Time Travel: The Best Doctor in Ancient Times

Chapter 717: Chapter 554: Loyal or Not?

Gu Changsheng and his companions watched coldly from the sidelines as Northern Great Camp was caught in a standoff, with both sides ready to clash at any moment!

Huaheng Mantian looked at Xia Ruyan with the disdain one would have for a dying person struggling in their last moments. In her heart, having poisoned her with Disintegration Powder, Xia Ruyan and her Northern Great Camp were already as good as captured!

Life or death was entirely in her hands!

As her complexion grew paler, beads of sweat the size of beans trickled from Xia Ruyan’s forehead into her eyes, the stinging sharpness blurring her vision. Looking behind her at the Northern Great Camp, powerless to resist, and in front of her, the arrogantly unmatchable Huaheng Mantian, Xia Ruyan knew that today, she had been outmaneuvered!

Not only had she fallen into a trap, but she was also going to drag down the hundred thousand brothers who had followed her, sharing life and death!

”Xia Ruyan, have you considered your options?” Huaheng Mantian did not hide her threatening tone, ”Will you hand over the Marshal’s Seal, or shall I raze Northern Great Camp to the ground?” Huaheng Mantian had already torn away all pretense, and maintaining any facade was now superfluous.

”Alas!”

Underneath the low eaves, Xia Ruyan ultimately sighed.

She could feel the weakness in her limbs and knew that at this moment she was no better than a cripple, and her brothers behind her were in no better condition!

”Five years of shared life and death, my brothers, it is I, Xia Ruyan, who has failed in leading you, bringing us all into this dire situation!” Xia Ruyan said with a guilt-ridden face as she looked back at her personal guards and slowly bowed her head, ”I have let you all down! I am the fish on the chopping block, you the knives above me, it is I, Xia Ruyan, who has failed you!”

”General!” The Deputy General stepped forward weakly, his pale face still resolute as he spoke, ”Why should you feel this way, General? We have followed the Old General to this day, driven only by a hearty and loyal courage! A man must have his do’s and don’ts, and in one’s life, one only serves a single master. The Xiangka Clan plotting rebellion do not deserve our loyalty, and the Huaheng Clan, mere vassals, also do not deserve our fealty! General, there’s no need to waste words with such despicable wretches. Even if we’re poisoned, death is but death, and we’ll take one of them with us to the grave!”

”Yes! General! Let’s fight them, never to be cowards unto death!”

”Not cowards, let’s fight them!”

”...”

Instantly, the camp was filled with excited cries from the weakened men, creating an unexpectedly stirring effect.

From atop the hill, Gu Changsheng was also taken aback by their fervor, smirking as he watched below and mockingly clutching his chest, ”Gosh, what a bunch of fools rushing to their deaths! They’ve really scared the baby!”

What the hell, are all these men in the Northern Great Camp so straightforward?

Can’t they even think a little deviously?

Don’t they know of the tactic ’biding one’s time’?

Without even trying to stall, they’re ready to start fighting just like that?

Gu Changsheng truly had no words for this!

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

”Are you really not going to take action?” Zhou Mu asked as he looked at the woman leaning on his shoulder and rolling her eyes in exasperation.

”I am not keen on saving a bunch of pigs!” Gu Changsheng did not conceal his dissatisfaction.

Damn it, Xia Ruyan is truly a tomboy through and through! How she could command the ten thousand troops of Northern Great Camp without any military tactics at all?

What’s this called?

This is called ’bravery without wisdom’!

Falling into such a plight, there’s one word for it: Deserved!

If she were Huaheng Mantian, she would have taken advantage of Xia Ruyan too; what an easy target of a reckless general!

Meanwhile, Huaheng Mantian’s patience was clearly running thin. Xia Ruyan was a Great General who commanded the troops of the Huaheng Clan with remarkable skill and unmatched bravery, and now she was the toughest nut to crack.

Because Xia Ruyan’s loyalty was to the Phoenix Clan, from the beginning to the end, to the Phoenix Clan alone!

Because of her loyalty to the Phoenix Clan, Xia Ruyan’s father had accepted an invitation from the Huaheng Clan to oppose the Xiangka Clan. Now, Huaheng and Xiangka, united against Gu Changsheng, witnessed Xia Ruyan truly turning her coat in the midst of battle, refusing to submit even unto death!

Reflecting on this, Huaheng Mantian gave a mocking smile and looked down at Xia Ruyan with scorn, coldly saying, ”You disdain the toast only to drink the forfeit, Xia Ruyan. My mothers always praised you in front of me. I thought you were a great general. Yet now it seems, you are nothing special after all, still ending up in my hands, at my mercy?”

”Thinking of fighting me to the death? Xia Ruyan, you are disregarding the lives of your own brothers! Stricken with Disintegration Powder, utterly powerless to resist, if I want to wipe out your Northern Great Camp, it’s as easy as lifting a finger!”

Xia Ruyan frowned at Huaheng Mantian, a flash of murderous intention disappearing from her eyes, ”Huaheng Mantian, if you have issues, come at me!”

”Tsk tsk... Come at you? Xia Ruyan, you’re just a general, nothing more. In my eyes, how could a mere general compare to the hundred thousand troops of the Northern Great Camp?” Huaheng Mantian said with a hooked corner of her mouth, utterly disdainful. ”From the beginning, what I valued was the hundred thousand soldiers of the Northern Great Camp, not you, Xia Ruyan! The Northern Great Camp has always been supported by my Huaheng Clan. Surely you don’t think that, just because you happened to assume the title of general, the camp belongs to you?”

