Love Lock

Chapter 261 The Sage's Words
"General, we're within firing range," the bodyguard whispered to Lu Heming, his voice taut and tense.

Zhao Zun's lips curled into a cold smile. Instead of slowing down, he spurred his horse, and the warhorse neighed as it accelerated towards the enemy formation.

Han Lei's heart leaped into her throat. She could clearly see the archers opposite her with their bows fully drawn, the gleaming arrows pointed directly in their direction.

"Fire arrows!"

Lu Heming's roar and a gunshot shattered the tranquility of the sky at the same time.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

"boom!"

"what--!"

Amidst screams, Han Lei saw the helmet of Lu Heming's personal guard being violently blown off, his black hair fluttering in the morning breeze.

The guard suddenly raised his hand to cover his head, his eyes wide open like copper bells, and his screams were shrill and terrified.

At the same time, a dark rain of arrows came shooting in, blotting out the sky, their sharp, piercing sound cutting through the air.

"Hold on tight to me." Zhao Zun's deep voice rang in my ears, carrying an unquestionable command.

Before Han Lei could react, Zhao Zun suddenly pulled on the reins, and his warhorse reared up. His wide cloak fluttered in the morning breeze like unfolded black wings.

The dull thuds of arrows piercing her cloak continued, with several even grazing past Han Lei's ears, the air currents causing her cheeks to sting.

In that life-or-death moment, Han Lei inexplicably noticed Zhao Zun's profile. The morning light pierced through the gaps in the rain of arrows, gilding his sharply defined jawline with a golden edge.

A drop of blood slid down from the wound on his cheek, rolling down his Adam's apple and into the collar of his armor.

"How was it?" Zhao Zun suddenly lowered his head, a dangerous glint in his eyes, and asked, "Was my move pretty good?"

His voice was mocking, as if this wasn't a life-or-death battlefield, but a game.

Han Lei then noticed that there was a bloody mark on his right cheek from an arrow. The wound was not deep, but it was strikingly red.

"Crazy...you're going to die!" she muttered, her heart pounding uncontrollably.

As a special forces medic, she had seen countless well-trained soldiers, but she had never seen anyone so calm and composed in the face of a hail of arrows.

Zhao Zun grinned wickedly and licked away the drop of blood that had slid to his lips. The action was wild and untamed, reminding her of a leopard ambushing its prey in a documentary.

Han Lei hurriedly took out a first-aid kit from her spatial storage.

This is absurd—she has never been afraid of bullets on the modern battlefield, but for some reason, she is now unsettled by the arrogant behavior of an ancient man.

"Don't move." She had just taken out the disinfectant cotton when she saw Zhao Zun suddenly lightly tap his toes on the horse's back and leap into the air.

At that moment, time seemed to be stretched.

Han Lei looked up at Zhao Zun in the air, his cloak fully unfurled, like the wings of a pair of fallen angels from mythology.

Zhao Zun's hand speed was very fast; the rain of arrows was disrupted by the cloak he rolled up, scattering in all directions.

"boom!"

Then, Zhao Zun turned around in mid-air and fired another shot, his movements fluid and graceful.

Han Lei looked in the direction of the gunshot and saw Lu Heming's warhorse fall to the ground. The court general who had come specifically to punish Zhao Zun tumbled off his horse and fell to the ground in a sorry state, his armor covered in dust.

"Bang! Bang! Bang..."

Immediately afterwards, a deafening barrage of gunfire erupted.

To ensure Zhao Zun's successful show-off, the tricycle team members behind him all got out of their vehicles, moved into position, raised their guns, and opened fire, the muzzles of their M16s constantly spitting out flames.

The imperial army's formation was thrown into chaos instantly. The soldiers panicked and tried to find a place to flee, but the official road was only so wide. Tens of thousands of soldiers were lined up in a long queue, with nowhere to hide or escape.

"what--!"

Gunshots rang out nearby, and soldiers fell one after another around them. Lu Heming's screams, almost in despair, as he clutched his head were particularly piercing. Han Lei saw a dark patch of water spreading beneath him.

