Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Shangguan Yun had a grand dream that the Land of Fragrance occupied an important position. He envied the Dragon King’s good luck before he unexpectedly encountered that blessed country during his escape.
In his dream, Jade City was taken as the centre and the whole of the Western Region, from Shu-lik to the Loulan Kingdom, was merged together. Xiaoyao Lake was occupied as a transit, and the Land of Fragrance was used as the most stable area.
Shangguan Yun fled to the Land of Fragrance despite the danger. Persuading his sister to return was one reason to go. However, his most important reason for going was to see this land with his own two eyes.
What he saw on his way shocked him. The Land of Fragrance was, arguably, a place that was very habitable. It had large tracts of fertile and undeveloped land. Under the rule of the stupid nobles, its population was pitifully small.
The forests, high mountains and rivers were the Land of Fragrance’s best defense. From its position on the ground, it did not belong to the Western Regions. Only two roads were connected to it. One was located in the Northwest and to get to that, one had to cross the vast swamps and forests. The second road was the trail in Wushan.
Shangguan Yun did not plan to seal this road again. Instead, he was thinking about opening a smoother road. Bringing more people into the Land of Fragrance would allow the country to be populous within two or three generations. It could then provide the Golden Roc Fort with an endless supply of soldiers. Only then would the Western Region be able to compete with the Norland and the Central Plains.
Shangguan Ru did not have a chance to mention his grand dream to his sister, however.
Shangguan Ru was a changed man. His transformation was different than that of his Third Brother. From a gentle person who would have never thought of killing others — let alone using military weapons — to someone who was willing to jump into the deep abyss of an assassin, he never looked back.
However, Shangguan Ru had not changed at all — she was still fiercely ambitious. She had not realised it, but Shangguan Yun recognised it immediately.
The capital in the Land of Fragrance was governed well under her. The plants in the city were kept neat and trim and a great number of free spaces had become residential areas once again, having been given to former slaves. When Shangguan Yun arrived, she was organizing manpower to repair the city’s crumbling walls.
Shangguan Yun could see that his sister had inherited the traits of the Shangguan Family after all — she had the blood of a ruler, no matter time or place, rain or shine.
The disciples of the Ganju people were not worthy of the Shangguan name.
After the first meeting, Shangguan Yun knew that he would never be able to persuade his sister to leave.
Shangguan Ru was very happy to see her third brother, but was also quite shocked that he had decided to leave prison. She was direct about it, saying, “Third brother, you are betraying yourself.”
“Aren’t you, too?” he replied.
“I was young and ignorant. I did not think for myself. I didn’t care about betrayal,” she answered.
“Young and ignorant?” Shangguan Yun smiled and remembered his own youth. Though he might have been young, he was not ignorant. He already had his own ideas when he was thirteen. No matter who it was — the teacher Zhang Ji or the Supreme King — no one could persuade him to change his mind back then.
Therefore, he truly had betrayed himself, so much so that he felt a little sad sometimes. It was as if the old him had been killed. “You have already made up your mind?” he asked his sister.
Shangguan Ru nodded. She did not say what her idea was, and Shangguan Yun did not ask. He gave up trying to persuade her as a way of showing his respect for her. The two let go of their ambitions, and became just brother and sister again, talking about the past and their relatives and friends.
Shangguan Yun could walk freely in the capital. His arrival with the guards had aroused a commotion among the women. Shangguan Yun let his men do their own thing. He, himself, resisted all temptation, observing the local customs, and focused on making plans for the future.
Shangguan Yun made up his mind that he would conquer the Land of Fragrance at any cost. Initially, he wanted to launch a coup, but he gave up that idea. The situation had changed drastically since the Dragon King had come. The happenings in the capital quickly spread to Xiaoyao Lake. It would take only a small group of Dragon Army troops to surround him completely.
He did not want to lose right after he had gained the land.
Shangguan Ru was training the Dragon King’s Army, and Shangguan Yun knew it. However, he pretended that he did not take it seriously.
Then, something of coincidence happened. Several savages ran out of the forest on the northwest side to harass the residents on the outskirts of the city. Shangguan Ru had completed the preliminary training of several thousand female soldiers that she had been planning to send out. They were to drive the savages back into the forest and build fortifications on the edge of the forest as a long-term defense.
Shangguan Fei only saw a group of chirping women slashing around with crude and primitive knives, much like children playing games in the Stone Castle.
He did not think that this was the prototype of an army. Training swordswomen might have seemed unusual to others, but as for Shangguan Yun, it was perfectly normal.
Shangguan Yun left very quickly. Shangguan Ru’s training of the soldiers continued. She had become a little addicted. For she had not only cultivated a force that could defend the country, but had also achieved many of her goals, including getting the slaves and nobility to gel with each other. This greatly reduced the competition and jealousy amongst the women.
The strange thing was, both of these things were completely expected by Old Man Mu.
“This is the human heart,” Old Man Mu said, like a philosopher. After recuperating for a short time, his physical health became normal, but his skills did not recover beyond sixty or seventy percent. He was still a kung fu master, but he never regained the strength to cross the Western Regions again.
“Many people realise things in hindsight. The more capable they are, the more ideas they have. Like me, when my kung fu skills were weak, I sought out the masters. The higher my skills, the more temperamental I became. When I became invincible, I wanted to conquer the world. So, keep an eye on your female soldiers, and don’t let them become too strong,” he warned.
