During his first night in the Cold Palace, Xi Yu found it extremely difficult to adjust. Tossing and turning on the freezing wooden couch, he struggled to find any sleep, but finally drifted off close to dawn, only to experience a massive nightmare.
In the dream, Xi Yu was clad in armor, his face splattered with someone else’s blood. Wielding a heavy sword in his hand, he was followed by only a handful of surviving subordinates.
Behind them lay the blood and corpses of their fallen comrades, while facing them across the battlefield, where they had engaged in fierce combat for over a month, was the enemy army, whose numbers clearly outnumbered Xi Yu’s side several times over.
Clearly, this was the battlefield, and specifically the final battle before the original body’s execution. It was precisely this battle that saddled the original body with the crime of treason and colluding with the enemy.
Before setting out, Xi Yu was already the paramount imperial court official standing above ten thousand people beneath only one, revered by the masses and supported by both Confucian scholars and military generals.
If Xi Yu achieved a resounding victory once again in this battle, he would unquestionably become the undisputed number one figure in the Daqing dynasty. With merits so great they overshadowed the sovereign, how could the Son of Heaven not harbor suspicions?
Therefore, even though request after request for reinforcements was sent to the capital, Ye Weifeng persistently delayed issuing the order to dispatch backup troops.
At that moment, unaware of this, Xi Yu was desperately holding the city, fighting tooth and nail for Ye Weifeng and Daqing.
“General, the brothers are running out of strength!” shouted the soldiers from the rear.
Gripping his sword with one hand, Xi Yu wiped the blood from his face with the other. “As long as we live, the city lives! Follow me into battle!”
If the city fell, the fate of the common people could well be imagined. Hence, this battle permitted no retreat and no defeat.
More blood stained the hilts of the soldiers’ swords, yet more Daqing soldiers fell in the process.
“General, relying merely on us brothers, is there still any hope of winning? Aren’t we just walking to our deaths in vain?” Perhaps the psychological impact of former comrades-in-arms turning into corpses was too severe, causing the soldiers’ convictions to slowly collapse.
This was indeed an overwhelmingly difficult battle. From the very beginning, the numerical disparity between the two sides was multiple folds, the enemy was numerous while they were few. Coupled with betrayal from domestic spies within their own ranks and the imperial court’s reinforcements that never arrived.
One might say that were it not for Xi Yu, they would scarcely have lasted until this moment, and the city would have fallen long ago, subjecting its inhabitants to untold suffering.
Yet at this moment, they had no idea why they were persisting. The distress signal requesting reinforcements from the imperial court had reached the capital for over half a month, yet not a shred of response arrived. The soldiers even harbored a vague premonition of being abandoned by the court.
“Since His Majesty has already replied with a promise to me, the reinforcements will naturally arrive. It is merely a matter of time. As long as we hold out, we will soon see hope.”
Xi Yu rallied the soldiers. Energized by his words, the troops regained a measure of morale, for Xi Yu was their undefeated Yama King of the battlefield, the general they had blindly trusted with their lives all along.
“We swear to follow the General to the death!”
“Daqing will prevail!”
Accompanied by several resounding battle cries, the swords in the soldiers’ hands struck down the heads of several more enemy troops.
Yet, after they desperately held on for several more days, the capital’s reinforcements still failed to arrive.
Xi Yu’s personal letters drifted toward the capital like snowflakes, yet yielded not the slightest echo.
“The reinforcements dispatched by Lezhi must have been trapped somewhere,” Xi Yu muttered to himself.
Ji Qingzhou, a subordinate who had followed him for many years, stepped into the main tent at that moment to deliver medicinal soup to Xi Yu. Hearing those words, his hand holding the bowl paused mid-motion.
“General, this subordinate has something to say, though I do not know if I should speak it.”
Ji Qingzhou was arguably the most loyal subordinate by his side. Rather than treating him merely as an underling, Xi Yu regarded him as a brother.
“Why stand on ceremony, Qingzhou? Between you and me, is there anything that cannot be spoken?” Xi Yu said while bandaging a gash on his arm.
Ji Qingzhou glanced over and caught sight of a shocking slash running across Xi Yu’s upper arm. Had the wound been any deeper, their general might well have lost the use of that arm entirely.
Injured so severely, yet Xi Yu had not uttered a single groan of pain.
Ji Qingzhou sighed. “General, you have never committed such folly. How could we pin all our hopes on a single person? Even if that person is the Sovereign, you ought not to have done so. The corpses of so many brothers are still lying outside, do you truly wish to let them sacrifice even more for reinforcements that may never come?”
His words bordered somewhat on overstepping his bounds. Yet, watching their general pour so much into Daqing and the Sovereign only to be constantly guarded against and suspected, he simply could not bear it any longer.
“I trust him.” Xi Yu took a sip of the herbal soup, finding only bitterness on his tongue. “Regardless of whether he trusts me or not, Qingzhou, do you know? I will trust him forever.”
A single word of trust was enough to seal Ji Qingzhou’s lips, though it tasted bitterly ironic. “Very well, General. I do not trust him, but I trust you.”
Yet the subsequent heavy sacrifices began to shatter the principles Xi Yu stubbornly guarded in his heart. He had the retrieved corpses gathered together, removed his helmet, rolled up his sleeves, and actually sank to his knees before them.
“General!”
“General!”
The men were utterly stunned, moving to step forward and dissuade him, but Xi Yu waved his hand, forbidding them to approach.
