Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Gu Shenwei didn’t expect this matter would be brought up again.
The Khan had once claimed with great certainty that his father Gu Lun and a maid who served him in the Norland had borne a son and a daughter, and that the maid was still alive.
Gu Shenwei had never taken it seriously and looked for her. In his mind, his father was old-fashioned and conservative, the exact opposite of a lecherous man. And his mother treated all her four children equally. He even felt that her mother had cared him, her youngest son, more, and it wasn’t at all like she was raising another woman’s offspring.
Gu Shenwei had to explain to the counselor why he might accept the challenge. “Things have changed. He stabbed over seventy soldiers and has made quite a stir in the army. I can’t turn a blind eye to it and idly sit and watch him colluding with the Waning Moon Hall.”
The Khan wasn’t the kind of person to spread meaningless gossip. The only ones who could find this maid seriously were the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall.
Fang Wenshi understood the reasons, but he still kept shaking his head. “Dragon King, please think about this twice. You are now the commander-in-chief and the Grand Mentor of the Norland, so it wouldn’t be wise to accept a challenge from people of the martial arts world. A victory would bring no honor, but a loss will be disgraceful beyond belief. Is the Qingcheng Sect Leader really that formidable that the Dragon King has to deal with it himself?”
Bodyguards usually remained silent, but Tie Linglong was an exception. “Let me compete with the Qingcheng Sect Leader on behalf of the Dragon King. It won’t be a big deal to write characters on his forehead.”
Now that someone had opened her mouth, Nie Zeng also said, “I heard that this Qingcheng Sect Leader isn’t Liu Qingpu.”
Fang Wenshi looked at the two teenagers in surprise. “Mind your own business, you two… Wait, what did you say? The Qingcheng Sect Leader isn’t Liu Qingpu? Are there two sect leaders?”
“Shangguan Yun said that he knows the Qingcheng Sect Leader and that his kung fu wasn’t as good as this one who could write characters on people’s forehead with a sword.”
“How could Shangguan Yun know about it?”
“He knows.” Gu Shenwei found that he had ignored an important source of information. “He traveled to the Central Plains when he was younger and also invited some helpers of the Qingcheng Sect, so he should be very familiar with them.”
“It’s really a mess. ‘Qingcheng Sect Leader,’ with no surname mentioned. Just the title. What kind of tricks are they playing at?” Fang Wenshi shook his head exasperatedly.
The Qingcheng Sect’s tricks revealed themselves first thing in the morning.
Fan Yongda of the Kongtong Sect returned to the camp with his body full of bloody wounds. Doctor Sun did what he could do to save him. After two hours, he was finally able to speak and he immediately requested to see the Dragon King.
“The Qingcheng Sect had a fight.” Fan Yongda had been cut at least nine times, which wasn’t fatal, but had caused him to bleed profusely and look very weak.
Dog Butcher, who was standing guard by his side, asked, “With whom?”
“With themselves.”
Dog Butcher opened his mouth wide in amazement and didn’t quite understand.
Unlike his Uncle Master who was in closed-door practice all year round, Fan Yongda wandered in Jianghu extensively and knew quite a lot about the Qingcheng Sect. He hadn’t revealed all the things he knew about the sect when the Dragon King had asked him; one of which was that the Qingcheng Sect Leader doted on his only son, Liu Fangsheng, very heavily.
As a senior brother, Deng Yuanlei should have protected Liu Fangsheng carefully but had escaped himself at a critical moment, which was an unforgivable felony. But he had still able to challenge the Dragon King on behalf of the Qingcheng Sect Leader. Deng Yuanlei thought that there must be a problem with it.
Fan Yongda still had a connection with most of the men from the Central Plains, so he soon found the camp where the Qingcheng Sect disciples had settled down. As a result, he happened to see two ‘Qingcheng Sect Leaders’ fighting for the position. They were quarrelling at first, but the quarrel soon turned into a fight. Both parties then invited helpers, and the fight quickly turned into a scuffle.
Fan Yongda was had been wounded in that scuffle.
“Two sect leaders? One of them must be Liu Qingpu? What about the other one?” asked Dog Butcher.
“The other one is surnamed Lü.”
