Chapter 112 One Year Apart
The rain intensified. The West Palace was paved not with glazed tiles but with green tiles, their deep green hue shimmering even more heavily in the night. Crossbows flashed with a cold gleam, hundreds, nearly a thousand arrows piercing the small area in front of the palace from all directions, raindrops tumbling down from their tips. In this situation, let alone climbing over walls, even the slightest movement outside the palace would be met with sieves.
Li Youqi reined in his horse and slowly advanced behind the scattered capture troops. A flash of white lightning suddenly crossed the sky, and his brow flickered. Most of his thoughts were on Li Fubai, who was doing something unknown beside him, and the gray-robed man whose identity he didn't know. He carefully considered what tricks the Crown Prince was playing.
The politics of the Western Dynasty were complex. Upon the arrival of Li Fubai and Li Youqi, Xue Shen cautiously stepped aside. Ever since recognizing the assassin's sword, he'd been overwhelmed with emotions, his tongue aflame, his heart weighed with concerns. He quickly reviewed Wen Yao's current status and the current situation between Tianshui and the Western Dynasty. Finally, he cautiously remained silent, kneeling silently with the emperor's head in his hands.
As soon as he knelt, two eunuchs came tumbling out of the half-open palace gate, tears mixed with rain running down their faces. They fell to the ground and cried out, "Your Highness! The Emperor has been assassinated and has passed away!"
The eunuch's voice was high and shrill, a piercing cry that echoed off the palace walls for a long time. The crossbowmen crouching on the eaves and the capture soldiers on the ground seemed oblivious to the shouting. They remained motionless and unresponsive, their silence as solemn as statues. The two princes of the Western Dynasty also didn't react. Xue Shen watched the Second Prince's eyes flickering towards the Crown Prince, wondering if he had heard the cry.
The prince was surrounded by a group of grey-robed men, who sat steadily on their horses, without a trace of surprise on their faces.
Li Fubai suddenly dropped his eyes and looked straight at Xue Shen. Xue Shen, holding the emperor's head in his arms, felt that the prince's eyes were a little cold, but he couldn't put his finger on what they meant. He quickly lowered his head, half of his leg soaked in the rain, wet and cold, and numb.
He was just a small figure, sandwiched between these big figures from Tianshui Xichao, and he felt bitter.
The other half of the palace door suddenly creaked as someone kicked it open from the inside. Wen Yao, a figure strapped to her back, wielding the Xingyi Sword in one hand, emerged from the chambers. Her eyes and eyebrows were soaked, and her hair clung to her cheeks and neck, tightening and burning like a brand.
There was a sound of sliding metal, and all the archers in the surrounding area raised their icy blades, aiming at Wen Yao, ready to attack.
Wen Yao looked up and felt that these archers were a bit troublesome. If it weren't for Hao Chunhe, she could try to break out directly, but now she couldn't.
Wen Yao raised his head slightly and looked at the person riding a horse in front of him. His eyelashes blinked slightly and a drop of rain fell.
She planned to take a hostage.
Li Youqi, whom he had met once, held an official position in the army and seemed quite capable in fighting. To be on the safe side, Wen Yao decided to arrest the biggest one, the Crown Prince Li Fubai.
She steadily carried Hao Chunhe on her back and walked out of the palace, calm and confident, with an imposing presence. Clearly, the Western Dynasty was the overwhelming force on the scene. The surrounding capture soldiers, observing the blood-stained sword in her hand, retreated cautiously, their encirclement moving forward, slowly approaching the two princes.
Li Youqi glanced at Wen Yao, then at the gray-robed man beside Li Fubai, and the strange feeling in his heart became even more intense. His face suddenly darkened and he slowly drew the long sword from his waist, shouting: "Capture the living soldiers, listen to my order, capture the assassin!"
Before he could finish his words, thunder flashed, and in a flash, Wen Yao was no longer there. Li Fubai's eyelids twitched, and he felt a spine-chilling white light piercing down from the side. In an instant, Wen Yao's face appeared before him.
Wen Yao, clutching the saddle with one hand, rolled over to mount Li Fubai's horse. The next moment, a powerful and brutal force struck him. The inlaid gold ancient sword slashed down mid-stride, striking the Xingyi sword. Wen Yao paused, letting go and falling back to the ground, drew his sword and struck back.
She moved so quickly that she was close to the prince in the blink of an eye. The archers did not dare to act rashly, and the surrounding capture soldiers rushed forward to capture her.
