Chapter 50: Azure Dragon

Zhu Wen reacted with extreme swiftness, leaping down from his horse as his gleaming long saber flashed out of its scabbard.

Sabers and spears clashed, throwing off a series of whistling, fragmented afterimages.

Even carrying a hint of drunken warmth, the woman's spearplay was remarkably fierce, resembling a poisonous dragon bursting forth from the abyss.

Compared to Lady Aeqing's sword techniques, however, it failed to impose a life-or-death sense of oppression upon Zhu Wen.

The reason for this, naturally, was that he had previously crossed paths with the woman opposite him and possessed no small understanding of her spear movements.

Zhu Wen, of course, had already recognized his opponent.

Tian Jun, the leader of Kou Qianzhi's Twenty-Eight Nebula Cavalry, known as the "Azure Dragon."

After exchanging more than thirty blows, Zhu Wen dragged his long saber in a slanting arc, shattered the short spear with a single strike, and rested the edge against Tian Jun's neck.

"Why are you here?" Zhu Wen asked coldly.

"Who else is there to blame but you? Commander Kou was killed by you, and I have nowhere else to go." Tian Jun's pretty face was entirely devoid of fear as she sighed. "I lost. Kill me or carve me up as you please."

This answer left Zhu Wen somewhat baffled.

Tian Jun was undoubtedly a woman of striking appearance, and compared to Duan Hongyan with her skin like snow, she conformed much more to the popular ideal of a heroic heroine.

She possessed a sharply defined square jaw and wheat-toned, athletic skin.

Yet her delicate, sculpture-like high nose and deep-set eyes, her swan-like neck, and a waist and long legs of flawless proportions lent her a dignified, imposing presence that yielded nothing to any man.

Zhu Wen recalled that they were currently within the territory of the Weibo Faction: "Are you one of the Tians from Weibo?"

"I am." Tian Jun's expression finally carried a hint of defeat's despondency. "My home is right here, but I have no desire to return."

Zhu Wen found this unsurprising. Ever since that extermination case over fifty years ago, the Tian family of Weibo—a clan that had dominated Hebei for an entire generation—had withered into a pathetic shadow of its former self.

"Commander Kou has fallen in battle, but Commander Qi is still alive. Why continue following Commander Qi?"

"There's no point." Tian Jun spread her hands open with uninhibited masculinity. "I joined the Taining Army purely because of Commander Kou."

Suddenly seeming to recall something, she raised her voice: "No, this isn't fair! The wine hasn't worn off yet. Wait until I'm sober, and let's fight again!"

"Aren't you speaking quite clearly right now?" Zhu Wen said. "It's just that you seem somewhat lacking in wits."

To his surprise, the other readily admitted: "Commander Kou also said I lacked wits."

Zhu Wen had no choice but to say: "When we raided the camp before, I defeated you once already."

Tian Jun immediately cried out: "And you even snatched my serpent spear! Return it to me at once!"

"That was my spoils of war, and besides, I don't have it on me." Zhu Wen felt he could hardly keep up with this woman's convoluted train of thought.

Tian Jun once again wore a dejected expression: "After I left the Taining Army, all my money was spent. I even sold my armor, and I refused to go home."

"Where is your horse?" Zhu Wen asked.

A true knight would never easily abandon their steed.

"During the Battle of Songzhou, someone shot it dead!" Tian Jun cried out with a trace of vexation. "It was shot by a girl dressed in red, and her archery was simply superb!"

Then, ignoring the fact that Zhu Wen still had his blade pressed against her neck, she suddenly grabbed Zhu Wen's arm and shook it like a little girl, pleading: "Tell me, would you like to hire me as your bodyguard? I won't ask for much money."

"Hire a bodyguard who can't beat me?" Zhu Wen teased.

"We can just fight a fair match again after a while." Tian Jun hummed in defiance. "Besides, you were fighting on foot back then. If it comes to mounted combat, you might not be my match."

