Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 434 The Failed Student (5,000 words)

He governs the nine provinces and commands all people.

A legacy to be passed down through generations, may the imperial enterprise endure forever!
The first emperor from a foreign tribe.

Even though Song Yan had vaguely sensed that something was wrong before, she was still startled when she heard these words, and her heart seemed to stop for a moment.

It's worth noting that the first foreign emperor to rule the Central Plains in another timeline was probably Kublai Khan, about 650 years later.

It's truly astonishing that Socholo has such lofty ambitions now.

Things seem to be getting more and more interesting. So, the 150,000-strong army led by the three Xiongnu princes was actually just the vanguard, or even just a decoy to attract Ningguo's attention. The real deadly attack came from the Great Chanyu, Suochuoluo.
His cavalry were undoubtedly the elite of the elite.

And the number is probably no less than 100,000.

Tsk.

Song Yan sighed, feeling a pang of envy.

As expected of the powerful Xiongnu, they easily commanded an army of two to three hundred thousand.

They can't stop them; Ningguo is absolutely unstoppable now.

The black-armored soldiers were quite capable, and the garrison troops under Jiao Junze of Dingzhou Prefecture also possessed some fighting prowess. Apart from them, they were probably nothing more than clay chickens and earthenware dogs, easily crushed at the slightest touch. Considering that the moment of life and death for Ningguo was fast approaching, yet the pillars of the court were still engaged in intrigue and power struggles, Song Yan couldn't help but feel a sense of desolation.

He let out a heavy breath, forcing himself to calm down again. He knew this was not the time to panic. Seeing a chair not far away, he pulled it over and sat down, resting his chin on his hand, his eyes slightly narrowed, analyzing the situation in his mind.

Sochoro, the three princes... Arunchi was a complete scoundrel, so we can leave him aside for now.

This was destined to be a massive war. The prince who could achieve the greatest merit in the war would hold a more important place in Sochoro's heart, and would be more likely to become the crown prince after Sochoro became the first foreign emperor in the Central Plains. Therefore, it wouldn't be entirely wrong to say that they were competing for the position of Great Chanyu; it was just a matter of different titles.

Since Alunchi knew his father's purpose, he should have been very clear that helping Kong Nianhan plot against Ningguo was impossible. Yet he still agreed. Perhaps Alunchi never intended to fulfill the agreement. He was quite cunning, getting a beautiful woman for free. Perhaps he could also obtain a lot of intelligence about the Central Plains countries through Kong Nianhan, thus gaining a more important position in Suochuoluo's heart... He was quite clever. At least this time, if it weren't for the unexpected capture by Song Yan, Alunchi wouldn't have lost out no matter how you looked at it.

"Do you know the specific marching route?" Song Yan suddenly looked up and asked.

Arunchi merely pursed his lips, his meaning clear: How could someone like me, who can't even squeeze into the inner circle, know such confidential matters? If he hadn't accidentally overheard the conversation between the eldest prince and his confidant, he probably wouldn't even know about Suochuo's plot to seize the Central Plains.

Song Yan felt a little irritated. He couldn't be sure whether Suochuoluo was acting with the three princes or if he was taking advantage of the three princes drawing Ningguo's attention to launch a sneak attack from another direction.

If it were a surprise attack, where would they choose as their point of attack?

All sorts of thoughts popped up in my mind like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

Song Yan didn't know how long he had been in the cellar. He talked a lot with Arunchi, but Arunchi couldn't answer most of his questions. His only gain was that he learned what kind of people the three princes were from Arunchi.

The eldest prince was a pure Hun, brave and fierce, with a bad temper, and was known as the number one warrior of the Huns. Such a person was most popular in the northern desert, and thus had many supporters.

The second prince was more like a person from the Central Plains, and he liked the culture of the Central Plains. He would spend his days idly reading a book and nodding his head. If you didn't know better, you would think that the second prince was going to the Central Plains to take the imperial examination. This kind of behavior was disliked by the Xiongnu people, so there were not many tribes that supported the second prince. Most of them were small, peripheral tribes that no one cared about.

