Лучжоу Луна

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Each time, Wu Sanshou would desperately chase after that light and that shadow. Just when he was exhausted and dejected, he would look up and see his master standing calmly before him, gently asking: Are you hungry?

This is the person who tormented Wu Sanshou's nerves, his will, and his body. But Wu Sanshou gradually discovered that the closer he got to his master, the more peaceful and serene he felt, as if he were touching the outline of a distant mountain.

He looked up and saw that Chu Yi was indeed standing there calmly, waiting for him to come over.

Wu San slowly moved closer, and heard the calm young man ask, "Are you hungry? Want to rest?"

"master……"

Chu Yi felt his eyelid twitching again, so he quickly pressed his eyelid with a finger: "Call me A-Cheng, I am unworthy of the title of Master."

Wu San clasped his hands together and looked at Chu Yi with a grin.

Where are we going?

"Wuzhou."

"What are you going there for!" Wu Sanshou's voice was somewhat hurried.

"I will present the sword and return the jade intact to Zhao," Chu Yi said calmly.

Wu Sanshou stared intently at Chu Yi's face, trying to glean some clues from his expression, but he was quickly disappointed. "It's not as simple as returning the sword, is it?"

On the first day of the lunar month, he neither agreed nor disagreed, but simply sat silently by the roadside.

"Rumor has it that the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun are a strategically vital area fought over by the Song and Liao dynasties. Wuzhou is like the throat, and Youzhou is in the heart. What exactly does Acheng, a mere mortal, want to do there...?"

Wu Sanshou's gaze kept lingering on Chu Yi's eyes, but Chu Yi's expression remained unchanged.

“I escaped from the clutches of the young master Bixie. Nie Wuyou once said that this mission was related to the fate of the nation and its people, and that none of it should be neglected.”

"What does that have to do with A-Cheng?" Wu Sanshou couldn't help but clench his fists.

"I am that chess piece. Although I have jumped out of the game, I am still being held in someone's palm." Chu Yi looked at the wild grass by the roadside, desolate and forlorn, and spoke in the same tone as usual.

Wu Sanshou suddenly burst into laughter. His laughter was like the wind, gathering and drifting gently on the treetops, then like clouds, forming a buzzing sound, and finally, he couldn't stop, laughing wildly to the sky: "Enough, enough, you are my master, I can no longer speak rudely and disrespectfully. But you are still pretending to be confused, still indulging in your intoxication, and still accepting your fate."

Wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye, Wu Sanshou shouted, "Wherever you are, I will follow you."

Chu Yi looked up at him quietly, her heart churning like a stormy sea, but she said nothing and offered no explanation.

After a while, a low, slow voice came through again.

"As far as I know, there were originally fifteen other boys like me. They endured hunger and toil day and night in the tunnels of the Evil-Repelling Manor, hoping to complete this difficult task and finally have their day."

Chu Yi spoke softly.

"Now that everyone is dead, what exactly is this mission? We can choose not to be curious and run away, but Wu You, I can't escape."

"With martial arts skills as high as A-Cheng's, how could he possibly not escape?"

Chu Yi merely smiled at Wu Sanshou. His heart was clear, yet some words remained unspoken. But with Wu Sanshou by his side, Chu Yi didn't find the journey difficult or bitter. "Wu You, do you want me to tell you not to follow me? Because compared to the three of us, Young Master Bixie will definitely capture you first. If you are captured, do you think I'll just stand by and do nothing?" Chu Yi sighed inwardly, but his face remained relaxed.

Why do we specifically choose to take secluded and remote paths?

Wu Sanshou pouted: "It's all because we offended Young Master Bixie, who issued a ban on us in the martial arts world."

"So, do you think A-Cheng, who was surrounded and wanted as soon as he appeared, could escape?"

"No, Cheng, don't try to confuse me. You must have a reason."

Chu Yi suppressed the slight chill in her heart, her face remaining calm as still water: "I want to finish what I've decided to do."

