Chapter 51: I am the King of Daxuan, here especially to take your head!

Report! Supreme Commander, something happened!

A barbarian soldier rushed into the tent and shouted loudly.

Ba Meng's blade suddenly halted on Lian Qingbai's shoulder, and he snapped, "Making a fuss! Looking to die?"

"It's truly an emergency! Supreme Commander, spare my life!" the barbarian soldier knelt and roughly recounted what had just happened.

And he said that the dozen or so cavalry who had appeared out of nowhere were exceptionally skilled in combat, and their armor and weapons were both strange and formidable.

Moreover, the commander up front guessed that there were likely many more lying in ambush.

Because the enemy could actually cause the mountains to collapse and the earth to split, shaking to death countless Sha Yue barbarians.

All of this was beyond the barbarians' understanding.

Lian Qingbai burst out laughing after hearing this, "Hahaha! It seems the heavens are punishing you! Sending heavenly troops and generals, casting down divine punishment, to take your lives!"

Ba Meng was furious.

Tonight for some unknown reason, there had already been strange tremors earlier, which startled him into ordering the entire army to be on alert.

Not long after, unknown cavalry appeared again before Yaowang Gu and attacked, immediately causing his troops to suffer heavy losses.

Heavenly troops and generals? Divine punishment?

He certainly didn't believe it!

If that were really the case, why would those dozen or so cavalry need to flee?

It must be a lure to draw the enemy in, setting up some unknown mechanism trap that caused the mountains to collapse and the earth to split.

Ba Meng immediately concluded that, although this group of unknown-origin cavalry had some unusual abilities, their numbers were definitely small.

He was already angry, and the successive incidents only made him more furious.

This region is actually under the control of the Sha Yue Kingdom, and it's his turf!

And now someone has actually barged right up to provoke him?

They killed so many of his men and still want to get away unscathed?

"Send out the entire army!" Ba Meng grew angrier the more he thought about it, roaring, "No matter how strong they are, can they match my troops? I'll trample them underfoot!"

He picked one of the three Vice Commanders at his side and said, "You lead the troops to exterminate them; if you don't chop that lot into pieces, bring your head to see me!"

"Yes, Supreme Commander!" the Vice Commander received the order and hurried away.

Above the Commander's tent, a drone hovered and descended into a nearby dark spot, then was firmly caught by a large hand.

"Finally found you, barbarian Supreme Commander." Xiao Qidi's thin lips moved slightly, a cold glint flashed in his eyes as he fixed his gaze on the tent ahead.

His initial plan was to capture the bandits before capturing their leader.

But the problem was that Yaowang Gu's area was not small, comparable to Lin Xian Village.

Moreover, all the barbarian camps looked the same.

If we tried to find their Supreme Commander commander by ordinary means, we wouldn't know when we'd succeed.

So he devised a scheme.

He ordered the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Army to launch a frontal assault to disturb and draw enemy attention, while he and two Lian clan members sneaked into Yaowang Gu to first rescue the imprisoned persons.

Next, the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Army would lure and kill the enemy as much as possible, trying to inflict heavy casualties on the barbarians.

Ordinary barbarian commanders could not cope with this; they would certainly report the situation to the Supreme Commander.

As expected, everything unfolded exactly as he had anticipated.

He observed the Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Army battling the barbarians via the drone, and soon also discovered that the barbarian commander had sent personnel to a campsite area.

He then continued to monitor with the drone from above, while he himself closely followed from the shadows.

Once the people coming out of the tent had gone far away, he took advantage of the night to evade the patrol soldiers and slipped past quietly.

Inside the Supreme Commander's tent, Ba Meng prepared to continue torturing Lian Qingbai.

The other two Vice Commanders stood by the tent entrance, waiting to watch the show.

"Hahahaha!" Lian Qingbai suddenly threw back his head and laughed loudly.

Ba Meng's eyes flashed with a vicious light, "Old thing, what are you laughing at?"

Lian Qingbai said, "Laughing at you Sha Yue youngsters finally receiving heavenly retribution! Even if you torture me to death, I'd still feel relieved in my heart!"

