Heartless Phoenix Queen - C222
Since the Western Garrison had lost their general, they were already somewhat unsettled. The Lieutenant Generals did not expect that the Northern Yue would take the opportunity to raid the Hibiscus City in the middle of the night. When they heard that the soldiers below had panicked and came to report the invasion of the North, they couldn’t help but panic.
Soon, the garrison army of the Hibiscus City surrendered. Helian had ignited a beacon on the city wall as a signal to notify the North Yue army outside the city. Yuan Hao immediately informed all the Northern Yue soldiers to bring the two important Western Li captives and set up camp in Furong City.
As usual, Helian had slaughtered the mayor and several other Western politicians in the city of Furong, and hung their heads at the city gates to warn the people. The civilians from the west saw that the northern Yue army did not massacre the city, so they were relieved. A few days later, the city returned to normal.
In order to boost morale, after the citizens of Furong City had returned to normal, Helian officially held a reward banquet in the army. At the same time, he recruited people from both the Western and Western regions who were willing to join the North Vietnamese Army in order to increase their military strength.
As a result, there were a lot of people coming and going from the west to the west. Three days after the recruitment order was issued, three thousand new recruits were recruited. Although there weren’t many new recruits, for Helian, who was not too optimistic about the local recruitment of troops and horses, he already felt that it was not bad and couldn’t help but admire his queen even more.
The North Vietnamese army’s reward banquet was planned to be held over five days and five nights. Previously, the morale of the Northern Desert Army’s troops that had been trapped in Hibiscus Valley by Tang Ao was already extremely low. Therefore, after taking over the city, Helian wasn’t in a hurry to attack the next city, but decided to let his soldiers rest and relax their nerves.
Zi Yuan greatly appreciated this action. At the same time, she made use of this rare leisure time to start training Shuangshuang, who was a newborn calf that wasn’t afraid of a tiger while launching a sneak attack on Hibiscus City. Therefore, the two giants of the Northern Yue Army didn’t have the spare energy to deal with the two important prisoners from Xi Li.
The reason why Helian did not immediately kill Tang Ao was because he wanted to get more information on formations from him. However, this iron man had no fear when facing severe punishment. Helpless, Helian Helian ordered his men to force Tang Ao to remove the iron gate, preventing him from escaping. As for Mu Rong Xiu, Zi Yuan had given him a pill to control his true qi, so they both felt that it wouldn’t be easy for the two of them to escape from the heavily guarded cell in Furong City.
However, Murong Xiu was a cunning old fox. Seeing how the situation had developed to this point, he naturally wouldn’t sit still and wait for death.
Murong Xiu observed that there were a total of eight soldiers in charge of guarding him. Every two of them were from the first squad, and the four squads of soldiers were alternating between twenty-four hours to guard him in front of his cell. All the criminals and criminals that had been imprisoned in the former prison of Furong City had been ordered to be executed by Helian Lie, and all the non-criminal prisoners had been released. So in the entire cell, only Murong Xiu was locked up. Murong Xiu speculated that Tang Ao was most likely in the female prison, so he had to confirm this matter first.
After a few days of observation, Murong Xiu’s gaze locked onto one of the guards. This person had a shifty appearance. He had complained to his colleagues that he was watching over Murong Xiu and couldn’t participate in a banquet. This made him even more depressed. That night, he called the guard over and took a jade pendant from his waist.
“I want to ask you three questions. If you answer me honestly, this jade pendant of mine will be yours.” Murong Xiu smiled as he tried to seduce him.
The person’s eyes started to roll as he asked, “Are you really just going to ask me a question?”
A look of sincerity appeared in his eyes. “I’ve been locked up here. If it’s boring, then I just want to talk to you.”
The man hesitated for a moment before looking at his sleeping companion and whispering, “Ask around …”
The corner of Murong Xiu’s mouth curved upwards as he lowered his voice. “Have you captured a general from Western Paradise?”
The man looked at him hesitantly and raised his index finger. “That’s right.”
“Then do you know where he’s being held?” Murong Xiu asked.
“…” I can’t tell you that! ” the man said firmly.
Mu Rong Xiu waved the jade pendant in front of his eyes and said, “Answer my question truthfully, then you’ll be able to get it. This answer of yours doesn’t count!”
The man rolled his eyes again and motioned for Murong Xiu to come closer. Murong Xiu put his ear close to his ear and heard the man whisper in his ear, “I can’t tell you. If you tell me, it’ll be a death sentence. But I’m going to risk my life to tell you, you mustn’t do anything bad. Don’t let me down.”
Murong Xiu narrowed his eyes and smiled. He replied seriously, “Don’t worry. I just want to know. I definitely won’t implicate you.”
The man then beckoned for him to come over and whispered into Murong Xiu’s ear. The man told him, “I only know that the two people from Western Paradise are you. They are locked up here and the masked man is locked up in the female prison.”
