LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

They had realised that the moment the Emperor had stepped foot in this place, the rain had stopped and there wasn"t a single drop of rain from then on. Usually, most of the soldiers in their kingdom are superst.i.tious and believed a lot of sentiments. At first they were skeptical about the Emperor"s presence because there was a firm belief that the presence of the Emperor in the battlefield will bring disasters with the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor as the exception.

But this Emperor who is said to be coronated by the G.o.d of Wind himself seems to be different and has good fortune following him. They really felt good about the battle tomorrow.

If the Emperor knew of the thoughts of the soldiers, he"d have corrected them and explained them it was all because of the Empress and she was the harbinger of good luck.

Women weren"t allowed in the battlefield and Xing was asked to be in the tent for her own safety by Minister Zai who had followed them to be here. He cannot stay in his comfortable home when the Emperor is at the war zone. He explained Xing that some of the soldiers won"t be pleased to have a woman there even if it was the Empress and Xing agreed to keep her presence little because she knew that the entire place is so tense and even little misunderstanding may lead to bigger issues when everyone is wound up by the tricky conditions here. The last thing she needs is an upheaval of the troops now.

Xing and Chu Weiye along with Bai Li were in her tent dining and Bai Li oddly was showing his att.i.tude towards Weiye surprising Xing. Weiye was treated as the servant to both Xing and Bai Li. Back with Ayane and Yukiko, he was not this indifferent. Then she remembered that this old fox might be discriminating because she is not of royal descent and also she is of Chu family who had cheated the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor himself.

Xing shared the birds nest soup they had specially prepared for her with Chu Weiye. In fact Xing gave the entire bowl to Weiye as she felt like she was a cute little bird herself. She wasn"t that arrogant like her father who would not finish a sentence without bragging about himself. She was modest, polite and gentle, smart and witty. A good combination to have for a lady.

After dinner, Xing asked Weiye to stay with her and she agreed and went out to ask her father"s permission while Xing stayed inside the tent and the Emperor visited her along with Seiren, stealthily. Apparently other men cannot be seen inside the Empress" tent. Xing looked around her to see, all men.

How pitiful am I to have only men around me! Even my maid is male fox taking the form of a female!

Seiren told her that tomorrow"s plan will include activating the trap. The trap is a deep and long underground tunnel that had been dug previously in the shape of a horseshoe, supported by wooden blocks to prevent from caving in. There is a mechanism that had to be activated in three places- two at the at the ends of the curve and one at the curve closer to them, at same time for the tunnel to cave in.

How they could use the trap is that during battle, a portion of their Wind Kingdom"s soldiers will pretend to retreat and run back towards their camp and the enemies will follow them to kill them and at the same time another set of the Wind Soldiers will emerge from under the tunnels and cover the back side of the enemies.

When the last soldier from the tunnel gets out, the trap will be activated and by that time, the wind soldiers who are retreating will be on the safer side crossing the tunnels and the enemies will fall inside the trap. There sure will be stampede when they try to turn back but their back will be already covered by the wind soldiers and the enemies will be entirely trapped and can be eliminated easily.

Xing saw the mechanisms that will collapse the tunnel and wondered if those will be in good condition after so many years. But Seiren a.s.sured her that they had checked it right before the war started and it will be fine.

Xing asked BaiLi if their plan would work and he just shrugged, "I still don"t understand why you are not entering the battlefield yourself", he asked Xing. With her skills with the sword and abilities to manipulate wind, she can win the war single-handedly. He has seen that with the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor and she is more powerful than him!

"I want the strength of our army to be known to others so that they won"t mess with us often", she answered.

If others get the notion that the war was won by a single person, in case something happens to that person, they will be under the impression that the Wind Kingdom is open to attack and there will be needless disturbances. Also, their military needs to show the results of their training and work for the benefits they receive too. They cannot be made to become lazy bags of rice.

For a country to succeed, everyone must do their part. No kingdom should be dependant on a single person or a single family in entirety.

The Emperor advised Seiren to brief the soldiers not to kill anyone once they surrender. If the trap thing works, they will hold the life of every member of the tribes and the last thing they should do is genocide. Xing agreed with his idea too. Even if it is war, they cannot eliminate entire tribes. That would be too excessive and heartless.

Discussing the battle plans, Xing almost forgot about Chu Weiye and when she remembered, she asked if she returned and she got worried when she hadn"t returned yet.

"Oh, No! I was the one who was supposed to be violated tonight!", Xing panicked and searched for her outer coat and obviously it was missing.

Why did that girl wear my coat? Xing chided Weiye.

"Milord!", Seiren was utterly confused by what she said. Did she say... Violated?

"She is wearing my coat...they"ll think it is me!", Xing confused them more, "Kouki, give me your sword", she said while plucking the double sword from his hands and ran out. Thankfully she was not wearing her night clothes but her crimson attire that is comfortable to fight with because she had a premonition that s.h.i.+hong would definitely go this route to beat her. He would be c.o.c.ky since the last time she met him, she was easy to beat and he would expect the same now too.

Mistreating women, mainly gang **** is s.h.i.+hong"s modus operandi. After p.i.s.sing him off, he would definitely try to do the same to her especially since she is the lover of Chenglie and also made him believe that she abandoned Chenglie for the Empress position. So s.h.i.+hong would definitely bring her down by making her go through the utmost humiliation one can give a woman and once that happened, her Empress position would be taken from her too.

And that tribal leader who was attacked by Mo Chen, he belonged to the Baitu Tribe who violated the women of the tribes they conquer. By humiliating him, he would try to retribute too.

Since both of them are working together, they will arrive to this conclusion obviously as it would affect the reputation of the entire kingdom also.

But they had no chance to attack on the way and Lin Mubai had informed that they were closely following them and so Xing knew they will attack her tonight and that"s why she was dressed to fight.

But why the h.e.l.l did Weiye get trapped? And where might she be? She cannot be let to suffer! I had promised to protect her!

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Meanwhile in an abandoned building just outside the military encampment, Weiye was kept with her limbs bound and her face covered in a cloth bag. A big bundle of cloth was stuffed inside her mouth so that she cannot make any noise.

When she was about to leave the Empress" tent, she saw the outer coat that was made with exquisite silk with a beautiful phoenix embroidered and she had an urge to wear it. She will return soon and so it won"t matter if she borrows it for a while, right?

But the moment she stepped out of the tent, she was. .h.i.t in the back of her head and when she came to, she was here all tied up.

Weiye could hear the lecherous smiles of a group of men who spoke different language and she could feel their perverted gazes on her even when she cannot see them.

Chenglie was the one who transported her here and in one glance he could say that was not Xing but he was in a serious dilemma, if he should tell the truth or not.

If he tells the truth, his woman would be the one in danger.... He contemplated for a while... If it was before, he wouldn"t have given a d.a.m.n about this woman but now he felt like he must help this woman because his woman will like it. She doesn"t like when women are mistreated. So he decided to save this woman.

But even if he tells the truth now, these perverts won"t let her go and he cannot fight against them because then he would risk his relations.h.i.+p with s.h.i.+hong. The only way out of this situation is to let Xing arrive here and let her take the reins. She will save this woman and also capture these men too.

But time is an important factor and how could he inform Xing of their location?

While Chenglie was contemplating, one of the men walked towards Weiye....