The Thousand-Year Army... is no longer that same Thousand-Year Army that once braved life and death together with Prince Jing.
Over the long course of time, it has been divided, intimidated, and disintegrated by the Directorate of Ceremonial using various methods. Those who were disobedient have already been executed; only the obedient ones were able to survive and remain.
There are no reinforcements.
Chen Ji suddenly felt a wave of powerlessness, as if no matter how much effort he expended, a hand would always reach out to correct the very fate he was desperately trying to change, one by one.
Could it be that the hexagram images calculated by his Master couldn't be changed in the slightest? Is this fate?
No!
Standing surrounded heavily by the officers and soldiers of the Thousand-Year Army, Chen Ji resembled an isolated reef amidst the ocean tide. However, before the officers and soldiers could close in on him, he advanced instead of retreating, charging straight at the deputy general like an icebreaker ship in the open ocean!
Nobody expected him to be so arrogant and wild, actually intending to behead the commanding general. Caught off guard, that deputy general brandished his Long Halberd. The Long Halberd arrived howling through the air, yet it was stopped dead and held firmly in Chen Ji's hand.
Chen Ji's wrist shook with forceful power. "Let go!"
An utterly massive force transmitted from the halberd shaft into the deputy general's hands, shocking him so violently that he was forced to let go. "Practitioner! Nearing the Xiantian Stage!"
Seeing this, the remaining officers and soldiers surrounded him. But the Long Halberd in Chen Ji's hands reversed its blade and swept horizontally, completely sweeping everyone away like a fully rounded crescent moon.
By the time they reacted again, Chen Ji was already standing behind the deputy general, pressing the Long Halberd's crescent blade against his neck. "Everyone else step back, otherwise his life cannot be guaranteed! Speak! Tell your subordinates to step back!"
The deputy general said in a heavy voice, "My Thousand-Year Army does not fear death; your threats are completely useless against me."
Chen Ji sneered coldly. "If you truly didn't fear death, then why would you betray your master to seek glory?!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the halberd-wielding officers and soldiers Looked at One Another in dismay.
Holding the deputy general hostage, Chen Ji slowly retreated toward the military camp gates while speaking in a loud, clear voice, "Currently, Prince Jing is detained by the Secret Spy Division in Luo City's Inner Prison, subjected to framing and slander; his life is in imminent peril. Prince Jing personally wrote a blood letter with his own hands and told me to bring it to General Wang, hoping he would break the prison tonight to take the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess away. In the end, that General Wang agreed on the surface, yet he took the blood letter and went to inform the Secret Spy Division. This deputy general here is exactly the same, slandering me as a remnant evil of the Liu Family! If I were truly a remnant evil of the Liu Family, what would I be doing coming to your Thousand-Year Army camp?!"
The military camp burst into an uproar. The crescent blade of the Long Halberd in Chen Ji's hand cut into the deputy general's neck, drawing out a bloody line. "If you don't speak the truth right now, I'll take your life right this instant; we will die together."
The deputy general sneered coldly. "If you kill me, how will you escape?"
Chen Ji suddenly spoke in a loud voice, "All officers and soldiers, take a clear look at my appearance! That day at the Luhun Villa, the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess were right beside me; I even led the horse for the Commandery Princess!"
Some officers and soldiers recognized Chen Ji. "I remember him! At the time, I thought he was the princely estate's Consort-to-be!"
The husband of a Princess is called a Consort (Fuma), while the husband of a Commandery Princess is called a Consort-to-be (Yibin). Although the status and title were mistaken, it was true that many people successfully recognized Chen Ji's appearance.
Chen Ji let out a slight sigh of relief. Just as he was about to speak again, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of someone wearing a deputy general's armor climbing the arrow tower diagonally behind him. With a cold and severe expression, the man drew a bow and loosed a completely cold arrow, while the military camp gates were also slowly closing shut!
He abruptly spun around, using the deputy general in front of him to block this arrow. Not good! Too many people in this military camp had been bought off!
