NCCnovel Chapter 304 Since Liu Hongyan still harbors illusions about the Northern Border, let's make her
Chapter 304 Since Liu Hongyan still harbors illusions about the Northern Border, let's make her
On the prison van, Zhao Laosi suddenly opened his eyes.
He gazed in the direction where Liu Hongyan had disappeared, at the figure that was no longer visible.
A flicker of emotion finally appeared in those eyes that had remained silent their entire lives.
He looked away and closed his eyes again.
The night breeze stopped.
The moon hid behind the clouds again.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Four prison vans moved slowly through the alley.
Zhao Laosi sat cross-legged in the center of the prison cart, his back straight, his hands resting on his knees.
His breathing was slow; he could count to seven with each inhale and exhale.
This is the breathing technique he learned at the Northern Army Academy, called Turtle Breathing.
At this moment, there was still a warm energy in his dantian, like a charcoal fire that was about to go out deep in a furnace.
He is a second-rank martial artist.
This identity might not mean much in the North, but for a blacksmith like him, it was enough.
Enough for him to walk out of this prison van alive if necessary.
Ahead in the alley, a patrol of soldiers approached and spoke to the commander of the Imperial Guards.
The alley was too narrow, and the two groups of people were squeezed together, making it impossible to move.
Just then, a horse was startled by the torch.
The chestnut-colored warhorse suddenly reared up and let out a sharp neigh.
The horses nearby also became restless as it stirred.
One of the imperial guards was hit on the shoulder by a horse's head, and the torch in his hand slipped from his grasp, fell to the ground with a "thud," and rolled under the second prison cart.
The damp wood sizzled as it was heated, emitting a pungent plume of white smoke.
"Put out the fire! Put out the fire quickly!" someone shouted.
Several imperial guards rushed forward to extinguish the torches, but the smoke made them cough.
Zhao Laosi's breathing changed; it went from seven counts per breath to five.
He pulled his right hand out of his sleeve, clutching a very thin wire in his palm.
He brought it from the blacksmith's shop; it was wrapped around his wrist and covered by his sleeve.
"Prison van! The prison van is moving!"
Someone shouted.
Zhao Laosi felt the car suddenly lurch.
The left wheel of the prison cart got stuck in a crack in the stone. The horse had just hit it, and a piece of the crack had broken off. The wheel slid out of the crack, and the whole cart began to slowly slide forward along the slope of the alley.
His heart skipped a beat.
The wire peeked out from between his fingers and was inserted into the keyhole.
The movement was so fast it was almost invisible, like a cluster of sparks flying from an iron blank when a hammer strikes.
His fingers moved slightly, feeling the rise and fall of the pins inside the lock cylinder.
"Click."
A very soft click. The lock opened.
The prison van slid even faster.
At the end of the alley is a T-junction, and directly in front is a low wall.
Zhao Laosi watched as the wall drew closer and closer.
Then he moved.
He pulled the hook out of the clasp, pushed open the railing, and sprang out through the gap.
The moment he landed, his knees bent slightly, his toes touched the ground, and he sprang forward.
Behind me, shouts erupted.
"The prisoner has escaped! The prisoner has escaped!"
"Chase them! Chase them quickly!"
The torchlight flickered wildly against the alley walls.
Zhao Laosi did not turn around.
All he could hear was the sound of the wind and his own increasingly steady breathing.
He cannot be arrested.
He cannot die here.
Your Highness needs to know what happened in Liyang.
He must get back alive.
........
The alleys in the north of the city resemble a spider web.
Zhao Laosi lived in Liyang for eight years.
When his feet touched the stone slabs, his body seemed to know where to go on its own.
Turn left. Turn right. Pass through a narrow passage, so narrow you can only squeeze through sideways.
I climbed over a low wall and jumped into a yard full of clutter.
Go out from the other end of the courtyard, and you'll find yourself in another alley.
The shouts behind us grew fainter and fainter, and the torchlight grew dimmer and dimmer.