Having successfully pulled off his impressive display, Zhao Zun spun around in the air and landed steadily back on the saddle.

He grabbed Han Lei's wrist and kissed the back of her hand. His lips were warm from the blood, and the sensation was so distinct that Han Lei trembled.

“With a girl here…” Zhao Zun’s voice was deep and magnetic, but his gaze was fixed intently on the rout of the enemy troops opposite him. “This makes the battle more interesting!”

Han Lei then realized that she was still holding the disinfectant cotton swab in her hand, and she had no choice but to awkwardly withdraw it.

"Tch!" She rolled her eyes, trying to appear calm. "You're so cocky! If that arrow had missed by an inch, you'd be a corpse by now!"

Zhao Zun laughed heartily, his laughter carrying far across the battlefield.

He casually wiped the blood off his face, but instead made the blood spread even more. Coupled with his bright eyes, he looked like a naughty child who had just finished a fight.

Han Lei couldn't help but take out gauze and press it hard on his wound.

"Don't move!" she commanded, her voice harsher than she had expected.

Zhao Zun obediently stopped moving, but stared at her without blinking.

Han Lei could feel his warm breath brushing against her fingers, and suddenly realized that the two of them were too close.

She hurriedly treated her wound and tried to back away, but Zhao Zun grabbed her waist.

"Scared?" he asked, raising an eyebrow with a probing look in his eyes.

Han Lei took a deep breath, suppressing the strange flutter in her heart.

"I'm afraid you'll die and I'll have to bury you." She glared at him defiantly, but couldn't help glancing at the wound on his face. "Does it hurt?"

Zhao Zun seemed amused by the question. He released his arm around her waist and instead pinched the tip of her nose.

“Instead of this,” he pointed to the fleeing imperial army in the distance, “we should think about how to clean up the mess, my strategist.”

military adviser?

Recalling how she had once volunteered to be a strategist, Han Lei couldn't help but chuckle self-deprecatingly.

Haha! Actually, Zhao Zun doesn't need her as his strategist at all.

"Hey! What are you thinking about?" Zhao Zun gently pinched the tip of her small nose.

Han Lei finally snapped out of her daze. She looked around and saw wounded soldiers lying haphazardly on the battlefield, their cries of pain echoing everywhere.

But she also heard from Zhao Zun that these soldiers who stayed behind were looting and plundering all the way in the disaster-stricken Jingzhou, just like bandits, and they were not worth her pity at all.

At the heart of all this chaos, Zhao Zun acted as if nothing was wrong and even had the mood to tease her.

"Are these the heroes of ancient battlefields?" Han Lei wondered to herself.

Without the precise coordination of modern armies and the support of high-tech weapons, one can sway the course of a battle solely through personal bravery, charisma, and strategy.

She suddenly understood why those famous generals in history could inspire people to follow them to the death.

This was the first time Zhao Zun had demonstrated his martial arts skills in front of her. When Zhao Zun spread his cloak to block the arrows in the rain of arrows, even she, a modern person, couldn't help but feel admiration.

"What are you daydreaming about?" Zhao Zun had already dismounted and stretched out his hand to her. "Come on, let's get down and take a look at our spoils."

Han Lei didn't reply. She took his hand and jumped off the horse, her boots sinking into the soft mud.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and blood, but strangely, she didn't feel disgusted.

Zhao Zun walked ahead of her, the morning light casting a long, imposing shadow of him that enveloped her. At that moment, Han Lei suddenly realized that she could no longer view Zhao Zun through the lens of someone from "ancient times."

After strolling for a while, Zhao Zun suddenly stopped, and Han Lei almost bumped into his back.

For some unknown reason, Zhao Zun took Han Lei's hand and walked back to Jin Er Cong. After helping Han Lei onto the horse, he also mounted it.

"Didn't we say we were going to see the spoils of war?" Han Lei asked, puzzled.

