Poor Zhu Feng had just celebrated his final release from Meirong's presence and was looking forward to the peace and prosperity that would follow that, in his mind he had a picture of his incoming days being spent in raising his kids with Storm's new pup's which he named Wind and Rain respectively while waiting for Shadow's foals to add to the merry group.

Yet his following days -especially on the first week- after Meirong left, were spent with his face mostly darkened along with a frown that never left it.

Still, being shunned by everyone around them made Feng's relationship with his quad of wolves deepen another level, however, most of his and his wolves annoyance was mostly directed at their own bodies for not only smelling bad but also because the fluidity of their bladder's intensive work and accumulation of urine which multiplied by a hundred times compared to normal times before eating these pills.

Not to mention how extraordinarily painful it was to take a piss and how incomparably disgusting it made him to smell such dangerous weird colored urine so many times everyday, Feng saw a small bush rot and die when Thunder urinated on it as if his expelled urine was some kind of toxic and extremely concentrated acid!

First Feng tried to lower the amount of liquids that he drank in a cowardly attempt to avoid the pain which comes from inside his body everytime he takes a piss and to avoid the smell that comes with it which made him lose his appetite, but he was faced with extreme dehydration which hit him spontaneously as if he's standing in a desert under a scorching sun after three days since his last drink.

Learning his lesson to keep himself and his wolves well hydrated all the time and to keep extra water with them when they go anywhere, he resorted to the technique of pinching his nose and looking away whenever he's inside the restroom or relieving himself, while warning the wolf pack not to murder all the trees in his garden and village by marking them.

The snickering giggles and secret laughs of his family, men and servants was soon a trend that got spread out from his manor all-over the village, some courageous kids gave him the gesture of waving in front of their noses when he passed them or said the taboo words : "Ewww" or "It stinks" then their families or the grown-ups in the vicinity would hurry to shut the brats by blocking their mouths while smiling awkwardly, but Feng already knew that these asshole grown-ups were in fact doing their best to hold back themselves from laughing at their Lord Feng protector of the west.

Tsk! Bunch of ingrates.

Better leave before they start laughing and embarrass themselves any further, the only reason why I'm leaving right now is because I'm a saint.... I'm a saint who wouldn't allow embarrassment to befall his people!

Humph.

While enduring this solitude which he never asked for, Feng's time was mostly spent trying to get familiar with the first movement sequence of the Howling Wind Sword Art.

The mysterious green robe which Lili gave him was kept in the space bag with the gauntlets, the black helmet and the full-body armor which Song Yunru made for him, the pill bottles, the mysterious map, the silver scepter, some of his money, clothes, food, water and some precious liquor along with the dagger, green-scaled leather armor and the sword moon wolf which coincidentally was named after the wolves species.

The reason Feng trained using wolf flower sword instead of moon wolf was because of the two swords the most lethal would be the latter blade no doubt about it, because amongst the materials used for it was the venomous stinger of that gigantic scorpion which Qing Liling killed on his first day in this world.

He was warned by Da Donghai that the slightest scratch from it would lead to poison infection, the blacksmith already tested it on a little sheep and the poor thing was said to be dead within a couple seconds then it's blood started turning purple.

Later a drop of that sheep's blood was used carefully to rub a bull's neck and the animal turned frenetic then died after it's frenzy was over in a minute, despite being administered externally the poison was beyond scarily potent.

That's why Feng was using wolf flower to train in this sword art which proved to be tricky and complex unlike the previous simplicity of basic techniques, however, these two pills seemed to have affected Zhu Feng's stamina and he would need breaks more and more everyday.

Sweat in addition to his hyper intensive bladder joined together was a serious problem to his normal physical strengthening routines and his swordsmanship training, as for sparring matches? Nobody will ever agree to getting physical with Feng and he found himself being left with one final option.

Meditation!

He never tried to do these weird yoga poses in his previous life and probably never will in this one, but he know the simple cross-legged way and after using his space bag the third time to store more items Feng's prickling pain in the stomach became stronger when he stored the last of these items and that was the only warning he needed to know that the stronger the pain the lesser his Qi tank was.

Then again he was feeling like even the heavens was mocking his attempts to meditate and regain his lost Qi, first it was the feeling of uncomfort which wouldn't go away whenever he sat still and tried to simply do nothing and if possible think of nothing at all.

