Chapter 241
Hebe looked at Drona: "Everything has been corrupted and turned upside down since the very beginning. Drona, Drona! Take heed of what I have said today."
She reached out and shoved Drona and Ashvasena.
The surrounding clouds and mist shifted, and Drona and Ashvasena Si felt as if they were riding a gale, with a whooshing sound in their ears.
When the clouds and fog cleared, they were already on the main road, more than ten miles away from Pelican Town!
Hebe casually sheathed the sword back into the soldier's waist, looked at the fat lord who was hunching over on the platform, and waved to summon the greedy proclamation officer over, making him stand in the place that had originally belonged to Drona.
After doing all this, Hebe stepped down from the platform and took Karna home.
A crisp snap of fingers echoed from the end of the long street, as if a nightmare had been shattered, and everything around, which had been still, suddenly began to move.
Suddenly, the lord's furious roar and the messenger's pleading voice came from the high platform—but they were all drowned out by the panicked clamor of the crowd.
Drona looked at the Ashvasena of the horses beside him and felt a deep sorrow welling up inside him.
He bent down and kissed his son's forehead, vowing that even if he had to undergo ascetic practices, he would not let his son suffer with him.
Drona pondered deeply.
He suddenly remembered that when he was still in his father's Forest of Asceticism, he had a very good classmate.
This friend had promised to share his kingdom and wealth with Drona.
—If Drona encounters any difficulties in the future, he can come to him for help.
This student is the eldest son of a powerful feudal lord. Judging by the time, he should have already inherited the position of feudal lord by now.
Drona's prediction was indeed correct; his old classmate and friend had now ascended the throne as King Wooden Pillar.
"This is the last time, the last time I will practice the Dharma in my heart."
Drona felt somewhat lost and wavering, thinking, "I really hope I didn't do the wrong thing..."
He came to the fiefdom of King Wooden Pillar to see his old friend.
Drona adopted a very humble posture, and this time he entered the palace smoothly.
At the foot of the long golden steps, he looked up at the Lord in golden armor on the throne.
"Drona, hmm?"
The King Wooden Pillar's voice was drawn out for a very long time.
Drona knew something was wrong the moment he heard that sound.
However, he still expressed his purpose and asked King Wooden Pillar for a piece of land and some money to support himself and his son.
On his throne, King Wooden Pillar chuckled coldly.
"Drona! You foolish, ugly, and ignorant man! Look at yourself now—you are no longer a Brahmin, you are more like a Vaishya or Shudra."
"You can't even support yourself, so how can you protect your son? I'm truly ashamed of you!"
"Now you have no power, no wealth. You've even left the Forest of Asceticism! To support you, I have to take a large sum of money from the treasury and carve out a large piece of land from my kingdom! And you—tell me, Drona —what good can you still do for me?"
Drona stood silently in place, like a statue battered by the bitter wind and rain.
He still appeared tall and resolute, but something inside him was broken.
"King Wooden Pillar— "
This was the first time Drona hadn't called out his friend's name. "I just want a little money, a little land, that's all..."
"No."
The King Wooden Pillar replied, "You can't bring me any benefit right now, so I won't give you even an inch of land or a single copper coin."
Whispers and sullen laughter echoed through the palace, Drona dared not look at his son.
He didn't know how he mechanically turned around and stiffly walked out of the palace.
After walking several miles in one breath, Drona turned around and looked at the town's outline, which was already somewhat blurred on the horizon.
His pale face twitched, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Father! Father!"
Ashvasena hurriedly called out, "Are you alright?"
Drona trembled as he stared intently at the city of the King Wooden Pillar.
Suddenly, he chuckled coldly and slapped himself twice across the face.
"I was wrong, I was really wrong, I know absolutely nothing about the Dharma! You are absolutely right!"
Drona whispered, "King Wooden Pillar —just wait. I'll entrust this country to you for now, and I'll come back to take it back in ten years!"
"Ashvasena, let's go."
"Father, where are we going?"
"The Kuru Dynasty, with its capital at Elephant City!"
Elephant City truly deserves its reputation as a magnificent city, attracting all wealth, wisdom, and talent.
Even though the current Lord of this magnificent city is the blind Dhritarashtra.
However, with the wise and experienced regent Tianshi, the Kuru Dynasty remained the supreme ruler of Bharata.
Drona heard many legends in this place—for example, the Pandavas were born demigods, exceptionally brave and wise; Kauravas were also like human beings.
Of course, that's not the right way to put it, since the Kauravas were also born with extraordinary phenomena.
Legend has it that Princess Gandhari, who willingly gave up her sight to have her husband blindfolded, gave birth to a ball of flesh after a long pregnancy.
Princess Gandhari, in despair, wanted to destroy the ball of flesh, but then she encountered a stunningly beautiful immortal.
The immortal cut the ball of flesh into 101 portions and placed them in jars to cultivate. Three years later, the jars burst open, and from them emerged 100 boys and 1 girl.
These one hundred boys are the Kauravas.
However, what intrigued Drona even more was the legendary, extremely beautiful fairy.
