Feng Xin and Mu Qing behind him were both startled and shouted, "Your Highness!" They immediately rushed out and protected him on both sides.

However, the people on Shenwu Street had already seen the young man in white clothes appearing in the middle of the street. The parade was in chaos for a while, then reorganized. Thousands of people surrounded Xie Lian in layers, and the first person asked uncertainly: "Are you...are you the Crown Prince?"

The second person hesitated: "Didn't they say that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ascended to heaven and is no longer a mortal? How could he appear here?"

The third person shouted, "It was him! I saw him with my own eyes during the Lantern Festival three years ago. It was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

More and more people recognized the Martial God they worshipped day and night. Xie Lian said slowly, “It’s me. I’m back.”

So, people went crazy.

"The gods have descended to the earth! This is a living god descending to the earth!"

"The gods have come down to earth!"

"Your Highness must have come down because he couldn't bear to see us being bullied by the thieves again!"

Someone immediately asked hopefully, "Your Highness, will you lead us to defeat the Yong'an people? You will? It must be like this!"

After a pause, Xie Lian said calmly, "I came back to protect Xianle Country and my people."

Feng Xin and Mu Qing beside him heard this, but they were not sure what it meant. However, the hot-blooded people understood the meaning of this sentence unilaterally. Xie Lian had his own thoughts, his heartbeat was getting faster and faster, he gritted his teeth and said: "...Believe me!"

He clenched his fists and said, "Your belief will give me stronger power. With this power, I will swear to protect Xianle and the people until my death. Please believe me!"

This was the moment that the people had been waiting for. They wanted a promise like this. They cheered enthusiastically and bowed to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in a circle, saying, "We will follow you till death! We will follow Your Highness!"

"Defend Xianle!"

The people of the imperial city heard about the "God descending to earth" and all poured out from the streets and alleys, just to see this once-in-a-millennium miracle. Even the imperial guards who rushed over after hearing the news did not dare to be presumptuous and joined the ranks of worshippers. The three of them were stuck in the middle of the street and could not move. Feng Xin and Mu Qing had to do their best to maintain order and shouted, "Don't push, don't push!"

However, it didn't work. Everyone wanted to squeeze in and get close to the Crown Prince, so they could touch the corner of the clothes of this god from heaven, as if they were blessed. Finally, the king in the palace was alarmed, and he sent out several generals with fully armed soldiers to drive away the fanatical crowd.

After everyone had dispersed, Xie Lian saw something on the ground that was covered with messy footprints and flying dust. He walked over and bent down to pick it up.

It was a flower. Trampled by so many people, it had almost turned into the color of dirt. Only a few petals remained, revealing a hint of its original whiteness.

The faint fragrance did not remain the same and dissipated after a while.

After thinking things through, Xie Lian softened his attitude towards the king when he returned to the palace. As a result, the king also softened his attitude towards him. The father and son each took a step back and reached a temporary peace. The national teacher seemed to have expected Xie Lian to come down and said nothing.

Xie Lian used to think that it was natural for everyone to listen to the king when a major event happened. However, when he really sat down to participate, he realized firsthand how much trouble the king had. The ministers of a dynasty were actually divided into many small factions, each with its own plans, and they could argue for seven days about how to decide on a major event. Everyone and every faction claimed that they were working for the country and the people, but in fact they didn't necessarily think so.

As for the Yongan people who were stationed outside the city and were formally planning to fight against the emperor, they could not reach a consensus. Some advocated sending troops to wipe them out directly, and if there was not enough evidence, they could make up more charges, but others did not think so.

The Yong'an Rebellion started with a natural disaster and broke out with a man-made disaster. The family of three who fell to their death at the gate of the imperial city was the worst possible prelude. If the general who cut the rope had not had his neck broken by Lang Ying, he would have been severely punished when he returned. To put it bluntly, no matter how complicated the inside story is and how many reasons there are, on the surface, this matter looks like the government forcing the people to rebel. Things have come to this point, and the uproar has been made. Forcing charges will only arouse more resentment, and no matter what excuses are made, it will not be able to hide it. If the army is sent to suppress them, it is clear that the leader is unjust and cannot be called a benevolent army. It is more difficult to prevent the people from speaking than to prevent the river from flowing. Once a reputation for brutality is left, not only will the people not be convinced, but other countries nearby may also take the opportunity to cause trouble under the banner of acting on behalf of heaven. Think about it from another perspective. What is there to be afraid of these Yong'an people? They are hiding in the mountains and forests, without food or weapons. How long can they make trouble?

Therefore, the latter idea prevailed in the end: if the people of Yong'an dared to attack, they would be killed every time they came; if they did not attack, they would be left to fend for themselves. There was no need to waste any soldiers or troops, as they would be exhausted in the process of fighting.

As a martial god, Xie Lian had to play a role on the battlefield when he came to earth. Therefore, the army had to vigorously promote the idea that the side with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was the side of justice, and the army with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was the army of gods!

All of a sudden, a large number of young men from all over the country joined the army. In just a few months, the number of troops in Xianle Kingdom doubled. With such a big movement, Yong'an seemed to have also received the news. Originally, they were active in small groups, but suddenly they became silent, as if they were afraid and were secretly gathering strength, which made the soldiers on the Xianle side very nervous. They spared no effort to describe to Xie Lian how terrible "Lang Ying, who always rushed to the front every time" was. Hearing this name, thinking of the dead child he saw that day, Xie Lian always felt a little complicated.

