Yue Changling was not originally called Changling.
On the day she was born, her father Yue Chengfeng was fleeing with the entire family from pursuing enemies. Her mother, in the throes of labor, gave birth to her in the Changting Pavilion on a lonely mountain. When Yue Chengfeng returned with his broad saber, he saw his adorable infant daughter in swaddling clothes and couldn’t help but be overjoyed. Because she was born in the Changting Pavilion, he named her Changting.
Changting was born delicate as carved jade, deeply cherished by her parents and elder brother. But when she was six years old, she was struck by a palm strike from an unknown assailant in front of her own courtyard. By the time Changsheng noticed, she was already vomiting blood incessantly, causing their mother to nearly faint from panic.
Seeing that medicine and stone were ineffective, Yue Chengfeng clung to one last thread of hope and went to seek audience with a Tianzhu high monk. The monk, with an immortal bearing, merely circulated his energy slightly and immediately restored color to Changting’s complexion. Yue Chengfeng was overjoyed, but the monk said that Changting’s five internal organs were all damaged. Unless she could cultivate the Shimo True Scripture, there might be a possibility of survival. However, he was about to leave the Central Plains and feared he would be unable to transmit the martial art.
Though Yue Chengfeng couldn’t bear to be separated from his flesh and blood, for this final chance at survival, he steeled his heart and placed Changting into the monk’s care, beseeching him to accept her as a disciple. He asked not for her return to her homeland, only that she remain safe and blessed. The monk, moved by his plea, promised to do his utmost to teach her the true scripture. As for whether she could master it, everything would depend on fate.
Before parting, following the sect rules, the monk changed one character of her name to Ling—from the radical for mound and the character for high, meaning to scale high mountains and overcome this calamity. From that day forward, Changting became Changling.
Changling left for ten years. Ten years later, the Central Plains landscape had completely changed. The Liang Dynasty had fallen into decline, and heroes from all quarters rose in rebellion. Yue Chengfeng took advantage of the situation to gather talented individuals, while Yue Changsheng surpassed even his father. The Yue Family emerged prominently, becoming the most outstanding force in Jiangdong.
As the saying goes, the tree that stands tallest in the forest—the more the Yue Family’s prominence grew, the more their enemies feared them. To destroy the Yue Family, the Liang Dynasty army actually colluded with the northern desert army. Just when the Yue Family Army was forced into a narrow pass between two peaks, facing overwhelming odds and awaiting certain death, who would have thought that one person would descend from the sky, wielding a long sword, and with the momentum of one man holding the pass against ten thousand, forcibly drive back the enemy army and behead the northern desert marshal, finally reversing their disadvantage.
That person was none other than Yue Chengfeng’s own daughter whom he hadn’t seen in years—Yue Changling.
The Yue Family father and brother could scarcely believe that the little daughter who had been at death’s door all those years ago had become such a world-shaking expert. What they found even more unexpected was that Changling’s appearance no longer resembled the beauty in their memories—there was even a flame-red mark at the corner of her eye.
Changling herself could not say whether this was due to the injury she suffered in childhood or was acquired from practicing the Shimo True Scripture. She only remembered that in her youth, whenever she wore skirts, people would inevitably point and gossip. Later, she simply changed to men’s clothing and wore a concealing mask over her eyes, which instead caused people to develop a measure of awe toward her.
To be reunited with his beloved daughter after such a long separation, Yue Chengfeng was naturally overjoyed beyond measure—how could he care about anything else? Moreover, Changling had mastered peerless divine martial arts, which for the Yue Family was naturally like adding wings to a tiger. Before long, she accompanied the Yue Family’s eldest brother onto the battlefield, earning a resounding reputation.
Later, Yue Chengfeng fell gravely ill and passed away. Changling and her elder brother joined forces to capture half the Central Plains territory. No one in the realm was unaware of these two brothers’ names, yet almost no one knew of Changling’s female identity.
Recently, after continuous battles with the northern desert army, Changling would occasionally feel fatigue. She hadn’t expected that even under her strict military orders, someone would dare to trespass at the hot springs at night. When she noticed, she was deliberating whether to silence them, but upon turning around, she saw Wang Xun.
Changling’s brow furrowed slightly.
With a wave of her hand, the pool water instantly stirred up layer upon layer of waves. By the time the splashing water fell back to the pool’s surface, she had already wrapped herself in her robes and returned to shore to put on her shoes and socks.
