Chapter 17 Parting Ways
The North wind blew the heavy snow. The snow was so thick that it hid the pale moon and The snowflakes were so dense, making almost one blinded.
The snowy sky had a backdrop of the jet black night , from time to time you could hear the hooting of the mournful owls and those black wings hovering in . Above the sky overlooking Zhen Huang City were the glittering, snow-white glaciers ,sparkling and dazzling like a bright pearl . At this moment, on the outer side of this pearl progressed a team of ragged yellowish and thin foreign people. They were having troubles in trekking the mountains and crossing the rivers.
The biting north wind penetrated the ragged unlined rags of the foreigners, and like knives the wind was gusting on their frost-bitten already frozen skin, turning it in purple., They tried to stay huddled together and so resist the fierce blast since they did not have the protection of the walls of a building.The Hongchuan Plateau was having a more and more unbearable winter ,within the group of people suddenly you could hear a baby’s cry. From its independent cry, the noise gradually spread throughout the whole group.
“Whiz,” All of a sudden a whiplash sounded and a riding general looking dark immediately spoke out ” Shut up!”
However, how could an innocent baby obey those verbal commands? The crying still continued making the general frown, abruptly he rode into the crowd, bent over and snatched the baby from the young woman’s arms.He rose the baby high into the air and maliciously slammed it to the ground!!
“Ah!” Harsh screams sounded instantaneously, the child’s mother exclaimed kneeling on the ground, clinging to the now silent baby, bursting into tears.
The general sharply looked at the group, passing over all of their faces swiftly. No one spoke up, they all averted their eyes and remained silent.
Under the darkness of the sky, only the remaining young woman tragic’s cries could be heard. The general took his long knife, then quietly cut down the woman’s spine and her blood splashed, dispersing in the livid snow.
Chu Qiao’s breath was caught in her throat as she bit her lips. She had the urge to rush out there and confront them if it was not for the hand that grabbed her.
“Do you not want to keep your life?” The clear-minded young boy held her tightly, speaking into her ear,: “They are the Wei Family’s army, do not act rashly.”
“Now these, “The General in full black garment said to a subordinate. The soldiers heard him, as he neatly dismounted his horse.He drew a saber out of his waist, then pulled a rope tied to those unfortunate people.Their feet became displaced causing them to kneel down on the ground.
The General eyes were cold, his eyes sharp, with thin lips,he stretched into a straight line and slowly spit out a word, “Kill!”
“Shua” sounds of swords slashing could be heard in uniform,the young soldiers seemed like iron, their eyes did not even blink. Dozens of heads suddenly rolled down, falling on the thick snow, warm blood spraying from the cavity in their necks it merged into a rank stream that quickly began to freeze in the cold air.
Chu Qiao kept biting her lower lip, hiding in the snow slope after watching those killings, her heart was fiercely clenched. Her eyes were so bright, like the bright stars, but there was such a heavy light flashing in which you could see intense and monstrous anger. Yan Xun hand turned cold, though he was still tightly retaining her ,he felt the mood of her blood flowing, so that he did not dare to turn around and look squarely at the child’s eyes. The arms holding that small body exuded a kind of heat that nearly burned his hand.
In the past, he watched the emperor bring down the swords of the necks of commoners, again and again ,thus, he only felt the number of people was reduced. The thought that it was natural existed in his mind for too many years, watching them now with no evidence of guilt , those years of reasoning were peeling off, layer by layer.
Each time sabers waved, blood spattered ,Those foreign civilians yet looked calm. They did not face the slightest fear of death ,Chu Qiao saw that it was not fear but extreme numbness. They did not hold any hope or despair, it was not self-ignorant or self-abasement, but a stubborn, biting hatred. Everyone was very quiet. No crying, no cursing. Even in the elderly arms the children were very well-behaved , they had their eyes wide open, observing their same family be put to death under the swords. Eyes bright, but behind those eyes reflected a huge wave of anger..
It had been nine days, they spent fighting and being frightened of the gods, spurring their hatred but later regressing them into bitterness.
Her heart suppressed with anger and hatred slowly breed out as she gripped her fist tightly, like a bloodthirsty coyote.
At this moment, in the distance suddenly came a burst of rapid hoof, together with a man’s anxious shout, “Stop! Stop!”
White horse were quickly approaching, the young man stood up and jumped. He whipped the saber out of the soldier’s hands, stopping him from cutting off more heads. Angrily he directed a yell at the General, “Muhe, what are you doing ?! “
“Rear Admiral Shu Ye, I am following orders by cutting the chaos.” The general frowned, but still dismounted respectfully saluting.
“The mob?,” With straight eyebrows slanting, he looked at the elderly and children everywhere, furiously, “Them? Who gives you the right, who allows you to do it?”
