Rebirth: The Time-locked Girl
Chapter 148 Ning Army mighty! Her Royal Highness the Princess?! [2 more]

Chapter 148: 148 Ning Army mighty! Her Royal Highness the Princess?! [2 more]

On the edge of the sky, there was a faint red line that wasn’t the afterglow of the setting sun but flames.

Ye Wanlan remembered how He Jia had described it in a letter to her—

They descended from the sky with the flames, bringing blood and corpses.

But who were they?

Ye Wanlan’s fingers clenched tighter and tighter; she looked up, gazing westward.

Without tracing back through history, she already knew that the invaders of Shenzhou wouldn’t be from the Western Regions or the Northern Lands.

The Western Regions had been cowed by the King of Yan long ago, and the empress of the Northern Lands had signed an agreement with her, vowing never to wage war against Shenzhou during her lifetime.

Besides, even if the Western Regions and the Northern Lands were to unite, they wouldn’t have the capability to breach Shenzhou.

He Jia mounted his horse, pulling the reins with one hand and holding a long spear in the other, a heavy sword also strapped to his back.

His voice was faint as he said, "Let’s go."

A few vice generals followed, making their way to the marching grounds.

In the northwest, just the heavy cavalry alone numbered 150,000.

Yet before a day had passed, only 50,000 remained.

Seeing He Jia emerge, the remaining cavalry quickly formed ranks: "General!"

"We’ve fought together for thirteen years; today we shall conclude it." He Jia slowly started speaking, "Ning Army valiant, sworn to death we won’t fall back."

Those brief eight words nonetheless bolstered the spirit.

"Ning Army valiant, sworn to death we won’t fall back!"

"General valiant, long live our lord!"

"If we win this battle, we can have peace for a few years." He Jia led the charge on his horse, "We must fight."

He, the King of Yan, must live up to his title and die with honor on the battlefield.

Though facing a death he foresaw, he had no regrets.

This was a war destined for defeat, but no one retreated.

The yellow sand whipped through the air as tens of thousands of horses thundered across it.

The Heavenly Machine Camp led by the King of Yan was one of the Ning Dynasty’s three mightiest armies, the other two commanded respectively by the Prince of Chu and King Qin.

It was also at this moment that Ye Wanlan finally saw the enemy’s true face.

They were indeed human, not creatures from another world. They had black hair, blonde hair, green hair, and there were black eyes, blue eyes, red eyes; they represented no single race.

They also wore ordinary clothes, yet, as He Jia had said, this cloth was tougher than armor, impervious to blade and spear.

And their weapons were far superior to those of the Ning Army; the swords forged from meteorite iron in the hands of the Ning Army would break in an instant!

This was an utter massacre.

Every second, another soldier of the Ning Dynasty fell.

All six armies lay dead, for every inch of land, an inch of blood was shed.

Ye Wanlan’s hands hung at her sides, trembling ceaselessly.

She recalled all the records she had read about this battle of the armies; one phrase struck her particularly deeply—

They roared out that Shenzhou would never perish, would never be extinguished!

This enraged the enemy, and so, they were cruelly slaughtered.

That day, on the Shenzhou Land Continent, a million souls were lost.

Historians in later ages would consider this statement an exaggeration, but upon witnessing it today, it felt understated.

History books offer only a few words, indeed inadequate to portray the true annals of history.

"A million souls lost," just four words, yet behind them lay the real lives of a million people.

Others didn’t know she read the records of the fall of the Ning Dynasty every day, only to remember the deeply ingrained national humiliation and family vengeance.

Anyone could forget, but as a member of the Xiang Imperial Family, as Princess Yongning, as one who bears witness to a million lives, she could not.

Time passed unbeknownst, the wind ceased, and silence surrounded, where only breathing could be heard.

All around He Jia were corpses; within the vast expanse of heaven and earth, he alone remained alive.

The brothers and sisters who had been with him for thirteen years had all perished in battle.

"King of Yan, is it? Oh, you belong to an ancient era, such a backward civilization." The person called a general clapped his hands and smiled, "I respect your strength and your spirit, and so I’ve decided to give you a chance. Join me, what do you say?"

He Jia closed his eyes, allowing the blood to flow from the wounds on his body.

It hurt.

Since the pacification of the northwest, he hadn’t sustained such grievous wounds or felt such pain.

But the pain in his body didn’t come close to the anguish of his spirit.

He thought he had indeed been defeated, utterly crushed.

He couldn’t even stop these enemies from invading Shenzhou. He knew that he couldn’t fall; once he did, Shenzhou would be extinguished.

But now, what could he do?

Suddenly, He Jia recalled a question Xiang Lan had asked him a very long time ago when they were still wandering outsiders, at a time when she was just three years old.

—Prince Brother, how can I become strong?

—To become strong, you must have all your weaknesses broken, one by one. Once you’re devoid of these weaknesses, you’ll be the strongest.

——Vulnerability?

