This arrow was shot at Qiuyue, so swift that it was completely unavoidable. Xin Mei instinctively closed her eyes, and the next moment that sharp whistling sound veered sharply upward right past her ear—merely a warning shot that changed direction mid-flight to shoot toward the horizon, injuring no one.
Xin Mei exhaled and wiped away cold sweat, turning back to ask: “Who is that person?! Actually shooting arrows from behind!”
“That’s the General’s clansman. We can’t flee, or else he’d rather kill us than let the War Ghost clan bear the shame of running away.”
The War Ghost on the platform drew his longbow to full capacity again but didn’t shoot, like a silent, cold threat.
“What a bastard!” She was furious. “I knew nothing good comes from those with red eyes!”
Keep your voice down… Si Lan silently shed tears. Had she forgotten that the General also had red eyes?
“I’m going to reason with him.”
Xin Mei leaped onto the horse’s back. With a flick of the reins, Lie Yunhua, who had been holding back a bellyful of rage, spread its four hooves and ran riding the wind, leaving Si Lan’s terrified shouts behind. In the blink of an eye, they reached the platform.
The archers stationed on the platform all nocked arrows and took aim. Li Yan recognized her as Lu Qianqiao’s wife and had to put down his longbow, turning back to say: “General Bai, we cannot harm this lady. She’s just an ordinary civilian.”
Bai Zongying’s face was dark as water, as if he hadn’t heard, his eyes fixed only on the smoke-filled battlefield outside the pass.
Li Yan clasped his hands and bowed to Xin Mei from afar: “Miss Xin, how did my elder brother let you leave the Imperial Tomb?”
“Come over here.” Xin Mei extended a finger and beckoned to him.
Li Yan hesitated, then leaped up, landing lightly on the horse’s back like a great bird: “…I’m here. Miss Xin, where is my elder brother?”
Xin Mei also stood up on the horse’s back and glared up at him angrily: “You want to kill Lu Qianqiao!”
“How could I kill him…” Li Yan shook his head. “You don’t understand our clan’s rules.”
“He can’t even move, and that bastard general on the platform only gave him ragged troops! And you’re still threatening him with arrows! These rules aren’t fair at all!”
Li Yan didn’t answer.
He himself knew this was indeed unfair. Bai Zongying resented Li Chaoyang for instigating the Emperor to send Lu Qianqiao here to create obstacles. The two thousand troops given to him had less fighting power than five hundred ordinary soldiers. Even if Lu Qianqiao awakened immediately, this battle might not be winnable.
But even so, there could be no retreat.
The War Ghost clan was just this inflexible, possessing an almost stubbornly foolish pride. What mattered wasn’t who killed you, but where you died. Dying on the battlefield versus dying in bed—worlds apart. Only when pushed to the extremity of death could one gain true power—this was their creed.
“You’re basically watching him go to his death… No! You’re holding knives to force him to die! If all War Ghosts awaken this way, no wonder your clan has fewer and fewer people! You’re all killing yourselves!”
Li Yan’s face darkened: “Miss Xin, please be cautious with your words.”
“I have nothing left to say cautiously.” Xin Mei looked straight at him. “Instead of using arrows to kill your own clansmen, why don’t you tell that bastard general on the platform to send more people to fight the enemy? The peasant soldiers cause trouble all the time precisely because there are generals like this who only eat but don’t work! Can generals be as round as dumplings?!”
Li Yan turned back to glance at Bai Zongying. She spoke quite loudly—presumably Bai Zongying heard every word clearly, because… his face was now greener than vegetables, trembling with rage.
“Open the gates!”
Bai Zongying roared, grabbed his great sword, mounted his horse, and led a group of elite soldiers charging out of the pass. The two thousand remnant troops outside suddenly received reinforcements, and with General Bai personally leading troops, morale immediately soared. The situation instantly showed subtle changes.
In the distance, Si Lan on Qiuyue’s back also took advantage of the lull to apply medicine to his wounds. Demons had formidable recovery abilities—in just this short time, his wounds had stopped bleeding. He shook himself alert, leaped down, and continued fighting with his long blade, even more ferociously than before, instantly clearing a small area around him.
“That’s right, now it’s fair.” Xin Mei crossed her arms and nodded seriously.
