Ms. Diviner: The Prodigal Daughter's Return Chapter 1426: He Has Changed Too

The borderlands' wind and sand, the brutal battlefield, had etched deeper resolve onto his features. That empty sleeve, that worn face, lent him an air of desolate bleakness. Yet, his gaze remained as earnest and absolute as ever.

He had transformed; he was no longer the Qu Fengting of the past.

Recalling all the past grievances and entanglements, a complex emotion stirred within Mu Hanyan's heart.

"Am I, Mu Hanyan, someone who speaks hollow words? But it is Beining Pass I am saving, not the Fifth Prince." Mu Hanyan uttered each word with the force of a hammer striking stone, then urged the Red Charcoal Cloud Smoke Beast forward and vanished.

"Let's go. Do you still not understand Young Master Mu's temperament? Your Fifth Prince is safe this time." He Qingwei clapped the still-stunned Qu Fengting on the shoulder before following suit.

Only then did Qu Fengting seem to awaken from a daze. A flicker of joy ignited in his eyes, and he, too, hurried after them.

Luo Pengcheng might perceive Mu Hanyan and her companions as merely young and impetuous, but he himself would not. After countless encounters with Mu Hanyan and suffering numerous defeats, he had witnessed far too many impossibilities attributed to her.

He understood that Mu Hanyan's flat refusal of Dan Tai Xuan stemmed from solid reasons. Her unwavering confidence was not without foundation. This time, the Fifth Prince would be spared. Truly excellent!

"Select two hundred soldiers fit for battle and accompany me out of the city." After careful deliberation, Luo Pengcheng remained uneasy about Mu Hanyan's actions. Thus, he chose another two hundred lightly wounded soldiers, fully armed, to follow along.

Beining and Qingyang Passes, constructed against the mountains, offered exceedingly perilous terrain. On one flank of each pass lay a bottomless chasm, with only a narrow gorge serving as the sole passage between them. Even those ferocious beasts skilled in climbing sheer cliffs and leaping across rocks could only traverse this gorge. Occasionally, one or two might luck out and scale the precipitous cliffs, but they posed no significant threat.

Naturally, these exotic beasts were far from unintelligent and typically eschewed such perilous attempts.

If Lu’an City represented the throat connecting An Yunxi's southwestern region with the Longyan Mountain range, then Beining and Qingyang Passes were the pair of powerful hands constricting that very throat.

At this very moment, the cacophony of roars from exotic beasts and the fierce war cries of human warriors endlessly reverberated between the cliffs. Similar to the scene outside Lu'an City, corpses littered the ground beneath the two passes, most grotesquely mangled, their demise too horrific to bear witness.

Both passes benefited from their advantageous terrain and were heavily fortified with numerous catapults. Massive stones, imbued with revitalizing Qi, launched from elevated positions, unleashed multiplied force and inflicted lethal damage upon the advancing exotic beasts. This strategic advantage was a primary reason the two passes had withstood the onslaught thus far.

However, after relentless engagements, all stockpiled massive stones within the passes were depleted, and the few colossal catapults lay battered beyond repair. Thousands of exotic beasts now relentlessly assaulted both gates simultaneously.

Qu Fengting had not embellished the grim reality. In terms of sheer numbers and brute strength, the exotic beasts besieging Beining Pass were decidedly superior and far more ferocious. Those attacking Qingyang Pass were not only fewer in number but also notably weaker, appearing more focused on preventing Qingyang's soldiers from reinforcing Beining rather than attempting to capture Qingyang Pass itself.

Upon the ramparts of Beining Pass, a young officer, with a heavy swing of his Longsword, cleaved an exotic beast that had just clawed its way onto the battlements. Bloodied, he crashed heavily to the ground. Leaning on his sword, his gaze drifted blankly into the distance.

The catapults were all rendered useless, and arrow reserves were nearly exhausted. He could no longer count how many exotic beasts had scrambled onto the wall only to be repelled by his blade. All he registered was the fall of his Personal Soldiers one by one, and his own Qi dwindling to its final, faint ember.

In the distance lay Lu’an City, and Luoguan City, which shared a symbiotic link with Beining and Qingyang Passes. He was uncertain if Qu Fengting had managed to breach the enemy encirclement. Would he falter midway? But even if he escaped, where could he flee? Much like himself – even if he were to escape Beining Pass, where would he find refuge? Though the world was vast, where was there a place for him?

He recalled the unbridled confidence of his initial return to the Capital, and then Mu Hanyan's visage – a face he had always found intensely detestable, no matter how he looked. Abruptly, he chuckled. Reflecting now, Mu Hanyan wasn't truly that detestable. Every prior instance, he himself had courted humiliation; Mu Hanyan had never once initiated the provocation.

On the contrary, he had learned much from Mu Hanyan: better to break than bend, yet never act recklessly; skilled at schemes, yet without the petty malice of a schemer. Sadly, he had only slowly realized these truths in the painful reflection after coming to Beining Pass.

If he had met Mu Hanyan earlier, understood all this earlier, perhaps things would not have come to this end.

The Fifth Prince felt a twinge of regret, but soon cast that regret aside. This was not the time for remorse, nor the time to give up. He recalled how, back then in that mysterious palace on Flying Peak, Mu Hanyan’s situation had been no better than his current plight. Yet she had not given up, had persisted to the very end, repelled Zhao Lingxian, and even obtained the Aolai Divine Beast’s memory Inheritance.

Since she could do it, why couldn’t he?

Another Exotic Beast howled as it leapt onto the battlements, jaws gaping. The Fifth Prince did not know where the strength came from; he suddenly sprang up and, with one stroke, chopped the beast off the wall.

Crack. The Longsword, already notched all over, snapped in two. His body, no longer obeying his will, toppled toward the ground.

"General!" Behind him came his Personal Soldiers’ cries of alarm.

His dazed mind cleared in an instant. Using the half-broken sword as a prop, he forced himself to stand once more. He knew he could not fall. If he collapsed, the soldiers behind him would lose their last shred of fighting spirit, and Beining Pass would no longer be able to hold.

The Fifth Prince struggled to straighten his back, half a broken sword in hand, his gaze once more turning to the distant horizon. Earlier, he had heard Lu’an City’s horn of battle to the death; clearly they too had reached their final moment of life and death. He did not know whether Lord Luo had held the city. Even if he had, the casualties would surely be devastating. How could there be spare men to come to his aid?

The Fifth Prince simply stood there, back ramrod straight, staring for a long, long time in the direction of Lu’an City. That was also the direction of the Capital. Boundless exhaustion surged up in his heart; his mind grew hazy. He didn’t even notice an Exotic Beast scrambling up the wall and lunging at him with gaping maw, nor did he truly hear the shouts of horror from the Personal Soldiers behind him.

Suddenly, a black mass appeared far away, rolling up plumes of dust.

The Fifth Prince’s gaze sharpened. Though the distance was still great, he nonetheless clearly saw that leading figure, her features delicate yet not lacking in heroic spirit.

"Mu Hanyan? How is she here!" Though he had received word that the Eight Great Families’ young elites were coming from the Capital to reinforce them, he had not known that the one leading them would actually be Mu Hanyan.

Yet at the very instant he saw Mu Hanyan, his once-befuddled Mental State suddenly cleared, and his spirit surged.

If it had been someone else, he might not have felt much confidence. But Mu Hanyan was different. Just like Qu Fengting, he had witnessed too many miracles on her. He had once both hated and feared her, and at the same time, he was filled with confidence in her.