Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 89
Seeing everyone lower their weapons, Huo Fenghua finally felt a little more at ease, and he had the spare mind to worry about other things. He asked Su Zeyang, “Where’s Master?”
Su Zeyang said, “We got separated.”
Feng Tianzong added, “Senior went after Bai Huan and split off from us.”
Huo Fenghua said, “I ran into Bai Huan.”
“You ran into Bai Huan?” Feng Tianzong looked surprised.
Huo Fenghua nodded. “And I found out some things too, but it’s a long story. Do you all want to sit for a bit? I’ve been walking forever, and I really just want to squat somewhere for a minute.”
At that, Feng Tianzong opened his arms to him.
Huo Fenghua hurried over, hugged Feng Tianzong around the waist, and leaned into him as Feng Tianzong wrapped an arm around him.
Shao Feijie frowned hard at the sight and couldn’t help saying, “Second Prince, mind your status.”
Huo Fenghua shot him a look. “What status? Aren’t I General Feng’s male concubine? What’s improper about that?”
Shao Feijie had no way to refute it and could only snort.
Feng Tianzong patted Huo Fenghua’s hair and looked at Shao Feijie. “General Shao isn’t having an easy time these days either, is he?”
Only when he spoke did Huo Fenghua suddenly realize the two of them were in somewhat similar circumstances. Both betrayed, both on the run. He said, “That’s true. You two are basically in the same boat. You should sympathize with each other, not go around trying to kill each other.”
Shao Feijie took a deep breath. “Wang Chu had someone deliver me a letter. He wanted us to collude from inside and outside and get rid of you first.” As he said this, Shao Feijie was looking at Feng Tianzong. He didn’t hide the contents at all. “The letter said it was Second Prince who was pulling the strings, and that I was supposed to write a reply in my own hand to Second Prince. I turned the messenger away.”
“Huh?” Huo Fenghua was a little surprised. “Why turn him away? Don’t you want to get rid of Feng Tianzong?”
Shao Feijie tightened his grip on the bow. “I don’t want Feng Tianzong dead out of personal hatred. I want to drive Donglin’s army off Xichou soil. Wang Chu is wolf-hearted and ambitious. I won’t plot with a tiger. And Second Prince is the late emperor’s only bloodline. He wanted that reply from me for one reason, to harm Second Prince.”
Huo Fenghua fell silent. The idea for that letter had come from him in the first place, suggested to Wang Chu’s nephew, Pan Yuanjun. His purpose had never been to frame himself, only to take the Wang family down. He hadn’t expected Shao Feijie to keep worrying about his safety and refuse to write it. Feeling ashamed, Huo Fenghua buried half his face against Feng Tianzong’s shoulder and didn’t dare speak.
“After I talked it over with Heyi,” Shao Feijie said, looking toward Wen Heyi, “I rejected Wang Chu’s man. I didn’t expect him to secretly collude with my deputy, Zheng Luan, and set an ambush for us. We fled north to evade pursuit. On the way, Heyi was injured saving me. After I escaped alone, I got separated from him. I searched for him for a long time and couldn’t find him.”
Wen Heyi didn’t say a word.
Huo Fenghua glanced at him and saw his calm gaze as he leaned against the rock wall. He thought Wen Heyi must’ve hit his head by accident and gotten confused, which was why Third Master Luo’s men had picked him up and delivered him to the bald scholar to test medicines on.
“Didn’t expect Martial Uncle to be someone with loyalty and feeling,” Huo Fenghua said.
Wen Heyi gave him a cold look.
Huo Fenghua added, “Too bad it isn’t toward me.”
Feng Tianzong lightly tapped Huo Fenghua on the head and asked Shao Feijie, “So what did General Shao come to Luofeng Ridge to find?”
Before Shao Feijie could answer, Huo Fenghua blurted out, “The Flying Phoenix Scroll.”
Shao Feijie froze, his expression turning grave. He looked at Huo Fenghua. “How do you know about the Flying Phoenix Scroll?”
Huo Fenghua sighed. “That circles back to what I said earlier, about Luofeng Ridge and Bai Huan. I don’t know if you’ve got the patience to hear the whole thing.”
Feng Tianzong said, “Talk, and keep it brief.”
