Chapter 35 A Heroine and Demoness

It was not easy anyway to make the main force including two hundred thousand soldiers and more than ten cultivators stop by the Luosang River, but in any case, the main force of the Chen Country couldn’t move forward. Mentally, they were frightened as the teenage girl had easily killed more than ten cultivators sent by the Yanling Empire. In reality, the people from Dazhou who attacked the military camp had burnt the granary. Even if they could be courageous to move on, they didn’t have enough food to support them till they reached Shaoliang City.

So the soldiers from the Chen Country had few choices now. They either stopped by the Luosang River or returned to their country.

In the commander’s tent stood another man. The former commander of the Chen Country had been beheaded by a teenage boy with a machete. Now his dead body was put in a coffin. This commander who had great prestige in the army of the Chen Country died so easily and directly, and there were shocking blood stains left on the floor in the tent, which reminded people of those two teenagers.

The deputy of this army was an old hand working in the army for more than ten years. He stood in the tent and looked at the oil lamp with swaying flames. This middle-aged man with grey sideburns showed a complicated expression. Behind him were several generals in high positions in the army, and none of them said anything.

Under the dim light, the deputy in armor turned around and looked at the comrades, asking peacefully, “Shall we go to the south or return to the north?”

After he asked, it was deadly silent in the tent. After waiting a long time, nobody replied, so the deputy of the Chen Country shouted in a rage, “You should make a decision about where to go. After we return to the capital, His Majesty will surely explode, and even Yanling would put more pressure. Shall we just put the blame on the two teenagers? When they ask us, it will be significant. Perhaps Yanling would even question why we encamped by the Luosang River.”

With that, the deputy’s chest went up and down dramatically. Obviously he was furious.

Most of the generals in front of him didn’t dare to meet his eyes. While a tall and big, fair-skinned young general stepped forward and responded angrily, “The place to encamp was chosen by those cultivators from Yanling, and they even demanded to stop in the rain. Now they have been killed by the other cultivators, and it has nothing to do with us. Would the emperor of Yanling be so stupid as to believe that our country wants to murder the cultivators? Moreover, he wants an explanation? The commander of our country lost his life. What explanation does he want?”

Looking at this young man who was admired by all people in the Chen Country and could be mentioned in the same breath with Xie Ying from Dazhou, the deputy didn’t say anything to reason but just sneered, “I don’t know if the emperor of Yanling is stupid, but you are really stupid.”

Hearing the deputy’s words, the others in the tent sighed. All people at the imperial court compared this young man with Xie Ying from Dazhou, but in fact, most of them were civil officials who didn’t know the truth. Few warriors on the battlefield took it seriously, but this young man himself thought it was true and claimed to be the top among the young people in the army at ordinary times. Now that he had said that, they believed that if they returned to the capital this time, perhaps the deputy would mention him. Nobody knew if this young man would have a place to stay at the imperial court of the Chen Country in the future.

The deputy didn’t look at the angry young general whose blue veins stood on his neck but spoke to the rest generals, “Since you don’t want to make a decision, how about I make it?”

They were unwilling to speak naturally because they were afraid of taking responsibilities. Now that somebody would make the decision, it was all that they could wish for. So all of them saluted and responded in unison, “We will listen to you, General.”

The deputy stated calmly, his eyes deep, “No matter if the two teenagers will show up when we go to the south. If we go back to the capital in frustration, everybody would be punished, so we should continue to go southward. Don’t worry if we can enter Shaoliang City. We should put on airs and let His Majesty and Yanling see our determination. What’s more, immediately report to the capital about what has happened tonight. You should know how to describe that teenage girl, and I won’t say more. As for the food, we can collect some in Dazhou after crossing over the Luosang River. The battle is not over yet. I hope that you can cheer up, in case that you don’t know why you die.”

Afterward, the deputy waved his hand casually, and all the generals left. That young general walked at the end of the team. When he turned around, he happened to hear the deputy’s voice from behind.

“Try your best.”

Such words were meaningful and made him tremble on the spot, but at last, he didn’t dare to look back at the actual leader of the army.

