The eldest daughter's scheming, the crown prince's exclusive favor to the venomous concubi

Jian Yue narrowed her eyes, her gaze becoming wary. Xing Ke, however, said, "Don't worry, I won't ask you to do anything. I just need you to help me find someone."

Jian Yue shook her head and said, "But why did you tell me about your clan's land being destroyed? What does that have to do with me? And what does it have to do with you bringing me here now?"

Xingke lowered his eyes, completely ignoring Jianyue's words, and walked straight towards the door.

Jian Yue had no choice but to continue following, but after taking two steps, Xing Ke suddenly leaned close to her ear and whispered, "The person who destroyed my clan's territory is the mastermind behind these armored soldiers."

Jian Yue was stunned. Xing Ke had already disappeared through the gate, so she had no choice but to follow. She was immediately shocked by the magnificent splendor before her eyes.

It was still a corridor, but wider than before. The walls were inlaid with luminous pearls, and the dim, soft lighting made the place less quiet and desolate than before.

Afterwards, Xingke led her through many twists and turns, and walked for a long time. During this time, Xingke did not say a word to her. Even his face, which had been so kind just moments before, was now tense, and his fair face was filled with indifference and aloofness.

Looking at Xingke like this, Jianyue suddenly felt a pang of heartache. Regardless of why her people were wiped out, Xingke looked no more than twelve or thirteen years old. What had she gone through to have such a detached and indifferent face?

"arrive."

As Xingke's hoarse voice rang out, Jian Yue snapped back to reality and saw a group of people standing in front of her, dressed in the same armor and wearing the same masks, looking in the direction she had come from. Hei Feng was among them.

Jian Yue frowned, and Hei Feng stepped forward and said, "This place is the nightmare of the royal family."

Jian Yue neither agreed nor disagreed with this lame joke, only glancing at it before saying, "Nothing special, so why is it so meticulous?"

Upon hearing this, Black Wind sighed, his eyes filled with sorrow as he looked at the group of people.

Jian Yue counted carefully and found that there were no more than a hundred people here, and none of the people she had seen before were there. She didn't know what was going on.

Seeing Jian Yue's probing gaze, Hei Feng knew what she was thinking and answered her directly, "Don't bother looking. They are not real armored soldiers. To the armored soldiers, they are at best elite soldiers who have undergone special training, and they are far from being true armored soldiers."

Jian Yue smiled, her face calm and expressionless, and said, "What's the difference?"

Black Wind didn't speak, but turned and nodded to the armored soldiers. The armored soldiers moved in unison, suddenly drawing their swords and slashing down at their own arms.

Jian Yue was immediately shocked and shouted, "Are you crazy?"

Before he could finish speaking, his eyes were drawn to the scene before him, filled with terror.

All the armored soldiers' arms snapped off and fell to the ground. But as soon as these broken branches hit the ground, they seemed to come alive, suddenly softening into a lump and crawling back up their bodies from their feet, all the way back to their arms, where they slowly healed.

Once their arms were reattached, apart from the torn sleeves where the branches had broken, there wasn't a single scar on their exposed skin.

"This……"

Black Wind walked to her side, placed his hand on her shoulder, and said, "This is the Ironclad Soldier, an army that never dies."

Jian Yue was still a little dazed. When she came to her senses, she realized what kind of scene she was seeing. Suddenly, she remembered that Hei Feng had said that he had lived for a very long time.

She turned around abruptly, looking at Hei Feng with horrified eyes, while Hei Feng looked into her eyes and gave a bitter smile: "I'm not much different from them."

Jian Yue didn't know how to express her feelings at this moment. She took two steps back, subconsciously broke free from Hei Feng's hand, stamped her foot, then took two steps forward, raising and lowering her hands, completely unsure of how to respond.

Black Wind felt a pang of sadness in his heart. He subtly clenched his fist behind his back and said without showing any emotion, "If you think I'm a monster, then I am a monster. After all, really no one can live this long."

Jian Yue shook her head, blinked, and forced her eyes open. It took her a long time to regain her composure and force herself to express her thoughts.

"I'm just a little confused, but why is this happening? What exactly happened to their bodies? And are they still themselves now?"

Black Wind said, "It's precisely because their thoughts are still their own that living is even more painful."

As Hei Feng spoke, Jian Yue looked up at the group of people. They were all wearing masks, with only their eyes showing. But the cynicism in their eyes told Jian Yue what kind of torment they were enduring.

Black Wind continued, "Watching loved ones die, watching time pass, watching the sunrise and sunset, and always living in a daze, it's hard to enjoy standing under the sun. After all, you feel out of place; you have it, and you'll lose it."

As he spoke, he nodded to those people, who then took off their masks. This time, Jian Yue was less shocked, as she was somewhat prepared, but she was still taken aback.

