Guesswork

Liu Chengchao looked at the Life and Death Stele, appearing to frown in thought.

In truth, his heart was pounding with excitement.

If the discoveries here could be confirmed, an unsolved mystery of history would finally have its mysterious veil lifted.

But why was there no record whatsoever of Heize?

"Old Liu, Heize was Liu Xiu's disciple, which made him Emperor Fengxing's fellow disciple.

He also commanded troops, wiped out the Wolf Guard, and established an unparalleled feat. Why is there no record of Heize in the history books?" Wang Jiao asked.

She had voiced everyone else's doubts.

After all, if Heize had truly existed—

A man capable of commanding an army and destroying the Wolf Guard could not have been an ordinary figure. He should have been remembered for all eternity.

"Well..." Liu Chengchao hesitated. "I don't know either. We need more evidence and materials."

"Alright, Old Liu. Let's continue looking at the Shrine of Life and Death." Wang Jiao smiled.

The Shrine of Life and Death contained not only the Life and Death Stele, but also the Life-and-Death Paintings.

The Life-and-Death Paintings were murals, recording certain historical events or biographies in pictorial form.

Though this Shrine of Life and Death was small, it had all five organs and six entrails.

"Most of the murals here have been destroyed. After clearing them away, only part of them can still be seen," Liu Chengchao said from the side.

Wang Jiao and the others looked over.

At that moment, the camera also turned toward the murals.

Within one mural stood a man in black, holding a long spear.

Before him, the Wolf Guard surged forward like ten thousand galloping wolves.

"Is this one man holding off ten thousand?" Wang Jiao said casually.

The Life and Death Stele had once stated that Heize had held off ten thousand alone, but Wang Jiao and the others had not taken it seriously at all.

One man holding off ten thousand was simply impossible.

Yet the mural before them depicted precisely such a scene.

"Mm, the ancients loved exaggeration," Liu Chengchao said.

In ancient times, battles were always said to involve armies of several hundred thousand.

In reality, there might have been only ten or twenty thousand actual soldiers.

Liu Chengchao looked at the black-clad man in the painting. "He has quite a spirit about him."

"Right." Wang Jiao smiled. "This Heize, who supposedly held off ten thousand alone, doesn't look like some hulking giant in this image. He looks more like a tall, handsome general in a black robe."

Generally speaking, combat strength was proportional to one's build.

Otherwise, modern boxing and similar competitions would not need weight classes.

Of course, that excluded people so extremely obese that they could barely move.

Judging by the build of the Heize in this image, even with superb skill, defeating a few Wolf Guards would already have been the limit.

Holding off ten thousand alone was nothing but wishful thinking, pure fantasy.

"Looks like Heize was a scholarly general," Wang Jiao said softly. "Then how exactly did he defeat the Wolf Guard?"

The Wolf Guard, with its ten thousand Giant Wolves, was nearly invincible.

Even if Heize had relied upon favorable timing, terrain, and popular support, wiping them out would not have been easy.

There had to be something here that they did not know.

"Let's keep looking at the murals. Perhaps we'll find the answer," Liu Chengchao said.

Much of the Life-and-Death Paintings had been damaged, and only three sections could vaguely be made out.

The scene of one man holding off ten thousand was the first.

The second depicted mountains collapsing and the earth splitting.

In the image, Heize seemed to be roaring.

As he roared, rocks tumbled down the mountainside, crushing some of the Wolf Guard to death.

The Wolf Guard's escape route was blocked as well.

Looking at the scene, Wang Jiao said, "Old Liu, do you think Heize was beginning his plan, using favorable timing and terrain to wipe out the Wolf Guard?"

This matched their earlier speculation.

A general named Heize had truly existed, using natural disasters such as mudslides and landslides to trap and slaughter the Wolf Guard here.

"Yes, most likely," Liu Chengchao said, agreeing with Wang Jiao. "But..."

Liu Chengchao frowned, seeming to ponder something.

"But what?"

"Looking only at this mural, what it conveys differs from what we imagined."

"Huh?"

"Look up there. Aside from Heize, there are almost no Dafeng soldiers.

The emphasis of the Life-and-Death Paintings is on Heize's single roar causing the mountains to collapse and the earth to split.

And the focus of that collapse is not killing the enemy, but trapping them."

"Huh?" Wang Jiao froze. She studied it carefully, then smiled after a while. "Old Liu is right. The focus really is that Heize roared a mountain into collapse."

Though they had made this discovery, Wang Jiao did not take it seriously.

Roaring a mountain into collapse was simply impossible.

Unless he had been some mythical figure.

Humans struggled just to move a stone.

If he could roar a mountain into collapse, why would Heize have needed to trouble himself with fighting the Wolf Guard?

He could have gone straight to the Wolf Clan's main camp and roared a few times, wiping out the entire Wolf Clan.

Everyone turned to the third image.

This image was very simple.

On Dafeng's side, there was only Heize.

At that moment, Heize was surrounded by the Wolf Guard.

Countless Wolf Guards, riding Giant Wolves, had encircled Heize in the middle.

The long spear in Heize's hand seemed to still be giving off a red glow.

The Wolf Guards wore varied expressions, though most of them showed fear.

"Did Heize die in battle?" Wang Jiao asked.

Liu Chengchao nodded and sighed. "Most likely, they fought to the very end. Heize and the Dafeng warriors had all died in battle, while the Wolf Guard were the ones left alive."

"Thankfully, the mountains collapsed and sealed off the Wolf Guard's escape route as well." Wang Jiao sighed too, seemingly grieving for Heize. "What a pity. This army that died for Dafeng, this peerless general Heize—not a single person remembered their achievements."

It was precisely because of Heize and this army's sacrifice that Dafeng had not been overrun by the Wolf Clan.

The Great Xia Clan had been able to continue on, yet not a single person knew of this matter.

These people who had sacrificed in silence slept eternally here, unknown to all.

A bleak, sighing sorrow rose within Wang Jiao.

"No matter why Heize and this Dafeng army were not recorded in the history books,

at this moment, we must let people know their story, so that their sacrifice may receive even the slightest return."