Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The anger of the silver-armored army had been ignited by the death of their lord, but what they ran into was essentially a vast swathe of coal fields smouldering in the dark — the soldiers of the Court Attendants Army resisted back in an even more violent manner.
Looking at the soldiers who acted without orders, the new commandant, Tuershan, together with the crowd of kings and officers in the doorway, was speechless with consternation.
Gu Shenwei was the first of that group to react. He rushed into the crowd, dragged someone out, and ran towards his tent.
“Spread the order that everyone must stay where they are!” Tuershan wanted to figure out what was going on first.
“King Riyao’s soldiers are killing people everywhere. We should stop them,” Azheba reminded the Commandant.
“The tenth corps will mount their horses and fight, but the others will remain as is.” Tuershan immediately adjusted his order. The tenth corps used to be under his command and therefore should be the most obedient and loyal.
Shangguan Ru and several others were still standing guard at the door of the tent and knew nothing about what was going on outside, but all of them had drawn their sabers and swords, staying attentive.
Gu Shenwei pushed the person he had dragged out to Fang Wenshi before rushing straight to Shangguan Ru. “Get on the Flame Foal and return to camp now.”
“What about you guys…?”
“Do not argue with me. The soldiers of the Land of Fragrance must be kept safe.”
Shangguan Ru nodded and walked towards the Flame Foal outside the tent.
“Old Man Mu, go with her.” Gu Shenwei appointed her a bodyguard.
“Ah?” Old Man Mu was a bit reluctant to do so. Between having an opportunity to kill someone and a chance to save someone, he still preferred the former.
“Let me protect my sister,” volunteered Shangguan Fei. He made the choice opposite of Old Man Mu’s.
“No. Old Man Mu is light and won’t affect the speed of the Flame Foal.”
Never had he expected that he would be refused at such a critical moment because of his body weight. Shangguan Fei was even wishing that he was the one who had practiced the so-called Seven Rotation Skills.
Shangguan Ru mounted the horse as Old Man Mu stood behind her; one was reluctant to part with her acquaintances while the other was unwilling to leave the emerging scuffle behind.
All of them, including Red Bat who had no internal energy, Lianqing who wanted to keep to his precept of no-killing, the five faithful guards, and the feeble military counselor, had reasons to want to flee this place. When she looked at them, Shangguan Ru felt that she was acting in bad faith.
“You are the instructor of the Land of Fragrance,” Gu Shenwei said as he patted the horse’s hind. The Flame Foal, long impatient, leaped out and darted past several quickly-moving soldiers in the blink of an eye.
Only Shangguan Ru could quickly gather all of the female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance together to break out of the siege before the news of the murder of King Riyao became widespread.
“The gate seems to be closing,” said Shangguan Fei bitterly, who wished that he was the one sitting on the Flame Foal.
Gu Shenwei leaped to the top of the tent and gazed out towards the gate. Sure enough, a group of soldiers was pushing two huge wooden doors to close the camp.
Someone shot out a hidden arrow, but Gu Shenwei easily caught it and threw it on the ground, his eyes still fixed on the matchless red horse.
It was only a dozen paces away from the gate now. Old Man Mu acted when the gate was about to close. Like a stone fired from a slingshot, Old Man Mu flew over Shangguan Ru’s head and landed in front of the gate before the Flame Foal had reached it.
Gu Shenwei could no longer see the situation clearly. From where he stood, it looked like the gate had completely closed but the red horse had also disappeared.
He didn’t jump down right away and instead continued looking around. Not far from the gate, a thousand fear-driven silver-armored soldiers were fighting a bloody battle. Their advantage was that their bows were prepared and there was no need to string them. But their weakness was that there were too few of them and they had no commander. They had separated into into groups of dozens of people, each trying to fight their own way out in different directions like fishes that had jumped ashore and were flopping around, waiting to be slaughtered.
Thirty percent of the Court Attendants Army was stationed outside and the rest had remained in the camp. It was these seventy-thousand people who had been observing a silent vigil for the former commandant. Most of them didn’t attend the siege of the Dragon King but they had also refused to set up the flag after the new commandant was elected. Now, however, they all acted.
Like the Silver-armored Army, the Court Attendants Army was also leaderless. But everyone seemed to know what they needed to do. Encircling the Silver-armored Army, closing the gates of the camp, and barricading the main passages of the camp. They acted as meticulous and organized as if they were carrying out a carefully planned drill.
The generals and officers had been busy electing the new commandant all night. Who had instigated the soldiers to do what they were doing? Gu Shenwei felt a bit uneasy and was very glad that he had made a prompt decision to have Shangguan Ru escape from the camp. Those one thousand female archers were the only trusted army he trusted on the prairie. Without them, he would have nothing left.
Gu Shenwei jumped back onto the ground.
“How is it?” Shangguan Fei asked nervously.
“The whole camp is mutinying. King Riyao’s guards were just more unlucky than us.” Gu Shenwei walked to the counselor.
King Riying looked a bit bewildered and felt that the Dragon King was making a fuss by dragging him all the way here. He turned to look at the soldiers and officers hurrying by and said, “It doesn’t seem that serious.”
King Riying had shown his clever side before but he had also inherited the prevalent weakness of the royal family of the Norland: taking their status as royalty for granted and sometimes neglecting the signs of treachery even when it was right under their nose.
Gu Shenwei had observed the soldiers all night and was perhaps the only person in the camp who was interested in the silence of the soldiers. From the silence he felt a suppressed anger and resentment that seethed beneath the surface like a volcano right before it erupted.
