Chương 113: Chapter 111

The appearance of Nei Baihu Liang Xue at the head of the group of Nei Wei has an immediate effect on the area, since as soon as her figure is silhouetted against the rubble and advances toward where I am, all those around her seem to reorganize themselves around her without her having to say a single word.

The Nei Wei who follow her don't stop upon seeing me, instead a portion of the group continues with her in my direction while the rest, without need of instructions, deploys throughout the entire area to take control of the situation. In a matter of seconds, what before was the organized chaos of an improvised rescue becomes something much more structured without the rescue itself having stopped for even an instant, and observing it I cannot help admiring, once again, how well-trained the Nei Wei are.

When Liang Xue reaches me, my escort, the guard whom the Butou entrusted with my protection, swallows with a movement so visible that it almost can be heard, and without protesting simply moves aside with the swiftness of someone who knows perfectly well where his place is in the hierarchy, and leaves the space in front of me free with no more ceremony than a brief nod of the head.

Liang Xue doesn't even look at him as she passes by, stops a couple of paces from me and, for a very brief instant, her eyes make that same circuit I have already seen the first guard, the Butou, and practically everyone who has looked at me make, from my face to my legs, from my legs to the general state of my dress, and back to my face, evaluating with the speed of the professional everything she needs to know before making the first decision.

And then she does something I wasn't expecting, since instead of bowing, as I had anticipated, she kneels. It is not a protocolary genuflection of the kind made in formal greetings, but rather she lowers herself onto one knee with a clean movement that leaves her at the precise height to look me directly in the eyes without my having to lift my head.

And upon seeing her do it, I don't know whether to interpret it as a gesture of respect, as a practical concession to my situation, or as both things at once, but judging by the professional expression she maintains on her face, I suspect that Liang Xue herself hasn't stopped to separate the two options.

"Zhāohuán", she tells me with a contained but clear voice, that voice I have already learned to associate with her in the few encounters we have had.

"Guifei Xiang has sent us with the utmost urgency." I nod slightly to indicate that I am listening to her, and she continues without losing an instant.

"My orders are to follow all the instructions the Zhāohuán gives us at all times", she tells me.

"With one single exception. If the Zhāohuán is gravely wounded, my orders are to take her directly to the Imperial Palace without discussing or consulting it, even if the Zhāohuán orders otherwise." There is a tiny, almost imperceptible instant in which her eyes again drift toward my legs, and I understand perfectly what she is trying to determine.

"I am not gravely wounded", I tell her with all the firmness my voice allows me to gather, because if there is anything I need right now, it is that this order be removed from the conversation as soon as possible.

"The only wounds I have are on my legs, and although ugly, they are superficial. There is nothing broken and there is no hemorrhage that cannot be contained with a bandage." Liang Xue maintains her gaze an instant longer on my legs, I suppose to make her own evaluation, and then returns to my eyes with a small bow that accepts my diagnosis, at least for the moment.

"But there are urgent things I need to be done", I continue before she can say anything more, and I point with my head toward the collapsed building where the guards are still working.

"Beneath that rubble are still trapped Lianhua, Xia and the two imperial guards who were escorting us. My order is that your Nei Wei remove the rubble as fast as they can and get them out, whatever state they are in."

I say it trying for my voice not to tremble on the last sentence, since the possibility that any of the four may no longer be in a condition to be rescued but to be recovered is something I have been avoiding thinking about for a good while now, but which I have to make clear because I need the rescue to continue no matter what. Liang Xue nods without blinking at my words, and her face takes on a particular expression that I suppose means I have given her an order she was already about to give herself.

"As you order, Zhāohuán", she replies. She rises with the same clean movement with which she knelt and, without losing an instant, turns toward the four Nei Wei who have remained beside her. Her voice changes as she does it, shifting from the contained formality she has used with me to the cutting and direct tone of the officer giving orders to her subordinates.

"You two", she says pointing with a precise gesture at a pair of Nei Wei.

"Mobilize the rest of the regiment to replace the city guard in the removal of the rubble. We are faster and at this moment speed is the only thing that matters. The city guard now takes charge of inspecting the rest of the collapsed buildings on the street and of keeping curious onlookers away. I want the perimeter cleared as quickly as possible."