“Lü? Could it be the former sect leader Lü Tong? He died long ago and I know that for certain.”
“Not the former sect leader. It may be his son or nephew who’s in his thirties and inherited his sword technique… It’s the best swordsmanship I’ve ever seen. He held the upper hand when I ran away.”
This Sect Leader Lü was the real challenger. Gu Shenwei suddenly began to understand something.
Dog Butcher sighed. “The Qingcheng Sect is one of the famous sects. It’s such a disgrace that they had to fight internally and openly in the Norland. Why can’t they just solve their problem back at the Qingcheng Mountain?”
“They all came for the Khan’s head.” Gu Shenwei then turned to Fan Yongda who was lying in bed. “The Kongtong Sect works for Wei Song, wbut ho’s the Qingcheng Sect’s backer?”
“It has been rumored that the Qingcheng Sect’s backer is the Luo village. The Luo family is well connected in the court. This is probably what Liu Qingpu values the most…”
All the martial arts practitioners in the world of the Central Plains knew the Luo family. Gu Shenwei had heard many rumors about them ever since he was little and only knew that it was one of the nine major sects in the Central Plains. What differentiated it from other sects was that half of the family were kung fu practitioners who competed in Jianghu while the other half were all scholars and officials. The people of the Luo family had a good reputation in both the martial arts world and the court but they had never officially called themselves a ‘sect’.
Before Dog Butcher could figure out the complicated relationship between the two, Fan Yongda raised himself up on one elbow and continued, saying, “The Luo family wants the head of the Khan but they are too embarrassed to come, so they asked the Qingcheng Sect to do the work for them. Meanwhile, they chose Lü Mian as the new sect leader so that the Qingcheng Sect has a chance of competing against the Dragon Kind.”
“The Luo family is so bad,” Dog Butcher contemptuously said. “Dragon King, you can’t hand over the Khan’s head to the Qingcheng Sect.”
Not only was the Luo family bad, but they were also very clever. Gu Shenwei said a few more words to comfort Dog Butcher before returning to his own tent.
Azheba and Mo Lin were waiting for him there.
Tomorrow the Court Attendants Army would fight with the allied force of the kings again. Azheba had tried to change the soldiers’ faith, but all his attempts were for naught. So he thought of a bold plan. “Let the the court attendants lay the Khan’s body and head to rest themselves. Then they will know that the Khan is a human rather than a god…”
Mo Lin had already been convinced by him. “I can hand over the head. Separating the Khan’s body and head into two different pieces is my sin. Since the Dragon King is absolutely irreconcilable with the Waning Moon Hall, it’s useless for me to keep holding onto the head.”
“A large number of kung fu practitioners of the Central Plains have come to the Royal Court to snatch the head away,” Gu Shenwei reminded.
“Forget it. The Khan belongs to the prairie and I won’t let anyone take his head away.” This was Mo Lin’s bottom line. Although he wasn’t as pious as the soldiers of the Court Attendants Army, he was still very loyal.
“This may not be the idea but regardless, it has to wait until the battle’s over tomorrow.”
“But ..” Azheba was a bit anxious. The battle was just the Dragon King’s way of getting rid of the Court Attendants Army through another’s hand. A large number of soldiers would die tomorrow.
“Tomorrow will be an all-out fight,” said Gu Shenwei simply.
Azheba understood the Dragon King’s meaning. The thirty thousand horsemen along with the Court Attendants Army would join the battle together, which meant the plan of removing the Court Attendants Army had been temporarily postponed.
Azheba withdrew. He actually did not have the slightest confidence regarding the effectiveness of the plan to bury the Khan.
Mo Lin stayed. “I’ve heard a lot of rumors about the people of the Central Plains.”
“Hmm.”
“Rumors say that they will force the Dragon King to accept the kung fu competition and that the bet will be the Khan’s head.”
“Did you see the characters written on the soldiers’ heads?” Gu Shenwei didn’t reply to him directly.
“Yes, this Qingcheng Sect Leader is indeed a remarkable kung fu master.”
“Do you think that you can defeat him?”
Mo Lin fell silent for a moment before saying, “I’ve never known how good my sabersmanship truly is. All I know is that it will rise and fall in the face of different enemies.”