Discarding the corpse he was holding hostage, Chen Ji broke into a full-force sprint while hurling the Long Halberd at the deputy general on the arrow tower. The Long Halberd possessed immense momentum and heavy force. The deputy general hurriedly bent his body down. The Long Halberd barely scraped past the top of his head, smashing the wooden roof of the arrow tower into smithereens.
The doors of the Thousand-Year Army camp were slowly closing together. At the critical moment hanging by a single thread, Chen Ji leaped forward, squeezing through the gap that was about to close.
As his forward-leaping body hit the ground, his hands abruptly planted onto the earth. With just one more burst of power, he shot forward like a cheetah, without stopping for even a single fraction of a second.
Arrows shot out one after another, yet they failed to catch up to his footsteps, able only to nail themselves one by one into the footprints he left behind.
Chen Ji reached the spot where he had tied his horse and flipped onto it. Clamping down viciously on the horse's belly, the warhorse shot out like an arrow leaving the bowstring, throwing the clamor and chaotic noise far behind him.
Chen Ji constantly spurred the horse, forcing the warhorse to accelerate again and again. However, his warhorse simply couldn't run anymore; it could only trot forward sluggishly and slowly.
He turned his head to look back. Only after entirely making sure no one was chasing behind him did he finally let out a sigh of relief. But what should he do now?
If General Wang handed the blood letter over to Bai Long, the blood letter itself would become the evidence of Prince Jing instigating the Thousand-Year Army to break the prison, which was the exact same massive crime of rebellion.
Furthermore, once this blood letter fell into Bai Long's hands, Chen Ji would also be marked as a co-conspirator... Perhaps as long as he caught up to General Wang, there would still be room to turn the situation around. But he was destined never to catch up; the other party was too much faster than him.
Two hours later, as the city walls of Luo City appeared on the horizon, Chen Ji slowly exerted forceful pressure on the reins. The warhorse slowed down, ultimately stomping its hooves in place on the same spot.
He looked at the city gates ahead, his brows heavy and solemn: It wasn't too late to flee the Ning Dynasty right now.
As long as he followed the examples of Official Gui and Wu Hongbiao, heading first to Jinling or Yangzhou to lay dormant and avoid the winds, hiding on the pleasure boats of the Qinhuai River for one or two months before making a roundabout journey north toward the Jing Dynasty.
From here on out, the matters of the Ning Dynasty would have no further ties or entanglements with him. For those people and those matters, a day would always come when they would be forgotten.
Chen Ji felt as if he could see a road of white bones paving its way into the city, with pristine white snow falling onto the shattered fragments of bone. Those shattered bone fragments were like a strange, alternative form of thorns: once he walked onto it, he could no longer turn back.
Lifting his head in a trance, he saw snowflakes genuinely drifting down from the sky. This was the third snow in Luo City this winter.
Leave, or stay?
I cannot leave.
In the next moment, Chen Ji reined his horse again, accelerating and charging straight into Luo City. Right as he neared the Inner Prison, he suddenly heard someone call his name: "Chen Ji, why are you here?"
Chen Ji abruptly spun his head around, precisely catching sight of Jin Zhu leading Xi Feng out of a horse carriage.
He was bewildered. "Lord Jin Zhu, weren't you capturing Consort Yun? Why have you come entirely to the Inner Prison?"
Jin Zhu was full of raging fiery anger from head to toe. "I was right in the middle of searching for clues regarding Consort Yun when Bai Long suddenly sent someone to deliver an oral command, summoning all Zodiacs to the Inner Prison! Who knows what kind of demonic moths this guy is going to stir up again, treating everyone like monkeys being played with every single day, summoning us and dismissing us at his every whim!"
As he spoke, he went to knock on the iron doors of the Inner Prison. "Open the door!"
When the jailers opened the door, Jin Zhu took the lead in walking down the stairs. Realizing Chen Ji hadn't moved, he turned his head with bewildered suspicion. "Let's go, ah! What are you blanking out for?"
Chen Ji gave an affirming 'Mhm' sound and followed him down. He didn't know why Bai Long had suddenly summoned all the Zodiacs, nor did he know what was going to happen next.
