Chapter 709: Talking at Cross purposes [Two-in-One]
Ning Yan looked at the branch pressed against her throat, sheathed her sword, and said, "I have lost. My lord's swordsmanship is superb. I am no match for it."
Shen Tang revealed a hint of smugness.
He twirled a complex sword dance with a tree branch and said, "Everyone has their own expertise; swordsmanship is not Tu Nan's forte."
Ning Yan smiled and shook her head, but there was a hint of bitterness in her smile.
Helplessly, he said, "My lord, you are mistaken."
Her swordsmanship has always been excellent, and it's one of her specialties.
Shen Tang countered, "Where did I go wrong?"
"Everyone has their own expertise. Of the six arts of a gentleman, I once specialized in swordsmanship. However, it's true that I haven't taken it seriously for many years. It's easy to put it down, but not easy to pick it up again." Ning Yan lowered her eyes and stroked her sword, her gaze filled with deep love, as if she were gazing at a lover she hadn't seen for many years, even her fingertips were filled with tenderness. "Now I'm cramming at the last minute, I don't know..."
Shen Tang really didn't know about this.
In fact, if you asked Xu Jie, he might tell Shen Tang that Ning Yan's swordsmanship was indeed amazing in her youth. Among so many students in the academy, few were better at swordsmanship than her, and the few who were better had the advantage of being tempered by literary energy and being young. However, as Ning Yan grew older and gradually accepted that she was destined to be an ordinary person because of her female identity, she subconsciously became somewhat self-deprecating.
She put away her prized sword, which she cherished dearly.
She would only practice swordplay with Yan An occasionally when she felt like it, but not often. She had abandoned swordsmanship, and her talent for it had abandoned her as well. After Ning Yan condensed her literary spirit, she picked it up again, but she could never recapture the flashes of inspiration and exhilarating feeling of those days…
Her swordsmanship follows the orthodox path, but now it's only at a mediocre level, completely lacking the ethereal and amazing skill of her younger days.
"Last-minute cramming?" Shen Tang keenly noticed Ning Yan's choice of words. "But Tu Nan is a scholar of the literary world, and most of them are stationed in the rear. It seems that people like Wu Hui are the heretics. Since you've already put it down, why force yourself to pick it up again?"
Shen Tang's ideas differed from Ning Yan's.
No matter what it is or what it is, once it's in the past and has been let go, regret and remedial efforts are meaningless. Of course, she wasn't trying to discourage Ning Yan from giving up. She just wanted to subtly tell her not to get stuck in the past, that her future lay ahead!
Ning Yan swiftly drew half of the sword.
The snow-white blade reflected an indifferent face.
She said, "Because I'm going to kill someone."
Shen Tang knew who it was immediately: "Zheng Qiao?"
Ning Yan: "I will avenge my husband's death with my own hands!"
Zheng Qiao killed not only her beloved husband and her daughter's respected father, but also her lifelong confidant, friend, and like-minded person.
"If I can't kill Zheng Qiao with my own hands, I feel I'll never be able to overcome my inner demons." Ning Yan gripped the hilt of her sword tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force, her eyes flashing with murderous intent. "Those whom Xingning didn't kill, those whom he didn't cleanse, I will kill them all, I will cleanse them completely. I haven't dared to mention Xingning much all these years, because every time I think of him, I think of his final moments..."
They couldn't even leave behind a complete corpse.
Ning Yan knew Yan An best. Given his gentle nature, he would definitely want to give Zheng Qiao a proper burial. But Zheng Qiao was different: "I couldn't even retrieve a single bone from his remains..."
"How can I not hate Zheng Qiao..."
She had been suppressing her emotions, filling her time with official duties and academy chores, raising her daughter and teaching her apprentices. However, emotions are not something that can be ignored. Unbeknownst to Ning Yan, they had been silently accumulating and gathering, and had now grown into a bloated and grotesque monster.
