The Emperor Reigns Them All-Chapter 359 - The So-called Tacit Understanding
Chapter 359 The So-called Tacit Understanding
Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan both fell down, while Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva stood upright.
One arm flew up into the air, and blood had marked a circular arc.
With the Luke Sword pointed obliquely to the ground, blood dripped down the edge of the blade. Li Ye looked indifferently at Huang Jingyuan. The latter fell into the abandoned parterre, his left hand covered his bloody right shoulder, and his right arm was no longer visible.
He struggled to get up, but only managed to spit a few mouthfuls of blood, and collapsed onto the ground. He was unable to do any other actions apart from showing his pale face.
The Feihong Bodhisattva calmly stood on the side and took a big gulp of wine from her Jade Vase. She still had that normal calm expression, and you couldn’t tell what she was really thinking.
Chen Jizhen was half kneeling on the ground with his hand acting as support. He lifted his head and stared sternly at the Feihong Bodhisattva as blood uncontrollably poured out from the corner of his mouth. A shallow dip with dust flaring up appeared on the muddy ground below him, which his body had caused when he fell down just before.
The winning side was obvious now. Every one of the cultivators present could tell which was the winning side despite the four of them not saying a word.
It was clear that Li Ye was not hurt by the Feihong Bodhisattva previously, so his falling on the ground was just an act. The act was designed for the present moment. The Feihong Bodhisattva was not exhausted either, she was just biding her time, waiting for Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan to make a move. Then she would cooperate with the unpredictable Li Ye and defeat the two of them together.
Huang Jingyuan endured severe pain, with red eyes and gritted teeth, he growled and asked, “Why? Why?”
Looking at him, it was obvious that he wanted to shout that it was impossible.
He could not accept such a situation.
They could not be defeated.
It was impossible for Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva to figure out that their injuries were merely acting.
It could not be possible for the Feihong Bodhisattva and Li Ye to cooperate to this extent.
In the battle, they could achieve this arrangement without any previous discussion. What kind of tacit understanding did they have?
The tacit agreement put aside, how could they have that trust in each other?
The sudden change in the battle situation had caught the cultivators of the demon clan, the Land Buddhism and the Immortal Court off-guard. The battling cultivators had stopped fighting and the cultivators who weren’t fighting were all stunned.
Everyone’s reaction was different. The previously desperate demon clan cultivators all had wide eyes with joy; Some of the Immortal Court cultivators wore vacant expressions as if in disbelief; Only the Land Buddhism monks were relatively calm because their situation had not changed much, but still only relatively.
After all, such a reversal was indeed too shocking, in fact it was almost impossible for everything to happen the way it did.
After a moment of silence, the Land Buddhism monks and demon clan cultivators violently rallied and attacked the Immortal Court cultivators. With their absolute numbers advantage, the Immortal Court cultivators had nowhere to run.
Li Ye didn’t answer Huang Jingyuan, he just approached him with his sword.
Huang Jingyuan couldn’t refrain from palpitation and panic, and he instinctively backed away. Li Ye’s stare was no different from watching the dead. He realized that Li Ye was coming to end his life and end the battle between the demon clan and the Immortal Court in the secret region.
Huang Jingyuan’s panic only lasted a moment. When Li Ye approached closer, Huang Jingyuan actually calmed down. He no longer backed away because it was pointless. He knew that his death was coming, and there was no way to avoid it. He had no other choice but to accept fate frankly.
Because he had lost after all.
He had lost, but he didn’t want to be in the unknown with regards to why had lost. As a military figure, he was adept at being resourceful. Thus there was no way he could accept being defeated without knowing how. He looked up at Li Ye with eyes being full of longing. When he was about to die, he just wanted to die with a full understanding of the situation.
He gritted his teeth and made the final effort, “Li Ye, how on earth did you find out that we were not injured?”
Without this premise, there would be no aftermath, which was the joining of forces between Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva, who used their scheme against them and counter attacked.
Li Ye replied calmly, “I didn’t know.”
Huang Jingyuan froze with a hint of irritation on his face. Soon he realized and said, “So it was Feihong Bodhisattva who saw through us.”
Li Ye nodded slightly. “You have underestimated the Feihong Bodhisattva.”
Huang Jingyuan bowed his head in silence for a moment, and then said bitterly, “We have indeed underestimated the Feihong Bodhisattva!”
With the help of the Immortal Court ‘s secret and Magic Treasure, Huang Jingyuan and Chen Jizhen who pretended to be seriously injured thought that they were covering up well. But they did not expect that the Feihong Bodhisattva saw through all of it.
