Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Zhang You believed that he was an excellent lobbyist. In the Imperial Court, although his position was low and he appeared to be a common servant, he was one of Yan Qin’s most trusted henchman. He had frequently lobbied different power factions in the royal palace on behalf of his master, and he had a ninety-percent success rate. He didn’t know which remark of his had irritated the Dragon King and made him change his attitude.
“Dragon King… I… ” Zhang You knelt down out of force of habit, but soon realized that this was not something a lobbyist should do. Even then, he didn’t dare stand up immediately. “Everything that I said is true. Why do you think that I was lying?”
Gu Shenwei raised his right hand slightly, and Zhang You couldn’t stand up even if he wanted to. The piercing pain caused by the coldness had been engraved in his mind, and he found it unbearable to even think about it. “Please have mercy on me. Please have mercy on me, Dragon King. Let me think about it… ”
Under this huge pressure, Zhang You’s mind was working at an extreme pace. He finally realized where the loophole of his speech was: the future that he had depicted was unduly perfect.
The Dragon King only had to make a few remarks to verify Prince Xiao’s fraudulent claim of military exploits and help Yan Qin win the partisan struggle in the Imperial Court, and then he would turn from Yan Qin’s enemy into his favored henchman. Not only would he gain half of the Western Regions, but he would even have a chance to be the Lord of the Prairie, gaining huge profit at a low risk. Things like this were most people’s dreams. Those that Zhang You had once lobbied in the royal palace were mostly this kind of people.
But he had overlooked one thing. When Yan Qin’s power was in its prime, the so-called persuasion had merely been a formality. No matter how unbelievable his listeners found his words to be, they had to accept under the circumstances. But Assistant Minister Yan’s authority was far from enough to influence Jade City, which meant that the more tempting his words sounded, the more they sounded like lies.
“The Dragon King might not know much about the situation in the Imperial Court. Assistant Minister Yan is no common person. Although he doesn’t have a king’s title, his station is far higher than that of the other ministers. The Dragon King only has to do a little inquiry… ”
Zhang You hoped that he could quickly reestablish his master’s profile in the Dragon King’s mind, so that his persuasion would get twice the results with half the effort.
Gu Shenwei threw a palm strike and hit the top of his head. Then he turned around to read a pile of paperwork on the table.
Unconsciously, he had adopted Golden Roc Castle’s interrogating methods: inflicting torture. They would keep torturing prisoners while asking very few questions until the prisoner broke down and disclosed all of the secrets that they had kept hidden.
This kind of means was not very efficient, but there was a good chance that it would bring some pleasant surprises to the interrogators.
Zhang You kept letting out weird sounds of “ho, ho.” People hit by frosty Qi usually didn’t have enough strength to scream.
Gu Shenwei had finished reading half of the paperwork on the table by now. What he was reading now were the intelligence reports sent by Xu Xiaoyi.
A few days ago, he had requested Xu Xiaoyi to collect information on the background of those monks in the Four Noble Truths Temple as well as the people that they kept in touch with. These reports were what he had found.
Xu Xiaoyi had performed his duties conscientiously, but the contents of his intelligence reports were not very comprehensive, and most of it was about those monks’ social contacts. The majority of the forces in northern Jade City, including both those who believed in the Buddha and those who didn’t, stayed in close contact with the Four Noble Truths Temple, especially the nobles and rich merchants in northern Jade City. As a result, there was too much intelligence about them, which made it meaningless.
By comparison, the background of those monks was a much trickier issue. Most of the monks in the Four Noble Truths Temple seemed to have no family background. They had been sent to the temple from birth. Only a few of them had a confirmed parentage, and almost all of them were from noble families in some country of the Western Regions.
Even so, Gu Shenwei still read through all of those reports very carefully. He had gotten an impression that the Four Noble Truths Temple was a very influential organization in the Western Regions, and that it even had some influence on far countries like the Central Plains and the Norland. This kind of influence was not easily observed, and those monks’ keeping a low profile had imparted a thick mysterious aura to it.
