Chapter 252 Between Life and Death
The tents, food and other necessities of the 160-man squad were originally carried by seven horses. Now that the horses could no longer proceed, every one of them was carrying much more weight. As for the horses, they let go of the older ones and killed the younger ones for their meat. They need to utilize everything they could.
They killed the horses in tears. The North Di people treasured their horses a lot, even more than their own lives. Seeing the soldiers killing horses, Leng Changxi turned his head away. He knew clearly about their pain.
As they were about to leave, someone was feeling unfair.
“Wait, why do we all have to carry so much stuff, apart from Madam Tuoba, who’s a lady, why is the rumored powerful Mr. Tuoba only carrying a spear with him?” After saying that, he threw a horse leg at Leng Changxi provocatively and said, “Come on, Mr. Tuoba, carry this horse leg. We are all equal. Look around. Every one of us carries two horse legs at least. However, since you’re weaker, I’ll just have you carrying one of them.”
His words triggered the laughter of the others, yet Leng Changxi, who was totally shamed, remained calm. He slowly walked towards the soldier and untied the spear on his back. The spear happened to fell in Leng Changxi’s hands. Leng Changxi pointed the spear forward without saying a word.
The soldier who provoked Leng Changxi thought that he wanted to have a dual with him. They had all seen what Mr. Tuoba was capable of, and it was terrifying. He took a step back and yelled. “What do you want? I just said something about you, yet you want to solve it the violent way.”
“Hold out your hands.” Leng Changxi’s cold tone made the soldier had to obey him. He reached out his trembling hands. Just when he was about to ask why, Leng Changxi let go of his spear, and it fell into the soldier’s hands. The soldier almost fell on the ground because of the weight of the spear.
The others immediately came over to help, only to find that the spear was terribly heavy. They had no idea how Mr. Tuoba, who was leaner and smaller than the North Di warriors, could wave such a heavy weapon so easily.
“If you think I’m not carrying enough, feel free to swap with me. I’ll exchange my spear for two horse legs, how about that?”
The spear was actually heavier than ten horse legs. The trouble-maker was speechless, but he wasn’t willing to apologize yet. Leng Changxi didn’t blame him further. He took a side glance at the people, picked up his spear and left.
“This Mr. Tuoba is really somebody.” Someone quietly exclaimed.
“Sh*t somebody.” The trouble-making soldier patted his butt and stood up. He was the leader of the squad from the palace. He thought that he would get rewards from Fourth Prince as he was sent by the Grand Khan. However, he didn’t get anything. What was more unbearable for him was that even a random person without fame or power could shame him like that.
“Just wait and see, I’ll definitely seize the spear from that Tuoba.”
The long line of the army had arrived at the narrow canyon. There was humid and cold wind coming from the canyon. Wanyan Su took a deep breath and ordered the soldiers to march on at full speed, so as to pass through the canyon as soon as possible.
The narrowest spot in the slot canyon only allowed one man to pass. As the mountains on both sides were shading off the sunlight, it was really dark in the canyon. They had to light some torches when they were halfway through. As the surroundings were lit, they saw countless black worms on both sides of the canyon, each of them as long as a finger.
“Holy, what are these?” North Di was quite dry, so many of them hadn’t seen these worms, which only live in humid places.
“Everyone, don’t touch them, these are leeches.”
Leeches feed on the blood of animals. After sucking in blood, a finger-long leech could swell as big as a fist. The North Di soldiers had never seen it before, and the horror in their eyes was apparent.
“Ahh, they got me.” One of the soldiers yelled and stumbled back. No matter how hard Leng Changxi tried to comfort him and calm him down, he couldn’t. He patted on a leech on his neck rapidly, but the leech had a strong suction force. It attached itself to the soldier’s neck, sucked his blood and became swollen slowly. The soldier struggled but hit himself against the rocks. Instantly, the leeches on the rocks were all active, and they wriggled towards the soldier. Soon, he was covered in leeches. Some of them even went into his clothes and helmet.
The soldier was wriggling in pain, but no one dared to help him. Everyone was standing far and avoiding him. At the same time, a scream came from above. It sounded familiar. It should the few soldiers who left earlier, and it came from above.
Qin Yunuan felt bad about it. It seemed that they didn’t follow her suggestions but still insisted on taking the shortcut.
