Chapter 1 The Wind Rises

At this time, the inside and outside of Xia Yong City can be described as a storm gathering.

The county town's garrison had been fully mobilized. At the same time, a Chu army camp stationed nearby immediately dispatched five thousand soldiers to approach;

In addition, two teams of Qu's private soldiers, also known as the "Azure Luan Army," were also heading here.

Beneath Jade Plate City, Zheng Boye, on behalf of Tian Wujing, issued an order, massacring forty thousand elite Azure Luan soldiers in one fell swoop. Qu Tiannan, the pillar of the Great Chu, also died on the Wangjiang River. But a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Although the Qu family's vitality was greatly damaged, the remaining Azure Luan Army, plus the new recruits added in recent years, while their combat power was certainly far from its peak, was still sufficient within the Chu territory.

In addition, other Qu's vassal families similar to the Fan family nearby also received orders from the Qu family, and each family sent private soldiers to converge on Xia Yong City.

Xia Yong City was now attracting tens of thousands of soldiers, like waves surging from all directions, crashing against a lone reef.

The Mi family was not a traditional noble family of Chu, but two generations of the Mi family had produced close ministers to the Chu Emperor. Two generations of Mi family heads had grown up reading with the late Emperor and this generation of princes. The current Mi family head was also appointed by the Regent as the Minister of Revenue, in charge of the court's finances.

Now, the Mi family's eldest daughter had her tendons severed.

And the Fourth Princess,

was missing.

Such a thing actually happened within the territory of Chu, and neither the royal family nor the Qu family could remain calm.

...

On the city wall of Xia Yong City, a gaunt old man sat cross-legged on the battlements, with a general holding a knife standing beside him.

The gaunt old man's surname was Yuan, his given name Gangtian; the young general's surname was Li, his given name Mu.

Among the four great Eastern nations, after the current Yan Emperor ascended the throne, he vigorously suppressed religious forces throughout the country, changing the smoggy atmosphere of "gods and Buddhas all over the sky" during the reign of the previous emperor;

The Qian people have always believed in alchemists, feeling that those people can understand the secrets of heaven, mysterious and profound;

The Jin people's land had been divided into three families for too long. The He Lian family's ancestors were barbarians, and the Wenren family believed in Confucianism. Therefore, there was no dominant belief in Jin;

And the Chu people believed in witches.

Yuan Gangtian was one of the twelve Witch Masters of Great Chu. These twelve Witch Masters were not divided according to strength. In fact, witchcraft encompassed everything.

Witchcraft culture originated in Great Xia. Witches could survey, heal, divine, perform fortune-telling, write books, and so on. Therefore, the twelve Witch Masters of Great Chu were divided into twelve branches derived from the original point of witchcraft.

However, these branches had new names in other countries and were no longer described as witchcraft.

At the same time,

the Yue people also had their own shamanistic culture. After Marquis Chu opened the borders under the order of the Great Xia Emperor, the Chu people integrated and absorbed the shamanistic culture of the Yue people, integrated it into themselves, and continued to develop it, eventually making witchcraft culture the only mainstream belief in Great Chu.

Li Mu did not come from a large family. In fact, like Nian Yao, he was also a person who came out of the Regent's mansion and was now the general of Congzhou City.

Congzhou City was located within the Qu family's fiefdom and was a product of compromise between the great nobles and the royal family. The royal family allowed the great nobles to maintain their independence, and the great nobles also allowed the royal family to keep troops stationed in their fiefdoms.

Therefore, Li Mu's duty was to monitor the Qu family.

But now,

those things could be put aside for now. What needed to be done now was to find the princess.

The Fourth Princess and the Mi family's daughter left the military camp and went out alone early, intending to have some freedom and fun before getting married.

The current Empress Dowager, who was also the Regent and the Fourth Princess's biological mother, cherished her daughter who was about to get married, so she chose to turn a blind eye to this.

The Chu customs were different from the Qian country. Although they did not have the boldness of Yan women riding horses and drawing bows, they were far from being bound by etiquette like the women of Qian.

The Chu people were romantic.

But, the thing had already happened. Someone had abducted the princess under the noses of a group of guards.

Li Mu sighed,

and subconsciously reached out to touch the handle of his knife.

Yuan Gangtian smiled slightly and said:

"Annoyed?"

"Yes." Li Mu admitted directly.

In his opinion, a woman, even if she was a princess, was lost, so be it. It was not worth mobilizing so many people, and he, the general of Congzhou, had to come here specifically to organize the search.

Yuan Gangtian shook his head. He was too lazy to tell Li Mu to change his temper, because what the Regent might appreciate was Li Mu's temperament.

The world thought that Nian Yao was appointed as a general at a young age and was in charge of defending Zhennan Pass because of the Regent's trust, but Yuan Gangtian knew that Li Mu's favor was no lower than Nian Yao's.

"My Great Chu royal family is a descendant of the phoenix. Although we are not like the Yan people, who still raise pixiu generation after generation, my Great Chu palace has a collection of Fire Phoenix essence blood.

Each generation of core royal family members will have the honor of being bestowed with essence blood."

Hearing this, Li Mu said disdainfully: "Useless thing."

He had asked the Regent whether the Fire Phoenix essence blood could strengthen the body and increase vitality.

The Regent's answer was no, it could only leave a mark like a flame on the arm that would never fall off in a lifetime.

Since then, Li Mu had sneered at the Fire Phoenix essence blood.

