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However, this seemingly perfect formation has a fatal weakness: it cannot last. Without proper training and integration, the Li Luo army will collapse within an hour at most. Otherwise, it won't just be the Jin Yao soldiers who will go berserk, but also the Li Luo army, which will be most affected by the formation.

I looked up towards the east, towards the direction of the wind's whisper; the sky was already turning a pale white, dawn was approaching. According to my calculations, Ruoshui's three thousand Crimson Universe soldiers should arrive no later than seven o'clock in the morning, and Jin Yao's reinforcements should already be on their way. Therefore, Yunyan's medicine must be prepared before six o'clock; otherwise, I will face a second, even more devastating battle on the Purple Cloud Mountains.

"Lin Yu! It's ready!" Yun Yan's clear and melodious voice rang out in the slightly cool morning air, as crisp and pleasant as jade pendants striking jade rings, instantly relaxing the tension in my body.

"Qin Wu!" I shouted, "After I command the retreat, lead the brothers to hide in the nearest caves, streams, or stand on high hills. If anyone unfortunately inhales the poison gas, carry them. Once the gas has dissipated, take the antidote and go back to rescue Qi Luo's three hundred Li Luo soldiers. Do you understand?"

We didn't have enough time, so Yunyan could only make poison, not enough antidote for everyone.

"Yes, young master!" Qin Wu answered loudly, waving his hand and leading his more than a hundred men away with lightning speed.

I watched as he and the Li Luo Army in their black uniforms charged to the outer edge of the Three Origins Formation before focusing my gaze on the center of the formation and raising the banner high.

The wind direction was perfect, the altitude was perfect, the range was perfect, and everyone was ready to release the poison and ignite the gas. My palms were sweating as I gripped the wooden handle of the banner, but I remained resolute and calm, swinging it down with all my might.

Xiao Yi

2008.5.4 23:06

Chapter 27: Putting Them in a Deadly Situation (End)

Chapter 28 If Heaven Has Feelings (Part 1)

Chapter 28 If Heaven Has Feelings (Part 1)

"Lin Yu!" Yun Yan caught me as I collapsed, barely breathing after giving my command, her voice filled with worry.

I gave her a weak smile, about to speak, when I heard a soldier from Liluo running towards us, shouting, "Young master! Reinforcements have arrived! We're saved!"

All the anxiety has finally vanished. We're saved! Yunyan, thousands of Li Luojun, and I are finally safe. It's so good...

"Lin Yu!" Yun Yan held my pulse with tears in her eyes. "You...you idiot! You know how bad your health is, yet you still work so hard every day. Do you know you're exhausting your life force and vital energy?!"

"It's alright." I managed to stand up straight, but still leaned all my weight on her, and laughed, "With you by my side, and if I take good care of myself, I'm sure I'll live to be a hundred."

Yunyan glared at me fiercely, but unfortunately, her eyes were filled with tears, so she lacked any real strength. I smiled and was about to comfort her again when Ruoshui's clear, bell-like voice suddenly came from afar, until it was almost right next to my ear.

She knelt on one knee and said loudly, "Neptune Ruoshui's rescue is late, please forgive me, young master."

I coughed twice and said, "Get up. Are all the ships anchored at the shore?"

"Yes, young master." Ruoshui answered as she stood up, and when she looked up and saw Yunyan, she was slightly taken aback. Her originally gentle and radiant smile became unreal: "Madam is also safe and sound!"

Yun Yan nodded and smiled, "I'm sorry to have worried everyone."

Ruoshui raised her eyebrows, her tea-gold hair shimmering brilliantly in the sunlight. The mole at the corner of her mouth made her appear even more petite and youthful, but her eyes remained unfathomable. I suddenly remembered that Han Jue had told me that tea-gold hair seemed to be a hair color unique to a certain tribe in southern Jinyao, and that tribe…

She stared intently at Yunyan and asked, word by word, "Does Madam know Linglong's whereabouts?"

My heart skipped a beat. I had told Ruoshui about the misfortune Linglong might have suffered, but she seemed unwilling to believe it, and even unwilling for anyone to mention it in front of her again. Just like when I first heard the news of Yunyan's death.

Yunyan's face turned pale in an instant. She bit her lower lip tightly with her pearly white teeth until blood slowly seeped out. Only then did she take a few steps forward and bend down, saying with difficulty, "Ruoshui, Linglong... she died saving me. I... I... I'm sorry..."

Ruoshui's body swayed, her black eyes and brown hair suddenly appearing so ethereal in the sunlight, as if even the air itself was tinged with her sorrow: "Linglong died to save Madam, and Madam just let her die?"

Ruoshui chuckled coldly: "Or perhaps, you knew she would be killed for drawing away your pursuers, yet you still let it happen?"

Yunyan seemed to want to say something, but in the end she just pursed her lips, and crystal tears slid down her pale face.

I stepped forward and supported Yunyan's swaying body, sighing, "Ruoshui, you know Yunyan isn't that kind of person."

Ruoshui glanced at me sideways, saying nothing, only smiling, her dimples deep, her expression gentle and graceful: "Linglong... she is my most beloved younger sister. From the moment I found her, I vowed to take good care of her and protect her. As long as it's for her good, even if it means betraying my people, my... husband would do it all. But she's dead, she... she's dead... just as he said... it was you... it was the young master and his wife, whom I so fervently served and risked the entire clan to protect, who killed her!"

My steps, which were supporting Yunyan as I was backing away, suddenly stopped. Something in my head suddenly went off, and I almost in shock released my grip on Yunyan's hand, staring in disbelief at the woman in front of me who had suddenly become a stranger—my subordinate.

Under the slowly rising, brilliant morning sun, in the slightly chilly air, I recalled what Han Jue had said years ago: "You little girl reminds me of an interesting tribe in southern Jinyao—the Muyi tribe… The ancestors of Jinyao promised that any intelligent and clever girl among the descendants of the Muyi tribe could be chosen to enter the palace as a concubine… But I don't know why it later evolved into the rule that any Muyi woman who enters the palace as a concubine must be the most intelligent and beautiful, with tea-gold hair, and the children she gives birth to are all returned to the Muyi tribe to raise… So now, almost everyone in the Muyi tribe has tea-gold hair."

Brown hair, a member of a certain tribe of Jinyao, the Muyi tribe who made an agreement with the ancestors of Jinyao that each generation would marry a woman to the Jinyao palace as a concubine to produce offspring, but would not leave their children in the palace!

The Muyi Clan!! Ruoshui and Linglong are actually from the Muyi Clan?! Only the most intelligent and beautiful tea-gold-haired woman of each generation of the Muyi Clan is chosen as the consort of the King of Jinyao Kingdom. Could it be…?

My eyes snapped open, and an overwhelming sense of fear surged from the depths of my heart, instantly filling every part of my body.

How could the Shura Dark Camp, with its vast intelligence network, uncover Chen Sheng's identity, yet allow him to approach and deceive me? The journey from Xiangxi back to Luonan was supposed to be top secret, so why was it ambushed by Mu Shuangshuang? How did Yang Yi know Yun Yan would definitely flee to Shuiwu? Why was the secret passage in Chiyu Tower known to others? And even… why did the three thousand rescue troops only arrive now?

Could it be that Ruoshui is the woman from the Muyi tribe who was selected to enter the palace, Yang Yi's concubine, and the traitor who has been acting as both friend and foe to me, whose intentions are hard to discern?

Ruoshui's smile grew even brighter, yet it seemed transparent, carrying a desolate pain, an empty emotion, and a deep-seated... hatred. She was only inches away from Yunyan, a mere fraction of a second from me. Her voice was hoarse, accompanied by tears streaming from her dark eyes, choked with broken sobs: "In your eyes, she's just a maid, just a servant. But in my eyes, she's my beloved sister, my only family. You are Qin Luo's wife, so your life is precious. He will cry for you, his heart will break for you, and he will turn against Yang Yi for you. Linglong is just a maid, so her death for you is only natural, a name of loyalty and righteousness, but not worthy of sorrow?!"

Ruoshui's words were like a hammer with a sharpened blade at the bottom, striking my heart again and again, causing not only pain but also a sharp tearing sound in my ears. I understood her sorrow, her despair, her hatred—I truly understood them all. But despite understanding, I had never really cared. I only remembered the unbearable pain I felt when Yunyan died, but I had completely forgotten how heartbroken someone who cared about Linglong would be upon hearing the news of her death.

"No! I..." Yun Yan's voice was hoarse and strained, as if she wanted to explain, but it finally turned into a choked apology, "I'm... sorry!"

In the valley, Qin Wu was leading the remaining few hundred Li Luo soldiers into the nearest cave and stream to avoid the poison gas entering their mouths and noses. On the hillside, Buying was leading nearly a hundred Li Luo soldiers to stop the Jin Yao soldiers who were frantically rushing up to escape the poison gas. Down the hillside, the Three Origins Formation had just been withdrawn, and the poisoned Jin Yao soldiers had just collapsed. Yi Han left the Gate of Life, his green robes fluttering and his silver hair flowing, leaping towards us. We had agreed to come together and return together. Before me, Ruoshui was smiling enigmatically and seductively, while Yun Yan stood frozen in a daze. In the tense atmosphere, the sorrow emanating from them was the same.

I know there's only one road ahead, and I have no choice; I know it's too late, everything is too late.

Long, long afterward, when I was trembling with longing and suffocating with despair, I kept thinking about it.

If, back then, I hadn't been blinded by the joy of surviving the ordeal when I learned that it was Linglong who had died, not Yunyan, perhaps things would have been different.

If, when I told Ruoshui and Linglong about her death, I hadn't let the guilt and shame weigh me down, but instead looked directly into her eyes, perhaps things would have been different.

I think if I hadn't been so selfish and cold-blooded as to forget the pain and misfortune of others because of my own good fortune, perhaps things would have been different.

However, there are no "what ifs" in this world, none of them! Whether it's a hypothesis, a hope, a plea for "what if," or a yearning for forgiveness, nothing can make what has happened happen again.

Next update: Friday evening, May 9th.