The sky was dim, and the clouds in the night sky churned like an upside-down ocean.

Orange-red fireworks slowly ascended between heaven and earth.

In the dilapidated and chaotic backyard, a brief and strange standoff was taking place.

Jin Yongsheng, who had just arrived, surveyed the surroundings with a composed expression, his cautious and suspicious gaze sweeping over the figures in the dim light.

All four figures appeared strangely disheveled: a young man, a smaller young monk (whose origin was unknown), were flanking Li Yanfeng from the front and back. The once-imposing Monkey King was covered in mud, his face bruised and swollen – it was unclear what kind of battle he had just endured. Yan Yunzhi, the only one among the four whose clothes and makeup were relatively intact, stood in a strange posture, suggesting she had been injured in the previous fight.

The surrounding yard was a mess: sections of earthen walls had collapsed, and even a rockery had been smashed open – and recently, judging by the fresh marks.

It was hard to imagine what kind of fierce battle had taken place in this yard during the brief time after Li Yanfeng shook them off and caught up with Yan Yunzhi. For a moment, it was also difficult to discern which families the young man and little monk belonged to.

"This girl is yours."

"...Huh?"

Simple words. Li Yanfeng leaned against the half-collapsed rockery, exhaling a long breath. Jin Yongsheng heard these words, responding while casting a probing glance at Li Yanfeng. The Monkey King's expression was a wry smile. His right eye was swollen, and some mud fell from the puffy eyelid. He wiped away the mud, his hair disheveled, but his gaze calm.

The young man and the little monk, who had just been through a fight, were slowly moving in the dim light, adjusting their breathing during this moment of standoff.

Out of Jin Yongsheng's sight, the young man secretly waved at Yan Yunzhi.

Jin Yongsheng, holding his iron abacus, cautiously moved towards Yan Yunzhi. The young man moved laterally, blocking Jin Yongsheng's view of Yan Yunzhi. The little monk circled Li Yanfeng, swinging his arms, and approached Jin Yongsheng. If Jin Yongsheng continued forward, he and the young man would again form a pincer movement against him.

The four formed a slowly deforming quadrilateral. For this moment, however, none of them revealed any killing intent. Li Yanfeng stood still, Jin Yongsheng smiled, the young man slowly walked, stretching his arms open and making a few stretching movements, the little monk put his hands on his hips, slightly twisting his neck.

Another orange-red firework climbed into the night sky, its light permeating the scene.

The young man's hand waved backwards, his five fingers opening and closing in the interplay of light and shadow.

"...Run!"

Yan Yunzhi retreated backwards.

Jin Yongsheng's gaze turned to Li Yanfeng. At this moment, gloom and killing intent had flooded the Monkey King's expression. The muscles on his right arm bulged as he grabbed a piece of green rock used to repair the rockery next to him. In an instant, he used all his strength to hurl it at Yan Yunzhi.

The rockery was broken off, stone chips flying.

Almost at the same moment, the young man, who had been moving laterally, threw the flying knife in his hand. His toes kicked up a long staff that Li Yanfeng had dropped, and he reached out to grab it.

The staff was about to whistle, when Jin Yongsheng threw out his heavy iron abacus.

The thrown flying knife pierced Li Yanfeng's shoulder, causing him to miss the throw. The rock whizzed past the young man's side. At the same time, the iron abacus crashed into the wooden staff in the young man's hand with a "boom!" The staff broke apart, and the young man's figure was smashed backwards.

Yan Yunzhi had used all her strength to leap into the distance. In the moment she looked back, the young man's figure had been smashed backwards by Jin Yongsheng's iron abacus for what seemed like a dozen feet. This full-force blow of the iron abacus could almost smash through the outer wall of a house. The young man, named Long Aotian, taking the full brunt of it, made her scalp tingle. But at this moment, she could only use all her strength to run forward.

In the corner of her vision, the young man's body rolled backwards in the mud, then landed on his feet, actually managing to stand up halfway. In the darkness, Li Yanfeng, like a crazed tiger, pounced, his White Ape Long Arm swinging like a meteor hammer, seemingly about to smash everything in its path. But the young man did not hesitate, opening his arms to meet Li Yanfeng head-on.

With a loud bang, the two collided. Li Yanfeng came charging forward with momentum. His heavy fist, in its hasty collision, knocked the young man back and sent him tumbling again.

