Chapter 42 Draconic Mutation

Bian Dashou, hearing the whispers on the streets that the townsfolk were plotting against him, escaped back to his hometown in Renqiu County of Hebei Province. Dissatisfied with another defeat at the victorious Manchurian forces, Li Zicheng sent forth a detachment of troops to Renqiu to arrest him. But he decided to stay and await his fate, despite the desperate urges by the villagers in Renqiu for him to flee. "This is all my doing alone. I cannot leave my relatives and the townspeople here go suffer in my place. I will gladly face the consequences of my deeds!" And so the soldiers of the rebel forces came and took Bian Dashou. But Bian Dashou was blessed with extraordinary fate; before the troop sent to take him reached Li Zicheng's camp, Bian Dashou escaped. This time, the Manchurians were closing in on Li Zicheng, eager to eliminate him once and for all; thus the renegade leader ignored Bian Dashou's flight and focused solely on his own wellbeing. Still, with his destiny disrupted and the Manchurian armies already solidified their hold on China, the renegade warlord Li Zicheng suffered a miserable end—he was ultimately killed by farmers with hoes, ironically the method in which the warlord himself was notoriously famous of when slaying his enemies in battle! Emerging as the ultimate victors across the entire theater of battle across the Central Plains of China, the Manchurians established the Qing Dynasty. Still, there was one threat that remained; a mystery that had boggled the minds of the shamans of the Qing Empire: was Bian Dashou truly unaware that dragon leys could only be properly severed by the use of a special sword: the Dragon-slaying Blade? Was it on purpose that he did not look for the sword to carry out his order; or, he has the sword, but he did not use it? The shamans were worried and frightened. If Bian Dashou indeed possessed the Dragon-slaying Blade, he would also be able to sunder the dragon ley of the Qing monarch and obliterate the destiny of the Qing Empire! It was a risk they could hardly suffer; hence a suggestion was made that Bian Dashou must be assassinated for good measure!