Chapter 205: His Weak Point.

Right at the most critical moment, Yan HeQing dodged Huang Yue’s sword, and pulled out a short sword from the offerings. After a few crisp sounds of swords colliding against each other, and the silver light cutting through the sky, the two men had already made several moves, but Huang Yue was still unable to injure Yan HeQing on his own.

This, of course, was to be expected, but Huang Yue wasn’t annoyed. Instead, he winked at the men surrounding them, and without hesitation, more than a dozen men dressed in black waved their swords at Yan HeQing.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Everyone was afraid about the current atmosphere where anything could happen, so they held their breath for a moment. The only thing left between Heaven and Earth was the rustling sound of the mountain wind, sweeping through the remnants of the early Spring leaves.

When suddenly, a terrible scream broke the silence!

Almost all of them turned their heads to look at the direction of the miserable cry.

Huang Yue’s subordinates, who were guarding Xiao YuAn, were hunched over and covering their abdomens. The pain was so great that they couldn’t recover for a long time. Meanwhile, Xiao YuAn wildly ran down the mountain, shouting at the same time: “Protect the Emperor!”

Huang Yue’s face suddenly turned white, but he reacted quickly as he turned around to chase Xiao YuAn. Yan HeQing followed him, but he was suddenly surrounded by a dozen men dressed in black.

However, in an instant, the situation was suddenly reversed as Chen Ge, who had been lurking in the mountain’s forest for a long time, showed up with hundreds of Imperial Guards. Huang Yue’s men were trapped, like a turtle being caught in a jar1. Even the Western Shu Kingdom’s soldiers turned their backs on them!

Huang Yue’s men were all flustered and confused. Some of them tried to resist, while others had already dropped their weapons and surrendered.

Chen Ge rushed into the crowd to protect Yan HeQing, but then he saw Yan HeQing rushing towards Xiao YuAn’s way.

Xiao YuAn knew that it was because of him that Yan HeQing didn’t dare to act rashly, so as long as he escaped to a safe place, everything would go according to plan.

Xiao YuAn ran for a while, and when he wanted to turn around to see what the situation was, his shoulder was unexpectedly held down, brutally pulling him back. Xiao YuAn couldn’t stabilize himself, and he ended up falling backwards.

The two people rolled around for several steps before they could stabilize themselves, and when Xiao YuAn was about to look up, he was suddenly choked by that man!

Huang Yue’s eyes were filled with malice as he shouted angrily: “You dared to set me up?!”

How could Xiao YuAn just sit and wait for death? As he desperately struggled to fight off Huang Yue, Yan HeQing’s urgent footsteps were heard: “Xiao YuAn!!”

When Huang Yue saw that Xiao YuAn was about to break free from his grasp, he suddenly pulled out a dagger from his waist and violently stabbed Xiao YuAn’s leg!

It was hard for Xiao YuAn to suppress the loud and miserable cry due to the pain he felt. Soon, his scream disappeared into the noisy and chaotic crowd.

Huang Yue grabbed Xiao YuAn’s hair rudely and pulled him up. After placing the dagger against Xiao YuAn’s throat, Huang Yue turned around to face Yan HeQing.

At that, Yan HeQing stopped running at once, and his eyes were fixed on Xiao YuAn’s injured leg. Yan HeQing’s eyes slowly turned red, and he almost shattered his teeth before he could say: “Don’t touch him!!”

Huang Yue didn’t expect that Yan HeQing would be so concerned about Xiao Jun Wang. At first, he was stunned, but then he laughed out loud: “It seems that His Majesty still has some feelings for this ‘bed warmer’.”

As soon as Huang Yue finished saying those words, he dragged Xiao YuAn down the hill. Because Xiao YuAn’s leg was injured, he wasn’t able to walk fast, so he was pulled all the way down the mountain by Huang Yue, leaving a trail of blood.

An Imperial Bodyguard was about to chase after them, but he was suddenly stopped by Yan HeQing.

Huang Yue didn’t know where he was going or where he should go. The only thing he knew was that he was on the verge of collapsing, and he no longer had the power to return. But, he wasn’t willing, he really wasn’t willing!

Huang Yue dragged Xiao YuAn to the middle of the mountain, until finally, he couldn’t drag him anymore. When he saw that no one was following him behind, Huang Yue dropped Xiao YuAn on the ground, which was an open space at the edge of the cliff, where the former Northern Kingdom’s Temple of Heaven used to be.

Xiao YuAn fell heavily on the ground. His palms were red, and the wound on his leg hurt immensely. As he tried to ease the pain, he laughed and said: “General Huang made a huge mistake. If you wanted to hold me hostage, you shouldn’t have injured my leg.”

At that moment, Huang Yue had calmed down, so he simply sneered at him and said: “I wanted to take Xiao Jun Wang’s life at once, but I didn’t expect that the Emperor would care so much about you. Xiao Jun Wang, aren’t you happy? For over a year, the Emperor had never paid attention to you, but at this moment, he unexpectedly became so attentive of you. You probably never thought this would happen, am I right?”

