Marquis Of Grand Xia Chapter 82: Grand Xia"s Crisis (draft)
The news of Heaven"s Gate being breached struck the empire like a bolt of lightning. Once again, the Lady Strategist played a frighteningly important role in that operation. Given how hard the Mongolians were driven into a corner by the three military marquis, even going so far as forcing them to Heaven"s gate, no one expected such an astonishing reversal.
The timing of the young officer"s breakthrough was just too coincidental, it was so coincidental it even sent shivers down one"s spine.
The realm of Xiantian wasn"t something you could put off long term; even delaying it by for a short period of time was a momentous task.
In light of that, was it truly a coincidence?
The Mongols who had been driven into a corner just so happened to have such good fortune and ended up breaking free as a result. Not only that, they even managed to completely shut out the three military marquis. Naturally, no one in the world would believe that explanation; how could there be such a frightening coincidence?
Even a fool would notice the strangeness in that explanation but no one was able to figure out where the problem laid.
In the entire Mongol army, only one person knew the truth and that person wasn"t even the young officer who was himself, kept in the dark most of the time.
Heaven"s gate was the number one fortified pa.s.s in the Central Plains. With its unique terrain, it was a natural fortress that made it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Fan Lingyue had already woken up some time ago but was decided to wait for the perfect chance, a chance where she could breach this impregnable fortress without losing any troops.
The reasons why she chose to hide herself till now was firstly, to give Grand Xia a false impression that they were weakened. Secondly, she wanted to wait for the Eternal Night Cult to make their move.
The Cult and the Mongols were inextricably tied together with a rope for now. Should the Mongols be defeated,the Eternal Night Cult would have to face the full brunt of Grand Xia"s fury alone. Thus, the Eternal Night Cult would undoubtedly pay any price to have her recover.
Within the Eternal Night Cult, there were numerous master physicians and miraculous pills, but there was only one surefire way to awaken her.
The Divine Heavens Pill!
Similar to the Xiantian Pill exclusive to Grand Xia"s Imperial City, the Divine Heavens Pill was a sacred medicine exclusive to the Cult. In fact, it was even more precious than the Xiantian Pill.
The Eternal Night Cult"s legacy spanned the ages and exceeded the imaginations of the ma.s.ses. Yet even with their vast foundations, the amount of Divine Heavens Pills they had could be counted on one hand.
At that moment, what she really needed was a Divine Heavens Pill to help her break down the invincible defenses of Heaven"s Gate.
As expected, the Cult didn"t betray her expectations and had said Pill delivered to them by one of their generals. However, the one to take that pill wasn"t her, but rather it was the young officer who constantly accompanied her, Yang Hong.
Yang Hong had been with her for seven years, thus he was a worthy candidate for the pill. In fact, he had to be the one to take the pill.
He had been stuck at the Peak of Ninth-grade for a long time but showed signs of breaking through. All he needed was an opportunity which came in the form of that pill. With the power of that divine pill aiding him, he managed to ascend as expected.
In order to inflict the maximum amount of damage on Grand Xia, she had Yang Hong forcefully suppress the signs of his breakthrough. While it wasn"t possible to do so for long, seven days was within the acceptable limits. In a sense, the arrival of the three military marquis was really timely.
Her plan proceeded without a hitch and the three military marquis were shut outside of Heaven"s gate. With that, Grand Xia"s might was immediately cut in half and all she had to do now was completely crush the other half in the shortest time possible. If she could do so, it wouldn"t be long before the thousand year empire of Grand Xia fell.
It was a shame that Grand Xia"s internal rebellions were swept clean by the Xia Emperor while she was unconsciousness. Had it not been for that, the current situation would tilt even more in her favor.
Speaking of which, Ning Chen had already foiled a number of her schemes. Thankfully, he was dead.
Without that variable mucking things up, her subsequent plans would proceed a lot smoother.
……
Within Pingyue Plains of the Mongolian Empire, a couple of figures could be seen dashing through the open plains one after the other. Neither was in a rush and both had an expression as calm as still water.
"With the Heavenly Bible, Divine Pond and the Revolving Heaven Pill"s effects inside of you, do you even need that thing?" Prince Yan flatly asked as he continued leading the way.
"Force of habit. Besides, with a trump card like this, it would be a waste if I didn"t exploit it. There"s no rush to abandon it now." Answered Ning Chen in an offhand manner as he sat atop his wheelchair.
"Plots and schemes are nothing but petty tricks in the end." Prince Yan frowned as he reminded the teen.
"Hah." Ning Chen gave a light laugh and said no more. He was no Prince Yan and couldn"t simply overwhelm everything with his power. Until he could do so, plots and schemes were indispensible.
"Senior, where are we headed to?" Asked Ning Chen a moment later.
"I"m not sure, for now we are just taking a stroll."
"How about we pay a visit to the capital of the Mongol Horde then?" Ning Chen suggested after giving it some thought.
"Alright."
After that simple discussion, the pair changed direction towards the capital of the Mongols.
In truth, the northern territories held by the Mongols weren"t small, it was just that the majority of their lands were either empty plains or deserts. Adding to that problem, the climate was cold and the region lacked natural resources. That was why the Mongols were so poor.
In the past seven years, the situation in the Mongolian Empire had improved considerably under Fan Lingyue"s governance. However, when compared to its wealthy neighbor in the south, that bit of improvement wasn"t even worth mentioning.
It was said that the royal capital of the Mongols was a desert city with over a million citizens. It was the most prosperous and wealthy city in the empire.
"Senior, do you think the Golden Staff Grand Preceptor will leak the news of my survival?" Ning Chen asked in a soft voice tinged with worry.
