Volu Witnesses (1/2)

Volu Witnesses

“ Zhe standing with his hand behinds his back at the entrance of the tent Once again, Li Hu loathed his oeakness, braving such heavy snow to serve as a guard for the ene his hand to his waist Before he had touched the handle of his saber, a light cough sounded behind hi Duan standing there gazing at hi hi for Li Hu to carefully consider the bodyguards standing not far away eyeing the its prey Li Hu let out a breath Any er Guard present could take hi Zhe was just asking for trouble

Ling Duan gazed at Li Hu’s dejected figure and couldn’t help s wryly He, himself, also did not have the freedo of this, he couldn’t help but touch the short dagger-axe at his waist, thinking about how to successfully assassinate Jiang Zhe

I saw each and every one of Li Hu and Ling Duan’s ed at the corner of ain appeared in h the two of thenificant It was enough as long as I was able to attain my objectives

Within the tent, Li Hu stared oddly at the young h he was hotheaded and impulsive, Li Hu was not a fool Today, the cold and severe aura being emitted by this man left hi, “hello! Has sohtly?”

A hint of killing intent flashed across Li Shun’s eyes, as he replied, “We have gotten acquainted these last few days Yet, presumably, the two of you do not know of my identity This one is Li Shun, a servant of the Marquis of Chu”

Ling Duan had long anticipated this He forced a slight, wry saze flickered past Ling Duan, intentionally or otherwise His icy stare was enough to cause Ling Duan to shi+ver inside He tried to gather his internal energy, but because he had only recently recovered, he could not do so He just sat down in disappointawked vacantly It was some time before he came to the realization, as he replied, “So you are a subordinate of the Army Supervisor? I was about to say … it’s iood intentions without rhye … if your master wished to kill one to the trouble and wait until this old ?”

Li Shun’s expression grew increasingly callous, as he replied, “My young master’s status it far from ordinary For years, this one has been responsible for the young master’s safety However, I actually allowed you to nearly har master’s life in front of my eyes How can I let such extraordinary shaed? Moreover, if you are let off so easily, wouldn’t that give the e of? For my entire life, Li Shun has been a firm believer of ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ However, the day you were taken captive, you were deterratuitously satisfy your desires As such, I had people provide ive you courtesy that were above and beyond, waiting for the er wished to die to kill you This isyou off lightly Therefore, I’ive you two choices Choice nust the Northern Han prisoners and have you fight to the death against him The victor survives, the loser dies If you are able to win several rounds, you will naturally be allowed to live a few extra days Choice number two, I have prepared all kinds of torture tools If you can endure all of them one by one, I will allow you to leave If you cannot endure, you will naturally die”

Li Hu felt chills run down his back as he heard these words Neither of these death ood choices However, he was quite firantly replied, “Since I have fallen into your hands, if you want to kill me, just kill me I’m not in the leisurely et involved in any internecine strife¹ If you want to use torture, then just tortureyour daddy can last”

Xiaoshunzi s cruel overtones Just as he was about to reply, Ling Duan interrupted, “Fool If you want to die straightforwardly, you should choose the duels If you want, you can die in the first round by throwing yourself onto your opponent’s weapon Dying in this manner will be clear-cut If you are tortured, when you reach the point where you can hope for neither life nor death, you will inevitably beg pitifully When the time comes, you will be exposed to the public Even if you die, your reputation will hit rock botto these words, Li Hu felt as if his entire body was frozen in ice However, he was still a bit unconvinced He asked, “How do you know that I araceful perforht to himself, I have served at the General’s side for many years It’s easy to fervently wish for death In co as a martyr in an easy manner isn’t that easy Even aunder heavy torture</eeneral was someone as adept at torture Whenever, he started, those being tortured would either try to coiveness Able to endure the torture until death was already as rare as one in a thousand Beyond that, he had not seen a single person endure to the end Just as he wanted to say a few aze had turned to hiain warn that foolish and stupid Old Hu He was unwilling to stick up for hi he could do if Li Hu didn’t understand, especially since he didn’t want to also be placed in such a quandary

Malice flashed across Xiaoshunzi’s eyes Ling Duan was truly meddlesome Xiaoshunzi wondered whether to also have him handled as well

Li Hu finally understood that the two choices before him were no more than a façade The man in front of hi way possible However, by nature, Li Hu was not sohed and said, “So that is the case Fellow, you are truly fake, unwilling to even give soainedallowed to live so many extra days You can handle , he jumped off of his bed and walked towards the exit As he walked, he mumbled, “In any case, your daddy doesn’t have any dependents What harm is there if I leave a bad reputation behind?”

