Chapter 76: Finally Reaching the Western Regions

    The north wind howled, the weather bitterly cold.

    The vast and boundless wilderness was covered with half a foot of snow. It was a sheet of white as far as the eye could see. The horizon was towering with ranges of lofty mountains, the distant peaks capped in brilliant white. The rising sun ascended from the east, making the mountains look glorious.

    When Yaoying saw for the third time the large white falcon soaring overhead, she sighed and wrapped the felt more tightly around her body.

    “Haidu Aling is coming.”

    Xie Qing raised his head and followed her line of sight to see a large snow-white falcon.

    The sky was soaring without a cloud in sight. The falcon stretched out in the air with a powerful appearance, its wings seeming to be gilded with a layer of faint golden light, both fierce and majestic.

    “Is that the falcon raised by the Northern Rong?”

    Yaoying nodded, her voice hoarse: “I first saw it five days ago. Yesterday, it reappeared and has been following us today… It is reporting to Haidu Aling.”

    Soon after leaving the Yelu tribe, they were ambushed by Haidu Aling’s men in the nearby vicinity. Helong had indeed been secretly occupied by the Northern Rong, and the road to the Central Plains had been completely cut off. Haidu Aling was in front of them, and the Northern Rong behind them; they could not advance, could not retreat. They could only carefully cover their tracks.

    She did not know how long they had been wandering in the barren snowy plains, but the falcon suddenly appeared.

    Yaoying coughed a few times and gestured for Xie Qing and the rest of the personal soldiers to find a sheltered place to rest.

    “I heard the merchants in the western market say that in the cold winter season, from Liangzhou to Guazhou, this thousand miles of road is difficult to travel. Most merchants would not choose this time of year to set out. Haidu Aling must have blocked all the main roads of Helong, so we may be the only people traveling east. This falcon only needs to make a few rounds and go back to report, then Haidu Aling will notice which direction we are in.”

    The personal soldiers looked at each other and could not come up with a solution.

    Unlike the complex terrain of the Central Plains, this was a vast expanse of flat desert, and they could not find a hiding place. There might be caves in the mountains to hide in, but it was cold and they had run out of food. Moreover, they were not familiar with the terrain, and there was the Northern Rong steadily pursuing behind them. The occasional tribes they met knew they were Han Chinese and would not offer help.

    They needed to break through the blockade and return to the Central Plains as soon as possible. Otherwise, no matter where they hid, sooner or later they would be found by Haidu Aling.

    A person, with a hand shielding over his forehead, stared at the falcon and said, “Maybe it’s just an ordinary falcon.”

    Yaoying shook her head, “This falcon has followed us for days. Every time, it appears at dawn and disappears in the evening. It never goes hunting, always following us.”

    “Princess, I’ll try to see if I can shoot it down!”

    Lu Heng, the most skilled archer among her personal soldiers, shouted loudly, pulled back his bow, and shot several arrows in succession.

    The falcon high up in the sky arrogantly let out a few clear cries. It abruptly dived down, its huge wings covering the ground in a dark shadow of gloom, giving off a kind of haughtiness of looking down on all living beings.

    Lu Heng cursed a few times and pulled out the few remaining quivers of arrows wrapped with gunpowder: “These things can scare the Yelu tribesmen to their knees, can they scare this falcon away?”

    Yaoying waved her hand at her personal soldier.

    The Yelu tribesmen had little experience and had never seen fireworks. She had deliberately cursed the Eldest Prince in Hu at the former Khan’s funeral, so the Yelu tribesmen who believed in the Fire God had been scared out of their wits.

    The falcon would not be scared away.

    When Haidu Aling was eleven years old, he climbed to the top of a mountain and killed a majestic female falcon. Finding a chick from the falcon’s nest, he raised it by hand and tamed it.

    The falcon followed him from east to west, from north to south. The Northern Rong people called it Abu and regarded it as the god of all falcons.

    Haidu Aling once proudly declared that Abu was the fastest and highest soaring bird in the world. Except for him, the master, no one could kill Abu.

    Many people tried to kill the divine falcon and all failed.

    The divine falcon finally died at the hands of its master, Haidu Aling, simply because it lost a contest and was no longer the fastest falcon in the world.

    Yaoying finished the measly water left in her water sack and looked to the east: “The falcon found us. Haidu Aling only needs to send people to scout in different directions and soon they will be able to catch up.”

    Seeing the white falcon time and time again, she could be sure that Haidu Aling had returned.

    This meant that he did not launch a full-scale sneak attack as he had hoped and did not succeed in provoking a war between Great Wei, Western Shu, and Southern Chu, otherwise he would not have come back so quickly.

    Yaoying’s heart sank.

    It also indicated that the failed Haidu Aling would come after her with an overflowing rage and his entire personal army from this eastern expedition.

    Xie Qing found a dry area and spread a felt blanket: “Princess, rest for a while first.”

    Yaoying gave an ‘en’, sat down cross-legged, and leaned on Xie Qing’s shoulder, closing her eyes to sleep.

    Running for days, she had become accustomed to closing her eyes to nap anytime and anywhere in this land of ice and snow.

    They rested for only a quarter of an hour, shivering and napping in the cold wind, before climbing on their horses to continue east.

    Even though they knew Haidu Aling would be coming after them soon, they still had to escape.

    Going just a bit farther, they had just a bit more hope.

    What if they could escape?

    On this day, the white falcon had still followed them all day and disappeared again in the evening.

    In order to get rid of the white falcon, they rushed through the night. The snowy road was rugged and difficult to travel at nighttime. Several horses fell to the ground in exhaustion one after another, while others were suddenly frightened and threw the personal soldiers off their horses.

    A personal soldier said, “We are not familiar with the terrain, and cannot risk traveling at night!”

    Xie Qing had no choice but to have everyone stop and recuperate.