Shuangge moved with incredible speed. As they neared the barbarian cavalry, Xu Hexue leveraged the horse’s momentum to leap forward, somersaulting ahead and stepping on the shoulders of barbarian soldiers to dodge incoming arrows, his sword pointing straight at Yelu Zhen.

Yelu Zhen’s heart tightened. He hastily dodged and drew his golden saber to meet the sword’s edge.

Shuangge galloped up at just that moment.

Xu Hexue landed back on the horse. With a twist of his wrist, his sword circled around Yelu Zhen’s blade. As steel clashed against steel, the Yongzhou army led by Duan Rong swept in like swift lightning, their killing intent crisscrossing as they engaged the barbarians in fierce battle across the empty plains.

The glass lantern hanging from Shuangge’s saddle continuously clinked against the leather, its candlelight flickering unsteadily, on the verge of extinguishing. As Yelu Zhen fought several rounds on horseback with this young man whose face he couldn’t see clearly, his shock only grew with each exchange.

This person gave him the strange illusion that he shouldn’t be wielding a sword at all, but rather holding a silver spear.

The Yongzhou army’s momentum had become unstoppable. The barbarian soldiers’ ropes were severed by the Yongzhou army’s blades, and those Qi slaves they had been dragging struggled up from the dust and mud, picking up weapons and joining the Yongzhou army in their charge with hearts full of hatred. The Danqiu barbarian troops fell into such chaos they didn’t know how to fight, scattered into small fragmented units, bearing the brunt of the Yongzhou army’s ferocious assault.

Seeing this situation, Yelu Zhen’s personal guards immediately seized bows from the mounted archers and fired several arrows simultaneously at the young Qi man fighting Yelu Zhen.

“Young Master Ni…” Before Duan Rong could finish his warning to “be careful,” beneath the vast night sky, as the barbarians’ sharp arrows touched that person’s sleeves, a pale mist briefly shrouded him.

“General! Retreat quickly!” Yelu Zhen’s personal guards charged forward. Several blocked Xu Hexue’s attacks while the remaining hundreds escorted Yelu Zhen as he spurred his horse into a gallop.

Duan Rong was momentarily stunned. A barbarian soldier attacked from the front, and he immediately reacted, slashing his sword across the man’s throat. When he looked toward Xu Hexue again, he saw that those personal guards of Yelu Zhen had already been cut down beneath their horses.

Riding that white Shuangge horse with a glass lantern swaying at its side, he pursued Yelu Zhen directly.

Without hesitation, Duan Rong led a troop of cavalry in pursuit.

Yelu Zhen’s personal guards looked back and saw the Qi forces in relentless pursuit. They said to Yelu Zhen, “General, we’ll hold off the pursuers. You must go quickly!”

“Atuo!”

Yelu Zhen roared. His personal guards split into another unit, turning their horses to charge at the pursuing troops, but they could only barely hold back Duan Rong and his men.

Atuo became locked in combat with Duan Rong.

The young man in white robes quickly broke through, soon catching up and killing the personal guards protecting Yelu Zhen one by one. Yelu Zhen had no choice but to draw his blade and engage him again.

The two men’s horses galloped with raised hooves. The sounds of killing behind them grew more distant, leaving only the clashing of their blades echoing beneath the canopy of sky.

Cold wind howled. Lanterns filled the heavens.

Moonlight and lamplight wove together in cold and warm hues, casting rippling reflections across Agate Lake.

Forced by Xu Hexue’s sword techniques to dismount, Yelu Zhen staggered backward several steps. After countless rounds, he was drenched in sweat, his imposing frame covered in wounds, gasping for breath.

But as that person dismounted and approached, Yelu Zhen noticed not a drop of moisture on his forehead or temples. He carried a glass lantern, and were it not for the mottled bloodstains, he should have appeared far cleaner and neater.

Something was wrong.

Stopping suddenly now, examining this person carefully, Yelu Zhen was shocked to realize that this person’s form had somehow become increasingly faint, like mist!