"No need," Zhao Zun replied simply, then shouted, "Everyone, prepare to depart!"

He waved his arm at the convoy of three-wheeled vehicles behind him, then lightly spurred his horse's belly, and the sleigh began to stride forward with a loud snort.

Lu Heming was sitting awkwardly on the dusty official road. As Zhao Zun rode closer, his bloodshot eyes were filled with terror.

The imperial general braced himself against the ground with his mud-covered hands, kicking his legs haphazardly as he moved backward, his armor scraping against the muddy ground with a screeching sound.

"General, be careful!" came the trembling voice of the personal guard from horseback.

He stiffly raised his spear, the tip tracing a chaotic arc in the air. "You...you...you stay away!"

His warning was less of a deterrent and more of a desperate plea.

His knuckles gripping the gun barrel were visibly slipping, and his warhorse seemed to sense its master's fear, pawing the ground uneasily.

Zhao Zun suddenly pulled on the reins as he approached the army, causing the brocade-eared horse to rear up high.

Zhao Zun scanned the imperial army with lightning-fast eyes, but his voice was terrifyingly calm: "Those who don't want to die, get out of the way."

These words were like a pardon, and the once noisy official road instantly fell into dead silence.

Immediately afterwards, the crowded soldiers pushed and shoved each other like a tide, retreating to one side of the official road, the sounds of clashing armor and hurried footsteps rising and falling.

Someone was pushed and fell to the ground, and immediately crawled to the side of the road on all fours.

This time, the clearing was several times faster than before, and in the blink of an eye, a narrow passage was cleared in the congested official road.

"Hold me tight!" Zhao Zun whispered to Han Lei behind him.

Han Lei's slender arms immediately wrapped around his waist, and Zhao Zun could feel the subtle tension emanating from her fingertips.

Zhao Zun held the reins with his left hand and steadily raised the M16 to his shoulder with his right, the dark muzzle gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

"go!"

At his command, the three-wheeled vehicle convoy immediately started up, engines roaring and exhaust pipes spewing blue smoke as they slowly followed.

"Make way, make way quickly!" Lu Heming's personal guards frantically pulled on the reins, but the frightened warhorse kept spinning and wouldn't obey.

As Zhao Zun drew closer, he simply dismounted and quickly retreated to the roadside, not even bothering to pick up his fallen spear.

Lu Heming used both hands and feet, retreating sideways towards the mountain wall like a startled crab, only stopping when his back slammed heavily against the rocks. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, which was now bare of his helmet.

As the shadow of the brocade-eared horse loomed over the two of them, Zhao Zun looked down at them with disdain.

Lu Heming's face, which was covered in a mixture of dust and sweat, was turned up. His pupils were constricted to the size of pinpoints as he stared intently at the weapon that Zhao Zun had raised, which gleamed with a dark metallic sheen.

“You are soldiers of the Great Jing,” Zhao Zun’s voice, sharp as ice, resounded above Lu Heming’s head, “yet you plunder the people of the Great Jing.”

As Zhao Zun spoke, he subtly flicked his wrist, lowered the muzzle of his gun, and aimed it at Lu Heming: "He deserves to die!"

"No, don't kill me!" Lu Heming trembled all over, suddenly bursting out a heart-wrenching scream, his hands flailing wildly, "This general... no, I know I was wrong! I was acting on the orders of General Su Ce..."

His voice stopped abruptly as the cold barrel of a gun was pressed against his forehead.

A mountain breeze swept across the official road, swirling up a few withered leaves. All the soldiers held their breath; some even closed their eyes.

However, the expected loud noise did not occur.

Zhao Zun slowly lowered his gun, his voice filled with suppressed anger.

“As the sage said: Do not refrain from doing good because it is small, nor do evil because it is small.” He glanced at the soldiers around him who were silent with fear. “The weapons in your hands should be aimed at the enemy who has invaded the border, not at your own people.”

Zhao Zun's words were brimming with anger. Lu Heming gasped for breath like a fish out of water, his Adam's apple bobbing but unable to utter a sound.

