Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The Second Consort shot an arrow into the sky and watched it be blown away by the wild wind like a feather towards an unknown destination.
"Is the Dragon King really going to let us die here?" She couldn't find anyone else to question, so at last she fixed her eyes on Red Bat and used her as a subst.i.tute for Shangguan Ru.
"Instructor's going to come back." Red Bat was absolutely positively sure about this.
"Then she'd better hurry up. Or else she'll have to collect my body."
Red Bat frowned. The Second Consort sighed in response, wondering why she was taking a servant so seriously. She looked at Duodun who was wooden and expressionless, and the thought of fleeing struck her yet again.
She had prepared herself for certain death, but as time pa.s.sed by, her resolution started to waver.
"Silver Condor, you may leave now." In the Second Consort's eyes, the name of the old Khan's wing guard would always be "Silver Condor."
Luoluo's Right Corps had arrived and the battle was taking place right in front of them now. Large numbers of enemies were circling around and about to flank them. This was their last chance to flee.
Mo Lin nodded, turned his horse around, and said to Red Bat, "Tell the Dragon King this - I failed him. Someday, I'll return, admit my guilt, and put myself at his mercy again."
Baffled, Red Bat was just about to ask 'why' when Mo Lin spurred his horse onwards and left.
Sitting in the front, Duodun didn't react at all, as if he were an infant. For him, everything was already over. Even if he made it to Heaven's Pa.s.s, with only 10,000 cavalrymen left, he wouldn't even be able to defend himself from Golden Roc Castle's attack.
It was not until Mo Lin had ridden more than ten steps away that Duodun suddenly collected himself and yelled "Second Consort" in a state of extreme panic.
The Second Consort nearly lost control of herself. Pretending that she hadn't heard that call, she said to Mo Chu, "Give the order. Everybody has to fight."
Originally, Mo Chu had keenly hoped that he would hear a different order. "Second Consort, we've lost the war…"
"We lost the war, but we're still alive. Give the order, Commander-in-chief Mo. And then you're free to go."
The last batch of soldiers advanced towards the battlefield. Red Bat and those female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance also followed the Second Consort, firmly believing that the Instructor would bring back reinforcements.
Qian Ying didn't follow them. She was a green-faced a.s.sa.s.sin, and she had no interest in the battlefield. So she instead galloped north, searching for her master.
Mo Chu and a couple of his attendants fled towards the north as well, planning to make a detour around the battlefield and then head to Thousand Hors.e.m.e.n Pa.s.s. Golden Roc Castle's army had been defending the city this whole time, and their troops were all intact. That place would be his shelter.
The Second Consort finally had a clear sight of the enemies' faces and released an arrow from her bow. The arrow disappeared into the dusty air, but she wasn't discouraged, and just kept shooting. One arrow after another disappeared in front of her.
She had learned archery before, and she had also partic.i.p.ated in several battles with the old Khan. But her partic.i.p.ation had merely been riding a horse, standing on the highland, and watching their troops outflank and slaughter their enemies. This was the first time that she had ever partic.i.p.ated in a fight herself.
Things were somewhat different from what she had imagined. From the very beginning, the Second Consort didn't follow the procession. Instead, she ran directly towards the enemies, believing that the groups of soldiers behind would follow her.
She had forgotten that she was not a general and didn't have her own flag. On the chaotic battleground, the soldiers couldn't see her at all. The generals fell back onto their usual tactics, and ordered the soldiers to attack the enemy from a diagonal direction while trying to maintain a certain distance between themselves and the enemy.
Only the female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance followed the Second Consort. They were not familiar with Norland tactics and thought that protecting the Second Consort was their duty.
Large numbers of Luoluo's soldiers flooded over, which reminded the Second Consort of a swarm of gra.s.shoppers that she had once seen. She kept shooting and screeching shrilly. Suddenly, her fear disappeared. Her acceptance of death had become unprecedentedly firm.
The female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance didn't know how to shriek like the Norlanders. They just yelled like normal, but their tinny voices sounded unusually clear on the battlefield.
