Chapter 269: The High Priest’s Expectations
“Not going.”
“Why not go?”
“Lord sent me to Chang’an, nothing more than wanting me to see High Priest, ask the old man if there’s any way to solve the Tiger Guards’ problem. If there is a way, High Priest teaches me the secret technique, which is inappropriate.
If there’s no way, you’re certainly thinking that many years have passed without serving in front of the elders, feeling that our relationship with High Priest can’t grow distant.
Needing me to draw closer to High Priest, over time, High Priest will surely take a liking to me. I think the wife will beat me to death.”
Yun Ce’s eyes widened upon hearing this. Lei Ming was spot on; the purpose of sending him to Liu Changsheng was exactly that.
However, this kid was obviously thinking even further, even feeling that his trip was clearly robbing the affinity of two junior brothers still in swaddling clothes, which was taboo.
Thus, Yun Ce kicked out, and Lei Ming flew out once again, his buttocks sliding less than half a meter.
Just as Yun Ce had arranged everything and was preparing to have Lei Ming depart for Chang’an with the caravan, Wu Tong arrived riding an albatross.
As soon as he arrived, he busied himself seeing the other five Tiger Guards, personally checked them over, then came to the study with Yun Ce, sat on the Yun Clan’s distinctive chair, pinched his brow with his hand, looking troubled and indecisive.
1 “What is it? If there’s a way, say there’s a way; if not, say there’s not. Why make it so difficult?”
1 Yun Ce poured a cup of tea, placed it in front of Wu Tong, and said with a smiling face.
1 Wu Tong lowered his hand, looked at Yun Ce, and said: “On the sixteenth of the fourth month of the third year of Jingfeng, Lingzhou Inspector He Junnian submitted a memorial stating: Lingzhou’s land is cramped and its people impoverished; supporting 260,000 troops is not easy. Willing to voluntarily demobilize 60,000, basing on 200,000.”
1 Yun Ce laughed: “Local voluntary demobilization benefits the court. So, what is the price?”
1 Wu Tong took a sip of tea and said indifferently: “Sixty days of autonomous rights over Lingzhou’s Shehuo.”
1 Yun Ce nodded: “Understood. The needle in the Tiger Guards’ heads is related to Shehuo.”
1 Wu Tong shook his head: “High Priest says Shehuo is just auxiliary; the key is Dragon Might. High Priest also said Dragon Might is formless and shadowless, just a very superficial thing. Doesn’t know how He Junnian attached Dragon Might to that steel needle back then.
1 The court wasn’t prepared to approve He Junnian’s memorial at the time, but somehow it was approved, and the time was even extended to a hundred days.
1 High Priest says he was just a forty-three-year-old divine official back then, doesn’t know the details. However, the old man says it’s mostly related to dragons, because that year was precisely when the Divine Dragon descended upon Great Han, and only a living Divine Dragon can exert Dragon Might.
1 Probably because of the Divine Dragon, the court ultimately agreed to what He Junnian sought.”
2 Yun Ce sighed inwardly. Who could understand the fear of Dragon Might better than him? Back at the ancestral land, Ao Bing, a baby dragon, had tormented him to the point of ecstasy and agony with its Dragon Might, not to mention many who were scared to death or driven mad.
2 An Adult Dragon’s Dragon Might imposed on ordinary people can naturally suppress or erase the sentience of lower beings with biological hierarchy advantage, like herbivores: when encountering Doggy, they still know to run for their lives, but upon encountering a fierce beast, they become utterly indifferent to their own lives—grazing when they should graze, being eaten by the fierce beast when they should be, even able to graze while watching companions being eaten by the fierce beast.
2 “Figured out who came up with this method?”
2 Wu Tong frowned: “He Junnian.”
2 Yun Ce said: “Any more news?”
2 Wu Tong shook his head: “No. He Junnian served as Lingzhou Inspector for a mere six years before dying of a sudden illness. Little information left for the world to investigate, among which the most famous is that《Memorial for Elite Troops and Simplified Administration》.
2 Later, He Junnian’s eldest son He You succeeded as Lingzhou Inspector, and after that came He Tian.”
2 Yun Ce sighed: “Looks like, to get the Tiger Guards over, I first need to kill He Tian, then find a dragon, and finally use Shehuo, right?”
2 Wu Tong laughed: “Not that complicated. If you can capture He Tian alive, there might be a way. After all, from He Junnian to He You, to He Tian, it has been inherited for three generations.
2 Whether you can become the fourth generation depends on your affinity.”
3 “So, High Priest has no objection to me taking the Tiger Guards away?”
3 Wu Tong laughed heartily: “Delighted to see it happen.”
3 “Why.”
3 “You produced two sons in one go, making High Priest’s lineage enduring. High Priest has no reason not to be pleased.”
3 “You know I’m not…”
3 “High Priest says you are, so you are. You’re not so shallow as to think that children born by High Priest are his heirs, and those not born by him aren’t?”
