Zhu Lanfen : "I'd like to see if commander Yao is going to openly assault a citizen within my land." The Baroness squinted her beautiful eyes while saying that.

"T-this.... this situation has been one big misunderst-"

"This Prince is ordering you to give that disrespectful-peasant twenty lashes.... right now!"

The thousand-man-commander attempted to ease and alleviate the tension in this situation however, when he got interrupted by the Third-Prince once again.... this veteran of the Royal-Guard immediately understood that there's no way for this situation to settle without someone getting bloodied first.

Unfortunately. In such a difficult situation where he's surrounded everywhere and outnumbered by "old-hands" of the martial-arts world!

"Wait everyone," Once commander Yao thought that he's going to receive the beating of his life from these hundreds of martial-artists, soldiers, and hyper-excited spectators. The nervous man heard this gentle voice from a woman behind the multi-layered encirclement!

"First. Allow me to introduce myself, Third-Prince Shi Bolin." Once again. The thousand-man-commander almost felt like dropping on his knees to worship this lady who spoke in a timely moment, simply because she announced the identity of his Liege-Lord to the masses.

Without being ordered to do so, commander Yao doesn't dare to mention anything about this sensitive-topic. Otherwise.... his head would roll just like that, probably some of his relatives would suffer too!

"Huh!"

"I'll be damned, this little shit is really a Prince."

"Hushh! Not so loud now."

"Does that mean we should kneel?"

"Well, I'm not kneeling to that "thing" until he apologizes to the Baroness and Madam."

"Yeah me too."

Once the truth was revealed, doubt began to spread within the crowd.

Shi Bolin smiled derisively at these commoners once he saw their reaction then raised his proud nose to face the sky.

Qing Qiuyue : "My name is Qing Qiuyue. I hail from the Qing-Clan of Jade-City." After giving a superficial courtesy bow towards the man, she introduced herself proudly.

Shi Bolin : "Hmmm." This time the Third-Prince frowned slightly before nodding seriously.

The crowd made way for the lady when she moved forward and she gave a reassuring smile to her goddaughters and the nervous maids who stood behind them, the store-owner was surprised when she noticed how the soldiers were unfazed despite knowing about the identity of this man in front of them.

"Your highness. Your visit honors us in the Villa but, you've come uninvited which leaves us little room in providing any sort of hospitality if none at all." Qiuyue said.

"Well said."

"How could we know? Are we supposed to just wait and ask questions when complete-strangers follow a member of the Baron's family?"

"Royalty or not, that behavior is just wrong!"

"Not to mention a.... Prince."

The crowd took advantage of the cushion Lady-Qiuyue gave them and bounced back to denounce the Prince.

Zhu Lanfen : "Silence! Please don't forget your manners, after all.... we're in the presence of a direct-member of the Royal-Family."

Bo Biyu almost laughed when she saw the expression on this Third-Prince once he heard what the Baroness just said, first he blushed then his face began to become clouded in a dark shade.

Commander Yao : "We mean you no harm m'lady."

Bo Biyu : "Believe it or not commander.... you two wouldn't be standing there safe and sound if you did." The retort from her goddaughter was so swift and spontaneous that it made the appraisal smile while giving the thumbs-up gesture.

Shi Bolin : "Woman. Are you threatening us?" Finally the Third-Prince began to lose his patience on these commoners.

"It depends."

"On what exactly?"

Biyu held hands with her sister and asked : "Are you threatening us?"

Lanfen immediately understood why her sister's attitude shifted so suddenly, the reason she's being so hostile towards this man isn't because he's a creep—which he totally is—but.... because he's mainly the reason why Zhu Feng got sent into a different Kingdom in a risky and dangerous campaign all of a sudden.

"Humph. If you two are thinking that hiding behind the contributions and title of a lowly Baron is enough deterrence for this Prince? Then.... think again, this silly-jape is not even laughable." Shi Bolin's attitude shifted from being proud into being rude and he began to check the bodies of both ladies with a lustful and scorching-gaze!

Qing Qiuyue : "Your highness. I beseech you, please take a step back before things escalate more than they already have." The store-owner said these words before giving the thousand-man-commander a glare which meant : "Do something before it's too late to save your Liege-Lord!"

