Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
As the commander-in-chief, Prince Duodun was very busy, but he still readily agreed to receive Shangguan Ru and hosted a grand banquet for this reception.
Prince Duodun was the type of person who could impress any visitor quickly, haughty but not annoying. He was always surrounded by seven or eight of his peers. They constantly laughed aloud and repelled outsiders, and only with the prince’s permission did they made a narrow passage for the visitor.
Under the watchful eyes of Duodun’s companions, any outsider would feel an immense pressure and become frightened. When they finally reached the front of the prince and heard the prince’s warm and cheerful greetings, they would immediately feel relieved and think that they were receiving a special treatment.
After a short conversation, Shangguan Ru concluded that this was a man who was the opposite of the Dragon King but a bit similar to herself. They would be even more similar if she had not experienced so much misfortune.
There were many houses built in the city of Heaven’s Pass, but Prince Duodun refused to follow the customs of this place. He still erected a tent as the reception room and the food served was also typical of the prairie style: endless wine, meat, and milk.
Shangguan Ru and the prince of the Shule Kingdom entered the tent together. The first to greet her was Shang Liao, the General of the Right.
Shang Liao was not wearing any armor. With a smile on his face, he politely nodded and said, “Instructor Shangguan came here so fast. Why didn’t you send a letter in advance so that I could have sent troops to receive Your Highness’s grand carriage?”
“Because I don’t have a ‘grand carriage.’ I only have a horse.”
The prince of the Shule Kingdom hastily interjected, “I didn’t realize that it was Instructor Shangguan before I saw the treasured horse. Haha, General Shang, you won’t be jealous of me, will you?”
“Yeah, a little bit.” Shang Liao smilingly said as he and the prince of the Shule Kingdom escorted Shangguan Ru to Duodun.
Duodun’s core companions gave way while winking at each other, curiously and warily staring at the ‘Queen’ of the Land of Fragrance.
Shang Liao and the prince of the Shule Kingdom took the hint and stopped at the periphery of the small group.
Prince Duodun warmly opened his arms. Perhaps feeling that that was inappropriate, he quickly changed his greeting salute to a cupped fist. “Seeing is believing. Instructor Shangguan is world-renowned, and I didn’t expect that I would have the chance to see you today, haha.”
“The Western Regions are changing every day. I also did not expect to witness a new hero rise within a few months.”
Both sides laughed; one didn’t care about the teasing while the other didn’t mind the sarcasm.
The host seated at least fifty guests, which included generals and officers of the Norland as well as figures of influence from the Western Regions. There was even a saberlord of Golden Roc Castle who pretended that Tenth Gongzi wasn’t there from beginning to end.
One of Duodun’s companions had hardly sat down when he spat out the question he had prepared beforehand. “I heard that the Dragon King used a cunning trick to take the Flame Foal from King Rizhu. Is that the horse that Instructor Shangguan rode here?”
“Exactly, but the Dragon King didn’t play any tricks. He won publicly at the Tournament of the Royal Court.”
“Haha, everyone says that ‘bestowing a treasured sword on a hero and giving rouge powder to a beauty’ is for the best, but the Dragon King gave the instructor a horse. He’s really unique,” chimed in another companion, leading the conversation sideways.
“Well, I’m neither a hero nor a beauty. I’m just a wine bag, but luckily I’m quite light. The Dragon King actually loves the Flame Foal very much and doesn’t want it to carry anything heavy.”
“What a matchless delicate wine bag,” cried Prince Duodun, clapping his hands, and taking up a large bowl of wine. “I wonder if it can hold more wine than a bunch of rough wine bags like us. I’ll empty this first. Be my guest.”
Before Shangguan Ru could even learn the names of the people present, the drinking competition had already begun.
She understood the purpose of the banquet. Duodun saw her as the Dragon King’s woman and also as the symbol of the Dragon King, and intended to show to the public that there were no talented people under the Dragon King’s command.
But competing in drinking? She had never lost her nerve or face in front of any man even when she had been a light drinker.
