Extreme Frontier Army: Starting from the bottom ranks, conquering the chaotic world

Ji Ruxue's heart sank slightly.

This time, Zhao He wasn't completely out of his mind.

He was forcing Lu Jinglu to reveal a weakness.

As long as Lu Jing cannot explain her identity, Zhao He can take the opportunity to bring everything back to the topic of "harboring a spy." At that time, regardless of whether the jade pendant is real or fake, Lu Jing will be taken down first.

Lu Jing glanced back at Ji Ruxue, then turned back and stared at Zhao He with an expression as if he were looking at an idiot.

"How dare you ask?"

"This woman is a hostage kidnapped by the northern barbarians! She's a living witness I picked up from enemy lines!"

Lu Jing slammed the wooden stick into the ground, nearly spitting onto Zhao He's face.

"Why did those northern barbarians dare to sneak into the interior? Why were they able to bypass the patrols? How did they know the strength and weaknesses of our Eighth Battalion? She personally saw the contact person in the northern barbarian army and was going to keep him for interrogation later! And you, you just open your mouth and want to label him a spy."

He suddenly lowered his voice and took a step forward in a sinister manner.

"Commander Zhao, are you in such a hurry to label her? Are you afraid she'll recognize who she is?"

Zhao He's pupils suddenly contracted.

Lu Jing gave him no time to react, raising his hand to point to the tear in Ji Ruxue's palace dress.

"As for this outfit, didn't those northern barbarians plunder a lot? Haven't you ever seen fine silk and satin? Do you think everyone in the world is as poor as you?"

"Commander Tang, you've been staring at this suffering woman's clothes and questioning her for ages. What, you failed to kill me last night, so you're trying to snatch a bandit's wife this morning?"

These words were both venomous and offensive, and Zhao He's face immediately turned a deep liver color.

Several soldiers suppressed their laughter, and some of them lowered their guns completely.

Ji Ruxue stood beside the haystack, slowly releasing her hand from her sleeve.

She suddenly understood why Lu Jing dared to burn the cards.

That bastard isn't brainless; he just uses all his brainpower on crooked and evil ways.

"Great! Excellent!"

After weighing his options carefully, Zhao He swallowed the mouthful of blood that was about to spit out.

"Since it's a counterfeit from the Northern Barbarians, then burn it! It's my duty as a centurion to not allow any items made by Northern Barbarian spies to remain in the camp."

Zhao He forced himself to save face, his face turning ashen.

"The northern barbarians have breached the pass, and the battle at the front is critical. I, the centurion, must go to the front to oversee the battle; I have no time to waste on your nonsense, you new recruit sergeant."

He turned around and waved his hand at the group of armored soldiers.

"Eighth Battalion, listen up! All troops withdraw to the defensive line! Anyone who disobeys will be executed!"

The hundreds of armored soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment, but in the end they put away their weapons and followed Zhao He out of the ruins like a tide.

The torchlight gradually faded into the distance.

Shen Qingqiu leaned against the wooden pillar, her legs went weak, and she slid directly into the muddy water.

She was panting heavily, her clothes soaked with cold sweat.

The skinny monkey lay on the ground, his hands covering his head, muttering something, probably thanking his ancestors for their blessings.

Beside the haystack.

Ji Ruxue's prepared wrath and her prepared revelation of her identity were all blocked by Lu Jing's twisted and nonsensical logic.

Zhao He was scolded and ran away.

This means that she is now unable to mobilize Zhao He's men, and because of Lu Jing's earlier characterization of her as having "forged a token," she has completely lost the means to prove her identity in this death row camp.

If she were to jump out now and claim to be the eldest princess of the Great Yan, even Skinny Monkey would probably think she was a camp wife who had been driven mad by the northern barbarians.

Lu Jing watched Zhao He's men disappear into the night, then casually tossed the broken wooden stick in his hand onto the ground.

"Pooh."

He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and plopped back down on the broken stool he had just kicked over.

That frenzied attack just now aggravated the wound on my side that was cut by the short axe.

The hot, sticky blood clung to his undergarments, making him wince in pain.

"Don't just stand there." Lu Jing beckoned to Shen Qingqiu on the ground. "Come here, help me remove the armor and bandage my waist. If this keeps going, I'll be reporting to the King of Hell tomorrow morning."

Shen Qingqiu struggled to get up and walked to Lu Jing's side. With some clumsiness, she carefully helped him unfasten the clasp of his chainmail.

Looking at the deep, bloody gash on Lu Jing's waist that revealed the flesh.

"Just now... weren't you afraid that Zhao He would recklessly order his men to fire arrows?" Shen Qingqiu asked in a low voice.

"What's there to be afraid of?"

Lu Jing gasped in pain and reached for the steel saber next to the brazier.

