CHAPTER 1
FENG YU JIU TIAN VOLUME 9
(Nearby Danger Lurking in Shadows)
XFENGYUJIUTIAN.TUMBLR.COM TRANSLATOR: CHRISTY EDITORS: FERN & SZARA
Rong Tian rushed to Xiao Zong’s place to find Feng Ming and Rong Hu. Feng Ming was completely fine, except a bit frightened. Rong Hu was heavily injured by Xiao Zong and was taken to where the physicians were to treat him. They are trying their best to control his bleeding. Lady Yao Ye requested to meet them again. Rong Tian told her that because of her plan, it almost caused Feng Ming to be killed and now Rong Hu is in critical condition. Lady Yao Ye laughed at them and said that her plan only proves that Xiao Zong still thinks about her, since his swordsmans.h.i.+p is impeccable and yet he only managed to injured Rong Hu and not kill him, which means he is unable to fully concentrate on his martial arts.
During the conversation, Rong Tian saw how depressed Feng Ming was and kept blaming himself. He wanted so badly to embrace Feng Ming that he pushed Lady Yao Ye and ran past Lie Er , whose attempts to stop him were in vain and held Feng Ming. They embraced for a long while in complete bliss believing that this will be the last time for them. However, to their surprise, nothing happened. Feng Ming yelled at his mother, asking her why the poison was fake. Lady Yao Ye gave him a slapping and shouted at Feng Ming: “Yes, I’m the world’s evilest mother...who dares to poison her own son!” Out of anger, she left and no one tried to stop her.
They went to visit Rong Hu and found out that the physician was kicked out of the room and that Lady Yao Ye was inside treating Rong Hu. Feng Ming and Rong Tian reflected on their actions earlier and thought about what would have happened if they really died...
RONG TIAN AND FENG MING’S EMBRACE
Lady Yao Ye came in, her beautiful eyes glanced around. She saw Rong Tian’s frowned face and didn’t even bother to notice the frightening glare of Lie Er. Without a trace of fear, she gently said: “I heard about what happened today, what does your majesty think?”
RT: What do I think? ...Feng Ming was almost killed under Master Xiao’s sword, so I ask you, what do you think?!
When Rong Tian is angry, it will feel like thunder and lightning are striking.
Lady Yao Ye stated that if Feng Ming dies, she will also commit suicide to ask for forgiveness. However, she truly believed that he wouldn’t and she never had any intentions of hurting him since she has the antidote for Lover’s blood.
Seeing that Lady Yao Ye was standing close to Feng Ming and touching his forehead, Rong Tian was tense and quickly stood up, but after hearing her somewhat kind words he restrained himself from doing anything further.
FM: (looking at RT) You don’t have to worry, I’m very well. It’s just....I really miss you. Before, you always complained that I like to wander about and won’t stay still. When I think about it, I can’t stand it. Rong Tian, I want to be close to you.
Crying out to Rong Tian with tears in his eyes, Rong Tian couldn’t bear it any longer. Standing there foolishly with his eyes fixed silently upon his lonely lover.
Lie Er quickly noticed the change and wanted to hold Rong Tian back, but Rong Tian had already charged forward, pus.h.i.+ng Lady Yao Ye aside, he embraced Feng Ming.
When Feng Ming saw Rong Tian’s movement, he too stood up from his chair and charge forward aiming for Rong Tian’s chest. Chiu Xing and Chiu Yue wanted to hold Feng Ming back but their reflexes were not as quick as Lie Er — even so both sides failed in separating the two.
In that moment, they didn’t care about being ruler of the world, being Xi Lei’s King or Lover’s Blood.
They held each other tightly like nothing could pull them apart. In the midst of life and death and yet they felt satisfied within each other’s embrace and were overjoyed with happiness
CHAPTER 2
After waiting for some time regarding Rong Hu’s condition, the teary maids came out to tell them that Rong Hu’s life is not in danger, but he will need about a month to fully recover.
Lie Er wanted to visit his brother, but the maids told him that because of his nasty att.i.tude towards Lady Yao Ye earlier, Lie Er is the only one that can’t visit him. Hearing that, Lie Er was a bit sad, but didn’t dare to go against the words of the person saving his brother’s life.
They received another letter with news about Miao Guang (the earlier letter Rong Tian received was also about Miao Guang). According to the news, Miao Guang returned to Bo Jian’s capital after the fail a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on her. This is fairly reasonable, but what Rong Tian couldn’t understand was why she would use the fail a.s.sa.s.sination attempt as an excuse to tell Bo Jian King that she no longer feels safe in Bo Jian and his sincerity towards her seems to be lacking (since Bo Ling tried to kill her). Because of that, Miao Guang decided to call off the marriage arrangement between her and Bo Qin.