"Go back to the capital!" Zhao Zun suddenly turned his horse around. "Since you are also following orders, I will spare your lives this time. If you oppress the people again, I will definitely take your lives."

The second half of the sentence dissipated in the wind, but everyone understood the murderous intent within it.

Zhao Zun gave the reins a tug, and the brocade-eared horse started moving again, with the three-wheeled motorcycle convoy following closely behind.

Han Lei, supporting Zhao Zun's arm, turned around and saw Lu Heming sprawled on the ground like a rag doll, panting heavily. His personal guards were frantically trying to help him up, but were pushed away.

“That…that is…” Lu Heming stared at the departing convoy and the M16 automatic rifle on Zhao Zun’s shoulder, which had become a black dot in the distance. His voice was hoarse and out of tune. “That is the divine weapon that can blow up General Su Ce and take a life from a hundred paces away?”

Several startled sparrows fluttered up from the roadside bushes, skimming over the lingering dust on the official road.

The soldiers remained frozen in place until the convoy disappeared around the bend, at which point some of them let out a long sigh of relief, their legs giving way and causing them to collapse to the ground.

Upon witnessing the divine weapons of the King of Cangzhou once again, Lu Heming felt as if his blood had frozen.

The deafening "bang bang" sounds still echoed in his ears, the smell of gunpowder burned his nostrils, and his trembling fingers could barely hold his sword.

Looking at the corpses lying scattered across the battlefield, he finally understood that this punitive expedition was destined to be a joke from the very beginning.

"General! Let's...go!" The personal guard beside him said in a trembling voice, supporting his weak and aching body.

Lu Heming then realized that his legs were no longer under his control, and he felt a sharp pain in his knees. He had fallen to his knees without even realizing it.

He struggled to his feet with the help of his bodyguards; the bloodstains on his armor gleamed dark red in the sunlight.

Turning around, the remaining soldiers were like frightened birds, their ranks already twisted beyond recognition.

Some people hugged their injured companions and sobbed softly, some stood there blankly with unfocused eyes, and many more wandered around like headless flies.

Lu Heming took a deep breath, suppressing the fear and shame surging in his chest, and spent a full incense stick's time reorganizing the routed team.

"Withdraw the troops...return to the capital." Looking at the scattered corpses, he closed his eyes in anguish.

The group moved slowly, each step feeling like walking on a knife's edge.

Lu Heming changed to a different horse and rode in front, as if a thousand-pound weight was pressing down on his back.

The warm winter sun shone on them, casting long shadows that left streaks like scars on the muddy ground.

"Do not refrain from doing good because it is small, nor do evil because it is small." Zhao Zun's words echoed in his mind, each word striking his heart like a hammer. "As soldiers of the Great Jing, you should point your weapons at the enemy, not at your own people."

Lu Heming pulled on the reins, and the horse slammed to the ground. Zhao Zun's words came flooding back—

I remember that year when I went to war with Su Ce, they allowed their soldiers to loot villages, euphemistically calling it "raising funds for the army." I remember the despair in the eyes of the old farmer who knelt down begging for mercy, when he kicked him away; the able-bodied men who were forcibly conscripted were escorted like livestock, chained up with iron chains...

His stomach suddenly churned, and he grabbed the horse's neck and began to retch, but only managed to vomit a few mouthfuls of sour water.

It turns out that all those "battle achievements" that he and Su Ce were so proud of, and all those "merits" that were rewarded by the imperial court, were stained with the blood and tears of innocent people.

The warm sunlight shone on his pale face, making his remorseful tears appear red.

"Speed ​​up the march." He wiped his face, but his voice was much firmer than before.

With each footstep, the battered and bruised team embarked on their journey home, each step heavy as lead, yet seemingly more lucid than when they arrived…

Thank you Chenhua and Xinghe for the generous donations, and thank you everyone for the votes! There are too many votes to list them all. One word: "Thank you!" Two words: "Many thanks!"