Drums of War

by Tinalynge

  “I don’t know,” The captured woman cried out with a low voice, “No one tells me anything.” She continued, her voice was slowly growing stronger and it reached a high pitch as she felt deeply wronged. Hearing her words, Li Meilin gritted her teeth hard. Her eyes were glaring intently at the woman in front of her. How could someone be this useless?

  “Tell me why you think they are here,” She growled once more. Her voice displaying her impatience and the woman did not take long to answer with trembling lips and a shaking body, “They must be here for a conclave of the lords,” The maid said with frightened voice, “A conclave to decide what to do with the area of Shenyuan.”

  “What do you mean?” Li Meilin frowned, and the maid shook even more than previously. “Shenyuan has been the home of beasts for multiple years, but there are so many beasts, how are we to live within one small kingdom? They must be working on finding new lands for all of us, new places to live and new villages to build.” The woman dared not answer simply, she answered honestly and said everything she knew, something which caused Li Meilin’s heart to grow cold. Could it be that these lords were interested in taking over the rest of the continent? But why had they never acted before?

  Li Meilin was in deep thought before she sighed and decided that although killing her would prove the safest, it would also bring bigger risks later on. Instead, she used her hand to knock the back of the woman’s neck, causing her to lose consciousness before she slowly slid out of the room betting that the woman was incapable of tying this to Li Meilin herself. Allowing for her to live Li Meilin sighed once again.

  Li Meilin did not change her clothes; instead, she left the castle and while in town she purchase a wide array of sweets and snacks which she brought with her towards the campsites outside the city wall. Her face was filled with a large smile as she carried her sweets and snacks with her to the campsite.

  “Hello there,” She said with a wink as she approached a strong man who seemed to be some sort of a fox type beast. “I was wondering if I could tempt you with some sweets perhaps? She asked curiously as she brought forth a tray filled with various snacks and sweets, and the beasts close by all honed in on the sweets, these were delicacies one would not eat too often.

  However who was Li Meilin? She was the senior observer of the Siban Empire’s delegation. This also meant that she held all the gifts which were supposed to have been displayed upon arrival to the capital, yet Li Meilin had not gifted these items to Wan Qiao; instead, she kept them for herself. Now she used some of them to purchase items which hopefully could convince the army to speak more than the maid did. The army of guards were more likely to know what was going on.

  The first guard she asked knew nothing but as she made her way into the guards more and more knew a little bit of information.

  “Yes, we left as soon as a delegation from the Lady Wan Qiao appeared. As for what they said we don’t know, the guards would not tell us.”

  “We had to wake up in the middle of the night to leave, and we only do that if we are going to war, so I swear this is definitely a conclave to determine who we are going to attack!”

  “Although some say this is war, I highly doubt it. We have lived within Shenyuan for thousands of years. To start a war this suddenly would benefit no one. I am sure they are here to discuss the Sovereigns of the Beasts instead. They are most likely giving this title to my master.”

  Over and over again, one theory after another appeared while no one knew exactly what was going on, everyone had their own ideas. Thinking through all these, Li Meilin paled as she understood that half of these theories included war against the outside world. This showed that these warriors, these cultivators, were more than willing to wage war against the outside world. Wage war against humans.

  When she looked around, she saw hundreds of thousands of cultivators above the King rank, and her heart sank in her chest as she feared that this would become reality.

  Chapter 34 – Hatred through the Years

  Li Meilin was pale as she walked through the camps full of guards everywhere, sweat was pouring down her back, and her mouth went dry as she feared that she was going to be exposed. Fortunately for her, the clothes she was wearing had been worn by the beast-woman before, something which had helped mask the human scent which wafted from her.

  She was looking for clues to figure out what was happening with the lords, and why they brought some many guards along with them. Unfortunately, the majority of the guards kept guessing that they were going to war, something which frightened Li Meilin the most.

  “What do you hope will happen?” Li Meilin forced her voice to be calm as she spoke with a guard wearing a dark green uniform. Looking at the uniform, Li Meilin was incapable of telling from where this beast came, but to her it made no difference as long as she could get information.

  “War. I want to go to war with those weak humans. They have thought themselves the strongest creatures on this continent for far too long!” The guard grumbled and as he spoke other guards close by nodded their heads in agreement.

  “The human who chased us away has hidden himself away for a millennium already. It is time for us to reign. It is time for us to get revenge on those petty humans who chased us away from our homes those many years back!” Another guard said, his killing intent billowed forward and made it impossible for Li Meilin to breathe for a moment. She feared that her heart would stop beating any second.

  Li Meilin was an Emperor. She was far stronger than the experts around her; however, she was currently under cover. Although she could handle some of the guards around her, she would eventually be overrun when she ran out of Wu Wei, and it was a situation she really did not want to find herself in.