Ba Meng, enraged to the point that even his patience for slow torture was gone, grabbed the old man with one hand and was about to throw him whole into that huge bronze cauldron.

Suddenly, the tent flap stirred.

A pair of long, powerful arms reached in, simultaneously choking the necks of the two Vice Commanders by the doorway.

The two couldn't even utter a sound before being dragged backward out.

"Who?" Ba Meng sensed something, staring fixedly at the swaying tent flap and the drag marks on the ground.

The campfire outside the tent flickered dimly and swayed incessantly.

A towering human silhouette was cast upon the tent; though slightly thin, it stood as tall and straight as a mountain.

"Who's there playing ghosts and gods!" Ba Meng flung Lian Qingbai aside onto the ground and hurled his sidearm at the silhouette.

Swish—

The sidearm ripped open the tent.

A gust of hot night wind swept in, blowing out the rows of lighting candles inside the tent.

Only the firewood beneath the half‑human‑tall large bronze cauldron continued to blaze fiercely.

Xiao Qidi gradually appeared before Ba Meng's eyes.

He wore a dark‑colored camouflage tactical uniform, over which was a black bullet‑proof vest ensemble, a tactical bullet‑proof helmet on his head, and tactical boots on his feet.

This outfit made him look even more austere, his presence imposing.

Ba Meng, having never seen such attire before, couldn't help but show a look of astonishment, "Who are you! What do you want by barging into my camp?"

Xiao Qidi's thin lips twitched, "I am the King of Daxuan, I have come specially to take your head!"

"Your Majesty? Are you the His Majesty of our Daxuan?" Lian Qingbai's eyes widened in shock, then old tears streamed down; he struggled to rise and kowtowed solemnly, "Yaowang Gu Lian clan, clan chief Lian Qingbai, I pay my respects to Your Majesty!"

He had never seen the King of Daxuan.

But upon seeing him for the first time, he felt that innate royal aura.

Ba Meng's mustache quivered, his eyes nearly bursting, "Xiao Qidi?! Good! I haven't yet taken your head to sacrifice to my elder brother, and you come delivering yourself!"

He casually grabbed two axes from the nearby weapon rack and roared as he charged at Xiao Qidi.

Ba Meng was a head shorter than Xiao Qidi, but his body was sturdy like a tiger and bear.

The two axes swung wide open, a reckless, all‑out chopping style.

Xiao Qidi raised his blade to block; only a loud "thud" rang out, and he was shoved back several steps by the immense force.

"How can your blade be this good?" Ba Meng stared at the nick appearing on his axe blade, his face astonished.

Xiao Qidi snorted coldly, said nothing, and surged forward with his blade.

Clang!

This slash cut through both of Ba Meng's axe handles, snapping the iron shafts cleanly.

Without a proper weapon, Ba Meng's brute strength had nowhere to go, and he dared not get too close to Xiao Qidi.

After all, Xiao Qidi's strange long blade had even severed his axe‑handle, so the iron armor on his body offered little protection.

Though Xiao Qidi was slender, his strength was not much less than Ba Meng's.

Ba Meng realized he had little advantage left.

He immediately hurled the two broken handles at Lian Qingbai, who was hiding in the corner.

Whoosh!

The iron shards tore through the air with tremendous force.

Lian Qingbai was old and unskilled in martial arts, with no time to dodge.

If struck, death would be certain!

In the flash of lightning, Xiao Qidi hesitated not, lunging to shield Lian Qingbai with his own body.

Bang bang!

Two dull thuds in succession!

Xiao Qidi's tall frame shuddered from the impact.

Although the broken axe handle did not pierce the bullet‑proof vest, it shattered the plate inside, the tremendous force blasting through his chest and churning his viscera.

"Your Majesty!" Lian Qingbai exclaimed.

Xiao Qidi gritted his teeth, "I'm fine!"

"Can you even block this? Try seeing if you can still block it!" Ba Yong roared.

He gave Xiao Qidi no chance to react, simply seized the huge bronze cauldron and hurled it at him.

The bronze cauldron weighed several hundred catties.

It was also filled to the brim with boiling meat broth.