The tip of the knife was inserted into the brazier, and the top layer of charcoal ash was brushed aside.

The once warm and lustrous black jade pendant, now baked to a dark gray, has several fine cracks on its surface, and most of the flowing cloud patterns have crumbled.

Lu Jing used the tip of his knife to pick it out and casually tossed it into the snow next to him.

"Sizzle..."

The scalding hot jade pendant came into contact with the snow, and a plume of white steam rose up, accompanied by a piercing sound.

"That old bastard Zhao He has something to hide, he won't dare to make a big deal out of this." Lu Jing looked at the black charcoal sign on the ground and curled his lip indifferently. "Besides, if it really comes down to a fight, I'll definitely take him down with me before I die."

Ji Ruxue looked at the abandoned sign in the snow, which was emitting white smoke and whose surface patterns had been completely blurred.

It’s over.

At least until we return to the capital or contact the spies at Lan Yue Pavilion, this sign is completely useless.

She, the dignified eldest princess of the Great Yan Dynasty, has now become a penniless, identityless refugee, tied to a rogue soldier.

"What are you looking at?"

Lu Jing turned his head and met Ji Ruxue's murderous eyes.

"I've destroyed that fake badge of yours for you. It'll prevent Zhao He from using it against you later and accusing you of treason."

Lu Jing slapped his thigh, giving him a look that said, "Thank you for what you deserve, I deserve a beating."

"You owe me two lives: the one for saving my life and the one for selling stolen goods. In this godforsaken place, you'd better behave yourself and stop putting on airs. Otherwise, I don't care how pretty you are, I'll still throw you out to feed the stray dogs."

Shen Qingqiu was wrapping strips of cloth around him, silently lowering her head.

She suddenly felt that if Lu Jing were any more shameless, he could probably include the "gratitude for robbery" in his statement.

Ji Ruxue bit her lower lip, silently turned around, and sat back down on the haystack.

With her back to Lu Jing, she covered her legs with the tattered cloth again.

She remembered this humiliation.

Once she re-established contact and received the new secret order, she vowed to tie Lu Jing to the city wall and cut him once a day until she had made 3,600 cuts.

The wind and snow howled all night.

The Eighth Battalion managed to hold the line on the perimeter, and the Northern Barbarians' probing attacks, which left behind hundreds of corpses, gradually receded as dawn approached.

Lu Jing leaned against the straw mat, half asleep and half awake, the wound on his waist burning hot. Shen Qingqiu stood guard by the brazier, adding a piece of damp wood to it every now and then.

The skinny monkey huddled in the corner, hugging his tattered cotton-padded coat and sleeping like a dead dog, muttering "May our ancestors bless us."

In the darkest part of the night, Ji Ruxue quietly got up and went out.

She paused for a moment at the edge of the ruins, under a section of broken wall, and used the tip of her hairpin to draw three very shallow crescent-shaped marks in the snow. Then she pressed a silver thread knot, which she had taken from a hidden seam of her palace dress, against the base of the collapsed flagpole.

That was the code word used by the Silver Wolf Guards after they encountered chaos.

They will come if there are any survivors nearby.

If not, she can only continue to endure it.

The death row camp experienced a brief but oppressive period of calm.

Early the next morning.

Inside Lu Jing's tent, the charcoal fire had already gone out.

He leaned against the straw mat, the numbness in his left arm had subsided considerably, and the wound on his waist had been properly bandaged by Shen Qingqiu with a torn, clean prison uniform. Although it still hurt, it did not affect his movement.

"Bang!"

With a loud crash, the already flimsy wooden tent door was kicked open from the outside.

Wood chips flew everywhere.

Lu Jing subconsciously reached for the steel saber beside him, then suddenly opened his eyes.

At the entrance of the camp.

Ji Ruxue stood in the wind and snow.

She somehow cleaned the mud off her face, which appeared almost transparently white in the cold morning light.

She had barely managed to tie her tattered, bright red palace dress up with a few strips of cloth, which accentuated her breathtaking figure.

Despite his disheveled state, his aloof and superior demeanor was even stronger than it had been the night before.

Behind her stood four soldiers wearing the standard leather armor of the Great Yan Dynasty.

The four men were all bruised and battered, their outer robes covered in mud and snow, clearly indicating that they had deliberately concealed their armor and insignia before sneaking into the Eighth Battalion.

But they stood ramrod straight, their long swords half-drawn, exuding a fierce and murderous aura that didn't belong to this camp.

Those were the remnants of the Silver Wolf Guard who had been scattered in the chaos of battle last night, but had managed to sneak back by following the coded signals and the traces of their planned regrouping.

Ji Ruxue raised her chin, coldly looking at Lu Jing who had just sat up, a sneer curling at the corner of her lips.

"Sergeant Lu, did you sleep well last night?"