Hua Shanyue looked around the dense forest, only then did he notice that there were many enemies in the forest, and there were many corpses from both sides. Looking at the blood and the traces of battle, especially after he took the thin hiltless sword, he finally understood how tragic the battle last night was, and his expression couldn't help but change slightly.
He signaled his subordinates to prepare the horse and said, "Your Highness, the reinforcement team is already on the way. We should leave quickly."
Princess Li Yu nodded and agreed with his arrangement. She walked away under the heavy protection of the cavalry.
At this time, Hua Shanyue coldly glanced at Ning Que beside the fire. There was no emotion in his eyes, which made people feel cold. He was guessing the real relationship between this young soldier and Her Highness. However, no matter how he thought about it, he felt that this soldier could not pose any threat to him, so his eyes became more and more indifferent.
The indifference in his eyes actually hid many possibilities. Ning Que was very clear about this. He quietly looked at Hua Shanyue's back and thought of the passion and tenderness in his eyes. He knew that he would not harm the idiot princess, but it seemed that his possessiveness was too strong.
The young general's fanatical love for Her Highness had nothing to do with a soldier like Ning Que. However, Ning Que did not like the indifference in Hua Shanyue's last glance. He knew that this kind of indifference meant that he was powerful and could kill at any time. It also meant that he did not care about the princess.
Ning Que did not like it, so he stood up and looked at the girl who was about to get on the horse. He raised his chin and smiled. "Your Highness, actually I have something to say to you since we were in the City of Wei …"
Hua Shanyue suddenly looked back. In the morning light, the beautiful princess on the white horse turned around with a frown. She quietly looked at the young soldier beside the fire and seemed to want to scold him. In the end, she just said lightly, "Let's talk about it when we return to Chang 'an."
Before leaving, Hua Shanyue asked the bodyguard leader in a low voice. He roughly understood what the princess had encountered since she entered the country. He also knew about Ning Que's performance in the assassination last night. He was silent for a moment and walked to Ning Que. He said calmly, "You have made a great contribution this time. The imperial court will reward you when we return to Chang 'an … Well done, little guy."
Ning Que took Sangsang to the shabby tent on the slope to pack his luggage.
Sangsang awkwardly tied the big black umbrella on her back again. Suddenly, she raised her sharp chin and frowned at Ning Que. She asked confusedly, "Young master, did you deliberately say … you have something to say?"
"Yeah." Ning Que scraped the coagulated blood off the blade and answered casually, "Hua Shanyue is too hypocritical and boring. I don't like him, so I have to make him unhappy."
"Young Master, what were you going to say to Her Royal Highness?" Sangsang stopped what she was doing and asked curiously.
"How would I know?" Ning Que sheathed his knife, looked at her and shrugged. He said, "Anyway, I can't say that I've been deeply in love with you since the first day I saw you in the City of Wei …"
"But Commandant Hua might think so, and His Highness … might really think that you want to say this."
"It's not surprising that idiots have idiotic ideas." Ning Que replied.
The little handmaiden looked into his eyes seriously and said, "Do you feel that you are sometimes very bored?"
Ning Que tilted his head to show that he agreed.
Sangsang shook her head and looked at him again after a while. She asked, "Young master, is it that in your eyes, everyone else in the world is an idiot except for you?"
Ning Que thought seriously while tying the scabbard. After a long time, he answered seriously, "This problem is not about me. It's that there are always many idiots in the world doing idiotic things. A man like Hua Shanyue is not an idiot, but he actually believes in love, which makes him an idiot. "
Sangsang pointed at her nose with her index finger and asked seriously, "Am I also an idiot in your eyes?"
Ning Que looked at the tanned little face and answered seriously, "You're not an idiot. You're just stupid."
Before they left the Northern Mountain Road, a small episode happened.
The Gushan Commandery cavalry left a few cavalrymen to guard the scene. The Men of Sacrifice who dared to assassinate the Princess of Tang would not leave any clues, so they were not here to investigate the case, but to protect the corpses. After the main force arrived, all the corpses would be transported back to Chang 'an for burial. It was the iron rule of the Tang Army not to leave a comrade, dead or alive.
The corpses of their comrades were carefully placed in the forest, while the corpses of the enemies were randomly piled on the ground, waiting to be burned into ashes. When it was the turn to deal with the body of the middle-aged scholar in cyan robe, the cavalrymen were in a dilemma. They knew that he was a Great Sword Master, so they didn't know whether they should show respect to him.
