After the Imperial Master jumped down, he asked in a half-moon voice, "Kemo, what's going on?"
As soon as she spoke, her voice was quite different from what Xie Lian had imagined. It sounded cold, but soft, like a sullen child mumbling to herself, not the cold, powerful voice of a child. If Xie Lian hadn't had good hearing, he probably wouldn't have been able to make it out. Ke Mo asked, "What's going on? They're all dead!"
The Imperial Master asked, "How could they all be dead?"
Ke Mo said, "It's all because you pushed them all down here and locked them up in this damn place!"
The Imperial Master asked, "Who's here? There's another person."
In reality, besides Ke Mo, there should have been two other "people" at the bottom of the pit. However, San Lang had no breath or heartbeat, and Ban Yue Imperial Preceptor couldn't detect any trace of his presence. Just now, there was chaos above, and she couldn't remember who had fallen and who had escaped. Therefore, she assumed it was only Xie Lian. Ke Mo said, "They were the ones who killed my soldiers. Are you happy now? Those you wanted to kill are finally all dead!"
The Imperial Master was silent for a while. After a while, a flame suddenly ignited in the darkness, revealing a girl in black holding a small flame in her palm.
The girl looked only fifteen or sixteen, her eyes dark. Not that she wasn't pretty, but she looked deeply unhappy. Bruise marks adorned her forehead and mouth, clearly visible in the firelight. The hand holding the fire seemed to tremble, causing the flames to quiver as well. If it hadn't been confirmed beforehand, no one would have guessed that Ban Yue's Imperial Preceptor was such a pale young woman.
The flames not only illuminated her, but also her surroundings. At her feet were the corpses of the armored Half Moon soldiers.
Xie Lian couldn't help but glance to the side.
Because the flame held by the Imperial Master was very small, it didn't fully illuminate the bottom of the Sinners' Pit. They were still shrouded in darkness. However, with the distant light, he could see a figure in red beside him. Although it was not clear, it was very close to his eyes, so he could still make out a vague picture. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Sanlang had originally been taller than him, but now he seemed even taller.
Xie Lian’s gaze slowly moved upwards, reaching the young man’s throat. He paused for a moment, then continued upwards, resting on his beautifully shaped jaw.
The upper half of Sanlang's face was still shrouded in darkness, but Xie Lian felt that the lower half seemed subtly different from before. While still handsome, the lines and contours seemed clearer.
Perhaps noticing his gaze, the face tilted slightly and turned towards him, with the corners of the lips slightly curved.
The curve of the curve was incredibly captivating. They were already very close, yet if they wanted to see the upper half of Sanlang's face clearly, they would have to get even closer. Unconsciously, Xie Lian took another step closer. Then, in the distance, a mournful wail could be heard. It must have been caused by witnessing the tragic scene firsthand, deeply disturbed. Xie Lian turned around. The Imperial Master, having heard his cry, looked completely blank. After a moment, he said, "Well, finally free."
Ke Mo was grieving and flew into a rage upon hearing this: "What do you mean by good?!"
This anger didn't seem fake at all; it seemed he truly hated the Imperial Master. The Imperial Master said, "All are freed."
She turned to Xie Lian in the darkness and asked, "Did you kill him?"
This sentence was surprisingly standard Chinese, and the tone wasn't questioning. Xie Lian said, "This was... an accident."
The Imperial Master asked again, "Who are you?"
Xie Lian said, “I am a priest from the Heavenly Court, and this is my friend.”
Ke Mo didn't understand, but he could tell they weren't arguing, so he asked cautiously, "What are you talking about?"
The Imperial Master's gaze slowly swept over Xie Lian, lingering on Sanlang for a moment before retracting. "No priest has ever come here before. I thought you had long since abandoned this place."
Xie Lian had originally thought he'd have a duel with Ban Yue Imperial Preceptor, but he was surprised to find her so completely dejected and lacking any fighting spirit. She then asked, "Are you guys leaving?"
