Chapter 54: Sincerity Moves Heaven
Rong Feijun stood on the city wall, the clash of iron and horses below. The swords of Sheng Luo and Langxuan met, and the cries of battle were endless.
After watching for a while, he frowned and had someone go and inspect the other city gates.
The enemy troops were mostly from Manluo and Huanyue. Although they wore the armor of Sheng Luo and obeyed the commands of Sheng Luo generals, he had noticed that their martial arts styles were not those of Sheng Luo.
Then where is the real Sheng Luo army?
A guard had already gone to investigate. Just then, he noticed a familiar face beside a general below…
“Mo Yan?”
Mo Yan was on horseback, whispering strategies to the Sheng Luo general.
Wh-why…
Rong Feijun couldn’t believe it.
The guard hurried back and knelt beside him. “Your Majesty! An army of one hundred thousand from Sheng Luo is pressing down on the south gate! However, the King of Shahan has already led his men to defend it, so they have not yet breached the gate!”
Rong Feijun nodded and summoned the new commander of the imperial guards, telling him to take a portion of the men to support the south gate.
“Mo Yan, did you betray me to follow your new master?” he asked, his eyes fixed on him.
Mo Yan was silent, taking it as a tacit admission.
Rong Lijiun was also in the ranks, but she was wearing armor and had her hair tied up, so she blended into the crowd and was not noticeable.
“Your Majesty! Could the traitor… have revealed our strengths and weaknesses to the enemy?”
Rong Feijun looked at the right wing, which was being focused on by the Sheng Luo army’s fire, and said coolly, “He already has.”
He closed his eyes. Mo Yan…
His heart was bleeding. When he opened them again, his eyes were indifferent. He waved his hand for the covering troops on the city wall to prepare.
“Aim for the enemy general and the traitor!”
On the other side, after Wulanbaer knocked Xuan Su off his horse, the Sheng Luo army was in an uproar. Led by their generals, they charged towards the city gate with unstoppable force.
“Awooo—”
A pack of burly wolves rushed out, tearing and clawing at the front ranks of the Sheng Luo army. They had been well-trained by Wulanbaer and knew how to dodge the soldiers’ swords and arrows while attacking.
People described Shahan like this: the people of Shahan were good at fighting, but their wolves were even better!
Seeing many of his men fall in an instant, Xuan Su got up in a rage and swung his sword at Wulanbaer.
Wulanbaer, holding a whip, fought one-on-one with him while giving commands to the wolf pack with a series of whistles.
Fighting with him, Xuan Su felt as if he were just an animal being trained by him… Wulanbaer was multitasking, not even fighting him with his full attention, and would even whistle at him from time to time, a provocative, wicked smile on his lips.
“Karong! A troop of reinforcements from Langxuan has arrived from afar!”
Wulanbaer sneered, looking at Xuan Su with contempt.
“In this battle, Sheng Luo and Junce cannot possibly win.”
I will absolutely not let you succeed… In this battle, you will absolutely not win!
The city gate was broken open, and the Junce army poured into Xianju City. In an instant, half the people outside the city wall were gone.
Jiang Luori’s eyes were red.
“Charge in! Stop them!”
“Don’t go in!” Fu Yunzhi shouted.
Jiang Luori was stunned and stopped in his tracks. In the next moment, Fu Yunzhi swung his leg and kicked the torch beside him off the city wall.
Boom—
A deafening explosion echoed through the city.
The ground shook, and the city wall trembled. The birds in the nearby forest were all startled and flew into the sky.
After discovering the phenomenon of the living dead spontaneously combusting, Fu Yunzhi had had people silently spread some gunpowder on the ground. However, to avoid being discovered by Wang Zhou and his garrison, very little had been spread. But it didn’t matter. As long as it could ignite, it was fine. A small pinch of gunpowder could ignite the gunpowder underground.
All the gunpowder that Langxuan had not yet used had been secretly moved by Fu Yunzhi to the basements here. Therefore, one could imagine the power of the explosion.
Xianju City had many basements, and the sewer system was extensive. Moving the gunpowder from one basement to another could be done completely underground without anyone knowing. So, until the explosion, Wang Zhou was still completely bewildered.
It all happened in an instant. He only felt his ears go deaf for a moment, his vision filled with fire and thick smoke. Then, the force of the explosion sent him and Fu Yunzhi flying off the city wall…
Mu Linglong and Shen Linye immediately leaped out. Mu Linglong jumped off the city wall, grabbed the falling Fu Yunzhi with one hand, and held onto Shen Linye’s hand on the city wall with the other.
The city wall was very high. The two of them had to withstand the force of the explosion, the sound, and the flying debris, while also protecting Fu Yunzhi. They had no time to help Wang Zhou. He fell heavily to the ground, and blood gushed from his head and body. He was even… no longer in human form…
Fu Yunzhi looked at the pool of blood at the bottom of the city wall, his feelings complex.