Shanggun Ru did not need Old Man Mu’s warning. After all, she could not teach high and sophisticated kung fu. She taught the female soldiers only the most basic sword skills, and abandoned all the training methods of the Golden Roc killers. She trained them hard in saber techniques, giving the women in the country something to do.
The women’s army increased in size.
Gu Shenwei supported the army whole-heartedly. He not only sent over fifty masters, but also sent many iron arrowheads. As for shortbows and arrow shafts, local materials were used to craft them.
Fifty of the archery masters were the savage guard troops of the Dragon King. Their arrival alone solved the problem of harrassment by the barbarians in the Northwest. After negotiating, both parties reached an agreement and set up a bazaar on the border. After ten days of exchanges, the Land of Fragrance acquired another batch of ready-made bows and arrows.
With the threat of invasion gone, Shangguan Ru kept training her women soldiers on the pretext of making them independent.
Old Man Mu sat in his prison with plenty of time to analyze every single action made by Shangguan Ru. Eventually, he pointed out Shangguan Ru’s real plan: “This is your way of keeping in touch with the Dragon King.”
The Dragon King already had a wife. Shangguan Ru had forgotten about that, but she was reminded by Old Man Mu. Suddenly, she could see her hidden expectations.
Training the women soldiers had become the main subject of her letters to Gu Shenwei. They were all simple like, “a woman shot 100 paces away today, and even if she did not hit the target sack, her strength was excellent.” Her letters never mentioned the number of soldiers or equipment.
Gu Shenwei’s replies were simple, as well. He would always describe the current situation on Xiaoyao Lake in a few sentences, and then casually mention the growing female army. He would drop bits of wisdom, such as “the archer is the first to seek far, and the leader is the second”.
Under Gu Shenwei’s commands, those letters had all been secretly transmitted and were mixed amongst other documents. Even if a few of the letters were stolen by spies, they would still not know the number of women soldiers, since that had been glossed over — in fact, they had increased to an alarming number.
In order to prevent people from leaking secrets unintentionally, Gu Shenwei also gradually reduced the passages leading into the Land of Fragrance and the delivery of materials. Only the most trusted people were allowed to travel.
Shangguan Ru kept all of Gu Shenwei’s letters. After getting reminded by Old Man Mu, she took them out again and looked at them alone. She took a small mouthful of wine after reading each letter. Soon, a smile emerged from the corners of her mouth. After reading all of them, she cried heartily, getting drunk until dawn.
Afterwards, she hid the letters securely and started fanatically devoting herself to her training.
The women of the Land of Fragrance were no longer emotional beings.
She began to think that the women she had trained would be used by the Dragon King on the battlefield sooner or later to take part in endless killings. Only Old Man Mu could help her clear her mind.
“You don’t have a choice. The Land of Fragrance is no longer a paradise. The Dragon King has been defeated and the Golden Roc Fort, Norland, and the Central Plain will fight to claim this territory. Their methods will be a hundred times worse than the Dragon King’s. You will lose your foothold, and the women you protect will be taken by the invaders. At that time, they will not be fighting for the Dragon King — they will be fighting for their own lives,” he explained.
Not only that, Old Man Mu also taught them the secrets of war games and stategies to arrange their troops. “These are things that I learned once upon a time. How you use them is up to you,” he told her.
Old Man Mu was meek and modest. Shangguan Ru even felt apologetic towards sorry for him sometimes. However, she hid her kindness and pity to prevent being tricked by him again.
Finally, Gu Shenwei decided to use the women troops, which had been kept secret from the entire Western Region.
From the start of the surprise attack, he suspected that Tuo Nengya’s troops were unable to keep any secrets at all. He, nor anyone else watching the situation unfold, ever imagined that the Dragon Army could be in a precarious position. Punishments and making alliances would not change anything now.
All he could do was to prepare his fortifications.
Gu Shenwei left, saying he was going to go track down the mole to take over the army. But in reality, he went to meet the women soldiers from the Land of Fragrance.
The total number of soldiers (more than 8,000) far exceeded his expectations. Even though there wasn’t much time for training and the soldiers were not fully primed, as long as they could keep the enemy out of close combat with their arrows, they would not lose to any of the male troops on the battlefield.
Gu Shenwei planned the route in detail. He sent out the vanguard to encircle the enemy troops after ordering the people of a tribal village not to leave their home for several days.
Finally, 7,000 troops reached the seaside slope.
Shangguan Ru did not come. She refused to join the war and meet the Dragon King at this time. She sent Old Man Mu, whose kung fu skills had decreased considerably, instead. “You are not allowed to kill anyone. Just protect the Dragon King’s safety,” she instructed him.
Old Man Mu suppressed his inner excitement and solemnly accepted the task.
Gu Shenwei had long learned of his rebirth in the letters, so he was not surprised . However, the first assignment he gave Old Man Mu involved killing. “Go with me to assassinate the enemy Commander,” Gu Shenwei ordered him.
Apart from stabilizing the morale of the army, the Dragon King was not very useful. Gu Shenwei thought, “why not display my own abilities?” He was a killer. That was a fact.
He knew that this decision would be opposed by the people around him and yet surprise the enemy.
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