"Hey, who are you!" A girl's clear voice woke the two from the magical scene they had just witnessed. They scrambled to their feet and saw a Yue girl carrying a huge bundle on her back and wielding a blacksmith's hammer, staring at them with a mixture of curiosity and fear.
Lanqiao and Ziyu were also quite frightened. They looked at each other, feeling like they had escaped death. The magical blue light and the strange Yue girl in front of them were all puzzling to them.
“It’s outside the city!” Ziyu was much more astute than Lanqiao. She looked around and realized that she was not far from Luoying, the capital of Chen State. She immediately stopped Lanqiao from speaking and said with a smile, “We are travelers. My name is Chen Ying and his name is Song Yun. Who are you?”
"You scared me half to death! How could it fall from the sky..." The Yue girl seemed to believe her words, muttered to herself, and then straightened her chest and answered, "I am Mo Rong, the greatest craftsman in the world!"
Ziyu couldn't help but smile. Although the Yue girl might be a bit older than her, she was still shorter than Ziyu's chest. When she answered with her head held high, she looked just like an ordinary teenager pretending to be an adult.
“The Yue people…” Lan Yu smiled. When he lived in the mountains, he had also met the Yue people and knew that every Yue person claimed to be the best craftsman in the world. He just didn’t expect that such a young Yue girl would have this hobby.
"Where are you going? Maybe we're going the same way." Ziyu knew that as long as they were within the territory of Chen, they were always in danger of being discovered and pursued. When her father died, she was only six years old. Her elder brother, the king, doted on her and raised her. Although she resented her incompetent and selfish brother, and although she knew that as long as Lanyu was there, ordinary pursuers would not be able to get close to them, she was ultimately unwilling to be an enemy of her brother and her country. Therefore, if she could travel with this Yue girl, although she would attract attention, it would be difficult for others to imagine that the dignified princess of Chen was actually mingling with a Yue person.
"I'm going to Yuzhou to see a friend of mine," Mo Rong said without any guile. The Yue people were used to being honest, and although these two people were a bit strange, Mo Rong intuitively knew that they were not as treacherous and cunning as some ordinary people.
"Excellent, we're on the same road!" Ziyu laughed. Given her and Lanqiao's appearance, it would obviously be quite difficult for them to slip past the border guards' checks and escape the country. Yuzhou, due to its special status, was the best place for them to temporarily hide. It seemed they were truly destined to meet this Yue girl.
Lanqiao had no objection to her decision. He was originally a hermit from the deep mountains, and his acquaintance with Princess Ziyu was purely coincidental. When he saw the sly smile in Ziyu's eyes when she lied, his thoughts flew back to the first time he met her.
That was more than a year ago. Lanqiao, who emerged from the deep mountains carrying a giant sword, was completely unaware of the ways of the world. The old man who raised him, besides teaching him fighting, repeatedly reminded him of one principle: "Whatever belongs to you, you must take it. Don't wait until you lose it and then hide in the deep mountains and sigh in despair."
Whenever the old man said this, he would sigh repeatedly, followed by a long silence, and then he would train Lanqiao even harder. After the old man passed away, Lanqiao realized that the old man must have had a sad past.
It was only after leaving the mountains and crossing the Blue Bridge that he truly came to know the world. Everything was strange to him. The outside world was much bigger than what he had seen from the highest mountaintop. There were more people in the small town outside than he had ever seen in the mountains. Moreover, things in the outside world were much more complicated than in the mountains.
What followed was quite dramatic. Lanqiao, who was sleeping on the street because he had no money for an inn, was stepped on by Ziyu, who was hastily running away in the night. Enraged, he prepared to teach this reckless woman a lesson, only to discover that she was a woman he couldn't possibly lay a hand on. Perhaps because women were rare in the mountains, Lanqiao was ruthless towards strong men, but he simply couldn't bring himself to be cruel to a young woman.
