382 Conques (2/2)

The nobles did not dare to speak to the Dragon King unless he had questions for them. It was partly because they were not speaking a common language and also partly because out of fear. Even if they speak, they would carefully consider their words before talking.

This held a lot of matters up.

”Indra fragrance? Antidote? Why did no one speak of this before? Hand them over now,” said Gu Shenwei as he forcibly controlled his anger. ”These people appear to be very cooperative after their surrender, but none of them took the initiative to tell me about the antidote,” he thought grumpily.

In truth, Gu Shenwei had to bear some responsibility for not being informed about the cure. He had never paid much attention to the five women publicly, and only Tuo Nengya and the Shangguan half-brothers in his entire army knew who Shangguan Ru and Maid Lotus were. The other soldiers did not know that the two ladies were people he cared deeply about, much less the nobles of the Land of Fragrance.

The nine tribal chiefs started to look at each other as they heard the Dragon King's words being translated into their local language. Eventually, it was the tribal chief who could speak Central Plains Chinese who speaked up shakily, ”The antidote... is not with us. The Indra fragrance has been kept by the Shili family all this while.”

It just happened that the master of the Shili family was Shili Molo, who had been killed by the Dragon King on the altar.

Other than the nine tribal chiefs, there were many nobles in the camp of the Great Snowmountain, but none of them was from the Shili family.

The nobles gave themselves up very willingly upon being interrogated. Gu Shenwei quickly got to know that the Shili family had fled when their master was killed. All of them escaped from the scene; there were tens of thousands of people present then and only a few noticed them fleeing.

Gu Shenwei sent Long Fanyun, the chief of Canopy Peak, with a small group of men into the city to seize the members of the Shili family and get the antidote.

It was only at this moment that many people came to realize the importance of the five female sacrificial lambs.

Shangguan Fei just got to know that his sister was nearly burned alive on the altar, and displayed a little rare love for his sibling. ”That bunch of b*stards. We should've killed all of them,” he said.

After saying these words, he felt that his duties to his sister were done. ”I'm sure you'll have a solution, Dragon King. There's no need for me to be worried for nothing, haha.”

Long Fanyun brought back bad news to the Dragon King. Shili Molo's sons had escaped from the capital and their whereabouts were unknown. There were only frightened women and helpless slaves left behind in his residence and none of them had the antidote.

Gu Shenwei summoned all of the hostages who were nobles once again into his tent. He drew the Five Peaks Saber and placed it across his knees as he sat. Dozens of conscripted savages were standing at his sides as a show of force. He then ordered the hostages to cough up all the information they had on the Indra fragrance.

Dozens of them fought for their turn to confess. Two of their tribal chiefs acted as interpreters and kept on translating their words into Central Plains Chinese. Gu Shenwei had to rely on his extraordinary ability of analysis to piece the piecemeal information together.

Nobles of the Land of Fragrance were divided into ten tribes, and not only was each tribe given a piece of land along with slaves but also a Flower Soul Forest each. Other than that of the royal palace, which was uninhabited, a Chief Priest resided in each of the other nine Flower Soul Forests. Each priest had his own specialty; some were skilled in kung fu while some in medicine.

The Shili family presided over the seventh Flower Soul Forest and its priest was skilled in the use of various fragrances. In common jianghu parlance, he knew how to concoct knockout powders.

The Shili family was knowledgeable and full of ideas and they could be considered as distinct from the other people in the Land of Fragrance. When the other citizens obediently accepted the rule of their conquerors, the men of the Shili family fled the capital, seemingly intent on avenging their father's death.

There were no words in the language of the Land of Fragrance which could be used to translate 'revenge', and the two interpreters had to take some time to explain the concept to their fellow hostages. All of them felt that the Shili family's choice was inconceivable.

The seventh Flower Soul Forest was situated about three and a half kilometers to the southwest of the capital. Gu Shenwei sent out his men during the night to get the antidote. The tribal chiefs had learnt their lesson and decided to pre-empt the Dragon King by warning him that the forest was a maze built with vegetation, and that without a guide, his men would either find it hard to enter or impossible to exit.

The setup of each Flower Soul Forest was basically the same, with only slight differences. Therefore, Gu Shenwei sent out one of the tribal chiefs to guide his men.

Having learnt his lesson, Gu Shenwei continued interrogating the hostages.

As he gathered more information, he became increasingly uneasy.

He was not the first to conquer the Land of Fragrance alone. Before he arrived, Old Man Mu was already ”the Uncrowned King”. Nobody knew where he was hiding now in retreat, and he was planning to practice his new skills on the Great Snowmountain army after he was done with his retreat.

The nobles had forced their female slaves to seduce the soldiers of the Great Snowmountain at the river because they wanted to hold them back for Old Man Mu's target practice later on.

Gu Shenwei was not afraid of Old Man Mu; he felt that no matter what, one man was no match for an entire army. That said, he was afraid that Old Man Mu would not face him openly and choose to engage in guerilla warfare instead by making sneak attacks on his common soldiers.

Gu Shenwei gave the order for Tuo Nengya to lead 200 men to sweep the entire Land of Fragrance in search for Old Man Mu. Once spotted, they were not to engage and had to return back to report to the Dragon King.

Tuo Nengya had heard of the infamous Old Man Mu and therefore treated the task more seriously than the other soldiers. He immediately set off with his men to fulfil his orders.

The time of idleness for the army of the Great Snowmountain had now come to an end. Even though many of them could still not feel it themselves, an intense atmosphere was spreading throughout the camp from the Dragon King himself.

The problems kept piling up: how to divide up the spoils of war, retrieving the antidote in time to save the women and finding out where Old Man Mu was. Each problem demanded that Gu Shenwei resolved it quickly.