The Demon Lords

Chapter 1027 - 242: Scheming Rivalry

At this moment, both inside and outside Xiayong City, it could be described as a storm brewing.

The county city guards have been fully mobilized, and simultaneously, a Chu army camp stationed nearby has sent out five thousand troops to approach;

Moreover, two squads of soldiers from the "Blue Luan Army," the private soldiers of the Qu Clan, are also heading here.

Below Jade Plate City, Lord Zheng transmitted orders for Tian Wujing, slaughtering forty thousand elite Blue Luan Army soldiers in one fell swoop. Zhuguai of Chu, Qu TianNan, also died by the Wang River, but even a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. Though the Qu Clan is undoubtedly greatly weakened, the remaining Blue Luan Army, alongside new recruits added in recent years, may be far from their peak combat strength, yet in Chu State, it is surely sufficient.

Additionally, other families like the Fan Family, who are slaves to the Qu Clan in the vicinity, have all received orders from the Qu Clan, with each family sending their private soldiers to converge on Xiayong City.

One Xiayong City is currently attracting tens of thousands of troops, like waves crashing from all directions against the lone reef.

The Mi Family, not a traditional aristocracy of Chu State, has produced close ministers of the Chu Emperor for two consecutive generations. The heads of the Mi Family for both generations grew up studying with the former emperor and the current generation’s princes. The current head of the Mi Family has been appointed by the Regent as the Minister of Revenue for Chu, managing the court’s finances.

Now, the eldest daughter of the Mi Family had her hand tendons severed.

And the Fourth Princess,

has gone missing.

Such events happening within Chu’s borders are enough to anger the royal family and the Qu Clan.

...

On the city wall of Xiayong City, a skinny old man sat cross-legged atop the battlement, beside him stood a knife-wielding general.

The skinny old man’s surname is Yuan, first name Gangtian; the young military general’s surname is Li, first name Mu.

Among the eastern four nations, after the current Yan Emperor ascended the throne, he suppressed religious forces nationwide, contrasting the previous emperor’s rule of "gods and buddhas everywhere" filled with chaos;

The Qian people have always revered Qi cultivators, believing those people can comprehend the mysteries of heaven, intrinsically profound;

The Jin people, due to the long-standing three-way Jin division, with the Helian family descending from wild people and the Wenren family advocating Confucianism, thus in Jin land, there’s no overwhelming cult;

Whereas the Chu people, believe in the shamans.

Yuan Gangtian is one of the twelve Witch Masters of Chu. These twelve Witch Masters aren’t divided by strength; in fact, the shamanism encompasses everything.

Witch culture originated in Xia early on, and shamans can survey, heal diseases, divine, channel luck, write books, and so forth. Therefore, the twelve Witch Masters of Chu are classified into twelve branches stemming from this original point of shamanism.

However, these branches already have new terms in other nations, no longer described using shamanism.

Additionally,

In the past, Shanyue people had their own shaman culture. When the Duke of Chu was tasked by the Xia Emperor to open the borders, the Chu people integrated and assimilated the Shanyue shaman culture into themselves, and this continued to develop, ultimately making shaman culture the sole mainstream faith of Chu.

Li Mu isn’t from a prominent family, in fact, like Nian Yao, he also comes from the Regent Mansion. He is currently the general of Congzhou City.

Congzhou City is located within the Qu Clan’s fiefdom and is a result of great aristocrats’ compromise with the royal family. The royal family permits great aristocrats to maintain their independence while they allow the royal family to station troops in their fief.

Thus, Li Mu’s duty is to monitor the Qu Clan.

But now,

All those matters can be set aside first, the immediate task is to find the princess.

The Fourth Princess and the Mi Family’s young mistress left the field headquarter early, planning to play freely before marriage.

The reigning empress dowager, also the regent and the mother of the Fourth Princess, sympathized with her daughter about to marry, therefore choosing to ignore this.

The Chu nation’s ethos differs from Qian; although not as bold as Yan women riding horses and shooting bows, it also hasn’t reached the point of Qian women being entirely bound by etiquette.

Chu people, are fond of romance.

However, the incident has occurred; someone seized the princess right under the nose of a group of guards.

Li Mu sighed,

unconsciously reaching to touch the handle of his knife.

Yuan Gangtian smiled faintly, saying:

"Troubled?"

"Mm." Li Mu directly admitted.

In his view, a woman, even though she is a princess, is lost, then she’s lost; it’s not worth mobilizing forces like this, and it even requires him, the general of Congzhou, to specially come for the search.

Yuan Gangtian shook his head, not bothering to tell Li Mu to change this temperament, because possibly what the Regent appreciates is precisely Li Mu’s temperament.

The world believes that Nian Yao, young as he is, being appointed marshal to guard Town South Pass is due to the Regent’s trust, yet Yuan Gangtian knows Li Mu’s favor is no less than Nian Yao’s.

"Our Chu royal family are descendants of the Phoenix. Though not like the Yan people, who still breed Pixiu through generations, our Chu palace houses Fire Phoenix blood.

Each generation’s core royal members are fortunate to be bestowed this blood."

Upon hearing this, Li Mu disdainfully replied, "Useless things."

He had once asked the Regent if the Fire Phoenix blood could strengthen the physique or bolster vitality?

The Regent’s answer was no, it only creates a flame-like mark on the arm, which never fades in a lifetime.

