C27

The royal ancestral hall.

Xiu'er was locked in a sinister cell under the Ancestral Temple. In this stone room that was barely enough to fit a bed, there was only a small window the size of two palms that could see the outside. Furthermore, it was almost two people's height from the ground, and barely any light could be seen through. Perhaps it was because of this, but the entire stone prison was emitting a bone-chilling cold.

Xiu'er had never thought that the inner palace would have such a sinister place. She could not figure out why the current Her Majesty would personally lock her up here.

Every day, Huo Yanrann would personally deliver the water and rice. She would completely throw off the emperor's airs, and just sit on the small bed in the stone prison, while silently looking at the Xiu'er. No matter what Xiu'er asked, she did not answer. The only gratifying thing was, although she only came to deliver food once a day, the quality and quantity of the food was still rather good. Even if the food was cold, it would still be edible.

After ten days, Huo Yanrann finally opened her mouth and asked: "Xiu'er, where are you from? Are your parents still alive? "

Xiu'er put down the bowl in her hands and replied softly, "Reporting to Your Majesty, Xiu'er is from Fengwu Province and was adopted by his parents since she was young. She does not know who his parents are. After that, my adoptive parents both died due to accidents. Before they passed away, they told me that they picked me up by the Red River and even mentioned the name Peacock Ridge. Before entering the Phoenix City Pass, I once went to the Peacock Ridge alone, but didn't manage to find anything. "

"Peacock Ridge?" Huo Yanrann frowned, she thought for a moment, then asked: "Since young, how much do you remember?"

Xiu'er shook her head gently, "Xiu'er had a serious illness before. I don't remember the many things that happened in the past few years."

Huo Yanrann's voice turned cold, "Give me the address of your homeland, and the name of your adoptive parents. I want to verify whether what you just said is true or false!"

Xiu'er raised her head abruptly and looked straight at Huo Yanrann, "Your Majesty, my adoptive parents have passed away and there are only a few people left in the village. Are you really going to disturb them?"

Huo Yanrann sneered: "I am only sending people to ask, not to kill people and slaughter villages to dig and dig graves. If what you say is true, then what's so scary about it? If you don't want to say it, does it mean that you are guilty of lying? "

"Why are you asking me so many questions?" Xiu'er asked back unwillingly.

The corner of Huo Yanrann's mouth rose slightly, "Tell me what I want to know, and I will naturally tell you what you want to know."

This was the first time Xiu'er had lost respect for the Her Majesty in front of him.

Huo Yanrann didn't mind Xiu'er's attitude and said softly, "Even if you didn't say anything, do you think a dignified Emperor of the Fire Phoenix Empire like me wouldn't be able to find out the secret of a common girl? However, this process might be more troublesome and cruel. Why don't you just say it, and then you won't have any trouble, and I won't have any trouble, right? "

Xiu'er gritted her teeth as she looked at the smiling Huo Yanrann in front of her. After a long while, she lowered her head and spat out a string of name. Huo Yanrann stood up and left with a smile, leaving behind a Xiu'er who was curled up in a daze at the corner of her bed.

From that day onwards, Huo Yanrann still brought food to the Xiu'er every day, but she once again returned to her previous ice-cold state. She didn't speak to Xiu'er, and Xiu'er didn't speak to her either. The two of them met once a day in silence.

One month later, Huo Yanrann suddenly pulled the Xiu'er out of the Ancestral Temple's dungeon and threw her into the carriage parked at the entrance. The carriage was covered in black cloth and the people outside could not be seen. Xiu'er could only judge from the approximate time and direction that she had been sent out of the palace.

The carriage finally stopped after shaking inside the narrow carriage for more than two hours. The carriage door suddenly opened and two female riders rushed in and pushed Xiu'er off the carriage, then passed the carriage to two fierce-looking women dressed in prison clothes.

The two prison wardens smiled at the two female knights. "This is the little girl?"

The female knight disdainfully replied, "Don't think that this is just a little girl that's easy to bully. His Majesty said that she doesn't care about other things, but no matter what, the rope around her hands and feet cannot be used, nor can she be in contact with others. You can't even say a word, do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, yes, don't worry, don't worry!" The two female prison guards smiled at the female riders and agreed with their heads bowed. When the female knights left, the face of the female prison warden changed, as she dragged Xiu'er into the cold prison behind her like a fiendish demon.

