Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
As the blasts from the Dragon King’s horn traveled to their camp, the entire body of soldiers from the Great Snowmountain cast their chores aside and came running towards the source of the blasts regardless of where they were.
No matter how many days they had been resting for or how much tender loving care they received from the local women, they became warriors again at this moment.
The blasts grew increasingly urgent; the Dragon King seemed to be faced with a formidable foe.
Tuo Nengya did not have a horn of his own, but it was his suggestion for all the swordsmen to blow on their horns at the same time, as a reply to the Dragon King.
The conquest of the Land of Fragrance turned out to be unexpectedly successful, at least at first glance.
The nine remaining tribal chiefs had already respectfully surrendered to the Dragon King when the soldiers were still a significant distance away from the altar. Everyone of the locals, regardless of class, was willing to accept the Dragon King’s rule. Generations of obedience training allowed them to switch back to a monarchy very easily.
All of a sudden, the population of the Great Snowmountain grew by tens of thousands of people. There was an intense debate on how the ‘new citizens’ should be treated.
That night, Gu Shenwei sent out a small force to garrison the capital. They went around searching and tallying the number of people in the city, as well as guarding against any probable ambush and selecting a suitable location to station all the troops.
It was the first time the army of the Great Snowmountain had ever conquered a country, and even if the Land of Fragance did not have any armed forces, its population and wealth were significant.
The machetemen under Tuo Nengya were loyal to the Dragon King, but it did not affect their love for money. It was one of the reasons why they had kept striving till now. Therefore, they naturally thought of the entire population of the Land of Fragrance as their captives and felt that they should be distributed evenly to each soldier as the valuable items and money were.
The machetemen, very prudently, did not bring their request up immediately. Instead, they took turns inculcating the values of dividing the spoils of war to the ‘unenlightened’ swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain and the conscripted savages.
“Every army behaves in the same way. Even larger bandit gangs also have similar practices.”
“Indeed, we were not part of the actual conquest; the Dragon King conquered the entire country nearly by himself. However, we’ve fought in many battles and many of our friends are dead. Even those of us who survived are covered in wounds now. Furthermore, we’ve always stayed by the Dragon King’s side and provided him with unwavering loyalty. Shouldn’t we receive some rewards?”
“As long as the Golden Roc Fort still stands, we’ll have to leave this paradise to fight again sooner or later. We should enjoy ourselves here while it lasts, who knows how many of us will die in the next battle?”
…
After experiencing the hardships of battle and their expedition, the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain had fell for the beauty of the local women and were thus immediately convinced. Furthermore, it was part of their tradition for the winner to take all the spoils.
Only the conscripted savages who reported directly to the Dragon King were unmoved. Basically, they could not grasp the concepts of slavery and wealth, and thus answered each person who tried to coax them with the same words, “Ask the Dragon King.”
The prayers of the majority of the soldiers were answered. The chiefs and Tuo Nengya came to visit the Dragon King together, asking him about the issue of dividing the spoils of conquest.
“We used to be their guests and acted accordingly. However, they attacked you, Dragon King. Now that we’re enemies, we shouldn’t stand on ceremony,” said Long Xiaoshi, the chief of Danduo Peak. He was the first to speak and his thoughts were exactly similar to the other swordsmen. “If it were up to me, I would conscript all of the able-bodied men and divide them up into the various tribes. The old and feeble can stay and be left to survive on their own. As for the women, why don’t we give a few of them to each soldier. If we manage to produce a bunch of babies, the population of the Great Snowmountain would boom again.”
Everyone in the main tent roared with laughter. Even though the swordsmen were unsophisticated, they somewhat despised women. Earlier on, during the civil war between the five peaks, incidents of snatching and raping the women folk of their enemies were common.
As usual, the Dragon King did not voice his opinion immediately. Instead, he let everyone speak their mind first.
The other chiefs were of nearly similar thought to Long Xiaoshi. Only Long Fanyun, the young chief of Canopy Peak, disagreed. “Let the women remain behind. We’re an army after all, how can we fight with them accompanying us?”
“You’re probably afraid that your wife back home would be unhappy, Fanyun. Don’t worry, we’ll keep your secret safe with us,” Long Xiaoshi replied, blinking his only good eye. His statement sparked off another round of uproarious laughter.
The army of the Great Snowmountain had not been in such a jovial atmosphere for a very long while.
Gu Shenwei hoped that Tuo Nengya would offer a different perspective, but he was a machete man after all. “The Land of Fragrance is a gift from the heavens to the Great Snowmountain. We’ll never find another country that is so easy to conquer. If we don’t take it, the Supreme King will be sure to send his people over once news reaches him.”
Gu Shenwei had much to say, but could not find the right words all of a sudden. As such, he requested for everyone to return to their tents and said that he would give them an answer the next morning.
They were surprised at his indecision but still followed his orders. All of them went back and informed the soldiers under their command to wait patiently for the Dragon King’s decision.
Gu Shenwei had many tasks to do, but the most pressing issue was that both Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus were still not completely conscious.
The five women who were nearly burnt alive were still in a state of partial unconsciousness. They could eat, walk, sit and sleep, but had to be attended to for everything they did. Once their servants left, they were no different from zombies; they had no reaction to other people and objects.
The remaining nine tribal chiefs of the Land of Fragrance were kept as hostages in the Great Snowmountain’s military camp. They were also surprised at the condition of the five women. One of them, who knew Central Plains Chinese, said carefully to the Dragon King, “They should have recovered by now. Have they not taken the antidote to the Indra fragrance?”
