Without Looking Back

Ouyang Ke’s eyes brightened and his heart surged with excitement. Ignoring Tolui, he smiled and said, "What kind of man is Young Master Ouyang? Since I have given my word, how could I go back on it? However, he may leave, but Princess Huazhen, you must stay..."

"Very well."

Cheng Lingsu had anticipated that he would not let the matter rest so easily. Yet, this was perhaps for the best; dealing with Ouyang Ke alone would allow her a chance to maneuver and seek an opportunity to escape. With Tolui present, she would inevitably have reservations. Thus, before Ouyang Ke could spout any more nonsense, she directly cut him off and agreed.

Ouyang Ke had not expected her to consent so readily. He laughed heartily, "That’s more like it! With the eyesore out of the way, the two of us can have a proper chat."

Ignoring him, Cheng Lingsu turned around and drew from her tunic a kerchief wrapped around blue blossoms. She shook it slightly in the air, tied it firmly around the split web of Tolui’s hand where he was bleeding, and placed the two blue flowers back into her bosom. Then, she briefly explained the situation to Tolui and urged him to leave first.

Tolui’s face turned livid. He took two steps back, suddenly ripped the saber planted at his feet from the ground, stared fixedly in Ouyang Ke’s direction, raised the blade, and slashed viciously through the empty air before him. "Your martial arts are formidable, and I am no match for you. Yet today, in the name of the son of Genghis Khan, I swear to the God of the Steppe: once I have exterminated the scoundrels who conspired against my father, I shall certainly cross swords with you in a duel to the death! I will avenge my sister and show you what the true sons and daughters of the grassland are made of!"

Though he was the son of a Mongol tribal chieftain, Tolui was amiable and deeply loyal, entirely unlike the blindly arrogant Wanyan Wushi; yet his inner pride was no less than Wushi's. As Genghis Khan’s favorite son, he understood his father’s vast ambitions and grand vision. He was determined to help his father turn every land covered by the blue sky into pasturelands for the Mongols!

For this goal, he had trained in military camps since childhood without a single day of slack. Little did he expect that after years of arduous training, not only would he fall into enemy hands, but today he was also powerless to safely bring back the sister who had come to rescue him! Tolui knew in his heart that Cheng Lingsu’s words were sound; at this moment, he should prioritize Genghis Khan’s safety and return as quickly as possible to mobilize troops to rescue his ambushed father. Yet the thought of his own sister being forcibly detained here choked him with a humiliation so profound it nearly robbed him of his breath.

Mongols valued promises above all else, especially oaths sworn before the deity revered by everyone on the grassland. Knowing full well that his martial arts were inferior, Tolui had nonetheless made this vow with unwavering resolution. His expression was devout and awe-inspiring, and his impassioned words soared into the sky. Though not a supreme master of martial arts, his shoulders—broad from long years in military camps—possessed a regal bearing identical to Genghis Khan’s, haughty and commanding. Even Ouyang Ke, who did not fully grasp the specifics of his words, could not help but feel secretly startled.

A warm current stirred in Cheng Lingsu’s heart. The hot blood belonging uniquely to a daughter of Genghis Khan seemed to respond to Tolui’s reluctance and determination, surging up like a torrent and warming her eyes until they tingled. Without a word, she stepped sideways to block any potential angle of attack from Ouyang Ke, and whispered, "Go quickly! Hurry back, I have my own ways of escaping."

Tolui nodded, took two more steps forward, opened his arms to give her a brief embrace, and then, without casting another glance at Ouyang Ke, turned and ran toward the camp gate.

Along the way, several guards left behind saw him dash out from the camp and attempted to block his path, but he cut them down one by one with single strokes of his blade.

***

Not until she saw with her own eyes that Tolui had seized a horse at the edge of the camp and galloped far away did Cheng Lingsu finally set her mind at ease and let out a soft sigh.

In her previous life, her master, the Medicinal King of Poisonous Hands, used poisons to make medicines and saved countless lives, yet he stubbornly believed in karmic retribution. In his twilight years, he converted to Buddhism, cultivated his mind, and ultimately attained a state free of wrath or joy. Cheng Lingsu was the youngest disciple he took in his later years and was deeply influenced by him. Having undergone this transmigration of the worlds and clearly having died once, she was sent here nonetheless. She could not help but believe that perhaps, in the vast and mysterious destiny of the universe, there was some other purpose at play.

Initially, she had no desire to become overly entangled with the people and matters of this world. She had even constantly thought of seizing an opportunity to escape far away, returning to the shores of Dongting Lake, to see what the White Horse Temple of several centuries later looked like nowadays. She would open a small apothecary, heal the sick and save the dying, and spend the rest of her life guarding the lingering memories and deep affection she held for that person from her past life.

