Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In an open space of the army camp, Tie Linglong was busy cultivating the Balanced Power and practicing the Gu family sabermanship. When she finished, she switched to the Jueyin Finger Techniques that Han Wuxian had taught her. She found that she preferred the latter more.
She was making very slow progress in her cultivation of the Balanced Power. The Dragon King had once reiterated that when she practiced this kung fu on her own, she had to focus on taking small baby-steps. And regarding the Gu family sabermanship, she had never understood itst esoteric parts. But the Jueyin Finger Technique was different. It seemed as if the Daoless Divine Power and the Jueyin Finger Techniques were made for each other. Every time she practiced these two kung fu together, she made considerable progress in both of them as if they were two small trees growing rapidly in front of her.
But Tie Linglong still practiced the former two kung fu techniques with a happy mindset, because the Dragon King had imparted them to her. Thus, they were different from any other kung fu technique as she was the only one who had learned them.
‘When I’m a few years older, the Dragon King will see me differently,’ she thought. Then the image of Chu Nanping inexplicably popped up in her mind. She put on a cold face and said to that illusion in a low voice, “I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of expression you will have on your face then.”
“Nice sabermanship,” someone complimented from the side.
Tie Linglong instantly whirled around, only to see Shangguan Ru and Red Bat watching her and clapping from about a dozen steps away. She unexpectedly hadn’t noticed them at all.
“What kind of sabermanship is that? It looks familiar,” Shangguan Ru asked.
Tie Linglong smiled and walked over. She liked Shangguan Ru and was not jealous of her at all. “Sister Ru must be kidding. The Dragon King taught me this sabermanship. He said that it was from the Gu family of the Central Plains. I’ve been practicing it for some time, but I don’t think that it’s very good.”
Shangguan Ru suddenly remembered why this sabermanship seemed familiar. Back then, she had been deeply impressed by Marshal Yang’s martial arts and she still recalled his moves vividly. Tie Linglong’s sabermanship was exactly the same as the old man’s.
“This is an advanced sabermanship, and if you keep practicing it, you’ll eventually uncover its secrets. I once saw a kung fu expert defeat several Golden Roc killers at once with this kung fu.”
“And then?” Tie Linglong’s eyes lit up.
“That’s it.”
Tie Linglong didn’t quite believe her as she said, “Then that kung fu expert was assassinated, wasn’t he? Alas, why is the Dragon King teaching me this kind of useless sabermanship?”
“Because all normal people hate killers, and even those who hire killers are guarded against them. And you’re an adorable little girl who even the Dragon King doesn’t have the heart to make into a killer.”
A smile as bright as the morning appeared on Tie Linglong’s face. “I’ll be seventeen next year, so I’m no longer a little girl.”
Red Bat gently slapped her forehead as she joked, “Ouch, I’ll be twenty-seven next year. Am I already an old woman?”
The three laughed.
“Where are you going, Sister Ru?”
“Someone asked me to drink with them. Um, do you want to join?”
“Me? The Dragon King doesn’t allow me to drink.”
Red Bat put her arms around Tie Linglong’s shoulders as she teased, “Did the Dragon King say that you had to be seventeen to be old enough to drink?”
Tie Linglong blushed slightly and said, “I’ll go. It’s just drinking. Sister Ru can do it, and so I can do it as well.”
“And this time we won’t just be drinking. We have a task as well,” Shangguan Ru whispered into Tie Linglong’s ear. “We’re going to collect intelligence for the Dragon King.”
“Then I’m definitely going.” Tie Linglong became even more excited upon hearing Shangguan Ru’s words. “What do I have to do?”
It was only after she had seen Tie Linglong that Shangguan Ru had come up with this idea. “I might need you to display your kung fu for me. Just show me your best moves.”
“But try not to kill anyone,” Red Bat added hurriedly. She was always uncertain about killers.
“The Dragon King doesn’t allow me to kill people either,” Tie Linglong said downheartedly. “This is an inviolable order.”
Second Consort had returned to normal by now. She had successfully maintained her face, subjected the leader of the Naihang Tribe, and forgiven Zhe Su and Duo Ercha afterwards during an appropriate occasion. However, she knew that she had also paid a heavy price for her actions.