Commander Yao : "Y-yes, yes, yes. Your highness if I may speak," Once the man received a nod he continued to say : "Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill. Let's deal with huge things and make them small, let's deal with small things and make them nothing."

Shi Bolin : "I'm willing to ignore the transgression of these lowly-peasants and low-rank subjects," The thousand-man-commander sighed and almost thought that this issue is behind them however, Yao felt like he got submerged in frost once his Liege-Lord continued to say : "Under one condition. Both of these women are to accompany me to Obsidian-City, they're to serve me for one month."

Little-Ling : "Serve your head!"

Bao Baozhai : "Lunatic. This fool is a helpless case.... he keeps spouting nonsense."

Auntie Bing : "This man is definitely insane."

"Seeking death! Out of my way."

"Whoever dares block my way is my lifelong enemy."

"his head is mine."

"If I don't wash this shame today? then.... I'm worse than an animal."

While the crowd were boiling with feelings of distaste and anger, suddenly a voice that's so deep and cold could be heard.

Those who looked back discovered a man in his sleep-attire who looks like he just awoke from sleep however, despite his messy and disorganized-style.... this man does have a pair of eyes which resemble a demon.

They glowed in a wrathful-red color below the dangling bangs of hair on his face! In his hand he held a long, slender, and guard-less blade.

Zhu Lanfen : "This is bad."

Bo Biyu : "Really, really bad."

The expression on the faces of both ladies became so serious all of a sudden when they noticed captain Liwei, especially after they heard his venomous oath.

"Someone. Anyone. Stop that idiot with a blade!" From afar, Ba Tusai could be heard shouting these words.

"Hmmm." The veteran Royal-Guard immediately sensed danger and stood protectively in front of the Third-Prince once again.

Fu Liwei : "Heh. Hehehehe.... you're the one who wants the women of my Baron to serve you for a month, huh! Do you wish for them to warm your bed too?" The captain suddenly stopped and asked while leaning his upper-body forwards slightly.

 Shi Bolin : "Well. Even if the patriarch of the Qing-Clan is to personally come and ask for me to change my verdict or give a lenient judgment.... I'd still stand by my words to the end." The Third-Prince gave a condescending answer and held his hands behind his back while disregarding this blade-holding man, his intentions were to warn Qing Qiuyue of intervening in his matters any further.

"I'd like to see if a measly Prince from some backwater-Kingdom is worth it for Qing Tiantu, for my great-grandfather to make a plead in this cause, I'll give you until the time I count to ten before I begin to break every single bone in your body. Either kneel and beg forgiveness from my aunt Qiuyue and these two beautiful ladies, or.... suffer my judgment." This sweet voice rang in the ears of everyone in the surroundings of Sword-Villa.

Before this crowd got to figure-out what's going-on, they discovered that there's a teenage-girl standing next to captain Fu Liwei.

Using the index-finger of her right-hand, she stopped him from drawing his blade!

The tall and lean man grunted after struggling to no-avail yet failing to unsheathe his weapon a single inch from the scabbard, Liwei felt a familiar power surging within the scabbard in his hand from this girl's finger.... the so-called Qi-Force which cultivators use.

Qing Liling : "You're welcome to summon your hidden-guards if you want. One..."

The girl told the Third-Prince before turning to look at Fu Liwei and saying : "That's an interesting technique you got there. But I'm really sorry to tell you this, I'm dealing with this guy today. Please don't feel bad about it, I don't mean you any disrespect."

"N-no, no, no.... not at all. H-he's all yours, deal with him however you want." The lean captain scratched his head while making some distance between himself and this frightening little monster.

'What's with me and crossing baths with cultivators?' Fu Liwei wondered while hoping for a release from this dangerous situation.

"Remember to demonstrate your technique for me later." Lili requested ever-so seriously.

Lanfen, Biyu, little-Ling, Qiuyue, Baozhai, and almost everyone who knows Liwei.... they all smiled when they saw him nodding repeatedly while standing at attention in his sleeping-attire and slippers!

"Moron!" Suddenly Fu Liwei got slapped on the back of the head, then Ba Tusai and his men who squeezed themselves into the crowd could finally see the situation for themselves.

"That's two...." The teenage-girl looked towards the Prince and his Personal-Guard with the same careless and apathetic eyes when she said these words.

Commander Yao : "T-this.... your highness, what should we do?" Finally this thousand-man-commander was at the end of his wits.

