Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 58: The Strongest Title

 

It was said that relationships between those related by blood were the most secure and long lasting, as they are like a lock.
But there was also another saying that the most intimate couple, no matter how many things in the world you could give them, you wouldn’t be able to exchange their partner for anything. 

Xie Yu Zhi could kill and slaughter in the midst of the battlefield, without a care for himself and unafraid to die, but the one thing he had come to be afraid of was that when he died Chen Miao Ping would not be safe.

Each day that Xie Yu Zhi remained alive meant another day that Chen Miao Ping would be protected.
If Chen Miao Ping left the Xie family, left the area of his territory, he would never be able to protect him again in this lifetime……

The dark of the night was slowly thickening and a misty rain was starting to fall.
There seemed to be a bloody stench mixed in with the mist, and having to breathe it in was extremely nauseating. 

Completely drenched in a deathly and terrifying silence, the estate had been dispersed of all its servants as much as it could have been, to have them all away from Chang Guo Gong’s estate, and leaving only a few strong fighters to guard the entrance.

The Imperial Palace was on the east side of the city, and standing on top of it and looking out, the only source of light were the fires crackling in the sky.
Not even the rain water had the ability to extinguish those burning fires. 

 

Groups and groups of soldiers and horses were running straight towards the Imperial Palace, sounding very hurried.
The sound of the clangs and clashes of blades and armor rang in the night, and numerous arrows were glimmering like tiny needles with frosted tips, hiding in the dark of the night until it hit its target.

Extra candles and firestarters1 had been prepared for Chen Miao Ping in the underground chamber.
And it was well needed as the lantern torch that Xie Yu Zhi had brought in was already dimming away, but Chen Miao Ping paid no attention to that.
Instead, he was sitting down and leaning against the wall with his legs crossed.
Unmoving until there seemed to be chaotic foot movements above his head.

He opened his eyes and snapped back to alertness.
Gathering the bottom of his robe up to his waist, he crouched and slowly walked up the stone stairs.
He couldn’t see what was going on, but he put his ear on the floor and this way, he could hear some sounds of movements.

Someone has entered Qu Feng Courtyard and it wasn’t only just one……

The movements were chaotic and there were sounds of fighting.
But it all stopped very soon and following the decrease in metal clashing against each other were the sounds of footsteps coming closer and closer.
Whoever it was had walked into the room and Chen Miao Ping could even feel that person walk above him.

Like a band of bandits storming in, they began to flip and destroy everything, at least from what he could hear from the sounds of the items in the room shattering against the floor.
The tables and chairs were being smashed and even without seeing it happen in front of his eyes, he knew that the room must be a disastrous sight.
Chen Miao Ping’s heart immediately dropped cold, and he couldn’t help but think of the worst.

The Liao Empire soldiers were camping outside the city, and Li Qin Wang would be assisted by the military power of Sun Tong and his own personal private army in his attempt in mutiny.
That tallied to three armies already under his command. 

If Xie Yu Zhi needed to hold down the fort against the Liao Empire rushing in and hold the line for the safety of the Emperor and the Noble Consort of Brightness, he would have to split up his soldiers that were already not in high numbers. 

It didn’t look good at all.

Chen Miao Ping slowly stood up, pacing back and forth in the chamber.
He reached out to touch the cold, freezing bricks on the walls and asked the system, 

“What time is it now?”

[ Ding! The galaxy’s strongest self-sufficient system reports the time for you.
It is currently 1:15 am in Da Jin.
]

Chen Miao Ping paused in shock, unable to believe that it was already the second day, and his fingers started to shiver without his control.
After a long time, he asked again, 

“Will Xie Yu Zhi die?”

[ Ding! A human will naturally die.
There is no human who can escape the cycle of life and death.
]

Chen Miao Ping narrowed his eyes, evidently not satisfied with this answer.
His blank face sneered out, 

“Then you will die too.”

The system was silent for one second.

[ ……I am not human ]

Chen Miao Ping: “……”

And after a long while after that, neither of them spoke. 

