Chapter 274
Chapter 274
Ning Yan angrily said to them.
"Are you the bastards who ran down and killed an innocent commoner with your horses in the western market a few days ago?"
The leader of the Qiang warriors spoke.
"And what if we are? Why is a mere woman meddling in affairs the government office ignores? Why don't you spend a hot night with us instead?"
The Qiang warriors stared at Ning Yan with burning eyes.
'What a beautiful, fiery woman!'
Ning Yan was the most beautiful woman they had ever met. It couldn't be helped. The tigress's strong thighs and the curve of her buttocks perfectly matched the tastes of the Qiang delegation, setting them ablaze. She was the very image of their ideal woman. But soon, someone recognized her as Princess Ning Yan. Mad as they were, they wouldn't dare touch a princess of the State of Yue.
Just then, two men from the Su Clan, who were escorting the Qiang envoys, came forward to greet Princess Ning Yan. However, they were immediately struck by the princess, knocked to the ground, and rendered unconscious. Then, a Su Clan warrior hiding in a corner tried to go to the Marquis of Zhenyuan's estate to report the situation. But before he could even leave, he was blocked by one of Princess Ning Yan's guards, beaten, and thrown to the floor.
The tigress, Princess Ning Yan, pointed at the delegation and said.
"You've caused over a dozen casualties among the people of my State of Yue, but since our two nations have an agreement not to harm each other's envoys, I can't just bully you with my authority. So let's settle this with a match. In a wheel battle, I alone will face all dozen of you."
Hearing her words, the Qiang delegation was enraged.
'A single woman wants to fight a dozen of our Qiang warriors? This is a great insult to us. Do you think we'll go easy on you just because you're a princess of Yue? You're the one who challenged us, after all.'
Soon, the wheel battle began.
* * *
The Qiang warriors charged at her, one after another. And one by one, they were all struck down by the tigress. The battle was over in less than seven and a half minutes. The big-bottomed princess had truly defeated a dozen men by herself. She wasn't called the Scourge of the Capital for nothing. Ning Yan's natural talent for martial arts was less than Ning Han's, but under the guidance of a good master, her skills had become formidable. Of course, she was no match for Qiu Yao'er, who was invincible.
Ning Jue was a peak expert and Zuo Ci's junior sister, but in a real fight, she would be no match for Qiu Yao'er. However, this tigress princess's martial arts were at least stronger than Mulan's. It was understandable. Mulan had to attend to military affairs while practicing her martial arts; she didn't have the same high degree of natural talent as the tigress, nor had she dedicated herself solely to martial arts from a young age.
The important thing was, she was all brawn and no brains. In this world, people who possessed both martial prowess and wisdom were relatively rare. One had to be simple-minded to become a powerful martial artist. Look at Big Dummy, Tang Yan, and the Sword King Li Qianqiu. Not a single one of them was known for their intellect. In other words, they had poured all their wisdom into martial arts, leaving their emotional intelligence remarkably low. Grandmaster Zhong Chuke was relatively smart, which might be why his martial arts were inferior to Li Qianqiu's. A woman like my beloved Mulan—highly skilled in martial arts, kind-hearted, intelligent, beautiful, and with a stunning figure—was exceedingly rare. She was an angel.
Returning to the matter at hand, the Qiang warriors had all been defeated by Ning Yan in the wheel battle. It was a great humiliation. Of course, thanks to Ning Yan holding back, they only suffered bruised and swollen faces, with no broken bones. The tigress princess took off her gloves, waved her hand dismissively, and said.
"Hah, this batch of Qiang warriors is useless."
Her words, emphasizing her contempt for her opponents and calling them useless, pushed the Qiang delegation to the brink of explosion. Of course, that line had been fed to her by Shen Lang. The tigress instinctively felt how utterly infuriating that line was and planned to use it often in the future. Then, she turned her back on the Qiang warriors, presenting them with an undeniably explosive view as she walked away.
She felt truly exhilarated. The most satisfying thing in the world was to act smug and crush someone else's pride. Her actions, from start to finish, had been a performance based on a script, all designed for her by Shen Lang.
* * *
After Princess Ning Yan left, the dozen Qiang warriors got to their feet, their extreme shame turning into rage. Rumor had it that the men of the barbarian tribes were all straightforward, but would they really smile happily and admit defeat when they lost a fight? That was a lie. These vicious men were all cunning to the core. When they lost, they would only resent their opponent more and plot how to kill them. The idea of a straightforward, manly man was just something out of a novel.
The Qiang people were typically violent and narrow-minded. For a dozen warriors to be defeated by a single woman was an unbearable shame. They had to retaliate. They must. But their opponent was a princess, so they couldn't just kill her. Pondering this, they drank even more heavily. But... the wine they were drinking had been drugged.
