AEOGA CH99

With a plan forming in his mind, Lu Xuechao kept his face entirely unreadable. After counting silently to three, a blade was indeed pressed against the back of his neck, accompanied by a man’s low, raspy threat near his ear: “Don’t move.”

With a blade at one’s throat, who would dare to move?

Lu Xuechao did not move, yet he showed not the slightest trace of fear. Without turning his head, he simply let out a soft laugh: “General Wu.”

Wu Feng was startled. The young man before him had not even turned around—how did he know it was him? Sensing the man’s breath, he was clearly someone without any martial arts ability, making it impossible for him to have noticed him beforehand.

Could this be a trap? Of course—how could the grand Empress of Changli appear alone in the wild countryside? This was likely a ploy devised by Changli to lure him out…

The imperial envoy from Yelang ordered to execute him was still searching nearby, while Changli might have set a trap right here… With wolves in front and tigers behind, Wu Feng’s nerves instantly snapped taut. The blade pressed against Lu Xuechao’s neck tightened, nearly piercing his delicate skin.

Lu Xuechao spoke softly: “Do not be nervous, General Wu.”

His words made it sound as though Wu Feng were the one being held hostage.

Lu Xuechao’s calm composure only heightened Wu Feng’s suspicion of trickery; otherwise, how could this fragile young man act so utterly fearless?

“If I had to guess, you intend to hand me over to the imperial envoy searching for you outside, seeking to redeem your failure through merit and earn Emperor Chongxing’s forgiveness.” Lu Xuechao’s voice was unhurried, gentle as a spring breeze, yet every word fell into Wu Feng’s ears as cold as ice.

Having one’s mind read was far from pleasant.

Wu Feng had indeed thought so. All under heaven belonged to the King; he could not escape, and if he wanted to live, his only choice was to redeem his crimes with achievements. Capturing the young man before him was his sole remaining chance to turn the tables.

He did not answer, merely keeping the blade at Lu Xuechao’s neck while roughly forcing him to walk forward.

“Do you truly believe that by handing me over to the imperial court, you will be allowed to live?” Lu Xuechao’s tone remained light, yet every word pierced the heart. “What kind of man is Emperor Chongxing—are you not clear on that? You lost cities, slaughtered civilians to fake military merit, and deceived the monarch; could he still tolerate your existence? Now that the news of Yelang using soldiers to refine Gu has spread, Emperor Chongxing’s imperial prestige has suffered a crushing blow, leaving the populace filled with doubt. Guess what… will he claim he knew nothing about it, frame it as a private conspiracy between you and the Imperial Preceptor to refine Gu with living humans, and use you as a scapegoat? Once he executes you for committing such a heinous crime, he can even reclaim his prestige among the people. General Wu, tell me, what reason does he have to spare your life?”

“Relying solely on me?”

“Once I fall into his hands, what bargaining chip will you have left to save your own skin?”

Wu Feng’s steps halted as cold sweat broke out across his back.

Lu Xuechao’s words shattered his unrealistic, naive fantasies. He had delusionally hoped to make amends, but the mistake had already been made—and not just his mistake, for even Emperor Chongxing’s atrocities had been exposed to the public eye.

How could His Majesty ever be in the wrong?

The fault had to be his. The puppet Gu experiment personally conceived and approved by His Majesty would ultimately be blamed on him and the Imperial Preceptor.

He could not hand over the Empress of Changli.

Yet if he didn’t hand him over, what other path to survival remained? Yelang was already a dead end—could he defect to Changli? Ha! So long as Emperor Jin Chao had half a brain, he would never spare a traitorous general. If one could betray once, one could betray a second time.

Furthermore, he had taken the Empress of Changli hostage; if he obediently let him go, Emperor Jin Chao would surely settle the score with him afterward.

Seen this way, Lu Xuechao was a hot potato—he couldn’t keep him, nor could he let him go. Keeping him by his side was trouble, but handing him over to either side meant death all the same.

“By that logic, you are useless to me,” Wu Feng said in a chilly voice. “In that case, I might as well kill you right now. To have the Empress of a nation dragged down to the grave with me makes this life worthwhile.”

“If you kill me, Changli will not let you off,” Lu Xuechao stated plainly.

Wu Feng sneered: “And if I don’t kill you, Changli will let me off?”

Just as he was about to act, the soldiers who had been searching for him earlier suddenly doubled back: “We searched over there too, nothing.”

“Search toward this side.”

The soldiers’ voices drew closer and closer.

Alarm bells rang in Wu Feng’s mind as he forced Lu Xuechao toward the other side of the slope.

He feared that if he abandoned Lu Xuechao directly, the soldiers would find him and Lu Xuechao would give away his location.

Knowing that falling into the hands of Yelang’s government troops would be an even worse fate, Lu Xuechao cooperatively kept quiet.

Wu Feng hurriedly dragged him down to the riverbank, advancing along the water. The search on the other side continued and was about to reach this side of the slope.

With no cover around, Wu Feng hesitated no longer, pulling Lu Xuechao with him as he leapt into the water.

“What was that sound?!” The splash alerted the guards, and a squad of soldiers rushed over at the noise, only to see a shallow ripple spreading across the river surface.

“Pursue them upstream!”

…

Wu Feng dragged Lu Xuechao through a desperate swim for a considerable distance before finally shaking off the pursuers behind them.