He himself was the son of an immortal, so naturally he knew what immortals looked like. You could say they possessed great magical power, astonishing asceticism, and extraordinary bearing... but in short, because of their arduous cultivation leading to their unkempt appearance, immortals were absolutely not associated with "beauty."
Getting back to the main point. Because both the Kauravas and the Pandavas possessed extraordinary signs, they began to compete fiercely from a young age.
But a question that has troubled Tianshi for a long time is now before him: who is qualified to be the princes' teacher?
Tianshi that he was certainly capable of doing the job, but he couldn't spare the time.
Dhritarashtra was blind, and Gandhari voluntarily covered his eyes as well.
The couple lived like carefree, hands-off owners, with nothing to do but close their eyes and cover themselves with a blanket.
National affairs and political matters are not entirely handled by Tianshi himself, relying on his extraordinary physical strength and amazing wisdom.
It's all messed up.
Drona also thought about this problem.
He is now beginning to understand what Hebe said.
Times change, and the key is to speak to people in a way that suits them and to treat them appropriately.
What the Kshatriya need most is knowledge and skills that can further elevate their own divinity.
I, Drona, have all of these!
Having mastered both literary and martial arts, they were offered to the emperor.
Teaching these demigods is not an insult to the reputation of Drona.
Once Drona grasped some of the key points Hebe had pointed out, his thinking became more active.
He first walked around the city gate carrying a bow and arrow made of straw, thatch and reeds, which puzzled the guards and the people guarding the city.
"Hey, hunter! With such a flimsy bow on your back, how far can you shoot, and what kind of prey can you hit? Aren't you going to starve to death?"
Drona smiled slightly upon hearing this, without refuting it.
He took off his thatched bow in front of everyone and shot eighteen reed arrows into the air.
Eighteen geese fell from the sky, and the reeds passed right through their eyes.
Drona leisurely tied the eighteen geese together, put them in his basket, and went home.
When the legends about him began to spread throughout the city, Drona came to the riverbank again.
Although the river was not very turbulent, it was extremely wide, almost to the point of being boundless.
Drona asked the women washing clothes on the riverbank, "How do you usually cross the river?"
"Hold on to the boat. The boat hasn't arrived yet; you'll have to wait until noon to cross the river."
Upon hearing this, Drona laughed and said, "There's no need for such trouble."
But then he drew his bow and nocked an arrow, muttering incantations, before breaking off a reed and shooting it into the river.
After firing an arrow, Drona didn't even look at it before leaping into the river and drifting downstream on the reeds.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Drona returned to Elephant City through the reeds, and his clothes didn't even get wet.
With these two legends surrounding him, Drona's reputation in Elephant City was already quite renowned, and he was able to enter and leave the palace.
Drona guessed that the Son of Ganges, the Regent of Elephant City, might already be observing him in secret.
But that was exactly the effect Drona wanted; he would linger in the palace every day, bringing nothing and taking away no offerings.
Over time, even the princes of the Kuru tribe came to know of this extraordinary person.
More than a month later, Drona's opportunity finally arrived.
The incident began when some of the Pandavas and the Kauravas were playing football.
The relationship between the two sides was not good to begin with, and the fighting only escalated the tension.
First, Nanjang, one of the Kauravas, kicked the ball to the head of the third son Arjuna.
Immediately afterwards, the eldest of the Pandavas Yudhishthira, fought back fiercely.
In the midst of the commotion, the gold and silver-inlaid soccer ball was kicked into the well by Arjuna.
The princes looked at each other in bewilderment: Now that the ball is gone, what are we supposed to do?
Then let's skip the football game and just play!
Soon, a football match turned into a full-blown brawl.
Chapter 303: He shouldered his luggage.
Inside the Kuru King, the Pandavas and the Kauravas were locked in battle.
That being said, this is already giving the Kauravas a lot of face.
On the side of the Pandavas, the eldest, Yudhishthira, and the second, Bhima, charged ahead, while the fourth, Anapasrita, and the fifth, Sahasra, flanked from the side.
They were like a tank, rampaging across the field, with no one able to withstand them in their path.
Especially Bhima —the son of the Vayu— could even stir up storms with a wave of his hand, easily sending seven or eight people flying far away.
Hearing the terrifying noises coming one after another, the king frowned and asked the Tianshi, "What's happening?"
Tianshi, observing the almost one-sided situation on the field, replied without changing his expression, "They are playing football."
How can playing football cause this much noise? What kind of deadly football are you playing?
This is where the problem arises—while the average level of the Kauravas was inferior to that of the Pandavas, there were still some capable individuals among them.
For example, Duryodhana.
This eldest son of the king, who was granted the title of Protector of the People at a young age, was almost the most prestigious crown prince.
Similarly, his fighting skills were no less than any of the Pandavas — Duryodhana himself thought so until today.
It can be said that the group of the Kauravas was originally formed under the leadership of Duryodhana, which enabled it to become an organized and powerful alliance of nobles.
But now Duryodhana, as Arjuna.