Wu Sanshou stared intently at Chu Yi for a moment, then turned and strode away, muttering to himself, "Crazy, all crazy." Even after he'd gone a long way, he could still clearly hear Chu Yi's voice drifting back: "How could someone as selfless as you be so attached to selfish desires? So you must be crazy. I've been following a crazy master, so I've gone crazy too..."

Chu Yi silently stood up, lowered his hands, and continued to stare at the withered grass by the roadside. In the freezing winter, it trembled as it peeked out from the snow, stretching out two small, pointed leaves.

He sighed inwardly: Life is like duckweed, drifting and falling like roadside weeds, destined to wither and die. Ruan Si's death, as Madam had entrusted, as Nan Jingqi wished—this was the unseen connection. Whose hands truly hold destiny? Wu Sanshou, don't you know?

Wu Sanshou stood in front of Chu Yi unwillingly, watching him slowly walk over.

"Is Ah Cheng already planning something?"

"Um."

"Speak, what do you want me to do?"

"Give me the bundle, and you can take the sword."

Wu Sanshou stared at Chu Yi in surprise: "Why are you giving me the sword?"

"Give it to Nan Jingqi."

"And what about you?"

"Infiltrate the military camp."

"No, if you're going, we'll go together."

23. Conditions

The deep winter snowmelt mixed with the muddy mountain path, turning the road into a muddy mess. A group of soldiers marching close to the cliff stepped on it with great care, fearing that they might fall into the bottomless abyss on one side.

As the group moved forward, they complained incessantly.

The leader on horseback was Wei Chong, a renowned general of the Northern Song Dynasty's vanguard army. He was short and stocky, with a leopard-like head and piercing eyes. He sat firmly on his horse, exuding an imposing aura. Behind him led a dense ranks of cavalry in black armor, a dark mass stretching along the winding mountain road.

He glanced at the servant leading the horse and couldn't help but be secretly amazed.

He spotted the boy at first glance when he was feeding horses in the military camp. His nimble hands and feet, calm face, and unwavering body showed the potential to be a good subordinate, so he didn't hesitate to promote him to his personal stable boy.

From his horse's perspective, Acheng's shoulders were thin, his fingers long and slender with pale but strong knuckles, and with his unhurried movements, one could even see the fair skin around his ears.

Marching through such a tense atmosphere of resentment, he remained silent, reining in his horse and keeping his head down, intently watching the road. Such hardship was already a common occurrence for him. He coughed softly.

Acheng turned his blank expression and asked softly, "Sir?"

Where are we?

Acheng looked around at the misty mountains. "According to the map, we're almost at Three Ape Gorge."

"The cavalry regiment probably can't hold out any longer," Wei Chong sighed.

Acheng silently turned back and led his horse forward, the cold snow and mud under his feet sinking deep into the insteps.

"Does Your Excellency know that when walking on a cliff face, one may experience a subtle difficulty in breathing?"

After a while, I heard Acheng's faint voice.

“Everyone in the army knows this,” Wei Chong straightened his back and unconsciously replied.

What could be the reason?

"This is due to the high altitude, steep slopes, and thin air."

Acheng remained silent after hearing this. Wei Chong, however, smiled slightly: "Young brother, am I wrong?"

"Forgive my arrogance, but may I ask the general a question: Why did the Snow Shadow Battalion arrive at Three Ape Gorge ahead of schedule?"

Wei Chong's eyes narrowed as he focused on Acheng: "Acheng knows quite a lot."

“I stand in the tent every day to serve you, and I know a little about the battle reports in the army.”

Wei Chong glanced at Acheng's back and sighed again: "It is said that the Snow Shadow Camp was trained by the Horse King of the Frontier. The Horse King selected famous horses from the frontier and sent them to the Commander-in-Chief Qiuye. The horses' speed and range are the best in the pasture. How can our short and short Han horses compare?"

Ah Cheng looked ahead and said calmly, "Why should you belittle yourself, sir? When you served under Young Master Zhao, your cavalry charged into battle amidst thousands of troops, taking the head of a general as easily as picking something out of a bag."

Upon hearing this, Wei Chong grinned, his beard rustling as he shook it: "I never imagined that A-Cheng, at such a young age, would have heard of the Wei Ma Lianying (Wei's Ma Alliance)."

