Duan Xu's condition improved and he finally woke up on the third day after Fang Xianye's death.
Duan Xu stared at the roof with his eyes open for a while, then he felt his hand grasping another soft hand, fingers interlocked. Before he could react, the hand holding his hand moved, and he was hugged.
The girl lying on him was warmed by the fire in the room, and she held back her strength, not daring to press him, but holding him tightly. She had never been good at controlling her strength, but now she was able to do it just right.
Duan Xu raised his other hand and patted her back, saying softly, "It's okay. I feel much better, as if I had a long sleep."
"What do you mean it's okay? You almost died." He Simu said in a low voice.
In addition to dealing with the ghost realm and taking care of Duan Xu, she also went around looking for spiritual medicine with He Jia Feng Yi. Every time they found a medicine, it was rejected by Tian Tong Xingjun, who was treating Duan Xu, saying that it was not a good medicine and could not be used casually.
In all her years of life, this was the first time she knew what it meant to try any possible means when desperate.
Sometimes she held his hand and interlocked their fingers. She wanted to fulfill his wish, that their fingers were connected to each other's hearts, and that he would be reluctant to let her go if he held her heart in his hand.
Tiantong Xingjun, who was standing aside, breathed a sigh of relief. He whispered, "Your Highness the Ghost King, please excuse me for a moment."
He Simu patted Duan Xu's back, let him go and said, "Lie down first."
Duan Xu nodded obediently.
He Simu turned around and left the room with Tiantong Xingjun, just in time to meet Duan Jingyuan who ran in with red eyes. Duan Jingyuan asked in a trembling voice: "Is my brother awake?"
He Simu nodded, and she ran into the house wiping her tears. Tiantong Xingjun turned around and closed the door, then walked a few steps to the side and turned around to look at He Simu.
Tiantong Xingjun is the first-class Xingjun in Xingqing Palace, the master of blessings, and one of the most advanced mortals in the world. He has a young and gentle face, and sighed and said, "Your Highness, I have tried my best to take care of him and bless him. But his Yang Qi has been depleted too much, and his physical foundation has been damaged. I can only do my best."
He Simu lowered her eyes and asked straight to the point: "How long will he have?"
"If you rest well, it will probably be about ten years." Tiantong Star Lord said after careful consideration.
"If he could have a good rest, he wouldn't be Duan Xu anymore." He Simu smiled bitterly.
"If he continues to suffer like this, even if he carries my blessing talisman and I do my best to nurse him back to health, he will only last two years."
He Simu was silent for a moment, then looked up. Snow had begun to fall from the sunny sky. The fine snowflakes fell slowly in the sunlight, crystal clear, like a glass world, and turned into water when they landed on the ground.
When she met Duan Xu for the second time, it snowed like this in Liangzhou. At that time, Chen Ying was just a child who only wanted to eat. She hugged Chen Ying, and Duan Xu pressed the veil on her head. She looked at his back through the gap in the gauze curtain, brisk and upright.
Snow on a sunny day, young people in the world.
The snow on a sunny day comes suddenly and turns into water when it hits the ground, as short as a dream.
"Okay, I got it. I'll have to trouble you in the future." He Simu heard his own voice, calm and empty.
Tian Tong Xing Jun bowed and said, "No need to thank me."
Suddenly, there was a sound of something falling and breaking in the room. He Simu turned around and pushed the door open, and saw the bedside cabinet overturned and the vase smashed to the ground. Duan Xu fell to the ground, as if he wanted to walk but failed. Duan Jingyuan supported Duan Xu and cried with tears in his eyes: "Third brother..."
He Simu immediately walked over and helped Duan Xu up. Duan Xu grabbed He Simu's arm, and before He Simu tried to help him back to bed, he said, "Fang Xianye... Fang Xianye committed suicide?"
His eyes were red, and these words seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
He Simu was silent for a moment, then said, "I looked at the ghost book yesterday, and his name was not there. He has passed away."
Duan Xu closed his eyes, covered his forehead and remained silent for a while, then suddenly laughed for no apparent reason. The laughter gradually rose from low to high, becoming wild and shrill, as if a strong wind swept out of his frail body, ready to turn this absurd world upside down.