——It’s as if Xiao Lan is my vulnerability.

He Jia slowly opened his eyes; he straightened up once more, one hand pulling Broken Blade from his left chest, the other hand gripping the long spear tightly.

"Roar——"

In the distance, the sound of a dragon’s roar rose, intimidating all directions.

This was the tenth form of the Divine Strategy Spear Technique——

Hidden, Dragon, Soaring, from the Abyss!

"Boom!"

The ground suddenly collapsed, with sand flying and stones rolling, countless trees along the path shattered.

Screams erupted as a thousand men fell into the fissure, losing their lives in an instant.

The power of this move caught even the enemy off guard; retreating was already too late.

They had expected He Jia to have exhausted his strength and certainly unable to struggle against them any longer.

But the killer moves of each of the Six Great Sects were such that they would kill a thousand enemies at the cost of injuring eight hundred of their own, exchanging life for life, not to be used lightly.

This was also the first time He Jia used the move "Hidden Dragon Soaring from the Abyss".

In just an instant, the rampage of inner strength shattered all his meridians, blood flowing from his seven orifices, yet he drew the corners of his lips into a slight smile.

This move was stronger than he imagined, which was good.

He had done it, protected Shenzhou with his life, and it was time to rest now.

"To think we’d lose a bunch of men and be tricked by him at death’s door, truly bad luck."

"Who would have thought these People of Shenzhou had such temperaments? Would it not have been better to surrender early? Each one of them had to rush forward to die, like moths to a flame, truly overestimating their abilities."

"General, the man is already dead, what are you saying?"

"Isn’t his body still here? Do you need me to teach you?"

"Prince Brother!" Ye Wanlan realized something; she dashed forward, threw herself in front of He Jia, and fiercely protected him, "No——Prince Brother!"

However, it was just a vision from the past, an unchangeable history.

A long saber pierced through her body and chopped off He Jia’s head.

Blood splattered, and Ye Wanlan looked at her hands, unable to touch even a drop of that blood.

She was like a complete outsider, only able to watch helplessly as He Jia’s corpse was desecrated after his death.

King Yan would never know that he didn’t want her to witness the fall of Shenzhou with her own eyes, but she still saw it.

A hate like she’d never felt before nearly made Ye Wanlan unable to contain her explosive urge to kill; she trembled all over, but she could only stand there, unable to move a muscle.

The enemy then chopped off He Jia’s limbs, threw his body into the wilderness, and maliciously destroyed Yan Mountain’s environment.

Yan Mountain turned into a complete desert, barren of vegetation.

"This place has been cleaned up; we can move on now. The Southern Frontier has already been breached; we can’t fall behind next."

These foreign troops laughed as they whipped their steeds and advanced from the northwest, driving straight into Fengyuan.

The history books recorded that in the year 1723 of the Shenzhou Calendar, King Yan defended Yan Mountain to the death, his body lost, at the young age of twenty-eight.

...

"Drip, drip——"

The sound of water droplets falling suddenly rang in her ear.

The vision before Ye Wanlan finally dissipated, returning to the pitch-black Yan Mountain without the slightest light.

Her heart felt as if it had been gouged out by a sharp blade, hollow and empty, with the cold wind pouring in madly, causing a throbbing pain.

"Oh my goodness, I think I can finally see things!" An excited voice interrupted Ye Wanlan’s thoughts, "That was so strange just now, to experience Prince Yan’s death all over again. It must have been my hallucination, wuwuwu, my Prince Yan died so tragically..."

Ye Wanlan still stood silently in place, oblivious to the complaints of the Qingyun Pendant.

She had never imagined, He Jia would die in such a tragic and heroic way.

Before his death, he had unleashed a deadly move, killing thousands.

And it was this action that completely enraged the enemy.

Her brother, who had been given the title of King Yan at sixteen, didn’t even leave a complete corpse.

Ye Wanlan closed her eyes, "It’s not your illusion, I saw it too, thank you."

She had memorized the face of that general, remembered the faces of all the enemies who killed the soldiers of Shenzhou.

She would not forget.

"..."

A moment of silence ensued.

"Ah——!" The Qingyun Pendant let out a scream, "How terrifying these humans are, she can actually hear my words, what to do, did she hear all my mutterings just now? I’m socially dead!"

Hearing these very modern and trendy terms, Ye Wanlan fell silent: "..."

It seemed there were indeed many who entered Yan Mountain, and Qingyun Pendant had learned much that it shouldn’t have while buried underground.

"I can hear you speak." Ye Wanlan took the Qingyun Pendant out of her pocket and held it in front of her eyes, "Although I don’t know why, you can tell me everything you know."

"That’s out of the question, I am Prince Yan’s treasure. Who are you to order me around as you please? Wouldn’t I lose face——" The voice of the Qingyun Pendant suddenly cut off, then its tone shot up, incredulous with intense trembling, "Her, Her Royal Highness the Princess?!"