Since then, Li Mu has been dismissive of any Fire Phoenix blood.

Yuan Gangtian spread his hand, revealing a tiny bat in his palm, slowly spreading its wings, bearing its fangs, as its tiny eyes glowed with dark green light.

"This is the black bat I have carefully nurtured, extremely spiritual. Unfortunately, the Fire Phoenix bloodline of our Chu is long severed, needing to rely on such sub-species retaining a trace of Fire Phoenix bloodline for reproduction."

Speaking,

Yuan Gangtian spread another palm, saying:

"General Li, lend me the knife."

Li Mu drew the knife, then sheathed it.

Yuan Gangtian’s palm was sliced open with a bloody wound.

"Whew..."

Yuan Gangtian’s lips quivered slightly.

"What happened?" Li Mu asked.

Yuan Gangtian squinted his eyes, biting his jaw slightly, saying:

"It would’ve been enough to just create a small cut on my finger."

Li Mu showed no trace of guilt, simply saying, "Mention it sooner next time."

Yuan Gangtian, helplessly, turned his palm downward, letting blood drip onto the black bat, while silently chanting shaman incantations.

The fur on the black bat began to reveal a transparent bright color, not glowing, but its fur instantly became exceedingly refined, its energy revitalized.

"Go, find the Fire Phoenix’s aura."

The black bat flew off Yuan Gangtian’s palm and soared into the sky.

Li Mu watched the bat fly away and asked, "So now, we just wait?"

Yuan Gangtian, feeling some pain, took out the Healing Ointment and began to apply it to his palm, saying:

"You all should search in your usual ways, while I have my own methods. The black bat is just one way. The other is to use the divination methods of the shaman to predict the outcome.

The Fourth Princess is part of the Chu royal family after all, and her destiny should be clear enough to deduce something."

Li Mu nodded, replying, "Isn’t this how you helped Nian Yao back then?"

When the Chu emperor passed away, many Chu princes competed for the throne.

Under the Fourth Prince, Nian Yao led the royal guard loyal to the Fourth Prince to quell the rebellion, capturing three princes in succession. One of them even hid among the Shanyue people but was not spared.

Li Mu knew that behind such swift and targeted military maneuvering, there was surely external assistance.

For instance, the method being used now to search for the Fourth Princess; if Nian Yao had a Witch Master assisting him then, constantly capturing key figures to quickly quash rebellion, it would naturally make sense because those princes were surely granted Fire Phoenix essence.

Yuan Gangtian began to calculate and murmured incomprehensible incantations.

Li Mu held his knife, standing quietly beside this Witch Master.

The evening wind blew over the walls of Xiayong City, bringing the chill of winter.

...

In the small spring-filled courtyard of Fan Mansion,

An old woman sat there, her expression alternating between glee at others’ misfortune and anxiousness.

In the separate courtyard of the main room where the family head resided, Fan Zhengwen sat inside, facing Weng Canghai, sipping tea.

Currently, more than half of the servants and younger generations of the Fan Mansion had gone out to join the search for the princess. As Xiayong’s first family, the Fan Family had also mobilized the city’s grain stores to prepare supplies for the arriving troops from all directions.

These, the Fan Family was supposed to do.

Of course, they also did things they weren’t supposed to do.

"Family head, I’ve heard that the Chu royal family possesses the bloodline of the Fire Phoenix."

Fan Zhengwen nodded,

turning to look towards the direction of the warm room.

Weng Canghai asked in a low voice, "Will she make a move?"

Fan Zhengwen smiled and said:

"It’s like doing business; whoever is unwilling to let go will end up entangled and incur losses."

Weng Canghai stroked his long beard, pondering, then said:

"In the end, placing the princess in the Fan Mansion like this is not secure."

"Things happened suddenly, there was no choice; she must be placed in the Fan Mansion."

Fan Zhengwen paused, continuing:

"Once on board, there’s nothing to hold back or let go. In the worst-case scenario, I can trouble Mr. Weng to come with me and my wife to Jin."

He could completely abandon the family business because he had a retreat. As long as Ji Chengjue could inherit the throne in the future, he still had a great hope of returning and at that time, could earn an even bigger family business.

He was willing to let go, truly willing; first to lose, then to gain.

But in the small warm courtyard room,

The old woman ultimately did not gain anything in this silent confrontation with her grandson,

She began to extend her hand,

to conceal the "heavenly mandate" above Fan Mansion,

Because, just now,

She sensed someone using the deducing method extending towards here.

...

Meanwhile,

habitually sitting on the rooftop, with the mentality of taking advantage of the wealthy, A Ming was still drinking wine.

He Chunlai and Chen Daole did not continue to accompany him; they were on guard, standing by the two entrances of the Qingfang Room. However, guarding or not made no difference.

A Ming drank alone, feeling a bit lonely.

Until he saw a bat flying from the sky in his line of sight.

A Ming waved,

but the bat ignored him, seemingly sensing something, and began to circle above the Fan Mansion.

A Ming was displeased,

revealing his fangs,

uttering a faint low growl,

The next moment,

the bat shivered, surprisingly showing a hint of sycophancy and fear in its eyes,

descending from the air,

landing on A Ming’s shoulder.

A Ming reached out and petted the bat’s head,

whispering:

"Good."

————

Good night.