Finally, there was no sound at all.
Fifteen minutes later, Zhao Laosi stood in front of a dilapidated temple.
The door was ajar. He pushed it, and the hinges made a sharp creaking sound.
He slipped inside, sat down against the wall, and began to regulate his breathing.
Cross your legs and place your palms on your knees with your palms facing up.
His breathing gradually became long and even, returning to a count of seven with each inhale and exhale.
The vital energy flowed slowly through the meridians, soothing the torn wounds and blisters from running, inch by inch.
Half an hour later, he opened his eyes.
He walked to the incense table, squatted down, and used a wire to pry open a loose stone slab.
There was a hole under the stone slab, and inside the hole was an oil paper package.
He opened the oil paper package.
Inside was a short knife, a bag of dry rations, a small bag of silver, and a map drawn on coarse cloth.
He tucked the dagger into his waistband, stuffed the dry rations and silver into his pocket, and tucked the map into the sole of his shoe.
Then he put the stone slab back on and restored the broken tables and chairs to their original state.
He stepped back to the doorway and used his sleeve to wipe the dust off the patch of ground where he had been sitting.
He pushed open the door and slipped out.
Under the moonlight, his figure flashed at the alley entrance and then disappeared.
.......
As dawn approached, Zhao Laosi stood at the foot of the city wall.
The wall was very high, more than three zhang (approximately 10 meters), and there were soldiers patrolling the top.
His eyes searched the wall.
About two zhang above the ground, there was a rusty iron nail stuck in a crack between the bricks.
Those are signs, signs of the North.
He walked three hundred paces along the base of the city wall and stopped under a crooked locust tree.
He crouched down and dug under the exposed tree roots, unearthing a hemp rope about the thickness of a thumb.
The other end of the rope was buried at the base of the wall, leading to the other side of the wall.
This is a tunnel that Northern spies spent decades digging.
A tunnel, only wide enough for one person to crawl through, runs under the city wall and leads out of the city.
He tied the rope around his waist, lay down, and crawled into the hole.
The cave was dark and narrow, with the earthen walls on both sides pressing against his shoulders.
He crawled forward little by little, each movement only taking an inch forward.
It took him a full hour to climb the thirty-zhang (approximately 10 meters) hole.
When I crawled out of the hole, it was already broad daylight.
He lay prone in the grass, squinting as he looked around.
In the distance, there were endless fields, and the stubble glistened silvery-white in the morning light.
Further away, the outline of a village can be seen, with wisps of smoke rising from the rooftops.
Behind them, the city walls of Liyang Imperial City stood majestically in the morning light.
he lived.
He escaped.
He did not look back at the city.
He stood up and walked north.
He has to go back.
The news that Liu Hongyan had betrayed them must be personally delivered to His Highness the Crown Prince.
The thought pierced his heart, like a wire stuck in his fingernail.
He didn't stop, he kept walking.
However, what he would never know was that two figures were always watching him from behind, or more precisely, from the clouds above the imperial city.
.......
The clouds spread out beneath my feet like an endless white ocean, shimmering with silver light under the moonlight.
Qin Mu stood with his hands behind his back atop the clouds, his moon-white robe fluttering gently in the night breeze.
He stood there, languid, as if he were not standing on a towering mountain, but simply on an ordinary path in his own backyard.
As Qin Mu watched the figure recede into the distance, a meaningful smile curved his lips.
"This play is very exciting and interesting."
Zhao Qingxue stood half a step behind him.
The morning breeze lifted the hem of her moon-white dress and her long, flowing hair.
Her dark hair danced in the wind, a few strands brushing against her pale cheeks and obscuring the complex emotions in her eyes.
She was also watching that departing figure.
Watching his figure grow smaller and smaller, farther and farther away, until he finally became an almost invisible black dot.
An indescribable sorrow welled up in her heart.
After all, just a few days ago, the Li Yang Dynasty and the Northern Territory were allies.
