The mouth of the chasm was not very wide, which meant the cliff wall on the opposite side was not particularly far.
The two straight swords left behind by He Tangtang and Young Master Shiheng alternated, whirling between the two sides and tracing the widest arc Rusty Sister's Dimple Slash could currently achieve.
At the cliff's edge, dead iron straight swords swept back and forth!
"You..."
Jackson and his deputy finally entered the area, but their sprint gradually slowed more than two hundred meters away, coming to a halt there.
It was useless to say anything now; he had better think carefully about what to do next.
At this moment, as the distance narrowed, Jackson suddenly sensed Han Qingyu's fury and emotional state with startling clarity. His sheer resolve, his strength, of course, and that blue starlight column sword said to sweep through everything at will.
*What the hell if he's gone completely berserk with killing, and I just charge right into him...*
Standing there, Jackson stared fixedly at those four backs for a moment, then turned to look at the eyes watching him from three sides.
His mood instantly shifted from urgency and anger to dejection; he felt cursed with rotten luck.
As the Alliance commanding officer of this Perimeter Xilang Peak battlefield, he would certainly be held accountable afterward.
Yet the far more troublesome problem right before him was that if he mishandled the scene in the slightest, he would likely be dragged headlong into the long, immense factional struggle that would follow.
Jackson knew there was definitely more to this affair than met the eye, though things were not yet clear.
Meanwhile, over at Xilang Peak, Commander Chen Buer had just stepped forward in person to denounce Alphonse. Without evidence, a blatant accusation.
The strongest Star of Azure in history had personally stepped forward to accuse a First Generation Star of Azure.
*If I'd known, I would've shown up even later,* Jackson thought to himself.
Up ahead, faint footsteps sounded.
Jackson turned his gaze back. At the cliff's edge, Han Qingyu turned around.
Then Wu Xu, Rusty Sister, and Wen Jifei turned around as well.
The four of them stood there calmly.
The weapons driven into the opposite cliff face were not retrieved.
*Does this mean... it's over?*
*And then what?*
Jackson hesitated.
In the distance, Shao Xuan withdrew his gaze, turned to glance at the old chief of staff beside him—who was standing on tiptoe, squinting as he watched—and said, "Jackson took his time getting here."
"Mm. He took an urgent and very important call just now. General Chen Buer, supreme commander of the Xilang Peak main battlefield, personally coordinated the follow-up troop deployments for both battlefields with him."
As the old chief of staff spoke, he began adjusting his uniform, but not to neaten it; instead, he disheveled it to make himself look travel-worn, rushed, and disarranged.
"Time for me to go up."
Reaching out, he tapped the back of his hand against Shao Xuan's shoulder. The old chief of staff broke into a jog and said, "Oh, by the way, Captain Shao, please help retrieve their weapons in a bit."
"Huh? Oh."
Without waiting for an answer, the old man ran forward in Shao Xuan's sight with slightly staggering steps, rushed into the open ground, and stopped bent double. Panting violently, he raised his head... His expression suddenly froze, his eyes staring at the scene in shock and fury.
The entire field fell dead silent.
"You bastards!" The old man straightened up and roared furiously at the four of them.
Then he whirled left, right, and behind him, casting about hastily.
"Sixth Army Long Blade Squad, step forward!"
"...Sir!" Lu Chengzhong hurriedly led his squad members over, rushing before the old man, falling in, snapping to attention, and saluting. "Chief of Staff, you called for us..."
"Take them into custody! Arrest them!"
The old chief of staff roared at the top of his lungs.
When he roared this command, he did not look back, merely pointing backward toward the four by the cliff's edge. Out of fury, the old man's raised arm and fingers trembled slightly.
The onlookers surrounding three sides collectively froze.
"What's going on? The Huaxia Front is stepping in to arrest their own people! Jackson isn't saying a word?"
"No idea."
"Are you blind? Believe me, Jackson is probably weeping with joy on the inside right now. He'd love nothing more than for things to wrap up like this on the spot."
"Yeah, it's a hot potato—nobody dares touch it! Either way, the Huaxia Front can't just let them go directly."
Hushed murmurs rippled through the crowd.
