Alone in a foreign land
All because she heard the Emperor say, "I want to know, in the clan leader's heart, are my brother and I different?"
At the time, although she understood why the princess asked that question, she was still somewhat surprised.
Now she fully understood why the Princess had asked that question.
Because Princess Wansui and Su Rouhua are not just master and disciple, or superior and subordinate.
Princess Wansui calls Li Chongyu "elder brother." Since Li Chongyu is the son of Su Rouhua, Princess Wansui is very likely Su Rouhua's daughter. Moreover, she and Li Chongyu do not share the same father.
They are actually mother and daughter, which is why they are described as being very similar.
Princess Wansui said in a low voice, "My brother still doesn't seem to fully trust us."
Su Rouhua's eyes gleamed with a green light as she said, "Father is not easily fooled, and neither is his son. But if we add some more bait, he'll have no choice but to believe us." She then turned her head and asked, "Has 'Ghost Blade' been lying in wait on Qianqiu's return journey as I instructed?"
Princess Wansui nodded and said, "Yes. Elder Guidao has done as you commanded and is lying in wait at the only way into the city."
Su Rouhua said calmly, "Our Hidden Moon Clan doesn't have many male members, but Ghost Blade is the second best expert in the clan after me. With him taking action, Qianqiu will learn a painful lesson and know that he will pay the price for not heeding my good advice!"
Princess Wansui stammered, "But you just saw my brother. Now that he's back in the city lying in ambush, won't he suspect us? That would only make him see us as his enemies, leaving him no room for maneuver."
Su Rouhua said confidently, "You can rest assured about that. Ghost Blade will not act in his true form. He is good at concealing his whereabouts and impersonating others. In the Southern Dynasty, there is a young master and a powerful figure on land and water who has mastered both Hu and Han martial arts. Ghost Blade will imitate this person's style of fighting this time. Even if Qianqiu is ambushed, he will only suspect the Southerners and will never think of us."
She calmly said to Princess Wansui, "That's how you train a hawk. If you don't make him suffer enough in Jianzhang and hit him on both sides, he won't obediently submit. Qianqiu's father was like that, and so is Qianqiu."
Upon hearing the words "Mo Yi Ming Yue," A Qiu immediately and silently leaped into the air, heading in the direction Li Chong Yu had gone.
The half-moon has now emerged from the clouds, adorned with vibrant colors.
Li Chongyu's imposing figure, dragging his sword, was extremely conspicuous on the desolate official road.
He was always resolute and courageous, never showing weakness in front of others, but tonight his suppressed emotions were like a huge stone blocking his chest, an overwhelming grief and pain.
His childhood was not easy. Because of his distinct Han Chinese appearance, he was often ostracized by Xianbei boys his age, and being beaten was a common occurrence.
He didn't know where he was from or who his parents were; he only knew that he was sent to this tribe after he was born.
In the Central Plains, where the Han people were powerful, they would treat the assimilated non-Han peoples as slaves. But on the northern border, the non-Han people would abduct a small number of Han people and enslave them. He thought he was one of them, and even though he was seven or eight years old, he couldn't speak a word of Chinese.
But he discovered that he didn't seem to have that kind of status in the local area.
Aside from the children of his own tribe who would bully him and call him a "Han dog," the adult men and women of that tribe were quite polite to him. They would even pull away the children who were bullying him and would not oppress or bully him excessively.
They treated him more like a guest.
This situation changed when he was ten years old. On that very night, he ran far away from the bonfire party where the tribe was gathered, singing and dancing, to try to hunt a gray wolf cub.
During the tribe's lively festivals and celebrations, he felt more and more acutely that he was a stranger in a strange land, completely out of place with the festive atmosphere.
It wasn't until much later, when he was at his maternal home in Youzhou, watching Kongming lanterns being released into the sky, fireworks illuminating the night sky, fine carriages and jade pots gleaming, festivals like the Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Qixi Festival passing through his life one after another, plain yet splendid, that he felt his life was so full and complete, and he finally understood what his previous sense of bewilderment was.
Eating raw meat and drinking blood was not in his genes; he carried the soul of his father, Li Mingyuan, a Han Chinese who longed for his homeland.
On the night he turned ten, he met a woman with deep green eyes and a white robe.
She smiled gently at him and beckoned him, saying, "Come here, child, I'll teach you how to avoid being bullied in the future."
Although he was born into a Xianbei tribe, he had never truly opened his heart to these foreigners with their high noses and deep-set eyes. But for some reason, at that moment, he felt that her smile had a magical power, radiating a captivating glow. So he believed her and followed her to practice martial arts.
Now I know it was the call of blood ties.
The name being called was Mother.
His martial arts skills are based on the secret techniques of the Hidden Moon Clan passed down by Su Rouhua.
The method of using the "Sky-Splitting Longsword" comes from the battle formation martial arts passed down in the Li family.
It is a pinnacle combination of the Hu ethnic group's mental cultivation method and Han ethnic martial arts.
When he sensed the sudden surge of murderous intent emanating from the person lying by the roadside, he unleashed his Sky-Splitting Blade from his waist and struck at them without hesitation.
With a single strike, a chilling light surged, and metal clashed, forcing him to take a step back.
A tremendous force surged through his body along the hilt of the knife, causing him to shudder violently and cough up blood.
Strategic misjudgment.
This time, he encountered the most terrifying master he had ever seen in his life.
Li Chongyu was known as the "Immortal War God" in the northern frontier, because he fought countless battles on the yellow sands of the battlefield and had almost no rivals.
This wasn't because he was arrogant, but rather because when someone has killed countless people and has never met an opponent in their life, the strategy they adopt when encountering an enemy is to confront them head-on and completely crush them.