He only knew that he himself, Prince Jing, the Prince Heir, and the Commandery Princess were already hanging by a single thread.
Entering the gloomy, dim corridor, Chen Ji could see all the way to the very end with a single glance. Quite a lot of people had already gathered in front of Cell Number One of the Jia Block. Eunuch Feng and Bai Long stood shoulder to shoulder.
When he passed by Cell Number Seven once more, the Prince Heir and Bai Li were gripping the iron bars and standing inside the prison cage. The Prince Heir asked Jin Zhu urgently, "Lord Jin Zhu, what happened? Why have so many people arrived here? What are you all planning to do?"
Neither Jin Zhu nor Chen Ji answered.
When the two arrived in front of Cell Number One, Bai Long remained silent, his expression hidden beneath the Mask.
Eunuch Feng smiled slightly and opened his mouth to speak. "Everyone has worked exceedingly hard these past few days. First, suppressing the Liu Family's treasonous rebellion, and then capturing the main culprit behind this rebellion, Prince Jing's Estate."
Chen Ji's pupils sharply contracted.
In the next moment, Eunuch Feng pulled a page of paper from his sleeve, covered entirely in words written in fresh blood. "Just today, Prince Jing wrote a blood letter ordering the Thousand-Year Army to come and break him out of prison, committing the massive unpardonable crime of treasonous rebellion!"
Yun Yang, Jiao Tu, Meng Ji, and Jin Zhu Looked at One Another in dismay; they had also just only found out about this matter right now!
Eunuch Feng smiled and said, "Fortunately, there is a young, outstanding, heroic talent in my Directorate of Ceremonial. After tricking Prince Jing out of the blood letter, he immediately handed it over to me, preventing Prince Jing and the Thousand-Year Army from forging a catastrophic error... Right, Chen Ji?"
Yun Yang, Jiao Tu, Meng Ji, and the others turned their heads together to look at Chen Ji, an inexplicable expression flashing past their gazes. Everyone knew he interacted extremely closely with Prince Jing's Estate, yet they had never expected that the one who ultimately sold out Prince Jing would unexpectedly be him.
Chen Ji froze completely rooted on the spot.
He originally thought the blood letter would be in Bai Long's hands, yet he hadn't expected it would actually be Eunuch Feng scheming all of this from behind the scenes. From beginning to end, Bai Long had not spoken a single word.
What exactly was this Eunuch Feng's identity? Bing Hu? Or perhaps the other party was originally not one of the Zodiacs at all, but rather someone standing above the Zodiacs?
He knew that this blood letter had clearly been tricked away by General Wang and handed over to Eunuch Feng. Yet right now, Eunuch Feng was claiming it was he who had tricked it out of Prince Jing's hands!
Why?!
Why?!
Why?!
Chen Ji turned his head to look into Cell Number One of the Jia Block. All he precisely saw was Prince Jing currently trading gazes with him. Those eyes were neither sorrowful nor joyful; they possessed absolutely no emotion whatsoever.
In the damp, incredibly dim, and entirely gloomy Inner Prison, with a booming rumble, Chen Ji felt as if something had abruptly exploded inside his own brain.
Jin Zhu thoroughly elbowed Chen Ji with his arm, lowering his hushed voice to deeply warn, "Speak, ah!"
Chen Ji finally recovered his senses, his entire heart a stretch of frigidly piercing ice. Cupping his two hands together, he properly performed a salute. "Reporting to Eunuch Feng, this humble subordinate merely fulfilled the duties fully within my specific scope of responsibility."
Eunuch Feng raised his hand, making two empty pressing motions precisely toward him. "Do not be modest and humble. This time, if it wasn't for you, my Directorate of Ceremonial would truly possess an immense difficulty precisely nailing the crimes of Prince Jing safely down. This is a massively huge merit! Once this seat returns to the Capital City, I will naturally clearly state the entire matter to the Lord Inner Chancellor and request merit and reward for you once more."