Whenever Feng felt like he's going somewhere with this ridiculous thing called meditation, he would need to hit the bathroom to empty his bladder which would make the feeling just disappear as if it was just his imagination.

The frustration would make Feng just not in the mood to sit anymore and he would do his footwork drills, first sequence of the new sword art or go for another session of physical training until he's tired and in need for a break. Which would happen sooner than expected and Feng would drink loads of water of juice to refreshen himself or have a meal before returning to meditate again and the circle never stopped for a week.

Thankfully his women made sure the servants took care of his meals which he had with the wolves, the rare walks in the streets never ended up well and he tried to avoid the masses but they never let the opportunities pass without throwing secret jokes between one another when they saw their widely famous Lord protector Feng and his wolves.

"The man with spotless "clean" conscience."

"The one who gave them gardens full of "aromatic" flower gardens."

"He can "smell" corrupt officials and authority from miles."

Feng heard all the jokes hinting at him and shrugged inside while hoping these subjects of his would later lose interest, yet the second day the citizens started sending gifts to his manor which comprised of soap, perfumes, scented water for showering, essence sticks, etc.

Biyu and Lanfen personally delivered Feng the news while keeping their distance from him and his wolves, the wide grins on his wives faces and the amused laughter which followed made his already dark face gain a shade deeper and his deep frown gain another line of creased skin.

Third day he heard that the citizens of his village were frequenting the market outside the walls for new products to gift their Lord, fourth day these "devoted" citizens started visiting one of the most important establishments in the village for any new "products" that can be "gifted" to their Lord, and the madness never stopped and Feng's frown never left his face because they started to become creative in annoying him innocently.

Sometimes he thought about hugging everyone he meets just to give them a taste of his and his wolves suffering, but he ended up doing nothing of the sort with his excuse being : I'm a saint and saints are above mundane matters.

Finally the week of torment was over and his bladder returned to normal along with his smell, but Feng's aspirations made him swallow the last pill of blood purification with the augmenting circulation pill the next day with tears coming from his eyes!

He was well prepared this time for the after effects of swallowing these two pills be that mentally, physically or emotionally.

While armed with a lifetime's worth of products to prevent him from enduring the embarrassment of his guards fighting one another on who should carry their disgusting lord and his wolves to the nearest bathroom, the cruel bastards of that team drew lots while the responsible captain Fu Liwei acted like he doesn't exist anymore.

This time he was naked in his bathtub with warm water running freely and completely ready to wash anything and everything that might come out of his body away, inside the tub there's wrists, waist and ankles straps to hold his body in place when the spasming pain of the augmenting circulation pill comes from his heart, veins and arteries.

Yet much to Feng's surprise he wasn't suffering from too much pain like he anticipated, and the extraction that his body expelled was brown in color instead of the previous black which Zhu Feng saw in the two incidents of before!

First he attributed the changes in color of the impurities of his body to the running water, then Zhu Feng saw that brown color change from brown to dark and deep color of red which further got diluted in the water to become the color of bad blood.

While his body made unconscious reflexes and convulsions that reminded Feng of his old body on earth, he endured the internal pain which was tolerable now and tried not to panick at the sight of blood seeping from his skin through his pores and falling from his forehead to his eyes and partly blinding them as he tried to blink them off his eyelids.

Hopefully the previous blood purification pill has done it's job and helped my body in making more blood, I made preparations for the stink and never prepared extra blood bags not to mention that I don't know what this body's blood type is.

Thankfully it ended safely after an hour and the scary case of all the blood coming out of his skin never happened to Feng, he watched as every pore of his skin kept pushing out blood that continuously lost it's deep redness and faded gradually until his body was no longer expelling anymore blood from his skin after almost half an hour.

However, his head and neck -which were the only parts of his body above the level of water- kept expelling insane amounts of sweat that trickled down to wash away the blood that started to coagulates on Feng's face and neck then pushed them down to the water in the tub, his nose could smell that this sweat was abnormally intense, as if Zhu Feng stayed without a shower for an extremely long time yet he was sure that it smelled like himself as if this sweat was intentionally getting fermented in his sweat glands before getting pushed out.

Having just experienced a whole hour of deep worry and silent prayers while watching his skin spit blood out, made Feng smile widely in the next hour he stayed in the tub as he felt the smell of his sweat go fainter and harder for him to pick it's scent.

