Chapter One Hundred Forty-Eight: Conditions

Beneath the walls of Kapilavastu, wave upon wave of shouting drowned out the moans of the retreating soldiers. Those desperate men had no choice but to flee in all directions, with some even leaping directly into the Peacock River, praying for a chance at survival.

Regardless of the outcome, the act of shooting their own comrades cast a dark shadow over the morale of the defenders. The piercing, continuous screams of the wounded who had not yet breathed their last compelled the archers to lower their bows against their will.

This was the scene that greeted Liu Ji as he walked forward, holding the young maiden.

A hell of the Nepalese’s own making.

At this moment, covered in blood and with his face smeared with grease paint like a fierce warrior, he appeared utterly menacing. Yet, walking arm in arm with him was a bright, radiant maiden who looked like a lotus rising from the water, creating an intensely surreal tableau.

A god of slaughter, a battlefield, corpses strewn across the ground, wary defenders, throngs of highlanders, and a pure maiden—it possessed a distinctly postmodern aesthetic.

Saraswati’s lips trembled for a long time, unable to form a complete sentence. She recognized the young Tang soldier in full armor and filthy grime, and she certainly could not fail to recognize her own daughter—her only living relative in this world.

The Tang man did not fear any rash move from her. If she shot and killed him, what fate would await her daughter? Thousands of bloodthirsty highlanders would tear her to pieces right before her eyes!

"Saraswati, don't you recognize me?" Liu Ji walked up to the base of the wall without a shred of fear, greeting her while mentally estimating the height of the ramparts.

Standing about one meter seventy-five himself, and judging by the upper body of the woman visible above the battlements, the front wall was roughly twice his height—around three and a half meters. Not to mention compared to a capital like Chang'an, it fell far short even of an ordinary county town in the Central Plains.

At such a height, a standing vertical jump might fall just a little short, but with assistance from a comrade, combining a boost with a climb, it would present zero difficulty. Furthermore, cities outside the Central Plains generally lacked moats, let alone sheep-and-horse walls. Here, they hadn't even dug a simple ditch, evidently having enjoyed peace for so long that they had long forgotten what war looked like.

With a mental measure of the situation, his mood lightened considerably. Before he knew it, looking at this woman who was practically to become his mother-in-law, a hint of playful mockery crept into his tone.

"Elceylea, don't you want to say hello to your dear mother?"

Prompted by his words, the maiden seemed to snap out of a trance. She raised her head and bowed toward the woman atop the wall. "Mother."

Saraswati had never anticipated such a scene and was momentarily at a loss for what to do. To make matters worse, an occasional wail from a wounded man drifted up from below, as if she were exposing her most wretched self to the person she least wanted to see it.

"Elceylea, are you well?" Her former sharpness had vanished completely; her glib tongue turned to stutters, and a thousand things to say ultimately boiled down to the simplest of sentences.

When she saw her daughter cast a shy glance at the Tang man beside her before nodding back toward her, she understood everything.

The most beautiful flower in Nepal had fallen into another’s captivity. Some things could not be faked; as a woman herself, she could tell at a glance that the expression on her daughter’s face was one of being thoroughly pampered—conquered in both body and soul.

Having reached this realization, the emotion Saraswati felt was not merely sorrow, but even more so, a sense of release.

She no longer needed to worry about her daughter's future.

Liu Ji patted the maiden’s hand and said to her, "Well then, don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

"Things have come to this, what is left to say? You want me to open the city gates, let those rioters pour in, kill everyone, and strip them of everything? I am sorry, but neither as the former queen nor as the current lord of Kapilavastu can I do that."

"It seems you have acquired a new title. The Lord of Banija must have been killed by your people."

"He betrayed his subjects and met the fate he deserved."

Liu Ji turned his head and said to the maiden in a comforting tone, "Poor Elceylea, you've lost yet another family member."

Clearly, however, the maiden held no great familial affection for an uncle she had never met. She neither spoke nor dared to raise her head to look at her mother. It was a dilemma, and the best course of action was silence.

"Please do not make things difficult for my daughter. We can renegotiate," Saraswati spoke up once more.

"Surrender Kapilavastu, and you can spare your life. Those who participated in the conspiracy, whether Tibetans or Nepalese, must meet their rightful end. Those are my terms, and there is no room for negotiation. Agree or refuse, you have only one choice."

Liu Ji spoke with a smile, and Saraswati instantly caught the underlying meaning. They would handle things just as they had in Kathmandu—rounding up all the prominent families in one fell swoop, merely phrasing it more euphemistically.

"I need some time..."

"Saraswati," Liu Ji interrupted her unceremoniously. "The fact that I can still offer such terms is entirely out of consideration for Elceylea, so she won't lose her mother. If you are still pinning your hopes on the Tibetans, I'm sorry, but that opportunity is gone. If there is no answer before sunset, I will take it as your rejection of my proposal."

With that, he wrapped an arm around the maiden and turned to leave, walking away past the corpses strewn across the ground without the slightest hesitation. If the woman lost her mind and rejected even her own daughter, he wouldn't dare overestimate a woman's madness.

Banija was, after all, her cousin.

Fortunately, once they cleared the range of the arrows and returned to their own ranks without any untrodden incidents, Liu Ji arranged for Old Kang and the others to assign campsites to the highlanders. Taking several female attendants with him to the riverbank, he stripped completely bare and plunged headfirst into the water.

The cool river water washed away the grime from his body and freed him from the suffocating atmosphere of the battlefield. The thrill of slaughter gradually faded, and reason slowly returned to his frame.

Whatever the woman's choice might be, the outcome here was predetermined; it was merely a matter of a few more twists and turns. Letting the highlanders taste blood would prove beneficial for future endeavors, though what they needed most right now was discipline.

As for that seemingly formidable castle, it was merely a pebble in his path forward. What needed consideration now was what step to take next.

Seeing him submerge his entire body beneath the surface and fail to reappear for a long time, Elceylea grew somewhat anxious. Unable to help herself, she lifted the hem of her skirt and stepped into the water. The female attendants were equally at a loss, and just as they were about to call out, a figure suddenly broke through the water's surface and lunged, pinning the maiden down.

"Ah!"

Caught off guard, the maiden let out a sharp cry and tumbled backward into the water. When she opened her eyes, a half-smiling face was right before her.

"Elceylea, are you worried about me?"

The maiden nodded, her eyes veiled in a thin mist of tears.

Liu Ji held her close as they floated on the water's surface. The setting sun in the distance slowly dipped below the horizon, spilling golden rays across the river valley and casting Kapilavastu into a massive, blurred shadow.

"Elceylea, you know your mother won't agree to my terms. You're afraid I'll kill her, aren't you?"

The maiden bit her lip, shrinking into his embrace, her voice so soft it was barely audible. "Will you kill her?"

"I have already given her a chance. So this time, I'm sorry, I cannot grant your wish. However, since you've spoken up, you may allow her to choose a dignified death—that is my absolute bottom line."

The maiden's eyes grew wet. She did not plead further, but merely whispered, "Thank you."

"This is nothing to be thankful for; you don't need to force yourself," Liu Ji reached out a finger, gently wiping away the tears spilling from the corners of her eyes.

"No, I'm not doing it just for my mother. Thank you for not using me to threaten her."

Liu Ji was startled for a moment, then said slowly and deeply, "Mamunur would never use a daughter to threaten her mother."

Are you kidding me? Drive that woman mad and play a real-life game of speed?