“From this day forward, my remaining life is entrusted to Langjun.”
Without any preparation, this line written on plain paper leaped into Li Mu’s eyes.
The paper had been dampened by rain, the beautiful handwriting blurred at the edges, and several ink strokes at the end had slowly spread along the delicate texture of the letter paper like a beauty’s silken hair.
Li Mu’s gaze was firmly captured by this line, unable to look away, his heart suddenly pounding violently.
How could he possibly forget – these were the words she had spoken to him long, long ago on their wedding night when he first married her. It was both a declaration of love and a solemn entrustment. He would not forget, could never forget.
The back of the letter seemed to have another line of characters.
He turned it over.
“My heart loves you deeply, how could I not speak of it? I treasure it in my heart – how could I ever forget?”
Li Mu gazed long at this letter from her, reading it over and over again.
Gradually, his chest filled with an unprecedented, strange emotion tinged with faint melancholy yet deeply moving.
All along, he had thought those memories would forever remain buried deep in his heart, a burden only he could carry. How could he have imagined that today they would once again come through her pen, so unexpectedly, to appear before him.
In this instant, he understood her letter completely.
She was clearly telling him that she already knew everything about him. Not just his present, but also that dark past and those memories that had been completely buried.
She was hoping for his return so she could pour out to him her deep longing and love.
Li Mu didn’t know how she had learned of it. Even he himself no longer wished to recall that past – how could he bear to let her know?
From the first day he married her in this lifetime, even when his heart was still knotted with unresolved feelings, he had never thought to let her know.
He would never mention it in her presence.
In this lifetime, having her companionship was already enough – he didn’t want that blood-stained past to add needless troubles to her life.
Yet she had still come to know.
At this moment, Li Mu felt his heart had been completely fulfilled.
Like morning clouds gathering, dew not yet dried, when he who walked alone was suddenly caught up to from behind by her, hands clasped together, hearts pressed close, no longer any gap between them.
At this moment, only deep tenderness and infinite gratitude remained in his heart.
How greatly heaven favored him to grant him such a wife in this lifetime. What more could Li Mu ask for?
If his beloved wife knew of the choice he faced tonight, what path would she take?
Li Mu’s throat tightened, his eyes slightly reddening.
He carefully wiped the remaining water stains from the letter with his sleeve, wrapped it in oiled paper, and tucked it close to his burning chest. He closed his eyes, turned around, and strode out of the tent.
Rainwater, carried by night winds, ravaged heaven and earth.
The waters of Jian River surged past the highland beneath their feet.
Li Mu faced his officers and soldiers, one hand on his sword, standing in the wind and rain, his figure like a massive rock. Under the gaze of those pairs of eyes filled with loyalty and trust, he said loudly: “If human justice cannot be restored, how can heavenly justice exist? We are called the Yingtian Army – we should do heaven’s work. The time to respond to heaven is today!”
“Brave soldiers, march immediately and follow me to take Kanglong Pass!”
His voice was firm and powerful, piercing through wind and rain, carrying far into the distance.
“We pledge to follow to the death, never to return without victory!”
Following the clear and unified response of the dozen deputy generals, answering voices arose from all corners of the military camp, mixing with wind and rain, echoing across this highland.
…
Kanglong Pass had extremely unique geography – not only located within a cliff face, but also with the Luo River stretching across its front. The river flowed eastward against the plateau wall, leaving only a narrow path between the riverbank and the pass entrance. No matter how many thousands of troops an attacker might have, upon reaching such terrain, they could not deploy their formations.
Though the pass tower was also precipitous and narrow, it could accommodate at most five thousand soldiers.
But these five thousand defenders were sufficient for guarding the pass. It was already difficult for attackers to cross the river and reach the pass entrance, and even if successful, the pass tower was tall and imposing, solid as metal and stone. With defenders fighting from high ground and attackers having only that tiny space between the pass tower and Luo River to maneuver, trying to launch an effective assault to take the pass was extremely difficult. This was why since ancient times there had been the saying “one man guards the pass, ten thousand cannot break through” – truly formidable.
Li Mu naturally understood this principle.
The moment he made his decision, he didn’t prepare for a large army assault.