Hua Shanyue slightly frowned and decided to bury the Great Sword Master. At this moment, Lyu Qingchen whispered to them, "This man has joined the Diabolism."
Hearing the word "Diabolism", the young general's face turned serious. When he looked at the corpse wrapped in cyan robe again, there was no longer any respect, but only disdain. He waved his hand like shooing away a fly and said, "Throw it in and burn it."
…
…
They drove out of the southern exit of the Northern Mountain Road in the early morning and met with the main force of the Gushan Commandery at noon. Under the heavy protection of hundreds of elite cavalrymen, the Fourth Princess of Tang, Li Yu, and her team continued to march to the capital Chang 'an. At this time, neither the Tang Empire nor the enemies from other countries could threaten her safety.
For the next few days, Li Yu and the little prince of the Barbarian Tribe stayed in the carriage and did not appear in front of the public.
Although there were hundreds of light cavalrymen escorting them, the surviving bodyguards and grassland barbarians still insisted on riding their horses and guarding around the carriages regardless of their injuries. The old man Lyu Qingchen was in the second carriage, and the heavily injured bodyguards and barbarians were in the carriages behind. As for Ning Que and his little handmaiden Sangsang, they were sitting in their own shabby carriage and lagging far behind.
At the border of the Gushan Commandery, all the heavy cavalrymen were replaced by light cavalrymen, so the team suddenly sped up. Those sturdy carriages in the front could still keep up, but Ning Que and his handmaiden's carriage seemed to be struggling.
A cavalryman galloped to their carriage and scolded angrily, "You are too slow. Hurry up!"
Just like the first few days after they left the City of Wei, Ning Que felt sleepy sitting on the shaft of the carriage. He looked like he was about to fall down at any time, and Sangsang was holding him up by his side. Hearing the angry scolding of the cavalryman, he opened his eyes and glanced at him without saying a word.
Looking at the back of the cavalryman, Sangsang wiped the two or three beads of sweat on her forehead, squinted her willow-like eyes and said, "Young master, we seem to be despised."
"Despised is a good word. If you use the word 'forgotten', it would be too sour and flirtatious."
Ning Que glanced at the carriage in the front and thought of the princess who had never shown her face again. He said with a smile, "For poor guys like us who have to work hard to survive, any kind of sour and flirtatious feelings are disgusting."
Sitting side by side with the princess by the fire for a night of fairy tales, this kind of scene seemed so dreamy no matter in Chang 'an or on the grassland. That kind of scene was a real fairy tale, not real.
A small soldier from the border town saved a noble by chance, got the corresponding reward, and then never contacted the Heavenly Earth again. This was the real story in the real world.
There were heroic epics in this world, but there were no fairy tales. If Romeo was not the son of a noble but a dung digger, Juliet would have a much more intense psychological struggle when she died for him.
Ning Que had always thought that he had a clear understanding of this kind of thing. He knew that the profile of the girl by the fire was just a fake image, and the most important thing was that he had never really fallen in love with her. He just appreciated that such a girl also had such a moment, so he did not have any feelings in his heart.
…
…
After replenishing the supplies in the Gushan Commandery, the team did not take a break but chose to continue all the way south. It seemed that Her Highness was really eager to return to Chang 'an and return to her father who loved her dearly.
Hua Shanyue should also know Ning Que's background and knew that he was just the most common soldier from the border town, so he naturally would not really misunderstand that there was anything between Ning Que and the princess, so Ning Que was not troubled by the Gushan Commandery.
After setting up camp and resting, Sangsang went to the river to fetch water, wash rice and slaughter fish, and made a very sumptuous dinner. The master and the handmaiden put the main dish into the rice bowl, and then ate happily with a few pickled cabbages and chili. They ate until they were sweating profusely and felt comfortable.
A man with a cold face came in and looked at the scene in front of him. He shook his head and smiled, "We asked you to go there and eat from the same pot, but you refused. We thought you were resentful. Now it seems that you think the food over there is too bad … I really don't know how many lifetimes you have such a capable little handmaiden. "
Such a compliment was a bit too much for a lowly handmaiden. But Sangsang did not feel anything. She smiled and continued to eat. Ning Que, on the other hand, took it for granted.
