Original and most updated translations are from volare. If read elsewhere, this chapter has been stolen. Please stop supporting theft.
Third Elder Qi’s joke was a clear sign to Long Feiye that Carefree City understood the situation at hand.
“Heheh, go back and ask your city lord for your lords.h.i.+p’s sake. See if he thought this turn of business was worthwhile!” Long Feiye said coldly.
“Alright. This one shall definitely pa.s.s on the word!” Third Elder Qi politely bowed with hands clasped before he left with his own group. Although many of its members were still displeased, they could only submit in the face of his authority.
Once they were gone, Qi Yaotian was the first to speak up. “Third uncle, are we going to let Long Feiye off just like that? His martial arts skills is already so formidable. If he gains the strength of the City of Daughters, wouldn’t he suppress our Carefree City in the future?”
Their city had accepted Long Feiye’s employment for the chance to eliminate the City of Daughters, but all that happened was the end of the Leng Clan. The strength of the city still stood, and now it was in the hands of a powerful player like Long Feiye. It was as if Carefree City’s compet.i.tor had switched to being Long Feiye himself. Whether or not this deal was worth it, Carefree City had suffered a serious blow.
“Do you think you can s.n.a.t.c.h it from him?” Third Elder Qi challenged back.
Qi Yaotian opened and closed his mouth a few times, speechless.
“If you can’t beat them, then submit!” Third Elder Qi concluded, smoothing his beard with a stern face. Seeing this, none of the others dared to object any further.
Despite his willingness to admit defeat, Third Elder Qi was harboring an acute sense of danger in his heart. Even now, he still felt like he was dreaming–as if the match between Long Feiye and Lady Leng Yue was naught but an unbelievable fantasy. Although Lady Leng Yue ranked behind Carefree City’s city lord in terms of strength, their actual levels were on par with each other. But Long Feiye’s display of might today was clearly superior to the woman. He couldn’t help but wonder how Long Feiye might fare if he was against Carefree City’s city lord today?
If Long Feiye had the skills to swallow up the City of Daughters, then he could do the same to Carefree City as well! They couldn’t let down their guard! Despite having no retorts, Qi Yaotian had already decided to find his father for a talk when they returned. They had to find Long Feiye and Han Yunxi’s weak spot. When he recalled how she had destroyed his poison giant bats, then extorted him for a vast amount of silver, he kept thinking of payback.
With both the jianghu and Carefree City people gone, only Long Feiye’s group was left before the gates. Han Yunxi remained seated in her carriage while Long Feiye held the reins of his horse in one hand and his sword in the other. He looked like Han Yunxi’s most loyal guard as he took step after step towards the city gates.
The various clan heads blocking the entrance immediately made way. They observed the slow progress of the horse carriage, their eyes s.h.i.+ning with increased respect towards Long Feiye and admiration for Han Yunxi. Compared to those “righteous heroes” from before, this husband and wife pair were the truly upright ones. Their bearing and manner were unrivaled.
Compared to the Leng Clan that they’d pledged undying loyalty to, they were more willing to devote themselves to the Duke of Qin and Qin w.a.n.gfei.
After entering the city, Long Feiye personally drove the carriage to the Leng Estate. Here was the heart of the city. Those in the family had either died or fled, leaving no one to surrender the house. Before the gates stood various factions from the City of Daughters, either clan heads or independent contract killers. Since they’d stayed behind, this meant that they were willing to pledge loyalty to new masters.
Long Feiye helped Han Yunxi off the carriage. Ignoring the crowd, he asked her, “What do you think of this house?”
“It’s the old house of some other family. I don’t like it,” Han Yunxi had a certain obsession with cleanliness too. She didn’t like second-hand goods.
“Fine!” Long Feiye immediately went to instruct his shadow guards. “Someone come, tear this down and rebuild it.”
Before the shadow guards could obey, the various other people milling about the entrance quickly vied to volunteer and help.
