The general of the Qing Jiang Kingdom, with his own strength, repelled the elite troops of the northern great power and saved the princess of the Yu Shu Kingdom.
However, the general did not reveal his love for the princess of the Yu Shu Kingdom. Instead, he pretended to take the princess back to the Qing Jiang Kingdom as a captive, intending to force the Yu Shu Kingdom to surrender.
The princess naturally refused, but after several days of travel, she was no longer the general's match.
The general tied the princess to his horse and returned to the Qing Jiang Kingdom with Lian He.
On the way back, the general secretly cared for the princess, attending to her every need. The princess was unaware of this, but Lian He knew.
This was because every time the general wanted to give the princess water, he would ask Lian He for help.
Throughout the journey, they encountered mountain bandits several times, and it was all thanks to the general's protection that they survived.
Upon their arrival in the Qing Jiang Kingdom, the King of Qing Jiang personally came out of the city to welcome them. Seeing that the general had indeed captured the princess of the Yu Shu Kingdom, he was overjoyed and immediately bestowed upon the general the title "General Qing Jiang."
To be granted a title named after the country demonstrated that the general's prestige in the Qing Jiang Kingdom had reached its peak.
However, when the general heard that the King of Qing Jiang intended to behead the princess of the Yu Shu Kingdom as a public spectacle, it was like a bolt from the blue.
Despite his repeated pleas, he could not change the King's plan to use the princess to establish his authority.
Helpless, the general could only prepare in secret. On the day of the princess's execution, he decided to storm the execution ground alone!
On the day of the execution, the citizens of the Qing Jiang capital gathered by the moat to witness the beheading of the princess of the Yu Shu Kingdom.
But at the critical moment, the general descended like a god, charging into the execution ground single-handedly and forcibly taking the princess away.
Upon learning of this, the King was furious and dispatched troops to pursue them.
The two fled, all the way to the Yalong River, where the wide river blocked their path.
Facing the pursuers, the two finally understood each other's feelings. They stopped fighting and fought side-by-side.
Together, they killed over four hundred pursuers, but eventually, their strength failed them. Both were severely wounded, knowing their end was near.
They preferred to die rather than surrender to the King of Qing Jiang or the northern great power, so they both threw themselves into the river to commit suicide!
The story ended here.
Lian He, who survived, recorded this event, which became this ancient text.
At the end of the ancient text, there seemed to be Lian He's final words. She said that the princess treated her like a sister, and now that she was alone in an enemy country, her life had no meaning. Therefore, after recording the beautiful love story of the princess and the general, she would escape from the capital of the Qing Jiang Kingdom and go to the Yalong River to search for the bodies of the princess and the general.
Even if she died on the way, she would not regret it.
After piecing together the story, Yan Shouyi was deeply immersed in it, unable to extricate himself for a long time.
The general of the Qing Jiang Kingdom and the princess of the Yu Shu Kingdom, a perfect match, admired each other. However, due to the war between their countries, their humble love could not be accommodated.
In the end, their love was witnessed in such a bloody manner.
In fact, because the ancient text was still damaged in many places, the story Yan Shouyi saw was not complete.
For example, he still didn't know the general's name, nor the princess's name, nor which country was the northern great power.
He also didn't know where the Qing Jiang Kingdom and the Yu Shu Kingdom were located in modern times.
The only overlap with the present was the Yalong River.
Although he had figured out the story, there were still more than half of the pages in the ancient text that Yan Shouyi had not deciphered.
They contained some text that Yan Shouyi could not understand, possibly unique to the Yu Shu Kingdom.
There were also many unresolved questions, including star charts.
"This story..."
Long Feicheng choked up, "It's much more touching than Romeo and Juliet or Titanic. If a director could turn this story into a movie, it would definitely be a huge hit!"
Even Zhang Shantong sighed,
"I never expected to witness such love in these turbulent times."
Yan Shouyi nodded:
"It's a pity that just as the two confessed their feelings, they lost the chance to be together forever."
The story was finished, but the story itself never mentioned the skull mark from beginning to end.
Therefore, to completely understand the other clues in the ancient text, Yan Shouyi would need to continue his research, and perhaps even enlist the help of Yan Chou.
At this moment, Yan Shouyi received a call from Lin Zitong.
She was already outside the West Lake Ya Ju and was calling to ask Yan Shouyi to come down and pick her up.
"Wait for me for a moment, I'll go pick up Zitong."
Yan Shouyi greeted them and walked out of the private room.
Just then, several bosses emerged from the "Ya" private room.
Through the open doorway, two Taoist priests had a brief eye contact with Yan Shouyi.
Yan Shouyi wondered why there were two Taoist priests at this West Lake Ya Ju.
Judging by their attire, they seemed to be practitioners of the Jingming Taoism, which was somewhat related to the Lyushan Sect.
However, there were too many branches of Taoism in the world, and countless large and small Taoist temples. Few of the Taoist priests within were truly skilled.
Therefore, Yan Shouyi did not meddle and did not pay much attention to these two Taoist priests, heading downstairs to pick up Lin Zitong.
However, after he left, the expressions of the two Taoist priests became very strange.
The tall Taoist priest directly called the broker and asked him to tell the other bosses waiting for fortune-telling to wait a moment, as they had something to discuss.
After sending the broker away, the short Taoist priest closed the door and immediately asked the tall Taoist priest:
"Senior Brother, was that person just now...?"
"It's him!!"
A fierce glint flashed in the tall Taoist priest's eyes. "Absolutely not wrong. That kid looks exactly like Yan Chou when he was young. Even if he turned to ash, I'd recognize him!"
The short Taoist priest exclaimed, "In that case, he is the successor of Lu Ban? The young master of the Yan family... it must be him, right?! He is Yan Chou's son!"
"It must be!"
The tall Taoist priest took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
Then, he burst into laughter:
"We searched high and low without finding him, yet here he is, effortlessly found. After all our calculations, we never imagined that a member of the Yan family would be hiding in Rongcheng, and so high-profile, even occupying the West Lake of Rongcheng!"
"This is excellent. Yan Chou has many enemies in the Xuanmen. It was fine that we couldn't find him before, but now that he has shown himself, his enemies will surely come looking for him!"
"I don't know if Yan Chou is nearby, but it doesn't matter. I will kill Yan Chou's son first, and then go to settle the score with Yan Chou. I will repay the revenge of that sword years ago, every bit of it, to them, the Yan family!!"
As the tall Taoist priest spoke, his eyes revealed ferocity.
He had been looking for Yan Chou for over a decade.
Now that enemies met, their eyes burned with hatred!
Moreover, now that they were in the shadows and Yan Shouyi was in the open, they only needed a little thought to easily plunge Yan Shouyi into an abyss of eternal damnation!
The thought of his enemy seeing his own child suffer and endure hardship made the tall Taoist priest unable to help but laugh!