Chapter 73

The Phoenix Army raised their flying dragon battle flag. Riding at the very front of the formation in black armor, Ye Rui was tallying the troops for this expedition to suppress the bandits; there were five hundred in all.

This time, she would serve as the main commander, with Lu Yihua as her deputy. It was not a major battle, but Ye Rui still took it very seriously. These bandits had brought ruin and death to the people; they were criminals, and she would not let them go.

Come to think of it, the word “bandits” held a special meaning for Ye Rui. It was during one such bandit suppression that she met Lu Yihua, the person she could now entrust with her life. And it was also during that same expedition that she lost half her life, hovering at death’s door for more than half a month.

Why did it feel like her fate just couldn’t get along with bandits? And now here she was again, on another campaign against them; just then, Hu Tu had also issued a side quest with generous rewards. It left Ye Rui with a bad feeling she couldn’t shake.

Hu Tu: [Although I’m the Half-Immortal Hu, I can’t calculate how dangerous this quest is.]

Ye Rui: [I wasn’t counting on you anyway.]

She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, ignored Hu Tu’s fake sobbing, and once she confirmed everyone was in place, shouted, “Move out!” The army surged forward toward Black Devil Forest.

This time, Ye Rui saw Xie Tinglan. She had come to see her off. Standing at the entrance of the camp in a pale purple cross-collared robe, with Gong Yinzhi and Yin Yue beside her, Xie Tinglan lifted her gaze and watched Ye Rui on horseback in silence as she sent her off.

Last time she hadn’t come. This time she had, as if she were finally catching up to a love that had arrived too late.

Ye Rui withdrew her gaze, squeezed her horse’s flanks, turned its head, and set out for Black Devil Forest.

The journey would take a day and a night, crossing a mountain before they could reach the forest said to remain dark and foreboding all year round.

There were legends about Black Devil Forest too. They said that long ago, an exotic beast lived there, eating human flesh and drinking human blood. The vengeful spirits swallowed by that beast refused to disperse and eventually condensed into miasma that lingered throughout the year, sealing the forest off from human habitation.

Later, people said the great beast had died of old age, its blood turning into rivers, its bones becoming thick trunks, its flesh sinking into the earth to nourish a forest that ate people.

Well, it sounded a little frightening. But Ye Rui didn’t believe it; not unless she had been transmigrated into a world of cultivation.

Lu Yihua rode beside Ye Rui, discussing the tactics they had gone over the night before.

“Right now, the intelligence we have is still limited. They shouldn’t be taking villagers hostage, should they?”

Lu Yihua had fought bandits in Yushan before, so she knew some of their methods. Taking hostages was common, and it was often the reason they couldn’t fight with full force.

“I don’t know.”

Ye Rui wasn’t sure whether they still had any villagers in hand, and her expression darkened as well.

“Our plan is to use fire arrows to force them out of the forest. If there really are hostages…”

Ye Rui had thought of that too. When she set the plan, she had prioritized the safety of her own soldiers. She and Lu Yihua had only hurriedly agreed on it yesterday, and she hadn’t yet explained the key points; she had planned to do that on the road.

“I understand your concern; it’s just that I have to put the soldiers’ safety first. We know nothing about Black Devil Forest. Entering it rashly would be very dangerous, so the only option is to force them out.”

After Ye Rui explained her reasoning, Lu Yihua thought it over for a while and agreed. “All right, then let’s take the gamble. Entering recklessly really would be too dangerous.”

The plan was set, but heaven was unpredictable. Just as they were nearing Black Devil Forest, the sky seemed to split open, and a torrential downpour began.

Ye Rui’s armor was soaked through. She stood in the temporary camp, staring at the pitch-black woods in the distance. The forest’s darkness seemed cursed; the stories people told didn’t sound entirely baseless. From afar, the forest looked like a sleeping giant beast that might rise at any moment to bring disaster upon the world.

Under the heavy rain, the whole sky had gone dim. Though it wasn’t yet dusk, it already felt as if night were falling, and faint firelight could be seen flickering deep in the forest.

“Sir, our plan won’t work now.”

Another commander on the march came over. This was the third unit’s captain, the one best at fighting in the woods, prepared specifically for the worst-case scenario: that they would have to enter Black Devil Forest.

“Wait a little longer.”

Ye Rui looked up at the sky. The clouds hung low, and the rain struck her body with such force it hurt. It probably wouldn’t stop anytime soon.

That useless Half-Immortal Hu; could he really not even calculate that it would rain today?!

Hu Tu: [Hey! I’m the Half-Immortal Hu, not the Dragon King, and certainly not Wind Master or Rain Lord. Watch how you speak!]

