Chapter 136: Diplomatic mission

The day that Xie Qianbing departed the Great Li, it was a typically bright, clear day in the desert. The sand curled around the convoy, and Wei Xiren, hand on the dao at her waist, stood outside the door, her cloak flapping loudly in the wind. Xie Qianbing rode at the front of the convoy, the hems of her dark black clothes stained with grit.

"Do you really not need me to send soldiers with you?"

Wei Xiren brought her horse to Xie Qianbing's side; this was the third time she'd asked this today, and when she spoke, her fingertips unconsciously stroked the hilt of her dao.

Hearing this, Xie Qianbing merely smiled, swinging the red strings of the Talisman of Safety on her wrist. "When I left the capital, her majesty already sent me with three hundred elite guards. In the end, it's a diplomatic mission; the more people there are, the more of a hassle it'll be."

Her words weren't wrong. Typically, a few dozen people would be enough for a diplomatic convoy; this three hundred plus person diplomatic delegation was already excessively overbearing. If not for the fact that Shejin had long since bowed its head and pledged vassalage to the Great Li, Jiang Changbai wouldn't have had those three hundred guards go along with them.

But if Wei Xiren were to send more soldiers to Shejin with her, then the diplomatic mission would become a declaration of war.

Xie Qianbing wasn't willing to delay any further, and so she tugged the reins of her horse, about to leave. Unexpectedly, Wei Xiren called her to a halt. "Xie-daren."

"What is it?"

In the desert, with its great sandstorms, their voices were separated by the winds. Xie Qianbing couldn't hear what Wei Xiren was saying, and when she prompted her horse to turn, after hearing the three words of "Heart-Guarding Mirror", a bitter smile rose on her face.

"I said it was for you, so it's for you," Xie Qianbing said, laughing brightly. "When I return, not only will I give the Heart-Guarding Mirror to you, but I'll bring you some goods from Shejin, how's that?"

"Return healthy and hale," was all Wei Xiren said after a long while.

In truth, there was a lot she wanted to say. She wanted to say the customs of Shejin weren't like that of the Great Li; that Xie Qianbing had stayed a long time in the Great Li's capital, and going elsewhere, she wouldn't be accustomed to it. She wanted to say that recently, Shejin had been mad without moderation, turning the living into weapons of war, and that Xie Qianbing should be careful. She wanted to say that, as she waited for Xie Qianbing to return, she'd stand guard herself, and welcome news of her return.

But countless words turned around her mouth, and in the end, they merely converged into four words.

Return healthy and hale.

Xie Qianbing understood what Wei Xiren was thinking, and her own mind was equally as apprehensive about it. She and Liang Jiwen hadn't seen each other for nearly seven years, and as it was said, Taishan was hard to change, but peoples' minds shifted easily. If it could be said that, when she'd left the capital, she'd still believed that Liang Jiwen was still the sincere, devoted person of back then, by the time she made it to the border and heard what Wei Xiren had said, she had begun to doubt as well.

Xie Qianbing had met that previous envoy to the Great Li, Qin Zhixun, and she'd heard said that, in a short period, she'd become the most trusted of Liang Jiwen's ministers, To be honest, Xie Qianbing didn't like Qin Zhixun; she thought she was strange and fey, and there was some sort of indescribable obsession in her speech—such that she had even, during the banquet, lost herself and insisted on calling Song Juguang "jiejie".

When Qin Zhixun had left the capital, Xie Qianbing hadn't been there, but she'd learnt of her movements from others. Xie Qianbing inexplicably felt that Qin Zhixun wasn't the good sort, and with Liang Jiwen constantly being accompanied by her, perhaps she'd been affected.

But a nocked arrow couldn't be left unshot, just like what she'd said to Wei Xiren the other day. There would always need to be someone to go to Shejin as envoy and feel out the situation, and that person would certainly be her.

Despite her tumultuous thoughts, the road that had to be taken had to be taken. Xie Qianbing smiled at Wei Xiren's well wishes, urging her horse to turn, and headed for Shejin.

The convoy's advance kicked up wind and sand, and for a while, there was only the sound of hoofbeats and the sand that obstructed one's line of sight. By the time the sand and dust settled, Xie Qianbing and the others had already become a tiny, black dot in the desert.

The sound of hoofbeats gradually grew distance, but the surroundings didn't return to silence. Muffled thunder rolled suddenly across the heavens, and when Qi Shou'an descended from the lookout platform, she saw Wei Xiren raising her head to look at the sky. "It's about to rain?"

"Jiangjun, what did you say?"

"Nothing." Wei Xiren turned, urging her horse back to camp, and said, "Have everyone except those patrolling return; the skies look like they'll probably rain."

In the desert, aridity was what was normal. Even during the heaviest of monsoon seasons, there would only be the faintest sprinkling. The common peoples' water needs all came from underground rivers a hundred or so lengths beneath the earth, and since Wei Xiren had first led soldiers to garrison here, she'd never seen such an overcast sky.

Less than half a shichen later, the heavens truly split open with rain. Bean sized droplets smashed against the desert, rapidly absorbed by the dry sands. By the time the dark clouds dispersed, the surface of the ground showed not the slightest trace of it having rained—just like the diplomatic convoy that had left the Great Li's border, it had disappeared in the desert without a trace.

In the coming days, Wei Xiren would occasionally think of Xie Qianbing and recall her demeanour when she'd left, and wonder when she'd return.

The first Shejin Envoy had remained for two weeks in the Great Li, and adding in the travel time, returned to Shejin a bit more than a month later. The two states sending envoys to each other wasn't a rarity; if not for any unexpected events, Xie Qianbing ought to return in a bit more than a month.

