- Hong Jile of Gold Roc has called the head of the twelve tribes to a meeting. (The Chimera leader had left first to attend this meeting so he doesn’t know what happened to his tribe just yet.) Under the wild grassland tradition, when the ruling tribe stops having the ability (meaning fighting power) to control the other tribes, then the king could be exiled as long as over half of the twelve tribes agrees to do so.
- Helian’s uncle came to the meeting as Golden Lion’s representative because he is hoping to get rid of Helian and become the tribe leader.
“Hong Jile indeed has laid one trap after another for me,” Helian smiled bitterly. “I had originally planned to go back to the royal court to settle the mess among my relatives first before I go fight the Gold Roc but then he has already called this meeting. Once the 12 tribe leaders decide to exile me then I would have no choice but to run with my tail tucked between my legs.”
“Don’t count me in on running away with you.” Zhi Wei says with a faint smile.
“Don’t count me in on running away with you.” Peony who had been eavesdropping popped up, “I can just go become Hong Jile’s Queen, you can go do what you want.”
“Ha ha!” Looking at the drastically different in style yet equally formidable “mother and daughter in law”, Helian suddenly feels as if all his troubling thoughts have been swept away. Grabbing his mother with his left hand and Zhi Wei with his right hand, Helian laughs “Who’s running away! Even if it is just for this sort of mother and wife, I will make it to that meeting no matter what, even if I have to crawl!”
Zhi Wei smiles as she looks up at the sky, seemingly having not heard of Helian’s words.
A huge smile appears on Peony’s face, “Son! You are finally acting like a good son! It’s worth it after all that my nippled were almost rotten after all your chewing….”
*Bang*
The old Queen was pushed into the mud once again by the son who she had just barely praised for being filial.
By the river (a different river from the one Helian had camped at), twelve tents surround a giant purple tent. Among the various roaring fire pits, countless soldiers are patrolling with their weapons out.
This piece of land is a no man’s land. An area that is not controlled by any of the twelve tribes which is why historically whenever there is an issue that needs the twelve tribes to solve but they don’t trust each other to actually go to someone else’s home turf then this is where they would meet.
Snow covered the barren stone-hard ground outside of the tent yet inside, it is as warm as spring thanks to the fire basins.
“I heard that Helian had already crossed the river,” A thin old man turns to ask a younger man “Hong Jile, there won’t be a change to the plan will it?”
The younger man lets out a chilling smile. The man’s appearance is on the plain side but once he opens his eyes then the coldness in them rattles everyone who sees it. The man is none other than the Gold Roc’s tribe leader Hong Jile– the person who single-handedly caused the death of thousands of Gold Lion warriors’ and the old King’s death.
Answering Helian’s uncle’s question, Hong Jile says dismissively “No matter how fierce a baby bird is, he is no match to a sky soaring eagle.
Laughter rang out in unison within the tent.
“That kid who is still wet behind the ears, he probably wet his pants when he saw the imperial army!”
“He will for sure avoid this place like the plague.”
“The Old King’s bloodline is pretty much done for after this generation.”
“I wonder that…what you call it, Princess Shen Ying, the one the Emperor gave to Helian,” Amongst the boisterous voice, someone suddenly asks offhandedly, “What kind of beauty will she be? Sen Ying…Shen Ying…what a pretty sounding name.”
“Kelie!” Someone throws a lamb leg to him “You are not going to be just all talk right? That wouldn’t be fitting for a man of the wild grassland. Based on your fame as the most handsome man of the wild grassland, wouldn’t that whatever Ying will for sure throw herself into your arms the moment she sees you?”
Tossing the lamb leg to the floor with a disgusted look, the man wearing a fierce red robe sits up and says with a frown “You are so dirty.”
The moment he sits up, his long hair cascades down his back to reveal an extremely rare white silver colored hair. In the light of the fire, the white silver color shimmered like the moon but even that can’t be compared to his mesmerizing eyes. Like the silver fox that walks on the cliff ice that has been frozen for thousands of years, one single backward gaze is enough to mesmerize forever.