  “Humans and beasts lived just fine together before,” A third guard suddenly broke in, “Who told the humans to suddenly hunt us all down and force us to leave the homes where we had lived for eons? It is their own fault that we will get our revenge!”

  Hearing the many different opinions, Li Meilin was stunned and somewhat fearful. Upon reaching the King rank she had been given information from the country about the Dark Age; however it seemed as though this period was far different from what she had heard. She started to wonder if the information she had been told was a lie, or if the information the beasts had was a lie.

  Either way, it was obvious that the beasts were very enraged every time they thought about humans. Li Meilin slowly made her way back to the castle where she rushed to her room and stripped off the uniform only to wear her own robes once more. With a flick of her hand, a small flame appeared that burnt away any traces of the maid uniform she had used previously.

  “It has to be war,” Li Meilin mumbled to herself as stared at the wall deep in thought about the information she had acquired. “It seems that these beasts blame us that they are stuck in Shenyuan. They dared say that the humans forced them away!” Anger was suddenly flaring in the eyes that were thinking about the situation “But what I heard when I became a King was that the beasts were living everywhere. They were subduing humans and forcing them to be their slaves or food. Why would these beasts claim that we all lived side by side?” A frown appeared on the beautiful woman’s face, and no matter how much she thought about it, she could not reach a conclusion.

  Pondering, Li Meilin gently bit her lower lip as she was wondering what was going to happen to her, alongside the world around her. She was currently being treated well by all these beasts, so the likelihood of her suddenly getting in trouble was quite low, but at the same time, she feared for the Siban Empire. Within the capital was the royal castle and her family were nobles who had never had anything to fear. Even know, Li Meilin was certain that her family was enjoying their time, living life as one would in the upper classes of a wealthy kingdom.

  Their King had his dream about one day overthrowing Shenyuan and even now, even when the group containing a Saint did not return, he did not think too much about it. The Siban Empire had more than one Saint an
d should anyone be silly enough to attack his empire, then the Siban Emperor felt ready to deal with it. This was how Li Meilin thought whenever she imagined the Emperor’s train of thoughts and her mood grew somber as she thought about it.

  “He might be able to help,” Li Meilin mumbled as she remembered the white-haired young man who was living within Shenyuan. Li Meilin, as an Emperor, was capable of feeling the aura which was emitted from the young man, and although he was capable of transforming into a wolf-man, Li Meilin was certain that he was a human being which had undergone some unfortunate situations.

  Nodding her head determinedly, the woman stood up and made her way towards Hui Yue’s room. She had previously been there to get help from this guy, but he had refused to help her in any way. Anyone less thick skinned would have understood that he did not want to have anything to do with her, but Li Meilin was not like everyone else. She was a woman who was willing to do anything to get what she wanted, and right now she wanted a decisive answer about what was going on. Normally she would not have expected this young man to know the truth, but having seen how he had spent a lot of time with Wan Qiao, she suddenly understood that this human boy in front of her was far stronger and influential than what she had expected.

  Standing in front of his door, the woman slowly knocked on the door, and as it opened she saw that the young man was seated on the bed, cultivating his internal energies. Seeing that the woman appeared in front of him, a sigh escaped his lips as he stretched his body.

  “Lady Li, what can I do for you?” He asked with a calm voice, his eyes showing only a little bit of annoyance, but not so much that Li Meilin could see it.

  “Lord Hui,” Li Meilin said respectfully as she nodded towards him as a greeting, “I had a few conversations with some guards earlier today and they all seemed to have the impression that the kingdom of Shenyuan is going to war against the humans.”You are a human, you must feel that this is not acceptable right? Do you not have family or friends whom might be hurt by these beasts? Even if they say to leave your entire family out of this, how can you possibly keep everyone under control and ensure it is so?”

  Hui Yue’s eyes grew cold as he looked at Li Meilin, his head c*cking to the side as he wondered what the woman wanted and finally a sigh escaped his lips.

  “The guards guess that this is a war, but do you truly think so?” Hui Yue asked with a raised eyebrow. “These guys are not soldiers. Look at them. They are guards. Do you see them suddenly becoming infantry, ready to march through Shenyuan and enter the outside world? I think not.”

  The voice which Hui Yue was using contained a slight mockery as he looked out the window in his room, seeing their camps in the far distance.

  “You are an observer, tell me, does brute strength win against tactics? Even if we had many more experts on our side, it does not necessarily mean that we will win. The only way to truly win is to teach the guards how to become soldiers.”

  Hearing this Li Meilin could not help but agree with what he stated, but deep within her mind was a thought that she could not kill. A thought that said that even if tactics were important, some things could not be dealt with by solely relying on tactics. The many beasts should be capable of overrunning the few supreme experts of the human kingdoms, something which truly frightened her.

  Hui Yue paid no attention to the woman any longer as he saw a servant rushing towards him, his eyes glued to Hui Yue seemingly busy to bring some information to the young man.