It was only at this moment that he suddenly realized that since crossing the Yangtze River, he was no longer facing the familiar battlefield with thousands of troops.
Rather, it is the ever-changing power struggles of the Southern Dynasties and the martial arts world of Jiangzuo, where masters abound.
In a typical confrontation between experts, the preferred strategy is to first probe the opponent's strength through hit-and-run tactics, and then find an opening to defeat them.
His first move was to take the hit head-on, and the consequence of that was that he suffered serious internal injuries.
Whether to fight back or flee, the strategy has already put us in a passive position.
Right now, all we can do is hope that the other person is injured just as badly as he is.
Li Chongyu was shocked to realize that he had just set foot on the land of the Southern Dynasty and was already in the most dangerous battle of his life.
Despite being in a perilous situation where defeat or death seemed imminent, Li Chongyu remained undeterred, raising his voice to shout at the opposite side: "I wonder which side you're from, so eager to take my life that you can't even wait a moment?"
Under the moonlight, the person opposite him was dressed in white, with a white veil covering his face. He was burly and capable, with a pair of bright and piercing eyes beneath his sharp eyebrows. What was most striking was the weapon he held in his hand, which was shaped like a crescent moon and shimmered with golden light.
Of course, Hidden Moon "Ghost Blade" would not answer him. He dressed in Mo Yimingyue's usual manner to entice people to think in that direction, but not to tell them directly, otherwise it would arouse suspicion.
Seeing that the other party did not answer, Li Chongyu went straight forward with his sword, and walked forward without any signs of injury, clearly not taking him seriously at all.
He felt a chill run down his spine, and at the same time, a person came to mind.
That was Mo Yimingyue, the legendary tyrant of Lanling Hall, whose power spanned the north and south of the Yangtze River.
There are many assassins in the world, but only the Lanling Hall is accustomed to hiding their true intentions in the dark.
He had just exchanged blows with his opponent and had vaguely sensed that the opponent's internal energy seemed to originate from the same source as his own, and perhaps contained some kind of Hu tribe mental cultivation method.
Among those who wield crescent blades and are proficient in the martial arts of the Hu people, only "Long Night Flying Eagle" Mo Yimingyue is in Lanling Hall.
I heard that Mo Yimingyue's background is similar to his, with half-Hu (non-Han) blood.
Just as he was about to reveal the other party's identity, he heard the wind whistling around him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw more than a dozen white-clad figures, each wielding unusual weapons, suddenly appearing around him and encircling him in a special formation.
Li Chongyu's heart sank to the bottom of an icy valley.
With his keen eyesight, he could tell at a glance that these dozen or so white-clad assassins, while not as skilled as the person opposite them in a one-on-one fight, were certainly well-trained and proficient in group combat.
In the blink of an eye, numerous thoughts have already passed through my mind.
Was Gu Yi of the Southern Dynasties' personal letter inviting him to court a trap from the start?
Or perhaps Hu Miaorong suddenly died of poisoning, and Su Rouhua's invitation for him to come here at night was a trap?
Which side set up this deadly trap?
Suddenly, a scene flashed before his eyes: his father, Li Mingyuan, fighting to the death from exhaustion more than ten years ago.
My father back then, just like I am today, probably didn't know who plotted against him and who killed him.
Just as an earthenware pot is bound to break at the well, a general is destined to die on the battlefield.
Yet, as a dignified Marquis of Guannei, he did not die on the battlefield, but was assassinated by an unknown person.
Someone whispered in his ear, "My lord, please head southeast. This man is extremely skilled; if he uses all his strength, he could kill us all. We can only hold him off for a while."
Li Chongyu looked up in surprise, only to see the white-clad man closest to him nodding in greeting.
The man uttered only this one sentence before immediately turning his weapon around and focusing all his attention on the person opposite him who resembled "Mo Yimingyue," unable to utter another word.
The others were the same. Not one of them paid attention to his actions; everyone's attention was focused on the expert opposite them.
Seeing this, Li Chongyu immediately knew that the man in white was telling the truth and had indeed come to help him. However, he always valued loyalty above all else, and brandishing his sword, he declared, "This man came to kill me. How can I let everyone sacrifice themselves while I, Li, live in disgrace? Attack!"
The white-clad man who spoke first was Scorpion Shadow of the Divine Weapon Hall. Having received orders from Hall Master A Qiu to protect Li Chongyu, he simply obeyed. He never imagined that the person entrusted with his protection would be expected to share loyalty and life and death with the assassin's bodyguards.
This was an unprecedented event in his life. Although he knew it was inappropriate, he was a former assassin of the Divine Weapon Hall, not a strategist who could speak his mind. He was at a loss for words and could not come up with any grand reasoning to persuade this marquis to leave.
At this moment, he had no time to spare to answer, because the person opposite him, seeing that thirteen people had suddenly appeared, suddenly intensified his oppressive aura and laughed loudly: "You all dare to provoke my Mo Yi Ming Yue on the banks of the Yangtze River, your courage is truly commendable. No matter which sect you chivalrous people come from, I advise you to get lost. Li Chongyu is doomed to die today anyway, so why do you have to make enemies with my Lanling Hall?"
Ghost Blade had remained silent earlier for fear of revealing his secret, but now he had no choice but to reveal Mo Yimingyue's name, hoping that the Thirteen Shadows would back down.
As Thirteen Shadows said, against experts of the level of A Qiu and Su Rouhua, the Thirteen Shadows' swarming attack was of little use; it was merely a way to buy time by sacrificing their own lives. The same principle applied to Ghost Blade.
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