Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Prince Xiao didn't believe the Dragon King's speculations. "The Unique King's in contact with someone close to the emperor? That's basically impossible. That kind of thing can never be kept a secret. Colluding with foreigners - especially with a killers organization - is a capital offence. The Dragon King should know that the Imperial Court of the Central Plains has always been very sensitive to this kind of thing. A hidden letter from a foreigner is more than enough to cause a top-rank official to be dismissed."
"I think that this possibility does exist. And it's also worthy of Prince Xiao's investigation."
Gu Shenwei actually was very certain that the so-called "death offence" mentioned by Prince Xiao was just a kind of coercion. The Unique King had refused to disclose who the original employer had been, and he hadn't even kept any related records. However, he would never be afraid of profiting from this issue.
"All right. I'll send a dispatch to one of my friends in the Imperial Court and warn them about this," Prince Xiao said in a very casual tone, as if he would receive an outcome in one or two days. Watching the Dragon King who was indifferent, he laughed. "Rest a.s.sured, Dragon King. Even if someone in the Imperial Court is actually colluding with the Unique King, his status won't be higher than mine. Er… you're not suspicious of me, are you?"
"If I were, I wouldn't have come here and talk to you about this," Gu Shenwei lied casually. Actually, he was indeed a little suspicious of Prince Xiao, and the purpose of this meeting with Prince Xiao was to sound him out.
Prince Xiao nodded approvingly. "I also think that the Dragon King would never be suspicious of me. We're on the same boat now. If something happens to the Dragon King, I'll suffer, too, and I'll even suffer more. Hha."
Prince Xiao had attributed the victory of the battle at Thousand Hors.e.m.e.n Pa.s.s to himself. He had said that the reason why he and those 20,000 Central Plains soldiers had fled was because they had antic.i.p.ated the enemies' moves and that their move was intended to lure the enemies out. That way, they would be able to cooperate with the Dragon Army who had blindsided the troops guarding Luoluo's king's flag. With regards to the Norland cavalrymen, that was infighting of the gra.s.slands that had been instigated by a series of brilliant tactics.
In this plan, the Dragon King had indeed played a very important role. The Imperial Court of the Central Plains had sent many envoys here. Nominally, they had come here to deliver gifts and greet to the troops. But in fact, they'd been sent here to investigate this achievement which was one of the greatest in the past few decades. Gu Shenwei would be inquired, and his answer would determine Prince Xiao's contribution.
It was on this basis that Gu Shenwei had chosen to cooperate with Prince Xiao. Even if he was somewhat suspicious of Prince Xiao, his suspicion was merely a habitual speculation.
Now that Prince Xiao had promised to investigate the matter, Gu Shenwei decided to leave this issue aside for the moment. "When will the kung fu expert hired by Prince Xiao arrive?"
This was Prince Xiao's commitment. He would hire a kung fu expert to defeat the Unique King and then lose to Gu Shenwei so as to "give" the position of the Lord of Jade City to the Dragon King.
Gu Shenwei counted this among his plans.
"He should arrive soon. I think that he's on his way. Rest a.s.sured, Dragon King. Although I know little about kung fu, someone in the Central Plains will select a kung fu expert for me. The Central Plains is a large country and there are numerous talents there. If we can't even find a top-notch kung fu expert, then won't all the other countries laugh at us?"
Prince Xiao believed that his words were comforting, but Gu Shenwei was still somewhat worried when he took his leave. 'This Prince Xiao knows little about kung fu, and he knows even less about killers. He believes that better kung fu skills can solve any and all problems. This is true in the arena, but the Unique King is better at handling things outside the arena."
Gu Shenwei hoped that this kung fu expert of the Central Plains would take precautions against a.s.sa.s.sination instead of completely relying on his skills.
At the gate of the army camp, Gu Shenwei encountered Luo Ningcha once again.
Luo Ningcha stopped the carriage, lifted a corner of the curtain, and said to the Dragon King, "Everything's okay now. I had those leaders vouch for their subordinates. From now on, if any of their men proves to be a mole, the leader will kill himself."
On horseback, Gu Shenwei briefly nodded. "That's very good." But secretly, he thought, 'By no means can the Iron Mountain Army survive under this woman's command. I should find a way to wrestle control from her.'
