“What it was remained the same, but the beloved could be found nowhere; every effort is in vain. So I couldn’t help weeping before I could say a word.” Li Qingzhao couldn’t have been any more correct with this section. One sleep and the entire world had changed.
Carriage after carriage, cart after cart rolled into Nieyao. Wreckage left Nieyao. Hope entered Nieyao. All the filth and beasts had been cleared out – courtesy of Lai Jingzhen and a small team Emperor Yuansheng assigned in addition to Heisina Clan. It wasn’t hard when Mount Daluo disciples were part of the team. After all, Six Evils liked living in nature, and my siblings grew up killing mutated beasts.
What’s so hard about it? See a monster? Puncture the thing with arrows and drag it off. It ran? Lay a trap, wait for it to fall in and then puncture it with a hail of arrows, then drag it off. Oh, it refuses to come out of hiding? Surround it. Cover its den in firewood. Set that stack no fire, son. From what I heard, the team set three fires; the fire on the mountain posterior to Nieyao was still burning. My siblings did me proud.
As the old is swept out, new stuff comes in. You’d think that it’d be excruciatingly challenging to convince people to move in to a city that was the erstwhile den for fiends and monsters, but there were so many exceptions to the logic.
While Heisina Tribe’s warriors lived under the identity of soldiers in Xiuyu, the elderly, women and children, totalling close to twenty thousand people, lived in an underground tunnel adjacent to Nieyao. Believers of Shaman Faith and elders who went into hiding as commoners, totalling over a thousand people, made haste for Nieyao upon catching wind that Nieyao was being rebuilt to preach, build shrines and distribute medicines and what have you. The two groups hit it off right away.
Say what you will, but the credit for accelerating Nieyao’s development belonged to Shaman Faith’s elders. When they moved the damaged statue of Shaman Monarch from an old shrine into the old plaza of Shiri Palace, the faith’s grand elder drew a crowd to the desolate plaza with an archaic solemn song. Thanks to Heisina Beussent playing his flute beneath the statue, followers started drumming a beat, drawing more people in. Not many people were aware that the plaza was initially designed for the entire city’s citizens to perform a ritual together. With twenty thousand people solemnly kneeling at the bonfire as the sun bowed out, the ancient faith’s resurgence was all but assured.
Ever since the first ceremony, followers visited the plaza to offer their respect to Shaman Monarch’s statue daily. The elders were too familiar with the preaching and disseminating of their doctrine to fail. Plus, although the population didn’t grow by leaps and bounds, word of mouth was a very powerful marketing tool.
The opportunistic businessmen of Xiuyu didn’t have a hard time hearing about the new population of Nieyao since the two cities weren’t spaced far away to begin with. Naturally, they raced to Nieyao to capitalise on business opportunities. To cover the food, clothing and housing needs of twenty thousand people, lots of resources would be required. Therefore, there were ample opportunities for them to make a quick buck.
I never imagined I’d be sitting in a teahouse with a beast bone hanging outside, watching people go back and forth in Nieyao, especially not after one sleep. It was as if I just time travelled.
Tang Ye poured me a cup of tea. “Isn’t it a good thing Nieyao is being rebuilt? Why do you look so down?”
I guzzled the tea back in one go. “Did I say anything about Nieyao? My money!”
“… My condolences.”
My salary, man…
“By the way, you mentioned three major things. What else am I still missing?”
According to Tang Ye, the first thing was the rewards Emperor Yuansheng bestowed to the soldiers. His agents and Qilin Guards were given promotions. The minimum reward was two hundred taels. Long Zaitian was forgiven for pissing on a dragon, as well as promoted back to his old rank in consideration of his outstanding performance and contributions in Huzhou. It sucked to be him, though, because somebody already replaced him in his post when he was demoted, so it was only a nominal rank at this point.
Given Long Zaitian was promoted, I should’ve been the recipient of an official rank… Truth be told, I didn’t want one.
What’s a job that pays me for doing nothing, includes vacations and allows me to frequent the imperial kitchen?
The second thing was an order for me to check on Luo Ming and Uncle Feng Xue. The two were in worse condition than me at the end of the battle and showed no signs of waking up. Shaman Faith’s shaman doctor diagnosed them with soul damage, not physical ailments. In any event, they just wouldn’t respond. I could see why I was needed there, but I wasn’t confident I could help. Either way, I had yet to check up on them, so I couldn’t say anything conclusive.
The third thing – and this one I didn’t expect – A-Lan cleared Heisina Tribe’s name, praised them and credited them with protecting her. Additionally, she announced Morcher would return. The usually silent states immediately sent word or sent an envoy. It was pretty much impossible not to spot an envoy of another state in Nieyao every day. Save for the likes of Wanyu and Qingqiu, the majority of the envoys were just passing on convoluted, roundabout versions of “please don’t!”
None of the eleven states’ royal families had forgotten the former strongest state. Forget turning a blind eye to Morcher when they were in a pinch; they gave the order to wipe out Morcher’s royal family. They had every reason to be apprehensive about A-Lan seeking revenge. With that said, she did mention she was too young, while her guards died. As such, she wasn’t sure which states sent assassins after her.
Here comes the face-palm worthy part.
I bet every state that pleaded her not to restore Morcher was involved in the attempts on her life in some shape or form… How stupid must you be to tell your assassination target you were the one who went after them? It’s like they were afraid that she wouldn’t know it was them. No wonder why Gegewu had them by the nose for so long!
Listening to Tang Ye relay all the information helped me recover from the mental blow of waking up and seeing a completely different Nieyao.
I let out a long exhale, then rubbed my aching head as I tried to sort out the plethora of information.
I can understand rewarding me and asking me to treat the two, but what the shell does A-Lan reviving her state have to do with me?
“Speaking of rewards, what did Liu Shan Men receive?”
“Vice-Captain’s rank is already as high as it can be, so she just asked for some land and money.”
“Uhm…”
Boss most likely requested money for all the new members of Liu Shan Men. After all, there were a lot of members from Shaman Monarch Palace who were waiting to start. Given neither Su Xiao nor Tang Ye participated in Nieyao’s war, besides Boss and I, only Young Shiyi should’ve been rewarded… right?
“Young Shiyi…”
I nearly sprayed tea all over Tang Ye’s face when I suddenly saw a fluttering blue warrior robe and shiny silver coat out on the street. She was strolling through the streets in boots that generated loud sounds with each step, and she had Overarching Heaven strapped to her waist. She held Mountain Monster’s left hand and hooked her arm around Su Xiao’s.
There were two people walking in front to open a path for them. The individual on the left held the sign with “General coming through”. The individual on held the “Make way” sign.
“What general?” I almost jumped to my feet.
Su Xiao frowned as he looked around. Offering a palm-fist salute, he relayed, “General, there seems to be an insolent peasant looking at you.”
Xiao? Since when did you become a lapdog?!
Mountain Monster: “One who looks dead broke.”
Oi, oi, oi, Su Xiao didn’t look here, but you saw me, you midget!
Ming Suwen brayed, “Insolence! Drag him out and behead him!”