As Ning Yan followed Shen Tang to Chaoli Pass, getting closer to the place where Yan An died and to the location of her enemy, this monster finally couldn't hold back any longer and burst out. With its overwhelming power that Ning Yan couldn't ignore, it ruthlessly occupied her entire mind.
Shen Tang listened quietly as Ning Yan vented her emotions.
Once the other person's emotions had calmed down, she asked Ning Yan with a hint of distress, "Tu Nan, do you really have to kill Zheng Qiao with your own hands?"
Ning Yan lowered her eyes: "Yes!"
Shen Tang said with distress, "But—"
Ning Yan: "But?"
Shen Tang nodded: "Yes, but I've already reserved Zheng Qiao's head for Xian Deng. He only needs Zheng Qiao's head to complete the scholar's path... But you also have the grudge of killing your husband..."
My palms and the backs of my hands are both chubby.
Why prevent Jiang Sheng from fulfilling the scholar's path?
Or should Ning Yan not be allowed to avenge her husband's death?
As the lord, she felt a rare dilemma.
Ning Yan knew about Jiang Sheng's way of the scholar, but she didn't know the path to its perfection. Upon hearing this, she was speechless.
Shen Tang sighed, "In this situation, as the lord, I can't show favoritism to anyone. Sigh, you can fight for it yourselves."
Ning Yan burst out laughing upon hearing this.
His brow cleared of the gloom: "My lord is so confident?"
If it weren't for Wei Shou, an old acquaintance of Chu Yao, who was guarding Chaoli Pass, it would have been virtually impossible to take it at the current cost, given the pass's limited troop strength and natural defenses. Even if they won, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. Reaching Zheng Qiao's side was an even more uncertain prospect…
According to our lord, taking Zheng Qiao's head is as easy as taking something out of a bag.
Shen Tang pointed at the moon with a branch: "Because there is nothing in this world that I cannot pluck except the stars, the moon and the sun. Besides, that is just Zheng Qiao's head."
Ning Yan sighed, "I greatly admire my lord."
I envy her confidence in any situation and with anyone; this unique quality is something Ning Yan lacks. Because of the overall environment, even though she has talent that rivals Yan An's, after her youth, her passion and dreams were battered by reality, which gradually wore down her edges, leaving her with a hidden sense of inferiority and insecurity.
She began to doubt herself, questioning her abilities and talents, even loathing her own gender. She didn't know why women couldn't cultivate; perhaps Heaven favored men? Since she couldn't change her current form, she wished to be reborn as a man in her next life. Even if it was still a chaotic world, at least she could protect herself, display her talents, and have a wider world to soar in.
When she learned the truth, she finally made peace with herself.
Ning Yan looked at Shen Tang, who was draped in a thin veil of moonlight, with gentle eyes and said, "If there is a real chance to capture Zheng Qiao, I only need half of Zheng Qiao's life, and the other half will be given to Xian Deng."
Shen Tang immediately clapped her hands like a seal: "Tu Nan is so grand!"
Ning Yan did not answer, but simply drew her sword.
Shen Tang understood what she meant at a glance.
Ning Yan is willing to give up half of Zheng Qiao's life, but the lord wants to practice moves with her and help her sharpen the sword in her hand!
The next day, Shen Tang clutched her waist and yawned.
Looking at her tired appearance, anyone who didn't know the situation would think she'd been out fooling around somewhere, like—Shao Chong. These past few days, he'd been getting free meals from Shen Tang three times a day without fail, much to the bewilderment of Gu Ren and his sixth brother. Were those pancakes poisoned? Why couldn't Shao Chong leave?
"Shen Jun, I'm here again!"
They started waving their arms from a great distance.
Upon getting closer, he noticed Shen Tang's unusual demeanor, and his expression suddenly turned mysterious: "Where did Shen Jun go looking for fun yesterday?"
Big eyes conveyed even greater curiosity.
Shen Tang yawned: "Up in the mountains."