Lu Xuechao knew how to swim, but his physical endurance was hardly impressive; after being dragged for so long, exhaustion had set in. His white robes were drenched, his long hair clung messily to his back, his complexion was slightly pale, and water droplets hung from his long eyelashes—looking as exquisitely fragile as snow.

Anyone witnessing this would be dazzled, but Wu Feng currently just wanted to curse.

This delicate young man turned out to be unable to swim; rather than Wu Feng dragging Lu Xuechao earlier, it was more like Lu Xuechao had been clinging to him for dear life. A drowning person would instinctively grab onto anything nearby with terrifying force. Even with Wu Feng’s strong physique and decent swimming abilities, he had been dragged down to swallow several gulps of water, nearly perishing in the river.

After all this ordeal, he himself had lost most of his strength.

This, too, fell within Lu Xuechao’s calculations.

Lu Xuechao knew that once the threat of pursuers was gone, Wu Feng would become the greatest danger. Wu Feng already harbored murderous intent toward him; in the deserted wilderness, in a one-on-one fight, he was absolutely no match for a battle-hardened general.

Hence, he pretended he couldn’t swim, intentionally dragging Wu Feng down the entire way to exhaust his strength while maintaining just enough speed to escape the pursuers.

Seeing the crisis resolved, the intent to kill resurfaced in Wu Feng’s eyes as he looked at Lu Xuechao.

The knife he used for the hostage situation had been washed away by the current during their escape, but with Wu Feng’s martial skill, snapping Lu Xuechao’s neck with his bare hands was no difficult task.

Wu Feng broke free of Lu Xuechao’s grip, climbed onto the bank, stood up, and turned around, looking down from above at the young man in white still in the water.

Under the sunlight, the black-haired youth in drenched white robes was shrouded in mist, beautiful as the God of the Luo River.

Even Wu Feng could not help but space out for a moment, a sliver of guilt rising in his heart.

Destroying a deity was an unforgivable act. A deity’s purity exposed the wretchedness of mortals for all to see, driving mortals to shatter it out of shame and rage.

“Even if I prefer women, I must admit a delicate face like yours truly has some charm—no wonder you turned Emperor Jin Chao upside down,” Wu Feng let out a light laugh. “I’ll leave you an intact corpse. When you meet King Yanluo in the underworld, don’t say I killed you—say you drowned yourself.”

The Empress of Changli couldn’t swim; once Wu Feng climbed ashore, he would surely sink.

Sure enough, the youth’s calm expression turned to panic as his body sank, his survival instinct driving him to look pleadingly at the only life-saving straw on the bank: “Save me…”

Wu Feng watched cold-heartedly, a sense of pleasure even rising in his chest as he trampled upon a deity—so what if he held a noble status? So what if he possessed an aura like a celestial being? Wasn’t he still humbly begging for a chance to live?

When mud treads a mountain underfoot, it imagines itself standing in the sky.

The youth’s expression gradually turned to despair, until he finally sank silently into the water.

Wu Feng waited on the bank for a long time. Only when he was certain the person could not possibly still be alive did he let down his guard and turn to leave.

At that very moment, a pair of slender hands burst out of the water, dragging Wu Feng down into the river with unimaginable force.

Since a head-on confrontation was impossible, he had relaxed his target’s vigilance before launching a ambush.

When Wu Feng assumed he was dead and turned his back, his guard was at its absolute lowest.

Lu Xuechao seized this momentary opportunity. The instant Wu Feng was dragged into the water off guard, Lu Xuechao used an exquisite silver blade to stab swiftly and accurately at his vital point.

The silver bracelet personally crafted by Xie Chongjin would transform into such a small, sharp blade upon pressing the hidden mechanism.

Lu Xuechao had held his breath underwater while clutching it for a long time, waiting precisely for this moment.

As a physician, he knew crystal clear which spots were lethal when stabbed.

However, Wu Feng was a warrior; he reacted quickly and struck back.

That stab hit him straight in the heart—Lu Xuechao was all too familiar with this location; from his experience assassinating Xie Chongjin, there was no possibility of missing.

Wu Feng knew he was bound to die. Unable to believe he had been outsmarted by a fragile, defenseless young man, his only wish before dying was to drag him down together.

“How dare you…” Wu Feng clutched his chest with one hand while his other hand choked Lu Xuechao’s delicate neck tightly. “If I die, you die with me…”

The force was so strong it nearly crushed his throat, bringing an inescapable sense of suffocation. Pain showed on Lu Xuechao’s face, yet his eyes remained frighteningly calm.

With great effort, he pulled out the silver blade and plunged it mercilessly into Wu Feng’s neck once more.

Blood spattered, yet he didn’t even blink.

Wu Feng’s eyes widened in shock.

He had never imagined that this youth, who appeared harmless to humans and animals alike, would possess such a ruthless and decisive side.

Wu Feng’s vision blurred, and his grip gradually loosened.

A pool of blood bloomed across the river surface.

After a long moment, the cold, aloof youth clad in white stepped onto the bank as clean as a divinity descending upon the world.

The blade, washed clean by the river water, reverted into an exquisite silver bracelet. Lowering his eyes, he quietly slipped it back onto his wrist, gently tracing the patterns carved by Xie Chongjin.

“Die together? Who are you to speak of that?” he murmured softly.

“I will only die together with Huaiyun-ge.”