Mo Lin was a man of the Norland but like the Dragon King, he improved his kung fu by killing rather than by practicing hard.
For the rest of the day, Gu Shenwei and the counselor spent all their time preparing for the battle the next day. Fang Wenshi kept shaking his head. When no one else was around, he would whisper to the Dragon King, “You’ll be sorry for sure if you don’t act ruthlessly now. The Court Attendants Army is a stone that no one can swallow it. Dragon King, you have to make a prompt decision now.”
Gu Shenwei did not answer most of the time, and his occasional excuse was brief as well. “We’ll destroy King Shengri first.”
The messenger of King Shengri came in the late afternoon, and soon after his departure, the contents of the letter were already being circulated throughout the camp, which made Fang Wenshi very angry and even more convinced that it was all a plot of King Shengri’s.
King Shengri knew that the allied forces couldn’t win the battle tomorrow so he had made a proposal on behalf of the five kings, which was another competition.
“King Shengri was bought over by the Central Plains,” Fang Wenshi stated exasperatedly in response to the soldiers’ warm reception of King Shengri’s proposed competition. “He’s not going to fight in person for sure. He’ll send the kung fu experts of the Central Plains to challenge us again, shameful and vicious as usual. The Dragon King should expose the Central Plains people’s insidious plan of stealing the Khan’s head and let the soldiers know that whoever is using the kung fu of the Central Plains is definitely a traitor.”
“It’s said clearly in King Shengri’s letter that they want to compete in archery, not saber and spear techniques,” reminded Gu Shenwei.
“Aren’t the Central Plains people also good at archery?”
“They can’t be better than the Norland people in this aspect.”
Fang Wenshi was still not convinced. “Conspiracy, there must be a conspiracy, and it is related to the challenge of the Qingcheng Sect Leader. This can’t a coincidence that when you want to join a kung fu competition, he also wants to have a competition.”
Of course such things couldn’t be a coincidence. King Shengri and the Sect Leader Lü were connected by a line, which was the Waning Moon Hall. Gu Shenwei could vaguely saw the shadow of Lotus in all these moves. This was her game.
Instead of making a decision right away, Gu Shenwei requested the entire army to continue preparing for war, and he found himself some time to see Shulitu.
Shulitu was very surprised that the Dragon King would come to him for advice, but he did have some of his own ideas to offer. “King Shengri’s offer is very tempting. If we lose, then we’ll have to let go of the allied forces of the kings and let them return to their own tribes. If he loses, then their whole army will surrender and he’ll also renounce his title.”
Indeed, even Fang Wenshi was tempted. What he was worried about was that King Shengri might have already found a way to guarantee his win of the game.
Shulitu looked down a bit and then asked, “Is the Dragon King still worried about the Court Attendants Army?”
“They are growing bolder and bolder, and are almost demanding that I hand over the noble officers who fled before.”
“I’m more worried than the Dragon King. The Court Attendants Army’s worship and allegiance towards the Khan have gone astray. They will only grow prouder and more firmly believe in the power in their hands the more they are satisfied. In this case, it’s actually a good thing if the war can really be ended through a kung fu competition.”
“Were you familiar with the Khan?” asked Gu Shenwei, already making a decision in his mind.
“Not really. I only saw him once when I was very little and all of my other impressions about him are from rumors and I can’t really separate between the truth and exaggerations.”
“Mo Lin knew the Khan very well.”
“He’s the wing guard the Khan trusted the most. There’s probably no one else who knew the Khan better than he did in all of the Norland.”
“You should talk to Mo Lin more.”
Shulitu’s eyes widened slightly. He had roughly guessed the Dragon King’s intentions but couldn’t believe them. “I’m just a puppet.”
“There are many kinds of puppets, and I need a useful one.”
“You want me to replace the Khan?”
“The Khan has ascended to heaven; he must have left something in the mortal world, and I believe that you are the inheritor of his legacy. To put it simply, you are the Khan reborn.”
Shulitu was so surprised that he could not say a single word in response.
“I have decided to accept the competition.” Gu Shenwei announced his decision before he left.