The third prince was the one that Alunchi hated the most. His cruelty surpassed even that of Alunchi, but his maternal clan was extremely powerful, and consequently, the number of tribes supporting the third prince was also the largest.

I also chatted with Tang Shenghai for a bit. Tang Shenghai was even less capable than Alunchi. Although Tang Shenghai was someone Kong Nianhan trusted implicitly, he was at best just a gofer. Tang Shenghai couldn't possibly know anything truly important. The only thing that was certain was that Tang Shenghai had never dealt with Prince Fu.

Even though he had been by Kong Nianhan's side for more than ten years, he had never even seen the face of the Prince of Fu.

As agreed beforehand, Song Yan twisted the necks of the remaining three guards.

After the five guards died, Arunchi let go of his last concern and smiled.

"By the way, where's your coachman?" Just as they reached the door, Song Yan suddenly remembered something and asked abruptly.

"The coachman? You're asking about that old man?" Arunchi asked with some suspicion, seemingly not understanding why Song Yan would care so much about the whereabouts of a coachman: "Who knows? That old man is a bit eccentric. He hardly talks except when he's driving the carriage."

"If I hadn't heard that the old man was originally from the Central Plains and was very familiar with the Central Plains, I would never have brought him along."

"Moreover, this old man is quite unruly when driving. He goes out by himself every now and then, and we don't know what he's doing. Sometimes we even have to wait for him. Fortunately, he's a good driver, so I didn't have to chase him away... Tonight, perhaps this old man went out to do something again and just happened to avoid your soldiers."

Song Yan nodded, his mind preoccupied with the attack by the Xiongnu army. Compared to that, the old coachman was indeed nothing of great importance.

Once back on the ground, he instructed Zhang Han to lead men to clean up the five corpses inside.

"My lord, what about those two people down there?" Liang Qiaofeng asked cautiously.

“Don’t touch that Arunchimo, I still have a use for him.” Song Yan stretched his arm and said, noticing the disappointment in Liang Qiaofeng’s eyes, Song Yan couldn’t help but laugh: “As for that Tang Shenghai, you can do whatever you want with him.”

"But... I don't want him to die too easily."

Ever since learning that Tang Shenghai had kidnapped and disposed of the dozen or so girls who were brutally murdered by Alunchi, Song Yan's hatred for Tang Shenghai had reached its peak.

A happy smile immediately appeared on Liang Qiaofeng's wrinkled old face.

Song Yan was relieved.

I wonder how many days Tang Shenghai can hold out in Liang Qiaofeng's hands.
But one thing is certain: Tang Shenghai's days will be exceptionally exciting in the next few days.

……

call!
Outside Pingyang City.

An old man let out a heavy sigh, quietly turned around and glanced back. Only when he found that no one was chasing him did he feel relieved.

This time, I'm really unlucky.

Who would have thought that such a small place as Pingyang would hide a master-level expert?

More than one.

When the mysterious woman in black attacked him, and the internal energy fluctuations spread out, the withered old ghost clearly sensed another aura of the same realm erupting from within the city, and it was rapidly approaching his location.

Without the slightest hesitation, they immediately fled.

He was not afraid of a woman in black.

He could tell that this woman in black had been at the Grandmaster level for at least ten years, and her cultivation was already stable. To have such strength at just over thirty years old was no exaggeration to call her a prodigy...

It is said that talent is extremely important in martial arts training, and three years of hard training cannot compare to someone else's sudden enlightenment.

This is the truth, and the old ghost of withered glory does not deny it.

However, martial arts training is also a process that takes time to accumulate.

Both being ninth-rank martial artists, a martial artist who has been immersed in the ninth rank for ten years is likely to be much stronger than a martial artist who has just entered the ninth rank. As for him, Old Ghost Kuru, he has been immersed in the Grandmaster realm for thirty or forty years. Defeating that woman in black should not be a problem... but if he were to fight two against one, he would be courting death.