The closer he came, the more Yelu Zhen noticed that the blood droplets soaking this person’s sleeves fell to the ground only to quickly vanish without trace.

A chill ran down Yelu Zhen’s spine. Every muscle tensed as he raised his golden saber. “Who exactly are you!”

Xu Hexue said nothing. Suddenly he flew forward with his sword raised. Yelu Zhen hastily blocked with his golden blade. Despite his large frame, he was forced by the strength of the attack to bend one leg, pressing it heavily into the dust.

Yelu Zhen roared, gritting his teeth as he rose and swung sideways, using almost all his strength in continuous hacking strikes. These killing techniques honed on the battlefield were ruthlessly vicious, filled with murderous intent.

But he soon discovered that this person wielded his sword single-handedly with techniques as swift as falling stars and agile movements. After several rounds, Yelu Zhen’s armor was damaged and nearly soaked through with fresh blood.

His strength was rapidly depleting, yet gritting his teeth, he leaped up and brought his blade down vertically. The young man turned his face aside as the blade grazed the long cloth covering his face. Seizing the opportunity, Yelu Zhen reversed his blade and slashed toward his neck.

In that instant,

Yelu Zhen met his eyes—colder even than the gleaming edge of his sword.

He actually stood still. He didn’t move.

Why didn’t he move?

The moment the blade cleaved toward his neck, his form suddenly transformed into cold mist and dispersed in the night wind before Yelu Zhen’s very eyes.

Yelu Zhen’s pupils contracted sharply, his heart pounding in terror.

A sinister chill gripped his entire heart. Looking down, he noticed a dim yellow lamplight casting its shadow from behind him. Yelu Zhen spun around abruptly.

Pale mist swirled. The young man in snow-white robes stood some distance away holding a lantern, his garments stained with blood, the edges of his sleeves covered in mottled red.

The cloth on his face had been cut away by Yelu Zhen’s golden blade. In the half-light and shadow, before Yelu Zhen could see his features clearly, he found his own body no longer obeyed him.

He looked down to see scattered luminescence like fireflies densely covering his armor, jumping with an eerie green-cold glow. Though his robes remained intact, his skin felt as if it were being burned inch by inch by scorching fire.

It burned so intensely he couldn’t hold his blade. His entire body collapsed to the ground, rolling back and forth and crying out, yet unable to extinguish the scattered light on his body.

The scattered light clung tightly to him, nearly submerging his entire frame, then suddenly lifted him into the air. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t break free from this light piercing into his flesh and blood.

Yelu Zhen’s face contorted with bulging veins from the pain. His fierce features rarely showed such panic and terror. Looking down, suddenly he saw that person’s face clearly.

Eighteen years ago, Yelu Zhen had followed Prince Qin Changbo’s forces in attacking Juhan Pass. That year, the general defending Juhan Pass was a seventeen-year-old Qi commander.

In just three battles, that seventeen-year-old Qi man had broken Prince Changbo’s forces, causing him severe losses that led to his downfall in the Danqiu royal court.

That person’s name, along with his title “Yujie” bestowed at age nineteen, spread throughout all of Danqiu. The Danqiu people who worshipped the Eternal Blue Sky all considered this person Great Qi’s most formidable eagle.

“…Xu Hexue?”

Yelu Zhen could hardly believe his eyes.

Over a dozen years had passed. Yelu Zhen was now over forty, yet the person standing before him still appeared to be a youth, unchanged in the slightest.

“These soul fires—they are all the innocent people you slaughtered beneath Yongzhou’s walls.”

Xu Hexue raised his chin slightly, coldly examining the terror expressed on Yelu Zhen’s face. “Yelu Zhen, what do you think they’ll do to you?”

Yelu Zhen was a Danqiu general who had fought his way through real combat on the battlefield with blade and spear. Fighting him like an ordinary person, he wouldn’t necessarily fear it—instead it would stir the blood of a Danqiu warrior who would never submit.

But the Danqiu people who worshipped the Eternal Blue Sky always held their own reverence and fear of ghosts and spirits.

