Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Six: Returning in Triumph

Standing at the fortress gate and looking out, Kaiming saw a long procession stretching across the winding plains, its tail completely out of sight. Secretly, she wondered: how many soldiers and generals had the Central Palace sent? Had they dispatched the entire nation's military force? Was this military campaign truly this severe?

A soldier, striding heavily through the fortress gate, called out to her in a booming voice, "Are you General Kaiming? We are the reinforcements sent by the Central Palace to support the Military Supervisor. We are here to rest for a moment, change some horses, and then immediately rush to the Western Palace."

Kaiming replied casually, "How is the battle situation over at the Western Palace?"

The soldier answered, "My Lord the Military Supervisor has already captured two cities. Because the final city has formidable defenses and is easy to defend but difficult to attack, we have been sent to reinforce them."

Kaiming pondered to herself, "Does that mean once the final city is taken, the Western Palace will be breached?"

The soldier nodded and said, "You could say that."

Kaiming smiled faintly. It seemed victory was within their grasp, and the fall of the Western Palace was merely a matter of time. She instructed the camp guards to get busy—changing horses for those who needed them and feeding fodder to the mounts. The soldier, appearing utterly exhausted, found an empty felt tent and went inside to catch some sleep.

She stood by the fortress gate, worrying about how to accommodate such a massive host of soldiers, only to see them, under the direction of their respective commanders, sitting down directly on the ground. Some lay down, while others reclined, dozing off right there on the earthen slopes.

Several commanders saluted her militarily before successively slipping into the tents to catch some sleep.

She raised her gaze to the distance, looking at the unfamiliar faces and the bodies curled up on the dry mud. Remembering her own early days in the army and her initial campaign experiences, her eyes inexplicably began to sting with unshed tears.

She turned around, wiped away the moisture, and said to Xiao Ke who was following closely behind, "Have the cooks prepare some good food to treat the officers in the tents. As for the ordinary soldiers..." She sighed. "We don't have extra grain to take care of them."

Xiao Ke smiled and said, "Deputy General, you needn't worry. The soldiers all carry their own rations. When the time comes, they will set up their own stoves and cook."

She nodded, forcing a smile. "I was overthinking. Who goes out to war without taking care of themselves? Ah, to find myself powerless even to do a little extra for them. Go on, Xiao Ke!"

Xiao Ke acknowledged the order and ran off.

A few commanders woke up after a brief rest, partook of a lavish meal, and then took their leave of Kaiming, gearing up and getting ready to move. Kaiming escorted them to the fortress gate and detained the earlier soldier to ask, "Did His Majesty the Palace Emperor only pass down a verbal decree for rescue this time? Nothing else at all?"

The soldier looked at her strangely and replied, "That's right, just the verbal decree for rescue."

Her expression turned even stranger than his. "Regarding... um, myself, was there not a single word mentioned?"

"General Kaiming's affairs?" The soldier rolled his eyes. "What about General Kaiming?"

"Nothing, haha, never mind, never mind." She forced a laugh to cover it up. "Your march has been arduous, have a safe journey."

The soldier saluted her, swung into his saddle, waved his hand back forcefully, and shouted, "Move out!"

Amid the clanging of weapons and the friction of marching footsteps, the long procession filed past her eyes. Watching the advancing troops, Kaiming fell into deep contemplation.

Dai Yuheng hadn't mentioned a single word about her. He had neither stripped her of her rank nor made any stance at all. What on earth was his intention? Could it be that because she was currently fighting battles for him, it was inconvenient to punish her, and he intended to deal her a fatal blow only after she returned to the Central Palace?

She shuddered and clutched her arms tightly. Yes, given his ruthlessness, he was entirely capable of such a vicious act. A gust of cold wind blew by. She raised her head to look at the sky—autumn had arrived, and the weather was growing colder by the day.

During the next few days, Kaiming spent her time practicing martial arts and calligraphy from dawn till dusk. Xuan's injuries were improving day by day; by the fourth day, he was already able to stand on his own feet, and Chunhua fawned over him at every opportunity. The lingering soldiers in the camp had no one to supervise them, so they slacked off whenever they could, passing the days in leisurely idleness.

On the fifth day, Kaiming was practicing her staff work near a tree stump as usual. Xuan had come down, standing to the side and leaning on a crutch made from a tree branch to watch. Chunhua followed him like a shadow.

Xuan had taught her a set of Wind-Demon Staff techniques. Although her movements were not entirely precise, she practiced them with earnestness and steady adherence to the rules.

"Here, stop!" Xuan suddenly shouted a command. She had just executed a slanted chopping motion and froze there, holding the staff aloft.

"When you bring it back, use finesse, not brute force! Only apply your full strength after the pull, do you understand?! How many times do I have to tell you?!" Showing no mercy whatsoever, Xuan reprimanded her sternly, "Again!"

Hearing his harsh tone, Chunhua stuck her tongue out at Kaiming.

With no other choice, Kaiming had to start over. Reaching the same movement again, Xuan shouted once more, and she froze.

"Again!"
"Do it again!"

After a few repetitions, Xuan grew impatient. Raising the thick tree branch in his hand, he struck a pose and said to her, "Use that last move and attack me!"

"Huh?" She was dumbfounded. You're an injured man—have you grown tired of life?

"Quick!" he frowned and said. "Even in this state of mine, I can still defeat you. Do you believe me?"

Unconvinced, Kaiming thought to herself, *Don't speak too soon, and don't blame me for losing face later.* She raised her staff, focused her gaze on the imaginary opponent before her, shouted, "Ha!" and lunged forward with the tip leading the charge to seize the initiative.