Even the quad wolves who kept watching lazily from the door of the room while watching him in this sauna-bathroom were no longer wary or uncomfortable with themselves as they kept his company, Harmony swaggered inside the bathroom a couple hours after Feng swallowed the two pills with a basket in his mouth that had a water bottle and fruits in it then left it on the edge of the tub before jumping in to join his friend in a cool dip in the tub.

"Heh, does that mean I'm not smelling like shit anymore?"

"Woof...."

"Hehehe, what a disappointment would that be for my kind people and sweet wives, sadly I have to spend another week with a faulty stamina. Whatever, one another hurdle to pass before bone fortification pills. Release me boy, lately I've been feeling like my footwork isn't very far from finally showing an improvement and I can't wait to see how fast that will make me. Lili was able to move very quickly while in the eyes of others appearing to be taking very slow steps, oh you don't remember her huh! After all you were just a few days old pup. Come, let's go train."

*****

"Your highness! Welcome to Obsidian city, the dark jewel of the north is yours to command."

"Mmm."

"Hero general Lian is back to visit us so soon, I only hope your previous journey east was filled with triumph."

"Just so-so, the white dogs were quick to shrink their necks and tuck their tails between their legs before I got to enjoy myself. But if you consider complete eradication of their white legion triumph then I guess manager Yun can call it that way."

Manager Yun spoke to the man in flamboyant white armor and mounting a half-blood red draconic horse riding ahead of a perfectly organized long column of a thousand knights in black heavy-armor armed to the teeth and mounting more than excellent looking armoured warhorses.

The man seemed to be in his late twenties and had long hair that went beyond his shoulders slightly and quite a handsome face with a small well trimmed beard, he didn't seem overly large sized like most of the knights behind him or taller than normal by much but his eyes and the way he looked at people gave him the air of someone who's used to rule and command those around him.

Hearing the greeting from manager Yun who just rode out of the city walls then dismounted and gave him proper and respectful courtesy by kneeling on a single knee, the third prince merely nodded and gave a slight sound before letting his mount resume it's slow trotting pace towards the city in silence.

Manager Yun stood up once the prince passed him and jumped on the back of his horse then cupped his fist towards Lian Laoci who rode his horse a few paces behind the prince's guards then spoke to him with a smile, the Steel Anvil Smithy was killing the competition after their deal with the royal family was made and he wanted to confirm the news from the man who led the assault himself.

Seeing the general's face which looked to be younger by a few couple years get decorated with a very dangerous smile before hearing the shocking answer made manager Yun's eyes widen in disbelief, then the feelings of excitements made his hands shake and he almost made an embarrassing sight of himself in front of the prince.

"Excellent! General Lian is really the hero of our Shi kingdom, you chased our enemies away yet again. I'm definitely drinking tonight."

"Hahaha. yes, do that after seeing to the prince's requirements, the east is good for now and the west is calm with it's protector's intense care and dedication. Time to pay the hyenas in the north a lesson after beating the dog in the east, come manager Yun."

*****

"Are you sure these attires are made with the specific measurements that were given to your smithy manager Yun? My men are elites amongst elites from my father the king's royal guard, any slight uncomfortableness can affect their action in battle and in turn affect their teamwork and results which would disturb the whole formation. In a battle that would be a great error that can cause the loss of lives, their lives matter because training these men doesn't take a a few days like normal soldiers but years instead, at the very least five years on average a decade and above average fifteen and the elites amongst the guards boast about two decades. Especially when the first results of our deal with your smithy wasn't completely.... How do I say it? Yes, perfect. I understand that this was not intentional on your part, the creator of that wonderful material Baron Zhu our protector of the west and loyal subject had just divulged the secrets of his technique and given the urgency of the previous mission and the large order plus the fact that the deadline that we gave you was hurrying your facility to strain all of it's resources. It was expected that faulty products would appear among the one thousand ZhuQing attires that we demanded, seventy of them didn't fit the general's men and they had to guard the supplies in the rear while giving every bit of second a curse at your establishment while watching the general's men their brothers-in-arms gain honor and attain meritorious deeds as they made sure their supplies were protected."

Inside the city lord's estate of Obsidian city, the great hall was currently occupied by the third prince who sat on the central seat on an elevated dais.

