Chapter 56: A Family Reunited

After accepting the mission in the Legend of the Condor Heroes world, the four of them arrived at Guo Jing's home. This time was different—they all came in the flesh, though the Qi they had cultivated in the Special Forces world remained.

"Guo Jing, so this is your home."

Zhang Chu'an and the others looked at the shabby yurt before them and asked curiously. How to put this yurt? They would definitely have to repair it well tonight, otherwise the four of them would have nowhere to sleep.

Just as they were sighing, an ordinary farm woman walked out of the shabby yurt. It was Guo Jing's mother, Li Ping.

"Mother."

Guo Jing cried out and threw himself into Li Ping's arms; the longing accumulated over more than thirty years erupted in an instant.

Although he had parents to look after him in the Special Forces world, that did not mean he could forget the mother who had borne and raised him for over a decade.

Li Ping, held by Guo Jing, was a bit dumbfounded. In her view, her son had only gone out to play for a while—why had he come back like this, throwing himself at her and weeping bitterly?

But seeing her son's heartbroken look, Li Ping said nothing and simply let her son hold her quietly.

After Guo Jing's emotions gradually steadied, Li Ping tried to ask him the reason for his crying.

Guo Jing's answer made Li Ping instantly panic. Oh no, her son had gone mad—what on earth was he talking about? What "Lord God," what "Special Forces world"?

Seeing his mother's expression, Guo Jing asked discontentedly, "Mother, you don't believe what I'm saying, do you?"

"Believe, how could your mother not believe what you say?"

Li Ping said with a face full of smiles. For now she had to soothe her foolish son, lest he lose control of his emotions.

Seeing his mother's reaction, Guo Jing was at a loss. Everything he had just said was true—why didn't his mother believe him at all?

At this moment, Nie Huaishang, watching Guo Jing scratching his ears and cheeks in frustration, spoke up to remind him, "Guo Jing, use the Resurrection Permission to revive your father."

Hearing Nie Huaishang's reminder, Guo Jing inwardly cursed his own oversight—how could he have forgotten to use the Resurrection Permission to bring his father back so the family could reunite? He had only just been clinging to his mother and weeping.

Reminded by Nie Huaishang, Guo Jing no longer hesitated. He immediately used the Resurrection Permission he had drawn, and under everyone's gaze a flash of light passed, and a middle-aged hunter appeared out of thin air before them.

The middle-aged hunter looked at his own body and his surroundings and muttered to himself,

"Why am I here? I remember I was dead."

"Xiaotian."

Li Ping cried out to the middle-aged hunter. Hearing that familiar voice, the middle-aged hunter turned his head, looked at his tearful wife, and asked in disbelief,

"Li Ping, are you dead too?"

Hearing her husband's words, Li Ping scolded, "What 'dead'—you were redeemed from the hands of the God of Death by your son. What kind of gloomy talk is that?"

She now completely believed what Guo Jing had said earlier. After all, her dead husband had come back to life, so that all-powerful Lord God must surely be real.

"My son—where is he?"

Guo Xiaotian finished listening and asked Li Ping with a delighted face.

Li Ping pointed at Guo Jing beside her and said to Guo Xiaotian,

"There, he's your son."

Guo Xiaotian squatted down, pinched Guo Jing's cheek, and said with a face full of doting affection,

"Son, these past years you've protected your mother all on your own—it's been hard. From now on, your father and I will protect your mother together, alright?"

Looking at the man gazing at him with such doting affection, a warm current welled up in Guo Jing's heart. When he was little, his mother Li Ping had often told him about his father.

His father's tall, imposing image had taken root in his heart from childhood, and he had countless times imagined how happy their family would be if his father were there.

Guo Jing grinned and said,

"Alright."

After the family of three exchanged pleasantries for a while, they finally noticed Nie Huaishang and the others who had come with Guo Jing. Guo Jing enthusiastically introduced Zhang Chu'an and the others to his parents.

"Father, Mother, these are the brothers who have shared life and death with me all these years. This is Zhang Chu'an, this is Nie Huaishang, this is Zhang Xiaofan."

"Hello, hello. Just now our family was having a rare reunion with so much to say, and we neglected you—I'm terribly sorry. Please, come in."

Li Ping was about to usher everyone into the yurt when she realized it was too small; come nightfall it definitely couldn't fit so many people.

The group had no choice but to use the materials on hand to build a larger yurt. Fortunately, none of them were too rusty with their hands.

Moreover, a yurt—a simple folk dwelling—wasn't too taxing to make. By evening, the new yurt was already finished.

In the new yurt, Li Ping slaughtered the few sheep the family had to treat Nie Huaishang and the others.

The reason for this, apart from Li Ping's warm hospitality, was that she was truly overjoyed. A family reunion was hard to come by—no amount of celebration would be excessive.

"Father, Mother, are you going back to Ox Village or staying in the desert from now on?"

At the evening feast, Guo Jing, gnawing on a lamb leg, asked his parents what they planned to do next.

Guo Xiaotian and Li Ping, hearing this question, frowned. Their original wish was to return to Ox Village—after all, that was their hometown—but if they went back they would inevitably be wanted by the imperial court.

Guo Xiaotian thought for a moment and said,

"I think your mother and I should stay here. After all, the desert is safer for us than being in the Jin Kingdom or the Song."

"Uncle, Auntie, since you've decided to stay in the desert, then stay here. After all, Guo Jing and Nie Huaishang also plan to stay here and establish a base. If you stay here, you can look after one another."

Zhang Chu'an listened and agreed wholeheartedly. The four of them had long since discussed it: two would stay in the desert to establish a revolutionary base and limit Genghis Khan's rise, ideally finding an opportunity to kill him.

The other two would establish a revolutionary base in the Jin Kingdom, expand the revolutionary ranks, fight the local tyrants and redistribute the land in the Jin Kingdom, absorb large numbers of peasant uprisings, train and reorganize them, and then overthrow the Jin Kingdom.

On the current timeline, Genghis Khan had already risen. About a year or two later he defeated his sworn brother Jamukha, and after that battle he took in Zhebie—Guo Jing's master.

But at this point, Genghis Khan was still far from unifying the grasslands. On his road to unifying the steppe, he still had enemies: his sworn father Wang Han, the Naiman chief the Sun Khan, the various Tatar tribes, and others.

Genghis Khan took roughly ten years to eliminate these enemies one by one before marching south against the Jin.

Moreover, don't think establishing a revolutionary base on the steppe would be especially difficult. The various Mongol tribes had been warring constantly for a long time, life was already very harsh, and the Jin Kingdom would also periodically carry out a "reduce population" policy against the Mongols.

Therefore, the Mongols of this period could truly be said to be living in deep misery; many could barely survive.

So as long as they solved the most basic survival problems for many people, they would surely be able to establish a base.

What's more, asking slaves who couldn't even get enough to eat to give up food already in hand for the sake of some so-called Mongol glory would really be too much to ask of them.