To avoid suspicion, Yun Chunfeng had left early with the first batch of troops. After all, in Xiao Ao’s eyes, he and “Huo Ci” had completely fallen out. The only reason they were marching together was for the sake of presenting a united front against the enemy—otherwise, those two would have come to blows the moment they laid eyes on each other.
He had left Jiang Xingyan a transmission talisman, so they could keep each other informed in case of emergencies. The moment he divined the whereabouts of the Enchanting Thirteenth Lady and her group of five, he sent word to the young lady.
Jiang Xingyan rushed back to the Huo family camp in a hurry. She had stayed behind precisely to wait for them.
“Thirteenth Lady!” she cried out anxiously as she threw aside the tent flap and burst in.
Her eyes immediately fell on a dusty, disheveled figure lying motionless on the military cot.
“Thirteenth Lady?”
She hadn’t even realized her voice had grown thick with tears.
All at once, the memory of her first meeting with the Enchanting Thirteenth Lady came flooding back. That lively, enchanting young woman now lay stiff and still on the cot, not moving a muscle. Her feet were bare, her body caked in mud and dust, her once-beautiful face completely obscured.
Though she had already known the outcome from Yun Ge’er’s divination, seeing Thirteenth Lady’s cold, rigid body shattered the last sliver of hope in Jiang Xingyan’s heart. All that remained was endless grief.
“Thirteenth Lady, wake up! Let me fetch some water so you can wash, alright?”
She wanted to throw herself down and weep, but remembering she was still in Huo Ci’s body, she stopped herself at the bedside, tears streaming like a spring.
“Ah-bah, ah-bah.”
The Tall and Short Arhats, who had been standing silently to the side, suddenly made a noise.
Jiang Xingyan whipped around, her eyes wide as she took in their battered, wounded state.
“You…”
The Tall Arhat kept making guttural sounds, gesturing frantically with his hands. The Short Arhat watched him intently, not missing a single motion.
“We were in the tunnel… when we heard the tenth ‘mountain-shaker’ blast. Then… everything around us… collapsed.”
The Short Arhat’s voice boomed—practically a yell.
The Tall Arhat continued his gestures, and the Short Arhat interpreted: “Big Sister was ahead of us… she got buried first. We were knocked out by the blast. When we woke up… she couldn’t move anymore… Wuu wuu wuu.”
The big, burly Short Arhat burst into loud sobs, like a child who had lost his mother. The Tall Arhat’s mouth hung wide open, unable to make a sound, but tears had already soaked the front of his robe.
Their grief radiated outward, startling the roosting birds in the trees into frantic flight.
Jiang Xingyan’s lower lip trembled, tears spilling from her eyes one after another. Just what in the hell was that cursed “mountain-shaker” thing?!
After crying for a while, the Tall and Short Arhats reined in their emotions and continued.
“The four of us dug Big Sister out with our bare hands. Then the mountain-shaker came again. The Fat and Thin Arhats shielded us from the collapse above—so we could bring her back. But… we don’t even know where they’re buried. The two of us… one’s gone mute, the other’s deaf. From now on, all we can do is guard Big Sister’s grave and wait to die.”
Jiang Xingyan realized belatedly that she hadn’t seen the Fat and Thin Arhats’ bodies. She clenched her fists and slammed one against the pillar beside her.
“Northern Luo bastards—I’ll make you pay blood for blood!”
She wiped her tears and dropped to her knees before the Tall and Short Arhats.
“Brave warriors above, please accept my bow—Jiang Xingyan pays you her respects!”
The Tall and Short Arhats stood frozen in place. Wasn’t this General Huo? And who was Jiang Xingyan?
“Rest assured, brave warriors. After we crush Northern Luo, even if I have to dig three feet into the earth, I will find the bodies of the Fat and Thin Arhats.”
The Tall and Short Arhats were, after all, simple souls whose minds and bodies had never fully matured. The Enchanting Thirteenth Lady had taken them in and taught them the bone-contraction technique. They had always followed her every command.
Now that Thirteenth Lady was gone, they were utterly lost. The only thing they could do was stay close to “Huo Ci” and do whatever “he” said.
Jiang Xingyan led them, carrying Thirteenth Lady’s body, and knocked on the door of the Imperial Medical Institute. Imperial Physician Sun was about to grumble about the disturbance, but the moment he saw the red-rimmed eyes of the person before him and the corpse carried by the two behind, his expression changed.
“G-General Huo… this is?”
“I’d like to trouble you to take them in, and have your granddaughter give Thirteenth Lady a final wash before she leaves—so she can go clean and proper. If possible, lay some flowers around her. I think she would have liked that.”
Imperial Physician Sun agreed readily and called out for Sun Yaxiang. He sighed inwardly—this would be a good chance for Yaxiang to see, firsthand, just how cruel war really was. Before the fighting had even begun, lives had already been lost. This was all routine.
“Coming!”
Sun Yaxiang thought they were about to depart and rushed out with her bags packed. She had been ready for a while, just waiting for “Huo Ci” to give the order so she could follow him to the battlefield.
But the moment she stepped outside, she saw a corpse laid out in the middle of the courtyard.
As a physician, she had seen dead bodies before. But this one—this young, beautiful woman—had no fatal wounds. Her mouth and nose were filled with fine dust. Clearly, she had suffocated. How agonizing that must have been!
“General Huo, she—”
“She was the deputy commandant of my Embroidered Garment Camp. She died scouting enemy territory. She is a martyr of the Huo family army and deserves a proper burial!”
Sun Yaxiang was both shocked and pained. Though her eyes reddened instantly, she kept her hands steady and quickly gathered the necessary supplies. Her hands trembling, she took a soft cloth dampened with cold water and gently wiped the mud from Thirteenth Lady’s face.
A breathtakingly beautiful face gradually emerged before them.
The Tall and Short Arhats didn’t wail again, but they kept wiping away tears. Even the seasoned Imperial Physician Sun instinctively turned his head away, unable to bear looking any longer.
Sun Yaxiang continued, slowly and gently, wiping downward.
“Don’t touch her!”
Suddenly, a howling gale swept in, carrying a fierce, chilling aura that forced everyone to squint against the wind.
“Everyone, be careful!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than Sun Yaxiang felt an immense force—seemingly from nowhere—shove her hard.
“Yaxiang!”
Jiang Xingyan leaped over and caught her steadily. The impact pushed them both back several steps until her spine slammed against a stone pillar, and only then did they stop.
Sun Miao was both frightened and furious. He shouted sternly, “Who dares to commit violence in my Imperial Medical Institute and harm my granddaughter?!”
Jiang Xingyan could only sigh. Imperial Physician Sun was clearly beside himself with rage—his words came out all jumbled.
As the dust settled, a tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted Daoist priest stood motionless, staring at the Thirteenth Lady lying on the stone bed.
“Who are you! Leave at once!”
The Daoist priest paid no heed. His gaze was dark and unfathomable as he slowly reached out, his index finger gently hooking, and pressed it against Thirteenth Lady’s cheek.
“Alright. Stop this now. I admit it—I have feelings for you. Wake up, please.”
Jiang Xingyan seemed to realize who this person was. After all, Thirteenth Lady had once said: “…that clueless, annoying Daoist priest—she’d run into another one just like him.”
Suddenly, the Short Arhat started shouting and gesticulating wildly: “It’s him! It’s him! He’s the faithless one—he made Big Sister cry!”
