Lord of the Desert

Chapter 177

In the 28th year of Zhenghe, March [-]th, afternoon.

Jinhai City has been burned down by the flames of war.

The ground below the city was devastated, and semi-solidified lava was everywhere.

Three towers collapsed.

There are large pieces of collapsed stone bricks everywhere on the outer wall, exposing the inner foundation of rammed earth.

The banners fell and the command was out of order.

The battle lines are criss-crossed.

Even Hong Cheng went to the front line with his battle ax in hand.

Hong Fu pushed a snake man against the corner of the wall, and stabbed the dagger into its eyes with his weight.

After a few breaths, he didn't stand up against the wall until his opponent's body was completely relaxed.

The three-person team has long been separated.

A long time ago, he felt that he had exhausted his physical strength, and every time he swung his weapon, he was consuming his soul.

The sound of the air storm came from the north.

Hong Fu glanced over and saw the fireball penetrating the ground.

The soil layer is fractured, and the rock slab is inclined horizontally.

Hong Jian swung his fist and hit Chilin's chest.

The fire exploded, melting the earth and rocks.

Chilin could no longer feel the pain.

Most of the scales on his body fell off, and the superficial muscles were charred and carbonized, and they tore and repaired by themselves.

But its absolute power is always above the opponent.

"Humans, fire, can't burn blood!"

Chilin roared in a low voice, put his hands on Hong Jian's arms, turned back and pressed him down.

The tail of the snake curled up, wrapped around Hong Jian's left leg, and slowly tightened, making the sound of bone shattering.

And then the right leg.

Just when Chilin thought that the victory was about to be secured, Hong Jian opened his mouth and let out a roar of flames.

The invisible fire rushes over, instantly burning the snake man's face, causing it to burst into flames from its five orifices.

Blindness, deafness, dizziness.

Chilin felt that his brains were going to be burned dry, and he was thirsty for blood like never before.

So it leaned over and opened its mouth, bit Hong Jian's shoulder, sucking wildly.

The snake man gets nothing.

"Idiot, my blood has been burnt dry!"

Hong Jian laughed long.

The lava covered both of them.

Chilin straightened her upper body, then reached out and pierced Hong Jian's chest and abdomen.

The chest cavity was empty, still devoid of flesh and blood.

During the fierce battle, Hong Jian's internal organs had been burned by the violent fire, only his heart was still beating.

In other words, the fire is jumping.

The ambient temperature gradually increased, making it difficult for Chilin to bear.

It wanted to leave, but Hong Jian held onto its forearm instead.

At this moment, the latter exploded all the flames and true essence, melting a golden lake with a radius of more than ten meters around itself.

The entangled two sank into the magma.

After a few breaths, the battle finally came to an end.

Hong Jian straightened up with difficulty at the edge of the lake of fire, and raised Chilin's head high with one hand.

A roar of flames soared into the sky, attracting the attention of half the city.

The formation of the snake people was finally shaken.

They are not afraid of death, only afraid of losing.

Gain could not return to God because his blood was wasted.

Chilin of the Six Sacrifice was defeated, but the enemy chieftain was still standing. This battle was doomed to be difficult to win.

Since the broken teeth, countless snake people turned north and fled in the direction of the desert.

Behind them, many red-eyed soldiers staggered down to the city, trying their best to swallow King Ghost Ming, leaving a few more lives behind.

The big picture is set.

The high temperature near the lava lake dissipated a little, leaving the ground clear.

Liuli is the relic of sand and the crystallization of fire.

The skylight travels through it, showing blue-green at the edges and blue-yellow at the center.

Hong Fan, who had already turned around and killed the city wall, arrived first, and helped Hong Jian who had collapsed beside the remnant rock.

His spine was askew, his stomach was open and his left leg was broken sideways.

His upper body was covered with burns, with few patches of skin visible.

Under the sternum, there are no other five internal organs, only a single crimson heart, which is still beating slowly.

"My lord..."

With a soft cry, Hong Fan tore off his half-rotten iron armor, took off his cloth robe and put it on for Hong Jian.

"You came."

Hong Jian grabbed his second son's arm with his backhand.

His palms were hot.

"Are you injured?"

Hong Jian asked softly, his eyes unfocused.

"It's just an overdraft, and there are a few minor injuries, it's okay."

Hong Fan replied, only then did he notice that he was blind.

"That's good."

Hong Jian nodded.

"After this battle, you should benefit."

After a brief silence, he spoke abruptly again.

"I promised to explain it to you, but I'm going to break my promise."

Hong Fan felt his forearm tighten.

"Give up Yanliu Gong."

Hong Jian said.

"You go to Xijing, go to the Martial Arts Institute, and become a Tiqi."

"The Academy of Martial Arts possesses the world's kungfu, which can send you beyond the gate of heaven."

This is one of the options in Hong Fan's plan.

"It's dangerous for Tiqi to exchange martial arts for rewards."

Hong Jian kept talking.

"But I'm very worried about you."

"If meritorious service is insufficient, Yanliu Gong can also be used as a bargaining chip."

He added another sentence.

Hong Fan was stunned for a moment.

Hong Jian didn't care about his reaction, and just continued to speak in a hurry.

"Since I was a child, I have never been favored by anyone."

"To this day, it is just one step at a time, and a moment has not been wasted."

"You too."

