“If you still want to fight, we’ll settle it at Nilupo.” Artur’s eyes darkened, his hidden killing intent surging: “Just next November.”
A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 19:34:47 on January 9, 2022 and 18:23:43 on January 10, 2022!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: I already said I'm not being arrogant by using 50 bottles;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 134 The Possession of a Ghost
This time, Xie Lanzhi did not agree to his request. Upon hearing the words "Nilubei," her eyelids twitched, and an indescribable sense of unease swept through her body.
"What will you use to fight me next time?" Xie Lanzhi sneered, "This general doesn't fight battles without a reason."
Artur said, "I'll bet you a hundred firearms and a thousand fire grenades, and also give you all three newly discovered coal mines in the seven counties of Kaiyuan."
Upon hearing this, Xie Lanzhi fell silent. She suppressed her sneer, looked directly at Artu, and saw that he didn't seem to be joking. It seemed he did have the authority to lead the Hun firearms battalion.
Her lack of readily available firearms and coal mines was indeed very attractive.
Artur could tell she was somewhat interested. He said, "No rush, there are still two weeks left, take your time to think it over."
"But don't stay too long. I won't be staying in Huayin for long before I return home."
"Oh, then this general must seriously consider it." Xie Lanzhi walked to the muddy surface where the long halberd was stuck, reached out and drew the weapon, slung it behind her back, and whistled in all directions. The black horse that had been running away immediately leaped up and rushed to her, bowing its head reverently. Xie Lanzhi symbolically stroked its mane, then mounted it, and quickly drove away from Pinggu.
Xie Lanzhi's figure came and went quickly.
As soon as Xie Lanzhi disappeared from sight, Artu collapsed to the ground, unable to even stand. He felt as if both of his leg bones were broken, his stomach was cramping, and his whole body felt like it had been trampled by a hundred elephants.
He whistled a few times, but his horse didn't move.
Artur cursed, "You spineless coward, you ran away so easily!"
Fortunately, some Iron Cavalrymen, worried about Artu, brought ten men to pick him up. When they saw Artu lying on the ground, they all looked on incredulously.
"General, are you injured?"
"The General King seems unable to stand up!"
"Quickly, bring a stretcher!"
Artu was carried all the way back to Beifu. When Anshan heard that Artu had finished the competition and returned with serious injuries, he was overjoyed, thinking that Xie Lanzhi had been killed by General Wang.
Unexpectedly, upon seeing Artur bound hand and foot like a mummy, his face immediately darkened: "General, you lost to Xie Ying?"
Artur thought to himself that Lord Anshan was indeed a person who respected the strong. He shook his head and said, "It's a draw. Xie Ying... no, Xie Lanzhi isn't much better."
"But we've all decided to continue the competition next month, and we'll hold it at Niliupei."
And she will definitely come!
"Nilubei?" Anshan seemed to have heard of this place. Isn't this the canyon on the way to Lu State? It's a hundred miles away from Huayin State and adjacent to the new Tianjing. Why would it be located near the enemy's military camp?
Artur won't let himself get so worked up that he loses his mind.
Anshan looked hesitant, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. Artu noticed his disdain but ignored him, his mind preoccupied with the words the king had given him when he went down to Huayin.
The reason I personally sent you to Huayin this time is to test Xie Ying and see if he agrees to fight you at Nilubei.
He asked, "What if she agrees?"
"I hope you will kill her, otherwise she will inevitably become a formidable enemy. If she doesn't die by your hand today, she will die by the hand of that woman beside her..."
He then said curiously, "I heard they are very much in love."
Whether they are loving or not is unimportant; I only know that they will inevitably clash. This is an unchangeable outcome.
Artur wondered how the king could be so certain that Xie Lanzhi would die at Niliupei. Could Niliupei be her doomed place?
After finishing her official duties at the county government office, Si Xitong quietly set up a game of chess and played it. The black and white pieces were intertwined, and the game was deadlocked with no clear winner.
Then Xie Shangguang's terrified voice came from the gate: "Marshal, what happened to your leg?"