The man was called Peng Guotao, the Tang bodyguard leader who performed well in the bloody battle on the Northern Mountain Road, and was deeply trusted by the princess. However, he had followed the princess into the grassland for a year with his subordinates, and encountered a series of bloody battles after returning home. Now there were only seven loyal subordinates left, and this leader's mood must be very complicated and sad.
They were comrades who had gone through life and death together on the Northern Mountain Road, and the friendship forged by blood was much more solid than ordinary friendship. Ning Que's performance in the battle must have been engraved in the minds of the people present.
Therefore, these days the horse carriage that the Gushan Commandery cavalry despised often received Peng Guotao and the other bodyguards as guests. The grassland barbarians also brought some hard liquor to Ning Que and his handmaiden, but they were rarely willing to be within a hundred feet of him, and rarely talked to him. It was unknown whether it was because of the legend of Shubi Lake.
"I know there is no problem for you to go to the capital on your own, and indeed it is not very comfortable for you to go with the cavalry. But after I reported your request, there has been no reply." Peng Guotao looked at him and said apologetically, "You are sent by the City of Wei, and without the permission of Her Highness, you can't go."
Ning Que scratched his head and said, "Then I will follow them for a while."
…
…
The journey to Chang 'an seemed to pass without any surprises, dangers, and boring. However, on the second night, Ning Que suddenly received an invitation from the second horse carriage. Lyu Qingchen wanted to see him.
Ning Que was a little surprised and happy at the same time. He frowned and thought for a long time, and then decided not to think about anything else. He put out the fire next to the carriage with the fish porridge in the bowl, and then walked forward with Sangsang.
The curtain of the carriage was lifted, and the dim light shone warmly. Lyu Qingchen, the Psyche Master, looked at Ning Que and the handmaiden respectfully bowing to him, and felt a little surprised. He thought to himself that this lad should know why he asked him to get on the carriage. Wasn't he worried that he would be unwilling to answer his questions because of the presence of a third person?
The old man suddenly remembered the story that he had heard by the fire at the entrance of Northern Mountain Road that night, the story that he could not help but want to hear even when he was meditating … The story of a little boy and a little girl carrying bows and arrows on their backs, desperately surviving in the vast Min Mountain. He thought that he understood the reason why Ning Que took Sangsang with him, so he was relieved and found this lad even more pleasing to the eye.
In fact, Ning Que did not think too much about it. Taking Sangsang with him was just a deep-rooted habit.
The old man clasped his hands on his knees and said gently, "You should know very well why I came to see you."
Ning Que was silent. He pressed his left hand on the back of his right hand, and then pressed it on the floor in front of him. He knelt down on his knees and slowly leaned forward, touching the back of his left hand with his forehead, and made the most solemn bow in the empire.
Although the old man Lyu Qingchen had not done anything yet, and it was highly likely that the old man would not be able to help him either, because that was a world that only the truly abnormal geniuses could reach. However, only people like Ning Que, who had been reading the Article on the Response of the Tao since he was a child, could understand the compassion and generosity of a cultivator who was willing to give guidance to an ordinary person who obviously had no potential.
Seeing Ning Que's solemn bow, Sangsang hurriedly moved her knees to the old man and kowtowed to him, although she did not understand the young master's action.
Seeing this scene, the old man Lyu Qingchen could not help but stroke his beard and smile. He then helped Ning Que up, collected his thoughts, closed his eyes, and put his two withered palms on Ning Que's chest and back. After a while, the warm light of the oil lamp in the carriage became somewhat blurred, as if there were countless extremely tiny dust particles flying and diffusing in the light.
There was a dead silence, and time passed unknowingly.
The turbid oil lamp gradually became bright and clear. The old man slowly withdrew his palms and quietly looked at Ning Que, whose face was calm and eyes did not show any expectation, but in fact, his hands were slightly trembling. The old man sighed softly.
"There is breath in heaven and earth, and that breath is the so-called primordial Qi. Cultivators can perceive the existence of primordial Qi by their psyche. Therefore, whether you can step into the state of cultivation first depends on whether your psyche can accumulate and manifest."
"When I was in the City of Wei, I went to see you and confirmed that there was no fluctuation of breath in your body. Today, I carefully examined your body and found that it was indeed so. Your Snow Mountain and Ocean of Qi are as empty as a field."
"… There is nothing."
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