Xie Lian's leap was truly terrifying, but the two attendants knew it was nothing to him, so Mu Qing didn't move. Feng Xin, however, did give him a hand. With a slight effort, Xie Lian lifted the young soldier up. They landed on the tower. Xie Lian asked, "Whose soldier are you, and why are you hiding here?"
The soldier's hands and head were covered in bandages, stained with blood, revealing a profusion of wounds. This wasn't surprising; after today's battle, many soldiers were wounded and bandaged like this. But he remained silent in the shadows, which was suspicious. Mu Qing said, "Don't tell me he's a Yong'an spy. Let's arrest him and interrogate him."
Xie Lian shared this suspicion, but the Imperial City was heavily guarded, making it unlikely that an enemy could have infiltrated, unless it was Lang Ying alone. And this soldier was clearly still a child. Then, Feng Xin asked curiously, "Your Highness, don't you remember this boy? He was always charging ahead of you during the day, the one at the front of the formation."
Xie Lian was startled and asked, “Really?”
Fighting in broad daylight, he had no time to pay attention to anything else. He just knew that when someone raised a sword to kill him, he would swing his sword back. He didn't even pay attention to Feng Xin and Mu Qing, so how could he pay attention to other soldiers?
Feng Xin said affirmatively, "Right. I remember this guy. He charged very fiercely, as if he was risking his life."
Hearing this, Xie Lian carefully examined the young soldier. The young man inexplicably stood up straight, his head held high and chest puffed out. He seemed a little stiff, as if he were standing at attention. Mu Qing said, "Then he shouldn't be hiding here so stealthily. Who knows if he's here to spy or eavesdrop?"
Despite saying this, he had actually let down his guard. The Xianle Army was heavily promoting the idea of "the army of the gods, the destiny of heaven," and many young men had joined to follow Xie Lian, including many young men of this age. Many of these were his devoted admirers, having grown up worshipping his statue and hearing about the Crown Prince's reputation. It wasn't the first time they'd tried to sneak up on him and catch a glimpse of the God of War, so it wasn't uncommon.
Xie Lian said, “Alright, it was a false alarm.” He gently addressed the young soldier, “I apologize for scaring you.”
The young man showed no fear, but stood straighter and said, "Your Highness..."
Unexpectedly, before he could finish his words, something unexpected happened. The young soldier suddenly lunged at Xie Lian!
Xie Lian, assuming he was planning a sneak attack, dodged and raised his hand to strike with a knife. With his strength, the strike would undoubtedly have killed the young man instantly. Unexpectedly, he felt a chill creep down his back. His hand abruptly turned mid-strike, intercepting an arrow aimed at him from behind.
It turned out that the young man rushed towards him because he saw the cold light of the flying arrow in the air. Xie Lian was originally standing with his back against the parapet. He was attacked from behind, but he was not afraid at all. Instead, he jumped onto the top of the wall and looked down from the front. He saw a large empty flat ground in front of the city gate. A person was vaguely standing alone in the distance. Because he was wearing dark clothes, he blended into the darkness and was extremely difficult to detect. Feng Xin quickly came to Xie Lian's side, drew his bow and shot an arrow. But the man had calculated the distance in advance and deliberately stood very far away. He shot an arrow, which made Xie Lian look at him. He waved, turned around and walked away without saying a word. He retreated very quickly. Feng Xin's arrow was already weak by then and it just nailed him a few inches behind his foot. Feng Xin was so angry that he hammered the city wall. Gray stones fell down and he said, "Who is that?!"
Who else could it be? Xie Lian asked, "Lang Ying!"
The Xianle soldiers also noticed something was amiss, screaming and running in all directions. However, out of caution, they didn't immediately order the city gates to be opened and pursued. Instead, they went to consult their superiors. Lang Ying shot an arrow, waved, and left, as if he had come specifically to say hello to Xie Lian. Mu Qing frowned and asked, "What's he doing here? A demonstration?"
Feng Xin angrily said, "Yong'an was badly beaten in battle today. He barely escaped Your Highness's clutches. What's there to protest about?"
Xie Lian felt something tied to the cold arrow, and when he took it off and looked at it next to the firelight, he found it was a piece of cloth, which seemed to have been torn from a green brocade robe. There were wet bloodstains on the cloth. When he unfolded it, he saw the word "Qi" written crookedly.
