Ch.17 An Old Acquaintance

“You!” the Southern commander could scarcely believe his eyes. What kind of Death God had he offended that the God of War had been sent after his life? Wasn’t she supposed to have vanished from the face of Earth, even rumoured to have died without leaving even bones behind? That was the only reason he had risked leaving the safety of his manor to the war front! “Why are you still alive?!”

“Funny, I was just wondering the same. Exactly how did you escape from my palms-” her gaze dropped to a burning cold as those curled lips drawn into a straight line- “after hurting 'him' that year?”

The commander was forced a step back. He could clearly see the burning hell in those eyes, deceptively covered by a layer of frost. He knew. Behind that mask of indifference, her wrath has already been incurred.

That year, when the Northern’s late Emperor had still been alive, the South had suffered a tremendous loss against the North. At the end of his wits, he had had no choice but to surrender. He had thought that that was the end of everything. He would have resigned to fate as well if he hadn’t been given a God-sent chance to escape. With nothing but revenge on his mind, he had snuck into the Late Emperor’s camp. While his assassination attempt had failed because of the God of War's sudden appearance, he had still managed to pierce the Late Emperor in his abdomen.

Luo Yue’s eyes then as she rushed into the camp had been an uncontrollable mass of rage. He could almost swear he had seen her eyes turn a blood-curdling red. That was the first time he had seen the God of War out of armour. So, she was a lady.

The situation then had not given him enough time to stay in disbelief for long.

He would have been able to reunite and share this shocking news with his dead ancestors that night if the Emperor had not coughed out blood then and distracted the God of War.

He had managed to slip out with his life still in his hands. Although abandoning his troops should have been a death crime, his action had caused the Emperor to be heavily injured and stirred chaos in the North’s politics. On the account that that disturbance had allowed the South to gain time for other plans, he had been let off easily.

Like a fish slipping out of a net, time and again, he had barely kept his life intact. However, today…

What shall come will still come…

He clenched his jaws. There were still more than 30 of them there -all personally handpicked by their General. As long as they dealt with her, they’d be able to launch the planned surprise attack on the Northern troops. ‘God of War or not, she is still a woman!’

The lady could see through his thoughts with one glance. Indeed, it has been quite some time since the fan in her hands last witnessed this much blood.

In the silent forest, the sound of dead branches snapping under one dauntless step was exceedingly loud. That step was taken towards the commander, as though its owner was unaware of the countless weapons pointed at her.

“Stop! Take one more step and we’ll shoot!”

The lady seemed to have turned deaf, taking no heed as the hem of her white robes fluttered with her second step.

Countless arrows left their bows simultaneously. They sliced through the air, the short distance making it practically impossible to miss the living target.

A misjudgement, they unfortunately realised, when she swung her fan at a speed inconceivable to the human eyes, knocking down arrows left and right in the middle of their deadly flight. In the middle of all that, she was still moving forward.

“Stand back, Luo Yue!” the commander raised his sword, but she easily dodged his strike.

He felt a pat from her fan on his right shoulder as she walked past him and disappeared into the forest cover. The last of her words floated with a little laugh to his ears. “Don’t be hasty, I’ll leave you for the last.”

He grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands, a drop of sweat crawling down the back of his neck. “Be careful! She has already killed half of our people. Do not drop your guards!”

“Yes, commander!”

The soldiers quickly gathered together, readying their weapons as they scanned their surroundings with an eagle-like glint. The clashing of swords, the cry of war roared behind them, yet not one of them dared turn their backs. The victory of their army lay in their hands, yet not one of them dared proceed with their mission. They did not know the identity of this person, but the sight of their precious comrades lying motionless on the soiled ground had already made that question redundant.

Whoever she is, one misstep and they will be the ones lying there next.

Luo Yue stood a small distance away from the group, her forehead starting to get damp. Even the God of War was only a human, trying to eliminate this many people on an empty stomach in one sitting was still not an easy task. However, even if she did not have the brute strength of a certain mad dog, she still had the fan in her hands. A fan that would hardly lose to any other weapon.

After all, ‘that person’ had specially taken it into his hands to personally design it for her. He had been cautious, thoughtful, and serious, and under every stroke of his inkbrush, there had been a thousand considerations. Just so that while this fan was sharp enough to slice through the hardest of armours, its blades would never cut its owner. Strong enough to go through countless battles and yet, light enough to be strapped to her waist and small enough to fit perfectly in her hands. A deadly weapon it might have been designed to be, but its exterior design had also not been compromised just so it would look just like any other pretty fan by her side.

His every action, no matter how small, had always been reflected in her eyes and carved into her heart. Sometimes, even she would start wondering, exactly what did she have, to be receiving such attention, care, and affection from him? There were times when even she would start wondering about those ridiculous rumours floating around the Imperial Palace. Could she really have been his daughter? And then she would shake her head because she knew. From the way that he had looked at her, she could easily tell. That kind of warmth in his eyes could not have been the way a father would look at his child.

She had tried countless times to figure out his intentions. Despite how she could always come up with a strategy to turn the odds in their favour on any battlefield, even to his death, this had still remained the only riddle she had not solved.

Now, like always, the gift in her hands was still her greatest weapon. Her ears perked up when she heard movements behind her, and already the fan has left her hands.

If there was one thing she really just loved about this tailor-made weapon of hers, it was this.

She lifted her right hand a few seconds later and caught the fan that had sliced through the air and returned back to its starting point.

Absolutely convenient.

She flicked the blood off her precious fan as a few arrows pierced through the air and stuck themselves into the tree she was hiding behind.

“It came from this direction!”

Her eyebrows knitted a little as she looked down at her robe. Hopefully, she’d be able to come out of this fight without a single hole in her robe or else… She’ll be hearing another few weeks of Xiao Liu’s nagging…

~~