The banquet lasted from evening to the late hours of the night, wrapped in a warm atmosphere. The doublespeak was soon replaced by mere gibberish, and they completely ignored Shangguan Ru’s identity as a woman and were shocked by the amount of wine she downed. People took turns competing with her, but they all retreated in defeat again and again.
Shangguan Ru slowly figured out who everyone was.
The prince of the Shule Kingdom and Shang Liao felt that they had a duty to protect Instructor Shangguan and tried to drink for her. After several rounds, however, the two were carried out by Duodun’s buddies.
“Why are there no heroines like the instructor in the prairie?” One of Duodun’s friends was obviously quite drunk and babbled nonsensically.
“That’s because you never seriously looked for them.” Shangguan Ru was also a bit drunk now, having reached the point where she felt like she was walking on clouds. She liked this feeling, and her mind was still clear enough to notice the suspicious glances of Shang Liao now and then.
Duodun drank till he reached his limit, and was now lying on a blanket with his right elbow to his side. Slanting his eyes, he said, “The Dragon King really doesn’t have a tender heart for women. How could he let Instructor Shangguan cross the grasslands alone? If I were him, I’d have kept the instructor with me forever.”
Shangguan Ru smilingly replied, “Life is unpredictable. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. There’s also a woman in the Royal Court who wants to keep Your Highness around her forever. It’s within sight but beyond their reach.”
Duodun’s face suddenly changed. He straightened up and drank some more to hide his embarrassment and didn’t speak to her again after that. In the end, he was carried away by several of his companions.
The banquet was over.
The prince of the Shule Kingdom was more friendly than ever when he sent Shangguan Ru back to her living place.
Shangguan Ru slept through the night. After she got up and cleaned herself, Xu Xiaoyi came to visit her and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Instructor Shangguan is famous now.”
“I hope it’s a good reputation.” Shangguan Ru felt a bit dizzy. No matter how mellow the wine was, no one liked waking up hungover.
“Good fame, great fame,” said Xu Xiaoyi excitedly. “Everyone says that the Dragon King has sent his right-hand woman who’s not only as pretty as a fairy but also an amazing drinker. More than a hundred generals under Duodun were drunk under the table competing drinking with her, and Duodun himself was carried out of the tent.”
“Haha.” Shangguan Ru’s dizziness eased up a bit. “It will be much better if they only said I was ‘as pretty as a fairy.’ Well, forget it. We’ll leave the rest to Luo Ningcha.”
Xu Xiaoyi actually had something to report. “Shang Liao, the General of the Right, has come early in the morning. Do you want to meet him?”
“What do you think?”
“Well, from what I know, it was all Shang Liao’s idea to free Duodun and join forces with the Norland Army. Over the past few months, he has expanded his army into a powerful force in the Western Regions, but he’s still unable to control the guards. Those one thousand people are still loyal to the Dragon King, so the decision to meet him or not … rests with you.”
Shang Liao looked more respectful than he had been at the banquet yesterday. After the greeting, he soon went to the point. “There’s one point that I hope the instructor will not misunderstand or listen to other people’s slander. It was indeed my idea to ally with Prince Duodun but it was only because the situation called for prompt action. The Khan was dead, it was meaningless to keep the prince imprisoned. The Western Regions was in chaos at that time, if we didn’t stabilize the Norland Army as soon as possible, Golden Roc Castle would have probably benefited from it.”
“I understand, and so does the Dragon King. A field commander must make the right decision, even going against the king’s orders. The Dragon King is thousands of miles of away and did not even send a word of advice. General Shang made the right choice. Even if the Dragon King were in the Western Regions, he would do the same thing.”
Shang Liao seemed to feel a bit more relieved. “I’ll rest assured if the instructor and the Dragon King feels this way.”
“But I also have a small doubt. Why didn’t General Shang send a message to the Dragon King? We’ve been pretty isolated for months.”
