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    Edict of Peace 68

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    Chapter 68 Breakthrough!

    A gentle woman’s voice came, laughing: “It’s rare to see you, Second Brother, so enthusiastic.”

    The girl, with a bearing like a dragon and phoenix, raised her eyebrows slightly and smiled: “Naturally, it’s because I’ve met a genius of the world, like encountering a rare and precious flower. One always wants to bring such a person under their wing, into their possession. Speaking of which, it was your elder brother who found this individual for me outside.”

    “Back then, snatching you from Big Brother and keeping you in my mansion was the right decision!”

    The woman grinding ink blushed slightly and softly said: “Second Miss, you’re just being frivolous.”

    The girl chuckled and said: “Anyway, I’m disguised as a man outside, and I need your help to cover for me. But never mind that. Wugou, continue grinding the ink, I’m going to find Big Brother and Father. The world is changing, and we can’t miss such a good opportunity.”

    She adjusted her attire. She was wearing a white round-necked robe, the hem decorated with large embroidered peonies in gold thread. A skilled craftsman had woven a crown of gold wire for her. Her phoenix eyes held a bright spirit, a crimson vertical mark adorning her brow. As she walked, her upper body was straight, her right hand resting on her sword hilt, full of vigor.

    Her father and elder brother were discussing important matters.

    After the girl entered, she presented her suggestion—to send a seasoned general with a small force of elite cavalry into battle—but was interrupted. The current Duke of Longxi frowned slightly and sighed: “Matters of state, don’t be reckless.”

    The girl paused, stepped forward, and pointed to a topographical map, saying: “Now that Tuyuhun (a historical nomadic group), taking advantage of the changes in the Southern Dynasty’s defenses, has launched a southward campaign, the vastness of the Western Regions presents a problem. There is a lack of sufficiently fertile land, and the terrain is complex. They also lack sufficient depth against the Northern Turkic heavy cavalry.”

    “Whether for self-preservation or to accumulate strength, they are bound to seize this area of Chen Kingdom. Currently, Ying Country and the Turks are confronting each other in the north, and the Tangut people are also lying dormant. For them, even with risks involved, they will definitely not give up this piece of fat. Father, the opportunity is right before us.”

    The Duke scolded: “Nonsense! Matters of state and nation, are we to be inferior to a child like you?”

    “In the past, you dressed as a man, rode horses, flew falcons, traded with various countries, and even kept the Longsun family’s daughter in the mansion. I indulged you, my daughter doesn’t need to be timid and shrinking like others, embroidering and playing the qin. But how can you be so arrogant? At your age, meddling in state affairs?!”

    The elegant young man beside him chuckled: “Second Brother, at your age, do you understand military strategy and the grand scheme of things?”

    “Here, Big Brother got some nice items from the capital, made of ivory, quite exquisite. A gift for you.”

    The Li family of the Duke’s mansion belonged to the Ji surname, having been granted the imperial surname by the emperor in the past.

    Her elder brother’s formal name was Ji Jianwen, also known as Li Jianwen.

    At this moment, using a teasing tone, he shoved a trinket he was playing with towards her and said with a smile: “Again, boys at fifteen and girls at thirteen can discuss marriage. You should be painting and playing the qin; leave matters of state to me and Third Brother to assist Father.”

    The girl looked at her father earnestly: “Just eight hundred cavalry, Father. If successful, the benefits will be enormous. Why not give it a try?”

    The Duke frowned, hesitant.

    Li Jianwen said: “At this time, to rashly send troops, how can we muster such a force?”

    “And who could take on such a responsibility?”

    The Duke let out a breath. His cautious nature led him to hesitate for a long time. In the end, he decided to be cautious. He waved his sleeve and scolded: “Childish talk! National affairs should be treated with utmost caution. Don’t be rash, Second Brother, say no more.”

    The girl finally bowed and left.

