Chapter 6 Journey

Just when Ye Qingping was still struggling in the arena, the East Palace was in chaos. It turned out that the prince was sick and was very sick.

Prince Li Yan leaned on the chair of the Grand Master, his face pale and blood-colored.

Although the remaining poison in his body had long been cleared after the careful treatment of the imperial physician, he was still weak when he spoke.

Zhan Wushuang sat beside him, pointed at a maid who was trembling with fear underneath, and said coldly: Lin Juan, Your Highness has never treated you badly, but you have revenge and poisoned your Highness to assassinate your Highness. Why didn't I realize that you were a wolf-hearted beast?

The maid named Lin Juan cried and defended: I am wronged. How dare I do such a traitor? It must be that a traitor framed me. I am not willing to die, but I let the traitor succeed, and I am afraid that he will harm Your Highness in the future.

Zhan Wushuang looked at her and sneered: Unjust?What does this confession say?

That was torture and forced to confess, and I had to ask for help.

If you are a foolish woman, you will not admit it if you don’t need to be punished.Someone came, I was punished with a clamp.

Zhan Wushuang waved his hand and immediately walked up to the two servants and raised her body, but another person took out the torture instrument.

The torture instrument was two wooden boards, one was a flat board, and the other was raised upward in an arc, with eight steel nails more than one inch long standing on it. There were holes on both sides of the wooden boards, and ropes were worn in the middle, which was dark black. I don’t know how many people’s blood was stained.

Lin Juan was so scared that she was scattered when she saw the torture instrument. While crying and shouting for injustice, she knocked her head to the ground like a chicken pecking at rice, making blood flow from her forehead.

The two servants were veterans of execution and had long been used to this kind of scene. They were unmoved at all. They dragged her to the wooden board full of steel nails and pressed her face down.

Lin Juan saw the eight steel nails getting closer and closer to her, screaming and twisting her body desperately, but her struggle in front of the two strong men seemed so weak.

With a heart-wrenching scream, eight steel nails pierced into her lower abdomen and nailed her to it.

The pain caused by the long nail piercing her abdomen almost made her faint, and she felt that the internal organs in her belly were torn apart, and she grinned in pain and she had tears and snot.

The two servants quickly pressed another wooden board on her back, pressed a huge rock on it, and then tied the ropes at both ends of the wooden board to the winch.

As the winch rotated and the rope tightened, the two wooden boards gradually clamped, making her bones clatter.

Lin Juan was just a weak woman of eighteen or nineteen years old. She could not stand this torture. She kept screaming like a wild beast. She clenched her hands tightly into fists and hit the ground hard, but her legs were shaking like sieve chaff, and even a pair of embroidered shoes kicked away.

As the board became tighter, she gradually couldn't breathe smoothly, and her screams weakened and eventually turned into a low whimper.

Her eyes were bulging, her mouth was as big as a bowl, and she was sucking desperately like a fish stranded on the river beach. Her facial features were distorted in pain, and her face was full of pain.

With a soft puff, the yellow-brown shit and urine were squeezed out. In a moment, a large piece of stain appeared on the green long skirt, and a pungent smell spread throughout the room.

Lin Juan was tortured, her eyes turned pale and she fainted.

Seeing Lin Juan's tragic appearance, Li Yan couldn't help but look unbearable, and turned to Zhan Wushuang and said: Lian'er, I think she has been tortured so much, so let's stop today.

Zhan Wushuang grabbed the prince's hand and said: Your Highness is kind, but someone wants to harm you. If you don't understand it today, I'm afraid you and I will die in the future without a place to bury you and me.Your Highness will one day become the king of a country. How could he lose his country and the country because of his merciful heart?

As he said that, he waved his hand to the two servants, causing them to loosen the plywood. One of them brought a basin of cold water and poured it on Lin Juan's face.

Aroused by the cold water, Lin Juan slowly woke up, opened her breathless eyes, and moaned: It hurts so much, it hurts so much...

A servant took out a steel nail from the box beside him, shook it in front of Lin Juan, and sneered: Are you going to do it?If I don't help, I will use these steel nails to serve.

