“How arrogant you are,” Yu Haitang said while smiling at Leng Changxi. For him, it seemed more interesting to tame Leng Changxi who was as wild as a wolf, than usurp the throne with Sima Ray, an ambitious prince.
“Leng Changxi, you should plot against me in secret. How insidious you are!” Sima Ray wielded his sword whose shine flashed like a silver flower and then disappeared quickly.
“An eye for an eye,” Leng Changxi said while taking a glance at Sima Ray. “I will treat a gentleman with due respect. But for villains, I don’t think I should do so.”
Leng Changxi jumped off the horse and the black-iron spear in his hand was awe-inspiring, while Sima Ray wielded his sword rapidly. They two hadn’t fought with each other before. A royal member as he was, Sima Ray didn’t stop practicing martial arts. This fight was a matter of prestige. He ordered all soldiers to step back and not to help him.
The sword and the spear clanged. After dozens of moves, Leng Changxi suddenly bent and then stamped on the ground to fly up. He directly jumped over Sima Ray’s face. Sima Ray tended to strike back, but Leng Changxi complacently waved a pinch of hair that was over 30 centimeters long. Then Sima Ray realized his hair on the temples had been cut off by Leng Changxi. The left hair drooped near his earlobe, which was very ironic.
“The ancients said cutting off hair was equal to cutting off the head,” Leng Changxi said while playing with the hair. “Your Royal Highness, I win.”
No, how could it be?
Sima Ray gritted his teeth, and his eyes turned dreadfully red. He glared at Leng Changxi and made a gesture to archers in the dark to tell them to aim at Leng Changxi. Right at this pressing moment, a cold voice broke the dreadful balance. “Soldiers, retreat.”
“What?” Sima Ray unbelievably looked back at Yu Haitang. “Mr. Yu, are you sure?”
Yeah, even if Leng Changxi was so powerful that Sima Ray alone couldn’t win him, how would he be able to dodge all arrows?
“I never say the same thing twice,” Yu Haitang sounded cold and didn’t look up. He just turned his wheelchair back, and that small monkey followed him tamely. It jumped and looked cute. However, Sima Ray felt bitter.
“Your Royal Highness, what should we?” The archer near him asked with hesitation. Sima Ray had paused for a long time until a soldier near the camp gate shouted, “Gosh, look what’s on the wall!”
Everyone looked at the high wall and found that those small boats already shipped soldiers there when Leng Changxi jumped onto the wall.
Sima Ray’s water stockade was well designed and built near the river. The wall foot was firmly built underwater. Even if people dived down, they had no way to go through those solid logs there. But unexpectedly, Leng Changxi’s men didn’t plan to break in underwater. They wore on their palms and heels a kind of tools that could claw at the wall. So they could climb up along the slippery wall. There were so many West Xia soldiers climbing on the nearly vertical wall. Anyone who had seen parasites in the arsenal would know what the scene looked like. It was like numerous people-eating ants were heading for you, but you couldn’t run away.
“Useless. You are all useless. Where are guards outside the stockade? Do they just let these people climb up?” Sima Ray was vexed. While being escorted by guards to retreat, he looked indifferently at Leng Changxi who stood in front of him.
“Your Royal Highness, do you forget that you’ve asked all soldiers to help prevent ships from sinking when they were damaged?”
Sima Ray paused and immediately understood why Yu Haitang asked to retreat. The boat exclusive to Yu Haitang was already far from them and had docked near the other exit of the water stockade.
Other than the small monkey, only a short page who was merely as tall as Yu Haitang when he sat in the wheelchair followed him. He was not young and short. But he was nimble and could be regarded as Yu Haitang’s henchman.
Taking a look at people on the wall who were in a mess, the page lowered his head and asked Yu Haitang, “Sir, you know how to defeat Leng Changxi. But why didn’t you do so?”
Yu Haitang smiled and took over the ripe peach the monkey handed. He weighed it in his hand and said, “Only ripe peaches are tasty. Likewise, it’s more interesting to defeat a maturer rival. I haven’t met such a competent rival for years. Leng Changxi has much in common with him. I lost to him that year, so this time, I will take more time to play with Leng Changxi.”
On the wall, soldiers fought with each other fiercely with blood everywhere. Although Yu Haitang ordered to retreat, many soldiers still followed Sima Ray’s direction that they should never abandon the stockade even at the risk of life to fight there. At once, the red blood flew into the Sui River. Standing on the prow, Qin Yunuan couldn’t help frowning when seeing this.
Mu Qingyu sighed with feeling, “In many places, peace comes at this price.”