The distance between her and the enemy was getting shorter and shorter. The Second Consort even saw one of her arrows pa.s.s by an enemy soldier. It was at this time that a question suddenly occurred to her - why weren't the enemies fighting back?
Luoluo's soldiers were galloping forward, but none of them were shooting, and most of them were bent over with their chest on their horse's back. They didn't seem to be attacking but instead… fleeing.
A small army had encountered a large army just like a small stone hitting a mountain. But surprisingly, this time, it was the latter that cracked.
Luoluo's army automatically separated into two parts and formed a narrow pa.s.sage in-between them. The Second Consort thought that she had been solidly surrounded, but when she turned her head around, she saw that the enemy soldiers only continued to gallop forward; n.o.body was trying to outflank her.
The Second Consort and the female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance stopped shrieking and yelling, slowed down their horses, and eventually stopped, confusedly watching the army pa.s.sing by their sides.
There were several occasions when they were nearly trampled by the oncoming cavalrymen, so they had to stand in a column. The Second Consort was at the head of the column, and she yelled in both the Norland language and the Central Plains language, ordering the enemies to move aside.
Luoluo's army finally completely pa.s.sed. And then they saw some troops who were pursuing Luoluo's soldiers, and who were also their backup.
A rugged, resonant voice on the opposite side called out, "Are you the Second Consort? We're people of the Naihang Tribe."
This situation was totally beyond their expectations. The Second Consort stood there, transfixed with shock, unable to speak for a long time.
Shangguan Ru hadn't gone to the Middle Corps to ask for help. After riding the Flame Foal at full speed, she had pa.s.sed through several small battlefields with her fast speed and some good luck. Every time she saw soldiers, irrespective of whether they were enemies or allies, she would mobilize her internal energy and yell, "The King Flag has fallen! Luoluo has fled!"
As a result, when she entered the area guarded by the Naihang Tribe's soldiers, n.o.body tried to stop her. Instead, some soldiers guided her to Zhesu's place.
Heavily armed, Zhesu was standing on a highland along with Duo Ercha, and there were 100,000 cavalrymen behind them.
Actually, they couldn't see anything from there, and they could only get a couple scarce pieces of information from their scouts.
"Luoluo lost." Shangguan Ru spoke up first.
Zhesu obviously didn't believe her. "But I heard some different news."
"That's because you only saw the northern part of the battlefield. In the middle and the south, the results were totally different. The Dragon King cut down Luoluo's King Flag, and Luoluo himself has fled. His armies in the north will soon also receive that message and it's only a matter of time before they are defeated."
Shangguan Ru didn't know the details of how the King Flag had been broken, so she had said "cut down" instead of "shot down."
Zhesu still didn't believe her. "I have my own scouts in the south, so I don't need you to deliver any news to me."
"When your scouts come back, it will be too late."
"Too late? Hha. Too late to do what?"
"The Naihang Tribe has greatly offended the allied forces by making way for Luoluo. Your only chance to redeem yourselves is right here, right now - launch an attack on Luoluo's remaining troops."
Zhesu burst into laughter, and so did Duo Ercha, but Duo Ercha had become more restrained compared to before, so he didn't interject.
"Redeem? The Naihang Tribe has never heard of this word before."
Shangguan Ru said coldly, "Neither has the Naihang Tribe ever been in this kind of situation before, right? There's only one Khan's descendant left to fight for the throne. Your days of being a fence-sitter are over."
"Who's the one left?" Zhesu asked in a severe voice.
"The young king, Shulitu. Luoluo fled. Duodun has suffered a crus.h.i.+ng defeat. The young king is the only one remaining on the gra.s.slands who has enough strength to be the Khan. He is a maternal grandson of the Naihang Tribe, but if the Naihang Tribe offers help to outsiders, the first thing he will do after he succeeds the throne is take revenge."
Zhesu's face slightly changed. "Even if you're telling the truth, I can eliminate all of you since both sides of this battle have suffered heavy casualties."
"What will you get then? Duo Ercha can't be the Khan - n.o.body in the Naihang Tribe can. You will only become the enemy of every descendant of the Khan, and the enemies of all Norlanders."