    Li Jianwen watched his sister leave, her peerless bearing and every glance radiating charm. For some reason, a trace of jealousy arose in his heart, as if in her presence, his own brilliance was always overshadowed by hers.

    The girl returned to her room, and after some thought, began to don her armor.

    Longsun Wugou, who was grinding ink beside her, asked in doubt: “Second Brother, weren’t you rejected?”

    The second Miss Li raised an eyebrow and said: “It doesn’t matter. If they refuse, I’ll just go myself.”

    Longsun Wugou was puzzled: “But didn’t they refuse to give you a commander to execute your plan?”

    “Divine General?”

    The girl with a crimson vertical mark on her brow and phoenix eyes raised her eyebrows slightly and said: “I am the Divine General!”

    The phoenix, who had just turned fourteen, wore dark armor and held a long spear in her right hand. “Xiao Wuliang could go to battle at thirteen, why can’t I? I too possess an innate Law Physique and have reached the third level of cultivation. In this world, I am fit to be a general.”

    “If Father and Big Brother ask, tell them I’m feeling stifled and have taken a group of people out hunting.”

    When this news reached the Duke, he was startled.

    He asked how many people she had taken, and his subordinate answered three hundred.

    The Duke was reassured, sighing and smiling at his eldest son: “Jianwen, your younger sister has a fiery temper. She’s been angered. However, merely three hundred people, what can they accomplish?”

    “Let her go.”

    At this time, the Duke was very affectionate and concerned for his children. He instructed: “Remember, don’t wander too far.”

    “Be safe.”

    The phoenix of the Duke’s mansion agreed and rushed out, but no one knew she never returned.

    A young hero who dared to lead troops into battle at fourteen—such a person was rare even in history.

    But for the second son of the Longxi Li family, it was perfectly natural.

    Night fell, and the stars ascended to the heavens.

    Tuyuhun’s lines had reached the border region of the Southern Dynasty, having prepared for war for many years, waiting for this moment.

    But no one expected that at this time, the Seven Kings of the Turks silently appeared to the north of Tuyuhun. The wind from the west swept down, and Po Jun, leaning on his halberd, looked towards the Western Regions. Behind him, the Tie Futuo (Iron Floating Pagoda), renowned as the king of heavy cavalry, rested his lance.

    The old guide rode a thin horse, trembling in the night wind, approaching Po Jun.

    The Turkic region was at a high altitude, but the area bordering Tuyuhun was difficult to traverse.

    However, Po Jun was the one who had stolen the halberd from the Tangut people’s sacred mountain, then fled all the way through the Western Regions and reached the Turkic grasslands. He knew this route, and now it would become the reason for the Western Regions to perish.

    Riding strange beasts, both men and horses clad in heavy armor, the knights were all second-tier martial artists.

    They were centurions of the grassland.

    Elite troops, heavy armor, and strange warhorses.

    In the end, they transformed into colossal iron beasts, weighing tens of thousands of catties (ancient unit of weight). When they charged, they formed formations, these ten-thousand-catty monsters surging forward with incredible speed, their hooves shaking the earth, capable of smashing through city gates. They were the undisputed king of armored heavy cavalry who had ravaged the battlefield for three hundred years.

    Until twenty-two years ago, General Zhou, an old general of Chen Kingdom, had fought a bloody battle, breaking the heavy cavalry with a hooked scythe spear, defeating the Turks, and slightly tarnishing the reputation of the heavy cavalry king. The Central Plains people had proven their blood and bravery in direct confrontation, forcing the Turks to retreat.

    Later, that great general returned to the capital from Jiangnan Dao (Jiangnan region), his bearing peerless. It was a pity, however, that fifteen years ago, when King Puyang rebelled, this general, who had pacified the nation, had already suffered from an old injury from killing the then-commander of the Tie Futuo, and had died young.

    Otherwise, if this tiger, who had roamed the battlefield for decades, were still alive, Chen Kingdom would not have had a regent. Alas, history is merciless, and great generals and beauties rarely have a happy ending. Po Jun licked his lips, gazing at the distant Western Regions.

