The snow on the ground was red and dirty.
Ji Wei rushed out of the camp tent. In the firelight, he saw the Fox Hu army arrayed in strict formation not far away. The warmth brought by the strong liquor instantly dissipated. He seemed to see the Fox Hu general leading the army grinning fiercely at him.
The Fox Hu had deployed 30,000 troops to surround and annihilate their camp. Little did they know, their own army had set out overnight toward the Fox Hu’s homeland.
With just one glance, Ji Wei felt a chill seep into his heart.
The group left behind to defend the camp amounted to, at most, 3,000 soldiers. They were all doomed.
Zhan Ji: “General!”
Ji Wei grabbed Zhan Ji’s hand, his lips trembling from the cold as he gritted his teeth and gave the order: “Zhan Ji, I will give you 1,000 cavalry. Escort the Fifth Prince out of the encirclement and back to the city… If you cannot make it back, kill him. Remember, the royal family of Great Xu must not live to be captured and humiliated.”
Zhan Ji: “General, what about you?”
Ji Wei: “The Fox Hu have 80,000 troops and have not fully mobilized. Once they realize the camp’s defenses are weak, they will immediately send reinforcements back. If that happens, General Zheng will be in a dire situation. I will take the remaining 4,000 cavalry and hold them off for as long as I can.”
It was a good plan.
But 4,000 against 30,000—how long could they hold?
Ji Wei: “Go now and take the prince away.”
Before Zhan Ji could respond, a cold voice came from behind them:
—”You can’t leave.”
Li Fuxiang stood fully armed in crimson-black light armor. Snow had already piled on his head and shoulders, indicating he had not just come out of the camp.
Ji Wei didn’t know how long Li Fuxiang had been there or how much he had overheard.
Li Fuxiang was holding a sword.
The sword was called Shenwu (Divine Dance), a gift from Zheng Qianye after they arrived in Xiang City.
Veteran soldiers who had served in the Zheng family army for more than twenty years knew that this blade, named Shenwu, had once belonged to Zheng Yungou, the eldest daughter of the Zheng family.
Li Fuxiang said, “The Fox Hu would not deploy troops unprepared. If I were them, the first thing I would do is cut off the retreat route. Returning to Xiang City is impossible.”
Ji Wei: “Xiang City is not our last stronghold. Jizhou is not far from it…”
Li Fuxiang interrupted him directly: “Jizhou has Mount Jitian.”
Ji Wei instantly understood Li Fuxiang’s implication.
On their way here, they had passed Mount Jitian and burned the Fox Hu’s grain stores but, in their haste to provide reinforcements, had not dealt with the bandit stronghold on the mountain.
According to the captured Mount Jitian bandits, the mountain had at least 30,000 gathered outlaws.
Li Fuxiang said, “If their goal was only to eliminate the remnants we left behind, they wouldn’t need to deploy 30,000 troops. If their goal is total annihilation, then it’s definitely more than 30,000.”
The 30,000 troops were merely the obvious ones.
As for the rest? Where were they hidden?
Li Fuxiang flipped his blade and sliced through the curtain of the military tent behind him. Inside, a map hung in the most prominent position. “The retreat routes to Xiang City and Jizhou are already cut off.” He dragged the blade across the map, leaving two large gashes on the retreat paths.
Then, with another slash, the blade severed all the paths leading deeper into the desert: “The road to meet General Zheng ahead is also cut off, unless our 5,000 cavalry can break through their 30,000 troops.”
Ji Wei stared at the map with no way out: “So, Your Highness, you’re saying we’re just going to stay here and wait for death?”
Li Fuxiang: “No.”
The delicate tip of the Shenwu blade, sharp like a woman’s eyebrow arch, pointed to the vast desert in the northwest. There was no road there—at least none marked on the map. It was a region no one had ever set foot in.
Ji Wei placed his hand on Li Fuxiang’s blade: “The Hucha Sea. That’s a man-eating place. The reason there’s no road on the map is that no one has ever returned alive.”