"Luoluo won't lose." Zhesu clenched his teeth with anger.
"Then keep waiting, General." Shangguan Ru had no intention to keep trying to persuade him. "But please think about this - if Luoluo won, then why hasn't him sent his troops to the south to outflank Duodun's army?"
Shangguan Ru turned her horse around and was about to leave when Zhesu suddenly said, "Wait. Leave the Flame Foal here. It belongs to King Rizhu."
"You lost it to the Dragon King and it belongs to us now. Many people have seen it. You won't go back on your word, will you?"
"Ha, the Dragon King cheated then, so that match didn't count. Leave the Flame Foal here. I'll roast it as a sacrifice to old King Rizhu."
The Flame Foal seemed to have understood this remark and it neighed in refusal. Shangguan Ru patted its head and snorted. "This is your only chance. If the left wing of the allied forces is defeated, then the Naihang Tribe will become the enemies of the young king and the Dragon King."
Shangguan Ru spurred the horse on and rode towards the main battlefield in the north.
Duo Ercha couldn't help but say, "We can't let her escape. Let me get the Flame Foal back."
"Order all of our troops to pursue her."
"Er… Is it really necessary to do so?" Duo Ercha thought that the old general had given the wrong order.
Zhesu disdained having to explain it to Duo Ercha, so he himself ordered the whole army to march forward, but their speed was not very fast. Seeing that Shangguan Ru and her Flame Foal were getting further and further away from them, Duo Ercha became anxious. "The Flame Foal runs very fast. If we keep moving at this speed…"
Several scouts rode madly towards them and yelled while they were still far away, "Luoluo fled! Luoluo fled!"
Zhesu gave an order to the heralds beside him, "Launch an attack on Luoluo's army. Now!"
The Naihang Tribe's 100,000 soldiers advanced towards the battlefield in successive batches after receiving this order.
It was at this moment that Duo Ercha suddenly understood Zhesu's intention.
The war had lasted from morning till dusk, and during the latter half of the war, the soldiers were mostly pursuing the surviving enemies and delivering messages. Soon, news of the allied forces' victory had spread a radius of hundreds of miles around the battlefield.
Shangguan Ru found Red Bat, those female soldiers, and the Second Consort as well. "Our backup arrived."
The Second Consort hadn't recovered from her fright yet, but she still had her judgement. "I want to meet the Dragon King. Remember to remind him that the deal will be canceled if Duodun dies."
The Second Consort decided to stay with the Naihang Tribe. Shangguan Ru knew that she wouldn't be able to convince her, so she took the female soldiers with her and started searching for the Dragon King.
All of the soldiers that she met along the way told her that they had seen the Dragon King, but none of them were able to provide any concrete information on his current position.
They had been to the encampments of the Middle and the Right Corps as well as the fighting areas in the south. It was not until late at night that they finally found the Dragon Army in a camp abandoned by Luoluo's army. It was said that the Dragon King was in the camp, too.
There were corpses everywhere, and the camp was no exception. Shangguan Ru had almost become numb to the sight.
"These are all Dragon-Army soldiers," said Red Bat flatly.
Indeed, the bodies here were sorted in orderly rows. Clearly, some people had been handling them carefully. Flaming torches were positioned at regular intervals on the ground.
"There are so many of them!" a female soldier exclaimed in a low voice, shocked.
A soldier recognized Shangguan Ru and told her which direction the Dragon King was in.
In a luxurious tent, the female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance saw the Dragon King.
Instead of clothes, Gu Shenwei's upper body was covered by bandages. Standing in the middle of the tent, he was looking down at someone.
There were injured soldiers everywhere in the tent, and Doctor Sun was busy checking their conditions, and occasionally yelled at a dozen helpers - in this tent, he was the one with the most power.
Gu Shenwei turned around. There was no delight on his face at all.
Red Bat seemed to have had this premonition long ago. With a vacant look, she walked to the Dragon King's side and saw Long Fanyun lying still on the ground, blood all over his body.
