The tent door opens and in comes Helian. Not bothering to look at all the stony-faced tribal leaders, Helian walked straight to the seat at the head of the table and sat down on the now empty chair– thanks to Hong Jile vacating it in his haste to avoid the dagger. Swiping a piece of meat as he sits down, Helian mutters as he eats “They might be creeps, but they do a good job with grilling meat.”
“Helian!” Hong Jile finally smartened up and grabs a small wooden side table to catch the flying dagger. The dagger buries itself into the table, just inches away from the tip of his nose. Throwing the table away, Hong Jile yells “You dare to enter into the golden tent uninvited!”
“You dare to kill the king of the wild grassland then I dare to walk right into the golden tent uninvited! I even dare to kill you!”
“It is forbidden to kill within 10 miles of the golden tent or else you will become the enemy to all of the wild grassland!”
“You all turned against us already so why should I give a rat’s tail over this nonsense about becoming enemies? ” Shattering the table with one wack, Helian yells back “I will just kill off as many as I can and who cares what happens in the wild grassland after that!”
Speechless, the tribe leaders stare at Helian blankly. They could see from the expression in Helian’s eyes that he is not bluffing but is dead serious. Who would’ve thought the boisterous laughing kid they remember would have this side to him.
Caught off guard, the tribe leaders exchanged silent looks with one another– The Golden Tent is situated in a land that is surrounded on three sides by tall cliffs with one very narrow exit path. The narrow exit is currently packed to the brim with armies from the ten tribes. The three cliffs are made of slippery rocks that even the best fighters in the world would have trouble scaling down. So how did Helian and the few people with him managed to get past the guards without anyone knowing? It should’ve been impossible for Helian to get in under such heavy guard presence but since he obviously did get in then that means Helian came prepared. If he really goes crazy and is ready to drag as many people as he can to hell with him, then they could only curse their own bad luck. In the end, rules are made by people and rules have always been made to be broken by violence. When the rule followers meet the rule-breakers…then the rules are just gibberish.
“Ignorant boy, who are you scaring!” The Wolf tribe chief who is friends with Hong Jile yells “With the ten tribes, there are a total of 30,000 troops right outside of the valley and thousands of them inside the valley. Before you dream of dying with us, you should ask yourself if you are qualified to do so!”
His hands on his knees, Helian stares at the man without saying a word but the man unconsciously shivered when he met Helian’s wolf-like gaze.
*BOOM*
Just as Hong Jile is about to say something to break the uncomfortable silence in the tent, a deafening sound of a loud explosion abruptly shook the ground and knocked over the tribe leaders that were seated on the ground.
“What’s going on!” Before Hong Jile could finish his sentence, a guard rushed into the tent and yells “Ah… There is a landslide, landslide!”
A hand shining with gold rings on all five fingers promptly pushed the guard out and laughed “As expected, the men of Gold Roc are fools and can’t even explain things properly. What’s this with lan-lan-land thing. It is still up to this Grand Queen to personally open the tent door and let all of you see for yourselves.”
A grinning Queen Peony opens the tent door so everyone could see the narrow valley exit right in front of them.
Over there, in the smoke filled air, black mountain rocks are cascading down and have already blocked the valley exit. Sounds of soldiers yelling in pain as they tried to dodge the falling rocks came amidst the chaos and the heavy dust filling the air.
“We really hardly did anything.” Peony said modestly “We just simply blasted a small portion of the mountain and blocked that tiny exit.”
His mouth agape, Hong Jile stares at the valley exit.
Helian finally pulls his gaze away from the now ashen faced Wolf tribe leader, flicks off a speck of dust on his robe and says with a placid smile “Am I now, qualified to die with you all?”
“…………”
The silence in the tent becomes even more uncomfortable. No one had imagined that Helian could go this far and be this reckless when he is crossed. He blasted the mountain, blocked the only exit and trapped himself along with everyone else in this narrow valley. He is clearly showing that if you bite me I will kill your whole family, who cares if I lose my life in the process. They had heard rumors that he had killed off the entire Chimera tribe but none of them believed. Now, going by his action here, they finally realized the rumor might not necessarily be false. Words cannot begin to describe the expression on the Chimera tribe leader’s face at this moment. He had been on his way to this Gold Tent meeting so has not been able to confirm the rumor previously.
Surveying the faces around him with a grin, Helian silently pats himself on the back for copying Zhi Wei’s mannerism, feeling proud that “like wife, like husband” he is.
