Wang Chong instinctively reached to loot the corpse, but no sooner had he extended his hand than he sheepishly drew it back. With so many eyes on him, it was hardly proper to do something so undignified. To cover himself, he said, "This villain died at Brother Lu Zongfeng's hands. All of us brothers witnessed it. We must make Brother Lu treat us tonight."
Lu Zongfeng was delighted, his face radiant as a spring breeze. "Of course, of course."
Qin Han had already reassured the other brothers of the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance. They also knew that without Wang Chong's intervention, killing this "White Chrysanthemum" would certainly have cost them casualties. Though Lu Zongfeng had now taken the greatest credit, their credit for assisting in the investigation could not escape them. Besides, Qin Han and Lu Zongfeng would surely compensate them. No one was particularly dissatisfied, and they all congratulated Lu Zongfeng in a thoroughly harmonious atmosphere.
Sun Mingke was rather curious, having never seen anyone from the Western Regions before. He crouched down, poked the body, and said, "His martial arts weren't bad. He must have been quite a formidable figure even in the Green Mountain Sect. Unfortunately, he came to the Central Plains to do evil. In the end, he got what he deserved."
An idea stirred in Wang Chong's mind. "Brother Sun, search his person."
It was inconvenient for him to loot the corpse, but there was no problem having Sun Mingke do it. Sun Mingke searched as instructed and found some banknotes and loose silver. The young masters of the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance thought little of such trifling valuables, but he also found a letter, archaic in style and bearing six dazzling gold seals. Qin Han took one look and exclaimed in shock, "This is an Eagle Letter from the Eighteen Tribes of the Grasslands! It must bear the joint signatures and seals of at least three great chieftains of the Eighteen Tribes of the Grasslands to be valid. They would never use this method unless it concerned something of great importance."
He snatched it over, broke the seal, and read it through. His brow furrowed, and he handed it to Wang Chong. "This matter is rather serious. We must report it to Constable Li at once. She probably won't be able to shoulder it either and will hurry to report it higher up."
Wang Chong opened the letter and saw bold, vigorous writing. It began, "To the great chieftains of all tribes!"
"I have received word that the Empress's son is wandering the martial world and is currently near Tongzhou, accompanied by only a few dozen people and thinly guarded. This man bears upon the succession to the Central Plains' imperial throne. If we can capture him and bring him back to the grasslands, he will be a rare commodity worth holding and can be used to plunge the Central Plains into disorder. I ask every tribe of the grasslands to dispatch all their experts to the Central Plains and journey east to hunt the qilin."
It was signed Xianbei Khan He Xuan.
Wang Chong still remembered Qian Luoyi saying that this man ranked second among the formidable enemies he had encountered in his lifetime. But Khan He Xuan was the foremost expert of the Xianbei and the Xianbei king's own uncle. For Qian Luoyi to rank him as his second-greatest lifelong enemy was rather gilding his own face.
He was just about to pass the letter to someone else when Qin Han took it back first. "Brother Wang Chong, too many people should not know of this."
Then why did you show it to me? Wang Chong thought. Aloud, however, he said with a smile, "Brother Qin Han, you truly are cautious."
Wang Chong was not a man of the authorities and did not know that Qin Han's heart was surging like towering waves at that moment. He could barely steady his emotions and wanted only to find someone to share the pressure as quickly as possible. That was why he had instinctively handed the letter to Wang Chong. But after showing him the letter, he immediately came to his senses. This was a great matter of military and state affairs. The Eighteen Tribes of the Grasslands were sending all their experts into the Central Plains to capture the Empress's son alive-what an enormous affair that was!
Absolutely no one should learn of this. It ought to be reported to the imperial court as soon as possible. Even Li Qingge should not know, for the implications were simply too great.
Qin Han steadied himself and thought, Although this man admitted to committing rape, he was certainly not White Chrysanthemum. First, he was not proficient in the Ice Soul Finger. Second, with such an important mission on him, how could he have committed crimes so recklessly?
