The Male Courtesan Has a Problem (Part 2)

"Related to word spirits, related to word spirits... This is a breakthrough." Qi Shan paced back and forth with the sheet of paper in his hands. Shen Tang heard him muttering in a low voice, "I've heard of similar secret methods before, used to transmit messages. They're extremely rare, and very few people know how to use them."

"Something that advanced?"

Shen Tang was genuinely taken aback.

She had only tossed out a casual guess. She hadn't expected encrypted word spirits to actually exist.

Qi Shan circulated his literary heart, gathering literary qi in his palm. His expression was solemn, and Shen Tang vaguely felt that something was not quite right.

"Yuan Liang, aren't you overthinking this? He's just a male courtesan from the Brothels and Entertainment Houses... Even if he's a candidate for top courtesan, it would be hard for him to come into contact with such obscure word spirits, wouldn't it? Taking a step back, even if he could, what earth-shaking message would warrant this level of encryption?"

Qi Shan held his palm over the paper, azure literary qi gathering there as he slowly probed it. At the same time, he did not forget to answer Shen Tang's question.

"What do you think Xiaocheng is?"

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

She truly did not know.

Yuan Liang's question clearly involved the current state of the world. But her present understanding of this world came from Qi Shan, his word-spirit scrolls, and what she had seen along the way. That was only an exceedingly limited corner of this world.

No matter how hard she tried to learn, most of the people she encountered were commoners from the very bottom rung. Most of them could not even fill their stomachs. They did not care what the local prefect or commandery official was called, or what achievements he had made—let alone the General Trend of the World. Nor did they have any way of knowing.

All they knew was that the times were hard, so hard they could barely go on living.

Shen Tang's answer was within Qi Shan's expectations. He felt neither disappointment nor anything else. If Young Master Shen had suddenly become someone who knew everything, he would instead have wondered whether this person was pretending to be weak while hiding his strength. Thus, for the first time, he revealed some things to Shen Tang.

The tip of the iceberg of this world's overall situation.

He said, "When I previously said that Zheng Qiao, ruling Geng Country, would surely bring about his own destruction within five years, it was not only because he was violent in temperament, vicious in his methods, and fond of using lowly tricks. There was another important reason—he wanted to use a wolf to drive away a tiger, yet he was plotting with the tiger for its skin."

Shen Tang instinctively sat up straight and listened with rapt attention.

After thinking for a moment, she guessed part of it.

"Yuan Liang, you mean... Xin Country used to be the 'wolf,' and now that the wolf is dead, that 'tiger' has become Zheng Qiao's greatest hidden threat? Who is this tiger?" Shen Tang recalled that among Qi Shan's books were several small-scale maps describing the locations of the northwestern countries.

Neither Xin Country nor Geng Country was situated particularly well.

Both lay along the edge of the continent.

Yet it was precisely because of this that the two countries avoided the continent's central regions, where the slaughter was at its worst. Compared to Geng Country, which was surrounded by neighbors in all directions and got beaten up every other day, Xin Country was slightly better off. To its northwest stretched endless steep mountain ranges, with perilous passes that were easy to defend and hard to attack.

Qi Shan answered, "This tiger is Ten Crows."

Shen Tang said, "Ten Crows?"

Ten Crows was a barbarian force beyond Xin Country's continuous mountain ranges.

They believed that the Golden Crow had descended here and also nested and multiplied here, with its descendants continually growing stronger. Thus, they called themselves "Ten Crows"—simply put, "the descendants of ten Golden Crows." Shen Tang suspected they had dreamed themselves across the ocean—thinking far too broadly, all the way to trying to scam the sun itself.

Before the Calamity Star fell, Ten Crows had not even been called by that name. They had merely happened to learn that one of the word spirits contained in the Calamity Star told such a myth, so they elevated their own status and climbed up to the sun to claim kinship. The key was that after the tale had been passed around for one or two hundred years, it had actually produced results.

Whether outsiders believed it was secondary. They believed it themselves, anyway.

Descendants of the Golden Crow—how noble they were!

