Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Gu Shenwei had an open and honest talk with King Rizhu, and both sides were anxious to expose the truth.
Gu Shenwei said that Shangguan Yun had come to threaten him into killing the lord and that he was in the camp right now. While expressing his surprise, King Rizhu claimed that King Kuari’s desperate move showed that his plans had already been thrown into disorder.
The two then made several vows and pushed the alliance to a deeper level.
In a sincere atmosphere, Gu Shenwei raked up the past again, saying, “I beg your pardon for my frankness, but this matter has become a wall in my heart, and I can’t help but ask. I heard a rumor that the poison on my father’s saber twenty years ago was secretly smeared on by someone else.”
King Rizhu stayed silent for a while and took the Dragon King’s question as a test. To show his sincerity, he decided to tell the truth. “This matter has also occupied my mind for more than twenty years. Well, if the Dragon King wants to know the truth, I’ll tell you the truth.”
King Rizhu, who always looked rude and straightforward, let out a long sigh, revealing an expression of deep sadness that did not suit him. When he opened his mouth again, he regained his true colors. “That son of mine is a complete bastard. When he was just seven or eight years old he was already a blackout drunk, and by the time he was a teenager, he had learned to sleep with women. He slept with everybody he was interested in, even with my concubines and female slaves.”
King Rizhu spat on the ground and looked still furious after so many years. “He’s my son from the first princess consort, the Khan’s younger sister. I have endured and indulged him for the sake of his mother’s face. But no matter how perverse his actions were, I only whipped him at worst. But this kid was soft in the mouth and hard in the crotch. He begged for mercy when I beat him but raped my favorite female slave before he had even recovered.”
These words were not worth mentioning in front of outsiders, but they had been simmering in King Rizhu’s mind for many years, and once a crack appeared, they immediately spilled out.
“I have always been wondering if this is a punishment of Heaven. I have killed countless people when I was young, so Heaven sent an unworthy son to torture me. Fuck it, you can send him to me, so why can’t I send him back? Yes, I killed my own son. Dragon King, you don’t need to listen to the rumors. Your father did cut him, but there was no poison on the saber. I put the poison on the brat’s wound myself.”
King Rizhu’s eyes widened with anger and showed no sign of remorse. He seemed to not have yet vented all of his hatred, so he continued. “The Dragon King must have heard many rumors that you didn’t say for my sake? Some people must have said that I killed my son and sent my daughter-in-law to please Khan. Yes, I did, but look at what my son did to the Second Consort’s family. He regarded one of the most important tribes of the Naihangs as a brothel and slept with women almost every day like a stallion in heat, tossing his thing all over the prairie.”
“The Second Consort’s father knelt down and begged me, hoping to relocate to a remote place and saying the women in his tribe were left to my son to choose and he could keep as many as he wanted. But could I agree with him? If I allow the Second Consort’s tribe to leave, the whole Naihang Tribe would fall apart. All the branch tribes relied on my protection, yet only to be trampled upon by my son.”
“And the Second Consort used to be my daughter-in-law, so who else could she marry? The Khan was her best destiny, and also my compensation to her whole family.”
This wasn’t the thing that concerned Gu Shenwei most, but King Rizhu talked on and on and didn’t calm down after another round of confessions. “I can’t help it. Dragon King, please understand an old man’s nagging. Anyway, the truth is, your father and I never really hated each other. I pretended to be angry but I never tried to ‘avenge’ myself.”
“The poison was supplied by Golden Roc Castle?”
“Mmm. By Shangguan Jianyi, an ambitious kid, a typical scion of the Shangguan family. He sniffed around like a hound in the Royal Court. Nobody knows how he found out my secrets and offered to help, thinking that he had obtained some ‘evidence’ in his hands from then on. Hey, he didn’t expect that I’d betroth my daughter-in-law to the Khan and the ‘evidence’ immediately became much bigger than the whole Golden Roc Castle. He was clever and never mentioned it to me again.”
“I still support Golden Roc Castle greatly, but we were not allies, ever. The reason is very simple. I have witnessed the effect of Golden Roc Castle’s poison and will never let people who have this kind of thing come near me. In fact, it is due to my efforts that the Norland forbids Golden Roc killer from moving freely in the Royal Court. The Dragon King has actually helped me greatly by eliminating a hidden danger through killing Shangguan Jianyi.”
Gu Shenwei mostly believed King Rizhu’s story, which unraveled the knot in his mind that his father Gu Lun had been a despicable and vicious poison user, and maintained the impression he had formed about his father as a child, which was righteous, serious, dignified, and especially aboveboard and never injuring people by underhand means.
As a killer, Gu Shenwei regarded underhand means as a matter of course, but deep down, he still had a bottom line. This line separated the normal people from the killer, the majority from the minority, the good from the bad, and the righteous from the evil. He accepted his depravity and was proud of it, but he would never take the killer’s point of view of despising all sentient beings, and had to change his good impression of his father because of this.
When it came to controlling emotions, the young killer was much more skilled than the old king. Gu Shenwei continued talking, with the topic being about Golden Roc Castle. “Shangguan Yun has brought many killers with him this time. Does the Khan not worry about this at all?”
“The Khan has too many things on his mind to worry about and it won’t be the Golden Roc Castle’s turn for awhile.”