This conversation was utterly bizarre, but Xie Lian remained calm and spoke to her, saying, "I want to get out, but there's a formation set up around me. I can't."
After hearing this, the Imperial Master walked to a high wall of the prison pit, stretched out his hand and traced the wall for a while, then turned around and said, "I opened it."
“…”
This is so easy to talk about.
Xie Lian didn't know what to say anymore. At that moment, a voice came from above, saying from afar, "Is there anyone down there?"
It was Fuyao's voice.
Xie Lian thought he heard San Lang beside him tsk his tongue. He immediately looked up and saw a figure in black looking down. He shouted, “Fuyao! I’m down there!”
After shouting, he waved his hand and Fuyao said from above: "How come you are really down there? What's down there?"
Xie Lian said, “There…are a lot of things down there. Why don’t you take a look for yourself?”
Fuyao seemed to think that hearing him speak was better than seeing for herself, so with a loud bang, she released a huge fireball and hurled it downwards. In an instant, the entire bottom of the Sinners' Pit was illuminated by the flames, as bright as day. Xie Lian finally saw clearly what kind of place he was standing in.
Surrounding him on all sides was a sea of blood and corpses piled high into a mountain. The bodies of countless Banyue soldiers lay piled one upon the other, their dark faces and arms, their gleaming armor, their purple-red blood. And where Xie Lian stood was the only clearing at the bottom of the Sinner's Pit, devoid of corpses.
All of this was done in an instant in the darkness after Saburo jumped down.
Xie Lian turned around again and looked at the young man beside him.
Just now, in the darkness, he had vaguely noticed that Sanlang had suddenly grown taller, and some subtle differences were also noticeable. Yet, now, under the bright firelight, the same handsome young man stood beside him. He smiled faintly when he saw him looking at him. Xie Lian lowered his head to check his wrists and boots. Sure enough, they were the same as before, nothing unusual. He understood. However, with Fuyao here, it would be best to hide to avoid any trouble. Just as he was thinking about this, there was a dull thud, and Fuyao also jumped down.
Xie Lian asked, “Aren’t you looking after the caravan?”
Fuyao had just come down and was still not used to the bloody smell at the bottom of the pit. Frowning, he fanned the air with his hand and said calmly, "I've been waiting for three hours and you haven't come back. I think something must have happened. I drew a circle for them to stay in. Come over and take a look first."
The circle he was referring to was naturally a protective ring, but Xie Lian still felt overwhelmed the moment he heard it. He said, "A circle like this won't last long. If you leave like this, they'll inevitably become suspicious. What will we do if we get out of the circle and run around?"
Fuyao disagreed and said, "If a person wants to die, even eight horses can't stop him. What can we do? What's going on with these two? Who are they with?"
He was wary of the other two at the bottom of the pit, but soon noticed Ke Mo, battered and battered, sprawled on the ground, struggling to move. Ban Yue Imperial Preceptor, with his head drooped, remained silent, a look of surprise on his face. Xie Lian said, "This is Ban Yue's general, and this is Ban Yue's Imperial Preceptor. Now they..."
Before he finished speaking, Ke Mo suddenly jumped up.
He had been lying there for so long that he finally gathered enough strength. He shouted, stood up, and struck Master Banyue with a palm.
A burly man beating up a little girl—a scene like this would have been impossible for Xie Lian to witness in the past. However, Ke Mo had every reason to hate the Imperial Master. The Imperial Master could have dodged, but he didn't. Xie Lian also didn't want to get involved in other people's grudges. Ke Mo said to the Imperial Master, "Where are your scorpion snakes? Come on, let them bite me to death! Quick, give me some freedom too!"
The Imperial Master was tossed around like a broken doll, and said sullenly, "Ke Mo, my snake won't listen to me."
Ke Mo spat, “Why don’t I bite you to death?”
The Imperial Master whispered, "I'm sorry, Ke Mo."
Ke Mo asked, "Do you really hate us so much?"
