A Century of Cause and Effect
Blazing Fire
What is Karmic Debt and What is Innocence
Who can tell?
Countless smoke and embers are flying on the horizon
Seven｜No Regrets in Ashes
The first time Temur heard of the "fifth-generation descendant of Lai Buyi" was when he captured the city of Datong.
The severe winter had just passed, and spring came with lush grass and singing birds. The snow had not yet melted, and the soil was soft. The horses' hooves kicked up mud and splashed it everywhere. The strong wind made the camp flags crackle, and the wind blowing from the grassland was extremely fierce.
He sat in the military tent, his face as cold as iron, and there was a murderous aura between his brows that was difficult to dissipate. He could not muster such momentum without having taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Several captured Central Plains scholars knelt before the tent and said that there was a descendant of Lai Buyi named Lai Siyuan who was proficient in dividing gold and determining blood, and could determine yin and yang houses. He would definitely be able to help the general find the Yuan Dynasty treasure and help the Jin army conquer the Central Plains in one fell swoop.
He has always scoffed at these illusory things.
He only respected heaven and war, and his life came from horseback, so why did he need all these empty feng shui and numerology? But at this time, the army was running out of food, and countless meritorious soldiers bowed their heads and waited for rewards for their military achievements, and the army's morale was in turmoil.
Those useless shamans kept silent about the war, and no oracle was given.
The battle for the Central Plains was still a long way off. Temur sat in silence all night looking at the animal skin map, his eyes full of greed and calculation.
He ran his fingertips across Shuntian Prefecture and then slowly moved to the word Chang'an. He smiled coldly.
"Once Chang'an City is captured, I will capture her. I want to see how rich the Yuan Dynasty's treasure is. It is so desirable."
After the fall of Tongguan, no matter how hard Chang'an City resisted, the Jin army's iron hooves still poured into the city like a tide.
Lai Siyuan was "invited" to the Jin army. Those people were afraid that she would use Taoist magic, so they broke her right thumb and index finger and then tied her hands behind her back.
Lai Siyuan, with his long hair loose, was taken to a prison van bound for the Mongolian grasslands.
The carriages sped along, with the Jin army flags flying high and moving unimpeded. They quickly passed through Taiyuan and Datong and headed straight into the Mongolian grasslands.
The road was dusty. She lowered her head with her long hair covering her face. The scattered hair blocked her eyes. The strong wind blew mud and sand onto her face. No one knew what she was thinking.
Temur set up camp deep in the grassland. The sky and earth were vast and the grass was endless. The military flag was hung high in front of the tent.
When they first met, Temur looked down at her and said in a stern tone, "I heard you can find dragons and explore the tombs of emperors? If so, please help me find the tomb of the Great Yuan Khan."
Lai Siyuan raised his eyes, looked at him calmly, and said lightly: "The Khan's tomb is hidden in the secrets of heaven. It is not destined for you or me."
She knelt on the ground neither servile nor arrogant, her back as straight as a pine tree. Although she was wearing a prison uniform, her hair was disheveled and she was a woman, she had an air of fearlessness.
A flash of anger flashed in Temur's eyes. He had always believed in strength and courage. On the battlefield, life and death were clearly decided. He did not believe in this empty fate. But the woman's words in front of him made him feel a little fearful.
He sneered, "But your life is in my hands. If you bet on her, I won't give her a single drop of water or a single grain of rice. Let's see how long she can keep her mouth shut. Then I'll bring in the next one."
Lai Siyuan was pushed and twisted out of the tent by the soldiers. Another man with disheveled hair was escorted past her. The man was very skilled in Taoism and had a fishy smell of dirt on his body. Lai Siyuan looked back at the man.
She was locked in a crude tent, which was pitched crudely. The wind blew in through every crack, and the grassland was freezing cold at night.
When food and water were cut off, the soldiers outside jokingly said, "If you have the ability to divide gold and settle accounts, why not find yourself a bowl of water first?"
She sat in silence, with no emotion in her eyes, only a dead calm.
It was already late at night, and even the guards at the edge of the camp were squatting in a corner, breathing out white steam, and holding firewood to keep warm.
A dark shadow quietly emerged from between the horses and the wagon, avoiding the firelight, lifted the curtain at the edge of the torn tent, and jumped.
The black shadow slipped in, and in the moonlight, it could be seen that it was a small, dirty cat with tangled fur, and even the white hair on its belly had turned gray. It was holding dried meat in its mouth and staggered to her legs.