“Right,” Qin Yunuan said with tears in her eyes. Although these dead soldiers were traitors who joined Sima Ray’s camp, they after all were Qi’s people. “I only hope it’s worth it.”
With almost no loss of any soldier, Leng Changxi occupied the water stockade Sima Ray took pains to build, simply by virtue of local fishermen’s help and their unique climbing tools.
When Leng Changxi walked in the stockade, he saw soldiers in black armor were busy with clearing up food and weapons Sima Ray’s army left. Then he took a look at Qin Yunuan who stood next to him in the wind and asked her in a gentle voice, “Are you cold? If you are, you can stay in the room.”
“I’m not,” Qin Yunuan replied when looking at the Sui River in which blood could still be seen. “But I’m curious what you had talked to Yu Haitang and Sima Ray on the battlement. Before you mastered the Tongming gate Qigong, you could already defeat Sima Ray. So now, you can easily behead him in three moves. But why didn’t you do so? Why did you just cut off his hair? You were not pulling your punches but deliberately leaving trouble for yourself. Changxi, I can’t understand what you are doing.”
Leng Changxi turned his head a bit, and his clear-cut chin moved. His eyes were as dark as an old well where people couldn’t see the bottom.
“It’s because of Yu Haitang.”
“Yu Haitang?” Qin Yunuan was confused.
“Yes. I also wanted to directly kill Sima Ray so that his army had no leader. And soldiers wouldn’t be able to unite together even if Yu Haitang could act as their leader. When I was about to wield my spear, I saw Yu Haitang’s eyes, and then I heard a voice that seemed to come from afar.”
“A voice?”
“Right. That voice told me not to kill him. I wanted to get rid of it, but I couldn’t even if I leveraged all my genuine energy. That voice seemed to live in my ear. Because of this, the spear went astray, and I just cut off Sima Ray’s hair.”
Qin Yunuan thought about it for a while and felt the scene was a bit familiar. “Do you remember that Qiu Shuihan also made people out of their wits when she played the zither. Later, we found out she was using the dementing trick. But it is exclusive to people of the Qiu Family, and only its exalted sons and daughters can learn it. How could Yu Haitang use it? But I don’t think he will lower himself to learn it.”
Leng Changxi was also thinking about this carefully. After Qin Yunuan reminded him of this, he really thought Yu Haitang was using the dementing trick at that time. Right now, Leng Shuang, who was out to investigate, came back and reported that Sima Ray and his men had pitched camps in Ping Town, which was 15 kilometers away from the water stockade. And she found Qiu Shuihan’s corpse in woods in Ping Town. Her body turned purple, and she died miserably.
It seemed that Sima Ray already knew it was because of Qiu Shuihan that he was poisoned, after Yu Haitang reminded him. He tended to kill her later, but Yu Haitang had seen her through. Figuring everything out, Qin Yunuan felt sorry for Qiu Shuihan on one hand because she was forced to serve the man who killed her father. On the other hand, she felt relieved that she saved Shangguan Yuen.
Thankfully, it was Leng Shuang who was scrupulous that followed Sima Ray. She added, “But I found that Qiu Shuihan didn’t die of poison but the loss of martial arts which led to her kidney rupture.”
Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi looked at each other, and they seemed to understand what was wrong.
“I see. You can leave now,” Qin Yunuan said and saw Heiying stood downstairs in the distance, waiting for Leng Shuang with a snow-white cloak in his hand. This was a women’s wear so it must be for Leng Shuang.
As she expected, when Leng Shuang walked down, Heiying reached out and handed the cloak over to her. “Put it on.”
“I’m not cold.”
“Even so, you still have to put it on. You’re injured, and you can’t walk in thin clothes in such a heavy wind.”
Seeing Heiying cared about Leng Shuang very much, Qin Yunuan felt reassured and said, “If Qiu Shuihan really died of the loss of her martial arts and Yu Haitang mastered the dementing trick…” Qin Yunuan didn’t finish the sentence, but Leng Changxi understood her. He nodded and said, “He has transferred Qiu Shuihan’s martial arts to himself. So effortless!”
Hearing that, Qin Yunuan couldn’t help frowning and said, “He hasn’t not only transferred her martial arts, but also has enhanced the trick. Sima Ray has many talented people around him, so will Yu Haitang…”
Nearly at the same time, a scary scream broke the silence in Sima Ray’s camp 15 kilometers away. A pale-faced man who dressed like a doctor ran out of Xu Ji’s tent, stumbling and scrambling. He opened his mouth and was so shocked as if he had seen a ghost. After a long while, he shouted, “The ghost has eaten the soul of Xu Ji, no, Lieutenant Xu.”