Qing Qiuyue : "Little-girl. Is there really a need for all this?" The store-owner looked at the Third-Prince and understood how awkward it must feels for him right now after playing all high and mighty just earlier.

Qing Liling : "Auntie. I've seen everything, you've already done your best.... it's not your fault that this stupid and arrogant Prince is refusing to listen to reason. His evil-intentions are plain and obvious to us all from the very beginning, now that he's cornered by someone he doesn't dare to offend.... he's shaking in his boots. That's three...." The girl shook her head and shrugged her shoulders before looking towards Lanfen and Biyu to admire these two ladies.

No-matter how much the little girl tried to believe it, the mere concept of why such a pair of stunning and beautiful women would choose someone like Zhu Feng as their partner is baffling to her.

"Greetings Liling."

"We heard a lot about you from Feng and auntie Qiuyue."

Both Lanfen and Biyu admired this young beauty and smiled when they remembered how their husband described his encounter with this little-girl more than two years ago.

"Really! what did he say about me?" Liling's pair of eyes shone with interest when she asked, she even forgot to keep counting.

Seeing her enthusiastic attitude and sensing her curiosity, almost everyone immediately understood how big of a shadow the Baron left in her heart!

'Little-Feng really is dangerous indeed.' Bao Baozhai thought while watching the little girl laugh until tears filled her eyes once she heard what her goddaughters said.

*Thud...*

While the girls laughed and talked, Third-Prince Bolin fell to his knees while feeling despair.

The crowd quickly dispersed and scattered from the street, soon afterwards the news began to spread from the west towards the north, east, and south.

*****

Within Jade-City, inside some dark and extremely secretive-room of a very luxurious-manor in the center of this gigantic city.

"Humph. Serves him right, good thing that Ling'er taught that brat a lesson in my stead."

*****

Within the Royal-Capital, inside the Throne-Room.

A middle-aged man sighed after reading the urgent-report before handing it back to the eunuch while shaking his head.

"Your majesty." The old eunuch bowed respectfully before leaving without his steps making any disturbing sounds, as if his feet are padded like cat paws!

"Bolin.... you never cease to disappoint us." After saying these words to himself, Shi Bojing stood from his throne and walked towards the balcony where he admired the sight of the Capital.

Shi Bojing : "Send for Xifeng, I'll be in my study." The King left with his golden robe fluttering in the wind behind him, the embroidery of dragons on it seemed so real as if they're dancing!

*****

Obsidian-mountains, within the mountain-pass of Fiery-Abyss.

"Report!"

A rider galloped the narrow, twisting, and cliff-side passage in front of the Fort while raising a fluttering white flag.

Once the strict inspection at the Fort-gates was over-with, the messenger ran towards the highest tower to deliver his message to advisor Jianjun.

"Quickly now." The strategist anxiously demanded for the scroll and broke its wax-seal then unfurled it, Jianjun suddenly remembered that he's not alone then quickly furled the scroll before looking at this gasping scout and said : "Good work." Clearly, general Lian's right-hand man meant to "politely" dismiss this soldier by saying that.

"Does it mention young-master Zhu?" The scout said while staring directly at the scroll with a pair of burning-eyes!

Jianjun : "None of your damn business."

"I better be on my way then." The attitude of this scout suddenly shifted from being enthusiastic into being dispirited in the blink of an eye, the sight of him leaving with his head down, arched-back, and lazy feet.... was a fun sight to the advisor.

In this campaign, the only source of amusement for these bored soldiers is.... news about Baron Zhu and his "feisty" Baroness.

Things were especially rowdy when news about the encounter of Baroness Lanfen and Third-Prince Bolin arrived, then later when the Second-Princess Shi Xifeng received orders from the King to immediately replace her brother in his duties as the City-Lord of Obsidian-City and Lord-Protector of the West! Shi Bolin was said to be cursing everyone around him like a shrew, until what's left of his guard had to practically carry their Liege-Lord before leaving the City in a hurry.

Commander Yao and the Royal-Guard were ordered to hold their position and guard Obsidian-City, once Princess took command of the City.... she ordered for the thousand-man-commander and gave him his first mission.