Huo Fenghua thought for a moment, then gave them the short version of everything Bai Huan had told him about Luofeng Ridge and the Flying Phoenix Scroll. Clearly, none of them knew the background. Even Shao Feijie, who had come looking for the Flying Phoenix Scroll, only knew it was a military treatise. He didn’t know where it truly came from.
When Huo Fenghua finished, Su Zeyang looked at Feng Tianzong and asked, “Did you know?”
Feng Tianzong slowly shook his head. His face was calm, but his eyes weren’t without ripples. He lifted his gaze to the low ceiling of the passage, as if he could see through it into the entire body of Luofeng Ridge. Then he said, “I have no memories of my parents. I only know that when I was little, I wandered with my eldest brother all the way to Yujing City, and Grand Tutor He took us in. Becoming a great general and destroying Xichou is something my brother used to repeat in my ear. I heard it so often I came to believe it was my own goal, the thing I had to accomplish in this life. Thinking about it now, it may have been what our parents taught him before they died.”
“Extermination,” Shao Feijie said heavily, spitting out the word. In that instant, the national hatred between him and Feng Tianzong seemed to take on another layer of color. “If it were me, I’d probably do the same for clan revenge.”
Feng Tianzong looked at him and shook his head. “There’s no hatred in my heart. Xichou is already gone. I don’t plan to carry that hatred and live with it.”
Shao Feijie didn’t speak, only held Feng Tianzong’s gaze.
Huo Fenghua said quietly, “Huo Tinggao wiped out the Feng clan back then. Now Xichou has been destroyed by General Feng. Whether or not it’s karmic retribution, doesn’t that count as an ending?”
Shao Feijie’s tone flared. “An ending? What ending? You think the hatred of a fallen kingdom should just be put down, and we should accept being captured by Donglin forever?”
Feng Tianzong said, “For me, it’s ended. For Fenghua, it’s ended too. If General Shao wants revenge and wants to drive Donglin’s troops out, that’s General Shao’s matter. It has nothing to do with us.”
“You…” Shao Feijie wanted to say Feng Tianzong couldn’t possibly wash his hands of it, but when he thought of all those Feng clan lives buried in Luofeng Ridge, he also felt that hatred repaid by hatred might never end. He could only shake his head and look at Huo Fenghua. “Second Prince, you have to come back with me. You’re the rightful Xichou royal line.”
Huo Fenghua gripped Feng Tianzong’s arm. “Huo Fenghua is already dead. If General Shao wants to restore the Xichou royal house, go find another branch of royal blood. As long as they’re named Huo, what’s the difference? If General Shao can’t accept it and wants to drive Donglin’s troops out and become emperor himself, I don’t object either, because Huo Fenghua doesn’t exist in this world anymore.”
Shao Feijie still wanted to argue, but Wen Heyi spoke. “Don’t bother persuading him. You can’t.” He’d never been persuadable in the past. And now, trying to forcibly seize Huo Fenghua and bind him for life was even more impossible.
Huo Fenghua said carefully, “General Shao, I have one last favor to ask. Can you hand over the letter Wang Chu sent you?”
Shao Feijie didn’t answer right away. “You want to use that letter to clear Feng Tianzong’s name?”
Feng Tianzong didn’t hide it. He nodded. “General Shao can rest assured. I only want that letter to wash away the false charge of treason, so I won’t be hunted anymore. I won’t return to Donglin, and I won’t take up command again. The war and grudges between Donglin and Xichou have nothing more to do with me, Feng Tianzong.”
Shao Feijie said, “Besides the letter Wang Chu sent me, I also have a letter he wrote to Zheng Luan. Heyi stole it from Zheng Luan.” At that point, Shao Feijie fell silent for a long time. He glanced at Wen Heyi, as if weighing something in his heart. In the end, he still said, “I can give you both letters, but I have two conditions.”
Feng Tianzong said at once, “General Shao, please state them.”
Shao Feijie said, “First, you swear that in this life you will never return to the Xichou battlefield, and never again lead troops to attack Xichou.”
“Agreed,” Feng Tianzong said immediately. “I, Feng Tianzong, swear to Heaven here that from this day on I will never return to the Xichou battlefield, and will never again lead troops to attack Xichou.”
Shao Feijie said, “Second, you’ll help me obtain the Flying Phoenix Scroll.”