Taking Kanglong Pass required elite troops, not numbers.
When it became known that he had decided to lead three thousand death-defying men to turn back and storm Kanglong Pass while ordering the rest of his forces to proceed to Hongnong according to the original deployment, the entire camp erupted. Soldiers were stirred with emotion, competing to have the camp scribes write farewell letters to their families and requesting to follow the Grand Marshal to seize the pass. Several soldiers from different units argued over this until they had to draw lots to decide.
Li Mu led one thousand elite troops from the Liwu Battalion along with another two thousand selected death-defying soldiers, carrying only enough provisions for five days. Without waiting for the rain to stop or dawn to break, guided by scouts, they turned back overnight and set out on the road to Shangjin.
The reason for bringing only five days’ rations was that Wang Wu, based on his experience, judged that the river mouth at Shangjin could hold out for at most that long. If they couldn’t arrive in time to open the dam and release the water, this army would meet its fate in rolling floods.
That night, this light cavalry reached Xin’an.
The heavy rain that had fallen for days finally stopped. Roads remained extremely muddy, rivers overflowed, flooding low-lying fields on both banks.
With floods potentially arriving at any moment, the Northern Yan army had long since evacuated Xin’an. News had also spread. On the road from Luoyang’s direction came countless civilians who had heard the news, dragging children and bringing women, fleeing the city. The procession stretched endlessly along the road with no visible beginning or end, like headless flies searching everywhere for temporary shelter.
In the distance, at the road’s end, a light cavalry gradually appeared, galloping toward the direction they were fleeing from.
Passersby all stopped to watch this unfamiliar army marching against the flow, led by a stern-faced general, appearing in their field of vision with bewildered gazes.
“It’s the Yingtian Army!”
Someone recognized the uniforms and shouted.
The crowd immediately stirred.
Someone spread word that the general leading this light cavalry marching against the flow toward Shangjin Pass was Li Mu of the Southern Dynasty.
“Grand Marshal Li Mu has come!”
“That man at the front was him!”
One told ten, ten told a hundred, and news spread without wings, quickly throughout this long refugee road. Eyes that had held only despair and numbness rekindled flames of hope. People knelt by the roadside, kowtowing to the army passing before them.
“The Xianbei want to flood Luoyang! Please save us, Grand Marshal!”
Pleas and cries mixed with children’s wailing rose and fell along the roadside.
The cavalry column made no stops, passing like wind beside them, horses’ hooves flying and splashing mud. Under everyone’s craning gazes, they quickly disappeared at the road’s end.
…
The next day, Yao Gui, responsible for guarding Kanglong Pass, received news that Li Mu was leading a light cavalry force of approximately no more than three thousand men, rushing toward this location.
His first reaction was surprise.
Although Murong Ti had already made this prediction, from his heart, he didn’t quite agree with Murong Ti’s judgment.
In his view, as long as the flood could block Li Mu’s pursuit of the Northern Yan army and give them a chance to regroup, the purpose would already be achieved.
He hadn’t expected that under these circumstances, this Southern Dynasty man would not only not retreat but actually come.
Li Mu’s reputation thundered in his ears. His first reaction upon learning this news was nervousness. But when he learned Li Mu had brought only three thousand men, he immediately relaxed and laughed heartily.
Kanglong Pass’s tower was three stories high, layered upward, with towering walls built entirely against the high plateau walls on both sides, eliminating all possible vulnerabilities. Once the gate was closed, not even a fly could enter.
No matter how divine Li Mu’s courage or skillful his subordinates, trying to take the pass he guarded with three thousand men was like a fool’s dream.
Moreover, Li Mu had very little time left. The river mouth could collapse at any moment. And occupying the high ground of the pass, even if the entire Yellow River flooded backward into the Luo River and submerged the glazed tile roofs of Luoyang’s palaces, he wouldn’t fear being flooded.
But for Li Mu and his three thousand soldiers below the pass, they wouldn’t have such luck.
He seemed to already see the scene of a famous general perishing at his hands. Rousing his spirits, he ordered soldiers to stand ready in strict formation in the pass tower, waiting for Li Mu’s forces to arrive and deliver a devastating blow when they attempted to cross the river.