She was still sitting in the Tianqi Hall of the Liyang Imperial Palace, discussing with Zhang Julu, Gu Jiantang, and Li Chunfeng how to form an alliance with the Northern Border and how to jointly deal with the Great Qin.
She remembered what Zhang Julu had said.
"The Northern Territory has 300,000 iron cavalry, and Xu Longxiang is a Celestial Phenomenon Realm expert. If we can form an alliance with him, Li Yang will be like a tiger with wings."
She remembered what Gu Jiantang had said.
"Although Xu Longxiang is young, he is a brilliant strategist and a rare talent. If we can join forces with him, the seven towns in the eastern border of the Great Qin will be within our grasp."
Those words still echo in my ears.
But now, she stood high in the sky, watching the spies from the Northern Border flee across the wilderness like stray dogs.
Watching Liu Hongyan personally remove those lurking pieces that had been lying in wait for many years.
Watching Qin Mu effortlessly uproot the intelligence network that the Northern Territory had cultivated in Liyang for many years.
The rabbit mourns the fox's death.
These four words were so clear in her mind at this moment.
Zhao Qingxue took a deep breath, suppressing her sorrow.
"Now, His Majesty should believe in Liu Hongyan's loyalty."
She paused, then looked away from the shrinking black dot and onto Qin Mu's back.
"She can never return to the North."
She believed that Liu Hongyan could never go back.
The once proud, loyal, and willing-to-die Liu Hongyan died last night, the moment she knelt down in the Tianqi Hall.
What survived was merely the shadow of another person.
A shadow that Qin Mu could hold in his palm and manipulate at will.
As Zhao Qingxue gazed at that moon-white figure, the sorrow in her heart deepened.
It wasn't for Liu Hongyan, it was for herself.
Because she knew that feeling all too well. That feeling of never being able to go back.
The person I once was, died the moment I knelt down in the Hall of Apocalypse.
Qin Mu did not turn around, but he seemed to see the sorrow in Zhao Qingxue's eyes.
He smiled.
"No," he said, his voice still soft but each word clear, "you still underestimate this woman."
Zhao Qingxue's eyelashes trembled slightly.
She watched his retreating figure, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes.
Qin Mu turned around and looked at her.
The morning light shone in from behind him, illuminating his handsome face in a half-light, half-shadow.
Those deep eyes held a smile, full of meaning.
"That blacksmith you let go," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice, "is quite interesting."
Zhao Qingxue frowned slightly.
Qin Mu continued, each word as gentle as a spring breeze, yet carrying an all-knowing composure:
"Although this person is taciturn, he is meticulous. In his eight years in Liyang, he has never made a mistake. Every time he transmits intelligence, it is clean, efficient, and leaves no trace. Such a person will not be easily judged."
He paused, his gaze falling on Zhao Qingxue's face, deep and unfathomable:
"He may not think that Liu Hongyan betrayed the Northern Border."
Zhao Qingxue's pupils contracted slightly.
Seeing the change in her eyes, Qin Mu's smile deepened.
"With Liu Hongyan's strength and methods, she had a thousand ways to erase the scars on her face, but she didn't do it."
"Because she was using her silence and the scars on her face to tell the other party that she had not betrayed the North, that she was forced, and that she had her reasons."
Zhao Qingxue fell silent.
Her lips trembled slightly; she wanted to say something, but couldn't utter a single word.
Qin Mu looked at her and smiled softly.
He didn't say anything more, but turned around and walked into the depths of the sea of clouds.
"Let's go."
"Since Liu Hongyan still harbors illusions about the Northern Border—"
He paused, then turned and glanced at Zhao Qingxue.
Those deep eyes held a smile, full of meaning.
"Then let her give up completely."
Zhao Qingxue followed behind Qin Mu, watching the moon-white figure gradually disappear into the sea of clouds.
The morning light shone in from behind him, casting a pale golden halo over his silhouette, making him appear like a legendary immortal, walking on clouds, untouched by worldly dust.
She took a deep breath and followed him.