To train fresh-recruits from every City in the West, Northwest, and Southwest. Then to send these soldiers in batches towards the construction-sites of Baron Zhu's latest mega-project, to secure the facilitation of smooth trade within the interconnected trade-roads! Especially in the areas between Rock-City and Sand-City where work is still in progress.

The City-Lords of Hillside-City and Evergreen-City—which are positioned Southwest and Southeast of Rock-city—kept sending complaints to the Princess before she even got to warm her seat! These complaints were mainly discussing the difficulties they're facing every single day, both of their Cities are severely lacking if compared to Rock, Obsidian, or Sand-City.

The recent trade-boom took them by surprise and they're struggling to keep things in-order.

This change is caused by these "Highways" Baron Feng's men are constructing.

The old strategist shook his head to scatter these thoughts and smiled while feeling appreciation towards the young-man who brought positive-change to—at least—five Cities and a Villa in a span of just two years!

Jianjun opened the scroll and began to read the latest report.

"Year xx of King Bojing's hegemony, winter's last month, day 22.

"Baron Zhu's camp was ambushed, the first wave of the attack was an army of six-thousand light-infantry and three-thousand light-cavalry.

"The Baron's men quickly met the enemy at their rear and blocked their attempts of reaching the supplies, meanwhile the supply-train began to urgently advance within the Dark-Swamps...."

The advisor finished the report then moved to the window and looked towards the east, some of these news made the strategist feel worry.

*****

"M'lord. There's too many of them, I can't help but keep feeling worry about there being more of these bastards." The tall, bald, and muscular Battalion-Commander looked behind the tight line of his men, the enemy keeps attempting to tighten their noose around Zhu Feng's men no-matter the cost.

All they care about is pushing them back towards the Dark-Swamps!

So far the Baron's army of about a thousand-strong men has achieved the merit of killing—at least—two men each, yet.... this enemy still keeps coming over and over again despite losing almost four-thousand men.

Zhu Feng : "I'm well-aware of that. Their intention is to force us into the Swamps before our scouts complete their mission, just keep delaying them as long as you can until the supplies are secured behind our lines. And make sure that none of our men is put to risk, I don't wish to lose any of my men." The Baron said while looking everywhere from on-top of Shadow, thanks to his tall mount Feng could easily spot the direction where his men are under a lot of pressure.

Xi Qiqiang : "As you command m'lord." The former-bandit quickly sent the message to Battalion-Commander Li and the outer-line of defense was formed entirely from men wearing a full-set of ZhuQing-attire.

Seeing two-hundred of their brothers being capable of blocking an army of thousands caused the blood of Zhu Feng's men to boil, the men began to cheer while feeling slightly envious since they're not wearing a full-set.

"Good, good, good.... good kill."

"Send 'em on their way."

The rest of the soldiers and captains who're wearing a full-set of Zhu-Qing-attire are either with Battalion-Commander Niu and currently scouting the Dark-Swamps, or riding with their Young-Lord behind the defensive-lines.

"Whine...."

"Hmmm... what is it boy?" Zhu Feng asked once he noticed how Harmony looked towards the horizon behind their enemies.

"Neigh...."

Shadow helped by rearing which allowed its master to look further behind the clouds of dust.

Zhu Feng : "Incoming-cavalry. Second and third-lines of defense, prepare yourselves for impact. Get these men ready to meet the enemy, their chance has come.

"Fourth-line set the spike-barricades.

"Notify captain Konglai about our new guests, lest any of the civilians gets frightened by any fish that gets lucky and bypass our net.

"Where's Commander-Yanmei? I lost track of her special-detachment a while ago," The Young-Baron kept shouting orders one followed by another then looked around while asking, "Will'ya stop fooling-around!" Once Shadow attempted to rear once again, it got slapped on its thick and muscular neck by its master.

'Humph. You keep bullying me, when did I ever refuse to follow your orders? I gave you all the foals you asked didn't I!' The black horse thought while kicking the ground with its hoof.

"Whine...." Sweet Harmony began to coax its down-hearted friend.

"The special-detachment is over there m'lord but, it seems like.... Commander-Yanmei isn't the one leading them." The deputy pointed the location before hesitating while delivering the news.

Almost everyone already knows about how their Young-Lord and that seductress have been "close" to one another ever since she joined their delivery-mission a few weeks ago, the Baron has been acting slightly different during this last week because Lady-Yanmei was clearly avoiding him the whole time.

