If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 53: The Emperor Passes Away
Hu Chen has been following Marquis Lieyang for nearly half a year.

At the beginning of the year, Lieyang Hou led his army across the Liusha River to Tianmen Town, and Hu Chen immediately expressed his intention to join the army. After that, in the decisive battle with the coalition forces of the thirty-six countries, and in the conquest of the thirty-six countries one by one, Hu Chen served as the cavalry commander under him.

Because he was quite familiar with Marquis Lieyang, when they met again today, Hu Chen was neither as nervous as he was when he first met Marquis Shangbang, nor did he feel as curious as the people of West Shu outside.

He had only one feeling: relaxed and comfortable.

No matter whether Qingsong Taoist Boy scared him or not, as long as he joined up with Marquis Lieyang, no one could attack and kill him in front of Marquis Lieyang and the Fire Crow Army.

"My Lord, the front and rear soldiers have entered the camp, and Yunlai Inn will prepare meals and send them to the door. My Lord, would you like them to be served immediately?"

Before Marquis Lieyang arrived, he held the highest position and was in charge of arranging patrols and sentries in the camp.

Now that Marquis Lieyang has arrived, he has no right to interfere in the security affairs of the camp and can only report on logistical matters.

"can."

Marquis Lieyang was leaning on the couch reading a book. He just nodded casually, his eyes still on the pages of the book. He waved his hand gently, intending to let Hu Chen go out.

Hu Chen also got up from the ground, stood up straight, and prepared to turn around and leave.

"General Guan, please wait a moment. Lord, I have something important to report to you."

At this moment, "Wind-Ears" lifted the door curtain and strode in. He first looked at Hu Chen meaningfully, then walked directly to Marquis Lieyang, bent down and whispered a few words in the marquis' ear.

Finally, he handed over a palm-sized booklet.

Hu Chen recognized this "protruding ears".

Gao Xianjue, the commander-in-chief of the Fire Crow Army’s scout camp.

During the time he followed Marquis Lieyang, this General Gao had the characteristics of a spy chief - low-key and inconspicuous.

His presence in the Fire Crow Army has never been strong, and the two have not even met each other a few times.

Most of the time, Gao Dutong led the reconnaissance battalion to gather military intelligence outside.

But with Hu Chen, a man with a keen eye, around, Marquis Lieyang almost never summoned the "Scout Battalion Commander" specifically when discussing military intelligence.

At least when Hu Chen was in the Fire Crow Army, Marquis Lieyang called him directly when he wanted to know the enemy situation.

With the Clairvoyance, Marquis Lieyang has no need for General Gao's scout camp at all.

Now Hu Chen suddenly became nervous.

Because he saw that after Gao Dutong whispered a few words, Marquis Lieyang's face suddenly changed and he looked at him sharply.

"My Lord." Hu Chen was frightened and at a loss.

Marquis Lieyang just gave him a cold look, then lowered his head and opened the booklet.

Even if Hu Chen did not activate his clairvoyance ability, his vision was still far beyond that of an ordinary person.

He couldn't see the front of the booklet, but the paper was very thin. There was a skylight in the tent above Marquis Lieyang, and the sunlight fell on the paper, so he could vaguely see densely packed small words on the back.

Without waiting for him to blink or carefully distinguish the shadow and recognize the words, Marquis Lieyang raised his right hand, with flames in his palm, and slammed it on the table in front of him.

"boom!"

The solid and spacious myrtle table was shattered into pieces, with sparks of fire ignited from the flying debris.

"Guan Huchen, you are so brave!"

The fire that flickered in Marquis Lieyang's eyes almost tore Hu Chen's soul apart.

His heart was broken, and he knelt on the ground, "My Lord, I——"

“clang~clang~clang”

A loud phoenix cry was heard overhead, interrupting Hu Chen's words and temporarily drawing away Marquis Lieyang's almost burning eyes.

"Blue Luan Messenger?"

