—A hand reached out from the darkness, covered Alan Yue’s mouth and nose, and slowly dragged him behind him.
A Lanyue was stunned for only a moment, then realized that this familiar feeling was the general!
While watching the movements of the wolves on both sides, Zhao Litang moved with A Lanyue as slowly as possible. The two finally moved to a farther distance.
Zhao Litang let go of the person in his arms.
A Lan Yue turned around and looked at him, her eyes welling up with tears, but she tried hard to hold back her tears.
"General, are you okay..."
As he said this, he looked Zhao Litang up and down. In the moonlight, he could see clearly that there were several tears in Zhao Litang's robe, and blood was flowing out. The most serious one was Zhao Litang's left leg, which was already covered with a large area of scarlet, and it looked like he had been bitten.
A Lanyue felt a pain in her heart and hurriedly wanted to squat down to check Zhao Litang's injuries, but Zhao Litang hugged her and suddenly fell backwards.
All he heard was the sound of wind whirring behind him, and the largest desert wolf just now almost passed by Alan Yue's back.
Zhao Litang supported him with his hands to help him stand steadily, then pulled him behind him, holding a short knife in his hand, which was stained with wolf hair and blood.
Zhao Litang had been tracked by this pack of wolves for a long time. He had fought with them several times and killed two wolves single-handedly, but the remaining wolves kept a closer eye on him. He didn't want to lead the wolves back, so he never went back to find Alanyue. But in fact, he had found a route that could break the deadlock of being lost.
The wolves on the opposite side began to stir, and they formed some unknown formation, but they started rushing towards the two of them.
Zhao Litang stood up and swung his knife, stabbing a wolf's eye hard. Blood immediately spurted all over his face, but he continued to use force without mercy until he split the wolf's head in half.
The remaining wolves howled at the night sky, and then launched an even more fierce siege.
Zhao Litang had to protect the people behind him while killing them with every blow. In addition, his leg was already injured. After several rounds, although he killed two wolves, he also suffered many injuries.
Seeing a wolf quietly circling around Zhao Litang's blind spot and about to pounce on him to bite his throat, A Lanyue rushed forward without thinking and blocked it with her arm.
The sharp fangs pierced the flesh, leaving a long bloody wound. Alan Yue almost fainted from the pain. Zhao Litang saw the blood flowing down his arm, and his eyes became more murderous. He killed all the remaining wolves.
In the end, due to severe injuries and exhaustion, Zhao Litang dropped the dagger in his hand and fell into coma.
When Zhao Litang woke up again, it was already noon the next day and the sun was shining brightly.
The scene of the fight was filled with blood and flesh flying everywhere, and he himself was severely wounded all over, with several wounds so deep that the bones were visible, but now they have all been carefully bandaged.
The leg that was bitten was probably the most seriously injured, and it still hurts a lot.
"General, you're awake!"
A Lanyue had been raising her hand to shield Zhao Litang from the sunlight above his head. Now that she saw him finally wake up, her eyes were full of surprise.
"Come on, General, have a drink of water first."
A Lanyue fed Zhao Litang water with one hand because his other arm was also seriously injured.
Zhao Litang's throat was indeed dry and uncomfortable. After taking a sip of water, he pushed the kettle to A Lanyue.
A Lanyue smiled and screwed on the kettle, "General, I've already drunk it."
Zhao Litang nodded without saying anything, then looked at the wound on Alanyue's arm, which he had bandaged himself.
Fortunately, Alanyue still had the medicine she had used to treat Zhao Litang's injury with her, but there was actually not much medicine left, so Alanyue gave it all to Zhao Litang and just wrapped the wound on her own arm with cloth.
The two of them rested for a while, and then had to get up and continue on their journey.
Now they had no horses and very little water left, so they could only rely on their own legs to get out of the desert.
Zhao Litang took A Lanyue and walked around several sand dunes randomly, as if they were following some kind of formation. After walking for most of the day, the two finally got out of the death zone.
But what awaits them is still endless sand dunes, sand dunes, and sand dunes.
Because Zhao Litang's leg was injured, he couldn't walk fast, otherwise the wound would be torn bigger.
A Lanyue had been supporting Zhao Litang, their bodies snuggled tightly together, and Zhao Litang also kept his hand on A Lanyue's shoulder.
When they were thirsty, they would take turns drinking a sip of water from the bottle, but in reality it was just to moisten their dry lips.
Even so, the water was drunk up on the third night.
The moonlight that night was very bright and clear. Two exhausted people lay on their backs on a sand dune, looking at the night sky, the stars and the moon.
As he watched, Zhao Litang suddenly called out, "Alanyue."
"General..." Alan Yue's voice was very soft, as if she had no strength left, "I am..."
"I think I was wrong."
Zhao Litang said something without any context, then looked at the full moon that was as bright as a silver plate, and twitched the corners of his mouth slightly.
