The city walls were deathly quiet after the deafening roar, save for the deranged Huo Qixiao. Everyone else huddled behind the ramparts, fearing another unseen projectile might fly from any direction.
Huo Qixiao’s heart pounded with a desperate fury, his face contorted into a mask of madness. "Hahahaha! Huo Qiyuan must be blown to smithereens! Such power, he's surely dead…"
He shoved Wang Bingchang aside, no longer caring about the giant eagle observing him from the sky or the deadly projectiles.
Huo Qixiao rushed to the forefront of the city wall. The moment he saw the figure slowly emerging into his line of sight, his eyes widened several times over. In a state of frenzied disbelief, he stared at the man on horseback below, muttering incessantly, "How is this possible? This is impossible! Wasn't he supposed to be blown to shreds? Why is it like this?"
The Divine Fire Cannon was such a fearsome weapon. Its explosion had a considerable radius of impact. Even if it couldn't blast Huo Qiyuan into a pulp, it should have at least torn him limb from limb! Why was he appearing completely unharmed now?
Huo Qixiao gritted his teeth in rage, a coppery taste filling his throat. His eyes, burning red, fixed on the approaching figure. He imagined Huo Qiyuan must be mocking him.
Though he couldn't see his face, Huo Qixiao, as if possessed, was certain Huo Qiyuan was internally ridiculing and despising him. Unwilling to accept defeat, he loaded another bomb and personally ignited the fuse.
"Boom!"
"!"
After two identical, colossal explosions, Huo Qixiao, his eyes bloodshot, stared intently at the billowing dust clouds. For some unknown reason, an overwhelming sense of panic began to grip him.
Everything had exceeded his expectations. Had Huo Qiyuan truly grown to such a terrifying extent in just a few years?
Huo Qixiao had always harbored deep resentment, feeling that Huo Qiyuan was not significantly stronger than himself. He believed Huo Qiyuan's success was merely due to a more capable father, and his own perceived inferiority was solely a matter of birth.
If those resources had been channeled into him, Huo Qixiao, he was convinced, could have achieved extraordinary accomplishments, perhaps even surpassing Huo Qiyuan!
Therefore, after his rebirth, Huo Qixiao had devoted all his efforts to enriching himself. He yearned to prove to everyone that he, Huo Qixiao, was the true pride of the Huo family.
Yet, Huo Qixiao had never considered that, before Huo Qiyuan was even born, all the Huo family's resources were directed towards him. At that time, as the sole male heir of the Huo family, he enjoyed every advantage.
Even after Huo Qiyuan's arrival, leading to a slight decrease in the family's attentiveness towards him, he still received all the education he was meant to. The result was that, upon growing up, he remained an unlearned, unmotivated, and dissolute wastrel.
Huo Qixiao was now utterly mad. Disregarding Wang Bingchang's pleas, he unleashed three more cannons at the figures below. Yet, each time, as the smoke cleared, Huo Qiyuan would calmly reappear, mounted on his pristine white horse, completely unscathed.
In stark contrast, Huo Qixiao was covered in filth, disheveled, his face smeared with a dark, unidentifiable substance – a mix of sweat, dirt, and blood. His hands were scorched by the immense heat of the cannon barrels from their continuous firing. His current state could not even be described as mere dishevelment.
"Qixiao, don't do this!" Wang Bingchang desperately held onto Huo Qixiao, his eyes filled with a profound distress. His eyes, reddened, fixated on Huo Qixiao's blistered hands, and his breathing grew tight with anguish.
Huo Qixiao tried to break free from Wang Bingchang's grip, but the fury that had consumed him moments before had drained most of his strength. He leaned weakly against Wang Bingchang, murmuring, "Why won't you let me go? I finally reached this point, I finally won against you once, why must I live in your shadow forever…"
Huo Qixiao's gaze shifted from intense hatred to bitter unwillingness, finally dissolving into a profound sense of helplessness and emptiness. He truly couldn't comprehend it. They were both sons of the Huo family, so why? Why could he never escape the pressure Huo Qiyuan exerted upon him? Why, in both past and present lives, no matter how hard he tried, could he never win?
Huo Qiyuan blew his whistle, and shortly after, the eagle returned to the ground, carrying Leng Si and Leng Ao. After the baptism of arrows and the bombardment of cannons, the surrounding barren land had become even more desolate.
Huo Qixiao's men remained hidden, launching ambushes with arrows, but neither side had engaged in direct combat yet. However, his psychological state and willpower had been so thoroughly battered that he was on the verge of collapse.
Unable to bear watching him suffer, Wang Bingchang gently lowered Huo Qixiao against the city wall. He then adjusted the position of the fire cannon, intending to bombard Huo Qiyuan's soldiers.
But in a very short span of time, Huo Qiyuan had already ordered his subordinates to retreat and disperse. Now, igniting the Divine Fire Cannon would only create more large craters on the open ground and serve no other purpose.
Wang Bingchang tossed aside the torch in his hand, drew the short sword from his waist, and leaped onto the city wall. He turned and cast a deep, lingering glance at Huo Qixiao, his lips parting slightly, yet no words came out. He didn't know what to say.
Since he couldn't find the words, it was best to say nothing at all. He would simply remember this person in his mind and in his heart. Turning, he leaped from the city wall, sword in hand, and stood on a stone pillar by the desolate city gate, gazing motionlessly at the black figure in the distance.
"Wang Wentu, what are you doing? Come back quickly! Come back~" Huo Qixiao, whose eyes had been vacant and heart filled with despair, suddenly regained his senses upon seeing Wang Bingchang leap off the battlements.
He called out Wang Bingchang's name loudly, his tone laced with a panic and fear that he himself did not perceive, his voice even trembling slightly. A voice in his mind kept repeating that Wang Bingchang could not die…
From some point in time, Wang Bingchang had transformed from Huo Qixiao's initial nightmare, from someone he fled, guarded against, and tried to curry favor with, into the only person in this life who supported him unconditionally, without reason, and the one person he could not do without.
This man, across both lifetimes, had accompanied him for nearly twenty years.
During their first encounter in his previous life, although Wang Bingchang had confined, coerced, and tormented him, their subsequent collaboration had been excellent. In this life, their bond had become even closer, with no secrets held between them.
It was at this moment that Huo Qixiao suddenly realized that Wang Bingchang was truly the best person in this world to him.
When Huo Qixiao first recognized this, he had consistently avoided acknowledging it, choosing to ignore Wang Bingchang's passionate and earnest gaze.
This was because Wang Bingchang was a man, and he, Huo Qixiao, was also a man. While men could share mutual admiration, their feelings could absolutely not cross a certain line.