When the thousands of soldiers surrounded him, he thought that he had been mistaken because soldiers who were easily instigated couldn’t amass much power. What happened later showed that most of the soldiers were still languishing in anger.
The arrow shot at King Riyao Tuosai had simply released everything.
Looking at King Riying, Gu Shenwei didn’t know how to explain his feelings. “The soldiers are blockading the camp. I’m afraid that their targets are not just King Riyao’ guards.”
“Who else do they want to kill? The annoying officers?”
Over a dozen soldiers walked past them a few steps away with sabers in their hands instead of bows and arrows. They looked forward steadily as if there were a fire ahead waiting for them to put it out.
“I don’t know. Maybe even they themselves don’t know. But the camp is already very dangerous, so you should run away with us.”
King Riying did not answer at once but rather turned to look in the direction of the main tent which was the heart of order. Groups of officers were giving orders in all directions. It seemed that the situation was still reparable. But he also noticed that not far away, a centurion was shouting with all his might but receiving no response. The soldiers simply ignored his shouts and walked around him, continuing on their way to an unknown destination.
“Crazy,” King Riying muttered, and then his eyes lit up. “This is a risky situation but also a chance. Dragon King, do you see it? Although Tuershan and King Shengri have taken the title of Commandant, they can’t control this army. The Court Attendants Army still has no leader, and this is our last chance.”
Through the counselor Fang Wenshi, they had barely agreed to an alliance. Gu Shenwei hadn’t even had a deep conversation with this king yet, but King Riying was already taking him as one of his own and had said ‘our chance.’
What King Riying said made sense. Gu Shenwei turned to Fang Wenshi, hoping to get some advice from him as well.
The soldiers in the camp actually refused to obey orders. Fang Wenshi had never come across this kind of thing and even the books lacked any kind of precedence for this kind of scene. “There’s something fishy going on. There must be someone behind the scene.”
“It can’t be Tuershan and King Shengri.” The more King Riying observed the situation, the more he became sure of himself. “They are panicking now. Whoever can clean up the mess will become the future leader of the Court Attendants Army. Dragon King, I need your help.”
Gu Shenwei agreed with King Riying’s judgment which meant that the instigator was also probably not the Waning Moon Hall.
Fang Wenshi knew that he had to give clear advice, so he thought for a while before saying, “It’s an opportunity for sure. Very risky, but it may yield twice the result with half the effort. Perhaps we can also take this chance to get rid of King Shengri…”
Gu Shenwei knew what the counselor meant. He had cautiously stayed in the camp for one night and should not squander the chance in front of his face.
Gambling was the weak’s only powerful weapon. Only by relying on it could there be examples of the weak overcoming the strong. Gu Shenwei knew this very clearly but his years of habit told him that one could not place all one’s hopes on a gamble.
“I’ll stay; the others should hide and leave the camp at their first opportunity.”
“I’ll also stay to run errands for the Dragon King,” said Red Bat at once.
The five guards almost forgot they were soldiers of the Second Consort as they said in unison, “We are not deserters.”
Fang Wenshi wasn’t very enthusiastic but he had a good reason to stay too. “The situation in the camp is constantly changing. As a counselor, I can’t leave.”
Having no alternative, Shangguan Fei felt that he had to say something, “Then I won’t go either. The Dragon King always needs a guard…”
“All right. Shangguan Fei will stay, and the rest of you will wait your turn to leave here. Do not go to the front gate.”
“Go to the North Gate instead.” King Riying was more familiar with the camp so he made a suggestion, “It was the exclusive passageway of the old Khan. Though it’s not open at ordinary times, there’s a small door on the right side of the gate which is not well watched.”
Gu Shenwei’s eyes became stern, indicating that no further objection was allowed. Then he walked to Lianqing. The monk did not intend to stay. He had finally given up his hatred towards the Dragon King but neither would he pledge allegiance to him.
“Can you protect them?”
“Yes.”
The two looked at each other for a while. Lianqing suddenly said, “I have a question for you.”
“Go ahead.”
“You are very smart, but the palm technique you performed didn’t seem like the original Formless Prajna Palm. But why it was more powerful?”
“Since it’s called the Formless Prajna Palm, then who cares about what form it looks like? Sever your obsession. Just as the Dharma is not fixed, the palm technique is formless.” Gu Shenwei had almost forgotten the Essay of Severing Obsession but still could blurt out a phrase or two.
For Gu Shenwei, these words were more like a perfunctory saying, but Lianqing was enlightened. He stood there for a moment and then bowed deeply to the Dragon King before he said to Red Bat and others, “Follow me.”
King Riying watched the monk and others leave curiously and said, “The Dragon King has a group of loyal subordinates.”
Gu Shenwei’s concept of ‘loyalty’ was seldom similar to that of the royal family of the Norland, but he only nodded slightly and didn’t bother to explain.
King Riying then turned to Shangguan Fei, whose face was cloudy and uncertain. “Even this one is very loyal.”
Shangguan Fei managed to squeeze out a smile, knowing very well why he had been left behind. “Only by staying the Dragon King’s side can I exert all my strength; the Dragon King is giving me a chance to prove myself.”
The officers who had left to deliver orders returned to the main tent like a falling tide. Judging from the panic written on their faces, their task had obviously failed. The soldiers refused to carry out the order to stay where they were.
“Where are we going?” King Riying asked. He wasn’t familiar with the Dragon King but the few simple things he had experienced had convinced him to trust this young man whose face was always pale.