In the darkness, the Monkey King's stride was huge as he ferociously pursued. He had been ambushed by the young man and the little monk earlier, leaving him battered and disheveled. Now he was attacking in anger, his silhouette appearing wild in the night. However, the next moment, his leaping figure was suddenly pulled down, slammed from the air to the ground. The young man's figure soared up behind him.

"Your grandpa..."

Yan Yunzhi ran out of the courtyard. In her ears, she heard the voice of the young man named Long Aotian, sounding muffled in the night air, as if he had blood in his mouth. Although he was not as old as Li Yanfeng, at this moment he was displaying a madness and domineering spirit that looked down on everything.

"Your grandpa..."

"Let you..."

"...Get away with it—"

Accompanying this roar were the sounds of entanglement and fighting constantly coming from behind.

Yan Yunzhi ran as hard as she could.

Although they had conflicts at Tong Mountain, and even her reputation had been ruined by the other party's casual remark, at this moment she clearly understood how difficult it was to stand in front of Li Yanfeng and Jin Yongsheng in such a night.

Why on earth was he doing this? She could only ask later.

In the dim light, Li Yanfeng and Long Aotian wrestled together, collapsing the nearby wall. The young man's mouth was full of blood, but he grabbed him, repeatedly smashing headbutts into his face. The fierce color in his eyes had completely turned into a look of trying to trade lives.

Li Yanfeng had roamed the Jianghu for decades and considered himself to be fierce, but he had rarely encountered an opponent with such high martial skills who didn't treat himself like a human being when fighting. But on second thought, it made sense. The other party was just a fifteen or sixteen-year-old young man. What did he know about the preciousness of life? These kinds of kids were the craziest!

He had practiced martial arts and become famous for many years, and his martial arts attainments and internal strength were actually higher than the other party. However, during the time of this fight, he could not suppress the other party's madness. Anger boiled in his heart, and then he was dragged into the mud by the other party.

On the other side, Jin Yongsheng was not having an easy time when he suddenly encountered the little monk's attack.

After all, he had just arrived here, and he was somewhat careless when facing the small figure. However, as the little monk rushed over, the old man, accustomed to wide-open, expansive techniques, realized that the other party was tricky. The little figure waved a small knife with both hands, attacking only the area below the knees, causing him to dodge and weave in a frantic flurry, almost having to bend over to deal with the knife's edge.

There are various kinds of routines in Jianghu martial arts competitions, but when it comes to insidious routines, ground-lying saber and ground-lying fist are definitely among the top. This kind of fighting method that rolls around on the ground and hacks doesn't seem to be very good, but in fact, because the flexibility of the feet is far inferior to that of the hands, the most difficult to defend against is often this kind of low-level attack. Even in some armies, they will specially train the ground-lying saber technique. When the formation is disrupted on the battlefield, people lie on the ground and specialize in cutting people's legs and feet, and in most cases, they can achieve good results.

The little monk's saber technique was obviously an evolution of the ground-lying saber, but it was a set of saber techniques specially designed to match his height - Jin Yongsheng didn't know which immoral elder did this kind of thing. Generally, when people teach children to practice martial arts, they usually lay a good foundation when they are young, and then come out to kill people when they are older. What's the use of teaching him a set of fighting methods that match the child's height? Will it become useless when he grows up?

After all, he was also an old Jianghu veteran. Although he was used to wide-open and expansive techniques in the past, and his old body didn't have as good a waist, he was still not in any danger of bending over to deal with a vicious child. However, in the midst of this hasty response, he couldn't free up any effort to chase Yan Yunzhi for a while, so he had to curse the lack of morality of the little monk's elders in his heart while seriously dealing with the vicious child's attack.

And seeing Li Yanfeng and the young man punching each other in the ruins, it made his scalp tingle a little. Compared to the young man's fierce attacks, the child's vicious attacks gave people a slightly better feeling.

******

In the seemingly boiling melee, the blade cut through the body, seemingly taking away a part of life.

Life became incomplete.

Liang Si Yi, accompanied by You Hongzhu, faced the street conflict filled with hostility. Every moment felt like being drowned by this hostility…

…

Liang Si Yi remembered that there was a time when getting injured was as simple as eating.

Or rather, in that period of time, even eating was not a simple thing.

From the first southward invasion of the Jurchens more than a decade ago to the fall of the Central Plains, the area south of Yanmen Pass and north of Jin Province was always the first to bear the brunt of every war.

