Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

The author assures the second life that it won't be as brutal as the first.

After the Mirror Flow comes the young Big Black Tower... well, tentatively, he'll be eating the protagonist's mouth in front of Ruan Mei in the future, that scene should be a bit exciting.

……

……

"Hello, sir!"

"It's not good."

Even though the person in front of him was a general from the Cangcheng Immortal Ship, Qi Zhimu still didn't give him a friendly look and glanced at him without any politeness.

"Don't say that. No matter what, I was a graduate of Qingyun University back then."

Teng Xiao smiled broadly, his tone carrying a hint of familiarity.

"When I was a child, I broke my leg, and my husband personally took me to the hospital."

"So this is how you repay me? By having a recruit train with a clerical worker?"

"Don't be angry, sir."

"It's better to call me by my name. You are now the General of Cangcheng, while I am just an ordinary schoolteacher. We must not disregard etiquette."

Qi Zhimu emphasized the eight characters: "ordinary" and "scholarly teacher".

"One thing at a time. You call me General, and I call you Sir. There's no conflict."

Teng Xiao's smile remained unchanged, as if he hadn't noticed the barb in his words, nor cared about the obvious distance between them.

"General, has anyone ever told you that you can't pretend to be confused?"

"Accurate! Before I was even born, the fortune teller pointed to my mother's belly and said, 'This child's biggest flaw will be that he can't pretend to be confused!'"

Teng Xiao rubbed his hands together, revealing a sincere expression of seeking advice.

"Do you think I can still change it, sir?"

"If we could make you change, it would give others an even bigger headache."

In fact, Qi Zhimu already has enough of a headache right now.

As the saying goes, it's not the thief you should fear, but the one who has his eye on you.

While this statement may not be entirely appropriate for Teng Xiao, the underlying principle remains the same.

He was indeed being targeted.

This year, Teng Xiao has written to me more than ten times, averaging once a month.

Now it's even more outrageous, a tentative move to act first and ask questions later.

"Give up, General. I have lost the will to continue fighting and have no intention of returning to the Cloud Cavalry." Qi Zhimu remained unmoved.

The atmosphere inside the tea pavilion suddenly fell silent.

Staring intently at Qi Zhimu's expressionless face, Teng Xiao put away his usual nonchalant demeanor and spoke in a deep voice.

"Give me at least one reason, Jimo. The reasons you gave for leaving the military don't convince me."

Have they lost the will to continue fighting?

Are you kidding me!

One of the ancestors of the Qi family, and also one of the first generals to become a hunting envoy.

Although his term of office was less than three hundred years, he was still an important historical figure recorded in the Xianzhou Tongjian.

Not only the first Cangcheng Envoy, but also the heroic deeds of the other Cloud Cavalry Guard are still stories that Cangcheng Immortal Ships talk about with great interest, and have many derivative literary works and adaptations.

In such a family, generations have served in the military, and no one has ever disgraced the family's reputation.

By the time of Qi Zhimu's generation, they were even more courageous than the rest of the army.

Hundreds of years ago, during the Second Abundant People's War, he single-handedly defended the entrance to a refuge cave in the Jade Palace with only his sword.

Not only has it saved over 100 million lives like its ancestors, but it has also surpassed them, exceeding their feats.

When the war ended and the battlefield was being cleared, anyone who saw Qi Zhimu's appearance at that time would be deeply shocked.

He had lost his right arm, and stood silently before the entrance to the cave, holding a broken sword in his left hand.

The corpses of countless bountiful creatures all became the 'temporary high wall' blocking the entrance.

One man can hold the pass against ten thousand.

At that time, Qi Zhimu was not even fifty years old.

The chilling aura emanating from him, coupled with the backdrop of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, made even his comrades feel a chill in their hearts.

Everyone in the Yunqi Army believed that he was very likely to become the youngest swordsman, or even a general, in the history of Cangcheng.