Lai Siyuan looked down at her and frowned.
"Henning, why don't you listen?"
Yi Ning rubbed her fingertips, put the dried meat in his mouth into her palm, and lay quietly on her lap, staring at her with his clear yellow eyes.
"The price of being obedient is losing you. I don't want to be obedient. Eat quickly. Don't starve."
"Okay." Lai Siyuan picked up the dried meat, tore off strips along the grain, and chewed slowly. Her other hand carefully stroked Yi Ning's messy hair. "I'm sorry for making you suffer."
"Xiao Wu!" The cat's pupils turned vertical in anger. "It's not your fault. Why are you apologizing?"
She enlarged her cat body and stood in the tent like a tiger. She said to Lai Siyuan, "Now that it's night and there are few people around, I will help you escape."
Lai Siyuan shook his head. "Two fists can't beat four legs. There are too many of them. You can't escape with me, and you shouldn't hurt anyone for my sake."
Monsters who cultivate immortality cannot hurt or kill people. If they kill someone, their immortal path will be ruined and they will be low-level animals for the rest of their lives. They are beings that can be insulted by ordinary spirits, and this is unacceptable to any intelligent creature.
She took the cat in her arms and used her ragged prison uniform to wipe the dust off her fur. "This is my fate. Going against my will will only make the consequences more horrible."
"Xiaowu!" Her voice trembled.
Yi Ning transformed into a human form in her arms, nestled into her shoulder and cried softly, "I don't want it. What destiny? Bullshit."
Lai Siyuan hugged her with a smile, patting her back from time to time. Although there was a smile on the corners of his lips, his eyes were red.
When she had cried enough, Lai Siyuan said, "Good girl, you have to be obedient this time. I need you to help me collect gunpowder to set up a formation."
Yi Ning raised his head, tears still lingering in the corners of his eyes. "Gunspowder?"
Lai Siyuan said "hmm," and asked her to get off him. He then drew a pattern in the mud with his unpracticed left index finger. "Walk twenty miles north from the Jin army camp, then five miles south. Bury the gunpowder underground according to my pattern."
Yi Ning looked at the picture and looked up at her blankly, "Why do you do this?"
"The other person they brought with them is quite skilled. If I'm not mistaken, he's probably a tomb robber. That's where the dragon energy is. He'll probably lead them there. If they get the treasure in the tomb, the Jin army will be able to wipe out our troops fleeing south in one fell swoop. I can't let them find the Khan's tomb."
Lai Siyuan's eyes were bright and he pulled her hand almost pleadingly.
Yi Ning knelt on the edge of the mud, glanced at her, then lowered his head to stare at the picture, watching Lai Siyuan's fingers draw the direction of the guide line stroke by stroke, and was silent for a long time.
She suddenly raised her head, her voice soft but with an unprecedented certainty:
"Xiaowu, are you going to go to hell with them?"
Lai Siyuan paused for a moment and said softly, "I can't."
Yi Ning's hand tightly grasped the corner of her sleeve, "Don't lie to me."
Lai Siyuan looked down at her, his eyes so gentle that they seemed to squeeze water out of them.
"The end of life is death. Honey, I can't escape it. If you don't help me, my death will be meaningless."
The cold wind howled outside the tent, blowing in through the gaps and making people feel cold.
Yi Nian turned around, transformed back into a cat and rushed out of the tent. She stopped crying, not even shedding a single tear, but her fur quietly stood up in the wind, like a completely enraged beast.
Damn fate, die, all of you die, all of you die!
Her anger made her dig the soil with extra energy. She was thinking in her mind, while burying the gunpowder fuse, how to leave Xiaowu a glimmer of hope, and how to leave a way for herself to run in and save Xiaowu.
These days, Yi Ning ran around the grassland, digging soil in the grass to bury gunpowder during the day, and stealing meat and clean water from everywhere to send to Lai Siyuan at night.
The Jin army's guards became increasingly strict, and there were even a few more spirit mediums and shamans in the camp. Yi Ning had to be very careful to sneak into Guan Lai Siyuan's tent.
"They have been moving more frequently. The man you mentioned, Xiaowu, seems to have surrendered. When I just came in, I saw that he was living in a very nice tent and was dressed decently." Yi Ning stuffed the steamed bun in his mouth to Lai Siyuan.
Lai Siyuan took the steamed bun and ate it in small bites. She nodded, "They came this morning and told me to think it over carefully. Tomorrow morning is the deadline. I guess they will set out to find the Khan's tomb tomorrow."