Liang Si Yi's home was in Taiyuan. During the first Jurchen invasion, this ancient city was stubbornly defended for nearly a year under the leadership of Qin Shaohe. After the first siege of Bianliang was lifted, the imperial court's reinforcements were delayed, and Taiyuan finally ran out of food and ammunition. After the city was breached, it experienced a retaliatory massacre.

At that time, Liang Si Yi was still young. She had even forgotten how she had survived from that quagmire of corpses.

Her parents died in the chaos of the massacre. Taiyuan was burned to the ground and never rebuilt.

From then on, the sky and earth in her eyes were gray and black.

She didn't know when a middle-aged man named Wang Juyun came to that desolate land, providing relief to beggars and teaching martial arts. She almost forgot when she started following him. Beggars and starving people with no way out gathered behind the man who carried a pair of swords and wore a tattered gray robe. Sometimes they could get a bite to eat, but often everyone had to go hungry. Some people died, and some people left.

There was a lot of suffering in the intermittent hunger and separation. In the years when war raged,

In the area south of Yanmen Pass, the infrastructure was almost completely destroyed. Those who could afford to go south had already left. Those who remained here were either old, weak, sick, or disabled, or bandits who preyed on humans. Even those who wanted to live a good life, planting a field, would sooner or later experience the destruction of bandits.

Father Wang Juyun always rescued people in that ruin.

He was capable of going south. After gathering a group of people, he could also take them to a better place to start over. But year after year, he never left that ruined land. Most of the time, they fought with the bandits in that land, and also with the ragtag armies under Liu Yu. They even ambushed Jurchen envoys. Sometimes, they were defeated in the battles, and their strongholds were burned by the surrounding gangs.

The man holding the double swords never fell.

After there were more and more people around him, his power expanded, but the required supplies also increased. From time to time, people would suggest that everyone move, and from time to time, people would leave. Every year, there were always a few times when Wang Juyun, whose hair quickly turned gray and quickly aged, would gather the children or young people around him, point to the direction of Taiyuan, and say to them: "You are the descendants of loyal martyrs! Your fathers once resisted the Jurchens in that ruin, unwavering to the death!"

Liang Si Yi didn't know if her parents had participated in the frontal resistance, but occasionally when she heard people talk about such things, she would feel that there was still a glimmer of light in this gray and black world.

Being adopted by Wang Juyun as adopted children did not actually mean having much privilege in the army. Over the course of more than ten years, hundreds or thousands of people had been adopted by Wang Juyun as adopted children. They didn't have enough to eat or wear, but they still had to practice martial arts every day, and those who practiced well could eat a little more.

For a while, these adopted children also had considerable animosity and opposition. They fought on the training ground. Sometimes the fights became heated, and even people would die.

But in those chaotic years, whenever they fought side by side, fighting against the bandits and rampant armies that ravaged that land, they could gradually accumulate some affection.

Liang Si Yi fought her way out in that kind of environment. She fought with her brothers and sisters on the training ground, sometimes beating others until their noses were bruised and their faces were swollen, and sometimes being beaten until her head was broken and bleeding. In those days, the medicine for treating injuries was very precious and there was not much food. Several times when she was injured, Liang Si Yi didn't even know how she survived to the end.

Father Wang Juyun occasionally appeared, always watching them fight each other coldly, and then coldly teaching them how to improve their killing techniques. He was such a cold and hard man. Later, because he used his "children" as the foundation to build the foundation of the "rebellious army", some scholars or people from the outside world always criticized his hypocrisy and cold-bloodedness.

Some children or young people also had such resentful thoughts. After they had some ability, they angrily left the "rebellious army". They went south to find a better way to survive. The rebellious army conducted some rectifications on these matters, but in fact they always failed to achieve much success.

As a result, the beggar army that existed in that ruin always seemed like an ordinary but strange existence in the scope of the whole world. The ordinary thing was that this army failed to tout much benevolence and righteousness, but there was originally not much benevolence and righteousness to talk about in the whole world; and the strange thing was that the beggar-like army always occupied that ruined area, gradually expelling many bandits, slowly cleaning up the past mess, and stubbornly surviving.

In the war of the fourth Jurchen invasion, they once again bore the brunt, encountering the strongest Jurchen Western Route Army in the world… Although after that they began to merge with the troops of Jin Province and the troops of the Huaxia Army, their only family property was once again wiped out in such a torrent.

