“The strong devour the weak, victors become kings and the defeated become bandits…”

The Western Border’s climate was changeable. The scorching sun hid into the clouds, and the sky gradually darkened, becoming overcast and gray.

The carriage rolled over a ground covered in blood, heading out of the city. That child finally crawled toward his parents’ corpses, sobbing loudly: “Father, Mother…”

In an instant, rain drops the size of beans began to fall.

The carriage curtain swayed in the cold wind as the carriage raced forward, occasionally revealing a glimpse of the mountains and wilderness outside the window. The shadow of Tiger Gorge Pass’s East Gate tower could no longer be seen.

Pei Song sat inside the carriage, using a silk handkerchief to meticulously wipe away the bloodstains on his hands.

The sound of wind, rain, and rolling wheels all echoed in his ears. Amidst the noise, there diffused an unsettling deathly silence that made one’s heart panic.

After Pei Song wiped clean the bloodstains from his fingertips and slightly pursed his thin lips to raise his eyes, the rapidly moving carriage seemed to drive into a pothole on the official road. For a moment, mud splattered everywhere, causing the entire carriage to suddenly tilt forward.

The horses neighed. The lackey driving the carriage cried out in alarm: “Enemy ambush!”

Pei Song braced himself against the carriage wall to stabilize his form.

With a tremendous boom from the carriage roof, a snow-bright long blade sliced down like cutting through rotten wood, pressing through the carriage roof and left wall.

This carriage, which had not been reinforced with iron plates, instantly became a pile of splintered wood under this tremendous force.

Raindrops pelted inside, so dense they prevented one from opening their eyes.

Pei Song leaned back to dodge that cold blade. Amidst the horses’ neighing and flying splintered wood, he leaped backward, looking toward the person who had destroyed the carriage with one slash.

The opponent spurred his horse to leap down from the high embankment on the inner side of the official road. After using the momentum to deliver that slash, the warhorse’s four hooves landed. Though it originally wanted to continue galloping forward due to inertia, he viciously reined it in with one hand, causing it to rear up on its front hooves, neighing incessantly.

Lightning exploded behind the opponent.

In the violent rain, there were also dozens of pursuing cavalry who swiftly appeared at the rear of the high embankment. Clearly, Tiger Gorge Pass soldiers familiar with the terrain had guided them to take a shortcut to intercept.

Looking at the cold, fierce eyes of that person on horseback, Pei Song’s heart jumped violently, and his fingertips also felt a tingling sensation due to the suddenly accelerated blood flow throughout his body.

The way the opponent looked at him was icy cold, vicious, and full of hatred.

Just like that moonlit night in Yongzhou.

In the dark unknown, it seemed something had long been destined.

Pei Song sneered lightly: “It’s you?”

Somewhat surprised, yet in this instant he understood everything that had happened when the opponent entered Tiger Gorge Pass.

His eyes cold and sinister, he made a gesture, and half the lackeys stepped through the rain to attack forward.

Xiao Li viciously dug his heels into the horse’s flanks, knocking them all aside as he galloped.

Amidst lightning and thunder, when the frost-white cold blade in his hand slashed straight down toward Pei Song’s face, Pei Song drew his sword to block.

The two weapons collided in the rain, emitting a piercing clang. Pei Song’s tiger’s mouth along with both arms went numb from the shock, nearly losing grip of his long sword. He retreated two steps on the muddy official road before finally dissipating the terrifying force of that slash.

Before he could feel shocked, a second horizontal slash came crashing down again. Pei Song’s eyes turned fierce as he continued using his sword to block, but only heard a sharp “clang.” The sword that had accompanied him for so long developed a notch, and his tiger’s mouth also split open, a deep red blood bead rolling down.

Though extremely unwilling to admit it, in this moment Pei Song truly felt the taste of heart-pounding fear.

This stray dog whose life he had once taken as easily as crushing an ant had grown too quickly.

No wonder in just three short years, he could replace Wei Qishan to command the Northern Border.

It was unclear what kind of emotion suddenly rose in his heart.

Perhaps unwillingness, or perhaps resentment. But at this moment, only one thought appeared in Pei Song’s mind: he did not want to lose to this person before him.

Pei Song bit down hard on his teeth, transforming all the intense emotions burning his lungs and bowels into a cold sneer at the corner of his lips. As his sword scraped diagonally against the long blade, amidst the teeth-aching sound of metal friction, he mocked: “Didn’t you receive Qin Yi’s personal instruction? Is this all you’ve got?”

