Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The king of the Stone Kingdom sat in the cold and dark main hall, his scrawny body curled up into a ball. He looked like a ghost who could not bear to leave its favorite haunt. It was only once he spoke that others were sure he was alive.
“Ah, the Prime Minister of the Stone Kingdom, my right-hand man. It’s been a while. You are the Prime Minister, aren’t you? I can’t recall clearly.”
Zhong Heng was unaffected by the jibe, he even wore a look of amusement on his face, as if the feeble man sitting on the throne was just an unskilled laborer. He then gave a cursory bow, informing the king about the Dragon King’s decision, “The Dragon King wishes to conduct his wedding with the princess ten days from now. Please, make preparations, Your Majesty.”
“Preparations? What’s there to prepare? What can I contribute? The royal seal is already in your hands. Why don’t I send the chair I’m sitting on to the Dragon King as a gift?”
“There’s no need for that,” replied Zhong Heng earnestly. “The Dragon King doesn’t need anything from Your Majesty. In fact, he wishes to send Your Majesty a gift. This wedding is extremely vital for the Stone Kingdom and we hope Your Majesty will treat it seriously.”
“I will,” replied the king. Though he knew that the words did not represent true authority, he could not help himself. “I will definitely become serious if you guys draw your weapons,” he added.
Zhong Heng remained grinning but unexpectedly did not deny it. He then turned around and left the hall.
The king shrank even more, looking as if he had melded with the throne.
Zhong Heng also went to inform the princess about the wedding.
He had never been soft-hearted, but upon seeing the princess, who was obviously anxious and worried, put on a brave front, a small part of him could not bear to be too harsh to her. “Please rest assured, Princess. After the wedding, Your Highness will still reside in the palace, just as before.”
The princess truly wished for things to be the same as they were before, once again. She knew, however, where she was stood and what the right words to be saying at this moment were. “Thank you, for your concern, Prime Minister. Where I should be staying after the wedding will be up to the Dragon King. I won’t be choosy,” she said.
Zhong Heng did not expect her to possess so much more wisdom than her brother, at such a young age. He found a new level of respect for the princess. Bowing deeply, he slowly retreated.
Xu Yanwei was waiting outside for him.
Finally, the Dragon King was going to wed the princess. Xu Yanwei was probably the only person truly happy about the wedding. She tended to feel strongly responsible for her ex-customers and masters, as evidenced by her feelings toward Luo Ningcha, Shangguan Ru and the princess of the Stone Kingdom.
The princess was naturally weak-willed. From a young age, she was controlled by various forces, as such, she was in dire need of a strong protector to take care of her. To Xu Yanwei, the best candidate for that role was the Dragon King.
Under Xu Yanwei’s gradual influence, the princess’s impression of the Dragon King had changed greatly. At the very least, she already understood that those far-fetched rumors about him were false, and no longer thought of her future husband as that fearful and murderously cannibalistic monster. That said, their first encounter had made all of Xu Yanwei’s effort wasted.
Even though the princess could only remember parts of the scene where the Dragon King was killing, they were securely imprinted within her memories and could not be forgotten. For a few days after that incident, she suffered from nightmares, waking up abruptly every night. She would ask Xu Yanwei, who would hurry over to console her everytime, if the Dragon King planned to murder her.
Xu Yanwei swore that he would not, but to little effect. As such, she deduced that there was only one way to get rid of the fear in her mind, and that was for both of them to be wed post haste. After they had spent a few blissful nights together, they would naturally become affectionate toward one another; the mystery concerning the other party would diminish.
It was a conclusion borne from her own personal experiences.
She only worried about one thing.
She was not interested in how good the Dragon King’s kung fu was, or how many soldiers he commanded, nor who the enemy he was about to face was. There was one matter, though, that she was clearer on than anyone else.
“There’s no need to wait for ten days. If it’s up to me, tomorrow’s pretty good. Today’s alright too. How complicated could a wedding ceremony be? There just has to be some music, then they have to end up in the bridal suite. Why do we have to wait so long?”
Zhong Heng would normally avoid Xu Yanwei, but he was the Prime Minister of the Stone Kingdom now and he was trying to create a future for himself. He was not willing to rekindle an old romance, nor be entangled with an old flame, but since he was questioned, he could only try to tackle the problem head on.