This old ghost, Ku Rong, is seventy-eight years old and has roamed the martial world for over fifty years. Though he has been hunted down countless times, he has always managed to escape unscathed, all thanks to one trick… shamelessness. When your life is threatened, don't worry about the dignity of a master or the pride of a strongman. If you should run, then run. What is more important than life?
Moreover, if a fight were to break out, it would likely not be one against two, but against three. Indeed, there was a third Grandmaster-level expert in Pingyang City. Old Ghost Kurong simply couldn't understand it. This was a Grandmaster, not some common cabbage! How could such a small place like Pingyang have so many powerful figures? Or had he been away from the Central Plains for too long and fallen behind the times?
It was a man wearing a strange bronze mask, obscuring his features, but his build, voice, and Adam's apple revealed him to be male. It was this man who lured him away from Pingyang City, preventing him from taking Arunchi away immediately after the incident, which led to the young prince's capture.

The thought of the Little Prince made the old ghost of withered glory feel particularly bad.

He was Arunchi's groom, and also Arunchi's watcher and protector, specially arranged by Sochoro.

His job was to protect Arunchi while recording his every word and action, and then report the truthfully to Sochoruo… As far as the old ghost Kurong knew, the eldest, second, and third princes also had similar figures by their side. Their identities might be coachmen, servants, or personal guards. They did nothing most of the time, letting the four princes do as they pleased, only intervening when the four princes were in mortal danger.

Socholo was a very special person.

So unusual that even Ku Rong couldn't help but wonder if this guy was really a Hun.
He was cruel, but not as irritable as the average Hun.

He looked down on the Han people of the Central Plains, thinking they were too weak, but on the other hand, he embraced all talented people who came from the Central Plains.

Strategists who can devise plans and offer advice on how to govern the country; powerful figures who can scale walls and kill one person every ten steps; even a ruthless demon like the Old Ghost of Withered Glory who has killed countless people are all targets for Sochoro's recruitment.

Greed, lust, indiscriminate killing, perversion... Sochuo Luo didn't care about morality at all. As long as you could demonstrate your value to Sochuo Luo, he would go against all odds and give you extremely high treatment, the treatment of top warriors and top strategists, which even made the Xiongnu kings envious.

The person who left the deepest impression on the old ghost of Ku Rong was a man from Ningguo who, it is said, took the imperial examination in his early years but failed.

Knowing that the son of a powerful nobleman had taken his place, he filed a complaint in front of the examination hall, resulting in his imprisonment and the breaking of both his legs. He was only released after pleading guilty. After being released, he left Ningguo in anger and joined the Xiongnu. Suochuoluo praised his knowledge highly, marveling at his extraordinary talent, and appointed him as the national teacher.

The increasingly sophisticated laws and rules of the Xiongnu today were created by this person.

Currently, there are only three people in the entire Xiongnu who have been granted the title of Imperial Preceptor.

These three individuals held extremely high positions.

Even the Xiongnu kings and four princes had to bow respectfully to him, daring not to show the slightest negligence.

The same was true for Old Ghost Kurong. When he first fled to the northern desert, he was in a sorry state, but Suochuoluo still recognized his strength and gave him extremely high treatment. At that time, Old Ghost Kurong's injuries were extremely serious, and it took him several years to recover. If it weren't for Suochuoluo's care, he would have either regressed in his cultivation or lost all his power.

From then on, the Old Ghost Kurong lived in the northern desert for thirty years, helping Suochuoluo train a large number of skilled warriors. If it weren't for the need to protect the four princes this time, Suochuoluo wouldn't have needed to invite the four great masters of the Xiongnu, including the Old Ghost Kurong, to come out of seclusion.

Sochoro's original intention was to let his four sons cause as much trouble as possible. He didn't care what despicable or dirty methods his sons would use. In Sochoro's view, as long as they could become the final victor, that was their ability and they would be qualified to inherit the future throne.

