14 A Blood Flower Bloomed on the Indigo Robe (2/2)

”Xia Hou... ”

Ning Que had been repeating this name to himself in his mind after a maidservant told him that the Great Sword Master might be Xia Hou's subordinate. Besides, the Great Sword Master had admitted that before.

Xia Hou was not called Xia Hou XX.

His last name is Xia, and his first name is Hou.

As one of the four most influential Great Generals in Tang, his Kungfu was among the highest level and he had achieved many military accomplishments. The man was extremely brave yet cold and ruthless, famous for being brutal and warlike. He was stationed at the Fierce Willow Battalion.

However, while his last name was Xia, he did not allow his children to use Xia as their last names. Instead, he changed his children's last names to his full name. His oldest son was called Xiahou Jing and his second son was called Xiahou Wei, and so on. When the court's intellectuals asked about it, Xia Hou answered arrogantly. ”I want to create a last name for myself and I am the ancestor, which will be passed down for thousands of centuries.”

”Therefore, the family name from now is Xiahou.”

...

...

General Xia Hou was a celebrity. It was not, however, for this reason, Ning Que kept remembering his name in his mind, from shocking narrations to disappointment, and then to irony.

This name, seemingly engraved into blood and arrogance, had always been deeply buried in Ning Que's mind since he was four.

He had never met Xia Hou before.

But he knew Xia Hou's hobby, his favorite concubine, and why Xia Hou had boiled and killed that concubine. He also knew that Xia Hou would eat three kilograms of mutton at every meal, and even his daily toilet routine.

He believed that he was the person who understood the Tang's famous general most, none in the world wanted to kill this man more than he did.

Under the rough and arrogant appearance of that general, there was a cold and cunning heart. He was harsh and ruthless, but he only trusted his own hands. Therefore, he would never rely solely on the middle-aged scholar, who obviously was not his descendant, to assassinate the princess.

The general would definitely send his most loyal assassins and subordinates to observe this ambush. He himself might jump out at a key moment to finish the task.

It was the best moment, in Ning Que's perspective.

A crying little boy poked his head out of the half-collapsed carriage. A pretty maidservant raised her dress and ran towards him nervously.

Ning Que extended his right arm as quickly as a thunderstrike and knocked her down.

The tree branches over their heads snapped and broke into pieces, obscuring the sight of any onlookers. Two masked men dressed in black appeared in the debris. They quickly threw two metal balls at Ning Que and unsheathed their long swords from their backs. The scene was very cold and scary!

The two accelerating metal balls were painted with red dots. They were kerosene grenades equipped by the elite forces of Tang's frontier armies and their burning effect was extremely horrifying.

Ning Que was familiar with these grenades as he had spent a lot of time in the frontier fortress. He threw the bow away as quickly as he could and reached out for the hilt on his back, and then he screamed, ”Umbrella!?”