“Forget about it. Isn’t it a waste of talents to put you all into dismantling a house?” Han Yunxi laughed.
Once again, the people expressed that it would be their honor to do the job for Han Yunxi. A cold smile rose to her lips as she swept her icy gaze across the speakers. All of them shut up, not daring to voice a peep. Those gathered here were either clan heads or famous independent killers. They had experienced their own waves in life, but couldn’t read Han Yunxi’s thoughts. Long Feiye remained silent as he looked at Han Yunxi’s cold face with satisfaction. More and more, she’s gaining the bearing and poise of authority.
Finally, Han Yunxi spoke. Her words were frigid. “What, you iron maiden types know how to slap the horse’s a.s.s with flattery too? This w.a.n.gfei thought that a.s.sa.s.sins were supposed to speak with actions, not words!”
Hearing this, everyone felt awkward from the sneer. It was true, they were flattering them because they were terrified. His Highness Duke of Qin had gifted the entire City of Daughters to this woman, but they had no idea how she would rule over them, much less which clan or a.s.sa.s.sin she’d choose to support. All they could do was get in her good graces.
“There’s no need for such empty words with this w.a.n.gfei. I’ll like whoever shows me their mettle.”
In the ensuing silence, Han Yunxi walked up the steps to the estate until she was standing in front of the Leng Estate gates. There she proclaimed, “From this day on, the City of Daughters will stop all business taking a.s.sa.s.sination requests from outside! This w.a.n.gfei will restructure the city according to mercenary soldier ways. This w.a.n.gfei will raise you and teach you the poison arts, while you’ll only work in my service. Those who aren’t interested can leave right now. Those who are, stay behind!”
Hearing “mercenary soldiers” gave everyone in the crowd a thrill. Their blood boiled at the thought, but hearing “poison arts” made them even more excited. They exchanged glances with each other, each pleasantly surprised by the turn of events. No one left.
Actually, in their bone of bones, they wished to pledge allegiance to His Highness Duke of Qin. Most of them looked down on the woman who only knew poison and no martial arts. But they never expected her to say things like “mercenary soldiers.” Both the City of Daughters and Carefree City did business in a.s.sa.s.sinations. For a long time, they’d be working without enough jobs to go around. Their employers were getting more and more picky, while the commission fees were getting lower and lower. Both the Leng and Qi Clans had thought of raising mercenary soldiers to cultivate an army to strive for new means of survival.
After all, the only path for killers laid in killing for money.
Mercenary soldiers had wide prospects. They could accept all sorts of cash to challenge others in battle and change alliances with the tides. They could serve as the daring vanguard in a fight, collect intelligence and information, rescue hostages, or defend a work project, etc. Unfortunately, n.o.body trusted them to do anything besides murder. Neither mercenary soldiers from either city had ever gotten business. In the end, the project was disbanded.
But Han Yunxi could think of this solution as well! She was the mistress of the Duke of Qin’s estate and South Ning’s commander-in-chief’s headquarters! If she molded the City of Daughters into a mercenary army, they wouldn’t have to fret for customers!
This was amazing!
Everyone bowed with hands clasped before their chests to express their services to Qin w.a.n.gfei. This time, there was no flattery involved, but sincere wishes.
“You can all go back. Recruitment offers for the different combat branches will be publicized this afternoon. You can sign up as individuals or clan delegations. This w.a.n.gfei will be waiting for you.” Han Yunxi finished.
The crowd celebrated as they dispersed. Although the City of Daughters had been conquered by an enemy, none of them had suffered any losses besides the Leng Clan by its gates. Thus, there was no lingering enmity or grief amongst the populace. Instead, it seemed as if the city had been filled with fresh, new life.
Once everyone left, it was only the gap-mouthed shadow guards that remained. They knew their w.a.n.gfei was different from the rest and had extraordinary poison skills, but never expected a woman who didn’t even know martial arts to think up building an army. “Soldiers” were too out of the norm for her.