Yuan Gangtian opened his hand, and in his palm, a small bat was slowly spreading its wings. While revealing its fangs, a dark green light flickered in its small pupils.

"This is a black bat that I have carefully raised. It is extremely intelligent. It's a pity that my Great Chu's Fire Phoenix bloodline has long been extinct. We can only use this subspecies that retains a trace of the Fire Phoenix bloodline to breed."

Saying that,

Yuan Gangtian opened his other palm and said:

"General Li, lend me a knife."

Li Mu drew his knife and sheathed it.

A bloody cut was made on Yuan Gangtian's palm.

"Huff..."

Yuan Gangtian's lips trembled slightly.

"What's wrong?" Li Mu asked.

Yuan Gangtian narrowed his eyes, gritted his teeth slightly, and said:

"Just breaking a small cut on your finger is enough."

Li Mu did not show any remorse and just said: "Tell me earlier next time."

Yuan Gangtian was helpless. He took out Jin Chuang medicine and began to apply it to his palm. At the same time, he chanted a witch incantation in his mouth as he turned his palm down, letting the blood drip onto the black bat.

The black bat's fur began to show a translucent color, not glowing, but the fur instantly became extremely delicate, and its energy and spirit were also immediately enhanced.

"Go, find the aura of the Fire Phoenix."

The black bat flew away from Yuan Gangtian's palm and flew into the air.

Li Mu looked at the black bat flying away and said: "Next, we just wait?"

Yuan Gangtian took out the wound medicine with some pain and began to apply it to his palm. At the same time, he said:

"You should still search as you should. As for me, I also have my methods. The black bat is one of them, and another method is to use the divination method of witchcraft to deduce.

The Fourth Princess is from my Great Chu royal family after all. Her fate is clear and we should be able to deduce something."

Li Mu nodded and said: "Did you help Nian Yao in the same way back then?"

Back then, when the Chu Emperor passed away, the many princes of Great Chu fought for the throne.

Nian Yao, under the command of the Fourth Prince, led the imperial guards loyal to the Fourth Prince to begin suppressing the rebellion, capturing three princes in succession. One of them was hiding in a mountain tribe and was not spared.

Li Mu knew that under the appearance of such rapid marching and clear goals, there must be external help.

For example, the method used to find the Fourth Princess now. If there was a witch master helping Nian Yao back then, it would be reasonable for him to quickly quell the rebellion with one "capture the enemy, capture the king first" after another, because those princes must have been bestowed with Fire Phoenix essence blood as well.

Yuan Gangtian began to pinch his fingers, constantly uttering obscure and difficult to understand incantations.

Li Mu held his knife and continued to stand quietly beside this witch master.

The evening breeze blew across the city wall of Xia Yong City, bringing the coldness of winter.

…

Inside the Fan residence's small courtyard where spring flowers bloomed,

the old woman sat there, her expression shifting between gloating and unease.

And in the separate courtyard where the family head's main house was located, Fan Zhengwen sat in the room, facing Weng Zanghai, sipping tea.

Now, a large portion of the Fan residence's servants and Fan residence disciples had gone out to participate in the search for the princess. At the same time, the Fan family, as the number one family in Xia Yong, had also mobilized the grain shops in the city and began to prepare food and grass for the various troops that were about to arrive.

These were all things that the Fan family should do.

Of course, they also did things that they should not do.

"Family Head, I heard that the Great Chu royal family has the Fire Phoenix bloodline in their bodies."

Fan Zhengwen nodded,

turned around, and looked in the direction of the greenhouse.

Weng Zanghai asked in a low voice: "Will she take action?"

Fan Zhengwen smiled,

and said:

"It's just like doing business. Whoever is reluctant will have to get stuck and lose money."

Weng Zanghai stroked his long beard, thoughtfully, and then said:

"But after all, it is not safe to place the princess in the Fan family like this."

"The incident happened suddenly, there was no other way, we could only put her in the Fan family."

Fan Zhengwen paused, and continued:

"Now that we're on the ship, there's no need to be reluctant. The worst case scenario is just asking Mr. Weng to suffer a little bit and go to Jin with me and my wife."

Fan Zhengwen could completely abandon his family business because he still had a way out. As long as Little Sixth can inherit the throne in the future, he still has a great hope of returning. At that time, he can earn an even bigger family business.

He was willing to give up, and he was really willing to give up. First, there must be a sacrifice before there can be gain.

But in the greenhouse courtyard,

the old woman was still unable to gain an advantage in this silent confrontation with her grandson.

She began to reach out,

to shield the "secrets of heaven" above the Fan residence,

because just now,

she sensed that someone was using the method of deduction to extend towards here.

...

At the same moment,

Ah Ming, who was habitually sitting on the roof, drinking wine with the mentality of eating the rich without eating for nothing, was still drinking wine.

He Chunlai and Chen Daole did not continue to accompany him. They were on high alert, guarding the two entrances of Qingfang Zhai. In fact, there was no difference between guarding and not guarding.

Ah Ming was a little lonely drinking alone.

Until he saw a bat flying in the sky in his sight.

Ah Ming waved,

but the bat ignored him. Instead, as if sensing something, it began to circle above the Fan residence.

Ah Ming was unhappy,

revealed his fangs,

and let out a slight growl,

the next moment,

the bat's body trembled, and its eyes actually revealed a hint of flattery and fear.

It fell from the sky

and landed on Ah Ming's shoulder.

Ah Ming reached out and touched the bat's head,

and said softly:

"Good boy."

————

Good night.