Ji Su wearily unbuttoned his clothes, threw himself heavily into the felt coat, and let out a long, even weak, sigh, releasing the exhaustion from a day of heated debate onto the soft couch.
Although Badar eventually expressed conditional support for the construction of the post road, Manpu remained opposed. The Khural assembly argued for a whole day before Manpu finally acquiesced to the majority's opinion.
"Li Jun, Li Jun..." Ji Su shrank into the quilt, which was cold, but she seemed to smell the man's warm scent. Her face flushed as she called out softly.
At the Khural assembly that day, Ji Su did her best to defend Li Jun's plan, but she was not good with words. Although others did not dare to speak ill of her at first as a servant of the God of War, the sharp confrontation between the two opposing viewpoints made her suffer a lot of sarcastic remarks because of her awkward status. This kind of grievance was something she had never experienced since birth. However, for the sake of Li Jun's great cause and the future of the Rong people, she had to endure it all. It was because of this that she felt more tired than ever before.
Her thoughts drifted aimlessly, like a leaf fluttering in the wind, sometimes dancing lightly around Li Jun, sometimes lingering in the daytime meetings. After trying for a long time, she still couldn't calm her mind, and finally sighed, giving up and letting her thoughts wander to the ends of the earth.
In a daze, weariness finally overwhelmed her, and she fell into a deep sleep. She didn't know how much time had passed when a commotion startled her awake. Her years of martial arts training made her instincts kick in, and she immediately sat up. She heard the crackling of flames shooting into the air outside, mixed with shouts.
"Is there a fire?" That was her first thought. But a moment later, a Rong woman, disheveled, rushed in, shouting, "It's terrible! It's terrible! The other tribes have rebelled!"
Ji Su rose abruptly, quickly donned his clothes, and without even putting on armor, drew his sword and left the tent. It was late winter on the grasslands, and for more than ten days there had been no rain or snow. The biting north wind quickly spread from the Rong people's tents.
"kill!"
Ji Su strode past several tents already ablaze when a Rong man swung his sword at her. She ducked and dodged, striking the Rong man's arm hard with the hilt of her sword. The Rong man cried out in pain, involuntarily releasing his grip and dropping the sword.
"It's me! What's going on!" Ji Su shouted, her eyes wide. She recognized the man who had swung his knife at her as a guard under Hu Lei.
"The Great Khan... the Great Khan is surrounded!" The guard, his eyes bloodshot, gasped for breath after being startled awake, pointing eastward.
Ji Su was startled and strode off eastward. Along the way, the Rong people fought amongst themselves, and it was impossible to tell who was friendly and who was enemy. Seeing the ever-increasing number of corpses, including the old and the young, Ji Su grew increasingly anxious. She showed no mercy to anyone who dared to lay a hand on her, knocking them unconscious with a single blow.
"Father Khan!" she cried out repeatedly, tears welling up in her eyes without her noticing. A deep worry weighed on her heart like lead. She leaped up and jumped onto a horse that was restless with fear. Standing on the horse, she looked eastward, but apart from the dark red night sky, she could see nothing clearly.
The more anxious she became, the more flustered she became. Ji Su urged her horse forward, with men from her tribe following her along the way. Suddenly, she heard an injured man lying on the ground call out, "Ji Su!"
“Zayi, where is my father Khan?” Jisulma asked.
“It’s over there… there’s a siege… hurry!” the Rong man named Zai said, enduring the pain.
Ji Su pointed in the direction of the pass and saw a group of Rong people fighting together. She couldn't see her father in the darkness, so she shouted "Father Khan" and rushed over.
"I'm fine, sweetheart."
As Ji Su frantically hacked and slashed, breaking through the indiscriminate Rong people, her father's calm and powerful voice rang in her ears. This calmed Ji Su down, and she looked closely at her father. Although he was covered in blood, his eyes were bright and piercing.
"Jisu is here! Jisu is here!" Badar shouted beside Hulei. Jisu, the attendant of the God of War and the bravest warrior among the Rong people, had arrived at Hulei's side, which meant that the Rong rebels' surprise attack on Hulei Khan had failed. As expected, fear appeared on the faces of the enemies surrounding them, and they began to retreat.
"Which tribe are you from!" Ji Su turned her gaze away from her father, the tears in her phoenix eyes turning into a sharp killing intent. She raised the hand holding the knife, the tip pointing at the enemy in front of her.
"No need to ask anymore, let's finish this quickly!" Hu Lei, gripping his precious sword and with his hair and beard standing on end, charged towards the enemy first.
The rebels, their hearts in turmoil, hastily formed a defensive formation. But Hu Lei, though old, still wielded a swift and powerful blade. With two sharp clangs, he knocked away the blades of the two nearest Rong men and fell them to the ground.
The rebellious Rong people, fearing Jisu's martial prowess, dared not attack her during their plot, hoping only to capture Hulei before she arrived, thus securing their victory. However, Badar arrived just in time, seemingly anticipating their plan. Therefore, despite their numerical superiority, they were unable to capture Hulei Khan. Now, seeing their dreams shattered, and with Jisu standing menacingly before them, and Hulei about to kill two of them in an instant, the rebels, though still numbering over a hundred, scattered in panic.
Ji Su brandished her sword and gave chase, cutting down several lagging opponents in succession. However, she did not hear the sound of a bowstring in the darkness. Just as she felt a pain in her body, a eagle feather pierced her right rib and entered her body.