Lai Siyuan touched her head and asked her, "Are you done?"
Yi Ning didn't answer, but nestled into her arms, burying his head in the crook of her neck and humming softly, his little mouth rubbing against her smooth skin. Seeing her expression, Lai Siyuan guessed that she had already made all the arrangements. "So good."
Yi Ning's voice came from his ear, "Xiao Wu, is it really necessary to do this?"
The meadow outside the tent was chilly, but Lai Siyuan didn't feel cold at all. The little guy in his arms was so warm. Before he learned to transform, the furry little guy snuggled up to him and kept him warm. Now that he learned to transform, he was still warm.
She didn't answer, but just tightened her arms and leaned her head against her hair, saying softly, "I had a dream last night. I dreamed that you used to climb up the jujube tree at the old house to pick jujubes for me. I'll tell you a little secret. I don't really like eating jujubes. Eating too many will make me bloated, but seeing you enjoying picking them, I ate them all too."
"I wonder if the jujube tree at the old house is still there. Their carriage was so fast when they came here that they didn't have time to take a last look."
When she said this, she choked up. After all, she was just an ordinary woman, with emotions, joy, anger, sorrow and happiness. How could she not be sad?
“What a pity…”
Yi Ning stubbornly held her mouth shut, baring his fangs as he threatened her, "Don't say that. You won't die. If you do, I'll rush to the end of the sky and tear the Heavenly Dao apart."
Lai Siyuan did not laugh at the little cat demon for being ignorant of the immensity of the world. He raised his hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes and touched her face, as if he was remembering something, or as if he was slowly saying goodbye.
"Henning, when everything is over, you must cultivate well. When you become an immortal, maybe I can be reborn as a human again. Then..."
She lowered her eyes and laughed at herself.
"Forget it. After drinking Meng Po soup, I will no longer be myself after reincarnation. You become an immortal and go see that child. If she is well, then so am I."
Yi Ning didn't say anything else, but pursed his lips tightly, fearing that his tears would disturb the guards outside. He just hugged her tightly, buried his head in her shoulder, and refused to lift it up.
The wind outside the tent blew in gusts, making the torn tent cloth rustle. The firelight flickered and appeared from time to time. The night was like a huge beast, swallowing up all the light.
Lai Siyuan patted her back gently, his fingertips stroking the ends of her hair one by one, as if he was coaxing a child who was tired of crying, or as if he was comforting his last bit of thoughts.
Her voice was as low as the wind. "You always asked me before if there were any immortals in the world, and if people who cultivated immortality would never die."
"I didn't know how to answer you then. Cultivating immortality depends on opportunity, but I haven't had that chance in my lifetime." She paused, "Now I know how to answer you."
Yi Ning asked sullenly, "How are you going to answer?"
"As long as you still remember me and don't forget me, I will not die. I will live in your heart forever."
Yi Ning finally raised his head, his eyes red, "Since the day Xiao Wu saved me, I will never forget you. How could I forget you?"
Lai Siyuan touched her face and smiled gently. That smile was like the warm breeze in March, short but gentle.
She tightened her arms and hugged the little guy tightly.
"Let me hold you for a while longer, it's almost dawn."
Yi Ning nodded and curled up in her arms again.
They hugged each other like this, so close that they could hear each other's heartbeats, and hugged each other so tightly that they wished they could melt into each other's flesh and blood.
The wind gradually died down, the night was dark, but the tent was warm.
Waking up from the chaos, Lai Siyuan opened his eyes and saw three burly men standing in front of him. "Have you slept enough? Have you thought it through? We are going on the road. Life or death, it's up to you to decide."
Lai Siyuan sat up straight and touched the place where the little guy had kissed him last night. There was no warmth left.
She replied calmly: "I'll go with you."
The leading officer spat, "If you had agreed earlier, you would have suffered less. You Han Chinese are always so hypocritical."
Lai Siyuan requested clean clothes, a compass, talisman paper, and a fire starter. She lagged behind the man in Taoist robes, observing him quietly.
Those people called him Taoist Xiahou, a rare double surname. She vaguely guessed his origins. He was truly following in his father's footsteps. She silently laughed at him.
"That's it." She used the compass to slowly correct the path pointed by Taoist Xiahou. "I was wrong. The dragon energy is indeed overflowing from the direction Taoist Lai Wu mentioned. Go south."