The nobles did not dare to speak to the Dragon King unless he had questions for them. It was partly because they were not speaking a common language and also partly because out of fear. Even if they speak, they would carefully consider their words before talking.
This held a lot of matters up.
“Indra fragrance? Antidote? Why did no one speak of this before? Hand them over now,” said Gu Shenwei as he forcibly controlled his anger. “These people appear to be very cooperative after their surrender, but none of them took the initiative to tell me about the antidote,” he thought grumpily.
In truth, Gu Shenwei had to bear some responsibility for not being informed about the cure. He had never paid much attention to the five women publicly, and only Tuo Nengya and the Shangguan half-brothers in his entire army knew who Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus were. The other soldiers did not know that the two ladies were people he cared deeply about, much less the nobles of the Land of Fragrance.
The nine tribal chiefs started to look at each other as they heard the Dragon King’s words being translated into their local language. Eventually, it was the tribal chief who could speak Central Plains Chinese who speaked up shakily, “The antidote… is not with us. The Indra fragrance has been kept by the Shili family all this while.”
It just happened that the master of the Shili family was Shili Molo, who had been killed by the Dragon King on the altar.
Other than the nine tribal chiefs, there were many nobles in the camp of the Great Snowmountain, but none of them was from the Shili family.
The nobles gave themselves up very willingly upon being interrogated. Gu Shenwei quickly got to know that the Shili family had fled when their master was killed. All of them escaped from the scene; there were tens of thousands of people present then and only a few noticed them fleeing.
Gu Shenwei sent Long Fanyun, the chief of Canopy Peak, with a small group of men into the city to seize the members of the Shili family and get the antidote.
It was only at this moment that many people came to realize the importance of the five female sacrificial lambs.
Shangguan Fei just got to know that his sister was nearly burned alive on the altar, and displayed a little rare love for his sibling. “That bunch of b*stards. We should’ve killed all of them,” he said.
After saying these words, he felt that his duties to his sister were done. “I’m sure you’ll have a solution, Dragon King. There’s no need for me to be worried for nothing, haha.”
Long Fanyun brought back bad news to the Dragon King. Shili Molo’s sons had escaped from the capital and their whereabouts were unknown. There were only frightened women and helpless slaves left behind in his residence and none of them had the antidote.
Gu Shenwei summoned all of the hostages who were nobles once again into his tent. He drew the Five Peaks Saber and placed it across his knees as he sat. Dozens of conscripted savages were standing at his sides as a show of force. He then ordered the hostages to cough up all the information they had on the Indra fragrance.
Dozens of them fought for their turn to confess. Two of their tribal chiefs acted as interpreters and kept on translating their words into Central Plains Chinese. Gu Shenwei had to rely on his extraordinary ability of analysis to piece the piecemeal information together.
Nobles of the Land of Fragrance were divided into ten tribes, and not only was each tribe given a piece of land along with slaves but also a Flower Soul Forest each. Other than that of the royal palace, which was uninhabited, a Chief Priest resided in each of the other nine Flower Soul Forests. Each priest had his own specialty; some were skilled in kung fu while some in medicine.
The Shili family presided over the seventh Flower Soul Forest and its priest was skilled in the use of various fragrances. In common jianghu parlance, he knew how to concoct knockout powders.
The Shili family was knowledgeable and full of ideas and they could be considered as distinct from the other people in the Land of Fragrance. When the other citizens obediently accepted the rule of their conquerors, the men of the Shili family fled the capital, seemingly intent on avenging their father’s death.
There were no words in the language of the Land of Fragrance which could be used to translate ‘revenge’, and the two interpreters had to take some time to explain the concept to their fellow hostages. All of them felt that the Shili family’s choice was inconceivable.
The seventh Flower Soul Forest was situated about three and a half kilometers to the southwest of the capital. Gu Shenwei sent out his men during the night to get the antidote. The tribal chiefs had learnt their lesson and decided to pre-empt the Dragon King by warning him that the forest was a maze built with vegetation, and that without a guide, his men would either find it hard to enter or impossible to exit.
The setup of each Flower Soul Forest was basically the same, with only slight differences. Therefore, Gu Shenwei sent out one of the tribal chiefs to guide his men.
Having learnt his lesson, Gu Shenwei continued interrogating the hostages.
As he gathered more information, he became increasingly uneasy.
He was not the first to conquer the Land of Fragrance alone. Before he arrived, Old Man Mu was already “the Uncrowned King”. Nobody knew where he was hiding now in retreat, and he was planning to practice his new skills on the Great Snowmountain army after he was done with his retreat.
The nobles had forced their female slaves to seduce the soldiers of the Great Snowmountain at the river because they wanted to hold them back for Old Man Mu’s target practice later on.
Gu Shenwei was not afraid of Old Man Mu; he felt that no matter what, one man was no match for an entire army. That said, he was afraid that Old Man Mu would not face him openly and choose to engage in guerilla warfare instead by making sneak attacks on his common soldiers.
Gu Shenwei gave the order for Tuo Nengya to lead 200 men to sweep the entire Land of Fragrance in search for Old Man Mu. Once spotted, they were not to engage and had to return back to report to the Dragon King.
Tuo Nengya had heard of the infamous Old Man Mu and therefore treated the task more seriously than the other soldiers. He immediately set off with his men to fulfil his orders.
The time of idleness for the army of the Great Snowmountain had now come to an end. Even though many of them could still not feel it themselves, an intense atmosphere was spreading throughout the camp from the Dragon King himself.
The problems kept piling up: how to divide up the spoils of war, retrieving the antidote in time to save the women and finding out where Old Man Mu was. Each problem demanded that Gu Shenwei resolved it quickly.