“For me.” He leisurely plays with a serving maid’s finger, “I have no interest in your guys’ plan to divide up the land. All I want is when the time comes, you guys would give me that Princess Shen Ying to play with.”
“Done!” Hong Jile laughs heartily, “Now, she IS a princess so just don’t kill her with your playing like you did the others before.”
“Why not?” Kelie blinks and asks in surprise “Don’t those Han women become their husbands’ properties once they get married? If she really is some great princess, do you think she would end up in the wild grassland? Don’t worry, her status can only follow Helian. If Helian is not king then she is no queen. If she is no queen then when can’t I play with her until she dies?”
Hong Jile grins “Fine, fine. Do what you like.” Giving Kelie a glance, Hong Jile doesn’t plan on arguing with him anymore. This kid is the youngest of the twelve tribal leaders but he is also the most ruthless and conniving. Born of a female slave yet he ended up becoming the tribe leader. In the process of him becoming the tribe leader, his father, mother, brothers, sisters…none of them survived. So it is best to keep a distance from someone like this.
Kelie is still all smiles as he slowly caresses the female slave’s fingers “When I get my hands on her, I am going to enjoy playing with her…I have heard that Han women have long slender fingers. How beautiful would it be…Ah, your horse milking sheep dung cleaning coarse fingers…are sure disgusting…”
As Kelie finished talking, a slight sound of bones breaking could be heard. Before the female slave could let out a scream, a smiling Kelie had already picked up the lamb leg from the floor and shoved it into her mouth.
“This sure spoiled my mood.” Five more cracking sounds followed. The female slave who was just blushing a moment ago is now trembling in pain on the floor as her fingers bent in strange angles, the sound of bone shattering continuing on as Kelie calmly kneads her fingers in his hand.
The tribe leaders looked at each other. Helian’s uncle finally pipes up “Kelie, you sure can spoil the mood…if you want that Shen Ying whatever, then you can have her…”
*Bang!*
Something suddenly flew in and fell heavily on Hong Jile’s table, flattening the whole grilled sheep in front of him. The golden dagger on the sheep’s back somehow inexplicably jumps up and heads straight for Hong Jile’s eyes.
Four voices came at the same time.
“Who in hell dares to covet my queen?” This voice was loud and fierce with intent to kill.
“Who is in a hurry to die and wants my daughter-in-law?” This voice is ear piercing and rude.
“Who? Want to die?” This one is the driest and most direct.
The last one, is most serene, in fact, there is even a hint of amusement in the voice.
“Kelie, sorry, your body odor stinks too much. This queen does not dare to accept you.”
The tent full of people jumps up while Hong Jile is busy dodging that seemingly possessed dagger “Who! Who is it! Where are my men!”
Grinning in the middle of the chaos, Kelie narrows his eyes “They sure got here fast…”
Pushing away the now unconscious female slave, Kelie languidly steps over the woman and laughs “Our king and queen have graced us with their presence, should we all go to greet them?”
Finally catching on, all the tribe leaders look awkwardly towards Hong Jile but he is still busy dodging the seemingly possessed dagger that is determined to glue itself to him.
“A group of wolves praying to the moon…probably begging for more prey.” Helian’s nonchalant voice comes through the tent door, “Our wild grassland sure has raised too many greedy wolves!”
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
ooohhh…what next! Can’t wait.
Nice! And we also get a taste of the author’s peculiar exaggerated “romantic” (?) descriptions like in that passage about the millenary silver fox on a cliff. That was too comical!
Thank you always
In fact I was wondering about those types of descriptions: I read the (incomplete) English translation of The Legend of Fuyao, and there were quite a few of those peculiar descriptions, either of good looking people, most of the time involving a breeze and cherry blossom petals or “His sharp brows carried a high but soft arch that reminded people of the willow trees by the jade springs in March – radiant and fresh.”, or passages like “Her voice was deep and cold, like the sharp edge of a sword waiting to be drawn to release its dazzling gleam.”