That night was dark and windy. In the deep of night, Kanglong Pass was shrouded in darkness. The suddenly expanded Luo River rushed past the plateau wall with roaring sounds like angry beasts, chilling to the bone.
Yao Gui heard soldiers report that torches had suddenly appeared on the opposite bank – likely Li Mu’s three thousand troops arriving to launch a night attack on the pass. He immediately climbed the tower to observe. Indeed, he saw torches moving across the way with sounds suggesting boats entering the water. Suddenly, accompanied by thunder-like war drums, the familiar pre-battle shouts used to boost morale came from the opposite bank. Knowing Li Mu was preparing to force a river crossing, he immediately gave orders, personally commanding from the fortress.
Soldiers already in position immediately shot arrows and hurled stones at the opposite side upon his command. The Yingtian Army across the river also quickly formed ranks and launched fierce counterattacks from behind shield walls.
The calm before Kanglong Pass was shattered. In the night, fires blazed everywhere. The battle cries and curses of soldiers from both sides mixed with the thunderous sound of rushing water against the banks, stirring hearts with their intensity.
Just as the battle before the pass raged fiercely, at the same moment, several boats carrying three hundred soldiers silently entered the water from a spot half a li from the pass. Oarsmen rowed vigorously, quickly reaching the opposite shore and dropping heavy iron anchors weighing thousands of jin into the rushing current to secure the boats.
Here there was no foothold, no road.
What existed was a vertical plateau wall rising dozens of zhang high. Looking up, it was like a straight sword thrust from the river into the black night sky.
“Is everything ready?”
Li Mu stood at the bow, asking the three hundred warriors from the Liwu Battalion in a deep voice.
The soldiers had tight-fitting headbands, carried fire starters for illumination, bodies wrapped with hemp ropes dozens of zhang long capable of supporting their weight, daggers at their waists, bows and blades strapped to their backs, wrist guards, and specially made boots with sharp points – these boots allowed them to insert their feet into any crack in the plateau wall or around tree vines to secure themselves firmly and help them successfully reach the top. Besides this, each person also carried a jar filled with fire oil on their back.
From head to toe, fully armed like this, each person carried at least several dozen jin of weight.
But everyone stood with heads high and chests out, responding in unison.
The blazing torchlight illuminated fierce, fearless faces.
The main force would conduct a feint attack on the pass all night to cover these three hundred warriors following him in climbing the cliff face bare-handed. After reaching the top, they would descend from the plateau into the fortress, exploiting the fatal weakness of the fortress’s cramped interior space that limited defenders’ mobility to break open the gates – this was Li Mu’s plan for taking the pass.
These three hundred men were all elites among elites, warriors among warriors who had countless times followed him through life and death.
But tonight’s battle, in its difficulty and danger, was unprecedented.
Below their feet was no retreat. Either succeed or die honorably.
Li Mu’s gaze swept across the faces before him. He stepped forward to straighten a slightly askew quiver on a young soldier’s back, finally coming before Gao Huan and meeting his eyes with slight hesitation.
“This subordinate Gao Huan is fully prepared. Please give the order, Grand Marshal!”
Gao Huan immediately straightened his spine, his tone resolute.
Li Mu looked at him for a moment, slowly raised his hand to rest on his shoulder, gripped it firmly, then turned to look up at the plateau wall above that seemed to have stood here since ancient times, reaching toward heaven. He drew his dagger, inserted it into a rock crevice in the plateau wall, driving it firmly in, grasped a vine hanging from above with his other hand, tested its strength, said “Follow me,” and began climbing upward.
The three hundred warriors formed several columns. Led by their leaders, following the footholds of their companions ahead, they stepped and paused, treading on any place they could gain purchase, climbing toward the plateau top.
The group climbed with difficulty. Though slow, even when witnessing comrades lose their grip and fall, they never stopped or looked back. They only stared at their companions’ figures above, fingers like steel claws, toes like sharp blades, using hands and feet together like ape-men, clinging to the cliff face, moving inch by inch up the plateau wall. Their only goal was to reach the plateau top.
Li Mu led throughout, starting from the zi hour when night was sealed in deepest black, until finally his five fingers, after testing, firmly grasped the sharp edge of a rock. With a powerful effort, he flipped over in one motion, both feet landing on level ground.
