With the Blade

"The person who made this ranking is nothing but a beast!"

In the imperial city, the old eunuch who had been attending to the young emperor all day yelled curses again after returning to his quarters.

Although he had attended three generations of the Emperor of Da Chen, the old eunuch was not very skilled in scheming. His real talent was in servitude, absolute loyalty, and the exceptional martial arts he possessed to protect the emperor from any danger at critical times. However, despite his lack of expertise in palace intrigues, upon seeing this so-called Hundred Weapons Chart, he realized someone was trying to set him up.

The reason is simply because he was ranked as the number one on the list.

To rank an old eunuch who had long resided in the palace and almost never acted outside as the world’s top expert clearly showed how malicious the creator of this Hundred Weapons Chart was. For a common man, such a list could be used to boast and demonstrate glory, but in the eyes of a high-ranking eunuch...

It was a different matter altogether.

Without this Hundred Weapons Chart, people might fight and kill for revenge and grievances, or experts might duel just for skills improvement. But with this chart, everything changed. As the saying goes, there is no first in literature and no second in martial arts. Who would want to be ranked below others, watching someone else at higher ranks?

With the chart, experts could see where they stood. Upon seeing it, some might become dissatisfied, and with dissatisfaction comes action, and action leads to bloodshed.

With bloodshed, the world becomes even more chaotic.

As for why the old eunuch was so sure the list was meant to cause trouble, it’s because he himself was ranked first. What a joke, he knew his own skills well enough. With his meager ability to release Evil Qi, it was fine against ordinary people, but when facing real experts, what was he worth?

Not to mention, if the list were truly fair and impartial, how could a martial arts master like Duke Master Du, who had killed the false emperor and stormed Jinluan Hall, be absent from the ranking?

"Because they didn’t dare write it down."

Looking at the paper full of names and titles, the old eunuch’s expression was subtle.

Clearly, unlike himself who was secluded in the palace and attended to the emperor, Duke Master Du was truly idle and had ample execution power—as demonstrated by his killing of the false emperor. He was seen resting in Yizhou one moment and then swiftly riding to the imperial city in Jiankang, killing Jia Wen at Jinluan Hall on the same day, and returning as if on a leisurely outing.

In simple terms, if you provoke this old eunuch, he may not be able to do much, but if you provoke Duke Master Du, you might actually get yourself killed.

Such a formidable figure surely deserved the top spot on the Hundred Weapons Chart, but evidently, the creator of the chart dared not include truly powerful people.

"So, who exactly did this?"

The old eunuch furrowed his brow, pondering who made this trouble-causing item.

In terms of benefiting, it should theoretically be the steppe people, as a chaotic southern Da Chen would make it easier for them to move south. However, upon closer inspection, it didn’t quite fit of course, despite the list’s disadvantages, it did indeed stimulate martial arts in southern Chen on some level. Most importantly, some well-known steppe leaders were also included in the ranking, with their own spots.

Having a rank means vying for a higher position. It inherently requires using force to suppress subordinates. Plainly, they care more about rankings than the people of Chen. Where there’s contention, there’s bloodshed. Bloodshed leads to chaos. If it were the steppe people who crafted this, it would surely be a case of killing one thousand enemies while losing eight hundred oneself.

"Could it be the rebels?"

The old eunuch considered another possibility, one which seemed highly likely.

Although Da Chen was striving to maintain its grand presence at the moment, with increasingly louder calls for migration to the south, several places were harboring second thoughts. While no open rebels had yet emerged, numerous locales were ignoring imperial commands, and that was becoming increasingly common.

Everyone used similar excuses, either for defense against bandits or local monster disturbances. Ultimately, the world was in chaos, so people had to ensure their own survival first.

How could bandits possibly not be eradicated? In truth, it’s due to a constant influx of refugees replenishing the ranks. These homeless people, driven by hunger, naturally take up this ancient and perpetually thriving profession. As for those monsters...

"When a nation is about to collapse, monsters arise."

Whenever the old eunuch thought of those monsters, cold sweat would run down his back.

It’s not that he couldn’t defeat those monsters. Most of them he could manage to eradicate. To combat them, he had specially selected individuals who were infused with Evil Qi to form the Commander’s team. But just like bandits, no matter how thoroughly they were eliminated, the monsters continued to emerge.

There would always be new monsters appearing, fiercer monsters emerging, and each time a monster appeared, it would cause panic among the civilians. No matter how urgently the Commanders rushed to the scene to quell the chaos, all they could do was kill these monsters themselves. As for remedying the adverse consequences caused by these monsters... that’s something no one could accomplish.