“You…”

The blood in Yelu Zhen’s entire body seemed to freeze. The closer Xu Hexue came, the greater his fear grew.

Xu Hexue raised his hand. Soul fire flew up, instantly tightening like a rope around Yelu Zhen’s neck. His face flushed crimson as he struggled to breathe, eyes wide open, unable to speak coherent words.

“You knew of my death, but not that Miao Tianning is already dead.”

The lacerations covering Xu Hexue’s body split further. He relaxed his fingers slightly, giving the soul fire a chance to let Yelu Zhen breathe. “Tell me—when Miao Tianning battled you outside the city that year, did you truly not kill him?”

Yelu Zhen’s hands touched his own neck, but he couldn’t dispel the sharp, burning pain of the soul fire piercing his flesh. He coughed violently, coughing up bloody foam, yet refused to speak.

Xu Hexue waved his hand. The soul fire shrieked, emitting sharp sounds that nearly burst Yelu Zhen’s eardrums. He crashed heavily down, rolling in the dust, unable to dispel the wailing cries of the dead. The scattered soul fire even burrowed into his garments, burning his flesh and blood.

By the shores of Agate Lake, Yelu Zhen’s screams were utterly miserable.

The soul fire burned his skin and flesh until beneath his garments was a mass of dripping blood, his shoulders and back nearly mangled beyond recognition.

Yelu Zhen rolled into Agate Lake, trying to use the ice-cold water to extinguish the soul fire on his body, but this clearly had no effect. At this time, dew had condensed among the reed flowers.

Reed flower dew was the waters of resentment from the netherworld.

This only intensified Yelu Zhen’s suffering. He struggled and cried out in the lake water while Xu Hexue, lantern in hand, walked slowly to the shore with measured steps.

Blood dripped steadily. His form grew increasingly faint.

He coldly watched Yelu Zhen burned by soul fire in the water until his entire body was covered in blood. After a long while, he bent down, his long sword pressed against Yelu Zhen’s neck, forcing him to raise his head as he faced away in the lake.

“Won’t you speak?”

“How could I have killed him when I was already gravely wounded! How could I have killed him!” The pain Yelu Zhen endured was a hundred times more torturous than any wound he’d received in battlefield combat, painful enough to make his mind confused and nearly collapse.

He truly didn’t know Miao Tianning was dead. He knew even less that the Qi people had blamed his death on him. That year, Miao Tianning had forced him back to the gates of Yongzhou, fighting him for dozens of rounds before stabbing him in the back with a blade. When his men escorted him away, Miao Tianning was clearly still alive!

“I heard Mengto was at Mount Mushen, so I wanted to bypass the Qi reinforcements,” Yelu Zhen was pressed hard at the throat by the sword, the light from the glass lantern stabbing painfully at his eyes, “to go… go join forces with him. Who knew, when I arrived, Mengto… Mengto was already dead…”

The entire Mount Mushen was practically a mountain of corpses and sea of blood.

Fifty thousand Danqiu barbarian troops, thirty thousand Great Qi Jing’an Army soldiers—all dead.

Yelu Zhen looked at his face, pale and young. “I saw with my own eyes a Qi military unit. They… they came from the direction of Juhan Pass and took you away from the mountain of corpses…”

General Yujie was Danqiu’s formidable enemy. Whether he truly intended to betray Great Qi and turn to Danqiu—actually, not many in Danqiu knew, because General Mengto, who understood this matter most clearly, had already died at Mount Mushen.

He had originally thought that when those Qi soldiers carried Xu Hexue away, he was already dead.

Later, returning to Danqiu, he learned that Xu Hexue had been brought back to Yongzhou to be executed by death of a thousand cuts. After that, Danqiu and Great Qi formed an alliance. The two nations maintained good relations, and Yelu Zhen and other military generals were stripped of power and placed under house arrest.

“Did you recognize them?”

Xu Hexue demanded coldly.

At that time, Xu Hexue was severely injured and unconscious, unaware of who had brought him back to Yongzhou.