…

There were soldiers from Dazhou in the mountain.

The remaining less than thirty thousand soldiers from the North Army risked their lives to set fire to the granary of the Chen Country’s main force. After the fire, only several hundred soldiers could break out of the encirclement and run away. These soldiers hid in the forest and didn’t leave anxiously but waited there to check what would happen in the military camp of the Chen Country. However, when they found that the main force of more than one hundred thousand soldiers just stood outside the tents for most of the night, they felt surprised. Because they were too far away, they couldn’t see what kind of person on the high platform although they knew there was one on it. When they insisted to the latter half of the night and didn’t hear any sound from the Chen Country’s army, Xue Zhong was sleepy and planned to tell the rest soldiers to go to the deep of the forest. At the moment, under the moonlight, he looked at the two people coming from the foot of the mountain.

They were one man and one woman. When they approached, Xue Zhong found that they were merely two teenagers.

Seeing the two, Xue Zhong grabbed the broadsword subconsciously. There were cultivators in the Chen Country’s main force, and it was said that there were more than ten. He had seen several cultivators taking actions in Beiyan County, but he couldn’t be sure that the two teenagers were not part of those cultivators.

The two climbed the mountain and stopped at the mountainside. Li Fuyao wiped the blood stains on his face and asked calmly, “The North Army?”

Qing Huai behind him still didn’t say anything, and her expression didn’t change.

Xue Zhong walked out of the crowd and came to Li Fuyao, standing not far away. He answered calmly, “Right. The North Army of Dazhou.”

Li Fuyao smiled, “I just tell you one thing. This heroine next to me has killed all those cultivators and the commander of the Chen Country. What’s more, you have burnt their granary. I think they will soon leave the Luosang River and return to the north. You have only few people left, so don’t go there to lose your lives for nothing. I don’t know if Yanling will provoke again in the future, but the crisis is settled now. We have something do to and can’t stay here.”

Afterward, Li Fuyao stopped speaking abruptly, and obviously, he hadn’t finished what he wanted to say, but he shook his head at once, “Something can’t be resisted by manpower, and we can only try our best. I think the emperor of our Dazhou must know this principle.”

Our Dazhou…

Only two words were enough to make Xue Zhong like Li Fuyao. He nodded, “We will do our best.”

Xue Zhong didn’t call them “master” perhaps because the two were too young or they didn’t look like cultivators.

Li Fuyao stopped talking and turned to leave. Qing Huai behind him also left slowly. The two disappeared from their sight in an instant.

It was a baffling conversation, and nobody planned to prove anything, such as if the more than ten cultivators had died or if these people were from the North Army. Anyway, Li Fuyao thought they must be from Dazhou, and Xue Zhong believed that Li Fuyao must be from the same country.

They walked on the silent mountain road, and it was a rare spring night with no rain. Li Fuyao wasn’t supposed to be so quiet, but the wound on his chest was torn when he walked, and the pain made him unwilling to say more.

Qing Huai followed him and suddenly said, “Li Fuyao, you almost reach the next stage.”

Li Fuyao answered, “Oh.” He also felt his condition after he fought against Mr. Zuo, but he didn’t think too much about it. Now when he had an inward vision in his heart, he felt that the vital energy congealed in a meridian where it never went at ordinary times. It turned out to a sign of breaking through. Li Fuyao who realized it later smiled and felt happy while thinking that he could almost reach the third stage of swordsmen before he got to the Sword Mountain.

However, Qing Huai’s voice came to his ears in no time, “But after you enter Yanling, you will suffer a lot. Since we have killed the cultivators from Yanling, you should consider how to protect your life under the hunt of that empire.”

Li Fuyao looked back all of a sudden, and Qing Huai appeared harmless.

She opened her mouth, “As long as you take actions, you should think of this consequence.”

Looking at this teenage girl, Li Fuyao suddenly realized that he was wrong when he said that she was a heroine.

But Qing Huai didn’t care about his opinion. Nobody knew what she thought of, and she covered her mouth and chuckled. Li Fuyao looked at her smiling eyes which were like crescent moons and also laughed.