And in such an extremely critical moment.
Huang Jingyuan’s heart was not at ease after knowing the truth. The Fact was that their pretending to be wounded did not pull the wool over the eyes of the Feihong Bodhisattva. Instead, she successfully fooled them with her pretending to injure Li Ye.
Comparing the two acts, they had lost completely.
In the end, Huang Jingyuan struggled to sit up and asked word by word, “Although I am not very convinced, the Feihong Bodhisattva did indeed see through us. We have to accept it, but what about you?”
Li Ye replied calmly, “I did nothing. Only when the Feihong Bodhisattva attacked me, she had a strange expression on the face. And when the Jade Vase attacked, it had made a lot of noise, but I didn’t feel the threat when it got near my body. I understood what the Feihong Bodhisattva was trying to tell me with her eyes, so I just went along and pretended to be hurt.”
“You understood Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes?” asked Huang Jingyuan full of resentment. He spoke with such anger and anxiety that he almost bit his tongue.
From beginning to end, they didn’t see any change in the Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes.
They couldn’t deduce anything from her eyes either.
Setting aside the circumstances of descending down to earth from heaven, entering secret region and being entangled in that fierce battle, even under normal circumstances, and for thousands of years, who, be it from heaven and earth dared to say that they could know her thoughts through her eyes with Feihong Bodhisattva’s realm of cultivation?
How could it be easy to deduce the Feihong Bodhisattva’s thoughts?
In that flash of an instant, Li Ye actually dared to say that he understood Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes. And based on that, he dared to make decisions and judgments concerning victory, defeat, life and death?
Huang Jingyuan was speechless.
He didn’t know whether Li Ye was crazy, or a genius.
Huang Jingyuan was still in disbelief, but Li Ye felt normal. It was normal for him to be able to understand the meaning in Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes. In fact it would be abnormal if he did not understand it. They sat and talked for days, they knew each other, and they had a “friendship”.
Other than that, there was no particular reason, and Li Ye needed no other reason.
What he needed a reason for was the hesitation that flashed in his mind when Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan attacked Feihong Bodhisattva.
There was good reason for that moment of hesitation.
Although the Feihong Bodhisattva was powerful, in the secret region, she would definitely not be able to defeat the trio of Li Ye, Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have joined forces with Li Ye from the outset. She could have just crushed the parties directly. When she noticed that Huang Jingyuan and Chen Jizhen were pretending to be injured, she didn’t have to use their plans against them but just exert her power and kill them.
If Li Ye did not attack then and just let Feihong Bodhisattva fight against Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan alone, then Li Ye would attack after both sides would be wounded. Li Ye would then reap the benefits and be the final winner.
This was a very tempting idea.
In the case of a tripartite battle, this idea was so logical.
After all, his hesitation was just a flash of a moment, Li Ye chose to attack in the end.
In that instant when Li Ye made his choice, he didn’t have a chance to think about it. It was more based on intuition.
Perhaps this was tacit understanding.
However, after thinking about it later, Li Ye also secretly rejoiced that if he didn’t help at that time, the Feihong Bodhisattva might have found a way out on her own. By then, the situation would be chaotic. No one knew what would happen. At least Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan would not fall first.
Li Ye came towards Huang Jingyuan, shook his Luke Sword, and asked condescendingly, “What other last words do you have?”
Huang Jingyuan’s face was as pale as dying embers. Although he already knew that he had reached the end of his fate, and he was ready for it. However when death finally came, no one was truly unafraid. In order to maintain dignity, he barely smiled, but couldn’t refrain from his hands shaking and his voice trembling.
He added, “My strategy was not a problem in this battle. The reason why I lost is that the tacit understanding and trust between you and the Feihong Bodhisattva were to the point of impossibility. To make the impossible possible, it is not only required facing consequences but also a lucky chance. Comparing the two, the latter is even rarer. It is fate that you have this lucky chance, and I can do nothing about it.”
“So the defeat of this battle was the fault of the strategy. It was a fate that no man could alter. I, Huang, am unwilling, but I have to submit to this fate. Li Ye, I have to admit now, you are extraordinary, very extraordinary. I really want to see where you can go! Dying in your hands is due to fate, and I have nothing to say, do it!”
Li Ye nodded silently, and the Luke Sword cut across following an arc shape. “Go peacefully.”
Blood sprayed, Huang Jingyuan fell to the ground and died.
