#587 - A Half-Paper of Fame, a Thousand Mountains of Snow and Wind (VIII)
“I would rather die under the iron hooves of the four invading nations than die here!”
As Ning Yongnian roared these words, Wei Changtian's gaze instantly shifted to Xu Sui Sui, who was still standing blankly in the Lingbo Pavilion.
From the start of the fight until now, almost twenty breaths had passed, and she had been standing there in a daze, as if she hadn't yet come back to her senses.
But Ning Yongnian's shout abruptly awakened her, and her gaze immediately met Wei Changtian's.
The emotions in their eyes were different, but at that moment, both understood the current situation.
Ning Yongnian's judgment was correct.
Xu Sui Sui truly still didn't want him to die, especially after he had shouted such a sentence.
Whether this sentence truly came from the bottom of his heart, or was just to save his life, was currently unknown and impossible to verify.
In this fleeting moment, Xu Sui Sui didn't even have time to think about this question.
She and Wei Changtian both needed to make a decision as quickly as possible, or rather, both needed to make a decision before the other party did—
Whether or not to "kill" the other.
Snow darkens the painted flags, the wind mixes with the sound of drums.
In the distance, the crowded and heavy sound of horses' hooves and war drums had already begun, and it was unknown whether it was the Da Ning army or the Tiangou army.
Xu Sui Sui and Wei Changtian only exchanged glances for a moment, but time seemed to freeze at this moment, and everything around them became slow.
They certainly didn't want to really kill each other, but rather to decide whether to change the current situation by "killing" the other.
It must be said that Ning Yongnian's final struggle was a successful gamble.
Xu Sui Sui did indeed possess the ability to turn the tide of the battle.
Similarly, Wei Changtian also possessed the ability to prevent her from turning the tide of the battle.
Currently, both of them had enough system points.
Therefore, as long as Xu Sui Sui exchanged for a Divine Strike and threw it at Wei Changtian, the latter would only be able to exchange for a Pure Jade Pendant to save his life.
After the Pure Jade Pendant was triggered, Wei Changtian would be teleported out of the battlefield, and Ning Yongnian would naturally be able to survive as a result.
And if Xu Sui Sui felt it wasn't safe enough, she could even exchange for another Divine Strike to kill Wei Zhaohai or any other second-rank expert.
In short, as long as she wanted to, it wouldn't be difficult to save Ning Yongnian.
However, as mentioned earlier, it still depended on Wei Changtian's attitude.
Xu Sui Sui could exchange for Divine Strike, and Wei Changtian could do the same.
In fact, the latter didn't even need Divine Strike, just a casual strike could "kill" the former.
This was still under the circumstance that Xu Sui Sui had a Pure Jade Pendant on her.
If she hadn't exchanged for the jade pendant in advance, then with her reaction speed as an ordinary person, she might not even have been able to exchange for the jade pendant immediately after Wei Changtian made his move, and would have been truly killed.
Therefore, if standing from Xu Sui Sui's perspective, her best course of action at this moment would be to give Wei Changtian a Divine Strike without hesitation.
But the figure in the Lingbo Pavilion hesitated for a moment.
No one knew what caused this moment of hesitation.
Perhaps Xu Sui Sui was unwilling to waste system points on "mutual killing", after all, her Divine Strike and Wei Changtian's Pure Jade Pendant added up to a thousand points.
To waste a thousand points for nothing in order to save Ning Yongnian, it didn't seem like a worthwhile deal no matter how you looked at it.
However, judging from the short thinking time of almost just a blink of an eye, Xu Sui Sui probably didn't think so much.
Therefore, the reason she didn't move might just be simply because she didn't want to attack Wei Changtian.
In short, regardless of the reason, Xu Sui Sui ultimately didn't take any action.
“...”
“Yes.”
Her eyes suddenly widened, and Xu Sui Sui subconsciously gave the answer.
Then, she saw a golden blade of light flash and stop, and then slash at her chest.
“Bang!!!”
“Huff!”
The familiar green mist suddenly appeared, surging in the Lingbo Pavilion, engulfing Xu Sui Sui's figure.
She had already experienced this once outside Guanghan City, so she wasn't flustered at the moment.
She just stared blankly at Wei Changtian, and everything in her vision began to blur, until only that incomparably heartless blade of light remained.
Obviously, Wei Changtian didn't want to kill her, otherwise he wouldn't have asked that question.
So he just didn't want her to take action to stop him from killing Ning Yongnian.
But…
But why didn't he directly ask her if she would save Ning Yongnian?
If he had asked, she would have definitely told him that she wouldn't.
Did he still not trust her?
With doubts and a hint of pain, Xu Sui Sui disappeared into the Lingbo Pavilion.
And Ning Yongnian, who saw this scene, trembled violently.
The last straw had fallen to the bottom of the lake, and he knew that he would not be able to live.
Then, resistance also lost its meaning.
“Puchi!”
A long blade pierced into his left arm, and blood splattered.
Then his right arm, left leg, right leg…
In the instant that Ning Yongnian gave up resisting, more than a dozen long blades pierced through various parts of his body without mercy, but avoided vital points.