Ye Rui: [It’s your fault. I blame you!]

She put aside her quarrel with Hu Tu, no longer caring what he was muttering on and on about. She was already considering the next plan.

When she said wait, she didn’t mean waiting for the rain to stop; she was thinking about how to carry out the plan fully.

After about half an hour, Ye Rui took a deep breath and said, “Then execute the second plan. Dismount. Split into two groups and enter the forest. Attack on command!”

“Yes—!”

With the rain came heavier armor and a harder march; moving even a step was difficult, and mountain roads were even worse.

The army split into two. Ye Rui led two hundred and fifty men into the forest first, while Lu Yihua took the rest and entered after her, spreading out to the left and right.

Black Devil Forest still held miasma; even the rain couldn’t wash away that rotten stench. It was no different from the smell of bad eggs. The mixed odors, driven up by the rain and mingling with a sharp sourness, were enough to make one want to retch. The mud underfoot had been loosened by the rain, and though everyone walked carefully, they still couldn’t avoid slipping and crashing to the ground.

Looking at the soldiers smeared in mud before the battle had even begun, an ill-timed line suddenly flashed through Ye Rui’s mind: the campaign was just launched, and already they had fallen.

It wasn’t just the lingering miasma; the wet earth’s fishy smell and the pungent reek of beasts’ urine were also rising under the rain. Ye Rui could only endure the nauseating stench and head toward the faint firelight in the distance.

Black Devil Forest was filled mostly with firs and banyans, giving off a dead, desolate feeling. The tall firs stood like colossal beings, scrutinizing the tiny humans below them, and every time Ye Rui looked up, she felt an inexplicable pressure.

Fighting in a place like this always made people uneasy. She didn’t know the terrain, had no map, and knew little about the enemy. It was like gambling with her life.

With her excellent eyesight, she spotted traps set ahead. Since there were traps here, that meant this was the only route to the bandits’ hideout.

She had already taught Lu Yihua how to identify traps. Lu Yihua was now as sharp as she was, so Ye Rui wasn’t worried she’d be caught by such a crude trap.

Still, the closer they got to their destination, the more nervous Ye Rui became.

The rustling of rainwater over leaves and mud helped her make out the movements around her, but as the firelight drew nearer, she no longer dared to advance carelessly. Thinking it over, she realized that on flat ground she couldn’t see far enough ahead, so after telling the soldiers beside her, she tried to use lightness skill to leap onto a tree and gain a higher vantage point.

But her lightness skill was far from refined, and now it was raining too. If she fell in front of all her subordinates, wouldn’t that be humiliating beyond belief?

Forget it; if her lightness skill wasn’t agile enough, she’d make up for it another way. She still trusted her own quickness. Following what Gong Yinzhi had told her, she guided her inner energy into her legs, stepped onto the tree trunk, and used the force to spring upward. But her footing skidded on the wet bark. She immediately drew the purple blade from her waist and stabbed it into the trunk to steady herself, then kicked off the trunk again for a second boost, finally landing on a thick branch.

“Huff… huff…”

God, that scared the hell out of me!

Seeing the admiring looks her subordinates cast up at her, Ye Rui carefully managed her expression and steadied her trembling legs and body before looking toward the firelight.

The high ground really did help. From here, she could see the bandits’ stronghold less than a li ahead. The way forward was overgrown with weeds and flanked by towering trees, forming excellent cover. But relying on that cover without posting sentries worked against them.

There were around a hundred bandits. They had built crude thatched huts and straw sheds. Beneath the sheds, more than a dozen people were warming themselves by the fire, some sharpening knives under the eaves, some practicing martial arts. From their bearing alone, they were certainly not ordinary men. And yet these people of such skill had become mountain bandits?

No, wait; those martial techniques… they were somewhat similar to Yu Bin’s!

Ye Rui recalled what Xie Tinglan had told her before departure: she had warned her to be careful, saying those people might be former disciples of the Chaoyang Sect who, having been driven to desperation, had turned to banditry.

Their martial arts might not be especially superb, but they were definitely not weak.

Ye Rui made a gesture telling everyone to hide, then followed the plan and had someone trigger the trap to lure the snake out of its hole.

A soldier cut the trap rope, and the net snapped upward at once. Several bells at the top began to sway violently; even in the pouring rain, their clear ringing could still be heard.

Ye Rui saw the bandits indeed spring into action. One after another, they drew their swords and rushed out, and in no time, nearly half of them had come out. She watched closely for the leader, but they quickly split into several groups and headed separately toward the trap’s direction. Each group had about three to four people, and Ye Rui couldn’t tell at a glance who the leader was. They all looked very young.