Zhu Wen had to admit this was the truth, not least because his performance during the camp raid had been an extraordinary, over-the-top effort. When it came to mounted warfare, even matching wits against "Phoenix Sword" Chen Liqing—one of the "Five Heaven-Burning Swords" under the Flame Commander—would have cost him dearly.

He arrived at two conclusions.

First, this woman was truly an idiot.

Second, this idiot possessed a formidable talent for endless, unreasonable nagging.

"I killed Commander Kou. Don't you resent me? How can I be sure you won't assassinate me?"

Tian Jun stamped her foot: "Of course I resent you, but Commander Kou died in a fair duel on the battlefield. If I were to resort to assassination, wouldn't that make me less than human?"

Zhu Wen pondered this. Judging by Kou Qianzhi's character, as the head of the "Twenty-Eight Nebula Cavalry," it seemed unlikely that such a person would stoop to harboring subordinates of base character.

Lan Suting's bright eyes quietly observed the two of them for a long moment before she softly said: "Take her along. Her martial prowess will be of great use to us."

"Besides, people from the Weibo Tian family care nothing about opposing the imperial court."

And that was true enough; the rebel peasant army had only been in revolt for two or three years, whereas the Weibo Tian family of old had spent fifty or sixty years in continuous rebellion against the imperial court.

"This little sister can tell at a glance that she's exceedingly clever, and everything she says is spot on." Hearing Lan Suting speak up for her, Tian Jun said happily.

Zhu Wen, naturally, had not let go of his suspicions regarding Tian Jun.

He clearly remembered Lady Aeqing's warning to him—never easily trust anyone.

Yet he had no desire to silence Tian Jun by killing her either.

"I can hire you, but until I am certain you are trustworthy, your hands must be tied."

Tian Jun agreed quite readily: "As long as there is wine to drink, anything goes."

Zhu Wen stepped directly forward and gripped her delicate chin firmly.

"Hey, what are you doing? You wouldn't be trying to take advantage of me, would you!" Tian Jun cried out, only to find her mouth blocked by a wine gourd as a stream of fiery liquid poured between her lips.

Her expression instantly turned rather intriguing.

"If the wine you drank was this kind of distilled spirit, you wouldn't have been lying by the roadside capable of fighting; you'd have been completely at the mercy of every passerby," Zhu Wen said indifferently.

"I have plenty of this wine to spare here, but you must weigh your limits yourself. Don't go drinking yourself into the state of a dead pig unable to walk."

"Doesn't taste good." Tian Jun wiped the liquor from her lips with her sleeve. "When Your Grandfather here used to follow Commander Kou slaying northern barbarians, I captured some as loot. It's not like I've never tasted it."

"Then why do those barbarians drink such potent liquor? Wasn't it to display their masculinity?" Zhu Wen asked leisurely. "And you, shouldn't you feel that your own spirit yields nothing to a man's?"

Tian Jun was stunned for a moment, then realized that what Zhu Wen said made a great deal of sense.

"Fine, then I'll practice drinking it until I grow fond of the taste."

Zhu Wen pulled out a gold ingot and shoved it into her bosom: "Very well, this headquarters considers you hired from now on. In the future, do not refer to yourself as 'Your Grandfather' in my presence; it lacks all breeding."

"Then what should I call myself?" Tian Jun asked in astonishment.

"Seeing as you're younger than me, you may refer to yourself as 'this foolish younger sister'—you're quite foolish anyway." As Zhu Wen spoke, he produced a length of rope and bound Tian Jun's hands behind her back.

"Also, you are forbidden to wipe your mouth with your sleeve. No matter how much more spirited you are than men, you are still a young woman. Doing that is both unclean and shows a lack of manners toward others."

Tian Jun let out a defiant hum, then hopped backward with her hands tied behind her onto Zhu Wen's packhorse.

Her horsemanship was exceptional; using her athletic, well-proportioned legs to press into the stirrups, a single crisp call was enough to drive the horse into a gallop.

There was only one problem: the packhorse was already carrying quite enough weight. After carrying her at a run for a while, it quickly began to pant.