Sure enough, with a loud bang, they saw several armored soldiers falling from above. They were the four people who left.
It was just that the slot canyon was wider on the top but narrower at the bottom. The four people got stuck between the rocks when they fell halfway. There was a broken bridge hanging on the top of the canyon. It seemed that the four of them saw the broken bridge here, and they totally ignored Qin Yunuan’s words.
The four of them were just hanging there. Falling from such a height and landed on these weird rocks, they must have been dead. Quickly, the leeches marched towards the bodies of the four, looking to enjoy their feast.
Leng Changxi frowned slightly and shouted, “Everyone, march on at full speed.”
Just after he said that, they found out that the soldier who was just surrounded by leeches was dead. All his blood was sucked off, and all he left was his empty armor and his skeleton. It all happened in a second.
The soldiers behind were terrified.
“What are you afraid of?” Leng Changxi pointed at the bone pile on the ground. “Step over it to get here.”
“He’s like our brother.”
“Huh, brother?” Leng Changxi sneered, “If he’s really your brother, why was there no one who wanted to save him earlier?”
Just then, a leech fell from the rock wall. It was about to fall on Qin Yunuan when Leng Changxi sliced the leech into two pieces in the air with a dagger. Then he said seriously, “If you don’t want to become skeletons like him, march at full speed.”
The squad was finally on the move again. Everyone shivered when they heard the sound of boots stepping on their friend’s bones. However, on the other side, he felt lucky that they were not attached by leeches.
“Cha, this Tuoba has really got it. Just then, I didn’t even see him drawing his blade, but he had already cut the worm in half.”
This Cha was the trouble-making soldier who sworn to seize Leng Changxi’s spear. His glance was evil. In fact, the soldier who was attacked by leeches was just walking normally, but Cha pushed him against the rocks. He had a beef with that man for a long time and had wished to kill him from long ago. Cha was someone who always got what he wanted. Even for opponents like Leng Changxi, he wouldn’t back off.
“Just wait and see. When we settle down later, I’m not only going to seize his spear, but I would make him more painful than dying. No one had ever dared to tell me what to do.”
The troop walked out of the slot canyon carefully. Maybe it was because they had just experienced death. Everyone was quiet. It was quite late, so they settled down in an open space. As all the tents were left behind when they passed through the slot canyon, they could only sleep in the wild. Qin Yunuan found a hidden place and started studying the maps. She only figured out the first and the last ones, but she couldn’t be sure about the sequence of the remaining two. However, they had almost finished the first map. It was a hard choice, as her decision would determine the fate of a hundred and sixty men.
Leng Changxi saw Qin Yunuan worried from afar, so he took a bowl of congee and approached her alone. Qin Yunuan was reading the maps carefully, when she saw someone heading towards her. She subconsciously covered her face with the white veil she was hanging on her neck. For most of the others, she was just Madam Tuoba, whose eyes didn’t work well, instead of third Miss Qin, who was a master in strategies.
“It’s me.” Leng Changxi called out to her softly. He put down the congee in his hands and cuddled Qin Yunuan. He kissed Qin Yunuan forehead gently, and his warm and humid breath made Qin Yunuan fell for him again. They had been married for a long time, but Qin Yunuan still felt the same kind of affection every time she saw him.
“What are you thinking?”
“The map.” Qin Yunuan took over the congee. The boiling hot congee had been cooled down by Leng Changxi, and there were pieces of fresh horse meat in it. Qin Yunuan was looking at the map while drawing circles on Leng Changxi’s chest with her finger. “I don’t know the paths ahead.”
“Don’t worry.” Leng Changxi squished Qin Yunuan’s little face. However, Qin Yunuan was much thinner than before, so her face wasn’t as squishy as before. “Everything will be sorted out when the time comes. We still have a long time to figure that out.”
Qin Yunuan smiled, “Since when are you so lay-back?”
Leng Changxi leaned forward and breathed against Qin Yunuan’s sensitive area, “Maybe it’s because I’m with you, and everything seems less horrible.”
Just when the two were making out, there was a scream coming from the other side of the bonfire, “Oh no, there’s poison in the congee.”
When they got there, they saw Cha, who sworn to teach Leng Changxi a lesson, lying on the ground. There was half a bowl of congee next to him, and he had passed out, spitting white foam.