A Sincere Heart

A Zheba decided to shoot Yechuo dead only at the last moment. Several reasons circled in his mind, but none of them was beyond reproach.

Whatever else, his first reason was to save Li Man.

"Li Man shouldn't die." A Zheba ordered the five hundred panic-stricken Northern Court cavalrymen to stay where they were, then rode alone to face the Dragon King. "He has many ideas, but he's utterly loyal to Your Highness the Prince and harbors no disloyalty toward the Dragon King. If you die, no one will be able to save him."

"What about that one?" Gu Shenwei asked, pointing to the body in the distance.

"Every king has sycophants around him. I never liked Yechuo much. He was the one who found bandits to burn the supplies, and he was the one who came up with the plan to assassinate the Dragon King."

"Prince Dudun is declaring war on me. Do you think this will keep our alliance going?"

The idea was admittedly rather strange, but that was exactly what A Zheba had in mind. "As far as I know, the Dragon King isn't ruled by his temper. In the Dragon Court, King Yue Zhu went back on his word several times, but the Dragon King still maintained their alliance."

"King Yue Zhu is dead," Gu Shenwei said. As an "ally," he had watched King Yue Zhu be assassinated without making any effort to save him.

"I know." A Zheba wasn't entirely naive. He didn't have high hopes for the alliance. "The Dragon King and Your Highness the Prince aren't each other's greatest enemies. There's room on the grasslands and in the Western Regions for two kings. Even if you can't fight side by side, you can at least leave each other alone."

In Gu Shenwei's view,