Chapter 528 - 261: Envoys from the Northern Kingdom

Chapter 528: Chapter 261: Envoys from the Northern Kingdom

"And you," Zheng Xiu said, smiling at Feng Bei as his thoughts gradually cleared, "on the Cannibal Painting, your butt was stamped with..."

Feng Bei suddenly grew angry. "Shut up."

Seeing Feng Bei raise her hand, Zheng Xiu immediately shut up. Not daring to say more, he quickly changed his tune, "Ahem... In short, you, an ’Executioner,’ have also strayed onto the ’Knight’s’ side path."

Feng Bei silently lowered her hand.

Zheng Xiu sighed. "The world is full of wonders! Anything is possible!"

Feng Bei was silent, not denying Zheng Xiu’s deduction. After a long moment, she replied, "It’s a mess."

"It is a mess. I think so too. If it weren’t for that damned cat..."

"Meow?"

A meow came from the rooftop.

"That absolutely, positively, unbelievably adorable, precious little kitty is keeping its mouth shut just so I won’t worry. I’ll just have to bribe the truth about the Paths out of it with a huge pot of fried fish cakes."

Feng Bei hid a smile behind her hand.

After witnessing the Orange Cat’s fearsomeness in Lu Town, even the reckless Red King now had something she was wary of.

That cat.

"Could it be that you know where he’s hiding?"

Zheng Xiu nodded, then shook his head. "If he’s really playing the role of ’Prisoner’ and trying to walk the ’Prisoner’s’ Path, there’s only one kind of place he could be right now." As he spoke, Zheng Xiu spread out the Path Map again, wrote Zhu’s name above ’Prisoner,’ and added a small question mark.

"He’s in a... prison cell."

...

While Zheng Xiu and Feng Bei were enjoying a rare moment of peace and affection in the Red King Mansion, things were far from quiet on the border between the Northern Kingdom and Daqian.

The frontier.

Bare cliffs stretched on endlessly, as far as the eye could see.

The steep mountain range formed a natural barrier, separating the two nations.

Though winding mountain paths connected the two lands, the terrain was rugged, the trails slick with mud and sand, making them unsuitable for marching armies.

This was Haoran Pass.

It was said to be the place where, twenty years ago, General Zheng Haoran parted ways with the Great Emperor and embarked on a road of no return.

Later generations named this celestial pass after General Zheng Haoran, and for twenty years it had guarded Daqian’s Destiny.

On the watchtowers of Haoran Pass, squads of soldiers clad in Armor patrolled back and forth. Recently, Barbarians on horseback had been spotted from time to time Beyond the Great Wall. Although they had not tried to breach the pass, their presence was still a worrying signal. The defending general, Shen Shizong, had been a naive and clueless youth twenty years ago. But he had been fortunate enough to serve as a cook under Zheng Haoran’s command. Now, twenty years later, the bearded man had lived up to Zheng Haoran’s expectations, becoming a formidable general in his own right.

WHOOOO—

As the sun set, a golden glow washed over the mountains, bathing them in the color of wheat.

In the distance, white snow and yellow sand tangled together, howling across the horizon. Where the sky met the earth, they swirled into a hazy gray vortex.

A troop of Barbarians in heavy fur cloaks appeared as indistinct silhouettes on the horizon. The rapid beat of their horses’ hooves grew louder as they approached Haoran Pass.

Sensing their aggressive approach, a young soldier immediately sounded the alarm horn. Within Haoran Pass, over a hundred soldiers slung their powerful bows, nocked flaming arrows, and took aim at the advancing Barbarians.

With a steady gait, Shen Shizong ascended the ramparts, long spear in hand. He squinted, gazing into the distance.

The young soldier next to him had his bow half-drawn, his palm slick with sweat.

"Stand easy," Shen Shizong said after getting a clear look at them, then laughed heartily. "All soldiers, hear my command! Defend the pass to the death!"

"YES, SIR!"

"General Shen, they’re holding something up!"

"It’s a scroll!"

Some twenty powerfully built men of the Northern Kingdom halted a few hundred feet from Haoran Pass. One of them, a hulking man nearly two meters tall, began yelling something in a guttural tongue toward the pass.

Shen Shizong sent a messenger out of the pass to see what they wanted.

The messenger returned shortly after. The moment the gate was securely shut behind him, he let out a long sigh of relief. Close contact with the Barbarians—who were rumored to eat raw flesh and drink blood—had clearly left him terrified.

Shen Shizong now understood their purpose and exclaimed in shock:

"What? He says they are emissaries of the ’Wolf King,’ sent to Daqian to negotiate peace?"

Shen Shizong had stood guard here for twenty years and had never heard anything so absurd. His first reaction was that it was a trap. His second reaction was that it was still a trap. His third was that his career as a general might be over.