“What’s wrong with the Yunlong Valley?” Maner was really confused, but she could indeed feel that when Leng Wu followed the general to leave, he looked obviously a little unsettled. However, when she asked him about it, he merely told her not to worry and to take good care of Qin Yunuan in West Xia, expecting his message of returning safely. Actually, Maner knew that Leng Wu took the excuse of taking care of Qin Yunuan just to let her stay in West Xia.
“Yunlong Valley is not high, but the miasma is strong inside, and it has nurtured a strange creature, the wild monkey.”
“What’s so horrifying about wild monkeys? According to the skill of Leng Shuang, she can cut down several of them by one attack,” while comforting Qin Yunuan, Ting Xue brought White Fungus Broth for her to help her body recover. Having laid for three days, although Qin Yunuan recovered her feeling of limbs, her stomach was still empty.
“I don’t need to worry if they are ordinary wild monkeys. I remember that the book, The Collection of Mountains and Rivers, has recorded that the monkeys in the Yunlong Valley are born to be clever. They can turn into humans, imitate the voice of humans, and befuddle their minds. Even the locals dare not to come into the valley easily,” Qin Yunuan frowned. She had no intention to have the White Fungus Broth in front of her, so she stood up directly, “Prepare the fastest horse for me. I’ll go there.”
“Madam, it’s not proper,” Maner was urged again and again by Leng Changxi not to let Qin Yunuan go out no matter what happened, “Madam, you’ve only learned to ride horses for a few days. The road is so long! Besides, your body has recovered just now. You can’t travel anymore.”
“Well, do you know any method that can break the wild monkeys’ deception?” Qin Yunuan turned her head to stare at Maner.
Maner shook her head.
“Do someone in the army know it then?”
Maner shook her head again.
“If you worry about me, come with me,” Qin Yunuan stood up, but Ting Xue stepped forward and stopped her, “Madam.”
“You too,” Qin Yunuan strode out of the house. She knew that although Leng Shuang will leave with the army, Leng Changxi would definitely leave Yuanyang to protect her. Facing the empty yard, Qin Yunuan could feel that there was a master-hand protecting her in the yard through the genuine energy in her body, “Yuanyang, if you really worry about Qi and Prince Ning’s Mansion, you should go with me instead of stopping me secretly in the yard.”
Long silence. Then with a sound “bang”, outside came the sound of the door bolt landing. In fact, the door of the courtyard was already locked. It seems that Leng Changxi had tried hard to lock Qin Yunuan.
When Qin Yunuan got up, the time was about noon. At noon, three fast horses had directly gone out of the gate of the city. The leading one was Qin Yunuan, who simply had her hair bundled up and wore a light purple skirt, with a four-finger-wide belt tightening her thin waist. She was riding a red adult female horse, appearing strong. She was followed by Ting Xue. Maner couldn’t ride, so she sat behind Yuanyang.
Qin Yunuan was calculating secretly in her mind. According to Leng Changxi’s marching speed, they would have reached the entrance of Yunlong Valley this evening. If they always rode horses and kept going for days and nights without rest, it would take Qin Yunuan one day and a half to get there. With the composure of soldiers in black armor, it remained a mystery how long they could persist.
Fast! It needed to be faster!
Qin Yunuan had only learned to ride horses for one month. She was not supposed to be riding so fast. Yuanyang had been following Qin Yunuan discreetly. Although Qin Yunuan didn’t ride so fixedly, she never slowed down a bit.
This evening, Qin Yunuan had already reached a forest, in which she could clearly find traces that the army had stationed here. The remains of the bonfire and some cloth bags of eaten dry provisions were buried under the roots of the trees. It seemed that the way Leng Changxi ruled his army was still strict.
“Madam, the marks of the horses’ hoofs have been found. They headed for the path to the east,” Yuanyang reported after checking the situation ahead and returned. Ting Xue had made a small bonfire, and Maner brought some wild fruit with her pocket picked from the forest. The white horse behind her was carrying some dry wood.
Qin Yunuan leaned her back against a sturdy pine branch. She still couldn’t get it. There were so many roads from West Xia to Qi, why did Leng Changxi choose to go through the Yunlong Valley?
“Who decided to go through the Yunlong Valley?” Qin Yunuan was curious.
“It’s General Leng himself,” Maner got the message directly from Leng Wu. That must be right.
“How muddled he is!”
“According to my husband, General had chosen three roads at the beginning. General Leng thought one of them was too long, and another was too close to North Di. He worried that they might be attacked on that road. So he chose Yunlong Valley.”
“The long distance is okay. Hasty marching is the worst. Besides, it is only a short time after he took over the army. There were very few of his subjects and believers in the army. He must have been in a hurry and was eager to take his army back to Qi. How can I not worry about him if he has such an idea?” Qin Yunuan pushed away the horn kettle Ting Xue handed over to her. She had no idea to drink. The wind in the woods was very strong, blowing the hair before her forehead a little messy. It stuck to her forehead, which was full of sweat.
