Lord Anshan had the idea, but lacked the ability. Lord Shan Yuhou suggested that Lord Anshan send someone to try. Lord Anshan sent an envoy, but unsurprisingly, the envoy was rebuked and sent back before the message even reached the palace.
In Anshan Jun's view, the official in charge of the payment order still looks like a petty person who has gotten his way and is now acting arrogantly.
When this news reached Xie Lanzhi's ears, she was still recovering from her injuries. She also heard that Dali Luo had been captured by his own people and taken back to the main palace of the State of Lu.
She went back to check on things. As soon as she arrived at the main palace, she saw Li Li with bandages wrapped around his head, sitting on the stairs, sighing continuously.
"The Crown Prince?"
When Yelü Lili saw her return, he noticed that her right hand was bound and couldn't help but ask with concern, "I've heard everything. You had a great battle with Dali Luo and then went back to the camp."
Xie Lanzhi didn't know how to tell him. Actually, it wasn't that exaggerated.
However, the fact that Dali Luo was caught by Xie Bing so easily made her somewhat suspicious.
Is Dali Luo really that easy to capture? If he was truly stunned, then the Northern Xiongnu artillery had really played a cruel joke on them.
Compared to Li Li's sudden expression of envy, Xie Lanzhi was more cautious, believing that there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Xie Lanzhi took the initiative to ask to see Dali Luo. When she saw Dali Luo locked in a large cage in the square, he was sitting cross-legged eating a steamed bun. Next to him, Gong Fuling was occasionally waving a chicken leg in front of him, saying like he was tempting a child, "If you give us information, this chicken leg is yours."
Dali Luo scoffed.
Xie Lanzhi sighed. Then she saw Gong Fuling take a bite of a chicken leg.
She took the plate of chicken legs that the governor was holding. The governor's hand was suddenly empty, and he looked up to see Xie Lanzhi: "Marshal, you've arrived."
Xie Lanzhi told him to leave.
She handed the chicken leg directly to Dali Luo. Dali Luo's eyes widened even more, seemingly more agitated than if his intelligence had been insulted by the official order.
Xie Lanzhi was speechless. She hadn't said anything, had she?
"No matter what, I won't kill you." Xie Lanzhi even grabbed a chicken leg and ate it herself in a friendly manner. She ate with relish and assured everyone that there was nothing wrong with it.
Dali Luo grabbed a chicken leg, looked at her face, and tore off a piece of chicken leg meat.
Xie Lanzhi had a stool brought over and then sent the official order down.
Only she and Li Li remained at the scene.
Xie Lanzhi said, "I won't send you back right away."
Li Li glanced at Dali Luo and thought he was very ordinary, not at all like a general.
Dali Luo ignored Xie Lanzhi, finished his meal of bread and chicken leg, wiped his mouth, and lay down on the ground to take a nap.
"Someone like him can become a general?" Li Li finally couldn't help but complain.
Xie Lanzhi said, "He is indeed the real Dali Luo, you are not mistaken. As for why he was captured, we have to start with his subordinates."
Upon hearing this, Li Li thought to himself, "He's still an unlucky guy who falls and gets hurt all over the place."
The two lingered a while longer, but Dali Luo didn't react. As darkness fell, Xie Lanzhi got up and left.
Li Li followed her.
Soon only a few guards remained in the square. Dali Luo opened his eyes, like a wolf in the night, extremely sensitive to his surroundings.
He remembered the direction Xie Ying left in. However, Xie Ying was cunning; she deliberately left a few people behind to wait for him to take the bait.
Dali Luo did nothing; she went to sleep as usual.
The two, Riyue and Riyue, who were also keeping watch from the corner, discussed amongst themselves: "This person is strange."
"I think he deliberately allowed himself to be captured."
"I'll stay hidden. I want to see what his true purpose is."
That night, Xie Lanzhi lay on the empty bed, equally unable to understand Dali Luo's behavior.
However, once she understands Aqina's purpose, Dilro's actions are not difficult to explain. The only difficulty is that she cannot be certain of her guess right now.
"Never mind, maybe I'll figure it out after a good night's sleep."
After a peaceful night, Xie Lanzhi got up and went to the square again, only to find that Dali Luo was being served water to wash his face this time. Dali Luo washed his hands through the bars of the water basin outside his cage. Then he began to eat breakfast.
Xie Lanzhi raised an eyebrow: "He is a general, after all. There is no need to treat him so poorly. Go and prepare a room for him to be locked up."
The guards immediately went to make arrangements.
Dali Luo moved to a better room, and he didn't miss any meals. He also didn't resort to violence to escape.
After three days and three nights, news finally arrived from the Northern Xiongnu. They sent an envoy to request an audience with Xie Lanzhi, hoping to ransom Dali Luo. They were willing to accept any conditions Xie Lanzhi set.
Xie Lanzhi directly demanded that the Northern Hu and Xiongnu withdraw their troops, but without exception, the envoy refused. Apart from that, all other conditions were acceptable. Cannons were also acceptable.
Xie Lanzhi looked down on their cannons.
She told the messenger to go back first, and that she would think about it some more.
Seven days and seven nights passed, and no one understood what conditions Xie Lanzhi wanted to set. Dali Luo also seemed indifferent to his own life or death. Only his hatred for Xie Lanzhi remained undiminished.
Xie Lanzhi stayed in her room, still unable to figure it out. When she changed her clothes, she discovered that the ancient jade pendant on her chest was gone.
Her eyes suddenly turned pitch black.
She lay flat on the bed as usual tonight, drifting off to sleep with a wave of drowsiness. The familiar clanking of chains rang out again.