The rain was coming down heavier outside, and it seemed like the atmosphere was slowly climbing higher and higher to its tension point.
There were thunderous sounds emitting out from the walls of the palace, sending it straight to the heavens and transmitting to far distances. 

On the opposite side, the Liao Empire soldiers were starting to gather up and attack the gates of the city.
Thousands were being slaughtered on this bloody battlefield and even the rain was being tainted with the splatter of red before its droplets reached the ground.

In that time, there were two groups that entered Qu Feng Courtyard once more.
But this time, after another search around, they didn’t immediately leave.
Chen Miao Ping silently sat on the stairs as he heard very clearly the sound of footsteps passing over above his head occasionally.

He closed his eyes as the feeling of helplessness took over him, and he was starting to feel regret.

Before Xie Yu Zhi left, why didn’t he hug him at least once, sweet talk him at least once? Why did he have to say those piercing words of marrying another woman and having a child with her? He even wanted to feed him his medicine today, but he didn’t even allow Xie Yu Zhi that. 

To think that that could be the very last time……

There was no feeling like his heart was being torn apart, nor did he feel like his whole body was going to shatter from the pain.
There was only a moment, just a moment where it felt like a tiny sharp needle was poking into his heart and then it was slowly multiplying, as if he was being pricked a thousand times and more.

Chen Miao Ping finally moved from his sitting position, standing up all of a sudden.
He grabbed the dagger off the bed and tucked it inside his clothes.
Then he ripped out all the sheets off the bed to wrap them around and around his knees.
Burrowing under the bed, he easily lifted up the bricks, revealing a narrow and tight tunnel that at most only one person could pass.

[ Ding! My dear host, are you running away? ]

Half of his body was already in the tunnel and hearing the system did not stop his movements.
Chen Miao Ping only replied,

“If I don’t run away, what am I going to do? Wait for my death?”

He didn’t have the strength to do anything, not even able to pull back the string of a bow.
If he went out for help here, he would only die faster than anyone else.
For him, it was much better to scope out the current situation and from that, think of a plan.

The tunnel pressed tightly against his body, and all he could smell was the stink of dirt.
However, Chen Miao Ping continued moving forward, led only by his hands.
Before long, he could feel the air starting to become restrictive, and he took a deep breath before continuing with greater speed this time. 

All ten of his fingers were burning in pain as he crawled, and his hands were becoming roughened and scratched up as dried blood mixed with new. 

Chang Guo Gong estate was part of the wealthy families with wealth and high status and so they naturally lived somewhere befitting their position, which was on Sheng Ye Road.
Every estate on this road was owned by a high ranking official, and they were close to the Imperial Palace, which meant that they were far away from the city gates. 

When Chen Miao Ping had to patrol the streets, it would take more than half a day to finish his stroll, so given that he was crawling in a tiny tunnel out of the city?

This road was exactly like Xie Yu Zhi said.
It was very long, very dark and very hard to breathe in.
But what was more difficult was that he couldn’t even see the end of it, only able to keep going, out of numbness.
There were a few times Chen Miao Ping was almost unable to muster the energy to move on, and it was only by relying on that last bit of something inside him to keep crawling.

The city gates were resounding with the cries of murder and slaughter, and as time passed, the Liao Empire was slowly pressing forward and gaining ground.
In contrast, Da Jin was evidently almost at the last of their strength. 

The rain was still pouring down and each time there was a twist of a shine, someone would fall down, never to stand up again.
Blood and water were slowly amalgamating, combining into one with the dirt.
The entire ground was slowly being drenched, turning into a dark red colour with the amount of blood being shed.

Chen Miao Ping did not think that for him to crawl out of that tunnel for so long and with such great difficulty, he would come upon this scene.
A river was forming with all the flowing blood and the bodies were building up into piles and piles, as if creating mountains of flesh.
With the rain pouring down on him, he felt a chill seep all the way into his bones, almost turning him frozen.

The tunnel’s exit came out of a forest near the city walls.
Chen Miao Ping lifted up the trapdoor and crawled out with his entire body.
He made sure the exit was covered up well to keep it hidden before using the trees as his cover to check on the situation more closely. 

