340 Bribery (1/2)

Chapter 340: Bribery

Translator: TransnEditor: Transn

An ominous odor of death pervaded the air around the courier station, as more and more people heard rumors - through various communication channels - that the Dragon King was about to slaughter the other competitors. At the same time, absurd news had begun spreading as well: There were unknown people planning to get rid of the Dragon King.

These conflicting yet potentially bloody rumors had kept those people who were not aware of the situation awake at night due to fear. A few suitors who came from wealthy merchant families were the first to crack under the pressure and consecutively announced their withdrawal from the royal consort selection process - even before it begun.

They came here with the purpose of enjoying the atmosphere and did not wish to die for no reason in a bid to win the Princess's hand in marriage.

The other suitors were adamant about staying, especially the sons of the five tribal chiefs. They knew little about the Dragon King and did not care much about the possibility of bloodshed.

Because of the rumors, Gu Shenwei realized that he had become a harbinger of doom and he received special attention wherever he went. Many residents of the capital of Stone Kingdom especially traveled to the entrance of the courier station just to catch a glimpse of him from afar. Audible gasps from the crowd could be heard whenever his hand went to the hilt of his saber.

However, less than two days later, the latest update was that Dragon King had become good friends with the two young masters of Golden Roc Fort. The previously sworn enemies were even hosting banquets for each other, and many people had also witnessed it firsthand. There were no signs of each side wanting to start a fight against the other at all.

This perplexed everyone.

As such, the Special Envoy from the Central Plain, Lin Tao, summoned the Dragon King for a meeting to discover the reason behind his actions.

”I need to understand the motives of Golden Roc Fort,” Gu Shenwei explained. ”I do not wish to start a massacre in Stone Kingdom, nor do I really wish to make peace with them.”

At least on the surface, Lin Tao expressed full confidence in Dragon King and very quickly, he introduced the latter to the Prince of Loulan Kingdom.

Being a youth of about 19 years of age, the Prince of Loulan Kingdom was handsome and spoke in a refined manner. During the meeting, he also showed just the right amount of respect to Dragon King.

The two of them did not talk about the Princess of Stone Kingdom but merely chatted idly and became acquainted with each other. After their initial meeting, Gu Shenwei felt that the candidate chosen by the Central Plain was quite an ideal choice as well - if he were the King of Stone Kingdom and there was no pressure from outside forces, he would definitely pick the Prince of Loulan Kingdom as the prince consort.

Finally, the consort selection process had officially begun.

The first round was family background. Each suitor had to submit his family tree for inspection to prove that he was of a noble bloodline from many generations ago.

Gu Shenwei had always claimed publicly that he was of the Yang clan, and even though the Yang clan had some bearing amongst the martial arts community of the Central Plain, its reputation in the Western Region was close to nothing. Luckily, Fang Wenshi had already prepared for this and compiled an acceptable family lineage for Dragon King.

Fang Wenshi did not state Dragon King's origins of the Yang clan, rather, he listed down the history of the Great Snowmountain instead. The lineage started from generations mentioned in the legends up until Dragon King took over from the chiefs. His flamboyant writing proved that the people of the Great Snowmountain were descendants from the Emperor of the Central Plain from three dynasties before and they had made the long migration to the Great Snowmountain and took refuge there. He claimed that the title of ”Chief of the Dragons and Leader of the Five Peaks” was bestowed upon Dragon King by the gods.

This description of the Dragon King's genealogy caused many problems for Prime Minister Yang Dou. He dared not proclaim the contents as false, as it would be akin to challenging the Dragon King. Yet, he could not certify its authenticity as well since it would mean that Dragon King was of a more noble lineage than even the King of the Stone Kingdom himself.

In the end, Yang Dou came up with a solution. He would only pick the best out of all the family trees submitted and would not comment or rank the others.

Therefore, the Prince of the Kang Kingdom got what he wished for as his lineage was proclaimed the noblest out of all the suitors. The reason that Yang Dou gave the win to him, was that there were numerous intermarriages between both the Stone and Kang Kingdoms, therefore it was only natural for the prince to have more points in this aspect.

Along with that, the Stone Kingdom had to give some face to the Prince of the Kang Kingdom as they were part of the five kingdoms in Xiaoyao Lake as well.

Next up was a competition of literary talent. Each suitor had to submit an essay praising the beauty of the Princess.

The sons of the tribal chiefs were flummoxed by this and caused a huge commotion as they went looking for the Prime Minister. ”I want to see the Princess. How can I write anything without even meeting her?” ”It wouldn't be a problem to write a few hundred words about her if I can see her just once.”

Yang Dou spent a lot of effort explaining to them what a competition of literary talent entailed. ”Imagine how the Princess looked like, and if you really can't, you may make it up. It's not a competition about the accuracy of the description of her looks, but rather whose writing is more elegant,” he said.

”Elegant writing? Writings are all about the same, do you mean to say that characters from the language of the Central Plains would look better than ours?”

Thankfully, Gu Shenwei's essay did not rank the last, nor did it become a laughing joke with the help of these people.

The Prince of Loulan Kingdom won first place in this round and everyone was convinced by the results except for, not surprisingly, the sons of the tribal chiefs.

The third round was about kung fu. Most of the candidates knew their place and forfeited the competition except for three sons of the tribal chiefs, who openly challenged the Dragon King to battle.

More than half of the city's population came to watch the competition on the day itself. The first contestant wielded a huge saber, about tens of catties heavy, and just as he swung it over his head, four of his fingers were already sliced off by the Dragon King. He withdrew from the competition, howling loudly from the pain of defeat. Upon seeing this, the other two contestants immediately forfeited the competition.

It was supposed to be a duel that would go down in history for Stone Kingdom, yet it concluded in less than 15 minutes from start to end.

The fourth round of the competition was about wealth.

Prime Minister Yang Dou had prepared many huge wooden dippers at the entrance of the palace, and all the suitors had to do was to pour gold into them. The one who poured the most would be declared the winner of this round.

Unfortunately, the Dragon King was ranked last for this round. The gold that he brought was not enough to even cover the bottom of the dipper fully, and his results were even shabbier than the sons of the tribal chiefs.