Lin Juan saw the big handful of steel nails, and she was filled with fear in her eyes and said in a trembling voice: I will do it, I will do it all.It was Eunuch Cai who ordered me to poison His Highness’s diet. He said that if this matter is done, he would give me a lot of money and let me go out of the palace to reunite with my family...

After Lin Juan woke up, she felt that the burning pain in her stomach did not relieve at all, but became more and more intense. She was determined to die quickly, and she talked about the poisoning intermittently and begged: I have said everything I should say, I just want you to have a good time.

Zhan Wushuang heard Lin Juan begging hard, but just sneered and said: You are such a shameless beast, killing you with one knife will make you a good deal. Come on, continue to torture me.

You...you are the shameless beast...I have already taken the initiative, why do you still torture me?...You must die... Lin Juan shouted at the top of her lungs, and after just a few screams, the two servants blocked their mouths with a dirty cloth, and then the plywood was tightened again.

This time they had no scruples and made a ruthless move. Lin Juan made a sound of bone shattering, her whole body twitching violently, and a giggling sound came from her throat. She felt that her internal organs were crushed little by little and squeezed out of her body, making her feel in pain.

But her mouth was blocked, and Lin Juan could not speak, so she could only shake her head desperately, kicking her legs, hoping to faint as soon as possible, and blood began to flow out between her legs, dyed her skirt red, flowing out along her thighs, slowly spreading along the gaps of the floor tiles, and a small pool formed on the ground in a moment.

Not long after, a piece of pink intestine was squeezed out of her body. A servant who was executing the execution walked forward, hooked her intestines with an iron hook and pulled it out with force. With a puff, he pulled out a large number of intestines and stomachs that were emitting heat from her stomach.

Lin Juan let out a muffled groan, her eyes suddenly opened as big as a copper bell. She shook her head vigorously for the last time. Her body tensed up and slowly collapsed, her head drooped and she never moved again.

The executioner walked over to explore her breath before getting up to report: Your Highness, the criminal Lin Juan was killed by the punishment.

Zhan Wushuang walked forward, and a servant grabbed Lin Juan's hair and raised her face for verification.

She frowned, her eyes wide open, and blood slowly flowed out of her nostrils until she died, and she looked unwilling.

The servant reached out to take out the dirty cloth that blocked her mouth, and half of her bloody tongue fell to the ground from her mouth. It turned out that she was unable to be tortured and bit her tongue and committed suicide.

I'll take it down and bury it. Don't let Eunuch Cai know.

After Zhan Wushuang gave the order, he sighed softly and said in his heart: Lin Juan, I have no grudges and grudges with you and I don’t want to harm your life. But if you don’t die, I will not be able to make a deal with Your Highness the Princess, and I can only die.So don’t blame me, if you want to blame yourself, you will blame yourself for your hard life. I hope you will be reborn as soon as possible.

Two servants dragged Lin Juan's body down, and someone came up to clean up the blood and filthy things on the ground and lit incense.

With just one cup of tea, the house was cleaned up, as if nothing had happened.

Who would have thought that a flower-like woman had just ended her youthful life here and added a ray of unjust soul to this old house.

Eunuch Cai has always supported my brother. He really wants to kill me now. What should I do?

The prince looked at Wushuang with tears in his eyes, but his voice was filled with tears.

Seeing that he was so scared, Zhan Wushuang couldn't help but sigh and comforted: You are the prince of the current dynasty, and he dares to openly kill you. Sooner or later, you will be that person, and killing him is like slaughtering a pig or a dog.

You don't know that the father obeyed his words. If he was fanning the flames and fires by the side, the destruction and establishment would only come soon, and I am afraid that you and I will suffer a great disaster.

Wushuang seemed a little panicked when he said this and said, "But we can't just sit there and wait for death. I heard that Princess Pingning is resourceful and favored by the emperor. She is the only one in the dynasty who can compete with Eunuch Cai for her strengths. It's better for us to find her...

The prince shook his head and said: My girl is quite scheming, but Eunuch Cai is in power and has the imperial guards in her hand, so she can't do anything.

Wushuang no longer advised him, held him in his arms, and gently stroked his hair like comforting a child.

