Why me?
At this moment, Gu Yi, who was in charge of the central government, for reasons unknown, abandoned any possibility of ordering the Jianzhang Army to march north to the Yangtze River to meet the enemy, and instead chose to surrender and submit.
Did he think that if the Southern Dynasty agreed to submit, the Northern Qiang would immediately turn against him?
Historically, most wars between the feudal lords in the Han region ended with the cession of territory and submission to the Han, or at most the stripping of their fiefdoms. These conflicts did not significantly affect the common people; it was simply a matter of a change in administration. However, the southward incursion of the Northern Qiang truly threatened the destruction of the state and the extinction of the people, completely reverting the agricultural system back to the slave era.
She didn't believe Gu Yi was unaware of these things. If she were there, she would surely have advised Gu Yi to at least send Jianzhang soldiers to try to buy time while waiting for Li Chongyu and Fan Ying's reinforcements.
But now, whether from a public or private perspective, it's no use saying anything.
Gongyi Xiu said resolutely, "But you are the only one who can change Master's mind!"
A-Qiu almost thought she had misheard, and asked in astonishment, "Me?"
If it were in the past, when she was at the height of her fame, she might have believed these words. But now, like a drowning dog, she felt that even a random person on the street would be viewed better by Wan Qiqing than she was.
The master held herself in extremely high regard, and in her life, she could neither tolerate traitors nor incompetent people. But at this moment, she possessed both qualities.
Gongyi Xiu seemed to have something on the tip of his tongue, but he held it back and said, "You should know that your master's goal is to unify the world. In fact, whether the North unifies the South or the South unifies the North is not that important to him. Otherwise, he would not have let you enter the palace and let me enter the court. It's just that the Northern Qiang are currently more militarily powerful, so he is betting on the Northern Qiang."
A Qiu raised his eyes and looked directly at Gongyi Xiu, saying, "But my mission has been a complete failure. He must be extremely disappointed in me."
At the same time, the task assigned to her by Mo Yimingyue immediately came to mind: to assassinate Xie Tiao of the Eastern Palace, so that the Southern Dynasty would collapse on its own without a successor.
This move was indeed a brilliant strategy to dismantle the Southern Dynasty's power group from within.
Gongyi Xiu said, "If you can prove to your master that you can accomplish the great task of unifying the north from the south, I believe your master will agree to change his stance to support the Southern Dynasty."
He said urgently, “Master never agreed with the backward and barbaric system of the Northern Qiang, and he tried his best to promote Sinicization in the Northern Qiang. If a Han Chinese regime could unify the world directly, there would be much less resistance for him. After all, this is a ready-made tradition that has continued for thousands of years, and there are established rules for everything. He just doesn’t have much confidence in the military strength of the Southern Dynasty.”
Ah Qiu could barely hear what he said after that.
To her, this was an almost groundbreaking idea, a design that she could never have imagined in her mind.
Even Shangguan Jin and Gu Yi couldn't do it, yet she, powerless and cowardly, was asked to do it?
She almost thought that Gongyi Xiu had lost his mind and was talking nonsense like that.
She leaned her head against the carriage wall and murmured, "Even if a disciple of Lanling Hall were to unify the world, shouldn't it be you or Senior Brother Mo Yi? Why is it me?"
Her doubts were not without reason. In terms of political maneuvering and national strategy, Gongyi Xiu was hailed as the foremost talent of the Lanling Hall, and his "Nine Cauldrons" were a deeply entrenched and unfathomable force within the court. In terms of gang power and intelligence gathering, the Xingfeng Hall was renowned for its comprehensive network, and Mo Yimingyue herself possessed both Han and non-Han ancestry. Either of them naturally held an advantage over her, who came from an assassination background.
Gongyi Xiu seemed to have something on the tip of his tongue, but in the end he swallowed it back and said, "But only you are the one who can influence Master's intentions."
“Master will be soft-hearted towards you, and he will fly into a rage and lose his temper because of your defiance. He may even wish he could throw you out of his mind and never think of you again. But you must know that there is a saying: ‘The deeper the love, the deeper the hate.’ If either of us, Junior Brother Mo Yi, were to confidently say that we could accomplish the great task of unifying the North from the South, Master would only laugh it off, because of reason and reality. But if you say that, he will fully support you, even though the situation between the North and the South is so unequal right now.”
Gongyi Xiu paused for a moment, as if he had regained some composure.
"Because he believes you can do it. You're the only person he's willing to bet everything on."
A-Qiu heard himself say weakly and blankly, "Why me?"
Gongyi Xiu seemed to have rediscovered his eloquent nature, and said fluently, "Because you are the only genius that Lanling Hall has produced in the last hundred years. You are the only one who can activate the 'Assassination of Qin' with your bloodline. Based on this alone, as the chosen one of Heaven, no one in the entire Lanling Hall can replace you. Since you were a child, your master has placed far more hope on you than on us, and you have never disappointed him."
"Don't forget, assassination is the foundation of Lanling Hall. Master hopes that Lanling Hall can produce an assassin like Jing Ke, who can single-handedly turn the tide of the world, so that the glory of the Warring States assassins can be reproduced in the world a thousand years later."
Why her? Why not someone else? Why did her arrogant and unruly master place such high hopes on her?
Countless chaotic questions, under Gongyi Xiu's eloquent explanations, eventually turned into a torrent of mud and sand, flooding her heart and sealing off any way for her to question.
Even if everything were as Gongyi Xiu said, and she could get her master's support to accomplish the great task of unifying the north from the south, the problem was that she herself didn't believe she could do it.
She closed her eyes wearily, feeling herself sinking into deep confusion and bewilderment.
A sudden gust of wind rushed in through the window without warning, and along with the sound of the wind came Shangguan Yuqi, dressed in white like snow and carrying the "Ice Bamboo".
