It was someone from the Ning family! Prince Yijier crashed to the ground, his eyes wide with a look of utter indignation.
In the end, he had died at the hands of the Ning family.
The soldiers were stunned by the sudden turn of events. Ning Zhiwei stepped back slightly as the guards following her stepped forward in unison. A rain of arrows swept across the field, instantly cutting down a large swath of soldiers.
As one volley was fired, another team of guards stepped up to release their arrows, displaying strict organizational discipline.
The two teams took turns, raining arrows down upon the enemy. The soldiers fell into disarray; without a commander to lead them, they became a chaotic mess.
"Prince Yijier is dead! Prince Yijier is dead!" someone shouted. With their commander dead, morale shattered, and the soldiers began to retreat in a frantic rout.
Ning Zhiwei walked step by step toward the man lying in a pool of blood. She fell to her knees with a heavy thud, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face. "Eldest Uncle, I’ve come too late."
This was the uncle who had doted on her and loved her, who had held her in his arms to coax her since she was a child, and who had taught her archery hand-in-hand.
Though he was her uncle, he was also her teacher and a father figure. She had long regarded him as her own father.
Ning Guangzhi stared blankly at the group of people who had suddenly appeared, feeling as though he were in a dream. "Zhiwei, your Eldest Uncle isn't going to make it…"
Heartbroken to the extreme, Ning Zhiwei’s tears fell like rain. "No, you won't. I brought old mountain ginseng. You will definitely get better."
She pulled out slices of old mountain ginseng hidden in her robes and desperately tried to stuff them into Ning Guangzhi’s mouth.
Ning Guangzhi could already feel his life force draining away rapidly. "Zhiwei, listen to me…"
With great effort, he pulled a token from his robes. "This is the military tally for the Ning family army. Give it to Xiu Rui… if he is no longer with us, then give it to…"
His voice choked, a dark premonition already haunting his heart. "If none of the men are left… then surrender it to the Imperial Court."
A powerful sense of indignation surged within Ning Zhiwei. For generations, the Ning family had been loyal to the sovereign and loved their country. For two hundred years, they had guarded the borders of the Great Qi Dynasty, defending every inch of the northwest frontier and protecting hundreds of thousands of border citizens.
And yet, this was the end her Ning family received in return!
Hate—she felt such profound hate.
Ning Guangzhi’s vision began to darken in waves, and his body grew cold. Knowing his end was near, he struggled to pull a necklace from beneath his clothes. Attached to it was a translucent jade thumb ring of exquisite quality. "This is the Ning family head-of-house token. Are you… willing to accept it?"
This represented more than just the power of the head of the house; it meant taking on the burden of an entire great clan. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility.
In these precarious times, the Ning family was in grave danger, on the verge of collapse at any moment. In such a situation, who could stand forward to save the family?
The Ning men were likely facing grim fates. Among the women… only Ning Zhiwei had grown up at the border. She was soft on the outside but tempered steel within, and possessed extraordinary intelligence.
Besides entrusting it to her, who else could he turn to?
Ning Zhiwei took a deep breath and resolutely accepted the head-of-house token, taking on the heavy burden along with it.
"Rest assured, Eldest Uncle. As long as I draw breath, I will protect the Ning family for as long as I live."
She had received great kindness from the Ning family; they had protected her for half her life. Naturally, she would do everything in her power to protect them in return.
"Good." With a look of lingering worry, Ning Guangzhi closed his eyes and passed away, unable to let go of his concern for his family and their future destiny.
A loyal general of Great Qi who had guarded the border for decades, the practical commander of the Ning family army and the head of the Ning house, had breathed his last.
"Eldest Uncle!"
"Head of the House!"
A bolt of lightning tore through the dark night. With a thunderous roar, torrential rain poured down as if the heavens themselves were weeping.
Ning Zhiwei stood up abruptly and drew a long sword. She walked to Prince Yijier’s corpse and swung the blade. A head went rolling away.
"I use Yijier's head as an offering to my fallen soldiers. I swear to the heavens that I, Ning Zhiwei, will fight Great Jin until the bitter end!"