“Er, ten days is already fairly rushed. The princess has her status to worry about and the wedding cannot be overly casual.”
“Did you not get my meaning?” Xu Yanwei asked, her eyes opening wide, as if Zhong Heng had committed a rookie mistake.
“Your… meaning?” asked Zhong Heng, secretly puzzled about what could bring the cold-blooded Dragon King to trust such a woman.
He changed his mind, though, and wanted to thank Xu Yanwei for her reminder, after hearing what she had said later.
Xu Yanwei bit her lip and hesitated, saying softly, “Never ever tell anyone that I leaked this piece of information to you.”
“You haven’t said anything yet.”
“I’m afraid that if the wedding gets delayed by a few more days, the princess might not even be alive.”
“Why? Are you referring to the Golden Roc assasins? Don’t worry, the Dragon King has prepared for them.”
The marriage between the Dragon King and the princess of the Stone Kingdom was meant to stabilize the relationship between the Great Snow Mountain and the five nations of Xiaoyao Lake. As such, Zhong Heng had already predicted Shangguan Jianyi would naturally try to disrupt it.
“The Golden Roc assasins are nothing,” replied Xu Yanwei, as she twisted her mouth with disdain, as if she had stopped countless of assassinations before. “I’m talking about someone at the Dragon King’s side.”
“Someone at the Dragon King’s side? What nonsense are you talking about? Is it Fang Wenshi? What will he dare to do to the Princess? I bet he isn’t even capable such a thing.”
“Sigh. You’re such a intelligent person, but today, you turn out to be as dumb as a pig.”
Zhong Heng scowled. This was one of the reasons why he tried to hide from Xu Yanwei; the woman had probably spent too much time in the red light district of Pleasure Alley and was frequently insurbodinate. Luckily, there was no one else around them, otherwise the Prime Minister would have lost face.
“Speak clearly,” he said.”I have many things yet to be done.”
Xu Yanwei had not wished to divulge her secret originally, but men were always too insensitive about such matters. All they thought about were how to kill hundreds or thousands more people, but they overlooked those closest to them. As such, it was now up to her to take care of the Dragon King. “Maid Lotus,” she said.
Once the two words left her lips, Xu Yanwei began looking around nervously. She bore utmost goodwill toward the all of the women related in any manner to the Dragon King, with the exception of Maid Lotus. A few years ago, when the Dragon King was still known as Slave Huan, she already had the feeling that there was something off about Maid Lotus; no matter how she tried, she could not get close to and was even slightly afraid, of her.
After the Dragon King came back to the Stone Kingdom, the two women met each other only on a few rare occassions. Yet somehow, Xu Yanwei’s fear of Maid Lotus had grown even stronger. It was nearly on the same level as that of the princess’s terror of the Dragon King.
“Maid Lotus? She’s not with the Dragon King now. Most likely she’s on a mission,” replied Zhong Heng. He was even more puzzled now; not only did the female personal bodyguard of the Dragon King possess marvelous kung fu, her loyalty was self-evident. The fact that the Dragon King entrusted his personal safety to her, spoke volumes of it.
Maid Lotus had returned to Jade City to gather the disciples of the New Moon Hall, and no one else besides Gu Shenwei knew about her whereabouts.
“I know she’s not around. It’s the reason why I suggested the wedding be brought forward. If we delay it until her return, I fear that not only would the wedding be disrupted, some people may even die.”
“Impossible. Are you trying to say that Maid Lotus would be jealous? Impossible, she’s a killer. That’s impossible, entirely impossible,” Zhong Heng replied while repeatedly shaking his head. He was even more distrustful of Xu Yanwei’s words now.
Xu Yanwei was growing anxious and spilled out the secret she had kept well hidden until this moment. “What’s so impossible? When the Dragon King came to ask for the hand of the princess, Maid Lotus sent someone to assassinate her. If it wasn’t for me…”
Zhong Heng got a shock. He knew a little about that incident and recalled that the assassin seemed to be a young girl who was following the Dragon King around. “Don’t you spout nonsense. The Dragon King trusts Maid Lotus very much, even to the point of entrusting his life to her.”
