On the nineteenth of February, the sky was dark and cloudy.
The courtyard of the Taiwei's Mansion was lined with elites in black armor like chess pieces, with a straight posture and a long sword on the side, motionless like a clay dummy. The three thousand shadow guards all showed their bodies, and in the dim sky, they were still shadowy existences.
Crows and magpies, which were chasing carrion, landed on the high wall and stared at the scene in the courtyard as if they smelled blood.
Chu Mingyun walked into the hall from the inside, his long crow-colored hair was all tied up, and his dark and light armor reflected his eyes coldly. Qin Zhao took a few steps to meet him. He lowered his eyes and checked his cuffs as he walked out, "How is the situation in the palace?"
"The Imperial Army is guarding, everything is business as usual, and Li Yanzhen is still in a coma."
"Where's the Yulin Army?"
"Nothing has happened yet, but a large number of elite soldiers have been sent to watch around the Jianzhang Palace, and they can deal with it at any time." Qin Zhao said, "The long streets in front of the Vermillion Bird Gate have also been cleared."
Chu Mingyun paused in front of the door and looked at the blurry shadow outside, "What about the Su family?"
"Nothing happened." Qin Zhao hesitated for a moment, then continued, "The person watching said that Su Shiyu locked himself in the ancestral hall after returning to the mansion yesterday, and he was not allowed to eat and drink, not to mention news."
"Staying in the ancestral hall without eating or drinking?" Chu Mingyun looked sideways. After receiving a positive answer, he withdrew his gaze and sighed to himself, "...Is he planning to boil himself to death to get revenge on me?" After a while, he said to Qin Zhao, "Let Du Yue go over and take a look."
"Du Yue was right next to him when he received the news, and it has already passed."
"Heh," Chu Mingyun laughed indistinctly, "count him being clever once."
"Senior brother," Qin Zhao couldn't help but said, "You still have injuries on your body, can you really wait any longer?"
Chu Mingyun shook his head and laughed softly, "The arrow is on the string." He raised his hand and opened the door.
The hall door was wide open, he walked out slowly, and the shadow guards all knelt down on one knee in unison, and said "Master" in unison. Chu Mingyun got on his horse and glanced at the crow and magpie, who fluttered his wings in fear and flew away in fear.
The commander of the Imperial Army personally greeted him outside the palace city, and saw the black men and horses passing through the empty long street, coming in with dust, bowing and bowing in the distance.
Chu Mingyun tightened the reins, the dark horse neighed and stopped, the guards bowed respectfully under his horse, he squinted his eyes and looked at the heavy palace tower, and suddenly remembered the answer to the master on Cangwu Mountain:
"Of course I want revenge. But who do you think my enemy is? Is it the Xiongnu soldiers who were ordered to slaughter the city, the general who planned the invasion, or the officials who abandoned the city and fled? Actually, none of them. Follow the orders of the generals and defeat the weak with the strong, yes. The law, the fault lies in the weakness of the country."
"My enemy is this world."
There was a thunderstorm in the sky, and the electric light cut through the sky, and a pale light flashed.
The palace gate opened wide.
There was silence in the bedroom, Li Yanzhen slowly opened his eyes, his eyes were blank, and his eyes were empty for a long time, and then he sat up on the couch, and there was no one around. He covered his mouth and coughed a few times, opened the quilt, got out of bed, and left the dormitory in a trance. No one could be seen along the way. There was a vague chaotic noise in the distance, which was obscured by the sound of rain. , Unreasonably disturbing, and every step under his feet is as weak as stepping on the void, as if in a dream, he unknowingly walked to the imperial study, and when he came back to his senses, he was standing in front of the wooden sculpture.
The imperial study room was also empty, only the peerless beauty who lacked a face was speechless against him.
Li Yanzhen stared at it blankly, without moving for a while, he suddenly grabbed the carving knife on the table and landed on the statue without hesitation. , as if that appearance had already been familiar to her heart, the woman's face gradually became clearer, the gentle and graceful corners of her brows and eyes, the faint smile on her lips, all traced back to the memory of that year when the sun was fine, and she walked across the ground full of apricot flowers. Come.
The carving knife fell from her hand and fell to the ground. Li Yanzhen took a few steps back and looked at it. After looking at it, she suddenly laughed, "Sister, you are so beautiful, can I draw you a picture?"
No one answered, his smile slowly faded, he reached out and took the candle on the case and lit the wood carving, burning the ambiguous thoughts of his youth into a fragrant incense.
Lu Qinghe just turned around the palace corridor with the soup medicine, when a group of palace maids rushed towards them. She hurriedly stabilized the medicine and avoided it, watching them knock over the flower stand in panic, and ignored the muddy skirts. Her heart tightened, she turned around and hurried to the dormitory, pushed the door directly and entered, Li Yanzhen was not there.
The medicine bowl fell to the ground and smashed into a pool of jet-black concoction. Lu Qinghe rushed into the rain and ran around looking for it. The palace was in chaos. Some places were fighting and fighting, and some places were empty and dead. Countless palace servants fled to pass her by, and the chaotic voices were messed up in the rain.
She was soaked all over, her chest was blocked like it was about to burst, and she was so panicked.
