Xiao Lin stood within the Grand Marshal's tent, his expression a mask of calm indifference. But beneath that surface, his heart gave a cold, rhythmic thrum.
"So, this entire play... is directed at me."
Xiao Lin was no fool. In this command tent, he was the only one with the perceived strength—a Peak Nine-Star Dou Ling—to lead a rescue mission for Nalan Jie's squad. Moreover, the entire capital knew that he and Nalan Jie were brothers in all but blood. If Nalan Jie was in mortal danger, could Xiao Lin truly stand idly by?
The answer was a resounding no. The moment he set foot on the front lines, he had walked into a meticulously prepared snare. Whether the path ahead was a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, he had to go. He had no choice.
Xiao Lin didn't resent the mission—he would save Nalan Jie regardless of the risk—but he loathed the sensation of being forced. He despised the feeling of his strings being pulled by someone else, especially when the puppeteer was someone he could erase from existence with a single thought.
He committed the Marshal's face to memory. This calculation... I will pay it back in full.
Marshal Moyai, seeing that the "consensus" had settled on Xiao Lin, finally spoke with a voice full of false gravity.
"General Xiao, it seems the heavy burden of rescuing General Nalan falls to you. But rest assured, I will not send you alone. General Mu, how about you accompany General Xiao on this journey? I will also grant you thirty Da Dou Shi elites to assist."
Moyai projected an aura of absolute impartiality. But as his words fell, Mu Chen's face, already pale, turned a sickly shade of grey.
Mu Chen realized that he, too, had been swallowed by the trap. Six years ago, it was he who had gone to the Xiao estate under the Marshal's orders to recall Xiao Lin. He had unknowingly acted as the Marshal's accomplice. Now, by being sent on a suicide mission alongside the man he had helped lure out, the Marshal was essentially tying their fates together in a blood knot.
Mu Chen was furious. He didn't fear the Xiao family, but he hated being used as a tool to draw aggro for someone else's scheme. He wanted to explain, to shout his innocence, but before he could catch Xiao Lin's eye, the Marshal's next words nearly made his vision go dark.
Two Dou Lings and thirty Da Dou Shis? Against an enemy that had already pinned down six Dou Lings and hundreds of elites? It wasn't a rescue; it was a delivery service for more corpses.
Mu Chen opened his mouth to protest, but the moment he met Moyai's eyes, he felt the suffocating pressure of a Dou Wang. A Dou Ling simply could not defy the crushing will of a King. Furthermore, the Marshal's arrangement appeared perfectly logical on paper—there was no legal ground to refuse.
Mu Chen sank into a grim, resentful silence. It was his only form of rebellion.
"Excellent," Moyai smiled, a look that made Mu Chen want to drive a fist through the man's teeth. "Speed is the essence of war. Strike before the Chu Yun Empire can react. I trust you both understand the urgency?"
As the meeting adjourned and the officers filtered out of the tent, Mu Chen immediately cornered Xiao Lin.
"Brother Xiao, I need you to know... I had no part in this. I didn't know he was planning to throw us into the meat grinder. Do you believe me?" Mu Chen's eyes were dead serious.
Xiao Lin offered a small, knowing smile. "Brother Mu, I'm not an idiot. I can read the room. If you were truly in on this, he wouldn't be sending you to die right alongside me."
Mu Chen let out a massive sigh of relief. He didn't want to offend the Xiao family—especially not a Xiao Lin who was a hair's breadth away from becoming a Dou Wang. A future "King-class" family was an ally you kept, not an enemy you made.
"Hoo... even so, Brother Xiao, I feel I owe you for this. If we survive this, just ask, and the Mu family will stand by you," Mu Chen promised, his respect for Xiao Lin's level-headedness growing.
"I'll hold you to that," Xiao Lin replied. "But for now, let's focus on the task at hand. We need to be a single mind if we're going to pull Nalan out of that hole."
"Naturally!"
The Shadow's Departure
As the two generals led their thirty Da Dou Shis out of the camp and disappeared into the rugged terrain, a figure stood in a dark corner of the fortifications, watching their retreating backs.
It was Great Marshal Moyai. His face, once noble and authoritative, was now twisted into a mask of sinister greed.
"Do not blame me," he hissed into the wind, his voice low and jagged. "My path to the Dou Huang realm requires sacrifices. Your lives are a small price to pay for my ascension. When you reach the underworld, take your grievances up with that senile Emperor who refused me the Qi Method!"
As he finished his dark soliloquy, a black shadow detached itself from the gloom behind him and slipped out of the camp.
It didn't follow Xiao Lin. Instead, it sped toward the horizon—straight toward the encampments of the Chu Yun Empire.