Xie Lian immediately grabbed the cloth and asked, "Where's Qi Rong? Isn't Qi Rong in the palace?"
Feng Xin said to the soldiers beside him, "Hurry into the city and confirm!"
The soldiers hurried off. This was indeed the hem of Qi Rong's favorite robe. Lang Ying was notoriously elusive, so the possibility that Qi Rong had been abducted by him was not small. Without further ado, Xie Lian said, "I'll follow and see." Seeing Feng Xin approaching, he said, "You guard the city gate and hold steady. Be careful not to lure the tiger away from the mountain."
Feng Xin put his bow on his back and said, "You don't have anyone with you?"
Xie Lian didn't want Xianle to send troops without a major attack from Yong'an. If Qi Rong fell into enemy hands, he could bring her back alone. But if he led a small force, it would inevitably lead to a major conflict, with more than just one or two casualties. For now, Xie Lian wanted to keep things to a minimum, saying, "No. They can't do anything to me."
With that, he pressed his hand lightly against the wall and leaped off the tower. Landing lightly on the ground, he quickly chased in the direction Lang Ying had fled. After running for a while, he heard footsteps catching up behind him. Turning back, he saw it was the young soldier. Xie Lian shouted to him, "I don't need any help. Go back!"
The young man shook his head. Xie Lian said again, "Go back!" His pace quickened, and in an instant he left the young man far behind, out of sight.
After running for five or six miles, they entered a mountaintop. This mountain wasn't steep, more like a slope, hence the name Beizi Slope. According to reconnaissance, after the Yong'an people withdrew, the main army and civilians all took refuge here. Beizi Slope was covered in dense vegetation. At night, the pitch-black forest was filled with strange noises, as if countless living creatures were lurking, watching intently. Xie Lian went deep into the mountains, holding his breath and searching for a long time. Suddenly, he saw a long human figure hanging from a tree in front of him. He took a closer look and said, "Qi Rong!"
It was Qi Rong. He was hanging upside down from a tree, seemingly beaten to a pulp. He had passed out, a nosebleed running, and a black eye. Xie Lian unsheathed his sword, slashed the rope, caught Qi Rong, and patted his face. Qi Rong slowly regained consciousness, and upon seeing him, he shouted, "Crown Prince Cousin!"
Xie Lian was just about to untie him when he felt a chill on his back and parried his sword. Turning back, he saw Lang Ying wielding a heavy sword in both hands, slashing at him.
The two exchanged a few blows, and soon Xie Lian knocked Lang Ying's sword away. He kicked Lang Ying in the calf, tripping him and placing the tip of his sword against his throat, ending the fight. He said, "You know you're no match for me. Stop fighting."
They had clashed on the battlefield today, and anyone who rushed at Xie Lian was killed by him. Only Lang Ying, struck head-on by his sword, survived, dragging his wounded body back. It was obvious to anyone that Lang Ying was the leader of this group of Yong'an people, and Xie Lian's request to "stop fighting" naturally had more than one meaning.
Xie Lian said, “As long as you don’t attack us, I guarantee that the soldiers from the Imperial City will never attack you. Grab some water and food, and leave.”
Lang Ying lay on the ground, staring straight at him. That look was enough to make one's heart tremble. He said, "Your Highness, do you think what you did was right?"
Xie Lian's expression froze. Qi Rong, standing beside him, cursed, "Nonsense! Do you know who the Crown Prince is? He's a god in heaven! If he's not right, then you, a bunch of traitorous bastards, are still right!?"
Xie Lian shouted, “Qi Rong, shut up!”
He couldn't answer Lang Ying's question. Deep down, he felt that something was wrong with what he had done. However, this was the best course of action he could come up with. If he didn't protect Xianle and resist the invasion, would he allow the Yong'an rebels to attack again and again, even to the point of breaking into the imperial city?
If one or two men charged at him with swords drawn, he could have just knocked them out. But the battlefield was brutal, and he didn't have the energy to knock them out one by one. He could only ignore it and swing his sword. Lang Ying's question rekindled the inner voice: Do you think you're doing the right thing?
Qi Rong, however, was not as conflicted as he was. He said, "What did I say wrong? Cousin, since you're here, just kill these bastards right away! There are dozens of them fighting against me alone!"
