DD—Chapter 16: Is my son brave? Brave! The bravest among the three armies!!!
Wu'an City. The people in the city still hadn't fully recovered from the pain of the war. Pedestrians on the street were nowhere near as noisy as when Dai Chengfeng first entered the city. Watching this scene, Dai Chengfeng shook his head and asked, "Uncle, the old lady who wants to see me lives in the northern suburbs, right?"
"Yes."
Zhu Fan nodded. "But Chengfeng, I can go alone, so you don't have to."
"I heard that the old lady is now in her seventies and has only Xu Feng as her child. Her husband was also a soldier, but he died in a war ten years ago."
"Now she is alone and doesn't want any compensation, but insists on seeing you..."
"I'm afraid she's trying to blackmail you?"
Dai Chengfeng shook his head. "Xu Feng can say that the Xu family is poor, so he won't give up an inch of land and will die for justice. His mother isn't the person you think."
"That's hard to say," Zhu Fan shook his head. "Chengfeng, you still have too little experience!"
"There aren't many good people in this world, but there are all kinds of bad ones!"
"Uncle!"
Looking at Dai Chengfeng with a serious voice and a slightly furrowed brow, Zhu Fan was helpless. "Okay, okay, I won't say anything more. Just hope she isn't ungrateful!"
The two continued, heading toward the northern suburbs of Wu'an City.
They stopped in front of a dilapidated thatched house.
"Chengfeng, this is it."
Dai Chengfeng looked at the leaky house and frowned slightly. "Isn't Xu Feng the centurion of my empire? Why does he live in such a house?"
"If he's saved all his military pay over the years, it should be enough for him to buy a big house."
Zhu Fan shook his head. "I don't know either, but the address Zhu Yan gave is indeed this one. That's right."
"Alright." Dai Chengfeng nodded. "Maybe I'll find out when I see him..."
He stepped forward and gently knocked on the door.
Soon, a white-haired, hunched old woman slowly came out. She was so thin that she seemed to be blown down by a gust of wind, and each step she took was extremely difficult.
Dai Chengfeng hurried forward. "Auntie, are you the mother of Centurion Xu Feng?"
The old woman raised her wrinkled face, looked at Dai Chengfeng with cloudy eyes, and trembled as she spoke. "You... you are the Fourth Prince?"
Dai Chengfeng nodded gently. "I heard from my uncle that you don't want money—you just want to see me and ask me a question?"
The old woman's lips trembled slightly. She nodded slowly, stretched out her calloused hands, and held Dai Chengfeng's arm tightly, her voice choked with tears.
"Yes, Your Highness. I don't want money. I just want to ask you a question in person. Otherwise, I fear I will die with regrets..."
Dai Chengfeng supported her gently. "Then, Auntie, I'm here. Ask away."
"Is my son brave on the battlefield?"
The old woman's voice was hesitant. "I heard that Your Highness was also seriously injured to protect the people of our city. Did Feng'er drag you down?"
"Is he worthy of the people of Wu'an City?"
Dai Chengfeng was stunned.
This was a question he had never expected to hear...
Looking into the old woman's eyes—full of apprehension and hope—Dai Chengfeng felt a complex mixture of emotions. His voice was firm. "Brave!"
"Bravest of the Three Armies!!!"
Dai Chengfeng clenched his teeth and roared softly.
"Centurion Xu Feng has never dragged anyone down, and he is worthy of everyone!"
"He... is the pride of all the soldiers in my Star Luo Empire!!!"
"That's good, that's good..."
As if she had finally received the answer she longed for, the old woman seemed to have lost all her strength. She staggered toward a peach tree and sat down slowly.
Looking tenderly at the peach tree, she murmured, "Feng'er planted this when he was a soldier."
"He said that when this peach tree grows up, the peaches it bears will be sweet."
She gently stroked the leaves of the peach tree with her hand and smiled softly. "He has grown so big in the blink of an eye, and it should bloom and bear fruit next year..."
The child is determined to leave his hometown, and he will not return until he's made a name for himself; why bury his bones in his hometown? There's no place in life without mountains and green hills!
Watching the old woman now alone, Dai Chengfeng pursed his lips and said nothing more.
Country?
How can there be a country when the world is in chaos?
Home?
How can there be a home when the people are displaced?
Dai Chengfeng's heart was heavy, filled with complexity. Only four words echoed in his mind: the world is unified.
"Chengfeng, get used to it. It's been like this for hundreds of years. Everyone fights back and forth."
Zhu Fan, seeing Dai Chengfeng standing there in a daze, pretended to be relaxed and patted his shoulder.
"Uncle..."
Dai Chengfeng looked at Zhu Fan seriously.
"Hmm?"
"I wish to forge an emperor's sword with my tiny body... with the world as the blade, the mountains and seas as the tip, controlled by the five elements, opened by yin and yang, held by spring and summer, and carried through autumn and winter. It will be unparalleled in the world, and the world will submit!"
Dai Chengfeng gazed at the old woman in front of him, gently stroking the peach tree again and again, smiling softly. "I will also bring to this world a great country—stretching from the Lingdou Plain in the east to the vast sea in the west, expanding to the extreme north, and crossing the Canggu Mountains in the south..."
"More!"
"Peace for eternity!"
Listening to Dai Chengfeng's calm, narration-like voice, Zhu Fan was struck by lightning, standing there in shock.
A deep sense of awe filled his eyes.
In this chaotic world of soul masters—
People seem to have long accepted the idea that the bigger the fist, the more truth it holds. Ordinary people are used to wandering, accustomed to the uncertainty of life and death...
What most people want is simply to survive in this turbulent world.
But!
The young man before him, his nephew—the future Emperor of the Star Luo Empire—had such grand ambitions!
To carry the world, mountains and seas, the five elements, yin and yang, spring and summer, autumn and winter—on his shoulders...
To forge the Sword of the Human Emperor and reshape this broken world, creating a great country that stretches from the Lingdou Plain in the east to the vast sea in the west, from the northernmost mountains to the Canggu Mountains in the south...
And what no one dares to imagine... eternal peace!
Zhu Fan's lips trembled slightly. He wanted to speak but couldn't find his voice.
After a long moment, he finally regained his composure, his eyes slightly reddened.
He patted Dai Chengfeng's shoulder hard, his voice hoarse with emotion. "You have ambition!"
"Good boy. Uncle truly didn't misjudge you!"
"Since you have such lofty ambitions, uncle is willing to be your vanguard—if I die, I will never look back!"
"Thank you, Uncle."
Dai Chengfeng looked at Zhu Fan, who supported him unconditionally.
Although he knew the road ahead would be full of hardships, with intertwined forces and hidden gods watching in the dark, he believed—
As long as he wanted to go...
The road would be under his feet!
He, Dai Chengfeng, has truly come to this world!
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(End of this chapter)