Wang Xun’s mind spun in chaos. He knew well that what he had glimpsed was enough to cost him his life. He needed to say something that might possibly dispel the other party’s killing intent, but after all, he was just a child, unable to maintain a calm facade while his heart stormed. Several times he opened his mouth to speak, yet nothing would come out.
Changling looked at Wang Xun’s childish face, still not fully mature, and closed her eyes with some distress.
When she was very young, she had heard her mother say that if a woman’s body was seen by someone, she must either kill that person or marry them. This boy before her hadn’t even fully grown—she could hardly rush up to the little fellow and say, “Hey, you shouldn’t have looked. Since you’ve seen, prepare the betrothal gifts and marry me.”
But even less could she possibly kill a child without the strength to truss a chicken.
Just as she was feeling vexed, war drums suddenly sounded in the distance, clearly indicating an urgent situation requiring immediate military assembly.
Changling immediately bound up her hair, put on her mask, and prepared to rush back to the main camp. Seeing Wang Xun still standing there dazed, she only said, “What you witnessed tonight, do not tell a third person, including that highly skilled servant of yours.”
Wang Xun froze, not yet fully grasping the meaning of her words when Changling asked sternly, “Did you hear me?”
Wang Xun nodded subconsciously.
The corner of Changling’s mouth curved up. She casually ruffled the top of his head. “Return early. When I come back after the battle, come find me in the camp.”
After tossing out these words, her entire form vanished in a flash. Wang Xun felt this lightness skill was so fast it approached the realm of disappearing into thin air. He touched his head in bewilderment—if not for the lingering damp sensation in his hair, he would almost think it was just a hallucination.
By the time Changling returned to the camp, the sentry soldiers had already changed shifts, the army had finished assembling, and they were ready to deploy at any moment. As she had expected, the northern desert army indeed intended to take advantage of their unpreparedness and attack at midnight.
Several great generals were already waiting quietly in the tent. Changling crossed the threshold just in time. Changsheng glanced at her hair carrying moisture and asked, “Where did you go?”
“Had something to attend to.” Changling walked to his side. “How many have come?”
“Approximately twenty thousand. These troops came from the east and are not the vanguard army we previously faced. At the fastest, they will reach Yang Gate Pass by the Yin hour.”
Changling paused slightly. A mere twenty thousand troops would definitely be unable to breach the city. That they dared to cross the border at night—who knew what their intentions were. Changsheng pointed to the map behind him. “If they’re coming to rendezvous with the northern desert vanguard army, we need to move first. At Jiagu Pass, with mountains on both sides, as long as our army arrives to set an ambush before the Chou hour tonight, we can definitely capture them all at once.”
Shen Yao said, “Why not let Shen lead the Shen Family Army to scout ahead? Even if the enemy has a trick, Brother Yue can then respond accordingly—how about that?”
Changsheng shook his head. “Alliance Leader Shen has just arrived at Taixing and is unfamiliar with the local terrain. Naturally we cannot let the Shen Family Army take this risk.”
At this moment, someone hurriedly entered the tent, picked up a cup of tea from the desk and gulped it down in one go, then swept everyone with a helpless gaze. “Starting to deploy troops and formations without even figuring out who the enemy is—I really have to hand it to you all.”
This person was presumptuously arrogant, not even showing respect to Yue Changsheng—naturally, it could only be Fu Liujing.
Changsheng was unbothered. “I wonder what Mister means by this? Could it be that cavalry force is not the Yan army?”
Fu Liujing said, “When I first heard about it, I thought… tsk, in this deep night with heavy dew where you can’t even see a person’s shadow a hundred meters away, yet those sentry soldiers could estimate the enemy troop numbers from afar at the pass—isn’t that absurd?”
Once he pointed this out, everyone felt it made sense. Shen Yao frowned and asked, “Are those sentries lying?”
Fu Liujing rolled his eyes. “One or two being enemy spies is possible, but if an entire batch of sentries had all defected, wouldn’t Young Master Yue’s leadership have completely failed? I asked carefully—although they indeed saw the approaching army wearing northern desert armor, and though the armor was so dark they couldn’t see clearly in the night, but—” He deliberately paused, then pounded his fist on the table. “They were all riding white horses. White horses! Setting aside that Yan Kingdom reveres the color black, no one in their right mind would collectively ride white horses during a night march to make themselves targets. Fine, let’s say they’re all out of their minds—where would they gather so many white horses from?”