They were wondering why Miao Guang would let go of the opportunity to form an allegiance and build a supporting foundation when she is pressured by Long Tian and her brother is in a coma. They started speculating that perhaps she knew the Lady Yao Ye poisoned Long Tian and no longer felt threatened by him. However, after thinking about this, it still did not make sense. Finally, Feng Ming made a guess that perhaps Ruo Yan has woken up and because of that, Miao Guang doesn’t need Bo Jian’s support anymore. Because if Ruo Yan has woken up, Rong Tian concluded:
RT: This answer has cleared up the other questions I had. Miao Guang went to Bo Jian’s capital to propose a marriage allegiance with Bo Jian, but later found out that Ruo Yan has woken up. If her brother is awake, then Long Tian does not pose as a large threat in their eyes and Ruo Yan would not be willing to let his only sister marry out that easily. But why would she not immediately call off the marriage and instead wanted to go to Han Gui? ... (answers the question himself) She knew that Bo Ling and 3rd Princess had escaped; therefore, purposely let the news of her and Qing Ding’s meeting in Han Gui slip, using that as a bait to lure them out.
FM: This plot of Miao Guang is impressive. One, she uses Bo Ling and 3rd Princess to eliminate Qing Ding, the Great King of Tong Kingdom. Two, she can lure Bo Ling and 3rd Princess out of their hiding spot
and eliminate them. Third, it is a good excuse to give Bo Jian King a reason to call off the marriage. A future daughter-in-law that was almost killed in his territory, of course Bo Jian King will not stubbornly keep Miao Guang there. In fact, he might have sent her off with a bunch of treasures/gifts. This scheme is great! One rock that hits three birds.
Rong Tian later received another sealed enveloped, but this time the letter is from Xi Lei, Tong Er. The letter is somewhat wet in areas so only certain parts were readable.
The letter...it was addressed to Miao Guang.
"I believe that Princess is someone who is reliable and understands reasoning. These recent days, Xi Lei had many changes, I sent this letter with hope of...
The Empress Dowager is still not dead, when the palace was lit on fire, she took the opportunity to escape and reunite with Rong Tian. It seems that she had secretly sneaked into the capital (Xi Qin) with intentions of disruption. This person is the mother of Rong Tian, if we capture her alive, and cleverly took advantage then....”
CHAPTER 3
Rong Tian asked the messenger to come in to inquire about the origin of the letter. The messenger stated that the secret letter was found in the borders of Yong Yin and Xi Lei. The person sending the letter was disguised with the intention of crossing Yong Yin, but was stopped by them. The letter was hidden on the person and when discovered, that person threw the letter into the water. They tried to quickly retrieve the letter and in doing so, the disguised person committed suicide before they could capture him for questioning. Part of the letter was wet so the ink was smeared, the readable portion of the letter related to Empress Dowager, so they didn’t want to delay and rushed to send the letter to Rong Tian.
After questioning meticulously about the disguised messenger and even what hand he used to stab himself with, Feng Ming anxiously wanted Rong Tian to aid Empress Dowager and bring her back to safety. Rong Tian looked long and hard at the letter as he felt something was odd about it – why did Tong Er address the letter to Miao Guang, someone who doesn’t seem to have much power and is from Li Kingdom, the biggest enemy of Xi Lei? After putting out this question, they finally realized that Tong Er must know that Ruo Yan had woken up. However, if this letter was sent to Li Kingdom then it should be addressed to Ruo Yan, so why would this letter be addressed to Miao Guang instead? They then speculated that this letter was purposely sent to let them discover it, hoping that they will not know that Ruo Yan is awake and will be lured into a trap set up for them. (“Ruo Yan is best at luring his enemies into a trap” according to Rong Tian.)
Lie Er suggested that perhaps they should create a trap within a trap since they finally discovered the hidden truth behind the letter. Chu Xing and Chu Yue were worried about Empress Dowager and scolded Lie Er for laughing at this critical moment. Lie Er told them that if Tong Er truly caught Empress Dowager then he wouldn’t conspire with Ruo Yan; instead, he would just threaten them.