Perhaps Luo Ningcha misunderstood the Dragon King's absent-mindedness, but she smiled and then said, "Please send me a bodyguard. Just in case." Then she mouthed, "Find some time."
Pretending that he didn't understand what she was trying to express, Gu Shenwei replied "okay" noncommittally, spurred his horse on, and left. He would rather let those over 2,000 Iron Mountain soldiers fall into the hands of the Unique King than get entangled with Luo Ningcha again.
The moment he entered his tent, Gu Shenwei saw a horrified Shangguan Fei.
As one of the very few people who were allowed to enter this tent without prior consent, Shangguan Fei used to be very proud of this privilege that he had been granted. But today, he looked very depressed, as if he was down on his luck. Upon seeing the Dragon King, he stood up hastily and said with a tearful face, "I saw Long Fanyun. How was he hurt so badly? Can't Doctor Sun do something about it?"
Gu Shenwei flatly said, "Don't bother me with this kind of thing."
Briefly startled, Shangguan Fei's grief slightly abated. He hurriedly put on a solemn face. "I have serious business." After a couple of coughs, he continued. "There were even more a.s.sa.s.sinations in the city. The Dragon King has heard of it, right?"
Gu Shenwei nodded. Last night, in a couple of villages on the periphery of the southern Jade City where most of the residents were sabersmen, there were five or six consecutive a.s.sa.s.sinations. The a.s.sa.s.sins didn't seemed to have had specific targets. All the victims were drunken sabersmen who were on the road alone. The a.s.sa.s.sins were very cruel. It was said that the victims were eviscerated.
"And Shangguan Hong went missing last night. Do you think that it's a coincidence, Dragon King?"
"Missing?"
"My men said that Shangguan Hong was in the city for the last two days. Nominally, he was procuring some items for the queen. But in reality, he put someone else in charge of the petty things, and he himself went to the City View Alley every day. And his destinations changed daily. Last night, before those a.s.sa.s.sinations, he went into a room and didn't come out until daybreak, approximately an hour after the last a.s.sa.s.sination."
"Your men? You didn't do it yourself?"
Shangguan Fei was terribly startled. "If I was spotted by a killer of Golden Roc Castle… Dragon King, I still want to stay alive to keep serving you."
Seeing that the Dragon King was still silent, Shangguan Fei believed there wouldn't be any consequences so he continued. "It's time to take action, Dragon King. We can't let Shangguan Hong do any more harm to Jade City. You don't have to do it yourself either. Dog Butcher and Old Man Mu will be more than enough to handle him. If you want this to be done in a safer way, you can a.s.sign Little Chu to join them."
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why does Shangguan Hong have to be eliminated?"
Shangguan Fei's face was full of confusion. "He arbitrarily murdered so many people in Jade City… And the origins of his kung fu is highly suspicious. There must be someone behind him, and this mastermind is either Lotus or the Unique King. Doesn't this concern you, Dragon King?"
"The mastermind's ident.i.ty is still unknown. Isn't it too early to eliminate him right away?"
Light suddenly dawned on Shangguan Fei, "I got it. I'll have someone keep an eye out for Shangguan Hong."
"That won't be necessary. Withdraw all of your men."
Shangguan Fei's eyes lit up, "The Dragon King wants to… Heh-heh. I never asked anything and I know nothing. I'll take my leave right now."
Gu Shenwei didn't intend to stalk Shangguan Hong himself, but he did have someone call him back.
Long Fanyun came before Shangguan Hong. He was able to sit up by himself now. Red Bat had found a skilled craftsman and made a comfortable reclining chair. Two swordsmen of Big Snow Mountain had volunteered to be his chair carriers.
"You should've sent someone here instead."
Gu Shenwei didn't want Long Fanyun to exhaust himself. The reason why he had a.s.signed this Captain of Guards so many duties was because he wanted to spare him the feeling of being a burden. He hoped that Long Fanyun would take some days off and focus on rehabilitation. But it was to the contrary. Long Fanyun worked extremely hard from dawn until dark every day, and he had even asked Red Bat to teach him to read so that he could help with those military doc.u.ments.