Muhe looked the same, with a stubborn stone: “Rear Admiral, it is by ShengJin Palace under the will of your uncle Wei.He personally requested this with the joint signature of the elders., your elder brother in the Imperial Capital also gave a handwritten approval. The entire Wei Clan discussed and made this decision together, this subordinate only followed orders handling these affairs.”
Shu Ye was immediately stunned as he dazed, his eyes in the face of those who fled by,passing were at a loss. The face of death did not wrinkled the eyebrows of the foreign people, but the moment they saw Shu Ye their faces suddenly changed. No longer did they conceal the eyes of rage , an old woman suddenly stood up, regardless of soldiers being on both of her sides, she cursed and rushed over, “You are a liar! Shamelessly breaking promises! God will punish you!”
A saber swiftly swung, cutting the woman’s waist. The blood from the swords splashed like blossoming flowers with the woman’s waist almost being chop in two. Her body weakly dropped down to the ground, but she still used her final breath ,while spitting up blood holding Shu Ye white robes, grinning cursed: “As a ghost … a ghost will not … … … … let go … … … …”
Shu Ye looked pale at the mouth filled with thick phlegm disgustingly hanging on his robe hem, but he did not go to erase it, he just tightened his lips, watching the messy corpses and countless pairs of eyes full of loathing.
“Rear Admiral,” Mu He sighed, went up and whispered,”The empire has no spare money to support these people, the Presbyterian Church (TN:This confused me, it literally says this church…..for the time period it confuses me, if you know if it means something else tell me) will not contribute to the construction of house for them, You are of the Wei’s descendants, to respect the family Will, to safeguard the interests of the family.
A huge surge of revulsion rampaged in Shu Ye’s chest, and in his eyes blood-red, but he remained silent. Mu He frowned, the soldiers, slightly nodded and led, suddenly their swords continuing to kill.
“Unprincipled person!” A crisp voice suddenly sounded. In the crowd a small face abruptly lifted from his mother’s arms, his face had no tears,just a pair of red eyes and cried: “Liar, you said you would take us to the Imperial Capital, to live in new houses and to let everyone eat and sleep, you said … …”
Sharp bow and an arrow was swiftly released, with General Muhe precision, in a blink of the eye the words the child was about to say ended, and from his mouth a bloody path straight to his brain was revealed!
“Begin!” Mu He pulled out his swords, and shouted clearly..
“Stop!”
Suddenly the young rear general collapsed at the words. He saw the words written in the child’s blood. He recklessly rushed forwards and pushed two soldiers out of the way . Mu He irately spoke: “Seize the Rear Admiral!” Then several soldiers rushed to come and spent fighting the way, Shu Ye was tightly held.
The inhumane slaughter started immediately ,blood cross-flowed, the blood mixed with mud and snow. Over head the eagle pierced screaming, adding more terror to the atmosphere of slaughter and massacre. A huge pit was dug and the thousands of dead bodies were thrown into it filling up quickly. The soldiers rode horses in the top of the back and forth stampeded, The snowflakes were moreover still falling down rapidly covering all the bloody places. Together with those evil deeds, the ugly loss of human nature,together they will be deeply buried.
The young handsome master from a prominent family background, with a high position, in face of subordinate suffered such rudeness. For a group of low status of people losing their reason.
“Rear Admiral,” Muhe came up and watched his eyes straight looking at the man in the snow, “You should not, they are a degrading race. Their body is filled with humble blood ,you should not disobey the Wei clan and your uncle who has high expectations for you.Without you, the task of your juniors will be aimless, we wait for you to come back.
Seeing that the Rear Admiral did not respond, Mu He sighed,signaling the brigade to return, the horses galloped away for a long while until the wilderness could not see their shadow.
The Admiral stood there for a very long time, The snow whirling around him,this year’s festival was unexpectedly this cold.
Hidden behind him were the two children in the snow slope. Surprised to see the dignity of the Rear Admiral of the Wei Clan, in front of the vast land he suddenly knelt toward the direction of those dead people, heavy knocking his head on the ground. Then stood and jumped on his horse, galloping away.
For a long time, the snow still fell without the slightest meaning to stop. Yue’er who had frozen hands and feet began to move, shakingly forward.
“What are you doing?” Yan Xun said still stunned while getting up.
The child turned around, looking calm. Her eyes were sharp and cold, fiercely flashing at him: “I am a lowly race, a body with humble blood, you and I should not have stood in one place, since there is a different road, It is better to part company”.
The cold Yue’er became desolate. Her figure was so immature, but Yan Xun continued to look at her back from afar. He felt that it was tall , straight and could open up this decayed world. Heavy snow, such as cotton, snow footprints gradually pulled away, toward the heart of the Great Xia Empire, directly towards it..