Rising Phoenix

Kereyid smiled as he gently rubbed the female slave’s fingers, his voice still casual as he said: “When I have her, I’ll really have some fun.. I hear that the Central Plains women all have slender fingers… what kind of beauty will that be… ah, look at your pot-holding, udder-squeezing, shit sweeping coarse fingers… truly upsetting…”

A dull crack filled the tent.

Before the slave could scream, a smiling Kereyid had already grabbed the gigot off the floor and stuffed it into her mouth.

Four more quiet cracks followed and the young slave shook violently, her blushed face now paler than a ghost. Tears dripped down her face and she fell to the ground, her broken misshapen fingers still in Kereyid’s hand. The young man quietly toyed with the fingers, cracking and shattering the little bones into smaller and smaller pieces.

The patriarchs exchanged glances and finally Kulcha managed: “Kereyid, you really know how to ruin the mood… if you want Sheng Ying, you can have her…”

“Peng!”

An object slashed through the tent opening and slammed into Hongji Le’s desk, skewering the whole roasted lamb in front of him, then in a strange display of martial technique, the golden knife twisted upwards and shot up towards Hongji Le’s eyes.

At the same time, four different voices called out.

“Who the fuck is courting death and plotting against my queen?” A vigorous voice roared, dripping with killing intent.

“Who dares court death and wants to lay hands on my daughter-in-law?” A shrewish voice called incredibly loudly.

“Who? Courting death?” A dry voice followed.

And finally, a calm and elegant voice carrying a hint of a smile.

“Kereyid, sorry, your fox smell stinks too much, this Queen does not dare take you.”

Everyone inside the tent shot to their feet as Hongji Le hurriedly dodged the chasing cleaver, yelling all the while: “Who? Who dares? Guards! Men!”

A wide smile filled Kereyid’s face as Hongji Le panicked around him, his glittering eyes narrowing into truly foxish slits, his voice unhurried as he murmured: “Here so soon…”

He gently pushed the unconscious slave aside, dusting his hands and casually stepping over her body. Smiling, he announced: “Our Shunyi King and Queen have arrived, should we not welcome them?”

The patriarchs finally reacted, their expressions unnatural. The thin Kulcha’s color kept changing as the elder turned to watch Hongji Le deal from the homing knife. The blade hunted him everywhere he went, following him as he jumped and dogged and rolled.

“A pack of wolves kneeling to the moon, so greedy and bloodthirsty.” Helian Zheng’s indifferent voice filled the tent from outside the curtain door. “My steppe has too many annoying wolves!”

The young King threw the curtain door aside and strode into the tent, ignoring the ghastly expressions on the indecisive and confused patriarchs as he marched over and plopped down in the seat of honor, taking Hongji Le’s chair as the man dodged the flying knife. As he passed, Helian Zheng sliced a piece of oily lamb fillet for himself, idly commenting: “The bastard at least knows how to grill his meat!”

“Jadran!” Hongji Le roared, grabbing a tea pot and blocking the flying knife. Cold sweat dripped from his face as the blade punctured the vessel and shivered inches from his nose, and he threw the teapot aside and called out with frightening coldness: “You dare barge into the Golden Alliance Tent!”

“You dare to kill the Steppe King, so I dare to enter the tent!” Helian Zheng threw the meat in his hand at the man’s face. “I also dare to kill you!”

“The Golden Alliance is sacrosanct. If you dare murder on its grounds, all of the steppes will call you enemy!”

“You all have already made me your foe, what do I care if the rest of the steppe joins?” Helian Zheng roared, smashing the desk in front of him in half. He glared ferociously as he continued: “A knife for each of you and you’re all dead! What do I care if the heavens above the steppe are overturned!”

The tent fell silent as the patriarchs examined Helian Zheng. The young King’s eyes were filling with killing intent and his gaze was determined and decisive. All of them only remembered the young prince, bright and frank and mirthful and roguish, but now they saw his true face.

The patriarchs exchanged glances — their tent was in a narrow valley surrounded on three sides by mountain cliffs. The entrance was a very narrow strip heavily guarded by the armies of ten tribes, and the mountain cliffs were steep and slippery. Even the Central Plains Kung Fu experts would find the terrain impassable — a single warrior could hold off ten thousand enemies. How did Helian Zheng and his people slip inside past the guards and the warriors patrolling the valley?

They could not imagine how Helian Zheng had broken in, and now that he had, it was clear he could not be trifled with. If he lost his mind and threw caution to the wind, many of the men in this tent would die and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

At the end of the day, the traditions and rules had been made by people, and a rule could always be destroyed with enough violence. When wild people faced off against a rule, the words might as well be passing air.

“Reckless brat, you threaten us?” Patriarch Grey Wolf Luzan, a good friend of Hongji Le shouted violently. “This is the Ten Thousand Cliffs Valley and you are surrounded by three thousand warriors outside they valley pass and over a thousand guards inside with us. You want to die together? Look at yourself and see if you are worthy!”

Helian Zheng propped his elbows on his knees and leaned forward onto his hand, staring quietly at the man. Luzan met the young king’s dark eyes and shivered, feeling as if hunted by a grey wolf in the dark of night.

“Hong!”

Just as Luzan was fidgeting in his seat hoping for someone to defuse the situation and Hongji Le opened his mouth to speak, a loud explosion rocked the cloth walls of the tent.

The ground shook as if the pillar mountains holding up the heavens had collapsed or the sea had been overturned. The very air seemed to tremble as if battling gods had fallen from the high heavens amongst them and several of the patriarchs fell to the ground.

“What happened!” Hongji Le called out and a terrified guard soon dashed in through the curtain door.

“Not good — a landslide! A slide a slide…”

A hand glittering with golden rings pushed through the curtain door and thrust the guard aside as a laughing voice called out: “Golden Roc men are truly fools, they can’t even speak, slide slide slide slide ah. Let this Queen lift the curtain and show all of you what happened.”