3 Yun Ce said in surprise: “That’s exactly what I thought.”
3 Wu Tong smiled: “High Priest regards all people under heaven as his children.”
3 Yun Ce grinned: “Has the old man reached such a level of universal love?”
3 Wu Tong nodded: “High Priest believes himself to be Shehuo, and upon death will return to Shehuo. High Priest may not qualify to say all people under heaven are his children, but Shehuo does.”
4 Yun Ce was silent for a moment. He had met people like High Priest, and quite a few at that. Yun Linchuan could barely be counted as one. They lived and lived until they merged themselves into a grand narrative, born with it and dying with it.
4 After figuring these things out, Yun Ce reached back, grabbed Lei Ming who was standing behind him, plopped him in front of Wu Tong, and said: “Take him with you when you leave, send him to High Priest’s side.”
4 Wu Tong shook his head: “High Priest wants me to take all thirty-six children.”
4 Yun Ce’s eyes lit up: “Should be forty-eight now. Tonight I’ll help the remaining children with Qi Induction.”
4 “Not as cheap as you think. High Priest says your situation is dire; this is your affinity. Affinity may not come again. Also, High Priest misses you greatly lately and ordered me to bring your two wives and children to Chang’an as well.”
4 Yun Ce asked puzzled: “Misses me, so why see my wife and child?”
4 “How should I know? High Priest is already a divine being; his thoughts are not for us mortals to fathom.”
4 “Didn’t say anything about seeing me?”
4 “No, not a single word.”
4 After ending the meeting with Wu Tong, Yun Ce hurriedly returned to E Ji and said: “High Priest wants to see you and the child.”
5 E Ji, who had been lying down, bolted upright, eyes gleaming: “High Priest is passing the Heir of the King of Changsha position to Shuo’er?”
5 Yun Ce said with a dark face: “Heir of the King of Changsha is me now. Only if I die or am ruined does Shuo’er have a chance to become Heir of the King of Changsha.”
5 E Ji said longingly: “What if you become King of Changsha?”
5 “Absolutely impossible.”
5 “How is it impossible? The old man has been King of Changsha for a hundred or so years, probably fed up. Pass the throne to you, and Shuo’er becomes Heir of the King of Changsha?”
5 Seeing E Ji standing on the bed with hands on hips, laughing wildly in triumph, it was clear she had entered her fantasy world again, with no chance of waking anytime soon. Whoever woke her at this most beautiful moment would surely suffer.
5 Her appearance showed no need to ask; she would definitely take Yun Shuo to Chang’an.
5 Thus, he went to Zhang Min’s room and said to her: “High Priest wants to see you and the child.”
5 Zhang Min, who had been babbling infant talk to the still-awake Yun Tui, sat ramrod straight, hastily closed her chest opened by Yun Tui, placed her hands on the bed, looked at Yun Ce, and said: “So, Tui’er is to inherit the rank of the King of Changsha’s faction?”
5 Yun Ce couldn’t understand why these two women’s thought processes were so bizarre, as if giving birth to a son was some great merit, and Liu Changsheng would definitely give his rank to these two infants utterly unrelated to him.
6 “E Ji is going too.”
6 Hearing this from Yun Ce, Zhang Min immediately lay softly back on the bed, holding a brightly colored fur ball in hand, and continued babbling infant talk to Yun Tui.
6 This time he heard clearly: Zhang Min told Yun Tui his father was a waste who couldn’t even secure a throne for the child.
6 Wu Tong stayed one night at Yun Clan Villa. The next morning he was leaving. Watching the massive albatrosses descend in formation from the sky, then soar up again, it really gave Yun Ce a familiar feeling of seeing someone off at the airport.
6 Doggy King was taken away by E Ji, black feathered eagle flew off with the albatrosses, and plus the thirty-six rowdy boys and girls left too—Yun Clan Villa seemed to enter a silent state all at once.
6 Feng An stood behind Yun Ce. After watching the albatrosses and black feathered eagle disappear into the firmament, he handed the reins of the red date horse to Yun Ce: “Lord should hit the road too.”
6 Yun Ce looked at Feng An: “If you keep talking like that, one day I’ll kill you.”
6 Feng An chuckled: “Tiger Guards come first.”
6 “Why do you all have more confidence in me than I do myself?”
6 “From Chuyun Prefecture, we made it here without dying, instead gaining over 60,000 subordinates, our estate expanding. If Lord had no extraordinary qualities, we subordinates wouldn’t believe it.
7 Now, not only Lord is scheming for the Tiger Guards. Lord going early might seize some advantage.”
7 “Where is He Tian now?”
7 “In wealthy Xinping Prefecture, temporarily residing in Liang City of Xinping Prefecture.”
7 “So, Xinping Prefecture’s Inspector Qian Feng is also an active recruiter for the Tiger Guards?”
7 “Must be. Otherwise, who would give up a city for He Tian, the stray dog, to live in?”
7 “He Tian just accepted that?”
7 “Cao Kun issued a pursuit and kill order on He Tian. Whoever brings him He Tian’s head will be rewarded with the five cities of Eastern Province.
7 That’s why, after fleeing Lingzhou City, though He Tian raided several key places in Cao Clan’s Qiu He Prefecture, he faced endless pursuit and killing. Now, his soldiers aside from the Tiger Guards are basically dead or fled.”
