Military Advisor and Princess - Chapter 43
"To be a friend of Prince Jin is a pleasure I would be more than happy to have!" Ao Jun said, bowing in a pretentious manner.
The two looked at each other and smiled, their hearts brimming with emotion. In front of others, they were equally cold and aloof, never revealing their true feelings. But only when they were alone did they show genuine smiles, joke freely like ordinary people, and truthfully express their joys, sorrows, and anger.
After talking for a long time, Ao Jun looked at the sky outside that was gradually turning white, stood up and said reluctantly, "Jin Xuan, I should go back. Yu'er will be back soon, and I can't let her find out that something is wrong."
"Where did Yu'er go?" Jinxuan asked in confusion.
"Hehe... She should be reporting to her master now, telling him everything I said!" Ao Jun chuckled. And that jade pendant should have been handed over to Sheng Chi by now, right? But she didn't want Jin Xuan to know about the jade pendant, didn't want him to know she had met Yelü Ying.
"Hehe... It seems everything is under your control, Jun." Jinxuan chuckled approvingly. He didn't ask who Yu'er was, or who her master was. He trusted that Jun had his own plans, and wanted to use a honey trap on Jun, hehe... Jun must never lack beautiful women around him! However, Jun's move of turning the tables on a scheme is truly brilliant, no, perhaps it's not just turning the tables on a scheme, it's more like a scheme within a scheme!
"Though it's within my control, things are always unpredictable," Ao Jun said with a touch of melancholy. The most difficult thing to fathom in the world is the human heart, especially the heart of someone as treacherous as Sheng Chi, and Yelü Ying—in truth, she didn't know him very well either. No one could say for sure how powerful the Blood Soul Heavenly Stems Eight Trigrams Formation truly was, and that was her biggest worry.
"Man proposes, God disposes, I believe in you," Jinxuan said firmly. He knew this matter was extremely difficult, the biggest problem he had encountered since he went to war, but he didn't feel troubled at all, simply because he had her.
"Based on what you said, I won't let you down," Ao Jun said confidently, then added, "I really should go back now. Tomorrow is up to you." With that, he turned and walked out of Jin Xuan's tent.
"I won't let you down either." Jin Xuan smiled confidently and muttered to himself as he watched Ao Jun's departing figure, his eyes flashing with a sharp light.
Ao Jun returned to her tent. Thankfully, Yu'er hadn't come back yet. She felt like she'd just gone out for a tryst, haha... But the happiest thing was that she and Jin Xuan had finally reconciled. Jin Xuan's trust and support gave her even more confidence to win this battle.
Not long after I lay down, I felt someone appear beside me; it must be Yu'er returning.
"Hmph, still sleeping? You really are a pig." Yu'er said disdainfully to Ao Jun, taking the jade pendant out of her sleeve and putting it back into Ao Jun's arms.
"Hmph... You can sleep so much. In a few days, you'll be sleeping forever. And Yelü Ying, the master will definitely give you a big gift. Those who offend the master never have a good ending. Blame it on your beautiful face, hehe..." Yu'er sat down next to Ao Jun and said in a sinister tone.
While feigning sleep, Ao Jun muttered to himself: It seems that Sheng Chi has already fallen into the trap. As for the big gift he's going to give me and Yelü Ying, it can't be anything good. Hmph, make me sleep forever? It seems they're going to target me and Yelü Ying. But what does this have to do with my face?
Inside the main tent of Longxuan's military camp, Jinxuan, with a cold and serious expression, silently looked at the generals.
The oppressive atmosphere made everyone realize the seriousness of the situation; otherwise, the usually confident 'God of War' wouldn't have had such an expression.
"Your Highness, what happened?" Zhao Zhiyang, unable to contain himself any longer, finally spoke first.
As if he had been waiting for these words, Jin Xuan first frowned, then said in a deep voice: "There is something I have summoned General Zhongxin for today's meeting. After much consideration, I have decided to tell you the truth so that you may be prepared."
"Please speak, Your Highness," Wei Ziqi said respectfully. The others also waited for Jinxuan with serious expressions.
"I know that all the generals have been holding a grudge about the last battle and want to avenge the defeat, but the strategist ordered them to retreat thirty miles and remain inactive. They are all dissatisfied with this, especially after what happened with Murong Yu. Many generals have asked me to cancel the strategist's order and order an attack." Jin Xuan calmly threw out the bait, waiting for those who were interested to take the bait.
"Your Highness, we generals once greatly admired the strategist, but these two matters have deeply disappointed us," General Hong said indignantly. Thinking of the retreat, the strategist not only failed to give them an explanation, but also treated them this way because of that woman—how could he not be furious!
"I don't want to talk about Murong Yu anymore, but as for the retreat, I agree with the strategist's approach," Jin Xuan said calmly.
"What? Your Highness..." Everyone panicked upon hearing this and rushed to ask Jinxuan why.
