Chapter 324 Cui Ji’s Woman?

Chapter 324: Cui Ji's Woman?

Carrying the shame of bloodshed and defeat, Wuliji led his remaining troops back to the Northern Di royal court.

"Crack!" An exquisite silver-inlaid ox-horn cup was hurled violently to the ground, shattering into pieces.

Seated upon the wolf-skin throne, Hutuke, the Khan of the Northern Di, wore an ashen face, his chest heaving violently.

His eyes, usually gleaming with cunning and wildness, now burned with incredulous fury and a flicker of dread at having been touched where it hurt most.

"Urkhan... is dead?" His voice seemed squeezed through clenched teeth, trembling with barely contained rage. "Killed by an arrow? By a... Zhou person?"

The tent fell into dead silence, broken only by the crackling of charcoal in the brazier and the heavy breathing of the tribal chiefs.

The air was thick with a scorching aura of humiliation.

Urkhan—he was the acknowledged eagle-eye of the Northern Di grasslands, a legendary marksman who could drop a gray wolf from a hundred paces away.

He was a figure revered by countless Northern Di warriors, a crucial trump card up Hutuke's sleeve.

This time, they had conspired with other forces, dispatching the two fierce generals Urkhan and Wuliji, intending to tear through the Great Zhou's defenses like lightning.

And what happened? One dead, one gravely wounded! Not only was Urkhan dead, but he had been killed by an arrow piercing straight through his skull.

This wasn't just a defeat—it was outright humiliation, grinding the Northern Di's most prized honor into the dirt before all the warriors of the grassland tribes.

Urkhan was his youngest son, and now he had been trampled into mush beneath the hooves of the Cui Family Army, left behind on the battlefield forever.

Though he had many sons, only a handful had any real talent.

Alutai was one, but after a trip to Great Zhou, some nobody Zhou guy nearly killed him, and he still hasn't recovered.

And the other was Urkhan, now gunned down by the Zhou in such a way.

His two best sons, both taken down by the Zhou—one busted up beyond easy recovery, the other dead with no body to bury. How the hell could he accept this?

It felt like he'd swallowed ten thousand needles, and they weren't just stuck in his gut—they were twisting and scraping around in there.

Hutuke drew several ragged breaths, trying to calm the blood boiling in his chest.

He scanned the cowering crowd in the tent, his voice hoarse: "What about Wuliji? How bad is he hurt?"

A soldier quickly stepped forward, dropped to one knee, and bowed his head.

"Great Khan, General Wuliji's been taken back to his tent, and the shaman's already looked him over.

He said the arrow missed his heart by a hair—if it'd been half a hair off, it would've been... no saving him.

Even so, he's banged up bad and needs a long time to recover."

Hearing this, Hutuke's chest tightened even more, and his breathing got heavy.

With two top generals down in a row, his carefully laid plans were instantly in shambles.

"Have you found out? Today... who killed Urkhan? Who the hell was it?!"

He refused to believe some run-of-the-mill commander in the Great Zhou army could shoot like that.

The men in the tent looked at each other, until one finally worked up the nerve to speak.

"Great Khan, this person's been keeping a low profile, and it looks like they only showed up in the Cui Family Army recently.

Plus, it seems like someone's deliberately covering their tracks, and our moles can't dig up anything right now.

All we know is they're real close with Cui Ji—like, real close."

He paused, a weird look on his face, and his voice got hesitant.

"There's... also talk... that this person... is... Cui Ji's... woman..."

The royal tent went dead silent—so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

The tribal chiefs' eyes went wide first, then their faces twisted into looks of pure disbelief.

Some even dug at their ears, wondering if the endless fighting had made them hear things.

Cui Ji's woman?!

A crack shot who could pick off Urkhan's sneak arrow in the middle of a whole army, then drop him with one arrow... was a woman? And Cui Ji's woman, no less?!

This was even more ridiculous than hearing that Urkhan had been killed by a falling cow pie from the sky!

Hutuke, already about to blow his top, heard this load of nonsense.

He felt a surge of rage shoot straight to his head, and the last shred of his sanity snapped.

"Bullshit!!!" He shot up from the wolf-skin throne, veins popping on his forehead, face turning purple, and kicked the guy.

"You think I'm some kind of idiot?! Cui Ji's woman? Huh?! A woman could pull that off? Could shoot my son dead in the middle of a whole army?!

Are you scared shitless of the Zhou, or is your head full of horse piss?! Get the hell out there and find out! If you don't, come back with your head on a platter!"

The chiliarch stumbled from the kick and scrambled out on all fours.

The rest of the tent didn't dare breathe loud, all of them hanging their heads.

Meanwhile, over in the Cui Family Army camp, the vibe couldn't have been more different from the Northern Di royal court.

The exhaustion from the battle hadn't worn off yet, but a wild excitement and fervor was spreading through the troops like wildfire.

The General's Wife, right there in the middle of ten thousand troops, had first pulled off a miracle—blocking the Northern Di prince's deadly sneak arrow and saving the Grand General.

Then, with one arrow that went clean through two men, she nearly killed Wuliji and took out Urkhan—that godlike feat ripped through the whole camp like a tornado.

The news was too huge, spreading from the cavalry to the foot soldiers at the gates to the camp cooks—everyone was going crazy talking about it.

"Did you hear? The Lady's arrow, swoosh—! Went straight through two!" a young soldier said, gesturing animatedly as he wiped his spear.

An old groom feeding beans to a horse nearby spat and corrected him: "Through two? That's called one arrow settling heaven and earth!

If you ask me, the Lady is no ordinary person—she's clearly Hou Yi reborn, a heavenly god descended to save us!"

"Right, right! Hou Yi reborn!" The crowd echoed, their eyes filled with worship and awe.

The General's Wife's image grew ever more deified through word of mouth, nearly becoming the guardian deity of the battlefield.

Yet, alongside this fervent worship, another puzzling piece of news began to circulate.

A young officer just back from helping at the wounded soldiers' camp scratched his head and said to his companion.

"Hey, I heard the city wall guard whispering that the lady doesn't seem to like being called the General's Wife?"

At this, the soldiers resting together in a circle all froze.

"Not call her the General's Wife?" a big, brawny soldier with a sword and shield asked, eyes wide and voice booming, "Then what? Call her... a princess?"

A sharper-eyed archer beside him rolled his eyes: "Fool! Haven't you seen her prowess on the battlefield? With skills like that, she's gotta have a huge ego!

Who'd want their own name forever hitched to a man's? That'd just make her his sidekick."