Loss. Yinyue experienced it. Loss of her own in her first life.
Grief. She grieved only for herself in her first life.
Without news of 01, alive or dead, emptiness filled her soul. The initial sense of loss and grief vanished, only leaving an emptiness. A void in her being. Was it the shock of losing him? Or her battlefield experience numbed her to death.
Without seeing 01's corpse, she preferred to believe he was out there somewhere in the mountains alive. Just missing, like how her troops reported those whom they couldn't find in the aftermath of a battle.
Anger swelled within her. In a battle, she cut down enemies in retaliation for every soldier who fell under her command. But this was an ambush. Someone else killed those enemies.
She had no nearby enemies to vent on. A pent up fury ran through her veins like an inextinguishable inferno, yearning to consume every obstacle blocking her way in the blaze of glory. The mastermind behind the attacks wasn't in physical striking distance.
Her fists clenched into a tight ball, holding on to the reins. So taut her fists were, her knuckles looked white.
The red glow of the roaring flames reflected in her eyes. A sharp, pungent odour of burning wood with an odd metallic tinge filled the whitish, hazy air. A telltale sign of saltpetre burning. The area smelled like an open air blacksmith's forge.
Each red lick of the flames transformed into the elongated petal of the red spider lilies, reminding her of a promise to herself.
To get rid of a weed, like Huqi, cut off its roots. She can't reach her dear half-brother to vent her anger, but burning his trading ships would soothe part of her wrath.
All of them. In a blaze of glorious, wanton destruction. Each ship represented Huqi's source of wealth, sinking into the lake of the Black Mountains.
No one attacks her men for no reason and gets away with it. She wasn't done with Huqi yet. This was only the beginning.
Her eyes followed the people running along the lakeside, waving their arms with their mouths opening wide in a shout. A blinding yellow light burst out. Vibrations from the explosion in the ships shook the air.
The momentary, intense heat stung her skin before the frigid air cooled it down. Nothing singed. Some passing travellers squat with their heads cradled, covering their ears.
The roar from the explosive event never blasted her ears off. Instead, everything sounded like a background noise, no matter how loud.
Tiny specks running around in the burning ships. A flaming torch of a human ran to the edge and fell into the water. Soon, a few more flaming human torches followed.
Other ships sailed or rowed towards another waterway in the lake, making an escape. It led them away from the burning ships and southwards to the Central Plains.
One ship followed the other, leaving a safe distance of a ship's length gap between each other. They were sailing against the wind to avoid catching fire. The downside of going against the wind was colliding with ships behind.
The lake was abuzz. Tiny boats rushed out to the ships in the raging fire.
A group of well-intentioned fishermen rowed their small boats out to rescue the flaming jumpers from the water. They saw them as innocent traders, victims of an accident with families waiting for them back home.
The experienced ones staying onshore on the lake knew better. They countered the yells of the would-be rescuers to join them, with warning shouts that the rescuers may end up with burning boats.
Yinyue watched by the lakeside with her men. None of her men said a word. Not even 02. They kept their heads lowered out of respect for their dead comrades.
Each one of them played a part in infiltrating the target ship and setting off a time bomb given to them. Each burning ship belonged to Grand Prince Huqi, the one who killed their fellow men. That much they were told. They trusted Yinyue without reservation.
Some horses stepped backwards from the distant scene of fiery chaos. The men reined them in and looked on.
The burning ships and their human crew were their final offering to appease the dead. A blood debt paid.
Another fireball rose to the sky like a blooming flower. The rescuers hesitated, sailing nearer once three fishing boats caught fire.
No ship could burn up at such a rapid pace during the winter's day in a lake filled with water. Unless the ships stored large volume of fire accelerants like saltpetre or alcohol.
Yinyue smirked. She glanced at the little round metal sphere with a string tucked into her waist belt. One of the remaining spares which Halun gave her before she left him in the care of Mingyi.
He called it a time bomb. The length of the string determined the time to detonate. His knowledge of certain flammable substances and their source made her wonder if he enjoyed playing with fire. After all, he razed an inn to the ground to kill his assassins.
Almost like the legendary firebug. One touch and everything catches fire.
She also recalled how enthusiastic he sounded when he spoke of Huqi's property near the caves where bats frequented for centuries. Too eager. Halun emphasised the word 'centuries' enough for her to grasp the hint. Too detailed.
The older the bat caves, the larger the volume of saltpetre.
How he got the information on Huqi — she didn't care. The way he delivered the information under the guise of repaying her made her suspicious of his ulterior motives.
She pretended to be blind to his true intentions. In their world, everyone used everyone else to fulfil a goal. Allies one day, enemies another, were the natural order of life.
Besides, she got a new toy, the time bomb, for her military engineers to study the trigger design and the ingredients. They could be useful later.
A burning ship gave a last squeaky yawn, followed by a loud crack before it sunk in two halves into the lake. The others fell apart with collapsing pillars and popping planks.
Soon, they sunk into the bottom of the lake, giving off a light sizzling sound. Blackened bodies and loosened planks floated around like stains on the blue shimmering waters.
Yinyue imagined the look on Huqi's face. Will he be upset or angry once he received news about his fleet of trading ships?
Even if the Xirong didn't raid those ships when it entered the Sita waterway, Huqi's losses remained big enough to satisfy her for the moment.
Why let others make her feel miserable when she could make them even more miserable by a hundred fold? Suffering alone breeds resentment. The idea of her enemies suffering together with her provided comfort.
A resounding boom echoed across the Black Mountains, jolting her from her thoughts. The horses neighed and moved around, made restless by the sudden ear-splitting noise. People around glanced in that direction, unnerved by the series of events occurring. A dark plume of smoke rose from the side where those old bat caves were.
Yinyue frowned.
She stared at the whitish smoke billowing from the direction of the caves. Her initial thought of exploiting the saltpetre reserves came to naught. Yet, she felt a strange sense of relief and satisfaction. Destruction of the caves meant one less fight and one less strategic resource for her enemies to seize.
02 rode his horse to her side and asked, "Are those our men?"
He recalled Yinyue sending a message via the falcon and wondered if that message was an order related to the smoking bat caves.
"Not our men," she replied, narrowing her eyes.
She made no order and sent no one to destroy the caves.
"Then…"
"It's someone who doesn't want us to benefit," she replied with nonchalance. "Better that way. Now no one benefits."