Removing Armor, Returning Home

The core of this evil realm is the former territory of the Yan Kingdom from four hundred years ago.

The soldiers in the camp became the sharpest blades in the evil realm; whoever came near would die.

But now.

Countless footprints followed a figure in gray, whose military boots trod through the wet mud, stopping and starting with each step to protect him.

The knife became a shield at that moment.

Shen Gui walked deeper into the area.

The air grew colder the further in you went, and the fog grew thicker, as thick as a dream sealed for four hundred years.

Shen Gui didn't linger and stepped into the thicker fog.

Upon entering, I heard some breathing sounds, very light and weak, like the breath of a living person.

Looking around, there were many people lying haphazardly.

Some people were kneeling on the ground, holding the gun barrel in their hands, their lips frozen blue.

Someone lay in the mud, their chest rising and falling very slowly, their eyelids trembling as they tried to lift them, but to no avail.

Some people were sleeping against a war drum, their lips opening and closing as if answering in their dreams.

They were wearing the armor of active-duty border troops, with military tags on their waists bearing the three characters "[Black Stone Battalion]".

Shen Gui reached out and placed two fingers on a soldier's wrist. The soldier's pulse was extremely weak, and his body was filled with heavy Yin energy, as if he had been soaking in ice water for three years.

Shen Gui had a picture in his mind.

In the early stages of the fog, before the evil realm was fully formed, these soldiers were enveloped by the fog, their bodies were filled with yin energy, and their souls were drawn by the old soldier's obsession.

The person is in a state of being alive but not conscious.

If you forcibly pull them out of the dream, you will only tear their souls apart. To save them, you must first dispel the evil influence.

Shen Gui weaved among the sleeping soldiers, stopping a hundred paces later in front of a young soldier.

The man was young, his brow bone hadn't fully developed yet, his face was covered in mud, and he had a military tag hanging from his waist with two characters still clearly visible: [Yan Ci].

As Shen Gui drew closer, Yan Ci's fingers twitched. In his dream, he seemed to be killing an enemy, and he squeezed out a sound: "Kill."

Shen Gui continued walking forward.

The footprints behind me followed at first, but when we reached a downhill section, they suddenly slowed down.

A pair.

Two pairs.

Countless pairs of military boots stopped at the foot of the slope, refusing to go any further.

Ahead lay a stretch of black soil.

Half of the old drill ground underground had collapsed, mud and water had flooded the tattered flags, rusted armor pieces were half buried in the soil, and a flag with only a rotten wooden pole remained lay in the mud and water, the corner of the flag rotted so badly that only a few threads remained.

The very heart of the area is a mass grave.

Many old military tags were stuck in the wet, black mud.

Some were crooked, some were broken in half, and some only had a small part sticking out.

Shen Gui carried the banner down the hillside, his shoes sinking into the mud as he walked straight ahead. The broken sword and armor did not stop him. The banner with the character "Yan" on it lay at his feet, but he did not even glance at it.

Upon arriving at the mass grave, Shen Gui's pace began to slow.

The military license plates beneath them still bear names, some with only half a radical remaining, and others worn away by time.

This time, Shen Gui didn't use his vital energy. Every time he walked to a military tag, he would pull it out of the mud with his hands, muddy water dripping down between his fingers. He would then place the tag aside and straighten it.

Then they took the second, third, and fourth pieces.

These names have been buried in the mud for four hundred years; it's time for them to see the light of day.

The process was slow, but Shen Gui didn't stop.

There are very few people and things in the world that can make him stop.

The old soldiers behind him stopped on the slope.

Every time a military tag emerges from the mud, a pair of footprints disappear, gradually merging back into the other military tags, like a person finally finding their berth.

Four hundred years ago, they were still alive, and this place was not a mass grave.

Here you'll find a camp gate, a stove, a wooden rack for drying nails, a cook who's swearing, and young soldiers who get kicked up for being lazy.

The soldiers gathered together, eating hard flatbread and spouting crude jokes typical of men.

Their mission was to defend the city, to hold it to the death.

Later, the commander died on the front lines, and the messenger died on the way, so the order to withdraw never came.

The enemy changed course and diverted water, the city wall collapsed, the camp was swallowed by water, and when the last man died, he was still looking at the camp gate, waiting for a command flag that would never come.

They have guarded it for four hundred years.

They guarded it until its name rotted in the mud, until future generations forgot that there was once a battalion of fine young men here.

They guarded the evil realm, borrowing their bones, their armor, and the military order they never received, to create the evil realm and the rules for killing.

After an unknown amount of time, when Shen Gui stood up, his hands were covered in mud.

Military license plates were laid out in front of the mass grave, with the ones he could recognize facing up and the ones he couldn't. He could hear a series of voices echoing in his ears.

"Your Majesty, this humble general is incompetent and failed to defend the stronghold."

"Your Majesty, I have failed the country and dare not return home."

"Your Majesty, our Seventh Battalion may have embarrassed you. There was too much water at the time, and the brothers tried to hold it up with planks, but they couldn't."

"His Majesty..."

These sounds came from the mud, from the dog tags, from the broken armor and shattered swords, one after another.

It was a bit chaotic, but not noisy, like a group of people who had been holding back for too long and finally had a chance to express their grievances.

Shen Gui stood in the center of the mass grave, listening quietly until the last old soldier finished speaking, then he softly replied, "Soldiers, the war has been won, you have done a great job."

After he finished speaking, he closed his eyes.

a long time.

When the eyes opened again, a sense of majesty rose in them.

This is the founding emperor, an emperor who once made the whole world tremble, exuding an aura of power from the very core of his being.

He kept this oppressive aura deep in his heart, intending to suppress it forever and never reveal it again.

Today, it has awakened.

There were no ceremonial guards.

There is no imperial seal.

There is no "Long Live, Long Live, Long Live".

Shen Gui stood before the old plaques scattered on the ground, in the black mud soaked with blood for four hundred years, and spoke to those unseen sons.

"The military order has been issued."

A stillness in the fog.

"The entire army disarmed."

First came a soft sound, like someone finally unfastening the buckle on their shoulder armor.

Then came the second tone, and then the third tone.

The broken knife fell from the black mud, the rusted sword slid off, and the old flag hung low.

Shen Gui then said:

"Returning home."

The rust on the dog license plate gradually faded and became lighter.

A gust of wind rose from the ground. The military license plate had endured for four hundred years, but at this moment it could no longer hold on.

Pei Dingshan.

Li Youfu.

Chen Danian.

One by one, the military license plates cracked, aged, and crumbled into fine ash.

Shen Gui placed his right fist on his chest and performed a military salute that Yan Kingdom had long since abandoned.

From within the fog, someone shouted, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Then someone shouted, "Brothers, let's go home!"

Shen Gui simply stood there, watching the dust particles fly upwards, like swarms of butterflies, gently passing by Shen Gui, passing through the old place where he had stayed for hundreds of years, passing through the fog and returning home with his comrades after they laid down their arms.

If there is an afterlife, if there is reincarnation, the soldiers hope that their families in the other world will not blame them for being late.

It's okay if it's strange.

They can stand tall and say to their parents, "Your son is not a coward. His Majesty said that your son has no shame before the Yan Kingdom."

You can smile and say to your child, "After your father died, His Majesty personally saw him off. Even the Great General didn't receive such treatment. How prestigious!"