Experienced casanovas hated to be cheated by women the most, while businessmen found paying even a penny more than what they should the hardest thing to bear. As for officials, they kept complaining about how no one came looking for them after they left their posts. Basically, everyone hated to lose out in their area of expertise.
As such, it was not hard to understand why Fang Wenshi, the military counselor of the Great Snowmountain, was furious at the betrayal of the Golden Roc Fort and its decision to restart the war; it was actually his plan. When he was still waiting for his side to gather more support in the Central Plains, the Supreme King was already one step ahead of him, and what a huge step it turned out to be.
As he kept getting news everyday about the Golden Roc Fort taking over more and more territory, Fang Wenshi’s feelings turned from rage to pain then panic. Just like Zhong Heng, he had just tasted the sweetness of a luxurious lifestyle; he finally got his hands on the things that he had been coveting all along—tasty food, good clothes and women. Now, he wanted more of those things and would not give in so easily.
As the might of the Golden Roc Fort grew by the day, Fang Wenshi started to have other thoughts. No matter what, he was no longer just a face in the crowd—he had performed well in Shu-lik and won the debate in Jade City. He was certain that even if the Dragon King was removed, there would still be other discerning potential masters looking to hire a great counselor such as himself.
As such, he waited and even tried to enlighten himself that being placed on house arrest by the Golden Roc Fort was a form of training; if he survived it, he could even brag about the experience to outsiders in the future.
He started to be more focused on his bearing and began doing things such as waking up on time, taking real care of his attire and making sure his hair and beard were properly combed. He purposely stood in his yard in a scholarly manner and recited the classics loudly with scroll in hand, making a show of his exceptional calmness and serenity in the face of danger.
Unfortunately, the two machetemen from the Golden Roc Fort sent to watch over him were uncouth and ignorant. Not only could they pick up the hints, they felt that he was being overly noisy. They managed to bear with his show for one day before drawing their long-sabers on the next day and using them to request the scholar to keep quiet roughly.
Fang Wenshi firmly believed in the theory that it was never too late for revenge and returned to his quarters, silently reprimanding the two uncouth guards. He dreamed that the Supreme King would come personally to his humble abode to persuade him to join the Golden Roc Fort. He would steadfastly refuse the Supreme King’s offer thrice before ‘reluctantly’ forsaking his old master. At that time, the first thing he would do was to teach the unruly machetemen a lesson.
Beyond his expectations, it was not the Supreme King but news that the Dragon King and the entire Great Snowmountain army had been decimated that came to Fang Wenshi; he could only lament his untimeliness.
The situation was even worse than what he had imagined. No formidable character came to snatch up his services, and he was forgotten. Even the two machetemen who were supposed to watch over his house seemed to feel that it was unnecessary to keep him under house arrest. They called their friends over for merrymaking everyday, treating the place they were supposed to be guarding as an entertainment venue.
Fang Wenshi was beyond enraged at this point in time. He could not focus on his books and kept pacing back and forth in his room while cursing the Golden Roc Fort and the Supreme King creatively. He kept talking about how he would do this or that ‘one day’ but deep inside his heart he knew that the Dragon King was a remarkable character and it was only with him that he could possibly realize his ambitions.
On the 10th day after the Dragon King was ‘killed’, Xu Xiaoyi used bribes to sneak the military counselor out.
Xu Xiaoyi did not like to study and it was a stretch to call him literate, but he had a sharp nose for danger; it was similar to how a seasonal bird could sense the drop in temperature even when the wind still felt warm. He had hid a huge amount of bank notes just as the Golden Roc Fort began spreading rumors that the Dragon King had broken the ceasefire agreement.
Xu Xiaoyi was extremely devious and covered his tracks so well that no one could discover any trace that the bank notes belonged to the Dragon King.
The Golden Roc Fort did spend some effort searching the little man managing the Dragon King’s money, but they came up with nothing. As more and more news of their side’s victories came, the importance of the Great Snowmountain gradually diminished, and so did the attention spent on Xu Xiaoyi.
He kept his channels of communcation open and was still constantly kept updated on the latest happenings. It was due to this fact that he did not believe the news of the annihilation of the Great Snowmountain troops.
After sometime, Xu Xiaoyi no longer felt as safe in Jade City as before. The Supreme King’s success had dazzled the citizens of both North and South City; everyone was eagerly hoping to be part of the celebrations once he had managed to secure the Western Region. Even though Xu Xiaoyi was no longer an important person, it was still possible that someone would still sell him out to win the Supreme King’s favor.
