"Bang!" Wen Jifei fired a shot toward Zhu Jiaming.
Zhu Jiaming ignored it completely. He knew them far too well, and he knew they would never waste a lethal bullet on him.
"Little Prince, let's split up and run!"
As if he had never even fired that shot, Wen Jifei offered his sincere advice before adding a persuasive threat. "We're heading for an Azure Fourth Army base right now. If you tag along, you're dead, you hear me?!"
His shout was aimed at Zhu Jiaming, but just as much at the pursuing swarm behind them.
Yet the enemy mob did not stop.
Nor did the Little Prince slow down in the slightest. "Cough, cough... but Major Qing needs me! Besides, even if I have to die, I'd rather die by your hands!"
"..." Wen Jifei itched to swap magazines and put a bullet in him, but having no other choice, he could only turn his head and keep sprinting for his life.
Run. If Qu Zongyan were still alive, they would already be dead by now.
The thrum of helicopter blades suddenly came from the sky once more. The chopper approached again, and this time, it cautiously descended from a slight distance.
Zhe Shouzhao was clad in a full suit of dead iron armor, poking his head out of the open cabin door to look down.
He seemed ready to descend.
If this cowardly bastard actually dared to come down... In a flash of panicked reflex, Wen Jifei hissed forward, "Rusty Sister, grab the hem of Qingzi's clothes and yank backward and down, hard..."
"Why?" Rusty Sister asked in confusion.
"Make him look up at Zhe Shouzhao," Wen Jifei said.
Shen Yixiu understood. Still carrying the man on her back as she ran, she reached up with an iron hand to feel around. Feel, feel... Ah, it was tucked into his waistband! Her armored fingers were clumsy—how was she supposed to pull it out?
"D-don't go groping around, Rusty Sister," a weak voice sounded beside her ear. Han Qingyu murmured, "Put me down. I'll do it myself. Give me the column sword..."
Surprised and relieved, yet deeply worried, Rusty Sister had no time to fuss over formalities. She picked a spot, came to a momentary halt, and lowered Han Qingyu to the ground.
In a clearing among the trees, Han Qingyu stood firmly, gripping the large blue starlight column sword in his hand. He tilted his head back, gazing up at Zhe Shouzhao in the distance, waiting until the man spotted him... and offered him a faint smile.
...The helicopter veered away.
Han Qingyu's column sword could fly... Zhe Shouzhao chose to back off. The logic was simple: even if he was ninety percent certain that Han Qingyu was terribly weak and merely bluffing, so long as the youth could stand on his own two feet and wield that column sword, Zhe Shouzhao would never risk coming down to fight him head-on.
Of course, he could never let them get away either. The logic was identical: fear... This group of people was simply terrifying.
***
"Carry me," Han Qingyu said pitifully, his voice faint from utter exhaustion and weakness.
Then, like a wronged child throwing a tantrum, he collapsed headfirst right against Rusty Sister's breastplate.
*Clang!*
For five hours, they trudged across mountains and ridges... until finally, the flag of Azure appeared ahead.
Wen Jifei: "See that?"
"I see it," Rusty Sister replied.
"Anyone there?"
"Looks like it."
"Let's head over."
***
Inside a room at the makeshift command base—one that was noticeably cramped and rundown relative to the base's tier.
Two soldiers stood before Wen Jifei and Rusty Sister.
One was a lieutenant general who looked under fifty. Tall and straight-backed, with sharp, stern features, he was undeniably handsome by military standards—rumored to be the most handsome among the eleven army commanders of the Huaxia Front. Standing beside him was his secretary.
Lieutenant General Zhang Chiyuan, Commander of the Fourth Army.
Wen Jifei had just exchanged a few brief words with him. Facing Zhang Chiyuan, he had not concealed their identities. Nor had Zhang Chiyuan allowed anyone else to come into contact with them.
Running into an army commander was an unbelievable stroke of luck, yet around him, there were only two squads, along with a gaggle of clerks and logistics personnel. Out of more than a hundred and forty people, there was not a single top combat power. Who would believe that?! Yet that was the reality.