The Imperial Master shook his head. Ke Mo, however, became even angrier, saying, "Then you can seek revenge on whoever you hate! You're the Imperial Master, if you want to kill someone, just say so, and I won't help you do it! Why are you colluding with others to harm us?"
He grew increasingly angry as he spoke, and he grabbed the Imperial Master by the hair. Seeing that they were beating him harder and harder, and that it was a one-sided attack, Fuyao frowned and asked, "What are they talking about? Should we go up and stop them?"
Xie Lian couldn't bear to watch this any longer. He stepped forward, grabbed Ke Mo, and said gently, "General, I think there might be something between you two that hasn't been clarified yet. Please don't get too excited."
Ke Mo said, "What is there to say? It's crystal clear!"
Xie Lian couldn't put his finger on what was wrong, but he felt like he'd missed something important. Suddenly, the Imperial Master grabbed his wrist.
The grab was sudden, the grip tight. Xie Lian's heart sank at first, thinking she was taking advantage of the situation. But when he looked down again, he saw the Imperial Master sprawled on the ground, looking up at him with her dark eyes fixed on him, a hint of purple at the corners of her mouth, her lips trembling slightly. She clearly didn't say a word, yet it felt as if she had a thousand words to say. This scene resonated with a scene from a distant memory.
Instantly, Xie Lian blurted out, “It’s you?”
The Imperial Master also trembled and said, "...General Hua?"
Everyone at the bottom of the pit was stunned by this back and forth.
Fuyao rushed forward and knocked Ke Mo unconscious. She asked, "Do you know each other?"
Xie Lian had no time to answer him. He squatted down, grasped the Imperial Preceptor's shoulders, and examined her face carefully.
He had been too far away to clearly see her face, and the girl's appearance had changed as she grew older. Two hundred years had passed, and for various reasons, he hadn't recognized her face the first time around. But now, looking at her again, it was exactly the same face he remembered!
Xie Lian was in disbelief and speechless for a long time. After a long while, he sighed and said, "Half a month?"
The Imperial Preceptor suddenly grabbed his sleeve. His face, which had seemed so unhappy, suddenly became a little more lively and excited. He said, "It's me, General Hua. Do you still remember me?"
Xie Lian said, “Of course I remember you. But…”
He stared at the girl for a moment and sighed, "But how did you get yourself into this state?"
Hearing him say this, the Imperial Master's eyes suddenly filled with tears.
She whispered, "I'm sorry, Captain."
After saying this, she suddenly knelt down in front of him, with her forehead touching the ground, and then she didn't get up.
Xie Lian tried to help her up, but couldn't. His heart was in turmoil, and he finally rubbed his brow, feeling a splitting headache. He didn't want to say anything. However, after these few calls, the general and the captain, the hints were so obvious, how could anyone else not hear it?
Fuyao was slightly stunned and asked, "Captain? General? You? How could this happen?"
Xie Lian said, “…I also want to ask, why did this happen?”
He didn't answer directly. Sanlang's eyes were heavy, but he didn't ask any more questions. Fuyao was still stunned and asked, "Where is the general's tomb?"
Xie Lian said, “My tomb.”
Fuyao asked, "Didn't you say you came here two hundred years ago to collect scrap?"
Xie Lian looked at the black-clad girl lying on the ground, sighed again, and said, "This is really... hard to put into words."
About two hundred years ago, one day, Xie Lian planned to cross the Qinling Mountains and live in the south for a while. So, he took his compass and headed south. He felt depressed all the way. Why did the scenery seem a little off? It should have been lush and densely populated, so why was it becoming increasingly desolate? However, despite his doubts, he kept walking, until he reached the Gobi Desert. A strong wind blew him away, filling his mouth with sand. He realized that the compass he had been using had long been broken, and the directions it had pointed him to were all wrong!