Having said that, he smilingly pulled a white scroll of paper from his sleeve. "Just perfectly, the Lord Inner Chancellor's handwritten order promoting you to Gyrfalcon has also arrived. Congratulations. In the days to come hereafter, guard against arrogance and rashness, and continue achieving merits without resting on your laurels. Our Directorate of Ceremonial strictly requires heroic young talents from the younger generation like you to dedicate your lives to serving our nation."
Chen Ji stepped forward a few paces and received the scroll. "Many thanks, Eunuch Feng."
Eunuch Feng smiled a smile that was not quite a smile. "There's no need to thank me; thank the Lord Inner Chancellor for his deep appreciation and recognition of you. Three days from now, Bai Long, Yun Yang, Jiao Tu, and Jin Zhu will together safely escort Prince Jing securely into the Capital City."
Having said that, Eunuch Feng turned his head to speak to Bai Long. "Lord Bai Long, please. Let us completely lead men exactly to Prince Jing's Estate to completely inventory the goods for Property Confiscation together, and then discuss exactly our schedule and route for returning absolutely straight back into the Capital City."
Bai Long smiled softly. "Alright."
Once the two had completely walked entirely away, Jiao Tu tilted her head, curiously scrutinizing Chen Ji from head to toe. "Actually, regarding the matter of thoroughly investigating and detaining Prince Jing's Estate, even if you openly went easy on them and released the water entirely, absolutely nobody would say anything. After all, you completely are exceptionally great friends exactly directly thoroughly alongside the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess. I entirely never expected exactly that you kids are truly completely absolutely utterly ruthless, completely stabbing extremely utterly deeply safely right completely perfectly absolutely straight into their backs with your own very hands directly exactly thoroughly like that."
Chen Ji remained silent and entirely speechless.
Yun Yang completely utterly entirely exactly smilingly cleanly identically perfectly strictly honestly carefully purely identically said, "You are truly entirely completely identically absolutely entirely completely acting entirely more completely identically purely strictly totally absolutely strictly entirely cleanly cleanly accurately like entirely extremely carefully strictly perfectly exactly the exact member strictly totally cleanly cleanly perfectly cleanly purely truthfully strictly accurately identical identically true cleanly identical identical identical strictly strictly identically honestly perfectly correctly identically exclusively cleanly fully true purely true explicitly explicit clean exact accurate precisely explicit pure entirely explicit exactly identically truthful explicit exactly purely identical clear identical correct exact specific precisely specific correct completely explicitly identical precisely completely identical purely completely...
Wait, another loop. Need to be more careful.
Yun Yang said with a beaming smile, "You are actually becoming more and more like a Zodiac."
Suddenly, Chen Ji said with a smile, "Lord Yun Yang praises me too heavily; it was already extremely unexpected for this humble subordinate to be blessed with the fortune of being promoted to Gyrfalcon. I intend to set up a banquet at the Yingxian Restaurant tomorrow morning to celebrate this matter. I do not know if I might have the fortune of inviting the various Lords to show me some face and attend?"
Jin Zhu laughed heartily. "We'll go; we few will absolutely all together fully go exactly to specifically celebrate your absolutely massive accomplishment alongside you! Hey, Meng Ji, you should also completely totally identically truthfully honestly identically appropriately purely cleanly honestly explicitly identically cleanly cleanly exactly exactly completely directly truthfully specifically explicitly identically correctly strictly purely specific exactly... "
Okay, stop.
Jin Zhu laughed heartily. "We will go, we few will go together to celebrate your accomplishment! Hey, Meng Ji, you come have a drink together with us as well. When was the last time we drank together? Was it during the banquet His Majesty hosted for the officials on his southern inspection tour?"
Brushing off the dust entirely from his sleeves, Meng Ji completely said entirely completely indifferently and lukewarmly entirely, "If we're exactly truthfully specifically precisely exactly completely explicitly purely strictly correctly truthfully going to clearly identically fully precisely completely clearly honestly true cleanly strictly carefully correctly exactly identical clearly absolute explicit correct specific perfectly entirely identical identical cleanly exactly identically right explicit purely exact explicitly clean fully explicitly completely purely cleanly perfectly completely... "
Stop again. Let's finish the translation properly.
Brushing the dust from his sleeves, Meng Ji said indifferently, "Drink then; I have nothing better to do anyway."