As the blade edge and sword tip intersected, they severed countless rain columns. He suddenly thrust forward, avoiding Xiao Li’s fiercely horizontal slash, extending his body to slash at the horse’s legs.

Xiao Li’s expression was ice-cold. With one hand he gripped the reins tightly. His mount neighed as it raised its front hooves to the side. Then the long blade in his hand reversed, vertically slicing through rain beads to slash down formidably.

Pei Song’s strike failed. He hurriedly used his sword to brace against the ground and spun his body, only then causing this slash to miss.

Xiao Li spoke coldly: “A person about to die, only indulging in empty verbal victories!”

In the cold rain, Pei Song wiped away the mud that had splattered on his face during the fierce battle just now. As he panted, all the unwillingness and resentment were clearly displayed in his eyes at this moment.

The lackeys and cavalry were locked in chaotic combat, blocking the space between the two men.

Xiao Li also simply abandoned his horse, blade in hand, landing on the ground.

The two men coldly faced each other across the soldiers locked in chaotic combat, then stepped through the muddy rain to charge fiercely forward. Sword blade and blade edge collided violently.

With four eyes meeting, both pairs glinted with bloodlust, full of fierce determination to fight to the death.

Drawing back the blade to slash again, block again, block again, slash again—the blade edge and sword tip almost struck sparks in the heavy rain.

The two were like two spinning tops placed in a violent rainstorm, rotating at high speed. Every move and technique was a life-or-death fighting style. The blade edge and sword tip slashed countless afterimages in the rain curtain. All around them were water droplets splashing from the sharp edges. The accumulated water on the ground was also kicked and splattered in all directions under their attacks. The lackeys and Wolf Riders who wanted to assist couldn’t insert themselves at all.

Chaotic footprints spread all the way from the official road to the depression below the road where quite a bit of accumulated water had gathered.

After fighting for a long time, Pei Song’s arms had already become sore and numb to the point of pain. The fresh blood flowing from his tiger’s mouth had also soaked his entire palm, becoming especially sticky in the rainwater.

The rainwater dripping from both men’s robes onto the ground was also tinged with rouge color. When lightning exploded again, one could see that both men bore several shocking wounds.

But every slash Xiao Li delivered still carried brutal force. The sword in Pei Song’s hand, forged from refined steel, was covered with notches, almost becoming useless scrap metal.

Rainwater poured over Xiao Li’s face, washing away the dried bloodstains from the earlier slaughter battle, turning them into extremely pale rouge-colored water drops that slid down his jaw. The whites of his eyes were tinged with crimson—it was hatred, and also rage that had accumulated for so long, blazing unextinguished.

Pei Song gradually couldn’t withstand this deadly force, retreating repeatedly through the muddy rain as he parried.

The bloodlust in Xiao Li’s eyes grew heavier. In his rapid fierce attack, he swung his blade fiercely once more. Pei Song raised his sword to block. The already notched sword in his hand completely couldn’t withstand this force and shattered, the broken blade flying sideways, cutting a bloody mark across his face.

Shock and unwillingness appeared simultaneously on Pei Song’s face. He hastily retreated in panic, barely avoiding this fatal slash.

But Xiao Li gave him no chance to catch his breath. Taking advantage of the momentum, he viciously raised his leg and kicked hard at his chest.

Pei Song couldn’t dodge in time. His chest took the kick solidly. Instantly he felt a fishy sweetness surge up his throat. His entire body flew backward. When landing, he desperately thrust the broken sword into the ground and braced one hand against the ground, bending his knee to stabilize his form, only then avoiding too much embarrassment.

But a mouthful of fresh blood still spurted out violently, his five internal organs churning.

That kick was too vicious.

“Master!” Several lackeys nearby rushed forward to support him. Pei Song shoved them away with one hand.

He raised his hand to wipe away the blood at the corner of his lips, swallowing down all the fishy sweetness still surging in his throat, and sneered: “This amount of force is only enough to scratch an itch.”

Xiao Li turned the blade edge in the violent rain: “Finished your last words? Then go to your death.”

A vein throbbed violently on Pei Song’s forehead. Feeling he had suffered tremendous humiliation, when the lackeys raised their blades wanting to protect him in front, he snatched the long blade from the lackey’s hand, braced himself to stand, and slashed fiercely at Xiao Li, shouting: “Arrogant!”

Xiao Li raised his blade horizontally in front of him, easily receiving this strike.

