Dengzhou Guard, North Gate Tower.
Gu Moran, wearing a dark black cloak, leaned against the battlements, twirling two walnuts in his hand.
Walnuts originated from Luoyang.
It was a gift from Mei Hongye; he said it was a lion's head meatball that the old Marquis had been working on for twenty years, and it was a shiny red.
Gu Moran didn't want it at the time.
Mei Hongye forced it on, and after he finished, he added, "If Your Highness dislikes it, you can smash it and eat it."
Gu Moran thought about it for a moment and then accepted it.
It would be a waste to crack open and eat walnuts that are twenty years old.
Below the city gate tower lies the Dengzhou Water Fortress.
A hundred or so warships were moored in the harbor, their sails patched up. Two of the ships had their masts askew and were barely kept from capsizing by being tied to the ships next to them with ropes.
Zhen Meili went for a walk in the afternoon, and came back with a dark expression.
"Your Highness, that's not a boat, that's a coffin board."
Can it be repaired?
"It can be repaired, but it needs to be dismantled and rebuilt."
She slammed the charcoal pencil she was holding onto the table.
"The dragon bone is made of pine wood and has been soaked in water for ten years. With my Third Rank footwork, one step on it will make a hole."
"It will take me seven days to modify the new warship."
Gu Moran frowned.
The ship is wrecked, but it can be repaired.
But what he wanted was more than just a ship.
As peace continued for a long time, the admiral of the Dengzhou Navy indulged in wine and women every day, and his deputy did the same.
Upon receiving the imperial decree to attack Wa, they were terrified and all feigned illness.
The soldiers under them were even worse; all they knew how to do was fish in the coastal waters, and they would lose their way if they went thirty miles east.
There are no nautical charts.
There was no guide.
The Wa knew nothing about how to navigate the waterways, the locations of the reefs, or the timing of the tides.
Going out to sea in complete darkness isn't fighting a war; it's feeding the fish.
Gu Moran recalled the map of daily life she had seen on Blue Star in her previous life.
I can't remember...
He picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip.
Just then, light appeared before my eyes.
A pale blue panel popped out from the void, scrolling down line by line at lightning speed.
[Ding--Detection detected that the new female protagonist has entered Dengzhou territory.]
[Name: Kim Seon-a- ah]
[Identity: Eldest Princess of Goryeo ]
[Cultivation Level: Peak Second Rank ]
[Technique: Eastern Peak Tiger Spirit Art (Mastery)]
[Talent Attributes: Protective Barrier, Heavenly Calamity Lone Star, Zero Physical Contact.]
[Host, please be careful. An abnormal activity of the Heavenly Dao has been detected. The Chosen One may have been strengthened this time.]
Gu Moran narrowed his eyes and looked down.
[Original plot annotation: Gu Moran, the Great Yan, was attracted by Kim Seon-a's beauty and had improper thoughts.]
They first spread rumors that he had a secret relationship with the Japanese, and tried to incite internal strife within the Goryeo delegation, but to no avail.
Taking advantage of their exhaustion and weakness, they sent assassins to launch a night raid, intending to seize the territory by force.
[In his moment of crisis, Vajra Sect, the First Rank master of the Xie Linyuan, rushed to his aid, shattering Gu Moran's dantian with a single palm strike, leaving Gu Moran crippled and unable to indulge in women.]
puff.
A mouthful of hot tea rushed down my throat.
Gu Moran forced himself to hold it in, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down several times before he finally swallowed the tea.
The tea went astray down his trachea, and he coughed twice, tears welling up in his eyes.
The soldiers standing guard along the battlements glanced in this direction.
Gu Moran his hand, indicating that everything was alright.
He was already cursing in his mind.
Who wrote it?
Who wrote this thing?
Damn it, no matter how much of a playboy I am, I'm still a prince.
When have we ever lacked women?
For a prince to want a woman, isn't it just a matter of beckoning?
Even if you found a hundred, you could guarantee that each one would be better looking than the one in the painting.
There are so many cards to choose from, why would anyone want to travel all that way to grab a block of ice that could break an arm if you just touched it?
What's the point?
What about her four white tigers?
Well, having said that, the White Tiger is quite good.
But life is more important!
Besides, it was a case of forcing oneself upon someone.
They're at the Peak Second Rank.
In the original book, I was a complete waste.
How can you be a tyrant?