Ye Rui took the Longshadow bow from her back, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the man leading the group heading their way.

Everyone was on guard, waiting for Ye Rui’s first arrow to fly. The moment it did, it would sound the horn for this bandit suppression campaign.

Whoosh—!

“Ah——!!”

The man at the front took an arrow through the leg; it pierced clean through his thigh. He let out a miserable scream in the rain, startling the newly separated groups into stopping in their tracks. His companions supported him and dragged him back, while the man kept crying out in pain, his screams especially shrill amid the rainfall.

Woo—! Woo—!

At that moment, several low, whistling signal arrows shot into the sky; these were Ye Rui’s signal to Lu Yihua. As soon as the arrows sounded, Ye Rui saw the men racing back toward the stronghold. She raised her hand and clenched her fist, signaling everyone not to move yet.

Only after those people had all turned their backs to the soldiers did Ye Rui drop her hand. The soldiers surged forward immediately, and she jumped down from the tree as well, drawing her Rui Feng sword and charging in.

Lu Yihua should be cutting in from the other side of the stronghold now. Once they attacked from both front and rear, these bandits would surely be captured in full.

This was Ye Rui’s second plan. Aside from this sudden downpour, everything had gone smoothly.

**

The rain fell for two days. Xie Tinglan came to the Prefect’s Residence to discuss the barbarian matter with Mu Xue. On the second night after Ye Rui set out, the Flying Horse Tribe had been slaughtered by Kayani, with only some soldiers willing to surrender left alive and incorporated into his command.

This was the first step of Xie Tinglan’s plan. Next, there would likely be many matters she had to discuss with Mu Xue. She needed to pull Mu Xue into the game, because that person needed her, and the Qingzhou Army also needed her. She was an important figure.

Xie Tinglan, draped in a black-and-red cross-collared gown, entered the Prefect’s Residence. The hem of her dress was slightly damp; the moment the oil-paper umbrella was closed, rainwater slid down in streams, wetting the ground beneath her.

She walked into the main hall of the inner chamber and had only just sat down, without saying a word, when she heard a flurry of footsteps outside echoing through the rain.

The visitor was Qingzhou Prefect Sun Zhong. His armor was soaked with rainwater. Upon entering the inner hall, he bowed with clasped fists toward Mu Xue. “My lady, the soldiers sent to suppress the bandits have all returned, and several bandits have been captured alive.”

Xie Tinglan’s face lit with joy. She had barely sat down before she abruptly stood again. But when she saw Sun Zhong’s troubled expression, her heart suddenly tightened.

“But…”

Seeing him hesitate and drag his words out, Mu Xue also had a bad feeling. She said sternly, “Speak!”

“But Ye Rui went after the bandit leader and disappeared in Black Devil Forest.”

As soon as those words fell, both Xie Tinglan and Mu Xue changed color. Xie Tinglan even strode forward and said sharply, “Why did no one go to help her?!”

It was the first time Sun Zhong had seen Xie Tinglan angry. Frightened, he immediately dropped to one knee and said, “Please calm your anger, Prime Minister Xie. According to Lu Yihua, the bandit leader released poisonous miasma at the time. Ye Rui judged the situation and ordered everyone to withdraw, saying that because her inner strength was deep, she would certainly capture the leader and bring him back herself. Then she vanished.”

Xie Tinglan’s anger surged up. Her face went red, then white, and her eyes trembled with fear. “No, I’m going to find her!”

Gong Yinzhi was the first to grab hold of Xie Tinglan. Yin Yue moved in right after, while Mu Xue said, “Calm down, Xie Tinglan!”

“Prime Minister Xie, that was snake-saliva poison miasma. It spreads even faster in the rain. Those affected suffer weakness and nausea at the least, and death at worst. Ye Rui had already pursued them beyond the miasma’s range, so she should be fine…”

Before Sun Zhong could finish, Xie Tinglan cut him off. “Black Devil Forest already gathers miasma. It’s rained for three days now, and the dampness will make the miasma gather again. The deeper into the forest one goes, the denser the miasma becomes. Ye Rui is in danger!”

Upon hearing this, Mu Xue stood up and walked toward Xie Tinglan, saying coldly, “Even if we’re going to save someone, it won’t be you. With your body like this, going would only be a burden!”

Xie Tinglan did not listen. She turned to Mu Xue and gave a cold laugh. “With Yin Yue and Yinzhi here, they’ll protect me for sure. No matter what, I’m going. I absolutely cannot…!”

She absolutely could not bear Ye Rui being trapped in such danger!

Images of Ye Rui being stabbed by Gu Sheng, and of Yin Yue carrying her back after the military rods, flashed through Xie Tinglan’s mind. They drove her into such fear that her entire body trembled.

