Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Recalling the experience of the previous day, Fang Wenshi broke out in a cold sweat. “I think that the Dragon King needs an extra counselor.”
“Why? You alone will suffice,” Gu Shenwei replied as he was sitting in a chair. The extreme sobriety and numbness resulting from overwork had been affecting him in turn and he hadn’t had a good rest for days.
Fang Wenshi hated to admit it, but he had to tell the Dragon King the truth. “I’m not belittling myself, but I can’t adapt myself to too many new variables. I’d rather work on a one-year or three-year or even ten-year plan for Dragon King – that is, after all, my specialty.”
“Then tell me about it.” Gu Shenwei was actually very interested in this topic, and even his mind perked up at the thought.
Fang Wenshi had just plucked that out of thin air, and he hadn’t expected the Dragon King to be so enthusiastic as to want to hear the details right now, so he coughed in embarrassment. But it was not difficult for him – he had already given some in-depth thought to it before, and all he needed was just some extra time to organize his words.
“No matter what the situation in Norland becomes in the future, it’s time the Dragon King considers the reaction of the Central Plains.”
“Hmm, I heard that Wei Song’s eager to set another a milestone by taking over the Western Regions.”
“Wei Song won’t stand aside, but what his actions won’t matter. However great his ambition is, it’s impossible for them to surpass the grand strategies of the Central Plains. Since as early as the ancient times, the Central Plains has always been trying to keep the Western Regions under control, and the core of this strategy revolves around making sure that the Western Region stands by the side of the Central Plains for the lowest cost, or at least stays neutral. The main force of the Central Plains has always been deployed to stand guard against the Norland.”
“I’m afraid that the Norland is destined to split in two, and that the Central Plains will soon be able to spare some time to deal with the Western Regions.”
Fang Wenshi shook his head with a grave look on his face as he asked, “Do you still remember what King Kuari said?”
“The relative strength of the Central Plains, Norland, and Western Regions will not stay the same.”
“Exactly. During these days in the Royal Court, I’ve been thinking those words over and I think that he was right. Both Norland and the Central Plains has been through catastrophic natural disasters as well as man-made misfortunes. A few decades ago, the Central Plains suffered a civil strife and was barely able to rebuild itself, and yet the Norland still couldn’t conquer the Central Plains. Now that the Norland has split, I’m afraid that the Central Plains won’t be able to take the grassland either. When one side goes downhill, the other side always benefits, but it takes too heavy a cost to fully dominate the other side. There isn’t enough hay for the horses of Norland’s cavalrymen, and on the grassland, there isn’t enough food to supply the army of the Central Plains.”
“How will this affect the Western Regions?”
Fang Wenshi shook the forefinger of his right hand as he replied, “Unless someone provokes them too aggressively, the Central Plains will never send massive forces to the Western Regions.”
“But they won’t give up the Western Regions either.”
“Of course not. So I hope that the Dragon King is prepared in advance, as sooner or later, the Central Plains will get in touch with you and you’ll have to accept and pledge a nominal allegiance to the emperor, but only in name – the emperor’s so far away, and the Western Regions are even further, so the Dragon King will still have full control.”
“Ha, I have come to Norland myself to ask for help. Why would I feel humiliated being under the rule of the Central Plains?”
“You won’t for now, but maybe in the future you will.”
Gu Shenwei was a little surprised. “What makes you say that?”
“I have a premonition,” Fang Wenshi said as he finally expounded on his speculations. “Large numbers of kung fu practitioners from the Central Plains will probably congregate in the Western Regions – maybe plenty of them already have.”
Gu Shenwei raised his head slightly, and the last bit of numbness in his mind was eliminated – this was exactly why he needed Fang Wenshi. “The Kongtong Sect and Qingcheng Sect came to Norland and fought for the head, and yet it was just for show.”
“And it’s too coincidental – The Kongtong Sect works for Wei Song, and the Qingcheng Sect is at the Luo Family’s command. Both of them have some kind of connection to the imperial court of the Central Plains. So I think that this might actually be a part of a strategy of the Central Plains’s imperial court.”
“To get the highest reward for the lowest cost.”