The two Nei Wei nod with a synchronized movement and rush off toward the rest of the regiment, stopping along the way to transmit the orders to other comrades who pass them in turn, and in a matter of instants I see how what was a single work front reorganizes itself into two, with the city guards withdrawing progressively toward the other buildings and being replaced by the Nei Wei in the zone where they were. Liang Xue then turns toward one of the two Nei Wei still at her side.

"You", she tells her with the same cutting tone.

"Find the regiment's physician and bring her here right now, the Zhāohuán needs immediate attention."

"At your command", the Nei Wei replies with a military salute as brief as it is impeccable, and rushes off in the opposite direction from the rest of the deployment. Liang Xue then turns her head toward my city guard escort, who is still planted three paces away with the rigid posture of someone who would prefer to disappear at this moment, and pins him with a gaze whose intention is so unmistakable that I can almost hear the man swallow for the second time in less than a minute.

"Your service is no longer needed", Liang Xue tells him without further preamble.

"Find your superior and get new orders. We are taking over here."

"Yes, ma'am", the guard replies with a swiftness that betrays the relief that those orders seem to bring him, and immediately turns about and moves away with a step that is practically a contained run, making very clear that he prefers to be anywhere else rather than near the Nei Baihu. And the truth is that I cannot blame him.

Liang Xue waits for the guard to have traveled a few paces and then, with the same fluidity with which she rose before, kneels again before me in the same posture as earlier, one knee on the ground and her eyes at the level of mine.

"Zhāohuán", she tells me resuming the formal tone.

"While we wait for the physician, could you tell me what has happened here?" I sigh deeply before replying, because the answer is rather more complicated than I would like.

"The truth is that I have no idea", I tell her sincerely.

"We were turning a corner when the building fell on top of us. But there is something more that I am sure may interest you." I make a pause to order my ideas and point with a gesture at the body of the murdered man, who is still lying among the rubble a bit beyond where we are.

"When I managed to get out of the rubble by my own means, that man you see there was being murdered by another", I continue.

"The killer took the pouch he carried at his belt and, upon noticing that the city guards were approaching, used some kind of technique to leap up to the rooftops of those houses." And here I move my arm to point at the line of buildings across the street.

"After that I lost sight of him, so I cannot tell you which direction he headed in", I conclude. Liang Xue nods slowly as I speak, and her eyes follow the path of my hand across the street and the rooftops with attention, so I continue before she becomes distracted.

"Before you arrived, I ordered the guard who was escorting me to search the corpse", I tell her as I gesture toward the folded papers and the sword.

"This is everything he found on him. And the papers, from the little I have been able to examine them, seem to be encrypted with some kind of technique." Liang Xue turns her head toward the objects upon hearing me, and immediately extends her hand to gather them. She picks up the papers first and unfolds them to examine them for barely a couple of seconds before folding them again with her brow slightly furrowed.

Then she picks up the sword, looks it over, checks the weight, slides the blade out of the sheath a couple of centimeters, and sheathes it again. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

And as she does it, a small part of me, the one that has been carefully examining the papers, the sword, and the sheath, tells me that, technically, what I found inside the sheath, that small pale jade token I am still holding, formed part of what the man had on him, and therefore I should also hand it over.

But I observe the tablet for a second between my fingers, with its polished surface and its carved characters that so vaguely remind me of the one Master Mu gave me, and I think, with the calm of someone who has just spent a good while trapped under several tons of stone, that after everything I have suffered today, a small material compensation doesn't seem excessive to me.

Whatever the tablet may be, if it means anything, will be my personal reward for having survived the collapse, and since no one knows it exists, no one is going to miss it. I close my hand again over the tablet with discretion as Liang Xue turns toward the last Nei Wei who still accompanies her.

"Take this to the Imperial Palace at a run", she tells her handing her the papers and the sword in a clean movement.

"Deliver them to the Yushitai in person and tell them their exact origin. Have them send someone to retrieve the body of the murdered man and have them begin searching for the suspect immediately. The description will be given to you by the Zhāohuán." I give a brief summary of what I recall of the man, his height, his build, the detail of the sword with its edge in flames, and the leap to the rooftops, and the Nei Wei listens to it all attentively.

