pain-
It was a piercing pain. The process of the sword blade piercing through the chest was stretched to an infinite length, and the slow and dull pain rushed up to the brain nerves.
It didn’t hurt this much when Rong Tang was poisoned to death by a cannon fodder villain in his previous life, and it didn’t hurt this much when he fell down the stairs in the life before that.
It is a very heart-wrenching torture to clearly know that you have been betrayed by the person you have always protected.
He opened his eyes in confusion, looking at the young man in front of him who was wearing coarse linen clothes and hiding behind the Guanyin statue in the ruined temple, avoiding the soldiers' pursuit. A trace of confusion flashed across his face: "Why... why...?"
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” The young man’s hands were shaking, his eyes were red, and the cinnabar mole at the corner of his eye, which was usually gentle, romantic and affectionate, seemed to be stained with blood, adding a bit of temptation: “Rong Tang, you are too close to him… I dare not gamble.”
Blood was rapidly draining away, and the body, which had been suffering from low temperature for many years, could not bear it at all. His vision gradually blurred, and a buzzing sound appeared in his mind. Before he collapsed completely, the last words Rong Tang heard were: "Don't worry, after I ascend the throne, I will definitely confer a title on you posthumously."
Rong Tang suddenly wanted to laugh, but when he pulled the corners of his mouth, not even the slightest arc appeared.
When the world was dark and the sounds of soldiers and horses faded away, some people fled from the ruined temple while others entered.
Rong Tang was waiting for the system to help him recover his consciousness when he heard a voice that sounded regretful and cold: "Prince of Ning Xuan? What a pity, Xingfeng—"
"I am here."
"Bury it."
There was no other sound after that, and only a series of rapid mechanical sounds appeared in my consciousness.
[Didi—Level 1 warning!]
[Host dies, mission aborted—]
[Will speed up the flow of time and track the ending of the male protagonist]
[Tracking completed, the hero died, the villain’s ending—]
[The tracking is complete, the villain is missing, Dayu is caught in a melee, the plot line has not changed, and the mission has failed! ]
[Repair process will be initiated soon, timeline will be retraced—]
[…]
[Timeline retracing completed, host's third mission begins]
[Attention! This is the host's last time to travel through time. If the mission continues to fail, the host dies, the small world is annihilated, and this plane will be wiped out forever! ! ! ]
Rong Tang took a long breath, opened his eyes in the void, and called out weakly, "Tong."
[Host, I'm here.] The system's voice was low and weak. It was clearly a mechanical sound without any ups and downs, but Rong Tang could hear a hint of fatigue.
He smiled and asked, "Do you think I'm wrong?"
The system does not speak, and the heart composed of data streams cannot give it an accurate answer.
It has known the host for seven years, during which they have quarreled and disagreed. When conflicts arose, it was even so angry as to humanely shut down the host's permissions.
But until two missions failed in succession, it reviewed every step it had taken and did not find out which step the host had taken wrong.
"Maybe this world is wrong." Rong Tang said softly, lowering his eyes to look at his chest. There was no gap there.
He never thought that one day he would be killed by the male protagonist.
This is a novel world named "The Emperor's Journey". The hero is a typical Dian family character. He has great luck along the way and has countless concubines in the harem. He grew up as a poor little girl in the cold palace and finally became the emperor.
But the last point is just the reader's conjecture when reading the novel.
The protagonist in "The Emperor's Journey" is indeed a male protagonist and he deserves to ascend the throne.
—If the author had not arranged for the previous emperor’s orphan to be the main villain, who was much stronger than him in every way.
Emperor Renshou came to the throne illegitimately, so he plotted rebellion.
In the twenty-fifth year of the late emperor’s reign, something unexpected happened in Dayu.
The barbarians in the north invaded, the princes in the southwest held their own troops, corrupt officials controlled the court, and eunuchs were in charge of the harem. The late emperor was wise and capable for more than twenty years, but until his death he could not understand why the great building of Dayu collapsed in just three months.
The emperor and empress were asked to hang themselves in the Qinzheng Palace, the crown prince died in battle in the northern border while defending the country, the third prince went south to quell the rebellion but his uncle chopped off his head and hung it on the rebel flag, and the fourth princess jumped off the city wall and died for her country. For a time, people in the Dayu Palace died or escaped, and blood flowed for hundreds of miles, dyeing the four towering gates of the capital red.
The palace caught fire and the young seventh prince died in the flames.
Emperor Renshou succeeded in his rebellion and ascended the throne in one fell swoop. As soon as he took the throne, he issued an edict, listing dozens of crimes of the previous emperor, labeling him as incompetent and unworthy of the position, and believing that the change of the throne was the guidance of heaven.
But in fact, not all of the late emperor's descendants died. What was buried in the sea of fire was only the body of a young eunuch who was found by the wet nurse to be a substitute and had not yet been castrated. The young seventh prince was secretly sent out of the palace and lived in someone else's home under an assumed name.
With a deep blood feud, he will naturally become the biggest obstacle on the hero's road to the throne, and also the biggest villain in the whole story.
Under normal circumstances, the villain exists to give the protagonist a golden finger and temper the protagonist's character. But perhaps the author made the villain too beautiful, strong and miserable, and his mind was only focused on revenge. In the end, the author's writing was unable to suppress the character, and the villain Su Huaijing ascended the throne.