Wushuang knew that his purpose had been achieved. A seed of hatred had been planted and would sooner or later take root and sprout. If that moment really came, the prince would definitely go to the princess's side.

The fallen leaves accumulated on the ground in autumn rain gradually rotted into soil, and the howling north wind brought the breath of cold winter.

Ye Qingping has been in the arena for a year. As her poisonous woman's sword skills gradually improve, and with the emergence of various conspiracies and intrigues, no one in the arena is her opponent.

Su Ru knew that peeping into other people's martial arts is a taboo in the world, so she was strange but not convenient to say more. She just advised Ye Qingping from time to time, hoping that she would not go on a wrong path and regret it for life.

The fighting arena was very lively again this day. Ye Qingping looked at the spear opposite with a big knife in her hand. The woman in her thirty-year-old sneered and said: You should break it yourself, so as not to lose your composure when I start to move, and make you worse than death.

Nonsense, look at the gun.

The woman shouted loudly, shook the spear in her hand, and stabbed Ye Qingping's chest quickly. She had heard of Ye Qingping's power for a long time, so she used her ultimate trick, a serial gun. Her spear technique had a total of seven consecutive shots, one shot was as fast as one shot, until she asked the other party to avoid it.

But Ye Qingping didn't dodge her. Seeing that the spear stabbed her chest, she suddenly turned around and rolled up along the gun like a top, and threw the long knife in her hand and slashed towards her waist.

The woman was outside and could not retract the block, so she could only retreat desperately.

However, how could Ye Qingping avoid the quick knife that was coming and going like the wind? With a slight sound, the long knife had already cut into her waist from the side, cut most of her body and cut it to her navel before stopping.

The woman lowered her head and looked at the blade protruding from the middle of her navel, then looked up at Ye Qingping, looking confused, as if she was unwilling to accept the reality of losing and dying.

Ye Qingping didn't care what she was thinking, a dying man had. She raised her legs and kicked her lower abdomen, pulled her hand hard, and pulled out the long knife.

The woman suddenly burst into blood from her waist, she screamed, staggered back a few steps, and fell to the ground with a plop.

The blood mixed with her intestines rushed out of the wound on her body and a big stall was piled on the ground in a moment.

Due to excessive blood loss, her scream gradually turned into a weak moan, and her whole body twitched.

Ye Qingping walked forward and stabbed her chest with a knife, completely ending her pain. She was too lazy to pull out the knife, so she left it on her body and turned around and left the arena.

For Ye Qingping, this was just an extremely ordinary battle, but she didn't know that there were eyes staring at her in the stands.

Only one side of the middle-aged man with a broad mouth asked a murderous man behind him: Lu Biao, how is this little girl's martial arts skills better than you?

The big man named Lu Biao said lightly: Her swordsmanship is a bit strange, but her internal strength is still weak, so she is slow to take action... If I attack with all my strength, I will take her life within twenty moves.

After hearing this, the middle-aged man slapped his thigh and said with a smile: You General Lu is the number one tiger general of my Tang Dynasty, and she is just an unknown slave. If she can really fight you for ten moves, wouldn’t it be a waste to stay here?

He turned around and said to a man sitting next to him with a long beard and handsome face: Brother Zhang, you have heard it all.Now that the country is in trouble, the bandits are rampant, and the court is employed. It is a pity that you can keep these slaves here and fight bravely. It is better to lend me the people and let them go to the battlefield to kill the bandits and serve the country. If you can achieve something, it will be a blessing for the people.

The man named Zhang was the owner of the arena. After hearing this, he stroked his long beard and smiled: Brother Shangguan said very well. I had this intention when I first founded this arena. Tomorrow I will give Brother Shangguan the list of slaves in the arena.After Brother Shangguan returned triumphantly to suppress the thieves, he said a few good words to me in front of the princess's palace.

On that side, the man smiled and said: Brother Zhang’s elder brother is the celebrity around His Highness. When is it my turn to speak.

The two of them laughed after saying that.

In a small house, Ye Qingping, Su Ru and Lao Xutou sat in a ball. There was wine and meat on the table, and a bronze hot pot. The water in the pot was boiling, making the room linger in heat.

