Chapter 111: A City of White Hair |
“Why can’t I recruit troops anymore?” Shu Yichao fiddled with the screen, hoping to use his starting fund to recruit some soldiers, only to realize that he was unable to do so.
What was even weirder was…
“I can’t recruit troops, but I can directly recruit heroes? What is with this setting?” Shu Yichao fell into deep thoughts. “And the page for recruiting heroes looks the same as the page for inviting a friend into a mod in the original Beacons of the Otherworld.”
Beacons of the Otherworld was one of the most successful games back then, so it went without saying that it allowed users to interact with one another too.
“Is the translation correct?”
Shu Yichao tapped into ‘Heroes Recruitment’. Only one hero was colored; the rest were grayed out.
“Isn’t this the same as inviting a friend? The only one who is in the same psionic frequency as me is… Miazova? Do I have such a person in my friend list?”
Shu Yichao tried to check the person’s profile, only to accidentally tap on the ‘Recruit’ button.
Ksh!
Tok tok!
A figure reminiscent of a metal tower walked out of the shattered space with heavy footsteps, and the space behind them immediately recovered as if it had been an illusion.
“It really is inviting a friend to help?” Shu Yichao was speechless. “What kind of nonsensical scenario is that? The players are heroes? Uhh, I guess that isn’t exactly wrong.”
Players tended to be much fiercer than NPC heroes anyway.
Shu Yichao was certain that the person he had summoned was a player because of their mishmash of equipment.
He wore a combat helmet with a gas mask, along with a bamboo hat. His body was even more heavily armored than the Metal Fortresses, with an army pixelated uniform on the inside. On his waist was a military water bottle and shovel.
In his combat gloved hands was a red-tasseled spear, whereas his legs were covered in a pair of military boots.
It was bizarre…
It felt like he was cosplaying multiple characters at once.
The invited friend first took a look around before his eyes fell on Shu Yichao.
“Kikiki! You have summoned the demon. Tell me, mortal, what price will you pay to fulfill your… Huh?!” A gasp could be heard beneath the gas mask. “Shu Yichao? Bastard, you are still alive? Where did you go the last few years?!”
This is bad!
Shu Yichao looked calm on the surface, but he was panicking on the inside.
Who in the world is this fellow?
He had lived in a dormitory through his elementary school, middle school, and high school. There were far too many people whom he had ‘loving ties with’, be it through stealing their food or copying their homework, resulting in a Shrodinger’s relationship of father and son…
He actually couldn’t tell who the other party was through his voice!
This isn’t good. The other party recognizes me, but I don’t know who he is… I’ll become this brat’s laughingstock if he finds out about it. I should first pretend to know him and find a way to probe him out…
Shu Yichao quickly formulated a reply, “How saddening. It’s been long since we last met, but my son is talking to me in such a manner. I have failed to bring you up well.”
Shu Yichao shook his head and sighed.
Huh?!
Miazova was startled.
That fellow used to be so nice and obedient. How did he become like that in just a few years? Could it be that the few years I spent with him in this world has unknowingly affected him…
No, I absolutely can’t admit to that! I’ll become a laughingstock if others learn that I have been a bad influence to a child!
“Oi oi oi!” Miazova plunged its red-tasseled spear into the yellow sand and rested its hand on its hip. “I fed and cleaned up after you from a young age. I’d have been your parent if not for you going missing all of a sudden. Don’t you think that you should call me father instead?”
“How dare you rebel against me? Kowtow to me right now and call me your father!”
Both sides began arguing over who was the father and who was the child.
Clang!
Miazova immediately pulled out its red-tasseled spear, dragged Shu Yichao behind it, and pointed its spear in the direction of the sound.
Shu Yichao also leaped off his steed and drew his sword.
Tak tak tak tak!
A couple of men riding on horseback stopped a distance away from them. The one leading the group was a white-haired old man with a beard.
The old man assessed the two of them, and his eyes became exceptionally heated when he saw Shu Yichao’s face.
That getup. That appearance. He’s from the Central Plains!
Yes, he must be from the Central Plains! No one in this region dares to wear those kinds of clothes!
His breathing became ragged, and his hands holding onto the reins shook. With a reddened face, he gulped down his saliva, bowed, and spoke with a quivering tone, “Young masters, I am from the Great Tang.”
He pointed to his own hair as if to prove the point.
“May I ask if the Sage Emperor has dispatched troops? Are our men making a comeback here?”
“…”
“…”
Miazova lowered its red-tasseled spear and fell silent.