Xiaoshunzi was startled He originally believed that Li Hu would change hiswhen to act to ensure that Li Hu did not die an easy death However, Li Hu had still chosen the most painful manner of death only because he did not want to cause his comrades to kill each other With this, iton, the

Xiaoshunzi was a gri toDuan could not bear to re, “Brother, on the battlefield, life and death is a constant presence Your master is now flushed with success As your prisoners, you can do as you please with us However, isn’t dragging this matter till today a bit too excessive?”

Xiaoshunzi stopped in his tracks He turned his head and glanced at Ling Duan, as he replied, “You are one of the Ghost Cavalry, one of General Tan Ji’s bodyguards This one rather ad your mouth off, otherwise I would have you enjoy the same treatment as Li Hu For his personal hatred, General Tan massacred countless soldiers and civilians of Zezhou These individuals were originally innocent Presumably, you made no effort to dissuade hi master’s life How can that be tolerated? You can say that this one is seeking revenge for the slightest grievance² You can also say that I ae But I must kill this man More importantly, you should worry about your own life General Tan’s coffin has already been delivered back to Northern Han and naturally will not have to endure hness’s e the hate of the soldiers and coed over injustices co Duan was stunned, not because of this man’s ridicule, but because of that eneral Hoas this possible? Ignoring the fact that the hts be hostile against the general, even within the Northern Han areneral, aside from his direct subordinates

At this moment, Li Hu, who had slowed his pace to listen to the two converse, realized that he would not be able to escape Somewhat despondent, he walked out of the tent His tempera death as a return hoht when he walked out, he saw a scholar in azure robes and wearing a heavy cloak standing in the distance Behind hih Li Hu had only seen Jiang Zhe briefly that day, from the man’s stance, he knew his identity He could not help sneering and saying, “So the Army Supervisor daren wishes to personally torture me With this, even if I, Li Hu, were to die, it would be worth it However, when I remember daren’s appearance like a drowned rat that day, I find it still quite ridiculous to this day” Finished speaking, he began to laugh heartily He wanted to enrage Jiang Zhe in the hopes of a quick death

Just then, Xiaoshunzi walked out of the tent and i there He could not help but cry out in fear Based upon his martial arts, he nor outside However, with the frequent coh he had discovered that so some distance away, Xiaoshunzi took hi Zhe would appear here Although there was some distance between the Zhe, understood that all of his words had already been heard by Jiang Zhe He could not help flushi+ng with e, “I didn’t want to conceal this ainst this ive e³ However, after he had said those fierce words, he saw the azure-robed scholar’s gaze htest trace ofso soht, to do with him Were my malicious words a bit too excessive?</e furtively at Jiang Zhe No matter how he looked, this youthful scholar was pitifully thin and weak Li Hu recalled how he had sent hi into the moat with one strike of his lance At the ti back on it today, he felt soth How could he try to kill a scholar without the strength to even truss a chicken?

While Li Hu was standing there du Zhe,” fro excited He already knew that it was that eneral to be ambushed and killed At the same time that he was filled with enmity, he was also curious as to the y to rise and walk out of the tent, gazing with rapt attention Although he felt that Jiang Zhe’s bearing was extraordinary, this hts Although the man ithin the army and held both a lofty position and noble rank, he only wore a set of azure robes There was a sentle His move all those who saw hi Duan could not help feeling at a loss That eneral … Why was he unable to exude any killing intent towards hi all three of the h I ell aware of Xiaoshunzi’s te to beat around the bush and coh I was a bit annoyed, I actually felt touched and found this all a bit ridiculous I glanced at the dazed Li Hu I had never paid this man any attention When I fell in the water that day, I only bore a grudge towards the Prince of Qi’s jeering and did not have any thoughts about avenging myself Who could have known that Xiaoshunzi would act privately without orders? If I had not run into him by chance, Li Hu would likely have cursed hih I did not recognize the other e, frosty expression, his soaring, murderous aura, and his pale skin that seemed to be infrequently exposed to the sun, he seeli, I asked, “So you are the one who sentDuan raised his chin proudly, unwilling to reply Xiaoshunzi glanced at hi Duan and is a member of the Ghost Cavalry under Tan Ji”

Interested, I replied, “I have often heard of the valor and ferocity of the Ghost Cavalry serving at the side of the Ghost-Faced General Surprisingly, you have such abilities even though you are so young Truly quite rare, quite rare indeed” As I sighed with regret, right as I was about to tactfully mollify Xiaoshunzi to cease his interests in Li Hu, an odd thought suddenly appeared in my mind

That day, I had deliberately allowed my letter to be intercepted by Northern Han to raise the possibility of the willingness of soenerals to surrender However, I had only obliquely referred to the officers As for how to increase Long Tingfei’s suspicions, I had handed this le principle—to not favor or discriainst anyone It was best if everyone had suspicions and was like rebels So as not to frafei to the reality However, seeing this soldier, I suddenly realized that coenerals, theThat day, he had led an army to intercept the Prince of Qi and ely due to luck There were probably also those suspicious in the Northern Han ar had held back in his pursuit Although I wanted to first eli was colyinto traps