By this time, nearly half the night had passed since he began climbing from the plateau base.
This was the darkest moment before dawn. The sky was already dark and heavy, but behind the clouds at the far horizon, a faint trace of dawn light was beginning to show.
What appeared before Li Mu’s eyes was such a magnificent scene! Endless plains stretched out vast and boundless, with lush vegetation growing in layers. Vines thick as human arms intertwined with each other, devouring one another, spreading wildly toward the distance. Grass and trees grew so densely that one couldn’t even find a place to set foot.
Not far away, between two plateau walls, there was a sudden rupture, as if forcibly split by a creator’s giant axe, divided into two sections.
Li Mu knew that there, at the bottom of the abyss beneath that crevice, was the Kanglong Road he must pass through today.
He had no time to take another look at this divine craftsmanship from the creator that had been untouched by human footsteps for thousands of years. He untied the rope from his body, securing one end to a tree by the cliff edge whose roots were deeply embedded in the plateau wall and whose trunk was two arm-spans thick. After tying the rope securely, he dropped the remaining rope down.
Soon, Gao Huan, who had followed behind him, climbed up using the hanging rope. He did the same, hanging down his own rope to help the companions below reach the top.
More and more soldiers climbed up the ropes and assembled. Everyone wielded machetes, cutting through thorns and brambles, forcibly creating a passage through the dense forest atop the plateau toward that canyon. Upon reaching the cliff top, they all untied the hemp ropes from their bodies, secured them to firm anchors, wrapped their wrist guards around their palms, and at Li Mu’s command, gripped the ropes and descended vertically toward the valley bottom in this darkest moment before dawn, under cover of night.
At this time, the soldiers conducting the feint river crossing attack across from the pass saw the agreed-upon time had come. They suddenly burst forth with deafening war drums again, battle cries arose everywhere, and boats were once more forcefully pushed into the river, launching the fiercest assault of the night toward the pass.
Li Mu’s reputation was formidable, and after previous consecutive defeats, with him personally leading troops to attack the pass tonight, even with natural barriers as protection, the Xianbei defenders in the tower dared not slacken their vigilance. They had been concentrating intently since midnight, dragged out until now by the opposite side, and were already exhausted. Suddenly hearing battle cries rise again outside the pass, with arrows shooting toward the pass tower like torrential rain, dense as a downpour – even Yao Gui nearly got hit. Furious, he ordered soldiers to counterattack with full force.
Just as those inside and outside the pass fought with bloodshot eyes in mortal combat, suddenly the Xianbei soldiers on the tower felt liquid like rainwater splashing down from above – sticky and pungent. They all looked up to see a bright round point of fire, like heavenly fire descending from above, slowly falling from the pitch-black plateau wall dozens of zhang high, dropping to the ground with sparks flying everywhere.
“It’s fire oil!”
A soldier touched his stained sleeve, brought what his fingers touched to his nose to smell, and suddenly cried out in alarm.
As if in response, before his words finished, with a “boom,” the liquid flowing on the ground suddenly ignited, spreading rapidly. In just a short moment, the tower was engulfed in flames. Soldiers splashed with fire oil also quickly burst into flames all over their bodies – some fell to the ground rolling back and forth, others ran frantically with flames trailing.
Amid heart-rending screams, Yao Gui looked up in horror, his eyes wide as saucers.
Along the steep plateau wall, human figures descended rapidly from above his head like heavenly soldiers and generals. Before he could react, he saw a figure land on the tower’s roof ridge, draw a long sword from his back, push off with both feet, leap up, and pounce down at him like an eagle.
The blazing fire illuminated that man’s face.
He could see clearly – that person was actually Li Mu, Grand Marshal of the Southern Dynasty.
For a moment, he couldn’t imagine how Li Mu was not outside the pass gate but had appeared before him in such a manner, descending from thin air.
He instinctively raised his blade, but his arm was only halfway up when a cold gleam flashed before his eyes.
His neck felt cold, and he watched the ground rushing up toward him.
When he finally realized it was his own head falling to the ground, that headless body crashed down with a thud, pressing the head with eyes still wide open beneath it.
