"You are insane." She said with a smirk. But her slight blushing said something else.
"Perhaps." Luo He smiled.
"But do you trust me?" He asked.
Ning Luo did not answer immediately.
Luo He looked directly into her eyes.
"If you do, I will make sure you survive another day." His voice softened.
"I don't want someone like you dying here." He said. Then, as though unable to resist ruining the sincerity of the moment, he added.
"And as I said earlier, if you ever become interested in marriage, I am available as a viable candidate all the time." He said proudly.
Ning Luo's eyes became murderous.
Luo He grinned. "There it is." She walked past him neglecting him completely.
"Bring me every household in the city with men capable of fighting." Ning Luo commanded coldly. All the soldiers immediately began moving.
Then Luo He called after her. "Not just men." She stopped. "Women too." Luo He said. Ning Luo turned. "Women?"
"Why exclude them?" He asked.
He gestured toward the city. "Look at you, aren't you capable of fighting as any man. And some noblewomen have martial training as well.
Even some ordinary women are stronger than the men in their households." His expression became serious.
"And if this city falls, they will suffer just as much, perhaps more." Ning Luo considered his words. Then she turned toward the soldiers.
"Listen carefully." Her voice carried across the wall. "Gather every willing fighter. Men and women. Sixteen to fifty. No one is excluded because of gender."
"If they are willing to defend the capital, bring them here." The orders spread immediately through the city. Luo He looked toward Ning Luo.
"Do you have enough equipment?" Luo He asked.
"Enough." She said.
"How much?" Luo He asked.
"Enough to arm perhaps eighty thousand." She said confidently.
Luo He raised an eyebrow. "Then weapons aren't our problem." Ning Luo shook her head. "People are." She looked toward the vast enemy army beyond the walls.
"We don't have enough trained soldiers."
Luo He smiled. "Then that's where I come in." Ning Luo looked at him suspiciously. "You?"
Luo He placed one hand against his chest with exaggerated confidence.
"I am a very competent military commander." His shameless grin returned. Ning Luo stared at him.
She clearly did not believe him. Luo He merely smiled wider. The amusing part was that every word had been true.
He simply happened to be the only person in the city shameless enough to say it like a boast.
And while the capital gathered its remaining strength, the ancient banner remained quietly in his hand. The Human Sovereign Banner had not yet moved.
It had not yet revealed what slept within it. For now, it merely waited.
Day Five: Human Sovereign Banner
A wealthy mansion near the city wall was requisitioned for Luo He's purpose. Its courtyard was enormous, large enough to hold tens of thousands of people.
By midday, it had become crowded. Men and women poured in from every single direction. Merchants, farmers, servants, craftsmen who had fled into the city.
Young men barely old enough to hold a sword. Middle-aged laborers. Women who had never held a weapon in their entire pathetic lives.
Nearly fifty thousand people stood shoulder to shoulder, confused and frightened.
Princess Ning Luo stood at the front of the courtyard. Beside her stood Luo He. No soldiers surrounded them.
No ceremonial guard. No any elaborate preparations. Just the two of them before an enormous crowd.
Ning Luo glanced sideways at him. "You are certain this will work?" She asked desperately looking at him with hope.
Luo He looked at the ancient banner in his hand. It was unimpressive, old enough that the fabric carried the weight of many centuries.
Its primary color was gold, bordered by deep black. In the center were several ancient characters written in dark purple.
'Human Sovereign Banner'.
There was no magnificent jewel. No elaborate decoration. No visible spiritual formation. It looked almost like nothing or maybe something forgotten in an ancient storeroom.
Luo He had found it long ago. His ancient civilization database contained some information about it, but there was still much he did not understand. He had never used it until now.
"We are already surrounded by three hundred thousand elite soldiers." Luo He said casually. "If this succeeds or not, we're probably dead anyway." He said.
Ning Luo's expression darkened. "You have a wonderful way of encouraging people." She hissed. "I'm very good at it."
Luo He said proudly.
"You are not." She argued.