Her usually serene face was now pale, and her fairy-like white dress was stained with bright red blood.
A-Qiu suddenly opened his eyes and was shocked to see her appearance. He immediately got off the ground to check her injuries.
Shangguan Yuqi waved to stop her, pressed several acupoints on her chest to stop the bleeding, and immediately sat cross-legged on the ground to circulate her qi.
At the same time, she called out, "Aunt Yao, please urge the horse to go as fast as you can, and see if we can escape back to the Shangguan Forbidden Land before Venerable Wanqi arrives."
At first, A Qiu couldn't believe that Shangguan Yuqi could be injured, and even Gongyi Xiu was dumbfounded, wondering who could have so severely injured Shangguan Yuqi. The people of Xingfeng Hall simply didn't possess such skill.
But the mystery has now been solved: Gongyi Xiu's attempt to rescue Xingfeng Hall was thwarted by Zuo Shi Xin Yi and Shou Zuo Si, thus delaying their journey. Meanwhile, Wan Qi Qing, the master of Lanling Hall and master of both A Qiu and Gongyi Xiu, had arrived and severely injured Shangguan Yu Qi, who was covering their retreat.
A Qiu, who was originally sleepy, was now fully awake. Looking at Shangguan Yuqi, who was circulating her qi to heal her injuries, she could only exchange glances with Gongyi Xiu.
After Shangguan Yuqi had a full cycle of breathing, she was able to speak again, saying, "I was fighting fiercely with the Xingfeng Hall members and forced Zhu Zuosi back with the power of a single sword strike when Venerable Wanqi suddenly appeared behind me. Before I could react, I was struck by his palm."
A Qiu knew that being struck by Wan Qiqing's palm was no small matter. She had taken two blows from Wan Qiqing at the Martial Saint Temple, and her heart meridians were almost broken. That was only because Wan Qiqing had held back.
Gongyi Xiu frowned deeply and said, "To attack a junior from behind is not the style of a proud and arrogant master." He suddenly realized and saw that Shangguan Yuqi's expression was somewhat complicated. He said, "Then he probably didn't want you to see him. He just wanted to defeat you quickly and then come to intercept us."
Shangguan Yuqi probably hadn't thought that far ahead. After a moment's thought, she nodded and said, "That should be it."
A-Qiu asked anxiously, "How badly are you injured? And," she suddenly remembered something and her expression changed, "Now that you've escaped and caught up with us, my master's martial arts are only stronger than yours, shouldn't he have caught up even sooner?"
Shangguan Yuqi's face was ashen, yet she remained calm and said, "Don't worry. After I was struck in the back, I didn't know who it was, only that it was a terrifying enemy I had never seen before. Instinctively, I attacked with all my might, using the 'Seven Stars' in my left hand and the 'Ice Bamboo' in my right, unleashing the Gentleman's Sword's ultimate technique, 'Sun and Moon Shining Together,' which severely injured him. He won't be able to catch up again until his injuries have stabilized within half an hour, and he will likely suffer from internal injuries in the future."
Gongyi Xiu stared at Shangguan Yuqi with his mouth agape in disbelief, his face turning ashen, too shocked to utter a single word.
His voice trembled as he said, "You mean that Master was also severely injured by you, and that his internal injuries will be difficult to heal in the future?"
This also reveals Gongyi Xiu's genuine concern for his master. His facial expressions were filled with regret, remorse, and guilt, which shows the turmoil in his heart.
Shangguan Yuqi closed her eyes and calmly replied, "I couldn't see who it was at the time. I only knew that if I made a slight mistake, my own life would be in danger. Therefore, I had no choice but to use my trump card. I'm sorry."
Her apology was addressed to Gongyi Xiu, clearly indicating her remorse. However, she spoke calmly, for she had no other choice.
If it were A Qiu himself, he would know that if a master like Wan Qiqing attacked him from behind, his only response would be to go all out and he would never have the mind to hold back.
A Qiu disregarded everything else and immediately jumped off the bed, placing his hand on Shangguan Yuqi's back to continuously channel his inner energy into her while also examining the state of her body.
She felt both pain and anger, thinking that since Wan Qiqing had suffered a full-force attack from the Sword Immortal, how could he not retaliate with all his might? Shangguan Yuqi's injuries must not be any less severe than Wan Qiqing's.
Her view on the matter differed from Gongyi Xiu's: no matter how severely Shangguan Yuqi injured her master, it was ultimately her master who launched the sneak attack first, not that Shangguan Yuqi intentionally intended to use such a ruthless move. Shangguan Yuqi had always been carefree and unassuming; when had she ever fought to the death? If her master hadn't forced her, she certainly wouldn't have used the "Sun and Moon Shining Together" move at full power.
Upon examining her, she felt her entire body and soul turn ice-cold.
Shangguan Yuqi's heart meridian was mostly severed, and she was barely holding on, growing weaker and weaker. This must be because after being struck from behind, she still forced herself to exert all her strength to unleash the "Sun and Moon Shining Together" technique, and after severely injuring Wan Qiqing, she suppressed her injuries and kept running along the carriage tracks to catch up with them.
Tears welled up in A Qiu's eyes, and she couldn't help but say sadly, "Since you were injured, why didn't you immediately find a place to heal? Why did you have to rush here and exhaust your strength?"
A faint smile appeared on Shangguan Yuqi's pale face as she said, "I'm still worried about your safety. With this commotion, Venerable Wanqi will only become more furious. The Left Prime Minister is also injured right now. When Venerable Wanqi arrives again, the Left Prime Minister, along with me and Aunt Yao, will have to work together to ensure your safe departure. If only the two of them are left, they will definitely be no match for him. If you are captured and taken back, then all of everyone's efforts will be in vain."
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