If His Highness Duke of Qin had taken the City of Daughters by martial arts, then esteemed w.a.n.gfei could be said to have subjugated its a.s.sa.s.sins’ hearts with her wisdom. Xu Donglin stood on one side. As one of the shadow guards trained in poison by Han Yunxi, he only numbered as one out of a dozen from her forces. But he had a presentiment that esteemed w.a.n.gfei’s forces would be enough to challenge His Highness Duke of Qin’s shadow guards one day!
“Esteemed w.a.n.gfei, what kind of combat branches are you planning to put together?” Xu Donglin couldn’t help his curiosity.
But Han Yunxi simply took out a notebook from her medical pouch and tore off a page, which she handed to Xu Donglin. “It’s all written down clearly here. Organize it a bit, then publicize the contents.”
Xu Donglin couldn’t believe it. Had esteemed w.a.n.gfei prepared this all ahead of time?
That wasn’t the case. Han Yunxi had always been preparing to raise an army. She had been dispatched into the African jungles a few times during the present and also did work in the combat zones of South American rainforests to do emergency treatment on careless soldiers who’d been poisoned. She had a certain amount of knowledge when it came to these matters.
Cloud Realm Continent was precisely missing its own mercenary army. Now that Long Feiye had conquered the City of Daughters with so many a.s.sa.s.sins within, she had to use them well. She wanted to make a few clearly distinguished combat units. Intelligence gathering, rescue of hostages, fighting vanguards and so on would work. These people all had strong martial arts, so they only needed to strengthen their professional knowledge and training. Within three months, they’d be ready to take on tasks.
Xu Donglin had hardly taken the paper when Long Feiye took it out of his hands. He glanced at the contents before returning it to the man and gesturing for the shadow guards to withdraw. He hadn’t made any objections or changed his expression, but his hands gave him away. Once again, he was subconsciously stroking Han Yunxi’s hair. Every time he did, a doting look would come into his eyes. They were filled with nothing but pampering. Every time he stroked her hair, it was clear that he was very pleased!
He took Han Yunxi by the shoulders and headed into the Leng Estate with a smile. “It looks like we’ll be staying here for a few more days.”
“I’ve already planned out the steps to forming a mercenary army. Xu Donglin can take care of the details and arrange things. We can leave tomorrow without delay, it’s important to get to Celestial Mountain!” Han Yunxi was serious.
Long Feiye stopped walked to look at her. “Han Yunxi, you’re well matched with your lords.h.i.+p in hundreds of ways!”
Han Yunxi gave a start, but she quickly laughed. “Your Highness Duke of Qin, are you praising chenqie? Or yourself?”
Long Feiye resumed carefully brus.h.i.+ng back her hair. “Han Yunxi, your lords.h.i.+p isn’t joking.” He would probably never find another woman in this lifetime who could take Han Yunxi’s place. The so called “well-matched” pair had to be one who mutually respected each other and gained their hearts.
After brus.h.i.+ng back the hair on her forehead, Han Yunxi’s clear eyes shone even brighter than before. She said, “Since we’re well matched in hundreds of ways, then we should be well loved in thousands of ways. Long Feiye, you have to love me well!”
Instead of replying, Long Feiye pulled her close by the waist and sealed the promise with a kiss! Events at the City of Daughters had ended with a splendid conclusion. Both Long Feiye and Han Yunxi ended up staying overnight.
With Long Feiye’s a.s.sistance the next morning, Han Yunxi quickly made arrangements for everything in the City of Daughters before the pair set off from its west gates. Now they were formally on their way to Celestial Mountain.
But neither of them knew that two pairs of eyes were staring at them from the forests bordering the city walls. Just who…were they?
Translator’s Note: OKAY GUYS NO CHEATING BUT WHO DO YOU THINK IS SPYING ON THEM LOL~ The answer’s in the next chapter teaser, but I wanna see your guesses in the comments below for fun! I know I was surprised when I found out….though I should’ve guessed, with the throwaway comment the author put in an earlier chapter…sneaky, sneaky~