Li Yan looked at her, then at the positive changes in the battle situation below, and suddenly gained a new level of respect for Lu Qianqiao—to choose such a formidable wife, Young Master truly had excellent judgment.
“Um… I am Li Yan, of the Li clan.” He introduced himself politely with respect.
The corners of Xin Mei’s lips curved upward, showing him a brilliant sunny smile. One hand secretly reached into her bag, finding the two packets of Sichuan peppercorn powder she’d newly bought. After the battle with Li Min, she believed peppercorn powder was more reliable than throwing knives and poison darts at certain moments.
Just as she prepared to scatter it with the wind to retaliate for his arrow-shooting behavior, she suddenly heard a miserable, prolonged howl from the distance, like a wild beast driven to desperation, or like a mountain demon wailing at the moon, making one’s hair stand on end.
Li Yan’s expression changed instantly. He leaped down from the horse’s back and rushed frantically toward the front battlefield.
Eh, what happened? Xin Mei turned her horse around and saw Qiuyue flapping its wings in panic in mid-air, with a person falling straight down from its back—Lu Qianqiao!
The entire world seemed to slow down. He fell slowly to the ground like that, then… slowly stood up! Si Lan, wild with joy, waved his long blade, driving away all the peasant soldiers around him, then crawled and rolled to Lu Qianqiao’s side.
“General! Did you pass through your transformation ordeal?!”
No one answered his question. Lu Qianqiao tilted his head back slightly, mud staining half his face. His expression was hollow and wooden, his eyes completely devoid of spirit, standing dully in place like a stone statue, not moving at all.
“General?” Si Lan called out again in confusion.
The next moment, a pair of lifeless blood-red eyes met his. Si Lan felt his throat tighten—he was being choked and lifted with one hand. The Yueying long blade was easily snatched from his grip. Si Lan struggled with difficulty, feeling himself being thrown heavily away, his back slamming hard against the ground.
The not-yet-fully-awakened War Ghost was roaring, the miserable sound penetrating the entire battlefield, making everyone unable to help looking this way.
The long blade carved elegant, sharp curves in the wind, blood still remaining on the blade, dripping to the ground drop by drop. Lu Qianqiao expressionlessly held this blade, like an arrow just released from its string, charging into the crowd.
No technique, no consciousness—his entire being seemed to have become a sharp precious blade. Wherever he went, nothing could withstand him, and—he killed not only peasant soldiers but also his own people. No one could resist that blade seemingly from hell. Wherever it was swung, blood and severed limbs covered the ground.
Xin Mei rode Lie Yunhua in a mad dash, dodging flashing blade-light all the way, pursuing him.
“Lu Qianqiao!” She shouted his name loudly.
…
He seemed to hear her voice, turned around with a smile, stretched out his arms toward her, his face wearing a gentle smile.
“My treasure, come here.”
She blushed and threw herself into his embrace.
“We’ll never be separated again!”
………
The above was just fantasy.
He seemed to react to her voice, suddenly turning around, raising the Yueying blade horizontally, slashing directly at her. Lie Yunhua neighed miserably, having a small piece of its crest sliced off by the sharp blade-wind. Xin Mei felt a sharp pain in her shoulder—his blade-wind had actually cut a gash in her shoulder!
Xin Mei tumbled off the horse’s back and ran, faster than a rabbit.
Si Lan, watching dumbfounded nearby, couldn’t help shouting: “Where are you going?! The General’s awake!”
She looked around frantically, found a relatively reliable boulder half a person’s height, and quickly hid behind it before saying: “I’m finding a place to hide for a bit. Lu Qianqiao seems to have gone completely mad.”
Huh?! She came to this battlefield of near-certain death precisely to live and die together with the General! At a time like this, shouldn’t she be crying and throwing herself forward to embrace the General tightly, loudly calling the name of the General who had lost his reason?!
Si Lan was frantic: “That’s just him not yet adapting to the War Ghost’s immense power! If you go over, he might regain consciousness!”
Xin Mei peeked out to look. Lu Qianqiao was still randomly killing people with his blade. She immediately pulled her head back. Staying with him was one thing, but being killed by him was another matter entirely. This was obviously symptoms of complete madness—going over there would be seeking death.