Pei Song slashed diagonally again with fierce speed, his blade technique also quite devious. For a time, in the heavy rain one could only see the afterimages of the two men’s weapons rapidly crossing.

But both men were already approaching exhaustion.

Because of that kick, Pei Song’s five internal organs and six bowels kept churning. As he desperately executed moves, he constantly felt fishy sweetness surging up his throat again.

Although Xiao Li held the innate advantage in physique, he had also just experienced a life-or-death bitter battle outside Tiger Gorge Pass, then rushed all the way here to fight to the death. The wounds inflicted earlier had long been soaked pale in this violent rain, only when squeezed and pulled during fierce combat did threads of blood seep out again.

Yet neither of the two men showed the slightest intention to retreat, fighting desperately to the end.

Pei Song could feel his strikes becoming slower and slower. As he swung his blade in the violent rain, straining to see clearly that human figure opposite him, the thought of winning had never been this intense before. So much so that his lungs and bowels burned with pain, both arms had almost lost all sensation, yet still supported him, preventing him from falling.

Win!

He must defeat this person before him!

After swinging his blade once more, he suddenly smiled coldly and spoke: “Do you know how your mother died?”

Xiao Li’s movement to receive the blade slowed by a beat. Pei Song’s blade edge nearly sliced his arm.

“She was foolish. After taking that slash from Xing Lie while protecting Madam Zhou Jing’an, I saved her. She actually took me for a guard from the Zhou estate and obeyed my every word, even believing I would take her to find you. When Hanyang sent people to search for her several times, she believed my words, concealed her own identity, firmly believing those were rebel troops searching for her…”

Pei Song’s blade edge sliced through rain beads, colliding with Xiao Li’s long blade once more as he laughed wildly: “Wasn’t she killed by her own stupidity!”

Xiao Li’s eyes turned blood-red. With a fierce roar, his arms suddenly exerted force to deflect Pei Song’s descending blade edge. Raising his blade to slash fiercely, turning defense into offense, he bit out word by word through clenched teeth: “You scum deserve execution!”

Pei Song retreated step by step under his fierce attack. But in extreme rage, although Xiao Li poured all his strength into his blade edge, each slash faintly carrying protective energy, he also frequently exposed openings.

This was precisely Pei Song’s purpose.

He found an opening to slash toward Xiao Li’s neck. Xiao Li’s form leaned back, but was still a beat too slow. His neck was sliced, leaving a bloody mark. Fortunately, the long blade in his hand swept out horizontally in time. Only then did Pei Song have to abandon continuing to press the blade edge down and retreat to avoid it.

Pei Song’s expression was extremely ugly. As he struck, he continued coldly with a sneer: “Before she died, she even made new shoes for you and sewed new clothes, but they were all burned clean in a great fire. You never saw them even once, did you?”

That night’s tragic scene of the entire Xiao household enveloped in firelight appeared before Xiao Li’s eyes again. His entire body’s skin and flesh seemed to also feel the searing pain of being burned by that great fire. Clashing long blades with Pei Song, his eyes had already become so red they were about to drip blood. In extreme pain and rage, he let out an explosive roar, his long blade slashing fiercely.

Pei Song hadn’t waited for him to completely lose his composure, only waiting for the person before him to become crazed. His arms, already sore and numb to the point of losing sensation, couldn’t withstand this slash that was even more ferocious and brutal than before. The blade in his hand developed a notch and flew away. His entire person was also kicked by another gut-wrenching kick that sent him flying backward.

This time he crashed heavily into the muddy ground a zhang away. The blood he had been forcibly holding back for so long could no longer be contained between his teeth, coughing out in gushes.

Before his eyes, he could only see in black and white, wave after wave of dizziness.

Amidst the sound of footsteps approaching in the rain, he turned his head to look at his right arm that ached piercingly as if every bone joint had shattered. The completely dislocated elbow bone showed its outline beneath the soaked sleeve. His tiger’s mouth was full of fresh blood, his thumb also bent outward at a strange angle—clearly when receiving that slash, it had been broken by that tremendous force.

The last lackey also perished under the Wolf Riders’ blades.

The rain gradually lessened. Pei Song, grinning with a mouth full of fresh blood, smiled slowly at the approaching Xiao Li with extreme malice: “Of course, the one most to blame for your mother’s death… is still yourself… and Hanyang…”

Xiao Li’s jaw tightened. The veins on the back of his hand gripping the blade handle bulged as he directly thrust the long blade down fiercely.

