38 A Rise is Coming (1/2)
”Where is he!? Where is he!? Where is he!?”
Meng Fuyao chewed on a blade of grass and answered lazily, ”That long-faced fellow? There's a war going on ahead, and there's a shortage of men, so he's been pulled into it.”
”Really?” Ya Lanzhu questioned half-believingly. ”You look familiar,” she then added with a crooked head.
”Makes sense,” replied Meng Fuyao, laughing. ”I'm the teacher of your neighbor's paternal aunt's older cousin's maternal aunt's sister's cheating husband's mistress' sister.”
Ya Lanzhu opened her eyes wide while using her hand to calculate the tangled and complicated relationships. After some thought, she raised her brow in anger. ”You're playing me,” she growled, throwing a karate chop forward.
Meng Fuyao lifted three fingers, directly facing her palm's acupuncture point and immediately forcing Ya Lanzhu to shrink backward. Meng Fuyao then slipped her fingers into the ninth formation of Cleaving Nine Heavens, Illusion, gently pressing onto Ya Lanzhu's pulse.
Meng Fuyao laughed lightly and tossed her hand so hard that she made a 360-degree turn. Instead of falling after the turn, Ya Lanzhu had her hand up and immobilized. Meng Fuyao laughed and gave Ya Lanzhu's nose a little flick. ”Only I can bully him, Sister. It's not your turn.”
”Let's go,” Meng Fuyao waved at Yao Xun.
Yao Xun scurried out from the corner and saw Fufeng Nation's noble princess standing on the ground, immobile, with a hand raised. He exhaled loudly before rushing over to Meng Fuyao's side. They sprinted out of the city amid the disorder, and when they were far away Meng Fuyao asked, ”What have you done to her?”
Yao Xun explained with a bitter expression on his face, ”Somehow, she found out about my thieving skills and had me steal Zhan Beiye's undergarment.”
Meng Fuyao lost it. ”Did you?” She roared while clutching onto her tummy
”Am I crazy? I did not agree, which was why she was chasing after me,” he answered, revealing a crafty smile and taking something out from his robe. Swinging it in front of Meng Fuyao's eyes he added, ”I didn't lose out. Members of the Godly Palm Sect will not simply let a goose off without plucking its feathers.”
It was a light green jade medal with a vivid sculpture of a scepter, representing wisdom and authority. The two characters, ”Wuji” could only be seen under the sunlight and at certain angles.
It was Wuji Nation's travel pass.
”Hah, good stuff!” Meng Fuyao snatched it, weighing it in her hand and falling into deep thought.
The sky was lightening, and the battle cries were reduced to low, prolonged groans. The wind, carrying a dry, metallic smell, blew against her hair softly, which then covered parts of her face. Her delicate features gave her a good-natured amiability, which was enhanced by the breeze.
Meng Fuyao smiled in a way that resembled Yuan Zhaoxu's – graceful yet remote, calm and collected.
”I say...” she started, setting her eyes on the southeastern land.
”It's better we leave this messy place. Xuanyuan Nation isn't any better, and I'm thinking of going to Tiansha Nation during the True Martial Arts Meet. Now that we have this pass, we...”
”Wuji Nation it is.”
On year 0018, 23rd of September, a failed assassination attempt in Taiyuan Palace had caused complete mayhem in the whole capital, where city guards, imperial guards, and soldiers had fallen into a sea of fire and chaotic warfare. Within a few days, the streets were filled with tens of thousands of corpses, and the fight had extended to the western parts of the city. Red water flowed in rivers, and dead bodies surfaced continuously over many days.
It was a unique internal struggle, initially dominated by Qi Xunyi and then by the crown prince, who had retaliated and closed in on Fang Minghe's army. The crown prince's imperial guards had attacked, head on, and instantly robbed the upper hand. Just as he was about to gain victory, the enemy had received assistance from a powerful commander and a batch of highly skilled soldiers. Joining forces, they had managed to subvert the situation once again.
The changes were fast and extreme. Because of both intentional and unintentional variables, a potentially simple battle had turned into a lengthy one that stretched across the city, leaving citizens in a terrible situation.
Because of the frozen communication system, the news of the battle within the city did not immediately spread to the guards stationed in nearby cities, allowing Qi Xunyi's army to withdraw northward after the close match with the crown prince's troops. The latter wanted to surround the city and its surrounding land but dared not pursue. Qi Xunyi's army then continued up north, weapons pointed forward. Two months later, Qi Xunyi became an emperor in Ganzhou, a northern city in Taiyuan, and established the Shangyuan Nation. For three he reigned over the land of Qian, An, Huang, Gan, and Dingzhou. Taiyuan was no longer united.
The change shocked all seven nations, and influential powers had their eyes set on Taiyuan. A long time later, an insightful person analyzed the situation and came to realize that the biggest beneficiary was neither Qi Xunyi nor, more naturally, the unlucky crown prince of Taiyuan. It was the crown prince of Wuji Nation, known to act in ways that left everyone speechless.
It was because the land Qi Xunyi had conquered was located in the region between Wuji and Taiyuan, and also beside Xuanyuan. If Xuanyuan birthed plans to attack Wuji Nation, the former would need to go through this land. Now that the landowner had changed to someone who had had a feud with the regent of Xuanyuan Nation, the passage was practically off limits.
The battle of Taiyuan had occurred out of the blue, leading people to guess that someone must have instigated it. Those speculators fixed their attention, in trepidation, onto the core of the Five Region Continent.