While several generals in the tent were still pondering, Changsheng had already understood the implication. “If so, they are not Yan Kingdom people, but Eastern Yi people. Only the Eastern Yi Qiang tribe, because of their beliefs, raises white horses across the entire tribe. Yet they wear northern desert armor, which suggests they’ve formed an alliance with Yan Kingdom—they are a decoy army.”
Everyone was shocked at these words. Shen Yao blurted out, “The Qiang tribe rumored to be extremely skilled in using poisons and venomous insects? How did they collude with Yan Kingdom?”
Fu Liujing raised his index finger and waved it twice. “How they colluded is not the key point to focus on right now. The key point is—what exactly is their objective?”
Seeing that Fu Liujing had clearly already seen through the entire situation yet at this critical moment still concerned himself with showing off, Changling had long lost patience to continue listening. She suddenly grasped Fu Liujing’s extended index finger and said with a smile, “What can be said in one sentence, don’t split into two.”
Changling’s grip wasn’t strong, yet Fu Liujing had no doubt that the next moment his finger might actually be broken. He took a deep breath and said, “So I observed the stars at night and discovered it will rain heavily soon. I believe the Eastern Yi army is deliberately luring you to set an ambush at Jiagu Pass, then using the high-to-low terrain there to make your army and horses contaminated with strange poisons before turning tail and fleeing. You’ll naturally not pursue while still wary of the northern desert army. By the time your large group returns, you’ll have transmitted the strange poisons to everyone, and when you discover this it will already be too late because the northern desert army will have already attacked. In the Thirty-Six Stratagems, this is called ‘killing with a borrowed knife’…”
Before he finished speaking, Changling had already released his hand. This brief explanation clarified the situation. Though the Qiang tribe’s numbers were few, they absolutely could not be underestimated. Even deploying main force armies, they must completely annihilate them before they reached Jiagu Pass. Any poisoned individuals absolutely could not be allowed to return to Taixing City—though this battle was sure to succeed, for the army going to resist the enemy, it would be extremely dangerous.
Changling was about to volunteer when Changsheng preemptively cut off her words. “The main northern desert army could attack at any time. You must remain and guard Taixing.”
“Elder Brother is the commander of the Yue Family Army. How can you risk yourself?”
Changsheng gently patted her shoulder, a trace of indisputable authority flashing in his eyes full of concern. “Since I am the commander, how can there be reason not to follow the commander’s orders?” He turned and declared boldly, “Jing Wuwei, Wei Xingyun, hear my command!”
Two great generals bowed with clasped fists. “Your subordinates are here!”
“Muster twenty thousand cavalry and five thousand archers. Follow this commander to Jiagu Pass!”
Dark clouds obscured the moon. In the distance, rain and snow fell together, mixed with a desolate scent.
Atop the city wall, Changling watched from afar as Changsheng led the army away. Even after they disappeared into the thick night, she still gazed at the towering peaks ahead, lost in thought.
Someone suddenly poked her back. She turned her head and discovered Fu Liujing wrapped in a thick padded jacket standing behind her. He coughed. “I think Young Master Yue’s decision is correct. Once he goes, I estimate the northern desert army will make a move soon. If a war god like you doesn’t stay behind, all of Taixing will fall into chaos…”
“I know.”
“Rather than standing here admiring the night scenery, why not think about how to defend the city…” Halfway through speaking, Fu Liujing saw Changling looking at him with eyes that vaguely revealed a gentle quality, and feeling somewhat unaccustomed to it, he cried out, “Don’t look at me like that! I’m only seeking self-preservation. I’m absolutely not doing this for your benefit…”
“I know.”
“Fine, what do you know…”
“I know that though Fu Liujing is a scholar without the strength to truss a chicken, he is proficient in mechanisms and escape techniques. If he truly wanted to untie my inferior rope knots, it would be easy as flipping his hand.” Changling’s tone was indifferent, her lips carrying a slight smile. “Therefore, thank you.”
Fu Liujing had never seen Yue Changling smile like this before—without that alienating sense of keeping people at a thousand li distance, instead seeming quite ordinary. Only that half-mask couldn’t conceal her bright eyes. His heart caught as he looked, and he couldn’t help but stammer somewhat. “It, it seems the rumors about me circulating among the common folk are truly quite numerous…” After speaking, he sneezed again, hastily turned around, and left the city wall as if wind sprouted from his feet.
Though Fu Liujing wasn’t a very reliable person, what he said was usually close to the mark.