He had to flee.
After much hesitation, Xu Xiaoyi decided to rescue Fang Wenshi. He did not like the military counselor as he felt that the latter was only capable of empty talk and a money-grubber, not to mention that he took advantage of his sister. If he did not believe that the Dragon King was still alive, the only reason he would be willing to spend any money on Fang Wenshi was to bribe his guards to finish him off.
The entire matter went very well and the two machetemen could not wait to receive their payment and be rid of their ‘burden’. They let him go and informed their superiors that the prisoner had hung himself.
No one bothered to perform an inspection; the Dragon King was already history, what more his lackey.
“Sigh, leave me be. The Dragon King is already dead, as is my heart. Even if there will be other heroes again in this world, no one will ever get any advice from me again,” Fang Wenshi said.
In truth, he was just reading from a script as the ideal master he was dreaming of had not turned up.
During this time, they were already fleeing Jade City in the same carriage. Xu Xiaoyi did not understand what the military counselor was muttering about but he knew that the money was in his hand and thus by default, so was the authority. “Spout less nonsense, Fang. The Dragon King is not dead yet; you needn’t be threatening to commit suicide now.”
“The Dragon King is not dead yet? How do you know?” asked Fang Wenshi, his eyes suddenly gleaming. He brushed off the younger man’s harsh tone.
“Isn’t that simple. I’ve gathered information that the news of the Dragon King’s death came from Dugu Xian, but he hasn’t even seen the corpse of the Dragon King yet. I guess that he made it up out of fear of being punished by the Supreme King. You’ve only known the Dragon King for a short while. If you understand Brother Huan as well as I do, you’ll know that he’ll definitely not be found dead in a snowstorm; even if the others really perished, he’ll survive and appear suddenly one day to scare you.”
Fang Wenshi was not really convinced by Xu Xiaoyi’s deduction but it came as a consolation to him. “If the Dragon King is really alive, it’s ok even if he scares me till I faint.”
Xu Xiaoyi was increasingly being irritated by Fang Wenshi’s mannerisms and started to regret rescuing him out. “Fang, let me remind you that when we arrive at our destination you have to behave yourself; you’re not allowed to flirt with my sister ever again,” he said.
Everyone realized that there was not much land surrounding Jade City that was not under the Golden Roc Fort’s control. As such, Xu Xiaoyi had made plans to travel to the Stone Kingdom; not only was his sister, Xu Yanwei, there, there was a small faction there that was still on the Dragon King’s side.
Fang Wenshi was of different opinion. He was not concerned about Xu Yanwei; she was a rather beautiful woman, but women were not a priority for counselors. He did not want them to go to the small Stone Kingdom; he wished to keep traveling eastward and seek refuge once they were within the Central Plain’s sphere of influence.
Naturally, Xu Xiaoyi was no match for the military counselor in a debate but he remained steadfast in sticking to one principle no matter how convincing or logical Fang Wenshi sounded: that he was helping to keep the bank notes on behalf of the Dragon King and he would not give away a single tael of silver.
Fang Wenshi had nowhere to go to without money. Thus, he could only try to persuade and tempt Xu Xiaoyi patiently. He could not stop talking; he tried everything, from discussing about the situation in Western Region to what was fun in its eastern part. They traveled in this manner until they arrived at Shuangquan Village. They then traversed across the desert and managed to sneak into the capital of the Stone Kingdom under the cover of night after bribing some of the soldiers in the coalition forces who were besieging it.
It was only at this point in time that Fang Wenshi abandoned his original plan of seeking refuge in the Central Plain.
Power in the capital of the Stone Kingdom belonged to Zhong Heng. Fang Wenshi was acquainted with him and had a somewhat good impression of the Prime Minster, but he was extremely unconvinced that the latter suddenly became a trusted follower of the Dragon King. His discontent showed in his speech, and this led to their relationship becoming very tense for a while; eventually, after Xu Yanwei acted as mediator, they toned it down and remained cordial with other, albeit superficially.
Xu Yanwei was very pleased at the appearance of her brother; they had finally realized their original dream of leaving the soul sucking pit that was South City and were now in the Stone Kingdom.
She too did not believe that the Dragon King was already dead. In fact, her belief in Gu Shenwei’s survival was even stronger than her brothers. “The Dragon King is inhuman; he’s like a devil sent by the King of Hell himself to our world to act as the Grim Reaper. How could he die?”
