Chapter 1405: I'm in Such a Bind!

There were no cultivators here to support Huyan Wei. His only option was to strike first; once the enemy cultivators charged in, his side would have no way to stop them. At least this way, they might gain some small advantage.

Bowstrings snapped in a rapid volley, and arrows rained down.

The rebel troops swiftly raised shields. A group of soldiers also hoisted great wooden mantlets in front of Gu Yuanda.

Gu Yuanda's face was taut. "Attack."

"Loose!" came the order from the rebel side, and their archers returned fire in full.

Casualties mounted on both sides, but the rebels' archers were on a scale the few thousand Imperial Guards still remaining could not hope to match. The result was inevitable.

Billowing black smoke was already rising above the great hall, climbing into the clouds.

Inside, flames raged along all four walls and across the roof. Seated as though in the mouth of a furnace, Hao Yuntu said, "Qingqing, I haven't seen you dance since you married. Dance. Raise the soldiers' spirits!"

"Yes!" Hao Qingqing descended the steps with measured grace and walked to the center of the hall, where sparks drifted past from time to time. Suddenly she opened her posture as though casting out long sleeves, and a graceful dance began, supple and strong in equal measure.

Not long after giving birth, her figure was a little fuller than before. She danced alone.

But who was there to watch? Every soldier outside was fighting for his life. No one had the leisure to look back into the hall.

Instead, the dance made the firelight seem all the fiercer, and the flames illuminated Hao Qingqing until every movement was bright and beautiful.

The Imperial Guards had only so many arrows. Their quivers were soon empty, and they could do nothing but crouch passively behind the railings.

Seeing that no more arrows were coming, a rebel general swept his sword forward. "Charge!"

A group of cultivators flew out first. Behind them, the army surged forward with killing cries, flooding toward the hall like a tide.

The Imperial Guards hiding behind the railings rose to intercept them, only to be cut down by the cultivators as easily as chopping melons and vegetables.

Sword in hand, Huyan Wei watched with eyes nearly splitting from rage. They could not stop them. There was simply no way. He could only watch his men throw away their lives, and no outsider could understand what that felt like.

Hearing the screams outside the hall and seeing Huyan Wei push aside a shield and rise at the doorway, Hao Qingqing's tears poured down. Her dance spun faster and faster.

A cultivator flashed toward Huyan Wei. Baring his teeth, Huyan Wei gripped his sword in both hands.

He was just about to stake his life on the clash when, unnoticed by him, the cultivators beside Gu Yuanda suddenly all looked up.

Someone was arriving through the sky on a flying mount and had already begun fighting the cultivators patrolling overhead. Then a figure dropped from above.

Crash! The eaves burst apart. A figure slashed out with a blazing sweep of saber-light. Blood sprayed as the cultivator charging Huyan Wei was cleaved apart in a single stroke.

The newcomer landed heavily. Stone slabs shattered beneath his feet with a thunderous crack.

Huyan Wei raised an arm against the falling debris and discovered that a tall figure with very short hair now stood in front of him.

The man looked back. "You all right?"

Huyan Wei froze, then broke into delight. "What are you doing here?"

The newcomer was none other than Yuan Gang. He had originally intended to come with the Qin reinforcements and help relieve the siege, only for the reinforcements to receive an urgent report from scouts: the capital had already fallen.

Yuan Gang had grown anxious. He knew perfectly well that one man could accomplish little in the capital, yet he still forced himself to mount a flying beast and rush there alone.

The reinforcements tried to persuade him not to go, but no one could stop him.

The moment he reached the air above the capital and saw black smoke billowing from the palace city, he headed straight for it.

All he had seen was that this place was undergoing the final assault, so he had dived down to investigate. He had not expected to run straight into Huyan Wei, much less save his life at the final moment. With Huyan Wei's meager martial ability, facing that cultivator would otherwise have meant certain death.

"Came to save you," Yuan Gang replied tersely. Seeing another cultivator rush in, his saber moved in rapid succession, smashing apart the fierce sword-qi slashing toward him. Once the man closed the distance, Yuan Gang's saber came down like a waterfall in a sudden, savage stroke.

