"There's no need for us to meet. I'm not here for you. Just leave the meat and there's no need for anyone to stay."
Shaodian Qingnu waved her hand, signaling Jingang to accept the meat.
Liu Bingyi and his party watched as a giant wolf suddenly leapt up, then transformed into a nine-foot-tall sturdy man to take the meat.
Huo Guang, standing behind, eyes wide with shock. When he had visited Mt. Tai over ten years ago, this divine wolf hadn't been by the Jade Maiden's side!
Where had he come from?
Liu Bingyi opened his mouth, wanting to say more, but fearing he might displease Qingnu, he sighed and nodded. "In that case, I shall not disturb Our Lady the Jade Maiden! While you are in Chang'an, if you have any needs, you may come to me!"
With that, he led Huo Guang and the Yulin Guards out of the Jade Maiden Shrine.
On the way back to the palace, Liu Bingyi's expression was grave.
He suddenly turned to Huo Guang and asked, "Grand Marshal, you met Our Lady the Jade Maiden on Mt. Tai years ago. What was her temperament like then?"
"The Jade Maiden is kind and approachable, but once she makes a decision, no one can change her mind."
Huo Guang thought for a moment before giving this answer to Liu Bingyi.
Upon hearing this, Liu Bingyi sighed. "As long as we do not offend her, it's fine. Come to think of it, she is technically my savior."
Back during the Witchcraft Turmoil, if not for Qingnu, it was unknown whether he or the late emperor would have survived.
Qingnu stayed at the Jade Maiden Shrine for a few days. During this time, Liu Bingyi sent the same amount of meat every day without making any requests. Even Qingnu began to feel a bit embarrassed.
"Eating and drinking for free like this... is it a bit much?"
The snake girl and Hongluan were having a small meeting with Chunyu Tiying. Qingnu sat cross-legged on the floor, glancing back at her own statue.
Hongluan said with a look of disdain, "What's wrong with it? You already gave the help you needed to give decades ago!"
"It is only right for mortals to offer sacrifices to the Goddess," Chunyu Tiying added.
Qingnu shook her head at their words.
She stretched, lay flat on the floor, and gave a little wiggle. "In this world, there's no such thing as what 'should' be done. There's only what one wants to do and what one doesn't!"
A few days later, a messenger galloped into the Han palace.
Since the Jade Maiden Shrine was close to the palace, news traveled fast.
It was a messenger from the Western Regions. The Xiongnu couldn't defeat the Han court, so they had turned to exploiting the various states of the Western Regions. This messenger was sent by Princess Jieyou, who had married into Wusun, to request reinforcements from the Han emperor.
This wasn't the first messenger. The last one had arrived when Liu Ju passed away; the Han court was in chaos, and the envoy had returned empty-handed.
Upon learning of this, Qingnu clapped her hands. "Let's go to the Western Regions!"
"To help?"
Hongluan tilted her head. "Do you even know this princess?"
"I know of her, but she doesn't know me! And I'm not going for her sake."
Qingnu shook her head with a smile.
Hongluan became even more confused. "Then why are you going?"
Qingnu stood up, dusted off her dress, and said to Hongluan, "Did you forget? I'm honored as a heavenly maiden by the states of the Western Regions. I haven't visited in all these years. Now that they're in trouble, shouldn't I manifest myself? Heavenly Maiden, oh Heavenly Maiden—the Saintess of Tianshan! I can't let that title go to waste."
As she spoke, she tapped Hongluan's head.
"You're a heavenly bird, too!"
Hongluan slapped Qingnu's hand away and grumbled, "Heavenly bird? That sounds hideous!"
Still, since Qingnu had decided to go, Hongluan had nothing more to say and would follow.
Qingnu then asked for Chunyu Tiying's opinion. The young girl had never seen the sights of the Western Regions and wanted to go. The only one who suffered was Jingang, who had to carry them all on his back.
"It's fine. My lady isn't heavy, and Miss Chunyu isn't heavy either!"
Jingang shook his head.
