"Hold up," I said loudly to the crowd, who were practically foaming at the mouth, ready to storm the damn palace right that second. "I get that you're all excited and thrilled about this whole revolution thing, and trust me, I love the energy, but if we're gonna do this, we need to do it right. How about some proper planning so we don't end up failing miserably and getting our asses handed to us by the sheer number of trained professionals who are probably guarding that palace?"
Everybody immediately turned to look at Qinyue expectantly. I wasn't surprised to be honest, she was their damn leader now. A complete stranger who had apparently inspired an entire town's worth of people in the span of probably an hour, maybe two tops, to revolt against their oppressive government. I mean, I could totally do that too if I wanted to. Like, I wasn't jealous or anything, but whatever.
Her impulsive self stood there for a moment, acting like she was actually thinking about it, and then she said with absolute authority, "He's right. You all may listen to him. He's my strategy advisor."
Just like that, everybody turned to look at me instead.
I suddenly felt like I should be properly introducing myself or something. I cleared my throat loudly and spoke up so everyone in the crowd could hear me clearly. "Greetings, everyone. I'm Ziyang. Might I say that it's an absolute honor to be helping such a strong and unified crowd as yourselves. The very fact that you've all retaliated against your oppressors shows that the people of Ironbell are not to be messed with! Your courage is inspiring! We shall now proceed to-"
"Just get to the fucking point already!" shouted some impatient guy from somewhere in the middle of the crowd.
"Yes! Ahem, sorry about that," I said, slightly deflated, then looked back at Qinyue before addressing the crowd again. "How about you all take a small break for now? You know, recoup your weapons, catch your breath, tend to any injuries, maybe grab some water. We'll reconvene shortly with an actual plan."
The crowd murmured in agreement and started dispersing slightly, though they stayed close enough to be called back at a moment's notice. I then turned to Qinyue, Jian, and Liangyu.
"We made a new friend while you were out there starting your glorious revolution," I said, gesturing behind us.
I led the gang towards where we'd left Ming. The poor old guy was just laying near a stone wall, resting his back against it, looking very much dead. Like, seriously, if I didn't know better, I would've assumed he'd already kicked the bucket.
"Oh my God, what the hell happened to him?!" Qinyue immediately rushed towards him. She knelt before him, trying to support him gently and help him sit up properly without hurting him further.
"He's Mei Lian's grandfather," Jian explained. "He might just know what's actually up with this whole situation we've gotten ourselves into."
Liangyu quickly called over one of the healers from the crowd. A kid who looked to be about eleven or twelve years old at most. The kid was clearly an amateur from the looks of it, probably just learning the basics of healing cultivation, but he had just enough skill to heal the old man's immediate injuries and give him enough energy to at least walk and talk with a decent amount of strength. The kid couldn't heal the old guy's underlying sickness though. It was probably some kind of severe, chronic condition that was way beyond his abilities.
The old man couldn't wait anymore to tell his story. He just began speaking immediately, desperate and pleading, "Please, my granddaughter. You've got to help her. Please!"
"Is that seriously the only line he knows?" Jian muttered under his breath.
I elbowed him hard in the ribs and shot him a look before turning back to Ming with what I hoped was a reassuring expression. "Grandfather, we're absolutely going to help her, I promise. But we're gonna need to know everything about what exactly happened first. The whole story."
"Yes, yes, of course," he said, nodding frantically and taking a shaky breath. "Me and my granddaughter Mei, we live alone together, just the two of us. She looks after me every single day without complaint. You see, I have this extremely rare sickness which apparently can't be cured by even the best and most skilled healers in the region. I've had it since a long time ago and it only seemed to get progressively worse with each passing day. But Mei, bless her heart, she never gave up on me. Not once. Poor child lost both her parents at a very young age, but she never cried in front of me, not even once. It was probably her way of showing me that she's a courageous girl, and by the gods, she truly is.
She took up every single responsibility of running the household and made absolutely sure that I was always smiling, always comfortable. She learned the complex art of healing cultivation specifically just for me, practicing day and night, and she excelled at it until she became recognized as the best healer in the whole of Ironbell. And her healing techniques seemed to actually work on my condition too, slowing its progression. If not for her dedication and skill, I would've been dead a long time ago."
He paused to catch his breath, his hands trembling slightly as he continued.
"About a month ago, maybe slightly more, a few soldiers from the royal palace visited our humble home and officially informed us that Mei had been personally selected to work at the palace under the king's direct service as his royal healer. Naturally, we were absolutely delighted by such a prestigious offer. I mean, what an honor, right? We went to meet the king the very next day for the formal appointment."