There was nothing he could do about being pointed in the wrong direction. With the thought, "Since I'm already here, I might as well take a look at the desert scenery," Xie Lian continued on his way. However, he temporarily changed his destination to the northwest. He finally made it to the border and settled temporarily near the Half Moon Kingdom.
Xie Lian said slowly, "At first, I was just collecting scrap around here. However, life on the border was difficult, unrest was frequent, and there were often deserters, so the army would just randomly capture people to fill the numbers."
Sanlang asked, "Were you forcibly taken in?"
Xie Lian said, "I was captured, but it didn't matter what I did, so I just stayed a soldier. Later, I chased off a few border bandits, and somehow I was promoted to captain. People gave me face and called me General."
Fuyao asked again, "Why does she call you General Hua?"
Xie Lian waved his hand and said, “Don’t worry about that. I just picked a fake name at the time. I think it was called Hua Xie.”
Hearing the name, Sanlang's expression shifted slightly, the corners of his lips curling slightly, a subtle expression unclear. Xie Lian didn't notice and continued, "There's been a lot of fighting along the border, and there are many orphans. In my free time, I occasionally play with them. One of them... is named Banyue."
He shook his head and said, "I originally thought that the 'Ban Yue' in 'Ban Yue Imperial Preceptor' referred to the country, but I never expected that the Imperial Preceptor's name would actually be Ban Yue."
In his memory, the little girl named Ban Yue always had a very unhappy expression, with bruises all over her body and face. Whenever she looked at him, she would just look up at him with longing. She could speak Chinese and played with other children her own age from the Central Plains. Xie Lian never quite figured out where she was from, but he just took care of them whenever he saw them wandering around. When he had free time, he taught them songs, wrestling, and occasionally performing chest-breaking stone-breaking tricks. Because the child was so thin, he took extra care of her, sharing any extra cakes with them, and they had a good relationship.
Fuyao asked, "What happened next?"
Xie Lian said, “Later… it was pretty much as described on the stone tablet at the General’s Tomb.”
After a moment's silence, Sanlang said, "The stone tablet says you are dead."
When Xie Lian mentioned the stone tablet, he felt very depressed.
Aren't typical epitaphs supposed to extol the merits of the deceased, glorifying him as much as possible? It's fine to repeatedly denigrate him, but how could they even write down such a shameful death in such a serious manner? He couldn't bear to read this passage while taking shelter from the wind. If Sanlang, who could read Banyuewen, hadn't been watching, he would have pretended the part about the death wasn't on the stele. Even he wanted to laugh when he saw it, so how could he blame others for wanting to laugh too? People who came to his memorial to avoid the wind and sand read his deeds on the stele and commented on them, laughing heartily. He was too embarrassed to ask them not to laugh. It was really depressing.
Xie Lian felt his brows nearly redden from rubbing them. He said, “Ah, well, of course I’m not dead. I was just pretending.”
Sanlang remained silent, while Fuyao looked incredulous. Xie Lian replied, "After faking his death, he was thrown away as a corpse. Returning to the Central Plains, he only spent five or six years recovering from his injuries."
In truth, Xie Lian couldn't quite remember the exact details of his "death," or even why the two armies had fought. He only knew it was a rather trivial matter. He hadn't wanted to fight at all; winning or losing felt meaningless. However, by then, he'd reached the bottom of his rope, and no one listened. As the two sides were engaged in a fierce fight, he charged forward. Seeing him, both sides lashed out with swords and knives. Though indestructible, Xie Lian couldn't withstand such a blow. He thought, "This won't do!" He quickly threw himself to the ground, pretending to be dead. However, even his pretense of death was met with a stampede, leaving him unconscious. He awoke to the sound of choking on water. After the battle was cleaned up, the bodies had been dumped into the river. Xie Lian was swept back to the Central Plains like a pile of rubble. After recovering from his injuries and finally reaching his original destination in the south, he paid little attention to the affairs of the Half Moon Kingdom.
Ban Yue whispered again, "I'm sorry."
The author has something to say: I still prefer the CP name Hua Lian!
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