Together they weighed nearly a thousand catties, and he flung it straight at Xiao Qidi, who had nowhere to dodge.

Boom!

"Xiao Qidi!" Ning Jinli shouted, waking from her sleep.

The breeze from the fan made her, drenched in cold sweat, shiver.

The night‑time storeroom was a bit stuffy, but now she felt chill from head to toe.

The spacetime portal remained closed, she felt uneasy, so she laid out another mat in the storeroom.

Little did she expect that after falling asleep she would have a nightmare.

She dreamed that Xiao Qidi had encountered danger.

It seemed she was fighting a formidable opponent, and then…… Xiao Qidi was pulverized into a mound of bloody flesh by the huge bronze cauldron hurled at him.

This dream felt all too real.

Even after waking, her mind was filled with the gruesome image of Xiao Qidi's disfigured, bloody corpse.

"Xiao Qidi…… what…… what have you been up to?"

"Are you really in danger?"

Ning Jinli grew more panicked the more she thought.

Whether it be the secret history's account of being captured by enemy troops, abused and turned into a human stick, or dying horribly as in her dream, none of it was what she wanted.

Xiao Qidi must not come to harm!

But now Ning Jinli simply does not know where he went or what he's doing.

Even if she worried more, she could not help at all.

She had completely lost any sleepiness, washed her face with tap water trying to calm down, but her heart raced faster and her anxiety grew stronger.

"What to do, what to do……"

She paced anxiously, gritted her teeth, and dialed the number of Professor Zheng Lao's secretary on her phone.

There was nothing she could do; it was truly hopeless.

The only way she could now tell whether Xiao Qidi had suffered another mishap was, as before, to ask Zheng Lao again.

It was already past midnight.

Ning Jinli felt guilty about disturbing the old professor's rest, but she had no choice.

After a moment, the call was answered.

"Sorry sorry!" Ning Jinli hurriedly said, "I really shouldn't be calling you this late, I——"

Before she could finish, the secretary's heavy voice sounded, "Miss Ning, Professor Zheng…… has just gone into the operating room."

Ning Jingli was startled, "What happened to him?"

The secretary said, "Last time he was exhausted from rushing over to appraise the Canglan Jade, and after the appraisal he became overly excited, causing his old heart condition to flare up, and he has been receiving treatment at Xinghan Central Hospital ever since."

"We planned to wait until his condition stabilized, then arrange a special plane to send him back to the capital, but just now his condition suddenly worsened, so we have to perform emergency surgery."

Hearing this, Ning Jingli's already uneasy heart became even more tense and worried.

Such a good old professor, he must not have any mishap.

"Zheng Lao, he will definitely recover," Ning Jingli whispered.

It was both to comfort the secretary and to comfort herself.

But the chief secretary sighed, his voice tinged with obvious sorrow, "Miss Ning, what's the situation with Zheng Lao… we all know he's very old, has been exhausted his whole life, and this time it may truly be hard for him to return from the Ghost Gate…"

Ning Jingli clenched the phone, hurriedly said, "Zheng Lao is a national treasure‑level expert in our cultural relics field; the state can surely mobilize all the best resources to save him, right? Could it be… that even this can't protect him…?"

The secretary said helplessly, "Modern medicine is indeed very advanced, but for many ailments it is still powerless to reverse fate; otherwise, the richest and most powerful people in the world would be able to achieve immortality, wouldn't they?"

A strong sense of helplessness seemed to seep right through the phone's earpiece.

Ning Jingli's lips trembled, wanting to say something more, but everything felt too pale.

After a moment of silence, the secretary sighed, "Many years ago, Zheng Lao participated in an archaeological dig of a Shen Nong relic and even uncovered an ancient medical scripture. It is said that among the medical scriptures left by Shen Nong, there is a method to cure him, but unfortunately… only a few fragments of the Shen Nong Medicine remain."

"Shen Nong Medicine Scripture? What is it called?" Ning Jingli asked curiously.

The secretary told her that it is called the Shen Nong Herbal Classic.

It records all of Shen Nong's medical formulas, capable of curing countless rare diseases, and even can revive the dead.

