Who says the prince is weak and can't take care of himself?

Hanchen Sect's leader, Gu Shanmo, is an unsung martial arts master. He originally did not want to cause trouble for the King of Chu, but he could not stand Bai Xiqiao's nagging. Fortunately, Qi Xiao worked hard for himself. He was talented and willing to endure hardships. Even though Gu Shanmo was strict and harsh, Qi Xiao never complained, and was finally kept in Hanchen Sect by Gu Shanmo.

In those years, the father of His Majesty the Ninth Prince, King Chu, was the Emperor of the Great Chen Kingdom, while Qi Xiao's father was Gu Shanmo.

Gu Shanmo not only taught him martial arts and gave him all he knew, but also stayed with him all the time.

Qi Xiao had been neglected since he was a child. He could only see his father at the New Year banquet throughout the year, and the supreme and noble Majesty had never paid serious attention to him because he had no prominent maternal family to back him up, and he had never been outstanding. He never stood out and never made mistakes. He was as cautious and well-behaved as his mother.

Gu Shanmo was the first person to demand that he try his best and urge him to persevere. He was also the first person to pat him on the shoulder and nod in approval. He was also the first person to ask him whether he liked mixed noodles or noodle soup.

Qi Xiao's mother, Lin Guiren, taught him restraint, patience, self-discipline, more thinking and less talking since he was a child. She taught him how to survive in an environment surrounded by tigers and wolves. Gu Shanmo told him to live as himself, like Qi Xiao, not for fame, not for vanity, not for getting ahead, not for making achievements, but for himself.

In the Hanchen Sect, Qi Xiao has an elder brother and a master. Bai Xiqiao and Gu Shanmo seem to make up for his lack of kinship and allow him to rely on others.

It was already December when news of General Huiyun Bai Liu's death reached them. Bai Xiqiao was stunned. "Didn't they say my father was recuperating in Jingtang? He wouldn't return to the capital until spring, when he recovered? Why? How could that be?! Impossible!"

No one expected that the death of a famous general would be so hasty. Bai Liu did not die under the enemy's iron hoof or the sharp weapon. Compared with his great reputation throughout his life, his death was as silent as the light snow in early winter. When Yuan Jing got the news, he was also shocked. His Majesty sent the imperial physician to Jingtang at night, but who could bring the dead back to life?

Bai Xiqiao had witnessed the carnage of the battlefield at a very young age and knew that human life was as fragile as an ant. However, he had never imagined that his stalwart father, after having experienced countless killings, would be knocked down by a small cough. It seemed like a joke, but it made him unable to even cry.

Immersed in grief, Bai Xiqiao was unaware that after his father's death, the Dingyuan Army stationed in Fenglin Mountain had been disbanded and relocated. Qi Xiao only became aware of the situation when several of Bai Liu's lieutenants and commanders were transferred elsewhere and came to bid farewell to Bai Xiqiao.

Qi Xiao sent a New Year's greeting card back to Concubine Lin. After inquiring, he learned that Yuanjing urgently summoned General Bai Liu at the beginning of winter because he was impeached for a heinous crime such as plotting rebellion. The atmosphere in the court was tense, as if knives would rain down from the sky at any time. Everyone was waiting for Bai Liu to return to Yuanjing, but Bai Liu did not go back. A bloody storm suddenly lost its direction, followed by the splitting of the Dingyuan Army and the transfer of various levels of Yuanzhou Prefecture. Everything seemed to be just a routine matter of the Ministry of Revenue.

Qi Xiao couldn't help but wonder what Bai Liu would look like if he returned to Yuanjing?

The Great Chen dynasty valued martial virtues, with military power divided into two parts. The Ministry of War, under the cabinet, controlled military registers and military tokens; the ministers commanded the military. The armies of the Great Chen dynasty were further divided into four groups: the Imperial Guard, personally commanded by His Majesty; the Five Capitals, directly under the cabinet; the local troops of each prefecture; and the border garrisons. Bai Liu's Dingyuan Army, like Lu Fangjin's Huwei Army, was stationed at the border. In times of war, the generals would follow military tokens and disregard the emperor's orders, wielding immense power and status.

At that time, General Huiyun Bai Liu was a famous general and the commander of the 250,000 Dingyuan Army. At that time, the Yuanzhou Prefecture had only 10,000 soldiers, and the nearest Huwei Army was only good at naval battles. Lu Fangjin was just a lieutenant general. If Bai Liu wanted to rebel, it would probably take less than a month for the 250,000 troops to enter Wudu Prefecture.

The stigma, impeachment, and imperial edicts were all directed at General Huiyun Bai Liu and his Dingyuan Army. It was probably because Qi was too weak to dare to go against Dachen, and Bai Liu was the hidden danger, and His Majesty could not tolerate him.

Qi Xiao didn't dare say anything to Bai Xiqiao. Everything was just speculation, but he felt a deep fear, as if he were standing beneath a towering palace wall as a child, the sky above him held down by that wall, all the light beyond his reach. Qi Xiao had thought Fuzhou Prefecture was far enough away, and after spending more than a month in the Hanchen Sect, he felt truly free. But Bai Liu's incident frightened him and made him wary. Those in power were stirring up trouble in Yuanjing City, and there was no peace within the Dachen territory.

The wind blowing out of Yuanjing City quickly swept through Fenglin Mountain with a devastating force. In the 21st year of Tianhua, Hanchen Sect suddenly turned from a martial arts sect far away from the government into a bandit in the mountains. Nie Guangli, the new governor of Yuanzhou Prefecture, was determined to make things difficult for Hanchen Sect. He said that all the bandits were from Hanchen Sect, and framed all the unsolved cases on Hanchen Sect. In less than a year, the people of Yuanzhou Prefecture were afraid that they would be implicated for no reason when they heard the name of Hanchen Sect.

Gu Shanmo had no choice but to dismiss his disciples, taking Bai Xiqiao and a small number of those who were reluctant to leave with him to live in seclusion in the mountains. However, even so, the situation did not improve at all, and in fact, it got worse. Bandits really appeared in Fenglin Mountain.

The Fenglin Mountains stretched for hundreds of miles. Originally, the Dingyuan Army guarded the area, keeping bandits at bay. However, after the Dingyuan Army was disbanded and most of them were disbanded, the bandits in Fenglin Mountain were like demons released from the Demon Locking Tower. They ran rampant and grew in strength, giving Nie Guangli a reason to suppress the bandits. He even petitioned the cabinet for troops to wipe them out. Months and years passed, but the bandits kept growing like weeds in the spring breeze. Nie Guangli's real goal wasn't to strangle the bandits, but the Hanchen Sect. This led to Lu Fangjin's invasion of Fenglin Mountain over a year ago.

"For the past few years, we've been puzzled as to why Nie Guangli, or perhaps some other high official in the court, wanted to exterminate us all, and why. Bai Liu is dead, and the Dingyuan Army has been disbanded. Why would Nie Guangli pursue the Hanchen Sect so relentlessly and with such devotion? Would he not stop until Master's life was taken?" Qi Xiao looked at Bai Xiqiao and said slowly, "Brother, we've already arrived in Yuanjing. Don't you want to get to the bottom of this? Are you going to let Master's revenge go?"