“Disaster! Li Mu has entered the pass—”
A nearby Xianbei soldier who witnessed everything that happened in a flash was terrified out of his wits. He suddenly turned around, shouting loudly, ran a few steps, then climbed onto the city wall and jumped down regardless of everything.
Li Mu kicked aside Yao Gui’s corpse, grabbed the head, and hurled it toward the group of Xianbei soldiers jostling below the tower, shouting sternly: “Yao Gui is dead! Those who block my path shall be killed without mercy!”
The entire tower was engulfed in flames as Xianbei soldiers looked up.
The blazing firelight illuminated that heroic face of the Southern Dynasty man who was like a nightmare to the Xianbei people.
He stood commanding from above, his eyes like lightning, naturally imposing without anger.
That killing intent, as if no force in this world could stop him, was chilling and made people retreat in fear.
…
Luoshen waited in Chang’an, day after day.
The rain stopped and the weather began to clear, but instead of waiting for Li Mu’s return, a new message arrived from Hongnong that day, leaving her with mixed emotions.
Luoshen knew she truly couldn’t describe it as bad news.
But the moment she heard the news, her heart raced and her breath was instantly taken away.
She had never seen the twists and perils of Kanglong Road, but she knew that natural barrier entrance called “one man guards the pass, ten thousand cannot break through” was firmly guarded by Murong Ti’s soldiers, like an open bloody maw waiting for his arrival.
She had never personally witnessed how beautiful that ancient river flowing through Luoyang city was, how it had silently nourished the fertile land on both banks and the people who had lived there for generations for thousands of years. But in dreams she had communed with it intimately. She knew it had an extremely beautiful name – it was called Luo River. Even the name her father had given her was connected to it in countless ways.
Now this river was no longer peaceful as before. Facing merciless natural disasters and evil human calamities, it was about to transform into a raging dragon that would mercilessly destroy everything around it.
Her husband had always been upright and indomitable. Even after experiencing such dark betrayal and slaughter, his innocent heart remained undiminished.
She knew that even when he decided to return to stop all this, if he asked her opinion, no matter how unwilling she was in her heart, she would never stop him.
Because she knew that was what he should do.
In this world, only her husband had the ability to do such things.
As long as he lived, he was destined to be the pillar supporting the realm.
She believed in him.
He would surely remember firmly what she told him in her letter and return safely, because she knew that in his heart, there must also be countless words he wanted to say to her.
But even repeatedly comforting herself like this couldn’t suppress Luoshen’s anxiety and fear after learning this news.
She dared not think what terrible things would happen if Kanglong Pass couldn’t be captured in time, when the moment truly came that towering floods completely broke free from embankment constraints and rolled backward along the Luo River.
Would she ever see his face again in her remaining life?
Would she ever again be able to kiss his lips and pour out to his face, sentence by sentence, those words she wanted to confide to him?
On the day this news arrived, the atmosphere in the prefectural office was extremely oppressive.
Everyone knew how difficult what Li Mu was attempting to do was.
To pass through the heavily guarded Kanglong Pass and reach Shangjin Pass within just a few days – even the usually confident Sun Fangzhi felt this was an impossible mission.
He had also received news that couldn’t be told to the Madam.
All those who followed Li Mu on this mission had left letters for their families before departure, if they had any.
In front of Luoshen, besides repeatedly comforting her and telling her the Grand Marshal would surely return safely, he dared not say anything else, nor knew how to begin.
Luoshen spent the night alone in her room. Early the next morning, she sought out Sun Fangzhi and told him she had decided to go to Hongnong to wait for Li Mu’s return there.
“Waiting for him there, I can also see him sooner when he returns.”
Her eyes were slightly swollen, but when she spoke, her tone was calm and firm.
…
Thus, Luoshen set out on the road to Hongnong.
She departed from Chang’an, traveling by day and resting by night, passing through Baling, Xinfeng, Wucheng, arriving at Huayin, exiting Tongguan Pass, then following the road where Li Mu had once fought, passing Guguan. Ten days later, she finally reached Hongnong.
The Hongnong magistrate and Yingtian Army generals, learning of her arrival, came out more than twenty li from the city to welcome her.
