Chapter 47: Screw Benevolence, Righteousness, and Morality

“Erya, Erya~”

“Tell me, where is Little Bao?”

“Did you hide him somewhere?”

“Tell me quickly.”

The woman’s mind seemed to have suffered a huge shock. Like a madwoman, she pulled the girl’s arm and shouted loudly.

Hearing the movement of Li Xiao riding over, she immediately turned her head to look at Li Xiao.

Then she shook her head in disappointment: “You are not my Little Bao.”

“Little Bao, where are you?”

“Mom is looking for you.”

“Come home quickly.”

The woman acted madly, shouting loudly. Her voice was desperate and painful, like a mother beast who lost her child, constantly looking at the sky and screaming, piercing the heart of everyone who heard it.

Her eyes were full of urgency and confusion, her thin body appearing tottering under the tattered clothes.

In a trance, she seemed to hear a child’s voice.

She suddenly raised her head, looking into the distance with the light of hope on her face.

“Little Bao, is that you?”

“Mom is here, Mom is here!”

The woman cried and shouted, running out with staggering and panicked steps. Even though she fell to the ground several times, even though her body was already scarred, she continued to run full of hope.

“A child’s voice?”

Looking at the woman’s staggering steps, Li Xiao was also puzzled. He didn’t hear anything just now.

Were the woman’s senses sharper than his own? Or was it the mother-child connection?

“Did you hear a child’s voice just now?” Li Xiao looked at the girl and asked.

The girl had just discovered Li Xiao walking over; she had been comforting that woman before.

Although Li Xiao had taken off the leather armor he wore that night and washed the blood off his face, revealing his original appearance, looking completely like a resolute youth.

But the girl still recognized Li Xiao at a glance. He was the teenager who saved her from the Karluks that night.

At this moment, Erya had the chance to seriously size up Li Xiao’s appearance.

About the same age as her brother.

Taller and stronger than her brother, his figure straight as a pine, his eyes deep, his heroic spirit compelling, and a bit handsome.

Erya took a deep look at Li Xiao’s face, then turned her gaze to the back of the woman staggering away, shaking her head and saying.

“There is no child’s voice; it’s her hallucination.”

Li Xiao nodded gently, guessing the woman’s mind had been greatly stimulated and she had started to become a bit mad.

“I’ll go take a look, have someone help her find the child.”

Saying that, Li Xiao prepared to leave.

But Erya looked at Li Xiao with moist eyes, shook her head gently, and said: “No need.”

“Her child is already gone.”

“Gone?”

Hearing Erya’s words, Li Xiao felt somewhat dazed in his heart.

So, the woman’s child was already dead.

“She is a cousin-in-law of mine. My cousin was killed by the Karluks, and her child was born less than half a year ago.” Erya briefly told Li Xiao about the woman.

“On the day Sanhe Fortress was breached, that child was snatched from her by the Karluks and placed in my house, but the Karluks didn’t feed him.”

“Soon after, he got sick and cried constantly, crying until his voice was hoarse.”

“The Karluks disliked him being too noisy, so in the courtyard, they..”

“They threw that child to death alive.”

Saying this, Erya’s tears flowed slowly, her voice became hoarse, her body began to tremble slightly, and her mood became increasingly depressed.

Seeming afraid to recall that terrifying scene at that time~

“I was hiding in the cellar at that time. Through the vent, I watched helplessly as those Karluks threw the child to death.”

“But I, but I~”

“Wuwuwu~”

“Why am I so useless? Why could I only hide there and watch?” Erya’s voice was almost hoarse, every word squeezed out with difficulty from the deepest part of her heart.

Her face was full of tear stains, her eyes revealing deep self-blame and despair.

Her legs slowly squatted down, curling her body into a ball, as if this could detach herself from that painful memory.

“Threw to death?”

Li Xiao frowned tightly, his heart slightly shaken.

But immediately after, he shook his head slightly. This was a cannibalistic era.

Some foreign tribes liked eating infants’ internal organs raw the most.

Throwing an infant to death was indeed something Karluks would do.

