Chapter 39: There's Something Wrong with the Protester (Part 2)

“It’s related to the power of words, it’s related to the power of words… This is indeed a breakthrough.” Qi Shan paced back and forth, holding the paper, and murmured to himself, “I’ve heard of similar secret methods used to transmit messages before. But they are very rare, and not many people know them.”

"So high-end?"

Shen Tang was genuinely taken aback.

She mentioned it casually, but little did she know that encrypted words actually existed.

Qi Shan activated his literary mind, gathering literary energy in his palm. His expression was solemn, and Shen Tang vaguely sensed that something was amiss.

"Yuanliang, are you perhaps overthinking this? Even if he's a top-tier prospective courtesan in a brothel, it would be difficult for him to come into contact with such rare spiritual words, right? And even if he could, what kind of earth-shattering information would be worthy of his status?"

Qi Shan held her palm above the paper, gathering cyan literary energy in her palm as she slowly sensed it, while not forgetting to deal with Shen Tang's questions.

"What do you think Xiaocheng is?"

Shen Tang shook her head honestly: "I don't know."

She genuinely didn't know.

Yuanliang's question clearly involves the current situation. However, her current understanding of the world comes from Qishan, his Word of Power scroll, and what she has seen and heard along the way, which is only a very limited corner of this world.

No matter how hard she tried to understand, the people she came into contact with were mostly the poorest of the poor. Most of them couldn't even afford to eat and stay warm, and they didn't care about the names or achievements of their local officials, let alone the general situation of the world.

They only knew that life was hard and they couldn't live happily anymore.

Qi Shan was not surprised by Shen Tang's answer, nor did he feel any disappointment or other emotions. If Shen Tang suddenly became all-knowing, he would suspect that he was just pretending to be a fool. So, for the first time, he revealed some things to Shen Tang.

This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the overall global situation.

He said, “I previously said that Zheng Qiao, who was in charge of the Geng Kingdom, would surely bring about his own destruction within five years. This was not only because he was ruthless, vicious, and used underhanded methods, but also because he wanted to devour the wolf and drive away the tiger, but instead he was trying to negotiate with the tiger for its skin.”

Shen Tang subconsciously sat up straight and listened attentively.

After a little thought, I guessed a bit.

“Yuanliang means… that the former Xin Kingdom was a ‘wolf’, and now that the ‘wolf’ is dead, the ‘tiger’ has become Zheng Qiao’s biggest threat? Who is the ‘tiger’?” Shen Tang recalled that Qi Shan’s pile of books contained small-scale maps describing the locations of various northwestern countries.

Neither the Xin Kingdom nor the Geng Kingdom is in a particularly good location.

They are all located on the outskirts of the mainland.

However, this also allowed the two countries to avoid the most fierce battles in the heart of the mainland. Compared to the unfortunate situation of Geng Kingdom, which was surrounded by neighbors on all sides and was attacked every now and then, Xin Kingdom was slightly better off. To the northwest were continuous and treacherous mountain ranges, and the passes were easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Qi Shan replied, "This 'tiger' is Shi Wu."

Shen Tang asked, "Ten crows?"

The Ten Crows are a barbarian force located outside the continuous mountain range of the Xin Kingdom.

They believed that the Golden Crow landed here, settled and multiplied here, and their descendants grew stronger, so they called themselves "Ten Crows," which simply means "the descendants of ten Golden Crows." Shen Tang suspected that they were dreaming of crossing the ocean—thinking too much, and accidentally bumping into the sun.

Before the thief star descended, the Ten Crows weren't called by that name at all. They only learned by chance that the word of power contained within the thief star had such a mythological story, so they raised their own status and went to the sun to try and provoke it. The key point is that after being passed around for a hundred or two hundred years, it actually had an effect.

Whether outsiders believe it or not is secondary; the fact is, they believe it.

Descendants of the Golden Crow, so noble!

After a moment's thought, Shen Tang guessed part of the truth: "If Shi Wu is a 'tiger'... then Zheng Qiao's conquest of Xin was not because he led Geng to a terrifyingly powerful state, but because he took advantage of favorable timing, location, and popular support? Taking advantage of Xin's natural disasters, man-made calamities, and political instability, he secretly allied with Shi Wu, sending Shi Wu to harass and draw Xin's forces away, while Geng launched a surprise attack?"

The Xin Kingdom was already plagued by internal troubles, and the Shiwu were constantly harassing and causing trouble on the border, so it was inevitable that they would neglect to guard against the Geng Kingdom.

This ultimately led to the current situation.

Qi Shan nodded approvingly.

Shen Tang asked again, "But what does this have to do with Xiaocheng?"

Xiaocheng is the capital of Sibao County, and it is not connected to the border mountains, so it has nothing to do with Shiwu.

Qi Shan said, "Because the parents of the Prefect of Sibao County were from Shiwu. Dissatisfied with the power struggles within their tribe, they decided to take their young child away from their homeland, change their names, and eventually settle in Xin Kingdom. Although the child grew up in Xin Kingdom, he still missed Shiwu. By chance, he made contact with the tribe's power on his parents' side and became one of Shiwu's spies."

Shen Tang stared in astonishment, her curiosity piqued as she looked at Qi Shan: "This is a secret concerning one's life and fortune, something that the prefect would be trying to keep hidden. How could you know it?"

This is no ordinary "guide NPC" at all.

The secrets she carries are like an old sow wearing a bra, layer upon layer. If you dig deeper, you'll find a deep pit.

Shen Tang secretly observed Qi Shan's expression out of the corner of her eye. Seeing that he did not have any particularly strong emotional fluctuations, she hesitated for a moment and then changed her mind: "If it is inconvenient for you to tell me, then I will not ask."

Qi Shan: "It's not that I'm unwilling to tell you, but it's a long story that can't be explained in a short time. You just need to know that the Prefect of Sibao County is two-faced and no good. On the surface, he is a loyal and sycophantic minister of Zheng Qiao, who is good at flattering and will do anything to please Zheng Qiao, but in secret he still works for Shi Wu."

As he spoke, he steered the conversation back on track.

"Sibao County has a rather special geographical location. It can be attacked or defended at will. It is a prefecture bordering Xin and Geng Kingdoms, and it is also a necessary route for neighboring countries to go south, with both waterways and land routes. In other words, if you want to take over the heartland of the Central Plains, you have to take Sibao County."

Shen Tang gasped.

"Is the Ten Crows plotting something this big?"

They hadn't even conquered the mountains blocking their southward advance, so they started thinking about what to do after conquering the northwestern countries.

No wonder they dare to stage an accident in Japan.

“They really dare to plot such a grand scheme. It was just wishful thinking before, but now—” Qi Shan’s gaze swept over Shen Tang, who had her head bowed, and she said quietly, “It’s not impossible. The Xin Kingdom’s national seal is lost, and Zheng Qiao is a tyrannical ruler who cannot appease the people. The national spirit and fortune he holds, which are gathered by the national seal, may not be able to maintain the border barrier on the other side of the mountains. The Ten Crows’ wolfish ambitions may really allow them to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and cross that mountain range.”

Xiaocheng was a carefully laid move by them.

Of course, even if Shiwu didn't lay the groundwork in Xiaocheng, Qishan would still have to come, firstly to seek revenge, and secondly to make arrangements.

Is it meaningful to live a mediocre life and die a resentful one? Who will emerge victorious and triumph in the end remains to be seen!

As the two spoke, a line of very faint text gradually appeared on the previously snow-white paper—

This paper actually has a problem!

Chen Tang recited: "Viewed from the side, it's a ridge; viewed from the front, it's a peak?"

(End of this chapter)