It was late spring in Chang 'an and the temperature was getting hotter. But it was the best season in the Wilderness in the north. The breeze blew through the knee-high grass like a green ocean. About 50 miles north of the Left King's Palace, there were many colors in the green ocean near the Min Mountain.
The scorched ground, the cut grass roots, the broken arrows that were deeply embedded in the ground, and the traces left by the tactical arrays showed that a war had just ended here.
The war came to the Wilderness with spring and ended as spring deepened. The Central Plains Allied Forces were strong and with the help of the palace's cavalry, they started a series of battles with the Desolate Man tribes that were migrating south. The cruel war lasted for nearly a hundred days and many people died on both sides. However, the Desolate Man managed to hold on to the last line of defense and kept the most important and fertile pastures.
The West-Hill Divine Palace issued an edict and all the countries' provisions were continuously transported to the Yan Kingdom. Even with the help of powerful cultivators, they still failed to drive the Desolate Man back to the cold region. The reason was that the Desolate Man warriors were strong. The Tang Cavalry and the West-Hill Papal Cavalrymen did not take action.
The smell of burning embers floated on the grassland after the war. Not far away, on the sloping meadow of Min Mountain, there were hundreds of piles of stones. All kinds of cloth strips were hung on the piles, dancing in the spring breeze. These piles of stones were the graves of the grassland cavalrymen.
Bodies of the Desolate Man warriors were rarely seen on the grassland because no matter how fierce the war was, the Desolate Man would bring their dead companions back to the tribe at all costs.
After nearly a hundred days of war, the Central Plains Coalition Army did not capture a single Desolate Man.
The Tang Cavalry, who rode on horses to clean up the battlefield, looked at the piles of stones in the distance and thought of the Desolate Man's performance on the battlefield. They were vigilant and a little impressed.
Never be a captive and never leave a comrade behind. This was also the iron rule of the Tang Army. The Tang Army finally understood why the Desolate Men were called natural-born warriors a thousand years ago and why their ancestors spent so much effort to drive the Desolate Men out of the Wilderness.
They were all the best warriors, so it was not surprising that the Tang Army admired the Desolate Man tribe. They wanted to find a chance to fight with the powerful Desolate Man.
Regretfully, in this bloody and cruel war, the Great Tang's Northeast Border Army was responsible for escorting supplies, suppressing rebellions, maintaining military discipline, and cleaning up the battlefield. It had no chance of entering the main battlefield.
Because this was the will of the Great Tang Emperor, as well as the order of General Xiahou.
…
…
Xia Hou looked at the fertile grassland under his feet and the grass roots that had been stepped into the soil by his boots. He slowly moved the soles of his boots, and with a soft sizzling sound, something that looked like oil squeezed out from the side of his boots. In addition to the rotten black soil, there was also a lot of rotten blood.
Since the start of the war, the cavalry under his command had yet to face the warriors of the Desolate Man tribe. They had not even seen a single Desolate Man. However, he was not as curious and excited as his subordinates to fight with them — because he was a Desolate Man himself.
Looking at the black bloodstains left on the grassland, Xia Hou imagined the last battle a few days ago. He imagined the scene of his clansmen, whom he had not seen for a long time, falling under arrows or flying swords. His indifferent face was expressionless, but his eyebrows slightly twitched.
The cavalry of the Tang Empire did not go to the front of the battlefield. This was His Majesty's order, as well as his own thoughts. His Majesty knew of his background, but still let him personally command the war. This meant that he agreed with his thoughts.
Xia Hou was very grateful for His Majesty's trust.
A clear whistle came from afar. He looked up expressionlessly and saw a grassland girl riding a horse and herding hundreds of sheep a few hundred feet below the meadow.
Not long after the war, the people on the grassland started herding again. From this point of view, life was always peaceful and simple. The war was just an interlude.
Looking at the grassland girl with rosy cheeks and bright eyes, Xia Hou remembered the scene when he escaped from the Front Gate many years ago and met his sister again in Hebei County.
Then he confirmed that his gratitude to His Majesty had nothing to do with the trust and tolerance he had shown over the years. He was just grateful that His Majesty treated his sister well.
…
…
Mr. Ke destroyed the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine with a single sword. Xia Hou went south to the Tang Empire and served in the army for decades. In the end, he became the top general of the Tang Empire. Then he became a distinguished visiting professor of the West-Hill Divine Palace. But no one knew that he was a remnant of the Devil's Doctrine and a descendant of the Desolate Man.
General Xiahou seemed to be ruthless and powerful, but in reality, the few important figures in the world who knew his true identity had always tried to use his past identity to threaten and control him. His true identity was like countless spider webs, trapping him in the center of the web. No matter how he struggled, he could not break free. He could only gradually fall silent and then gradually suffocate.
The Emperor of the Tang Empire and the Hierarch of the West-Hill Divine Palace knew where he came from. Both of them were like two indestructible stone walls that had been slowly closing in on each other over the years. Sandwiched between the stone walls, he found it hard to breathe. No matter which side he leaned towards, he would die.
He once thought of leaning on both sides of the stone walls. He wanted to be loyal to the Tang Empire and serve the West-Hill at the same time. In the past few years, he had indeed done so. But two loyalties could not get along. So in the end, he could only be loyal to himself. He maintained his strength with violence and coldness, and did not lean against the stone walls.
