The Prayer

Gu Shenwei drew his saber and sword. A Zheba puffed out his chest, convinced that everything he had done was right.

"I've killed many people with these." Gu Shenwei turned and laid the drawn weapons on the table. He ignored the Grand Commandant's urgent hints. "If you wanted to kill someone, what would you use?"

A Zheba couldn't understand why the Dragon King had suddenly asked such a question. After turning it over in his mind, he replied, "A bow and arrows."

Gu Shenwei patted Fang Wenshi on the shoulder, telling him he didn't need to keep pretending to search for something. "If the strategist wanted to kill someone, he'd persuade someone stronger to do it, using his silver tongue to take revenge on his enemies."

Fang Wenshi gave a wry smile. "Dragon King, you really understand me."

A Zheba still didn't understand. "The Imperial Guard didn't want to kill the Dragon King."

Fang Wenshi spoke up. He understood what the Dragon King meant. "Not now." He put emphasis on those two words. "The Imperial Guard doesn't want to kill the Dragon King now, but they know they wield sabers and swords just like the Dragon King, bows and arrows just like you, and... silver tongues just like me."

"Are you talking about the Imperial Guard slaughtering its officers?" A Zheba himself had been a victim of the mutiny, but he still felt affection for the army he had once served. "That was an accident. The soldiers were incited, and the Grand Commandant had just been assassinated. It was only natural for morale to be unsettled..."

"That's exactly it." Fang Wenshi cut him off. People could see the facts but not the truth behind them. That was precisely why strategists existed. "The Imperial Guard is a special army, directly under