the truth
*
Energy surged within Wolf Howl Valley.
Xu Qingyao's Breaking Formation Shuttle clashed violently with the blue light emanating from Shen Rou's bone staff, producing a deafening clang like metal striking metal.
The air surged and blew, causing the black-robed figures beneath the altar to stagger.
"You really are different now." Shen Rou narrowed her eyes, a murderous glint in them. "But you think you can stop me with this little bit of cleverness?"
The meteorite fragment at the tip of the bone staff shone brightly with blue light, and more energy patterns appeared in the air, faintly forming a huge phantom of a frost wolf that pounced towards Xu Qingyao!
That was a pure mental shock, targeting Xu Qingyao's consciousness.
[Warning! High-intensity mental attack! Activate defense barrier!] The system notification sounded urgent.
Xu Qingyao felt a splitting headache, but an invisible barrier did indeed unfold in her sea of consciousness, barely holding back the tearing bites of the frost wolf phantom.
She gritted her teeth and thrust the Breaking Formation Shuttle at another node of the altar.
"Snap!"
Another energy pattern faded away.
Shen Rou's expression changed slightly, clearly not expecting Xu Qingyao to be able to withstand her mental attack and succeed again.
She snorted coldly, slammed her bone staff on the ground, and her chanting became high-pitched and sharp.
The altar trembled, and the dim totems began to absorb the life force of the surrounding black-robed figures, attempting to forcibly maintain the formation.
"Witch! I am your opponent!" Upon seeing this, Liu Rushuang wielded her twin swords with impenetrable speed, desperately attacking the top of the altar in an attempt to interrupt Chen Rou's chanting.
Meanwhile, outside Yanyun Pass, Xiao Zhouyan, following the direction of the signal fireworks, broke through the encirclement alone, temporarily handing over the battle of the pass to his deputy general.
He knew that Xu Qingyao would never have released that firework unless she was in a life-or-death situation.
The Akhal-Teke horse reared up on all fours and galloped wildly toward Wolf Howl Valley.
Inside the valley, under the precise guidance of the system, Xu Qingyao destroyed three energy nodes in succession.
The light from the altar began to flicker erratically, and the enormous phantom of the portal in the air began to distort.
"Enough!"
Shen Rou was furious. She abandoned maintaining the entire formation and concentrated the energy accumulated in her bone staff into a single point, transforming it into a solid blue spear of light. With the momentum to tear through space, it shot straight at Xu Qingyao's heart!
This attack was so fast that it was impossible to avoid!
Xu Qingyao's pupils contracted sharply, and the shadow of death instantly loomed over her.
At the critical moment—
"Qingyao! Get out of the way!"
A loud shout exploded like a thunderclap.
Xiao Zhouyan's figure leaped down from the cliff top like a god, his black cloak fluttering in the air.
He drew his longsword, its sword energy like a dragon, and met the blue spear of light head-on without any fancy moves.
Boom—!!!
A deafening explosion rang out, and an energy shockwave swept across the entire valley.
Xiao Zhouyan was jolted backward, his tiger's mouth split open, blood staining the hilt of his sword, but he stood firmly in front of Xu Qingyao.
Seeing that her strongest attack had been blocked, and seeing Xiao Zhouyan arrive, Shen Rou knew that things were hopeless.
She glared at Xu Qingyao with resentment and crushed a jade talisman in her hand without hesitation.
"escape!"
His figure blurred instantly, turning into a streak of light as he tried to escape.
"Trying to leave?"
Xiao Zhouyan forcefully gathered his inner strength, and his sword energy rose again. Although he failed to leave Shen Rou behind, he accurately slashed at the meteorite fragment at the top of the bone staff.
"puff!"
The fragments shattered, and the blue light completely dissipated.
Without its core energy source, the altar collapsed with a roar, and the distorted teleportation portal in the air vanished inch by inch like a shattered mirror.
Somewhere in the northern border region, the Lebanese cavalry, who were charging forward, suddenly felt a strange power dissipate, causing a commotion within the army and halting their offensive.
