Chapter 30

The An Lushan Rebellion was the part of her life she least wanted to recall.

Upon receiving the news, she rushed to the Tian Ce Mansion's camp that very night, only to find the sky stained crimson with blood, a dark, murky mass of air. A stench of rotting corpses filled her nostrils, and she nearly vomited, covering her mouth and nose.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine."

Hua Bieli, who came with the army, was a physician from Wanhua Valley. Seeing the young girl from Cangjian Manor looking worried and frightened, she could only comfort her in a low voice before going to treat the wounds of the soldier in front of her whose head had been shaved off by a stone.

"Bie Li, come help me quickly!"

Shouts came from the next tent, and Hua Bieli immediately called her junior brother to stop the bleeding and stitch up the wounded. She then ran over, carrying her blood-stained skirt.

Ye Mo panicked and ran outside. The deafening roar of the Wolf Fang's relentless attacks and the exploding of explosives filled the air. Some of the wounded, carried on stretchers, had lost both legs; others had lost arms. The gruesome scene assaulted her eyes. She looked around but couldn't find Li Fuyuan.

"Are you here to provide support?" Suddenly a voice came from behind. Ye Mo turned around and saw a little girl dressed in white.

"Moon, don't run around, come back quickly!"

The little girl responded when she heard her name called. She pulled Ye Mo and ran to a tent, where Hua Bieli and another person dressed in Wanhua Valley clothing were treating a person who had been shot in the chest with an arrow.

"Fang Lin, I'm back. I'm alright!" the little girl replied, walking over to him and handing him gauze and a medicine bottle.

"This is a battlefield, not Chunyang! If anything happens to you, how am I supposed to explain it to Wu Shuang!" the man reprimanded sternly. He turned around, saw Ye Mo standing at the door, and paused for a moment.

"Who are you?" Fang Lin asked.

Before Ye Mo could even stammer out a sentence, he was interrupted by Fang Lin, who had turned back to remove the arrow from the wounded soldier.

"Forget it... I don't care who you are, just don't go to the front lines to die. We're busy enough here already, don't make things worse!"

"Fang Lin, don't be so fierce. Maybe they're looking for relatives..."

Before he could finish speaking, a violent commotion erupted outside the tent, causing the ground to shake violently. Ye Mo lost his balance and fell to the ground.

The front lines have been breached.

An endless escape.

run.

Ye Mo couldn't remember how long she had walked. She had no concept of distance. Many wounded soldiers were never rescued and were forever buried on the battlefield. Many disciples from other sects who went to fight either brought back only their loved ones' clothes or never saw them again.

Ye Mo followed the army escorting them away and saw many people. A young lady from the Seven Show Pavilion sat on a carriage, clutching a silver spear, silently shedding tears; a young man from the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers tightly clutched a bracelet in his hand—a token of love he had given to his wife, stained with blood and missing a piece; an old woman with gray hair turned back several times, only to be pulled back each time.

Ye Mo heard her hoarse voice say:

I need to go find my daughter; she's still waiting for me to take her home.

Ye Mo looked around. She walked from the front of the line to the back, but didn't see a single trace of Li Fuyuan.

She didn't believe he was dead.

How could that be? He's such a good shot, he can hit the bullseye even from 100 feet away, and he's such a good rider. That horse, Li Feisha, was a gift from her; it's fast and obedient.

How could that be?

She didn't believe he was dead.

The journey was so long and silent it was suffocating.

As expected, An Lushan's ambitions had already reached the Central Plains. They were ambushed in the woods near Luoyang. With no other option, those who were still able carried the elderly and children and hurried away. Just as Ye Mo was about to draw his light sword from behind his back, Fang Lin grabbed his hand.

He stared intently at her, pointed to the moon in the distance, and said to her:

“You are a disciple of Hidden Sword Manor. You only need to send a message and someone will come to help us. But there are too many Wolf Fang Army soldiers, and someone must hold them back. I only know one thing in my life: healing the sick and saving lives. But the world is not at peace now, and learning medicine cannot save the country. I only ask one thing of you: take that girl away. The Haoqi Alliance camp is just ahead. I beg you, let them live.”

After Fang Lin finished speaking solemnly, he gave Yue'er a deep look, and together with several disciples, they held off the ambush.

Ye Mo didn't have time to think. She could only remember Fang Lin's words, "I beg you, let them live." She stumbled onto her horse, the whip lashing hard against the thin horse's rump, and rode away.