Two months later, the Yong'an people, who had been calm for a while, finally launched another attack.

In this battle, Xie Lian only brought a light sword and did not even wear armor. In less than half an hour, the battle was over.

In the bloody atmosphere, the remaining Yong'an soldiers threw away their armor and fled. Before the Xianle soldiers could react, they saw that all the enemies were lying on the ground, and no one was still standing. And their prince slowly sheathed his sword without even getting his clothes dirty.

After a while, they confirmed their overwhelming victory, jumped up, raised their swords to the sky, and shouted with all their might.

That night, the Xianle soldiers held a celebration banquet on the city wall.

The soldiers hadn’t been so proud for a long time, they cheered and raised their glasses to praise His Royal Highness. However, Xie Lian rejected all the wine and went to a corner of the tower to sober up in the night breeze.

He clearly didn't drink a single glass of wine, but he could feel his face burning, his face flushed, and his fingertips trembling slightly.

This was the first time Xie Lian killed someone in his life. The first time, he killed thousands of people.

Ants.

These two words kept appearing in his mind. Mortals were vulnerable to his power, and no one could even withstand a slight grip from him. It was so easy for him to take the lives of others, just like the palace servants stepping on the ants to death, which made him almost lose his awe when swinging his sword.

Xie Lian leaned against the parapet, took a few deep breaths, shook his head to get rid of the noise, and stared at the tiny lights in the distant valley in a trance. Soon, two footsteps approached.

Without turning around, he knew who was coming. Xie Lian asked, "Aren't you guys going to have a drink to celebrate?"

Mu Qing snorted, "What's good to drink? The situation is not optimistic."

Hearing this, Xie Lian turned around and asked, “Did you guys see that too?”

It was really not optimistic. Although this battle was won, in fact, this attack was stronger than any previous attack by the Yongan people.

Not only were there more people, their formations, weapons, and deployments had all made a qualitative leap. Many of them were even equipped with armor. Although it was simple and shabby, it was already the size of a regular army. It was hard to imagine that they were actually a group of grassroots peasants.

Mu Qing crossed his arms and frowned, "Extremely harsh environments can indeed make people grow rapidly. But no matter how difficult and harsh the situation is, resources will not appear out of thin air. Something is wrong."

Feng Xin was more direct and concise: "They must have foreign aid."

Xie Lian nodded. Mu Qing said, “I don’t believe that these soldiers didn’t notice it. But they still celebrated anyway, simply because you are here, they feel that they will win for sure.”

Xie Lian didn’t think much of this, and said, “I won my first battle here, so it’s good for them to be happy. It can be considered a morale booster.”

Feng Xin hesitated for a moment, but still said, "Your Highness, you don't look very well. Are you still causing rain in Yong'an?"

Xie Lian said, “Yeah.”

Mu Qing disagreed with a face that was not surprising, and said: "Excuse me for being blunt, but it is useless to have rain now. It is a bottomless pit. Your Highness, even if the drought in Yong'an can be completely alleviated, I am afraid that the group of people outside the city will not retreat."

Xie Lian said, “I know. But I went to make it rain not to make this group of people retreat, but just to prevent those who are still in Yong’an from dying of thirst. And this is my original purpose, and it will not change because of anything.”

Feng Xin was still a little worried and asked, "Can you hold on?"

Xie Lian patted his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, I have eight thousand temples and more than enough believers, so of course there will be no problem. However.”

He put his other hand around Mu Qing's shoulders and sighed, "It's a good thing I have you two to help me today. Thank you for accompanying me."

Today on the battlefield, his two attendants suffered much more than he did, and were covered in blood. Feng Xin said, "There's no need to say that." Mu Qing made a vague "hmm".

Xie Lian exerted a little force on his hands, bringing the three of them closer together, and said sincerely, “Not only today, but always, thank you two so much. I hope that the image of the three of us fighting side by side can be passed down through the ages.”

“…”

“…”

After a while, Feng Xin burst into laughter. Mu Qing said incredulously, "I find that you can always say some very... words with confidence, this is really..." He shook his head and said, "That's all."

Xie Lian managed to raise the corners of his mouth with great difficulty. He didn’t smile for long before his expression suddenly turned stern and he asked, “Who?!”

With a clang, Xie Lian unsheathed his sword. With a light flick, he pulled out a dark shadow from the corner of the parapet.

The man had been hiding in this corner for a long time, holding his breath and concentrating, so he had not been noticed. Xie Lian had originally just wanted to suspend him with the tip of his sword to scare him, but he had killed so many people on the battlefield today that his arms were shaking slightly, and he lost some of his balance when he struck. He didn’t lift the man steadily, and used too much force, and he directly threw the man out of the wall.

Under the moonlight, in mid-air, the three of them could see clearly that the man was wearing the uniform of their own soldiers, and that he looked like a teenager of fifteen or sixteen. In an instant, he fell down and disappeared without a trace. Seeing that a man was about to fall down from the tower, Xie Lian thought it was not good and jumped out.

He hooked his toes on the edge of the parapet, his body hanging down, and swiftly stretched out his hand to pull, barely grabbing the other's arm. The young soldier's whole body was suspended in the air, swaying back and forth a few times, and looking up. When he looked up, with the faint moonlight, Xie Lian saw his face, and his eyes widened slightly.