In this lifetime, if there was anything she felt was the most fortunate decision she had personally made, it was this present matter.
In her heart full of anxiety and fear she dared not think about even halfway, the moment she arrived dusty from travel, because of news that had also just arrived here, she was so excited she couldn’t restrain herself and wept on the spot.
Those were tears of joy from having been tightly wound for many days, suddenly completely relaxed.
Li Mu had done it.
He had accomplished everything that originally seemed absolutely impossible in the world’s eyes.
He had taken only one night to capture Kanglong Pass, passed through Kanglong Road, through Luoyang, and rushed to Shangjin Pass.
When he arrived with his soldiers, water in Luoyang city had already reached above the calves. The water was still rising at a visibly rapid pace. The fertile fields on both banks of the Luo River were completely submerged by river water overflowing its banks.
The river mouth was in imminent danger, with collapse possibly occurring at any moment. Everywhere were civilians wading through flood waters to escape, with wails filling the land. The nearly thousand Xianbei soldiers ordered to stay and guard the dam had already retreated to a hill near the dam, using sharp arrows in their hands to prevent anyone trying to approach the dam to release water and save themselves.
Li Mu led his soldiers to take the hilltop. Meanwhile, Wang Wu, who had traveled along the way, led countless civilians who had heard the news and followed, swarming onto that dam. Connected by ropes, they risked their lives to pry apart huge logs and the massive stone cages weighing thousands of jin each that they had personally buried to block the flood.
The water flow that had been blocked for days returned to its proper course, beginning to surge eastward from the opening they had created, following its original direction.
Under the impact of another wave of flooding from upstream, the dam that had been torn full of holes finally couldn’t support itself and collapsed with a thunderous crash. In the massive whirlpools torn by the huge waves, the red-eyed civilians, transformed into raging beasts, drove those Xianbei people defeated by the Yingtian Army to the river mouth and threw them all into the waves.
Witnessing those Xianbei people who had once been fierce and evil but now showed terror struggling and crying in the water, instantly swallowed and swept away by huge waves, many people wailed on the spot, prostrating themselves before Li Mu, bowing in worship, revering him like an emperor.
That general said the Grand Marshal had originally set out on his return journey, but that day, when he passed outside Luoyang city, all the people in the city heard the news and rushed out from within, blocking his path, unwilling to let him leave.
His schedule might therefore be somewhat delayed.
The general respectfully invited her into the city, saying he would send a force to Luoyang to meet the Grand Marshal, asking Madam to wait here peacefully for the Grand Marshal’s return.
Luoshen felt her whole body’s blood boiling.
They didn’t know that she had been waiting to see him for such a long time – how could she wait any longer?
She didn’t want to wait anymore either.
Under her skin, in her blood vessels, every drop of flowing blood was driving her, commanding her to immediately continue on the road eastward.
She only wanted to see him, to see him immediately. Nothing could stop this extremely desperate desire burning in her heart.
…
Several days later, Luoshen followed that force sent to meet Li Mu and finally reached Kanglong Pass, which was said to have been taken by him in one night.
The pass was now guarded by the Yingtian Army. Although the tower was half-destroyed, with charred traces from fires everywhere visible, its imposing presence remained.
When Luoshen passed through the pass and looked up at that towering plateau cliff reaching into the clouds, she could hardly believe how Li Mu had led those three hundred warriors to climb the cliff and reach the top, then descend from heaven. Her heart filled with awe as she almost held her breath.
Though she hadn’t witnessed it personally, she could imagine what kind of thrilling battle for the pass had taken place here not long ago.
The path was rugged and winding. She sat on the back of a gentle mare, protected by soldiers, enduring the extremely oppressive claustrophobic feeling as if the plateau walls on both sides might collapse at any moment and bury people beneath, finally passing through that winding, narrow fifteen-li gorge.
The moment she emerged, her view suddenly opened up.
When she entered the pass, it was still quite bright. Now that she had come through, it was already dusk.
A river extended from the distance, winding around the plateau behind her, flowing quietly eastward.
She knew the river before her was the Luo River.
The broad, clear Luo River no longer raged and roared. It slowly resumed its original tranquil beauty, flowing peacefully in the golden light cast by the setting sun.