His expression darkened considerably.
"I was told to wait outside the throne room during the meeting. Standard protocol, they said." He gave a long pause, trying hard to remember the details, his brow furrowing with concentration and pain. "I don't know exactly what happened inside that room, but Mei came rushing outside looking absolutely terrified. She grabbed my arm and said urgently, 'Grandpa, we have nothing to do here. We need to leave. Right now.' I was completely shocked and confused. Why on earth would she reject such an incredible offer? What could have possibly happened in there? Before I could ask her anything or demand an explanation, she practically dragged me toward the exit, trying to get us out of there as fast as possible."
"How did she look?" I asked, leaning forward with interest. "Angry? Scared?"
"Both," he replied without hesitation. "She looked both furious and terrified at the same time, like she was in a desperate hurry to get away from that place. That's when the soldiers suddenly seized me from behind. They locked me up in this godforsaken prison and have been using me as leverage, coercing her to do something against her will ever since."
"And what exactly is that something?" Liangyu asked, crossing his arms.
"I honestly don't know," Ming admitted, the frustration evident in his voice. "They would let me meet with her every other day for a few minutes, but it was always in the presence of an armed guard who watched our every move and listened to every word. So she never got the chance to tell me what they were forcing her to do. But now…" His voice broke completely, tears streaming down his face. "It's been more than three full days and they haven't brought her to meet me at all. I don't know if she's okay, if she's hurt, if she's-"
He began weeping openly as Qinyue tried her best to console him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
I stood up and stepped away slightly. I couldn't say for certain yet, but the answer seemed kind of obvious when you put all the pieces together. The king had obviously been using Mei to heal someone she absolutely didn't want to heal, someone dangerous. Maybe someone from a rival nation? Or maybe a notorious criminal who deserved to rot in prison?. I didn't know the exact details yet. And honestly, it didn't really matter at this point either. As of right now, our primary objective was clear: we had to find a way to save her.
"Look," I said, turning to address the whole gang seriously, "the townsfolk have been telling us that the king's been acting extremely weird and erratic lately, completely out of character. Which only means that whoever is actually behind all of this chaos is also coercing the king himself. And if even the king himself is being coerced and manipulated, then we're probably facing an extremely powerful and dangerous individual here. I mean, sure, I strongly suspect that the individual in question is the one being healed by Mei, that would make the most sense, but there's also the very real possibility that this individual isn't working alone. They might have allies, accomplices, or an entire network supporting them.
Regardless of the specifics, we're definitely going to have to storm that palace now. Silent infiltration tactics won't get us very far anymore, especially given how Qinyue just brought the entire damn town out to openly retaliate against the government. So we're going to be facing this head-on, full frontal assault. We now just need to figure out the actual military might and defensive capabilities of the palace so we can try to come up with some kind of coherent plan that doesn't get us all killed immediately."
"Hmm, maybe we should ask one of these unconscious soldiers lying around here," Liangyu suggested, gesturing at the scattered bodies. "One of them would probably snitch if we ask nicely. Or not nicely."
We all looked around carefully to see if we could find anyone still conscious or at least conscious enough to interrogate. That's when I heard some very obvious groaning coming from Zhang's direction, like he was still conscious but desperately acting like he wasn't to avoid our attention. Even if he genuinely wasn't conscious yet, he'd still be my absolute first choice for interrogation anyway. That annoying fuck deserved it.
We walked up towards where he was lying and completely encircled him menacingly. He was laying face-down on the ground, completely still, his breathing suspiciously controlled.
"You think he'll actually talk?" Jian asked, looking at me skeptically. "Guy seemed pretty uptight and loyal earlier, don't you think?"
"Oh, I'll make him talk," Qinyue said coldly as she casually lit up some bright orange flames in her palm, the fire crackling ominously.
"Hell yeah, burn his smug face off," I said with perhaps too much excitement in my voice.
She held her flaming palm up and slowly moved it closer and closer to Zhang's exposed head until he could definitely feel the intense heat radiating against his skin.
"I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK! OKAY, I'LL TALK!" Zhang screamed desperately, suddenly scrambling up and away from Qinyue's flame as fast as he could move.
"Alright then, start singing, bird boy," I said with a satisfied grin, crouching down to his eye level. "And don't leave out any details."
Zhang let out a long, defeated breath. "Fine. What exactly do you want to know?"