A Lanyue's eyes instantly became wet. He understood what the general said, and also understood what the general didn't say.
I seem to be wrong, I wrongly blamed you, I misunderstood you.
How long had he waited for these words, how long had he waited for Zhao Litang to believe him? It was so long that he thought he might never be able to go back to the past in this life, and could no longer follow the general's footsteps with a legitimate reason. Unexpectedly, the general finally believed him.
A Lanyue turned over, turned her back to Zhao Litang, and buried all her tears in the sand.
"Go to sleep," Zhao Litang said, "We have to continue our journey tomorrow."
Perhaps it was Zhao Litang's words that gave A Lanyue great encouragement and confidence.
The two walked for another three days, and when they were about to collapse, they finally walked out of the uninhabited desert.
But what was before him was an abandoned foreign city.
After the foreign tribes were attacked and occupied by the barbarians, the barbarian army advanced all the way into the territory of the Celestial Empire. In an instant, all the captured cities became abandoned cities with no one left.
Fortunately, some shops in the city had not been burned down. The two men found some water and food, and then found a pharmacy, where they took out some ointments for treating external injuries and applied them to their wounds.
Even so, it is not safe to stay in the empty city all the time. No one can tell whether the barbarian army will come back again.
After they had rested, they headed towards the Celestial Empire along the path outside the city.
At this time, Zhao Litang had completely let down his guard towards Alan Yue. Ever since Alan Yue used her arm to block for him, he had a different opinion of him and his words were no longer so cold and harsh.
After marching for several days, the two men did not encounter any barbarian troops again, and successfully arrived at a place that was still one city away from the Celestial Empire.
Fearing that there might be an ambush ahead, Zhao Litang took A Lanyue to observe the surrounding area first.
"After returning to the Celestial Empire, you are not allowed to stay in the borderland anymore. I will send someone to take you back to the Imperial Capital. You will stay in the General's Mansion and are not allowed to go anywhere else."
Zhao Litang ordered, "Stay at home and wait for me to come back."
Alan Yue's eyes were wet and she nodded vigorously, "Okay, General, you must come back."
Zhao Litang said, "If we really reach the last step, I will definitely rush back to defend the Imperial City. It will be convenient to set up an ambush outside the Imperial City, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack..."
Zhao Litang did not hide anything and talked about the situation in the imperial capital.
"… So, it is safest for you to stay there. I can guarantee that even if a barbarian army of 100,000 comes to attack the city, as long as I defend it, the imperial capital will not be easily breached."
A Lan Yue looked at him and nodded with tears in her eyes.
He believed in the general. He always believed in the general. The general would definitely do what he said.
But suddenly, many people appeared in Alanyue's eyes. He thought he was hallucinating, so he raised his hand to wipe his eyes.
Tears, and then he stood there in a daze, unable to move.
What appeared in sight was the barbarian army and Amul who walked out with a smile.
When Zhao Litang saw that he was surrounded by people, the blood in his body froze. He suddenly seemed to understand something. Blood red color appeared in the corners of his eyes, and he looked at A Lanyue who was right in front of him with some horror.
Alanyue watched Amul walk up to him. He opened his mouth to say something, but after seeing Zhao Litang's look of disbelief and hatred, he was unable to utter a word. Instead, tears suddenly flowed like a dam bursting.
"Yue'er," Amul had already walked in front of the two of them and reached out to help Alanyue up. "You just need to do this. Leave the rest to your brother."
After he finished speaking, he gave a wink and the barbarian soldiers surrounding him gradually came forward. They were all Amul's personal guards with great martial arts skills. Now Zhao Litang was weak and had a leg injury, so he was quickly subdued.
"Ha ha ha ha"
The suppressed Zhao Litang laughed, but his laughter was filled with an almost insane pain.
"Okay, very good..." The coldness in his eyes was like a poisoned cold arrow, which wanted to pierce Alan Yue's body mercilessly.
"I thought I could trust you... How ridiculous, how ridiculous... It turns out that this was all a scam planned by you. In order to trick me into falling in love with the game, you actually paid such a huge price, even using your life as a bargaining chip, just to gain my trust, and then get even a little bit of military intelligence from me... You have suffered so much... Ah! Lan! Yue!"
Zhao Litang said the last three words with gritted teeth, and then a mouthful of blood rushed up his throat, and he actually spat out blood.
The feeling of being betrayed is not pleasant, but Alan Yue made him experience it twice, each time more profound than the last.
Alan Yue's face had turned as pale as paper. He shook his head frantically, tears streaming down his face.
He didn't know, he didn't know why his brother appeared here, he didn't collude with anyone, he wanted to let the general go, he wanted to go back to the Celestial Empire with the general, he wanted to sacrifice himself to save the general, all of these were his own will...
It was all because he liked the general, so he volunteered... There was no conspiracy at all...
But in this situation he had no way to defend himself. No matter what he said, the general would no longer believe him.
Never.