Zhu Feng : "It's alright.... I guess, she's a strong woman.... no need to worry. I hope so." While trying not to get himself distracted in these sensitive-times, he muttered these words out loud yet his gauntlets tightened around Shadow's rein.

The deputy knew that in these sort of situations it's better if he kept his silence, yet he exchanged a knowing-look with his brothers and understood that everyone around the Young-Baron must be smiling right now.

They all watched as the army of light-cavalry appeared on the horizon then began to orderly move towards them in a trotting pace before quickly developing into a hard gallop, the momentum of that army of cavalry escalated to the peak very quickly and everyone within Feng's army could sense the accumulated bloodlust and killing-intent of their enemies long before the arrival of that cavalry.

Even the dwindling-army of less than two-thousand light-infantry seemed like they've been injected with chicken-blood all of a sudden! every single one of them was fighting as if their life depended on it, doing their best to keep the front-line busy and to stop them from preparing any sort of countermeasure against this second-wave of attack.

Their morale was soaring and they began to taunt the men on the first-line of defense, they received the answer to their invitation quickly and the Baron's men killed whoever dares to step within range of their attack.

However, judging by how things are moving so for in this battlefield.... the cavalry is going to reach the first-line of defense before or—at least—once the light-infantry is annihilated! During these moments of waiting the enemy's arrival, doubt and uncertainty began to surface within the hearts of the Baron's men.

"AWOOOO...." Seeming to feel the "unrest" that's spreading among the ranks of these soldiers, Night raised its snout towards the sky and howled loudly.

"AW'.... AWoOo" Zhu Feng opened the visor of his helmet then pulled the soft mask upwards to free his mouth then cupped his hands and joined the fierce black-wolf in its song.

"Awooo...." Harmony joined the war-cry while rolling his eyes at his best two-legged friend.

'He still sucks at it.' The brown-wolf thought while howling at the sky.

The doubt, uncertainty, unrest, unease, or any sort of negative emotion that happened to surface within the hearts of the Baron's men.... suddenly dissolved and evaporated into thin-air once they heard and witnessed this strange and unexpected sight.

They all noticed how this army of light-cavalry was affected by the intimidating howls of the wolves and their Lord-Baron, the mounts of these enemies instantly slowed-down and the army became disorderly and chaotic!

A scene which flipped the scales of morale between the two armies in seconds, now Feng's men are the ones who're eager for the confrontation to happen while their opponents are confused, frightened, and lacking courage.

*****

"That just now was from one of the wolves." Cang Yanmei suddenly stopped and listened before looking back towards the East.

Earlier she was doing her job of leading her special-detachment however she wants, moving between the lines of defense with the martial-artists and having fun.

Whenever there's a weakness in the defense between the lines or a squad that's in danger of being severely outnumbered, she'd swoop-down with the ladies and show these horny-lads how it's done!

However, a disturbing piece of news found its way to her ears after the poison-expert thought that their sneak-attack on the enemy Platoon was successful.... the leader of these enemies—which Yanmei personally handled just earlier—cursed her and maniacally laughed while choking on his blood then said : "B-bihtch.... cough, cough, cough.... you already fell for mahster Qilong and Prihnce Xitong's trahp.... wheeze.... the deahth of me.... and my mehn.... is noht in vain.... I'll beh.... wahiting.... for you.... all in.... H-hell."

Afterwards that captain breathed his last and left Cang Yanmei with a foreboding and ominous feeling of unease, she stood there for a few minutes.... just looking down on that man's corpse.

Then she choose the next target carefully, the poison-expert used the most potent of her hallucination poisons on the Battalion-Commander before taking the man as her captive.

Once she interrogated him, the seductress discovered the reason why she felt a bout of jitters when she heard the curse of that dying captain earlier.

Cang Yanmei got to hear from Zhu Feng about the older-brother of Battalion-Commander Xi Qiqiang and the halo of mystery that surrounds that person was "thought-provoking" indeed, now that she's got to know about the plan of their enemy.... this poison-expert felt like her heart has just sank all the way to her feet after hearing this name.

Three-eyed horned-toads!

'This is very bad. I need to hurry.... all of their lives are at risk.' She thought while going deeper into the Dark-Swamps, Yanmei followed the tracks left by Zhu Feng's scouts while hoping that she gets to make it in time.