"Hold up," I said loudly to the crowd, who were practically foaming at the mouth, ready to storm the damn palace right that second. "I get that you’re all excited and thrilled about this whole revolution thing, and trust , I love the energy, but if we’re gonna do this, we need to do it right.
How about so proper planning so we don’t end up failing miserably and getting our asses handed to us by the sheer number of trained professionals who are probably guarding that palace?"
Everybody imdiately turned to look at Qinyue expectantly. I wasn’t surprised to be honest. She was their queen bee now.
A complete stranger who had apparently inspired an entire town’s worth of people in the span of probably an hour, maybe two tops, to revolt against their oppressive governnt. I an, I could totally do that too if I wanted to. Like, I wasn’t jealous or anything, but whatever.
Her impulsive self stood there for a mont, acting like she was actually thinking about it, and then she said with authority, "He’s right. You all may listen to him. He’s my strategy advisor."
Just like that, everybody turned to look at instead.
I suddenly felt like I should be properly introducing myself or sothing. I cleared my throat loudly and spoke up so everyone in the crowd could hear . "Greetings, everyone. I’m Ziyang. Might I say that it’s an absolute honor to be helping such a strong and unified crowd as yourselves.
The very fact that you’ve all retaliated against your oppressors shows that the people of Ironbell are not to be ssed with! Your courage is inspiring! We shall now proceed to-"
"Just get to the fucking point already!" shouted so impatient guy from sowhere in the middle of the crowd.
"Yes! Ahem, sorry about that," I said, slightly deflated, then looked back at Qinyue before addressing the crowd again. "How about you all take a small break for now? You know, recoup your weapons, catch your breath, tend to any injuries, maybe grab so water. We’ll reconvene shortly with an actual plan."
The crowd murmured in agreent and started dispersing slightly, though they stayed close enough to be called back at a mont’s notice. I then turned to Qinyue, Jian, and Liangyu.
"We made a new friend while you were out there starting your glorious revolution," I said, gesturing behind us.
I led the gang towards where we’d left Ming. The poor old guy was just laying near a stone wall, resting his back against it, looking very much dead. Like, seriously, if I didn’t know better, I would’ve assud he’d already kicked the bucket.
"Oh my God, what happened to him?!" Qinyue imdiately rushed towards him. She knelt before him, trying to support him gently and help him sit up properly without hurting him further.
"He’s i Lian’s grandfather," Jian explained. "He might just know what’s actually up with this whole situation we’ve gotten ourselves into."
Liangyu quickly called over one of the healers from the crowd.
A kid who looked to be about eleven or twelve years old at most.
The kid was clearly an amateur from the looks of it, probably just learning the basics of healing cultivation, but he had just enough skill to heal the old man’s imdiate injuries and give him enough energy to at least walk and talk with a decent amount of strength.
He couldn’t heal the old guy’s underlying sickness though. It was probably so kind of severe, chronic condition that was way beyond his abilities.
The old man couldn’t wait anymore to tell his story. He just began speaking imdiately, desperate and pleading, "Please, my granddaughter. You’ve got to help her. Please!"
"Is that seriously the only line he knows?" Jian muttered under his breath.
I elbowed him hard in the ribs and shot him a look before turning back to Ming with what I hoped was a reassuring expression. "Grandfather, we will help her, I promise. But we’re gonna need to know everything about what exactly happened first. The whole story."
"Yes, yes, of course," he said, nodding frantically and taking a shaky breath. " and my granddaughter i, we live alone together, just the two of us. She looks after every single day without complaint.
You see, I have this extrely rare sickness which apparently can’t be cured by even the best and most skilled healers in the region. I’ve had it since a long ti ago and it only seed to get progressively worse with each passing day.
But i, bless her heart, she never gave up on . Not once. Poor child lost both her parents at a very young age, but she never cried in front of . It was probably her way of showing that she’s a courageous girl, and by the gods, she truly is.
She took up every single responsibility of running the household and made sure that I was always smiling, always comfortable. She learned the complex art of healing cultivation specifically just for , practicing day and night, and she excelled at it until she beca recognized as the best healer in the whole of Ironbell.
And her healing techniques seed to actually work on my condition too, slowing its progression. If not for her dedication and skill, I would’ve been dead a long ti ago."
He paused to catch his breath, his hands trembling slightly as he continued.
"About a month ago, maybe slightly more, a few soldiers from the royal palace visited our humble ho and officially inford us that i had been personally selected to work at the palace under the king’s direct service as his royal healer.