With a little thought, Shen Tang guessed part of the truth. "If Ten Crows is the tiger... then Zheng Qiao's conquest of Xin Country was not because the national strength of Geng Country under his command was so terrifying, but because he borrowed the right time, place, and people? He took advantage of Xin Country's Natural and Man-made Disasters and political turmoil, secretly allied with Ten Crows, had Ten Crows send troops to harass them and draw away Xin Country's forces, then had Geng Country launch a surprise attack?"

Xin Country had already been plagued by internal troubles, while Ten Crows kept stirring up trouble along its borders. It was inevitable that they would let down their guard against Geng Country.

That had ultimately led to the present situation.

Qi Shan nodded approvingly.

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

Xiaocheng was the Prefectural Government of Sibao Prefecture. It was not connected to the border mountain ranges, so no matter how one looked at it, it should have nothing to do with Ten Crows.

Qi Shan said, "Because the parents of Sibao Prefecture's Prefect were from Ten Crows. The Two of Them were dissatisfied with the power struggles within their tribe, so they decided to take their young child far from their homeland, conceal their identities, and eventually settle in Xin Country. Though that child grew up in Xin Country, he still thought of Ten Crows in his heart. By chance, he got in touch with his parents' tribal faction and became one of Ten Crows' informants."

Shen Tang heard this with wide eyes. At the same time, she looked at Qi Shan with curiosity practically bursting from her. "This is a secret that concerns life and fortune. That Prefect would be desperate to keep it buried—how do you know?"

What ordinary "Guiding NPC" had secrets like this?

The secrets on him were like a mother sow wearing a bra—layer upon layer. If she dug any deeper, she feared she would find a bottomless pit.

Shen Tang secretly observed Qi Shan's expression from the corner of her eye. Seeing no particularly strong emotional reaction from him, she hesitated for a breath before changing her words. "If it's inconvenient to tell me, then I won't ask."

Qi Shan said, "It's not that I refuse to tell you. It's just a long story, not something that can be explained in a short while. You only need to know that Sibao Prefecture's Prefect is two-faced and no good person. On the surface, he is a treacherous minister loyal to Zheng Qiao, skilled at flattery and willing to stop at nothing to please him. But in secret, he still works for Ten Crows."

As he spoke, he pulled the conversation back from its tangent.

"Sibao Prefecture's geographical location is rather special. It can advance to attack and retreat to defend. It lies at the border between Xin Country and Geng Country, and it is also the Path to Take for nearby countries heading south. It has both land and water routes. In other words, if one wishes to scheme for the continent's central heartland, Sibao Prefecture must be taken."

Shen Tang sucked in a sharp breath.

"Ten Crows has such grand ambitions?"

They had not even conquered the mountain ranges blocking their southern advance, yet they were already thinking about what to do after taking the northwestern countries?

As expected of people bold enough to claim kinship with the sun.

"They really do dare to harbor such grand ambitions. In the past, it was merely daydreaming, but now—" Qi Shan's gaze swept over Shen Tang, who had lowered her head, and he said faintly, "it may not be impossible. Xin Country's National Seal has been lost, and Zheng Qiao is a violent ruler incapable of winning the people's hearts. The national qi and National Fortune gathered by the National Seal in his hands likely cannot maintain the National Border Barrier on the other side of the mountains. Ten Crows is as ambitious as a wolf, and they may truly seize this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity to cross that mountain range."

Xiaocheng was a chess piece they had buried deep.

Of course, even if Ten Crows had not laid their lines in Xiaocheng, Qi Shan would still have come here—first, for revenge; second, to make his arrangements.

To live an ordinary life in mediocrity, then die in Frustrated indignation—what meaning was there in that? Whose deer would die in whose hands, and who would laugh proudly to the very end, was still unknown!

As The Two of Them spoke, a line of extremely faint words gradually appeared on the once snow-white paper—

There really was something wrong with this paper!

Shen Tang read aloud, "Viewed from the front, it forms a ridge; from the side, a peak?"