Chapter 329 Hidden
Qi Yuxuan was speechless, and after comforting one person, she had to go and coax another, leaving her no time to worry about the Crown Prince.
Suddenly, the old doctor in the army requested an audience outside the tent.
The old doctor's brows were furrowed, and he didn't look well.
“Your Highness, the two arrows in Lord Xiao’s back have barbs and blood grooves. They are arrowheads that the Qi army has long since stopped using. They are extremely vicious. My medical skills are only so-so. If I rashly remove the arrows, I am afraid that Lord Xiao will suffer a lot, and it is difficult to guarantee his life. After careful consideration, I still want to ask Your Highness for your advice.”
Xiao Jue was the official in charge of the marriage ceremony, a fifth-rank official, the Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies. Although civil and military officials did not use the same system, this rank was still quite high for a military doctor, and he dared not make a decision on his own.
They came to consult Princess Chang Le. Regardless of whether the patient could be saved or not, at least the princess would be there to protect him, and they would never let a mere military doctor take the blame.
Qi Yuxuan's expression was grave: "Have there been any such cases in the military before?"
The old doctor hesitated for a moment: "Yes, there are, but those are all burly men, trained for years, with strong bodies, they won't even groan when in pain. This Lord Xiao seems to be..." He used a more euphemistic word:
"He is rather frail, and in my humble opinion, he may not be able to endure the pain of having his flesh cut out to remove the arrow."
If the arrow isn't removed, the person will die from the pain; it's better to just bleed to death.
Qi Yuxuan: "Is Lord Xiao currently conscious?"
The old doctor immediately replied, "He's awake, but he's in a lot of pain. His face is frighteningly pale, and he already has a fever."
Qi Yuxuan: "Then I'll trouble the doctor to tell him that I remember his kindness in shielding me from the arrow, but if he unfortunately dies, he will be gone and I will never remember any of his kindness. The Xiao family had better pray that they don't fall into my hands, otherwise I will settle all the old and new scores together."
The old doctor looked bewildered. What is this?
"Princess, this..."
Qi Yuxuan: "Go ahead, just say that, he'll understand."
Whether Xiao Jue was genuinely remorseful and wanted to make amends, or was merely feigning compliance, those two arrows were genuinely inflicted while protecting her, and Qi Yuxuan was not one to forget kindness.
But it only applies to two arrows.
The old doctor said nothing more, bowed, and left.
After the words were relayed to Lord Xiao, the young man, who had been pale and covered in beads of sweat, immediately gritted his teeth and said in a tone that was hard to tell whether it was anticipation or restraint:
"Please, doctor, remove the arrow from my body immediately. I can bear it."
It was just a matter of tearing two pieces of flesh from his body. He had already planned that if things got really bad, he would die here, by the arrows of the Yue soldiers. That way, he could still earn a good reputation, and the new emperor and the princess wouldn't be too harsh on the Xiao family in the future.
Unexpectedly, his sister's words dashed his hopes.
The Xiao family has ultimately declined, and as the de facto head of the family, he cannot allow it to continue falling into an endless abyss.
As for any favors... Xiao Jue closed his eyes in despair. Whether for public or private reasons, this was what he should do, so what was there to talk about as favors?
In Tianque Valley, the battle situation has been completely reversed.
The three thousand elite soldiers led by Duan Wei and Xiahou Zhong were almost completely wiped out, and most of the thousand Qilin Guards were also lost. The remaining few hundred men, led by the two generals, were protecting the Crown Prince behind them and trying to persuade him to retreat first.
This battle was extremely difficult.
The once beautiful and picturesque valley has become a cannibalistic cave, burying the bones of countless soldiers, after the sun goes down.
The Vietnamese soldiers numbered only eight hundred, but they were neither afraid of pain nor death. They were repeatedly cut up and pieced back together, and somehow managed to create a force of tens of thousands.
Only by chopping the corpse into pieces beyond recognition can one be considered to have truly killed a Yue soldier. However, to achieve this, it would take several Qi soldiers working together to accomplish the task.
Often, before the corpse is even chopped up, the person can't take it anymore and vomits all over the place.
They had all killed people, but it was always a simple matter of a knife going in and out, and once the person was dead, that was it. They simply couldn't bear to see a human being chopped up completely with a sword and hacked into a pile of mud, treated like an ordinary animal.
Duan Wei was still trying to persuade him:
"Your Highness, you are the Crown Prince of Qi. The future of Qi rests on your shoulders. You should leave!"
"These Jiaozhi people are full of dirty tricks. As long as we can escort Your Highness out, I am willing to die for them!"
Originally, the Crown Prince led a thousand Qilin Guards to launch a surprise attack on the reinforcements, which surprised and delighted them. They thought the battle would end quickly, but they did not expect that after fighting for two hours, they not only lost several thousand elite soldiers, but also almost lost the Crown Prince!
Thinking of this, a ruthless glint flashed in Duan Wei's eyes.
He simply couldn't understand how the people of Jiaozhi could come up with such a vicious method—the resurrection of mutilated corpses, showing no respect for either the living or the dead. Weren't they afraid of going to the eighteenth level of hell in the underworld?!
As they spoke, Xuanyuan Ze launched another attack. Their target was clear: Crown Prince Qi Jun, who was surrounded in the center of the Qilin Guard!
After regaining consciousness, Ren Shun fought against the two generals for a while. Seeing that the Vietnamese army was gradually regaining control of the situation, he gave up the fight and went to a corner to sort out what had happened when he lost consciousness.
He remembered being taken to the Hall of Heroes, where Wu Yu forced him to drink a worm and put a jade pendant around his neck, hanging right at the location of his acupoint, the same spot where Duan Wei had shattered it.
The jade pendant had long since shattered beyond recognition within the fabric, but Ren Shun managed to piece it together into a fish shape in his hand.
The fish-shaped jade pendant is strikingly similar to the fish-shaped wooden plaques that everyone in the Yue Kingdom palace carries. Could this be the reason why Xuanyuan Ze was able to so quickly reclaim the Yue Kingdom and secure his position as the carefree king?
Ren Shun guessed for a while without success. Due to excessive blood loss, his vision went black, and he almost fainted on the spot against the broken wall.
But when he looked up again, he saw Xuan Yuanze's knife aimed directly at Qi Jun's face, looking as if he was determined to kill Qi Jun!
Ren Shun's heart skipped a beat.
We can't let Qi Jun die here!
He instinctively leaped forward, raised his sword, and blocked Xuan Yuanze's blade.
"Ren Shun?!" Xuan Yuanze exclaimed in disbelief.
But at that moment, another knife pierced Xuan Yuanze's back.
"Your Highness, how have you been?" A middle-aged man's voice suddenly rang out.
Qi Jun's pupils contracted slightly as he looked at the long-unseen figure before him.
The man tore off the human skin mask, revealing a face with white hair and beard, looking many times older.
Duan Wei and Xiahou Zhong were also astonished, almost thinking they had seen wrong.
He was the former Prince Duan, who later fled to the Yue Kingdom as Qi Shen.
They thought he was a coward who had been hiding somewhere in Yue, keeping watch in the rear. They never expected that he would come in person today for the marriage alliance, hiding among the eight hundred Yue soldiers!
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