"Shen Nong Herbal Classic?" Ning Jingli blurted out, "Hasn't this medical knowledge been passed down? You can find it online."

The secretary sighed, "The so‑called Shen Nong Herbal Classic that has been passed down to today is long no longer the original version…"

"Then… when was the original lost?"

"That… I'm not sure either. Supposedly, the later versions were compiled about one or two thousand years ago, and they retain less than one percent of the original content, so the loss of the original must have been even earlier."

"One or two thousand years ago… even earlier? That's a huge time span."

"Indeed, our nation's history is that long; otherwise we wouldn't have countless cultural‑relic historians like Zheng Lao dedicating themselves over the ages."

The secretary, after casually chatting a few more sentences with Ning Jingli, said he had to arrange something and ended the call.

Ning Jingli stood dazed in the small storage room, feeling a flash of bewilderment.

Xiao Qidi was nowhere to be found, and Zheng Lao's condition suddenly worsened.

All this made her thoughts uneasy.

She stared blankly for a long time, looking at the rolling shutter door at the back.

In her mind, she couldn't help recalling that night when Xiao Qidi banged the door, startling her; she went to open it and almost got slashed by his sword.

And also…

Also the sight of her, panicked, using both hands and feet to cling onto him…

She wishes that now the rolling shutter door could suddenly spring open again, so she wouldn't be as startled and helpless as last time.

She turned off the storage room's light, then opened the rolling shutter door.

When dawn approaches, the night is at its darkest.

All things were silent; even the wind stopped, and the grass no longer held insects' chirps or frogs' croaks.

Ning Jingli leaned against the door frame, gazing at the boundless night sky, whispering, "Heaven… please protect Xiao Qidi and Zheng Jiaoshou, keep them both safe…"

Since her parents died and she was expelled from the Ning Family in the first few years, she had prayed to the heavens countless times.

She prayed that Heaven would return her father and mother to her.

She prayed that Heaven would no longer make Su Yi, who took her in, suffer so much.

However, no matter how she prayed, it was useless.

Her parents were gone, and Su Yi still lived in hardship.

She stopped pleading to Heaven, feeling it was all false and useless…

But this time, she began praying again, as devout as before, even shedding tears as she said to Heaven, "If protecting them both requires a price, Heaven, you may take away twenty years of my life; if that's not enough, then thirty years… please, Heaven!"

……

At this very moment, outside Yaowang Gu, the three thousand Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Soldiers were also silently praying.

They had already been surrounded by a massive horde of barbarian troops that poured out, and unless a miracle occurred, survival was impossible.

Now they were trapped in a small mountain hollow, exhausted, even walking was laborious.

The war horses were so exhausted they collapsed.

The more than ten gas canister bombs they brought had all been used up.

The Divine Weapons that Fairy Jinli bestowed upon them were stained with enemy blood, yet their blades were already dulled, and their armor was all in shreds…

The enemies were simply too many.

They couldn't even kill them all.

The Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Soldiers knelt on the ground with difficulty, gazing at the night sky, each of them pleading.

"Fairy Jinli… please protect, may His Majesty successfully rescue those civilians and safely escape this place."

"Fairy, we feel ashamed for having been given Divine Weapons; this time we cannot slay all the enemy, but we beg you to protect us once more, so that before we die in battle we can slaughter as many enemies as possible!"

Amid the prayers, the charging shouts of barbarian troops from all directions grew nearer.

The three thousand Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Army clenched their teeth, each braced the ground with their battle knives, and staggered to stand upright, straightening their spines.

No one gave orders, yet they all instinctively chose to fight the barbarians until the last drop of blood was shed!

"Daxuan soldiers, here! You vile beasts! Come and meet death!" The Xuanjia Armor Armor Armor Armor Army crawled out of the hollow, stood on high ground and shouted loudly.

Whoa! The surrounding barbarian horde brandished sharp swords, surging toward them like a tide!

At the very brink of disaster.

Suddenly there was a low, overbearing voice that unexpectedly resounded in the sky above everyone's heads, "Kill Yue Barbarian soldiers! Look carefully, what is this?!"