Ye Qingping looked at the delicious food of this table and was already salivating, but she forced herself to hold back the greed and wriggling in her stomach, and she didn't move her chopsticks. She thought to herself: This old man Xu is very stingy on weekdays, and today she is so generous. She must have something to ask for when setting up this big table of banquets.Could it be that we saw that our contract was coming and we wanted to keep us, so we set up this Hongmen Banquet to poison us?

Although I am not your opponent, with my lame master and sister Su, if I can't dismantle you from a corpse, I, Ye Qingping, wrote the three words "Ye Qingping" upside down.

Ye Qingping felt cruel in her heart, and she was indeed smiling on her face, just waiting for Old Xu to show off.

Old Xu was indeed the first to ask: It has been almost a year since the two girls came, right?

It's just one year away from thirteen days.Ye Qingping was afraid that she would deny it, so she rushed to answer.

It is precisely that the poison on your body has been relieved, and from then on you will be a free body and will be able to leave tomorrow.

After saying that, the old man took out the contracts of her two of them from his arms and threw them into the charcoal fire next to him and burned them.

Ye Qingping and Su Ru suddenly had all the shackles on their bodies, and they couldn't believe it for a moment. When they looked at each other, they felt like they were different.

Old Xu looked at the expressions of her two people, picked up the wine and smiled and said: My old Xu has been in this arena for seven years, and has seen countless people, but he is only most in love with the two girls. I don’t know when I will meet again today.Come on, we have this cup.

When Su Ru and Ye Qingping heard his sincerity, they remembered that he had taken great care of the two over the past year. They couldn't help but feel grateful and drank the wine in the glass in one go.

The three of them chatted while drinking and eating. After the two of them were full of food, Old Xu asked about their future plans.

Ye Qingping looked confused, but Su Ru sighed and said: I was originally a descendant of the general, and my father was wandering around the world after his unjustly death.Nowadays, small and medium-sized people are in power, thieves are rampant, and the people are living in poverty. I should serve the country and reorganize the mountains and rivers of the Tang Dynasty. But I have no way to serve the country, so I can only do something about the crowing of chickens and dogs. Whenever I think about it, I always feel ashamed and dare not speak out.

After hearing her, Old Xu clapped and praised: Miss Su is concerned about the country and is really a hero among women. Why do I admire Old Xu? My master is close friends with Mr. Shangguan, the general of Weiwei, the governor of Napinglu. Now Lord Shangguan is being ordered to recruit troops and seize the thieves. My master wants to recommend you to serve the country. I wonder if the two girls are willing?

Su Ru had long wanted to join the army to serve the country, and she immediately agreed happily after hearing such a good opportunity.

Ye Qingping had nowhere to go anyway, and she couldn't resist Su Ruxiao's righteousness. Old Xu tempted him with benefits, and finally agreed vaguely.

Old Xu took out a letter and handed it to Su Ru and said: You two will go to the military camp in the north of the city to sign up tomorrow morning. I hope the two girls will make achievements on the battlefield as soon as possible and return in glory.

Ye Qingping left when she heard the instructions, and suddenly remembered the lame master, so she made an excuse and hurriedly said goodbye and left.

Ye Qingping hurried to the yard but found that the lame man had already been waiting for her under the tree. Before she could speak, the lame man smiled and said: Congratulations to Miss Ye for her escape from the sea of ​​suffering and achieving her true achievements in the future. Become a general and a marquis, don’t forget me, the lame master.

What are you talking nonsense? I'm going to fight to the death. I can't tell you that I'll die on the battlefield. I don't know if I can come back alive.

After Ye Qingping went out, she was already awake by the cold wind. She suddenly remembered that fighting was not a joke. At that time, there were weapons and arrows everywhere. No matter how high your martial arts were, it would be useless. The general was awesome on the battlefield on a horse, but most ordinary soldiers died in the battlefield, and he couldn't help but regret it.

Seeing her look frustrated, the lame man comforted her: Haven’t you learned the sword technique of the poisonous woman? You will be invincible at that time. Who can stop you from having one move or half of your move?

Ye Qingping shook her head and said: Your cripple sword technique is okay to scare people in the arena, but it is probably not very useful on the battlefield.

