Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 291 A Complete Sweep?
No one knows how many people died in the fire at Panxing Tower, or what kind of people were burned to death.

The nobles from various regions who came to Chang'an to attend the banquet of the Crown Prince and Princess of Changsha were completely unconcerned about what was happening in Chang'an. All they wanted was to obtain the history books of their ancestral homeland as soon as possible and to know what their ancestral homeland had become.

When the Yellow Emperor arrived on this land on a dragon, people didn't talk much about the ancestral land. Instead, they regarded the Han Dynasty as a land on a higher level than the ancestral land. After all, food was plentiful here, and life was easier than in the ancestral land.

It wasn't until Huo Qubing arrived and single-handedly established the Han Dynasty that people realized how much their ancestral land had changed. In terms of politics, economy, and culture, it far surpassed that of the people who had migrated there, but they still struggled to get enough to eat.

Now, the High Priest has also received the inheritance of the ancestral land.

Originally, the High Priest could have used this ancestral inheritance to gain greater power. If managed well, the High Priest could have used the Divine Dragon Palace lineage as a foundation to establish a force that could rival the Grand Marshal.

Unfortunately, the High Priest had already entered the realm of gods and humans and had no interest in human affairs. This led to his descendant, a vulgar and ignorant woman, actually exchanging such a precious treasure for some dispensable gold.

Eji didn't care at all about being looked down upon. Ever since returning to the Divine Dragon Palace, wherever the High Priest was, she and Zhang Min would carry the Cloud Spear and retreat wherever the Cloud Retreat went.

The High Priest liked to spend the night at the Dragon Palace, so she and Zhang Min set up a tent there. They slept in the tent at night, and they took turns keeping an eye on the High Priest to prevent him from running away, all without the High Priest's knowledge.

The high priest sat by the fire pit, reaching his hand into the flames of the ancestral fire. His hand kept changing color, which looked very magical.

After observing for a while, Eji carefully placed the cloud spear in the high priest's arms. Seeing this, Zhang Min followed suit and placed the cloud spear in the old man's arms as well.

The high priest looked down at the two adorable children in his arms, who were smiling at him with their toothless mouths open. He then withdrew his hands from the ancestral fire and first gently rubbed Yun Shuo's belly. After Yun Shuo fell asleep from the rubbing, he placed his hands on Yun Tui's belly and continued to rub it.

Long after placing the child in the old priest's arms, Eji yawned and went back to her tent to sleep, leaving Zhang Min anxiously and eagerly waiting for the old priest's hand to fall on Yun Tui's lower abdomen.

The banquet at the Prince of Changsha's palace was actually very simple. Cao Kun did not attend this time; instead, Cao's steward, Zheng Tianshou, came. Because they were acquaintances, Zheng Tianshou had learned a little about the temperament of the Princess Consort of Changsha from Cao Kun. Therefore, when it was his turn to eat at the palace banquet, he specially brought an extra thousand taels of gold.

The Yun family's gold has always been something they can take more of, but you can't give less of. Giving more might bring unexpected benefits, while giving less could very likely lead to endless troubles.

Unfortunately, when he entered the Changsha Prince's Mansion, he did not see the Crown Princess, but only a young boy whose skin was mottled despite his young age.

The boy's voice was hoarse, as if he were speaking to someone with a mouthful of sand.

Two girls with similarly chapped skin brought over a bowl of noodles with minced meat sauce and a few side dishes, then took the gold that Zheng Tianshou had given them and left.

Having not seen the ancestral secret manual, Zheng Tianshou naturally lost his appetite. Fortunately, the girl who had taken the gold down earlier brought him a rattan box. Upon opening it, Zheng Tianshou saw the Records of the Grand Historian placed on top.

He didn't touch his chopsticks to eat the noodles, but instead picked up a book and hurriedly started reading.

Seeing this, Lei Ming couldn't help but worry about the bowl of noodles with minced meat sauce. It seemed that this person had no interest in such a delicacy. While Zheng Tianshou was watching with great interest, Lei Ming took away all the food before the bowl of noodles was about to boil over, since there were still many people in the family who hadn't eaten yet.

When Eji woke up, she saw that the child had also woken up in the old priest's arms, so she took the child and prepared to go into the tent to breastfeed.

The old priest asked, "What are you afraid of?"

Eji and Zhang Min also entered the tent, and they closed the gaps. While breastfeeding the child, she said, "He Junnian drove nails into Huo Qubing's son's head, trying to make him into a tiger warrior. As a result, Huo Qubing's son did not survive, but Huo Qubing's daughter did. I am afraid that He Junnian will come to snatch these two children."

The old priest shook his head and said, "He Jun left Chang'an two days ago after meeting with the Grand Marshal, so you don't need to worry."

Eji shook her head and said, "He Junnian used any means necessary to create the Tiger Warriors. The process was so bloody and horrifying. The better the child's potential, the more he wanted it. With Hengji's two children as examples, and my husband having only this one child, I dare not be careless."

The old priest pondered for a moment and said, "Heng Ji's two children died at He Junnian's hands?"

