The Bad Guys: Everyone, let’s revive the Tang Dynasty together!

Chapter 431 Human World
New Year’s Eve, the night of the New Year.

At midnight, the deep and distant sound of bells and chimes spread from the depths of the palace, announcing the arrival of the new year. Almost at the same time, the sound of firecrackers from thousands of households inside and outside the palace suddenly became dense, crackling, forming a sea of ​​​​joy, shaking the cold air.

The noise tore apart the chaotic picture of the troubled times, briefly revealing a peaceful gap filled with the flavor of human life.

At this moment, the hustle and bustle of Zhuque Street reached its peak. People were thronging shoulder to shoulder, and colorful lights formed a river of light, illuminating the bluestone road with a dazzling glow. The air was filled with the sweet aroma of sugar cakes, the charred aroma of roasted meat, the herbal fragrance of newly brewed Tusu wine, and the unique smell of burning sulfur.

In the surging crowd, a tall figure wearing an indigo cotton gown and a half-worn dark grey mouse fur coat attracted special attention. He walked calmly, and his gentle temperament revealed a hint of heroic spirit, which attracted the attention of passers-by, who thought he was a nobleman with extraordinary temperament who was traveling with his family.

Beside him was a woman wearing a lilac-colored jacket and skirt and a snow-blue cotton cape. Her hair was tied up lightly, and only a silver hairpin was used to hold it in place. The cape covered most of her face, revealing only a pair of calm eyes. Her eyes swept across the street with a hint of scrutiny and curiosity. Her gestures were full of grace and elegance that was difficult to completely conceal.
As for the two of them, there was a woman in an indigo-colored tight-sleeved outfit with a cape of the same color, with her ponytail tied behind her back. Her face was beautiful and calm. She looked around with clear and focused eyes, habitually paying attention to the flow of people. Walking side by side with her was a stunning woman in a red dress, with long black hair fixed with a simple silver hairpin, and a few strands of hair hanging on her cold white cheeks. However, the latter had no expression on her face, and her eyes were indifferent and distant. Her eyes swept through the noisy crowd as if they were passing through insignificant grass and trees. Only when her eyes inadvertently fell on the indigo figure behind her, would her eyes pass through an imperceptible, focused ripple.

The four of them walked slowly, following the crowd. Although their outstanding temperament attracted the attention of passers-by, in Bianjing, a megacity with a large number of wealthy people, their attention was just low-key and did not attract special attention or avoidance.

Xiao Yan stopped in front of an old farmer's stall selling oranges, picked up a few yellow fruits, tasted a petal after learning that he could taste them, and quietly gave a few more coins when paying. The old farmer's face was full of wrinkles, and he bowed repeatedly to thank him: "Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir! This year is a good year, and His Royal Highness the King of Qin exempted us from a lot of taxes, so I dared to pick a few more good oranges to sell, and I can also buy more cloth to make new clothes for my children at home!"

The empress picked up an ordinary peach wood hairpin from the stall next to her, and seemed to be examining it. Her eyes moved and her voice was as clear as broken jade. She whispered naturally, "My lord, the decree of tax exemption for a year is indeed a blessing. Just now, I have seen more and more people in the streets and alleys. I also reported to the prime minister earlier that the sounds of chickens and dogs have become more and more frequent in the countryside."

She put down the wooden hairpin, glanced across the crowd, and looked towards the more lighted windows and smiling faces illuminated by colorful lights in the distance, with an imperceptible relief in her eyes.

Xiao Yan took the oranges handed over by the old farmer and scanned the lively street scene. He saw young couples leaning against each other to select lanterns, and the vendors shouting with full energy, giving off a sense of abundance.

He turned to meet the empress's smiling eyes, shook his head gently, and whispered to her as he walked: "The world has been in chaos for a long time, bones are exposed in the wild, nine out of ten houses are empty, how can vitality be restored in a few months? Bianjing is prosperous, but it does not mean that all states are like this. I only hope that the memorials reported from below can be as true as what I see now, so that this year's 'rain' will not be in vain."

As he spoke, he handed an orange to the empress beside him. When the empress took it, her fingertips were slightly cold, and the relief in her eyes seemed to warm up for a moment. He handed another one to Ji Ruxue in front of him: "Xue'er, try it, it's quite sweet." Ji Ruxue's cold eyebrows softened, and she took it silently. Her fingertips briefly touched Xiao Yan, with a familiar warmth.

