Chapter 91 [VIP]

"Brother, when shall we depart?" Lu Xuejin asked.

Before dawn, this once-in-a-century snowfall, so far from the capital, was intertwined with the upheaval. Lu Xuejin looked out the window and saw the heavy snow on the eaves bending the plum branches, the evergreen red plum trees blooming with specks of crimson. The red flowers were so vibrant and fresh that many had fallen onto the snow.

Xue Yi looked at him quietly. The stove was burning with charcoal, and Xue Yi's face was flushed red from the steam. A low cough sounded in the air, and Xue Yi turned his eyes to him, casting a thick shadow.

"...Where to?" Xue Yi asked him.

“We will be setting off back to the capital tomorrow, so naturally I must take my brother to see the doctor today. I have already sent someone to inform Qiuji, who is waiting for my brother and me outside the city,” he replied.

His tone was unreadable. He lowered his head and silently rolled up the towel. The scalding hot towel was soaked with water. He looked at his reflection in the basin, the red shirt he wore in his youth overlapping with the red collar of his current shirt.

The love lock hanging around his neck swayed slightly with his movements. The silver brass ring turned out to reveal the shape of a key, and the emerald gemstone glittered, its tiger-patterned fangs occasionally bumping against his neck.

"..." He waited for a long time without receiving a reply. Only then did he look up and find Xue Yi staring at his neck, the tiger-eye green gemstone reflecting light. He glanced at it again as well.

He said, "Look at this tiger cub, doesn't it look like the tiger cub that my brother and I released when we were young?"

The towel brushed against Xue Yi's cheek, and Xue Yi's eyelashes became damp. He stared at Xue Yi's neck and said, "I just feel... it's not that auspicious."

Lu Xuejin didn't speak. After wiping Xue Yi's hands and wrists, he draped a thick cloak over Xue Yi's shoulders. A guard outside the door held up a long-handled umbrella, and he and Xue Yi got into the carriage together.

While in the carriage, he looked out the window. He had only been in the capital for a few days, and many places still felt unfamiliar. As he looked out the window, he noticed that Xue Yi was staring at him.

He met Xue Yi's gaze, thought for a moment, and said, "Brother, don't worry. Doctor Qiu is a miracle worker; there's no illness he can't cure."

“Back in the Wei Palace, I benefited from Changyou’s influence; he came here specifically for Changyou,” Xue Yi said.

“My original purpose in going south was to find a doctor for my brother, so this can be considered as fulfilling my original intention. In the end, it was Song Zhao who invited Doctor Cui, so it should be thanks to Song Zhao,” he said.

"Cough cough... When I was in the capital, Song Zhao always stayed by my side, and I know his loyalty." As the wind blew in, Xue Yi's face turned pale. He lowered his head and covered his lips with a handkerchief, from which a large amount of blood seeped.

"When I went south, he did his best to ask Wei Ning and Xiao Qi to come. But I... all the way here, I've been thinking about Chang You. When I haven't seen him, I always feel a longing for him, and when I have, I feel that time really flies. It's only been a few months... Chang You has become a complete stranger here." Xue Yi said in a low voice, closing his eyes to gather his emotions, and rolled up the handkerchief in his hand.

Lu Xuejin listened intently. He caught a glimpse of blood and saw his younger self in the corner of the carriage, dressed in red like a shadowy figure. Upon seeing Xue Yi cough up blood, the red-clad youth became worried and stood around Xue Yi, unsure of what to do.

“Brother, you are overthinking it. No matter where I am, I always think of you. I was only slightly surprised when we met the other day; I never imagined you would come here without my knowledge,” he said.

"Your Majesty, we have arrived—" The carriage slowly came to a stop.

Upon arriving at their destination, Dr. Qiu and his daughter had been waiting for them for quite some time.

When Qiu Ji saw Lu Xuejin, he and his daughter knelt down with a thud. Seeing the revered top scholar, they refused to get up. Their originally stern and unapproachable faces melted away, and the joy in their eyes softened the snowy landscape of the capital.

"This humble subject, Qiu Ji, greets Lord Lu!"

"Please get up, Dr. Qiu, there's no need to be so polite." Lu Xuejin helped the person up.

Qiu Ji: "I had heard that Lord Lu had come south to find me, so I packed my bags and headed to Shengjing with my daughter. I never expected to miss Lord Lu. After hearing the news yesterday, I haven't been able to sleep for days. Lord Lu, please accept my humble bow!"

Lu Xuejin: "I am unworthy of such an honor. Doctor Qiu, you are too kind. I have heard of your reputation in Shengjing. You have brought the dead back to life with your miraculous hands and saved countless lives. You are a bodhisattva of our time. I should pay my respects to you."