When I finish, she nods only once, takes the papers and the sword and, without further preamble, turns around and sets off running in the direction of the Imperial Palace.

She has barely gone when I hear other footsteps approaching, and upon lifting my gaze I see the Nei Wei who went off in search of the physician returning at a run, accompanied by another woman who carries a small bag and whom, by the sober cut of her uniform and by the insignia she wears on her chest, I immediately identify as the regiment's physician.

The physician kneels beside me without asking permission and, after a bow as brief as it is functional, opens her bag and takes out a small pill wrapped in waxed paper.

"Zhāohuán", she tells me with the contained voice of someone who doesn't want to waste time on formalities.

"Take this pill, it will help you heal your wounds more quickly and recover from the fatigue." I take the pill without arguing, since at this point, frankly, anything that helps me recover is welcome, and I swallow it. The taste is slightly bitter, with a mineral note I feel on my tongue for a few seconds before fading, and almost immediately I feel how a faint but perceptible warmth begins to spread from my stomach to the rest of my body.

The physician, meanwhile, has already taken out from her bag a clean cloth, a flask with some kind of liquid, and a roll of bandages, and begins to clean the wounds on my legs with a silent efficiency that makes me barely perceive the initial sting.

While she works, I lift my gaze to observe the rescue, and what I see clearly confirms to me the difference between the Nei Wei and the city guards, since the pace at which they advance in the removal of the rubble is clearly superior to the one the guards were maintaining. And upon observing it, I realize that this is probably the difference between having completed the Tempering of the Nerves and not having done so.

The city guards, almost certainly, have stayed at the Tempering of the Muscles or, at most, the Tempering of Bones and Tendons, but I set those thoughts aside and focus again on the rescue. I don't have to wait long before one of the Nei Wei gives the call to alert that she has found someone. Several of her comrades approach immediately to help, and among them all they finish removing the stones that cover the first body found.

I hold my breath with my heart in a knot while they pull him out, and when they finally lay him down to one side on the ground, I let the air out upon confirming that it is a man I don't know. One of the Nei Wei leans over him for an instant, checks something on his neck and rises shaking her head toward Liang Xue.

"Deceased", she indicates without further words. And upon hearing her, I feel a relief that comes accompanied, almost immediately, by a small pang of guilt. Because the news is tragic for someone, that is clear, but it is not tragic for me, and however much I try for it not to be, my immediate reaction is to be grateful that it isn't any of my companions.

And during the following minutes I observe how, thanks to the preliminary work that the city guards had already advanced and to the greater efficiency of the Nei Wei, the rubble is being removed with a speed I didn't believe possible when everything began. More bodies keep appearing, two, three, four, all of people I don't know and all, unfortunately, deceased, which confirms to me that the pedestrians I remember having seen around us just before the collapse have had considerably worse luck than we did.

While the Nei Wei work, I also begin to notice that the deployment around the place is growing notably. In the distance, among the rubble and the buildings still standing, I distinguish the silhouettes of several Jin Wei who seem to be taking positions throughout the area, although none approaches the immediate area where I am, I suppose because Liang Xue's Nei Wei have made quite clear, without need of words, that this perimeter is theirs.

It is interesting to observe, because there is something in the silent choreography among the various imperial corps that suggests a very strict hierarchy and division of competences, where each unit knows exactly where its authority begins and where it ends. And then, finally, the moment I have been waiting for arrives.

"There is someone alive here!" shouts a Nei Wei from a point in the rubble a little further in. Several comrades approach at a run and, with that coordination I have already seen them display several times this morning, they begin to move stones aside with a different urgency, more careful. And after a few instants that seem to me much longer than they probably are, they pull out two bodies. One is that of an adult woman, the other, that of a small girl.

And although dust and blood cover their faces, I don't need more than a glance to recognize Shen Qingwan and Xia. My heart leaps to my throat upon seeing them, and for an instant I am not capable of doing anything more than watching as the Nei Wei place them on two stretchers that some comrades a bit apart have hurriedly prepared.

Liang Xue, who had remained near me supervising the rescue without saying anything, moves away toward them and leans down next to the stretchers for an instant, speaking with the physician who has left my legs to take charge of the two newly rescued and with another Nei Wei. Then she rises and returns toward me with a firm step, and before she arrives I am already waiting with my breath held.

