Chapter 1266: 1261: Live and Die Together
Chapter 1266: Chapter 1261: Live and Die Together
The hidden guards charged into the hall, risking their lives, only to protect their Emperor of Xiliang, boldly moving forward without fear of death, joining the fray inside the hall, determined to sacrifice themselves to safeguard their ruler.
The leader of the secret guard team, gravely wounded from defending Li Tianjiao, witnessed the hidden guards rushing in from outside the hall, one after another aiming for Bai Qingyu, tangling Bai Qingyu up, holding their bleeding arms and wielding a longsword to slowly escort Li Tianjiao backward, retreating to the corner of the hall.
Bai Qingyu’s eyes were calm and dark, sword energy surging, moving with the momentum of wind and thunder, every move being a rapid and lethal attack, where the cold glare reached, scorching blood mist sprayed, techniques like the furious splashing tides, so fast that it was hard to see clearly, even the afterimages could not be handled, it did not seem like someone still recovering from severe injuries.
Even these top-notch hidden guards of Xiliang were no match for Bai Qingyu. It took several working together to barely hold Bai Qingyu’s steps. Li Tianjiao clenched her jaw, retreating calmly and composedly, regretting deeply that she hadn’t just killed Bai Qingyu right away.
With a solemn declaration, the leader of the secret guard team slashed open the fabric binding Li Tianjiao, “Your Majesty, we will do our utmost to hold back the enemy forces, Your Majesty must leave immediately!”
Within the Imperial Palace of Xiliang, there is a secret passage, usually kept confidential, known only to the reigning Emperor.
This is precisely for emergency times when the Emperor needs to escape, leaving hope for Xiliang.
The Emperor’s personal hidden guards mostly knew which palace contained the secret passage but didn’t know the exact location, as a precaution against betrayal.
Now, the words of the leader of the secret guard team clearly indicated for Li Tianjiao to escape through the passage.
The exit was certainly impassable, but the secret passage was within this palace; as long as Li Tianjiao entered it, she could safely get out of the city.
But… what the hidden guards didn’t know was that Li Tianjiao had no idea where the passage was located.
Previously, the late Emperor of Xiliang died from Bai Qingyun’s assassination attempt, never having the chance to reveal the passage’s location to Li Tianjiao.
Afterward, when Li Tianjiao ascended the throne, she searched everywhere in here alone but never found it, and the designs of the palace in the library didn’t mark the secret passage either.
The individuals who designed and constructed this Xiliang Imperial Palace were all executed by Li Tianjiao’s ancestor on the day the palace was completed.
Moreover, even if Li Tianjiao knew where the passage was, she absolutely wouldn’t use it!
“I will not leave!” Li Tianjiao freed her hands from the binding cloth, clenched her jaw tightly, “I… will live and die with Xiliang!”
This was her final pride as the Emperor of Xiliang.
She could kneel down and beg General Cui Shanzhong to emerge, but she would never flee the nation in disgrace to struggle for survival.
Yunjing falls, Xiliang perishes.
As long as the nation is intact, the people remain; when the nation falls, the people perish.
She had already embraced the resolve to sacrifice herself for the nation when she sought out General Cui Shanzhong.
Li Tianjiao charged forward, picked up a longsword from a deceased hidden guard, willing to fight the final battle for Xiliang alongside those soldiers still sacrificing themselves for Xiliang, even in death… she vowed to die on Xiliang soil!
Perhaps it was Li Tianjiao’s fearlessness in the face of death that triggered these hidden guards’ resolve to battle until the end, intensifying their fierceness the more they met adversity.
The leader of the secret guard team shielded Li Tianjiao from behind, seeing one hidden guard after another rush forward, only to perish under Bai Qingyu’s sword.
However, Bai Qingyu was indeed carrying injuries, compounded by the unexpected reactions from Doctor Hong’s medicine mixed with the prescription from Xiliang officials, barely waking Bai Qingyu but causing further unforeseen pain, now having to deal with seven or eight of Xiliang’s most formidable Royal hidden guards all at once. Though not showing on his face, he knew he was barely holding on.
“He can’t continue! Your Majesty… we’re unlikely to leave anyone alive!” The leader of the secret guard team who was always at Li Tianjiao’s side, blood streaming from arm to sword tip, spoke to Li Tianjiao, “But if we kill him, I might have one last desperate attempt!”
Li Tianjiao’s dark eyes showed no hesitation, she decisively ordered, “Kill him!”
Now that Zhou’s forces had reached her palace gates, why keep Bai Qingyu alive any longer?! Even retaining Bai Qingyu now… Xiliang had no chance to negotiate with Zhou.
Rather, let the brother of the Emperor of Zhou bury with Xiliang! With her!
The hidden guards followed orders, whistled, and among them two immediately withdrew from the attack on Bai Qingyu, shielding Li Tianjiao wielding the longsword behind them, then at high speed charged toward Bai Qingyu, catching the moment Bai Qingyu pierced through a Xiliang hidden guard’s chest without time to withdraw his longsword and swiftly drew their swords…
Bai Qingyu’s ears twitched, hearing the friction sound of sword edges slicing through the air, without waiting to draw the longsword from the corpse, he stepped on the blood-splashed red pillar’s golden lotus base, leaped skyward, flip sideways to evade the sword energy, hair strands near his temples sliced off by the sword air.
Before Bai Qingyu landed, the hidden guards previously entangled with him, along with the poised leader of the secret guard team, simultaneously attacked the site where Bai Qingyu was about to touch down.
Outside the hall, bladed wind screamed wildly…
The leader of the secret guard team who was assaulting Bai Qingyu was forced to stagger back by a sudden piercing sword energy brushing close to his lashes.
The longsword, bearing the power of thunder, fiercely stabbed into the red lacquer column, Bai Qingyu stepped on the sword hilt, leveraged it to leap up again, catching a glimpse of a foot kicking a Xiliang Imperial Army general into the hall… the masked Xiao Rongyan.
He clenched his jaw, kicked the longsword toward Xiao Rongyan’s direction. Though borrowing the momentum from Xiao Rongyan’s sword to escape the siege of several hidden guards, as the sword reached Xiao Rongyan, Bai Qingyu stumbled upon landing and crashed onto a side column, clutching his chest, kneeling on one knee, unable to suppress a spout of metallic tang.
Xiao Rongyan leaped to catch the kicked longsword, dashed forth with the speed of wind and thunder, every strike fierce and deadly, these Royal hidden guards were no match for Xiao Rongyan.
Li Tianjiao’s eyes widened, assessing the mask, accurately judging Xiao Rongyan’s identity… Ninth Prince of Yan Kingdom!
It wasn’t the Bai family army but the Ninth Prince of Yan Kingdom saving the Emperor of Zhou’s brother?!
She suddenly felt a chill in her heart, so… General Cui Shanzhong’s ruse had utterly failed, and Yan Kingdom and Zhou were clearly competing to seize Yunjing first, yet the Ninth Prince, Commander of Yan Army, personally risked to rescue the Emperor of Zhou’s brother!
If previously, when the Emperor of Zhou was captive in Jiangzi City, Ninth Prince of Yan, leading his army to rescue and abandoning Yunjing, as he was a man of righteousness, now not commanding the army outside attacking the city but risking to save Bai Qingyu—this… wasn’t something the word ‘righteousness’ could encompass.