Although he couldn’t really see clearly because of the rain clouding his eyes, it was still very noticeable that Da Jin was not doing well against the enemies.
Perhaps those on a rampage, using the last bit of energy they had to become the last defense, one of them would be Xie Yu Zhi.

Chen Miao Ping looked at the numerous soldiers from the Liao Empire, and he really just wanted to throw a grenade over to clear them all out.
To explode one would mean bringing down at least one enemy soldier.
And just as he was planning to do something, anything, the system suddenly rang out.

[ Ding! The system has completed its upgrade and has opened its shop function.
If there is a need, my dear host, you can use your merit points to exchange for some kind of weapon.
The galaxy’s strongest self-sufficient system is at your service.
]

A light at the end of the tunnel, a comeback from a seemingly impossible situation, that was most likely the best expression for what Chen Miao Ping was feeling right now.
He was shocked for a moment before immediately asking, 

“What are merit points? Do I have any?”

[ My dear host, doing good deeds is a way to be awarded merit points.
At this time, you have 3 merit points.
]

Chen Miao Ping: “What can I exchange them for? A cannon?”

[ There are cannons in the shop, but my dear host, your merit points aren’t enough~ You can only exchange your points for 3 hand grenades ]

“I’ll take the exchange.”

A hand grenade was a hand grenade, which was better than nothing.
Just as Chen Miao Ping said that, he saw a screen pop up in front of him with a line to show where he could throw it at, as if it was like those helper screens from those fps games.

[ Meow mii~ My dear host, please choose a target area to throw at ]

To avoid friendly fire, Chen Miao Ping chose a place that was quite far back from the center of the battlefield, but still in the middle of the Liao Empire army.
Following a “chu” sound effect from the system, a hand grenade fell down from the sky in the middle of the night, right into Chen Miao Ping’s designated target area.

“Pang—-!”

A thunderous ringing exploded into everyone’s ears, and following that sound they could see dirt flying up from the ground everywhere.
Chen Miao Ping subconsciously covered his ears and it felt like his back was being hit hard with something. 

It took a long while for him to recover and when he looked towards the battlefield again, he was shocked to find that the Liao Empire army was suddenly left with only a quarter of its numbers.

From this sudden event, even the soldiers from Da Jin were surprised, so it was no doubt that the Liao Empire soldiers who had experienced the worst of the blast were shocked to the point where their brains malfunctioned.
Most of them had fallen to their knees in response to the blast and couldn’t even stand back up as their muscles were weakened from shock.

“What happened? What is going on?!”

“Has the heavens sent down the thunder gods to punish us?”

These words were passed among the soldiers and they started to panic.
There were some that even knelt on the ground and started to pray towards the heavens.
The leader of the Liao Empire soldiers could clearly see that something was wrong and angrily yelled out, 

“It must be these Da Jins playing a nefarious scheme on us! They are almost down to their final soldiers! Follow me and we’ll slaughter our way through! The fifth prince has commanded that whoever has the head of an enemy, he will be appointed a grand general! Go! We will kill–!”

Following his words, the Liao Empire soldiers quickly gathered back their senses and came together in a formation.
They continued pressing forward, slaughtering every enemy along the way.
Yet it was at this time that another thunderous explosion rang in their ears again. 

Dirt zipped by them from a great distance and a giant pit was even formed in the ground.
There was only death by the hole, and many more injured, with more than half of the soldiers taken out from that blast out of those who were still standing.

Chen Miao Ping muttered to himself, 

“This hand grenade is stronger than cannons.”

[ Hu hu~ Items from this system, must only be of excellent quality~ ]

The Liao Empire soldiers had originally planned to use human ladders to go over the city walls, but they had started to fall down from the shockwave of the blasts.
Groups and groups of them were falling heavily down to the ground, hitting each other along the way. 

The general of Da Jin immediately brandished his sword out into the air upon seeing this and yelled as hard as he could, 

“The heavens are protecting our Da Jin! Soldiers! Kill all our enemies! Whoever can behead that Ye Lu Jin Qi, His Majesty will promise to appoint you as a marquis, and gift you thousands of gold and silver for your efforts! Our fathers and mothers, wives and children are inside this city! We cannot let the enemy defeat us and pass through to them!”