He was usually arrogant and domineering in the Imperial City, so naturally, many people in Yong'an hated him and would take the opportunity to take revenge. Of course, there were also many people in Xianle who hated him. Xie Lian didn't have time to pay attention to him now. He said to Lang Ying, "What do you want? If you want rain, it will rain in Yong'an. If you want gold, I'll give you the golden statue. If you want food, I'll... find a way. But please don't start a war again. Let's find a solution together, a third way, okay?"
Xie Lian couldn't help but blurt out these words. Lang Ying might not understand what the "third way" was, but he answered without hesitation: "I want nothing. I need nothing. The only thing I want is for the Fairyland to disappear from the world. I want it to disappear."
His tone was calm, yet his words were inexplicably chilling. After a long pause, Xie Lian said in a deep voice, "...If you bring your men to attack, I can't just stand by and watch. You have no chance of winning. Even if the Yong'an people who follow you die, are you still going to do this?"
Lang Ying said, "Yes."
“…”
His answer was so frank and resolute that Xie Lian's joints cracked, yet he was speechless. Lang Ying spoke word by word, "I know you're a god. It doesn't matter. Even if you are, don't try to make me stop."
Xie Lian knew Lang Ying was telling the truth. The tone in his voice was something he knew all too well—it was the resolve of a man with no hesitation. When he had said to Jun Wu, "Even if Heaven wishes me dead," the resolve in his voice was the exact same as Lang Ying's at that moment!
Lang Ying's words were a declaration that he would continue to rally countless Yong'an people to attack without end. So, it was clear what Xie Lian should do now.
Xie Lian, who usually held the sword with one hand, now used both. Just as his hands, trembling, were about to stab Lang Ying's throat, a strange crunching sound suddenly came from behind him, accompanied by a sudden, cold laugh.
Xie Lian was quite surprised when a person appeared silently behind him. He turned around and looked, his eyes widened.
The person who appeared at this time was most likely an enemy soldier. Perhaps countless swords were pointed at him, but he did not expect that there would be such a strange person behind him.
The man was dressed in pale mourning clothes, with a pale mask covering his face. Half of the mask showed tears, the other half a smile, a very strange sight. He was sitting on a vine hanging between two large trees. The creaking sound came from him shaking the vine back and forth, making it look like he was swinging on a swing. When he saw Xie Lian turning around, he raised his hands and clapped his hands slowly, "Pa, Pa," while bursts of cold laughter came from his mouth. Xie Lian was inexplicably terrified and asked in a harsh voice, "Who are you?"
He used the word "thing" because he intuitively knew that this must not be a person!
At that moment, Xie Lian suddenly felt something strange about the tip of his sword. Qi Rong cried out, and turning to see a long crack in the ground before him, swallowing Lang Ying, who had been lying there, into the crack. The ground quickly closed up, and Xie Lian instinctively thrust his sword into the earth's core. Feeling the tip of his sword touch only dirt, not flesh, he realized that the strike hadn't killed Lang Ying, and he didn't know whether to feel regret or relief. At that moment, the man in white chuckled again, and Xie Lian raised his hand and hurled his sword at him.
The sword flew like lightning, piercing the man's body and pinning him to the tree. Without a sound, he collapsed to the ground. Xie Lian rushed forward to investigate, but all he saw was a heap of white clothing drooping on the ground. The man wearing the clothing had vanished into thin air!
This person's appearance and disappearance were both extremely strange. Xie Lian was startled. Not daring to be careless, he lifted Qi Rong with one hand and said, "Let's go."
Qi Rong yelled, "Don't go! Cousin, set the mountain on fire! There are a lot of Yong'an people on this mountain. Those stubborn people who are sitting at the city gate and refusing to leave are hiding up there. Burn them all to ashes!"
Xie Lian dragged him along for a while, feeling the gloomy aura around them grow thicker and thicker, as if countless pairs of eyes were watching them. He said, "Didn't you see how strange this person was just now? We can't stay here for long."
Qi Rong said, "So what if they're weird? You're a god, how can you be afraid of little demons like these? If they dare to get in the way, just kill them."
Xie Lian said, “Let’s go back first.”
