C30

After carrying Ni Xinyan on his back for a long distance, there was no sign of people, so Shen Jue had to find a cave to rest temporarily.

On the way to collect firewood, Shen Jue discovered some herbs that could cure his wounds.

It was likely that Ni Xinyan was destined to live.

Upon his return, Shen Jue set about treating Ni Xinyan’s wound. The arrow that had pierced his abdomen needed to be pulled out, so Shen Jue first roasted the blade of the dagger in a flame and cut open the flesh next to the arrow.

Ni Xinyan was awakened by the pain and struggled to open his eyes, seeing in the flickering firelight Shen Jue with his head bowed, tending to his wound. Shin Jue’s face was still covered in blood and looked unnaturally dirty. Thinking of this, Ni Xinyan suddenly laughed down at the thought that Shen Jue had always been a clean freak.

Shen Jue heard Ni Xinyan’s laughter and didn’t look up, “You are still in the mood to laugh, so it doesn’t seem to hurt.”

As the words fell, his knife dug a little into the flesh. Ni Xinyan inhaled a sharp breath of cold air, and said with a bitter smile, “Little Jue, be gentle, if you do it again, I’m afraid there won’t be anyone to talk with you later.”

Shen Jue took a nearby wooden stick and stuffed it directly into Ni Xinyan’s mouth, “Bite it tight.”

Ni Xinyan guessed what he was going to do next and just blinked tiredly, while in the next instant, the hands he placed on either side of his body clenched violently, and the wooden stick in his mouth almost broke.

Shen Jue carefully and quickly pulled out the arrow from Ni Xinyan’s abdomen, and as soon as he threw it away, he hurriedly covered the crushed herbs over the wound, and then tore off a long strip of cloth from his body to wrap the wound in Ni Xinyan’s abdomen properly.

While he was doing this, Ni Xinyan was only biting down on the wooden stick in the meantime, with a great deal of cold sweat oozing from his forehead. Only when Shen Jue stopped doing so did he gently spit out the wooden stick in his mouth, not even having the strength to speak.

“It shouldn’t matter if you survive tonight.” Shen Jue whispered, “so you’ll have to hang on.”

Ni Xinyan turned his head to look at the patch of silver light at the cave entrance and looked weary. Shen Jue saw the situation and stopped talking, he knew that Ni Xinyan must be very complicated in his heart right now, there was obviously something weird about last night, the soldiers who died all ate, lived, and trained with Ni Xinyan, in one night, Ni Xinyan lost so many soldiers, he didn’t know how sad he felt.

Only, this was still just the beginning.

When Shen Jue thought of this, he stood up and walked out. After treating Ni Xinyan’s wounds, he couldn’t ignore the sticky feeling on his body, he had heard the sound of water flowing when he was collecting firewood earlier, so there should be a water source nearby.

Shen Jue had even brought a water bag with him.

When he returned from bathing, Ni Xinyan was already sitting up, half leaning against the wall, sitting at the entrance of the cave, and smiling when he saw Shen Jue return.

When Shen Jue saw this scene, he couldn’t help but feel that Ni Xinyan had a great life. He walked over and opened his water bag and handed it to the other man, “Have some water.”

Ni Xinyan tried to raise his hand to receive it, but halfway up, his hand shook badly. Seeing this, Shen Jue had no choice but to pass the water capsule to the other party’s lips and serve Ni Xinyan water. Although Ni Xinyan was in distress, he still retained the style of a nobleman and didn’t drink the water messily although he didn’t even have the strength to drink it himself.

After drinking the water, Shen Jue took out a few wild fruits, “I’ll find these so we’ll eat some, I’ll go catch wild rabbits tomorrow.”

Ni Xinyan looked at the few skinny wild fruits in Shen Jue’s hand and raised his eyebrows, “I won’t eat them.”

Shen Jue looked at Ni Xinyan and fiercely reached out his hand and cupped Ni Xinyan’s chin, forcefully feeding him those wild fruits in one by one. Ni Xinyan wanted to struggle but didn’t have the strength, and finally could only look at Shen Jue helplessly.

“I’ve eaten them, you don’t need to worry about me.” Shen Jue said only after he finished feeding.

