FORGOTTEN LEGEND OF THE BLOODIED FLOWER

Jleb!

"You…." Commander Hai twisted his body and flung his arm in an attempt to throw Nan Luo off. Thankfully, Nan Luo didn't latch onto Commander Hai's body for a long time as he kicked the other party's body and pulled his sword away at the same time.

Thud!

Rolling on the ground, Nan Luo prepared himself for another battle in case it was necessary.

Commander Hai was looking at his chest as pain seeped from deep inside. Nan Luo had stabbed straight to his chest, even destroying his metal armor that he was wearing. Blood flew out like waterfall from the back of his body.

"This can't be…" Commander Hai felt his strength was leaving him as he slowly dropped to the ground.

Long Qian Xing stepped to the side and stood there, catching his breath. His legs and arms were slightly shaking. Even if he had already earned a rank, he was still nothing more than 13 years old boy at this moment.

Slowly, he turned to look at Emperor Yang Zhou. "Your Majesty, we've killed him."

"Good."

Slash!

The last soldier from Commander Hai's side had also fallen to Old Master Nan's sword. He looked at the two brats and nodded in appreciation. It would be a lie if he was not nervous when he was watching them from behind, but he decided to let Commander Hai be their practice opponent.

With Long Qian Xing had some experience in the battlefield, he should be able to finish the commander with Nan Luo's help.

"Grandpa, I did it!" Nan Luo raised his hand and said while grinning.

"You did good this time but I'll ask you to write reflection tomorrow." Old Master Nan praised Nan Luo without forgetting to throw a bucket of cold water on him.

"Gah? Another reflection report?"

"Of course. Do you think that you hadn't made any mistake? If I'm in your position, I would have killed him in just three breaths time!"

"That's a lie!"

"Tsk, you're still wet behind the ears, Brat…"

While Old Master Nan chided his grandson, Emperor Yang Zhou checked on the other soldiers' condition with a glance. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Treat your wounds first. We still need to clean up the main hall."

"Will there be more soldiers there?" Long Qian Xing sheathed his sword back and lightly relaxed his arms and legs. He didn't feel that much better after that long fight with Commander Hai as he felt that his skills were still far from enough to earn him the title as a commander.

Emperor Yang Zhou glanced at Commander Hai's body. "There might be more of Commander Hai."

"Ah, this one is the first one, right?"

"Yes. There are still the second, third, and fourth Commander Hai from Hai Family." When talking about Hai Family, Emperor Yang Zhou's tone was always exceedingly cold. It was to the point that it might be below the freezing point and froze everyone who could hear him talk about them.

Of course, since he hated them so much, he had already acquired a lot of information regarding Hai Family. It was vital for his survival, thus he had gathered a lot of information for the past few years.

"The fourth one is not in the Capital City." Long Qian Xing took out some medical equipment and handed it to the nearby soldier. He also needed to check their condition to make sure that they could still fight.

There might be more soldiers waiting for them at the end of the path.

"The other two might be in another secret paths. It'll not be easy to deal with them." Emperor Yang Zhou pointed to the front. "There will be more soldiers waiting for us along the way."

"Don't worry, I can use them as practice. It's been a few months since the last time I'm fighting on the battlefield." Long Qian Xing smiled. He had gotten used to fight and besides, rather than training on his own and sparring, it would be more delightful if he could fight to his heart's content.

Emperor Yang Zhou didn't immediately answer. He was assessing Long Qian Xing's condition because he understood that if they continued to move on, it would definitely eat up to Long Qian Xing's stamina. While Long Qian Xing's stamina was not bad, the young man had been fighting ever since dinner's time.

It was almost dawn, which was almost the same amount of time one would spend on the battlefield.

As tough as he was, Long Qian Xing was still only 13 years old.

Emperor Yang Zhou didn't want to overexert his loyal subordinate. "Get some rest first. There's still enough time before morning court."

"Alright."

Since it was unofficial morning court, which message was only sent late at night, it was clear that there might not be as many people who came as expected. However, Emperor Yang Zhou didn't want to take the chance.

He would never let the second prince have even the slightest bit of chance to obtain the throne.

…

- Nan Hua's side -

"Zhang Family?" Nan Hua repeated and then turned to look at Hou Lin. There was no Zhang Family in the novel and even if there was any, it might be just a side character that was not worth mentioning.

Anyway, Zhang Dan Shui's name was not present there.

She had no prior knowledge regarding this family, so she would not act recklessly.

"Young Miss, Zhang Family is a family of officials. They have been producing many officials from generation to generation." Hou Lin was also very familiar with the intelligence since he was often tasked to gather information too.

"Zhang Dan Shui is indeed the first son of Zhang Family but he's of concubine born. Not long ago, he passed the examination and become an official. Right now he's 21 years old."

"I see." Nan Hua didn't have much interest in the young man. Should she just kill him?

Zhang Dan Shui shuddered at the cold gaze Nan Hua gave to him and quickly called out, "Miss, esteemed Miss, please wait."