"The two are alive, Zhāohuán", she tells me as soon as she is close enough, and the phrase strikes me with a relief so great that it almost draws a sob from me.

"Nei Wei Shen Qingwan managed to cover Ling Xia with her own body and that is why the girl has survived. Both are in serious but stable condition, and they are being transferred to the Imperial Palace at this very moment to receive immediate attention."

"Thank you, Liang Xue", I manage to say after an instant as I observe how the stretchers are lifted and begin to move away at a light but careful pace, escorted by several Nei Wei.

"I am very grateful for the information." And as I watch them disappear among the rubble, I think, with a knot still in my chest, that now only Lianhua is left. That now all that is left is for them to find her, and for when they find her it not to be too late, because the amount of blood I noticed beneath her clothing in that dark hole was already quite worrying a what seems like an eternity ago. I don't have to wait long.

"Here is another one alive!" shouts a Nei Wei. The Nei Wei set to work with the same careful urgency as before and, after a couple of minutes that seem extremely long to me, they pull Lianhua out of the rubble and place her on another stretcher they already had prepared.

The stretcher with Lianhua sets off at a run escorted by another group of Nei Wei, in the same direction in which Shen Qingwan and Xia were taken, and moments later, when I am still processing the relief, another commotion among the Nei Wei indicates to me that they have found someone else. This time it is Jin Wei Jiang Yi, who appears in worse shape than the previous ones but, according to the Nei Wei after checking him, also alive.

He too is quickly taken away with the same efficiency with which the other three have been taken, and upon seeing him disappear escorted by his own group of Nei Wei, I allow myself, for the first time since the collapse, to feel relief without reservations. All of mine are alive. Wounded, yes, and gravely. But alive.

And as I take it in, I cannot help a small reflection, because it is truly surprising how much the Tempering of the Body and, above all, probably the opening of the appropriate Gates, do for survival in a situation like this.

The Air Gate, for example, which allows one to spend more time without breathing, is almost certainly important in some situations, and the Tempering of Bones and Tendons is probably the reason why none of them has suffered massive fractures that would have caused fatal internal hemorrhages in the first minutes. In this world, surviving a catastrophe like this is a matter that depends much less on chance and rather more on cultivation, and that is something I am going to keep very much in mind from now on.

And next I think about Shen Qingwan, so I make a mental note, a firm and prioritary mental note, that I have to make sure to reward her generously as soon as she recovers. It is only thanks to her that Xia has survived, because on her own a girl of her age and her cultivation could not have survived something like this.

Shen Qingwan made an instant decision to protect someone who was not strictly her primary responsibility, and that decision saved Xia's life, and therefore spared me a pain I am not in a state to calibrate right now but which I know would have been devastating.

I note the matter mentally to take care of when I have time again, look around me and notice that the Nei Wei are still working among the rubble, removing stones and searching for more possible survivors with the same intensity as before, but all the people of whom I really needed to have news have been found, and however much the rescue of the rest continues to be important, it is not something I have to supervise in person. I lift my head toward Liang Xue, who has remained near me since the last conversation.

"Liang Xue", I tell her.

"On my part, there is no longer any sense in my remaining here, it is time for me to be taken back to the Imperial Palace." And upon hearing me say this, I notice a fleeting flash of relief crossing the Nei Baihu's face, something so quick that if I hadn't been looking directly at her I probably would not have seen it, but which clearly betrays how little comfortable she has been having me out in the open in the middle of the street during all this time.

"As you order, Zhāohuán", she replies, and rises immediately to begin giving the pertinent orders.

In a matter of instants, a wide escort begins to organize itself around me, with the Nei Wei in a closed formation, someone preparing a stretcher, another preparing a clean blanket they have taken out from who knows where to cover my bandaged legs, and Liang Xue herself giving rapid instructions at a pace that suggests that the return to the Imperial Palace is going to take place with the greatest speed and security she is capable of providing.

While I watch her work, I let my gaze drift for a second among the rubble and I sigh internally, because I realize, with the exhaustion already weighing on every bone, that my difficulties today are not yet over. Because I don't know which will be worse, what I have just gone through beneath the rubble or what awaits me at the Imperial Palace when I meet my mother. And frankly, right now I would not bet on the first option.