Just as the tornado was about to sweep in, Tuoba Ze suddenly cried out in alarm, "Oh no!"
Yi Shangyun asked, "What's wrong?"
Tuoba Ze opened his eyes in disbelief, looked at Yi Shangyun's face, and said blankly, "The military tally is gone."
Upon hearing the voice, Yi Shangyun immediately opened her eyes and stared at him in astonishment, saying, "What? You're saying you lost the Heavenly Horse Military Talisman that you valued more than your own life? When did this happen?"
"Just now, when you mentioned the tornado was coming, I panicked and accidentally..."
Before Tuoba Ze could finish speaking, Yi Shangyun suddenly stood up and took two steps back.
Tuoba Ze was terrified and said to him, "What are you doing? Get down right now! The tornado is coming soon."
After a moment of gathering her strength, Yi Shangyun, with her petite figure, suddenly unleashed a powerful burst of energy, swinging her arm and charging forward at lightning speed.
After a few steps, he suddenly lifted one foot lightly, and after only touching the pit wall with his toes two or three times, he had firmly placed himself on the edge of the pit.
Then, with a swift and agile leap, he left behind a few words that echoed in the air: "Stay there and don't move. I'm going to find the military tally."
Upon seeing this, Tuoba Ze hurriedly got up and reached out to pull her back, but he couldn't grab anything. He then retreated and bent down, saying anxiously and angrily, "You stupid woman, are you crazy?! Don't you want to die?!"
Yi Shangyun rushed back to the place where the two had just argued and quickly scanned her surroundings.
Aside from seeing her horse being blown about by the hurricane, seemingly unable to stand, she completely ignored it and ultimately found nothing.
In desperation, she gritted her teeth and suddenly knelt down on the ground with a thud, crawling barehanded across a large patch of grass at her feet.
While frantically searching, she was extremely nervous yet tried her best to calm herself down, muttering to herself, "To personally deliver the Heavenly Horse Military Seal to the Second Prince is something I promised the old king I would do, and I absolutely must do it. Military Seal, oh Military Seal, come out quickly, come out quickly, come out quickly, I will find it, I will find it, I will find it..."
As the towering tornado behind her drew ever closer, Tuoba Ze, who was in a nearby crater, shouted at her amidst the howling wind: "Stupid woman, stop looking! Come back! You'll die!"
"I can do it, I can do it..."
However, Yi Shangyun seemed not to hear anything at all, and continued with her actions and the muttering to herself to encourage herself.
In this situation, Tuoba Ze was completely helpless against this extremely stubborn woman.
He slammed his fist hard against the edge of the ditch, as if he was extremely regretful!
He regretted that he hadn't protected the Heavenly Horse Military Talisman better, and how could he have been so careless as to leave it behind?
She resented him for following her here and wasting so much time entangled with her.
If it weren't for him, she might have already rested and ridden away, thus avoiding this catastrophic disaster.
What if something really happens to her? What should we do?
This woman has clearly become a part of his very being.
Just as he was anxiously searching for a solution, Yi Shangyun on the other side suddenly felt a glimmer of hope. Then, with a look of joy on his face, he stared at his own blood-soaked hands in the pile of grass on the ground, at the familiar Heavenly Horse Military Talisman that he had just dug out, and said, "Thank God, I've finally found you."
But just as she picked up the military tally and turned around, she saw a tornado rushing towards her head-on, and she had no time to dodge it.
She stared wide-eyed at the pillar of wind that stretched like a dragon reaching the sky, completely stunned.
The hurricane and its roar seemed to tear my body apart, shatter it, and engulf me. I could faintly hear Tuoba Ze's urgent shouts behind me: "Run, run!"
In an instant, she, her horse, and the tree where she had been resting in the shade all vanished without a trace along with the departure of the tornado.
Having narrowly escaped death, Tuoba Ze finally stumbled and crawled out of the ditch.
At that moment, he stared blankly at the devastation left by the tornado, his body suddenly went limp, and he knelt down on the ground.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly looked up at the sky and screamed in a heart-wrenching voice: "Stupid woman, you stupid woman!"
...
The night was deep and dark, and all was silent.
In the vast desert north of Beilie, after being scorched by the blazing sun during the day, even though night had long since fallen, waves of heat still swept through, making it feel like a steam room, almost unbearable.
As if they were sneaking around and afraid of being discovered, they lit only a tiny bonfire.
Beside the campfire, an old man and a young boy, two soldiers from the Northern Lie Kingdom, were removing the heavy armor from their bodies and taking a short rest, one sitting and the other lying down.
Beside them, there seemed to be a woman lying quietly and motionless on the yellow sand.
