I started as a concubine, and I made the crown prince cry with my delicious food.

The opportunity came soon.

That day, Yue Zhuo summoned him to his tent.

"Canglang," she said, dressed in a smart riding outfit, looking dashing and spirited, "you've come at the perfect time. We just got intelligence that a Liang army scout team of about a dozen people is active in the Red Stone Valley area to our west, seemingly looking for a way to break out."

As she spoke, she stared intently at Xiao Jingshi with her burning eyes: "Didn't you want to go to the battlefield? I'll give you that chance today. Batu will take fifty warriors with you to wipe out this scout squad cleanly."

"I want you to come back to me with their captain's head."

Xiao Jingshi's heart sank.

To send him to kill his own people?

"What? You don't dare?" Yue Zhuo raised an eyebrow when she saw his silence.

"No." Xiao Jingshi suppressed the turmoil in his heart and answered calmly, "Why do we need fifty scouts when there are only a dozen or so? Captain Batu can take twenty men. I can go alone."

He couldn't let Batu come along. The more people there were, the less he could operate.

Batu panicked upon hearing this: "How can that be! My lord, your safety is the most important! I must stay with you!"

"My safety is none of your concern," Xiao Jingshi said firmly.

Looking at his confident demeanor, Yue Zhuo liked him even more. She loved his fearless and arrogant spirit.

"Alright! As you wish!" she declared decisively. "Batu, you take twenty men and wait outside the valley to provide backup. Let our Lord Canglang go and have some fun."

Xiao Jingshi didn't say another word. He turned around, walked out of the tent, mounted the Black Wind, and rode alone towards Red Stone Valley.

Redstone Valley gets its name from the reddish-brown rocks on its surface. Its complex terrain and jagged rocks make it an excellent ambush location.

After entering the valley, Xiao Jingshi did not rush to find the Liang army scouts. Relying on his seemingly ingrained battlefield intuition, he quickly found the best observation point.

Not long after, a small team of more than ten people came into his view.

They wore the standard leather armor of the Liang army, moved with alertness and speed, and maintained excellent formation, clearly experienced veterans.

Upon seeing that familiar outfit, Xiao Jingshi felt as if his heart had been violently struck by something.

A strange sense of familiarity and belonging welled up within me.

These people are my comrades.

The thought rang in his mind with perfect clarity.

He cannot let them die.

But he couldn't expose himself. Yue Zhuo's orders were to bring the captain back with his head. If he returned empty-handed, or if the captain escaped, it would inevitably arouse suspicion.

What should I do?

Xiao Jingshi's mind raced.

He observed the squad's route and then looked at the surrounding terrain.

A plan quickly took shape in his mind.

He didn't show himself immediately, but quietly followed behind the scout team.

Just as the team was passing through a narrow, rocky slope, Xiao Jingshi made a move.

Instead of attacking directly, he used the scimitar he carried to cut down a withered tree on the hillside that had long been eroded by wind and rain and was on the verge of collapse.

"Boom!"

The dead tree fell and crashed into several huge rocks.

The rocks shifted, carrying countless fragments of rock, and rolled down towards the scout team's location like a small landslide!

"Watch out! There's an ambush!"

The leader of the scout squad reacted quickly, shouting and immediately organizing his team to find cover.

But the landslide came too suddenly and too violently.

In an instant, the entire squad was engulfed by smoke and rolling stones.

Xiao Jingshi stood on high ground, coldly watching all of this.

His calculations were extremely precise. This "accidental" landslide was enough to scatter the team and cause casualties, but not enough to bury them all alive.

Once the dust had settled slightly, he jumped down from the height, pretending to have just arrived, and walked into the pile of rocks.

The place was a mess.

Most of the soldiers were scattered, and a few unlucky ones were hit by stones, seriously injured, and lay on the ground groaning.

The scout captain was helping a soldier with a broken leg, anxiously trying to pull him out of the crevice in the rocks.

Upon seeing Xiao Jingshi, a man dressed in barbarian attire, the captain's expression changed drastically. He immediately drew his sword and shielded his injured companion.

"Wild dogs! I'll fight you to the death!" he roared, his eyes filled with a resolute determination to die for his cause.

Xiao Jingshi ignored his cursing.

His gaze fell on the captain's face.

It was a weathered face, with a faint scar on its left eyebrow.

The moment Xiao Jingshi saw that face, his head buzzed as if he had been hit hard by a sledgehammer!

A name came out without thinking.

"...Li San?"

### Chapter 15 The Princess's Suspicion, the Final Battle is Approaching!

The scout captain named Li San was stunned when he heard this title.

He stared intently at the man in front of him, dressed in barbarian attire yet possessing a cold and noble air, his eyes filled with confusion and wariness.

"How...how do you know my name?" He gripped the knife tightly, his voice hoarse.

The name Li San was merely a code name he used in the army; outsiders, except for his closest comrades, would never know it. Let alone a barbarian?

Xiao Jingshi himself was stunned.

He didn't know why he called out that name.

The name seemed to be stored in his mind long ago; it just popped into his head when he saw that face.

He looked at Li San's face, which was both familiar and unfamiliar, and fragmented images flashed through his mind.

In the icy north, by a campfire, a young soldier hands you a roasted leg of lamb, excitedly recounting stories of his hometown, the scar on his brow yet still there…

"Your eyebrow... was cut by a stray arrow while saving a new recruit at the foot of Youzhou City," Xiao Jingshi said subconsciously.

Li San's pupils suddenly contracted, and he almost dropped the knife in his hand.

This happened three years ago during the Great Northern War! Apart from a few brothers who were present at the time, nobody else knew about it!