Si Xitong's breathing became disordered, and the black piece at her fingertips landed in the middle of the white pieces, instantly losing a move.
She got up and walked out the door, only to see Xie Lanzhi being helped down from her horse, her right leg raised and unable to move. When their eyes met, worry and complicated emotions filled the space between them.
Xie Shangguang subtly sensed that something was amiss between the two, so he immediately ordered his men to carry the marshal into the back hall of the county government office and then to fetch the doctor who would set his bones.
Si Xitong walked over and gently touched her right arm. Xie Lanzhi quickly cried out in pain. The fierce look between her brows seemed to have faded a lot, unlike before when she argued with her and wouldn't allow her to stop her.
She silently lowered her hand, and the man extended his good left hand and held it tightly, bowing his head in silence.
Even though they were silent, their body language told each other that neither of them could let go of the other.
So who was the person who scolded her for being unreasonable an hour ago? Si Xitong held her left hand, and Xie Lanzhi was about to speak: "I..."
“How can you take back what you’ve said?” Si Xitong interrupted her, and explicitly reminded her: “I don’t need to apologize, much less explain.”
Xie Lanzhi swallowed her words.
When she was carried to a side room in the back hall, the doctor came over to check her joints and put on bandages. While doing so, he was sweating profusely and said, "Marshal, if you had come back any later, this leg might not have been saved."
Si Xitong, who was listening nearby, suddenly swayed and almost subconsciously took a step forward, but she quickly stopped and stood still, listening quietly to the doctor and Lanzhi's conversation.
"That serious?"
"Yes, the opponent you encountered was no ordinary opponent. He specifically targeted areas that could damage your core," the doctor couldn't help but say. "He injured your lower body, which is going to cripple you."
Xie Lanzhi thought that Artur was probably not much better off.
She remained silent. After the doctor had bound her legs, he instructed her not to move for three months.
Xie Lanzhi was clearly distracted. Her leg would heal very quickly, not even three months. The changes in her body and her internal strength were strange to begin with, and her recovery was faster than that of ordinary people.
After the doctor left.
Only Si Xitong and she remained in the room. Although they had argued before, their feelings for each other remained unchanged.
Now that Xie Lanzhi has calmed down, she realizes that Little Phoenix doesn't need to apologize.
She didn't know how to start the conversation.
Seeing that Si Xitong, who was usually so talkative, had suddenly fallen silent, she took the initiative to break the silence: "I... perhaps I can understand your true thoughts."
Xie Lanzhi paused slightly, then turned her head away, not daring to look at her: "What are you thinking?"
“You always take on everything, thinking I’m not good at certain things. You clearly want to let me be independent, but in the end, you’ve tied yourself down.” Si Xitong organized her thoughts, her eyes lowered, making her emotions unreadable: “Lanzhi, tell me, what are you in such a hurry for?”
Xie Lanzhi fell silent again.
Even Shang Guang could tell that you haven't been doing well lately.
“Is there anything you can’t tell me? You’re always like this, always the first thing you do is push me away.” Si Xitong said slowly, her voice trembling, “Lanzhi, I’m not a child anymore.”
Xie Lanzhi finally looked up at her. When she saw her raise her eyes, she was usually teary-eyed when Xie Lanzhi said such harsh words, but now she was clear-headed and very strong in front of her.
Only then did she realize—no, she had realized it all along—that Little Phoenix had always been very strong.
She had been too protective of her, and she had always acted obedient and docile in front of her, so she always thought her little phoenix was a good child and a good student.
Upon reflection, I realize that my true nature is naive.
Because she only shows her true, soft side to herself, always prioritizing a hard shell for others. Others can neither rely on her nor touch her.
“Yes, I’ve always been naive.” Xie Lanzhi shielded her eyes with her left hand, hiding her emotions at her side, and said, “Even if I want to pretend to be very powerful and invincible, I am still just a mortal.”
"Little Phoenix, I really can't face myself like this. What can I, like this, bring you?"
"I just want to give you the best things in the world."
