“So there was a connection like that after all!”
Once they learned of the relationship between An Jing and Gu Yeqi, the atmosphere eased at once, and the Red Armored Guards' attitude turned quite friendly.
From them, An Jing learned how the battle now stood.
While An Jing had been rescuing his junior brothers and sisters, the Red Armored Guards had already pinned down the Suspended Fate Manor's defenders. But since the guards had no wish to fight the Demon Sect to the bitter end, most of the Demon Sect's guards had likewise pulled out of the manor.
By now most of the Demon Sect's guards had abandoned the manor and fled into the deep mountains, while the remaining wounded were left behind—or rather, had chosen to stay and cover the retreat.
An Jing knew very well that the Demon Sect's internal cohesion was nothing to sneeze at. These rearguard fighters were doing their utmost to stall for time, but they no longer posed any real threat.
And all of this was thanks to An Jing having killed Instructor Han. The man had brought the Life-Nourishing Vessel to East Manor precisely to wring out Blood Pills for one last desperate gamble.
Had those wounded Demon Sect guards gotten their hands on the Blood Pills, healed their injuries, and even advanced greatly in power within a short span, the course of the battle would have been anyone's guess.
The Demon Sect squad from earlier had originally numbered twelve. They had come to investigate the situation precisely because Instructor Han and the others never returned with the Blood Pills. But on the way they ran into the Red Armored Guards; the main body was scattered, and only five broke through the encirclement and reached East Manor.
And then they died at An Jing's hands.
By this point the Red Armored Guards had entered the manor and were tending to eleven children.
To show their goodwill, they handed out Jade Dew to everyone—a sweet syrup carrying a rich osmanthus fragrance. A single small sip of the stuff could provide a person with several days' worth of nourishment; it was a ration the Red Armored Guards issued specially.
Every child received a mouthful, and their spirits lifted visibly, their bodies improving as well. As for the children with rotting wounds, the Red Armored Guards used small knives to precisely cut away the dead flesh, then dressed the sores with salve.
—So they really are good people? Like the soldiers back home before the Frost Calamity... The soldiers he'd met after the Frost Calamity had each been more arrogant than the last, and he didn't know why.
Seeing this, even An Jing put away his fiend sword, though doubts still lingered in his heart.
He had been wondering earlier: since the Red Armored Guards had come to wipe out the Demon Sect, why not bring heavy weapons to bear, or level Suspended Fate Manor with some large-scale destructive spell? Now he understood the reason. The order the guards had received was to preserve the lives of the Children of Calamity as much as possible—and so they advanced with the utmost caution, afraid of accidentally killing the very targets of their mission.
“These people are heavy with killing intent, yet carry little malice or vengeful curses,” the Sword Spirit in his mind remarked as well. “They can't be called good men, but they truly aren't an evil army. As for the Jade Dew's effects—it's a bit like the Bigu Pill of years past. The effect is somewhat weaker, but the taste is clearly much better.”
“The times are advancing, all right.”
Meanwhile, the Red Armored Guards had also worked out An Jing's identity.
—The head of the Demon Sect's sacrificial rite this time, one who had already awakened his Destiny Pattern and divine ability, a genius who had broken through to Inner Breath Like River at just twelve. The chaos at the earlier sacrificial rite seemed to have been his doing as well; both his temperament and his ability to act were first-rate. From any angle you looked at it, he was a true child of heaven.
Recovering Gu Yeqi was the mission, but if they could bring An Jing back as well, that would be a great feat. These three Red Armored Guards who had found An Jing were all beaming now, freely making use of the medicine and Jade Dew.
“I know where Ye Qi is.”
An Jing had made up his mind too. Once he was certain the Red Armored Guards would not harm the Children of Calamity, he didn't wait for them to ask, but said outright, “I've hidden them in Suspended Fate Valley. You won't find them in the manor.”
Leading these three immensely fortunate guards—who were grinning so wide they could scarcely close their mouths—toward Suspended Fate Valley, An Jing saw many Red Armored Guard squads converging along the way. They had clearly received word from the guards at his side; without so much as a word, they fell in around him with perfect professionalism, escorting him to Suspended Fate Valley.
It didn't take long before every Child of Calamity who heard An Jing's signal had left Suspended Fate Valley and come under the Red Armored Guards' most professional care.
Gu Yeqi, for her part, was utterly bewildered.
“Me?”
When she learned that she was in fact the Red Armored Guards' true mission target, this usually warm and cheerful girl was struck dumb for once. “But—but—but my family is plainly just an ordinary household. Has there been some mistake...?”
Heaven was her witness: she had lived more than ten years, and while her family's days couldn't be called poor, there had never been the slightest hint of wealth or luxury!
—Could it be someone with the same name and surname?
That doubt was thoroughly dispelled once the Red Armored Guards produced a portrait detailed almost to the point of a photograph, and put a jade disk for testing bloodline to the test.
The person in the portrait was indeed Gu Yeqi, only younger—about seven or eight years old. The little girl sat at a table, wholly absorbed in sorting through herbs, her eyes big and round, looking especially adorable.
Seeing the portrait, An Jing noticed that beyond shock and embarrassment, there was a trace of fear in Gu Yeqi—clearly, whoever painted it had truly been watching her every move back then, and she had never once noticed this “observer.”
And the jade disk, once Gu Yeqi let a drop of blood fall from her fingertip, gave off a bright golden light—proof that Gu Yeqi truly was a direct bloodline descendant of the disk's holder, the straight, unbroken kind.
As for who that holder was, there was no longer any need to ask.
“Who would have thought. Truly, who would have thought.”
The little sister they had always played with was actually the granddaughter of the Hanhai Circuit's Commander. The whole thing was too incredible, and both An Jing and Cang Linzu, sitting off to the side drinking water, could only marvel.
Cang Linzu nudged An Jing with his elbow. “Big brother, you're the clever one—did you catch any hint of this before?”
“Not a thing. Apart from being fairly cute and having a real talent for herbs, Ye Qi was pretty ordinary in every other way—she couldn't even keep up with us for the full twenty laps around the mountain.”
“No, big brother, I can't finish it either. Who besides you can?”
After a few lines of banter with Cang Linzu to ease the mood, An Jing did in fact have quite a few doubts of his own.
Gu Yeqi had now been confirmed as a descendant of the Hanhai Commander. To An Jing's mind, the other side should have been left in the Northern Frontier from her father's generation onward—either as a reserve bloodline of the “seed,” or as an illegitimate child kept outside the household.
But both guesses had their problems.
The problem with the first was this: if it truly was a backup left in the Northern Frontier that ran into the Frost Calamity, then Commander Gu would most likely have moved to rescue them at once. How could he have let Gu Yeqi and her father fall into such danger? He hadn't come during the Frost Calamity, hadn't come during the flight, hadn't come when they were sold to the Demon Sect. Nearly a full year had passed from the first winter to the second autumn; if Gu Yeqi hadn't had his care, she might long since have been discarded and locked in the dungeon—she might even have been turned into a Blood Pill by now. So how was he supposed to rescue her at all?
He knew there was a mole in the Demon Sect who would probably help Gu Yeqi in secret, yet An Jing still found it rather unlikely—unless something had gone badly wrong on the Gu family's side.
The problem with the second guess was this: was the daughter of a mere illegitimate child really worth the Commander mobilizing the Red Armored Guards to surround and crush a Demon Sect manor?
Chapter 50