"Ah!" A scream echoed. The newcomer was split open by another single slash.

"Who is that man?" Chang Linxian, Sect Leader of Lingxu Mansion, cried in astonishment. The disciple killed before could be explained away, but the man who had just charged in was a high-level Golden Core disciple of Lingxu Mansion. To be cut down in a single stroke was almost inconceivable.

What shocked Chang Linxian even more was that his Dharma Eye had detected no sign whatsoever of Yuan Gang using spiritual power.

That one slash was intimidating enough that the cultivators who had been about to rush forward were frightened into stopping. None dared approach rashly.

Huyan Wei was excited too. Yuan Gang had said he had come to save him, and seeing Yuan Gang cut down cultivators as casually as chopping vegetables only made him more thrilled. "Brother, I knew I hadn't misjudged you. Right, I heard you've become the Holy Son of the Demonic Sect. How many cultivators did you bring?"

Keeping himself between Huyan Wei and the enemy, Yuan Gang watched his surroundings. "None. The Demonic Sect isn't getting involved in this. It's just me."

"What?" Huyan Wei stared at him, speechless. He had been counting on Yuan Gang bringing people to help them break out. One man against an army? What the hell was the use of that?

Yuan Gang kept his eyes on the surrounding enemy. "We can't stay here. Keep close to me. I'll get you out."

"My wife and my emperor father-in-law are still inside. Can you get all three of us out?" Huyan Wei asked eagerly, looking at him with hope.

Yuan Gang glanced back sharply. Only then did he realize there were still people inside the blazing hall. Of course he recognized Hao Qingqing. Amid the swirling sparks, her dance looked especially tragic and beautiful.

Only today did he learn that this woman could dance at all, much less dance so beautifully.

He could see the tears in Hao Qingqing's eyes. A scene flashed through his mind: that proud woman lifting her head and telling him, Yuan Gang, I like you!

Hao Qingqing had recognized him too, and almost the same scene flashed through her own mind. A faint, misty smile entered her tear-filled eyes.

She had never imagined she would see this man again at a time like this, much less that someone would still be willing to step forward when things were so dangerous.

Back then, she really had seemed to like this man. On sleepless nights, tossing and turning, she would secretly think of him and find herself unable to rest.

Thinking now of that shy, youthful confession, then looking at the man he had become, she could only say that the courage she had summoned back then had not been misplaced. She had not misjudged him.

At that instant, all the dark emotions that had plagued her since giving birth seemed to loosen their grip. Through tears like pear blossoms in rain, she suddenly smiled with dazzling brightness. Life, she realized, was not wholly gray after all. There was still radiance and beauty in it, and her dance amid the drifting sparks became more romantic than ever.

To some, what Yuan Gang was doing was foolish. But to everyone who had ever received his help, it was proof that human nature could still hold something bright and beautiful.

Hao Yuntu, seated on the imperial throne, also saw Yuan Gang. He did not know him and had no idea who this man who had suddenly appeared might be, but he could tell Yuan Gang had come to help and that he knew Huyan Wei.

Yuan Gang swept his gaze over the two people inside the hall and understood how grave the situation was. There was no possibility of one man getting three people through an army of thousands, especially with so many cultivators among the rebels. Forget three. Even with only one person to protect, he might not be able to cover every attack coming from every direction.

To put it harshly, he himself might not even be able to break out. He had known the danger and charged in anyway, driven only by hot-blooded courage and the need to face his own conscience without shame.

But what else could he do? Forget the Emperor of Qi for the moment. He could hardly tell Huyan Wei to abandon his wife.

"Kill!" A group of rebels surged forward with savage cries, blades and spears attacking together.

Yuan Gang snapped his head around and swept an arm back, knocking Huyan Wei stumbling into the wall. Saber-light flashed again and again in his hand.

