AEOGA CH93

The declaration of war issued by Changli sent shockwaves through the Yelang imperial court.

How dare Changli?

Yelang had long sought to annex Changli, making war between the two nations inevitable. In their original plans, however, Yelang was supposed to strike the first blow; they had never anticipated that Changli would make the first move.

Yelang’s military force was universally acknowledged as the strongest among the four nations, which was precisely why they acted with complete impunity, plundering and provoking all around them. It had always been their prerogative to strike others; no one else had ever dared to take the initiative against them. No matter how furious other nations grew, they could only swallow their resentment. To maintain peace and stability, Xifeng had offered countless sums of gold and grain to Yelang. When Yelang forced passage through Changli’s borders, Changli had likewise suffered in silence for years, harboring anger it dared not voice. No nation wished to face Yelang’s brutal iron cavalry head-on, knowing that trying to block a chariot with the arm of a mantis would only result in a more tragic defeat.

In a world governed by the law of the jungle, might made right. Yelang had covertly encroached upon Changli’s borders, intending to secretly infiltrate and control the region to catch Changli unprepared. Yet that did not mean they feared being discovered—so what if Changli found out? Would Changli actually dare to attack them?

Unexpectedly, Xie Chongjin truly dared.

This caught Yelang entirely off guard.

Yelang Imperial Palace

A battle challenge sent from Changli lay upon the imperial desk. The elderly Emperor, over sixty years of age, scanned the ministers below with dark, sinister eyes: “What do my ministers think?”

A Yelang courtier offered a flattering smile: “Your Minister believes Emperor Jin overestimates his abilities. Our kingdom’s military is strong and well-supplied; how could a weak nation like Changli possibly withstand us? Your Minister sees this as him seeking his own death! Why does Your Majesty not grant his wish, leading our iron cavalry to trample Changli and claim it as Yelang territory?”

Another minister spoke up cautiously: “Changli has endured in silence for many years, only to act so brazenly now. Perhaps they have something to rely on. By keeping a low profile in the past, they made us lower our guard while secretly developing a secret weapon…”

The crowd chimed in with nods. Over the past year, under Emperor Jin’s decisive measures to turn the tide, Changli had miraculously reversed its path toward collapse. Emperor Jin was by no means a fool; they had to remain vigilant.

“I say you overestimate them. Even if they truly possess some secret weapon, do we lack our own? Can their weapons possibly surpass our crossbows and Puppet Gu?” another minister scoffed in disdain.

Someone chimed in: “According to reports from our spies planted in Yujing, the reason Changli acts so fearless is that they have devised a method to neutralize Mind-Control Gu. A century ago, our kingdom achieved a decisive victory over Changli using Mind-Control Gu, leaving their army utterly annihilated. Ever since, Changli has paled at the mere mention of Gu and secretly researched ways to neutralize it, only now discovering a cure. But as the saying goes, ‘As virtue rises a foot, vice rises a yard.’ We stopped using Mind-Control Gu long ago and have developed the far more potent Puppet Gu!”

Mind-Control Gu, as its name implied, could control a person’s mind and spirit. A century ago, planting this Gu in a Changli general had allowed Yelang to manipulate him undetected, leading to Changli’s devastating defeat.

Having learned its lesson, Changli searched for a cure; using the same trick a second time would no longer work for Yelang. Thus, Yelang shifted its focus to researching the far more powerful Puppet Gu. This Gu was not meant for Changli soldiers, but for Yelang’s own army. Once administered, it not only stripped the host of all reason to render them entirely subservient, but it also transformed their physical strength through Gu poison, boosting it a hundredfold to forge a divine force upon the battlefield.

The cost for possessing power beyond human limits was that the host would inevitably perish from bursting blood vessels. During the testing phase, not a single person planted with the Gu survived. Yet that did not matter—for the victory of Yelang and the great cause of unification, it was only fitting for these men to sacrifice themselves for the nation.

Hearing this, the ministers eased their anxieties once more. Accustomed to dominance, Yelang had long stopped regarding the other three nations with any respect, viewing them as mere prizes in its pocket. Naturally, they refused to believe these ants, suppressed by them for years, possessed any means to strike back.

So what if Changli discovered a cure for Mind-Control Gu? Mind-Control Gu had long been obsolete in Yelang! Changli needed to keep up with the times.

Knowing that Changli’s trump card amounted to nothing more than this, Yelang dismissed the war as a minor concern. With a flourish of his vermilion brush, the Yelang Emperor confidently accepted the challenge.

Victory would inevitably belong to Yelang.

Yujing, Changli

“The news has been leaked to them,” Xie Chongjin said. “Yelang believes our confidence stems from having a cure for Mind-Control Gu, so they will inevitably underestimate us.”

That Yelang’s spies could report such news back was, of course, due to Xie Chongjin’s deliberate misdirection.

When Changli was founded, a considerable gap existed between its army and the deep-seated military strength of Yelang. However, through generations of Changli emperors working tirelessly to bridge the divide, that gap had been narrowed to a negligible degree. The reason Changli had remained unable to defeat them was that Changli fought with honor and integrity, whereas Yelang preferred despicable, insidious tactics like Gu poison that were impossible to guard against.

Even so, Changli’s growing prosperity had instilled no small sense of crisis in Yelang, spurring them to hurriedly develop military crossbows and Puppet Gu to secure superior weaponry.

In their past lives, Changli’s decline and Xie Chongjin’s apparent incompetence had caused Yelang to lower its guard and conduct research at a relaxed pace, only completing their preparations and launching an invasion many years into Xie Chongjin’s reign. In this life, Xie Chongjin’s resurgence had set off alarm bells in Yelang, accelerating their production of crossbows and Puppet Gu to early completion.