The sounds of teeth chattering behind him stopped. Gu Shenwei waited a little while and then turned around, checked the unconscious Zhang You, and injected a stream of Sumeru Mustard Qi into his body to expel the coldness from him.
Zhang You slowly opened his eyes and madly crawled backwards upon seeing the Dragon King’s figure. As Assistant Minister Yan’s henchman, he could order the Governor of the Western Regions to do whatever he wanted, and he could also change the situation in the Western Regions with a wave of his hand. He didn’t deserve to be treated this way, but the Dragon King regarded him as the cheapest servant, torturing him regardless of whether he would be able to survive.
All of the intelligence that he had been offered was wrong. Who had told Assistant Minister Yan that the Dragon King was a sedate, steadfast man who was willing to compromise? Zhang You hated that person. In his opinion, those rumors, which he had originally thought to be absurd, were true and reliable: the Dragon King was a devil.
“Dragon King… ” Zhang You’s voice was so hoarse that even he himself felt that it sounded strange. “I… I admit my guilt. Stop… Stop torturing me. I’ll tell you the truth.”
“I like the truth,” said Gu Shenwei. Maybe it was because he had killed Wei Song with his bare hands, but his hatred had been burning like a fire in him for the past few days. Cruelty brought him a deep satisfaction.
Zhang You thought for a while. “Assistant Minister Yan trusts me, but he doesn’t tell me everything. All I can tell the Dragon King is just my speculation. It might be right, but it also might be… wrong.”
“Um,” Gu Shenwei also liked speculating, but with regards to other people’s speculation, he had to discriminate.
Zhang You paused for a brief moment. Once again, he felt that the scene in front of him was unreal. What the Dragon King was doing seemed desperate, which was very different from the stereotypical behavior of an overlord, but that courage to make audacious decisions irrespective of life or death was impressive. “The thing is, His Majesty is gradually growing up, and he’s becoming a little… a little disobedient. He even dares disobey the Empress Dowager’s orders now. However, he and his uncle, Prince Xiao, are becoming closer. Assistant Minister Yan is worried that His Majesty will kill him once he has enough power.”
“That’s a good speculation,” Gu Shenwei encouraged. Finally he felt that Zhang You might be telling the truth. “Stand up.”
Zhang You forced a smile onto his face as if he were honored. He struggled to his feet, but his legs were still quivering. “Assistant Minister Yan never told me this, but he has been gravely concerned for the last two years. I can tell from his behavior.”
“Keep talking. How does this concern me?”
“I think that… Assistant Minister Yan has a plan for Dragon King, and that I’m just a small part of this plan. My task is to persuade the Dragon King to betray Prince Xiao. If I can’t, then I must try to drive a wedge between you two. Really. This is all that Assistant Minister Yan ordered me to do.”
Zhang You’s “small” plan had merely been carried out halfway when it had suffered a miserable failure, which had made him lose faith in his master’s “big” plan. “Assistant Minister Yan thinks that – this is just my baseless speculation – that he can make Dragon King the biggest enemy of the Emperor. Then, he will mediate between you two and profit from both sides. With regards to the means he will adopt, I’m guessing it will be relevant to old General Gu’s previous experience of being a hostage in Norland. But… but for the Central Plains, it doesn’t matter who the Dragon King’s mother was. Your father’s identity is the key. If I were Assistant Minister Yan, then after successfully co-opting the Dragon King to my side, I would spread the rumor that the Dragon King is actually a… bastard son of the former Emperor and the princess of the Norland, and that not only do you have noble parentage, but that you also are the eldest son… ”
In that case, the Dragon King would then have a claim to the throne in the Central Plains, which would make him a mortal enemy of the incumbent Emperor. Thus, the power of the General-in-chief, Pang Ning, and the Empress Dowager would be strengthened, and Yan Qin’s status would also be secured.
There were still a lot of loopholes in Zhang You’s speculations. If Yan Qin brought another prince to power, then while he might be able to profit, it was more likely that he would get himself killed. With regards to how he would deal with this danger, Zhang You didn’t know, and neither could he deduce it.