I must hurry and report this case...
Hmm, I had better bypass Li Qingge and bring it straight to the imperial ear.
First, that will keep others from sharing the credit. Second, it will keep this matter from leaking too widely.
Younger Brother Wang Chong truly is my lucky star. If I report this, the credit will far surpass that for killing White Chrysanthemum.
Wang Chong lowered his voice and asked, "That son of the Empress..."
Qin Han hastily said, "Let's discuss it when we get back."
Wang Chong took the hint and did not mention it again. Naturally, the young gentlemen of the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance would not do heavy labor. They summoned the bailiffs and constables to carry the giant man from the Western Regions back to Pengshan County.
Wang Chong had not thought much of it while fighting the man, but seeing how hard the bailiffs and constables struggled to carry the corpse, he could not help musing, This fellow really was enormous. He must have stood two meters ten or twenty, right? And he wasn't built like a basketball player, either, but more like a weightlifting strongman. I wonder just how strong he was.
Huh! When I clashed head-on with him just now, his strength didn't seem all that remarkable.
Wang Chong recalled their fight and turned several details over in his mind. Suddenly, understanding dawned. That's right. My physical strength must be inferior to his. I only have a little over five hundred jin of strength, but I also have my internal power. Though I don't yet know how much internal power amplifies strength, it can at least double or triple it. In particular, I'm also proficient in martial arts and have methods for dispersing force, neutralizing it, and redirecting it. That was why I could easily withstand his full-strength attacks.
When Wang Chong had mastered the Nine-Headed Dragon King Aspect last time, he had felt capable of taking on mountain tigers and bears head-on, but that was a different matter. A tiger's full-strength blow could reach two thousand jin, and a brown bear's could even exceed that. His strength was naturally far inferior, but his lightness skill was superb, his speed far greater than a wild beast's, and his technique superior by an untold margin. It was the same principle by which a tiger, though smaller and somewhat weaker, often had a slightly better chance of winning a fight against a bear.
As an Innate Realm martial artist, why would he compete with a wild beast in strength alone and forgo his martial skills?
This battle had tested the fruits of Wang Chong's diligent training over this period, and he felt deeply grateful to Sun Mingke for practicing swordsmanship and martial arts with him. Little Brother Sun belongs to the Five Absolutes Sect and has no need of any help I could offer. I can only keep this friendship in my heart.
After they returned to Pengshan County, Qin Han vanished without a trace, leaving Wang Chong to take Sun Mingke back. After waiting half a day, Su Luoyan, Lu Moniang, and Li Qingge returned one after another, and he told them what had happened that day. He was also very curious about just what sort of "thing" this "son of the Empress" was and wanted to get a clear answer.
As soon as he mentioned the letter, Li Qingge sprang to her feet and exclaimed, "This is going to cause enormous trouble."
Wang Chong hurriedly asked, "When the Empress's son travels, surely he has countless experts around him. Even if his guards are temporarily few, he need only raise a call and the prefectures throughout the realm will follow like clouds gathering before the wind. Why would there be any concern for his safety?"
Su Luoyan raised her brows slightly. "Young Master Wang Chong, there is something you don't know. This realm belongs to the Empress, but it also belongs to her father and brothers, and still more to her grandfather, her late grandfather, and all her ancestors through the generations. It does not, however, belong to her husband's family. Behind the Empress stands the Lineage she was born into, not her husband's Lineage..."
Wang Chong came from a new society where men's rights were heavily suppressed, and everyone had been stamped from childhood with the iron brand of "men and women are the same." But he did have some brains, after all. He would hardly be foolish enough to think that men and women were likewise undivided in a society of this ancient sort, especially where imperial power was concerned.
...Let this toad tell a joke: West Asian literature has at least ten stories in which "some foreign prince-or sometimes a vagabond-married a Chinese princess and inherited China's imperial throne"...
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