"Asuli refused?"
Sitting inside his yurt, Qiao Riyan received his subordinate's report, his expression dark.
"The nerve! A mere White Qiang king dare reject the proposal of the Xiongnu Royal Court!" Liu Hanyong's brows shot up in fury. "I will report this to the King at once and have him send troops to wipe out the White Qiang!"
Qiao Riyan gave Liu Hanyong a sidelong glare and cut him off bluntly. "No!"
"Why not?" Liu Hanyong asked.
"Because Yuwen Haojie is certain to succeed with the Black Qiang." Qiao Riyan snorted. "If he settles matters with the Black Qiang while I bungle the White Qiang, my master will surely be displeased."
Qiao Riyan's face darkened further. "And if my master is displeased, I will be displeased. What do you think will happen to you?"
Liu Hanyong could not help but shudder.
Qiulin Ji was ruthless and mercurial. If he was displeased, one could very well lose one's life! Even though Liu Hanyong served the Xiongnu King, if Qiulin Ji wanted him dead, the King would never protect him!
"Then what should we do?" Liu Hanyong was alarmed, angry, and frightened all at once.
"Kill Zhao Yu, of course," Qiao Riyan said coldly. "Wasn't that your proposal?"
"But..." Liu Hanyong looked up. "Didn't you say he wouldn't be easy to kill?"
"Because Zhao Rong is likely hiding in the army waiting for the Twin Stars of the Xingxiu Sea, so nighttime is probably a vulnerability he exposes on purpose." Qiao Riyan's eyes flickered. "Daytime, however, is a different matter."
"I remember you mentioned yesterday that someone wishes Zhao Yu dead?" Qiao Riyan asked suddenly.
"Yes, there is one!" Liu Hanyong nodded. "His name is Aishake, a warrior of the White Qiang. He's in love with Ardai, but Zhao Yu supposedly used some unknown trickery to charm her."
In prying into the White Qiang's internal affairs, Liu Hanyong naturally had not overlooked Aishake. After all, Aishake was considered one of the new generation of White Qiang warriors—capable of taming wild steeds and drawing heavy bows, with formidable grassland martial arts.
Such a man was indeed qualified to admire Ardai, but...
Qiao Riyan sneered. "Zhao Yu may be a profligate, but he comes from a noble house. Martial arts aside, if it comes to indulging in worldly pleasures and charming women, he leaves a grassland brute ten streets behind. What does Aishake have to compare with Zhao Yu?"
Liu Hanyong offered a fawning chuckle, not daring to interject.
Qiao Riyan pondered for a moment. "Have you established contact with him?"
"I have. He actually supports the reunification of the two Qiang branches as well," Liu Hanyong nodded repeatedly. "I can tell he wants to distinguish himself on the battlefield and use military merit to ask for Ardai's hand in marriage."
Qiao Riyan smiled at once. "Good, very good. It is a fine thing for young men to be ambitious."
Liu Hanyong glanced at Qiao Riyan, thinking to himself that Qiao Riyan was a young man too.
Qiao Riyan said, "Asuli has already refused us, so we cannot linger among the White Qiang much longer. