Chapter 47 Attendant Pick-up
When Shinju and his group arrived near the prison, they intended to follow the direction that Second Uncle's family and Xi Shun had left in. However, Shinju discovered something amiss through his divine sense.
Sitting atop his magnificent Akhal-Teke horse, Zhen Su looked up at the imposing stone tower and asked Xi Luo, "Does your second aunt have an ailment in her right hand?"
"How do you know?" Xi Luo couldn't help but turn to look at Zhen Su. She hadn't mentioned this to anyone, and in her memory, her mother and the others had never mentioned it to Zhen Su or the King of Poison.
"...There's no need to search anymore." Shinju's gaze deepened. "Your family members have probably already been brought back."
Following Shinju's gaze, Xiluo also looked at the stone tower, her eyes filled with a mixture of sorrow and anger. She didn't even realize that she had completely believed Shinju's words.
"All soldiers, listen to my command! Dismount and launch a surprise attack on the stone tower!" Xi Luo ordered.
Shinju and Shiro jumped off their horses together, leading their squad to shoot down the sentries and begin their infiltration.
Perhaps because it was late at night, there weren't many guards in the stone tower, but the hidden mechanisms were numerous and complex. Xi Luo had fled in such a hurry that she had taken a route from the inside out and from top to bottom, so she couldn't clearly remember the layout of the mechanisms.
Just as she was feeling a little discouraged, the man in front of her stepped onto the slightly protruding stone slabs with light, feather-like steps, and then no hidden weapons flew out from any direction.
He lifted Xi Luo, placed him on the stone slab, and weighed him, finding nothing amiss. But then he glanced back at the armor of the soldiers behind him, pondered for a moment, and said to Xi Luo, "You're small, how about you crawl in and destroy the source of the mechanism for me?"
"No need to ask any more questions, just point the way." Xi Luo nodded heavily.
Shinjuku greatly admired her for being so young, fighting and escaping, and managing to stay conscious for so long without complaining of being tired. This showed how strong her determination and will were to save people.
Many mechanisms have entrances for adding oil or poison, as well as secret passages leading to bearings and key points that require long-term maintenance. However, to prevent them from being cracked, specially trained dwarf slaves are used to handle these tasks. Therefore, these entrances are very narrow, and only those who are short enough can enter.
Actually, Shinju could also use the Bone Shrinking Technique, but it wasn't convenient to demonstrate it in front of others. Fortunately, it was barely possible for Sairo to enter.
However, Xiluo returned covered in injuries, her bones aching from the pressure, but she remained silent and retrieved the poison jar that Zhenju had requested. The poison jar was specifically for storing poison, used to coat the tips of poisoned arrows and spears fired by the mechanism.
Zhen Su was overjoyed. He scanned Xi Luo with his divine sense and saw that there was no poison on her body, which put him at ease.
"Thank you, Xiluo." After Zhensu took all the poison from the poison jar, he said to Xiluo.
Seeing that he had truly helped Zhen Su, Xi Luo felt both proud and delighted. He looked away, lowered his head, nodded, and said coolly, "You're welcome."
After disarming the traps, they moved with impunity, the few guards posing no threat. They broke through each floor and soon reached the floor where the hostages were trapped.
As soon as you enter, you can hear a woman crying, a man laughing wildly, and the dull thud of a heavy hammer pounding mud.
"What are you crying for? You're all going to die here anyway, so what's wrong with letting me have some fun?" The man wielded a heavy hammer, repeatedly striking a young man's knee. The spot was now a blur, completely unrecognizable, and no trace of its original form remained. The young man's eyes were closed, his face still bearing the look of utter pain.
The woman was dazed, staring intently at the young man lying on the ground, tears streaming down her face. She kept murmuring his name, "Achu... Achu, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt, Mother is here..."
This scene, witnessed by Xi Luo, caused her eyes to suddenly turn red, her lips to bleed from being bitten, and she roared in anger, "You dog!! Prepare to die—"
Upon hearing the shouts, the man realized that so many people had broken into the room, but he remained calm and continued to grin maliciously as he raised the heavy hammer, shifting the point of impact several feet to aim at the young man's head.
Xi Luo immediately noticed the man's intention, but at this point she was still several steps away from him, and realized that she had acted impulsively and should not have provoked him so early.
However, it was too late. The hammer was about to strike—in the blink of an eye, a Miao sword, like an arrow released from a bow, moved so fast that the scabbard almost sparked red against the air. With a "whoosh," it slammed the heavy hammer into the stone wall behind it, and then crashed down with a "clang."
The man was also dislocated in the shoulder and elbow by the sudden, immense force, and was thrown to the ground to the side, where he was hit on the side of his face by the falling hammer, causing blood and mud to splatter everywhere.
In just a few breaths, the situation reversed.
Everyone was stunned. How could the soldiers not see the terror of this move? But they never expected that it was made by the emperor's close attendant.
Soon, many guards from the stone tower arrived at the building. The soldiers were stimulated by the divine "flying knife" of the True Monk and were all fired up. In less than a quarter of an hour, they worked together to wipe out the remaining enemies in the tower.
Xi Luo rushed to the young man, checked his breathing, and exclaimed with delight, "My cousin is still alive!"
The woman shuddered at the words, but it took her a moment to truly regain her senses. She propped herself up on her left elbow and crawled toward the young man, calling out, "Chu'er, Chu'er?!"
At this moment, Zhen Su used his divine sense to scan the tower and found that the number of people was incorrect. Xi Luo's second aunt and cousin were there, but her second uncle and Xi Shun were nowhere to be seen.
Xi Luo naturally noticed something was wrong, and she hurriedly asked her second aunt, "Second Aunt, where are Brother Shun and Second Uncle?"
Upon hearing this, the second aunt's sobs subsided, her face contorting in a grimace, a deep hatred welling in her eyes. She slowly said, "He's been kidnapped. They say they'll chop his head off at the city gate. Fine, fine, chop it off! If it weren't for him, your second uncle wouldn't have died. If it weren't for him, our Xi family wouldn't be in this state. It's all your father's fault, and his fault too! Why, why must our Xi family be implicated because of him?!"
Xi Luo didn't understand for a moment and was still confused, not knowing who her second aunt was so hateful towards.
But Shinjuku stood aside, pondered for a moment, and asked, "When was Saishun kidnapped?"
Xi Luo suddenly snapped back to reality, "Second Aunt is talking about Xi Shun?! What did Brother Shun do wrong? You can blame my father, but what did Brother Shun do wrong?!"
Then, with a cold expression, the second aunt revealed the truth.
"Ha, he's not your real brother, Feng Shuo is your real brother. Xi Shun... no, Feng Shun is Feng Qisheng's son."
.
When everyone returned to the camp, they were all very silent.
The sky was already bright, and the morning breeze, carrying the warm sunshine, was quite pleasant. However, it seemed as if dark clouds were floating overhead, and morale was low.
The King of Poison knew at a glance that the outcome of this trip was likely to be quite bad.
Even Shinju remained silent. It took the King of Zhen calling him several times before he came to his senses. In his golden eyes, the King of Zhen could see a rare vulnerability, as if he were holding back unbearable bitterness through a thin mist.
But in the blink of an eye, Shinjuku returned to his normal appearance, as if it had just been his imagination.
The next moment, a Miao sword was suddenly shoved into the arms of the King of Zhen, and then he heard Zhen Su whisper, "Your Majesty, I failed to save Xi Shun..."
At first, King Zhen did not realize the seriousness of the problem. After listening to the soldiers' explanations, King Zhen understood why they were in such a state.
While inside the tower, Shinju and his companions listened to his second aunt recount the secrets of the past.
Feng Qisheng was General Xi's close friend, sworn brother, and half-mentor. After Feng Qisheng's death, in order to protect his posthumous son Feng Shun, General Xi secretly switched the identities of his son Xi Shuo and Feng Shun, and publicly announced that he had adopted Feng Qisheng's son Feng Shuo as his godson.
For so many years, everyone in the Xi family, except for the second uncle, General Xi, and his wife, was kept in the dark.
The second aunt was suddenly told this when her second uncle was dying.
When the four of them were recaptured by the villains, the second uncle was unfortunately shot and killed. His head was then cut off and it was said that it would be sent to be hung outside Langcheng.
My second aunt broke down after that.
After that, the villains began to torture them. The second aunt saw her child, Xi Chu, being tortured beyond recognition, and she cried so hard that she almost lost her mind.
Judging from their accents and appearances, those thugs bore no resemblance to people from Feng Kingdom; they were clearly from Nian Kingdom. The lower ranks yielded no useful information, and the leader, with half his face rotting, told them before he died: an hour ago, Xi Shun had been taken to Langcheng, but only his head had been taken.
Xi Luo refused to believe it and frantically stabbed the leader of the bandits with his twin swords, leaving bloody holes, but the man had already died and could no longer be questioned.
Mayu closed his eyes, bent down and grasped Xiluo's hands, stopping her madness.
Xi Luo finally shed tears, and the twin swords she never let go of fell to the ground with a "bang".
"Brother—"
Finally, they found Xi Shun's body on the top floor of the stone tower. It was headless, but Xi Luo recognized the mole on her brother's tiger's mouth and the old scars left from practicing swordsmanship on his body.
When the Xi family learned of this, they were all extremely shocked.
Feng Shuo was utterly bewildered, followed by an overwhelming grief. Xi Luo's mother shed tears of remorse, while her elder sister buried her face in her hands and wept bitterly. To her, whether her biological brother was Xi Shun or Feng Shuo was no longer important. Her sworn brother and biological brother had always been kind to her. She couldn't bear to lose either of them.
"Your Majesty, you must seek justice for my brother and second uncle!" The elder sister crawled on her knees to the King of Zhen, her face covered in tears, and pounded her head against the muddy ground. "Your Majesty, I beg you..."
Shinju had only heard half of what was being said before he left the tent. He went to the side of the Akhal-Teke horse, slowly buried his face in it, and his jaw was clenched.
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