FM: What are we going to do now? (asking Rong Tian)
RT: Ruo Yan wants to lure us out of our campsite and must have an ambush on the way back to Xi Lei. We will follow through with his plan to carry out our plan and destroy his ambush while he is unprepared and defeat him in Yong Yin. Since Yong Yin is not his territory, Xi Lei and Li Kingdom troops can’t charge hastily in; therefore, the overall strength of the ambush should not be ma.s.sive.
FM: Then hurry up and give your order. RT: There is just a small problem.
FM: What is it?
RT: If we want to destroy his ambush, our number must be greater than the enemy. Also, our troops need to be composed of highly skilled soldiers. The troops I have are at most 1000 men and we need half of them to use as bait. This opportunity is very hard to come by. There’s a possibility that Ruo Yan will partc.i.p.ate, if we can use this opportunity to kill Ruo Yan then it will help Xi Lei defeat its biggest adversary. I have to organize the best and brightest soldiers within this campsite.
Rong Tian tells Feng Ming that he will need Master Xiao’s elite men to help with this mission and requests for Feng Ming’s help.
Feng Ming felt his father wouldn’t want to talk to him at the moment and decided to go find Lady Yao Ye instead. He went to Rong Hu’s place and only saw Chiu Lan there caring for Rong Hu. Chiu Lan told Feng Ming she must have gone outside. Feng Ming found Lady Yao Ye in Cai Jiang’s room. He asked her what her third step was in dealing with the heartless swordsman who refused to give up his swordsmans.h.i.+p. Lady Yao Ye scolded Feng Ming for calling his father “heartless” and just explained to Feng Ming that her goal was to let Xiao Zong realize that he can follow his pa.s.sion as well as being together with her. She tells Feng Ming that Cai Jiang’s hands are perfect for learning swordsmans.h.i.+p and if she brought him along on the battlefield, Xiao Zong would follow along to protect his successor. She decided to bring Cai Jiang to see Xiao Zong and told Feng Ming to wait for the good news.
Feng Ming went back to the meeting area and saw that there were more people present. A group of Rong Tian’s skilled commanders and Yong Yi, who was dragged in by Lie Er. Everyone was excited to learn that they could finally capture Ruo Yan.
YY: If Xi Lei King is successful, then Yong Yin will have one less threat to worry about. I only have 1000 elite soldiers and will give them to Xi Lei King to command.
Rong Tian saw Feng Ming and asked if he had met Lady Yao Ye. Apparently, Rong Tian had already guessed that Lady Yao Ye would use Master Xiao’s only grandson to reach her goal.
Lady Yao Ye came and brought Cai Jiang with her. She asked Rong Tian about his ambush plan and made a request for her to be the sole guardian of Cai Jiang. If she is, she will bring Cai Jiang onto the battlefield and Xiao Zong will follow along with his men to protect his heir.
Rong Tian didn’t agree to the offer since losing Cai Jiang — the only grandson of Master Xiao and a child who you can only find once in a hundred years — would be a huge loss for him and this ambush is just a small mission. In order to receive Cai Jiang, the offer should include 33 s.h.i.+ps, everything on the s.h.i.+ps, and the map of trading routes by sea.
Rong Tian explained that since Master Xiao has finally found a successor, he will put his heart and soul in teaching Cai Jiang. He will not have enough time to manage his s.h.i.+pping business and it will be best to hand over his business to his son, Feng Ming.
Lady Yao Ye agreed and told Rong Tian to quickly mobilize his troops while she persuade Xiao Zong to accept this negotiation.
After she left, Rong Tian turned to the slightly confused and shocked Feng Ming.
RT: Congratulations Duke Ming. From today onward, you might not be the most powerful person in the world, but you are the richest among everyone.
Feng Ming was upset that Rong Tian “sold off” Cai Jiang when he is his son. Rong Tian asked him if Cai Jiang is really his son and was happy when Feng Ming realized Cai Jiang wasn’t really his son.
Rong Tian pulled Feng Ming onto his lap and asked him if Master Xiao and Lady Yao Ye really are Cai Jiang’s grandparents. While asking, Rong Tian teased Feng Ming by blowing in his ear. That was when Feng Ming glared at him to make sure he kept his perverted hands to himself.
After answering that they were both grandparents of Cai Jiang, Rong Tian told Feng Ming that it was best for Cai Jiang to be with his real family.
CHAPTER 4
Feng Ming couldn’t disagree with Rong Tian, but he suddenly remembered about Cai Qing and told Rong Tian that Cai Jiang still has a mother therefore they can’t separate them.