"War can decide the fate of the world for a while, but it is difficult to sustain the life of the people." Cheers were heard from the front. Xiao Yan looked up and saw bright fireworks exploding in the night sky, briefly illuminating the densely packed houses in Bianjing.

Ji Ruxue naturally peeled the orange in her hand, divided it in half, and handed it to Qian Wu beside her. Qian Wu did not refuse, and stretched out two white fingers, picked up the half orange very gracefully, and nodded to Ji Ruxue imperceptibly, as a thank you. The two of them talked in a low voice for a few words, and the content was lost in the noise.

Xiao Yan's voice sounded again, calmly but clearly reaching the ears of the three people around him: "The people have been fighting for a long time. If we can stop collecting taxes this year and let them really breathe a sigh of relief and recuperate, that would be the real blessing of the people."

The empress nodded slightly and put a slice of orange into her mouth. Ji Ruxue also tasted it quietly, and her eyes involuntarily fell on Xiao Yan's quiet profile again.

They continued to move forward, blending into the noisy and warm crowd of people in the sea of ​​lights. A blind old man who was singing for money, playing an old huqin, sang an ancient tune in a hoarse voice: "... the beacon fires are extinguished, the smoke of war has dispersed, the fields are green, the granaries are full... In this peaceful year, the people are at peace..."

The desolate singing sounded faint amid the sounds of firecrackers and laughter, but it still attracted quite a few onlookers.

Xiao Yan stopped and listened for a while. Qian Wu understood and took out a small bunch of copper coins from his sleeve and was about to step forward. But Xiao Yan asked for it and then gently placed the copper coins in the broken bowl in front of the old man, making a crisp sound. Although the old man couldn't see, his singing paused slightly, and a grateful smile appeared on his wrinkled face, and he sang a little harder.

The empress watched this scene and whispered, "May the lights of all the houses be like this night, year after year."

Ji Ruxue's eyes fell on the old man's satisfied smile, and then looked at Xiao Yan's quiet profile, the lights reflected in her cold eyes. Qian Wu quietly looked at Xiao Yan's hand where he put the money, that focused gaze seemed to freeze this moment, and her cold red lips seemed to soften a little.

The sound of firecrackers rose and fell, and fireworks continued to bloom in the night sky, illuminating and then hiding the figures of the four people. On the streets of Bianliang on this New Year's Eve, they were no longer the protagonists in the temple, but part of the fireworks in this world, feeling the short but real peace bought with iron and blood in the troubled times.

------

While the sound of firecrackers in Bianliang was still echoing in the night sky, the Mobei wilderness thousands of miles away was experiencing a completely different New Year's Eve.

There were no lights or noise, only an endless white purgatory that seemed to devour everything. The wind was like millions of crazy white beasts, carrying heavy snow with it, making deafening and heart-wrenching roars, and frantically whipping a lonely stone cave in the wilderness.

Inside the cave, a bonfire was the only salvation. The orange-red flames cast huge and distorted shadows on the rough and cold stone walls, dancing wildly with the swaying of the flames.

Jiang Chen was wrapped in a heavy old fur coat that was already covered with traces of wind and frost, lying on the dry grass with her arms as a pillow. In her hand, she held a drum whip with a simple shape and a bone-chilling touch. Her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the vague feather-like carvings on the whip repeatedly, as if she was touching a bloody old time that had long been frozen under the ice.

The dancing firelight flickered on her strange and lonely profile, outlining her straight nose and thin lips that were tightly pursed into a straight line. However, deep in her eyes, which were as deep as a cold pond, there were emotions more complicated and turbulent than the raging snow outside the window.

A few pages of the official report, which were crumpled and even stained with oil, were scattered on the grass pile beside her. In the dim light of the fire, she could see the scribbled handwriting on it recording the news from the Central Plains:
The King of Qin got married, and the whole country celebrated with amnesty...

The King of Qin issued an edict to exempt taxes for one year to give the people a rest...

The King of Qin issued an edict, ordering each state to cultivate land and reclaim wasteland, and the refugees gradually settled down...

