The Demon Lords

Chapter 972 - 220: Drowning

The team set off,

followed by eight hundred Snow Sea cavalry,

accompanied by Siniang, A Ming, and Xue Three.

Liang Cheng needed to stay at home to hold the fort; no matter what, Snow Sea Pass had to keep a competent fighter.

Siniang followed because after experiencing a sleepless night alone in the tent during the last expedition,

Zheng Fan had promised to always take her along on long journeys in the future.

It’s easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.

The blind man, feeling burdened, had to remain behind to manage a large pile of tasks as the chief steward.

As for Xue Three and A Ming, since these two had not progressed, they were taken along on the trip in case an opportunity for advancement arose.

Mo Wan was exceptionally left behind by Zheng Fan because Mo Wan needed to recover; he had been pushed too hard last night and wouldn’t be much use if brought along, so it was better for him to stay home and watch the children. With Shatuo Queshi in a deep sleep, someone needed to be constantly by his side, and it was hard to feel at ease relying solely on the guards outside.

The Lord’s daughter remained in the carriage; however, when she came, she was sitting; now, she was lying down.

Seventh Uncle personally drove the carriage, and the Lord’s retinue still surrounded it.

Due to the carriage, the team couldn’t move too quickly, so it took quite a few days to arrive at Fengxin City.

Nevertheless, Lord Zheng didn’t feel any boredom and rather treated it like a leisurely outing, riding out under the pretense of scouting to hunt during the day and having Siniang’s company in the tent at night, enjoying himself quite a bit.

When they finally saw the city walls of Fengxin City, a person riding a Pi Beast galloped from beneath the walls. As there was no prior notice, the guards at the front were startled, but after seeing the armor on the rider and the Pi Beast beneath them, they felt relieved.

That person,

was Li Fusheng.

"Qian’er, Qian’er!"

Li Fusheng was a straightforward man.

Usually, when everything was normal, he liked to shove his hands in his sleeves like an old farmer.

But during battles, if the conditions allowed, he’d find ways to shower himself in blood, acting like a madman.

At this moment, though, he was like a concerned elder anxious upon hearing of misfortune befalling the Lord’s daughter.

The Earl of North Border had seven adopted sons. Except for Qingshuang who didn’t change his surname, the rest bore the surname Li publicly, but given the wide age range, the younger generation addressed them variably; some were referred to as older brothers, and others as uncles.

Li Fusheng was clearly an uncle.

Seventh Uncle went forward, saluted Li Fusheng, and said:

"Sir, the Lord’s daughter is still unconscious."

The implication was not to disturb her.

Li Fusheng took a deep breath, knowing he shouldn’t vent his frustration on Seventh Uncle, he could only put his hands on his waist, discontentedly asking:

"What on earth happened, how did it come to this? Earlier I heard Qian’er was coming here, and I was planning to take a few days off to visit Snow Sea Pass; how did she end up unconscious?"

"Sir, for the sake of the Lord’s daughter’s reputation, let’s discuss this once we’ve settled in."

Having said this much, Li Fusheng could only nod, wave his hand, and say:

"Then hurry into the city, and I’ll go invite the Earl to diagnose Qian’er later."

"Yes."

Here, the team entered the city, while the eight hundred cavalry led by Zheng Fan needed to be stationed in the outside camp.

Li Fusheng turned back and found Zheng Fan directly, stepping forward with a punch aimed at Zheng Fan’s chest.

Zheng Fan quickly raised his hand to block,

"Bang!"

Li Fusheng applied some force in his punch, and Lord Zheng blocked it, but still stepped back half a step.

Seeing this, Li Fusheng burst into laughter:

"Well, aren’t you something? It’s been, what, no more than two years since you and I ventured south to Qian State, and you’ve advanced this much in your skills already.

Ah, such a pity. If you had started practicing martial arts when you were young, then.. tsk tsk."

He was a great talent, absolutely a great talent. Li Fusheng thought of Zheng Fan as family, hence the lament for Zheng Fan’s latent potential being untapped sooner.

"It isn’t too late even now, is it?" Zheng Fan smiled.

"Haha."

Li Fusheng reached out, hooked Zheng Fan’s shoulder, leaned his face close to Zheng Fan’s, and asked:

"What exactly happened to Qian’er? How come she fainted as soon as she got to you?"

"Perhaps something unexpected happened on her way, and it only became evident after she arrived at my place for a night." Zheng Fan answered vaguely, "You know how it is, with someone of the Lord’s daughter’s status, many have their eyes on her. Moreover, in the Skybreak Mountain range, demonic beasts often appear; who knows, maybe some great demon could have been involved."

"Sigh, that truly is strange."

"Indeed, by the way, how is Town South Pass recently?" Zheng Fan immediately changed the topic.

"Those cowards, making a lot of noise but delivering little; they just refuse to come out and fight, it’s driving me mad; I wish I could just attack the city."

"Don’t be rash, Jade Plate City isn’t as fortified as Town South Pass."

Jade Plate City would have been difficult to conquer if not for a lack of food supplies.

The Yan Army is not particularly good at sieging cities, or rather, the cost of sieging is just too high.