“Who’s this little sister? Why haven’t I seen her before? Are all the women from the Land of Fragrance this beautiful? I’m starting to think that maybe I should go live there for a couple of years.” As soon as the Second Consort saw Tie Linglong, she had grabbed her hands and started looking her up and down.
Tie Linglong flushed even redder. Nobody on the Dragon King’s team or the Waning Moon Hall had ever praised her as beautiful. Even Chu Nanping had only occasionally said a few honeyed words to her; most of the time, he had been as silent as wood.
“I’m not from the Land of Fragrance. I’m the Dragon King’s bodyguard, Tie Linglong.”
The Second Consort seemed very surprised, and her eyes swept through Tie Linglong and Red Bat like a broom. “You two seem like biological sisters, but are actually not even village mates.”
In fact the two didn’t have much in common. But Tie Linglong had green eyes and Red Bat was born with barbaric looks, so they did seem similar from other people’s perspective.
The Second Consort turned around and faced Shangguan Ru. “The Dragon King’s been hiding such a little beauty around him. You’ll have to be careful.”
Shangguan Ru burst into laughter as she said, “I’m here to drink alcohol, not jealousy. Where’s the booze? I haven’t gotten drunk in quite a long time.”
The feast started right away. Second Consort summoned two middle-aged women to be their drinking companions. After the Khan’s death, they had nowhere to go, so the Second Consort had taken them in. Serving as drinking companions, livening things up, and flattering guests were their forte, so the atmosphere quickly grew uproarious.
Tie Linglong had thought that she would be just a foil during the feast, but unexpectedly, she had become the protagonist. The Second Consort seemed to be particularly interested in her and kept asking her all kinds of questions. She even borrowed her narrow saber to look at it and marveled at how skilled a woman could be at kung fu.
“Look at you. If it weren’t for the fact that you have a saber with you, who would know that you’ve learned kung fu? I’ve always thought that the body of a woman who practices kung fu is as strong as a man’s.” Second Consort was still amazed at Tie Linglong.
“Sister Ru also practices kung fu, and she’s way better than me.” After drinking a couple of cups of wine, Tie Linglong was feeling a little dizzy yet was in a thoroughly delighted mood. At this point, she had totally unwound.
Shangguan Ru shook her head repeatedly. “That’s not true. When people try to attack me, I can run really fast. But if I have to fight back…” She produced her wooden saber as she continued, “This guy’s not going to scare anybody.”
Second Consort had never seen Shangguan Ru’s kung fu before and had always assumed that Shangguan Ru’s kung fu was not as good as Red Bat’s. So, she instinctively believed Shangguan Ru’s words and sighed. “You have those female soldiers and the Dragon King, so you don’t have to fight. But me, my strength is not even enough to kill a chicken, and all of my soldiers are useless. A bunch of them were defeated by a single man, and I was nearly humiliated in public.”
Second Consort still remembered Duo Ercha’s might. Four guards had rushed at him together, but they were no match for him. If it weren’t for Duo Ercha’s foot slipping, they wouldn’t have ever overpowered him. When she recalled it, Second Consort still felt scared. If Duo Ercha had gone crazy, not only would her name have been disgraced, but her status and power also would have suffered.
“It’s not about the numbers. One or two excellent bodyguards are enough,” Shangguan Ru said in agreement with Second Consort.
“Tell me about it. The Khan only had seven wing guards, and Silver Condor was the only one that was always by his side. Speaking of this, I have to find a way to recruit some kung fu experts as bodyguards.”
“The Dragon King can help,” Red Bat interjected.
The Second Consort smiled but didn’t say anything. Realizing that it was time for her to make her presence known, Tie Linglong started bragging about her kung fu under the guise of the alcohol. “Amongst all of the Dragon King’s subordinates, I’m the one whose kung fu is the worst. But if I had to fight Duo Ercha, I could knock him down with one finger.”