"Don't want to learn from Li Heming, just stand alone and look at the shadow and feel sorry for yourself, thinking that the world has not given him enough."

"Man, what you want, you can only get it with your own hands, and you will be happy!"

After he finished speaking in a hurry, his breath was suffocated, but his face was full of spirits.

"I see."

Hong Fan replied softly, holding Hong Jian's hand that was getting colder.

In the past year, only at this moment, he felt that he saw the character of the other party who was usually wrapped up under the responsibility of the patriarch.

It belongs to the character of a warrior.

At this time, members of the Hong family gradually arrived.

Before the people arrived, the shouts of the family lord, the grand master, etc. came first.

Both let go.

Hong Fan stepped back a few steps.

Hong Jian groped to prop himself up, picked up a residual stone and pierced it into his lower back, where it got stuck at the broken part of his spine.

As soon as his hand exerted strength, his crooked body straightened up as usual.

"Brother, how are you doing?"

It was Hong Wu who asked the question.

His face was like gold paper, and his belly was wrapped in scarlet gauze, but he went to the battlefield again with serious injuries.

Hong Jian shook his head and asked softly.

"How is the battle going?"

At this time, the sun was setting and the sandbar was dark.

Hong Fan watched Hong Jian return to his usual calm expression, as if he was looking at a piece of stubborn ice, returning to the winter he had stuck to all his life.

Hong Wu was taken aback when he heard this.

It is obvious at a glance that the remnant snake army is fleeing to the north in panic.

"The snake man is back!"

Sadness welled up in his heart, but he replied with a joyful tone.

"Brother, after you killed the enemy general, the snake man retreated!"

"That's good."

Hong Jian replied.

"The complete version of Yanliu Gong with my added annotations is placed behind the plaque in the ancestral hall."

He turned up the volume slightly.

"From now on, the big and small matters in the clan will be handled by the second master."

"In the future, if Ah Sheng makes more progress, he can succeed the patriarch."

Everyone said yes, even if they heard that the patriarch was explaining the funeral, they only dared to cry silently.

"In addition, I started from the Heart Meridian of Hand Shaoyin a month ago, tempering the heart with the innate fire energy."

Hong Jian took a breath before he was able to speak again.

"At that time, I felt something was wrong, so I thought it was a dead end."

"Today's test is indeed the case, it may be a warning for you."

He said and smiled.

"Also, my heart has been tempered, so I don't need to be buried with this remnant body."

"If you can find the master swordsmith, you can use two good weapons."

Speaking of this, Hong Jian's eyelids drooped, and his posture was obviously slack.

It was like an old bow full of scars, which was finally unstrung.

Everyone in the Hong family was still obsessed with etiquette, waiting for the next order from the Patriarch.

But all they waited for was silence.

The long wind blows, inadvertently taking away the last breath of the deceased.

"My lord is gone."

Hong Fan took half a step forward to listen, then turned around and said to the crowd.

Not a weak cry.

Only the soldiers knelt on one knee, the sound of armor rubbing against each other.

Hong Fan did not kneel.

He stood in a daze, and the blood-soaked clothes were blown by the wind at this moment, and they were as cold as bones.

All over the body, only the arm that Hong Jian held was still a little bit of residual heat.

After a while, Hong Fan laughed silently.

He took a few steps forward, and hugged Hong Jian's half-dried body with little weight left.

"I understand now..."

Hong Fan said softly.

"The small clan was passed down in the badlands of the frontier..."

"It's just words and deeds to teach four words."

He strode forward through the crowd towards the city gate.

His gaze swept across a piece of red-painted city walls and land strewn with corpses.

Finally, the three big characters of official script landed on the plaque of the city gate.

[Gold Sea City. 】

Finally, Hong Fan couldn't help the throbbing in his heart.

In an instant, many pictures flashed through my mind.

Pedestrians coming and going at the gate of Jinhai City, vendors yelling on Chisha Avenue, and Dukang Juli's laughing drinkers.

And the second father he had just died and never knew.

Thinking of this, Hong Fan's eyes blurred, and he couldn't help laughing sadly.

The laughter lasted for a long time.

Then there was a long chant uprooted.

"The remnants of the wall become armor dyed with new colors,

A broken halberd becomes a knife to cut down a group of snakes;
The barren sand is like gold and blood is like iron,

Attract heroes to return to the mountains and rivers! "

The long wind stops, and the sky is solemn.

The sound gradually drifted away, and there were thousands of voices joining in.

Above and below the city, countless people from Jinhai—officials, warriors, soldiers, and common people—were standing, sitting down, leaning on swords, or leaning on the city wall, screaming with all their might.

The voice was agitated, like crying or howling, magnificent and popular.

On the city wall, Hong Fu, whose face was half covered with blood, also roared tearfully until his chest tightened and he became dizzy.

In a whirl, he collapsed to the ground, only to feel that sand, blood, and iron are mixed with colorful colors everywhere, and he can't tell which side is inside the city and which side is outside the city.

"The battle is won, and I'm still alive..."

Hong Fu murmured to the sky, repeating over and over again, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

For the first time in his life, he tasted the taste of victory.

Both bitter and luscious.

PS: The first volume of this book is dumplings wrapped in vinegar for two dishes.

The first disc is the death of Li Heming.

The second disc is Hong Jian's death.

Without the two of them, Jin Haicheng would have nothing worth talking about.

Happy Friday everyone.

(End of this chapter)