Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

"Foolish child! Run!!!" Cheng Cheng roared angrily, "Don't forget, you're not just saving your own life, but also the lives of hundreds of wounded soldiers in the car!"

Tong Chuxue stood there, stunned, her hands trembling.

Paul, confused, opened his mouth and said, "Your Highness..."

"Huh??" Cheng Cheng glared at him.

"...His Highness has ordered!" Paul changed the subject, "Everyone on this battlefield—must die! You and your apprentice are no exception! Come and fight!"

Cheng Cheng silently drew his longsword, then spun it around, the sword flashing with a blinding arc of light, splashing raindrops into circles.

Paul attacked simultaneously, their swords tearing through space, the aftershocks severing the overpass in half, creating a chasm between Tong Chuxue and the battlefield.

Now Tong Chuxue won't be able to come.

"Hurry up and leave!" Cheng Cheng suddenly turned around and shouted at Tong Chuxue, "Be obedient! You are my disciple. If I die, all I will leave in this world is you. If you die too, I will have nothing left in this world."

"Trust your master. If you live, we will have a chance to meet again. If you stay here, your master won't be able to use some of his most powerful moves."

"Master..."

Tong Chuxue's mind went blank for a moment, then she made up her mind.

She started in reverse, and the car sped backward. The truck crashed into a thin, indistinct curtain of rain. The swirling wind lashed against the truck body, and water shoved in from all sides. The car stereo had somehow come on, playing a duet between the daughter and father...

…………

"Finally gone."

On the overpass, watching Tong Chuxue's car gradually drive away, Cheng Cheng and Paul tacitly stopped fighting.

Paul immediately threw down his sword, then knelt on one knee, bowed his head, and said, "Your Highness, I have offended you and deserve to die!"

"...It's alright, you acted very well." Cheng Cheng's eyes were strange.

He was used to being called "Miss" and "Princess" by Paul, so he didn't react for a moment when he first heard the title "Your Highness".

"Who was that just now...?"

"My newly accepted disciple, she's kind of cute with her silly look, I was just teasing her a bit." Cheng Cheng waved his hand, "But it went too far, and she doesn't want to leave... By the way, tell me first, how is Freya doing after she ascended the throne? Has her humanity been affected? What about Sylvia?"

"Her Majesty the Queen is currently residing in the capital and has not yet been affected by the source matter corruption. Miss Sylvia is also doing well... In addition, Her Majesty has been searching for your whereabouts."

Cheng Cheng felt much relieved. He asked a few more questions about the situation in the kingdom, and then asked Paul to bring him paper and pen.

Paul pulled a pencil stub from the inside pocket of his uniform and tore a blank piece of paper from the back of the map. Cheng Cheng wrote down his newly registered mobile phone number in the Empire on it.

“Go back and give it to Freya, so they can contact me through this,” Cheng Cheng explained. “I came to the Empire on His Majesty’s orders; I just lost contact due to an accident. As long as they can contact His Majesty, they’ll be fine.”

Paul took the piece of paper, carefully folded it, and stuffed it into his inner bag.

After doing all this, he looked up at Cheng Cheng's face, hesitating to speak: "Your Highness, if I may be so bold as to ask—have we met before?"

Cheng Cheng raised an eyebrow.

“I feel a sense of familiarity,” Paul said. “It wasn’t this meeting, it was much earlier. I think I’ve seen you more than once before, and I feel like I can understand every look in your eyes when you’re fighting… but I can’t remember the specifics, and I don’t know why I fought you like that.”

Cheng Cheng remained silent for a moment, then patted him on the shoulder without saying much.

"Go back, don't arouse suspicion."

"Yes."

Paul rose, bowed again, and flew into the sky.

Cheng Cheng watched his figure disappear among the ruins, shook his head, withdrew his soul, transformed into a ray of golden light, and returned to the ring.

In his eyes, he had become friends with Paul and Li Xianyu, but in their eyes, he was a stranger.