Shang Liao’s face reddened a bit as he embarrassedly explained, “Well, before the Khan ascended to Heaven, it was Golden Roc Castle and the Norland Army who jointly controlled the Heaven’s Pass and strictly forbade people of the Western Regions from crossing the border. Later, when Prince Duodun came to power, he said that the Norland was in chaos and that it was inappropriate to intervene and make enemies too early, so he didn’t lift the ban. So it’s not that I didn’t want to send a message; even the Dragon King’s intelligence officer couldn’t…”
“Oh, I see. The Dragon King once told me that General Shang could act on his responsibility as a talented general and for me to not interfere too much with you. So I did not dare see you first. In fact, I don’t have much experience in warfare. Although I’m the instructor of the female soldiers, I haven’t experienced any major battles. All I know is drinking, I hope that General Shang won’t laugh at me.”
Shangguan Ru finally understood why the Dragon King is so paranoid and had so many tricks. When the people around him couldn’t be differentiated from friend and foe, suspicions and plots would spring up like bamboo shoots after the rain.
After sending Shang Liao away, Shangguan Ru discussed some more things with Xu Xiaoyi. In the afternoon, Prince Duodun sent someone to invite her.
This was to be expected.
It was a small meeting. Duodun only had two friends with him, but the guards were much stricter. Shangguan Ru was asked to hand over all her weapons at the door of the tent.
When she handed over the wooden saber and the dagger, the guard was obviously surprised.
This time, without any polite greetings, Duodun went straight to the point. “Many people, including my friends in the Norland, told me that the Dragon King and I are natural allies, and I believed and looked forward to it. Now I have a hundred thousand horsemen under my command. How many people can the Dragon King bring?”
The seventy thousand soldiers had suddenly become a hundred thousand. Prince Duodun was actually quite ‘honest’ in that regard. Shangguan Ru pretended to think for a while before replying, “Twenty thousand soldiers from the Land of Fragrance, forty thousand from the Xiaoyao Lake, twenty thousand from the Restoration Army of the Shule Kingdom, and a hundred and fifty thousand horsemen from the Royal Court. So there are two hundred thousand people at least.”
She also listed out an exaggerated number.
Duodun laughed. “Honestly, I don’t care about the other troops. As long as the Dragon King can bring eighty thousand men from the Norland, I’ll respect him as a real king.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know much about these things, but I think that Your Highness has a good chance of seeing that come to pass.”
“Heh, Instructor Shangguan, you’ve come all the way here in such a hurry. Could you just tell me what you are doing here?”
Shangguan Ru widened her eyes and put on a look of innocence. Then she turned to look at the two companions of Duodun.
One of them was tall while the other was short. The taller one had competed in drinking with her yesterday, but the short one hadn’t.
“The Dragon King was afraid that Your Highness would be deceived, so he sent me here ahead of time to have a look.”
“What do you see then?” asked Duodun.
“I see that —”
Shangguan Ru suddenly made a move. She used the Subtle Shadow Lightness Skill and poked at the short man with the Heart Stopping Finger. This person’s kung fu wasn’t weak but she hadn’t been disguised by Lotus. Shangguan Ru felt a bit relieved.
Duodun was stunned. The tall man immediately reached out for his saber, but neither of them could escape Shangguan Ru’s lightness skill and finger technique.
As the three of them froze on the spot, Shangguan Ru continued speaking, “I see that a disciple of the Waning Moon Hall is hiding around Your Highness.”
“How dare you! Stupid!” The tall man said indignantly, his face reddening. “Do you think that you can escape? If you dare hurt His Highness, the whole Norland will hunt down the Dragon King.”
“Gambling is the weak’s only powerful weapon.” As soon as she blurted it out, Shangguan Ru realized that this was something that the Dragon King had said before. But at the moment, she felt that it fit the situation quite well.
Gu Shenwei didn’t want Shangguan Ru to take risks, but when things came to a head, she found that taking risks was often the most reasonable plan.
“There’s one person who has never been mentioned, but I know he must exist.”
“Who?” It was still the tall man speaking for Duodun.
“The original Commander-in-chief of the Norland Army. I hope that he’s still alive.”
“Yes, he’s kept at…”
“Release him, and His Highness will be free and will also receive my sincerest apology”
Make an enemy for Duodun; this was Shangguan Ru’s idea, and she thought that it was better than the Dragon King’s original plan.