As she spoke, she rubbed her aching lower back.
Shao Chong was startled: "On a mountain? Under the open sky?"
Shen Tang didn't hear clearly; she was quite tired, so she casually replied, "Yeah, so what? You're not expecting me to bring a whole blanket with me, are you?"
Shao Chong blinked, and inexplicably felt that it made a lot of sense.
"But...aren't you afraid of catching a cold?"
Shen Tang said, "It's alright, it won't feel cold after sweating."
Two breakfasts have been prepared inside the tent.
Two large buckets of millet porridge were placed in each person's bowl, along with meat buns and white steamed buns, each as big as an adult man's fist, neatly piled inside. Shen Tang plopped down, aggravating her injury, gasped, and frowned, rubbing her lower back…
Shao Chong, whose intelligence was no longer that of a child, was speechless.
Shen Tang took a bite and realized the familiar slurping sound was gone. Shao Chong was acting strangely today. Before, when he came to eat, he was like a starving ghost, eating as if someone was trying to steal his food. Today, he had changed his tune; flatbread, steamed buns, mantou, and millet porridge no longer appealed to him? Adhering to the principle that waste is shameful, Shen Tang muttered to himself and turned back to finish what Shao Chong hadn't eaten.
Shao Chong's face was a multicolored black.
The word "shock" is written on the left eye, and the word "surprise" is written on the right eye.
Such a towering and powerful man as Shen Jun, could he really be the one below? Keep in mind there aren't any women within a ten-mile radius. For Shen Jun to be having a secret rendezvous with someone high in the mountains at night, under the open sky, it's highly unlikely to be a woman. In other words, it must be a man.
Therefore, so—
Shao Chong felt that his values had been shaken.
Even rice doesn't taste very good today.
While his soul seemed to be flying away, he was mechanically eating rice.
Gu Chi, who was outside the tent, was so suppressing his laughter that his cheekbones were sore and numb. Just as Shao Chong's worldview was being shattered and rebuilt, he ordered someone to announce his arrival.
Shen Tang said, "Wang Chao, just come in."
Gu Chi rubbed his cheeks and calmed his breathing before entering the tent.
"My lord, this is the ledger of merits earned this time." Gu Chi presented the scrolls with both hands. While Shen Tang put down his chopsticks to examine it closely, his gaze slid over Shao Chong, who was engrossed in eating and whose head was only visible from behind, and he smiled, "My lord seems to be feeling unwell?"
Shen Tang looked distressed: "I twisted my back."
Gu Chi asked again, "When did this happen?"
Shen Tang said with a gloomy expression, "Don't mention it, it's embarrassing to talk about. Last night I was practicing swordsmanship with Tu Nan. Everything was fine at first, but I don't know what happened. It was a flat open space, and suddenly I twisted my ankle and twisted my waist."
Please, she's a woman capable of handling fifteenth-rank minor superiors and facing sixteenth-rank major superiors head-on, one of the top combatants in the Allied Forces. It's absurd and unscientific that she would fall flat on her face, twist her ankle, and twist her waist.
Gu Chi said uncertainly, "Perhaps we should ask Ji Shou?"
Shen Tang fell silent for three seconds.
"...I'm so lucky to have survived."
Kang Jishou, that plague god!!!
The account books in her hand didn't bring her any joy; instead, they worsened her mood.
Why?
It wasn't that the Allied Forces members were causing trouble and embezzling her spoils; with Gu Chi keeping a close eye on things, not a single penny would be missing. Her bad mood stemmed purely from Xun Zhen's loan repayment bill.
"...I'm so poor and unlucky, I've never suffered like this even in my past tribulations."
Gu Chi smiled reassuringly: "Things will always turn around."
Shen Tang: "Hehe."
She doesn't even believe in punctuation marks.
After distributing the spoils, the allied forces held another general meeting. Alliance leader Huang Lie spoke as the representative, summarizing the gains and losses of the Battle of Chaoli Pass, outlining a future blueprint without tyrants, and giving everyone a pep talk before getting down to business and discussing countermeasures.
They divided their forces into three routes and captured half of the counties and prefectures of Yanzhou.
Having learned from past mistakes, Huang Lie was exceptionally cautious in his allocation of troops—these counties varied in quality and difficulty, requiring careful consideration in troop deployment. Shen Tang, however, was indifferent; conquering these places in Yanzhou wouldn't make them her own territory. Enclaves were difficult to govern, and they were also prone to benefiting others; it was better to exchange them for tangible gains.
Shen Tang remained silent throughout the entire meeting.
Until I heard Huang Lie's arrangements.
She, Zhang He, Qian Yong, Tao Yan, and the four forces were on the same side. The reason was readily available: they had cooperated during the attack on Chaoli Pass, and a tacit understanding had been formed; it would be troublesome to regroup.
Shen Tang looked troubled: "Isn't this a bit inappropriate?"
Huang Lie was very easy to talk to: "What are your thoughts, Mr. Shen?"
Shen Tang shook her head: "No, let's leave it at that."
Huang Lie has a penchant for raising Gu poison.
However, it's still uncertain who is the nourishment and who is the master of the poison.
Tao Yan didn't object for some reason, but Shao Chong, who was next to Gu Ren, had a problem with it and argued with Huang Lie: "In terms of tacit understanding, my elder brother and Shen Jun are clearly more in sync."
He didn't want to leave Shen Jun's kitchen.
Huang Lie forced a not-so-friendly smile and patiently explained, "This arrangement is naturally to balance the various forces. If the young general and Shen Jun are assigned to the same group, it will inevitably lead to an imbalance in the other group's strength, making it easier for the tyrant to target and break through."
Gu Ren tugged at Shao Chong's sleeve.
He then reluctantly accepted the arrangement.
After the meeting ended, Gu Ren left with Shen Tang, worriedly saying, "Shen Jun, please be careful on your journey and take care of yourself."
Shen Tang asked, "What do you mean?"
Gu Ren bluntly stated, "Tao Shenyu has always been at odds with you, and Uncle Qian has suffered losses at your hands. As for that Zhang Yongqing... I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Mr. Shen, but I have never seen through him."
Because of his personality and way of doing things, he rarely couldn't make friends. After getting to know someone, he could always confide in them and treat them like a younger brother. He had his own unique way of dealing with people. Everyone Zhang Yongqing encountered was different…
The intuition of literary scholars has always been keen.
He disliked Zhang Yongqing.
I have a feeling there's something fishy going on here.
I reminded Shen Tang that it's never a bad thing to be more cautious.
Even if it means being a villain, it's better than suffering a major setback.
Shen Tang thanked her and said, "Thank you, I will be careful."
She hadn't yet ascertained Zhang He's stance, but Huang Lie's arrangements regarding Tao Yan were exactly what she wanted. As her lord, both were her flesh and blood; she avenged Luan Xin, so how could she forget Gu Chi? She wouldn't proactively attack her allies, but since an ally broke the rules first, she didn't mind giving them a bloody lesson!
When she returned to the camp, a gift bag awaited her.
"Yuanmou?"
Shen Tang saw Yun Ce again, whom she hadn't seen for several days.
The other person was carrying a bundle on their shoulder.
Is this guy preparing to switch jobs?
Wait a minute, Yun Ce is Huang Lie's main cavalryman, not just a heavy servant, but indispensable, and with such talent, why would he switch sides for no reason? As it turns out, Yun Ce didn't actually switch sides, but he came here with his bags full of stuff to find Shen Tang.
Only after Yun Ce finished speaking did Shen Tang learn the whole story.
"Did Alliance Leader Huang send you to help me?"
Yun Ce nodded sincerely: "Yes."
_(:з」∠)_
Ugh, I really can't buy any more keyboards, I don't have enough space on my keyboard stand...
(End of this chapter)
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