This misalignment in his perception made him feel a deep sense of loneliness.

"The Sorrow of Blood... Ah, well, the dark power hidden within me, you win."

At this moment, Tong Chuxue had driven the Dayun deep into the mountains and forests and stopped.

The rain stopped, and moonlight filtered through the leaves, dappling her face. Her tear tracks had dried, leaving faint white marks, and there were bite marks on her lips. She gripped the steering wheel with one hand and clutched her ring in the other, rubbing it back and forth.

The ring, of course, didn't respond, because the master was already dead...

Tong Chuxue trembled all over. At this moment, she suddenly realized that she was truly about to lose her master.

Tears welled in the girl's eyes as memories of the past flooded her mind, but her right foot remained firmly planted on the accelerator, making the Dayun resemble a red giant running under the moonlight.

Faster, faster!

If we get to Yunlan City quickly, we can get the wounded to the hospital sooner and seek help from the army to save our master!

Dayun Trucks is the world's fastest mass-produced truck, but no matter how fast a truck is, how can it catch up with time and its predetermined fate?

When you try every means to break free from the shackles of fate, but in the end you can only helplessly watch tragedy unfold, will you hate your own weakness and chase after that supreme power, pursuing divine might that no one can match?

Just then, the ring vibrated slightly, and a very faint voice sounded in her mind, weak as if it came from a great distance, and a little hoarse:

"Girl."

Tong Chuxue was startled and quickly stood up straight, her eyes wide: "Master! Are you alright!"

She almost shouted, so loudly that the wounded in the back of the truck were startled, and someone groaned twice.

"It's nothing... I just used up a lot of energy." Cheng Cheng paused for a moment. "I seriously injured that gold-wielding guy, and he retreated on his own. He won't be chasing after us."

"Master..."

"Don't cry, drive carefully when you get back."

Tong Chuxue nodded vigorously, tears falling again.

She felt she owed her master something she could never repay in this lifetime...

I don't know if my master will accept sexual favors as payment.

…………

Yunlan City.

The city gates were tightly closed, and torches on the city walls formed a fiery dragon. The city's protective array was half-activated, and a pale blue light membrane enveloped the city walls, making the city's outline appear cold and hard.

The retreating defeated troops have already entered the city, and news of the major defeat at the forward base has spread throughout the city.

When Tong Chuxue's truck turned off the mountain road, the city gate was already closed. The guards saw another truck appear in the distance and became tense.

A young soldier raised his rifle, but was stopped by an older soldier beside him. The older soldier squinted for a while and saw someone leaning out of the truck cab waving; the uniform was that of an Imperial lieutenant. The older soldier cursed and turned to shout at the city gate tower, "We're on the same side! Open the gate!"

The side door was opened a crack again.

Tong Chuxue jumped off the truck, and the guard captain ran out from the side door, his hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist, his brows furrowed: "Identifications."

Tong Chuxue handed over her military officer's ID.

The guard captain flipped it open, glanced at it, then at her, then at the photo on the ID: "Lieutenant Tong Chuxue... are you alone?"

"No." Tong Chuxue pointed behind her. "The vehicle is full of wounded people."

The captain paused for a moment, then strode over, pulled open the back of the nearest truck, and the sight inside made him stop for a second—

The wounded were packed tightly together in the carriage, one after another, numbering at least a hundred. Their severed limbs were bandaged with crude strips of cloth, and most of them were unconscious, breathing steadily. A few conscious people in the corner saw the door open and light flood in, and they squinted and nodded at him.

The captain put down the side plank, remained silent for a moment, then looked up at Tong Chuxue: "You brought so many people back all by yourself?"

Tong Chuxue didn't say anything. She was too tired. Leaning against the car door, her chin resting on her chest, she had fallen asleep standing up.

Soon, news that Lieutenant Tong Chuxue had single-handedly saved one hundred wounded soldiers spread throughout the city.