“You’ve already given it.” Si Xitong’s voice seemed to light up the darkness, bringing a burst of light to the scene. The emotions that the two had been suppressing suddenly erupted, like a torrent of water. She gently turned to her and said, “Thank you for giving me the best version of yourself in the world.”
Xie Lanzhi moved her arm away, her eyes trembling, containing glimmers of light that seemed to be clashing, filled with the image of a beautiful woman leaning over the sky, her eyes moist and her eyelashes misty.
She said repeatedly, "Don't worry, I'm here."
“I’ve grown up, I’m independent now, and I no longer need you to support me all alone. Don’t pretend to be strong, we’ll be together through life and death, I’ll go with you even to the underworld.”
"I'm sorry, I didn't notice your health problem in time."
Xie Lanzhi's emotions were gradually guided, and she finally relaxed a little. However, her eyelids became heavier and heavier. Whether it was the effect of the medicine or the sweet words of Xiao Fenghuang, she couldn't resist the drowsiness and suddenly everything went dark.
Xie Lanzhi's left hand hung limply at her side. Si Xitong, who was hanging on her, wiped the corner of her eye. Her resolute expression never faded. She covered Xie Lanzhi with the quilt and coldly ordered the person outside the room, "Come in."
Lu Qing and her mother cautiously appeared at the doorway, forced to listen to the two pouring out their hearts to each other. Lu Qing couldn't help but think of the stinky tyrant. Qianqian couldn't help but miss her tyrant father.
However, when her eyes fell on her sister on the bed and she saw that her sister was emanating black energy, she immediately hugged her mother's leg tightly and dared not go forward.
Lu Qing patted her head: "Don't be afraid. Just like when your aunt had her fortune told, be brave."
Qianqian said somewhat uneasyly, "But Aunt, Aunt had black energy on her body, that's why she died."
The tycoon's sister died in an explosion while inventing a drug; her body was never found. Before her aunt went into the basement to invent the drug, Qianqian saw black mist on her aunt. Being too young, she didn't know what it was. Later, after her aunt died, she realized that the black mist was... death.
My older sister has it too.
"Mother, the black aura on my sister seems to be even more than that on my aunt." She remembered that her aunt only had a light layer, while her sister seemed to be soaked in ink, eerie and cold, blocking the princess's way.
It was a complete contrast to the radiance emanating from the princess.
"Princess sister will live a long life," Qianqian said happily, but when she looked at Xie Lanzhi, she was afraid and shrank into Lu Qing's arms.
Lu Qing picked up her daughter and comforted her for a while before walking to the bedside. She looked at the marshal who had fallen into a deep sleep, and there was an incense burner with a stick of calming incense she had given him burning at the foot of the bed on the right.
Si Xitong gently stroked Xie Lanzhi's face and said to Lu Qing, "Did you notice?"
Lu Qing turned her gaze to her daughter, who hesitated and finally said reluctantly, "My sister has killed too many people. Her time of death has come."
"Your life force is also weak, so is it because you're having trouble controlling your emotions, sister?"
"Yes." Si Xitong nodded emphatically: "Qianqian, what else did you see?"
Qianqian strained her eyes to look around, feeling strangely that the deathly aura was stuck in her sister's chest. She reached out and asked her mother to hold her close to her sister. Lu Qing squatted down by the bed, and Qianqian reached out to touch Xie Lanzhi's chest, only to find nothing. She touched it again and found that the jade Guanyin that Xie Lanzhi was wearing had been pulled out.
However, the jade Guanyin had developed a noticeable crack diagonally from right to left. Si Xitong's eyes widened, and she quickly removed the jade pendant. Qianqian pointed at the jade pendant and said, "This jade is broken."
"It must be because they couldn't control my sister's fate that things went wrong!"
Once the jade pendant was removed, Qianqian finally saw what was coiled around Xie Lanzhi's chest: a dark, intertwined chain with interlocking iron clasps. The chain emanated a deathly aura, crossing from Xie Lanzhi's left shoulder to her right, transforming into an inescapable shackle around her neck.
She immediately covered her face, unable to look any longer: "Mother, I saw it, I saw my sister wearing a chain."