Chapter 13

Shen Tianxing and Yang Hongyue each rose, moved to the sweating blood horse to have a look; the sweating blood horse had bloodshot eyes, spat white foam, and was on its last breath.

"Xiao Yu has been with me for so many years; I never expected it to become like this. Don't you have that Small Return Pill? Give me one, I need to save it."

The Xiao Yu Yang Hongyue referred to was naturally this sweating blood horse; she asked Shen Tianxing for a Small Return Pill, making Shen Tianxing unable to help rolling his eyes.

"What a kind-hearted General Yang! Do you think I could possibly give such a precious Small Return Pill to a horse to eat? We haven't reached An City yet; if we encounter danger and suffer serious injuries, the remaining two pills would be just right, one each."

"Give it to your horse to eat; when the time comes we're both seriously injured—do you say you're saving me, or saving yourself?"

Yang Hongyue was momentarily speechless; indeed a person is more important than a horse, but without a horse, how can they speed up to An City?

"What do you want in order for me to give another Small Return Pill to save Xiao Yu?"

Not wanting to waste time, Yang Hongyue didn't indulge in extra talk; Shen Tianxing smiled, his purpose already achieved.

"What I want, This One really hasn't figured out yet; how about I ask for a promise from the General? Of course the General can rest assured, this promise does not violate the law, does not betray the Great Zhou; whenever I think of it, the General must fulfill it—would that be alright?"

Upon hearing that it does not violate the law nor betray the Great Zhou, Yang Hongyue didn't even need to consider; she simply nodded.

"I promise you; can you give it now?"

Shen Tianxing took a Small Return Pill from the System Package; this is a small functional item split from the System Package, designed for convenient storage and retrieval when a package contains multiple identical items, allowing instant access.

This is also why Shen Tianxing can quickly retrieve cigarettes and Wangwang Snow Cake on the battlefield; as for this liquid, being a liquid type, it can only be taken out whole bottle to drink, at most automatically opening the cap, and when put back it automatically screws the cap on.

In Yang Hongyue's view, Shen Tianxing had fished it out from his trousers; this couldn't be blamed on Shen Tianxing, his clothing was just strips of cloth, nothing could be hidden—if not from his trousers, where else could he take it from?

"General Yang, you should catch it; besides, I still need to help you feed the horse."

Seeing Yang Hongyue's look of disdain, and her raising a hand to cover her nose and mouth, Shen Tianxing naturally understood what was going on; this remark was deliberately said.

"I feel nauseous; this Small Return Pill of yours was taken from your trousers? And you gave it to me to eat? Ugh......"

Having reminded herself, she ended up feeling nauseous; Yang Hongyue vomited messily.

"I took it from my trousers; there's a pocket here, with a small bottle of Small Return Pill inside! I poured it out from there."

Seeing Shen Tianxing produce the pill bottle, Yang Hongyue stopped vomiting, almost kicking him; she could only wipe her mouth, angrily snatch the Small Return Pill from his hand, squat down, and stuff it into Xiao Yu to eat.

"Why didn't you say earlier? Are you deliberately trying to make me look foolish? You've been playing me over and over; do you really think I won't kill you?"

While speaking, Yang Hongyue picked up the fallen phoenix-tail crimson-tasseled spear from the ground and pointed it directly at Shen Tianxing.

"General Yang, you're wronging This One; I opened a path for you, rescued you from the encirclement, gave you the Small Return Pill to save your life, and even threw away the most precious smoke bomb."

"Now I've also saved your horse—how is this playing you over and over? Clearly it's saving you over and over; of course, if General Yang insists on seeing this as playing him, This One has a hundred mouths and still cannot defend himself."

Yang Hongyue was left speechless; just then, the sweating blood horse Xiao Yu, after eating the Small Return Pill, recovered considerably, stood up, let out a long whistle to the heavens, turned its head toward Shen Tianxing, its big, watery eyes fixed on him, actually showing a look of gratitude.

"Out of consideration for Xiao Yu's recovered state, this general won't hold it against you; follow this general onto the horse, any further delay and the pursuing troops will catch up."

Yang Hongyue borrowed the horse to go downhill; Shen Tianxing was not in a hurry, and took out two pieces of Wangwang Snow Cake, giving one to Yang Hongyue and placing the other before Xiao Yu.

"Eat this, and your strength will recover immediately; don't ask what it is, anyway it tastes good—this is also my secret."

Xiao Yu ate it directly; Yang Hongyue really wanted to ask, but Shen Tianxing's words blocked her, so she could only take it, smelling especially fragrant, taking a bite, and leaving a lingering fragrance in her mouth.

Originally starving and unable to bear it, Yang Hongyue naturally finished the Wangwang Snow Cake in a few bites; indeed she could clearly feel her strength replenished, as if she had not expended any.

"No wonder you can go in and out of the great army without showing any fatigue; it turns out you have such a miraculous thing—what exactly is your background?"

"Just a country bumpkin from the mountains, merely lucky; General, hurry up and mount the horse—we're still fleeing for our lives!"

Yang Hongyue felt suffocated, but also knew everyone has their own secrets; Shen Tianxing revealing so much before her was actually trust, so she didn't press further, leapt onto the horse, and reached out to pull Shen Tianxing up.

Shen Tianxing grabbed Yang Hongyue's hand; with a pull, he sat on the horse's back, feeling her palm slightly rough, with old calluses, unlike a typical woman's soft, boneless hand—this is the price of martial training.

"Originally, with night falling we should rest, but now our strength has recovered; we still need to rush to An City overnight to be safe."

"Whatever General Yang says goes; anyway, sitting behind you is still quite comfortable."

"Sit as you sit, don't move around; I now want to know who recruited you? When we return to An City, this general will surely thank him properly!"

"Returning to An City is impossible; if you truly want to thank him, you'd have to go to the Underworld. His name is Zhang Lei, a Colonel; initially we fought side by side to support you against the enemy, but later the enemy forces were too many and we were scattered."

"When he died, I was about ten or more zhang away; I rushed over, his head was chopped off, those Great Martial Soldiers nearby were all dead—I killed them."

Shen Tianxing said it lightly; in fact there wasn't much between him and Zhang Lei—just that Zhang Lei had found him a good wife.

Yang Hongyue remained silent; only after a long while did she speak.

"This plan, I merely wanted to end the war quickly, capturing female prisoners to give to the populace for forced conscription—it wasn't my original intention; this is the Marshal's idea. The plan was also conceived by the Marshal; I support it because I want to end the war swiftly."

"In modern thinking, Shen Tianxing also doesn't want to fight, but he wants to become stronger; he can only do so through the System, and the System only helps him grow stronger by killing enemies—a perfect closed loop, making this battle unavoidable."

"Since ancient times, war could never truly end, only be temporarily halted; General Yang, having reached this position, still fails to see through it—that's not a good thing."

Yang Hongyue gave a wry smile, unable to deny that Shen Tianxing spoke the truth; her heart resonated even more, and at the same time she grew more curious about what kind of person Shen Tianxing really is.

"Ten li ahead is An City; now there's still more than half a until dawn, let's rest a while in the woods, and we'll enter the city early tomorrow."