Behind the prince's chair that previously belonged to the city lord was six guards of the finest king's royal guards be that in might or loyalty, standing two paces to his right was general Lian followed by his military advisor Jianjun then his vice-general Zhang and vice-general Shang Haohai, while on his left stood only manager Yun the spokesperson for the Steel Anvil Smithy but unlike the calm general and his men who stood nonchalantly the manager kept sweating and shaking while hearing the prince's words.

In the open space of the large hall there was large boxes lined in order and their lids resting on the rear of each box to expose well organized pieces of ZhuQing attires, next to each box was a person holding a list with the complete measurements of each set and looking at their feet in deep respect while in the presence of their prince.

"Th.... thanks your highness, this time my smithy's top forger made sure to confirm the correct measurements twice then a third time right before sending them here, we're not going to give excuses for the previous error on our part of the deal and my smithy will take any kind of punishment that you see fit your highness."

While feeling like he got released from a burden when the prince mentioned every hurdle that his smithy had to overcome to deliver the first order on time, manager Yun spoke while trying to ignore the glare one of the general's men was giving him.

That man was vice-general Zhang who happened to find that his attire wasn't fitting his large physique and had to pass it to the lucky bastard, Yi Yaozu who also was amongst the unlucky seventy with the vice-general originally and was on the brink of despair when he found his ZhuQing attire very small for his size, collected the left attires and kept trying to wear them one by one until the one that didn't fit the vice-general Zhang fit him and he joined the slaughtering mission with the general.

That time Zhang's intestines were burning with anger at the smithy's staff and administration because he never saw armies win fights in the battlefield that easy before in the two decades of his life in the army then in the fifteen years that followed with him serving the general in his personal detachment, seeing the one responsible for that bloody mistake standing in front of him made the vice-general wish if they'll be locked alone in a cage or something.

"What is done is done, just make sure your underlings do their job from now on, they're serving the king now and they better tread carefully otherwise the next mistake can be the final mistake. You're dismissed manager Yun, tell your people to leave the lists and go back. Your payment will accompany you to your facility just like the crown promised."

"Much appreciated your highness, will do and give them your orders at once. Excuse me."

"Mmm."

With a pale face and sweaty forehead, manager Yun bowed respectfully with a cupped fist then retreated three steps then turned to leave and deliver this gentle warning to his associates and partners with the great news of their increased wealth, gesturing for his assistants to follow the orders and leave the lists and scram from the great hall as quietly and quickly as possible he kept doing his best to avoid eye-contact with the angry vice-general Zhang as he left.

"Tch...."

"Excellent use of the carrot and the stick your highness."

"Well I learned from the best, did you receive your answer?"

Vice-general Zhang clicked his tongue and clenched his fists when he saw the manager of the shitty smithy get away, something which caused the general and his men to smirk in amusement at.

Ignoring his angry assistant and cupping his fist while complimenting the third prince on his methods, general Laoci never missed a chance to annoy the prince which wasn't his favorite to ascend the throne in the future.

In return the third prince retorted with a hidden counter of his own before forcing the subject to something else, otherwise this conversation would turn into a war of words with the most shameless subject of his father's kingdom.

A war of words were each line could be a trap and each word could hide spears behind it, and the most frustrating thing about such wars with that man is that they tend to turn into the most annoying wars. Wars of attrition!

Yet this man did something which the current king couldn't do despite inheriting the Will of his father's and two kings before him and failing to accomplish it during the decades of his life in rule which he dedicated to that cause mainly, this man who looks at the world through these piercing eyes despite his advanced age. He had humble origins and great aspirations which started by joining the army then climbed up and struggled in the military ranks, this man who was once nobody yet this era's hero.

First he succeeded in slowing the advancement of a whole empire's encroachment on their territories, then he managed to block and hinder the advancement and finally he exploded in the face of that empire when he lost his courageous son who inherited his reckless traits.

Then after a very strange incident, that man who was once a hero for chipping the blade of the enemy's empire and almost causing it to break which was by slaughtering thousands of it's strongest legion that once threw fear in the hearts of all it's surroundings kingdoms and empires when news of it's deployment towards their borders, after that incident he came up with the opportunity of a lifetime and a possibility to accomplish the dream and wish for his king, what followed after was that hawk nosed general not breaking the enemy's sword oh no no he was even more vindictive and ruthless by snatching that sword which just got repaired and breaking it on his knee then planted both parts into the sides of his enemy, one mortal wound for his king and country and another for himself and his deceased son.