"Lord Lu, you flatter me," Qiu Ji said. "This humble subject greets Your Majesty."

Qiu Ji noticed Xue Yi and asked, "Lord Lu, have you come here to treat His Majesty's illness?"

Even through the cold air, Qiu Ji could tell that Xue Yi was ill. The journey here was arduous enough for an ordinary person, let alone someone as frail and sickly as him. He had just saved the Emperor's life at the Wei Palace, and now he was being saved again. He sighed inwardly, but then he remembered that it was Lu Xuejin's wish, and all his resentment vanished.

Lu Xuejin: "That's right. Doctor Qiu came inside and told us that His Majesty's health cannot withstand cold winds."

Xue Yi: "I haven't had a chance to thank Physician Qiu before. I've troubled Physician Qiu time and time again, and I hope Physician Qiu will forgive me. If Physician Qiu has any requests, I will do my best to help."

Qiu Ji walked ahead and said, "This humble subject wants nothing. Today, I am only doing this because of Lord Lu's influence. Even His Majesty himself doesn't know how to cherish his own body, so what use are other people's words? If a person mistreats himself, even if God comes, it won't help."

Despite such offensive words, Xue Yi remained calm and quietly followed behind the young man in red. He stepped in the young man's shadow, having not worn red for many years... The vibrant color accentuated the young man's unparalleled elegance and figure.

"Your Majesty, please have a seat." Qiu Ji gestured for Xue Yi to sit down behind the screen.

Xue Yi sat down. Incense for calming the nerves burned in the hall. Qiu Ji's daughter was in charge of massaging him, while Qiu Ji was in charge of taking his pulse. In a daze, Xue Yi's eyelids gradually grew heavy. The last thing he saw was Lu Xuejin and Qiu Ji discussing something together.

"How can His Majesty's illness be cured?"

A quarter of an hour later. Qiu Ji watched as Xue Yi, who was leaning back in his recliner, fell into a deep sleep before speaking, "To be honest, Lord Lu, I have already examined His Majesty once in the Wei Palace."

“He suffers from a mental block, and his daily worries and anxieties have taken their toll on his health. At this rate, he has at most another year to live. The only way to help him is to resolve his mental block, which is something that can be done by human effort, but there is no other way.”

Lu Xuejin stood beside Xue Yi, looking at his face, and said, "I'm afraid no one can untie His Majesty's knot in his heart. This is something that cannot be done by human power. Is there any other way... to save His Majesty's life? I came to see Physician Qiu for this very reason."

“This…” Qiu Ji sighed, “I will first expel the cold poison from His Majesty’s body, and then prescribe some warm medicine. On the way back, His Majesty must not be exposed to the cold again.”

Outside the city.

With a loud "bang!", the iron swords clashed together. Murong Yue exerted a little force and knocked the sword out of the soldier's hand. With a "thud," the long sword pierced the soldier's body, and the soldier fell to the ground.

The bodies of more than ten soldiers lay on the ground. He wiped the blood from his cheek; pursuers would arrive soon. He took a sword and a token and left.

Outside the capital city lies Grass Fin Mountain. Murong Yue ascended the mountain along a small path. The terrain here consisted of earthen slopes of varying sizes, as well as many half-excavated cave dwellings. Due to the snowfall, the thick layer of snow mixed with blackened coal, leaving highly visible, jet-black footprints.

...Should we call him unlucky? His luck seems to have run out. He hasn't even seen his brother yet, and instead, he's been discovered by pursuers.

He walked uphill, clutching the wound on his arm. Blood trickled down, its warmth melting the ice on the icy ground. The injury was nothing to him; he glanced at the footprints beneath his feet—the footprints left by coal—and knew the soldiers would soon find him.

This cave dwelling was where he used to play hide-and-seek as a child. He found a cave, took off his outer garment, put his long sword aside, and simply treated his wounds.

Knowing Changyou's personality... he insists on handling these matters himself. He wants to leave him with his uncle and plans to simply walk away.

He absolutely will not allow it.

We can't let him go. We can't let him be taken away. We can't let him leave. We can't let him go back to the Wei Palace. We can't let him leave. We can't let him abandon him. We can't let him out of our sight. We can't let him bear all this.

The cave was frozen solid. He grabbed a strip of icicle and pressed it to his wound. The bleeding stopped immediately as the ice froze the wound. He then bandaged it with a cloth and used the blood from his longsword to draw a pattern on the spot. From his current location, the city gates were blocked, but there were a dozen or so places he could sneak in.