The intense pain jolted her body. She reached out and touched herself. Fortunately, although she wasn't wearing armor, her thick winter clothes had absorbed much of the force. Furthermore, it was just a stray arrow, not a deliberate aim, so although the injury was severe, it wasn't fatal.
Fearing her father would worry, Ji Su gritted her teeth and secretly tried to pull the arrow out, but it seemed to be stuck near a rib, and pulling it out brought excruciating pain. Ji Su swung her knife and cut open the exposed shaft of the arrow, then charged forward again with all her might. Because it was only a moment, no one noticed that she had been wounded by the arrow.
However, the war did not end there. Because of the Khural meeting held in the past few days, people from various Rong tribes came here. Some of them, like the three major tribes, came with more than a thousand people, while others came with dozens or hundreds. With the sudden outbreak of rebellion, the tribes attacked each other. Therefore, although those who besieged Hulei all fled, they also brought greater chaos to the Rong people who could not distinguish friend from foe.
Hearing the incessant cries of battle and sorrow, Ji Su was filled with both anger and anxiety. If she hadn't insisted on helping Li Jun repair the post road, the Rong people wouldn't have been in this state. Deep self-reproach replaced her worry for her father and began to take hold in her heart. She brandished her sword, wanting to charge into the battle again, but Badar stopped her.
“Your joining in will only make things more chaotic. We need to find a way to get the traitors to leave on their own, otherwise things will continue to be chaotic,” Badar said.
"What should I do..." Ji Su took a breath, enduring the pain of her wound to calm herself down. Suddenly, she thought of Li Jun. If he were in this situation, how would he handle it?
The fire was spreading rapidly, and a third of the tents in the constellation land were already ablaze. The Rong people were too busy attacking each other to calm down and fight the fire. Although the north wind was biting cold, sweat was still dripping from Ji Su's forehead. After a while, her eyes fixed on the flames and suddenly lit up.
"The rebels chose to raid at night because their numbers are small and they fear we'll recognize them," she shouted. "If it gets light, they'll be afraid of being recognized and will surely flee early. Men, quickly strike the fifth watch drum!"
"Indeed, worthy of being the attendant of the God of War!" Badar clapped his hands. "A falcon must not only have fierce movements, but also a keen mind!"
"Bang, bang, bang..."
In the midst of the chaos, the sound of the night watchman's drum was barely audible amidst the shouts of battle, yet wherever the drumbeat reached, the people there began to awaken from their dazed state of combat. Because of the darkness, people were forced to kill each other for self-preservation, but when the light arrived, they would naturally awaken from the chaos brought on by the darkness.
"The Great Khan has decreed that anyone who is not a traitor should sit down on the spot!"
Dozens of men shouted in unison, reciting the short sentence in a chanting tone unique to the Rong people. Their rough voices were like wind whipping up sand and stones, or like wolves howling at the moon, carrying far in the darkness. Hearing this, the Rong people, who had been in a state of confusion, calmed down and sat down on the spot. Those who refused to sit were quickly surrounded and attacked, their heads severed.
"Hmph, only a few people rebelled, how could there be so many traitors?" Badar mounted his horse with his sword drawn and asked Hulei Khan beside him, "Great Khan, is it Manpu?"
Hulei's face was not clearly visible in the darkness; he simply nodded, but it must not have looked good.
“The servant of the God of War can indeed find the traces of the God of War on the battlefield.” Badar turned to Jisu. “Geese need a leader to fly south, and horses need a leader to find water. You are our leader now. What do you think we should do?”
"Wait." Ji Su gritted her teeth and uttered this single word. Now, all she could do was wait, wait until the true dawn arrived.
On this bitterly cold night, on the grasslands of the constellation land, half fire and half blood, countless Rong people looked eastward, waiting for the dawn to break.
"Jupiter is south of the Azure Dragon, comet passes through Xi, clouds rise like steam, Mars pierces the moon, comets rush towards the sun, Ziwei is dark and obscured, and Changyuan is not visible."
Lei Hun stood on the top floor of the Sea Sky Tower. The wind from the Qionglu Grassland lifted his thin clothes, and his upturned face under the starlight was hazy and dreamlike, just like the message of the sky.
"The Vermilion Bird constellation is bright, signifying urgent matters. It seems the celestial phenomena are changing, and the moment of destiny is finally approaching..."
Unconsciously, Lei Hun sighed softly. Judging from the celestial phenomena, the world was about to undergo a great change. Although the outcome of the change could not be clearly seen from the celestial phenomena, it was obvious that Yuzhou, located in the central and eastern part of the Divine Continent, was in the position of the Azure Dragon in the celestial phenomena. The great change would first and foremost affect Yuzhou and Li Jun.
"Is there no other way?" Looking at the comet that represented the unfortunate outcome, Lei Hun sighed again. Was this fate? Was this the result of Li Jun's years of painstaking efforts and the selfless dedication of the soldiers and staff of the Peace Army?
Lei Hun's profound gaze once again fell upon the starry sky. Although Li Jun found the concept of destiny mysterious and profound, Lei Hun saw it as something incomprehensible. The interaction and transformation between heaven and man was simply the way things were in this world. As a sage of the three religions, he was proficient in the true essence and methods of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and was also the inheritor of their secret teachings. He was particularly skilled in the art of stargazing.