Chapter 181 The Stray Dog on the Grassland

Chapter 181 The Stray Dog on the Grassland

The Northern Rong royal court was once the most dazzling pearl on the grasslands. But now, it is a ruin still emitting black smoke.

The fire burned for three days and three nights.

The golden tent collapsed, and the totem fell.

Those once arrogant Northern Rong nobles all turned into stiff corpses on the frozen ground under Pei Yunjing's iron-fisted military order of "no sheathing of swords".

The air was filled with the smell of burning and a strong stench of blood.

Pei Yunjing, wearing the battle robe that had long been stained dark red with blood, rode on Mo Feng's back, standing at the highest point of this scorched earth.

He wasn't wearing a mask, and his incomparably handsome face was stained with a few drops of the enemy's blood, which made his skin appear even paler and more demonic.

"Still haven't found it?"

He spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but it carried a chilling aura of malevolence.

The culprit, the one who drove him to the brink of despair and nearly caused Tang Li's death, Tuoba Xiao, actually vanished into thin air amidst the encirclement of 100,000 troops.

Han Zheng knelt before the horse, his forehead covered in sweat, his armor frost-covered.

"Your Highness! Your subordinate has led men to search the area within a fifty-mile radius three times! We've even turned over piles of corpses, but we haven't found any trace of Tuoba Xiao!"

"waste."

Pei Yunjing coldly uttered two words, his fingers tightening slightly on the reins, his knuckles turning white.

As long as that bastard is alive, he won't be able to get rid of this grudge.

He had promised Tang Li that he would let her get a good night's sleep.

If we let Tuoba Xiao escape, it would be like cutting the weeds at the root, only to have them grow back in the spring breeze!

"Your Highness, please calm down!" Han Zheng said urgently. "This grassland is just too vast! The grass is knee-high, and there are ravines everywhere. If that thief is determined to hide, even if he hides in a rabbit hole, it will be very difficult for us to find him!"

Pei Yunjing narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the vast, boundless snowfield before him.

The withered yellow grass swayed in the cold wind, like a surging sea. A person hiding here was indeed like a drop of water merging into the ocean.

"Can't find it?"

Pei Yunjing's lips curled into a cruel smile, a flash of red light appearing in his eyes:

"Since we can't find them, we don't need to look anymore."

He drew the "Delusion-Slaying" sword from his waist, its blade pointing directly at the vast grassland, his voice chilling:

"Pass down the order."

"set fire."

"Burn this grassland for me."

Since we can't find the rats, let's burn the whole house down.

He refused to believe that even if he burned this area for miles around to the ground, that bastard would still come out!

"Your Highness, you mustn't!" Han Zheng exclaimed in alarm. "There are still herders' cattle and sheep on the grassland, and the wind direction is unpredictable. If it catches fire..."

"Okay! We'll discuss it again when we get back!"

At Pei Yunjing's command, the entire army returned.

...

It was located at the foot of a withered meadow, thirty miles away from the royal court.

A foul-smelling, even inhuman creature, was huddled in a dark, damp cave, shivering.

That was Tuoba Xiao.

If not told otherwise, no one would recognize that this mangy-looking creature was actually the once-mighty Northern Rong Wolf Lord who dominated the grasslands.

He paid a heavy price to survive.

He shaved off his proud braid, removed his majestic beard, and even smeared his face with black ash and cow dung.

Just yesterday, in order to evade the Black Armor Guards' carpet search, he personally slaughtered a yak that had recently died, cut open its belly, and stuffed himself inside the blood-filled and filthy yak.

He hid there for a full three hours.

Only after the Black Armor Guards had gone far away did he crawl out of the cow's belly like a newborn baby, covered in slime and stench.

At that moment, the dignity that belonged to a king was utterly shattered. In its place came the survival instinct that only beasts possess.

"Pei Yunjing...Tangli..."

Tuoba Xiao hid in this narrow marmot burrow, clutching a piece of dried dead rat meat tightly in his hand, and wolfed it down.

His eyes no longer held their former arrogance, only a deep-seated fear and resentment.

"Wait until I escape... wait until I escape to the depths of the northern desert..."

"I will definitely come back..."

The burrow he was in was part of a unique marmot burrow network found on the grasslands. It was interconnected and bottomless.

As long as he burrows underground like a rat, even if people on the surface turn over the grass, they won't be able to catch him!

"Hmph, trying to capture me?"

After finishing the rat meat, Tuoba Xiao wiped the blood from his mouth and let out a low laugh like that of an owl:

“This grassland is my home, and also my shelter. You people from the Central Plains will never find a lone wolf with a death wish in this vast sea of ​​grass.”