"Marquis Lieyang, this is the third-level bone-changing pill refined by Master Ge. Please help pass it to Taoist Qingsong, or wait for Taoist Qingsong to come and get it himself."

Qingluan actually spoke human language with a clear voice, like an eight or nine-year-old human child.

It lowered its head and pecked the base of its left wing with its beak.

Then a green light flashed at the base of the wings, and a small white porcelain bottle fell down. Qingluan raised its claws to catch it and placed it under the soft couch of Marquis Lieyang.

"In addition, Prime Minister Li Si learned that Xiaoqin was about to travel west, so he wrote a Yin Fu and asked Xiaoqin to pass it to the Marquis."

After putting down the porcelain bottle, Qingluan pecked at the base of the wing with its beak again.

A white wax ball as big as a small kumquat fell down.

This time, without waiting for it to use its claws to catch it, Marquis Lieyang stretched out his hand and the wax ball automatically flew to his palm.

"Has anything major happened in Xianyang City recently?"

While crushing the wax ball, Marquis Lieyang asked a question casually.

This was actually a very common question, and Marquis Lieyang himself did not expect any useful information.

Qing Luan hesitated, "It's a big event, a catastrophe that will cause the heavens to collapse and the earth to split. Your Majesty, please read it yourself. Prime Minister Li must have written it on the Yin Fu."

Its cry was somewhat sharp.

Then it lowered its head, and its long, graceful neck covered with colorful feathers also shrank.

"What's wrong, Your Majesty?"

Marquis Lieyang's expression changed slightly, and he quickened his movements to spread out the brocade in the wax ball.

There are no words on the silk book, but a string of symbols of varying lengths.

For example, in costume TV dramas, intercepting a secret letter from a messenger, opening it and reading it directly is absolutely impossible in the real world.

The ancients just had underdeveloped technology, but they were not stupid at all. As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the military began to use Yin Fu to transmit confidential information.

"No, it's impossible!" Marquis Lieyang was an old soldier and it only took him a moment to decipher the information in the Yin Fu.

He glanced at the brocade and his face turned pale instantly.

Looking up and seeing Hu Chen craning his neck and staring at him with a sneaky look, he became even more angry and raised his right hand to launch a "Burning Sky Dragon Roar" attack.

"Ang~Awoo~~~" The true energy in the Dantian gushed out and turned into a bright red flaming dragon pillar.

The pillar of fire was as thick as an adult's bath tub, and it crushed Hu Chen out of the tent.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo~~”

After killing someone and venting his anger, Marquis Lieyang regained some of his sanity. He stared at Qingluan with his murderous cold eyes and asked in a hoarse voice, "Emissary Qingluan, did Li Si lie to me?"

"If it is the news that His Majesty passed away in Concubine Rou's bedroom five days ago, then Prime Minister Li did not lie to the Marquis, and there was no need to lie, because everyone in Xianyang City knows about this matter now, and Queen Mother Zhao is temporarily acting as regent." Qingluan said.

“Your Majesty is the Emperor of Mankind. He has taken the Longevity Pill, but his current life span is less than three hundred years, and he is still more than two hundred years away from the ‘five hundred small limit’. How could he die suddenly so early from an overdose of the pill while visiting his concubine?! This is too absurd, I don’t believe it.” Marquis Lieyang clenched his fists and roared in a low voice.

"I don't know. I am just a messenger. If the Marquis has no letter to send back to Xianyang, I will leave now."

"Ah, master!" Guan Zhong's wailing came from afar.

"Godfather~~~" There was also a weaker girl's voice mixed in.

"Gao Xianjue, put out the fire and repair this marquis's tent."

"As ordered!"

Even though Gao Xianjue wanted to kill Guan Huchen, he was still terrified after witnessing the Marquis' unprecedented misconduct and hearing the fatal news. He fell to the ground and huddled in a corner, fearing that he would be caught in the crossfire and become the Marquis' target for venting his anger.

At other times, he wouldn't be so cautious.

