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"My lord? My lord? Wake up!"

"Huh?" Not knowing how much time had passed, Tian Heng groggily awoke to two familiar faces before him, and his spirits instantly lifted, "I’m not dead?"

"My lord..." Seeing that Tian Heng had regained consciousness, the two burst into tears of joy and exclaimed hoarsely, "General, you’re not dead.

At the last moment, you fought bravely and wounded that beast Meng Hao.

And his deputy came to his senses in time, helping to hold him off, which let us break through! "

Is that so?" On hearing this, Tian Heng didn’t dare relax. Propping himself up, he suddenly saw a huge bloody hole in his chest!

That Meng Hao really did go for the kill!

It was only now, recalling those blood-red eyes of the other man, that Tian Heng felt a chill. He remembered that at first, he was his direct superior, a passionate soldier of the battlefield. How could he twist himself so far for power?

He believed that even with the Princess Royale in league with demons, it was impossible to force someone like Meng Hao, one of the top warriors, into this state within the Capital City. The only answer was that he couldn’t resist temptation and had fallen.

"Where is this?" Tian Heng asked, puzzled.

"This is the direction of Jiangnan, my lord!" The former deputy helped Tian Heng, explaining, "After we broke through, before you lost consciousness, you told us to retreat towards Jiangnan!"

"Huh... I said that?" Tian Heng was momentarily stunned.

But considering his blurred consciousness at the time, he might have indeed said that.

After all, the road to the West Sea had become incredibly dangerous due to Meng Hao’s presence. He had become a demon; who knew whether there were other traps set by him in the West Sea?

Trying to break through to the West Sea was too risky, and the directions of southeast and southwest were where the Princess Royale’s troops were coming from, so attempting to break through there would likely lead to an encounter with those fierce deities. It seemed the only way left was Jiangnan!

"Tsk..."

Suddenly, Tian Heng felt something amiss as he clutched his chest and head. Meng Hao’s blow had been heavy, but... his bloodline had a strong recovery ability, so why was the wound still bleeding profusely?

And... why did it feel like something inside his body was trying to erode his brain?

"My lord?" The others, noticing his behavior, immediately approached with concern.

But it gave Tian Heng a scare because he noticed that his deputies’ eyes had turned a horrifying blood-red like Meng Hao’s without him knowing when.

"My lord, your eyes?" The deputies looked back at the wary Tian Heng and couldn’t help but step back.

"Mine?" Tian Heng touched his own eyes, feeling an itchy sensation, and suddenly remembered the report about the zombies brought by Wang Ye.

That’s right, how could he forget? Those zombies could infect people. Since Meng Hao had apparently become a demon and had injured him, could it be that he also got infected?

"Have you all... been injured by Meng Hao?" Tian Heng quickly inquired.

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other and saw the same blood-red eyes. They turned pale, and after a long pause, they all nodded to Tian Heng.

Seeing this, Tian Heng’s heart sank to the bottom!

Could it be... that he and his men couldn’t escape the fate of becoming monsters?

Suddenly, as if recalling something, Tian Heng searched around his waist and felt a cool jade token.

He hadn’t expected that after such a fierce fight, this jade token would still be with him!

It seems like it’s fate after all...

Tian Heng looked at the jade token with a bitter smile. He didn’t know if it would be useful to find the other party at this time, but since the other party had taken his men, he always had to be concerned. Now that he was in Jiangnan, he might as well try to make contact.

Recalling the youngster’s calm yet arrogant words from not long ago, he said,

"General, if you have nowhere to go, use the jade token to find me in Jiangnan!"

This damn kid!

Tian Heng clutched his chest and coughed a huge mouthful of blood. After catching his breath and regaining his composure, he murmured with a wry smile, "It really went his way after all!"

---------------------------------

"Minister Shaoting, where are we going?" Elsewhere, aboard several military ships prepared in advance, all the soldiers following Wang Ye were extremely anxious.