The gray-robed man behind Li Fubai reacted faster.
The man who had attacked earlier, clutching an ancient, inlaid-gold sword, slapped his saddle and charged at Wen Yao. With the energy of a tiger, he had exchanged several blows with Wen Yao in a split second. As the fight progressed, Wen Yao began to feel that this man's moves were very familiar.
Who does it look like?
It’s a bit like the Diela who fought with her on the Lone Star Terrace in Tianshui Palace.
She held her sword across the way, and with a slight twist of her wrist, the sword wind spread out, lifting the edge of the gray-robed man's robe. The gray robe swayed twice and slid down, revealing a strange, rough face with shaved hair underneath.
He is from Liao.
"Liao people?" Li Youqi raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at Li Fubai. He stared at him for a long moment and asked in a gloomy tone, "May I ask, Your Highness, what is going on?"
"Special Envoy from Northern Liao." Li Fubai's slightly pounding heartbeat calmed down again. He was naturally aloof and quiet, so he spoke succinctly: "Just arrived in Beijing."
"Oh?" Li Youqi almost laughed out loud when he heard the answer. He had just brought Princess Tianshui into the Western Court, so why was there another Northern Liao envoy in Xingqing? And the entire court hadn't received any news?
His smile was obscure in the rainy night. "Your Highness, a Northern Liao person who hasn't passed the Ministry of Rites' review and release order is not a special envoy. Working with them is called collusion with another country, which is treason."
Li Fubai raised his hand, and a man came running up from behind him, holding a memorial and a seal. Li Fubai picked up the seal and casually stamped the memorial, then threw it to Li Youqi.
The memorial stated that Northern Liao intended to send an envoy to the Western Court. It was a square document, stamped with the Ministry of Rites. Okay, now all the documents were in place.
Li Youqi twitched the corner of his lips, and he held the reins in silence. Since he remained silent, the soldiers who captured him remained motionless, watching the female assassin carrying someone on her back fight the Northern Liao warriors.
The female assassin's kung fu was unfathomable, her swordsmanship extremely beautiful. Even with a man on her back, she was able to overpower the Northern Liao warriors, and the outcome was decided in a few words. Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves approached, and Wen Yao, facing the Northern Liao warrior, seemed to be obeying the order and abruptly stopped in the fierce fight.
Wen Yao's expression remained unchanged as he continued to move. He turned his wrist to change the sword tip into a hilt, and suddenly approached the Northern Liao warrior, climbed onto his shoulders, leaped into the air, and was about to leave by stepping on the eaves.
"If you leave today, the graves of Fei Ye Ke's wife and children will not be safe." A low and heavy voice came through the bronze mask. It was muffled and a little distorted, but it still did not prevent Wen Yao from hearing who was speaking.
Wen Yao paused, turned away from Hao Chunhe, and her eyes sparkled with the white streak that flashed across the sky. She looked at the gray-robed figure beside Li Fubai, who had been keeping his head down and remained silent.
The man raised his head, shoulders stretched, his figure tall and handsome. The bronze mask on his face could not hide his emerald green eyes, which were very rare even among the people of Northern Liao. The fangs on the mask intertwined with the gold rings on his arms, making him look like a giant beast wearing gilded locks.
It was Lou Chengyi, or rather, it was Yelu Duhan.
The rain was still falling, and Wen Yao was motionless, staring at Yelu Duhan. Perhaps because they hadn't seen each other for a long time, and Yelu Duhan was surrounded by strangers, she felt that he was a stranger.
If you think about it carefully, the Xianyin Division, the Northwest Recruiting Envoy... are indeed different now, except that their speech is as confusing as before.
Wen Yao didn't know when a little blood got on her lips. She blinked and subconsciously licked it with her tongue. A cool, fishy and sweet taste spread on the tip of her tongue.
She asked, "What are you telling me?"
Yelu Duhan pressed his lips into a thin straight line.
"Special envoy from Northern Liao," Li Youqi said, "the assassin who assassinated our Western Dynasty emperor is a national criminal. He should be punished by our Western Dynasty and cut into pieces as a warning to the world. It is not the Liao people's turn to speak."
Yelu Duhan remained motionless, showing no reaction. He looked neither at Li Youqi nor at Li Fubai. His gaze, burning and heavy, remained fixed on Wen Yao.
Almost a year later, he finally saw Wen Yao again.