After all, Marquis Lieyang has always been clear about rewards and punishments, and never attacks his soldiers without reason.

But Hu Chen's death was related to him. He chose this time to submit "Hu Chen's crime" on purpose. If the Marquis investigates further,
Now hearing the order from Marquis Lieyang, he felt as if he had escaped from death. His body suddenly relaxed, and he squirmed back a few steps before standing up and quickly leaving the tent, shouting for people to put out the fire.

Marquis Lieyang ignored the commotion and crying outside the tent.

He walked to the desk and took a pen to draw symbols of varying lengths on another blank piece of silk.

"So General Guan's calamity is due to Marquis Lieyang. No wonder, no wonder."

Looking at Hu Chen's twisted and deformed corpse, Qingsong Dao Tong only showed a slight surprise, then he clapped his hands and chuckled, nodding repeatedly, "This makes sense. He offended Marquis Lieyang without knowing it, so he will definitely die!"

Xiao Yu turned around, pulled his sleeve, and shouted: "Please, old master, use your magic to save us from suffering and distress with your great compassion!"

Hearing her scream, Guan Zhong, whose face was distorted by the pain, seemed to have grasped the last straw. He turned around and kowtowed to Qingsong repeatedly, "Master, please have mercy on me. Please save me."

Qingsong Dao Tong gently pulled back his sleeves and said calmly, "The dead cannot be resurrected. Please do not mourn."

"Grandmaster~~~" Xiaoyu shouted in a long voice, sounding particularly sad.

Taoist Qingsong remained unmoved and walked towards the gate of the military camp.

Xiaoyu followed behind him and Guan Zhong followed behind her.

Some soldiers in the camp knew Qingsong and immediately opened the camp gate for him. Xiaoyu took the opportunity to slip in and rushed towards the remains of Huchen.

"Hey, who are you? Don't barge in."

A 15-foot-tall man raised his spear to stop them, but Qingsong stopped him and said, "Guan Huchen is her adoptive father. For her filial piety, let her go and let General Guan collect her body."

The Fire Crow Army soldiers stopped trying to stop them.

"Godfather, eh."

Xiaoyu gathered two lifetimes of sad memories in her mind and finally squeezed out two bean-sized tears. She had half-howled out when she suddenly realized something was wrong.

Guan Huchen appeared to be burnt all over, but in fact only part of his body was burned.

At this time he was still surrounded by raging flames, but if you look closely, his Fire Rat Robe blocked most of the flames.

And his "snake flame whip".

At this moment, it seemed to come alive and turned into a fire snake again, drilling in and out of his armor and devouring the scarlet fiery energy.

Well, Guan Huchen was not ignited by ordinary fire, but by the "Fire Dragon Pillar", and the "Fire Dragon Pillar" was the flaming true energy created by Marquis Lieyang using the Fire Crow Power.

Now the Snake Flame Whip actually took the initiative to help Hu Chen clear the alien true qi in his body.

"Uncle Zhong, our adoptive father can still be saved." Xiaoyu pulled Guan Zhong's arm and shouted excitedly.

"What, the master is not dead yet and can be rescued?" Guan Zhong was also excited.

"Don't be so loud."

Although Xiaoyu shouted excitedly, she lowered her voice, but Guan Zhong shouted at the top of his voice.

Look, many soldiers in the camp looked over here.

Xiao Yu stood up, looked around, found the location of the Shu Kingdom's Iron Cavalry Battalion, and waved, "Luye Guard Iron Cavalry Battalion, everyone, come over immediately to clean up General Guan's remains!"

More than two hundred armored knights looked at each other, hesitant.

"Wei Wu, come here!" Guan Zhong roared.

Military doctor Wei Wu's scalp tingled. He lowered his head and said dryly, "Let's go. At least we can collect General Guan's body."

There is a saying that the law cannot hold everyone responsible, but now he has been named by Guan Zhong.

If he did not react, no matter whether Guan Laoya was dead or alive in the end, he would become the Guan family's punching bag.

(End of this chapter)