In their view,
Long Blade Squad did not assume a combat formation; they jogged in column toward the cliff's edge.
The old chief of staff, his eyes still burning with anger and disappointment, walked toward Jackson with a look of self-reproach.
Han Qingyu and his companions offered no resistance. Naturally, they were neither bound nor had their apparatuses removed; they simply followed Long Blade Squad away.
Everyone watched their receding figures.
"How do you think this will be handled? Will Major Qing and the others..."
"They won't be executed. As long as the incident can't be officially classified, they'll probably just be kept locked up while the legal battles drag on. The headache goes to the Alliance Court now. It's just a pity that for a long time to come, we probably won't be seeing The King and his teammates on Azure's battlefields."
Amid the hushed discussions, Han Qingyu and the others walked past their teammates from Squad 1777.
"Don't worry," Han Qingyu said with a smile, meeting his teammates' gazes.
"Yeah, a bunch of grown men with reddened eyes looks terrible. Everyone should be celebrating right now. Oh, and apply for a transfer back to Huaxia as soon as possible," Wen Jifei added.
Having spoken, they walked on.
***
A makeshift cell was set up in the core area of the main camp. Since there were no extra permanent buildings, it was simply a large military tent, guarded outside by an elite squad.
Inside the tent, bedding and other necessities were fully provided. Han Qingyu looked around after walking in and said, "Everyone get some rest."
Then he lay down himself and went to sleep.
...He actually fell asleep.
Suppressing a chuckle, Wen Jifei muttered softly, "You bastard."
Wu Xu glanced around, took a quilt to the inner side of the tent entrance, spread it on the ground, lay down as well, and closed his eyes to sleep.
Rusty Sister walked over lightly, checked on Han Qingyu, and sat down quietly on the far side of the tent, keeping a silent vigil.
The time was 6:07 a.m. Dawn had broken.
The morning light was chilly, the air heavy with moisture, and dew still dripped from grass blades... Deep in the hinterland of the plateau battlefield, a figure whose clothes were not yet completely dry sat on the grass, twisting his neck to dress the wound on his shoulder.
Applying medicine, wrapping bandages.
Biting one end between his teeth, he finished tying off the bandage. Liu Shiheng looked down at his abdomen. The blood there had long been washed away by the river currents, revealing a hole torn in his clothes.
Around this hole, someone had deliberately frayed the edges, leaving clinging shreds and ragged fibers.
That way, when soaked in thick blood, it had looked just like a puncture wound gushing gore.
"Sorry, Qingzi, Plague Chicken, Wu Xu, Rusty Sister... and everyone else. Actually, having you all miss me isn't so bad either."
Young Master Shiheng muttered under his breath. A flicker of guilt touched his eyes, but in the end, the corners of his mouth curved up and he couldn't help grinning.
He had decided to leave after all—to leave Azure.
At the time, Jiayina and the other civilians had already evacuated, the battle by the riverbank was raging fiercely, and his shoulder had genuinely been injured. The moment he saw blood, Liu Shiheng had made up his mind.
He had left behind the straight sword Zhang Dao'an had used, taken his source energy apparatus, and plunged into the river clutching a piece of wood.
"Good thing I was fast enough. I was almost caught by that prick Qingzi.
"As for that piece of wood—if the situation hadn't been so chaotic and they hadn't been frantic with worry, Plague Chicken would definitely have spotted something was off, right? Wonder if he'll figure it out afterward. Doesn't matter if he does—I even coughed up a mouthful of blood on purpose to drop a hint."
Back then, after plunging into the river, Liu Shiheng had swum against the current, crawling upstream. When Han Qingyu came down later and searched downstream, there was no way he could have found him.
Of course, that was only one part of his calculation. On the other hand, doing so brought Liu Shiheng's current position close to the area where they had originally emerged.
Here, the swarm of Great Spikes had already moved on, and Azure forces certainly wouldn't be able to enter until the cleanup was finished.
Aside from the risk of lingering Alphonse family operatives moving in from the south, or running into the Cleansing Faction, Self-Preservation Faction, or the like, Young Master Shiheng looked at the map he had drawn earlier, stowed it away, and stood up.
"A fish back in the sea!"
Chapter 355