Having been summoned to this world before, so it had some grasp of the setting. It knew the identity of this old man. The latter wasn’t a bandit but a survivor of the local population after the Great Tang lost this plot of land.
They were either scorned under Tibetan rule, lived tough lives in the countryside, or buried their names and lived under a new identity. They tolerated their plights and waited with hopeful hearts for the arrival of the reinforcements that would never come.
Meanwhile, Shu Yichao still hadn’t made sense of the situation yet. He understood the context, but he struggled to string it all together to form a complete picture.
Silence ensued.
The old man’s face turned pale. He could feel his hands and legs slowly turning heavy and cold. This silence was more deafening than any spoken words.
“Pardon me for disturbing you.” The old man clasped his fist before backing off with a melancholic expression. “Farewell, young masters.”
With that, the old man departed with his sons.
It was only then that it finally struck Shu Yichao. “Wait, what he just said…”
He quickly tapped into the minimap and zoomed out till he could see the entire map.
“This is!!!”
【Hm? I don’t know what happened, but it looks like I have a new host. Let’s turn on the mic!】
System 12345 cleared its throat and began communicating with its new host.
【My host, as you can see, this isn’t a game. You have been…】
Shu Yichao closed the communication windows and turned off the volume.
【???】
Shu Yichao quietly weeped as he nodded. “This is indeed not just a game.”
Even though there were some differences, with a fantasy element weaved into the background, he could still recognize the setting right away. This mod was simply too sentimental!
There was no way Shu Yichao wouldn’t recognize this background!
“It’s the Great Tang!”
In 755 AD, a powerful military governor named An Lushan rebelled against the Tang Dynasty.
To quell the rebellion, the emperor mobilized the elite soldiers stationed in the Western Region to the Central Plains, leaving just 10,000 soldiers to guard the area.
The Tang Dynasty did succeed in quelling the rebellion, but it suffered severe damage in the process. The Tibetan Empire took this opportunity to attack the Hexi Corridor, cutting the Tang Dynasty off from the Western Region.
The 10,000 Tang soldiers left in the Western Region found themselves isolated in the Gobi Desert, with hundreds of thousands of enemy troops eyeing them with malevolence.
In 768 AD, an envoy from the Anxi Protectorate made an arduous journey to the capital, Chang’an, to tell the imperial palace that they hadn’t lost the Western Region yet, and that the Tang soldiers were still fighting hard. (T/N: Anxi is the Tang Dynasty’s territory in the Western Region.)
The imperial court was moved to tears by the tenacity of their soldiers, but they had grown so weak that they couldn’t even send a single soldier to reinforce them.
Thirteen years passed. Yet another envoy from Anxi arrived in Chang’an.
Those energetic young lads stationed in the Western Region had grown old and sprouted white hair, but they continued to hold their ground with great tenacity. The odds were stacked against them, but they fought until the yellow sands drowned their old bodies.
“I get it now.” Shu Yichao pointed his sword to the sky and howled. “My mission is to restore Great Tang’s glory in the Western Region! As long as I have a single arrow or sword in my hand, the whole world shall know that this land belongs to Great Tang!”
“To think it is this talent!” Shu Yichao was overjoyed.
He opened his map once more to confirm his locations before galloping in a direction.
He knew where he had to go now.
Miazova was still staring in a daze at the departing old man. It only turned back when he heard Shu Yichao’s excited yelp, and to its shock, the latter had already run off.
He recalled what Shu Yichao had just said, and that made him so angry that he nearly snorted his gas mask flying.
“The Tibetans have countless shamans, as well as hundreds and thousands of warrior slaves who are impervious to stabs and slashes. Yet, you want to conquer the Western Region all by yourself? You must be tired of living! Come back here!”
Shu Yichao was too far away to hear anything.
Miazova stomped its leg in anger. It leaped onto a nearby horse and chased after Shu Yichao.
“My accursed son, hold it right there!”
…
The burning desert unknowingly turned freezingly cold, as the searing sun was replaced with dark storm clouds. A thick fog seeped out from the cracks of the sand, making the surroundings look eerie.
The horses neighed miserably out of fear.
However, Shu Yichao was unfazed.
Hu!
He finally arrived at his destination.
It was a dilapidated city with hardly anyone around.
The plaque hanging above the city gate had grown dull under the wear of time, but the word ‘Kucha’ could still be vaguely seen. The cold air gushing from the city caused a layer of frost to form on Shu Yichao’s armor.