This time Feng Tianzong looked at Huo Fenghua. Huo Fenghua nodded to him, and Feng Tianzong said to Shao Feijie, “Fine. We’ll help you retrieve the Flying Phoenix Scroll. When we do, you’ll hand both secret letters to us.”
With that, Feng Tianzong reached out a hand toward Shao Feijie. Shao Feijie stared at his palm, then slowly stepped forward and slapped his palm against it.
Huo Fenghua led them through the stone door onto the platform where Bai Huan had fallen earlier. He walked to the edge and squatted down. Su Zeyang instinctively raised his sword in front of him as a guard.
Huo Fenghua grabbed Su Zeyang’s scabbard and looked up with a smile. “It’s fine. I won’t fall. Don’t worry, Senior Brother.” Then he pointed downward. “Bai Huan said the Flying Phoenix Scroll is in one of the coffins down there.”
Wen Heyi let out a snort. “You can’t even tell whether he was telling the truth, and you’re going to jump down and pry open coffins like that?”
Huo Fenghua looked up at him. “I really don’t know. But we have to try. Didn’t General Shao’s intel also say the Flying Phoenix Scroll is in Luofeng Ridge? Martial Uncle, where do you think would be more likely to hide it?”
Before Wen Heyi could answer, Shao Feijie said, “If I had to guess, it’s very likely down there.”
“I’ll go down,” Feng Tianzong suddenly said. Ever since they’d come in, he’d been staring blankly at the sea of coffins at the cavern floor. Only after listening to them argue did he speak. “If it isn’t down there, we’ll keep looking. We’ll definitely put the Flying Phoenix Scroll into General Shao’s hands.”
Shao Feijie lowered his head and answered heavily, “Good!”
Su Zeyang reached out and grabbed Feng Tianzong’s wrist. “Don’t go. Let me.”
Feng Tianzong held his hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it lightly. “Don’t worry about me.”
Su Zeyang said, “The people in those coffins aren’t the same to you. It’s more appropriate for me to go.”
Feng Tianzong shook his head. “You and Fenghua stay up here and wait for me. Whether the coffin holds the Flying Phoenix Scroll or not, I’ll be back up soon.”
Huo Fenghua jumped to his feet and threw his arms wide. “I’ll go!”
Feng Tianzong yanked him back from the platform’s edge. “You stay up here and hold the rope for me. If something happens, pull me up immediately.”
Huo Fenghua and Su Zeyang still wanted to argue, but Feng Tianzong’s tone turned stern. “This is my responsibility.”
Su Zeyang looked at Feng Tianzong. Huo Fenghua was silent for a moment, then said, “Fine, fine. Hand me the rope. I’ll tie it on the General myself.”
He and Su Zeyang worked together, front and back, fastening the rope around Feng Tianzong’s waist, checking it inch by inch to make sure it was secure. In the end, they tied the other end to a protruding rock beside the stone door.
The rope was long enough for Feng Tianzong to descend to the cavern floor and reach the largest coffin lid in the center.
Su Zeyang and Shao Feijie gripped the rope and slowly lowered Feng Tianzong down, while Huo Fenghua crouched at the platform edge and stared downward, frowning.
“What are you thinking?” Wen Heyi asked him.
By now Feng Tianzong had reached the bottom and was standing on a coffin lid. He remembered Huo Fenghua saying the blue solution was poisonous and that he could only step on the lids, leaping from the edge toward the central lid.
Huo Fenghua lifted his head and asked Shao Feijie, “General Shao, you’ve got a map of Luofeng Ridge. Besides those six doors up here, does this cavern have any other exit?”
Shao Feijie said, “Not on the map.”
Unease crept over Huo Fenghua. “This is a burial ground. There shouldn’t be another exit down below. Then where did Bai Huan escape from just now?”
For no reason, Huo Fenghua grew tense. He shouted down, “General, be careful! I suspect Bai Huan is still hiding down there!”
Feng Tianzong’s voice drifted back from far below. “Understood!”
He watched warily as Feng Tianzong jumped step by step onto the coffin lid at the very center. Feng Tianzong stared at the lid beneath his feet but didn’t open it right away.
Everyone’s eyes were on him. The blue glow muddied their vision, and everything below looked hazy, as if veiled in mist. No one noticed that from the gap beside one coffin lid, a pale hand reached out and grabbed the rope that hung down, tied at Feng Tianzong’s lower back.
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