All of a sudden the atmosphere of frankness vanished. King Rizhu avoided the question and immediately put forth his demands. “It’s urgent, since King Kuari will make a move at any time. If he doesn’t die, we will have to go to war and the Norland will be thrown into chaos by that time. The Central Plains will be the only superpower, and the whole Western Regions will be annexed into the Emperor’s territory. Has the Dragon King thought it through?”
Gu Shenwei nodded. “Within three days.”
“All of Norland will be grateful to the Dragon King,” said King Rizhu, with a satisfied smile.
“I hope King Rizhu won’t regard my sword as Shangguan Jianyi’s poison after the event.”
King Rizhu laughed merrily. He seemed to appreciate the Dragon King’s remark so much that the ceasing of his laughter appeared quite abruptly. “To tell you the truth, the Dragon King must leave the Norland immediately after it’s done. The Western Regions will be yours but you and your men must never set foot on the prairie again. Am I clear on this?”
Gu Shenwei nodded again.
The outwardly boorish King Rizhu was actually a master of negotiation. He had made a promise that sounded like a threat to show that he would never betray the Dragon King halfway.
Although the doubt of whether the Khan was dead or alive remained unsolved, at the end of the talk, both sides had taken a big step forward on the bridge of cooperation, and not a single mention was made of the Flame Foal of which King Rizhu was deeply concerned about at heart.
“Isn’t the Dragon King going to watch today’s warrior contest?” King Rizhu climbed on his horse and began to speak to the Dragon King in a friendly tone.
“Since the bet has been canceled, there’s nothing to expect regarding the competition.”
After King Rizhu and his entourage left, Gu Shenwei returned to camp and became lost in his thought. He was planning a complete assassination plan when the Second Consort came in.
“Thank you for letting me know the truth.”
“I can’t guarantee everything King Rizhu said was true.”
“A few lies won’t affect the truth.”
The Second Consort had stayed in the camp of the Land of Fragrance last night to hear King Rizhu admit to killing his own son. Now her wish had come true but she didn’t know what to do with it. “It has been twenty-three years now, longer than my age back then and the same age as Kunya when he died.”
This was the first time Gu Shenwei had heard the name of King Rizhu’s son, a detail that no one seemed to care about before.
“Hmm.”
Gu Shenwei had listened to an old man’s long story and didn’t want to listen to a woman’s reminiscences. But the Second Consort, like King Rizhu, was full of the desire to tell her story.
“Kunya wasn’t as bad as his father said. He was always polite to me and never did anything outrageous to me.” The Second Consort was silent for a moment as she recalled the various behaviors of Kunya’s parents and the servants and sighing before continuing. “Maybe I was deceived.”
The sad Second Consort made Gu Shenwei feel a bit embarrassed. Fortunately, she quickly wiped the shadows of the past way from her heart and became outspoken again. “Huh, it’s just so-so. Everyone believes that the things they can’t obtain are the best, when actually the things they grip in their own hands are the most valuable. He couldn’t gain support from his father and would be a useless man even if he were still alive, so it’s better for him to die young. The Khan is at least a real man, with power in his hand and a ‘spear’ in his crotch.”
Gu Shenwei found himself even more embarrassed. He had never seen such a vulgar prestigious lady in either the Central Plains or the Western Regions.
The Second Consort didn’t care at all. Without even noticing the Dragon King’s silence, she continued, “My only regret is that Khan’s ‘seed’ became moldy and didn’t make me pregnant. King Rizhu is really unlucky. Although both the big and second consorts are from the Naihang Tribe, neither of us has given birth to a son or daughter. The Big Consort shouldn’t be blamed for this because the Khan has refused to see her. I was greatly favored by the Khan. We tossed and turned all day and night in bed for the first few years after we got married. Alas, it was all fruitless. You know, The Khan has more than fifty sons, but it was from me onwards that he never got another woman pregnant again.”
“It’s really regrettable,” replied Gu Shenwei perfunctorily.
“Hehe, you’re not interested in these things. Well, I’ll keep my promise. You let me know the truth, and I’ll also tell you the truth. Who do you want to hear first, the Khan, King Rizhu, King Kuari? Or the little girl of the Land of Fragrance?”
A gleam of cunning flashed in the Second Consort’s eyes as if she was expecting the Dragon King to ask about Shangguan Ru first.
“The Khan.” Gu Shenwei neither let her nor himself get what they wanted.
“The Khan is in closed-door cultivation.”
Gu Shenwei was stunned. He knew that the Khan had invited many ‘masters’, but still couldn’t imagine that the so-called ‘closed-door cultivation’ would be associated with the Lord of the Prairie.
The Second Consort smiled dismissively before saying, “The Khan wants to live forever. He’s so afraid of death it’s as if a virgin girl heard that she’s going to be raped by the ugliest beast in the world. He has invited many people like Monks, Taoists, and charlatans. Do you know why he agreed to invite you here?”
“To settle the disputes in the Western Regions and to prepare for a decisive battle with the Central Plains.”
“Huh, the Khan has left all the great things in the world behind. Actually, he was not inviting you, but the female guard around you. Because he heard that Waning Moon Hall can revive the dead and rejuvenate the old.”
Gu Shenwei was really astonished, then he realized that he had made a big mistake at actually letting Lotus out of his sights.