It had been roughly fifteen minutes since they entered the command base.
Wu Xu was still unconscious, Qingzi was still unconscious, and He Tangtang had joined the ranks of the unconscious the moment they arrived.
Outside, Zhe Shouzhao and his troops had neither charged in directly nor pulled back on their own accord.
"They probably have..." Wen Jifei tallied in his head. "Holy shit, three top combat powers."
He looked over.
"What of it? Does an army commander always need top combat powers by his side and heavy guards all around him?" Zhang Chiyuan looked at him and said, "This is within Huaxia territory. Besides, nobody was supposed to know I was here recently..."
"But the other side has three top-tiers and nearly a thousand men," Wen Jifei said frankly.
"Is that so... Then shall we run?" Zhang Chiyuan asked, breaking into a smile.
Running together was obviously out of the question—there were so many clerks and logistics staff. As for slipping away on their own, Wen Jifei glanced at the three unconscious men over there and gave up on that idea. His only option now was to secure Zhang Chiyuan's full support and protection, and then discuss countermeasures with him.
Wen Jifei forced a smile. "Well, one of their three top-tiers is a coward. And on our side, we still have two top-tiers who can fight—fight very well, in fact."
With that, Wen Jifei glanced at Rusty Sister. Rusty Sister nodded. "I can still fight hard."
Rusty Sister was indeed perfectly fine. She had been wounded in the battle last night, but she was already healed. That jade bone on her body was unimaginably miraculous, yet it had no effect whatsoever on Wu Xu, Han Qingyu, or the others.
For the jade bone to work, it seemed to require a specific mechanism—a flow and state of bodily source energy strikingly similar to that of a Great Spike.
Then, Wen Jifei shifted his gaze to Zhu Jiaming.
The Little Prince was severely wounded. He had at least seven or eight lacerations, soaked in blood and wrapped in gauze, trembling by the doorway.
Hearing Wen Jifei say there were still two left, he quietly counted in his head... and abruptly turned toward that Plague Chicken, his exaggerated expression screaming, *Holy shit, look at me! How the hell can I still fight?!*
"Commander Zhang, don't let our Comrade Zhu's appearance fool you. He's very strong," Wen Jifei said to Zhang Chiyuan before turning around. "Isn't that right, Little Prince?"
Wrapped up like a bloody rice dumpling, Little Prince Zhu put on a pitiful look, hesitated, and then nodded. "Yeah."
Given the circumstances, a man had to bow under another's roof; Zhu Jiaming had no other choice. If he had known earlier, he wouldn't have bothered getting bandaged—he would have just fainted on arrival like the others.
Zhang Chiyuan stood calmly through their exchange. Once Wen Jifei turned back, he said, "The problem is your current status. It's very tricky. The moment the military formally acknowledges you, the Coalition will come knocking."
With that, his gaze suddenly turned razor-sharp, fixing on Wen Jifei. Zhang Chiyuan continued, "Moreover, you hid something from me. The enemy you speak of on the other side is actually an Azure major general."
"What?! A major general?!" Rusty Sister shot to her feet, her voice sharp with overwhelming outrage.
*Zhe Shouzhao is a major general?! Qingzi is only a major!*
Rage and grief surged uncontrollably from deep inside her, bursting out in a roar. Yet even though she made no attempt to conceal it, venting it so openly, it still sat like an immense boulder crushing her chest.
Never mind Rusty Sister—even Wen Jifei clenched his fists so hard his knuckles popped, and even Zhu Jiaming quietly cursed from the doorway, "Fuck!"
By this logic, from Azure's perspective: Zhe Shouzhao was one of their own, while the five of them, if not dead, were criminal suspects.
The look in Wen Jifei's eyes as he stared at Zhang Chiyuan began to shift.
Meeting for the first time, they did not know Zhang Chiyuan well. The current situation could not be resolved merely by a few casual words from him; they needed a firm, uncompromising stance if they were to make it out alive.