"No, that moron doesn"t even recognize this Prince let alone you. Even though he might seem that shameless on the surface, in truth, he"s a person that really cares about his face. There"s no way he would even want to mention such an embarra.s.sing failure."
"That"s fine then." Ning Chen nodded his head upon hearing that. He still wanted to give Fan Lingyue an unpleasant surprise so the last thing he wanted was to be exposed now.
"Senior, what realm are you in now?" That was a question he really wanted to know the answer to.
"Peak of the Fourth Tribulations within the Five Tribulations realm."
Hearing that, Ning Chen unknowingly gasped. Such an impressive realm, to think that the senior was about to catch up to those five old monsters and become the sixth monster.
Compared to the senior, he found the geniuses of this world to be lacking. Even those so-called Pride of the Heavens seemed laughable before the senior, let alone a martial dunce like him.
Not only was he handsome, he was emotionally intelligent and fantastic in a fight as well. Being with a senior like that, one couldn"t help but be unhappy.
At that, his thoughts drifted to Ah Man. In this world, only she would claim that he was an adept fighter with a straight, adorable face.
"Ah Man is a wonderful girl, too bad she was grounded by the Man King." Prince Yan suddenly chimed in.
Hearing that, Ning Chen"s heart practically leapt into his throat. Exactly how did he figure out what he was thinking. This wasn"t the first time as well, could there really be a mind reading cultivation technique in this world?
Prince Yan said nothing more but merely continued being his handsome self.
Who knows what the situation was like in Grand Xia right now, Ning Chen sighed to himself in worry. Ever since they came to this G.o.d forsaken place, they hadn"t encountered another person for a long time.
Perhaps the only place they could gather news about the state of the war, would be in the capital.
Hopefully Grand Xia hadn"t been destroyed yet.
It wasn"t that Ning Chen wanted to doubt Grand Xia but rather, it was because that woman was simply too terrifying.
Furthermore, if even he managed to survive, then she definitely survived as well. There was no way a Peak of the Ninth-grade expert could be killed so easily.
That woman was simply too good at hiding her hand and to make matters worse, there was nothing she couldn"t twist to her purposes. That palm strike, had it not been for the scrolls protecting him, he would"ve lost his life long before the explosives blew him up.
Of the two Heavenly Scrolls he possessed, one had been shattered by Fan Lingyue while the other was shattered by his explosives. As of now, they were scattered haphazardly around his Qi Ocean and didn"t look like they could recover anytime soon.
After leaving Sword City, the senior then told him that what he had in his hands was the Scroll of Life, in other words, a page of the Heavenly Bible. Furthermore, that was the beginning page of the Heavenly Bible.
Back then, he was astonished by what he heard but thought nothing more of it soon after. Now, having been saved by the Heavenly Bible, he realized how useful these scrolls were. Not only could they function as a bulletproof vest, they could be used as a shield as well.
Hopefully the rest of the Heavenly Scrolls would end up in his possession.
However, hope was great and all but reality tended to be a lot grimmer. The senior also told him that two of the scrolls had already fallen into the hands of the Eternal Night Cult and if his memory served him well, this same cult had two Xiantians. Two Xiantians at the level of the Five Monsters. Thus, before he could even voice his wishes, they had already been shattered.
While he had a brush with death multiple times already and managed to escape each and every time, there wasn"t a doubt in his mind about what would happen if he tried to steal the Heavenly Bible from the cult. He would get slapped to death.
Just by looking at the Divine Child, one could tell how terrifying the experts of the Eternal Night Cult were.
The prince and Ning Chen continued travelling northward and after two days, finally arrived in a large settlement.
Looking around, they found the settlement to be unusually lively as if they were in the midst of some important event.
The prince wasn"t too interested in that but Ning Chen was. Turning his wheelchair around, he wheeled off in the direction of the crowd.
"Either way the sword rack is with me right now, if you"re that great, don"t follow me then."
No matter where one went, the handicapped were always well looked after. Thus after making it past a road of shoves and glares, he finally managed to squeeze his way to the front of the crowd.
Behind him, the prince calmly walked down the path cleared by the teen which was promptly closed up moments later.
In front of him was a wide open s.p.a.ce where a bunch of youngsters were in the midst of fighting over a wedding flower ball. Seeing that, his eyelids twitched and he immediately understood what was going on.
It was another matchmaking ceremony.
Ning Chen carefully wheeled himself backwards and used the prince as a shield for himself. Even now, he still had a trauma of matchmaking ceremonies.
The customs of the Mongols were rather liberal unlike that of Grand Xia. The lady in question was merely seated atop a tall platform in full view. She was slightly red in the cheeks but for the most part, she had a fair complexion.
"She seems like a fine match for the senior." Ning Chen quietly muttered to himself.
Just from her dressing alone, one could tell that she wasn"t an ordinary girl. She had to have been the daughter of some high ranking official in the settlement.
Given how handsome the senior was and how pretty the girl was, they were truly made for each other. A match made in heaven so to speak.
While his mind ran amok with its daydreaming, the fighting in the center had gotten even more frenzied. Wherever the wedding ribbon landed, the person who caught it would instantly receive a blackened eye and a crooked nose. Punching and kicking weren"t technically allowed but that didn"t stop people from "accidentally" hitting someone. Given the sheer number of people here, there was no way to discern one from the other.
The matchmaking ceremony naturally had a time limit. After all, they couldn"t just have them fight for that ball indefinitely. As time ticked by, signs of its impending end surfaced.
The reddish ball bounced from hand to hand, from boy to boy till finally, it flew towards Ning Chen.
And landed right in the hands of Prince Yan.
Ning Chen was stunned. High above the crowd, the girl beamed while down below, the crowd erupted in chatter…
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Footnotes:
Credits:
Special thanks to Kaung Thant Win Naing!!