"On the other hand, the Saima is just long-legged and small-bellied, which makes it easy to charge, but it is not a creature for climbing cliffs."

"oh?"

"When Ah Cheng was young, he practiced medicine in the martial arts world and was fortunate enough to see horses grazing in the borderlands. I suppose the way the Horse King trained horses was different from that in the Central Plains, and he was not as gentle and kind."

What is it?

"At critical moments, they would give the horses a drug that would induce a frenzy and fever, which would then urge them to gallop."

"Wouldn't that be damaging the BMW?"

"Yes, that's why this item isn't used when two armies are actually facing off."

"What does Acheng mean?"

"After taking the drug, Sema went berserk, becoming as swift as thunder, and could charge into unimaginable perilous situations."

Wei Chong sat upright on his horse, his eyes gleaming, and laughed heartily: "Ah Cheng, you're quite the roundabout one. So you're trying to tell me the key to tomorrow's battle at Three Ape Gorge. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought you were going to tell me how difficult the road is!"

He seemed quite pleased, turned around and waved his hand, beckoning the soldiers behind him: "All of you, hurry up and leave, do not tarnish Young Master Zhao's reputation."

Acheng faced forward, the winding mountain path steep and steep, stretching straight to the horizon. Just now, he had spoken to Wei Chong, and he knew in his heart that Wei Chong must have understood the implied meaning. He figured that more of his hidden secrets would be discovered, and he couldn't help but sigh sadly.

—Last night, I received a message from Fei Yu that Young Master Qiuye had ordered Wei Chong's army to rush to Sanyuan Gorge to spearhead the attack and contain the enemy's main force. This caused fear among Wei Chong and his men, who were worried that the cavalry battalion would be wiped out. As a result, they were slow to advance and complained incessantly.

—Wei Chong's army is a close-knit force cultivated by Zhao Yingcheng. Currently, there are rumors that the young master is seriously injured. For the sake of the overall situation, we must obey the orders of Young Master Qiuye.

—The Snow Shadow Camp set up camp ahead of time, and it is rumored that Ma Liancheng personally took charge of the battle of Three Ape Gorge.

A strong wind swept up the troops clinging tightly to the cliff, causing them to become restless. Horses neighed and soldiers shouted, creating a cacophony of noise and chaos carried by the swirling cold wind.

Acheng pulled on the reins, his left hand rising gracefully, creating a gust of wind. He spread his fingers, a wisp of mist gathering in his palm, and without even looking, he effortlessly swung the reins, pinning Wei Chong's warhorse firmly to the cliff face, where it remained motionless.

The warhorse seemed to understand the current situation; the battle-hardened beast obediently nestled in Acheng's palm, quietly pawing the ground.

Wei Chong watched Acheng's move and remained silent for a long while. Then he heard the young man in front of him say calmly, "Sir, shouldn't the cavalry dismount and walk?"

Wei Chong stood frozen on his horse, seemingly only now coming to his senses. He hurriedly turned around and shouted loudly, "The wind is strong and the horses are light. Everyone, dismount and walk!"

Acheng looked up at the sky, estimating that another heavy snowfall was about to fall. After weighing his options for a long time, worried about Wu Sanshou who had left, he finally turned back to Wei Chong and said in an extremely confident voice, "My lord, there is no need to worry. I will teach everyone a mental technique so that you will not feel short of breath or feel chest tightness when you walk."

Wei Chong was overjoyed and hurriedly instructed everyone to listen carefully to the young man's orders.

Ah Cheng took a deep breath and steadily taught a set of basic footwork techniques in the wind, combining them with his master's method of reversing the flow of qi when studying the meridians of the human body. His voice carried loudly.

As Wei Chong listened intently, he focused the light in his eyes, growing increasingly astonished by the person before him.

"Ah Cheng knows so much; he's not just a simple stable boy, is he?"

Ah Cheng remained facing forward, steadily leading the horse: "Yes, I would like to ask you, sir, to grant me a request."

"You want to negotiate with me?"