Duan Hong rode his horse like a madman, racing wildly along the snow path. The precious steed beneath him had already fallen several times. If it weren’t for Duan Hong’s excellent skills that always managed to prevent the precious horse from being injured, this purple stallion would have already been crippled from the falls.
Arriving at the Imperial Palace, he didn’t dismount, directly racing to Taiji Palace before finally stopping. In two or three steps, he leaped into the palace hall. As soon as he entered the door, he shouted loudly: “Reporting to Your Majesty, Marquis Yun and Prince Wei have truly flown up! They’re about to fly into the city!”
Li Er abruptly stood up, taking two or three steps to walk outside the palace to look out. However, his vision was blocked by the vast white snow, and he couldn’t see anything. He asked Duan Hong impatiently: “How high did they fly?”
“This servant last saw the hot air balloon flying close to the cloud layer, then couldn’t see anything anymore. The snow was too heavy.”
The sound of porcelain falling to the ground came from behind the curtain. All the court officials knew that Empress Zhangsun behind there had just heard that her son had disappeared, and in her emotional turmoil, she had accidentally dropped some porcelain.
Li Er waved his sleeve, wanting to brush away the snowflakes before his eyes, but this only attracted more flying snow to fill this blank space. Fang Xuanling extended one hand to catch a few snowflakes and said to Li Er: “Your Majesty, the heavy snow has already shown a trend of slowing down. At this moment, it has already lessened considerably.”
Zhangsun Wuji, however, turned back to ask Duan Hong: “What is Prince Wei doing going up there? Doesn’t he know the dangers involved? How absurd!”
“Since Yun Ye can go up, why can’t Qing Que? The heavy snow has become a disaster. At this time, what’s the point of discussing status? As long as they can fly over and let the common people see that our dynasty has the ability to fly through the heavens, so they are no longer alarmed, this is a great merit.” Li Er furrowed his brow and interrupted Zhangsun Wuji’s questioning. Yun Ye had spoken correctly—at this moment, Li Er was a pure emperor.
With heavy snow besieging the city, the one suffering most was Li Er. He detested this feeling of powerlessness. Even if the one causing him this distress was Heaven itself, when he had piles of memorials he felt annoyed, but once there were no longer those mountain-like memorials, the feeling of terror would make him unable to sleep at night. This was Heaven forcibly stripping away his right to rule the earth.
“Ye Zi, give me one of your gloves. My hands are about to freeze stiff.” Li Tai said to Yun Ye, trembling all over. But the words had barely left his mouth before they were blown away without a trace by the cold wind. Although their bodies were wrapped in bear fur, the cold wind that poured in through the gaps cut their skin like knives.
Yun Ye was adjusting the flames to a smaller size. Earlier at Yushan, when the snow was lighter, he could still vaguely see the great river and some people. Now the two of them were completely surrounded by heavy snow. Up, down, left, and right—everything was a vast expanse of white. If it weren’t for the compass in his hand, Yun Ye wouldn’t know where he actually was at all.
They had to land. The cold air at high altitude made even breathing a torment. Continuing like this, it wouldn’t take long before he and Li Tai would absolutely be frozen into ice sculptures.
He turned his head to look at Li Tai, whose entire body and face were covered with white snow. Seeing him extend his bare hand, trembling as he tried to turn the wheel on the kerosene canister—if the kerosene canister didn’t have a certain amount of pressure, the kerosene wouldn’t spray out and might very well freeze—Yun Ye hurriedly removed one glove and put it on his hand. If a bare hand dared to touch those wheels made of brass, there would be no taking it off—it would be stuck fast to it. Trying to remove it would be impossible without losing a layer of skin.
When cold reaches its extreme, a person will shed tears. Li Tai’s tears and snot both came out, all freezing on his bear fur coat and short beard in strand after strand. Seeing his lips turn purple, Yun Ye pulled out a liquor flask from his bosom and forcefully poured two mouthfuls into Li Tai. Then Yun Ye quickly focused on watching ahead. The current wind direction was blowing precisely toward Longshou Plateau. He didn’t dare descend too low—if they got caught on a tree, that would be the end.