He Simu grabbed his wrist. He trembled, then slowly put his hand down, with boundless madness in his red eyes.
He laughed and said, "The emperor wants to kill me so badly that I'll go to his house and see who can kill whom!"
That night, candlelight flickered, and the young Emperor of Daliang was frowning as he reviewed memorials. The farce at court put his plan on hold for a while. The Ministry of Justice said that no one could prove it, so the fake edict could only be left as an unsolved case. Mrs. Duan ran to the Queen Mother and cried, and the Queen Mother also said that it was a fake edict and asked him to treat the meritorious officials well.
Duan Xu was a meritorious official, and his contributions were great. The troops on the north bank only listened to him, and the emperor's edict could not recall them. Duan Xu did listen to his edict, but he also brought back 10,000 troops in the name of review, but in fact it was a threat. Even the new commander sent to the north bank died in an unclear manner.
How can you keep someone who is out of control?
As the emperor was thinking this, he suddenly felt a chill on his neck. Something was wrapped around his neck. He was so frightened that he wanted to shout for help, but he found that the waiter next to him had fainted on the ground, and he could not make a sound.
A figure stood quietly in front of him. He looked closely and realized who else could it be but Duan Xu.
Duan Xu was dressed in black, with a pale face and red eyes, like a ghost from the underworld. He calmly pulled over a chair and sat down, crossing his legs and looking at the most noble emperor in the world.
The emperor scratched at his neck randomly. Duan Xu said calmly, "The emperor ignored the intense fighting situation on the front line and wanted to kill me while I was sick. I didn't know the emperor was so afraid of me? But in this situation, I don't know who will die faster."
The emperor stared at Duan Xu.
Duan Xu understood and said, "Your Majesty wants to know how I got in. If I want to come in, I can come in naturally, right, Simu?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a woman in red appeared out of nowhere in the palace. Her dark eyes, without white, looked coldly at the emperor. The emperor seemed to not believe his eyes and shrank back in panic.
He Simu snapped his fingers, and the soft silk on the emperor's neck disappeared. He covered his neck and kept coughing, and while coughing, he shouted for help in a hoarse voice. The sound echoed in the empty hall, but no one responded. The emperor stood up and rushed to the door, but found that the door could not be opened, and no one responded when he knocked on the door.
He turned around in surprise and looked at Duan Xu and He Simu. They let him make a fuss and just watched him leisurely, as if telling him - you can't run away.
Anger welled up in the emperor's eyes. He put down his hand that was trying to knock on the door and pointed at Duan Xu: "How dare you... How dare you do this to me!"
"Why shouldn't I dare?" Duan Xu suddenly stood up and slammed the table. He smiled and said, "Who do you think you are? The emperor? What's so great about the emperor? Are you born with three heads and six arms, or a heart with seven orifices? What can you do? Get a good birth? Reap the benefits of being a fisherman? Support your confidants to secure the throne? You can only kill others, but others can't kill you?"
The emperor stiffened his neck and said angrily, "How dare you! I am the Son of Heaven, the ruler of the world!"
Duan Xu sneered and said, "The world? How big is your world? You have never been out of Nandu in your life, and you dare to talk nonsense about the world?"
He took a few steps towards the emperor. The emperor tried to avoid him but was still grabbed by his collar. He said, "Since the emperor said so, I will take you to see your world."
In an instant, the world changed. The emperor watched helplessly as all the furnishings in the palace disappeared in the blink of an eye. They stood on a scorched earth, with deafening sounds of war drums coming from both sides.
Duan Xu loosened the emperor's clothes, and the emperor stumbled two steps. When he looked down, he saw that he was stepping on a soldier's severed limb. He screamed and fell to the ground. In the dark night, countless people were seen holding knives and slashing each other through their bodies. There were sounds of killing, blood and flesh flying everywhere, and the moonlight seemed to have turned red. This land was like a furnace that could eat people, and countless people were shredded here.
The emperor called for help in panic, but no one answered, and no one even saw them. They were like three ghosts on the battlefield.