”You!”

”You!”

”...”

Upon hearing this, the soldiers of the Northern Great Camp immediately glared with anger in their eyes.

But Xia Ruyan raised her hand to stop her impulsive brothers.

The atmosphere was tense and volatile, swords drawn and bows bent, ready to explode at any second. Gu Changsheng looked down at the Northern Great Camp’s soldiers, united in their animosity, and finally nodded, ”Yes, there are indeed people more foolish than Xia Ruyan! This Huaheng Mantian isn’t much smarter either!”

”Without Xia Ruyan, there would be no Northern Great Camp. Xia Ruyan is the soul of the camp’s military spirit. If Xia Ruyan were to die, half of the camp would collapse. Without its soul, what used to be a camp capable of contending with the Xiangka Clan would soon be in name only!”

Zhou Mu glanced at the woman beside him and nodded with a smile. ”So, this Huaheng Mantian truly has no other choice against Xia Ruyan. Hence, she resorts to such a low stratagem. Injuring the enemy a thousand at the cost of harming herself eight hundred, it doesn’t seem like she’ll gain much advantage out of it!”

Gu Changsheng watched the standoff below with amusement, sneering at their tense posture. ”Treating it like a real deal, one stubbornly unyielding, the other self-proclaimed clever. Tsk tsk... really speechless!”

Isn’t it precisely because of Xia Ruyan’s stubbornness that Huaheng Mantian would resort to such despicable tactics, willingly destroy the soul of the army that originally belonged to her own family, and take back the Northern Great Camp?

She wants the Marshal’s Seal? Huaheng Mantian is really too clever for her own good. Can’t she see that the soldiers of the Northern Great Camp are ready to go down fighting with a do-or-die determination?

”My lady, have we watched this play long enough? If we keep watching, the Northern Great Camp will really be annihilated...” Yuan Bao leaned in closer, opening her mouth with regretful undertones. ”After all, Xia Ruyan is a former servant of the Phoenix Clan and has not defected to this day. My lady, you might as well help her out, allowing the Northern Great Camp and Huaheng Mantian’s troops to fight a fair battle. Regardless of who wins or loses, we could benefit from their conflict, couldn’t we?”

Gu Changsheng turned to look at Yuan Bao with a playful gaze and remarked, ”Oh my, how impressive, Yuan Bao, when did you become so scheming?”

”I like to reap the benefits without any effort, but as for fighting...”

At that point, Gu Changsheng lowered his head and chuckled lightly, starting with extreme self-confidence, ”Fighting is wrong! I much prefer a one-sided beating!”

”...” Yuan Bao remained silent.

”My lady, are you going to detoxify the people of the Northern Great Camp?” Si Xi approached a little closer, asking very cheerfully.

In his view, the enemy of an enemy is a friend. Regardless of whether Xia Ruyan’s loyalty is genuine or not, she is the adversary of Huaheng Mantian and Xiangka Tianji — that makes her pretty much an ally, doesn’t it?

”Detoxify? How could that be?” Gu Changsheng said upon hearing this and immediately shook her head. ”If they wish to be frogs boiled in warm water, that’s their choice. Let them be!”

She couldn’t care less about engaging in such thankless tasks!

While a few people whispered in the shadows, at the entrance of the Northern Great Camp, the standoff between the two sides finally erupted into conflict. It wasn’t really important who made the first move. What was important was that the side of the camp that was struck by Disintegration Powder was obviously at a disadvantage; they fought with the desperation of a cornered beast, managing to stand up against Huaheng Mantian’s troops for a moment.

”Faithless wretches, wolves in sheep’s clothing who collude with the Xiangka Clan! Huaheng Mantian, you defeat the enemy without fighting. I, Xia Ruyan, can only die in battle but will never switch allegiances or surrender at the last moment!” Seeing her Northern Great Camp brothers at a disadvantage, Xia Ruyan couldn’t hold back. Though weak-limbed, her hand grasping the long spear was unusually firm, the bearing of a soldier undeniable and unmistakable.

”Haha... Even now, you fail to see the true state of affairs. Xia Ruyan, your Xia Family swore loyalty to the Phoenix Clan, and now you are on the brink of death. Where is that Phoenix Clan you are loyal to? Your loyalty is nothing but self-deception. The Phoenix Clan has been gone from the Southern Border for over twenty years, it’s time to abandon your misguided loyalty!” In front of the weakened Xia Ruyan, Huaheng Mantian was utterly fearless, her personal guards already engaged in battle with the Northern Great Camp.

With the Northern Great Camp poisoned by Disintegration Powder, the advantage was clear and defeat seemed inevitable.

Since reaching an agreement with the Xiangka Clan to divide territories and jointly resist Gu Changsheng, Huaheng Mantian no longer pretends to be loyal to the Phoenix Emperor and now doesn’t bother to hide it.

”A subject once, a subject for life. A loyal servant does not serve two masters. My Xia Family followed you because we once served the Phoenix Clan. Now that you have forsaken loyalty and joined filth with the Xiangka Clan, as a soldier of the Phoenix Clan, I, Xia Ruyan, swear to take your life!” The long spear poised, even with Disintegration Powder slowing her, Xia Ruyan’s momentum was unyielding.

”Ha! The Phoenix Clan has long since perished! Who needs your so-called loyalty! Xia Ruyan, spare yourself the delusion! No one will remember your name for loyalty!” Upon hearing this, Huaheng Mantian immediately scoffed with laughter.

On the hillside in the shadows, a certain woman heard this, and immediately took offense...