Nonsense, my sword technique... The cripple suddenly said seriously: You and I will play the master and disciple at least, don’t be the old cripple, call me a master.

Ye Qingping also put away her hippie smile, knelt on the ground solemnly, said to her master, kowtowed three times, stood up and asked: I dare to ask the master's name, what sect and sect?

The lame man remained silent, as if he was trapped in memories, and later he slowly said: It’s okay to tell you. My surname is Li and my name is Huan. I came from Shaolin. Later, for a woman, I went out to the wall and washed the precepts and killed the bald donkey.I have many enemies in this world, and any one of them can make you a dilemma, so don’t put my name before others.Ye Qingping was moved when she heard that he had told her such a secret matter, but then she thought: This lame man is really brave, so it would be better to distance himself from him in the future.

Li Huan continued: In fact, you are much more thorough than Su Ru, and you are not restricted in your character. Sooner or later, you will do something earth-shaking. You will either be a great good or a great evil.I don’t need secular common sense such as loyalty, filial piety, trustworthiness and righteousness to persuade you. I just hope that when you find it difficult to make decisions in the future, it’s good to ask yourself and be ashamed of your heart.

He untied the broken knife from his waist, handed it to Ye Qingping, and said: There is nothing to give to you as a teacher. This weapon has been with me for many years, and I will give it to you today. However, this knife is a very evil weapon. It was broken by lightning after being angry with heaven. Don’t use it until you save your life.

Ye Qingping took the broken knife, but found that it was extremely heavy. She almost didn't hold it down when she sank her hand. Looking carefully, she saw that although the blade broke from the middle, the remaining part was still more than three feet long, and it was so dark that it was cast by something.

She put the broken knife behind her back and said to Li Huan for a while, saying goodbye to Yiyi, and was about to turn around and leave, suddenly she heard Li Huan say: Last time I said you are a cursed person, don’t take it to heart.The world is full of impermanence, and cause and effect conflict with each other, but who can clearly say the word "destiny"?Those who speculate on fate are just a joke.

After saying that, he laughed to the sky, leaving Ye Qingping, who was still stunned, and left with a crazy nursery rhyme.

Starting from yesterday evening, snowflakes floated in the sky, and it never stopped overnight. In the morning, the snow was getting heavier and heavier. The bitter cold wind mixed with goose feathers and heavy snow ruthlessly raging between the sky and the earth, making people unable to open their eyes.

Under the hazy sky, there was a vast white area in the wilderness outside Chang'an City. You could vaguely see some dilapidated houses and several dead trees on the roadside floating in the strong wind.

Because it was early winter, snowflakes fell to the ground and made the ground muddy.

In the wind and snow all over the sky, a team of Tang soldiers stepped on the mud deep and shallowly, moving forward towards the east with difficulty.

Logically speaking, such weather was not suitable for marching. If you can't walk two or three miles a day, you have to rest. Unfortunately, the military situation ahead was urgent, so the Tang army, which was temporarily pieced together by peasants and slaves, still set off on time.

Ye Qingping and Su Ru walked shoulder to shoulder at the end of the team. She wore an iron helmet and a ragged soft armor. In fact, the so-called soft armor was just a few pieces of iron sheets wrapped in wooden pieces and then tied with a rope.

It turned out that she stole a lot of jewelry from the dead in the arena. As soon as she arrived at the barracks, she bribed the recruited officers and bought a military officer as a military officer. The remaining money was bought this simple piece of armor to fill the storefront.

Su Ru naturally disdains to do such things, so like other soldiers, she still has the original worn cotton coat covering her body.

Ye Qingping turned around and took a last look at Chang'an City in the distance, but saw that the majestic city wall was left with only a vague outline in the flying snow, which could no longer be seen in detail.

I remembered the scene when she first came here as a slave two years ago, and the days and nights when she first entered the brothel, then entered the death row, and then struggled in the arena of life and death, everything seemed to be in a dream.

Chang'an, I will come back one day.

She secretly swore in her heart, turned around and walked towards the battlefield full of fire and fire, and there seemed to be a voice calling to her in the dark.

……