(I am itching to do proper citation but I don’t know about the policy on sharing links… anyway the translation of Legend of Fuyao I’m talking about is on wuxia blog.)
They made me chuckle.
Is that common in Chinese literature, or in Wuxia, or is it mainly this author?
Speaking of Legend of Fuyao, I read it after having seen the TROP drama, and I couldn’t help but picture some of the Fuyao characters using the TROP actors, and I was just wondering about anyone else’s impression. Most strikingly for me, though, the parallel was extremely strong between Zhang Beiye and Helian Zheng. I was wondering if anyone else who handled both stories made the same connection 😀
Anyway have a great week everyone.
Ha ha, that style of description is VERY common in C-novel. In fact, people will often make fun of it but that of course doesn’t stop us from reading even more novels. Wuxia and historical novels do use more poetic descriptions though. As for your observation about the parallel between Zhang Beiye and Helian, I would totally agree with you on that one. It is actually the one thing that annoys me a bit about this particular author’s writing. She really likes her heroines to be the sort that almost every man who crosses her way would fall in love with her. The author also loves to have a least TWO “perfect secondary male leads” who are devoted to her heroine…and they don’t usually have good endings since they are supposed to die still pining for the heroine. Still, I do have to give it to the author, she does create very memorable characters. Helian has managed to become one of the few novel characters that made a big impression on me.
What did you think of the hero in Fuyao? The drama version made him a lot softer than he is in the novel so I am curious which one you liked better?
Ah, I see. Of course, I have nothing against those descriptions , it just took some getting used to. And in fact some of them were actually really nice to read and appreciate!
As for the hero in Fuyao, (Zhangsun Wuji, right?), while he seemed to be a really extraordinary and powerful hero, really devoted to Fuyao, and merciless to his enemies, somehow, I still feel like I don’t fully know him; I felt like communication between him and Fuyao was not great and that he kept a lot to himself, a bit like Ning Yi, actually. Of course it doesn’t help that I couldn’t finish the Novel, for the translation ends as Fuyao leaves undercover, so I don’t know what happens then Wuji goes back to meet his master.
I haven’t seen the drama yet: while I do want to know what happens towards the end, I don’t know if the drama reflects the novel and I fear being disappointed. As I am finding out with this novel, there could be some drastic changes from the original story…
Is it worth watching the drama version of Fuyao?
I actually liked Legend of Fuyao quite a bit. The novel got a bit draggy but the drama was able to fix that and I really liked the drama version of the hero. (If you like the teasing Ning Yi in the very beginning of the drama version, then you are going to love Wuji in the drama because he pretty much stays that way through the whole show.) Now, that’s not to say I didn’t like the novel version of Zhangsun Wuji. The drama version’s Wuji had a lot more soft spots that make him vulnerable which the novel version Wuji never did. The scary intelligence of the novel Wuji is super sexy to me but like you said, that makes him kinda unreadable and unreachable. Have you read to the part of the novel where Fuyao gives up on Wuji and he has to go under disguise to get close to her? That’s the part I think where he really lets down his guard and for me as a reader, the point where I feel I can get a real glimpse into the character.
BTW, if you watch the drama, make sure you come back and check out my post on the ending. There was quite a bit of confusion on the ending due to the “lost in translation” effect of the Eng subs. but it should not be confusing at all once you read my post.
Ok, Kelie may be good looking according to the description, but what a rotten character does he shows!! Looks like one of those persons that you never want to meet, and I hope he’ll get what he deserves just delivered by Zhiwei.
Thanks for your awesome work as always!!
I’m catching up the last three weeks.
What colorful people are those tribes of Helian territory. Barbaric.
I miss Ning Yi though.
maravilhoso… vou até ler de novo. Obrigada!!!!
Thank you, I love your translation … but pleeease bring back Ning Yi soon. It is just not the same without him.
I am trying something new on this next translation post. Let me know what you think of it.
Wow! Thank you for the this, I’ve read all 116 post in two days! You are amazing! Hope to see Ning Yi soon!