Afterwards, he was very unhappy to find that Wen Yao looked at him with a completely cold and calm look, just like the way he looked at Li Fubai and Li Youqi.
Yelu Duhan slowly tightened the reins, his fingers creaking. Suddenly, he took off his mask and threw it to the ground, splashing muddy water.
"Tianshui has negotiated peace with the Western Dynasty, and Northern Liao is also willing to establish an alliance with the Western Dynasty." Yelu Duhan raised his chin slightly, kicked his horse's belly with his legs, and drove it past Li Fubai. The gray-robed men behind him, considered his trusted confidants, all bowed their heads at this moment, sensing the terrifying anger in his movements and tone.
"This man is a traitor to Northern Liao." Yelu Duhan leaned forward, his words threatening and oppressive. "He rebelled against the capital and has repeatedly refused to return. The Northwest Recruiting Division has come this time, not only to fulfill your dynasty's border agreement, but also to take him away."
"Second brother." Li Fubai still looked that same ghost to Li Youqi, his tone unchanged. "Our father has been assassinated. As sons and subjects, you and I, even though we are heartbroken, should still prioritize the greater good."
The two men sang the same tune. If Li Youqi hadn't figured out what Li Fubai was planning after hearing this, he wouldn't have been able to fight against Li Fubai for so many years.
Li Youqi smiled coldly, but when the captured general looked up at him cautiously, his expression suddenly darkened: "Okay."
He waved his hand to signal the people around him to step aside: "Good words or bad words, good son and good minister, you have said everything that should be said, what else do I have to say?"
Last year, the Western Dynasty sent Xue Shen to Tianshui to participate in the Lone Star Arena competition. Besides negotiating a marriage with Tianshui, they also sought to establish contact with the Northern Liao delegation. The Western Dynasty shares a border with Northern Liao on the east and west. While largely a Gobi desert, it also contains important cities. The boundaries here are blurred, and neither side is willing to yield. The Western Dynasty lacks the military might of Northern Liao, nor the prosperity and ample food supplies of Tianshui. Regardless of which side they fight, they will undoubtedly suffer the most.
So at first glance, the nonsense that Lou Chengyi and Li Fubai said actually made some sense.
Xue Shen remained silent, his grip on the emperor's head growing heavier. He lowered his eyes to meet the old emperor's wide-open ones, sighing as he missed Zuo Fengjiang.
Master, Master, where on earth are you? The several gentlemen echoed each other, and the matter of His Majesty being beheaded was simply brushed aside.
Thinking of this, Xue Shen recalled the rumor about the "Sword Demon" that had been making rounds in Xingqing after his master disappeared. He couldn't help but look towards Wen Yao, already having some guesses in his mind.
The "sword demon" that suddenly appeared in Xingqing and is now making headlines is most likely Wen Yao.
Wen Yao listened to the three people in front of her discuss her destination and looked up at the sky. It was getting late. Zhao Xuanxu had probably been waiting at the city gate for a while. If she didn't leave, her Highness the Prince of Yan would come after her with a knife in hand.
Hao Chunhe silently crept onto her back, his withered body floating lightly, like an old leaf beaten by rain. Wen Yao's shoulders stiffened. She reached out, and the nearby capture soldiers and the gray-robed men across from her suddenly became alert, staring intently at her movements. Wen Yao didn't do anything, simply raised her hand to straighten Hao Chunhe's face and tie him to her more securely.
Yelu Duhan glanced with his green eyes, and immediately a man in a gray robe came up and handed Wen Yao a porcelain bottle.
The Northern Liao dynasty was distinct from the Western Liao. The founding emperor of the Western Liao dynasty was originally a military governor of the Jiang dynasty. Seeing the rebellion of the Zhao dynasty's ancestors, he seized territory and established his own kingdom. Not only were the official positions and customs similar to those of the Tianshui dynasty, but the official language was also nearly identical. The Northern Liao dynasty, having dominated the grasslands for generations, spoke and wrote differently from the Tianshui, making them a distinct ethnic group, with a diametrically opposed relationship.
As a result, Yelu Duhan appeared, and the Northern Liao people around him all spoke the strange and awkward Tianshui dialect.
The gray-robed man said respectfully, "Please take this pill first."
"What?" Wen Yao said without moving, "Are you going to kill me today?"
When Yelu Duhan heard this, his face darkened and his teeth started to gnash. He tightened and loosened his grip on the reins several times, and then turned his head away from Wen Yao.
Because of his action, the tense atmosphere on the field suddenly became weird.
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