The survivors around her were filled with passion, shaking their fists. "Until the bitter end!"
"Until the bitter end!"
In the rain, Ning Zhiwei searched desperately through the piles of corpses, personally collecting the bodies of her family members. Looking at those familiar faces one by one, the pain made it difficult for her to breathe.
Suddenly, Ning Xiaohu shouted loudly, "Miss, the bodies of the Fourth Young Master and Seventh Young Master haven't been found! They might still be alive!"
Ning Zhiwei stood up sharply, her expression tense. "Have you searched everywhere?"
In her past life, all the Ning men had died on the battlefield, their bones lost forever.
In this life, had a glimmer of hope been left for her?
"Yes. It's possible they fell into the Baishui River."
Ning Zhiwei suppressed her excitement and took a deep breath. "Ning Xiaohu, take your men and search along the banks of the Baishui River. At all costs, you must…"
Her eyes brimmed with tears. "If they are alive, I want to see them in person; if they are dead, I want to see their bodies."
"Understood!"
On the Ghost Festival, the fifth head of the Ning family, Ning Guangzhi; the fifth generation Ning Guangpo; and the sixth generation Ning Xiuyao and Ning Xiuyue all fell at Baishui Beach. Ning Xiurui and Ning Xiuzhe went missing on the battlefield.
On the same day, the fourth-generation head of the Ning family, the War God of Great Qi, Old General Ning, died of illness at Yumen Pass at the age of seventy-eight.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, six border cities fell on the same day. Blood flowed like rivers in the six cities, and the severed heads were piled high to form jingguan.
Jingguan—also known as towers of human bone.
The world was shocked, and Emperor Tianqi was incensed.
When the Emperor is enraged, corpses lay for a thousand miles. He issued a decree to seize the Ning family’s assets and cast all the female members into the Imperial Prison to await trial.
Ning Zhiwei knew time was of the essence. After deep deliberation, she made a decision.
"Ning Ran."
Ning Ran was her personal guard, a man of high martial arts prowess who never left her side. "Your subordinate is here."
Ning Zhiwei took out a silver mask and stroked it gently, showing an indescribable attachment to it.
"From this day forward, you are the Silver-Masked Young General."
Ning Ran looked up sharply, his face filled with shock. "This… isn't this you? Master."
With great reluctance, Ning Zhiwei handed over the mask and the military tally. "Take the military tally, gather the remnants of the army, and cross through that secret, unknown path in the Qiyun Snow Mountains. Strike behind enemy lines and take several cities of Great Jin while they are off guard…"
Ning Ran couldn't help but panic. "My task is to protect you!"
Ning Zhiwei’s expression was solemn. "Only by taking the cities of Great Jin will our Ning family have a glimmer of hope, and the people of the border have a glimmer of hope. This is a military order."
"Your subordinate obeys." With tears in his eyes, Ning Ran knelt on one knee and solemnly accepted the military tally and the silver mask, swearing to the heavens never to betray his charge.
Ning Zhiwei watched as he led the men away, racing toward the distant battlefield. As for her, she had more important matters to attend to.
She had to return to the capital, back to the center of that whirlpool of power, and hack out a path of blood for the Ning family.
She hurriedly wrote a letter. "Shaoyao, send this letter by carrier pigeon to the Commander of the Jinyiwei, Lord Xiao Linfeng. Be quick."
She hoped it would buy her a little time.
Shaoyao was stunned. "What? The Commander of the Jinyiwei? Do you have a connection with him?"
That was the terrifying Great Demon whose name alone could stop a child from crying at night.
Ning Zhiwei’s expression was dazed. In her past life, she had met him a few times. In this life… they had not yet crossed paths.
"I don't know him, but I believe he will grant me this favor."
Capital City.
Xiao Linfeng, the Commander of the Jinyiwei who stood above tens of thousands and second only to one, looked confused when he received the letter.
Ning Zhiwei? Who was that? He didn't know her.
But when he opened the letter, the contents within caused this habitually cold-blooded and ruthless man’s eyes to turn red…