Li Tai, having drunk the liquor, recovered a little. With difficulty, he turned the wheel inward two rotations. This had a time limit, and he hadn’t forgotten Yun Ye’s instructions, nor did he dare forget.
A colorful strange beast suddenly appeared in Yuchi Gong’s view, appearing so abruptly. The captain cried out in terror. The heavy snow that had fallen for six or seven consecutive days was already a natural disaster. Now a round, bulging flying monster had appeared that could even breathe fire. How could this be acceptable? It must be shot down! He had just issued the command to prepare the eight-ox crossbow when he was kicked off the city wall by Yuchi Gong. Fortunately, the bottom of the city wall was mostly covered in white snow. Otherwise, death from the fall would absolutely be the outcome.
“This is a divine weapon of our dynasty’s great army! What are you shouting about? You’ll all get to ride on it in the future too. Whoever dares to shoot an arrow, I’ll twist off his head and kick it like a ball.” Yuchi Gong opened his big mouth and laughed heartily, his mood extremely cheerful.
The captain who had been kicked off the city wall finally managed to climb back up using a rope, only to hear these words. The gloom from being kicked instantly dissipated. Watching that monster arrogantly fly overhead, he wanted to learn from the other soldiers and spread both arms to cheer, so he fell down again.
Cheering sounds began to spread from the eastern wall. Those Chang’an residents who were excavating roads began feeling very panicked. Once they heard this was a divine weapon of the Great Tang military, they immediately cheered. Since it was their own thing, Chang’an people never minded its ferocity and terror. Their own thing—naturally the more terrifying the better, especially since it could also fly.
Li Er sat in the great hall and heard the cheering sounds, finally revealing a rare smile. Without Duan Hong reporting, he once again came to the entrance. Taiji Palace was the highest point of terrain in the entire Imperial Palace. Standing here, one could overlook all of Chang’an.
Not only did Li Er and the court officials come out, even Empress Zhangsun unprecedentedly emerged from the deep palace, standing together with Li Er, eyes eagerly fixed on the vast white sky ahead.
Yun Ye’s hot air balloon was equipped with a wind sail. With this small sail, they could control the hot air balloon’s direction within a small range. The two people who had already been nearly frozen stiff clumsily adjusted the sail ropes. Below their feet was the familiar Chang’an marketplace. A flight altitude of fifty zhang could already avoid all buildings while still allowing Chang’an people to barely see their existence.
The reason Li Er ordered Yun Ye to forcibly ascend into the sky—the purpose lay in stabilizing people’s hearts. His own self-reproaching edict had no way to calm the common people down. He could only hope for this kind of heaven-flying divine immortal method. Once the common people fell into chaos due to panic over natural disasters, robbing everywhere throughout the world, hoarding food, believing that the end times were about to arrive—if Chang’an lost its usual order, that would be the most fatal matter.
As long as he could understand and control it, Li Er’s mentality was the same as ordinary people’s. Just like when he subdued Yuchi Gong—everyone else said this fellow was a scourge, but only Li Er believed that such a fierce general could be controlled by him, so he confidently and boldly employed him. The reward he received was that Yuchi Gong saved his old life twice.
Yun Ye’s heaven-flying divine miracle was nothing more than a large-scale Kongming lantern. Using various existing technologies, it could merely bring people up into the sky. Speaking frankly, there was nothing particularly miraculous about it—just a craftsman’s methods. As long as it was used well, its usefulness was extremely great, and it was also absolutely greatly beneficial to his own rule. Power that could be controlled was good power. As long as it was within his own scope of control, Li Er never cared how capable his subordinates were. Whatever ability you had, it was best to display it all. He was very willing to watch you struggle with all your might in the palm of his hand—even urinating didn’t matter.