“Call his name! He can’t hear anyone’s voice, but he’ll definitely hear yours!” Si Lan still wouldn’t give up.
Uh, call him over, then have him raise his blade to chop them both into mincemeat?
Xin Mei looked at him with difficulty: “Are you… possessed by Official Zhao?”
Si Lan instantly went rigid like being struck by five thunderbolts.
“If this awakening succeeds, Young Master will have successfully passed through his transformation ordeal!”
Li Yan had somehow also ended up standing on the boulder, speaking with heartfelt joy.
Xin Mei looked up at him: “Why are you hiding here too?! Aren’t you going to stop him from killing people randomly?”
Li Yan was stunned: “Young Master is awakening. How could I have the ability to stop him? He can kill as many as he likes—it doesn’t matter if he kills them all.”
“The people he’s killing include His Imperial Majesty’s troops too! Aren’t you working for the Emperor?”
Li Yan’s face showed a cold expression: “Except for the heavenly gods, War Ghosts never truly serve anyone.”
…But if he killed everyone here, he’d come kill the few of them next, wouldn’t he?
Xin Mei felt her heart beating fiercely. She quietly extended half her body—Lu Qianqiao was already far away from her, soaked in blood from head to toe—other people’s blood.
Many people surrounded him but didn’t dare approach, watching in horror and silence as he howled miserably, as if enduring tremendous pain. The Yueying blade was gripped tightly by him, its edge chipped from cutting too many people, striking the ground heavily again and again, each strike splitting a narrow, deep pit.
Was he… in great pain right now?
She looked down at her hands—her palms were already full of sweat. She had never seen Lu Qianqiao like this, completely unapproachable, with only the War Ghost instinct for frenzied slaughter. Could it be… she really had to rush over with earth-shaking momentum to embrace him like Si Lan said, then call his name again and again with a voice like a cuckoo crying blood?
…So disgusting. Better forget it.
The Yueying blade was suddenly raised high. Lu Qianqiao made a throwing motion, his target—the white tent on the distant hilltop! That seemed to be peasant leader Wu Shuang’s camp, right?
The long blade was shrouded in a layer of blood-red radiance. Released from his grip, it made an extremely sharp, piercing whistle, shooting out like a red meteor. Just like when he killed the tiger demon, the blade seemed to possess its own life, flying up and down around the tent, reducing it to shreds in the blink of an eye. Along with the shreds, chunks of flesh and blood exploded—presumably the people who had been inside the tent.
“Constant Victory King! It’s the Constant Victory King!”
The peasant soldiers began to stir. Everyone knew the person in the tent was Wu Shuang’s younger brother, the self-proclaimed Constant Victory King, Wu Yi. The second leader died without a sound—the blow to them was too tremendous. Even Wu Shuang was stunned for a long time before suddenly coming to his senses, spurring his horse to turn and flee: “Retreat! Temporarily retreat today!”
The demoralized peasant soldiers scattered like birds and beasts, retreating a full thirty li. The Battle of Jiaoping Pass on August 6th—a small victory.
General Bai Zongying rode over with a complex expression. Lu Qianqiao stood quietly in place, neither shouting nor killing, having become a dull stone person again, raising his blood-stained face high, staring vacantly at the sky.
“General Lu…”
Bai Zongying had only said four words when Lu Qianqiao suddenly swung his blade toward him. Bai Zongying’s loyal aide immediately rushed forward to block, was cut in half with one stroke, and fell to the ground with a wretched cry.
“You… what are you trying to do?!” Bai Zongying was so frightened he tumbled off his horse and fled backward crawling.
The long blade was raised again, this time aimed at his fat face.
“Lu Qianqiao!”
A young woman’s voice suddenly came from behind. Lu Qianqiao’s hand raising the long blade abruptly paused for an instant.
Under everyone’s gaze, Xin Mei picked up a large stone from the ground and hurled it at him with force: “Stop going crazy!”
“Thud”—the large stone accurately struck this crazed General Lu on the back of his head. The long blade slipped from his hand, and he pitched forward to the ground.
“What did you do?!” Si Lan nearly fainted as well.
“Uh, I just wanted him to quiet down…” For once, Xin Mei felt guilty.
He was indeed quiet now—very quietly, he had passed out.