Skystrike Gauntlets

Li Keyong, the Prince of Jin, was as unpredictable as the shifting clouds. He would put Gao Siji to use one moment, only to send assassins under another general's banner to hunt him down the next. Gao Siji was driven to the absolute brink by this ruthless betrayal. However, a masked advisor in the Prince's inner circle secretly sent an agent with a message, helping Gao narrowly escape his doom. The agent brought a cloth bundle and relayed the advisor's words verbatim: "Your loyalty to the realm is pure, and your spirit unbroken. You are not meant to die here." But after surviving wave after wave of ambushes, Gao Siji was entirely spent, his spear shattered, his horse driven to exhaustion. Looking around in despair, abandoned by his lord, he realized that despite the vastness of the world, there was nowhere left for him to hide. He opened the bundle. Inside were several meticulously drawn maps highlighting the weak points in the enemy's blockade, along with a single wine gourd. Gao Siji was a man who loved his wine. Once, while sharing a drink with that very advisor, he had boldly boasted: "Give me enough good wine to get properly drunk, and an army of thousands couldn't stop me!" Did the scholar actually take him seriously? Did he really expect him to survive with nothing but his bare hands, fueled by nothing but a gourd of cheap brew, and fight his way to total freedom? Gao pulled the stopper, threw his head back, and drained it in a single gulp. As the wine burned down his throat, a thought struck him: If there is still someone in this world who believes in me this much, how can I let them down? With only his bare fists for weapons and the wine's fire for strength, he roared: "Watch me break your lines!" "So did Great-Grandpa actually get away or what?!" Shi Yimo couldn't stand it when her father left stories on a cliffhanger, begging him to finish the tale. Shi Jiuge glanced up at the old gourd hanging on the wall, a treasured heirloom of Crossblade Manor, and stood up to tuck his little girl into bed. "Alright, you little troublemaker, that's enough for today! If you're a good girl and go to sleep for your mother, I'll tell you the rest tomorrow."