They experienced continuous fighting, successively fighting with the Jurchens and the Jin Province secessionist troops led by Liao Yiren. The "rebellious army" did not have sophisticated weapons, and their training was not very good. The only thing worth mentioning was perhaps that in every battle, their "Wang Family Army" adopted children took charge of the battlefield and even launched the first charge.

Perhaps because they had been suffering for so many years, these adopted children who still remained in the rebellious army rarely fled in fear when facing the battlefield. They did not flee, and even if the soldiers below were not strong, they could often muster the courage to charge forward.

"You are the descendants of loyal martyrs! Your fathers once resisted the Jurchens in that ruin, unwavering to the death!"

In the continuous fighting in Jin Province for two or three years, she had seen too many companions die, and she herself had fallen in pools of blood several times. A general dies in a hundred battles, and a brave warrior returns in ten years. On such a battlefield, whether people can survive often depends more on luck, but beyond luck, there are also some older, more mature brothers and sisters who take the most dangerous tasks on their own initiative, and some who save her on the dangerous battlefield at the cost of their own lives.

On that kind of battlefield, Liang Si Yi didn't know how many brothers and sisters she had sent off in the past two years. And she herself woke up after being injured again and again.

Some people will think that if they get injured too many times,

People will gradually get used to this feeling, but in fact, no one can really get used to it. In every intersection of knives and swords, a person's life will become incomplete, and sometimes… the people who survive will hate themselves.

…

“…Go—!”

A disheveled figure dashed and stumbled through the crowd.

Fresh blood flowed down from her forehead, dyeing her vision scarlet. The pain and weakness brought by the knives and swords that swept across her body continued.

The crowd scattered along the road, some running away, some rushing over. After the sword light pushed back the enemy in front, a hooked scythe with a long handle whistled from behind. With a moment's reaction, she subconsciously leaned her back against the spear handle. The bright and dazzling hooked scythe almost stabbed into her shoulder. Taking advantage of the fact that the other party had not been able to exert force, Liang Si Yi wielded the knives and swords in her hands, cutting the wooden handle of the hooked scythe spear into three pieces!

She didn't know how many knives and swords she had suffered all over her body. The coldness in the night, accompanied by the gradual weakness of her body, seemed to be perceptible. But the most uncomfortable thing was the obsession of not being able to die generously. This obsession came from the man named You Hongzhu beside her.

In the two years of war in Jin Province, the "rebellious army" led by Wang Juyun suffered the highest casualties.

The army trained in that land near Yanmen Pass, where materials were scarce, had lacked materials and training in the past. In fact, their battlefield quality was not high, but due to its unique "adopted son" and "adopted daughter" leadership system, and the fact that there were certain "obedient" and "fearless of death" generals in the middle class, this combination ultimately resulted in a series of tragic battles.

Many times, it was a pointless loss in the eyes of some professional generals.

After more than two years of war, a large number of familiar people had died in the war, and the world where they had lived for more than ten years seemed to have become empty. Later, Jin Province became calm. Liang Si Yi had made contributions in several of the most tragic battles, and she had received a lot of rewards and praise, but she knew in her heart that these so-called merits were actually piled up by the lives of her dead brothers and sisters. It was just that she was still alive, so she received these praises.

Letting her lead troops, she didn't know what to do.

When it came to the Jiangning Conference this time, You Hongzhu took her here to "relax" on the orders of his adopted father, and she obeyed and came.

After all, the affairs of the battlefield are different from the affairs of the Jianghu. Letting her contact Miao Zheng, and something went wrong in the middle, causing the death of the other party's family. For Liang Si Yi, such failure and incompetence made her feel painful, and these pains piled up together.

But the ensuing remedy was actually simple.

Assassinate Chen Juefang and try to make the other party pay for his life. And if it doesn't work, then pay for it yourself - in the rebellious army, no one has ever been afraid of death - this has always been the logic in the army.

It was just that she didn't expect that the Jin Province knight named You Hongzhu, whom she had spent a few days with, would also come.

“…Go—!”

Fighting hard, roaring in a low voice. For Jianghu people who are used to seeing life and death, this is actually a very unmanly behavior. Just like witnessing the sacrifices of those brothers and sisters on the battlefield, everyone knows that crying is useless, so they can only fight hard to kill the enemy.

