A Life of Pride. Who is Competing? (Part 11)
Around five hundred years ago, there was a prospering kingdom in the south that went by the name Beussent. The denizens referring to themselves as children of the sun were feared for their speed on the battlefield that was compared to phoenixes in flight. Their population, vast landscape and military rivalled the Nine Provinces, while their production power eclipsed the latter.
Unsurprisingly, their denizens worshipped the sun, consequently following their monarch, whom they believed was the sun’s representative in this realm. Under their sovereign’s command, they continued to expand their territory in violent wars. As a result, they eventually came face to face with the Nine Provinces – the Central Plain.
Nobody could stop the two monarchs from challenging each other battle after battle regardless of their losses. Eventually, Beussent’s forces pushed the Central Plain’s forces back. When victory appeared to be within arm’s reach, a devastating incident shattered their dreams of conquest, alas.
Notwithstanding being unable to prove rumours of it being a natural disaster, plague, meteor falling, Bajie descending on the human realm or evil spirits sabotaging them, nobody could deny the fact that half of the resplendent palace was destroyed; Ten Days Palace, the palace the where the sun never set, was consigned to rubble, and everyone in the palace, including their monarch, perished overnight.
Some claimed the Central Plain’s forces hid under Nieyao City and infiltrated the palace via a secret passage to assassinate the latter’s sovereign, even taking off with his head. That claim didn’t need to be proven unfounded as anyone being logical would realise it was impossible for the Central Plain’s forces to bypass the frontlines to sneak in. Besides, humans couldn’t have possibly inflict the damage seen.
Whatever the case was, the Central Plain capitalised on Nieyao Cheng’s misfortune to triumphantly end the five-year war. No matter how brilliant Beussent Kingdom’s military was, they were powerless to stop their last monarch’s twelve sons from fighting amongst each other in their quest for the throne, costing their kingdom countless soldiers. As the Central Plain and the twelve sons undid all of Beussent Kingdom’s military’s efforts, they finally towed the line and returned to their own lands, impelling the Central Plain to send out a truce request.
Beuseent Kingdom didn’t hesitate to accept the truce request for it was what they needed in their situation. As per the agreement both parties’ discussed, the south would belong to Beussent Kingdom, and the Central Plain was to guarantee they wouldn’t invade. Thus, Nanjiang was born.
The twelve descendants split Beussent Kingdom into twelve, each bestowing a name of their choosing and then continuing to fight with each other. To this day, Beussent Kingdom’s phenomenal army still exists only in history. In saying that, decimated Nieyao City was still considered the ancestral home of Nanjiang’s imperial family. In the same vein, he who occupied Nieyao City would most likely be the next ruler of Beussent Kingdom.
Since then, only one kingdom, Morcher, has successfully occupied Nieyao City, which happened twenty years ago. The most prosperous kingdom of the twelve was confident they could unify Beussent Kingdom, only for another inexplicable disaster to befall them overnight, ending Morcher when the imperial family careened.
Once people were privy to the fact that the youngest Princess of Morcher managed to survive the ordeal, every kingdom in Nanjiang put a bounty on her head. She commuted from city to city in Nanjiang under her final guardians, exposing her to an array of skills, such as beast taming. When she inevitably reached a dead end in Nanjiang, she staked her life to escape to the Central Plain and then to Beijiang, working any odd job she could, eating anything regardless of taste in order to survive. By the time she realised it, all of her brethren had been slain, and she was left to wander frosty Beijiang on her own.
During her aimless wandering in Beijiang, the Princess met a peculiar group fairing just as bad as her. They split one mantou between three people, thrashing those who tried to dig in first. They only had enough garments on them to not freeze to death. Worst of all, though, was that they were on the run from the government, never knowing which day would be their last. In spite of the mire they were in, their smiles put the sun she worshipped to shame. They’d fight until they were red in the face and ears for the last sip of wine, laugh just because they stepped on a rodent, and it was all thanks to their leader.
The group’s leader could punch down half a restaurants hall, but he would never let himself owe them a dime. He could fight off the government’s hunters, but he would never hurt the innocent. He was the incarnate of might, but he laughed as merrily as a young boy.
Without realising it, she had joined the cause to rob the wealthy to help the indigent, discovering another side of her in the process. It was only a matter of time before her nickname – River Monster – was more famous than her real name. It was those experiences that taught her what friendship, smiling and romance meant. She knew he was a man she could trust with her heart at first sight.
The last Princess of Morcher, A-Lan, loved a man name Abels, the once matchless leader of Evil Spirits, a group that was compared to the wind for their proficiency and efficiency as thieves.
Coursing down from those eyes still flashing fantastical scenes were silver trails. She had shed her sorrow, so it was time for her to pick up death and madness.
“Luo Ming… Luo Ming… Argh!”
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