At dawn, as the sky grew faintly bright, the northern desert army raised their forces to attack. A mass of cavalry came howling forward—even those martial world figures who usually witnessed killing and combat couldn’t help but be awed by this murderous aura. The formation could not be called anything but massive.
Changling toyed with an eighty-pound giant crossbow with one hand while twirling a feathered arrow with the other.
She had seen this kind of formation before and it absolutely wouldn’t be the last time. The terrain here was naturally advantageous. She quietly admonished herself—not only must she hold the position, but she must take this opportunity to tear off a layer of skin from the northern desert barbarians.
She stood atop the city, drawing her bow like a full moon, and ordered, “Release!”
In an instant, a wave of black arrow feathers swept across the sky above Taixing City, cutting through the heavens.
The northern desert army’s assault on Taixing City lasted a full two days, with considerable losses on both sides. Two great generals from the northern desert army died under Changling’s arrows. Unable to breach the city for so long, and learning that their rear supply provisions had suddenly caught fire, they had no choice but to retreat in defeat.
This battle was a great victory. The entire army was overjoyed. Changling had not yet removed her armor when she received the joyous news of the Yue Family Army’s crushing defeat of the Qiang tribe. The stone in her heart had just lightened by half when the messenger soldier said with a mournful face, “The marshal has been poisoned.”
Changsheng had been ambushed by the Qiang tribe and struck by a poisoned needle. By the time he held on until reaching the base of Taixing City, his entire body collapsed with a crash, unable even to stand.
The military physicians were helpless. Several great masters from the martial world jointly circulated their energy to expel the poison for him, all with minimal effect. Fu Liujing held up the poisoned needle and said, “Young Master Yue has been poisoned by Ligucao leaves. Though the toxin is fierce, it’s not without an antidote.”
Changling asked, “What is the cure?”
“Fight poison with poison. Ligucao itself is the catalyst.” Fu Liujing said, “I once saw Ligucao at Cross Cliff on Beiming Peak. However, Beiming Peak is not only extremely cold, but the mountain paths are also precipitous and dangerous. Even someone highly skilled in lightness techniques would need a full day to reach the summit.”
“If I can bring back Ligucao before sunrise tomorrow, what are your chances of saving my elder brother?”
“Seventy percent.”
Seeing Changling pick up her sword to leave, Fu Liujing called out to stop her. “Wait, have you even seen what Ligucao looks like?”
Fu Liujing deeply regretted asking that question.
If he hadn’t been so loose-lipped, Yue Changling wouldn’t have dragged him along without a word. The reason for using the word “dragged” was because he kept shouting that he didn’t know lightness techniques, yet was hauled onto a horse in plain view of everyone and carried all the way as they flew toward Beiming Peak.
Fortunately, his mindset was always good. When Yue Changling pulled him to climb toward the snow-ravaged, wind-torn high peak, he could still comfort himself: Just get used to it.
The Cross Cliff of Beiming Peak was steep as if cleaved by axes and chiseled by blades. Due to the heavy snowfall in recent days, the trees all over the mountain were covered. Changling, not knowing medicinal herbs, could only sweep away the snow with her sword handle. Seeing this, Fu Liujing quickly spoke up to stop her. “Though Ligucao can withstand severe cold, to use it as a catalyst, it must be picked complete with roots. If you wave your hand around carelessly like this, what if you break the grass? Wouldn’t that be a complete waste of effort?”
Changling sheathed her sword and watched Fu Liujing carefully brush snow from the vegetation with his hands. “At this rate, you won’t find it even by nightfall.”
Fu Liujing ignored her and continued searching plant by plant.
The fierce wind cut bone-deep, as if carving flesh directly from the skin. Even Changling couldn’t help but shiver from cold, while Fu Liujing was frozen stiff and couldn’t take a step for quite some time. He stood at the cliff’s edge with hands on his hips, looking around somewhat discouraged, when he suddenly spotted several wild grasses shaped like flower crowns with purple stems and leaves in the shrubs beneath the cliff wall. Overjoyed, he shouted, “I found it! It’s those purple ones, but it’s too dangerous. We need to think of a way…”
Before he could finish saying “way,” he saw Changling’s form flash, and in an instant she leaped onto the rocks of the precipice. Fu Liujing was startled. “Be careful—”
Changling executed another spinning inverted leap, swift as a flying crane in her movements. Landing lightly back atop the cliff, she held several Ligucao plants complete with stems and roots in her hand.