Ni Xinyan licked his lower lip and mmmed softly.

In the middle of the night, Ni Xinyan still had a low fever, and Shen Jue barely slept all night, running back and forth to the water’s edge to fetch water to wipe Ni Xinyan’s body, and covering Ni Xinyan with all the straw he found.

It wasn’t until the light of dawn that the extreme heat on Ni Xinyan’s body gradually faded away.

Shen Jue let out a sigh of relief and lay down beside Ni Xinyan to sleep.

When he woke up, Ni Xinyan was still sleeping.

Shen Jue went out to wash his face and look for food.

Thus, they ate and slept for several days before Ni Xinyan could barely stand up and walk. As soon as he was able to walk, he prepared to return to the barracks, but Ni Xinyan was directionless, and although Shen Jue was familiar with the palace, he had no sense of direction outside of it, and they walked for a long time, only to feel their surroundings becoming stranger and stranger.

Ni Xinyan looked at the distant canopy with his fair face confused.

Shen Jue stood beside him, the corners of his mouth slightly drawn, he was now understanding why the King of Yong had struggled for three months in the first place, but had not been able to see Ni Xinyan.

Ni Xinyan had mostly survived on his own in his previous lives, not to mention his injuries, he really couldn’t find his destination just by relying on his sense of direction.

It had been a full fifteen days and they hadn’t even seen a single person, but fortunately, it was summer now and the clothes they had washed at night would have dried in the morning, otherwise, it would have been unbearable.

“What should we do now?” Ni Xinyan tilted his head to look at Shen Jue.

Shen Jue was silent for an instant and took a dagger from his waist, “We’ll go in whichever direction the tip of the blade is facing.”

“Isn’t this nonsense, what if we go the wrong way?” Ni Xinyan said disapprovingly.

Shen Jue glanced at him coldly, “Then you have a solution?”

Ni Xinyan: “……”

Halfway through, he shook his head weakly.

Shen Jue tossed the knife into the air.

After the dagger landed on the ground, both men were silent as the tip of the blade plunged . . into the ground.

Ni Xinyan coughed softly, “Or I’ll do it.” He took off one of his boots and threw it into the air as well, the tip pointing in the direction they had just come from.

Ni Xinyan: “……”

Shen Jue: “……”

Although Ni Xinyan had grown up in the barracks, he was at least a son of the world, and never needed to discern his direction, while Shen Jue, who was an immortal, flew everywhere, and when did he ever pay attention to the ground.

It took another ten days before they finally saw people, and they arrived at a small village. They purposely took off their military armor before entering the village and only wore their loincloths. On the pretext that they had encountered robbers on the road, and had managed to escape but were lost, Ni Xinyan exchanged the jade pendant for food and clothes, and also made some inquiries, but to his surprise, they actually walked into the territory of the Yong Kingdom.

Ni Xinyan handed Shen Jue a piece of dry steamed bread and lowered his voice, “We’ll leave after we eat.”

Shen Jue nodded.

Before leaving, Ni Xinyan exchanged the pearl on his jade crown for a donkey so that the two of them wouldn’t have to walk on their legs all the time, but the donkey was too old, so they took turns.

After another month and a half of walking, Shen Jue and the two finally arrived at the border of the Murong Kingdom. In the meantime, Ni Xinyan looked at the tightly closed gates, “Something doesn’t seem right.”

Shen Jue hmmed, “There are no guards outside the city gates, nor on the city walls, it’s strange.”

Ni Xinyan pursed his lips and remained silent for a long time before moving forward, until they reached the city gate, no one made a sound to reprimand them. With a flicker of unease in his heart, Ni Xinyan placed his hands on the gate and took a deep breath before pushing it open.

As soon as he pushed it open, Ni Xinyan could smell the heavy smell of blood.

His pupils directly dilated, and all he saw were corpses.

Shen Jue was standing behind him and frowned when he saw this, it wasn’t even three months yet, and only the Yong King had died in the first place, so why were there corpses all over the city now, as if there wasn’t a single living person left.

Ni Xinyan walked forward with his brows locked tightly, as he saw more and more corpses, his face became more and more ugly, there were not only the corpses of soldiers on the ground, there were also the corpses of many women and children, each of them still had a horrified expression left on their faces.