Li Fuxiang sheathed the blade, his eyes suddenly carrying a hint of a smile: “General Ji, what’s there to fear? One way or another, it’s death. I will live and die with everyone here.”
After falling into Li Fuxiang’s hands, the long-dormant treasured blade Shenwu was once again drawn to taste blood. Its blade no longer appeared dull. Since arriving at Xiang City, Li Fuxiang had seen plenty of blood and killed plenty of people.
People said that those who had truly been on the battlefield and seen blood were different from soldiers trained in peaceful cities. The former were wolves; the latter were dogs. You could see the difference in their eyes.
Yet Li Fuxiang had become neither a wolf nor a dog.
Neither battle nor turmoil had changed him.
He remained like a delicate and beautiful cat, radiating gentleness and harmlessness from head to toe.
—
The army led by Zheng Qianye broke through the Fox Hu main camp with unstoppable force, advancing deep into enemy lines.
The Fox Hu, completely unprepared, hastily mounted a counterattack, only to be scattered, armor abandoned, utterly powerless.
The first to notice something was amiss was Zheng Yunji, who rushed to Zheng Qianye’s side: “Commander, the numbers don’t match. I saw an entire empty area behind their camp.”
Zheng Qianye: “Indeed, something’s off.”
After dealing with the scattered remnants, he said, “There must be some who slipped through. Capture one and interrogate them.”
When the battlefield was cleared, Zheng Yan interrogated a prisoner. He returned to Zheng Qianye pale-faced: “Commander… they’ve sent out their elite 30,000 cavalry, joining forces with the Mount Jitian bandits to launch a night raid on our camp!”
Battle-hardened Zheng Qianye’s face turned ashen at this news. Without hesitation, he mounted his horse and immediately rode back to support the camp.
But it was too late.
When they returned to the camp, they found only a scene of utter carnage.
Warm blood had seeped into the snow, melting it and creating rivers of blood.
The soldiers’ corpses were still warm. Zheng Qianye personally pulled one survivor, barely clinging to life, from the mountains of corpses and rivers of blood: “Medic!”
That soldier, holding onto his last breath, opened his eyes: “Commander, they… they went toward the Hucha Sea… We—we were the rear guard.”
In the face of such overwhelming odds, being the rear guard meant certain death.
The corpses of the 1,000 soldiers in the camp were all volunteers who had chosen to stay behind, using their lives to buy time for their comrades to retreat.
Zheng Qianye didn’t hesitate for a moment and pursued in the direction of the Hucha Sea.
The Fox Hu, who had long been active in the western borderlands, knew the horrors of the Hucha Sea far better than the people of Great Xu. After driving Great Xu’s 4,000 remaining troops into the Hucha Sea, they believed they had achieved complete victory. Thinking there was no need to continue the pursuit, they were instead intercepted and annihilated by Zheng Qianye’s reinforcements.
—
The Hucha Sea.
The legendary desert of death—once entered, there was no return.
Zheng Yunji: “Father?”
Zheng Qianye removed his helmet, exhaling a puff of white breath. “Let’s go back…”
Zheng Yunji pleaded, “Father, let me take a team to go in and search.”
Dawn had broken. Zheng Qianye turned to look at the soldiers behind him, exhausted after a night of bloody battle, and said, “This battle is over. They have families waiting for them to return triumphantly.”
War has always been this way.
Surviving is already a great fortune.
Among the returning troops, there was no sign of Li Fuxiang.
The battle report was already being rushed to the capital.
Zheng Qianye, still in his bloodstained armor, was in the stables soothing his beloved horse.
Zheng Yunji came to him, calling, “Father.”
Zheng Qianye lifted his eyelids slightly. “What do you want?”
Zheng Yunji said, “Let me go.”
Zheng Qianye replied, “You? No way!”
His refusal was firm and absolute. Zheng Yunji grew anxious. “Father, stop playing with your horse! Once the battle report reaches the capital, and the Emperor learns that the young prince entered the Hucha Sea, he will lose his mind. The Emperor will definitely issue an order for us to go find him. Sooner or later, we’ll have to go. Let me go now.”
Zheng Qianye remained calm, repeating, “I said no.”
Zheng Yunji protested, “Father?”
Finally, Zheng Qianye deigned to look at him. “You need to lead our Zheng family army back to the capital in triumph. After all, we won this battle.”
Zheng Yunji’s eyes widened. “Father, are you saying…”
Zheng Qianye said, “I will go look for him.”
Zheng Yunji immediately objected, “No way!”
Zheng Qianye countered firmly, “It’s not up to you!”
The father and son often argued like this at home, with the son always losing in the end.
Zheng Qianye remained confident in himself. “You already know the Emperor will be furious. So, do you think he won’t hold us accountable? Will the Zheng family army, after fighting so hard, walk away unscathed in the end? Only if I go—only if Zheng Qianye personally goes—can we barely calm the Emperor’s wrath.”
Just as Zheng Yunji opened his mouth to argue further, a report came in from outside, saying that one of the Jinyiwei from Li Fuxiang’s side had returned.
Both Zheng Qianye and Zheng Yunji had the same thought.
The Jinyiwei never left Li Fuxiang’s side. If the Jinyiwei could return, could it mean that Li Fuxiang was safe too?
Zheng Qianye immediately rushed to the front hall. “Where is he?”
The returned Jinyiwei was alone, his body covered in wounds large and small. However, his life was not in danger. He brought back a letter, handwritten by Li Fuxiang.
The letter was written on the fabric of his clothing, with fresh blood as ink.
At the same time Zheng Qianye received the letter, he asked urgently, “How is His Highness?”
But the Jinyiwei lowered his head and did not answer.
Zheng Qianye unfolded the blood-stained letter, reading it line by line. For a long time, he was unable to say a word.
Zheng Yunji, anxious, snatched it over and glanced at it. He froze: “This… this is a farewell letter?”
It was addressed to the Emperor, expressing gratitude for the grace of being raised and nurtured, and explaining the necessity of venturing deep into the Fox Tea Sea. Fearing the Emperor’s wrath, Li Fuxiang had specially instructed his personal Jinyiwei to deliver this letter back.
The Jinyiwei rested in Xiang City for only half a day before setting off again, galloping swiftly toward the capital to deliver the letter.
—
Gao Yuexing had been locked up in the medical hall, refusing food and water for two days.
That night, in a fit of madness, her senior brothers and sisters from the Medicine Valley had forcibly brought her back and assigned people to watch her day and night, strictly guarding against another outburst.
The food and water brought in remained untouched when taken away.
A person might endure hunger for a while, but not drinking water was unsustainable.
This morning, yesterday’s dinner was carried out untouched. Shortly after, Langdu came personally.
The morning light outside was beautiful.
Langdu asked, “Are you planning to starve yourself to death?”
Gao Yuexing remained silent for a long time before replying, “I hear it’s lively outside, with people cheering everywhere. I assume the Zheng family army has returned victorious?”
Langdu nodded and said, “Yes.”
Gao Yuexing continued, “But he didn’t return.”
Langdu had heard the news—the prince who accompanied the army had not come back.
He quietly gazed at Gao Yuexing and said, “That must be your childhood sweetheart, your little gentleman.”
Gao Yuexing did not respond.
Langdu began speaking to himself, “When you first came to Medicine Valley, I found you so adorable that I wanted to get close to you. But it was Senior Sister who reminded me not to entertain improper thoughts. At the time, I didn’t take it seriously. I thought you were so young—how deep could your feelings possibly be? A few years of separation would naturally dull them… But now I see I was wrong.”
Seeing Gao Yuexing still with her head lowered, Langdu said, “Commander Zheng has selected a group to venture into the Fox Tea Sea to search for His Highness. They need a military doctor to accompany them.”