clash
...
On the canal wharf where the smoke of battle has dissipated, the blood totem on Chen Rou's fingertips is shocking and glaring.
Xu Qingyao bent down to examine it closely. The pattern resembled a wolf but was not quite a wolf, with a single horn growing from its forehead.
She immediately asked the system in her mind, "Hey, scan this pattern!"
[Scanning...Identified as the 'Frost Wolf' totem worshipped by the northern border tribes of the Li Kingdom, with a 99% match rate with the core marker of the 'Large Space Teleportation Array' in the database.]
Warning: An abnormal energy convergence has been detected in the northern border region, suggesting that the formation may be on the verge of activation.
Xu Qingyao was deeply shaken, not by doubt, but by certainty!
Apart from her, no one knew that Shen Rou was a reincarnated person, and naturally no one could understand why Shen Rou could set up such a killing scheme that was beyond the understanding of the present day.
To outsiders, this might seem like a secret technique of the Li Kingdom, but Xu Qingyao understood that Shen Rou had used information from her past life's memories!
"Northern Frontier...altar..." Shen Rou's voice was barely audible, but a strange smugness, the kind only Xu Qingyao could decipher, belonging to someone who knew the future, flashed in her eyes. "Yan Zhan's...ambush...has already..."
Before she could finish speaking, her head lolled to the side, and she breathed her last.
"He committed suicide by poison."
After examining the totem, Xiao Zhouyan said in a deep voice, staring at the blood totem with a furrowed brow, "This totem is indeed a symbol of the northern frontier tribes, but the so-called teleportation of an army... I have never heard of such a thing. Even if Yan Zhan has extraordinary abilities, how could he have transported hundreds of thousands of troops to the border so quietly?"
He and everyone else believed that this was either Shen Rou's pre-death rhetoric or an exaggeration by the Li Kingdom.
Only Xu Qingyao knew that this was very likely true!
Chen Rouding used the advantage of rebirth to find a secret method or path that was known in her previous life but had not been valued.
She couldn't speak directly about her rebirth, so she could only urgently grab Xiao Zhouyan's wrist: "It's better to believe it's true! Yan Zhan is unfathomable, and he may have methods we don't know about. If there really is an ambush, Yan Yun Pass will be the first to bear the brunt, and the Third Princess will be in danger!"
Seeing her unprecedentedly solemn expression, Xiao Zhouyan, though finding the teleportation matter incomprehensible, dared not be negligent as it concerned the safety of the Third Princess Chu Xue Zhao and the stability of the border: "In any case, the Northern Frontier must be on high alert immediately!"
That night, the atmosphere inside the Yangzhou government office was tense.
Xu Zhiyuan pointed to the map of the northern frontier: "We have already sent a message to Yanyun Pass by hawk to warn them, but if... if there is even a one in ten thousand chance as Shen Rou said, conventional reinforcements may not be able to arrive in time."
Xu Qingyao's brain was working at lightning speed, while the system was analyzing the totem structure and energy source in the background.
She needed to find a plausible excuse to guide the crowd:
"I once saw a similar totem in a tattered ancient book, which recorded an evil formation called 'Blood Leads the Way Home,' which might... might be able to shorten the marching route?"
It might not be a true teleportation ability, but if it could greatly increase marching speed, it would be a huge threat! Shen Rou specifically drew this before her death; the location of the altar must be key!
This explanation sounds more readily accepted by current understanding than "spatial teleportation," but it points to the core issue—the altar or key point must be destroyed.
Xiao Zhouyan made a decisive decision: "Whether it's true or false, we must stop it! I will lead a light cavalry north overnight to reinforce Yanyun Pass and try to find this altar."
"I'm going to find the altar!"
Xu Qingyao blurted out. Seeing everyone looking at her, she quickly added, "I have a deeper impression of the ancient book's illustrations, so I might be able to identify the location faster. Besides, my identity is not easy to attract attention, so I can investigate secretly."
Her real strength lies in the system's scanning and navigation capabilities.
Liu Rushuang immediately stepped forward: "I'll go with Qingyao! I'm good at fighting and breaking formations!"
Suddenly, a hawk cried out outside the window.