"You rascal, remember last time when we faked the attack on Jade Plate City, many of those devices were crafted by your people. Do you have any solution this time?"

"Let’s see what Lord has in mind. I am preparing a few things at my place."

One reason for bringing Xue Three along this time is that, if they really attack the city, having Xue Three around would undoubtedly make things much easier.

After all, they came to ask Lord Jingnan to help open the back door, and showing some token of appreciation like gold and silver is pointless. So they’ve decided to present a master craftsman from the Dwarf Tribe instead.

"Yes, it’s best to be prepared... Oh, also, this time..."

"I brought wine."

"We’ll drink it tonight. Once Lord’s done treating Qian’er and there’s no major issue, we brothers can enjoy a few cups. To be honest, ever since I tasted the wine you sent me, I can’t drink any other—it’s like horse urine."

"Are you running short of wine?"

Zheng Fan remembered that he never missed any regular tributes to these people during festivals. Siniang managed these things, and surely wouldn’t have made any mistakes.

Li Fusheng smiled a bit awkwardly, saying, "A lot of people keep an eye on my wine. After sharing it around, I didn’t have enough for myself. But let’s not talk about that now. Since you’re here, I’ll take you to meet Lord."

Zheng Fan glanced back at Siniang and the others, then followed Li Fusheng into the city.

It was clear that Li Fusheng’s troops from the Earl of North Border were pretty much absorbed by Lord Jingnan. One clear sign is how Li Fusheng refers to him as ’Lord,’ without any additional titles.

Even the main general is like this, so there’s no need to think twice about the deputy generals and normal soldiers below them.

Inside and outside the city, order was maintained well since during the chaos, Fengxin City was once the "bandit nest" of the Situ Yi brothers. Later, Zheng Fan personally led the troops to clear them out. Though even now there weren’t many civilians inside the city, it simplified military operations.

Midway,

a courier rode up to Li Fusheng to deliver a military order,

signs of cavalry from Town South Pass were noticed in the southeast direction, and Lord Jingnan ordered Li Fusheng to lead forces to encircle and suppress them.

Ever since General Xue Rang from Town South Pass supported a Sideline Situ Family member to rebuild Cheng State, this new Cheng State hasn’t shown any intention of recapturing Ying Capital City and restoring their homeland. Instead, they seemed quite passive, only sending small groups to conduct raids just to affirm their existence.

This time, the scale seemed slightly larger, so the direct order was for Li Fusheng to personally oversee this encirclement and not let these enemy forces escape as they did previously.

Military orders like a mountain, even if the county princess was only unconscious now, even if she was about to die, Li Fusheng couldn’t utter a single "no" in front of military orders.

So Li Fusheng glanced at Zheng Fan, clenched his fist, and immediately spurred the Pi Beast beneath him to organize the army outside the city.

Zheng Fan then took a deep breath and headed to the Eastern Conquest Army Headquarters, essentially the residence of Lord Jingnan.

Dujuan was dead, Tian was with him now,

frankly,

whether it’s the Lord’s residence or not doesn’t really matter. Lord Jingnan is practically alone now, and there’s no longer a distinction between his military camp and home.

After revealing his identity, he passed through uninterrupted, finding Tian Wujing in the rear courtyard.

Old Tian had always possessed strong resilience; the kind of person to remain unflinching even if faced with the collapse of mountains and rivers.

At that moment, Lord Jingnan, clad in white silk dragon robes, was standing by the pond, feeding fish.

Technically, wearing dragon robes was inappropriate now, since his prince title had already been revoked, but no one cared about such things.

Seeing Tian Wujing,

Zheng Fan drew a deep breath and knelt on one knee:

"Your humble servant greets Lord!"

"Everyone’s calling me Prince," Tian Wujing turned to look at Zheng Fan, saying, "Afraid that calling me Lord might make me unhappy."

"Your humble servant finds it more familiar and natural to call you Lord."

"What’s the situation over at Snow Sea Pass now?"

"Thanks to Lord’s blessing, everything is quite well; this winter can be passed quite comfortably."

"Anyway, you won’t go hungry wherever you are."

"Lord knows, your humble servant used to run small businesses and has gotten used to living frugally."

Tian Wujing nodded and scattered the remaining fish food into the pond.

This place was originally the pseudo dynasty palace of Situ Yi. Although it lacked gold bricks and jade tiles, its layout was rather delicate. Back then, when Zheng Fan led troops here, it was only to exterminate the Situ Yi brothers, not to burn the house down like Xiang Yu might have.

Before departure, both Seventh Uncle and Zheng Fan sent messages to Fengxin City. Due to the drag caused by the county princess’s carriage, the main force sent a single rider to report to Fengxin City every two days. As expected, Lord Jingnan should already be aware of what happened.

Tian Wujing looked at Zheng Fan and asked,

"Have you eaten?"

"Not yet, Lord."

"Join me for the meal later."

"Yes, Lord."

"Is the matter with Qian’er being unconscious caused by you?"

"Uh... this..."

"Want me to resolve it?"

"Tem...porarily... temporarily..."

"Oh, then let’s leave it unresolved for now."

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Will try to write more tomorrow, good night.