Rong Tian had already secretly planned on how to answer this and asked Feng Ming if Cai Jiang truly has gifted hands to learn swordsmans.h.i.+p and if he does, then Feng Ming should allow Cai Jiang to learn it from the number one swordsman.
Feng Ming was still upset that Rong Tian used Cai Jiang as a bargaining tool.
RT: If you want wealth, you need to create trade. Who was the one that said this? FM: It was me....but....
RT: Sea route is a type of trade route and will allow us to gain insight and control a large portion on our enemies’ economic status. If we want to be the ruler of the world, other than military force, we also need talent. If there are no food supplies, how can one kingdom manage? How can an army perform well? This should be common sense to you.
FM: I understand...
RT: Why shouldn’t we accept something we need and also give Cai Jiang a great master for him to have a chance to use his gifted talent?
Soon, Master Xiao sent over one of his disciples to look over Rong Tian’s plan for the ambush mission and requested Rong Tian to place Master Xiao and the other men in the group where Lady Yao Ye will be.
After the plan was all set, Rong Tian was about to request Feng Ming to stay behind but Feng Ming was extremely persistent in being together with Rong Tian and not separating again (especially after the whole Lover’s Blood incident and the oath he made at Dong Fan).
Seeing that he can’t persuade Feng Ming otherwise, they head out on the ambush mission together.
Lie Er will lead Rong Tian’s troops out front carrying torches. As baits, they are to lure the enemies into a trap. Yong Yi and Mei Ji’s soldiers and guards will follow behind Lie Er’s troops, traveling in darkness with Rong Tian and Feng Ming leading them. Master Xiao, his men, and Lady Yao Ye will be in charge of blocking exit routes and a.s.sa.s.sinating the lead commander.
They have about one hour before the sun comes out to complete this mission. When Lie Er and the troops head into a narrow pa.s.sageway in the middle of high cliffs, they were ambushed by the enemies. Feng Ming recognized the familiar voice in charge and was eager to go help Lie Er, but Rong Tian ordered him to wait a bit more for Master Xiao’s group to give a signal (whistle & smoke) that they’ve surrounded the enemies before Rong Tian’s group will start attacking.
Once the signal was given, they charged out to fight. Feng Ming barely fought before he was taken away from the battlefield by Mian Ya and relocated to a safe spot away from the fighting. When getting dragged carried away, Feng Ming cursed Rong Tian for not letting him stay and fight alongside. Feng Ming tried struggling with Mian Ya and ordered him to bring him back, but because of Rong Tian’s orders he can’t do as Feng Ming said.
After struggling on the horse and trying to free himself from Mian Ya’s grip, Feng Ming ends up falling off the horse and hitting his head on the ground.
Note: Chiu Xing and Chiu Yue also asked to come along to take care of Cai Jiang on the battlefield.
CHAPTER 5 & 6
The poor guards had to bandage Feng Ming’s bleeding head after he fell off the horse. They were blaming themselves but Feng Ming thought it was only a minor injury. After they were done, Feng Ming noticed that the battle seemed to have stopped.
However, Rong Tian did not head back to see him. After a long while of no one telling him why Rong Tian felt fl.u.s.tered and upset, Feng Ming grew angry. He anxiously demanded Chiu Yue to explain, since no one wanted to and only gave him vague answers.
Chiu Yue eventually tells Feng Ming that they have captured General Tong, who told them that this ambush plan was indeed set up by Tong Er and Ruo Yan. However, Ruo Yan was not in charge of this ambush; he is in charge of another ambush.
Confirming their fears, Ruo Yan had indeed set a second ambush at their hidden campsite, believing that Feng Ming would have been left behind there.
Rong Tian and everyone knew about this but didn’t want Feng Ming to know, fearing that Feng Ming would want to head back to the campsite to save the others.
The hidden campsite was completely defenseless since all the troops had been brought out for their mission. They all knew that everyone inside there—Rong Hu, Chiu Lan, Mei Ji, the Third Princess, and perhaps even Bo Ling—had been left to fend for themselves. Knowing Ruo Yan’s personality, if he could not find Feng Ming, he would’ve killed everyone to vent his anger.
Feng Ming wanted Rong Tian to head back to the campsite to save the others. However, Rong Tian knew if he were to save them, two things could happen: one, a hostage exchange in which he would lose Feng Ming (since that’s the only person Ruo Yan wants) and that cannot happen, or two, Ruo Yan would kill all the hostages in front of Feng Ming’s eyes, leaving Feng Ming to deal with the horror for the rest of his life (which Rong Tian would not allow).