Looking at the girl’s self-blame and guilt, Li Xiao sighed gently, stepped forward, and said: “This is not your fault.”

“Under the circumstances at that time, even if you walked out, you couldn’t have saved that child. Instead, you would have sacrificed the lives of you and your brother.”

“You don’t need to feel guilty about this.”

“Those who truly deserve to die are those Karluks,” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.

Recalling the woman’s appearance just now, Li Xiao already knew what she had experienced at the hands of the Karluks.

Humiliation, defilement!

Actually, not just her; even many women in Sanhe Fortress suffered the same fate.

And such a small child was eventually thrown to death alive by the Karluks.

The reason was simply disliking him being too noisy.

What a simple reason.

At this moment, Li Xiao just wanted to curse: “Screw benevolence, righteousness, and morality.”

Treating Karluks never required benevolence and righteousness.

Only one word was needed!

Kill!

Facing other ethnic groups, Li Xiao might be lenient. As long as they behaved themselves, he could completely incorporate them into his big family and turn them into his wings.

But on the issue of treating Karluks, he must retaliate with a hundred times, a thousand times cruel means.

Never stopping until death!

Even at this moment, Li Xiao felt that what the soldiers of the four fortresses did to the Karluks before was so gentle and cute.

It was just re-inflicting the Karluks’ behavior towards Han people onto them.

Still too merciful.

In the future, if Li Xiao handled it personally, only one order would be needed.

“Level everyone taller than a cart wheel, exterminate the species and the clan!”

“Torture the chief culprit to death, cut into a thousand pieces!”

After all, the Karluk nation was filled with betrayal in their bones.

Li Xiao would absolutely not repeat what the Tang army experienced back then.

Looking at the girl’s haggard and weak appearance, Li Xiao didn’t leave for the time being but continued to soothe the girl’s emotions.

“Is your name Erya?”

Li Xiao just learned the girl’s name; it was shouted by that woman just now.

“En.”

The girl still had red eyes and nodded slightly.

“My surname is Wei. I have an older sister, so I am called Erya (Second Girl),” the girl explained softly.

While speaking, she raised her head from time to time to look at Li Xiao in front of her. After meeting Li Xiao’s direct gaze, she lowered her head quickly again.

Her name was Erya; others always called her this on ordinary days, and Erya never felt anything inappropriate.

But for some reason, when telling Li Xiao this name at this moment, she felt a bit embarrassed.

Li Xiao smiled slightly, nodded, and said: “its a good name.”

This name seemed naturally imbued with the characteristics of ‘upright, kind, brave, and fearless’.

These were also reflected in the girl in front of him.

“My name is Li Dalong, the Lord of Hexi Fortress.”

“But I prefer you call me by my other name, Li Xiao.”

Li Xiao?

“I know you,” the girl said.

Looking at Li Xiao with slightly red eyes: “In the two days since coming to Hexi Fortress, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“It was you who led people to defeat the Karluks and save the people of Sanhe Fortress.”

In the past two days, the name the girl heard most was Li Xiao.

She had heard too much about Li Xiao’s battle achievements, even could recite them.

She knew even more that the Hexi Fortress Lord Li Xiao was exactly the teenager who saved her before.

It was just that Erya was too tired at that time and fainted directly, not communicating much with Li Xiao.

For the past two days, she had been imagining what kind of person Li Xiao was and how she should thank him for saving her life.

Would he be scary? Fierce?

After all, being able to kill so many Karluks, he must be a very domineering man.

But through the brief exchange just now, Erya found that Li Xiao was a very gentle person, not as overbearing and arrogant as imagined.

At least in front of her.

“This is all what I should do.”

“The Karluks provoked war and killed my Han people.”

“Every man with blood in his veins would be angry and cut them down.”

“Moreover, defeating the Karluks was not just my doing; it was everyone’s credit,” Li Xiao said softly.

Looking at Li Xiao’s modest yet firm appearance, ripples appeared in Erya’s heart.

“Anyway, thank you.”

Erya lowered her eyes slightly, daring not to look at Li Xiao’s face.

(End of this chapter)