Driven by fear of Han Qingyu and the others seeking revenge later, Zhe Shouzhao might well take a desperate gamble.
"Yes. Although he's outside the regular roster, rank-wise, that man named Zhe across from us does indeed hold the rank of major general. He sent someone over earlier in his capacity as an Azure officer, probably trying to sound out the tier of this command post, and even claimed he wanted to bring a few people inside to pay a visit..."
As Zhang Chiyuan spoke, his gaze suddenly bypassed Wen Jifei, looking behind him.
There, Han Qingyu—who had constantly maintained psychological auto-suggestion to keep himself from plunging into a deep coma—had regained consciousness once more.
When he opened his eyes, pain wracked his entire body. Blood surged in his throat, and the laceration across his face pulled tight, making him wince. Turning around, he immediately looked for Wu Xu and asked, "How's Wu Xu?"
"Still alive. But our accompanying medics have done all they can. We don't have the necessary equipment here. We must find a way to transfer him to a rear-line hospital... to give it another shot."
The one who answered was Zhang Chiyuan.
It was an unfamiliar voice. Han Qingyu looked back, momentarily disoriented, before his eyes fell upon Zhang Chiyuan's epaulets.
"Fourth Army, Zhang Chiyuan. State your details," Zhang Chiyuan said sternly.
"Ninth Army, Han Qingyu."
"Oh. It really is you." Zhang Chiyuan looked him up and down. "So, didn't you know? The relationship between the Fourth Army and the Ninth Army has been terrible for decades. We even got into fights over battlefield spoils back then, and there's been friction ever since. Over the past year, because of you, Lu Wuzheng has been acting insufferably arrogant in front of me. I didn't even attend the last All-Army Conference because of that..."
As Zhang Chiyuan spoke, he watched Han Qingyu struggle to drag himself to his feet.
From the look of it, he seemed intent on heading out the door.
*So this one is a tough nut to crack!* Meeting them for the first time, Zhang Chiyuan was genuinely intrigued by these youngsters. In just ten-odd minutes, he had already observed Wen Jifei and Rusty Sister—a young girl and a little rogue.
Truly, a team needed all sorts of people to function. The corners of Zhang Chiyuan's mouth curled into a slow smile. Han Qingyu, the one who intrigued him most, was turning out just as expected: an iron-willed soldier who would never bow his head—
"Actually, Commander Zhang, we aren't really Ninth Army personnel anymore," Han Qingyu said from across the room, his tone labored yet sincere.
Zhang Chiyuan: "..."
"Yeah, Commander Zhang, we drew a clear line with the Ninth Army long ago," Wen Jifei said, standing up. "Didn't they fail to step up and protect us last time? So, the hatred runs deep! We've made a complete break."
"Right, even I've severed ties with my grandfather," Rusty Sister chimed in.
*Is this the Ninth Army's style nowadays?!* There really had been friction, and their relations were poor enough that he didn't know them well. Caught between laughter and tears, Zhang Chiyuan sighed inwardly.
He looked up and saw Han Qingyu continuing toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm... going to check the situation outside, and ask the doctors again."
Han Qingyu shook his head. Negotiations were best left to Wen Jifei; he lacked the strength to explain much, nor could he bother with further formalities as he swayed unsteadily toward the exit.
The secretary moved to stop him, but Zhang Chiyuan held up a hand.
He stood there quietly, watching Han Qingyu's back vanish through the doorway... His expression darkened, yet simultaneously softened with a strange, soldierly warmth and sorrow.
"From what you said just now to how you act..." Pausing, looking somewhat stifled, Zhang Chiyuan said, "It seems Azure has truly broken your hearts—to the point where you don't even dare trust us."
Stepping forward, Zhang Chiyuan reached out and patted the armored helmet. "Your grandfather used to get into tons of shouting matches with me. An old man like him, never knowing to yield to a junior. So, severing ties with him serves him right, haha."
He then patted Wen Jifei on the shoulder and said, "Azure isn't like that. Let's leave our talk here for now. Get some proper rest and stay inside... I'll get you out of here."
Chapter 410