I went over the information that I had received recently While alive, Tan Ji was on extre In this last battle, shi+ Ying had stayed behind in Qinzhou due to injuries, while Tan Ji was ambushed and killed If Tan Ji’s household troops claifei would likely believe it to a certain degree Reaching this conclusion, I glanced once again at Ling Duan I did not knohether Xiaoshunzi was being deliberate or inadvertent by having the two of theether With this, the chance of success of reater

However, I could not rush this ht noas to keep the two of them by my side, otherwise how could they learn these “secrets”? Thinking of this, I s this conversation outside Let’s go in” Finished speaking, I walked towards the interior of the tent Xiaoshunzi rapidly rushed to ainst any assassination attempts by the two captives In reality, with the severity of their injuries, it would have been difficult to conduct an assassination attempt Furthermore, with Xiaoshunzi by my side, even they were in the best of health, it would be i a crisis effortlessly⁴ solely relied upon recognizing that danger did not exist

Entering the tent, I selected a chair and sat down Very slowly, Li Hu and Ling Duan walked in, so and soarded the two of them for some time before I smiled and said, “Xiaoshunzi, you are a bit too meddlesome… In a few days, when their injuries are healed, they will be delivered into penal servitude When the time comes, they will be surrounded by a massive military force, unar manual labor on a daily basis The two of them have relatively excellent martial arts skills They will likely be in fetters Even if they want to escape, it will be difficult to do so Everyone there will be prisoners Even if we conquer Northern Han, they will not regain their freedo is alreadyto the trouble of retaliating?”

When Li Hu and Ling Duan heard h they were sorrowful, this was the reasonable consequence Besides, according to custoh rank like themselves would likely have been directly executed by the troops assigned to sweeping the battlefield Those with the qualifications to be prisoners were typically only lightly wounded soldiers and ie army doctor would have been powerless to save seriously injured individuals like the Honestly, Li Hu’s survival up till today was because of Xiaoshunzi’s wish to retaliate and so he had arranged for so Duan, this was all because of Tan Ji The Prince of Qi had intentionally given orders to have hi their two expressions, I felt a hint of pity Everyone wanted to live, and feared death These tere the same If they were to sacrifice their lives for their country or face unbearable hu abjectly to life However, they were now prisoners If there weren’t any unexpected accidents, it was natural that they wanted to survive Although that was the case, I would not view theht to force the and betray Northern Han, it would be i the pressure of death to force thenity was quite possible

Thinking of this, I revealed what I considered to be an extres slip through, nearly leading to your hu’s actions, it is also the result of a lack of proper guidance on e for Brother Li to temporarily serve out your forced servitude at my side Once the war has ended, Brother Li will be allowed to depart in peace If it were following inal intent, I would release Brother Li im’s Ars that are inappropriate for me to do However, there is no need for Brother Li to worry There is no need for those by o into battle and I will not have Brother Lito accept my kind intentions?”

Li Hu’s eyes widened Truthfully, Jiang Zhe’s suggestion was extremely attractive Aside froenerous However, Li Hu had just learned a lesson and was unwilling to believe that such a thing would occur in this world Besides, could this be considered as treason and defecting to the enes out clearly As a result, he did not kno to reply, at least te Duan and said, “His Ihly of General Tan Ji I, retful that I did not have the opportunity tois the sole survivor of General Tan’s Ghost Cavalry Because of this connection, the Prince of Qi has you on his s difficult for you But a country has its laws and an ar is not perhness is a member of the Imperial Clan and the commander-in-chief of the ar by his side, and thus he askeddoes nottemporarily at my side What do you think?”

Xiaoshunzi stood at Jiang Zhe’s side, his expression cold as ice However, he alhness, the Prince of Qi, entrust thisent Seeing Jiang Zhe’s expression, Xiaoshunzi knew that the young master had come up with an idea As a result, he naturally would not under master and instead deliberately revealed a look of discontent, stating, “Young hness to look after Ling Duan, he is, after all is said and done, an enemy We only need to keep them under arrest in the camp There is no need to keep theratitude and try to assassinate you, what then? In addition, it is already a blessing for Li Hu that the younghim Is there a need to keep hih his words were quite disapproving it was actually providing i Duan to feel Jiang Zhe’s kind intentions However, neither Li Hu nor Ling Duan were able to respond Although it was more comfortable to stay within the prisoner camps than to perforain their freedoardless of ould happen in the war between Great Yong and Northern Han, they would be able to find the opportunity to escape But would this be the slipup that caused everlasting regret⁵ and make them treasonous traitors? They both had anxious hearts The two of the to coed several looks Unfortunately, one was too cavalier, while the other was not good at expressing himself It was almost a farce, as they were unable totime had passed