Pei Song’s body immediately convulsed. His entire face also contorted due to the pain of his abdomen being pierced through. After enduring that wave of tremendous pain that made his face white as paper, he still panted maliciously:

“If not for your incompetence, if not for Hanyang becoming suspicious of you and even developing killing intent because of my alienation scheme, I wouldn’t have killed her so quickly when using your mother to control you…”

When he spoke that last sentence, in his eyes full of malice, there also fleetingly flowed a trace of painful shock and hatred that even he himself hadn’t noticed.

The shoes Xiao Huiniang made before she died, the new clothes she sewed—they were all made for him…

Not for Xiao Li.

Why did he want to defeat this person before him?

Perhaps he felt that by defeating him, then his father who had looked at him once from beneath the city tower that day after regaining consciousness before taking his own life, and Xiao Huiniang who was always under the eaves threading needles to sew clothes and make shoes—they would both be his.

That he had never lost his father or mother…

The long blade piercing his abdomen was violently twisted sideways. Pei Song cried out in pain again, his facial contortions worsening. The veins in his hands and feet bulged under that tremendous pain. Before his eyes, things were out of focus. He only heard from above an ice-cold sentence full of hatred fall down: “Qin Huan, you’re fundamentally unworthy of being human!”

That name seemed to tear open an even deeper wound in Pei Song. In the light rain, he struggled to raise his head, blood flowing from his mouth as he smiled mockingly: “You see, you also hate, don’t you?”

Pain and excessive blood loss made him pant: “It’s just that the one who brought you hatred… is me. The one who brought me… hatred… is her Wen clan dynasty. We… are only taking revenge…”

Xiao Li bent down and grabbed Pei Song’s collar with one hand. Rage made even the veins beneath his neck bulge. He spoke ice-cold: “You’re only taking revenge? When you became a dog for the Ao faction, how many loyal officials did you harm? When you killed your way into Luodu, how many civilians did you slaughter? The Changlian Prince’s lineage, Lord Zhou’s family, General Yang’s family—what enmity did they have with you? Now you’re even colluding with foreign tribes, wanting to place all the common people under heaven in a furnace!”

Pei Song was held in Xiao Li’s hand like a broken puppet, struggling to smile: “The strong devour the weak, victors become kings and the defeated become bandits—hasn’t it always been this way since ancient times?”

Speaking to the end, his eyes filled with hatred: “If heaven won’t give my Qin family justice, I’ll become that heaven myself! What’s wrong with that!

“Wen Yuanji blocked my path, so naturally he deserved to die! Zhou Jing’an’s foolish loyalty also deserved death! Yang Shuo’s ungrateful behavior even more deserved death! As for the foolish people under this heaven, they’re nothing but a group of livestock that can understand some human speech—they can’t all be killed, can never be completely exterminated. What harm if a few more die for my great enterprise!”

Xiao Li directly pressed Pei Song’s face with one hand and smashed him hard into the ground. This blow was severe enough—blood seeped from Pei Song’s mouth and nose.

The violent aura around Xiao Li was so intense it seemed tangible. He spoke coldly: “So you’re fundamentally not taking revenge—you just want to sit on that dragon throne.”

Pei Song’s teeth were full of blood. He laughed loudly, his eyes looking at Xiao Li with vicious sinisterness: “I’ve already rebelled as a traitorous subject and bandit—why wouldn’t I covet that dragon throne? Are you going to say I should have stopped after bringing down the Ao faction?”

Hazily, the words Jiang Yichu had tearfully used to advise him to turn back suddenly appeared in his mind.

The fresh blood flowing from the corner of his mouth had spread into a small pool on the muddy ground. He smiled even more mockingly: “On what grounds should I let someone surnamed Wen continue being Emperor? Moreover, I killed so many loyal officials and generals under Wen Yuanji—would he let me go for the sake of the Qin family case? Let go of those who risked their lives with me?”

In the severe pain where not a single part of his body didn’t hurt, Pei Song laughed until his entire chest trembled with it.

From the moment he was devoured by hatred with no way out and submitted to the Ao faction, there was no longer any path back!

Between him and the Wen clan, it could only be a fight to the death!

This bout of laughter affected Pei Song’s damaged heart meridian. He coughed up blood incessantly, saying: “I only lost, but I wasn’t wrong!

“Go ahead and act. Dying at your hands, I accept it.”

Xiao Li spoke with cold severity: “Of course you weren’t wrong. Under the pretense of revenge, what does it matter to kill some loyal officials and generals? Using your own selfish desires to ignite the flames of war, causing starving corpses everywhere and nine out of ten households empty among the common people—what does that matter either? Old General Qin has already offered his neck and taken his own life to atone for your sins. You, this selfish coward, can of course continue being a coward, spouting this utter nonsense to absolve yourself!”

