The Sorrows of the Border Army, Is Wanting to Live a Crime? What Exactly Is Your Background?

A tall, sturdy man sprinted forward like a hunting leopard, the paving stones shattering beneath his feet with every step!

He slowed his pace significantly as he approached the dilapidated courtyard, his face etched with profound grief.

The courtyard walls had collapsed, the ground was littered with broken bricks and pits, and mangled, incomplete corpses lay scattered everywhere. Blood splattered the surroundings, gore hung from every surface, and familiar faces were frozen in expressions of lingering resentment.

Ning Da's heart bled, his face contorted in agony as the veins on his forehead and neck bulged.

His heavy breathing echoed like that of a wild beast.

He did not strike at the man nearby immediately; instead, he silently gathered the remains of his comrades, piecing their bodies together in the open space and placing their heads back onto their respective torsos.

"Tai'an Year Fifteen, Gou Dan, that was when you enlisted. You were so stubborn when you first arrived; I specifically singled you out for a beating, even broke your leg back then, but you were just as stubborn, refusing to submit even in death!"

"Quan, you were always the sharpest of the lot. Why didn't you come running to tip me off this time?"

"Wang San, you said once we'd earned enough money, you were going to find a peaceful county to marry eight or ten wives and have a bunch of little ones. Why didn't you wait for me?"

Ning Da let out a muffled, guttural sound.

He could name every single corpse, recounting the stories they had shared.

When he had arranged all the bodies in the open space, the grief in his eyes deepened. Beneath his calm facade lay a murderous intent as turbulent as a raging sea!

He did not shy away from the shattered remains or the viscera scattered on the ground.

He tidied the final appearance of every comrade.

Ning Da sat beside the corpses, chatting with them one by one, his voice growing loud and intense whenever he reached a passionate part of his stories!

Shi Wen did not leave either.

He grabbed a jar of wine and washed his blood-stained hands.

Once his hands were clean, he sat on the ground, pulled out some Grey Meat jerky he carried with him, and chewed it casually. After consuming five pounds of the meat, he washed it down with the wine from the jar and poured the remaining pills from a porcelain bottle into his mouth.

He chewed the pills as if they were nothing more than candy.

The blood and qi within his body surged powerfully, and the restorative properties of Taibao Hard Qigong caused scabs to form on his skin.

The jagged tear at his waist sprouted dense, tiny buds of flesh, quickly knitting together into a hideous, centipede-like scar.

The bleeding stopped.

Even though he was only at the "Half-Step Blood-Coagulation Realm," his recovery ability was far superior to that of the Blood-Tempering Realm!

Ning Da did not attack; he looked more like a soldier crushed by despair.

He grabbed the wine jar and took a deep gulp.

He didn't care that the wine spilled down his chin and soaked his clothes.

Xiao Se held his own wine jar, recalling the past, "We border soldiers, guarding the frontier year after year—it would be one thing if we only had to resist the Grey Mist and those monsters beyond the high walls, but the Imperial Court constantly withheld our pay. We were stationed in bitter, cold lands with insufficient equipment and failing rations. The higher-ups would shout about the 'majesty of the Emperor' while using us like dogs!"

"We were barely clothed, and sometimes, just to get food and gear, we had to venture into the Grey Mist to slaughter those anomalies and trade their exotic sources for a meal!"

"Those bastards were truly greedy. An exotic source could fetch thousands of taels of silver, yet they only traded us a pittance of grain and meat. Hahahaha, they were truly greedy as hell!"

At the mention of such bitter injustice, Xiao Se's voice choked with emotion.

Ning Da crushed the wine jar in a fit of rage, his eyes burning with fury, "We fought for ten years as if it were one day, shedding blood, brothers living and dying together, holding back the Grey Mist, bleeding for the country for over a decade—if we didn't have merit, we at least had hard labor!!!"

"What did we do wrong?"

"We protected our homes and our country! Without us, could you bastards be sitting here eating, drinking, and living in peace and prosperity!!"

"Without us, would you even have the chance to investigate this and that!!!"

"Why won't you let us go! Was it our choice to become deserters?"

"Why must you keep hounding us?"

"We won't report it anymore!! We won't report the high-ups for withholding pay or selling off military equipment, is that not enough? Why won't you stop hunting us down!!"

Bang!

Ning Da slammed a fist into the ground, his face full of desolation and bewilderment.

Shi Wen continued to eat the Grey Meat in silence, saying nothing.

Ning Da laughed miserably, "Those high-ups are ruthless! When they learned the frontier was changing, they left us behind as bait while they all fled to the prosperous lands to enjoy themselves over half a year ago!"

"Half a year!!"

"More than half a year!"

"If they had let us withdraw earlier, who knows how many could have lived."

"But these people were afraid that a mass withdrawal would cause trouble, afraid the Imperial Court would blame them, so they fled alone, leaving us behind to resist those things. Are those things even meant for humans to fight!!!"

"We poured our youth into the frontier, we guarded the high walls day and night, resisting the anomalies in the Grey Mist—what did we do to deserve this?"

"Is it just because we want to live?"

"What is so wrong with wanting to live? Why must you people insist on hounding us to the end!"

Ning Da tore open his robes in grief and indignation.

He stroked the four characters tattooed on his chest: Defend the Home, Protect the Nation.

His tone was desolate, "Mother, is this the nation you told me to protect? You probably don't even know that the very officials you told me to guard abandoned us and fled on their own!"

"We are men of ambition, yet the imperial court refuses to treat us as human beings!!"

"Is it our choice to be deserters? It is this world that forces us to be deserters. It was already difficult enough for us to make it out of that place alive."

"My lord, why are you unwilling to grant us a way to survive!!!"

"We truly do not wish to oppose the imperial court!"

Ning Da's expression was sorrowful.

He stared at the youth sitting on the ground eating meat, his face revealing a look of hesitation and unease.

His previous anger dissolved into a cautious demeanor, "My lord, grant me a path to survival, and I will do anything you ask!"

Shi Wen chewed the Grey Meat and said calmly, "I am not with the imperial court."

"Stop joking. If you aren't with the court, how could you pinpoint my departure and kill my brothers? How could you happen to calculate my movements and arrange this meeting exactly when I left? Isn't this just a trick the Sinan Guard uses to toy with prey in a jar?"

Ning Da took a swig of wine and said bitterly, "You're a blade honed by the Sinan Guard, aren't you?"

"A Blood-Coagulation Realm cultivator killing so many of my brothers—truly impressive. My brothers made for good whetstones for your blade, didn't they?"

"I am not with the Sinan Guard."

Shi Wen replied, continuing to eat, though his muscles were taut, ready to erupt at any moment.

He sensed a feeling of crisis.

"Heh, since your people have already discovered us, why bother toying with me? If you are unwilling to let me go, then have them come out. We are merely routed soldiers who luckily escaped to Black Cloud County; we have no accomplices, and we only came here to scrape together a living."

Ning Da silently took a few steps toward Shi Wen and cried out in grief, "My lord, you have already killed so many of my brothers; can you really not grant me a way to live?"

He saw that Shi Wen remained silent.

His nerves grew even tighter.

Ning Da glanced at his surroundings, feeling that within those silent houses, enemies lurked on all sides!

"Since you are unwilling to let me go, then let us settle this with our blades!"

"I suppose there is an ambush on all sides, then? Let them come out. You are just a junior and no match for me. You big shots of the Sinan Guard, are you planning to use the death of this blade as an excuse to make your move?"