“Helian! Don’t be impulsive!” After a few moments of silence, Helian’s uncle steps forward and reprimanded him “Don’t make the situation spin out of control! As the tribe leader I order you…”
Helian gives his uncle a side glance.
The expression in Helian’s eyes made his uncle shudder and the words he was about to say suddenly got caught in his throat.
After a few seconds, Helian asks curiously “Who are you?”
“………….”
Helian’s uncle stood frozen to the spot, his hands and lips are both trembling but no matter how he tried no words would come out.
So…. you all know I have been struggling regarding the issue of how to pace this part of the story since if I really follow the novel then we are not going to see our hero for a long time. Thanks to a reader’s comment in last week’s post where she expressed how much she misses Ning Yi, I suddenly thought “Wait, in dramas, they switch scenes all the time to follow multiple storylines so could I translate Phoenixes this way too?” With that thought in mind, I am going to try inserting little scenes of Ning Yi’s side of the story as we follow Zhi Wei’s story in the wild grassland. Let me know if this style works or it’s too distracting to jump back and forth.
While the king of the wild grassland is riding off proudly and exuberantly with his queen in his arms accompanied by his people’s cheers, the highly respected and noble manor of Prince Chu has been blanked by a stifling atmosphere. The servants rush about yet no one dares to make a single noise, neither do they dare to disturb the closed study door that has been shut tightly— every day. After His Highness comes back from the royal palace he would shut himself inside the study. Behind the two big black doors of the study, no noise at all could be heard so it would often feel as if no one is inside.
Even though nothing has happened but everyone could feel the suppressive feel in the air without knowing where exactly it’s coming from— since His Highness’ triumphant return from the south, the Chang clan has basically been wiped out. Thanks to his success of leading the army to the big win, Prince Chi who had previously had some difficulty inserting his own people into the military was able to use this perfect opportunity to place quite a few trusted men in some key positions. Even the academy students who accompanied Wei Zhi and Prince Chu have all been assigned to different positions in various departments. After expressing his regret over Wei Zhi’s disappearance, the Emperor gave Prince Chu his glowing compliment. Judging by the widespread approval he has garnered lately, everyone could see His Highness has become the favorite to the Emperor. Yet, why is it that there are no signs of pleasure on His Highness’ countenance after his years of hard work has finally been rewarded.
The tent door opens and in comes Helian. Not bothering to look at all the stony-faced tribal leaders, Helian walked straight to the seat at the head of the table and sat down on the now empty chair– thanks to Hong Jile vacating it in his haste to avoid the dagger. Swiping a piece of meat as he sits down, Helian mutters as he eats “They might be creeps, but they do a good job with grilling meat.”
“Helian!” Hong Jile finally smartened up and grabs a small wooden side table to catch the flying dagger. The dagger buries itself into the table, just inches away from the tip of his nose. Throwing the table away, Hong Jile yells “You dare to enter into the golden tent uninvited!”
“You dare to kill the king of the wild grassland then I dare to walk right into the golden tent uninvited! I even dare to kill you!”
“It is forbidden to kill within 10 miles of the golden tent or else you will become the enemy to all of the wild grassland!”
“You all turned against us already so why should I give a rat’s tail over this nonsense about becoming enemies? ” Shattering the table with one wack, Helian yells back “I will just kill off as many as I can and who cares what happens in the wild grassland after that!”
Speechless, the tribe leaders stare at Helian blankly. They could see from the expression in Helian’s eyes that he is not bluffing but is dead serious. Who would’ve thought the boisterous laughing kid they remember would have this side to him.
Caught off guard, the tribe leaders exchanged silent looks with one another– The Golden Tent is situated in a land that is surrounded on three sides by tall cliffs with one very narrow exit path. The narrow exit is currently packed to the brim with armies from the ten tribes. The three cliffs are made of slippery rocks that even the best fighters in the world would have trouble scaling down. So how did Helian and the few people with him managed to get past the guards without anyone knowing? It should’ve been impossible for Helian to get in under such heavy guard presence but since he obviously did get in then that means Helian came prepared. If he really goes crazy and is ready to drag as many people as he can to hell with him, then they could only curse their own bad luck. In the end, rules are made by people and rules have always been made to be broken by violence. When the rule followers meet the rule-breakers…then the rules are just gibberish.
“Ignorant boy, who are you scaring!” The Wolf tribe chief who is friends with Hong Jile yells “With the ten tribes, there are a total of 30,000 troops right outside of the valley and thousands of them inside the valley. Before you dream of dying with us, you should ask yourself if you are qualified to do so!”