If anyone asked her how she knew the Dragon King was inhuman, she would reply mysteriously and softly, “Have you seen any ordinary man that doesn’t love the company of women? Especially women like me? He’s like that, even though he’s perfectly normal. Don’t ask me how I know that. I just know that he is. Why do you suppose he can never be seduced by a woman? Because he’s a demon.”
She said ‘demon’ in a respectful manner; this made her look exactly like a witch with bad intent.
Zhong Heng was extremely angry with her, but it was hard for him to put on the air of a Prime Minister in her presence as he used to be her customer and she knew him inside out. Furthermore, the witch-like Xu Yanwei was unexpectedly popular in the Stone Kingdom; the citizens were suffering from the siege and were looking forward to any sort of supernatural power that could aid them. Even if the Dragon King was a devil, he could also be worshipped by them at this point in time.
Zhong Heng was more farsighted and thus politely requested Xu Yanwei to change her choice of words from ‘the King of Hell’ and ‘devil’ to ‘Buddha’ and ‘Arhat’ respectively.
“How could the Dragon King be a reincarnated Arhat? He always looks as if someone owes him something. Obviously… alright, alright, I’ll listen to you once.” Xu Yanwei made some amendments to the story but she was much less enthusiastic about spreading it around now.
She did something big next.
The defenders were getting increasingly fatigued and their despair over their future led them to promote another theory amongst themselves. “Who’re we fighting for exactly? The Prime Minister is not from here and none of the people he trusts are important officials of the Stone Kingdom. Where are the king and the princess? Why do we never see them around? Could it be that they’ve already secretly been killed?”
It would be catastrophic to allow such a rumor to continue propagating, but it would not be hard to stop it. All it took was for the king to appear at the castle walls and let everyone see him. This would prevent the morale of the defenders from falling for a while more.
The king of the Stone Kingdom, however, rejected the request without hesitating. “I’ll never leave the royal palace, even by a single step,” he said.
In reality, he limited his activities to only two places—the main hall and sleeping quarters of the royal palace. There were less than 10 people whom he trusted, and everytime he met the Prime Minister, there was undisguised deep hatred in his gaze; the royal seal was still with Zhong Heng.
Zhong Heng could force the King out of the palace, but doing so could very backfire against him. It became a tricky problem for him.
Xu Yanwei was one of the very few people who could come in and out of the palace freely. She spent most of her time accompanying the princess and told her all sorts of stories, hoping that the princess would have a good impression of the Dragon King, but instead, it made her more afraid of him.
That said, the princess really loved and depended upon Xu Yanwei; she would accede to all of the latter’s demands.
“The Stone Kingdom belongs to your brother now, but it’ll belong to the offspring of you and the Dragon King in the future. If your brother doesn’t care about the safety of the capital, you should appear before the people. Come on, it’s just making one round in the city—it’s not difficult at all,” Xu Yanwei said to the princess without discussing with Zhong Heng in advance.
It was an extremely tough decision for the princess to make. She grew up in Jade City and did not socialize much during her time there. The moment she returned back to her homeland, she was placed under house arrest and got to meet with even lesser people. As such, asking her to suddenly appear in front of tens of thousands of people was akin to taking her life.
That said, she still agreed to Xu Yanwei’s request. Just like when she agreed to marry the Dragon King, she accepted to undertake this very difficult task with the attitude that she was sacrificing herself for her nation.
The results turned out to be unexpectedly good, so much so that even Zhong Heng was surprised.
As far as citizens of the Stone Kingdom were concerned, the Princess was a mysterious character. Her public appearance satiated all of their intense curiosities, and her beauty, elegance and warmth made them feel valued; they were certain that they were fighting for her now.
The Princess’s fear quickly dissipated amongst the cheers and adulation of the crowd. It was also from this day on that she started to treat herself like a real princess, and Xu Yanwei was her only trusted follower.
Fang Wenshi managed to stay near the Princess because of his status as a military counselor. His heart was beating incredibly fast and he was uncharacteristically silent. All he could think of was: “Now this is a woman, a real woman, the kind that can really cause a counselor’s willpower to waver.”
That said, he knew that he had to maintain proper etiquette and changed his mind; he could not bring himself to make an improper move toward the future wife of the Dragon King. Now, he had a goal to fight for like the rest of the commoners and he treated the defense of the capital of the Stone Kingdom as an important task which he had to put in a lot of effort for.
Therefore, when Zhong Heng was pressured into a negotiation with the coalition forces, Fang Wenshi and the Xu siblings were unhappy and decided to start a coup and strip the Prime Minister of his power.