Moreover, once Genghis Khan fell into peril, the Mongol tribe where she had lived for ten years would also suffer disaster. Her mother and brother, who had truly cared for her and raised her, as well as the kinsmen she saw and lived among day after day, would all be plunged into catastrophe. Having spent a decade among them, how could she possibly stand by with folded arms?

At this thought, Cheng Lingsu heaved another quiet sigh.

Seeing Cheng Lingsu staring blankly in the direction where Tolui had departed, sighing continually, Ouyang Ke lifted his chin and sneered, "What? Are you really that reluctant to part with him?"

Catching the underlying implication in his words, Cheng Lingsu frowned, pulled her thoughts back, and blurted out, "I am worried about my brother. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Oh? He is your brother?" Ouyang Ke raised an eyebrow, a flash of delight vanishing from the corner of his eyes. "Then... the fellow before him must be your sweetheart?"

"What are you talking ab—" Cheng Lingsu abruptly paused as realization dawned. "You mean Guo Jing? You were already there... You knew the moment we arrived?"

"Not 'you', just 'you'! The moment you arrived, I knew." Ouyang Ke looked quite pleased, clearly enjoying her reaction.

Though Cheng Lingsu had dismounted far away, his internal energy was profound, and how could his hearing compare to that of ordinary Mongol soldiers? He had discovered her almost the exact moment she sneaked into the main camp. Just as he was about to reveal himself, he saw Ma Yu step forward and take both her and Guo Jing away.

Years ago, his uncle Ouyang Feng had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Quanzhen Sect, so the lineage of the Western Poison always harbored a degree of resentment and wariness toward the Taoists of Quanzhen. Recognizing Ma Yu's Taoist robes and recalling his uncle's past warnings, Ouyang Ke had dismissed the thought of showing himself. Instead, he remained hidden in the shadows, watching their alternating exchanges.

***

He had originally expected Cheng Lingsu to persuade Ma Yu to storm the camp together to rescue people. Unaware that Ma Yu was the headmaster of the Quanzhen Sect, Ouyang Ke merely figured that apart from the millions of soldiers in the camp, Wanyan Honglie was accompanied by several martial arts experts, which would be more than enough to entangle Ma Yu—and perhaps even afford him the chance to eliminate the Taoist, depriving the Quanzhen Sect of one of its presiding masters. He had never imagined that the Taoist not only refused to storm the camp, but actually took Guo Jing away with him, leaving Cheng Lingsu behind entirely by herself.

By now, Cheng Lingsu was gradually sorting out the threads of the plot. "Wanyan Honglie came here in secret, likely to take the opportunity to instigate conflict between Jamukha and my father, causing the Mongol tribes to fight endlessly among themselves so that his Great Jin Empire would have no troubles from the northern border."

Ouyang Ke had zero interest in such power struggles, but seeing how earnest Cheng Lingsu looked, he nodded along and offered a compliment: "Drawing inferences about other cases from one instance—you truly are remarkably clever."

Reaching out to smooth a strand of hair blown loose by the wind, Cheng Lingsu gazed at him with eyes as clear and piercing as the waters of the Onon River on the steppe. "You are one of Wanyan Honglie's men, yet you let Guo Jing return to report the news and sound the alarm, and now you've let Tolui return to mobilize troops. Aren't you afraid of ruining his grand scheme?"

Ouyang Ke laughed heartily, reached out, and gently tapped her chin with his folded fan. "Afraid? What do his schemes have to do with me? If I can win a beauty's smile, what does any of that matter?"

Far from smiling, Cheng Lingsu furrowed her brow instead, retreated half a step to evade the frivolous folding fan sweeping toward her chin, and darted her hand forward, clamping her palm precisely onto the jet-black tip of the fan. A piercing chill instantly shot through the skin of her palm straight into her bones, nearly compelling her to let go at once. Only then did she realize that the ribs of his fan were forged from dark iron and were as cold as ice.

"What? Do you like this fan?" Ouyang Ke flicked his wrist with apparent nonchalance, brushed away Cheng Lingsu's hand, and retracted the folding fan. With a swift snap, he flicked it open and gently waved it before his chest. "If you've taken a fancy to something else, I'd gladly give it to you. But this fan..." He paused briefly in contemplation, then suddenly chuckled softly. "If you like it so much, as long as you follow me step-for-step from now on, you'll naturally be able to look at it all the time..."

Author's Note:
I must say, Little Ke my boy, Lingsu just took a liking to your fan, and you're already too stingy to give it away~ How miserly~
Ouyang Ke: That was given to me by my father... ahem... my uncle...