Red Bat toasted her with another two female soldiers. Tie Linglong stood up and started performing her sabermanship. The killer’s sabermanship was too simple, so she instead performed the Gu family’s sabermanship. She deliberately wielded the saber at a much faster speed than usual to make the sabermanship seem more ferocious and aggressive, even though this went against the sabermanship’s core principles. Everyone around her cheered her on.
The Second Consort became more and more excited and she really called four bodyguards in to fight with Tie Linglong. At first, the bodyguards took turns fighting, and then even when they all joined hands, Tie Linglong was still able to easily defeat them. Additionally, her weapon was not her saber but rather her fingers.
Shangguan Ru was the only one who could tell that that finger technique was exactly what this little girl was most skilled at.
The bodyguards also knew that this was not an actual fight, so they admitted their defeat sincerely. One of them even ventured to say, “That Duo Ercha looked down on women. How I wish he had encountered you.”
Yet it seemed that the Second Consort’s interest in kung fu had disappeared, and for the rest of the feast, she just kept signaling the two female companions to persuade the others to continue drinking. She never mentioned kung fu or bodyguards again.
Eventually, Tie Linglong became well and truly drunk, falling into a daze on Red Bat’s legs, occasionally murmuring, “We can fight again if you want.”
“She’s never drunk so much before,” Red Bat said affectionately. “I’ll take her back.”
Red Bat propped Tie Linglong up before getting up herself. Second Consort ordered the two female officers to help. The other maidservants quickly tidied up the table, refilled the cups, and left the tent.
There were only two people left now. The Second Consort suddenly sighed wearily as she said, “I envy you so much.”
“Envy me?”
“When someone tries to humiliate you, a man will step forward for you. But I have to fight for myself even if that’s shameful. I’d give anything to trade places with you.”
Shangguan Ru felt a little proud but also a little bitter. “That man’s willing to step forward for me, but he’ll also never retreat for me. I’m the daughter of the Golden Roc Castle’s master, but he holds an irreconcilable hatred against Golden Roc Castle.”
The Second Consort had heard about some rumors, so she didn’t ask any more questions. As she stared blankly into the cups, she asked, “Will the Dragon King agree to give me a bodyguard? Someone like Tie Linglong?”
“He will. But it depends on what you’re willing to trade for her.”
Both of them had sobered up by now.
The Second Consort abruptly grabbed the hand of Shangguan Ru, who was on the opposite side of the table, and said, “I used to be very confident and thought that I could control any man no matter how high his status was. But now, I’m not so sure. I have to admit, power is more tempting than women. What should I do? Should I devote myself to helping him gather gt more power, or should I… watch him lose all his power and then come to me?”
“You’re the Second Consort; you’re qualified to choose between the two.”
Second Consort smiled. “And yet, you chose to devote yourself to the Dragon King. Did he send you here?”
Second Consort had held this feast, but she had known of Shangguan Ru’s intentions from the very beginning.
In a distant tent, Tie Linglong was knock-out drunk and lying in a bed, randomly uttering the names the Dragon King, Little Chu, Nie Zeng, Sister Ru, and Han Wuxian.
Red Bat sat beside her, feeling both entertained and surprised. Tie Linglong was still a little girl and the people around her could hear her clearly. But she herself had no idea who she really loved.
It was not until Tie Linglong started breathing steadily and stopped talking nonsense that Red Bat left. There was still another drunk female who needed her.
It was already dark outside.
Tie Linglong abruptly sat up. She had almost forgotten everything that had happened after she got drunk, but she did still remember that she had mumbled some of her secrets in her stupor. She was too embarrassed to directly ask Red Bat, so she stalked her back to the main tent, wondering what Red Bat would say to Shangguan Ru.
She gently pressed her ear against the tent and heard Shangguan Ru’s laugh. It seemed that Shangguan Ru was not yet drunk, so Tie Linglong couldn’t help but wonder whether the two were laughing at her. But Red Bat walked out soon, and she didn’t seem to have said anything bad about anyone.
Tie Linglong was a little relieved and started retreating slowly. To avoid a team of patrolling guards, she hid in the shadows for a while. At that moment, she accidentally saw someone enter Shangguan Ru’s tent.
Judging by their movements, that person was clearly a killer and also definitely not the Dragon King.