His hands on his knees, Helian stares at the man without saying a word but the man unconsciously shivered when he met Helian’s wolf-like gaze.
*BOOM*
Just as Hong Jile is about to say something to break the uncomfortable silence in the tent, a deafening sound of a loud explosion abruptly shook the ground and knocked over the tribe leaders that were seated on the ground.
“What’s going on!” Before Hong Jile could finish his sentence, a guard rushed into the tent and yells “Ah… There is a landslide, landslide!”
A hand shining with gold rings on all five fingers promptly pushed the guard out and laughed “As expected, the men of Gold Roc are fools and can’t even explain things properly. What’s this with lan-lan-land thing. It is still up to this Grand Queen to personally open the tent door and let all of you see for yourselves.”
A grinning Queen Peony opens the tent door so everyone could see the narrow valley exit right in front of them.
Over there, in the smoke filled air, black mountain rocks are cascading down and have already blocked the valley exit. Sounds of soldiers yelling in pain as they tried to dodge the falling rocks came amidst the chaos and the heavy dust filling the air.
“We really hardly did anything.” Peony said modestly “We just simply blasted a small portion of the mountain and blocked that tiny exit.”
His mouth agape, Hong Jile stares at the valley exit.
Helian finally pulls his gaze away from the now ashen faced Wolf tribe leader, flicks off a speck of dust on his robe and says with a placid smile “Am I now, qualified to die with you all?”
“…………”
The silence in the tent becomes even more uncomfortable. No one had imagined that Helian could go this far and be this reckless when he is crossed. He blasted the mountain, blocked the only exit and trapped himself along with everyone else in this narrow valley. He is clearly showing that if you bite me I will kill your whole family, who cares if I lose my life in the process. They had heard rumors that he had killed off the entire Chimera tribe but none of them believed. Now, going by his action here, they finally realized the rumor might not necessarily be false. Words cannot begin to describe the expression on the Chimera tribe leader’s face at this moment. He had been on his way to this Gold Tent meeting so has not been able to confirm the rumor previously.
Surveying the faces around him with a grin, Helian silently pats himself on the back for copying Zhi Wei’s mannerism, feeling proud that “like wife, like husband” he is.
“Helian! Don’t be impulsive!” After a few moments of silence, Helian’s uncle steps forward and reprimanded him “Don’t make the situation spin out of control! As the tribe leader I order you…”
Helian gives his uncle a side glance.
The expression in Helian’s eyes made his uncle shudder and the words he was about to say suddenly got caught in his throat.
After a few seconds, Helian asks curiously “Who are you?”
“………….”
Helian’s uncle stood frozen to the spot, his hands and lips are both trembling but no matter how he tried no words would come out.
So…. you all know I have been struggling regarding the issue of how to pace this part of the story since if I really follow the novel then we are not going to see our hero for a long time. Thanks to a reader’s comment in last week’s post where she expressed how much she misses Ning Yi, I suddenly thought “Wait, in dramas, they switch scenes all the time to follow multiple storylines so could I translate Phoenixes this way too?” With that thought in mind, I am going to try inserting little scenes of Ning Yi’s side of the story as we follow Zhi Wei’s story in the wild grassland. Let me know if this style works or it’s too distracting to jump back and forth.
While the king of the wild grassland is riding off proudly and exuberantly with his queen in his arms accompanied by his people’s cheers, the highly respected and noble manor of Prince Chu has been blanked by a stifling atmosphere. The servants rush about yet no one dares to make a single noise, neither do they dare to disturb the closed study door that has been shut tightly— every day. After His Highness comes back from the royal palace he would shut himself inside the study. Behind the two big black doors of the study, no noise at all could be heard so it would often feel as if no one is inside.
Even though nothing has happened but everyone could feel the suppressive feel in the air without knowing where exactly it’s coming from— since His Highness’ triumphant return from the south, the Chang clan has basically been wiped out. Thanks to his success of leading the army to the big win, Prince Chi who had previously had some difficulty inserting his own people into the military was able to use this perfect opportunity to place quite a few trusted men in some key positions. Even the academy students who accompanied Wei Zhi and Prince Chu have all been assigned to different positions in various departments. After expressing his regret over Wei Zhi’s disappearance, the Emperor gave Prince Chu his glowing compliment. Judging by the widespread approval he has garnered lately, everyone could see His Highness has become the favorite to the Emperor. Yet, why is it that there are no signs of pleasure on His Highness’ countenance after his years of hard work has finally been rewarded.