Screams erupted. Blades and spears thrust at Yuan Gang from every direction, yet none could pierce his body. He turned through the press and swept his long saber around in a single cut. Blood sprayed, and rebels collapsed all around him. He truly was cutting them down like melons and vegetables.

Almost all the Imperial Guards had already been wiped out. Rebels continued surging forward like a tide, while Yuan Gang stood before the hall and hacked wildly with his saber. Anyone who came close died.

Huyan Wei swung his sword beside him, slashing and stabbing with abandon. He managed to put down several men himself. At least he had some skill.

At last, the rebels were slaughtered until they no longer dared advance. Yuan Gang, already drenched in blood, swept out his saber-light once more, frightening the rebels who had climbed the steps into scrambling backward.

Below the steps, a group of archers rushed forward. At the command to "Loose!" arrows poured over them like a rainstorm.

Yuan Gang's saber flashed repeatedly. He protected only vulnerable points such as his eyes; the arrows striking the rest of his body simply fell away. Then he suddenly sensed something was wrong and whipped his head around. Huyan Wei was choking blood from his mouth and nose. Bristling with arrows like a porcupine, he collapsed.

Yuan Gang had done his utmost to stand in front of him, but in the chaos he had failed to account for the archers firing from both flanks.

That was common in a melee. Attacks came through every gap, from every direction, and were nearly impossible to guard against.

Remaining here under such circumstances was already courting death. Yet with three people to save, Yuan Gang could not think of a good way to get them all out.

He turned and lunged over Huyan Wei, putting his own back toward the incoming arrows to shield the fallen man. One look at Huyan Wei's wounds told him there was no saving him.

Inside the hall, Hao Qingqing was still dancing. Seeing her husband fall, she dissolved into tears.

Blood bubbling from his mouth, Huyan Wei gave a miserable grin and gasped rapidly. "It hurts! Hurts... hurts like hell! Brother, I never wanted an ending like this. I never wanted to amount to much either, but my father was always using the family rules to beat me into shape, forcing me to get ahead. A general can hardly avoid dying before the battle line. I've known that since I was little, but there was no escaping it. Never in my dreams did I think I'd become Commander of the Imperial Guard of Qi one day. What kind of damned mess is this?"

He reached up and gripped Yuan Gang's clothes with all his strength. Tears actually ran down his face. "I fucking never wanted to be a hero. I'm scared too! I had chances to run. But my eldest brother and second brother were heroes. If I ran, I was afraid I'd disgrace the name they bought with their lives. Who doesn't want to live? I wanted to run, but I didn't dare. I'm in such a bind!"

From inside the hall, Hao Qingqing suddenly cried out through her tears, "Blockhead! In my next life, I'll still marry you!"

"Don't! Marrying you brought me eight lifetimes of bad luck. Next life, however far away you are, that's how far I'll hide..." Huyan Wei's voice weakened. His grip on Yuan Gang's clothes began to loosen, then suddenly tightened again. He shook him with what little strength remained, neck straining as blood choked from his throat. "The Emperor chose to die himself. I gave my life to stay with him. My Huyan family has done right by him. You can forget about him. Save... the child's mother... take my wife away..."

His head tilted to one side, and he fell silent.

Even under such a dense rain of arrows, the man was still standing. The cultivators outside were all shocked. What kind of person was this?

Yuan Gang's eyes reddened. He abruptly raised his head and looked at Hao Qingqing, still dancing in tears amid the flying sparks. Then he surged to his feet and charged into the hall.

At that very moment, a massive burning crossbeam came crashing down. He split it apart with one stroke, but he was still too late.

Under the relentless arrow-fire, the roof seemed finally unable to bear its own weight. In that instant, everything gave way at once. The entire roof collapsed with a roar, burying both the woman who danced with a tearful, tragic smile and the man seated upon the imperial throne.

The whole palace hall came down. The arrows stopped as well.

The rebels stared at the blazing ruins. Once the dust and smoke settled a little, firelight gleamed from a saber. A lone figure stood motionless before the roaring sea of flames.

[End of Chapter 1405]