“Should we enter the Imperial Palace or not?” Yun Ye asked Li Tai, trembling. Right now, the only thing he could move was his lips. Li Tai curled up in a corner of the rattan basket, nodding his head and saying loudly: “Enter! Besides the Imperial Palace, where else could we find a place to land?”
Quite a few people were running along following the hot air balloon. Yun Ye saw Wang Cai—this fellow had actually run all the way here from Yushan. His heart felt a pang of sadness, and tears flowed down. They immediately froze into ice pellets on his coat upon landing. This silly creature!
Li Er and Empress Zhangsun watched with their own eyes as a colossal object appeared above the palace wall, breathing fire as it drifted all the way toward Taiji Palace. Even though they had already been psychologically prepared for this scene, Li Er and Empress Zhangsun were still so astonished their mouths couldn’t close.
The hot air balloon was still slowly descending. When it was still ten zhang from the ground, Li Tai laboriously threw down an exquisite iron anchor. This kind of throwing things down was always Li Tai’s job—Yun Ye worried that if by chance he killed an important figure in the palace, he would be unlucky. The iron anchor wasn’t heavy, but its four iron prongs were extremely sharp. Falling on the stone slabs and being dragged by the hot air balloon, it scraped the stone slabs, sending sparks flying everywhere.
“Grab the rope!” Li Er shouted loudly at those equally astonished guards. Duan Hong, who already had experience, laboriously grabbed the rope, trying to pull the hot air balloon to a halt. No matter how superior his martial arts were, he had no way to contend with the hot air balloon and was dragged, continuously sliding along the ground. Other guards threw away the weapons in their hands and helped Duan Hong drag the hot air balloon. Only with great difficulty did they finally make the hot air balloon stop. Yun Ye used all his body’s strength to turn off the crane-beak valve, then huddled together with Li Tai, trembling…
The guards finally managed to drag the hot air balloon to the ground. The moment it stopped steadily, Li Er came over to look inside the rattan basket. He saw two ice people inside. Except for their eyeballs, which were still continuously moving, their entire bodies seemed to have stiffened.
Empress Zhangsun saw the two pitiful people in the rattan basket, and tears immediately flowed out. Gao Yang, who was supporting the Empress, asked Yun Ye curiously: “Yun Ye, are there immortals in the sky? Did you see any? Did my older brother see any?”
Li Er glared fiercely at Gao Yang, then ordered the imperial physicians to carefully lift the two out and rapidly send them to the warm room for treatment. These two children were frozen quite severely.
Yun Ye was lifted onto a stretcher, rolling his eyes to look at those big shots watching around him. With great difficulty, he squeezed out a sentence: “I ascended to heaven—the wager belongs to me! No backing out!” All the civil and military officials of the court couldn’t help but laugh heartily.
Everyone knew that the snow would ultimately stop. At this moment, reassuring people’s hearts was most important. Since this had already been accomplished, Chang’an’s crisis would be resolved. Fang Xuanling immediately petitioned the Emperor for an imperial decree, requesting to spread word that the court’s special envoy had already descended from the heavens, and the heavy snow would stop in these two days—there would be no disaster.
Li Er smiled bitterly and said to his ministers: “Seeing is believing! Quite a few common people saw the hot air balloon descend from the heavens. At this time, there’s probably no need for the court to issue orders—they will also feel reassured. Don’t say much—just say the heavy snow will stop in these two days, and that’s good enough.”
Empress Zhangsun followed the imperial physicians into the warm room, sorrowfully using her handkerchief to wipe away the ice, snow, snot, and tears from Yun Ye and Li Tai’s faces. She used her hands to stroke their ice-cold faces, continuously saying: “My children have suffered so much.”
Gao Yang once again brought her head close, asking Li Tai in a low voice: “Fourth Brother, Fourth Brother, did you see any immortals?”