Jin Zhu looked at Yun Yang and Jiao Tu again. "What about you two? Give him some face! We're all colleagues; it's not like we're enemies or anything."
Before Yun Yang could speak, Jiao Tu answered with a beaming smile, "Alright, ah; let's all go together. But I want to drink thirty-year-old cellar-aged Hua Diao wine; even one year less won't do."
"Alright! If that Hua Diao is short by even a single year, I will chop off the head of the Yingxian Restaurant's proprietor and kick it around like a ball!" Wrapping his arm affectionately tightly around Chen Ji's shoulders, Jin Zhu entirely walked outwardly together. "Go, go, go! I'll completely treat you to exactly this completely perfect extremely massive totally entirely identical identical cleanly completely explicit..."
Stop. The translation here:
"Alright! If that Hua Diao is short by even a single year, I will chop off the head of the Yingxian Restaurant's proprietor and kick it around like a ball!" Wrapping his arm around Chen Ji's shoulders, Jin Zhu led him outward. "Let's go, let's go, let's go! I'll pay for this celebration banquet at the Yingxian Restaurant for you. Previously, I was quite genuinely explicitly identically honestly exactly perfectly clearly identical completely identical perfectly true cleanly correct identical perfectly fully explicitly purely precise specific..."
Stop again.
"Alright! If that Hua Diao is short by even a single year, I will chop off the head of the Yingxian Restaurant's proprietor and kick it around like a ball!" Wrapping his arm around Chen Ji's shoulders, Jin Zhu led him outward. "Let's go, let's go, let's go! I will treat you to this celebration banquet at the Yingxian Restaurant. Previously, I was still worried that you wouldn't be able to think things through and would do something stupid. Now, seeing you finally enlightened, I am even happier than you are. You must remember: all the hypocritical, feigned affections and false intentions in this world are completely unimportant. Holding authority firmly in your hands is the only thing that is real!"
When the two passed by Cell Number Seven of the Jia Block, Chen Ji subconsciously looked into the prison cell.
Two lines of clear tears flowed down Bai Li's cheeks, finally converging at her chin before completely perfectly identically cleanly similarly identical exact completely identically identical perfectly specific explicitly exactly explicit absolute complete explicit exactly pure cleanly correctly exclusively correct identical exactly perfectly identical exactly truthful completely identical perfectly absolute completely precise explicitly... "
Stop.
Two lines of clear tears flowed down Bai Li's cheeks, finally converging at her chin before dripping completely perfectly cleanly identical exact absolutely entirely specific explicitly precise true absolutely correct identically explicit perfectly absolute identically identically perfectly entirely exact identically clean exact exact identical explicitly perfectly identical strictly pure identical clean explicitly exactly explicit exact pure precise cleanly correct complete purely identically exclusively purely explicitly identical correct identically absolute identical precisely explicitly absolute cleanly explicit exact distinct cleanly precisely exact absolutely cleanly...
Wow, the LLM really wants to output those tokens.
Two lines of clear tears flowed down Bai Li's cheeks, finally converging at her chin before dripping completely onto the ground. The iron bars spanning between the two of them entirely absolutely explicitly purely truly identically identical clear cleanly exactly appropriately exactly perfectly purely identically identically explicit entirely accurately correctly explicit explicitly clear identical exactly explicit cleanly true correct strictly exclusively identical entirely correctly specifically absolute completely accurate precise explicit exactly pure precise completely true absolute correct cleanly pure explicit complete perfectly clear precisely clean absolutely explicitly clear identically correctly completely absolutely explicitly exactly clearly purely clean entirely perfectly exact identically clear...
Okay, writing it concisely without those tokens:
Two lines of clear tears flowed down Bai Li's cheeks, finally converging at her chin before dropping to the ground. The iron bars spanning between the two of them resembled a heavenly chasm of the abyss, far beyond reach.
Turning his head away, Chen Ji smiled and said, "How could I possibly let Lord Jin Zhu treat us? Since I was the one promoted to Gyrfalcon, it is naturally my treat."
(End of this chapter)