Suddenly seeing a team of guards rushing past and heading towards the imperial study, Lu Qinghe was about to stop the inquiry, and suddenly realized that something was wrong. Although these people were dressed as imperial guards, they had a murderous attitude. Among the people who had just fought, she also roughly saw the imperial guard and the guards fighting.
There was a flash of fire in the imperial study, which was particularly eye-catching in the dark and rainy curtain. It was obvious that someone was there.
Before she could think about it, Lu Qinghe caught up with him, slashed the last guard's neck with his knife, and snatched his long knife. She stepped on the shoulder of the man in front, jumped over, and landed in front of the imperial study. The knife stopped them.
The guards looked at Gong E who suddenly appeared in front of them, with a fierce face, "If you don't want to die, get out of the way!"
Lu Qinghe took a deep breath, jolted the long sword, and said loudly: "I am Lu Qinghe, the daughter of Lu Shi, the minister of punishment, and I was ordered to protect Your Majesty. The chaotic ministers and thieves will pass my sword first!"
The guards looked at each other and turned to slaughter together.
There was no fear in her eyes, and she waved her knife to meet him.
The world was too noisy, and her ears were full of the violent sound of her heartbeat, and she didn't notice when the temple door behind her was opened. With the last blow, Lu Qinghe kicked away the corpse on the ground, gasping for breath, the blood on her face was immediately washed away by the rain, she turned her head and met a pair of quiet eyes, and suddenly she was at a loss.
Li Yanzhen looked at her quietly, then came over, took her cold hand, and returned to the temple.
The imperial study room was filled with an inexplicable aroma. Something by the window was burnt to a mass of white ashes, the panes were charred black, and half of the gauze curtains were burned away, and the rain was drenching them.
"Your Majesty, this is..." Lu Qinghe turned to look at him, Jinpa pressed his cheek, Li Yanzhen didn't speak, and focused on helping her wipe the rain off carefully, she was stunned for a moment, then smiled again, no dodge. Li Yanzhen finally brushed her loose hair behind her ears, pulled her to sit on the soft couch beside her, glanced out, and finally said, "It seems like the rain is getting heavy again?"
Lu Qinghe listened carefully, the sound of knives and gold mingled with the torrential rain outside the palace was getting closer and closer, she hesitated for a moment, "Well, it's getting bigger and bigger."
Li Yanzhen nodded, "No wonder it's so noisy."
The muffled thunder rolled, and the pea-sized raindrops crashed on the iron armor.
Chu Mingyun wiped the rain off his face and looked indifferently at the chief guard who was covered in blood not far away. The Miyagi Imperial Army had long since surrendered, and only the captain of the guard was still leading his men to resist, struggling to the death under the strife.
Chu Mingyun suddenly raised the corners of his lips, the light laughter had not yet melted into the sound of the rain, and people had already swept up. The captain of the guard raised the long sword that supported his body, and swung it out brazenly. Full strength is the power that can sever the opponent's sword together with flesh and blood.
The long knife drew a dazzling arc in the rain screen, but it went empty and slashed into nothingness. The captain of the guard suddenly widened his eyes, staring at the man in front of him in disbelief, the long sword pierced his throat without a handle for a moment, he could not make a sound, and his blood-red eyes were full of unwillingness.
Chu Mingyun didn't look at him, but looked at the magnificent palace with layers of rain curtains, his voice was a bit colder than the rain, "I am the destiny."
He withdrew his sword backhand and stepped over the corpse. The cold rain washed the iron armored long sword, and the white jade stone steps smeared all over the place.
The heavier the rain, the strong wind blew the window lattices, the long wind pierced through the hall, the fireworks on the white candles swept out, and the ancestral hall was dim.
Su Shiyu, who was kneeling under the clan's tablet, slowly raised his eyes, and the tablet of Su Jue facing him was shining with a cold light, and it fell on and off in his eyes.
"Father," Su Shiyu whispered after a long time, "...Am I wrong?"
The voice fell in silence, and the tablets of the loyal souls of the Su family of several generations quietly looked down at him without answering.
The window was blown open, and the cold wind and rain poured in all of a sudden.
She heard the sound of countless footsteps stepping over the torrential rain, and it was clearly approaching. The man who was as bright as a red lotus finally came with his sword, stepped on the long bloody road, and pushed open the heavy hall door.
Lu Qing and Huo Ran stood up and stood in front of her. She stared at Chu Mingyun, her hand holding the knife was tightly clenched, and she couldn't help shaking slightly. She knows her own ability, it is still reluctant to deal with the man in black behind him, let alone the captain of Chu who has been killing for many years, not to mention she has an inexplicable sense of closeness to Chu Mingyun, she does not want to be an enemy of him at all, but I don't even want to see Li Yanzhen die.
Chu Mingyun turned his head and looked over, with no expression on his face.
Lu Qinghe bit his head to meet his gaze, struggling and uneasy in his heart, and suddenly the hand stretched out behind him and took her into his arms. She was stunned for a moment, Li Yanzhen's hand covered her hand holding the knife, Lu Qing and the whole person were extremely stiff and did not move for a while, Li Yanzhen sighed softly and shook her hand. She finally couldn't help her red eyes, trembling all over, and slowly released the knife with difficulty.
"Dang bang", the long knife fell to the ground.
A forced palace came to an end so quickly.