380 Surrender (1/2)

Shangguan Ru opened her eyes to see herself lying on a soft, comfortable bed and wearing a long pale green robe made of lightweight material. She was shocked and immediately sat up. She calmed down slightly upon realizing that the internal energy in her Dantian was already back to normal levels and that her dagger, which she hid close to her body, was still around.

A maid of the same age as Shangguan Ru came running over upon hearing the sounds from her bed. ”Master, you've woken up,” she said stiffly in Central Plains Chinese.

Shangguan Ru only knew that she was still in the Land of Fragrance. However, the locals were all somewhat weird, and she could not figure them out. ”Who're you? What's this place?”

”I'm your slave, Master. This is the capital.”

Shangguan Ru leaped off her bed and saw that her belongings were placed on a chair nearby. She walked over and picked up her wooden saber, saying, ”Who sent you to me? I want to see him.”

The maid suddenly kneeled down and kept kowtowing uneasily. ”Please forgive your lowly slave, Master,” she pleaded.

Shangguan Ru got a shock from the maid's reaction. ”You... what are you doing? Get up quickly,” she replied.

”Please forgive your lowly slave, Master. I cannot carry out Master's orders.”

Shangguan Ru finally understood why the maid was acting in this manner. ”Forget it, I'll not visit him. I'll wait for him to come to visit me instead. Where's my friend? I can see her, right?” she asked.

Maid Lotus was in the adjoining room.

They discovered that they were still residing in a garden, but the vegetation growing outside their rooms looked very normal and would not obstruct their path or give off a fragrance that intoxicated them. Given that, they guessed that they had probably left the Flower Soul Forest.

The two women found their encounter odd. The maid assigned to them was clueless about what was going on and seemed to have never spoken to a normal person in her life before.

Luckily, their questions were soon answered.

The true master of the house was an old man whose hair and beard had already turned white. He carried a white crutch and called himself Shili Molo.

He was the same Shili Molo who would receive the Dragon King and the army of the Great Snow Mountain as the representative of the Land of Fragrance a few months later. During that time, he would pretend to not understand Central Plains Chinese, but right now, he was conversing with Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus fluently in it.

”The Land of Fragrance is a lowly country with a population of fewer than 6000 people. Our people are docile and not fond of conflict; we don't even have weapons. Every year, a few of us will venture to other lands for business and barter for the daily necessities of our people.”

”Our nation has been isolated from the world for centuries. We don't wish to have too many foreigners here, and we wish even more for news of our land to not spread too far.”

hili Molo beat around the bush and started introducing the two women to several local traditions, refusing to make his real intentions clear.

Shangguan Ru could not stand his conversational style which was not to the point. She bluntly cut him off, saying, ”We're both tracking a bad man and entered your country by mistake. After we've left, we'll be sure to keep this place a secret. You don't have to worry about that.”

Shili Molo smiled gently but still seemed to be a little anxious. Maid Lotus deduced his real intentions correctly. ”They didn't manage to capture Old Man Mu and are waiting for us to help,” she said.

Shili Molo nodded awkwardly. Old Man Mu had already become the nightmare of the people of the Land of Fragrance, and it was a problem he had which needed to be resolved immediately.

It was two days ago since Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus had fainted in the Flower Soul Forest.

Old Man Mu cursed as he fell from the air. He was unexpectedly alright and stood up before leaping onto the flower bed and escaping.

It was a miscalculation on his part. If he had known that the two women had already fainted and that there were no kung fu masters in the Land of Fragrance, he would have immediately begun killing.

He still believed the Chief Priest to be a kung fu master who kept his skills concealed. As such, he did not wish to remain behind in the Flower Soul Forest and put his Nimble Sparrow Lightness Skills to use, sprinting on high ground until he was out of the maze.

”The flowers are actually harmless, but I've coated their stems... with a bit of some chemical which can only be found in our country,” Shili Molo said, sounding very sincere.

Old Man Mu had already killed at least eight people over the previous two days, and they were all nobles from the city.

The benefit of isolation was that the country was never invaded, but the disadvantage was that once it was, its natives had already lost the ability to defend themselves. The most skilled 'kung fu masters' amongst them were all paper tigers like the Chief Priest of the Flower Soul Forest.

It also happened that these paper tigers were the ones who volunteered to subdue the demonic old man high-spiritedly, and were also the first casualties.

In reality, there were 6,000 nobles and ten times that of slaves in the Land of Fragrance. Even though they vastly outnumbered the nobles, the slaves had been living in isolation and were trained to be obedient and act as tools for the nobles. They were even proud of their subservience, and when their masters were at a loss, they would only get more panicky.

Being in a national crisis forced the people sent into the Flower Soul Forest to capture Old Man Mu to think of all sorts of solutions. They managed to recollect that he was extremely wary of Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus, therefore when the two women woke up, they found themselves change from captives into honored guests.

Shangguan Ru had made a blunder that was not too serious yet not negligible as well; she had divulged her real intentions much too early to Shili Molo. Once he heard that the two women had trespassed into the Land of Fragrance by accident to 'capture the evil man', he had some measure of how to handle them.