Temur followed the two of them with his head held high. Seeing them holding the compass and counting with their fingers, he couldn't help but sneer. The Han people had so many tricks up their sleeves.
The Mongolian grassland was boundless, and the two hundred or so people were searching here like looking for a needle in a haystack. After walking for most of the day, they were already far away from the camp. The setting sun cast their shadows extremely long.
The wind was blowing from the end of the grassland, carrying the fragrance of green grass. Dusk was approaching, but the sky was not yet completely dark, and everything fell into a strange silence.
Taoist Xiahou suddenly stopped and said: "We're here, the dragon energy is rising to the sky, the dragon veins are stretching, the stars! It's exactly in this direction, the tomb entrance is here!" He pointed to a piece of land under the stars in the east.
He has some skills. Lai Siyuan looked at him with a hint of admiration in his eyes.
Temur raised his eyebrows and looked around. The grassland was vast. The terrain in that direction was indeed higher, and there seemed to be air flowing from there.
Lai Siyuan confirmed him: "It is indeed over there. We are standing on the treasure bowl of Longqikou." She quietly took out a fire starter from her sleeve.
Temur shouted to the two hundred elite soldiers present: "Go over there and take a look."
Lai Siyuan quietly moved two steps to the side, kicked away the thing hidden in the soil, and the fire starter fell to the ground, and the fuse scatters quickly with a hissing sound.
The smell of gunpowder spread, and seeing the fire on the ground, Temur's face suddenly changed.
"You! Retreat!" He turned around and ran out.
But it was too late. Beneath this seemingly peaceful meadow, a pillar of fire suddenly erupted.
Lai Siyuan specifically asked Yi Ning to bury gunpowder at the Dragon Qi Mouth because the Qi gathered here. In this place, even the Yingxing flames could be blown into a raging fire, let alone such a large amount of gunpowder.
Boom! The sound of gunpowder exploding came one after another.
The flames pierced the night sky, the fire waves surged, people were blown to pieces, war horses and camels neighed because of the fire, the whole meadow was like purgatory, with heat waves surging.
Yi Ning flew over from a distance, demonic power poured into his meridians, and he expanded like a mountain tiger, running along the breathing hole he had reserved in advance.
She ran wildly all the way and rushed into the center of the explosion. The flames twisted behind her. She rushed to the depths of the sea of fire, where thick smoke billowed and charred corpses were everywhere.
"Xiaowu!"
Her roar almost broke through the waves of fire.
A voice came back from not far away: "You are disobedient again."
The firelight illuminated her way forward. She turned her head and saw Lai Siyuan half-kneeling on the ground. His clothes were burnt and his sleeves were torn. His beautiful long hair was dry. His left hand hung limply, and the three fingers of his right hand were trying to push away a charred person.
Taoist Priest Xiahou had been burned halfway to a crisp, but he still held onto her legs tightly, screaming from his throat: "I never intended to hurt you, why did you hurt me! You can't leave! You're going to hell!"
"I know I will go to hell." Lai Siyuan said to him expressionlessly.
She looked up at Yi Ning who was rushing towards her. The little fellow's beautiful fur had become curled and burnt yellow by the heat. She touched her fur distressedly, "What are you doing here?"
Tears streamed from the cat's eyes. She opened her mouth and tugged at her sleeve: "Xiao Wu! I'll take you away!"
"He's holding me back, I can't leave. If you're any later, you won't be able to leave either."
The next moment, she placed a lightening talisman in front of Yi Ning's cat head and whispered:
"Be good and listen to me."
He pushed his palm suddenly, and all the energy in his body was poured out, and Yi Ning was pushed away fiercely.
In an instant, the flames attacked again and engulfed the two people here.
Yi Ning was pushed very far and rolled several times outside the fire before stopping.
When the fuse burned to the very edge, flames shot up into the sky and, with the help of the wind, turned into a raging fire.
"Xiaowu!"
"Xiaowu!"
Yi Ning turned back into human form, knelt down and screamed heart-wrenchingly.
The only response she got was the burning heat waves on the endless meadow.
***
postscript
Historical records show that when the Jin army captured Tongguan, the grassland was cold and windy, and flames shot up into the sky at night, as if it was a punishment from the gods.
Timur's troops went deep into Mongolia to find the tomb of the Yuan Dynasty, but they failed to find the treasure and were burned to death by fire.
Hundreds of soldiers were buried silently in the wilderness. The fire burned for three days before God took pity on them and sent down sweet rain to extinguish it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