    The wind today carried the scent of blood.

    He raised his halberd; on it hung a banner, not bearing a name or pattern, but the stars in the heavens, like the White Tiger constellation that had risen in the west. This was an ancestral banner, even placed alongside the banners of the Seven Kings.

    Po Jun grinned, his hand clenched, gently tapping his chest.

    Behind him, the White Tiger constellation ascended into the sky.

    He thought:

    My lord, this is my first battle to bring you glory.

    The old guide felt a chill from the military aura, saying: “Holding another person’s banner like this, are you not afraid that the Seven Kings of the Turkic will not allow you to return?”

    Po Jun looked at him.

    The old man hesitated, then lowered his voice: “The Turks are greedy; the more heroic a person is, the more they wish to keep everything for themselves. If you are unable to conquer the Western Regions using your strategy, he will kill you. But if you succeed, he will surely use gold, jewels, and beauties to win you over.”

    “If you still want to leave, he will still kill you and boil you in an iron pot.”

    “Even burning you to death, he will not let you return to the Central Plains.”

    Po Jun looked at the guide, smiling: “It’s alright, I naturally have a way to make him obediently send me back.”

    “If I can’t even do that, then I don’t deserve to be called Po Jun.”

    “At nightfall, we’ll go down and kill, without supplies, using the cattle and sheep of the Tuyuhun people for provisions, plundering their land…”

    He said: “I’m not good at fighting; the efficiency of fighting is too low.”

    “The battlefield, the battlefield is my destiny! Let heroes kill heroes, and let great men kill great men. The flames of chaos will naturally burn out a great hero capable of subduing the world. Only then can there be true peace.”

    “The ideals of the Yaoguang lineage are too naive. The peace of the world can only be forged in the clash of swords and spears. Before that, we are all blood-stained thugs.”

    The Tie Futuo moved; these killing machines charged towards the Tuyuhun tribes. Heavy iron lances, imbued with internal energy, tore through walls and stakes, piercing anything that dared to resist, then tossing them aside. The smell of blood was strong, and the old man trembled, watching the handsome strategist take a deep breath, his face filled with intoxication.

    Then, he suddenly shouted loudly.

    The calm and intelligent strategist pulled out a nearby spear.

    He had actually joined the battle.

    The old guide was dumbfounded, urging his horse: “You…you…you…you’re not good at fighting, are you?”

    Po Jun replied: “Not good at it.”

    “But I love it!”

    “Which strategist wouldn’t want to join their own plan? How can I let those martial artists get all the fame? My being unskilled at fighting and my disliking fighting are completely different things! Hahahahaha!”

    He laughed, solemnly saying amidst the battle formation:

    “The Sovereign of the Western Sky, the Master of Weapons.”

    “Eternal in the vast sky, the essence of the hegemon.”

    Then, with his spear, he pierced a resisting Tuyuhun warrior. The fiery light in his eyes was blood-red, like a madman beside a tyrant who consumes the world, handing him torches and oil.

    While the emperor in the Southern Kingdom held the waist of his beautiful concubine and listened to the qin played by his court officials, the phoenix of Longxi spread its wings. The eight years of Tuyuhun’s sharpened blade descended upon the Southern Kingdom, the Tangut people suppressing their blood feud, and the White Tiger Great Sect’s banner rose again under the stars after a five-hundred-year absence.

    The iron hooves of the Tie Futuo shattered the dreams of the Western Regions’ hegemon.

    The great trend of the world was shattered in the quiet night of the Southern Dynasty, amidst the murmurs and cries of the beautiful women at the ears of the Chen Kingdom’s emperor. The beautiful and gentle music of the Southern Dynasty, and the fierce spirit of Longxi, converged in this world.

    That night, Li Guanyi suddenly opened his eyes.

    Above the sky, the White Tiger constellation shone brightly.

