Step Down, Let Me Come!

Chapter 39: Problem (3)

“Related to magic words, to magic words… this is a breakthrough” Qi Shan took the paper and started pacing. He quietly murmured, “Once, I heard about a similar secret concealment method used to transmit news. It is rare, and only a few people are capable of it. 

“So advanced?”

Shen Tang looked distracted. 

She only noticed that Qi Shan began to operate wenxin, condensing it in the palm of his hand with seriousness. Shen Tang faintly noticed that the atmosphere turned odd. 

“Yuanliang, maybe you assumed too much? He is only a man from the commercial district… and probably he’s only just preparing to take on a more important role, so it’d be difficult for him to come into contact with such things, right?”

Qi Shan suspended his hand above the paper, he condensed cyan-colored energy in his palm and slowly sensed the paper, without forgetting to answer Sheng Tang.

“What do you think Xiao City is?” 

Shen Tang honestly shook her head: “Don’t know”. 

She really didn’t know. 

Yuanliang’s question obviously concerned the current political situation. However, her present knowledge of the world came from Qi Shan, a scroll with magic worlds as well as the things she heard on the road. Her perspective was really limited. 

No matter how hard she tried to understand, most of the people she contacted were the people at the bottom of society. Most of them couldn’t get hold of enough food and clothes, so they didn’t care about the names of officials and their contributions, not to mention distant global powerhouses.

They were only aware of the hardships and difficulties of making a living. 

Qi Shan expected Shen Tang’s answer, so he wasn’t disappointed. If young master Shen suddenly knew everything, he would have to start doubting if he wasn’t playing the wolf in sheep’s clothing before. Thereupon, he revealed some things to Shen Tang.

It was the tip of the iceberg of the overall world situation. 

He said: I previously said that Zheng Qiao, the leader of the Geng Kingdom, would surely bring about his own destruction within five years. I said it not only because of his turbulent behavior, and his unscrupulous methods, but there was also an important reason—he wanted to swallow wolves and drive tigers away, but he still sought cover from the tiger”. 

Shen Tang subconsciously sat upright, she was all ears. 

She thought about it deeply and speculated some things.

“Yuanliang, you mean… Xin Kingdom was once a “wolf” and now the “wolf” is dead, so the “tiger” became Zheng Qiao’s serious problem? Who is the “tiger”?” Shen Tang recalled that there were small maps in Qi Shan's pile of books, describing the locations of the countries in the Northwest.

Locations of Xin Kingdom and Geng Kingdom weren’t too good. 

They were located on the edges of the continent. 

However, in this way they avoided the gravest fights that were happening in the hinterlands. Compared to the Geng Kingdom that had neighbors in all directions and was badly attacked every few days, Xin Kingdom had it a little better. Northwest was a place with unending steep mountain ranges, easy to guard and hard to attack. 

Qi Shan replied: “This “tiger” is Ten Crows”. 

Shen Tang: “Ten Crows?”

Ten Crows was located outside the Xin Kingdom’s unending mountain rage, it was a barbarian clan's force.

They believed that the Golden Crows landed in their territory, inhabited and multiplied there, and they were their descendants, so they called themselves “Ten Crows”, which simply meant “the descendants of the Ten Golden Crows”. Shen Tang suspected that they were dreaming of crossing the ocean——thinking broadly, they scammed people that they touched the sun. 

Before the wily meteor hit the earth, their name was different. They just accidentally learned about a mythical story about the magic words hidden in the wily star, so they took their name from it. The key is that it has been passed on for one or two hundred years, and the effect had really spread.

It didn’t matter if outsiders believed it or not, because they believed it. 

Golden Crow’s descendants respected it as such!

Shen Tang thought about it and guessed some truth from it: “If Ten Crows was a “tiger”… In this way, Zheng Qiao won over Xin Kingdom not only because of Geng Kingdom’s power, but also because he drew support from time, geographical and social conditions? He took advantage of Xin Kingdom’s natural and man-made disasters as well as political situation to secretly make an alliance with Ten Crows and let them disturb the army. He attracted Xin Kingdom’s troops and Geng Kingdom launched a surprise attack?” 

Xin Kingdom was originally in turmoil, Ten Crows harassed them on the borders, so they were negligent in guarding against the Geng Kingdom. 

In the end, it led to today’s situation.

Qi Shan praised her, while nodding his head.

Shen Tang asked: “But what is it for Xiao City?” 

Xiao City was Sibao County’s prefecture, it wasn’t connected to the border mountains, so it had nothing to do with Ten Crows.

Qi Shan said: “Because the senior provincial official of Sibao Count was originally from Ten Crows. His parents dissatisfied with the power struggle within the tribe decided to take their young children away from their homeland, hide their names, and finally settled in Xin Kingdom. Even though he grew up in Xin Kingdom, he still had Ten Crows in his heart. By chance, he got in touch with the tribal forces and became one of the ten Crows informants”. 

Shen Tang was dumbfounded when she heard this, and at the same time looked at Qi Shan with curiosity: “This is a secret about his family and life. Even if the senior provincial official didn't have time to cover it, how would you know about it?”

Where was he a common “NPC”?

The secrets on his body were endless, layer after layer. He was like an endless pit.

Shen Tang secretly observed Qi Shan’s expression, she noticed he didn’t have any big fluctuations in his mood. She hesitated, before changing her tone: “If it’s not comfortable to say it, I won’t ask”. 

Qi Shan: “It’s not like I can’t say it, but it’s a long story, it can’t be explained in a short time. If you want to know more about two faces of Sibao senior provincial official, it’s nothing good. On the brighter side he’s devoted servant of Zheng Qiao, always boot licking and trying to please him by any means, but in the dark he still acts for Ten Crows”. 

As he talked, he brought back the old topic.

“Sibao County has a special geographical location. It can be attacked in advance and defended in retreat. It is the County at the junction of Xin State and Geng State. Furthermore, it is also the only place, where the nearby countries can travel south. They also have a lot of waterways. In other words, if you want to conspire against the hinterland of the Central Plains in the mainland, Sibao County has to be taken down first”. 

Shen Tang sucked in cold air. 

“Ten Crows’ conspiracies are this big?” 

The mountains that blocked them from going south were not conquered, so they thought about conquering the countries in the northwest? 

They were worthy of being the masters who dared to touch the sun. 

“They really dare to plan big. It was a daydream before, but now—” Qishan glanced at Shen Tang, who was bowing her head, and said quietly, “It may not be impossible. Xin Kingdom is lost, and Zheng Qiao rules by violence. He can’t appease the hearts of the people, and their national spirit. The luck condensed by the Seal in his hand may not be able to maintain the national border barrier on the other side of the mountain range. The Ten Crow may really seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cross that mountain range”.

Xiao City was their secret card. 

Of course, even if Ten Crows didn’t route in Xiao City, Qi Shan would still come, for revenge, and for setup. 

People had to live a mediocre life and die aggrieved, was it interesting? It was still unknown who would emerge victorious!

While the two of them were talking, a line of faint words gradually appeared on the original snow-white paper - 

This paper actually had a problem! 

Shen Tang read: “Viewed horizontally as mountain ridges and side as peaks?”