From this moment onwards, Xiu'er was imprisoned in a separate cell. Every day, a fat, deaf and mute grandma would deliver food to her. Her meals could no longer compare to the ones she had in the Ancestral Temple dungeon. Moreover, as the weather grew warmer, the food that was delivered sometimes had a sour smell to it. When she was sent to this cell, the female prison warden had already told her that she would be beheaded in three months.

Phoenix City Pass.

Kong Sheng took the teacup offered to him by the guard and drank all of the tea inside in one gulp. With the tea that was slightly burning his throat, the bitter and astringent taste of the tea entered his stomach. However, after drinking a cup of strong tea, he more or less dispelled some of the alcohol in his mouth, making him feel slightly better.

After working busily for an entire month, he finally sent away all of the two hundred thousand plus strong army that Huo Yanrann had brought with him when she first entered personally into battle. It would be hard on him, but she had to thank that guy and take care of him later. She also had to hand over some money in the name of the "starting fee". The other party's words were equally polite, all sorts of words like "honored", "difficult", and "the empire is our responsibility" already made Kong Sheng's ears twitch, since he did not disturb the other party from accepting the gift money, so it was considered as his kind words.

In comparison, his old partner Zhao Handong made him feel much less worried. Under Zhao Handong's supervision and Commander Elder Shi's personal interrogation, the recovery speed of the outer city wall with broken Phoenix City Pass was extremely fast. It could even be said that it was doing it every day. Even the trenches outside the city that had been dug by the Moqiu Army were being used by Zhao Handong. He had filled a portion of the trenches as a way to pass through, and the rest had been used for all sorts of traps. After installing the turning over board and bamboo sticks, he would be able to complete the Life Snatching Pit by himself. The key point was that he had even brought out two sets of maps, one for the ordinary citizens and the caravan to use. The other set had specially marked the passage and left it in the Castellan Mansion, in case of need.

But what really troubled people was Ling Zilu's group.

Ling Zilu brought the Red Camp Knight s to rush to the Liehyang Pass first, then to the Blue Moon Pass. Several hundred Knights had turned the two cities upside down. Let alone the living, not even a corpse could be found. In other words, Child Ming was the only survivor of the two stages, while the dress that flashed past became the only evidence.

Ling Zilu was not willing to give up, and led the Knights to search the surroundings of the two checkpoints very carefully. When the two checkpoints were near the Wulian Mountain Range, there were some traces of climbing. Based on the range and depth of the tracks, there had once been a large number of people going up and down the mountain. However, that was all he got because the location where the mark appeared was not something that a human could reach.

Therefore, the conclusion Ling Zilu came up with was simple: The civilians and soldiers in the two trials of Blue Moon Pass and Liehyang Pass, totaling over fifteen thousand people, were abducted from the rear mountains. The majority of the people who did this were Demonic Beast s. As for why the senseless and barbaric Demonic Beast could take more than ten thousand people away from the rear mountains, and also clean up the "battlefield" without leaving a single trace, was simply unable to be verified or reasoned out.

However, the new set of Red Camp brought up a new line of thought: they can look for clues from the direction of the Demonic Beast army sealing a place in Pang Lai County, and maybe they will know a little more about it. However, as for who was to coordinate, how was to coordinate, and how to look for clues on the road that was stomped into mud after a big battle, that was not something that Manager Ling was worried about.

Kong Sheng helplessly threw the report that Ling Zilu had given him to the side. He was not angry, nor was he angry. The appearance of the Demonic Beast army was something that had never happened in a thousand years. No one knew how to respond. According to what Commander Shi Keren who came with them said, they did not actually fight against the Demonic Beast army, and the vanguard did not dare to make any rash moves, and waited for the army to swarm over, and then the Demonic Beast left. If one really asked about their combat experience, they might really have to go to Pang Lai County. Only their scouts and Demonic Beast had fought with each other a few times. However, whether or not those scouts from people's militia would describe the Demonic Beast as a Heavenly God's mount or a deity's mirage, no one could say for sure.

From this, it seemed like the matter of Lan Yue and Lie Yang's missing military and civilian populations could only be put on hold for now. The most important matter now was to fix the Phoenix City Pass once again.