Seeing this, Wei Zhaohai's figure flashed, and the next second he came to the man with his eyes tightly closed.
He didn't hesitate at all, and then stomped down.
“Bang!!”
The tattered dragon robe smashed into the soil, raising a cloud of dust.
The sand turns over, looking like waves, the wind is strong, and the sound is like thunder.
The heavy snow filled the sky, and the snowflakes that fell on Ning Yongnian turned into blood, mixing with the dust and staining the earth red.
Suddenly, the surrounding fighting stopped, and the world returned to silence.
The emperor, who once stood above tens of thousands of people and harbored the ambition to unify the world, was now being ruthlessly trampled underfoot.
Looking at this scene, Wei Changtian's mood was a bit complex.
He slowly walked to Ning Yongnian's side, looked up at the roaring and tumbling Yellow Dragon in the night sky, and then looked down at the white hair at the latter's temples.
The enemy who had fought for so long was finally about to meet his destined end, and Wei Changtian suddenly didn't know what to say.
Was Ning Yongnian hateful?
In order to destroy the Great Feng's 500,000 elite troops, he didn't hesitate to use the lives of more than two million innocent people as a sacrifice, so he was naturally hateful.
Was Ning Yongnian pitiful?
He once possessed the prosperous Da Ning, but after scheming and calculating, he lost everything instead, so he was naturally pitiful.
Was Ning Yongnian pathetic?
For the sake of the so-called country and its people, he gave up everything that could be given up, even the bottom line as a human emperor, so he was naturally pathetic.
Hateful, pitiful, pathetic.
These were all correct, but if these were put aside, presumably Ning Yongnian once had a vision like Ning Yu Ke's of "bringing peace to the world." Perhaps.
Around, everyone who had stopped fighting knew that everything could not be changed.
They stood in place with different expressions, their eyes all focused on Wei Changtian.
But the latter just silently looked at Ning Yongnian, who was slumped on the ground like a pile of mud.
Everyone starts well, but few can finish.
In 《 Martial Dao Great Pinnacle 》, his head was chopped off by Xiao Feng with a sword in the court.
Now, he was about to be stabbed in the heart by himself outside this Lingbo Pavilion.
Although I don't know what the ending of Ning Yongnian was in the novel that Xu Sui Sui read, presumably there wouldn't be a good ending.
Therefore, Ning Yongnian's death seemed to be destined, the only difference was sooner or later.
As for how to evaluate the life of this emperor…
Perhaps it was that sentence—
Fame and achievements on half a sheet of paper, wind and snow over a thousand mountains.
“Changtian, it's all here.”
Suddenly, Wei Zhaohai, who had been groping on Ning Yongnian's body for a long time, stood up and handed three small objects to Wei Changtian.
A small arrow, exactly the same as the one found on Wu Ding's body.
A small piece of iron, with complex inscriptions engraved on it.
And a Pure Jade Pendant that was all too familiar.
Three life-saving tools, if Wei Changtian hadn't arranged things like tonight, but only wanted to solve the problem with Divine Strike, then he would really have a high probability of failing.
But now there would be no more surprises.
“Canglang!”
Louying was unsheathed, and slowly stopped above Ning Yongnian's heart.
Wei Changtian was about to drop the knife, but a intermittent and extremely weak voice suddenly came from under his feet at this moment.
“The… the north wall of the palace has a… cough… old locust…”
“Tree… under the tree there is a private treasury, the key to the treasury is behind the plaque of the Taihe Hall…”
“…”
The tip of the knife suddenly stopped, and Wei Changtian's eyes widened slightly.
He hadn't thought that Ning Yongnian would say something before he died, but he didn't expect it to be these things.
Obviously, there must be a lot of good things in this private treasury, and only Ning Yongnian knew about it.
And the latter said it at this time…
“Also… still have…”
Under his feet, Ning Yongnian opened his mouth with difficulty, his mouth full of blood.
His left hand moved bit by bit, grabbing Wei Changtian's clothes tightly, his eyes wide open.
“After I die, the… the soldiers will not slaughter the city…”
“I… I just wanted to use this to threaten… threaten you.”
“Tell… tell Li Huaizhong, let… let him assist Wenjun well.”
“Don’t… don’t bury me in the imperial mausoleum, I… I have no face to see the ancestors of the Ning family…”
“Last… lastly, Young Master Wei, I want to ask you for one thing.”
“…”
The emotions in his heart became more and more complex, and although Wei Changtian didn't answer, he slowly bent down and put his ear to Ning Yongnian's mouth.
Then, in the heavy snow, he heard the latter's last words in his life.
“I beg… beg you…”
“Be sure… be sure to protect Da Ning.”
“…”
His body froze, Wei Changtian was silent for a long time, and finally said a soft “Okay” at the same time as Louying fell.
This answer echoed far away in the wind, but Ning Yongnian could no longer hear it.
Just like that.
On November 13th of the first year of Taichu, the Da Ning Emperor Ning Yongnian was buried outside Hailing City in the Lingbo Pavilion.