If it weren't for the fear that all four sons would die, leaving no one to inherit the throne even if he became emperor, he probably wouldn't even have four bodyguards. Similarly, if he needed four bodyguards to save his life, he would lose the right to compete.

Old Ghost Ku Rong didn't take this mission seriously at first. With his strength, protecting a young upstart was a sure thing... But who would have thought that things would go wrong in this small place like Pingyang?

The Little Prince was captured.

The three grandmasters in Pingyang City who wanted to sneak into Pingyang to rescue the little prince were practically courting death.

The old ghost of withered glory was ultimately a selfish and cold-hearted person. He would never do something so foolish as to risk his life for a little prince.

This time, they failed to protect the little prince, and it seems they won't be able to return to the northern desert.

He wouldn't put himself in a dangerous situation.

Moreover, the four kingdoms of the Central Plains are vast and easy to find a place to stay.

Thinking this way, I felt a little more relaxed.

However, if we don't contact the people in Mobei for a long time, it might cause some unnecessary trouble. If it attracts experts from Mobei to investigate, it would be bad... Thinking this, Old Ghost Ku Rong found a clean and flat place and took out paper and pen from his pocket.

After a brief moment of thought, I quickly started writing.

The gist of it is that everything is fine on Prince Arunchi's side, absolutely fine, and the Great Chanyu has nothing to worry about.

After writing it down, I whistled, and a grayish carrier pigeon flew over. I tied the letter to the pigeon's leg and watched it flap its wings and disappear into the night. In this way, I could at least buy myself a few dozen days.

Want to find yourself again after several dozen days? Dream on.

A smug smile spread across the old ghost's face. He glanced back at Pingyang... Damn it, I'll never come back to this wretched place again in my life. If I do, I'm a dog.

The figure gradually blended into the darkness until it finally disappeared.

……

The next day.

The first rays of morning sunlight fall upon Pingyang.

The morning breeze whispers softly, carrying a slight chill.

Pingyang also showed a slight hint of spring, with peach blossoms blooming bright red on the peach trees in the corner of the governor's mansion courtyard, adorned with flowers and plants around them.

The wind blows, and the petals fall.

It does have a touch of poetic and picturesque charm.

The lanterns under the eaves, not yet extinguished, emitted an orange-red light. The maids, who had already woken up, began their busy day. Occasionally, the clear laughter of the young girls could be heard as they talked.

Stepping out of the room, Song Yan's face still showed signs of exhaustion and weariness. He probably hadn't slept well last night, and his chest felt heavy. It wasn't until the cool breeze hit his face that he regained some clarity.

A hissing sound came from the backyard. Walking over slowly, I saw a woman in white dancing freely in the morning light. Her long skirt was cinched at the waist, highlighting her slender figure and exuding competence, making her appear slim and tall. Her nimble feet were sometimes visible and sometimes hidden beneath the hem of her skirt as she moved.

The longsword slid through the air, leaving visible traces of the air being cut.

The swirling wind shook the branches, and petals fell in a flurry. In a daze, Song Yan even felt as if he saw a fairy dancing with a sword amidst the falling flowers.

It is Luo Tianyi.

Luo Tianyi's swordsmanship is mainly characterized by agility and speed, but even when she is slow, her movements are powerful and heavy. Although she is a woman, she exudes a heroic and valiant air.

Is this what sword dance is? It looks like sword practice, but it's as pleasing to the eye as a dance.

As Song Yan watched, a sense of envy inexplicably arose in her heart.

These aesthetically pleasing moves are something he could never learn. He'll probably never escape the Black Tiger's Heart Strike, Two Fingers Piercing the Eye, and Groin Kick in his lifetime.

Just then, Luo Tianyi also noticed Song Yan's presence.

But then, her jade-like foot lightly touched the ground.

His body instantly spun around, his long sword flashing across the sky like a gust of wind, rushing towards Song Yan.

The sword tip, like a cold, desolate star, pierced straight at Song Yan's brow.

(End of this chapter)