Fang Wenshi nodded. “With the army of the Central Plains behind them, what the sabermen can do will be magnified to hundreds of thousands of times its original amount.”
“The Kongdong Sect and Qingcheng Sect left with nothing. Is that going to affect the decision-making of the imperial court of the Central Plains?”
“I’m not sure. In the decision-making process, there are advocates and there are also objectors. I can’t judge without information regarding both sides’ true strength as well as their true intentions.”
“Do you have to go to the Central Plains yourself?”
“No. Once the roads are clear, I’ll send someone else to the Central Plains to collect intelligence. Although I’m not a qualified wartime military counselor, I can still be of some help, so I’ll have to ask the Dragon King to make do with me before finding someone that’s more suitable for this position.”
As much as Gu Shenwei wanted to continue talking about this issue with his military counselor, at this moment, Long Fanyun entered the tent and reported, “We’ve got him.”
On the way to the main tent, Fang Wenshi asked, “Did the Dragon King actually know in advance that the kung fu competition suggested by King Shengri was just a delaying tactic?”
“I was just suspicious. King Shengri has never been a warrior and he’s never acted this considerate of his soldiers either, so why would he make such a decision? I mean, clearly there’s no one in his army who stands a chance against Azheba. But that was just my speculation, so I didn’t mention it to you in advance.”
Fang Wenshi smiled and shook his head. He had already gotten used to the Dragon King’s style.
“Shulitu’s good,” Fang Wenshi suddenly said when they drew close to the tent. “Even I didn’t find any flaws. I hope that he doesn’t break his alliance with Dragon King too soon.”
The main tent was full of people, and they all moved aside to make a path for the Dragon King and the counselor, so the two quickly reached Shulitu.
Shulitu had had an exciting and unforgettable day. Though he hadn’t slept in days, he was not sleepy at all, and he was actually more sober and awake than the Dragon King.
The Court Attendants Army was greatly shocked by the mausoleum, and if it weren’t for Shulitu’s rejection, they would’ve made him the new king already. The young king now wielded supreme power in the Court Attendants Army, and he had issued a command to reabsorb the military officers and reorganize all the contingents into an integrated army – there would be no such names as the ‘Court Attendants Army’ and the ‘Common Army’ any longer.
Shulitu knew exactly how he had gotten this power, so he let the Dragon King, “the King’s Master,” stand by his side with no official position disparity between them. On the left and right sides of the tent stood a few lords and generals who had surrendered themselves earlier during daytime today. In the middle of the tent stood King Shengri who looked totally messed-up.
King Shengri had suffered a crushing defeat. He had initially planned to use the army of the lords to buy himself some time to escape, and yet the lords had surrendered to Shulitu as soon as they could and thus no battle was waged.
“Second grandpa was always in such a hurry. All these precious birds and wines you spent so many years collecting, you just gave up on them?” Shulitu’s voice was not loud, but the tent was so quiet that everyone heard him clearly.
King Shengri was surprised, feeling unfamiliar at being addressed as “second grandpa.” He stared at Shulitu and soon he turned to look at the Dragon King, saying, “Horsewhip Luoluo has pacified the frontier, and his 500,000 troops will soon storm the whole grassland.” Then he smiled and said, “hold him back while you still can.”
“500,000?” Shulitu spoke again. “Second grandpa must have miscounted the horses, right?”
Laughter broke forth in response to this joke, and King Shengri blushed red.
Gu Shenwei nodded at Shulitu and signaled for the counselor to stay. Then he left the tent – clearly, there was no need for him to stay.
He had hardly taken a few steps when he heard King Shengri start yelling the word “Khan” hysterically.
He didn’t want to sleep right now, so he decided to resolve the issues which were still up in the air.
The Qingcheng Sect had left the Royal Court that very night, but they handed over the hostage, the slave girl Khan once mentioned. Old Man Mu and Dog Butcher had handed over Liu Fangsheng to Qingcheng Sect and neither of them were satisfied with the peaceful settlement of this issue.
The slave girl was just a few years older than the Second Consort, and yet her looks were was much older. She couldn’t understand why people were treating her as someone who “mattered”. But she had formed a impression of the Lord Gu of the Central Plains.