"Generals, please be patient. I will tell you the truth today." Just as Jin Xuan was about to continue, a voice urgently interrupted him.
Apart from Jinxuan and Zhao Zhiyang, everyone else looked at Wei Ziqi, who had interrupted Jinxuan, with curiosity. Why would Wei Ziqi, who was usually gentle and respectful of hierarchy, interrupt the prince?
Faced with the strange looks from the crowd, Wei Ziqi suddenly realized that he had just done something extremely disrespectful. He immediately knelt down and said, "Ziqi had no intention of disrespecting his superiors. Please punish me, Your Highness."
"General Wei, please rise," Jin Xuan said in his calm voice. He had anticipated Wei Ziqi and Zhao Zhiyang's reactions, but they were also necessary for the play to be more realistic and achieve its goal more quickly.
"Thank you, Your Highness," Wei Ziqi said, rising to his feet. He knew the prince wouldn't blame him for such a thing. Although the prince always kept his emotions hidden, he always treated his generals with great respect and would never punish them for trivial matters. However, the prince was, after all, a prince. Even if he didn't hold it against him, subordinates should still fulfill their duties, and Wei Ziqi's behavior just now was truly inappropriate.
Although he had no intention of interrupting the prince, this matter was of great importance, and he had to speak. He turned his head, coughed lightly, and said to Jin Xuan, "Ahem... Your Highness, the strategist said the other day that this matter..." Wei Ziqi hesitated, unsure how to proceed.
"Yes! Your Highness, although the strategist has disappointed us greatly, but that matter..." Zhao Zhiyang also blushed and echoed.
Before Zhao Zhiyang could finish speaking, Jinxuan waved his hand to stop him, saying, "I have my own plan for this matter."
Zhao Zhiyang and Wei Ziqi had no choice but to swallow their words. The strategist had said that this matter should not be spread, otherwise it would cause unrest in the army. Why would the prince reveal the truth at this time? The two who knew the truth kept muttering to themselves, while the others who didn't know the truth looked completely bewildered: What exactly happened?
Jin Xuan was well aware of everyone's thoughts at this moment. He coughed lightly to bring everyone back to their senses before saying, "The strategist ordered our army to retreat because the enemy's Blood Soul Heavenly Stem Eight Trigrams Formation is too powerful and too evil. Our army simply cannot withstand it." The climax was coming.
"Blood Soul Heavenly Stems Eight Trigrams Formation?" Sure enough, everyone was puzzled upon hearing this. What is this? They've never heard of it before.
"Generals, you should all remember the last battle, right?" Jinxuan asked instead of answering, his eyes fixed intently on everyone's expressions.
"I...I remember," the generals said in trembling voices. It seemed they were still haunted by the terrifying battle they had fought last time. It was truly horrific; even though they were used to death, they had never felt such fear of death before.
"The strange formation they set up last time was the Blood Soul Heavenly Stems Eight Trigrams Formation. Blood Soul is a kind of evil magic, while the Heavenly Stems Eight Trigrams Formation is a kind of Qimen Dunjia (a form of divination and strategy)," Jin Xuan explained briefly. He knew they would have many questions after hearing this.
Sure enough, one by one, they raised questions—
"Your Highness, what exactly is Blood Soul?"
"Your Highness, what is Qimen Dunjia?"
"Your Highness..."
...
"I only learned about the Blood Soul Heavenly Stem Eight Trigrams Formation from the strategist. Therefore, I don't know much about Blood Soul or Qimen Dunjia. Only the strategist knows the most. But now, I don't want to tell you what Blood Soul or Qimen Dunjia is. What I want you generals to know is how terrifying this formation is, so that you can be mentally prepared." Jin Xuan's deep voice easily silenced the noisy tent.
Seeing that everyone except Wei Ziqi and Zhao Zhiyang, who were pale-faced, held their breath and waited for him to speak, Jin Xuan began to recount in a steady voice the unpredictable power, inhuman destructive force, and terrifying power of the Blood Soul Heavenly Stem Eight Trigrams Formation that Ao Jun had mentioned last time.
As expected, the more Jinxuan spoke, the more the faces of the crowd changed like a palette, first turning ashen, then black, and finally pale and bloodless.
"My God! This is terrifying, evil, inhuman, and uttered more than ten 'too's' in a row after General Wang came to his senses."
Everyone hung their heads, lifeless. If what the prince said was true, what could they do? Even the prince didn't understand the formation, let alone know how to break it. The only one who knew about it, the strategist, was now infatuated with beauty and had even turned against them. How could they count on her in her current state? Was fate really going to destroy their Longxuan?
"Fifth Master, is our army truly powerless to turn back? After such a long campaign, the ultimate victor is still Yelü Ying," the older General Bai said wearily. He was one of the older members of the camp, having fought from youth to old age, yet this was the first time he had ever heard of such a formation.
“No, the ultimate winner is not Yelü Ying,” Jin Xuan said unexpectedly.