Ch.8 A Monster!

"I’m the messenger sent by the South. What’s the situation here?" A voice sounded as a figure half-emerged from the shadows with a face covered by a sapphire blue fan.

"All the houses have been burnt to the ground! There are only about five hundred of our people left!" Glad to finally see someone take charge, the disoriented soldiers who have gathered in the empty streets turned towards the source of the voice like a moth drawn to a flame.

Only, this flame that they were placing their hopes on, was even deadlier than the fire that has burned their comrades.

"Oh? five hundred?" snapping her fan close, Luo Yue revealed herself. "That’s less than I thought."

"A-…a woman?! Who are you?!" those who were quicker on the uptake realised that they have fallen into some kind of a trap and drew their swords at once.

Perhaps fate would have been kinder to them if they had not moved because the second their hands reached for their swords, the deadly fan has already been opened. Then, they witnessed with their own eyes as their hands plopped to the grounds like a ripe fruit dropping from its tree.

It took a second for registration to settle in before screams erupted in the small village. Already, 5 unlucky people have lost their hands. And Luo Yue thought herself to have been kind enough to have at least left their head intact.

"Surrender yourselves. Your commander is already dead, and you’ve been surrounded." With her words, the villagers all emerged from the dark with weapons in their hands. Yet, none seemed to be as lethal as the docile one in her hand. She threw something onto the ground and the head of the commander that rolled and landed beside the fallen hands brought the rest of the soldiers grovelling on the soil.

'Who the hell is this monster?!'

~~

"Luo Yue!" Just as dawn broke, a large troop arrived before LanLing Village, led by the unusually young Minister of War himself. Just one look at the man greatly trusted by Xu Shi Jing, and the God of War could already feel a headache coming up. What a pity it wasn’t wine, but more troubles that were brewing now.

He knelt in front of her despite his own noble identity and status with a grin on that charming face. Looking at how excited he was to leave the palace, it seemed like years of being stuck doing paperwork must have almost bored him to death. During the Era of War, before he was given the title 'Minister of War', he used to be under the direct command of Xu Shi Jing. So, seeing that one of the small numbers of people who actually recognised her had been sent here, she knew nothing good was going to come out of this.

"What are you doing here?" Luo Yue went straight to the point. "I clearly told Shi Jing I won’t be needing this many people since I’ll kindly be escorting our prisoners back as well."

"The thing is, Luo Yue, there’s been a change in plan." he stood up and dusted himself. He was beaming with an excitement she knew could only spell trouble and yet, as always, that puppy-like face could make anyone drop their guards. He looked…

'…just like Granny’s type. Perhaps I should trade him for a jar of Thousand Petals.'

The male who did not know that he has already been sold for a single jar by his friend gave her a silk bag.

She returned his little present with a lifted eyebrow.

"It’s a change of clothes and some allowances. Don’t worry and leave the prisoners to me!" he patted her shoulders.

"If you don’t get to the point right now, do you believe that this hand-" she gave the hand on her shoulders a tap with her fan- "will become one of my collections?"

"Your taste has always been so… special," he coughed as he withdrew that hand. "The Emperor, his majesty, wants you to join the frontline against the South. We’ve managed to secure The City of JiangNan thanks to General Wu's...ferocity and the Imperial Court is planning to use this momentum to reclaim The City of TianAn as well. Although the enemy's vitality has been greatly brought down by the General, it is still only a small victory compared to everything we've lost in these few years. If the South sends reinforcements before we can take over TianAn, we will lose this strategically important place. This... is the Emperor's decree."

"That sly man was the one who suggested this to the Emperor again, wasn’t he?" Luo Yue’s eyebrows twitched, "I’ve earned enough money to last me another few years. I’m not going."

"Why not? It’s been so long since you went into seclusion. Aren’t you excited to go back into the battlefield? Besides, it's time you return to the training camp as well. These days, the newcomers are getting too arrogant and slacking off. There's hardly anyone left in the capital that can command them."

"It. Is. Bothersome."

"Besides the clothes, he did tell me to give this to you as well." There was a smirk on his face as he held out two urns of alcohol. "The Great Strategist was the one who brewed these himself."

'Great Strategist' was the way he had been addressing Xu Shi Jing since the previous dynasty and while they were close friends now, it seemed like only regarding this formality, he had stubbornly refused to change.

The lady who was just about to leave paused and it took only 2 seconds for her to turn around and take over the two urns of wine. "My pay."

"Of course, you’ll be heavily rewarded when you return. Oh, and the Emperor has another order." He frowned as he took out the Imperial scroll. "He wants you to hide your identity and proceed."

"Heh, he just doesn’t want me to raise a fuss in the battlefield and reappear in the public eyes again." She scanned through the contents of the scroll. "Well, it’s not like I enjoy all the attention."

"So, use this scroll instead of your token. Instead of the God of War, Luo Yue, you’ll be going in the name of the Strategist sent by the Imperial Court to aid General Wu Zhe Yan in the recapture of The City of TianAn, She Li."

"Who came up with this name?"

"The Great Strategist did. Why? I think it suits you quite well."

"…"

*She Li = Lynx

~~

"Lady… Did you really just get bribed by wine?" Xiao Liu sighed.

"It was a fair trade," she replied with half an urn of wine already gone.

"Master, there’s something I wish to report," Shen Tian Ping saluted.

"Is it regarding the Commander that you've killed?"

"Yes." He knew his mistress has great insights when it came to such conspiracies. "It was too easy. He died without any resistance."

"Isn’t that because you were just that much stronger, Ping-ge?" Xiao Liu didn’t know where the problem lied at.

"No matter what, he was still a Commander." Shen Tian Ping emphasised, “besides, there is a total of 493 prisoners alive."

"That is indeed a lot lesser than I’ve predicted.” The God of War knew by instinct that something had gone wrong. The fan in her hands opened and closed as she mused. "There was no formation whatsoever between the enemy soldiers. Either they were really that inexperienced or… they were acting."

"Yes, I also think so." Shen Tian Ping paused as he came to a realisation, "The East is up to something."

"This… could affect the future of our country. I should warn Shi Jing."

She went over to the writing table and dipped the tip of the ink brush into the black ink. Then, her hand moved with grace as she wrote one huge letter on the paper.

'Investigate'.