“You’ve lost your mind—!”

Mu Xue felt that the person before her was not the Xie Tinglan she knew. Xie Tinglan clearly understood that even if she went, she would only make the rescue more troublesome!

“I’m mad, so what? I must, I must go save Ye Rui—!”

Xie Tinglan finished and turned to leave, but Gong Yinzhi still held her back. Before Gong Yinzhi could even speak, a messenger hurried in and dropped to his knees. “My lady, Ye Rui has already captured the leader alive and returned to camp—!”

“Where is Ye Rui? How is Ye Rui?”

Xie Tinglan asked, her eyes red, already brimming with tears, looking as if she had gone mad. Mu Xue froze in place. Looking at Xie Tinglan beside her, she seemed to see her former self.

Back then, one after another, her comrades had died protecting her, and she had not even been able to protect her comrades’ families. She too had been like this, losing all reason, driven half-mad, reckless and unrestrained, even wanting to die and be done with it.

“Ye Rui is injured. She exhausted herself and fainted in front of the camp. The military physician is treating her now.”

After the messenger replied, Xie Tinglan seemed to lose all strength and staggered backward. Fortunately, Gong Yinzhi and Yin Yue caught her.

“Since Ye Rui chose to enlist, danger has always accompanied her. Every time Ye Rui is in danger, are you going to lose your mind and ignore everything like this?”

Mu Xue sternly rebuked Xie Tinglan. This Xie Tinglan did not look like someone who could put the bigger picture first.

Sun Zhong tactfully led the messenger away. When the door was closed, the torrential rain outside swallowed the sound of their conversation within.

“Xie Tinglan, you have to trust Ye Rui.”

Mu Xue’s tone softened somewhat. Xie Tinglan’s heaving chest gradually steadied, and she said slowly, “I think you understand me.”

“What?”

Mu Xue did not understand, but her heart was trembling. There were some things she wasn’t unaware of; she simply did not want to think deeply about them.

“If you could have your comrades back after losing them, only to face losing them again, you’d go mad too.”

Mu Xue’s eyes reddened after hearing that. She gritted her teeth and said, “Xie Tinglan, shut up!”

“There is no if in this world, Xie Tinglan. If you want to go mad, then go ahead. Since Ye Rui chose this path, it’s impossible for her not to face danger. You’d better adjust yourself as soon as possible. Don’t forget, the direction of the Qingzhou Army is still in my hands. I won’t hand the Qingzhou Army over to a madwoman!”

Xie Tinglan trembled all over and met Mu Xue’s gaze. In each other’s beautiful eyes lay a tangle of complexity, a knot woven from countless threads and impossible to cut apart. Then Xie Tinglan gave a cold laugh.

Sure enough, she still didn’t like Mu Xue.

“I’ll visit another day.”

With that, Xie Tinglan left, disappearing with Yin Yue and Gong Yinzhi into the hazy downpour.

After everyone had gone, Mu Xue staggered a few steps, suddenly losing her strength, and then let out a few low laughs as if she had just realized something.

No wonder the person Ye Rui chose was Xie Tinglan; because Xie Tinglan truly loved her. That person actually did have a heart. The one who seemed heartless was perhaps herself. So it turned out she hadn’t liked Ye Rui that much after all.

In truth, she had always known it. She liked Ye Rui, but not enough. Ye Rui was not indispensable to her. She had also realized that she seemed to have lost the power and impulse to love.

She returned dispiritedly to her seat of honor and stared blankly ahead. Even the rain that fell to the earth like silver arrows seemed to be piercing through her heart.

So the coward was herself. She was afraid that after giving her feelings, she would lose them again; she had always been in the process of losing.

In the past, she had accepted fleeting romances in the jianghu so easily, because those people sought no promise, only the present. It was enough to be happy for the moment.

But was she really happy?

Mu Xue could no longer understand herself. What she thought was happiness was actually a kind of sorrow, like numbing herself with such temporary needs so she could keep pretending she still knew how to love someone.

Ever since she watched her comrades fall one by one before her eyes, she had begun to fear. She hid behind the scenes, concealed herself, and no longer appeared on the land of Great Yan as her true self.

At that moment, she thought of Lu Yihua; that sincere, straightforward person.

When Lu Yihua said she did not want to remain only a master-disciple pair with her, Mu Xue had not intended to accept her. She had instinctively shrunk back, yet still not refused, just like the disgusting men who drifted through Yanyu Tower all day long.

Because even the timid her would long for such a blazing love!

Lu Yihua… Lu Yihua… A me like this; do you really like it?

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Author’s note: [dog-head][dog-head]