Chapter 100

The war continues, and is even intensifying.

Soon it became a fire ladder, but people still climbed it. The cold armor was burning hot; some died on the fire ladder, and others stepped on the armor to climb up.

The human ladder built from the bones paved the way for conquering cities and seizing territories.

"Push them down!" Tang Qi roared from the top of the city gate, "Don't let them come up!"

He was the first to rush to the fire ladder. The scorching flames burned his face, and the firelight made it impossible for him to open his eyes. Tang Qi held his shield and pressed it hard against the fire ladder. The hundred-man ladder was as heavy as a thousand pounds. He couldn't move an inch even when he was pressed down on it. The shield was red-hot, and his hands trembled with pain, but Tang Qi still gritted his teeth and pushed forward.

It's too heavy, far too heavy. I can't move it at all. His veins bulged, and he was practically shouting in anger.

Just when he was exhausted, a hand suddenly appeared beside him, and then a weight pressed down on him from behind.

"push!"

"Let's push together!"

"Push them all back!"

The human ladder grew heavier and heavier, more and more people came, and the voices grew more and more unified.

Finally, the fire ladder collapsed, and the people and corpses fell like broken prayer beads, a dark mass, like fish scales being peeled off, crashing to the ground silently.

More fire ladders collapsed, and more and more human ladders were erected. So many people died, but so many people are still alive.

It seems like the war won't stop until everyone is dead.

Wailing, screaming, pain—cruel sounds haunted them for days and nights.

By the end, everyone was exhausted. Tang Qi was even more exhausted, his lips were cracked and his throat was so dry that it hurt to even swallow.

Sheng Xiaoxin and Ye Jin, who were below the city, had also fought their way through. If they had been wielding their swords to kill the enemy before, they were now just trying to survive. There were too many Southern Continent soldiers to kill them all, and everyone was exhausted.

Tang Qi continued to gaze at the battlefield; this was the second time he had experienced such a desperate moment.

The reinforcements failed to arrive as scheduled last time, but this time is different.

"kill!"

"Surround the Southern Continent Army!"

In the distance, Sheng Xingxing and Tang Yan rode up on horseback, with several battle flags of the Shuo Dynasty flying high behind them.

"It's reinforcements!"

"Reinforcements have arrived!"

Sheng Xiaoxin, standing below the city, was initially stunned, then his eyes brightened again, as if someone had given him a large breath of air.

Excitement erupted from above the building entrance; the seemingly unattainable victory appeared to be within reach.

Gui Luo turned to look at Zhou Ziye when he saw the sudden arrival of reinforcements. At that moment, Zhou Ziye's gaze was fixed on the people on the city wall.

"Withdraw the troops," Gui Luo said.

Soon the bugle call to retreat sounded, and Zhou Ziye finally snapped out of his daze. Before turning his horse around to retreat, his gaze lingered on the city wall.

The army quickly retreated, and everyone finally got a brief respite.

The battle lasted a long time, and the fire ladders were burned to ashes. The land, which was lush and green just a few days ago, was now a sea of ​​blood. The charred corpses lay on their backs, their faces covered with blackened patches, making it impossible to distinguish whether they were soldiers from the Southern Continent or the Northern Continent.

In the still of the night, fires flickered on the city gates, blurring the line between life and death. The wind howled, carrying not the fresh scent of earth, but the stench of decay, stench, and nauseating putrefaction.

After several days of fighting, Sheng Xiaoxin and Ye Jin's armor was black and red. Ye Jin's helmet was even rotten, and she had many wounds on her body. Shen Zhiqing immediately took her hand and took out some ointment to treat her wounds. However, Ye Jin pulled her arm back and turned her head to avoid her outstretched hand.

Shen Zhiqing froze in mid-air, slightly stunned, her outstretched arm still not retracted.

The person opposite her frowned, seemingly noticing her embarrassment, so they leaned closer and gently touched Shen Zhiqing's hand, which was suspended in mid-air, explaining, "It's not that I don't like you."

Ye Jin continued slowly, "It's just that I'm used to applying the medicine myself."

Suddenly captivated, Shen Zhiqing blinked several times and then dumped all the bottles and jars on her person onto Ye Jin.

"This is for external injuries, that's for internal injuries, and this one is very effective at relieving pain. Oh, and there's also..."

Ye Jin, who was inexplicably dragged to identify medicines, was speechless.

The group finally reunited, and Sheng Xingxing immediately gave Sheng Xiaoxin a bear hug.

"Big brother!" His voice was full of surprise.

Sheng Xiaoxin, after being bumped by him, put his arm around him and said with a smile, "You've come just in time."

“Ayan and I rushed to find reinforcements, but we had only been there a short time when we heard the news that Juecheng was under siege. We hurried here as fast as we could, and luckily we made it in time,” Sheng Xingxing said.

Upon hearing this, Sheng Xiaoxin turned his gaze to Tang Yan beside him and said, "So you are the daughter of the Marquis of Jianbei?"

Tang Yan bowed and said, "Your Highness, yes."

"Like father, like son." Sheng Xiaoxin looked at her and continued, "The Marquis of Jianbei's two children are both outstanding individuals."

Tang Yan's eyes remained calm: "Since my surname is Tang, I will certainly not disgrace my family name."

Tang Qi stared at her the whole time, and only when he heard Tang Yan say those words did he finally slowly curl up the corners of his mouth.

Ye Qian and Shen Zhiqing are right; his sister has indeed grown up to be very impressive.

"Alright everyone, let's cut the small talk." Sheng Xiaoxin once again swept his gaze across everyone's faces and said seriously, "Although Gui Luo has been temporarily repelled, he will definitely make a comeback. We cannot let our guard down, nor can we sit idly by and wait for our doom. We must not only repel him, but also drive the entire Southern Continent Army out of Jue City."

