A wave of anxiety washed over Jiang Xingyan.
This was all about that mysterious visitor from beyond the heavens—even Brother Yun couldn’t calculate anything about him.
“Brother Yun, could they have been discovered?”
She bit her thumbnail, a deep sense of helplessness welling up inside her.
All of them had joined because of the Huo Family Army’s reputation. If they lost their lives because of this, how could she ever live with herself?
“Miss, don’t panic. Let me recalculate. This time, I’ll only read the life force of those seven people, without involving that outsider. There should be a result.”
“No—”
Jiang Xingyan’s hand was still reaching out to grab Yun Chunfeng’s arm when her body suddenly froze.
It seemed he had cast some sort of spell on her.
“Please don’t be angry, Miss. This march ahead is shrouded in fog and danger. If we don’t know the fate of these people, the road ahead may be even more perilous. It’s just divination—the price I have to pay is nothing I can’t handle.”
His eyes were filled with deep affection for Jiang Xingyan.
As long as Miss needed it, he could do anything.
That was his purpose for her, wasn’t it?
Yun Chunfeng settled Jiang Xingyan into a grand armchair. With a respectful demeanor, he carefully washed his hands three times, then knelt before the altar and lit incense. From his bosom, he took out a brocade pouch and opened it with great care.
Inside were fifty yarrow stalks, all of the same length and thickness.
This was the ancient Dayan divination method, passed down from antiquity—used only for matters of great importance that required meticulous calculation.
Yun Chunfeng pressed his two fingers together and touched them to the center of his brow. A flash of white light gleamed.
He chanted softly: “Ancestors above, may your sacred divination be constant. Your unworthy disciple, Yun Chunfeng, now asks the spirits concerning the lives and safety of all the soldiers in the Huo Family Army’s Embroidered Garment Camp. Whether fortune or misfortune, regret or doubt—I do not know. I beg you to make it known.”
With that, he took one stalk and placed it horizontally before him, then divided the remaining forty-nine into two piles on either side.
He began by taking one stalk from the right pile and tucking it between the little finger of his left hand, then commenced the divination process.
After eighteen transformations, he finally obtained a hexagram.
He then performed a separate divination for each of them.
Before long, fine beads of sweat appeared on Yun Chunfeng’s forehead.
By the time he finished, two whole hours had passed.
Seeing the color drain from Yun Chunfeng’s face, Jiang Xingyan’s heart ached for him. She wanted to speak but couldn’t make a sound.
Only after Yun Chunfeng had interpreted each person’s hexagram did the immobilization spell wear off.
She quickly steadied the swaying Yun Chunfeng and handed him a silk handkerchief.
“Brother Yun!”
Yun Chunfeng steadied his mind, let out a slight breath, and managed to stand firm.
He looked at Jiang Xingyan with grave seriousness, his tone carrying a sternness rarely heard from him.
“Miss, please prepare yourself mentally for what I’m about to say.”
Jiang Xingyan’s heart sank.
Had she truly cost them their lives?
She lowered her gaze, pressed her lips tightly together, her heart pounding wildly.
She was the one who had proposed establishing the Embroidered Garment Camp.
Yu Jiaojiao and He Han could have been a pair of enviable lovers, blessed like immortals.
Mei Shisan Niang could have continued robbing the rich to help the poor.
But because of one order from her, they had rushed to the battlefield and given their lives.
How could she bear that guilt?
“Brother Yun, it’s all my fault, isn’t it?”
Before Yun Chunfeng could answer, the tent flap was suddenly thrown open, and a figure strode in.
It was Huo Ci.
He reached out and firmly grasped Jiang Xingyan’s wrist.
“Huo Ci, don’t take advantage of her vulnerability!”
Huo Ci ignored Yun Chunfeng’s gritted teeth and fixed his gaze steadily into Jiang Xingyan’s flustered eyes.
“Ah Yan, people die in war. Since they decided to join the Huo Family Army, they must have been prepared to give their lives. Come with me.”
Yun Chunfeng released Jiang Xingyan and let her be led out of the central command tent by Huo Ci.
The soldiers had resolute faces, moved with purpose, and diligently carried out their duties.
Huo Ci casually stopped a scout. “Zhao, are you afraid of the battlefield?”
Zhao saluted General Huo and the new Deputy General Jiang, stood straight, and answered loudly: “No, sir!”
“But people die on the battlefield.”
Zhao grinned. “Deputy General Jiang sure knows how to joke. People die of old age even if they don’t go to war. Ever since I joined the Huo Family Army, I stopped caring about life and death a long time ago.”
“But I recall you just got engaged to a girl from a family west of the capital a few days ago.”
Zhao’s face flushed red.
This Deputy General Jiang was something else. He’d only been in the camp a few days, yet not only did he remember every soldier’s name, he even knew about his engagement.
“Ah, she’s a good girl. On the day we got engaged, she wanted to get married right away and said she wanted to give me a big, healthy son soon. It was me who told her to wait—after all, we were about to go fight those Northern Luo dogs, and I couldn’t put her in that position. So I gave her all the savings I’d accumulated over the years and told her not to worry. If I come back, I’ll marry her in style. If I don’t… well, that money can be her dowry for whoever she ends up with!”
Huo Ci laughed heartily and clapped Zhao on the shoulder. “Good lad! Aren’t you afraid she won’t wait for you and will marry someone else?”
Zhao sighed. “Then so be it. In times like these, women rarely get to make their own choices anyway. I won’t regret it!”
“Well said! That’s the spirit of a true man of the Huo Family Army!”
Huo Ci pulled Jiang Xingyan along and questioned several soldiers, young and old alike. Not one of them feared death.
Back in the tent, Jiang Xingyan could no longer hold back—tears the size of peas rolled down her cheeks.
“Ah Yan, even though you proposed the Embroidered Garment Camp, they all joined because they wanted to be part of the Huo Family Army. Since they made that choice, they must have the resolve to treat death as if it were just coming home. Whether they come back alive has nothing to do with you—it’s the fate every soldier must face.”
Jiang Xingyan looked up through her blurred, tear-filled eyes, and it seemed she could see past the disguise to Huo Ci’s very soul.
Just like when she first met him—though he had endured the pain of his father’s death and the brutal memories of his murder, he had never been consumed by despair.
Instead, a fierce will to live burned within him.
He had said that only by living could he avenge his father, and all the thousands of Western Zhou soldiers who had fallen on the battlefield.
If those words had come from someone else, they might have sounded condescending.
But they came from Huo Ci.
His father, his grandfather, even his great-grandfather—all had died on the battlefield, giving their lives for their country.
It was precisely because of this that Yun Chunfeng had willingly let Huo Ci take Jiang Xingyan away.
Now, at the right moment, he spoke the results of his divination.
“He Han, Mei Shisan Niang, and the fat and thin head monks will likely not survive. But Yu Jiaojiao and the tall and short head monks still have a chance.”
Jiang Xingyan sobbed uncontrollably.
After a long while, she choked out: “I… I will avenge them!”
“Good! Since General Huo has such determination, then my disciple did not die in vain!”
A vigorous, aged voice suddenly rang out, filled with infinite sorrow.
Huo Ci was startled and rushed out of the tent—only to realize he was still in Jiang Xingyan’s body, without any internal energy or martial skill.
Jiang Xingyan wiped away her tears and hurried after him, but there was no one in sight.
From afar, the old man’s voice drifted back: “General Huo, do not look for me, and do not worry about my daughter Jiaojiao. Just focus on wiping out those Northern Luo dogs. As for my daughter—I will save her myself!”