Duan Xu walked up to the emperor. Under the moonlight, he looked like a Shura from hell. He looked down at him and said, "Your Majesty, do you see that this is also your world? Thousands of souls die every day on the northern front line that you regard as a historic achievement. Every inch of land in this world belongs to everyone who steps on it. You sit high in the hall, but the ground you step on is only an inch. Do you really think that the world belongs to you and that they will die and live for you?"
He grabbed the emperor by the collar and said word by word in his panicked eyes: "It is you who must die for them and live for them. If you can't do this well, you are not worthy of the word world."
The emperor trembled for a long time, then took a deep breath and said, "Duan Shunxi! You traitor! Even if you kill me, I will never bow to a traitor like you!"
Duan Xu turned his head and laughed sarcastically, "Traitor, traitor? How dare a monarch who forced his wise ministers to death say these words?"
Suddenly, the world changed, and they returned to the bright palace illuminated by candlelight. The surroundings were warm and quiet, as if the bloody hell just now was just an illusion. The emperor looked at Duan Xu in horror, then looked at He Simu, and came to his senses and said: "Duan Shunxi, you... you know witchcraft!"
Duan Xu let go of the emperor's collar, and the emperor sat on the ground all of a sudden.
Duan Xu looked at him calmly and said, "Yes, I can."
"I have no interest in your throne. I will drive the Huqi people away and prevent them from getting involved in the Central Plains. You'd better take good care of your position and govern the world well, and don't let others take it away. I won't harm you or be loyal to you, as long as you don't get in my way."
He squatted down and pointed at the emperor and said, "I will only say this once, whether you believe it or not. My brother is dead, my friend is dead, if you dare to touch my people again, I will kill you immediately. I have magic that can reach the sky, even if you have a high wall and imperial guards, I can still rush in and kill you like today. You should pray that I am alive, if I die, I will haunt you every day."
The emperor trembled and said, "Duan Shunxi...you...you are crazy!"
Duan Xu laughed, a bright and bright laugh, and nodded in agreement, "Yes, so you'd better not offend a madman. Write an imperial edict now and let me return to the north."
When the waiter of Ningle Palace woke up in the morning, he saw the emperor sitting on the ground with a pale face and exhausted, as if he had suffered a heavy blow and was absent-minded. He hurried to call the imperial physician for treatment. When he opened the door, he saw a figure in a black cloak gradually going away in the snow. He held an imperial edict with his hands behind his back, leaving four lines of footprints in the wind and snow.
The waiter rubbed his eyes. There were actually two lines of footprints beside Duan Xu, accompanying his footsteps in the heavy snow, which was extremely strange. In the world he could not see, a girl in a red triple-layered dress, with black hair and a silver hairpin, supported Duan Xu's arm and walked out of the palace wall with him slowly.
The waiter turned around and ran to the emperor, helped him up and said, "Your Majesty... this is... this is an assassin!"
The emperor's eyes slowly moved to the back, and he seemed to finally catch his breath, gritting his teeth and saying, "No, it was I... late at night... secretly summoned Duan Shunxi to the palace, and granted him an imperial decree... ordering him to be the Grand Marshal of the Army of the World... to conquer Danzhi."
Duan Xu's body trembled in the snow. He Simu supported him. He smiled tiredly and said, "I broke your rules."
He Simu supported his shoulders and said, "I didn't say a word. I just took you to Youzhou. I didn't break any rules."
After a pause, she sighed and said, "This won't happen again. If Feng Yi and the others pursue this, I'll let them turn me to ashes and see if they can find a better ghost king."
"He Simu, why are you saying such things?"
"Maybe you led him to go crazy."
Duan Xu leaned on He Simu's shoulder and laughed softly. As he laughed, he grabbed He Simu's sleeve and choked up.
Before entering the palace, Jing Yan came to him and gave him all the letters and essays found when searching Fang Xianye's mansion, saying that he should be loyal to the person who entrusted him with the task, and that there was also a last word from Fang Xianye that he wanted to give to him.
Fang Xianye said: A gentleman dies for his confidant. I will be reborn in the north bank in the future. Please make sure that I live in a prosperous era for the Han people.