  “Lord Yue!” The servant yelled from some distance away, “Lord Yue!” Panting the beast-woman in front of him made her way towards Hui Yue while completely ignoring Li Meilin the servant bowed deeply to Hui Yue, a show of deep respect.

  “Lord Yue, Lady Wan Qiao has asked for you to attend the library where you were last time. There is a guest whom you need to meet.”

  Saying this, the woman bowed deeply once more before Hui Yue started moving towards the library straight away, not even bothering to say goodbye to Li Meilin. Hui Yue did not like this woman.

  Grumbling about how he could get rid of her, Hui Yue rushed to the library where he politely knocked on the door and waited for someone to call for him to enter. He did not have to wait long before a woman’s voice could be heard through the door, “Please enter,”

  Opening the door, Hui Yue was curious as to who was inside as the woman’s voice was clearly not Wan Qiao’s. His eyes peeked into the room only to land on the lady who was seated in a chair next to Wan Qiao. A small table was between the two and on this table was a small vial with what seemed to be coagulated blood.

  “Good day,” Hui Yue said with a frown on his brows as he looked at the two women in front of him. Wan Qiao looked as she always had, yet the woman by her side was as stunning a beauty as Wan Qiao herself, however, she was completely different.

  Her black hair was long and smooth falling from the shoulders and framing her beautiful back. It fell so far that it was pooled on the floor around the beautiful woman. Her skin was as pale as newly fallen snow and so white that she seemed to be created by white jade. She was like a doll, a doll so fine and fragile a wrong wind would crush the beauty in front of him.

  Standing there, staring at the beautiful woman Hui Yue was taken aback, but he quickly overcame his shock and nodded to the two women.

  “You called for me ladies,” He said with a calm voice as though he had not been mesmerized by the beautiful woman before. The ability to return to his senses this swiftly was something which caused the beauty to raise an eyebrow in both surprise and praise.

  With an elegant gesture of her hand, she pointed to a chair in front of both Wan Qiao and herself, a small chair where Hui Yue quickly sat down with a grateful nod of his head.

  “So to what do I owe the pleasure?” He asked curiously as his eyes roamed from one stunning woman to the other. When his eyes landed on the vial of blood between them, he could not help but wonder exactly what was going on.

  “Good day,” The woman spoke with a voice that was as light as a summer breeze and as warm as the rays of the sun which shone upon one. Hearing her mesmerizing words, it felt as if one was transferred to a world of eternal summer.

  “I am here because my lord, the Frozen General, wished for me to bring a message to you.” She continued, her voice as light as before, but as the words were said a heavy atmosphere appeared in the room, and Hui Yue suddenly felt as though he had a massive boulder placed on his shoulders.

  Chapter 35 – The Messenger

  Hearing the words the woman said, Hui Yue froze. He said nothing but his eyes turned hard and every muscle in his body tensed. Both women saw the change in the young man. Wan Qiao knew why the young man had complex emotions towards the Frozen General. He felt some fear since he knew that he was completely incapable of standing firm in front of this man with immense strength. He clearly had enough strength to eradicate even Lan Feng without too much trouble.

  Still, so far, Zhong Fai had been incredibly friendly towards Hui Yue. He had helped him before, and although he set some rules that Hui Yue had to follow, neither of them were too hard to follow. Thanks to this man his plans managed to bear fruit in the end.

  He owed this strong entity quite a bit, but at the same time, something told him that he should not get too close to the Frozen General. There was something about him which caused Hui Yue to feel uncomfortable. Especially how he had found him here in Shenyuan. Was he just good at guessing or did he truly have people who kept an eye on him all the time?

  A shiver ran down his spine, but he said nothing; instead, he looked at the beautiful black woman, waiting to hear what she had to say.

  “You have managed to spark life into some dreams of these old beasts,” She started, her voice never hurried, it was like running water in a fresh spring refreshing, clean, and as beautiful as nature itself. “The Frozen Lord said that he will not participate in this war as long as you promise to visit his frozen castle within five years. The Frozen Lord has something he
wishes to show you.” The lady finished her speech and with an elegance so marvelous she lifted a small cup of tea and took a very small sip. Her eyes closed slightly in delight as she was relaxed now that she had given the message from her superior.

  Hui Yue could not help but frown as he heard what the woman said. It was obvious that he knew what was happening deep within the forests of Shenyuan, yet how could he know? Did he have spies everywhere, even within Wan Qiao’s most secret chambers? Or had he guessed what would happen when the conclave of the lords become a reality? Hui Yue had no answer, and he was not certain he would enjoy the answer he was going to get if he asked the beautiful woman for one.

  Wan Qiao’s face was sour to behold, clearly unhappy with the messenger’s news, yet for once she held her tongue and said nothing. Zhong Fai was not someone she wished to cross unless she had no other option. It was unknown which one of the two was the strongest.