After looking through the documents, he strolled around the city once more. It was a rare occasion for Kong Sheng who had nothing better to do, to decide to pay Commander Elder Shi a visit. The old man hadn't been idle lately, and they hadn't seen each other for a few days. After sending off the reinforcements this time, he could be considered to have completed the tasks assigned to him by the old gramps. Apart from reporting, he also went to visit old commander. Incidentally, Kong Sheng remembered the secret about Chen Chu that the old commander had promised him.

Actually, there was another hidden reason. That was, he always wanted to find something to do, so he didn't dare to be idle. A figure in a red cloak would burrow into his mind, and he would never be able to get it off his mind.

Kong Sheng lightly knocked on the door, followed by a sound that was full of energy being "Come in", and then pushed open the door. Under the sunlight, an old man with gray hair at his temples was sitting in front of the writing desk. He was wearing a casual military uniform and had reading glasses on his nose. He was writing something down in detail. Kong Sheng looked at the scene in front of him and suddenly thought back to ten years ago. The first time he pushed open the door to Shi Keren's principal's office, what he saw seemed to be the same. It was also at that time that he entered the royal guard and started the story that happened afterwards.

The person did not say a word, and Shi Keren subconsciously looked up. Seeing that it was Kong Sheng, old commander smiled, and extended his hand towards the sofa, while saying something, "Are you done? "Come, take a seat first. I'll finish writing these words. Guards, prepare a new pot of tea!"

With the teacup in his hands, his nose was filled with the faint aroma of tea, causing Kong Sheng to completely relax, feeling that having a good principal like Shi Keren and his current superior was truly a blessing he gained.

Shi Keren seemed to not care about Kong Sheng's silence. Putting the brush and the reading glasses on his nose to the side, he sat on the sofa and smiled at Kong Sheng, "How is it? All of them were taken away? "

Hearing the two words "serve", Kong Sheng could not help but laugh bitterly, and old commander knew his way around. He nodded with a smile: "Yes, this morning, the last convoy that went with the carriage has already left the city."

"Mm, it's good." Shi Keren nodded his head, he picked up the teacup and gently took a sip, "Don't be too concerned about the private money, you have to think about someone else's safety. Although they were only eating food fighting, they were reinforcements after all, and some of them were even on the way to Phoenix City Pass by a month's worth. Putting aside whether war would kill people, just the amount of people going back and forth was no small amount. Furthermore, it was due to the lack of time in the winter. If they caught up with the farming, it would not be easy for the local management team to gather such a large team. You can't keep thinking about leading your troops into battle now, there's Ling Zilu, there's Zhao Handong. Your mission is to think about how to help them share their burdens, and how to solve the problems that they have behind them. "

Kong Sheng bowed respectfully and nodded. "Yes, I will follow teacher's instructions."

Shi Keren laughed loudly, "You brat, come on. The reason why he came here today shouldn't be just to thank me, right? "He must be here to collect money from my old man."

Kong Sheng smiled apologetically: "Yes, my curiosity has been offended ~ ~ ~"

Shi Keren pondered for a bit, and after a while he slowly spoke out. "Kong Sheng, do you remember when we were chatting a while ago, you mentioned about the lack of complete information systems in the empire?"

"Yes, the student said that, but since you didn't say anything at that time, the student changed the subject." Kong Sheng nodded and replied.

Shi Keren nodded his head lightly, "That's right, there were too many people talking back then, so I couldn't answer. This was because there had always been an information system, but it was only for the inside. For the Demonic Beast and Mo Qiu, this information system did not have much use, at most, it would only be a surveillance system for the inside. But even so, this system was created under the auspices of the deceased prince, and did not last long. "

Hearing the three words "deceased prince", Kong Sheng's eyebrows involuntarily twitched. These three words, represented only one person in the entire history of Fire Phoenix Empire. The crown prince was the only one who hadn't become emperor, and he was the only one who had gone missing. It was also because of his disappearance that Huo Yanrann, who was a little over twenty years of age, directly took over the throne from his grandfather, and became the empress of this generation.

This "deceased prince" was referring to Huo Yanrann's father, Huo Zi Mu. To the current Empire, his existence and disappearance was like a taboo that no one dared to touch.

But why did old commander mention this "deceased prince" at this time? Could it be that Chen Chu had some sort of connection with him?

As if he saw through Kong Sheng's thoughts, Shi Keren said indifferently, "This Chen Chu, his surname is Luo. Aside from being the foster son of the deceased prince, he is also the current fiance of the Her Majesty. "