"Someone as delicate as you, I could crush you with just two fingers!" Since he couldn't hit her, he could only try to scare her. Little did he know that Ziyu was hiding from the warriors chasing her back to the dull palace. When she saw Lanqiao's simple-minded appearance, a sly smile appeared in her eyes.
"I stepped on you, I'm so sorry, so very sorry. To show my remorse, I'd like to be your maid for a while, okay?"
Who could refuse such a request from such a delicate young woman? Lanqiao, fresh from the mountains, certainly couldn't; he even assumed this was how people in the outside world offered polite apologies. When the warriors came chasing Ziyu, Lanqiao unceremoniously wielded his greatsword, routing them completely, and finally threw out the words, "You dare steal my maid? You don't even know who I am!"
From then on, the happiest days of his life began. This beautiful maidservant wandered with him throughout the Chen Kingdom. Of course, it would be more accurate to call Ziyu her bodyguard than her maidservant. Along the way, they punished many tyrannical officials and helped many helpless people. More importantly, together they risked their lives to obtain a magical treasure: the string of beads that hung around Ziyu's neck. Ziyu, who had grown up in the palace and had never known the hardships of ordinary people, also underwent a tremendous change in these short six months.
"What have Brother Wang and we brought to the people?" Hearing the lament of an elderly mother whose three sons had all joined the army, and whose gray-haired husband had also been forced to go to war, she couldn't help but shed tears, her mind racing with this question. Of course, she couldn't find the answer at that moment; all she could do was share the mother's tears and then give her some money.
Therefore, she decided to return to the palace to advise her brother. Her brother was overjoyed to see her and did not pursue the matter of her leaving the palace without permission. Instead, he told her that he had married her to the King of Lan Kingdom.
Ziyu understood that this was a political marriage, used to secure the support of the Lan Kingdom, which held a dominant position in the north of Shenzhou, for the Chen Kingdom. It was precisely to resist this political marriage that she had fled the palace, and now, having tasted freedom outside, and especially after meeting the simple and honest Lanqiao, she was even less willing to marry the middle-aged King of Lan Kingdom.
To threaten her, Pei Ju captured Lan Qiao and planned to burn him alive under the pretext of a sacrificial offering. Zi Yu's only option was to die with him. Unexpectedly, the string of beads, supposedly a divine artifact, saved them at the last moment.
"So we really are going the same way!" Mo Rong's words snapped Lan Qiao out of her reverie. She smiled happily and said, "That's great! I was just worried about having no one to talk to on the road!"
“Mo… Sister,” Ziyu stuck out her tongue, still calling her sister, looking at Mo Rong’s petite figure and expression. “Our travel expenses have all been stolen by a thief. It’s all that guy’s fault for being careless. We’re afraid we’ll have to trouble you on the way.”
"It's alright!" The Yue people are hospitable, and they have a strong sense of pride. They feel very honored when others ask them for help, and Mo Rong is no exception. This is why she left Yue Ren Ridge alone again after receiving a letter from a homeless child entrusted to a Yue person. She laughed heartily, "Gold and silver are easy for us Dong Yue to obtain, but friends are something that gold and silver can never buy."
Ziyu felt a pang of shame. They had deceived and taken advantage of such an honest Yue woman; it felt wrong of them. But for now, she had no choice but to accept it. Once they reached Yuzhou, she would explain the reason to her.
And so, this strange trio set off.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※
At the same time, Li Jun was holding Meng Yuan's body, standing blankly on the reef.
"No!" Li Jun suddenly let out a tearing scream, his voice carrying far across the boundless sea, his shoulders convulsing uncontrollably.
This scene ignited a fire of memories in Ling Qi's eyes, and a look of pain appeared on his face, not because of his injuries, but because of the memories that had been awakened.
The woman who waited for him, the woman he swore to protect for life, the only pure woman among the debauched and shameless aristocratic families. Hadn't he once held her body and shouted "No" to the setting sun?