"You're too heavy," Zhu Wen remarked, casting a cool glance at Tian Jun's delicately sculpted, curvaceous figure.

She was extremely tall, not a whit shorter than Zhu Wen himself, and likely weighed scarcely less.

"It's your horse that's useless," Tian Jun retorted indignantly. "The horses I used to ride never acted like this."

Even with her hands bound behind her back, the woman's posture on horseback still appeared heroic, spirited, and dazzlingly attractive.

Her impeccable chin and bridge of the nose made her profile look far superior even to her full-face view.

With such three-dimensional facial features, she most likely carried the blood of Western Regions barbarians—given that the Weibo Tian family had long maintained a separatist regime in Hebei, intermarrying with foreigners was hardly surprising.

This woman was foolish, yet truly beautiful.

Zhu Wen thought to himself. Naturally, that was on the condition that everything she said was the truth.

If not, maintaining such an act of deception would be terrifying beyond measure.

Passing by a temple fair, Zhu Wen bought Tian Jun a horse out of pocket, sighing inwardly: "Money truly vanishes in a blink. Once we reach our destination, we'll need to secure some funds."

He then said to Lan Suting: "We shouldn't have stood on ceremony with the fifty bolts of silk Lady Aeqing tried to force upon us; we should have accepted them right then and there."

As he spoke, he covertly observed Tian Jun's expression, noting her blank look, which suggested she had no inkling of Lady Aeqing's existence.

It appeared that within the Taining Army, apart from Kou Qianzhi and a tiny handful of others, no one else knew of Lady Aeqing.

The destination for Zhu Wen and Lan Suting was the Mount Tai region south of the Pinglu Faction.

Mount Tai was a place of towering peaks and dense temples. At the summit stood shrines to the Jade Emperor and the Goddess of Mount Tai, while the base was crowded with numerous Buddhist monasteries, along with a Temple of Confucius and shrines to ancient emperors such as Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong—truly a coexistence of multiple faiths.

It was said that Nestorian Christianity had also established a hall on Mount Tai in recent years, populated by high-nosed, bearded Nestorian monks and golden-haired, blue-eyed barbarian nuns.

The endless stream of worshippers had birthed numerous settlements across the Mount Tai terrain, and the complex, difficult topography rendered the official government's control over the region exceedingly weak.

In a small town, Zhu Wen found an inn to stay in. For safety's sake, the moment Tian Jun stepped into the room, he bound her tightly once more with several thick ropes until she resembled a zongzi, even stuffing a hemp ball into her mouth.

Tian Jun was tied to the bed, completely immobilized, emitting muffled groans while casting furious, piercing glares from her deep-set eye sockets at Zhu Wen, clearly brimming with dissatisfaction.

"No one is watching you, but just in case you decide to leaf through the confidential documents in my luggage," Zhu Wen said, before closing the door and heading out with Lan Suting.

He went to a pharmacy called Tongrentang on the cross street, purchasing four qian of dried tangerine peel and four qian of angelica root. Afterward, he visited a braised food shop opposite, buying four liang of chicken feet and four liang of beef.

He instructed the shopkeeper to weigh the portions down to the very fraction of a fen—not a single bit more, not a single bit less.

Carrying the tangerine peel and chicken feet in his left hand, and the angelica root and beef in his right, he turned into a narrow alley, lifted a curtain that blended seamlessly with the wall color, tossed the tangerine peel and chicken feet from his left hand onto the ground, and hung the angelica root and beef from his right hand upon a roof beam.

When he performed these actions, the room was completely empty, with not a soul behind the counter.

Yet after waiting only a short moment, a man wearing a round-collared, narrow-sleeved robe, a leather belt around his waist, and black boots strode out swiftly.

"Esteemed sir, are you Zhu..."

Zhu Wen waved a hand: "Little Master's surname is Qin now, with the single given name Yan."

There were bound to be far more men named Qin Yan than men named Zhu Wen. Even sharing the exact same name and surname would not be the slightest bit strange.

The man burst into laughter: "Easily done, easily done! Sir Qin, what would you have this Wu fellow do?"