Homecoming

"You should go take a shower too."

Xu Qi'an looked at Lina, pointed to the pool, and asked, "Are there any clean clothes among the fragments of the Earth Book?"

Yes, yes.

Lina uttered a sentence, leaped on the rocks, and plunged headfirst into the pool.

Xu Qi'an turned his back and sat on the large rock, with only Mu Nanzhi and the little white fox in her arms beside him.

After bringing them here, the Red-Tassel Protector returned to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

"She's Number Five, a member of our Heaven and Earth Society, a young girl from the Southern Frontier's Power Gu Tribe, who has been staying at the Xu Residence in the capital."

Xu Qi'an explained, "I planned to go to the Southern Frontier, so I brought her along."

Mu Nanzhi rubbed the little white fox's head, gazed towards the pool, nodded calmly, and gave a cold assessment:

"He's good-looking and has a good figure, but he's a bit slow-witted. He's bound to suffer if he tries to survive alone in the martial arts world."

She was referring to this young girl from Southern Frontier, who was standing openly by the pool taking off her clothes without even glancing back at the man behind her.

They're either incredibly stupid, or they have ulterior motives.

Whether intentional or unintentional, Mu Nanzhi viewed this act of proactively offering benefits to Xu Qi'an as a provocation.

Xu Qi'an smiled but did not explain for Lina.

Women are petty and unreasonable in this regard. Trying to reason with her about what bad intentions Lina could possibly have is pointless. She'll just think you're making excuses and protecting a manipulative woman.

Half an hour later, the master and apprentice, having washed away the grime, returned dressed in clean and tidy clothes.

"Big pot~"

Xu Lingyin rushed over, like a plump yet light little pig, leaping among the rocks, her messy hair flying behind her, and threw herself into Xu Qi'an's arms.

Xu Qi'an held his sister tightly without moving, then pushed her towards Mu Nanzhi:

"Could you please help her tie her hair into a boy's bun?"

He casually took the little white fox that Mu Nanzhi handed him.

Bai Ji's dark, bright eyes curiously examined Xu Lingyin, and she whispered:

She's your sister!

"Yes, you're a fox cub, and she's a human cub," Xu Qi'an hummed in response, introducing them.

"Lingyin, this is Shirohime, the younger sister of one of my brother's friends. You should get along well with her."

"Okay, big pot!"

Xu Lingyin nodded vigorously, reached out her chubby hand and ruffled Bai Ji's hair, then turned her head away and secretly swallowed.

"Why are you swallowing?" Xu Qi'an questioned.

"I didn't swallow any saliva," Xu Lingyin argued.

You just swallowed.

"I have a stomachache."

Listening to the siblings talking, Bai Ji silently shrank into Xu Qi'an's arms, suddenly feeling a lack of security.

After Mu Nanzhi finished tying the little boy's hair into a boy's bun, Xu Qi'an asked:

"What happened? Why are you in such a sorry state?"

Upon hearing this, Lina immediately showed a troubled expression:

"We kept encountering trouble along the way. The people from the Central Plains we met either wanted to sleep with me or wanted to eat Lingyin, but we drove them all away."

"Later, an elderly man told me that we should pretend to be refugees, Lingyin should pretend to be a fool, so that we wouldn't attract attention. Lingyin and I did as he said, and sure enough, we didn't run into any more trouble."

With just a few simple words, Xu Qi'an immediately understood how dire the situation was in Yuzhou.

Some starving refugees have already resorted to cannibalism.

In such a chaotic world, any woman with beauty who lacked the ability to protect herself could only become a plaything.

Human nature is a hypocritical and ferocious beast, the law is the cage that imprisons it, and morality is the chain that binds it. But as order gradually collapses, this ferocious beast will be freed from its restraints. The ancients said that when rites and music collapse, the country will surely perish, and this is the meaning of that saying. Xu Qi'an sighed in his heart.

The group lit a campfire by the Three-Tiered Waterfall. Xu Qi'an hunted dozens of pheasants and deer, set up an iron pot to cook rice and meat, and after eating and drinking their fill, the group continued south, entering the Southern Frontier border region.

Yunzhou military camp, commander's tent.

Qi Guangbo stood in front of the map of Qingzhou propped up on a shelf, and used a bamboo stick to mark the cities on the map one by one.

"Next, to advance our forces to Qingzhou, we need to break through three lines of defense. The first line is Songshan County, Dongling, and Wanjun. I want you to capture these three cities within five days."

He pointed to the characters "Songshan" with a bamboo stick and said:

"Especially Songshan, which is bordered by steep peaks to the south and the Songhe River to the west, both of which are difficult to attack. If we want to attack the city, we can only break through from the east and north gates. This place is like a nail, blocking our westward advance. Yang Gong must have sent a large number of troops to guard it."

"Who among you will remove this nail for me?"

Ji Xuan said calmly, "This city can be breached within three days."

He said he would take on the task.

Qi Guangbo shook his head. "You can't go. You have to attack Dongling. Lure Sun Xuanji out and draw Qingzhou's attention away."

"General, please rest assured and entrust this matter to me!"

In the seating area, a tall and burly general stood up. His left eye was grayish-white, empty and lifeless, as if he could no longer see, but his right eye gleamed with a sharp, cold light.

This man was named Zhuo Haoran, nicknamed "Zhuo the Butcher." He was belligerent and bloodthirsty. When he went berserk, he made no difference to the old, weak, women, children, or young and strong.

