Legend of Fu Yao Volume 1 Chapter 44

Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan

Chapter 44 – Running Like a Wolf, Rushing Like a Boar[1]

When the palace gate opened, Meng Fuyao immediately let out a shocked “ah” sound. In her past life, she had never personally seen hundreds of thousands of people chaotically battle in one place. Seeing it with her own eyes today, she only felt that as expected, imagination was limited while it was reality that was the most cruel.

In front of her, a boundless stretch of dark human heads surged into her field of view. The wide palace street plaza reflected palaces like mountains and moonlight like water – however, in reality the mountains were made of flesh and bone, and oceans were made of b.l.o.o.d.y water. Swell after swell of wild animal-like struggles rose and fell. The wind screamed over the heads of the people slaughtering each other, its whistling sound containing traces of blood thirst and murder. The red-armored, yellow-clothed palace guards tightly surrounded the black-armored, golden robed capital city troops, like two huge snakes one red and one black that twisted together. Howling cries and chopped flesh flew nearby, and warm blood stained the vast heavens with the same color.

Zhan Bei Ye and Yun Hen, however, were hardened veterans of war, and didn’t have the astonishment of the inexperienced Meng Fuyao. Without even bothering to look, they only protected Fuyao as they charged forwards. The three continuously pushed aside the entangled human bodies and kicked aside the fallen, severed limbs, along the way stabbing to death the blood-crazed soldiers that came rushing over to attack them. Before they had made it in even two steps their bodies had already been bathed in blood, their faces splattered with pieces of flesh.

In the chaos Meng Fuyao looked back, looking towards the Yuan Zhaoxu overlooking on his horse inside the palace gates. He peacefully sat up high, not watching the great turbulent battle outside the palace, not watching Prince Qi’s troops building up behind him, only watching her.

That light-colored robe sunk into the darkness, its lapels drifting leisurely as if flying, was tinted with moonlight as if it were the sleeves of an immortal from the Nine Heavens; yet his faintly smiling, rein holding posture amidst the battlefield’s blood rain, was still the same dignity and elegance as in the past.

Meng Fuyao was forced forward by the flowing crowd, becoming further and further away from him. She felt like there was only a swaying line of sight, like a willow leaf or a flying strand, that tugged and pulled, floated and drifted, finally landing on her back. It was so scorching that even her heart was burnt a little, and she felt a small amount of pain.

Biting her lip, Meng Fuyao was a little depressed. This person was too thorough when he helped someone right? It had already reached this point, why was he not leaving? Was he still helping with Qi Xunyi’s plans? She didn’t actually hold resentment against Yuan Zhaoxu for standing on the opposite side of her – political choices had no relation with personal feelings. From a certain perspective, it was her that had ruined his plans.

Opening her mouth, Fuyao had the impulse to loudly shout for him to quickly run, but after thinking a bit she gave up in frustration. Yuan Zhaoxu this person, he made his own decisions on everything, and nothing would change just because of something she said.

Softly sighing, Meng Fuyao helplessly turned back her head. The corner of her eye suddenly caught a glimpse of a snow white ball of fat that poked out from Yuan Zhaoxu’s robes, that was joyfully making a posture towards her of “Goodbye and don’t come back”.

Fuyao’s face darkened, cursing loudly, “Dumb person’s stupid rat!”

Zhan Bei Ye immediately stared at her. “What are you doing cursing out of the blue?”

“Ai, you’re even worse than that stupid rat!” Meng Fuyao’s inexplicable fire puffed and billowed. The unlucky Zhan Bei Ye looked at her in astonishment, not knowing where she ate the wrong medicine and now actually hated rats so much.

The three people tunneled through the turbulent slaughter fields, slicing out whenever they saw a person charging over without caring who it was. With the martial arts of the three people these soldiers were already unable to wound them. Seeing that they were gradually exiting the plaza but there were still many palace guards and capital city troops chaotically battling in the streets, Meng Fuyao exhaled a breath and was just about to speak. Suddenly, the Yun Hen beside her noiselessly fell down.

“Ai ya! The poison flared up!” Meng Fuyao reached out a hand to catch him, noticing that the youth’s snow-like facial color had paled by a few more shades. Even the thin blood vessels on his temples could be seen, and underneath the long eyelashes a layer of faint black air shrouded, a sign of the poisonous air starting to move up.

After Meng Fuyao felt his pulse she pushed him to Zhan Bei Ye. “He was wounded previously, and was constantly relying on his last vestiges of effort to continue on. At the palace gate before he consumed too much of his strength protecting me and has long been an arrow at the end of its flight, he needs to be treated as soon as possible.”

“Let’s go to my post station, I have first-cla.s.s medicine there, and we can also command people to buy some medicine we need to use.” Zhan Bei Ye lifted up Yun Hen. Fuyao nodded her head, stuffing a medicine pill into Zhan Bei Ye’s hands, saying, “First give him one to eat.”

Zhan Bei Ye received it and fed it to Yun Hen. Just when he turned back his head, he saw Meng Fuyao leap out with a dive. In only a few steps she had pa.s.sed through to a small alley at the south side of the plaza, her running like a wolf and rushing like a boar. Zhan Bei Ye blazed up in fury, shouting, “You treacherous woman —–” With a lift of Yun Hen he raised his legs to chase. Meng Fuyao’s head didn’t even turn back as she gusted past the battling soldiers in the alley like wind, loudly yelling, “Brothers, general’s orders! That black-clothed person chasing over is a spy, whoever can capture him alive will be awarded with a thousand liang of gold, but whoever kills him will be fined a liang of silver!”

The command pierced the muddled minds, and under the coercion of heavy rewards there was bound to be those who were brave. While the soldiers already delirious from previous fighting had yet to distinguish whether this “general” was from their side or the other side, they had already subconsciously brandished their blades and advanced forward, very quickly blocking up the alleyway. The flashing blade light danced out line after line of snow-colored arcs in the night, crowding together to “capture the spy!” Being completely blocked when he chased to the alley, Zhan Bei Ye couldn’t help but burn in rage. His robes flourished while in a lift of his leg he kicked seven or eight flying with pa pa pa sounds; the soldiers that flew out spat out blood as they were in the air. In the s.p.a.ce above the squeezed together black heads came a downpour of blood rain, shocking the crowd of people to scatter out a path in a hua la sound. However, with just this one delay, the Meng Fuyao whose qinggong skill was not bad in the first place had already escaped far away.

The stunned Zhan Bei Ye stood at the alley entrance for a long time. After a while, he hatefully shouted:

“Woman, you won’t be able to run away! Even if I have to go to the ends of the earth, this Prince is determined to have you!”

Footnotes Means fleeing in panic or confusion