"No, that's not it. Hengji gave Huo Qubing's two children to He Junnian, intending to make two beautiful Tiger Warrior dolls. In the end, the boy didn't survive and died. The girl survived and didn't lose her mind. The fire at Panxing Tower last night was started by that girl manipulating the Tiger Warriors inside the tower."

The old priest glanced at the folk performance and whispered, "Is Liu Chang'an in Chang'an right now?"

Eji also said softly, "He's very angry."

The old priest pondered for a moment, then finally sighed and said, "If he is unwilling to come to the Dragon God Temple, then let him leave Chang'an as soon as possible."

Eji peeked out of the tent and saw that the old priest was asleep with his head bowed, so she didn't ask any further questions. She told Zhang Min to leave the child behind and hurry to the Changsha Prince's Mansion to tell Yun Ce what the old priest had said. Zheng Tianshou left the Changsha Prince's Mansion hungry. Watching another envoy being welcomed into the mansion by the same chapped-skinned boy, he patted the book box he was carrying and was filled with emotion.

He only glanced through a few historical records, and the way they were recorded, which was different from the historical records of the Han Dynasty, brought vivid historical scenes to life before him.

Having achieved his goal, he no longer wanted to stay in this dilapidated Chang'an. Just as he raised his hand to summon the Xintianyou to descend, a giant Xintianyou let out a "croak" and plummeted from the sky, carrying the Xintianyou and the people who were there to catch him. Almost without any reaction, it crashed onto a pavilion in the palace. The giant Xintianyou smashed open the roof of the pavilion, kicking up a cloud of dust, and then remained motionless.

Zheng Tianshou glanced up at the sky and saw that another Xintianyou had been shot down by a giant crossbow bolt. The next moment, he ran wildly towards Chang'an City without hesitation.

Yun Ce also witnessed this slaughterhouse unique to the precious giant raptors, the albatross. Countless giant crossbows rained down from the palace into the sky, leaving the albatrosses circling at low altitudes no chance to dodge. Although they tried their best to flap their wings and fly higher, the crossbows with ropes attached to them were already in their grasp. Even those not killed on the spot were restrained by the tough ropes and could not fly high for a while.

Another burst of crossbow bolts shot out from the palace, and the seventeen albatrosses that had been circling in the sky finally fell to the ground after a period of extreme struggle.

Huo Wudi was running wildly through an empty alley with her small bundle on her back. Behind her, she heard the loud sound of horses' hooves. She lunged forward, landed, and quickly rolled to the left. Just as her small body squeezed through a small hole, a troop of armored cavalry galloped past the alley she had just passed.

Just as Yun Ce finished cooking the rice and was about to devour the stir-fried dishes he had prepared not long ago, the dirty-looking Huo Wudi timidly appeared in front of him again.

Yun Ce sighed, gave her a bowl of rice, and then devoured the whole bowl himself.

Huo Wudi didn't tell Yun Ce that a large number of cavalry had appeared outside. He plopped down in front of Yun Ce, hugged a huge rice bowl, and imitated Yun Ce by eating his meal in a whirlwind.

As it turns out, it takes the same amount of time to eat a pot of rice as it takes to eat a bowl of rice. Just as Yun Ce put down the rice pot, Huo Wudi also put down her rice bowl.

Yun Ce poured some hot water from another pot into the rice bowl. Huo Wudi immediately picked up the rice bowl and drank the water, while Yun Ce drank the rest of the water in one gulp.

"A lot of cavalry have arrived outside."

"I know, but they're not here for us."

Huo Wudi leaned closer to Yun Ce and whispered, "You burned that building down last night."

Yun Ce rolled his eyes at Huo Wudi and said, "You were the one who commanded the Tiger Legion to kill many people, and then set fire to the Panxing Tower."

Huo Wudi paused for a moment and said, "You burned it."

Yun Ce glanced at the little girl and said, "It was your mother, Heng Ji, who told you to burn it. Remember that, and if anyone asks, just say that."

Upon hearing this, Huo Wudi, for reasons unknown, readily agreed, "Actually, it was Heng Ji who burned it."

For a long time, Yun Ce had held a negative view of the father-son and mother-daughter relationships among the natives of the Han Dynasty. Now, after hearing Huo Wudi's words, he felt even more strongly that the kinship among the natives of the Han Dynasty was really poor.

"If I kill Heng Ji, can you take me in?"

"I feel like you don't need me to take you in; you seem capable of surviving on your own."

"I want to see your wife breastfeeding that little brother. I won't eat; I just want to watch."

Yun Ce looked at the little girl suspiciously and said, "You were drooling last time."

"I won't drool anymore."

"We'll see. I know a very skilled doctor. If he can help you remove the things that belong to the Guifang people from your body, I might agree."

While the two of them were chatting in the two-story building, more cavalrymen entered from outside Chang'an City, right after the last cavalryman entered the city.

The six wooden bridges of Chang'an, which had not been raised for a long time, were slowly rising until, with a loud bang, the wooden bridges were tightly fastened to the city gates, and Chang'an became a closed city.

(End of this chapter)