Long Fanyun shook his head. He didn't want to be regarded as a disabled person and just wait in his tent for the Dragon King to come to him. Raising the letter in his hand, he said, "I received this just now. You should take a look at it, Dragon King."
The two chair carriers nodded at the Dragon King to pay their respects and then left the tent. Gu Shenwei took the letter.
It was a pet.i.tion, the general meaning of which was that a.s.sa.s.sinations had been happening frequently in Jade City with heavy casualties, that the residents were in panic, and that they hoped that the Dragon King would intervene and resolve the crisis. At the end of the letter there was a note saying that there were copies of this pet.i.tion, which had been delivered to the Dragon King, the Unique King, Prince Xiao and the prince of Shule Kingdom respectively. These four people were the supreme commanders of the four armies stationed outside the city.
There was nothing special about the contents of the letter, but the signatures at the end caught Gu Shenwei's attention. The names of the Four n.o.ble Truths Temple and the Kun Society were among the signatures of the businesses and persons, but there was neither a comma nor a s.p.a.ce between them, as if they were the same organization. Judging from the meticulous writing style of this letter, this didn't seem like a clerical error.
Gu Shenwei returned the letter to Long Fanyun.
"I made a decision without your permission and let Red Bat go into the city to visit… Instructor Shangguan," Long Fanyun said uneasily.
"Good. Tell me when she comes back."
"Actually, it's fine for Instructor Shangguan to come here and meet the Dragon King alone."
"She's the leader of the Kun Society now," Gu Shenwei corrected. "You'd better get used to this form of address."
"Aye," Long Fanyun answered reluctantly. He was willing to sacrifice his life for the Dragon King, but in his eyes, this "Lord of the Five Peaks" was still a total myth and he couldn't understand him out no matter how hard he tried.
Shangguan Hong returned at dusk. He entered the tent in a hurry and gave a moderate bow. His eyes were on the ground and there was no nervousness or fear on his face, which had been present the last time he had met the Dragon King. "Shangguan Hong pays his respect to the Dragon King."
Gu Shenwei gave a brief "Um" sound and continued to read the piles of doc.u.ments by the lamplight. After reading through a dozen of them, he raised his head. "When will you return to the Stone Kingdom?"
"In about five or six days. I have a heavy procurement job to do for the queen, and a couple of those items are rather difficult to find."
"I also prepared some gifts. Take them with you when you leave."
"Yes."
"Are you willing to return to Stone Kingdom?"
Shangguan Hong abruptly raised his head, glanced at the Dragon King, and then quickly lowered his head. "Of course. I owe everything to the queen and I'm willing to be her loyal servant for the rest of my life." After a pause, Shangguan Hong added, "As long as the Dragon King is willing to allow me to."
"The queen does need helpers, but so does the Dragon Army. I want you to stay in the army. What do you think?"
Shangguan Hong's breathing became a little heavy, but it soon returned to normal. He humbly said, "I'm more than happy to stay. I also want to make a contribution, but I'm afraid that my poor kung fu skills and stupidity might cause trouble for the Dragon King."
"That won't happen. I'm a shrewd judge of character."
"Shangguan Hong will forever be grateful for all the things that the Dragon King has taught me and all the favor that the Dragon King has done for me."
Shangguan Hong seemed to have learned how to deal with the Dragon King in just a few days.
"Good. I'll dispatch you to the Iron Mountain camp to be Madam Luo's bodyguard."
Shangguan Hong raised his head and looked at the Dragon King again, apparently amazed by this a.s.signment. "Yes."
"While being her bodyguard, you should also keep an eye on Prince Xiao. He's from the Central Plains and is not familiar with Jade City. If anything goes wrong, you're to report to me right away."
"Yes. I understand," Shangguan Hong bowed even lower to hide the astonished look on his face.
"What kind of reward do you want if you manage to make a contribution?"
"The trust of Dragon King and the queen is the greatest reward for me."
"That won't be enough. Maybe I'll allow you to cut off a head or two."
Shangguan Hong raised his head for the third time. He didn't know whether the Dragon King was sounding him out or if he really meant it, but there were indeed a couple of heads that he desperately wanted.