As they continued their discussion, Tang Yan's expression suddenly changed upon hearing Gui Luo's name.

"Is it Gui Luo who led the troops to attack the city?"

Ye An, standing beside her, nodded and looked at her, saying, "Yes."

"Before Jue City, were there any cities that were massacred?" Tang Yan continued to ask.

“Yes, apart from Jue City, the previous cities were all reduced to ashes, and not a single person survived. That’s why we had to hold onto Jue City.” Ye An exhaled through his nose: “Back in Dongshou Mountain, we should have captured him and torn him to pieces, otherwise he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to commit such a heinous crime!”

Tang Yan's brows furrowed even more deeply: "Gui Luo led the Southern Continent troops to massacre the city?"

She continued to murmur, as if there were countless unbelievable things about her.

Tang Qi on the other side also frowned. On the one hand, he really didn't think Gui Luo would do something like massacring a city. On the other hand... he didn't understand why Tang Yan had the same doubts as him.

He was suspicious of this matter because he had met Gui Luo a few times. Each time it was a brief encounter, but after so many times, he would have gotten to know him a little. But how could Tang Yan know him?

Tang Yan had been in the palace for the past three years, and her only contact with Gui Luo was at Dongshou Mountain. However, that was a brief encounter, and she was kidnapped by Gui Luo. Such an interaction would absolutely not have allowed Tang Yan to develop any good intentions towards Gui Luo.

Could it be?

"Then he truly deserves to be torn to pieces." Tang Yan said coldly, his eyes surprisingly calm.

Tang Qi looked away again.

*

On the other side, Ye Jin had already applied the medicine under Shen Zhiqing's "supervision." She still didn't speak and just sat there silently, looking somewhere.

"Why did you decide to go to Northern Xinjiang?" Shen Zhiqing suddenly asked her.

"Isn't the Northern Frontier good?" Ye Jin asked rhetorically, tapping her foot.

"That's great, but why did you choose to come back?"

“I have to do something.” Ye Jin’s eyes were serious, but she wasn’t looking at Shen Zhiqing; instead, she was staring at her toes. “I’m always useful, aren’t I?”

"You are the young general of the Ye family, how could you think you are useless?"

“You kept that matter from me back then.” She stopped swaying her feet and continued slowly, “I gave false testimony for Deng Ning, didn’t I?”

Shen Zhiqing paused.

“I ran into him in the northern frontier.” Ye Jin, still looking ahead, said with certainty, “He’s Tang Qi, isn’t he?”

Shen Zhiqing took a breath, looked up nervously, and made sure no one was paying attention before asking in a low voice, "How did you guess?"

“The truth back then wasn’t the real truth. He went to the Northern Frontier because of this incident. No unrelated person would risk their life to overturn the verdict. He must have known something. Simple hearsay wouldn’t be enough to make him go to the Northern Frontier after he was on the verge of death.” Ye Jin paused for a moment before continuing, “Unless he was a witness.”

"He came back alive from Katyu, and you all protected him. It shouldn't be hard to guess who he is, right?" She finally finished speaking.

Shen Zhiqing was surprised that Ye Jin could deduce this answer from such a simple piece of information, and she remained silent for a long time.

Ye Jin glanced at her and said, "I didn't tell anyone, not even Sister Jing."

“He lives for revenge,” Ye Jin’s eyes dimmed again. “If it weren’t for me, he would have succeeded three years ago.”

“No…” Shen Zhiqing subconsciously argued, but she didn’t know how to tell Ye Jin. Should she tell her that back then, whether or not you testified for Deng Ning, they would not have been punished by His Majesty because the whole thing was orchestrated by His Majesty?

She couldn't figure out how to tell Ye Jin about this.

So she fell silent.

Ye Jin interpreted Shen Zhiqing's silence as an attempt to comfort him, but he couldn't think of the right words to say so, so Ye Jin also fell silent.

"Miss Shen." A soldier suddenly approached, covering his arm and smiling honestly at Shen Zhiqing, saying, "Master Yao asked me to come up and ask you to come down and help."

Shen Zhiqing glanced around. In her current state, she wouldn't be of much help if she stayed here. If Nanzhou attacked again, she might become a burden. Rather than that, going down to help Yao Lao was a better option.

She nodded immediately, greeted Ye Jin, and then followed the soldier in front of her.

The man walked ahead, and Shen Zhiqing followed slowly behind. Soon, the two turned into the stairwell, and Shen Zhiqing looked around warily.

“Wait a minute,” she stopped and calmly looked at the person in front of her, “This isn’t the way to find Master Yao, is it?”

The man stopped as expected, turned around, scratched his head, and said embarrassedly, "I thought I could keep it a secret, Miss Shen, you're too clever."

"Who exactly are you?" Shen Zhiqing quietly took a half step back to create some distance, preparing to call for help if things went wrong.

The person opposite remained completely calm, spreading their hands and saying, "Don't be nervous, Miss Shen. I mean no harm; I'm just passing on a message for you."

He pulled a piece of paper from his sleeve, placed it on the ground under Shen Zhiqing's gaze, then raised his hands and slowly backed away until he completely disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Shen Zhiqing slowly walked over, picked up the paper, and saw that it contained only a short sentence:

At midnight tonight, at Houyakou.

The signature is Zhou Ziye.

"Qingqing?"

Ye Qian's voice came from behind.

Shen Zhiqing was startled and quickly crumpled the note and hid it in her sleeve.

"What's wrong, Qingqing? You don't look well. Did something happen?" Ye Qian walked over, his voice filled with concern.

Shen Zhiqing shook her head, pretending to be calm, and said, "It's nothing, maybe I'm just too tired."