No one doubted Qi Zhimu's future.

Such a heroic figure retired from the military, citing a loss of faith in continuing to fight, and went on to teach and educate in a civilian capacity, having no knowledge of warfare.

Who would believe there's no hidden story behind this?

The previous Cangcheng general speculated that Qi Zhimu's retirement might be related to his family members who died in battle.

But this is just speculation.

Teng Xiao felt that this reason was untenable. No matter how you looked at it, Qi Zhimu was not someone who was afraid of death.

It is impossible to be afraid of the battlefield just because you have witnessed your loved ones die in battle.

"Zhimu, say something, don't stay silent." Thinking of this, Tengxiao couldn't help but urge him.

"What are your reasons?"

"What reason?"

"The reason I'm returning to the army isn't that Cangcheng can't function without me," Qi Zhimu said calmly.

This time, Teng Xiao fell silent, frowned for a moment, and handed over a secret document in an extremely solemn tone.

"That's the reason."

"...The divination results for the Jade Palace Immortal Ship?"

Qi Zhimu received the coded message, and his expression, which had been neutral, gradually turned serious.

The content is short, consisting of only one line of classical Chinese characters reminiscent of the imperial court.

In modern vernacular terms, the gist is: Within the next three years, the Cangcheng Immortal Ship may encounter a calamity no less severe than the Second Abundant People's War.

"What's Yu Que's opinion? And what did the Marshal say?" Qi Zhimu asked.

"Yu Que proposed that Cangcheng enter the highest level of combat readiness, and the Marshal agreed."

Teng Xiao frowned, his thick, dark eyebrows furrowing, and spoke in a low voice.

"Now you understand why I've repeatedly asked you to come back, right?"

"In less than two years, I will be six hundred years old, which is well over a hundred years past the normal retirement age for Yunqi. No matter how good I was in the past, that's all in the past."

As soon as he finished speaking, a giant sword tore through the air with a sonic boom and slashed fiercely at Qi Zhimu.

If it lands solidly, Qi Zhimu will be split in two.

But he didn't even move an inch, his face remained calm, as if he hadn't seen the sharp blade in front of him.

The sharp sound stopped abruptly.

The sword blade, wreathed in malevolent energy, hovered just above Qi Zhimu's head, less than a millimeter away.

"In the entire Yunqi army camp, there are probably no more than a handful of people who can stand still without changing their expression in this situation," Teng Xiao grinned.

"Couldn't it be that I didn't have time to react and was so scared that my legs went weak?"

"If you get so scared that your legs go weak and you wet your pants, then I'll drink it."

"..."

Seeing Teng Xiao's determined look, as if he wouldn't give up until he got an answer, Qi Zhimu finally sighed softly.

"Teng Xiao, the probability of a retired Cloud Rider falling into the Demonic Yin Body is much higher than that of an ordinary person. This has been a consensus since the Three Tribulations Era."

Seeing that Qi Zhimu no longer addressed him as "General" with a distant and polite tone, Teng Xiao sheathed his greatsword and listened attentively, nodding to signal him to continue.

"When the Second Bountiful People's War ended, my mother showed signs of demonic possession."

"What?!"

Teng Xiao's expression changed.

He quickly recalled information about Qi Zhimu's family.

In that calamity, his father and eldest sister died in battle at the ages of 474 and 85 respectively, while his mother was seriously injured and on the verge of death, but was rescued in time and survived at the age of 397.

That means... Qiu Zhiyan is 995 years old this year.

For ordinary people, the probability of falling into a demonic body increases year by year after the age of seven hundred.

Among retired Yunqi soldiers, perhaps only one in 100,000 could live to be nearly a thousand years old.

But that's not the point. The point is that after the signs of demonic influence appeared, it didn't manifest for hundreds of years.

Thinking about Qi Zhimu's reason for leaving the army, a nonsensical guess that made Teng Xiao tremble quietly surfaced in his mind.