Regardless of how the trajectory altered, this battle was bound by fate.

Lu Xuechao nodded: “Now that war has commenced, issue an order banning all trade with Yelang nationwide.”

“The decree was drafted long ago,” Xie Chongjin replied. “Helian Yu has also been notified. With Xifeng’s involvement, Leyang will never yield to coercion or bribery to provide any aid to Yelang.”

The three nations shared a bond where they flourished or suffered together. Yet the former female emperors of Xifeng and Leyang had both feared antagonizing Yelang. Even knowing their own kingdoms would be next if Changli fell, they had lacked the courage to offend Yelang or cut off economic trade.

Fortunately, the rulers of both nations had been replaced, and the younger generation possessed far more spirit.

Lu Xuechao lowered his gaze: “Very good. Dugu Ye has requested to go to the front lines to slay the enemy and fight for the nation. He possesses command capabilities, but lacking seniority, the troops may not follow him readily; let him train from the bottom ranks. As for the grand marshal… Grand General Qin remains as sharp as ever, and Yulong has requested to join the campaign. What are your thoughts?”

Xie Chongjin answered without hesitation: “I will lead the imperial expedition personally.”

Having personally witnessed the fall of his nation and the destruction of his home countless times, he could not appease the hatred in his heart without slaying the enemy with his own hands.

Lu Xuechao looked up at him, offering no words of deterrence, and simply said: “I am coming with you.”

Xie Chongjin immediately objected: “Absolutely not. What if you get hurt?”

Lu Xuechao replied: “Your Majesty possesses a body worth a thousand pieces of gold, yet I did not stop you when you declared a personal expedition. I am no more precious than you; why must you stop me?”

Xie Chongjin said in a stern voice: “The battlefield is no child’s play! Weapons have no eyes, and you do not know martial arts. With your constitution, you couldn’t even pass a medical check in the army camp! What would you do there? Act as a soldier and fight? Can you lift a spear? Can you kill a man? Can you bear to look at a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood!”

Lu Xuechao looked at him silently.

This was the first time Xie Chongjin had ever spoken to Lu Xuechao in such a severe tone. Lu Xuechao could not bring himself to blame him, for he could see that Xie Chongjin was on the verge of losing control over his emotions.

Only after speaking did Xie Chongjin realize he had been too harsh. He lowered his head in flustered disarray: “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Qingshu… I know you can do it. You are brave and afraid of none of these things. But I am afraid… I am afraid I won’t be able to protect you…”

The coward was himself.

How could he dare to be bold? Having watched Lu Xuechao wither before him time and time again, how could he not be afraid?

Lu Xuechao remained quiet for a long moment before finally speaking.

“I do not need to be a soldier; I can serve as a strategist, or as an army physician,” Lu Xuechao said in a gentle yet unyielding tone. “Furthermore, as for Yelang’s Puppet Gu, I am the only one in Changli who knows the cure. Refusing to let me go is treating the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers as child’s play.”

Xie Chongjin understood all of this, yet panic consumed him completely. He could only shake his head, muttering to himself: “No, it’s too dangerous. Nothing can happen to you again. You cannot suffer any accidents…”

Xie Chongjin’s eyes lost their focus as cold sweat broke out across his forehead.

The front line was far too dangerous; the alarm bells inside Xie Chongjin’s mind had gone off at full volume.

He did not want to see Qingshu lying motionless before him, covered in blood once more. The mere thought of that image was enough to drive him insane.

Lu Xuechao took his hand, calling out softly: “Huaiyun.”

“Huaiyun, look at me.”

Xie Chongjin raised his head to meet his gaze, his eyes filled with confusion.

“I have always fought side-by-side with you; I am not someone who constantly needs your protection. I want to stand beside you, not hide behind you.” Lu Xuechao soothed him, gazing tenderly into his eyes. “Every soldier on the battlefield is someone’s father, husband, or child. They all have people they wish to protect, and people who wish to protect them.”

“I am no different from them. If they can go to the battlefield, why shouldn’t I? Besides, I am merely serving as a strategist and physician in the camp, not a warrior charging on the most dangerous front lines. The army needs me, and my abilities can prevent many unnecessary casualties. You know this, Huaiyun—you are not a person who would make light of soldiers’ lives.”

Xie Chongjin stared at him for a long while before speaking in a low voice: “I know your value, and Yelang knows it too, which makes you all the more vulnerable.”

“Qingshu, I want to be selfish just this once.”

“Huaiyun wants to protect me, and I want to guard you as well,” Lu Xuechao said softly. “In every single lifetime, all the effort I put in and all the skills I mastered were meant to guard you, to guard Changli, and to guard its common people—yet not once did they ever serve a purpose.”

“Omnipotent as I may seem, I have hated my own powerlessness every single second.”

“I want to make myself useful for once—may I?”

Xie Chongjin pressed his lips together.

He understood that his intense desire to protect stemmed from the tragic failures of their past lives, where he had failed to safeguard Qingshu.

Yet Qingshu suffered under the exact same guilt, blaming himself for failing to free him from his cage.

Qingshu was a giant Roc soaring ninety thousand miles into the sky, never a caged finch meant to be pampered and sheltered in gold.

His overprotection was a profanation of Qingshu, a trampling of every struggle and effort Qingshu had made in their past lives. To clip Qingshu’s wings in the name of love—how did that differ from the seemingly happy yet tragic fates of those plot consorts?

Xie Chongjin could act selfishly toward anyone, but never toward Lu Xuechao.

After a long silence, Xie Chongjin spoke in a raspy voice: “Very well. You may do as you wish.”

He looked down at their clasped hands.

Only by learning to let go at the right moments could they hold hands for longer.

If his desire to protect caused Qingshu strain, then it was a form of harm.

He would never harm him.