After all, their actions seemed somewhat like deserting...

"Lyuzhou!" Wang Ye looked at them with a smile and said, "General Lan need not worry. This place is absolutely safe."

"Is that so?" Lan Xiang frowned as he looked at the frail young man, feeling very guarded. He didn’t trust this youngster much, but he was very aware that they had to retreat in that situation or the Duke’s soldiers would likely have been annihilated on the spot.

"Oh?" Suddenly, Wang Ye realized something and took out a jade token from his waist.

Lan Xiang took a wary step back, looking at Wang Ye, "What are you doing, my lord?"

"Ah, this?" Wang Ye smiled and said, "It’s a magical tool that I used to contact Lord Duke Qi. Hmm... didn’t expect to use it so soon."

He had thought that Tian Heng would first retreat to the West Sea and only consider Jiangnan once the West Sea couldn’t hold anymore. He never expected Tian Heng to head straight for Jiangnan. It seemed... the Imperial Court’s traps set for these dukedoms were indeed vicious.

"Lord Duke has arrived?" Lan Xiang asked eagerly, "Where is he?"

"I’ve contacted someone to go and receive Lord Duke."

"Who?"

"The Magistrate of Lyuzhou... Lord Chen Qing!"

-------------------------------------

"Is it Lord Duke of Qi?"

A military ship approached, and a frail-looking scholar stood at the bow, alerting the deputies who were on guard.

Although the scholar seemed weak, the soldiers behind him were not; their robust vitality was clearly sensed by those on board.

The men on the ship were elites, no less formidable than the direct descendants of the Black Dragon Guard!

Jiangnan’s Lyuzhou... when did they get such powerful troops?

Even Tian Heng, who had walked up to the bow of the ship, was full of doubt and surprise, but upon seeing the person opposite, he was taken aback, "Lord Chen?"

He recognized the man across from him; at the funeral banquet for the Duke of Song, this young fellow, who had just become the Consort Prince of Great Jin, was quite the center of attention, courted by three major powers!

"Greetings to Duke Qi!" Chen Qing smiled and gave a polite bow, "This official was originally leading men to support other Provincial Government Offices when, en route, I received orders from Wang Ye to assist your Grace. I hope I have not arrived too late."

"You have resources in Lyuzhou to support other Provincial Government Offices?

" Tian Heng was instantly intrigued by this notion.

Among the seven major Provincial Government Offices, Lyuzhou was supposed to be the least resistant, as he remembered that following the Mister Hua Pi incident, the Mansion Soldiers of Lyuzhou had been temporarily redeployed, leaving almost no defense forces.

Yet according to Wang Ye’s intelligence, it had held out just like Nanyang and Nanming Prefecture.

The Duke of Qin felt something was amiss and dispatched Deputy Commander Wu You to investigate Lyuzhou. Now it seemed Old Lu’s worries were not unfounded; there was indeed something wrong with Lyuzhou!

"Well... haha, we’ve temporarily conscripted some militia and barely managed to hold Lyuzhou. And hearing from Wang Ye that other states were in a bad state, we thought we could lend a helping hand..."

"Militia?" Tian Heng looked speechlessly at the brawny men behind Chen Qing, who indeed looked like militia from the clothes they wore – proper armor was lacking, some had it, others didn’t.

But the immense vitality emanating from those soldiers made him wonder if even the strongest bloodline soldiers under his command could match them.

"That joke wasn’t very funny, Lord."

"Oh, where were we..." Chen Qing laughed it off, then looked at the chest wound of the other, "Your injury doesn’t look too good. You should get it treated quickly. Perhaps you’d like to come aboard my ship to discuss further?"

"Go to your ship?" Tian Heng sneered, "If Lord has a way to treat it, why not come to my ship?"

"Sure..." Chen Qing didn’t object; with a step, a streak of green light flashed, and he flew directly onto the military ship where Tian Heng and the others were.