“I didn’t recognize them…”

Yelu Zhen’s mouth filled with blood. “But they wore what seemed like the uniforms of your Qi personal guards. Also, the man leading them—before I quietly led my troops away, I heard them address him as ‘Commander Dou’…”

Personal guards were the attending protectors of officials.

Personal guards from Juhan Pass.

Commander Dou.

Cold wind howled. Water rippled softly.

Dou Yingzhang.

This name surfaced in Xu Hexue’s mind. His ears rang thunderously. The hand gripping his sword suddenly trembled. Sensing the force at his neck loosen, Yelu Zhen immediately struggled to break free.

Xu Hexue dispersed the soul fire clinging to Yelu Zhen’s body. Instantly, the soul fire scattered with the wind, floating lights filling the sky. His finger joints tensed, veins bulging as he withdrew all mystical arts and pressed the blade inch by inch into Yelu Zhen’s throat.

The luminescent dust surrounding him became sharp and angular, scattering outward to sweep across the entire reed flower grove.

“General, Minister Zhang has shown me the grace of recognition. In these extraordinary times, there are many in court who wish to bring down Minister Zhang and Minister Meng, led by Prince Nankang and the imperial clan, along with people like Wu Dai. They all oppose the two ministers’ efforts to reform corrupt officials… Though you serve far from the capital, you cannot help but be deeply entangled. That’s why I’ve come—to reduce obstacles for Minister Zhang and for you as well.”

In his memory, someone took the wine bowl from his hand, smiling as he introduced the person beside him. “This is my personal guard commander, Yingzhang. Come quickly and meet Young General Xu!”

“Dou Yingzhang greets General Xu!”

How could it be? How could this be?

Xu Hexue gripped the sword hilt with one hand and the blade with the other. The muffled sound of the blade cutting through throat continued endlessly as warm scarlet blood flowed over his hands.

Only belatedly,

He lowered his gaze to meet Yelu Zhen’s wide, vacant eyes.

Blood droplets fell into the lake water.

Xu Hexue lost his strength, numb with pain. Laceration after laceration left him bathed in blood. The long sword entered the water, shattering into luminescent dust that surged into his body.

The lake surface reflected one sky lantern after another, numerous as stars.

The sky lightened slightly. The Danqiu barbarian troops outside Yongzhou’s gates had been completely annihilated. Tan Guangwen ordered soldiers to clear the battlefield. Zhou Ting had broken through while Yelu Zhen was still trapped in internal chaos, found Tan Guangwen’s forces, and successfully joined with the new Yongzhou military supervisor Han Qing.

Tan Guangwen commanded the combined forces from Jianchi Prefecture and Zezhou, encountering the reinforcements from Danqiu’s Nanyan tribe head-on along the way and fighting bloody battles for several days.

“General Tan.”

Han Qing, dressed in eunuch robes, walked past piles of corpses and called out.

Hearing this, Tan Guangwen immediately turned and walked before Han Qing, clasping his fists. “Lord Han, why don’t you enter the city first?”

Zhou Ting had grown accustomed to his eager attentiveness toward Han Qing.

“General Tan, you should enter the city with me. I hear General Qin and Commander Wei were both injured. Those of us who arrived late should go offer our sympathies.”

Han Qing raised his chin slightly, speaking in a light voice.

“Lord Han is right.”

Tan Guangwen’s flattery was written all over his face.

As the group was about to enter the gates, suddenly Zhou Ting felt an icy chill inside his collar. He raised his head. In the gray sky, pure white snowflakes drifted down.

“Miss Ni!”

Not only did Zhou Ting hear this shout—Han Qing and the others heard it clearly too.

Han Qing suddenly saw a woman running out from within the city gates. Between wind and snow, her veil blew aside, revealing her face. With just one glance, Han Qing’s expression showed astonishment.

No matter how Qingqiong called, Ni Su didn’t stop. His movements were slow, making it difficult to keep up with her, so he stopped.

After the beacon fires, on the deathly silent battlefield, the sound of galloping hooves struck many eardrums.

Zhou Ting watched her run past him. Instinctively he turned around and saw her stop a few steps away.