Power and authority, loved ones at stake, there would be at least one reason that could strike a chord in the human heart. 

Because of Chen Miao Ping’s intervention, the situation had suddenly flipped on its side.
The Liao Empire soldiers were escaping however they could, causing an entire mess and chaos to reign down on the battlefield. 

Ye Lu Jin Qi’s face had the worst expression since the beginning of the night, never imagining that such strange occurrences could ever happen.
Since the new king ascended to the throne, he had been ostracized, and there weren’t many who chose to keep following him. 

So this time, he had joined hands with Li Qin Wang only for the condition that the other would help him take back his rightful throne.
But now that their numbers were cut down by more than half, he had already lost more than he had given.
If he kept fighting, he would have nothing left for sure.

Ye Lu Jin Qi clamped down on his horse, deciding to retreat, and yelled out, 

“All those who follow me must quickly retreat!”

Following this command, the soldiers from the Liao Empire who were still in the midst of fighting immediately stopped and quickly retreated, as per the fifth prince’s orders.
Seeing their retreat, those from Da Jin immediately burst out cries of joy, and Chen Miao Ping himself couldn’t help but release a sigh of relief. 

He leaned back against the trees as he looked upon the Da Jin army starting to clean up their stations by the city walls.
In the midst of the soldiers, there was one who was easily noticeable, in his military general stance and all silver armor.

He had never seen Xie Yu Zhi wear an entire suit of armor before, and so he didn’t know if it was him.
Chen Miao Ping wiped the rain water and dirt off his face as he tried to squint and look closer.
His fingers subconsciously tightened on the bark of the tree and he didn’t even remember his wounds from crawling in that tunnel.

“Leave a few to guard the city gates.
Everyone else must follow me to assist in the protection of the Imperial Palace!”

When the two armies were facing off, there were only sounds of cries and slaughter, but now that everything was quieting down, it was terrifyingly quiet.
Chen Miao Ping could even hear his own heart pumping in the silence. 

About five metres from where he was at, there was even a body almost cut into pieces.
The body’s eyes were not closed and both eyes were widened to the extreme, staring straight at Chen Miao Ping.
In the dark of the night, it was more terrifying than a ghost.

“Xie Yu Zhi……”

Chen Miao Ping leaned back against the tree once more, trying to hide from that corpse’s stare.
With his hands clenched deep inside the dirt, he closed his eyes, calling out Xie Yu Zhi’s name again and again, forcing down his urge to escape, as if those three words were better than reciting buddhist prayers at easing his fear and calming his heart.

This kind of reasonless fear was very strange, and in this time and age, even in the second before, Chen Miao Ping had never felt this kind of emotion because of anyone or anything before.

He looked towards the city walls again and that general dressed in all silver armor had finalized the formations of defense and finally turned around.
The sword by his waist was glimmering with a frosty gleam, and blood splatters and grime covered his face. 

Despite this, and the misty rain clouding his eyes, Chen Miao Ping could clearly recognize who this was based on that pair of resilient and resolute eyes.

……

It was his father-in-law.

 

Notes:

*1 firestarters: a special kind of device made with usually tightly wounded paper, where you usually just blow and it will start a small invisible flame that doesn’t last very long, but can light a candle, etc.
But that’s mostly for wealthy people/the imperial palace where the paper goes through a special process that has to be like submerged into a special type of processed water and then pressed and then add cotton and other things, and then sun dry and then add a lot of other things/materials like saltpeter or fragrances before putting it into a bamboo pipe/tube.

For most less wealthy people, it’s usually just very rough paper, usually ones used to make paper money or like papyrus which then are cut to the length of the bamboo tube and rolled up.
It will be lit and then be put into that tube with the entire thing closed off so no air is in or out and when you need it, you open it, blow lightly and it will create a fire.

>>Based on feedback, I’ve added a cliffhanger warning up top! Hopefully that will help some who haven’t read the chapter yet… (;´Д`) Plum and I were batch editing and proofreading, so we might have been overly biased on what counts as a major cliffhanger… Sorry about that (and to those who have already read this without the warning)!