Naturally, we were delighted by such a prestigious offer. I an, what an honor, right? We went to et the king the very next day for the formal appointnt."
His expression darkened considerably.
"I was told to wait outside the throne room during the eting. Standard protocol, they said." He gave a long pause, trying hard to rember the details, his brow furrowing with concentration and pain. "I don’t know exactly what happened inside that room, but i ca rushing outside looking terrified.
She grabbed my arm and said urgently, ’Grandpa, we have nothing to do here. We need to leave. Right now.’ I was completely shocked and confused. Why on earth would she reject such an incredible offer? What could have possibly happened in there?
Before I could ask her anything or demand an explanation, she practically dragged toward the exit, trying to get us out of there as fast as possible."
"How did she look?" I asked, leaning forward with interest. "Angry? Scared?"
"Both," he replied without hesitation. "She looked both furious and terrified at the sa ti, like she was in a desperate hurry to get away from that place. That’s when the soldiers suddenly seized from behind.
They locked up in this godforsaken prison and have been using as leverage, coercing her to do sothing against her will ever since."
"And what exactly is that sothing?" Liangyu asked, crossing his arms.
"I honestly don’t know," Ming admitted, the frustration evident in his voice. "They would let et with her every other day for a few minutes, but it was always in the presence of an ard guard who watched our every move and listened to every word.
So she never got the chance to tell what they were forcing her to do. But now..." His voice broke completely, tears streaming down his face. "It’s been more than three full days and they haven’t brought her to et at all. I don’t know if she’s okay, if she’s hurt, if she’s-"
He began weeping openly as Qinyue tried her best to console him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
I stood up and stepped away slightly. I couldn’t say for certain yet, but the answer seed kind of obvious when you put all the pieces together. The king had obviously been using i to heal soone she absolutely didn’t want to heal.
Soone dangerous. Maybe soone from a rival nation? Or maybe a notorious criminal who deserved to rot in prison? I didn’t know the exact details yet.
And honestly, it didn’t really matter either. As of that point, our primary objective was clear: we had to find a way to save her.
"Look," I said, turning to address the whole gang seriously, "the townsfolk have been telling us that the king’s been acting extrely weird and erratic lately, completely out of character. Which only ans that whoever is actually behind all of this chaos is also coercing the king himself.
And if even the king himself is being coerced and manipulated, then we’re probably facing an extrely powerful and dangerous individual here. I also strongly suspect that the individual in question is the one being healed by i, since that would make the most sense.
Then there’s the very real possibility that this individual isn’t working alone. They might have allies, accomplices, or an entire network supporting them.
Regardless of the specifics, we’re definitely going to have to storm that palace now. Silent infiltration tactics won’t get us very far anymore, especially given how Qinyue just brought the entire damn town out to openly retaliate against the governnt.
So we’re going to be facing this head-on, full frontal assault. We now just need to figure out the actual military might and defensive capabilities of the palace so we can try to co up with so kind of coherent plan that doesn’t get us all killed imdiately."
"Hmm, maybe we should ask one of these unconscious soldiers lying around here," Liangyu suggested, gesturing at the scattered bodies. "One of them would probably snitch if we ask nicely. Or not nicely."
We all looked around carefully to see if we could find anyone still conscious or at least conscious enough to interrogate. That’s when I heard so very obvious groaning coming from Zhang’s direction, like he was still conscious but desperately acting like he wasn’t, to avoid our attention.
Even if he genuinely wasn’t conscious yet, he’d still be my first choice for interrogation anyway. That annoying fuck deserved it.
We walked up towards where he was lying and completely encircled him nacingly. He was laying face-down on the ground, completely still, his breathing suspiciously controlled.
"You think he’ll actually talk?" Jian asked, looking at skeptically. "Guy seed pretty uptight and loyal earlier, don’t you think?"
"Oh, I’ll make him talk," Qinyue said coldly as she casually lit up so bright orange flas in her palm, the fire crackling ominously.
"Hell yeah, burn his smug face off," I said with perhaps too much excitent in my voice.
She held her flaming palm up and slowly moved it closer and closer to Zhang’s exposed head until he could definitely feel the intense heat radiating against his skin.
"I’LL TALK! I’LL TALK! OKAY, I’LL TALK!" Zhang scread desperately, suddenly scrambling up and away from Qinyue’s fla as fast as he could move.
"Alright then, start singing, bird boy," I said with a satisfied grin, crouching down to his eye level. "And don’t leave out any details."
Zhang let out a long, defeated breath. "Fine. What exactly do you want to know?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)