden has recently taken in many children. Where there are many children, the biggest fear is fire.

Presumably, Young Master Li would not want to see any harm done to those innocent children.

Li Xin read the letter twice from beginning to end, his face expressionless and his fingers trembling slightly.

A golden mist appeared.

The letter burst into flames with a whoosh, turning to ashes that were scattered by the wind.

He recounted the contents of the letter and asked, "What do you think?"

Zhuang Hongxiu took a deep breath, her delicate eyebrows furrowing slightly, her tone less gentle than usual: "Young Master, how many times has this happened already? The Red Lotus Sect has repeatedly caused trouble, and this time they've directly threatened us with the children in the garden. So many of their people have died, haven't they learned their lesson?"

"They're not forgetful, they just want that thing too much."

Li Xin tested the blade of the Xinting Marquis's sword with his thumb; the edge gleamed with a pale golden light in the morning sun. "The Red Lotus Saintess's lifespan is probably nearing its end. The Azure Dragon's horn is her last hope for refining a life-extending elixir. So she has no choice but to gamble..."

I'm betting that I care about the people in this garden, and that I wouldn't dare risk their lives.

Thinking of the dark gold relic he had retrieved, Li Xin scoffed, "Don't even mention how useful this thing is to me. Even if it weren't, I wouldn't give it to that old woman just to shorten her life by a few years."

This sect's actions are truly wicked.

He wished he could kill them all.

How could we possibly allow her to live longer and then wreak havoc on the world again?

"What does the young master intend to do?"

“She was half right,” Li Xin said in a deep voice. “I do care about many people and many things.”

But precisely because I care, anyone who uses them to threaten me must die.

He walked to the window, opened it, and glanced at the children doing their morning exercises in the yard.

Ali was teaching Xiaoyue how to stand in a stance. The two little girls had serious little faces and their postures were crooked but full of energy.

Further away, several older girls were practicing cleaving with a knife under Wang Jingya's guidance.

The blades whistled through the air, scattering bits of grass from the wooden stakes.

Everything seemed normal, just like any other day.

But Li Xin knew that the Red Lotus Sect was not the kind of upright gentlemen who only talked tough words but did nothing.

Their mention of "fire" and "a place with many children" in the letter indicates that they had already sent people to find out the defenses of Liyuan and the children's daily routines.

It's even possible that someone has already infiltrated the area.

Li Garden now houses more than 300 children, and with the addition of guards, cooks, and servants, there are at least 500 people coming and going every day.