"Heh..." A very light sneer, almost swallowed by the wind, escaped from her lips, with a hint of indescribable meaning, "He is... in high spirits. With the beauty of the country, he has even brought some life to this broken world."

She stretched out her arm, grabbed a wine bag beside her, uncorked it, and took a big gulp. The hot and spicy liquor rolled through her throat like a line of fire, bringing a burning pain that temporarily suppressed the pervasive chill, but made the inexplicable emotions in her heart burn even more fiercely.

"Without me, he, Xiao Yan, can still do well... and seems to do better?" The reluctance and a hint of imperceptible loss were all visible in this cave with only one person. However, when her eyes inadvertently swept across the few words about tax exemption, farming, and comforting refugees in the official newspaper, the corners of her tightly pursed lips moved upwards very slightly, outlining a fleeting arc that she herself might not even notice.

"...He is someone who cares about the people."

But as soon as this thought came to her mind, it was immediately crushed by her stronger willpower. The wailing sound under the blazing flames two hundred years ago seemed to explode in her ears again, and the promise of Jiugai was like an invisible shackle that suddenly tightened... Heavy distracting thoughts suddenly arose, instantly crushing the softness that should not have existed.

The surrendered minister hastily picked up the scattered official newspapers and stuffed them roughly into the bag beside her, as if to completely seal up the disturbing emotions along with the disturbing papers. She raised her head again and drank the last bit of strong liquor in the bag. Her Adam's apple rolled and the swallowing sound was clearly audible.

"…There has to be an end." She whispered to herself, her voice unusually light amid the howling of wind and snow in the empty stone cave, yet as calm as the surface of a frozen lake, with an unshakable determination.

She held the cold drum whip tightly in her palm, her knuckles turning white from the force.

"Why is it still so cold in Mobei... It's really cold to the bone."

The jumping flames flickered in her lonely and cold pupils, and what was finally reflected was the endless desolate snow and wind, and the solitary peak that still stood at the end of the field of vision, piercing the lead-gray sky, and the goshawk circling on the top of the peak like a black silhouette.

------

Deep in the Taihang Mountains, the mountains and ridges are transformed into dormant beasts in the thick night and the rising snow. Compared with the bustle of Bianliang and the rage of Mobei, the New Year's Eve here is deathly silent, with only the biting cold penetrating the bone marrow.

Next to an extremely hidden pass with cliffs on both sides as sharp as knives and axes, several huge rocks cast an indissoluble shadow, covered with snow, like a giant beast wearing white camouflage.

A slender figure that almost blended into the darkness moved silently like a ghost among the shadows of jagged rocks and dead bushes. Every step was accurately placed on the cracks in the rocks or on the thick dead grass and snow, and the body was as tight as a bowstring, suppressing all sounds to the limit.

Her breath condensed into a fine white mist in the cold air and quickly dissipated. The wounds on her body felt tearing pain from the intense movement, but her sharp eyes remained unchanged, fixed only on the narrowest part of the pass ahead. That was the weak point where the guards were most likely to be lax today, and it was also her only chance of survival. However, just as she was about to reach the narrow passage, a piece of loose gravel half covered by snow suddenly slipped from her feet. Almost at the same time, a subtle but very clear sound of bells suddenly exploded, which was like thunder in the snowy night when everything was silent except for the wind whimpering through the cracks in the rocks.

"There's movement, over there! Below the pass!"

A low, angry and hunting-excited voice suddenly rang out from behind the huge rock above the pass. Before the voice fell, four figures as nimble as black panthers had already jumped out from the shadows of the rocks in different directions, their weapons reflecting a cold light under the dim moonlight, and rushed straight to the source of the sound.

"What a good Thirteenth Lady! I knew you were not dead!" The voice just now sounded again, with a cold laugh, "I said that New Year's Eve is the day we should not let down our guard. Bago, you idiot, dare you call me stupid?"

The fight at the pass broke out instantly. The four figures were like a thorn in the flesh, biting the slender figure tightly. Ba Ye saw that the four men could not take down the seriously injured Li Cunren, and he became furious. He swooped down from a high place, and the giant axe in his hand tore through the cold wind, with a piercing scream, and slashed directly at the back of Li Cunren.

