Prince of Liao Enters Tiange Pass

At dawn, Prince of Liao personally led five thousand armored troops in a hurried march to Tiange Pass. The moment he looked up, he saw a group of soldiers patrolling the walls.

The armor they wore was precisely the standard issue of Great Song's border army. Prince of Liao narrowed his eyes, then looked toward Murong Xuan. Hadn't he said the pass had been occupied by the barbarians? Why were their own men still patrolling it? The barbarians would never be kind enough to let captives or surrendered soldiers patrol the walls.

"Please wait a moment, Your Highness. I'll sneak into the city and look for my disciple." Murong Xuan was equally baffled. What the hell was going on?

"Who goes there?" a soldier called out.

"Are there barbarians in the city?" one of Prince of Liao's generals asked.

"No. The barbarians withdrew yesterday," the soldier answered.

"Quickly open the gates! His Highness Prince of Liao has brought troops to reinforce you." The general first glanced back at Prince of Liao before shouting.

"Wait. I'll have someone invite the lord here to verify your identity," the soldier called, then sent someone away.

Meanwhile, Prince of Liao's entire army went on alert.

"Xu Qian isn't dead?" Prince of Liao asked Murong Xuan again.

"This... he should be dead. My disciple personally saw Bi Sheng kill him." Murong Xuan did not hesitate. Of course he believed Lu Xingshi.

Besides, given Tiange Pass's situation, how could it possibly have held out if it had fallen into the barbarians' hands?

"This must be a trick!" Murong Xuan suspected it was part of the barbarians' plan.

"Let's wait and see. Have the three armies withdraw one li." Prince of Liao was also worried that something might go wrong.

Only a few minutes passed before more than a hundred soldiers gathered atop the gates, all of them defenders of the pass.

"Which one of you is it?" a relatively young voice called out.

Murong Xuan recognized it at once—it was Lu Xingshi's voice. His eyes widened. What had happened in there? He had a feeling that something was seriously wrong.

The general beside Prince of Liao was about to repeat himself, but Murong Xuan interrupted him. "That voice... sounds like my disciple's..."

Upon hearing this, Prince of Liao stopped the general beside him and began wondering whether this was a Trap.

The matter was simply too strange. There were no barbarians in sight, yet the people who should have opened the gates were standing on the walls.

If they were trying to lure them into the city, whether an arrow storm or fire awaited them, his five thousand men would surely be wiped out to the last.

Though he had fewer men than the barbarians, his soldiers far surpassed them in weapons, armor, and quality. One against two was no problem.

"Go test them." Prince of Liao suspected Murong Xuan of being a problem, which meant his disciple might be one as well, so he sent his own general to probe them.

The general naturally obeyed and went over to speak with Lu Xingshi.

Lu Xingshi also learned the other side's circumstances and asked, "Where is my master?"

"Your master is with the army in the rear," the general answered.

"Have him come see me. I suspect you've placed him under house arrest." Lu Xingshi spoke frankly. The saying that imperial families were the most heartless was no lie.

His request was swiftly granted. Murong Xuan walked over, though quite a few bows and crossbows were aimed at his back. If Murong Xuan dared make any suspicious move, they would turn him into a sieve.

Murong Xuan's face was full of confusion as well. What exactly had Lu Xingshi done during the time he had been gone?

"Open the gates!" Lu Xingshi shouted, and the gates slowly opened. Lu Xingshi also led his people straight down from the walls.

A unit from Prince of Liao's army entered the city first, apparently intending to investigate the situation.

Lu Xingshi did not care. There was nothing in Tiange Pass anyway. They could investigate however they liked.

He went directly to meet Murong Xuan.

"Xingshi, what is going on here?" Murong Xuan asked curiously.

"It's a long story." Lu Xingshi sighed, then said, "So I'll keep it short. When I was preparing to carry out the plan, I discovered a fatal flaw in it. Don't ask me what the flaw was—I'll make one up later."

"But I found a way to solve that flaw: drive the enemy back, and then the plan would have no flaw."

"So I fought my way into Aha Chu's tent, grabbed him by the head, and gave him two choices. Either he could go to the Western Paradise to fetch scriptures himself, or I could send him there. He wisely chose the first option and went to fetch scriptures."

Listening to this, Murong Xuan desperately wanted to find some reasonable explanation in Lu Xingshi's chaotic logic.

"So he went to the Western Paradise... No, you charged straight in and forced him to withdraw his troops?" Murong Xuan quickly reached the conclusion despite Lu Xingshi's disjointed explanation.

"Not forced. It was a friendly negotiation," Lu Xingshi corrected him. As a Righteous Hero, how could he possibly force anyone?

"I'll believe you for now." Murong Xuan did not press further. It was enough that Lu Xingshi had done it.

"Fine, then let's head back. On the way, we should visit the Tianzhi Mountain Range. There are two Mutants there. I had my eye on them for a long time when we passed through last time, and I always wanted them, but I was afraid that if I arrived too late, the grass on your grave would already be three meters high, so I had no choice but to let them go first."

"This time, on the way back, I have to make my move." Lu Xingshi rambled on.

Murong Xuan's head was starting to ache. This was the first time he had discovered that his disciple was such a chatterbox. Why had he never shown it before?

"Don't rush. We should at least speak with Prince of Liao first." Murong Xuan hurriedly cut him off. Lu Xingshi's plans had already progressed to catching venomous insects and forging iron.

"Truly worthy of a famous master and gifted disciple. I never imagined that Young Hero Lu was an Enemy of Ten Thousand, who single-handedly slaughtered ten thousand barbarians until they fled in disarray. You even punched the barbarians' greatest warrior, Chahar, to death, captured the Barbarian Chieftain Aha Chu alive, and forced the barbarians to withdraw from the pass." Prince of Liao walked over, his face full of praise.

After taking over Tiange Pass and finding no issues whatsoever, he had immediately questioned the soldiers about what had happened.

When he learned the truth, he was first dumbfounded, then overjoyed.

This time, not only could he gain a grandmaster of Murong Xuan's special status, he could also acquire a fierce general who was an Enemy of Ten Thousand. When the time came to march Southbound and Purge the Emperor's Entourage, with Lu Xingshi as his vanguard general, he refused to believe anyone could stop his advancing forces.

Prince of Liao naturally assumed that Murong Xuan and Lu Xingshi had come to join him. Otherwise, why would Murong Xuan have come looking for him? "If Young Hero Lu does not disdain it, you may serve in my army as an Infantry Commandant and join me in purging the emperor's entourage and eliminating traitors!" Prince of Liao's words were no different from promising Lu Xingshi that, if he followed him, once he remade the realm, there would surely be a marquisate waiting for him.

"My apologies, and thank you for Your Highness's kind offer, but I'm still young and have no plans to enter official service." Lu Xingshi spoke with complete seriousness.

He really was young. At the age of these Game Villagers, he was not even a year old.

Prince of Liao clearly misunderstood Lu Xingshi's meaning and looked toward Murong Xuan. If Lu Xingshi would not do, having his master would work as well.

"Please forgive me, Your Highness. After my disciple reclaimed Tiange Pass for Great Song, I intended to retire from the world, ignore worldly affairs from then on, and devote myself to the matters of Langya Pavilion." Murong Xuan refused as well.

He had been close to the Late Emperor and was both teacher and friend to the current emperor, but by Prince of Liao's generation, the relationship had become one of superior and subordinate.