CH 4

Crash!

Duanmu Li suddenly stood up, and the golden chair he was sitting on fell backwards with a loud sound.

His eyes were like dark, unfathomable pools, and his face was the picture of disbelief.

“Hahaha! Hahahaha! Duanmu Li, I, Zhan Tianbai, will never, ever beg you! Give up on this stupid notion!”

“Zhan Tianbai!!” Duanmu Li bellowed. He was in a real rage now.

He had never imagined, not even in his wildest dreams, that Zhan Tianbai would be as stubborn as this.

“Did you think I was only kidding?” Duanmu Li said menacingly. He reached out a hand and gripped Zhan Tianbai’s neck hard in a stranglehold. Zhan Tianbai couldn’t breathe, and his face turned red.

Duanmu Li’s deep voice was laced with danger. He moved closer to Zhan Tianbai and released his killing aura, which shot out like a thousand knives to pierce Zhan Tianbai’s skin.

But Zhan Tianbai laughed instead.

“Huh… I’d be so happy if you were.”

“How dare you!”

Duanmu Li was really enraged by Zhan Tianbai.

However, the look in Zhan Tianbai’s eyes made it clear that he was being deadly serious. He was absolutely prepared to be bullied and humiliated by the Nanchu noblemen if that was the only way of rejecting him.

Suddenly, an image of Zhan Tianbai on the battlefield flashed through Duanmu Li’s mind. Zhan Tianbai, invincible in his flame-red battle armor, with might equal to a thousand men. 

That was right. Zhan Tianbai had every reason to hate him.

Because, whilst Zhan Tianbai had lost to him, that loss had not been suffered on the battlefield.

That loss had been caused by his villainous machinations outside of that.

In truth, Yao Country should have fallen very shortly after the war began. The Emperor was an immoral wastrel, and his people were suffering. The only reason Nanchu could not conquer Yao Country was because of one person: Zhan Tianbai.

As such, he sent his people to bribe the Yao Emperor’s most beloved eunuch. At his instruction, that eunuch helped lead the Emperor to the conclusion that Zhan Tianbai and his entire Zhan family harbored intentions to revolt.

Zhan Tianbai was a person of the fae, and even though he had been born and raised in Yao Country, the people of Yao always had their guard up against him.

For this reason, the Yao Emperor was not difficult to convince. He passed an Imperial edict to exterminate the entire Zhan family, and Zhan Tianbai himself, who was on the battlefront at that time, was trussed up like a turkey and forced to drink poisoned wine.

The Yao Emperor had expected Zhan Tianbai to die, and had even prepared fine memorial wine used in funeral service for him. He had never dreamed that Zhan Tianbai would somehow manage to survive. However, Zhan Tianbai did not come of this unscathed; he lost all his martial arts ability and internal force. He couldn’t even lift large swords that were just a little heavier than average.

Zhan Tianbai thus became an invalid. With him out of the way, Nanchu achieved a great victory over Yao, and Zhan Tianbai was sold to a brothel house in a red light district.

Duanmu Li’s eyes, which were still fixed on Zhan Tianbai, became colder and colder with each passing second. He suddenly felt like there was a strange, piercing pain in his chest.

“This is entirely your own doing…” Duanmu Li said through clenched teeth. Every word was as cold as frost, and his eyes never left Zhan Tianbai’s face. “This Wang will ask you one more time. Will you choose me… or them?”

This time, Duanmu Li didn’t use the word “beg”.

However, Zhan Tianbai was in no state to notice this minute difference. All that was in his mind right now was that he would never, ever, show any weakness in front of this man!

“Li Wangye, you’re the Great Fuguo {‘Fu’ means something like ‘auxiliary help’, and ‘guo’ means country, but in this context, the meaning of ‘Fuguo’ is more like ‘a bastion of the country’.} General of Nanchu… How can it be that you’re hard of hearing at this young age? Or, is it that you’re going senile?” Zhan Tianbai taunted. Sadistic glee filled his heart as he saw Duanmu Li’s handsome face cloud with anger.

He would NEVER let this man get what he wanted!

“I choose them… Duanmu Li, I tell you, and I tell you truly, I CHOOSE THEM! I’d rather die than choose you!!” Zhan Tianbai roared, his voice reverberating powerfully in Yixing Court.

No one made a sound, it was as if they had all had their tongues tied.

“Fine!”

Duanmu Li’s reply was a forceful bellow. 

“This Wang gave you a choice. You made this decision. You had better not blame this Wang after this!”

He turned angrily on his heel, his expression dark and dangerous as he signalled with a hand towards the eager Nanchu nobles.