He mentally rehearsed which exit was the safest before putting down his sword. The wind that rushed in carried the stench of blood. He immediately stood up, the sound of horses' hooves clattering up the hill reaching his ears—the pursuers had caught up.

As soon as he stepped out of the cave, cavalry and soldiers came into view in the distance. A dark mass of two hundred men was approaching. He saw them, and the soldiers naturally noticed him as well.

"It's the Ninth Prince! He's hiding here! Go and catch him!"

"Charge! There are two hundred of us, what are we afraid of? Cut off his hands and avenge our fallen brothers!"

Murong Yue heard the soldiers' cheers. The group of soldiers carrying halberds bared their fangs, full of energy, and he looked like prey in a hunting ground. Because of his young age, he was always looked down upon by the enemy, which should be considered a blessing in disguise. He had grown up in the military camp since childhood, and the capital was his territory. These fools thought they had the advantage of numbers.

He couldn't help but sneer, his eyebrows slightly opening, the bloodstains around his eyes gleaming darkly. A somber aura emanated from the icy landscape, and his figure vanished into the cave in an instant.

There is a ladder inside the cave dwelling that allows you to climb to the top. It has been snowing for three days, and a thick layer of snow has accumulated on the top of the cave dwelling.

Murong Yue climbed to the top using the ladder and planted his longsword in the center of the cave's ceiling. Many similar cases had occurred in their capital; because the ceiling mechanism was the most vulnerable point, leaving a thin layer to destroy the cave solved the problem of its fragility. If the charcoal produced was of poor quality, a light press on the mechanism would cause the entire cave to collapse. Anyone standing below would be crushed into a bloody pulp if the cave collapsed.

He watched with great interest as the soldiers below all entered the cave to chase after him. He counted the number of soldiers the cave could hold and calculated the speed at which the first soldier would climb up. When the first soldier encountered the ladder, he heard the conversation inside through the sound of the wind.

“There’s a ladder here! The Ninth Prince climbed up, he must be up here.”

"This cave has no other exit. He couldn't have flown away, could he? He must be up there. Go and kill him!"

"You guys go up first—"

As soon as the words were spoken, the soldiers in the pitch-black cave heard a "ding" sound, in addition to the sound of the wind and falling snowflakes. The sound was like metal clashing together, or like something heavy suddenly falling, and the whistling wind rushed in through the pipes.

"...Did you hear anything?"

bite--

bite--

bite--

Time seemed to freeze for a moment. The instant the longsword pierced the ceiling, a loud crash echoed, and the entire kiln roof shook violently. The questioning soldier only noticed that the kiln seemed to have shrunk, becoming so small that he could almost reach the top. With a hiss, their bodies suddenly stiffened, sensing a dangerous signal—a signal born from the fear left behind by ancient humanity during natural disasters.

The massive ceiling suddenly collapsed. The soldiers who had climbed the ladder and were standing at the top hadn't even had time to react before they felt a sharp pain in their heads, and something flew out. In less than a second, the soldiers below watched as their comrades' heads were crushed into fragments and flew away. The red, viscous substance from their brains splattered out, and screams and cries of terror erupted from the crowd.

The soldiers outside were still unaware of what had happened. In the silence, they heard screams. One second the cave was perfectly intact, and the next, a huge crash resounded as the entire cave collapsed. Their comrades who had entered the cave were all crushed into a bloody pulp.

The hundreds of corpses piled together, mixed with bricks, heads and limbs crushed under boulders, silver armor and flesh tightly intertwined, formed a bloody feast in the snow.

Eyes, nose, mouth, severed fingers, palms, expelled eyeballs, internal organs spilling out of the stomach, a longsword stuck in the head. Blood red, light red, dark red, subtle, invisible shades of blood blended together in perfect harmony, and the air fell into a deathly silence.

Atop the dome, a composed young man stood atop pieces of corpses, laughing amidst the blood-soaked scene. Blood dripped from his long, slender fingers as he pierced his sword through the ground. His fierce, gloomy eyes gleamed, his fangs protruded, and he revealed a seemingly innocent smile.

Its expression was incredibly innocent and beautiful, yet it resembled a monstrous demon writhing in a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, inspiring fear in all who heard of it.

"How many people has he killed?"

"Reporting to the deputy general. We had already lost twenty brothers, and just now more than 160 went in. Only thirty of us are left. He killed 180 soldiers in one day."

"Quickly...quickly go and report to the general!"

"yes!"

The soldier who had received the order turned around, and the longsword in the boy's hand flew out. The swirling sword light transformed into a sky-splitting halberd. He only saw the flash of silver light.

With a "plop," blood gushed out, and only then did he belatedly realize what was happening.

The sword pierced half of his neck, severing his artery.

A note from the author: