Chapter 263

Amid teasing remarks, the guard captain slowly collapsed, falling onto the girl, a metal rod stuck in the back of his head, blood continuously gushing out.

The four guards were stunned for a moment, then reacted, hastily drawing their swords and looking toward the direction behind the captain.

But before they could shout, another four arrows flew in, striking their throats.

The four collapsed in the snow, clutching their throats and twitching; they wouldn't die immediately, but they couldn't escape.

"Sister… sister!" the boy scrambled up, rushing to the girl's side, shoving aside the already-dead guard captain, and frantically tried to shield her body.

Creak—creak—

Several silhouettes quickly approached in the darkness.

The siblings, both startled and frightened, curled up in the snow, huddled together, staring at the several tall figures appearing before them.

They didn't know why those five patrol guards had been suddenly killed, nor who had emerged from the darkness.

Moreover, these people wore strange clothing and helmets, covered from head to toe.

"Little miss, don't be afraid." The leader opened his arms, slowly squatting, "We're not bad people; we just happened to pass by, saw you being bullied, and so we intervened."

Having said that, he lifted the visor on his helmet, revealing a rough yet resolute face.

"You… you… you're the Grand General!" the girl realized at that moment.

Mu Cheng exclaimed, "You know me?"

"I do! I've seen you before!" the girl burst into tears of joy, "Wonderful! Grand General, you're still alive!"

She immediately told the boy in her arms, "Look, this is the famed Grand General of the Great Wilderness!"

The boy's eyes full of wariness, "In the Wasteland Nation's army, aside from the Mu family army, there isn't a single good person! But the Mu family army, in order to protect the people, has already been executed by the Wasteland king's troops… the other soldiers only know how to bully us!"

The girl felt compelled to explain, "This is General Mu of the Mu family army! Earlier, the prison‑break case that shocked the Royal City—my parents even went out onto the streets with many ordinary folk to block the Palace Guard and help the prison cart escape! Didn't we see that too? The people in the prison cart were exactly Grand General Mu Cheng and his family!"

Hearing this, the boy's wariness instantly turned to delight and admiration, "You… you're really Grand General Mu Cheng?"

"Yes, I'm Mu Cheng." Mu Cheng's eyes welled up, guilt showing on his face, "I'm sorry for putting you through all this suffering."

The girl's face filled with hope, "We've heard that General Mu is leading many troops to attack the Royal City, that he's come to rescue us, right?"

Mu Cheng nodded firmly, "Go home quickly, stay inside and don't come out; I promise you that after tonight you won't have to suffer anymore."

The siblings, hearts full of joy, bowed several times to Mu Cheng, then hurriedly left that place of right and wrong.

Watching the two depart, Mu Cheng's face turned icy cold.

The four guards whose throats had been pierced by crossbow bolts were still alive; upon hearing from the recent conversation that this man was Mu Cheng, they panicked, crawling with all their strength on the ground, vainly struggling in their dying moments.

Mu Cheng rose, drew the dagger from his back, took a few steps forward, and stepped on a guard's waist.

The guard covered his bleeding neck, turning his head in terror.

He could no longer make any sound; blood kept flowing from his mouth, but his eyes were full of pleading.

Swish—

A flash of cold light sliced through.

Mu Cheng swung his blade without hesitation and severed his head.

The other three were also beheaded by the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Soldiers beside Mu Cheng.

After several people buried the five corpses in the snow, they headed to the nearby Royal City guard camp.

Mu Cheng knew the layout of the Wasteland Nation's Royal City and all its guard posts, big and small, so Xiao Qidi had him draw a map for the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Soldiers participating in the operation to memorize.

Now everyone has successfully infiltrated the Royal City; Mu Cheng and the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Soldiers are responsible for dealing with the guards, and at this moment they have split into several groups, acting according to the plan.

Mu Cheng's group, including himself, is the largest with six people, because he must contend with the guards' commander's main camp.

The other groups, either two or three people, each handle one or two guard posts.

As the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Soldiers launched their operation, Xiao Qidi and Ning Jinli were already inside the palace.

The Royal City has forty to fifty thousand guards, while the palace interior holds about twenty thousand forbidden troops.

Moreover, the palace walls and gates are even more tightly defended; not even a bird or a mouse can get through.

But the two descended directly onto a palace rooftop via parachute, and the forbidden troops noticed nothing.

Xiao Qidi stood on the roof, surveying the surroundings.

Looking out, every palace in the complex was lit up, the forbidden troops fully armed, with a post every three steps and a sentinel every five steps, plus mobile patrol units.

"I'm still the first time viewing the palace from this position," Xiao Qidi said with some emotion, "As a child I thought it boundless, no matter how I ran I could never reach the end of the Wasteland Nation's palace; it turns out…… it's not large. All the royalty and nobles of the Wasteland Nation, even the court officials, are crowded into the palace, making it seem much livelier than before."

Ning Jinli noticed his gaze repeatedly lingering in a certain direction, which was the palace's most remote northwest corner, so she gently took his hand and asked, "Did you used to live there?"

Xiao Qidi nodded, "According to my mother, at first she and my father lived in a southern palace estate; the Wasteland Nation's king arranged palace maids and eunuchs to attend them, and although they were always accompanied wherever they went, life was not bad, and they could sometimes go out to shop. This continued until the third year after my birth. Si Tu Wei secretly plotted, taking my father back to Daxuan, leaving me and my mother behind; from then on, I and Jiang Peihuan were assigned to the abandoned palace estate in the northwest corner."

As he said this, Ning Jinli clearly felt his hand tighten slightly.

Although his expression showed nothing unusual and his tone was calm, Ning Jinli knew that the years from birth when he became a hostage prince were absolutely an unforgettable pain in his life.

At this moment, inside the palace where the Wasteland Nation's king resides, royalty and nobles have gathered; from afar one can hear laughter and music, and see at least a thousand forbidden troops encircling the palace like a copper wall and iron wall.

Charging in now would obviously not be wise.

The two can only wait for the right moment, to act after this crowd tires and leaves the king's palace.

"Jinli, would you be interested in seeing the place where I lived as a child?" Xiao Qidi suddenly proposed.

Ning Jinli hesitated, "To be honest, I don't want to go; I'm afraid it will stir up your unpleasant memories."

Xiao Qidi, however, gave a faint smile, "Those memories do hurt me, but now it's different; although recalling them is still painful, having you by my side means I won't be unable to face them as before, and besides, I aim to unify the world—my inner self cannot be that weak."

Ning Jinli silently breathed a sigh of relief, "If that's the case… then I'll accompany you to have a look."

"All right, follow me!" Xiao Qidi released his hand, unleashed his lightness skill, and leapt forward.

His tall, sturdy figure moved like a swimming dragon—agile and swift—in the blink of an eye he was already on the roof of another palace.

Ning Jinli also circulated her technique, swiftly giving chase.

The two, one ahead and one behind, passed silently over roof after roof, and soon reached their destination.

Standing on the wall beside that palace estate and looking down, everywhere lay desolate and dilapidated.

Its roof was riddled with holes, the surrounding walls had collapsed in many places, dead trees leaned, weeds and vines piled up, then were covered by heavy snow, not much better than the ruined temple outside Bin County.

Obviously no one had set foot there for many years, and even now the imperial guards don't come here to patrol.

Xiao Qidi first went over the wall, inspected the ground, then let Ning Jingli come down as well.

He then walked to a corner of the front yard, crouched and dug through the snow, searching all around, and under layers of weeds uncovered a thick wooden board; the board's sides bore rust‑stained bronze hooks, and one side still held a half‑rusted chain.

Ning Jingli, shining her flashlight, asked curiously, "What is this?"

"It's a swing I used to play on when I was a child…" Xiao Qidi stroked the board, slowly looking up. "I remember there used to be a huge tree here, the swing hung from a horizontal branch. This swing… my mother got it for me; otherwise I had almost nothing to play with."

Xiao Qidi casually re‑buried the swing's board, then stepped through the snow toward the house in the courtyard.

The house's doors and windows were all rotten; he gave a gentle push, and the remaining door fragments shattered on the ground.

The snow prevented the surroundings from being pitch black; standing at the doorway, he could see the general layout inside.

Ning Jingli turned up her flashlight a bit and shone it into the house.

Xiao Qidi said it was still the same as before; even the old household utensils remained.

But everything was completely dilapidated.

The two of them slowly stepped inside.

In a corner of the wall, a few earthen jars and bronze containers were piled, apparently used for daily cooking and grain storage.

Beside a window stood a low table and a bed, and next to them a tattered half‑person‑high cabinet.

Xiao Qidi approached the cabinet, lowered his gaze and stared for a moment. "So the cabinet was this small; back then it seemed as big as a whole room to me."

He said this as he opened the cabinet doors.

With the sound of rotting wood grinding, the two cabinet doors, half opened, fell off and shattered on the floor.

Xiao Qidi slowly crouched, turned his back to the cabinet, and looked elsewhere.

Ning Jingli also crouched beside him, followed his gaze, and asked, "What are you doing?"

Xiao Qidi narrowed his eyes, stared at the opposite bed, and said, "Whenever my mother brought a man home, she would lock me inside the cabinet, a lock on the outside. At first I was terrified, and hearing my mother's strange sounds, I thought she was being abused, so I shouted from inside the cabinet, but all I got was her and the man's scolding and curses."

Ning Jingli instantly understood, and her heart seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand.

Xiao Qidi continued, "After it happened many times, I got used to it. I never knew what was going on, but after each episode, my mother would let me out and give me food I rarely got otherwise. Later I stopped making a fuss, and I don't know when, my mother stopped avoiding me… For a very long time I couldn't tell whether she was forced or… took pleasure in it."

Ning Jingli asked, "Did you ever figure it out later?"

Xiao Qidi gave a wry smile, shook his head and said, "No, I can't read her. She could shield me with her own body when I was beaten, and she could humbly flatter men so I wouldn't go hungry… She could also, for Lao An and the wild offspring, scheme to kill me. Who can understand such a woman? Even after two thousand years, no one could see her clearly…"

Ning Jingli said, "She protected you and raised you because she was your biological mother; perhaps in those early years you were her only reason to keep living. Later she colluded with Lao An and committed many wrongs, because she was human—human nature is inherently complex, and many people get lost in desire. And perhaps she never lived for herself at all."

Xiao Qidi frowned, "You're saying she was powerless? So when she later fought for power, went mad enough to use wild offspring to replace me, it wasn't for herself?"

"It was for herself, but I think not for her true self," Ning Jingli said softly. "In other words, she herself is a huge tragedy. I'm not trying to exonerate her faults; I just feel we can't blame all the errors caused by the era's ills solely on her."

Xiao Qidi's brows furrowed even tighter, "Mistakes brewed by the era's ills?"

Ning Jingli grasped his hand and said slowly, "Imagine if the world were at peace, no conflict or oppression, men and women could live and work happily and equally. Would she have become Si Tu Wei's concubine? Would Si Tu Wei have given her to your father as a tool? Would she, later meeting Lao An, mistakenly take him as her spiritual support?"

His words made Xiao Qidi fall into contemplation.

Boom—

Suddenly a muffled thud.

The cabinet behind them, weakened by age and rot and further damaged when Xiao Qidi opened its doors, finally collapsed at that moment.

Xiao Qidi hurriedly pulled Ning Jingli to her feet, and then saw, beneath the broken boards, some bamboo slips pressed down.

Out of curiosity, the two examined them.

They discovered a small compartment inside the cabinet; the scattered bamboo slip fragments had fallen out from it.

Xiao Qidi picked up a bamboo slip, stared in shock and said, "This is my mother's handwriting."

Ning Jingli, unable to read the seal script, asked what was written on it.

Xiao Qidi cleaned the slips; among a large pile, only a dozen or so remained intact enough to discern the text, the rest were damaged.

Xiao Qidi's lips moved slightly, "Today my son Qidi can walk, wobbling, so cute; I pray to Heaven to bless my son with safety, health, and a long life of a hundred years."

Ning Jingli exclaimed, "Is this your mother's diary?"

"It seems… yes." Xiao Qidi bit the back of his lower teeth, picked up another slip, and read, "My son Di was teased and beaten by aristocratic youths of the Wasteland Nation, lured with food; I, as his mother, was powerless to protect him, I feel ashamed of Di… unfit to be a mother…"