Black Wind continued, "Especially since they don't even have the chance to stand in the sunlight again, can they still be called human beings?"

Jian Yue rubbed her temples before continuing to look at the armored soldiers. This time, she walked over and examined them one by one.

The faces of the armored soldiers were all incomplete; each of them had a piece missing, more or less. The missing parts were dark, as if they had been blocked with some kind of dye, and they were still writhing.

Jian Yue looked at it for a while, then said knowingly, "A Gu worm?"

Black Wind nodded: "That's right, it's the Gu worm. Our bodies have stopped aging and time because of the Gu worm, and have continued to this day. We don't need to eat or sleep, and we can neither die nor live."

I'm relatively lucky; at least my face is perfect, so I can blend into a crowd without anyone noticing anything unusual.

As he spoke, he suddenly shook his head and laughed, "I haven't mentioned Zhang the Drywood. He's just like me, perfect on the outside, but his heart is just like theirs, already crawling with worms and covered in wounds."

Jian Yue remained silent. She didn't know how to face Hei Feng. Hei Feng was still the same Hei Feng, speaking in a roguish and nonchalant manner. But at this moment, she finally understood how tragic this person's heart truly was.

After a long while, she raised her eyes and said, "I finally understand why armored soldiers are called divine soldiers. It's not because they are so powerful, but because of their immortality and the Gu worms."

Hei Feng chuckled and said, "That's right. When the Ironclad Corps was established, they discussed the issue of countless deaths and injuries. At that time, I was just a soldier and had no idea what the big shots were planning. All I knew was that we all changed overnight. Back then, more than 10,000 people were turned into these disgusting monsters."

Jian Yue felt disgusted and asked in confusion, "But why is this? Won't such actions provoke public outrage?"

Upon hearing this, Hei Feng sneered: "Public anger? If you can reason with the emperor, then he wouldn't be the emperor. Back then, the emperor insisted on his own way and invited the Gu masters from the Miao region to recast the armored soldiers with Gu worms. In the end, the armored soldiers were completely transformed into a living Gu army, truly invincible and capable of killing gods and demons."

But what happens after that? The Gu worms run rampant, and the soldiers, torn apart by them, become increasingly violent, bloodthirsty, and completely out of control. In desperation, the emperor hires a Gu master to exterminate all the Gu worms. Killing the Gu worms means killing these soldiers directly. Do you think the emperor can bear to do that?

Black Wind's laughter was mocking. As he spoke, his words slowed down, and finally, it seemed he couldn't continue. The murderous intent on his face grew stronger. Xingke stepped forward and said, "Black Wind, the Gu worms will control your brain."

Upon hearing this, Black Wind took a deep breath and said, "I understand."

He calmed his thoughts before looking at Jian Yue and continuing, "As you saw, just now, I was so emotionally agitated that I almost had my brain taken over by the Gu worms. After going berserk, I became bloodthirsty."

Therefore, all the armored soldiers who had problems were captured by the Gu Master for research, in an attempt to create another Gu worm to suppress our irritability and enable us to control our emotions.

Later, the Gu Master succeeded, but the Ironclad Soldiers were few and far between. When the Shangguan family's ancestors saw this, they vowed to refuse the Ironclad Soldiers from going back to the battlefield. Afterwards, many generals reconsidered. After all, many of these 10,000 Ironclad Soldiers were the children of soldiers, and now they were dying because of the Gu worms. Who could tolerate that?

Finally, under pressure, the emperor yielded, but not wanting to give up completely, he made an agreement with General Shangguan, using the blood-red coral as a token. If a crisis occurred in Yue Kingdom, the royal family would bring out the blood-red coral, and the Shangguan family would have to activate their armored troops.

General Shangguan outwardly agreed, but secretly he colluded with many soldiers to steal the blood-red coral, carve two seals from it, and forged it into jade, which he then gave to two trusted confidants.

It was said at the time that if the emperor activated the armored soldiers, it would be invalid without the jade seal. They would then monitor the Yue Kingdom, and the armored soldiers would not be activated unless the country was on the verge of collapse.

As General Shangguan had predicted, the Ironclad Soldiers were sealed away for less than ten years before he was framed and killed in battle. The Emperor then used this as a pretext to activate the Ironclad Soldiers. However, when the Crimson Coral appeared, the Ironclad Soldiers refused to recognize it, which enraged the Emperor. He then discovered that two pieces of the Crimson Coral were missing. If those two pieces could not be found, the Crimson Coral would be useless.

"You all know what happened next; it's just like the rumors say: the armored soldiers became legends, and the blood-red coral became a mystery."

After listening, Jian Yue suddenly frowned and asked, "But what does this have to do with me? Why is there a competition between the Phoenix Maiden and the Phoenix Queen?"