Lord of the Desert

Chapter 461 Grave Sweeping
The next day was June 20th.

Shen Hong led the convoy eastward early in the morning, but the carriage pulled by the red flag was empty.

In the early morning, after leaving Shuixin City, Hong Fan parted ways with the main force and headed south alone.

The three counties of Hezhou, Liangzhou and Huaiyang have clear skies all the way.

At Shenshi (three o'clock in the afternoon), the outline of Yunlan City appeared at the end of the field of vision.

Compared with last year, Fengyunding is a lot bigger and greener.

Hong Fan landed outside the city and glanced at the unrepaired city wall from afar. Every time he saw the damaged battlements, he seemed to hear the muffled sound of bricks and stones on the ladders during the attack on the city.

The newly built city gate is very smooth.

Hong Fan put on a veiled hat and entered the city using the badge that marked him as the commander of the Martial Academy.

Today, Yunlan City is about 50% as prosperous as Xijing.

The city gate avenue was crowded with people, many vendors were hawking their wares along the street, and there were shirtless men pushing carts and pulling goods, sweating profusely, replacing the heavily armored warriors with spears and the blood rain that soaked the stone bricks in Hong Fan's memory.

Walking along the memory lane, I unknowingly found myself in the South City.

The red walls, green tiles, and spacious corridors were once the Gong Mansion, and during wartime it became the headquarters of the Victorious Army.

The Victorious Army has long become history.

The dignified mansion of aristocratic family now has a plaque removed and is sealed. Weeds are growing stubbornly on the stone steps, and sporadic bird calls and cat meows can be heard from within the wall. It has temporarily become a cozy nest for small animals.

Hong Fan listened to the chirping of cicadas, pressed the stone lion in a trance for a moment, and then strode away.

Two alleys away, he found a wine shop that looked quite old and asked the owner to buy him two kilograms of the best wine.

The price of the wine was eighty cents, which was quite expensive for ordinary people and seemed shabby for a warrior.

Through the gap in the gauze curtain, Hong Fan saw the shopkeeper take out the ochre wine jar that had been washed in advance from the counter, and scoop wine out from the hundred-jin wine jar in the corner with a bamboo wine spoon.

The wine is clear yellow in color, the sound of it falling into the jar is crisp and pleasant, and it exudes a mellow aroma.

This thing is not about how expensive it is, but whether it can intoxicate people.

"How have you been in the past year?"

Hong Fan asked casually.

“It’s much better than before.”

The shopkeeper answered with a smile, and sideways glanced at the golden threads on the customer's red brocade and satin clothes, secretly marveling at its extravagance.

"Is the guest from the north? He speaks with a Liangzhou accent."

He was not slow at all in pouring the wine.

"Boss, you have good hearing. I am from Jinhai, Liangzhou. Are the three counties still under the jurisdiction of the governor?"

The broken iron under the short legs of the wooden table in the wine shop was clearly the standard breastplate of the Tianfeng Army.

"Yes, he is a very dignified old man, after all, he is not a local; but the court not only sent officials to Huaiyang State after withdrawing, but also sent a lot of money and food, which finally helped us deal with it."

"Having lived in Huaiyang for two hundred years, it has suddenly become a county capital. Can you adapt?"

Hong Fan teased.

"What's there to be unable to adapt to? The king belongs to the king, not to us. Besides, the royal family is all living in the northern border."

The shopkeeper lowered his voice when speaking and instinctively looked outside fearfully. Then he was stunned and laughed at himself.

"I'm used to seeing you laugh at me..."

He was just about to hand over the jar of wine when he saw the wind in the alley blow open his veil, revealing half of his face.

"you are?"

The shopkeeper was shocked for a moment.

One or two years ago, Chisha Hongfan was first wanted by Qianmianfeng, and then he had an appointment to fight with Feng Tianqing. His portrait was posted everywhere like Duan Tiannan and Gu Yixin, and most people had seen it.

"I am just a passer-by in the old capital of Huaiyang."

Hong Fan pressed down the brim of his hat, took the wine and gave a penny of silver without waiting for change.

The alley leads to the main road.

Hong Fan joined the crowd getting off work in the evening, walking from north to south as he looked around.

New bricks replaced old ones, smoothing out the cut mark on the road. Only the stone archway was shortened by one foot and re-erected, with colorful patterns left on the pillars.

A small part of the East City neighborhood was destroyed by Feng Mubai's four unique skills. Part of it has been rebuilt, and the remaining space has been used to build a spice market.

At the southernmost end, the walls of the Huaiyang Palace were cut into several sections, and the palace complex was renovated. According to the wine shop owner, the Governor's Office, the Martial Arts Academy, the Weaponry Bureau and other functional departments will set up temporary offices inside.

Passing the palace is Fengyunding.

The terrain is as high as ever, with lush vegetation and a small stream flowing out from the cracks in the rocks at the foot of the mountain. It is young, handsome and cute.

A newly trampled, half-bare dirt road hangs on the mountainside.

There were several soldiers guarding the road at the foot of the mountain.

Hong Fan went forward to inquire, and it turned out that the sandy soil that Guan Qimai made by crushing plant roots lacked fertility and could not withstand too much disturbance, so people could not be allowed to go up the mountain at will on weekdays.

But the dignified Chixing is naturally not an ordinary person, and today is not like any ordinary day.

Yunlan City was captured on the 20th of June last year.

Hong Fan carried the jar of wine and walked briskly up the mountain, trying his best to step on the bare ground. Soon he reached the halfway point of the mountain.

Looking down from this point, Yunlan City at dusk seemed like a square box, filled with tiny people moving like ants.

It is only because the person looking down was also one of them a quarter of an hour ago that he knows that every ant has its own background, joys and sorrows.