"How could such a frail woman suddenly descend from the sky in this vast desert? She looks quite elegant and refined, and her temperament seems to be born noble, but she doesn't seem like a woman from our grasslands."
The older soldier glanced back slightly, then turned back to stare at the campfire in front of him, and said to the younger soldier beside him, puzzled.
The young soldier was lying comfortably on his back with one leg crossed and one arm as a pillow, gazing at the low-hanging starry sky above him.
Upon hearing this, he raised the wine flask he was holding in his other hand and gulped down a large mouthful of strong liquor. Then he sneered, not even glancing at him, completely unimpressed, his tone extremely contemptuous.
"A weak woman? Who knows what she's up to? If she were truly from a good family, she would be waiting to be married, obediently practicing music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. How could she have ended up here like this?"
He paused, took a deep breath, and added in a low, extremely cautious voice, "We're currently in a time of war, so it's best to be careful in everything we do. Who knows, maybe she's a spy sent by the cunning Western Qin to gather intelligence on our Northern Lie army?"
Upon hearing this, the elderly soldier was immediately startled: "Looking at her delicate and frail appearance, could it be?"
"You can't see into someone's heart. How do you know she's not a docile wolf in sheep's clothing?" the young soldier said, raising an eyebrow.
"In any case, let's ask her after she wakes up!"
Seeing that the young soldier seemed to have no objection to his idea, the older soldier breathed a deep sigh of relief, looked down at the small porcelain bottle he was holding tightly in his hand, and changed the subject.
"We Beilie people have always cherished our water resources. Anyone who spits into the water will have their tongue cut out. But now we're going to poison the water ourselves. What a terrible thing to do... Sigh!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the elderly soldier slapped his thigh hard, as if he were extremely annoyed, angry, and helpless.
The young soldier's face also showed a solemn expression, but he didn't say anything.
After a moment of silence, once his emotions had calmed down somewhat, the elderly soldier spoke again: "Tell me, is what we're doing right or wrong? If this poison is put into the water source, it won't just be the soldiers of Western Qin who die, but tens of thousands more of my Northern Lie Kingdom's people! Is the price we're paying for this bloody path to break through too high?"
“Whether it’s right or wrong, all I know is that if we don’t do this, the Crown Prince will definitely not forgive us.” The young, inexperienced soldier took another big gulp of wine and answered him with a sense of helplessness.
"But this concerns the lives of too many innocent herdsmen in Beilie. Will we be punished by heaven for doing this?" the elderly soldier said with fear and reluctance.
“If they don’t die, you and I will die. I have elderly parents and young children at home. If I die, what will happen to them? I have no choice, and neither do you. If they want to blame someone, let them blame it all on the Western Qin army! If we had even a little bit of a way to break through, we wouldn’t have come to this.” The young soldier sat up abruptly, gritting his teeth and saying bitterly.
The elderly soldier sighed heavily and fell silent again.
But after a short while, his eyes lit up and he said, “I heard that the King of Western Qin treats prisoners very well. If you are willing to stay, you can enjoy the same treatment as the soldiers and generals of Western Qin. If you are not willing to stay, you can even get travel expenses to return home.”
The young soldier scoffed coldly, glanced at his profile, and asked disdainfully, "Did you see it with your own eyes?"
The elderly soldier suddenly fell into despair and slowly shook his head.
The young soldier said quietly, "There's no such thing as a free lunch. Stop dreaming. I'm afraid this is just another trick by the Western Qin army."
Having said that, he seemed somewhat impatient and said, "Alright, alright, that's enough. If you want to see the sun rise tomorrow, hurry up and get things done! I wonder how many more of us died in today's battle?!"
Just as the two were about to get up, a woman's voice suddenly rang out from behind them: "Don't move! Hands up!"
The two men glanced behind them and saw that the woman was holding their swords and pressing them against their backs. They had no choice but to obey.
The three looked each other over and remained silent for a moment before the older soldier spoke first, his voice filled with joy: "Young lady, you're finally awake?"
"What poison were you talking about just now? Who died?" The woman clenched her small fist and pounded her head, which seemed about to crack open, before asking the question she had just vaguely heard in her dream.
"What kind of poison? Who died?" the elderly soldier muttered guiltily.
At this moment, the young soldier called out, "Please don't misunderstand, young lady. We are soldiers from the Northern Lie Kingdom and have no ill intentions towards you. We were separated from our troops during a major battle with the Western Qin Kingdom today and ended up in this desolate desert. On the way here, we suddenly saw you fall from the sky. Fearing that the wolves here might frighten you at night, we are here to wait for you to wake up."
The woman was still suspiciously observing the two men when she noticed the small porcelain bottle in the elderly soldier's hand. She quickly stepped forward, snatched it from him, and asked, "What is this?"
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