Tian Heng was taken aback.

Because the opposite party had made such a scene in the Capital City, he had looked into his background, which supposedly was that of a commoner. Could he actually be a Magician?

And judging by the finely tuned control of the wind, probably not just a simple Magician, but more likely on the same level as Wang Ye and Fei Jun, First Rank Magicians!

And was he really daring enough to come over here alone?

"What courage, Lord Chen!" Tian Heng praised after coming to his senses.

"What courage, you say?" Chen Qing replied with a laugh, "It’s as if I came over here to seek harm from your Grace."

Tian Heng: "....."

The other deputies were also somewhat stunned by Chen Qing’s unpredictable behavior.

"May I have a look at your wound, my Lord?"

"Thank you for your trouble, Lord Chen..." Tian Heng remained wary inside but graciously exposed his wound. After all, if Chen Qing dared to come over by himself, it wouldn’t look good for him if he didn’t show some magnanimity.

"The Duke’s injury is quite severe..." Chen Qing carefully examined it and said, "You must have a strong self-healing ability, but the bleeding doesn’t stop because the blood in your body is fighting against invading parasites!"

The pupils of Tian Heng’s eyes narrowed upon hearing this, "Does Lord Chen know what those things inside my body are?"

"Of course, I do." Chen Qing smiled, "After all, I’ve spent more than half a year in this Mist Magic Array, fighting these zombie-like beings infested with poison worms..."

"Then, may I ask Lord Chen, is there a cure for my condition?"

"There is..."

"There is?" Tian Heng’s heart leapt. He was well aware of his own body; the parasites Chen Qing spoke of were nearly impossible to eliminate through bloodline powers, and he was already preparing for the worst. If he was really to turn into a zombie, he would definitely chop off his own head before that happened!

"It appears that you and your generals have been recently infected, so there’s a chance for treatment." Chen Qing then took out a porcelain bottle, opened it, and a refreshing fragrance wafted out.

Everyone instinctively desired the liquid in that bottle!

"This medicine can temporarily suppress the poison worms in the generals’ bodies. Please take it quickly."

Tian Heng frowned at the porcelain bottle, and a deputy general hurriedly said, "Let me try it first, General?"

"No need!" Tian Heng laughed, "Lord Chen is an Imperial Official, so he wouldn’t harm us. Besides, given our situation, is it even necessary to take such a risk to poison us?"

So saying, he took the porcelain bottle from Chen Qing’s hand and drank deeply!

"What a bold move, General..." Chen Qing frowned, "But you should drink more slowly, General. There’s only one bottle of medicine, and if you guzzle it like that, I don’t have extra for your men."

"Cough cough!" Tian Heng choked on Chen Qing’s words and quickly spat most of the liquid he’d swallowed back into the bottle, passing it to his deputy somewhat bashfully, "Well... take it easy and share..."

Everyone: "...."

"Cough... the medicine of Lord Chen really is miraculous!" Tian Heng didn’t look at the odd glances from his deputies but shifted the topic, "As soon as I began to drink it, I felt the things inside my body settle down. Now, I wonder, how do we remove them later?"

"To remove them, we must return to Lyuzhou..." Chen Qing honestly replied, "However, I have rescue missions to attend to, and I regret that I cannot take you back to Lyuzhou for treatment just yet. Please forgive me, Duke."

"Damn it!" Several deputies immediately became angry, "You pedantic scholar, do you even know what’s most important right now? Saving the Duke is the most pressing matter!"

"Hold your tongue!" Tian Heng cut off his deputies abruptly, speaking lightly, "I admire Lord Chen’s concerns for the people. Might I inquire, Lord Chen, where do you plan to lend your support with these... militia of yours?"

"To Nanyang..."

"Ha?" Tian Heng choked again, looking at Chen Qing with amusement, "Nanyang? Are you jesting, my Lord?"

Does the Shen Family’s stronghold... require your rescue?