But faster than the giant axe was a figure with a calm aura and ghostly movements. His eyes were calm in the darkness without a single ripple, and his body seemed to be moving at random, but in a few unpredictable turns, he blocked Li Cunren's best escape route with incredible precision, as if he had already predicted all the escape routes of his prey.

Li Cun, who blocked the giant axe with his backhand, had no heart to sink to the bottom of the valley. His whereabouts were completely exposed, and his plan to escape on New Year's Eve was instantly shattered. Ba Ye, the mad dog, actually waited for her in the mountains himself, and he really waited for her.

But at the point of life and death, she had no time to regret. Her body twisted suddenly like a spring compressed to the extreme, and she drew out the short blade with her backhand to meet the scimitar coming from Sanqianyuan.

The ear-piercing sound of metal clashing and sparks flying everywhere exploded in the darkness, and the huge force caused Li Cunren's arm to numb and her palm to crack. She retreated quickly with the force, raised her left hand, and a few black lights with a slight sound of breaking through the air shot towards Ba Ye who had already picked up the giant axe.

"Hmph." Ba Ye shook his wrist, and the giant axe drew a strange arc, accurately knocking away the hidden weapon. In the blink of an eye, his four disciples followed closely, and their weapons attacked Li Cunren from all sides at the same time from extremely tricky angles.

"Dog thief!"

Several shouts were heard, and dozens of people rushed out from the spot where Li Cunren had been exposed just now, instantly blocking the siege of her by the four disciples named Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Joy.

Li Cunren's face was gloomy, and her strong desire to survive urged her to exert her last strength. Even though her old wounds burst open, facing the attack from Sanqianyuan and Ba Ye, she rolled sideways in an almost impossible twisted posture. The edge of a palm wind brushed past her waist, tearing her clothes apart, and her internal energy penetrated, causing her blood to churn and her throat to taste fishy and sweet. As she rolled, several silver lines, like maggots on the tarsal bones, with a hissing sound like a venomous snake, pierced the point where she rolled from a distance at an extremely strange angle.

It was just that these silver lines seemed sharp and swift, with tricky angles, but in Li Cunren's eyes, their speed and timing were subtly slower than usual, and invisibly interfered with Ba Ye's violent pursuit route and Sanqianyuan's ready-made fatal blow. This fleeting flaw was captured by Li Cunren, and she turned over without hesitation, falling deeper into the snow below the pass.

"Bago!" Ba Ye turned around and roared, without thinking too much, and hurriedly followed. Sanqianyuan's eyes flashed with cold light, and he followed silently.

The brutal chase lasted for half an hour in the steep mountains. It was almost dawn, and the light that should have appeared was completely swallowed up by the sudden intensification of the wind and snow. The strong wind swept up the dense snowflakes like a curtain, making a howling sound like ghosts and wolves. The visibility dropped sharply to a few steps away, and the sky and the earth were a chaotic gray.

Li Cunren's wounds were constantly torn apart by running and the cold, and blood soaked through his shirt and condensed in the cold. Every movement brought piercing pain and a sense of stagnation. His physical and internal strength had long been exhausted, his steps were weak, and his lungs felt like they were on fire.

Finally, she was forced into a desperate situation.

On three sides were steep rock walls that were dozens of feet high, covered with ice and snow and extremely slippery. In front was a dense wall of snow blown up by the strong wind. The retreat route was blocked in a triangular shape by Baye, Sanqianyuan and Bago.

"Run, keep running?" Ba Ye panted heavily, with a cruel and satisfying look on his face like a cat playing with a mouse. He pressed forward step by step, and the cold light on the giant axe flickered in the wind and snow.

"For the sake of our old fellow disciples, hand over your things and I'll give you a quick death! Otherwise..." He licked his lips that were frozen purple, with the bloodthirsty light in his eyes undisguised.

Sanqianyuan stood silently in front of Ba Ye, like a statue blending into the snow. He said nothing, his cold eyes locked onto Li Cunren through the snow, his footsteps moved silently, and an invisible web of killing intent had been woven, completely blocking all angles of evasion and escape. His aura was as steady as a mountain, and the previous chase was just a warm-up for him.

Bago stood a little further behind Sanqianyuan, the soft sword in his hand drooping slightly, the tip of the sword leaving shallow marks on the snow, and the palm of his hand holding the hilt was abnormally slightly sweaty in the biting cold.

