Chapter 50: Red Armuards

  "It turns out there was another yer to this retionship!"

  Upon learning of the e between An Jing and Gu Yeqi, the atmosphere immediately grew more rexed, and the Red Armuards became markedly more cordial.

  From speaking with them, An Jing learned about the current battle situation.

  While An Jing was resg his junior brothers and sisters, the Red Armuards had already subdued most of the Hanging Fate Manor defenders. However, because the Red Armuards did not wish to fight the Heavenly Will Demonic Sect to the bitter end, the majority of the sect’s defenders had also withdrawn from the manor. Most of the demonic defenders had abahe manor and fled deep into the mountains; the remaining wounded were left behind—or, to put it another way, they had volunteered to stay behind to cover the retreat.

  An Jing uood very well that the demonic sect’s internal cohesion was strong. Those left behind were doing their best to buy time, but they no longer posed ahreat.

  All of this was rgely thanks to An Jing’s earlier killing of Instructor Han. That man had e to the Eastern Mountain Farmnds with the Life-Nurturing Vessel for the explicit purpose of extrag Great Blood Pills for o stand.

  If those wounded defenders had mao receive the Great Blood Pills—healing their injuries and evely boosting their power in a short amount of time—the oute of the fight would have been far more uain.

  The demonic squad just now had inally been twelve people. When Instructor Han and his party failed to return with any Great Blood Pill, this small unit came to iigate the situation. Along the way, they ran into the Red Armuards; the rger group got scattered, and only five of them broke through the encirclement to reach the Eastern Mountain Farmnds.

  Then they died by An Jing’s hand.

  At the moment, the Red Armuards had already ehe manor. They were tending the wounds of the eleven rescued children. To demonstrate their goodwill, they distributed 【Jade Dew】—a sweet, thiectar with a rianthus fragrance.

  A single small sip of 【Jade Dew】 could nourish someone for several days. This ar ecial supply the Red Armuards carried. Every child received one sip, and their spirits visibly improved. Their overall physical dition also took a turn for the better.

  As for the children whose wounds had begun to fester, the Red Armuards expertly used small ko remove the rotting flesh, then dressed the wounds with medial oi.

  ——They really did seem like good people, just like the soldiers before the Frost Camity hit my hometown… After the Frost Camity, the soldiers we entered were all arrogant beyond measure, for reasons unknown.

  Seeing this, even An Jing put away his Death Bde, though he still harbored some caution in his heart.

  Earlier, he had wondered: sihe Red Armuards were here to eradicate the Demonic Sect, why hadn’t they used heavy onry e-scale destructive Daoist Arts to ftten Hanging Fate Manor? Now he finally uood. They had received strict orders to protect the lives of these Children of Camity as much as possible, which expiheir measured, step-by-step approach—they feared harming their mission targets by mistake.

  “These folks exude formidable killing i, but there’s not much of an evil aura ohey may not be paragons of virtue, but they’re definitely not a wicked army.”

  So remarked the Sword Spirit in An Jing’s mind. “As for the effect of this Jade Dew, it’s somewhat remi of the Fasting Pills of old. The effects are weaker, but the taste is obviously much better.”

  “The times are ging.”

  Meanwhile, the Red Armuards also figured out who An Jing was:

  ——The main figure in this Heavenly Will Demonic Sect’s ritual, a youth who had already awakened his Heaven-Ordained Fate and Divine Ability, and at only twelve years of age had broken through to Internal Breath Like Rivers—an astonishing genius.

  The eual’s upheaval seemed to have been caused by him, and his temperament and ability to act were both top-notch. From every angle, he was a bona fide favored child of destiny.

  The Guards’ mission was to recu Yeqi, but bringing An Jing back as well would be a major achievement. sequently, these three Red Armuards who had discovered him were all beaming with excitement, freely handing out both medie and 【Jade Dew】.

  “I know where Yeqi is.”

  On Jing firmed that the Red Armuards meant no harm to the Children of Camity, he spoke up even before they could ask. “I hid everyone in Hanging Fate Valley. You won’t find them anywhere in the manor.”

  Leading these three extremely lucky, grinning-from-ear-to-ear Red Armuards toward Hanging Fate Valley, An Jing hat many other squads of Red Armuards verged on their position along the way. Evidently tipped off by the trio apanying An Jing, none of these other squads asked any questions, merely fnking An Jing with professional precision to protect him as they traveled.

  It did not take long before all the Children of Camity who heard An Jing’s signal emerged from Hanging Fate Valley and received the most expert care from the Red Armuards.

  Gu Yeqi, for her part, looked utterly baffled.

  “Me?”

  Upon learning that she was the Red Armuards’ true rescue target, this ordinarily warm and outgoing girl was uncharacteristically stunned. “B-but my family… we’re just ordinary folk. Isn’t there some mistake…”

  By Imperial Heaven, she had lived more than a decade without even a hint of luxury at home!

  ——Could they have fused her with someone else who had the same name?

  That doubt evaporated the moment a Guard produced a portrait so detailed it was nearly photographic, as well as a jade disc used for bloodliing.

  The portrait indeed depicted Gu Yeqi—only younger, perhaps around seven ht. She was seated at a table with her eyes wide, ily examining medial herbs, looking exceptionally adorable.

  When Gu Yeqi saw this portrait, An Jing noticed that besides her obvious shod embarrassment, there was a tinge of fear in her eyes. Pinly, whoever made that portrait had been watg her every move at the time, and she had never even noticed su observer.

  When a drop of Gu Yeqi’s fiip blood fell onto the jade disc, it glowed with brilliant golden light—proof that Gu Yeqi was indeed a direct desdant, in a straight line, of the person who owhe jade disc.

  There was o ask who that owner was.

  “Incredible. Truly incredible.”

  That was all An Jing and g Linzu could say as they sat nearby, sipping water. They were marveling at the fact that the little sister who had been pying with them all this time turned out to be her than the granddaughter of the Hanhai Region ahe situation was so astounding that they could only sigh in unison.

  g Linzu nudged An Jing with an elbow. “Big Bro, you’re smart. Did you see any sign of this earlier?”

  “Holy, no. Apart from Yeqi being pretty cute and having some natural talent for herbs, she’s been fairly ordinary. She couldn’t even finish the twenty ps around the mountain circuit with us.”

  “Nah, Big Bro—I ’t finish it either. Who but you run all twenty ps?”

  Exging a few joking remarks with g Linzu to ease the mood, An Jing did indeed feel many questions stirring within him.

  Now that Gu Yeqi had been firmed as a desdant of the Hanhai Region ander, An Jing guessed that her father had either remained in the Northern Frontier as a “seed” for the family line or else was someone’s illegitimate son posted far away.

  But both theories had issues.

  If her father really had remained in the north as a tingency, then in the face of the Frost Camity, ander Gu would almost certainly have taken a to save him. Why allow Gu Yeqi and her father to be exposed to so much danger?

  They didn’t e to the rescue during the Frost Camity, nor during the family’s flight, nor even after they were sold to the Demonic Sect. By the first winter and into the autumn—nearly aire year had passed. Without that near-miraculous lud some covert help from an undercent in the Demonic Sect, presumably arranged by the Gu family, Gu Yeqi might already have perished in the dungeons, transformed into Great Blood Pills. How, then, could she possibly be rescued?

  Unless something major had happened on the Gu family’s side, it still seemed improbable.

  Oher hand, if Gu Yeqi’s father had only been an illegitimate son, would the aruly mobilize the Red Armuards to assault the demonior just to save his illegitimate granddaughter?

  (End of Chapter)