All because of the man he encountered one day and ordered him to be whipped!

Even in the capital city the name of Zhu Feng the new Baron of the wonderfully magical village of the west is being mentioned as the best destination to spend some quality time these days, and the same name of Baron Zhu Feng and protector of the west is still being mentioned as the creator of the ZhuQing material which caused the Bai empire to give orders of abandoning the front lines and retreat immediately to the third line of defense which could be defended much more efficiently than the much more vulnerable two lines.

Simply because a thousand men defeated three of their main armies and that happened after the complete destruction of the white legion at the same hands of these men, no such lot are now being called the silver demons of Shi because even war machines couldn't kill them!

Ballistas, catapults, trebuchets, etc had been fired at the demons yet they stood back up and while maniacally laughing the carried on killing left and right, drenching them in oil and setting them on fire did nothing but help in lowering the Bai empire's soldiers morale further.

When it was winter and cold where even the mightiest heroes would find their strength waning after fighting prolonged battles, these demons kept coming day and night as if sleep and tiredness had no reason to go bother these monsters in fear of drawing their ire!

Sigh, had I known that such results would follow this man's crazy words then I wouldn't have opposed him back then, but who could've imagined that he would be true to his promise.

Sly fox really his his cards well, when he arrived to the palace to borrow the royal seal with the excuse of giving some noble his royal decree in place of my father I had to give my gift to the person with the empty title of "protector of the west" and I gave money to ridicule both this geezer and the new protector which belongs to his faction.

Yet seeing my big brother give a precious mithril dress and my spoilt sister throw some of her ores as if gambling then the snake duke Jin give a poisonous gift in the shape of a pure blooded demonic beast which is dangerous to have and keep especially close to the beast mountains, finally in my opinion the one who made the correct bet amongst us is that whore's son Jiao by gifting these demonic cores when he knew that Baron Zhu raises wolves that are likely to become demonic beasts later.

I felt unease then and didn't follow my intuition yet here I am sent away from my father's side to this border city to supervise and protect this valuable secret which can make my kingdom raise it's head, while this general Lian complete the second part of his vengeance.

Thankfully the Baron isn't far away from here and I can summon him to me, being on his good side is certainly going to help me take the throne I just know it.

"I did, the plan is set in motion already your highness, there's something else that I must notify you, your highness."

"General Lian! Speak plainly, please."

"As you command, now that you're in the north and well armed with capable men well equipped and provisioned then the north and west are in good hands, the king ordered for the Baron to join my detachment on this exhibition and for you to replace his duty as protector of the west while also being the lord of Obsidian city."

"That was you asking for me to come guard this gap while you train your lackey wasn't it?"

Lian Laoci's answer interrupted the third prince's stream of thoughts, hearing his answer yet learning nothing made him roll his eyes yet keep his curious thoughts to himself.

When the man voluntarily mentioned another matter that's left to discuss, he remembered how the secular eunuch which is in charge of his father's most secretive affairs and personal matters delivered him a message the day before they left.

Feeling annoyance with the general already, the answer of the third prince took a commanding tune for the first time in this conversation.

Hearing the general's first polite words and him stressing the word "Command" made the prince cringe inwardly because he knew that the true person in charge was indeed the general not him, and true the general spoke some bullshit before going in a roundabout way to say that he's only here to make sure that the area is stable in their absence.

Sneering with his eyes, the third prince called Feng the lackey of this general in an attempt to vent some at the shameless general, yet when he did that he found the general grinning evilly while his military advisor's expression became awkward and the vice-generals Zhang and Shang were looking at him as if he's an idiot.

Something is not right in this situation, that wasn't the kind of reaction I was expecting from his men.

The third prince felt a foreboding sense swell inside his chest.

"That man is no one's lackey your highness, he's a lone wolf that carries misfortune everywhere he goes. Some people happen to avoid it and gain from the experience, I think of myself as one of these examples. Enjoy your stay in the north while it lasts prince Bolin, the game of who's my friend and who's my enemy can be very exhausting."

Throwing that answer before cupping his fist and leaving, the third prince Shi Bolin remained in his seat for another hour thinking about what the general meant by these words.

*****

"Hufff.... Wheeze.... Finally I figured out the trick to do that footwork, fuuuck it still makes my legs hurt like hell."