Xuan deflected her staff with a gentle sweep to the side. She felt as though she had been struck by the Tai Chi principle of overcoming a thousand pounds with four ounces; her strength was entirely dissipated, and she was swept off to the side.

Chunhua let out a cry of "Good!" and actually clapped her hands twice, making Kaiming glare at her in frustration. Pivoting her body, Kaiming dragged her staff back and, mustering all the strength she could push from her core, slashed diagonally from the side.

Without a trace of panic, Xuan parried her staff once more, again avoiding the sharp edge and using subtle leverage. Kaiming thought, *Surely he won't use that same trick again—* Just as the thought crossed her mind, his tree branch suddenly entangled her staff and spun around it a few times. Her hands were twisted like a hemp rope, and a sharp pain flared at the web of her thumbs. She hastily released her grip. Using the momentum, the tree branch leveraged her staff and gave it a fierce upward flick, sending it flying far into the air.

With her mouth agape, she watched in astonishment as her staff was twisted away by her opponent and tossed high into the sky. Her head bobbed up and down, following the flight of the staff in mid-air, and for a long moment, she was utterly speechless.

Xuan smiled and glanced at Chunhua, whose mouth was wide open in an identical expression of shock.

"Deputy General! Deputy General!" Shouts suddenly erupted from outside the fortress gate, accompanied by the chaotic thunder of approaching horse hooves.

"Huh?" Regaining her focus, she shifted her gaze toward the fortress gate.

A fast horse flashed past her eyes, and she vaguely caught the figure of a soldier.

"What is it?" Forgetting about her airborne staff, she hurried toward the gate.

Before the soldier could even dismount, he cried out impatiently, "My Lord the Military Supervisor has achieved a total victory and is returning from the Western Palace!"

"Oh," she replied calmly, feeling neither overwhelming joy nor any emotional fluctuation. Xuan's return meant they would soon leave this temporary camp, and it meant Dai Yuheng was about to settle old scores with her. What was there to be happy about?

At this moment, the staff in the air was cutting through the wind with a humming sound. Lifted by Xuan's force, it carried its remaining momentum and plunged toward the ground. Directly below the falling staff, banners fluttered densely, spears and halvard blotted out the sun, and the long procession crawled like ants.

A large palm reached out, firmly catching the flying staff, pulling it down, and lifting it before his eyes to examine this projectile that had fallen from the blue.

"My Lord?" Several mounted generals closed in from behind, looking at the staff in his hand with ashen faces. "Was that a concealed weapon?"

The phoenix eyes beneath the steel helmet narrowed slightly. As a strand of hair brushed past his curving lips, Xuan smiled and said, "Someone launched a sneak attack on this Military Supervisor."

The generals' complexions grew even uglier as they looked around vigilantly. "Are there assassins lying in ambush here?"

Xuan narrowed his eyes to peer at the Central Palace camp hundreds of meters away, spotting the figure standing at the fortress gate questioning the soldier. Then, looking at the staff in his hand, he smiled even more brightly. "I will definitely punish this assassin properly."

Puzzled, the generals wondered: who on earth gets attacked and smiles this brightly? What a truly eccentric person.

Just as the messenger soldier's voice faded, Kaiming and the others heard the earth-shattering sound of marching feet. Raising their heads, they saw the long procession of the Central Palace approaching the temporary camp from the wilderness. Beneath the massive nebula-patterned banner, mounted upon a magnificent warhorse, sat the majestic Military Supervisor in all his solemn dignity.

In the blink of an eye, the galloping warhorse arrived before them. Looking down at her from his lofty perch, Xuan said, "Break camp immediately and have the soldiers fall in!"

Bowing, she responded, "Yes," and turned to leave.

Xuan called out, "Wait!" He slowly extended the staff in his hand. "Does this belong to General Kaiming?"

Kaiming was slightly startled. How did this thing that flew into the sky end up in the hands of the Military Supervisor? She nodded in bewilderment. "Yes."

The commanders behind Xuan drew in a sharp breath of cold air and asked incredulously, "Deputy General, was the person who ambushed the Military Supervisor you?"

Upon hearing this, the expression on Kaiming's face was even more astonished than theirs. "Huh? A... an ambush?!"

Xuan stopped them from further conversation and snorted coldly, "I'll settle accounts with you for this later. For now, obey orders immediately and break camp!" He tossed the staff at her, wheeled his horse around, and rode off first.

The commanders exchanged strange looks and spurred their horses to follow behind him.

Standing there like a fool, Kaiming hugged the staff and watched them file past one by one. Turning to Xuan and Chunhua, she protested, "I've been wronged! A grievance as vast as the heavens! They actually said I ambushed the Military Supervisor? You two must testify for me! It was just a slip of the hand, understand? A slip of the hand!"

Chunhua laughed gleefully. "I didn't see anything. I don't know anything."

Xuan smiled faintly. "Rest assured, if it's Xuan, he won't do anything to you. Let's hurry up and urge the soldiers to pack their belongings and catch up with the procession!"

With no time to dwell further on the alleged ambush, Kaiming hurriedly issued orders to pack up their belongings and abandon the temporary encampment. Fortunately, there weren't many lingering soldiers, and the remaining baggage wasn't cumbersome. Before long, everything was tidied up, and they mounted their horses one after another.

At the rear of the procession, Kaiming looked back at the land that had buried Dayin and Zhaoming. She lowered her head in silence, then whipped her horse around and spurred it away. The sound of hooves echoed like drums across the wilderness, and horse and rider gradually dissolved into a tiny black dot, vanishing at the edge of the firmament.