Who is this person in front of me?!

"Who are you?!" Li San's voice trembled.

Xiao Jingshi opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

who am I?

I also want to know.

Looking into Li San's eyes, which held a mixture of shock, fear, and a faint glimmer of hope, he felt a turmoil in his heart.

He knew he couldn't stay any longer. Batu was still waiting outside the valley; any further delay would inevitably arouse suspicion.

He must end all of this as soon as possible.

"If you don't want to die, take your men and leave through that small path to the west." Xiao Jingshi suppressed the turmoil in his heart and said in a cold voice, as if nothing had happened.

He pointed to a secluded path hidden by bushes not far away: "Cross over that mountain, and you'll reach Liang's defense zone. Don't come back."

Having said that, he stopped looking at Li San and walked to the body of a barbarian scout who had already died—he had dealt with him casually on his way here and had been dragging him behind his horse. He drew his scimitar and cleanly severed the man's head.

Having done all this, he picked up the bloody head, mounted his horse, and prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Li San shouted behind him, "You still haven't told me who you are!"

Xiao Jingshi did not turn around.

"My name is Canglang." He left behind this name that did not belong to him, spurred his horse, and the black wind transformed into a black lightning bolt, disappearing into the end of the valley.

Only Li San and his brothers were left standing there, bewildered in the wind.

"Captain, that person... he..." a soldier stammered, supporting his injured arm.

Li San didn't answer; he just stared intently in the direction the man had disappeared, his mind churning.

Gray Wolf? That's the name of the barbarian.

But he knew his own name, knew about his past injuries, and he even showed him a way out...

An absurd yet heart-pounding thought began to frantically grow in his mind.

Is it...

He dared not think any further.

"Stop talking nonsense! Quick! Help the wounded brother up, let's follow the way he said! Hurry!" Li San snapped out of his daze and immediately gave the order.

Whoever that person was, the fact remained that he had saved them. They had to get out of this hellhole as soon as possible.

……

Xiao Jingshi carried a severed head back to the outside of the valley.

Batu saw him and immediately rushed up excitedly: "My lord! You're back! How did it go? Those Liang army scouts..."

His gaze fell on the bloody human head beside Xiao Jingshi's saddle, and he instantly shut his mouth.

"They've all been dealt with," Xiao Jingshi said calmly. "They were just some small fry scouting ahead, not worth mentioning. Let's go back."

Looking at his calm and composed face, Batu's awe for him deepened. One man, silently wiping out a scouting squad of over ten men, and with such nonchalance. This Lord Canglang was simply a god of death!

Back at the camp, Xiao Jingshi threw the severed head in front of Yue Zhuo's tent.

"I have successfully completed my mission."

Yue Zhuo looked at the head that lay dead with its eyes wide open, then at Xiao Jingshi's clothes, which were spotless and untouched by blood, and smiled with satisfaction.

"I knew it, this little thing wouldn't be a problem for you."

She stepped forward, wanting to take his arm again as usual, but Xiao Jingshi subtly avoided her.

"I'm tired, I'm going back to rest." He said this and walked straight to his tent.

As Yue Zhuo watched his resolute back, the smile on her face slowly faded.

She felt that something was off about Canglang today.

He seemed colder than before, and that sense of alienation was even more pronounced.

"Batu," she turned and asked, "did you hear anything outside the valley?"

Batu scratched his head: "Your Highness, no. We just heard a loud crash of rocks falling, and then there was no more sound. Not long after, the adults came out carrying a head."

"Rolling rocks?" A hint of doubt flashed in Yue Zhuo's eyes.

It's too clean.

Even with the highest level of martial arts, it's impossible for one person to fight off more than a dozen people unscathed, without even a trace of a fight.

The only explanation is that the other party had no chance to fight back.

A rockfall...was it an accident, or...man-made?

A thought flashed through her mind, but she quickly suppressed it.

Impossible. Why would he help Liang Jun? He's just an amnesiac man from the Central Plains whom I picked up. Perhaps he simply dislikes Liang Jun, which is why he was so ruthless.

Yes, that must be it.

Yue Zhuo comforted herself in this way, but the seed of doubt had already been quietly planted in her heart.

In the following days, the military movements of the three major barbarian tribes became increasingly frequent.

The leaders held meetings in the central tent until late at night every day, and a tense atmosphere, like the calm before the storm, enveloped the entire camp.

Xiao Jingshi knew that the final assault was about to begin.

He had to find a way to communicate the timing and main direction of the barbarian coalition's attack to the trapped Liang army.

However, ever since the incident at Redstone Valley, although Yue Zhuo outwardly still favored him, he secretly had people keeping a close eye on him. He had no chance to leave the camp at all.

That night, Yue Zhuo came to his tent again.

She brought a jug of the finest mare's milk wine.

"Canglang, have a drink with me." She sat across from him and poured him a full glass of wine herself. "Tomorrow, we'll launch our final offensive."

Xiao Jingshi felt a chill run down his spine, but he calmly accepted the wine glass.

"Has the leader made a decision?"

"Yes." Yue Zhuo's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Tomorrow morning, the three armies will attack simultaneously! Our Black Wolf tribe will be responsible for the main assault on their central camp! Father said that as long as we break through their central camp, those tens of thousands of Liang soldiers will completely collapse!"

She raised her glass to Xiao Jingshi: "I want you by my side in this battle, to witness firsthand how we achieve victory!"

"I will make you a hero of our tribe!"

When she looked at Xiao Jingshi, her eyes were filled with undisguised infatuation and possessiveness.

Xiao Jingshi held his wine glass, remaining silent.

He knew this was his last chance.