CQDF 5

Tearing Up the Pig-Torture Script: Consort Qi Dominates Her Fiefdom

CHAPTER 5: Blood on Changle Slope, The Iron-Clad Fate

High above the sheer precipice, the northern gale howled viciously.

Shi Zhongyuan’s sudden appearance brought the thirty Lü clan assassins to a dead halt. The assassin commander stared at the black warhorse treading through the snow and the armored figure on its back emanating a terrifying, suffocating killing intent, his pupils contracting sharply.

"Shi Zhongyuan! Have you lost your mind?!" the commander shouted fiercely, his voice wavering with forced bravado amidst the howling wind. "We haven't cleared Chang'an's jurisdictional blind spot yet! As a border general, leading troops across the Changle Slope defense line without authorization is equivalent to high treason! What's more, we are operating under orders from—"

"I don't give a damn whose orders you're carrying."

Shi Zhongyuan cut him off icily. He didn't even bother looking the commander in the eye; instead, he tilted his head slightly, his dark gaze landing on Yu Xiaoqing behind him.

Yu Xiaoqing was currently half-kneeling in the snow, her cyan cloak shredded by thorns, her delicate oval face smeared with soot and blood—looking disheveled to the extreme.

Yet her arms still held young Liu Ruyi in a death grip, and her eyes, looking up at him, showed no pathetic weeping of a survivor, but only a bone-chilling, razor-sharp composure.

"All I know," Shi Zhongyuan turned back, the tip of his sword pointing diagonally at the ground, drawing a striking black mark across the snow, "is that His Majesty entrusted this mother and son to me. If she loses a single hair today, I will use the heads of everyone in Chang'an to fill this Changle Slope!"

"Stubborn fool! Kill him! Kill him along with them!" Knowing there was no retreat left today, the assassin commander frantically waved his hand.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Over a dozen poisoned heavy crossbow bolts tore through the freezing air, sealing off all of Shi Zhongyuan's retreat paths.

Shi Zhongyuan sneered cold-bloodedly, violently striking the back of his steed, leaping into the air like a massive dark eagle. The dark iron longsword in his hand carved a massive crescent blade-beam mid-air, bringing forth a deafening howl of torn wind.

Clang! Clang! Clang—!

Sparks flew everywhere! Those heavy bolts capable of punching through iron armor were forcefully knocked aside in mid-air by his sheer martial brute force.

The instant he hit the ground, Shi Zhongyuan's figure blurred into a shadow of dark light, plowing straight into the cluster of assassins.

This was not a balanced battle; it was a one-sided, bloody slaughter.

On the battlefield, Shi Zhongyuan was a true lone wolf—untiring, fearless of death. His sword techniques were devastatingly fierce and brutally pragmatic, devoid of any decorative courtly flair. Every stroke handed out accurately tore open an assassin's throat.

"Argh!"

Agonized screams instantly joined into a chorus. Blood erupted like fountains, painting the pristine snow of Changle Slope a shocking, ghastly crimson.

Yu Xiaoqing hugged Liu Ruyi tightly, her back turned to the slaughter, pressing her son's head against her chest. Listening to the sounds of blades tearing through flesh and bones shattering behind her, her heart hammered wildly.

She knew Shi Zhongyuan was formidable, but she hadn't expected this twenty-four-year-old wolf general to kill with the cold efficiency of an emotionless war machine.

In less than half a incense stick's time, more than half of the thirty top-tier assassins were lying dead.

The assassin commander stared at the pile of corpses, his hands holding the crossbow trembling slightly. He knew today's mission was a total write-off, yet a flash of frantic madness glinted in his eyes.

He stopped aiming at Shi Zhongyuan, abruptly adjusting his crossbow barrel toward Liu Ruyi, who was shielded in Yu Xiaoqing's arms.

As long as the Prince of Zhao dies, the operation can still be salvaged!

"Go to hell!" The trigger snapped down.

Thwip!

The final poisoned black bolt tore through the wind and snow, streaking straight toward the mother and son.

Almost at the exact same instant, Yu Xiaoqing saw Shi Zhongyuan's expression change drastically as he roared in a harsh voice: "Watch out!"

Without a second to think, she threw her arms tightly around Liu Ruyi, twisting her body to meet the incoming poisoned bolt with her own back.

In the original historical script, both she and her son died horrific deaths. But in this life, she was Yu Xiaoqing, and she would never let her son die right in front of her eyes!

"Seeking death!"

Catching this scene in the thick of combat, Shi Zhongyuan's pupils violently contracted into narrow slits. A surge of sheer terror from the depths of his soul hit him like a bolt of thunder.

Ignoring a long blade thrusting straight toward his chest, he took the blow head-on, leveraging the impact force to hurl himself madly toward Yu Xiaoqing.

Pfft—

Ugh!

Two muffled sounds of steel piercing flesh echoed simultaneously through the valley.

At the razor-thin margin of life and death, Shi Zhongyuan used his own shoulder to take the poisoned bolt meant for Yu Xiaoqing. The massive momentum of the bolt, combined with his forward velocity, knocked Yu Xiaoqing off her feet.

The two of them were standing right at the edge of the cliff, and under the violent impact, the accumulated snow beneath their feet collapsed with a roar.

"Your Ladyship!" Cui'er let out a desperate cry in the distance.

"Mother Consort!" Liu Ruyi reached out his little hands, trying to grab the edge of Yu Xiaoqing's robes.

However, it was too late.

The collapsing snow-wave swallowed Shi Zhongyuan and Yu Xiaoqing like a massive white beast. Off-balance, the two of them tumbled helplessly down the near-vertical, stone-strewn steep slope.

The world spun wildly, with howling gales and crashing snow echoing in their ears.

In the chaos, Yu Xiaoqing felt a pair of powerful, scorching arms clad in heavy dark armor lock her tightly into a protective embrace.

The man's large palms were heavily calloused, yet they precisely guarded the back of her head and chest. He let the jagged rocks slam violently against his own back armor, emitting heavy thuds, refusing to loosen his grip by even a millimeter.

The pungent reek of blood, mixed with the crisp, dry scent of northern sand and wind on his body, wrapped around Yu Xiaoqing like a tidal wave.

She didn't know how long they tumbled, but after a violent impact, their bodies finally ground to a halt in a deep snow-filled ravine.

Yu Xiaoqing was rattled to the point of dizziness, her organs feeling completely misplaced. Struggling to open her eyes, she found herself lying flat across Shi Zhongyuan's chest.

The young wolf general's face was currently as pale as paper; the poisoned bolt in his shoulder had driven deep into the bone, black toxic blood soaking through his dark armor. His back was battered bloody by the jagged rocks, yet those deep, abyssal eyes were still locked fixedly onto her.

"Your Ladyship... are you unhurt?" As soon as Shi Zhongyuan spoke, he coughed up a mouthful of black blood, his voice raspy to the extreme.

Staring at the poisoned bolt in his shoulder and his unyielding gaze even on the brink of death, Yu Xiaoqing felt her heart violently shaken.

She raised her hand, lightly touching his shoulder with a slight tremble: "You're crazy... You didn't have to shield me."

"I said," Shi Zhongyuan let out a tragic, ruthless chuckle, his eyes burning with an intense, unexplainable obsession and madness, "I accepted this transaction. Though it be a sea of blades or a mountain of fire... I will guarantee your safety."

Snow and wind danced wildly across the sky, gradually covering their figures.

The bloody prologue of Chang'an had finally closed. And at this precise moment, deep in the snow below Changle Slope, her fate, his fate, and the destiny of the entire Shi Family Army were locked together once and for all.

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