Ni Xinyan squatted down beside the corpse of a young child, he looked at the rattle next to the young child, his breathing became much heavier, the corners of his eyes gradually turned red, half a sound, he reached out his hand and picked up the ash stained rattle and put it into the young child’s hand.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from not far away.

Ni Xinyan raised his head sharply, saw a figure around the corner, and immediately chased after it, “Who?”

The man saw Ni Xinyan catching up and ran back in panic, but before long, he was grabbed by Ni Xinyan. Ni Xinyan clasped the man’s shoulders in a death grip and said sternly, “I am the Prince of Yong, who are you?”

The man heard Ni Xinyan report himself, but he screamed, he half turned and pointed at the tip of Ni Xinyan’s nose, and his eyes snapped, “Traitor! It’s all you traitors!”

Ni Xinyan was so stunned by the other party’s scolding that his hand could not help but loosen the other party, while the man was still cursing viciously, spittle flew all over Ni Xinyan’s face, “It’s all of you people who have killed so many people! Why would you commit treason when we respect you so much?”

“Rebel …… country?” Ni Xinyan repeated, somewhat incredulously, “Are you calling us treasonous?”

“Yes, it’s you, and that what’s-his-name King, you betrayed your country, and you still have the face to come back?” The man howled and cried as he fell directly to the ground, “Our homes are ruined, all because of you, thanks to us trusting Ni Jiajun so much. Those of you who have been killed by the heavens, one day the heavens will take revenge on you.”

Ni Xin Yan squatted down and looked grave, “Speak clearly, who has committed treason? What the hell is going on here? Why did so many people die?”

The man looked at Ni Xinyan with hatred in his eyes and suddenly grabbed a nearby stone and threw it at Ni Xinyan, Shen Jue saw it and hurriedly called out to Ni Xinyan, but Ni Xinyan didn’t even dodge, allowing the other man to smash his head.

Blood first flowed down from his temples, and Ni Xinyan just raised his hand to wipe the blood and said to the man, “Well, can you talk to me properly now?”

The man probably didn’t expect to be able to smash Ni Xinyan, panic flashed across his face, he threw away the stone in his hand and said with a trembling voice, “This place is already a purgatory on earth, a month ago, there was a shortage of food in the city, we, the people, all took the food from our homes and sent it to the army, my family sent almost all of the food there, we thought that as long as the soldiers were well fed, we would win the battle, we could hold out until help from the imperial court came.

“But seven days ago, the King defected with his personal guards, and they left us, the people, here, and those soldiers were left without a leader and were beaten by the Yong people to the point where they could barely fight back, and in only three days the gates were broken, and the Yong people entered the city and demanded that we hand over the King of Yong, but the King had already left, so they went on a killing spree and killed everyone they saw, and I managed to survive by hiding in the cellar.

“I was so hungry today that I came out of the cellar to look for something to eat.” After that man finished speaking, he looked at Ni Xinyan viciously once again, “It’s all because the King is greedy and afraid of death, otherwise we would have been able to survive until the court’s help came!”

Ni Xinyan opened his mouth, unable to speak for half a day, he looked at the person in front of him with red eyes for a long time before he squeezed out a sentence through his teeth, “You’re lying, my father is not like that!”

Shen Jue stood behind him, silently watching the scene.

The reborn Murong Xiu still changed things, the hero who sacrificed for the people in his previous life had now become a traitor and coward in the people’s mouth.

Ni Xinyan sucked in a breath and stood up, he bit his lip and wiped the blood on his face, stubbornly saying, “I don’t believe what you said, my father won’t run away.” When he turned around, his back was smashed and the man threw a rock at him again.

“You’re just like your father, you’ll only ever speak with one mouth, get out!” The man shouted.

Ni Xinyan’s footsteps petered out and he blinked his eyes, restraining the tears from his eyes.

Shen Jue looked at him, and after a moment, he walked up to Ni Xinyan and reached out to take the other man’s hand, “Don’t listen to what he says, you have to trust your father.”

Ni Xinyan squeezed out a smile, but it was ugly.

He whispered to Shen Jue, “But if he is, what should I do?”

---

TN:

I feel sad for him.