When they were bandits in the mountains, they never left any survivors when robbing caravans. Every few days, they would lead their men out to massacre civilians for their own amusement.

Because of his violent temper, he was not well-liked by other generals in the Yunzhou army, but it is undeniable that he possessed extremely strong military command and combat capabilities.

Qi Guangbo once personally praised this man as a rare military talent.

"Good!"

Qi Guangbo laughed and said, "If you can't take Songshan County within five days, you'll be back here cleaning toilets."

Zhuo Haoran licked his lips, his right eye flashing with an excited yet chilling light.

After the matter was settled, Qi Guangbo smiled and said:

"If we're lucky, we'll receive new reinforcements within half a month."

Ji Xuan frowned. "The Buddhist School needs to conserve its strength to deal with the Southern Demons. As for the Witch God Sect, the Imperial Preceptor sent someone to negotiate, but the Grand Wizard refused the alliance."

His eyes lit up. "The Gu Clan?"

Qi Guangbo nodded, glancing at the other generals who also wore expressions of joy:

"Otherwise, don't you find it strange that Ge Wenxuan went there?"

Ge Wenxuan is a disciple of the Imperial Advisor and an outstanding general of the young and middle-aged faction in Qianlong City. He is skilled in strategy and his ability to arrange troops is superb.

Such an outstanding young general should have a place in the command tent.

But after the Yunzhou uprising, he disappeared and never appeared again.

Qi Guangbo said in a deep voice:

"Since our army left Yunzhou, the Supervisor has been like a knife hanging over our heads. The Grand Preceptor and the Bodhisattva Gara have restrained him, but they are also restrained by the Supervisor."

"This left the Grand Preceptor with no time to plan anything else; the situation in the Hundred Thousand Mountains and the alliance between the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons and Xu Qi'an are examples of this."

Fortunately, the Imperial Advisor had foreseen this and left Ge Wenxuan a secret plan to carry out.

Ji Xuan nodded slowly.

After the uprising, the Imperial Advisor and the Supervisor engaged in a game of chess, turning their previous covert struggle into an open battle.

While he and Jialuoshu were keeping the supervisor in check, they were also being held back by the supervisor, leaving them unable to plan anything else.

This period, ironically, gave Xu Qi'an the opportunity to act recklessly, which led to the current tense situation in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

"I knew it! The Imperial Advisor's plans are flawless; how could he possibly run out of ideas so easily?"

"Even without Buddhist School, if the Gu Clan sends troops to help, the outcome will be the same."

"The Gu tribe of Southern Frontier has a long-standing feud with the Great Feng and will surely send troops. We should simply wait for reinforcements."

The generals had almost blind faith in Xu Pingfeng.

Two days later, a group of four people and a fox emerged from the desolate mountains and arrived at the flat official road.

Guided by Lina, they skillfully avoided the group of four people and one fox from the tribes along the way and finally arrived at the territory of the Li Gu tribe.

"Eighty li ahead is Boshan, the main base of our Ligu tribe."

Lina jumped up and down, her face beaming with the joy of returning home.

Behind her, Xu Lingyin, wielding the Taiping Blade, cut through thorns and brambles, clearing a path for everyone to pass through.

"Finally, there's a road."

Xu Qi'an said irritably, "You still won't admit you got lost? Why didn't you take this official road sooner instead of going over mountains and valleys?"

"Oh, I'm not lost. I'm leading you on a shortcut to avoid those annoying tribes."

Lina explained.

Xu Qi'an bounced Mu Nanzhi on his back, feeling the plump and soft body of the reincarnation of the Flower Goddess, and said:

"Alright, let's move on."

The mountain path was too difficult to walk, and Mu Nanzhi soon became exhausted and had to be carried by Xu Qi'an.

Now that they've left the mountains, he should have put her down, but Mu Nanzhi's soft body and round, elastic buttocks were so alluring to Xu Qi'an that he couldn't bear to part with her.

Mu Nanzhi also didn't insist on walking; the two of them remained silent, a tacit understanding between them.

Eighty li (approximately 40 kilometers) would take about a day to walk. The group walked for half an hour. The barren mountains gradually decreased and the plains gradually increased. The climate in Southern Frontier was mild and humid. The mountains were still green and the roadside grasses undulated.

The cold disaster in the Central Plains had no effect on this place.

"Call out!"

Suddenly, a whistling sound came from the left, heading straight for Xu Qi'an.

Without stopping, he turned his head and gently blew, and the arrow, which had been incredibly powerful and whistling like lightning, was instantly blown away like a delicate willow catkin in the wind.

Two young men dressed in clothes sewn from animal skins and carrying bull horns emerged from the bushes on the left.

They had dark skin, light blue eyes, and naturally curly hair.

"You are not a merchant caravan, you are not allowed to enter our Li Gu tribe's territory."

The young man with a square face on the left reprimanded in the Southern Frontier dialect.

The young man on the right drew his bow and aimed an arrow at Xu Qi'an.

He was the only man in the team.

However, the two young men from the Power Gu tribe did not show much hostility, presumably because Xu Lingyin's presence had lulled them into a false sense of security.

"Earth Dragon, Wood, it's me, it's me!"

Lina waved her arms happily, clearly recognizing the young couple.

"Who are you?"

The square-faced man scrutinized her suspiciously.

Lina was taken aback by the question, then pointed to her face. "It's me, it's Lina!"

"Bullshit, she's fair-skinned and delicate, clearly a woman from the Central Plains."

Another young man with a drawn bow released the bowstring and shot an arrow at Lina.