The pressure on the garrison at Yanyun Pass has been greatly reduced.
The dust has settled in Wolf Howl Valley.
Xu Qingyao collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Looking at the tall, blood-stained figure blocking her way, she was overwhelmed with mixed emotions.
Xiao Zhouyan turned around, reached out and pulled her up, checking her for injuries: "Are you hurt anywhere?"
Xu Qingyao looked into his worried eyes. Although he didn't ask, she knew that some secrets could no longer be hidden.
At this moment, dawn broke over the northern frontier.
The morning light pierced through the smoke of battle in Wolf Howl Valley, illuminating Xiao Zhouyan's blood-stained profile.
He gripped Xu Qingyao's wrist with tremendous force, as if he wanted to extract the secrets hidden deep within her bones and blood.
Before Xu Qingyao could speak, the system suddenly issued a sharp alarm: [Residual mental imprint of Chen Rou detected! At the moment the altar was destroyed, she implanted fragments of her memories into the host's consciousness!]
A sharp pain pierced my mind, and countless images surged forth—
In his past life, Xiao Zhouyan died on the battlefield, and the Zhenbei Army was wiped out; Xu Qingyao was consumed by a great fire; while Shen Rou, wearing a phoenix crown, stood beside Yan Zhan, her feet resting on the mountains and rivers of the Great Zhou Dynasty...
"Hmm..."
She curled up, drenched in cold sweat.
"Qingyao!"
Xiao Zhouyan hurriedly embraced her, only to see that her eyes were filled with unprecedented grief and fear.
That wasn't the look she should have in her eyes; it was more like... the gaze of a soul who had endured many hardships.
“Zhouyan…” Xu Qingyao grabbed his collar, trembling, and blurted out, “Don’t go to the northern frontier…you’ll die…”
The words came to an abrupt halt.
The two froze simultaneously—
Xiao Zhouyan's pupils suddenly contracted, and the arm around her tightened instantly.
The words "You will die" were like icicles, piercing the thin morning air of Wolf Howl Valley and all his doubts.
Xu Qingyao bit her lower lip hard, her grief replaced by remorse.
She said the worst thing she could have said!
"I……"
She tried to explain, but her mind was in chaos due to the forced influx of fragmented memories. The resentful look in Shen Rou's eyes before her death intertwined with the image of Xiao Zhouyan being wrapped in a horse's hide in her previous life.
Xiao Zhouyan didn't speak, but stared at her intently, his gaze so sharp it seemed to want to dissect her soul.
He wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with his fingertips, but the movement carried an undeniable force: "Which northern front? When?"
His voice was deep and steady, yet it contained a storm within it.
Xu Qingyao was in a state of utter confusion. The system was frantically issuing warnings in her mind: [Warning! Seriously deviating from the plot! Warning!]
But she was no longer able to think any further.
Under his intense gaze, those long-suppressed secrets were almost about to burst forth.
"It's...it's Shen Rou..." she gasped, trying to pin the truth on the recent events, "She just...used some kind of evil magic...I saw...some illusions..."
"Illusion?" Xiao Zhouyan repeated the two words, but his eyes clearly showed his disbelief.
He had seen her composure when facing assassins and her skillful maneuvering at palace banquets; she was definitely not the kind of person who would lose her composure or utter shocking words in the face of mere "illusions".
Moreover, the phrase "you will die" carries a fear that is far too specific.
Just then, Liu Rushuang walked over carrying two blood-dripping swords and interrupted them nonchalantly: "Hey, are you two alright? That witch ran away, and half of this godforsaken place has collapsed... Huh?"
She noticed the unusually tense atmosphere between them and blinked.
Xiao Zhouyan took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing his questions, and picked Xu Qingyao up in his arms: "Let's leave here first."
He needed to find a completely safe place to find out what secrets his wife was hiding and where the "prophecy" about his death came from.
Xu Qingyao buried her face in his blood-stained clothes, her heart surging with emotion.
The secret has been partially revealed, and Xiao Zhouyan will not let it go unpunished.
...
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