Hah! Shen Lang's deadly weapon, the world's most potent hallucinogen, had appeared once again. Shen Lang had produced another large batch of it. Truly, it never failed to be satisfying, no matter how often he used it. There was no more effective weapon. So who had drugged them? It was, of course, the sturdy beauties serving them. Princess Ning Yan didn't keep many people around her, but she was never short of robust female warriors.
Do you remember the sturdy female warrior who tried to pull off Shen Lang's pants? The woman who was eight feet tall and eight feet around the waist, the one who started to have a crush on Shen Lang. Ning Yan had a hundred such sturdy female warriors by her side. Of course, they weren't as robust as that one, and the women serving the wine this time had been selected for being both sturdy and beautiful.
After drinking the wine laced with the powerful hallucinogen, the Qiang delegation opened the door to a new world. It was a beautiful, soaring sensation.
'To think the State of Yue had such fine wine. Why are we only now drinking this wine that makes one feel like an immortal?'
The Qiang warriors weren't particularly intelligent to begin with, but now their IQs had plummeted to near zero. The envoys sent by the King of Qiang to extort money were simple-minded; intelligent people were actually less susceptible to the drug. How could one describe the sensation they were feeling now?
'In all of heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one. This sky cannot blind my eyes, and this earth cannot bury my heart.'
Ah, no! They weren't that poetic. They would probably say something like this.
'I'm so great that the heavens and earth cannot contain me.'
Just moments ago, a dozen of them had been defeated by a single woman and had vowed revenge. So, what would be a good form of revenge? We Qiang people will do something big. To do something big, should we attack the royal palace? Or should we go have our way with that princess and then kill her? Just then, a sturdy beauty serving them offered a good idea.
"My lords, what is the most sacred place in the Qiang Kingdom?"
"Of course, it's the divine temple on the Snow Mountain. That's where the gods of Qiang are enshrined."
"Then what would happen if someone were to burn down the divine temple on the Snow Mountain?"
"Obviously, we'd have to kill his entire family, destroy his country, and exterminate a hundred of his clans."
They had often heard the phrase "exterminate nine generations of a family" and thought it sounded impressive, so they had started using the phrase "exterminate a hundred clans" among themselves. The sturdy beauty smiled seductively.
"Coincidentally, we have a Sacred Temple right here in our capital. Its status in our State of Yue is just like that of your divine temple on the Snow Mountain."
The moment they heard that, the Qiang warriors looked at each other. As if their minds were connected, a brilliant idea struck them all.
'Let's go burn down the State of Yue's temple! Let's wash away the humiliation we just suffered. How dare the people of Yue look down on us? How dare they not give us money? We will have our revenge. We will do something big.'
They weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but they would never do something so foolish while sober. But at that moment, under the effects of the hallucinogen, they had entered a state of 'in all of heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one,' as if they were immortals at play. What was there that they couldn't do? A drunk person alone can commit all sorts of disgraceful acts; what more could be expected from a group of them who had ingested the most potent hallucinogen? Was there anything they couldn't do?
Soon, after asking for the location of the Sacred Temple, they headed off. In an instant, the sturdy beauties vanished without a trace, never to be found again. It was quite a coincidence. For some unknown reason, every time they left the brothel and reached a major intersection, there was someone there to give them directions. Otherwise, the Qiang warriors would never have been able to find the Sacred Temple. The only paths they remembered were the ones leading to all the brothels.
Wouldn't a sacred place like the Sacred Temple be heavily guarded? Nonsense! Angkor Wat, the Pyramids, even Capitol Hill weren't heavily guarded. The Sacred Temple in the capital of Yue was naturally the same. Such places were built for the king to perform rites and for countless scholars to look up to the sages. The security was tight for only one day a year: the first day of the first lunar month, because that was when the king would come. On all other days, it was guarded by just a dozen old soldiers.
Inside this Sacred Temple were several large statues, but unlike Buddhist statues, they weren't gilded, nor were there places to offer money and burn incense. Not a single gold coin could be found inside the temple, so even thieves didn't bother coming to steal things. Normally, an old man, a fourth-rank official, resided within the Sacred Temple. They easily dispatched the dozen or so old soldiers guarding the temple and set the building ablaze.
This was the sacred shrine for all scholars, the holy sanctuary where the founders of Eastern civilization were enshrined. The hall of the Eastern sages was now engulfed in flames. The Qiang warriors trembled with excitement.
'How exhilarating! To think burning down someone else's temple could be so satisfying.'
They unfastened their belts and pissed on the fire. The great fire at the Sacred Temple lit up the dark night sky just before dawn. The entire capital would be shaken as if by a magnitude 10 earthquake. This was equivalent to the Washington Monument exploding in the United States; it was an event that would undoubtedly shake the world. Shen Lang's vicious scheme had succeeded. The first of the Su Clan's misfortunes was about to begin. Tomorrow, a storm that would astound everyone would break out in the court of Yue.