Every time Xie Lanzhi heard this voice, she would become alert. However, the dreams that followed were beyond her control, playing out her memories of coming to this world in a blur.
As fewer and fewer people carried water basins to the White Urn Palace, the imperial physicians knelt outside the hall, sweating profusely.
The shaman stood outside the door, listening to the sounds of painful struggle inside until they disappeared.
The royal shaman immediately pushed open the door and went in, looking at the king's body lying on the dragon bed, his entire body wrapped in bandages. Soon, blood seeped from his mouth, staining the bandages red.
"It worked?"
Suddenly, lightning flashed and thunder roared in the night sky, and a strong wind howled.
Locked in the room, Derilo pushed open the door, killed two guards, and quickly escaped.
The guards of Lu chased after them in all directions, while others went to inform Xie Bing.
The commotion even startled Li Li. He dressed and came out to find the palace in chaos. The guards were searching everywhere for someone.
When they learned that Dali Luo was missing.
Li Li's face darkened, thinking to himself, "Just as I thought." He had long ago advised the marshal to lock the man in the dungeon. He hadn't expected him to escape anyway.
He sent someone to inform Xie Lanzhi. He himself helped search for Dali Luo, believing that Dali Luo was still in the palace and couldn't have escaped that far.
At this moment, Dali Luo, who had escaped, had arrived at Xie Lanzhi's bedroom. He put the ancient jade around his neck, touched it, and lay down on the floor, keeping himself side by side with Xie Lanzhi on the bed.
Xie Bing, who was outside the door, came to inform Xie Lanzhi that Dali Luo had run away. Xie Bing did not dare to break into the gate and assumed that Xie Lanzhi was not there, so he left in a hurry.
Hearing Xie Bing leave, Dali Luo closed his eyes in relief. The ancient jade in his hand was something he had taken during his fight with Xie Ying.
The king said that as long as the ancient jade was removed, Xie Lanzhi's taboo would be broken, and then the national sorcerer would have a way to transfer the king's pain to Xie Ying and cure the king. Therefore, Dali Luo cooperated very well.
Dali Luo closed his eyes and instantly lost consciousness, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep. A moment later, a gust of wind blew in, opening a crack in the door. It whipped the curtains around and disheveled Xie Lanzhi's hair.
Xie Lanzhi felt increasingly breathless in her dream.
The familiar clanging of the chains grew louder and louder, as if they were striking something to produce that sound.
Until she felt a thug's hand suddenly grab her neck.
A feeling of suffocation washed over her. In her dream, Xie Lanzhi looked up and saw a bandaged monster without a lower body, desperately choking her with its hands. The dream felt so real.
Just as she was about to lose her breath, she suddenly saw a cold chain tighten around the bandaged monster's neck. The bandaged monster deflated instantly, unwilling to let go, and then vanished from her dream, along with the chain.
After Xie Lanzhi felt her breathing become easier, she took deep breaths. When she came to her senses, she looked around for the chains, only to find that they had also disappeared.
This was the first time she had ever seen chains. In the past, whenever something seemed supernatural, she would first hear the sound of chains.
Each sound of chains seemed to tell her that she had entered some kind of maze.
This time is no exception.
Xie Lanzhi was filled with mixed feelings and wanted to speak, but found that she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Finally, the sound of chains rang out again.
She woke up quickly after being punched hard in the face.
The sensation on her face was still there. Xie Lanzhi got out of bed, touching her face with a strange expression. In her dream, it was the first time she had been beaten.
Before she could think it through, she stepped on someone as she got out of bed.
Xie Lanzhi looked down and saw Dali Luo lying on the ground in the same sleeping position as herself, only his face was pale.
There was a commotion outside. She guessed that Dali Luo had escaped and even fled into her room. Xie Lanzhi squatted down, about to pull Dali Luo up, when she noticed that he was wearing her ancient jade pendant.
Xie Lanzhi immediately reached out and pulled, taking the ancient jade down.
She put the ancient jade back around her neck, her eyes dark and brooding as she looked at Dali Luo. Dali Luo's complexion gradually returned to normal, and he slowly opened his eyes, seeing her. Then, startled, he scrambled to his feet and backed away.
Xie Lanzhi's expression suddenly became intriguing.
"Dali Luo, if you're going to run, you should run outside the palace." She approached Dali Luo step by step. Dali Luo took a few steps back, a glint of scrutiny in his eyes, and finally he raised his fist to attack Xie Lanzhi.
Xie Lanzhi gently grasped his fist and squeezed it, causing Dali Luo to scream in agony.
Hearing the commotion, Xie Bing, who was outside the hall, rushed in and saw that the marshal had captured Dali Luo. They immediately surrounded him.
"Marshal, are you alright?"
Xie Lanzhi released Dali Luo's hand, obscuring her expression, and turned her back: "Send a doctor to examine him, and then inform the Hu Xiongnu envoy that we need to discuss the exchange terms."
"yes!"
Meanwhile, in the White Urn Palace, the royal sorcerer anxiously watched the bed and noticed that the king had stopped struggling. He was overjoyed: "Could it be that the possession has been successful?"
Then came a slightly incredulous voice from the bed: "What happened to me? My whole body aches. Where am I?"
"Outside, is that the national shaman outside?"
"Wasn't I in the State of Lu? Am I back in my motherland?"
Upon hearing this, the national shaman's face turned ashen, and he was so shocked that his knees buckled and he knelt on the ground.
His face was deathly pale, his lips moved, and finally he managed to squeeze out a single, strained sentence: "Your Majesty..."
"It failed."
The imperial physicians outside, upon hearing the king's voice, were overjoyed. They had saved the king's life! He had survived the critical period!