Shen Linye stood on the edge of the wall, using all his strength to pull the two of them, who were hanging from the wall, up.
“Linye, be careful!”
A piece of wood flew towards him, but because he was pulling the two of them, he couldn’t dodge and could only take the impact head-on.
He was hit and lurched forward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Linye!”
“It’s fine. I’m pulling up now! You use your strength too!”
Shen Linye planted his feet firmly to make his stance more stable and pulled up with all his might. Meanwhile, Mu Linglong gathered his internal energy, tapped his foot on the city wall, and brought Fu Yunzhi up. Shen Linye was knocked backward by them, but after the three of them were on the ground, they didn’t plan on getting up. The explosion below the city wall had not yet subsided, and debris was flying everywhere. It was very dangerous, so they decided to wait.
The change had happened in an instant. The Junce army, which had had the upper hand, was now almost completely wiped out.
Zhuo Fang stared blankly at the thick smoke inside the city wall. His soldiers were all in there. He looked around. The Junce army was now one-fifth the size of the Langxuan army.
Qi Xiao suppressed the waves of pain from his wounds and the dizziness from blood loss and gave the order for the entire army to attack!
Not far from the city wall, Zhang Fan looked at the red light soaring into the sky from within the city. He was glad he hadn’t taken Xiao Zijun in. Otherwise, there wouldn’t even be a trace of him left now…
Xiao Zijun looked at the people of Junce who hadn’t even had time to cry out, and his heart was filled with sorrow and panic, almost drowning him.
Junce had lost.
Zhuo Fang… will he be dealt with like this too… blown up until not even ashes remain!
Xiao Zijun’s gaze sharpened, and he struck Zhang Fan, who was behind him, with his backhand. Caught off guard, Zhang Fan was hit hard by his elbow and bent over in pain. Xiao Zijun quickly reached out, pushed him off the horse, took the reins, and rode towards Zhuo Fang.
The sound of explosions gradually subsided, and the city was a pool of blood from the people of Junce. As for their bones and flesh, they had long been blown to ashes and scattered in the air.
The Langxuan army wiped out the remaining Junce soldiers and living dead, while Qi Xiao fought with Zhuo Fang. Their moves were extremely fast, and others could only see the glint of their blades, unable to follow their movements, so they couldn’t intervene.
Xiao Zijun rode to their vicinity and stared silently at Zhuo Fang.
Zhuo Fang caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye and thought, The person from my dream is here again…
Who is he…
What is his relationship with me…
A rain of arrows came at them. It was the work of the remaining Junce forces! Although they were at the end of their rope, how could they be willing to die without taking Qi Xiao down with them to accompany the fallen souls of the Junce war?
Qi Xiao gritted his teeth in anger. This trick again! He was a man of flesh and blood and had to divide his attention to defend himself, but Zhuo Fang was not afraid at all, and his attacks were still sharp and ruthless.
He barely dodged the arrows, but how could a weak scholar like Xiao Zijun, who had no strength to even truss a chicken, defend himself?
Swoosh—
An arrow pierced his chest, and blood bloomed like a beautiful flower.
“Zhuo Fang!!!”
Zhuo Fang’s eyes widened.
Xiao Zijun, who had been unable to speak, now spoke for the first time.
“Zhuo Fang…”
“Brother Zhuo, you said… you would come back…”
“In my life… there is only you…”
His father had been framed by a villain for colluding with a party and his entire family had been executed. It was Zhuo Fang who had used his military achievements to trade for him from the Son of Heaven, protecting him, doting on him, and loving him. The night before the accident, he had even said he would ask the Son of Heaven for a favor, to bestow a marriage upon them…
Xiao Zijun’s voice was hoarse and unpleasant, and his pronunciation was not standard. Because he had forced himself to speak, his throat was broken, and blood slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Zhuo Fang was unable to move, just staring blankly at him.
The heart that did not beat was aching, so much so that he could barely breathe. Even though he didn’t know who he was, it still hurt unbearably, as if it were an instinctive reaction carved into his soul and body.
Tears streamed down Xiao Zijun’s eyes, and blood spread from his chest, dyeing his white robes red. He could no longer hold on and, closing his eyes, he fell from his horse.
Zhuo Fang’s eyes widened. He didn’t care about Qi Xiao or anything else and leaped from his own horse to catch him.
Qi Xiao was astonished. He saw the half-living dead, Zhuo Fang, holding Xiao Zijun, and crying.
Transparent water droplets overflowed from the eyes of the man who was already dead.
Holding Xiao Zijun’s cold body, Zhuo Fang could no longer hold it in and threw his head back and roared.