Xiao YuAn hummed a few times, but he didn’t reply.

For some reason, at this point, Huang Yue’s heart actually calmed down a lot. As he looked around, he could feel the cold mountain breeze filling the mountain forests and rivers. It was early Spring, so with the humid wind, Huang Yue’s body felt colder and colder; as if he was reliving that time when he and his mother went to ask for help under the cold and heavy rain.

All of a sudden, Huang Yue seemed to understand what it meant to be lonely at the top.

The higher you climb, the worse the fall.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came behind him. At this, Huang Yue fiercely dragged Xiao YuAn up, who was on the ground, using Xiao YuAn as a shield to protect himself. As Huang Yue placed the dagger against Xiao YuAn’s throat, he turned around.

Surprisingly, it was Yan HeQing.

Yan HeQing was alone, armed with a single long sword. As the wind lifted his clothes, he stood more than ten meters away, staring at the dagger pressed against Xiao YuAn’s throat. Without trying to move forward, Yan HeQing said: “Let him go. If you do, I’ll let you go, along with your men.”

Huang Yue sneered: “His Majesty must be joking. I don’t believe that Xiao Jun Wang is that important to you. His Majesty must not forget that Xiao Jun Wang had been a Minister for more than a year now, and you’ve never been interested in him. I know that His Majesty wants to capture me alive, so that you can force me to confess who my party members are, so you’re using this excuse to make a deal with me.”

Xiao YuAn couldn’t help but say: “In that case, Dage should place the dagger against your own neck instead of mine. Ah, Dage-…. hiss…..”

Huang Yue slightly added more pressure to the dagger, and Xiao YuAn’s neck immediately oozed beads of blood.

Yan HeQing stepped forward abruptly, but he immediately restrained his impulse in time. His hand holding the long sword, trembled slightly.

When Huang Yue saw him that way, he sneered and said: “His Majesty’s acting ability is quite good. How about this? Your Majesty, if you throw the sword on the ground, I’ll let Xiao Jun Wang’s neck go.”

Huang Yue intended to ridicule Yan HeQing, but he didn’t expect to see Yan HeQing throwing the sword aside without any hesitation.

Huang Yue was actually quite stunned, and a trace of incredulity flashed in his eyes. He slowly removed the dagger from Xiao YuAn’s neck, but then he placed the tip of the dagger against Xiao YuAn’s abdomen. At that moment, Huang Yue suddenly noticed something. When he pressed the dagger slightly harder, Yan HeQing’s eyes would shrink. With this, Huang Yue’s inner doubts became more and more firm. But, he still felt that it didn’t make sense.

Yan HeQing said: “What do you want?”

Huang Yue looked at Yan HeQing, and after a long silence, he suddenly said: “I want you to kneel down and beg me.”

Xiao YuAn’s heart panicked as he shouted: “Yan-ge, don’t do it!”

Before Xiao YuAn could even finish his words, Yan HeQing had already knelt down.

Huang Yue’s eyes widened, and then, he burst out in a maniacal laughter. After laughing for a while, he shouted: “Yan HeQing! Why the hell did you become an Emperor? For what? Look at you right now, you look so pathetic and ridiculous!”

Yan HeQing calmly said: “If you let him go, then I’ll let you go.”

“You’ll let me go? Heh, let me go.” Huang Yue mumbled these words in a daze, when suddenly, he raised his head with a sinister smile: “Yan HeQing, even if you let me go, where else can I go? Do you think that I’m afraid of death? Let me tell you, the moment I decided to usurp the throne, I already prepared myself to lose my head. Yan HeQing, I don’t need you to let me go. What is it? Are you really worried about him?”

After saying this, Huang Yue pressed the dagger more deeply. As Xiao YuAn trembled a bit, the clothes on his abdomen were suddenly dyed red.

Yan HeQing was breathless. Then, he heard Huang Yue laugh madly: “As long as you crawl over like a dog, I’ll let him go, alright? Hahahahaha, the Monarch of the country, the Monarch of the country looks extremely ridiculous! Ridiculous!”

All of a sudden, Huang Yue’s laughter stopped abruptly.

As soon as Huang Yue finished his words, Xiao YuAn suddenly turned around, regardless of the threat of the dagger. When he moved, the dagger in Huang Yue’s hand immediately pierced into his abdomen!

Xiao YuAn trembled all over, and as he resisted the pain, he cursed: “Ridiculous your father!”

Huang Yue panicked. When he was about to pull back the dagger to regain control over Xiao YuAn, Xiao YuAn suddenly pushed him. However, the two of them stumbled back a few steps, until their feet touched the air, falling down the cliff!

Waaaahhh this chapter was way too intense!

And that cliffhanger!! ((((;゜Д゜)))

Footnotes

瓮中捉鳖 wèng zhōng zhuō biē; Chinese idiom, used as a metaphor for something that one’s wants to capture, has already been under one’s control. From《李逵负荆》by (康进之 kāng jìn zhī) Kang Jinzhi, from the Yuan or Mongol Dynasty [1279-1368].