Li Cunren leaned against the icy rock wall, her chest rising and falling violently, and every breath was accompanied by a strong smell of blood and burning pain. Sweat mixed with blood slid down her forehead and instantly froze into ice. However, her eyes were particularly calm. Her numb hands subconsciously tightly grasped the blood-stained secret letter and the cold and heavy tiger talisman in her arms.

Just as Ba Ye was about to pounce with a grim smile, Sanqianyuan's body, as solid as a deep abyss and a mountain, leaned forward slightly, and a suffocating murderous intent was about to erupt.

“Crack! Boom—!”

A heart-pounding sound of rocks breaking suddenly came from the cliff above their heads. Then, a huge rock that had been shaky for a long time due to days of wind and snow erosion and the pressure of accumulated snow suddenly broke, carrying a large amount of snow and ice, and fell on Ba Ye's head like a punishment from heaven.

Almost at the same moment, a cloud of thick yellow smoke with a strong pungent smell of sulfur suddenly exploded and spread in the narrow valley, instantly engulfing everyone's vision.

"Be careful of falling rocks!" Ba Ye's horrified roar was drowned out by the roar of falling rocks and the sudden chaos. He had no time to care about Li Cunren and hurriedly rolled backwards in a panic to avoid them. Gravel and ice chips fell like heavy rain.

Thick smoke filled the air instantly, and visibility in the narrow valley suddenly dropped to zero. The sounds of wind and snow, falling rocks, coughs, and screams mixed together, and the scene fell into extreme chaos.

Li Cunren's pupils suddenly contracted when the smoke exploded. Although she didn't know whether this change was an accident or a blessing from heaven, her instinct for survival and the mission she shouldered made the last and wildest strength burst out of her body.

Without hesitation, she bit her tongue hard. The severe pain brought her a moment of clarity. Her body was like an arrow shot from a crossbow. Instead of retreating, she rushed forward towards the direction where the wind and snow were the most violent, the terrain was the most treacherous, and the only direction that the pursuers might not be prepared for, namely, the nearly vertical cliff covered with thick ice.

There, there was a narrow gap covered with ice and snow, almost unrecognizable, where only wild beasts would step.

"Stop her, don't let her go up the cliff!" In the thick smoke, Sanqianyuan's voice, which was so cold that it had no warmth at all, but carried a rare hint of anger, pierced through the chaos.

With his superhuman perception, he captured Li Cunren's decisive movement, and his body was like a black lightning tearing through the smoke, and he rushed towards the cliff desperately.

However, the snow and wind were too strong, the smoke obscured our vision, the terrain was complex and slippery, and the rocks were still rolling down.

When Sanqianyuan was the first to rush out of the smoke like a ghost, and Ba Ye followed closely behind him, covered in dust and cursing, all they saw was Li Cunren's resolute figure making a few thrilling moves like a monkey in the wind and snow, using the protrusions of the rocks and cracks in the ice to miraculously climb up the steep ice wall.

Her figure flashed in the wind and snow, and then she was completely swallowed up by a more violent and dense snow curtain like a white curtain, and disappeared behind the bottomless icefall cliff. Only the howling of the wind and the dull roar of the glacier hitting the rock wall below were left.

"Chase him, chase him quickly! If he's alive, I'll find him; if he's dead, I'll find his body!" Ba Ye rushed to the edge of the cliff, looking at the howling snow and wind, the bottomless dark abyss and the rushing glacier below, he was furious.

Sanqianyuan stood alone on the edge of the cliff ravaged by wind and snow, letting the cold snowflakes hit his face.

His face was unusually gloomy, and he slowly turned around, his eyes slowly sweeping over the frightened capture team behind him who had just recovered from the chaos and coughing. Finally, like two probes, they firmly nailed on Bago, who was pale and trying to calm down and put on his clothes.

That gaze stayed on her face longer than on the others, with a hint of subtle scrutiny and suspicion.

The snowstorm intensified, like a white raging wave, madly washing over the cliff, swallowing up all traces of climbing, and also swallowing up the figure that disappeared with the secret. Li Cunren, along with the thing on her body that Sanqianyuan was determined to find at all costs, disappeared in the depths of the blizzard in the vast Taihang Mountains.

But his life and death are as uncertain as the gloomy sky.

(End of this chapter)