Regrettably, there was a limit to a person's strength. He was still very strong now, but he would grow old, get sick, and become weak. However, those two stone walls would never become weak. Moreover, he had killed many people, and those people wanted to kill him very much.
So Xia Hou wanted to make himself strong forever. He went to the north of the Hulan Sea and wanted to seize the Tomes of Arcane. But in the end, he lost all hope in front of the scholar.
When he was truly in despair, he suddenly had a new hope. In front of him at the end of his rope, there was suddenly a glimmer of hope. That scholar made Xia Hou give up on the idea of being powerful forever, of being insufferably arrogant forever. But he also discovered the possibility of returning safely and not caring about the affairs of the world.
"Summer is coming. Everything is coming to an end."
Xia Hou looked at the grassland in the spring breeze and thought of the coming midsummer. A rare gentle expression gradually appeared on his cold face.
His sister was the Empress of the Tang Empire. His sister's name was Summer.
The gentle spring breeze blew on the general's gentle face. There was a strong smell of blood in the wind, and then there was a sound of weeding.
Not far behind Xia Hou, more than a hundred grassland cavalrymen and Yan soldiers knelt on the ground. Under the bright knife light, their heads were separated from their bodies, and blood flowed into the sea of grass.
These grassland cavalrymen and Yan soldiers were arrested for rebellion and violation of rules. They were all killed without a trial, just because of General Xia Hou's words.
On the battlefield, the Northeast Border Military of the Tang Empire was responsible for maintaining military discipline and suppressing rebellions. But today's execution without a trial had seriously violated the rules of the Divine Hall and the law of the Tang Empire.
But the law of the Tang Empire could not control the general.
So Xia Hou killed people like grass. His expression did not change.
…
…
An officer rode a warhorse and galloped from the direction of the military camp.
Xia Hou took the letter handed by the officer.
Although he was stationed in Tuyang City all year round and was far away in the Wilderness, he was after all the Defender-general of the Tang Empire. He had many spies in Chang 'an City and the imperial court.
He did not have many personal relationships with Defender-general of the State Xu Shi, but they respected each other. So some things in the Military Ministry would be passed directly to the military camp through those spies.
The letter described what had happened in Chang 'an City recently.
Xia Hou knew about the two conversations between Xu Shi and Ning Que. He also knew about the death of Huang Xing and Yu Shuizhu on the rainy street. So he read the letter in silence for a long time.
Last year in Tuyang City, he had reached an agreement with the Academy. So he did not want to care about the Academy's entry into the human realm and would not be as vigilant as Xu Shi.
However, the death of Huang Xing and Yu Shuizhu made him vigilant.
Huang Xing and Yu Shuizhu were the Prince's men, and also his men.
And they were both involved in that incident.
Xia Hou did not understand why Ning Que was against him.
First he killed Lin Ling in the Wilderness, then he killed Gu Xi in Tuyang City, and now he killed Huang Xing and Yu Shuizhu. All the people close to him had died one by one under his knife.
The imperial court and the Academy had agreed to his retirement, but it seemed that this person had a different opinion.
"Is there really a fish that escaped the net?"
Xia Hou frowned slightly and shook his head after thinking for a moment. He knew very well that Lin Guangyuan's son was dead. Because he had personally examined the body of the white and clean little boy.
Then he remembered a saying in Chang 'an City.
The Academy's Ning Que and Princess Li Yu were close.
Was it because of the dragon throne?
Xia Hou's expression grew colder and colder. He had already decided to retire, but if someone tried to harm his sister, harm his nephew, or steal the throne that belonged to his nephew, then he would kill the other party at all costs.
The executions continued.
The heads of the soldiers who violated the rules were cut off and fell on the grassland. The sound of bones scraping could be heard continuously.
In the smell of blood, Xia Hou thought about what happened in Chang 'an and gradually became murderous.
At this moment, a figure suddenly appeared in the blue sky above the grassland.
The man jumped down from the sky, whistling through the air, and rushed toward Xia Hou with an incomparably domineering murderous intent.
Xia Hou looked up.
In addition to the figure in the sky, there was also the blazing sun.
So he narrowed his eyes.
He was already very familiar with this scene.
He had seen it on the northern shore of the Hulan Sea.
These days, he had seen it several times.
So he did not panic, and his expression was still calm and indifferent.
An extremely fierce aura gushed out from his body.
His leather boots stepped deeply into the soft grassland soil.
The next moment, the soft soil instantly became extremely hard.
With the soles of his boots as the center, countless traces like a spider web appeared on the grassland.
Xia Hou stood in the middle of the grassland that was cracked like a spider web.
With the huge counterforce from his feet, he flew into the sky.
His battle robe fluttered. He was as fast as a flying bird and as bright as a god.
…
…
Tang, the World Wayfarer of the Devil's Doctrine, jumped down from the sky.
Xia Hou, the former powerhouse of the Devil's Doctrine, flew into the sky.
The two men met in the sky above the grassland.
Once they met, it was like a bolt from the blue.
In the clear sky, a muffled thunder suddenly sounded.
A powerful shockwave began to spread from the sky in all directions.
In the distance, the sheep that were lowering their heads to graze were startled and fell to the ground.
The grassland girl who was herding the sheep was startled and fell off her horse.
The Tang soldiers who were executing the military law covered their ears and knelt down in pain.
The strong wind blew, and the sea of grass was flattened and broken grass was flying.
…
…
(I'm still one breath away. One chapter today and two chapters tomorrow. I'll gradually pull myself back to the state.) (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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