Bai Qingyan gazed calmly at General Yun, who was desperately seeking death. Hearing his deliberate provocations to anger Cheng Yuanzhi, hatred boiled over in her heart, clamoring for her to use hundreds of arrows… to torture General Yun to death, clamoring for her to inflict upon General Yun’s grandson Yun Tian’ao, right before General Yun’s eyes… all the pain that General Yun had once inflicted upon Little Seventeen.
But Bai Qingyan was not General Yun… she would not do such a thing.
Hearing the names of his commander and deputy commander spoken from General Yun’s mouth, hearing about Young Master Seventeen’s ordeal, Cheng Yuanzhi’s eyes became bloodshot, hatred nearly destroying all his reason. Like a vengeful spirit returned from hell, filled with a murderous aura, he raised his blade high and with one clean, decisive strike, severed General Yun’s neck.
General Yun’s wretched, bloodied head rolled away…
Though his head was severed, his vision remained. He saw the white snowflakes drifting down from the dark sky, saw his blood mist spraying in the white falling snow, as if staining the crystal-pure whiteness that was about to touch the ground.
In the instant before the light faded from his pupils, General Yun’s thoughts seemed to replay his entire life.
He was born into the main branch of the Yun family, the foremost of Western Liang’s eight great families. If he had not joined the military back then… but had accepted the family’s arrangement to become a court official, he would certainly have inherited his father’s mantle and become a leading figure controlling the Western Liang court officials in opposition to the Western Liang Emperor.
Long before the late Emperor was even born, he was already designated as a prince’s companion in studies—in simple terms, the future emperor’s study companion, even though he was older than all the princes at that time.
The late Emperor was the legitimate son. The year he was born, General Yun was ten years old. The late Emperor was intelligent from childhood and deeply beloved by ministers and his father Emperor. He could be said to be the designated heir, heaven’s favored child… yet he was particularly attached to General Yun, not in a way that sought to win him over or curry favor, but treating him like family and an elder brother.
At that time, his father’s teachings were extremely strict, because he was the Yun family’s future. His father’s demands were too high for him to meet, and he was often punished with whips. He was too proud to let others know, but the late Emperor would always notice…
He remembered that was also a rare heavy snow day in Western Liang. The late Emperor had stolen medicine from the Imperial Medical Bureau and secretly slipped it to him after entering the palace, looking up at him with bright, shining black eyes and saying: “Brother, don’t worry, I’m very clever, no one discovered me, I secretly brought it for you! No one will know brother was punished again!”
At that time, the late Emperor was three years old. The large snowflakes fell on his extremely long eyelashes and melted into water droplets, making his eyes moist. The depths of those eyes held… the purest place General Yun had ever seen in the world.
At seventeen, it was the late Emperor, ten years younger than him, who disregarded his safety and sacrificed himself to block a brown bear’s paw for him in the hunting grounds, allowing him to kill the bear. The late Emperor nearly lost his life because of this.
The late Emperor was unconscious for three days. General Yun knelt at the palace gates for three days. When the late Emperor awoke, his first act was to plead with his father Emperor, not to punish General Yun.
After that, the late Emperor’s health was never the same. At such a young age, he needed medicinal broths to sustain his life, yet the late Emperor never regretted saving him. Instead, he would always hold back his coughing when General Yun was present, his small face flushed red from the effort, still comforting him by saying he was fine.
Time passed quickly. The late Emperor reached his twentieth year of manhood, but due to his physical condition, he was unable to consummate his marriage with the then Crown Princess, unable to bear children to continue the royal lineage, and unable to produce an heir. The court ministers and families who had once supported the late Emperor as the legitimate heir changed their allegiance to support the First Prince and Second Prince, thinking… the late Emperor’s body had become like this, who knew when he might die.
It seemed as if the mercy and kindness that had once been praised in the late Emperor became unimportant. What mattered was only that the emperor have a healthy body, able to remain on the throne for a long time to stabilize Western Liang’s court situation, controlled by the eight great families and ministers.
Therefore, General Yun made up his mind to protect the late Emperor’s ascension to the throne!
Relying on the power of the Yun family and his father-in-law’s… two great families, he established himself in the court and controlled Western Liang’s military power, vowing to push the emperor whom the eight great families and court ministers all dismissed onto the throne.
Later, he succeeded. He lived up to expectations by firmly grasping Western Liang’s political and military power in his hands. He killed the First Prince and Second Prince, elevating the royal legitimate son who had been forgotten by the eight great families and court ministers to the throne.
He swore to protect his majesty and Western Liang, swore to become a blade in his majesty’s hand. He would unconditionally execute all of his majesty’s commands. He submitted to the late Emperor, suppressed the eight great families, allowing his majesty to become Western Liang’s true ruler, but his conflicts with the eight great families also grew increasingly severe.
So when the late Emperor was assassinated and he was trapped on the battlefield, using the late Emperor’s lack of a legitimate son and only having a legitimate daughter as the flashpoint, the chaos in Yun Jing erupted, leading to the eight great families seizing power.
When he returned to Yun Jing and saw Li Tianjiao, she told him… that before her father emperor’s death, he had instructed her that if anyone in this world could no longer be trusted, she could still safely trust General Yun, and only General Yun could protect Western Liang.
Hearing these words, General Yun could not help but weep. So he unwaveringly supported Li Tianjiao’s ascension to the throne. He still wanted to subdue any of the eight great families who disobeyed him as before, but this time, he discovered that the eight great families were no longer the same as before. Fortunately, the late Emperor’s daughter Li Tianjiao was also capable, and she promoted those of humble birth to counter the eight great families.
However, even if Li Tianjiao was talented and gifted, even if he spared no effort, with internal troubles… like the eight great families who were Western Liang’s chronic affliction, and external… powerful enemies surrounding them, beset by internal and external troubles, they no longer had the power to save the situation.
He had failed his majesty, had not helped his majesty preserve Western Liang…
In the falling snow, he seemed to see again his majesty’s childhood eyes, pure and clear like black gemstones.
General Yun’s vision gradually became unfocused, his body finally stiffened and convulsed, and everything was over.
“Grandfather!”
Yun Tian’ao’s miserable cries echoed through the valley of Lai’an Mountain, but his grandfather could no longer hear them.
Western Liang’s famous general of a generation, General Yun, finally died at Lai’an Mountain.
After severing General Yun’s head, Cheng Yuanzhi gasped heavily for breath…
Tears nearly welled up in his eyes. It seemed that a single strike had used all the strength in his body. The sharp blade, still dripping with fresh blood, fell to the ground. Cheng Yuanzhi walked with unsteady steps to General Yun’s severed head, bent down to pick it up, then turned to face the direction of Weng Mountain and knelt. Holding General Yun’s head high, tears streaming down his aged face, he choked out in a loud voice: “Deputy Commander… I, Old Cheng, have avenged you! Seventeenth Young Master… brothers of the Bai Family Army! Old Cheng… Old Cheng has avenged you!”