"If you don't want him to really die, then put him down." Ling Qi walked slowly to Li Jun, placed her hand on Meng Yuan's wrist, and said coldly.
Li Jun stared at him blankly. When he realized the meaning behind Ling Qi's words, he excitedly put Meng Yuanping down on the ground, but Ling Qi stopped his excitement with a sharp look.
Ling Qi took out a flat, old box from her bosom, took out a thin, long gold needle from the box, and inserted it into Meng Yuan's chest.
Li Jun acted swiftly, inserting seven golden needles into Meng Yuan's body in a short time. Meng Yuan's already rapid breathing gradually calmed down as the seven golden needles were inserted.
"Thank you... thank you!" Li Jun said sincerely. At this moment, even if Ling Qi asked him to exchange his life for it, he would probably be willing. He knew that this kind of help was priceless.
"Don't be too happy yet. Whether he dies or not is up to him." Ling Qi responded to his gratitude with nothing more than a cold remark. Yet, a pang of pain shot through his heart. If he had possessed this skill from the beginning, would he have stood by and watched that girl die in his arms?
His thoughts instantly spanned more than twenty years, and countless memories that haunted his dreams flashed before his eyes. He left with reluctance, but when he returned, he could only hold her gradually cooling body. And all of this was caused by that damned Hengguo dog. That damned Hengguo dog, that damned person!
Father murder, wife theft, and kingdom destruction—all were caused by Liu Guang, the Heng Kingdom's commander-in-chief, a man renowned for his undefeated record. Now that he has obtained the treasure of the dragon spirit, he is determined to use it as the starting point for restoring his kingdom and exacting revenge! For this, he is willing to cause chaos and be seen as a cold-blooded demon!
Suddenly coughing up a mouthful of blood, Ling Qi elegantly took out a white handkerchief, wiped her mouth clean, and then threw it into the sea.
"Let my last bit of compassion go with this blood," he thought.
Chu Qingfeng was secretly surprised by the way he used the needles, but he remained calm on the surface. After checking Meng Yuan's pulse, he hesitated for a moment and said, "Commander Li, please remove your helmet."
At this moment, Li Jun would do anything to save Meng Yuan. He hurriedly took off his own helmet and handed it to Chu Qingfeng, who then removed Meng Yuan's helmet and put on Li Jun's dragon-head helmet. Seeing the longing look in Li Jun's eyes, Chu Qingfeng smiled slightly and said, "General Meng was originally severely injured by the dragon's spiritual power, and his life force was almost gone. Young Master Ling used his acupuncture technique to stimulate the last bit of life force in General Meng's body. Furthermore, Commander Li's dragon-head helmet has an automatic regeneration function, which can help General Meng recover as soon as possible and prevent any future problems."
He knew that Li Jun was in a state of great distress, so he explained in detail to reassure him.
At this moment, the large ship that had sailed far away received the signal and sailed back, sending two small boats to pick up everyone. Li Jun refused help from others and carried Meng Yuan back to the large ship by himself. Jiang Tang, who had been hiding on the large ship, also went up to the reef. Seeing Li Jun's ugly face, he knew things were not good and did not dare to say anything. He went with Ling Qi's men to search for the dragon spirit's treasure.
Li Jun did not inquire about what happened after that. Ling Qi had saved them time and time again, and even though he wanted to keep all the treasure for himself, Li Jun did not object. However, Ling Qi kept his promise and split the treasure in half with them. When the ship reached a place closer to land, he sent a small boat to take Li Jun and the others ashore.
"Perhaps we will meet again." At the moment of parting, Ling Qi said calmly to Li Jun, "If we meet on the battlefield then, I will not show any mercy."
"..." Li Jun silently bowed. Since the establishment of the Peace Army, he had never felt as if the overall situation was out of his control as he did when he was with Ling Qi. Such a person was really terrifying. But Li Jun had a faint premonition that one day, the two of them would meet again.