Seeing that he was perfunctory and refused to burn the mountain, Qi Rong's eyes widened and asked, "Why? These people beat me up like this and want to go against us. You just heard him say he wanted to destroy Xianle! He wanted to destroy our country! Why don't you kill them all, just like you did on the battlefield today!"
"..." Xie Lian's breathing hitched, and he angrily said, "Why are you always thinking about killing everyone?! Can civilians and soldiers be treated the same?"
Qi Rong asked in reply, "What's the difference? Aren't they all human? Killing anyone makes no difference."
Xie Lian felt as if he had touched a sore spot, and a surge of anger surged up his throat: "You...!"
At this moment, he suddenly felt his ankle tighten. He looked down and saw a bloated hand reaching out from the dense bushes next to him and suddenly grabbed his boot!
At the same time, several "bangs" were heard ahead, and seven or eight figures fell from the trees like rain, collapsing on the ground, unable to get up. Although they were humanoid, they were completely naked. Like countless giant fleshworms, they slowly crawled towards them. Qi Rong cried out in surprise, "Who are they?!"
Xie Lian severed the hand with a single blow of his sword and said gravely, “It’s not a human, it’s a despicable slave!”
In the past, Xie Lian had never heard of such things appearing on any mountain near the Imperial City. Even if there were any demons and monsters, they would be quickly wiped out by the Taoists of Huangji Temple. So, this group of despicable slaves could only have been deliberately placed here by someone.
Xie Lian hadn't anticipated the involvement of inhuman beings in this war. Reflecting on the clues he'd just seen, he felt more and more that the other party was in cahoots with Lang Ying, kidnapping Qi Rong simply to lure him out. But he couldn't dwell on it now. Each swing of his sword could neatly slice seven or eight slaves in half, but once the slaves appeared, they came in droves. Sure enough, the bushes and shrubs rustled and shook more and more violently, and more and more faceless, flesh-colored figures crawled out, pouring towards Xie Lian, and only towards him. He killed ten with a single blow, and twenty immediately rushed over. As Xie Lian continued to swing his sword, a slave from a tree took aim at his back and pounced from midair!
Unexpectedly, before it could even get close, it was cut off by a flash of cold light. Qi Rong had no weapon with him, so it was impossible for him to have cut it off. Xie Lian looked back and saw that it was the young soldier who had wielded the sword!
He'd been completely ditched by Xie Lian at the city gate, yet he'd still managed to follow them and find them. The young man wielded a battered sword, slashing through several slaves with a few swift strikes. It was quite effective. As they crawled, they secreted a highly sticky fluid, which made Qi Rong nauseous. He stomped hard on the head of a weaker slave several times, but found it wasn't very formidable. He wondered, "It's not that powerful, is it?"
Little did he know, this slave often appeared in conjunction with other ferocious, evil creatures. Xie Lian bit his lip, smeared two fingers of his right hand with blood, and swiped them evenly across the blade. Finally, he thrust the sword into Qi Rong's hand and said, "You two, take this sword and go! Nothing will dare approach you. If you hear anything on the way, don't look back. Remember, never look back!"
Qi Rong said: "Cousin! I..."
Xie Lian interrupted, "The powerful ones are back there. They won't be able to take care of you when they arrive. Why don't you go back and report the news?"
Qi Rong said nothing more, taking up his sword and running wildly. Xie Lian had already blessed the precious sword in his hand, and along the way, the slaves and other evil creatures dared not approach him, passing unimpeded and quickly disappearing. But the young soldier still didn't leave. Qi Rong had already left first, and Xie Lian didn't have a second sword to protect him. He had no choice but to switch swords for palms, striking back repeatedly. With the young man's strenuous cooperation, after an incense stick of time, all the slaves were finally eliminated.
The ground was covered in slime and corpses, and the stench was endless. After confirming that not a single slave had been left behind, Xie Lian calmed his breath, turned around, and said to the young man, "You are quite skilled with the sword."
The young man gripped the sword tightly. He was still breathing slightly, but he stood up straight and said, "Yes, yes."
Xie Lian said, “I wasn’t giving you an order, so why did you say yes? Why didn’t you say ‘yes’ when I ordered you to go back just now?”
The young man said, "Yes." Only then did he realize what was strange and stood up straighter. Xie Lian shook his head, thought for a moment, and then suddenly curled his lips and said, "But you are more suitable for using a knife."
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