Following her gaze,

Duan Rong led a group of soldiers returning.

“Young Mistress Ni, Young Master Ni, he…” Duan Rong spotted Ni Su at once. He pulled the reins to stop his horse and dismounted, his expression extremely heavy. He opened his mouth to hand her the glass lantern in his hand, but saw her suddenly move around him and run forward.

He turned his head. A white horse was returning from the distance.

Pure white all over with only a silver-gray mane, it neighed continuously, hooves stamping the ground in agitation. Ni Su ran over and it lowered its head to nuzzle her hair, breathing urgently.

That was Young Master Ni’s Shuangge.

Duan Rong looked toward the corpse being dragged back by their soldiers.

That was Yelu Zhen.

Duan Rong didn’t know where Young Master Ni and Yelu Zhen had gone. After leading soldiers to deal with Yelu Zhen’s personal guards, he searched everywhere. When they found the shores of Agate Lake, they only discovered Yelu Zhen’s corpse.

His head was nearly completely severed from his neck, his death grotesque.

Duan Rong had searched for a long time but couldn’t find Young Master Ni.

Only that glass lantern remained by the lake, its candle already burned out.

Actually, Duan Rong kept replaying in his mind the glimpse he’d caught of Young Master Ni’s back—so faint, like cold mist. But he wasn’t quite certain whether his eyes had been playing tricks.

Unable to find Young Master Ni now, he was extremely anxious.

Seeing Ni Su mount Shuangge and turn in another direction, he immediately mounted his horse and followed closely. “Young Mistress Ni!”

Ice-cold snow pellets scraped across Ni Su’s cheeks with the bitter wind. She couldn’t hear any sounds. She only stroked Shuangge’s mane, saying to it, “Let’s go find him.”

The sky grew brighter. The wind and snow intensified.

By the shores of Agate Lake, reed flowers grew luxuriantly.

Ni Su stepped down from the stirrups and ran into the reed flowers, searching everywhere. Duan Rong, who had followed on horseback, shouted loudly, “Young Mistress Ni, Yelu Zhen’s corpse was discovered here!”

Duan Rong pointed toward somewhere by the lake.

It was a spot concealed by the reed flower grove.

Hearing this, Ni Su turned to look. In just an instant, she lifted her skirts and ran over.

Reed flowers swayed. Dew sparkled, dampening her sleeves.

Ni Su’s feet stepped into shallow water, bone-chillingly cold. She saw bloodstains remaining on the wet shore. She bent down to search everywhere among the reed flowers near the water’s edge.

Her sleeves were soaked through.

Her hands frozen stiff, snow accumulated in her hair.

Beneath the lush reed flowers, a ball of faint white light hid among stems and leaves. The moment Ni Su saw it, her eyes reddened completely.

She reached out her hand. Before she could cup it, as if sensing something, it moved closer on its own, like finally finding something to depend on. Its fluffy tail circled her fingers, gently swaying once.

Qingqiong had waited at the city gates for a long time. It was nearly noon when he finally saw Ni Su return on horseback with Duan Rong following behind her.

Aside from him, no one else could see the luminescent light she cradled in her hands.

Qingqiong’s eyes moistened as he pressed his lips tight and went to meet her.

He helped Ni Su return to the felt tent in the city, brought thick cloaks to wrap around her, but saw tears suddenly fall from her eyes in streams.

“Miss Ni…”

Qingqiong opened his mouth.

Ni Su had held back for so long but couldn’t any longer. Her vision blurred as she called out somewhat helplessly, “Qingqiong…”

Tears fell like broken strings of pearls, unstoppable.

“I—”

Ni Su cried until her nose turned red. “When I went to find him, because people were following behind me, I couldn’t… couldn’t even call his name loudly. I don’t know why. I don’t know why it has to be this way…”

“Why can’t an innocent person possess an innocent posthumous reputation?”

She curled her body, melted snow from her hair dripping onto her neck. “I don’t want this. I want to be his witness, and the Jing’an Army’s witness too. I want the world’s justice and righteousness to restore cleanliness to those who are clean.”