Rong Tang only had time to read this far before the article was reported and locked. The subsequent information was provided to him by the system after he traveled through time.
After Su Huaijing ascended the throne, he avenged those who were wronged and took revenge for those who were vengeful. He bloodbathed the court, marched to the northern border, turned Emperor Renshou into a human pig, and issued a nationwide wanted notice for the fleeing male protagonist.
He became an outright tyrant, sitting high in the hall and secretly placing chess pieces in his power.
But in fact, Su Huaijing didn't want to be an emperor at all. He didn't love his people or this country. All he wanted was the destruction of the entire world.
He spent several years cultivating a group of ministers with rebellious intentions. Until they grew stronger, the young emperor stepped down from the dragon throne and waved his hand, and the smoke of war swept across the territory of Dayu.
The nightmare from many years ago has come again, and despair has once again enveloped the city, but this time multiple forces are fighting each other, and no one knows who will be the final winner.
The emperor looked at the rebels heading north and finally smiled happily.
But the consciousness of the small world had just taken shape and it did not have the ability to directly eliminate the villain, so it pulled a lucky person from another world, promised him benefits, and asked him to complete the task.
This lucky guy is Rong Tang.
He was reborn as the sickly little cannon fodder with the same name as in the book, so naturally he had no ability to fight against the villain, so the ultimate mission assigned to him by the system was to protect the hero from being killed by the villain.
Rong Tang was a little luckier than other time travelers, as he had three chances.
The first time, Rong Tang relied on the golden finger of the original plot to secretly help the male protagonist avoid several attacks from the villains. However, he was too prominent and was noticed by Su Huaijing's confidant. They directly poisoned his tea and killed him.
The second time, Rong Tang felt that the entry point might need to be changed, with two parallel lines, helping the hero avoid the villain's attack while trying to get in touch with Su Huaijing to try to dissuade him from killing the hero. But before Su Huaijing could kill him, the hero lost his temper and felt that Rong Tang had betrayed him, which led to the scene just now.
Rong Tang thought that he might be wrong.
He was so good to the male protagonist that he felt he deserved to die for him.
The soul slowly returned to the body, and the feeling of cold and pain once again buried deep in the bone marrow. There was an itch in the throat, and Rong Tang coughed muffledly.
"Master! Master is awake!" There was an excited voice beside him. Rong Tang slowly opened his eyes and saw the ancient bed with exquisite, intricate and heavy carvings.
Again, he thought.
There was plenty of charcoal fire in the house. Three basins of red charcoal worth one or two thousand gold coins were lit as if it were free. The level of extravagance was such that even Rong Tang would be shocked every time he saw it.
But there was nothing he could do. If the house wasn't warmer, his body wouldn't even survive this spring.
Rong Tang called softly: "Shuangfu..."
"Hey! I'm here!" A young boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old, was kneeling beside the bed serving. When he heard the voice, he shed two lines of tears uncontrollably. His little round face like a bun looked very funny when he cried.
Rong Tang smiled. In his previous life and the life before that, Shuangfu couldn't stay with him until the end. The child died before he was twenty years old.
"Go get me a glass of water," he said.
Shuangfu agreed hurriedly, and staggered the moment he stood up. He had lost feeling in his legs after kneeling for so long.
Rong Tang's eyebrows twitched slightly and he sighed silently.
Have to teach again...
I hope I can teach you this time.
He has been miserable enough, having died twice for the male protagonist. Shuangfu cannot die for him a third time.
How can anyone serve others without caring about his or her own life
The warm water was quickly poured over, and Shuangfu helped Rong Tang sit up. He first moistened his lips, and then let the tea flow down his throat to warm his body.
Rong Tang said, "I want to sleep for a while. If the princess comes to see me, I will tell her that I will come to pay my respects when I am well."
He had to sort out his thoughts now. Something was wrong with this time travel. If he continued to do it the same way as the previous two times, the end result would still be death.
And this time it was even worse. The system gave a direct warning. If he failed again, not only he would be affected, but the entire world would be destroyed.
But…
What does this have to do with Rong Tang
For the first time, he separated himself from the world, pondered for a long time, and called out to the system: "System."
[Host, I am here.]
The system was rarely so gentle. Rong Tang was a little uncomfortable. He curled his lips and said, "I may not be the savior."
The rewards for system tasks are too great.
The word "savior" is a natural temptation and responsibility for everyone.
But this responsibility has nothing to do with Rong Tang.
He died in modern times, and now he has lived two more lives, which is already a gain.
He is not a native of this world, and the lives and deaths of these people seem to have nothing to do with him.
Rong Tang tried to convince himself, but the system remained silent, watching him find excuses for himself in his consciousness.
After a long time, the host seemed to finally let it go. He smiled, his face pale, but as calm as usual.
"I can't save the world." Rong Tang said.
The data flow of the main brain was disordered for a moment, and the system watched silently, not letting the disorder disturb Rong Tang.
[Okay.]It said.
Rong Tang smiled again, the corners of his lips raised in a very gentle arc: "But I want to save someone."
There was a huge map in the system space, with a white light flashing in it. Looking into the distance, someone was entering the capital from Shu and was about to disrupt the situation.
After a long time, it replied: [OK.]
"Thank you." Rong Tang smiled and fell asleep again.
He is so tired.
(End of this chapter)