Xu Yanwei stamped her foot in anger. She was present when Tie Linglong tried to assassinate the Princess, and it was her own interference, nearly at the cost of her own life, that saved the princess.
Tie Linglong had not revealed anything after being captured, but Xu Yanwei could deduce the entire plot. Matters that could not be understood by men, were very clear to her.
“It’s up to you to believe me or not. Anyhow, I’ve warned you. If you want the wedding to go smoothly, arrange it while you still have time. Once Maid Lotus is back… you shall see.”
Zhong Heng was full of doubts as he left the city and returned to the barracks. The moment he saw the Dragon King, he began to believe what Xu Yanwei told him.
Up till now, he judged the Dragon King according to his ambitions and took it for granted that he did not care for women or riches. During their past encounters, the Dragon King had also clearly proved that he possessed extremely strong self-control.
Even though the Dragon King offered amnesty to the offspring of the Supreme King not only refusing execute them, he allowed them to accompany him, Zhong Heng had always disregarded rumors about the Dragon King and Shangguan Ru. He had even considered that it was proof of maturity on the Dragon King’s part for having enough restraint to put aside simple-minded plans for vengeance.
On his way back, he kept thinking about Xu Yanwei’s warning and when he saw the Dragon King’s face, Zhong Heng suddenly realized his mistake: the Dragon King was still a young man.
Not even turning to face the Prime Minister, Gu Shenwei, who was inspecting a map, asked, “Is there trouble?”
“No, everything is proceeding smoothly.”
“That’s good. We have enough trouble for now. Shangguan Jianyi has not left the Stone Kingdom. He’s still here.”
“Was someone killed again?” Zhong Heng asked as he tensed up. He began to regret having brought so few guards when he entered the city just now.
“No, I’m just guessing.”
Of course, the Dragon King would not make wild guesses based on nothing.
Most of the spies hiding in the barracks had already been publicly executed, only a few of them were imprisoned. The imprisoned ones had divulged a great deal of information to their captors.
A blademaster kept appearing in their confessions, but there was no sign of him amongst the captive spies. Gu Shenwei supposed that this person was Shangguan Jianyi, who had changed his name to avoid detection.
Not only had Shangguan Jianyi personally planned and given instructions for a string of rebellious incitements and assassinations, he was particularly interested in the background of each individual troop of Gu Shenwei’s army, especially that of the Land of Fragrance. He had even a personal chat with a few of the soldiers within it.
“Shangguan Jianyi will not leave. He feels that there the fighting spirit of my army is wavering. That he doesn’t even need to involve his strong, 50,000 man army; he believes that all he has to do is to sow discord from within to make it splinter apart into separate factions. He’s not lacking in money or killers. Hence, since the battle has already begun, he’ll strike again very soon.”
Money creates greed and killers bring out fear in people. These two factors could greatly accelerate the division and betrayal of soldiers from the different factions within Gu Shenwei’s army.
“Well,,” replied Zhong Heng. He felt that the Dragon King’s analysis was very logical and therefore took the opportunity to make a suggestion. “That means that your wedding with the princess is in danger, Dragon King. Shangguan Jianyi will definitely not wish to see the Stone Kingdom and the Great Snow Mountain connected with a marriage alliance. Why don’t we… conduct the wedding tomorrow.”
Gu Shenwei lifted his head and swept his gaze across Zhong Heng’s face before lowering it to continue observing the map. “It’s not your habit to come up with reasons at the very last minute,” he observed.
Zhong Heng knew that he could not keep the matter under wraps any longer. The Dragon King was extremely sharp and naturally suspicious; his good intentions and polite words might create an unnecessary misunderstanding.
“I heard… that someone close to you… doesn’t like the princess, and about this wedding…, please forgive me for talking too much, Dragon King.”
Gu Shenwei lifted his head again, a cold glint in his eyes. Zhong Heng hurriedly stopped himself from saying any more.
“There’s nothing wrong with the people beside me,” replied Gu Shenwei. He did not wish to share certain types of information with Zhong Heng. “As for the wedding date, I leave it up to you.”
Zhong Heng felt relieved and decided to bring the wedding forward; he was also a little uneasy and anxious when he thought about Maid Lotus.