Gu Shenwei believed that this was all Zhang You could confess. “You’ll have to stay in the Western Regions for a bit longer.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll stay here however much longer the Dragon King wants me to.” Actually, Zhang You secretly wished that he had wings so that he could fly back to the Central Plains right away.
No matter what Yan Qin’s final plan was, all it brought Gu Shenwei in its early stage was benefits. He had killed Wei Song. Dugu Xian had taken command of the 20,000 Central-Plains troops stationed outside Jade City. Zhang You had become obedient to the Dragon King, which had enabled him to take control of the deputy envoy, Sun Chengqi.
Nobody knew how much longer this favorable situation would last for, so Gu Shenwei decided to make full use of this period.
News of the death of the Governor of the Western Regions reached Jade City that very night. The next morning, it rippled throughout the whole city.
Two high-ranking officials sent by the Central Plains had died in the jurisdiction of Jade City in a row. Even the most retarded person would regard this as an ominous sign. Although the deaths of these two people were said to be related to each other and that it didn’t concern outsiders, Jade City still fell into panic.
Noon had just passed when Hu Shining, who had been staying in southern Jade City, came to the army camp to report on the new circumstances. The Heavenly Mountain Sect’s territory had significantly shrunk. Currently, only a small area between northern and southern Jade City, which was the area around Southwall Tavern, was still under their control.
While the Heavenly Mountain Sect was retreating, large numbers of sabersmen were pouring into the city, requesting admission to the Dragon Army, which flustered Hu Shining.
Compared to those sabermen of Jade City who constantly switched sides, Gu Shenwei preferred the kung fu practitioners from the martial arts world of the Central Plains. Most of them came from famous sects and would make excellent subordinates like Dog Butcher as long as he gave them some time to adapt to the situation of the Western Regions.
That night, Gu Shenwei summoned all the kung fu experts of the Central Plains, who numbered over fifty, which included Tu Pianpian and several disciples of the Kongtong Sect. Clearly, they were deeply shocked by the death of Wei Song, which was why they held mixed feelings towards the Dragon King.
Surprisingly, Tu Pianpian was more composed than those disciples. After the meeting, she had her younger brother send the Dragon King a message. “If this was a revenge killing, then the Kongtong Sect will have to avenge Lord Wei’s murder according to the rules of Jianghu. But it involves the Imperial Court of the Central Plains, so the Kongtong Sect will stay out of it.”
In this way, Tu Pianpian had made her stance clear: she knew who had killed Lord Wei, but she wouldn’t avenge his death for the moment.
Luo Qikang was the indisputable leader of the martial arts world of the Central Plains, and he indicated his stance in another way.
Luo Qikang had also been summoned, and he had been introduced to the Dragon King by several martial arts celebrities, Tu Pianpian included.
They two had met each other once before, but it was only at this second meeting that they officially met each other.
Led by Luo Qikang, all the kung fu practitioners from the Central Plains nodded at the Dragon King and paid their respects. Then he said, “We’re Central Plainsmen, and we only answer to Central Plains officials. We’d appreciate it if Dragon King could have Lord Sun pass your orders to us from now on.”
Luo Qikang retained the dignity of the martial arts world of the Central Plains. Meanwhile, he also made it clear to the Dragon King that he had come here to avenge his younger brother’s death, and that it was merely the Central Plains’s official support that he lacked.
Zhong Heng also attended this meeting. Afterwards, he said to the Dragon King, “We have to guard against the Central Plains taking Golden Roc Castle’s side. The Unique King has suffered one defeat after another during his rivalry with the Dragon King for supremacy. If pushed too hard, he might revert to the old methods sooner or later.”
Golden Roc Castle’s old methods were assassination and bribery. In order to have the Norland and the Central Plains trust him as well as to prove to all the people under the sun that Golden Roc Castle was qualified to fight for supremacy, the Unique King had been decreasing his killers, but when he was backed into a corner, he could still resort to using them.
“Do you want to find out how hard the Unique King has been pushed?” asked Gu Shenwei.
“The Dragon King has a plan?” Zhong Heng asked somewhat uneasily.
“Um. Send someone to inform them that I’ll go to Golden Roc Castle myself and ask the Unique King for a couple of people.”