He was a wolf who had cultivated; he was no ordinary beast! All those years of being a cultivator weren't for nothing.
The giant wolf sprinted across the Hexi Corridor.
The Qilian Mountains stretched on endlessly, their snow-capped peaks majestic and vast. Looking out, one could see the boundless grasslands, hear the tinkling of camel bells, and see Han merchant caravans passing by.
Qingnu had changed into the clothes she had brought back from the Western Regions years ago, her gauze dress fluttering in the wind.
With Jingang moving like the wind, even the fastest steeds couldn't catch his pace.
The merchant caravans from the Western Regions were moved to excitement when they caught sight of the giant wolf galloping by with the graceful figure in white gauze on its back. An elderly Western merchant even dismounted and knelt piously on the grass, bowing and murmuring toward the direction where Qingnu had vanished.
"The Saintess of Tianshan!"
He was from Dayuan and had seen Qingnu when he was a child. Even though sixty or seventy years had passed, he could still recognize that fluttering white gauze figure at a single glance!
The lands of Hexi now belonged entirely to the Great Han. Across the vast grasslands, Liu Che had established four commanderies: Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang.
Beyond Yumen Pass in Dunhuang Commandery lay the Northern Western Regions.
The scenery of the Western Regions was different from the Central Plains. Seeing it for the first time, Chunyu Tiying looked on with wonder and excitement.
Qingnu stopped at a village to ask the way to Wusun.
This immediately stirred the villagers. Thousands of them came out, surrounding Qingnu and kneeling. They repeatedly called out the title of the Heavenly Maiden. One asked, "Heavenly Maiden, have you come down from Tianshan to save us from the iron hooves of the Xiongnu?"
After he asked, the villagers behind him looked at her with eyes full of hope.
Seeing this, Qingnu nodded. "Yes."
The short, two-word answer filled the villagers with excitement. They brought out various dairy products and fruits to offer her and pointed out the way to Wusun.
Seeing that many of them were injured, Qingnu decided to stay for a few days to treat them.
She had plenty of medicinal herbs stored in the jiao-snake pearl, enough for the task.
While Chunyu Tiying was treating a villager, the man looked at her and asked piously, "Young lady, since you come with the Heavenly Maiden, you must also be a heavenly maiden from Tianshan, right?"
Heavenly maiden?
Her?
"No, I'm not..."
Just as Chunyu Tiying was about to shake her head, she heard Qingnu say, "Yes, she is the Medicine-Dispensing Heavenly Maiden!"
"Medicine-Dispensing Heavenly Maiden, we thank you!"
The villagers repeatedly thanked Chunyu Tiying as well.
After checking their health and leaving a certain amount of herbs, Qingnu continued her journey. Jingang, however, felt quite nostalgic for the dairy and meat the villagers had offered him over the past few days.
The meat there tasted different from that in the Han lands; it had a unique flavor.
"My lady, shall we come back here to eat next time?"
Hearing Jingang's words, Qingnu rapped him on the head. "How pathetic! We're going to Wusun, a great power of the Western Regions!"
Wouldn't their resources be far more abundant than this little village? Why was he so fixated on their food?
Wusun could field hundreds of thousands of archers and was the preeminent power in the Western Regions.
Decades of interaction had led Wusun to lean almost entirely toward the Great Han, which naturally displeased the Xiongnu.
If they couldn't beat the Great Han, could they not beat the Western Regions?
By now, several of Wusun's cities had been seized by the Xiongnu, with hundreds of thousands of people lost. In this era, population was everything!
That night, the sky was dark.
Outside an inconspicuous little city in Wusun, Xiongnu soldiers moved like the wind.
As the horns sounded, a large troop of Xiongnu soldiers launched an attack!
The soldiers defending the city looked on in despair.
"It's over..."
However, at that very moment, a heavenly maiden in white gauze arrived atop a giant wolf, leaping over the Xiongnu cavalry in a single bound.
Under the round moon in the sky, the giant wolf howled!
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