Maner hesitated a little, “Actually, Leng Wu said so too. Nobody knew why General Leng was in such a hurry.”
“He was too hasty,” Qin Yunuan shook her head, “Maybe it was because he wanted to pick Elder Princess as early as he could.”
“He wants more to pick you earlier, Madam,” Yuanyang was the oldest of them all. So she could see through things much more clearly than Maner and Ting Xue did.
Only resting for two hours, Qin Yunuan dragged three people to keep going overnight. On the next evening, they could already see from a distance the top of Yuexia Mountain, the main peak of Yunlong Valley. There was a saying, “Even though you see a mountain, you still need to go far enough to kill a horse to reach it”. So Qin Yunuan continued to work fast. Yuanyang, however, pointed to a flustered ragged soldier-like person outside the valley and stopped.
“Madam, look there!” Just when Yuanyang was about to ride her horse to get there, she was stopped by Qin Yunuan.
But the soldier seemed to be badly injured, climbing hard with hands towards Qin Yunuan and other people as if he were asking for help. Seeing this, both Maner and Ting Xue felt sympathy towards him, especially Maner, who thought that maybe Leng Wu had had an accident inside. Just when she couldn’t help rushing forward to cure the soldier, Qin Yunuan prohibited with a clear order, “None of you is allowed to go near him.”
Then Qin Yunuan pulled out the soft sword in her hand, which was left to her by Leng Shuang. She held the bridle with one hand and moved toward the soldier quickly. Just when she went past the soldier, he suddenly jumped up with amazing strength, not like what a wounded soldier could do.
Qin Yunuan held her breath, took out the soft sword in her hand without hesitation and poked into the soldier’s chest directly. She did not learn many tricks, and this one may be called the most effective one.
Something strange happened. The armor of the soldier, who had been at his last gasp just now, suddenly became loose. The tall and strong soldier turned into an ape with a sword in its chest. The figure became much smaller.
Seeing this, the three people coming from afar all covered their mouth with hands, looking surprised.
“This is the wild monkey I said,” Qin Yunuan used her soft sword to stir back and forth, ensuring that the animal at her foot was totally dead, “It can switch to the form of a human, imitate the voice of a human and deceive your mind. Just now, your sudden sympathy with it was also because you were puzzled by it.”
Finishing her words, Qin Yunuan looked at the smoggy valley as if she could hear countless roars of wild monkeys from it. She didn’t know how Leng Changxi and the 200,000 soldiers in black armor were inside.
At the same time, Leng Changxi, who was missed by Qin Yunuan, was trying his best to kill a soldier in black armor beside him. With one attack of his blade, he ripped off the soldier’s throat. The soldiers in black armor came from the other side of the mountain waves after waves. They looked exactly the same as Leng Changxi’s army from appearance to dressing.
“General,” a figure flashed from the back of Leng Changxi. Leng Changxi used his spear to stab the coming person, but the attack was dexterously flashed.
“General, it’s me,” Leng Wu was covered with blood from head to toe, which belonged to those monsters as well as his brothers, “It doesn’t work. There are too many monsters. It’s been a day, but we can’t kill all of them. Or, we’d better break out of the encirclement.”
“There’re 200,000 soldiers in black armor in all. Every one of them is fighting. We’ve just lost more than 30 now. If we try to break the encirclement, we will lose more,” Leng Changxi looked at those people appearing the same as his army and gritted his teeth in hatred.
“However, if we keep fighting like that, the soldiers won’t be able to insist,” Leng Wu begged, “For the whole day, soldiers can’t even drink water. The power of the wild monkey is much more horrible than our imagination.”
“I think it weird too,” Leng Changxi frowned, “I have read The Collection of Mountains and Rivers. It has recorded this creature, but it also said that it was about to extinct, and what was left were the old and the weak. However, you see those wild monkeys on the mountain. They are very young. I assume that they are no more than 20 years old. I guess that someone has raised them or train them intentionally.”
“General, be careful,” Leng Wu hit down a soldier that changed from the wild monkey with one attack and kick directly at the heart of the monkey.
As wild monkeys had changed the same as soldiers in black armor, there were always people killing or hurting his comrades by mistake. There were howls of soldiers in black armor hurt by his comrades in mistake from time to time.
“Remember, wild monkeys can’t talk. They can only imitate the human voice by using onomatopoetic words.” Leng Changxi was standing at the top. He looked down at the situation of the war under his feet, feeling much worried.
However, all of a sudden, a fluting, clear and gentle, came from deep in the peaceful valley. It was as quiet as a pool of deep, still water, surrounding every corner of the valley. Every flower and every grass were infiltrating in the beautiful fluting. The one playing the flute was dressed in light purple clothes, walking from the dense foggy forest slowly to the hillside. The soldiers were soon attracted by the magical fluting.
At this time, somebody shouted loudly, “You see! Those wild monkeys all turn back to their original appearance.”