"I know." He just agreed.
She sighed. Then Luo He raised the banner, his expression becoming serious. "Let's find out what you can really do."
He placed his hand against the ancient cloth. The instant his palm touched it, something changed. The banner trembled.
A faint golden radiance emerged from its surface. The light grew brighter, then...
Whoosh!
A strange green mist erupted from the banner, spreading like smoke released from an ancient furnace.
The entire courtyard was engulfed. People coughed. Some staggered backward. Others shouted in fear. Ning Luo immediately drew her sword.
"Jin He!"
"Wait."
His voice remained strangely calm. The green mist passed through the crowd. For several heartbeats, nothing happened.
Then the first man transformed, his body convulsing. Another. Then another. Hundreds dropped to the ground. Yet still Thousands remained completely and utterly unaffected.
Luo He's eyes widened. "This isn't what I expected." Ning Luo looked at him. "You said it would turn ordinary people into soldiers." Ning Luo asked.
"I said I thought it would." Luo He said.
"You thought?" She gleared at him.
"Now isn't the best time to discuss my methodology." He said.
The first transformation occurred. A man's body straightened. His trembling stopped.
His eyes opened, glowing an eerie green. A faint green aura surrounded his body. He looked down at his hands, clenched them, then moved.
Not toward a weapon. Toward Luo He.
His expression contained no hatred, only absolute purpose. He charged.
Ning Luo reacted instantly. Her sword flashed. The man's body collapsed before it could reach Luo He. Luo He stared at the fallen man.
"...That's not supposed to happen." He muttered under his breath.
Another transformed. Then another. Then ten. Twenty. Fifty. Hundreds. The courtyard erupted into chaos. The untransformed screamed and fled.
The transformed men rushed toward Luo He with military precision, their feet moving in perfect formation, maintaining distance from one another like trained soldiers would on a battlefield.
One reached for Luo He's throat. Ning Luo cut him down. Another lunged. She cut him too. Then another. And another.
"Why are they attacking you?!" She sounded desperate.
"I don't know!" Luo He said calmly.
"You activated the thing wrong!" She said once again.
"I noticed!" Luo He said.
"Then deactivate it!" She shouted.
"I don't know how!" Luo He said.
Jia Ning's expression became murderous. "Jin He. If we survive this, I'm going to kill you myself." She muttered.
"Fair enough." Luo He teased.
More came. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Ning Luo's sword became a blur, cutting down one after another, her golden armor stained with blood from the previous battle become even filthier.
Yet the strange soldiers kept coming.
Then... "Stop."
The voice was old. Ancient. It did not sound like the voice of a living man, but something buried beneath mountains for a thousand years that had suddenly remembered how to speak.
Every transformed soldier froze. And Princess Ning Luo stopped as well. Luo He slowly turned his head. An elderly man stood among the crowd.
He had been one of the transformed. His eyes glowed green. His body radiated the same strange aura. But unlike the others, he was not attacking. He stared directly at Luo He.
Then he spoke. "I am General Wu Shan. Commander of the Human Sovereign's infantry." He said with proud declaration.
The transformed soldiers slowly turned toward him. Wu Shan raised one hand.
"I command you. Stand down."
The soldiers immediately lowered their weapons. One knee struck the ground. Then another. Then another.
Within moments, nearly two thousand fully transformed soldiers knelt before the old general.
Luo He stared. He slowly looked at the banner. Then at Wu Shan. Then back at the banner.
"...What?" He said more to him self.
Wu Shan's gaze remained fixed upon him. "I activated it," Luo He said. "I put my blood upon it. They're supposed to obey me."
Wu Shan finally answered. "No. You have misunderstood the Human Sovereign Banner." That caught Luo He's attention immediately. He stepped closer.
"Explain." Now his calm eyes eminated pure curiosity.
Wu Shan looked at the ancient banner. His expression softened. For the first time, there was something resembling sorrow in his ancient eyes.
"This banner was never created to make an army. It was created to recognize a worthy sovereign." Silence settled over the courtyard.