    The White Tiger Law Physique naturally manifested, roaring towards the heavens, seemingly responding to something. This time, without Yao Guang’s prompting, Li Guanyi saw the fourth star of the Western Palace shining brightly. The White Tiger Law Physique could no longer restrain its ferocity. It raised its head and roared; starlight fell, then fed back into Li Guanyi’s body.

    It was as hot as fire.

    “This is…what Yao Guang said?”

    “The Second Young Master of the Duke’s mansion, he really did it, didn’t he?”

    “He chose my strategy, and my fate is now intertwined with his. So the changes in the stars are a preordained destiny, making me the mastermind behind this?”

    “Rebellion in the West, the White Tiger supervising the troops?”

    “I’ve become the mastermind?”

    Li Guanyi reacted.

    The internal energy in his meridians began to surge, naturally refining according to the methods of the *Jade Arm Divine Bow Scripture* and the *Tiger’s Roar Bone Forging Scripture*. Changes in the world’s trends will cause changes in the stars, producing omens, and the constellation of the White Tiger is closely related to the White Tiger Law Physique, naturally leading to a feedback like starlight tempering the body.

    There has never been a young person at this level who has caused such a change in the world’s trend as the White Tiger Great Sect.

    The degree of feedback was barely a ripple for past masters of the White Tiger Great Sect.

    But for Li Guanyi, it was too intense.

    He felt his internal energy wildly surging, rapidly circulating, so fast it seemed about to break through.

    But the White Tiger Law Physique’s eyes were bloodshot, as if immersed in a dream of slaughter and war. A breakthrough now might have side effects. Li Guanyi clenched his right hand, the Azure Dragon Law Physique let out a long cry, controlling the White Tiger Law Physique, the Xuanwu (Black Tortoise) calmly lying on the White Tiger Law Physique.

    He didn’t let this energy explode.

    But this was only a temporary block. Such a blockage was forcibly suppressing it; the eventual explosion might be even greater.

    With such a strong omen of breakthrough.

    Li Guanyi’s first reaction was not to seek out Elder Xue.

    Instead, he mounted his horse and left the Xue family. It was dusk, and the gates of Guan Yi City were closed, but the side gate was still open. The guards were about to rebuke Li Guanyi, but recognized the rhinoceros-horn belt worn only by martial officers of rank six to three. They trembled, and dared not stop him.

    They even opened the side gate, allowing the young man to ride out of the city.

    His meridians ached, the roar of the White Tiger fierce. The turmoil in the Western Regions was too strong, and Li Guanyi’s level too low. The young man was affected, seeming to hear the clang of swords and see images of slaughter and battle. Before his consciousness was immersed in this dream of slaughter, using his last bit of reason, he barged into the place where Yao Guang was.

    The girl was kneeling beside a bonfire.

    Buns were stuck on sticks.

    She was trying to imitate Li Guanyi’s method, with honey and milk nearby, dipping the toasted buns in honey. Her expression was impassive, but her eyes held anticipation, her hands holding the bun, taking small bites.

    The sound of galloping horses!

    Li Guanyi burst in.

    “Yao Guang!!!”

    The wind stirred the bonfire and the girl’s hair slightly. She looked up, at the bright White Tiger constellation. The master of the White Tiger Great Sect burst in on horseback; before him was the bonfire and stream, and above him shone the bright stars. The young man pulled his horse back, his brows flying high.

    The girl took a bite of the bun.

    Crunch.

    Then, kneeling before the bonfire, she held the toasted bun with both hands, her emotions steady, her expressionless gaze fixed on Li Guanyi.

    Li Guanyi’s tense nerves relaxed; he suddenly laughed.

    The young man dismounted.

    He sat cross-legged before the bonfire, like a martial artist, reaching out to grab the toasted bun from the girl’s mouth.

    It took two tries to pull it out.

    Then, he placed his hands on his knees and said:

    “Yao Guang!”

    “I’m about to break through, so I came to find you.”
    (Chapter end)

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