At the time, it was the rainy season in the desert. The typically arid weather of the desert had, for that period, become a bit more humid. Wei Xiren thought that, perhaps, she could take Xie Qianbing to the nearby town to wander about—act as a host, and take her to have a taste of the culture of the border towns.

But she couldn't have imagined that it would only be eight days.

On the early morning of the eighth day after Xie Qianbing led the diplomatic convoy from the Great Li, the patrol squad sent someone back. At that time, Wei Xiren had just been training troops on the drill ground; the sound of hoofbeats approached from the distance, and, panting, a patrolling soldier rushed over.

"Jiangjun!"

As she spoke, she dismounted, not daring to delay for an instant.

"If you have something to say, say it, and don't be impatient."

In these past years, Wei Xiren had grown quite a bit calmer, and had begun to detest her youthful characteristic of being rushed and overeager. So, she'd begun to come down harshly on the soldiers by her side, suppressing their natures, and having them be calmer.

Typically, a soldier who'd been reprimanded would restrain their thoughts, but today, this soldier seemed to have been terrified half to death, and when she dismounted, she practically fell over, the changqiang she grasped in hand falling slightly as well.

"Jiangjun, Xie-daren's diplomatic convoy, it seems to have come back."

Hearing this, Wei Xiren's eyes widened, her pupils a bit larger than normal. She'd never been to Shejin, but from interacting with trade caravans, she knew some things about Shejin. She knew that Shejin's royal complex couldn't be said to be close by; even if one were to ride night and day without stop, it would still take three days to arrive.

More than that, when the diplomatic convoy reached its destination, it would have to rest for a period regardless; it was impossible for them to return after only staying two days. Wei Xiren immediately guessed that there was something wrong, and she called out loudly, taking the soldiers with her.

The day was still a blazing, sunny one.

When human figures appeared from behind the sand dunes, Wei Xiren had already been urging her horse to gallop for almost three li. Under the scorching sun, one couldn't open one's eyes, but she could see the person atop that horse clearly. Dark black attire, a fine bay horse—it was clearly the way Xie Qianbing had been dressed the day she'd left.

Seeing the convoy that was slowly heading towards them, Wei Xiren's heart, which had been in her throat, settled somewhat. She thought that, if something truly had happened, it wasn't possible that the entire convoy would return hale and unharmed. That Xie Qianbing was returning now was probably that she'd encountered some hardship along the way, and had to return to the Great Li to rest.

As she thought, Wei Xiren unconsciously slowed her pace.

When she was within three lengths of the convoy, Wei Xiren reined her horse in, bringing it to a stop before Xie Qianbing. What she hadn't imagined was that Xie Qianbing seemed to not see her, letting the horse beneath her continue forward without the slightest intent to avoid her. If not for Wei Xiren hurriedly tugging at the reins and turning sideways, the two would have crashed together.

The instant where the horses passed by each other, Wei Xiren suddenly saw her old friend's face; Xie Qianbing's grey pupils reflected the scorching sun and her lips were dry and cracked, and there was even a bit of blood seeping out.

"Dismount!" Wei Xiren shouted, using the long dao she'd carried in its scabbard to swipe at the horse's legs. The bay horse didn't know to dodge, and with a wail, it fell to its knees. The next moment, Xie Qianbing toppled from the horse, as if a puppet whose strings had been cut. Wei Xiren rushed over to catch her, but she stumbled along with her, sand filling her mouth.

"Xie! Qian! Bing!"

Wei Xiren felt grit fill her throat, and when she called out the three characters of Xie Qianbing's name, it was like a blade was cutting at her.

Unexpectedly, the neck of the person in her embrace turned stiffly, and suddenly bit at her wrist.

"Hold her still!"

In this time, Qi Shou'an had brought the other soldiers over. Seeing their General kneeling on the ground, they hurried over to help her. In an instant, seven or eight hands forcefully stilled Xie Qianbing's struggling body, and only then did Wei Xiren see clearly that now, Xie Qianbing's eyes were a matte grey, identical to the undead they'd seen before.

"Impossible, impossible," Wei Xiren mumbled, kneeling on the ground and, with a trembling hand, revealing the nape of Xie Qianbing's neck. A dark red sigil was impressed on her neck, the same as the one that had been on Yu Jiuyun, without the slightest difference from the ones on the wooden tablets they'd taken.

Wei Xiren couldn't believe that in only eight days, Xie Qianbing would turn into this; pressing against her, she called her name a number of times more. But none of them earned a response.

In the end, Wei Xiren could only sigh and say, "Bring the shackles!"

Xie Qianbing was an imperial envoy from the court, and even if she were dead, her body had to return to the capital. Thinking thus, Wei Xiren wrapped Xie Qianbing up in chains.

She couldn't treat Xie Qianbing the way she treated those bandits—she couldn't chop off her limbs

Perhaps because she was too on edge, an unlimited energy appeared in Wei Xiren's body at this moment. Even though Xie Qianbing had already become one of the undead, exerting all her strength, she had no way to escape.

Even as the soldiers behind caught up, Wei Xiren continued her useless struggle. She shook Xie Qianbing's body, unceasingly saying, "wake up".

But no matter how she cried out, Xie Qianbing's throat only let out a gurgling sound. When she raised her head, the convoy that had come along with Xie Qianbing had halted as well, and not a single of the ones astride weren't stiff and rigid. The soldiers were in full battle array, clutching their long dao tightly. However, gust after gust of breeze swept by, and those mounted atop horses merely swayed and wavered, and then dumbly toppled over.

Only when a brave soldier approached to investigate did they discover that these people no longer breathed. And, looking at the blue and purple of their bodies, they'd died quite a few days before.

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