She saw the young lady from the Seven Show Pavilion take two swords off her back, rush into the flames, and kill the enemy.

Ye Mo suddenly remembered a sentence his martial uncle had once told him:

"Those who go to the battlefield, there is no return date."

However, their good fortune was short-lived. Before they could even reach Baling, the Wolf Fang's ambush came crashing down again.

The carriage wheels were chopped off, and those wearing felt hats swiftly brought down their knives. She watched as one person after another fell before her, lifeless.

Ye Mo searched around for Yue'er and found her with her legs pinned under the rubble. A wolf-tooth soldier saw her and was about to rush towards her when Ye Mo performed a Jade Spring Fish Leap, channeling sword energy into his heavy sword and smashing the soldier's head with a Crane Returns to Lonely Mountain strike.

She quickly turned over the stones and fragments, carried Yue'er on her back and ran. When she encountered the wolf fangs blocking her way, she broke through the tide and listened to the thunder. Before she was exhausted, she ran to Baling.

run.

I had no strength left.

Ye Mo carried Yue'er on her back, her legs shuffling forward with uneven steps. She stared at the darkness ahead; night had fallen. She didn't have the strength to light a torch, but she kept walking and talking.

"Moon...don't sleep, we're almost there...we're almost there..."

The moon behind him remained silent, gently exhaling the cool night air. She slowly leaned closer to Ye Mo's ear and whispered:

"Put me down... I'm thirsty... I want some water..."

Hearing these words, Ye Mo murmured "water, water." She groped her way forward and vaguely saw a large tree. She walked over, leaned against the trunk, and slowly put Yue'er down.

"I'll go find water, I'll go find water... Don't sleep, don't sleep..." Ye Mo took off his coat, which was covered in dust and blood, and put it on her. Just as he was about to get up and leave, Yue'er grabbed his arm.

"Come here, listen to me... cough cough..." Just as Yue'er was about to speak, she coughed suddenly and spat out a mouthful of blood. Ye Mo was startled by her cough and immediately reached out to catch the blood.

"Moon, Moon... What's going on..." Ye Mo was so scared that she couldn't even shed tears. She didn't know what to do. She lifted the clothes that she had covered her with and saw a handful of wood shavings stuck in her waist.

"You...you listen to me..." Yue'er grabbed her hand, blood flowing from her mouth and wound, and large beads of sweat dripping from her forehead. Her dark eyes were unable to lift, and her lips were stiff and purple.

“My life…should have ended long ago…cough cough, Fang Lin saved me, took me to…the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers, to heal me…Tian Ce…I asked him to come with me…I’m not afraid of death…this way, I can go see him…”

Ye Mo moved her hands away, tore off her clothes to stop the bleeding, and while covering her wound with a worried and tearful face, he listened to her say these words.

"You won't die, Moon, you won't die... you won't die!"

Suddenly, Yue'er raised her eyebrows, her pale face looking at her, and asked, "What's your name?"

Ye Mo looked at her and sobbed softly.

"Ye Mo. Ye as in leaf, Mo as in ink."

The moon reached out, wanting to touch her, but her hand barely touched the back of her hand before falling down like a fallen leaf.

Ye Mo was stunned for a long time. The surroundings were quiet. She trembled and reached out to touch Yue'er's face, but then stopped. She wanted to cover her wound—the wood shavings were stuck in her body and were covered in red. The blood had finally stopped flowing and flowed into a stream on the ground. She thought for a long time, and finally her tears turned into all her words and slowly flowed down from her eyes.

She knelt beside Yue'er, holding her in her arms, feeling the person in her arms slowly stiffen, turning into a corpse. Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

She recalled Li Fuyuan who bought her candied hawthorns, Hua Bieli who healed the sick and saved lives, Fang Lin who cared about the Tang Dynasty but only wanted to protect Yue'er, Sister Xiu who missed her husband, Brother Hua who missed his wife, and her mother who would risk her life to find her daughter's body.

This isn't the martial arts world; this is reality.

We can't save anyone, not even ourselves.

She could no longer cry out; she only had the strength to shed tears. Perhaps after mourning Yue'er, she too would die.

"Brother Yu, there seems to be someone over there!"

Ye Mo vaguely heard a voice, but she didn't want to recognize who it was. She was shivering from the cold, and finally, she fainted in the light of a lamp she touched.

Liu Yu, carrying a lantern, rushed over and saw the Hidden Sword disciple next to the dead Chunyang disciple. She had her eyes closed and was curled up, as if she was not afraid of death, but hoped that she would never wake up again.