“Lord Gu is a very good man… a very good man,” the slave girl was still panicking, and she hadn’t spoken Central Plainss Chinese in years so it sounded very rusty.
“You’ve borne him children?” Gu Shenwei asked directly. They were the only two people in the tent. Watching this old woman, he didn’t feel any emotional fluctuation.
“I have…”
“How many? Their gender?”
“T.. two, a son and a daughter.”
Gu Shenwei remained silent for a while, “Both Lord Gu and the Khan are dead. You don’t have any reason to lie anymore.” He tried to make his voice feel as gentle as possible.
The slave girl started crying, and after quite a while, she said, “Lord Gu is a good man, but we never slept together. The two kids are not mine, and they are not Lord Gu’s either.”
“Then whose are they?”
“I don’t know. Lord Gu asked me to do him a favor and pretend to be pregnant and bear the two children. That’s all I know.”
“Then how do you know that they’re not Lord Gu’s children?”
“That’s my guess. Lord Gu was never intimate with any woman here. He was a very severe man, and… and the look he gave the babies was not the kind of look a father would look at his children with. I have children of my own, and I know what a father is like.”
The Khan, Lotus, the Qingcheng Sect – the slave girl had been subjected to the influence of too many people, which left lend her words any reliability. Gu Shenwei knew what he would have to do to force her into telling the truth, but he didn’t do it.
She was not his own mother, so he trusted his instincts more than her words.
“Give her some livestock and money. Then let her leave,” Gu Shenwei said to Long Fanyun outside the tent, before leaving to meet Han Wuxian.
There was some kind of peculiar odor in Han Wuxian’s tent and it smelt very familiar to Gu Shenwei – blood. “Finally, you killed Han Qin.”
“This is not the Waning Moon Hall. There’s not enough tools and medicinal materials here for me to really be creative, so I had to simply kill her,” Han Wuxian sounded a little regretful.
“Is Han Xuan really your daughter?”
Han Wuxian giggled and replied, “Does that have anything to do with you? Killing Lotus is our only common goal. And with regards to any other issue, we should stay out of each other’s way.”
“Han Xuan is also a Female Gu 1 , but she serves a different purpose. Not killing people, but rather, being killed.”
Han Wuxian broke the hairs in her hand. She blew the broken hairs strands away and said pensively, “It seems like Little Han Fen knows a lot.”
“It has nothing to do with her. Lotus wouldn’t have told her about such an important issue. Doctor Sun said that Lotus wanted to uncover the production method of the Female Gu, so I figured that this might be the case.”
Han Wuxian smiled. She leaned back on the bed, looked at the Dragon King with an extremely charming look, then asked, “Do you know why the disciples of Waning Moon Hall betrayed me? Lotus promised them that she would detoxify the poison in everyone’s body, but the most important guiding drug is my flesh. Me and Lotus; only one of us will survive in the end. Han Xuan is my only hope and I spent many years nurturing her. She can provide enormous internal power beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and make me… and the Dragon King invincible. I’d like to share it with you. Lotus guessed the generalities about this plan, but she doesn’t know the specifics.”
Gu Shenwei didn’t respond to this suggestion. “Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong are mine. Stay away from them.”
“As you wish.” Han Wuxian blushed like a little girl as she coquettishly commented, “the Dragon King dominates… everything.”
Gu Shenwei walked out of the tent, and Han Wuxian started humming a bizarre tune softly.
The last person Gu Shenwei visited this night was Liman, who had been investigating the reason behind King Rizhu’s army reappearing in the Royal Court and coming after the Dragon King, who had just returned.
“There’s been some changes in the… the Western Regions,” Liman reported as sweat flowed from his face down into the mud of several shallow ditches. Yet, he didn’t wipe them away. “Prince Duodun has allied himself with Golden Roc Castle and the surviving troops of King Rizhu. They claimed that it was the Dragon King who killed the Khan… There must have been some misunderstanding, and I think that we can explain it to Prince Duodun and reconcile.”
Gu Shenwei believed that it was time to return to the Western Regions.