The man who had escaped was pacing back and forth in the city lord's mansion. He was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his early forties. He had an old scar on his face that ran diagonally from his brow bone to his cheekbone. At the moment, he was holding a military report and his mind was full of thoughts about how to explain things to his superiors.

The forward base was lost, and one member of the Imperial Gold Army was killed, but he escaped back to Yunlan City alone...

No matter how you look at it, I'm bound to bear the main responsibility this time.

Just then, the adjutant pushed open the door and whispered a few words in his ear. The general's brow suddenly relaxed, and he looked up: "How many men?"

"The initial report indicates 87 people."

"No! It's eight hundred and seventy people!" The general slammed the military report on the table and paced back and forth twice. "A second lieutenant, one man, saved eight hundred and seventy people under my brilliant command!"

After he finished speaking, he stopped and looked at his adjutant: "Write it like this and report it to the higher-ups!"

The adjutant drafted a battle report for the general overnight, detailing the ferocity of the kingdom's forces during the night raid, how their side fought valiantly but was outnumbered, and how they ultimately retreated to preserve Yunlan City. Another lieutenant, Tong Chuxue, under the general's command, single-handedly rescued over eight hundred wounded soldiers amidst the artillery fire; his loyalty and bravery are commendable, and we request commendation from our superiors.

He handed the battle report to the general, who glanced at it and added another note:

"The defeat in this battle was largely due to Xu Shijie's (who died in battle) carelessness, underestimation of the enemy, and command errors..."

The Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War received the report the following morning.

He sat at his desk, looking at the military report, his brows furrowed. The first battle on the western front had ended in defeat, resulting in the loss of a gold-level combatant and the destruction of the forward base. In any case, the blame would eventually fall on him, the vice minister in charge of the western front.

Then he saw the next paragraph and his finger paused on "800 people".

He pondered for a moment, picked up his pen, and added a zero after "800", making it "8000 people".

The cabinet received the memorial at noon. The Grand Secretary sat in his armchair, read the memorial over and over again, placed it on the table, and took a sip of tea.

He beckoned to his aides, who bent down and whispered a few words in his ear.

The aide paused for a moment, then nodded and left.

The Grand Secretary picked up the memorial again, revised it himself, added and changed a few wordings, changed the number to "eighty thousand," and added a new paragraph at the end, saying:

"Although we lost our forward base in this battle, thanks to the bravery of the soldiers at the front, the losses were minimal. Furthermore, the presence of this hero has greatly boosted the morale of the people. However, the neglect of military equipment on the western front is not a problem that has accumulated overnight. Although military spending has increased year by year in recent years, most of it has been consumed by the eastern front. The soldiers on the western front have not been trained for a long time, and their equipment is outdated, which led to the unfavorable outcome in the first battle. This is not the fault of one person or one day. I beg Your Majesty to investigate this matter thoroughly."

Simply put: it's all Peng Longteng's fault for demanding military supplies and embezzling funds. The lack of sufficient military pay and equipment on the western front led to the defeat. Ultimately, it's all Peng Longteng's fault!

Unlike Peng Longteng, Tong Chuxue was recruited by our civil officials!

She was able to save 80,000 people and make a great contribution, while Peng Longteng could only cause trouble... Your Majesty, look, loyal ministers and treacherous ministers have already jumped out on their own!

The Grand Secretary revealed a sly smile.

Our civil service group is like this, while the military officers at the front only need to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the battlefield, obey orders, and fight bravely against the enemy. But the civil service group has many more things to consider.

For example, how to fight among factions, how to fight among factions, and how to fight among factions... Our civil service group has always been at odds with the military group. Even if the country is destroyed and the family is ruined, we will persist in factional struggle! Losing a war is not terrible; what is terrible is losing and not having any reason to criticize Peng Longteng!

Moreover... Your Majesty might also like to see your ministers obsessed with factional strife.

Chapter 111, Special Approval from the Empress! Transfer from Associate's to Bachelor's Degree! Become a Bachelor's Degree Student!

That afternoon, the memorial was delivered to the palace.