For a Second Rank rank is not called being a tyrant, it's called throwing his life away.
Which assassin would be so foolish as to follow a piece of trash to their death?
Gu Moran placed the teacup back on the battlement, and the two walnuts spun even faster in his palm.
He flipped down the panel.
[ Eastern Peak Tiger Spirit Art: The Four Symbols White Tiger protects the body, impervious to external forces within three feet.]
[Final move: Lone Mountain Returns to Silence ]
There was a long explanation that followed, which he glanced at and roughly understood.
This woman is tough.
If they really fought, even Lin Zhenshan might not be her match.
Who was Grand Commandant Lin Zhenshan?
The number one fierce general in the Great Yan Army, who single-handedly defeated thirty-six tribes in the Northern Territory with his great spear.
Even he would have a tough time.
As for Xie Linyuan...
The panel displayed only one line of text: [Young Master of the Northern Territory Vajra Sect, First Rank, currently in the deep mountains of the Northern Territory, his whereabouts are unpredictable.]
First Rank.
Gu Moran weighed the weight of this.
There are only a handful of First Rank martial artists in the Great Yan Dynasty, and this is a young master.
They're in the Northern Territory now, not coming this way.
I don't know if I'll come again.
Gu Moran kept that name to herself.
That Heavenly Dao Tiandao, he's really desperate and starts preparing his ultimate move.
They just sent away a useless person in a wheelchair, and they're already in such a hurry to send over First Rank or Second Rank official?
System, are you there, system?
Brother Tongzi?
Look how ambitious and proactive Heavenly Dao is!
[Yes, yes, yes, host, I already know I'm useless, and I'm working hard to improve!]
"Mmm, good girl."
He looked at Kim Seon-a's entry again.
The eldest princess of Goryeo, Peak Second Rank official, came from Goryeo.
On second thought...
Heavenly Dao is helping me!
Coming from Goryeo, that's wonderful.
Goryeo and Wa were previously allies, which could serve as a springboard for their alliance.
They recognized the waterways of Goryeo and Wa.
If you recognize the waterways, you'll know where the Wa hide their ships.
This familiarity is no less than that in history.
Born of the grasslands, yet he became the emperor of the Great Yuan in the Central Plains, leading troops from the Central Plains to destroy his ancestral homeland in the Mobei?
Haha! Just thinking about it is so satisfying!
Heaven is helping me!
Gu Moran stopped eating the walnuts.
The nautical charts are available.
We have a guide.
He's also a guide who can take on a hundred people at once.
This is a good deal.
"Your Highness, which woman are you thinking about? You're smiling so slyly."
Murong Xue came up from the city wall staircase, carrying a food box in her hand.
"Who stole it?"
"You."
Murong Xue put the food box on the battlements and reached out to snatch the walnuts from his hand.
Gu Moran her hand back, and she missed.
"Mean."
"You and Lin Qingdai have been with me for so long that your martial arts have already reached the Third Rank."
They don't know their own strength.
"If you crush this twenty-year-old walnut in one go, Old Marquis Mei will cry his eyes out."
"Just give me one."
"Not a single one."
Murong Xue snorted and opened the food box.
Inside were two sesame seed cakes, a dish of salted fish, and a pot of hot wine.
" Wanqing isn't here, and neither is Sister Su Yao, so no one's taking care of your meal. Ling'er asked me to bring it up."
She stuffed the sesame seed cake into his hand.
"Eat it while it's hot. After you're done, go downstairs. Her Highness is waiting for you; she says she wants to settle accounts with you."
"What accounts are we talking about?"
"She said you stayed in Meng Jiuning's room until the wee hours last night; she's keeping track of it."
Gu Moran took a bite of the sesame seed cake but didn't reply.
The younger sister manages her brother's finances, and she does it even more meticulously than Su Yao.
The panel lit up again.
This time it's red.
[WARNING: The heroine, Kim Seon-a, is ambushed on the desolate beach south of the Dengzhou Guard.]
[Ambush attackers: eleven Wa Kage ninjas and one Jonin.]
[Current Status: Kim Seon-a's protective aura is intact; her life is not in immediate danger.]
Gu Moran looked at the words and slowed down her chewing of the sesame seed cake.
Seeing that he remained silent, Murong Xue waved her hand in front of his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"It's alright, it's just that my ears are too sharp; I heard fighting going on in the southern wasteland."