But at this moment, You Hongzhu was ultimately different from those brothers and sisters. Although hope was slim, Liang Si Yi still hoped in her heart that the other party would turn around and run away at some point, and she would give up her life here to block "Heavenly Saber" Tan Zheng, "Raven" Chen Juefang, and others for a while.

But the other party remained silent, only the long saber in his hand was fierce, and the saber in Tan Zheng's hand, which was pressing closer, created countless sparks in the air.

"Go..."

"Dodge—"

In the night, the clouds in the sky rolled back as if they were about to fall. At a certain moment, in Liang Si Yi's shout, You Hongzhu turned around and rushed forward. With one hand, he pushed up Liang Si Yi's body, and with the other hand, he waved the long saber backwards.

Heavenly Saber Tan Zheng came striding forward and slashed his saber on his arm.

In the next moment of blood splashing, the figures of the two people rushed past several pedestrians on the side of the road and crashed straight into a closed shop on the side of the road. This was originally a food shop. Seeing the spread of the fighting outside, the shop owner had sealed the door with wooden planks. At this moment, with a bang, the two people broke through the door and rushed into the room. Amidst the flying wood chips, "Raven" Chen Juefang and "Heavenly Saber" Tan Zheng chased in.

Liang Si Yi's body crashed into the wooden door, her whole body was in severe pain, but she still tried hard to hold her footing, wanting to run towards the back of the house as quickly as possible. However, You Hongzhu slammed into her with even greater force from behind. The two people fell to the ground in the collision. Liang Si Yi only felt that the other party reached out and grabbed her collar, and the two people rolled towards the depths of the dark house. In this roll, You Hongzhu seemed to have kicked over a table and threw something out of his hand.

Under the dim night, Chen Juefang and Tan Zheng chased into the food shop room on this side of the street. The next moment, there was only a loud "boom—" and a loud noise that shook the ground. White dust shook and surged out in the food shop with a burst of air.

Everyone on the entire street looked over there.

Wood chips and stone chips flew.

A figure was blown out of the room by the air current and rolled on the street.

A mess…

…

As if alarmed by the chaos on the earth, the rolling clouds gradually approached the earth, and the cold autumn rain began to fall again in drops.

With the Golden Tower as the center, the huge chaos caused by the assassination continued for nearly a quarter of an hour on the long street. The fierce riot expanded in all directions, and then was suppressed and quelled by the forces of King Runner, who were pressing over from the surrounding area. But in this process, there were also several branches of the riot that once broke through the defense line and went to the distance.

At the first quarter of Hai Hour, Guizhi Street, which was a hundred feet southeast of the Golden Tower and the Qinhuai River, was swept by a storm.

This was originally an inconspicuous narrow street, which had suffered from the war when the city was breached. The courtyard walls in the neighborhood had collapsed, and many refugees lived there. After Hai Hour, with the rise of a large number of fireworks and command arrows, the people under King Runner began to approach the Golden Tower. Several teams of people passed through Guizhi Street, and then more than ten people led by the small leader Fang Jinwen temporarily stayed here, watching the ripples of the commotion in the distance. At the same time, they ordered the refugees in the nearby area to hide back in their shacks or tents and not to cause trouble.

A moment later, sparse raindrops fell from the sky, and the torches on the road also swayed. In the dark courtyards, four figures suddenly rushed out to the street to fight.

These four figures were different in height, weight, and size. They chased and killed each other. A young man in the lead rushed to the street and seized a long saber. Afterwards, he almost turned half of the long street into a Shura-like killing field.

For a while, Fang Jinwen couldn't tell who was good and who was bad among these four people, but the young man who seized the long saber was as fierce as a tiger, and a smaller figure was like a ghost, running and moving, appearing and disappearing, in the crowd. And behind these two people, a man grabbed a long staff, waving it like a madman, and fighting the long-saber-wielding young man the most. And the fourth figure was an old man, wielding a heavy iron abacus and smashing it. The broken tables and chairs on the nearby street were almost smashed into powder when touched by the abacus, and even a half-collapsed earthen courtyard wall was knocked down by the abacus he threw out.

The four figures fought in the street, dragging the several people under King Runner who couldn't run away into it, and blood flowed all over the ground. Afterwards, they rushed into the nearby shantytown area and extended towards the distance.

…

In the darkness, Yan Yunzhi fled into the distance.

The broken ribs in her chest continued to ache.