Murong Xiu originally had a smile on his face as he listened. When he heard that Tang Ao had been stripped of his mask, his face instantly turned cold, but very quickly, he smiled and said to the little mouse, “Haha, so that’s how it is. I have another question. Finished asking, this is yours.”
The person stared at the jade pendant with a greedy look on his face. Ask away. ”
Murong Xiu looked around and put on a mysterious air as he called for the person to follow his ears. The man’s ears came closer, but he didn’t expect Murong Xiu to cover his mouth in an instant. He wanted to struggle, but before he could, Murong Xiu had already snapped his windpipe and choked him back. It was a pity that this scumbag had lost his life just like that because of his greed.
Murong Xiu pulled the person’s body closer to him and took out a bunch of keys from the corpse’s waist. He observed the numbers on the surrounding cells and calculated his cell numbers. Then, he found a few and gently unlocked the cell.
He crept up behind the other guard, who was napping, and sneaked in again from behind, breaking the man’s windpipe. The guard was even more pitiful than before. Even in his dreams, he had unknowingly died.
When Murong Xiu was at the men’s prison compound, he saw the entire cell’s floor plan. From the map, he remembered the location of the women’s prison. He knew that he didn’t have much time left. Even though the Northern Yue Army was having a celebratory feast, in another four hours, the guards would arrive and discover that the last guard had died. And if he, Murong Xiu, escaped, he would definitely strengthen Tang Ao’s guard. In other words, he had less than four hours to find the exact location of the women’s prison, figure out the situation of its guards, and rescue Tang Ao. Judging from the situation that Murong Xiu was in, he could guess that Tang Ao had already been removed from the [Refined Iron] mechanism by Helian Lie and the others. To sum it up, it was extremely difficult for Murong Xiu to save Tang Ao.
After considering it over and over again, he decided to escape by himself first.
He made his way out of the cell without a hitch. He met a soldier who had been training, but he hid in the light. The soldiers did not see him.
But when he walked out of his cell and saw the dark sky outside, and the lights in the Friday house, he suddenly remembered the scene of Tang Ao and Zi Yuan rescuing him from the capital city compound a few months ago. He hid in a dark corner and thought for a while. Then, he turned around and went back into the Hibiscus Courtyard.
His memory was very good, so he only had to recall the floor plan of the cell before finding the exact location of the woman’s prison. Lucky for him, there were no soldiers guarding the area. He predicted that he would be able to take down one of the guards, but the other guard would be in trouble. He backed out and returned to the empty men’s prison, where he found what looked like a bag of rat poison. He grabbed a rat in the corner of the cell and tested it. It was indeed rat poison. He carefully hid the rat poison in his bosom and went back to the women’s prison.
Murong Xiu purposefully made a noise at the door, leading the two guards outside. However, the two guards were very careful. They only glanced at the door for a moment before withdrawing. Therefore, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw it deep into the cell. Although he could not use inner force, his strength was still relatively high. The stone was thrown very far away and it made a loud noise. One of the two guards suggested that they take a look. Thus, the two went in together.
Mu Rong Xiu took the opportunity to slip in. He poured rat poison into the cups of the two guards that were drinking water and hid it in a nearby cabinet.
Through the cracks in the cabinet, Murong Xiu saw two guards coming back while cursing. The two of them picked up a cup of water and took a sip. Then, one of them said, “Younger brother, things are bad …” He foamed at the mouth and fell to the ground dead. The second was dead without a word.
Murong Xiu hurriedly came out of the cabinet. After confirming that the two of them weren’t breathing, he took out their keys and ran inside.
Having lost half of his faculties, Tang Ao’s face was grim. He lay listlessly on the straw mat and closed his eyes to rest. Murong Xiu could tell that Tang Ao had been tortured and his body was riddled with wounds.
There was no time to regret coming in to save Tang Ao. He found the key to the cell and opened the door. Without a word, he carried Tang Ao on his back. This action made Tang Ao struggle nonstop. Murong Xiu shouted in a low voice, “Don’t move! I’ll take you out!”
When Tang Ao heard Murong Xiu’s voice, tears of joy gushed out of his eyes as he asked, “My prince, is that you?”
“That’s me,” Murong Xiu replied in a muffled voice. Don’t move. Let’s go out now. ”
Tang Ao stopped struggling, but it was difficult for Mu Rong Xiu to have such a large body. If his true qi was not suppressed by the poison, he could still use his cultivation to carry Tang Ao on his back. Not to mention entering and leaving the Hibiscus Courtyard, he would be able to enter and exit anywhere else. However, the effects of the poison still prevented his true qi from circulating. If he tried to forcefully circulate his true qi, it was very likely that all his meridians would be severed, his qi would go berserk, and he would die with blood flowing from his seven orifices. Therefore, Murong Xiu wouldn’t take the risk to forcefully circulate his power.