“I, Xi Yu, kneel neither to the heavens nor the earth, nor do I worship ghosts and deities, I have knelt only to my ancestors and the Son of Heaven. Yet today, I have failed you all.” He broke down in sobs, choking up. The ruthless, emotionless Asura who killed without blinking an eye just days prior began to weep in silent agony, leaving everyone with a complex tangle of emotions in their hearts.
Following that, Xi Yu made a decision that handed others a handle to use against him.
His soldiers could no longer afford to die, his city could not fall, and his people must never suffer.
In this battle, later eulogized by future generations as a legend, the legendary Asura General Xi Yu supposedly obtained military reinforcements from the chieftain state at a moment when everyone deemed victory impossible, thereby achieving a triumph with inferior numbers and defending the city.
Clearly a victorious campaign, yet when Xi Yu returned to the capital with his remaining soldiers, everyone wore heavy, solemn expressions.
They had departed as a massive host, yet returned only with these surviving soldiers and those corpses transported back to the capital.
Yet more unexpectedly, what awaited Xi Yu was not praise and rewards from the Sovereign and the imperial court, but a chilling interrogation.
“Xi Yu, I ask you, how is it that the chieftain leader agreed to dispatch troops to assist you? He was not helping Daqing, but rather sent troops under the banner of assisting you, Xi Yu. What is the meaning of this?” Ye Weifeng sat high upon the dragon throne.
Kneeling in the grand hall, Xi Yu could see nothing from his angle save for a flash of blinding imperial yellow.
Xi Yu merely paused in silence for a fraction of a moment, which seemed to enrage Ye Weifeng further. Rising to his feet, the emperor strode over to Xi Yu, the anger radiating from him seemingly scorching hot.
“Xi Yu, I heard that you emerged from that man’s tent in the dead of night. What exact deal did you strike with him?”
“This subject has never betrayed Daqing, nor has he ever divulged any of Daqing’s state secrets to outsiders.”
“Then I ask you, why was he willing to help you? You crossed blades on the battlefield years ago, at which time you spared his life. What have you promised him this time?”
In a rage, Ye Weifeng lifted Xi Yu’s chin. “Was your bargaining chip yourself, Xi Yu?”
Xi Yu stared at him in disbelief. He could not fathom that Ye Weifeng would actually utter such words to him, did he truly believe he had sold his body to the enemy?
It was precisely because he had spared the man’s life back then that he had earned the grace of reinforcements today.
In Ye Weifeng’s heart, what on earth was he? The corpses of those fallen brothers haunted Xi Yu’s dreams day and night, torturing him to the verge of agony.
Yet in the end, Ye Weifeng still refused to trust him. He had trusted the emperor with his life, yet the reinforcements had never once arrived from start to finish.
“If Your Majesty wishes to think thus, then execute this subject for his crimes.” Xi Yu was speaking in anger, driven by an impulsive emotional outburst, a fit of pique because his deep affection received no reciprocal response.
Yet he did not know that the leverage he handed over of his own accord suited Ye Weifeng’s intentions precisely.
“Then shall we sentence you to be decapitated and your head displayed publicly for the crime of treason?” Ye Weifeng smiled while observing Xi Yu’s expression. Sure enough, he caught sight of pain crossing Xi Yu’s face, a pain that precisely gratified Ye Weifeng.
He thought: Are you not omnipotent? Naturally pampered like the stars holding the moon since childhood, yet now you ache because of me.
“Transmit Our imperial decree: Xi Yu is guilty of treason and colluding with the enemy, to be executed without delay shortly.”
Kneeling on the ground, lowered into the dust, Xi Yu heard Ye Weifeng’s low voice.
He said, “This subject accepts the decree.”
Next came the executioner in the marketplace raising his blade, and Xi Yu’s head was on the verge of rolling to the ground.
Xi Yu woke up abruptly, discovering himself in this freezing realm drenched in cold sweat, with the corners of his eyes unexpectedly moist at some unknown moment.
“Not so, System. Weren’t all these events already in the original body’s memories? Why did you make me dream it all over again?”
The system cringed apologetically. “Host, didn’t I do this so you could experience it more deeply? I was afraid you might easily forgive the other party, rendering everything meaningless.”
“Where on earth did you get the idea that I would easily forgive Ye Weifeng? What gave you that illusion? Also, if you’re going to pull me into a dream, fine, did you have to keep rewinding and zooming in on the decapitation scene? I genuinely fear death, terribly so.” Xi Yu wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes, his resentment outstripping that of a vengeful ghost.
“Host, if you happen to dream of it again, I’ll find a way to censor it for you.” The system smiled amicably.
Xi Yu truly wished he could dig it out of his head and beat it up.
Unable to fall asleep again, Xi Yu noticed the window had blown open at some point, revealing a blanket of fallen blossoms scattered beneath the trees outside, the aftermath of the previous night’s violent rainstorm.
And that particular variety of tree, Xi Yu recalled, was one the original body had grown plenty of at home. Beneath that very tree, jars of wine were buried.
They were burial wines buried together by the original body and Ye Weifeng to celebrate Ye Weifeng’s birthday, simply because whenever other princes celebrated their birthdays, the former emperor of Daqing would personally order someone to bury a jar of wine. Only the unfavored Ye Weifeng was denied this treatment.
To keep him from grieving, the original body had accompanied him in burying wine jars beneath every single tree in his own backyard. That seemed to have happened on a stormy day as well. The original body remembered every single detail, keeping them fresh and enduring within his memories, allowing Xi Yu to dig up this memory effortlessly.
As for Ye Weifeng, he had likely forgotten long ago.