Just as she was about to hand the medicinal herbs to Fu Liujing, she felt a needle-like stabbing pain in her right wrist. An extremely small black insect suddenly burrowed into her skin without warning.
Before Changling could realize what it was, Fu Liujing fiercely knocked the Ligucao from her hand, rolled up her sleeve, and held her wrist. “Couldn’t you listen to the whole sentence before jumping off cliffs! This kind of poisonous grass is often a habitat for various venomous insects. You must be especially careful when picking them. If you get bitten… Heavens, this is more than just being bitten!”
Changling felt the insect wriggling within her skin. “What is this?”
Fu Liujing rubbed his temples. “This is a United Hearts Gu. It thirsts for blood like life itself. Once it burrows into a human body, it immediately begins drinking blood. Within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, they will swell and burst, releasing toxins—certain death!”
Changling stared at her wrist in puzzlement while Fu Liujing became as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. “This is bad, this is bad. Only half a cup of tea’s time left…”
Changling’s eyes flickered. Her left hand drew her sword from its sheath and measured it against her right arm. Fu Liujing jerked his head up. “What are you doing?”
Changling said, “Cutting off my arm before the gu insect bursts.”
“Are you insane? The body, hair, and skin are received from one’s parents—how can you just cut it off?”
“So it’s…” Changling deliberated on her wording. “Better to leave a complete corpse?”
“…” Fu Liujing’s expression suggested he’d just thrown out his back.
With little time remaining, Changling stopped dawdling and swung forcefully toward her arm’s bend. But who knew Fu Liujing would fearlessly grab her sleeve, forcing her to barely stop the sword’s momentum. “What are you doing?”
“Obviously, you came to Beiming Peak as one complete person with me. If you go back in two pieces, how am I supposed to explain it to Yue Changsheng?” Without another word, Fu Liujing seized the long sword and swiftly scraped open a cut on Yue Changling’s wrist. Blood immediately gushed forth. He extended his own left wrist, gritted his teeth, and forcefully dragged it across the sharp blade edge.
His sword-gripping motion was extremely fluid, clearly not resembling that of a scholar who wielded only brush and ink. Though it was bone-chilling cold, a thin sheen of sweat formed on his forehead.
Fu Liujing grasped Changling’s wrist and brought it close to examine, as if aiming for a precise moment. Suddenly he pressed his own bleeding hand against hers. When Changling felt the insect in her wrist seemingly moving, she instinctively tried to pull back, but somehow Fu Liujing had the strength to firmly hold her in place, saying fiercely, “Don’t move!”
In the blink of an eye, once the gu insect followed the blood flow and rapidly burrowed into Fu Liujing’s wrist, only then did he release Changling’s hand and collapse on his back to the ground. “Don’t worry, you won’t die anymore.”
Changling stared fixedly at Fu Liujing, a trace of confusion in her dark eyes. “You…”
“I won’t die either.” Fu Liujing struggled to sit up, tore a strip from his own clothing to stop the bleeding. “This United Hearts Gu insect is originally hermaphroditic—two insect bodies are connected as one. Once they burrow into a human body, the male lets the female eat first. It can’t distinguish whether there’s enough blood, but if at this time it smells another type of blood, it will boldly release its mate to go feed.”
Fu Liujing turned his head and saw Changling’s hand still dripping blood. He quickly pulled her to sit down and extracted a handkerchief from his bosom to pass to her. Changling received it in a daze and pressed it against her wound, listening as he continued, “When the female gu discovers the male gu is gone, it stops drinking blood. When the male gu turns back and discovers its mate is gone, it also loses interest and stops gorging itself.”
Hearing him describe such a terrifying foreign tribe’s gu insect so interestingly, Changling couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Fu Liujing said helplessly, “You can still laugh? Do you know why this insect is called the United Hearts Gu?”
Changling raised an eyebrow and looked at him askance.
“Because they share the same breath and branches—even when separated, within a certain range they can still sense each other’s existence. If they can’t sense it anymore, they’ll give up on themselves and release their poison—” Fu Liujing’s entire body was frozen stiff, each breath he exhaled turning to white mist. “At that point, we’ll both meet our doom.”
Changling’s entire body shook.
“If the person hosting them dies, the gu insect naturally can’t survive. In the end, wouldn’t the other one still have to die for love? As they say: flowers bloom without shared appreciation, flowers fall without shared sorrow—if we cannot be united as lovers, we shall be united in death. Therefore, people call it the United Hearts Gu, signifying living and dying together.”