As we went higher, the trees became denser and denser, and the road lost its shape.

It was clearly the same mountain and the same stone, but the difference in the presence or absence of trees was so great that Hong Fan could not be sure where he had thrown Feng Chengyi away and where he had thrown the stone at Feng Jianke.

Of course, these are no longer important.

When he reached the top of the mountain, the first thing Hong Fan saw was the sunset.

Twilight bursts and melts from the western horizon.

Clusters of clouds were scattered in the sky like flocks of sheep, changing from fiery red to iron blue from west to east.

Under the heavenly vein, the world is beautiful and vast.

"You should not be too lonely if you live in this mountain for a long time."

Hong Fan took off his veil and sighed, letting the cool mountain breeze wash away the summer heat.

Behind him, soft footsteps came from the north side of the hilltop.

Hong Fan had long sensed that he was not alone.

"If you want to pay respects, come here."

A familiar arrogant female voice, as slender as a sword, yet as sharp as a sword.

Hong Fan looked in the direction of the voice and saw a tall, thin and slender young woman standing with her hands behind her back and looking at him with her chin raised.

She was wearing a gorgeous black and gold dress, with a gold ornament printed on her forehead. She was standing on tiptoe, with waist-length black satin hair draped over her back...

It was Tang Xingqing.

"When did you come?"

Hong Fan laughed.

"Just arrived."

Tang Xingqing responded coldly, turned around quickly and walked down the hill, her skirt fluttering in the grass.

Hong Fan followed with some wine and saw a neatly trimmed open area at a lower level behind the top of the mountain, with an iron tablet standing in the center.

The two men stepped forward and saw the words "Duan Tiannan's Tomb" engraved on the stele. In front of the stele were more than a dozen jars of different types and packaging of strong liquor, as well as more than twenty bowls of unspoiled dishes, which should have been offered in the past two days.

No one burned paper.

It was probably because Duan Tiannan never brought money with him when he interacted with others and just ate his friends instead.

"I am the last one to arrive."

Hong Fan nodded and smiled.

He recognized that the words on the iron tablet came from Qiu Yuankui, and the lawns within a radius of dozens of meters that were trimmed to the same height were obviously a new approach with an ancient twist.

"In fact, there are more people coming today, but those without identities were stopped at the foot of the mountain."

Tang Xingqing added.

"Xu Yuntao left just a few minutes ago, and he brought a follower named Yi Hong with him."

"What follower? He is the general of the left army of the Hundred Victory Army."

Hong Fan complained at first, then laughed.

Without the smoke and fire that has swept across the three counties, is General Yi Hong more than just a middle-aged man with an ordinary face?

The night fell in silence.

Hong Fan straightened his clothes, opened the jar of wine, poured half of it in front of the stele, and drank the rest in one gulp.

Then, the man and the monument looked at each other in silence.

Stars like broken diamonds appeared in the dome.

Hong Fan wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth and turned to look at Tang Xingqing who had been waiting patiently for a long time.

"The last issue of the Tianjiao Ranking said that you have achieved a breakthrough to the Xiantian realm."

He congratulated.

“The third list is always lagging behind.”

Tang Xingqing nodded reservedly and turned her face away to hide the smug look on her face.

"My breakthrough happened in March this year, and now I have stabilized at the first level of Xiantian. In addition, 'Pure Thoughts' has been recast into a flying sword, which my clan gave to me as a weapon."

"In this case, Tang Shengwang may not be your opponent."

Hong Fan deliberately praised him.

"I have had a sparring match with my second grandfather, and it's about a 50-50 split if we take into account the pure thoughts."

Tang Xingqing couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.

But it quickly cooled down again.

"I'm afraid we're getting further and further apart. Are the rumors true?"

When she asked this question, her mind was mixed and she didn't know what answer she hoped to hear.

"You mean Blazing Star, Vulcan, etc?"

Hong Fan asked.

Tang Xingqing nodded.

"It's almost the same, but they all rely on top-level elixirs, so it's not just my own ability. One-on-one against Yuanci, I can run, but I can't beat him."

Hong Fan said modestly, as if he was talking about an ordinary matter.

[Who asked you about the one-on-one Yuanci...]

Tang Xingqing felt suffocated when she heard this and twisted her fingers behind her back.

"Anyway, I have to thank you for today."

Hong Fan walked to the edge of the cliff, looked at the lights of Yunlan in the night, and suddenly said.

"I didn't come to see you, why are you thanking me?"

Tang Xingqing accidentally stuttered when she heard this, but she tried hard to maintain her cool and arrogant appearance.

"Thank you for coming to see Brother Duan, and thank you for waiting for me for a day."

Hong Fan said seriously.

Tang Xingqing was suddenly confused and racked her brains to find a reason to refute.

But the other party didn't give me a chance.

"We haven't seen each other for over a year. Want to have a quick meal together?"

Hong Fan suggested.

"No, that's not necessary. I want to go back to Duanli early."

Tang Xingqing instinctively refused in panic, but after the words came out of her mouth she realized how deeply she regretted it.

"It's already dark, Duanli City is still hundreds of miles away, and you can't fly, so how can you come back so early?"

Hong Fan looked at this awkward little girl and laughed at her.

Tang Xingqing's face turned red and she became more and more embarrassed.

"There's a long way to go, so it doesn't matter if it's inconvenient."

After Hong Fan finished speaking, he looked at the iron tablet with a serious expression.

"I will be in Shenjing for the next few years, so I may not be back on June 20th..."

He sighed, and without waiting to say goodbye, he soared into the night.

The starry sky is clear.

Tang Xingqing stood on the top of the mountain and watched him disappear.

(End of this chapter)