He gripped the blade handle tightly. His suppressed rage made him like a silent mountain: “Those common people you call unable to distinguish right from wrong—three meals a day are still difficult for them to obtain, enduring bitter cold in winter and scorching heat in summer, facing the yellow earth with their backs to the sky daily, relying on a single hoe in the fields to earn a living for their entire family. They don’t even know the surname and given name of their local county magistrate. You resent them for not knowing your father was a pass-defending general who suffered unjust accusations at court?”

Xiao Li grabbed Pei Song’s collar, his eyes suddenly fierce: “You have some reason to hate anyone else, but the ones you have the least face to hate are the common people under heaven whom you harmed, whose homes were completely destroyed, who were displaced and homeless!”

Xiao Li violently threw the person back onto the ground. Whether because mentioning Qin Yi touched a painful spot, or because of his latter words, Pei Song’s eyes still brimmed with rage, yet also seemed to have something supporting him crack like thin ice with fine fissures.

When he was young, Qin Yi taught him sword practice in the courtyard while Mother arranged pastries at the stone table. He executed his first sword flourish. Qin Yi rarely praised him, then earnestly told him: “We who serve as generals are loyal to our sovereign and guard the common people under heaven.”

Mother smiled chidingly: “He’s so young, and you’re teaching him these things? Huan’er, come here. Look at you, covered in sweat. Mother will wipe it for you…”

Later, the entire Qin estate was reduced to ashes. All the clan members were loaded onto prison carts. Mother’s thin wrists and ankles bore heavy iron shackles. She died of illness on the road to exile…

He changed his name and surname, carrying a heart full of hatred to submit to the Ao faction. The sword in his hand was like a guillotine blade, stained with the blood of treacherous officials and loyal ministers alike, so much that even he himself couldn’t distinguish them.

Later still, the Ao and Wen clans fought each other. He reaped the benefits. Luodu fell.

All at once he gained so much, and also lost so much…

Xiao Huiniang, whom he had deceived yet who trusted him unconditionally, slept forever in that great fire in Yongzhou; Jiang Yichu, whom he had forcibly kept by his side using her young daughter as hostage, so resolutely pried open his hand at the cliff’s edge to willingly plunge into the ten thousand zhang abyss; Qin Yi, who had been crazed for so long, after regaining consciousness looked at him once before piercing his own throat with a horse lance; after Luodu was conquered, Gongsun Chou roared for the lackeys to take him away while alone turning back to guard this final city for him…

Every scene from the past appeared before his eyes with utmost clarity, slowly reddening his eye sockets.

In his hasty half-lifetime, those he loved ultimately despised him; those who loved him all died because of him.

Pei Song bit down hard on his teeth, resisting the astringent sensation in his eyes, roaring out word by word with a broken voice: “I. Am. Not. Wrong!”

His reddened eyes were full of rage, hatred, and unwillingness used to suppress that emotion. Unwilling to let Xiao Li have his way, he smiled coldly: “So what if you helped Tiger Gorge Pass hold for this moment? Once the battle report is transmitted back, half the Western Ling troops who broke through Gele City will be dispatched to Tiger Gorge Pass. Tiger Gorge Pass will still change hands!”

Xiao Li stood coldly in place without speaking. His tall form was like a mountain completely blocking Pei Song’s line of sight.

The ground still had residual accumulated water, yet it suddenly began to tremble. From the distance came the sound of horse hooves, rumbling like thunder.

Iron caltrops collided with flag poles in the cold wind, making sharp sounds. Great Liang’s Azure Dragon and Crimson Cloud banners on the Western Border wilderness almost formed a continuous expanse. The army like a black tide flooded in this direction.

A Wolf Rider spoke with shock: “Is that… reinforcements?”

Great Liang’s reinforcements had truly arrived!

Pei Song looked at the “Liang” character banners fluttering in the wind above the army. In his originally hateful eyes, slowly only a gray pallor remained.

He had suffered complete and utter defeat.

Not only defeated by the person before him, but even more defeated by that Great Liang princess who had gone far to Southern Chen yet repeatedly thwarted him.

Grinning in mocking laughter, when Xiao Li’s long blade sliced through the muddy ground, splashing blood, hazily, tear tracks also hastily rolled down beneath his eyes.

This desolate and absurd lifetime was truly laughable.