Miazova, who was following Shu Yichao, stared at the city with complicated eyes.
“What strong yin energy! Is that son of mine planning to enter the city?! Damn it!”
It reached into its bag, grabbed a bunch of talismans, and tossed them at Shu Yichao with a pained heart. These talismans transformed into surges of light that formed indiscernible barriers around it.
“I never thought that a day would come when I, the demon, would make a huge loss…”
Neighhh!
Its horse trembled in fear, not daring to advance any further, so Miazova took out a Potion of Courage and poured it all over it.
The Potion of Courage was indeed effective. The horse first shook Miazova off its back before turning tail to flee.
“…”
As soon as Miazova’s feet stepped on the yellow sand, cold sweat started flowing down its back. A feeling of coldness and eeriness flowed up from its feet into its body. In just a moment, its legs had already stiffened up.
“Shit!” Miazova took out a yellow talisman from its bag and smacked it on its legs.
There was a flash of fiery flames, and only then could it finally feel its legs again.
“Ugh! My goosebumps are all coming out!”
Miazova fiddled with its gas mask and pulled out a breathing tube reminiscent of a butterfly’s proboscis. It took out a bottle of serum and breathed it in before dashing toward the city gates while cursing under its breath.
“That unfilial son! I’ll make sure you kowtow to me a hundred times after I rescue you!”
“The abandoned city in the middle of Gobi, the sun sets upon graves of the loyal,” Shu Yichao murmured as he strolled through the deserted city.
There was no other sound in the city other than the rustling from his movements, yet he could feel bone-chilling gazes gathering on him from the surroundings.
Shu Yichao leaped onto a pedestal in the middle of the city.
“Born as a loyal Han clansman, die as a Great Tang soul!”
It felt as if a force 12 whirlwind was raging inside the city, unleashing the billowing icy-cold resentment.
Krk ka kak!
White bone hands covered in dirt shot out from the ground, as skeletons dressed in old armor slowly climbed out from the ground.
“Through swan goose blood letters were sent, till an entire city filled with white-haired ghosts!”
Shu Yichao pulled out his sword and pointed it toward the distant sky. By this point, countless white-haired skeletons were groveling before him.
“GRAR!”
The white-haired skeletons roared in anger, and the city trembled under their rage.
Tah!
Shu Yichao leaped down from his pedestal and walked into the skeleton army, whose eyes followed him wherever he went.
“Brave children from the Great Tang, I know that you have waited a long time, from energetic black-haired youths into elders with snowy hair. Over the decades, you heard nary a word from your homeland and your families. You can see the sun in the sky, but Chang’an was nowhere in sight.
“But today…”
Shu Yichao stopped.
“…your days of waiting are over!
“If Chang’an refuses to come to us, we shall go to Chang’an instead! I shall bring you to take back Chang’an, take back Beiting, take back Hexi! We shall return to the Chang’an we have yearned for on countless sleepless nights. No one can stop us!”
Shu Yichao’s voice slowly crescendoed.
“If the Karluks block our way, we will trample them into the dirt!
“If the Uyghurs block our way, we will drain their blood!
“If the Tibetans block our way, we will eradicate them from the face of the world!
“Our sharp blades will slice through our enemies, even if they number in the millions!”
With a cold flash of light, Shu Yichao sliced the pedestal into two.
“I, Shu Yichao, hereby vow to accomplish everything I have said!”
Activate Soul Summoning!
Boom!
With the utterance of the vow, the yin energy gathered in Kucha began to billow.
Deathly black auras blazed forth from the white-haired skeletons and gushed toward Shu Yichao, drowning him in an instant.
“You lunatic!” Miazova, who was barely keeping its balance amidst the powerful winds, witnessed the scene and was horrified. “Don’t you know the terrifying karma you’ll have to shoulder for making such a vow to those vengeful souls?! A misstep may cause those vengeful spirits to turn against you!”
However, it was too late to say anything.
The resentment and yin energy of those vengeful spirits flowed into Shu Yichao’s body, manifesting as a black-silver breastplate, a bow, and a sword.
His breastplate comprised two ferocious beasts on his shoulders that glared down at his enemies, whereas his abdomen had a behemoth baring its fangs. His bow was shaped like a majestic eagle challenging the sky, whereas his sword was like a dragon ripping through the netherworld.
Shu Yichao’s hair swiftly grew long, and its color lightened until it was finally white.
He turned his head around, revealing sinister blood eyes that glowed in the dark!
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