An Guo had its edges worn away by years of peace and prosperity, especially its royal family, who were fearful of war. They were unwilling to make even the slightest resistance.
Xu Yi was thoroughly disappointed with the royal family.
As a citizen of An Guo, she could not stand idly by and watch the iron hooves of Bei Guo trample onto An Guo's soil.
Therefore, she chose to end her nomadic life and rode towards the borders of An Guo.
However, even though she set out immediately after receiving the news, she was still a step too late.
The first line of defense, Weicheng, had fallen.
When Xu Yi arrived, Weicheng was a river of blood, littered with corpses. The Bei Guo army had already retreated with vast amounts of gold and silver treasures.
Among the bodies lying on the ground were infants still babbling, aged elders, and young couples pierced by spears, clinging to each other.
Most of them had their eyes open, with tear streaks still visible, their faces filled with terror and pleading.
Xu Yi walked from one end of the city wall to the other, gathered all the bodies she could find in the city to the county office, closed their eyes, and then tossed a burning torch into the county office.
The fire burned for a day and a night.
Xu Yi also stood outside the county office for a day and a night.
The leaping flames stained her pupils red, and a pungent smell permeated her nostrils.
Xu Yi made a new decision: she would protect the people of An Guo from the ravages of war.
Xu Yi had learned more than just martial arts. The art of kingship that Xu Zhi had studied, she had also delved into.
Weicheng had already been breached. She spent a month reclaiming the other five cities that An Guo had prepared to cede, and then, under the guise of the Eldest Princess of An Guo, she led the soldiers from the five cities and the strong youths to resist the Bei Guo army.
Every time, she led the charge, being the first to rush into the Bei Guo army. When she withdrew her troops back to the city, her armor was already soaked in blood, and blood dripped with every step she took.
During this period, the An Guo royal family seemed to be dead, making no move whatsoever.
The war lasted for nearly two months, and Xu Yi, single-handedly, became the true Goddess of War of An Guo.
Seeing that Xu Yi was brave and skilled in battle, a formidable enemy, Bei Guo investigated her identity and devised a malicious plan.
They sent an envoy to the An Guo royal family with terms of peace, willing to withdraw their troops on the condition that Xu Yi marry into the Bei Guo royal family as a princess of intermarriage.
Upon hearing this condition, the people of An Guo were furious, denouncing Bei Guo's wolfish ambition and ill intentions.
However, the An Guo royal family was tempted.
Xu Yi's existence had severely shaken the royal family's prestige.
Moreover, Xu Yi was unruly and undisciplined. She had also committed the act of fratricide before, making her a great threat to the royal family.
Trading her for An Guo's peace would be an extremely profitable transaction for the royal family.
Therefore, the royal family began spreading rumors among the populace, inciting public opinion.
The common people were mostly ignorant.
During the war between the two countries, Xu Yi bravely fought the enemy, appearing cold-blooded and ruthless, giving them a great sense of security.
But now, the once formidable Xu Yi, who had killed countless people, was now called a Rakshasa.
They thought that if they could exchange Xu Yi for An Guo's peace, the war could end sooner.
Since Xu Yi cared about the people, she should make a sacrifice.
Public opinion was like a mountain.
Xu Yi, who had been adored the day before, suddenly became a sinner who had destroyed An Guo's harmony.
Xu Yi could clearly feel the soldiers and the common people looking at her with increasingly strange expressions, filled with blame and fear.
She paid no mind to it, for she had never considered herself a savior. She only wanted to do what she wished to do.
So, when she saw the entire city kneeling on the ground, loudly begging her to go to Bei Guo for intermarriage, Xu Yi smiled and shook her head.
She said, "As you wish."
On that day, Xu Yi, wearing a crimson battle robe, boarded the convoy heading to Bei Guo.
The people of An Guo watched Xu Yi depart, but their hearts were not as relieved as they had imagined. Instead, they felt a sense of impending doom.
This sense of fear reached its peak when Xu Yi killed the Bei Guo monarch, disappeared without a trace, and the successor monarch of Bei Guo, in a fit of rage, prepared to lead his troops to attack An Guo again.
An Guo's Goddess of War had been personally sent to the enemy country by them.
An Guo was now without a protector.
In less than a month, An Guo's cities fell one after another. The An Guo royal family abandoned their cities and fled, only to be beaten to death by an enraged populace on the road for their grievances.
Two months later, there was no longer a country named An Guo on this land.
...
"Grandmother, can you teach me how to make medicine?"
Xiao Hua, a small girl, propped herself against the outside of a tiny shopfront. Her eyes were round and darting as she cautiously asked.
She had heard people say that the new grandmother who had moved in could earn several taels of silver each month by processing medicinal herbs.
If she could learn such a skill, she wouldn't have to worry about her father marrying her off to the village simpleton.
Xu Yi looked at the emaciated child and put down the herbs in her hands. "Learning to make medicine with me is very difficult."
"I'm not afraid of hardship."
Xiao Hua, as if afraid Xu Yi wouldn't believe her, began to count on her fingers. "I already know how to wash clothes for my mother, feed chickens and pigs, and sweep the yard... I know so many things, and I'm not afraid of hardship."
Xu Yi glanced at Xiao Hua's hands. The small palms were covered in red, swollen chilblains, some of which had already broken and were oozing pus.
"You may. From today onwards, you will learn to make medicine with me. Regardless of wind or rain, you must come here. Can you do that?"
"I can!"
Xiao Hua nodded excitedly and stepped into the small doorway that would change the course of her life.
Xiao Hua's parents were overjoyed when they learned that their daughter had been accepted as a disciple by the new old woman in the village.
That night, after discussing it, they felt that processing medicinal herbs was an excellent skill. Xiao Hua was a girl who would eventually get married, and this skill would fall into someone else's hands. It would be better to have their younger son learn it, so that this skill could be passed down from generation to generation.
So, the next day, they brought Xiao Hua and her younger son, Xiao Hu, to the small wooden house at the end of the village and shamelessly made their request.
To their surprise, the old woman named Grandma Xu was very easy to talk to and readily accepted both Xiao Hua and Xiao Hu.
On their way home, Xiao Hua's parents, their weather-beaten faces for the first time showing relaxed smiles.
They couldn't help but imagine Xiao Hu learning the craft, earning a lot of money, marrying a wife, building a new house, and giving them a large brood of grandchildren, living a wonderfully blissful life.
However, they did not expect that the skill of processing medicinal herbs was extremely difficult and arduous.
Xiao Hu, who had been pampered by them since childhood, could not bear the daily routine of waking up early to collect herbs, then drying them under the scorching sun, sorting them, and stir-frying them, along with many other complicated processes.
In less than a month, Xiao Hu came crying and begging to stop going to Grandma Xu's.
No matter how many ways Xiao Hua's parents tried, they couldn't make Xiao Hu change his mind, and in the end, only Xiao Hua remained.
Xiao Hua, just as she had said, was not afraid of hardship. No matter how tiring or dirty the work was, she never complained.
Furthermore, she was nimble-fingered and talented. In just eight years, she had learned the methods of processing medicinal herbs to a great extent.
And because she often drank the medicinal meals brewed by Grandma Xu, the sickly, sallow-faced Xiao Hua with dry hair of the past was gone forever.
Although Xiao Hua's skin was now slightly tanned, her long hair was black and lustrous, her eyes were bright and captivating, and her lips were red and teeth were white. She was a beautiful girl renowned throughout the ten surrounding villages. Coupled with Xiao Hua's unique skills, the matchmakers who came to propose nearly wore down the threshold of Xiao Hua's home.