Tang Dynasty Puppet Doctor

Chapter 166 Then let your princess return.

In that cold winter month, a thick layer of ice had formed at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains. Due to food shortages, the soldiers could only eat grass and insects to fill their stomachs each day, and later they even had to kill their warhorses.

But the lack of food is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that the weather in this extremely cold place is getting colder and colder, and some people's hands and feet are frozen.

Finally, in order to prevent the battle from dragging on, he led a portion of his troops deep into the enemy camp and launched a preemptive attack.

It was a stroke of luck that time. The Tibetan bandits were drunk after winning several battles, and their defenses outside the main camp were much lax. In that surprise attack, his three thousand soldiers won the battle by annihilating the enemy.

He was finally able to return in triumph with the 40,000 soldiers she had entrusted to him, and deliver the good news to her ears. However, he did not expect that on the way back to Luoyang, the Tang army encountered a blizzard. Wherever the blizzard passed, the mountains and rivers froze into ice, and the 40,000 soldiers were buried by the blizzard and eventually frozen into ice sculptures.

Looking at the soldiers who had frozen to death overnight, he wanted to cry, but found no tears in his eyes. He wandered aimlessly through the snow and ice, and after an unknown amount of time, he returned to Luoyang. He saw that everything in Luoyang was as before, with fine carriages and people chatting and laughing, and the city was still bustling with activity.

Compared to the tragic sacrifices of the soldiers on the border, everything here seemed so beautiful, so beautiful that it was a place of extravagance and decadence.

He wanted to inquire about her, but found that none of the people in the city paid any attention to him. Until he came to the spring called the Spring of Reincarnation, it was there that he saw her die with an arrow through her heart.

The archer's face was impossible for him to discern; it resembled Li Xian, a woman, or perhaps a young boy.

After her death, the emperor and the five ministers erased all traces of her existence. They shared the spoils of victory, making her an unremembered passerby in the long river of history, like a drop of water disappearing into the sea.

No one knew that she was Princess Anding, the first princess abandoned by the Empress. Apart from him, the Empress, and Li Xian, no one knew that she was a woman.

Or rather, even if someone knew, no one revealed her true identity and background.

But he wanted to speak out; he wanted the world to know of her existence, to know her name, and to know everything she had done for the Tang Dynasty, for the people, and for the border regions.

So he made a deal in the Fountain of Reincarnation, exchanging his own existence and everything he had for her rebirth, allowing her to live another life.

However, the deal seemed to have gone awry. She was supposed to be reborn when Murong Huan was born, but she was unable to integrate into her body until Murong Huan was seven years old and on the verge of death, at which point she was finally able to be reborn into her body.

So he took good care of the girl and taught her carefully, helping her gradually grow into a strong person with a resilient will, just like "her," with the ability to stand up for everything.

The girl was also very smart. No matter what he taught her, she worked very hard to learn it quickly and perfectly, and gradually grew into the person he had imagined.

But he knew that this was far from enough. To become "her" and change everything in the future, she needed fame and power. So he used the scroll to tell her one story after another, and let the characters in these stories accompany her, help her grow, help her gain power, and help her become famous.

When the time was right, he waited for her here.

……

The dream finally dissipated like smoke, and Murong Huan was already in tears. However, at this moment, she could no longer distinguish whether the tears were her own or Li Linghuan's.

"So, Master, all you did was to bring her back to life inside me, is that right?"

"It's to awaken you completely; you should have been her!" the man said decisively.

"Those heroic souls you mentioned, are they still alive now?"

"Yes!"

Murong Huan glanced at Xie Zi'e, Murong Xian'er, Li Yi, Liu Sheng, Lu Shiyilang, and even Huo Xiaolian, who were still fighting the assassins. These were all faces that appeared in his memory.

"These are the people you described in the scroll, the people you told me stories about. They are some of the heroic souls among those 40,000 soldiers, aren't they?"

"Yes!"

"Forty thousand soldiers were frozen into ice sculptures overnight, but that hadn't even happened yet, had it?"

"Yes!" "So, Master, you're not only trying to completely revive Li Linghuan in my body, but also to change the fate of 40,000 soldiers who froze to death. You believe that only Li Linghuan can lead them back in triumph, right?"

The man in black remained silent for a moment, but ultimately answered with only one word:

"Yes!"

Murong Huan smiled through his tears, looking at Xiao Muchen, who was still locked in combat with the man in purple robes, a hint of reluctance in his eyes.

"Very well!" she suddenly said after a moment of silence, "Then let your princess return as Master wishes!"

At that moment, Xiao Muchen seemed to sense something and suddenly turned around to look. He finally saw Murong Huan standing in front of the black-clad man who looked exactly like him.

"Ah Huan——"

After deflecting the judge's pen from the purple-robed man's hand, Xiao Muchen strode to Murong Huan's side, only to see Murong Huan suddenly raise his eyes, his gaze now sharp and sorrowful.

She suddenly said, "I've forgotten that you were the most important person in my life!"

Did you also make a deal at the Fountain of Reincarnation?

"But do you know that after making this deal, everything about you in this world will be completely erased, including your past and future?"

"You think that the person you were in the past is still you, but in fact, they are no longer. They have new souls and new desires that belong to them. Your life has already been replaced by another person."

"I know."

The man in black seemed unsurprised, answering calmly as always, his eyes showing nothing but joy and a hint of pity when he saw Li Linghuan.

“Xiao Lingchen, it’s not worth it. You think Murong Huan and I are the same person, but in fact I no longer belong to this world.”

"You want me to be reborn using Murong Huan's body? That's not fair to her!"

“I know!” the man still laughed. “But you should be remembered, Princess. You should live freely and unrestrained one more time, so that the world will remember you forever and you will be remembered in history. The past was unfair to you!”

After a moment's hesitation, he whispered again:
"And I also changed my mother's fate..."

In his previous life, Tan Xin led a group of legendary assassins in a rebellion. Although his mother suppressed the rebels and killed Tan Xin, she passed away peacefully on the third day after Tan Xin's death.

This time it won't be the case. In this life, he joined forces with the current leader to drive Tanxin down from Kunlun Mountain a long time ago.

There are some things he cannot change personally, but here in the Kunlun Mountains, he can.

He suddenly looked at Xiao Muchen, but Xiao Muchen angrily pointed his sword at him.

"What are you doing? What did you do to A-Huan?"

As soon as Xiao Muchen finished asking his question, he noticed that the man's body was gradually becoming transparent and slowly dissipating.

"How could this be?"

Li Linghuan reached out, trying to grab his hand, but found that what fell into his hand was nothing but falling snowflakes, and the person in front of him disappeared like smoke.

"Because he was already dead. He died on the day when all 40,000 soldiers were frozen into ice sculptures. But his obsession remained. Like me, he made a deal in the Fountain of Reincarnation and came from the future to the present."

"Ling Chen, even if everyone else forgets you, I will always remember you."