A secret letter from the Fifth Prince, Chu Huaijin, has arrived:
"Urgent message from the Northern Frontier: The Third Princess is trapped at Yanyun Pass. The enemy's offensive is strange, and there are occasional flashes of strange light in the formation, as if some evil magic is helping them."
The intelligence confirmed the crisis. Although it was not explicitly stated that the teleportation was being carried out, the "strange light" and "evil magic" had already made Xiao Zhouyan and others wary.
"There's no time to lose!"
Xiao Zhouyan looked at Xu Qingyao with a resolute gaze, "I will head north to provide aid, you will travel west to find the altar. Be careful!"
Xu Qingyao nodded emphatically, gripping the blueprint for the Breaking Formation Shuttle that the system in his sleeve had just urgently optimized based on totem analysis.
Only she knew that this was not an ordinary military operation, but a covert confrontation targeting the reborn's prophetic advantage.
Under a bright moon and sparse stars, several riders quietly left Yangzhou and went to two different places.
What they didn't know was that in the distant northern frontier, in a hidden altar, the real Shen Rou was watching the illusory image of the frost wolf slowly rotating in her palm, a cold smile playing on her lips.
She exploited the information gaps among everyone, successfully turning the northern border into the final chessboard, waiting only for her prey to enter the game.
*
The official road heading north was dusty, and Xiao Zhouyan led his light cavalry day and night, but he kept thinking about Xu Qingyao's unusually firm determination.
He had no recollection of the "ancient books" she mentioned, but the sharpness in her eyes at that moment seemed to reveal some truth that he could not reach.
Meanwhile, Xu Qingyao and Liu Rushuang changed course and headed west, following the system's tracking of totem energy, heading straight for Wolf Howling Valley deep in the northern frontier.
"Miss, the border is just ahead, and the guards are checking things very strictly." Tsukimi looked worriedly at the distant checkpoint.
Liu Rushuang grinned and pulled out a token: "What a coincidence! Last time I beat up a blind border captain, I also took his pass!"
The three successfully passed the test and ventured deep into the wilderness.
The system navigation flashed in my mind:
[Warning: A high-intensity spatial distortion field has been detected ahead, suspected to be the core of the main altar.]
As night fell, eerie chants could be faintly heard from the depths of Wolf Howl Valley.
Xu Qingyao lay prone on the cliff and looked down. He saw flames shooting into the sky at the bottom of the valley, and a black stone altar stood in the center, its rim carved with frost wolf totems. Hundreds of black-robed figures knelt in worship around it, and at the top of the altar—
It was none other than Shen Rou, who should have died in Yangzhou!
She held a bone staff, the meteorite fragment embedded at the top of which emitted an eerie blue light, causing ripples in the air.
"He's still alive..." Xu Qingyao thought to himself. "System, analyze the altar's weaknesses!"
[Core weakness: Meteorite fragments. However, forcibly destroying them may trigger a spatial explosion. It is recommended to use the Breaking Shuttle to penetrate the energy node and gradually dismantle it.]
Xu Qingyao took out the array-breaking shuttle he had secretly prepared and whispered to Liu Rushuang, "Miss Liu, I need you to create chaos and distract the guards."
"Leave it to me!" Liu Rushuang brandished her twin swords and swooped down the cliff like a red eagle.
In the instant chaos erupted, Xu Qingyao took advantage of the darkness to sneak to the edge of the altar, and the array-breaking shuttle precisely pierced an energy pattern!
The blue light on the altar suddenly dimmed.
"court death!"
Shen Rou suddenly turned around, her bone staff pointing directly at Xu Qingyao.
Two invisible forces collided in mid-air—
It is a clash between the reborn's precognitive abilities and the system's computational power from a distance.
Meanwhile, at Yanyun Pass, a hundred miles away, the battle was at a stalemate.
Xiao Zhouyan fought valiantly, when suddenly he saw a familiar signal firework rising behind the enemy lines—it was the crisis distress signal that Xu Qingyao had promised him before leaving the capital.
He swept his longsword horizontally and roared at his guards, "Wei Yi, this is yours to handle—"
The spirited horse broke through the encirclement and galloped towards Wolf Howl Valley.
The threads of fate suddenly tightened under the blood-red moonlight.
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