This was the Luo River, the eastern capital’s water that her father had dreamed of visiting and never forgotten. It was even more beautiful than Luoshen had ever imagined.
She couldn’t help but stop in her tracks.
The deputy general leading the army stepped forward and said respectfully: “Madam, although the great waters have receded, many places ahead still have muddy roads unsuitable for travel, and it’s getting dark. Why don’t we temporarily camp here tonight and continue tomorrow morning? What does Madam think?”
Luoshen nodded.
With the deputy general’s command, soldiers began setting up camp on high ground not far from the riverbank.
The tent for her to rest in tonight was quickly erected.
Accompanying maidservants quickly spread out bedding and invited Luoshen to enter the tent to rest.
She wasn’t tired. Even though her body was already weary, as long as her heart thought about getting closer and closer to him, with each step forward bringing her one step closer to seeing him, she felt full of strength again.
She bent to exit the tent and gazed toward the eastern direction where the river flowed, where she would continue traveling tomorrow.
The flood had receded, but the water was still abundant. The river surface was almost level with the banks. On the shore remained a riverbank left by the recently receded great waters. The riverbank was flat and broad, with neat pleats washed out by flowing water, spreading before her in beautiful curved layers toward the distance. Several waterbirds leisurely hopped on the moist riverbank, casually leaving light shallow prints of their claws on the soft sandy soil.
At the end of the riverbank lay the distance, where dark gold sun set in the west with red clouds filling the sky, draping this riverbank in intense golden light.
Luoshen gazed into the distance, facing the evening breeze, slowly walking along the Luo River in the sunset.
Not far away, several young soldiers setting up tents on the high ground occasionally stole glances at her.
“Madam, dinner is ready. Please return to the tent for your meal…”
The maidservant came to invite her back again.
Luoshen took one last look toward where the Luo River flowed away and nodded reluctantly. Just as she was about to return to the tent as suggested, suddenly her gaze fixed.
At that distant end she had gazed at repeatedly, shadows of banners gradually appeared.
Sunset shone on the banner surfaces, and soon they could be seen clearly.
What approached was a light cavalry army, racing along the Luo River bank toward the high plateau not far behind her, getting closer and closer.
Soon, Luoshen could hear the thunderous sound of thousands of war horses galloping, like dense drumbeats.
Banners unfurled in the wind, and those two large characters “Yingtian” leaped into her eyes.
“The Grand Marshal has arrived! The Grand Marshal has arrived!”
A soldier on lookout duty came running frantically toward the camp, shouting with joy-filled voice.
The entire camp instantly erupted. Almost everyone put down what they were doing and turned to look.
Luoshen had already clearly seen that the man at the front of the cavalry – who else could it be but Li Mu?
The moment his figure entered her eyes, just his silhouette alone, her chest suddenly tightened and her eyes reddened.
“Langjun—”
She called out once. Facing the evening wind from the Luo River surface that still carried some moist warmth, she lifted her skirts and ran toward him. After running dozens of steps, she stopped again, standing by the Luo River, breathing slightly, eyes filled with tears, watching that figure drawing ever closer to her.
Li Mu also saw her. The graceful figure standing by the Luo River in the sunset.
His eyes suddenly radiated incredible light.
He immediately spurred his black horse forward at full speed, quickly separating from the main force behind him, taking a direct route toward her.
The war horse galloped to the riverbank, and under his urging, leaped in without hesitation. Its four hooves trampled the soft, muddy beach, galloping toward Luoshen with mud and water flying, startling those waterbirds that had been pacing and foraging by the river edge, flapping their wings as they flew into the sky.
Like a magnificent divine steed, the black horse carried its master across the beach toward Luoshen.
Before it reached the front, its male master seemed already unable to wait, released the reins, dismounted from its back, and landed steadily on both feet.
The Luo River surface glittered with golden light. An evening breeze passed by, stirring her robes. From afar, she looked like a fairy floating as if riding the wind, about to step on water and depart.
Li Mu approached the woman by the Luo River with great strides, a smile on his lips.
His eyes were full of tenderness, gazing at her without blinking, as if afraid that with one blink, she would disappear and flow away with the Luo River.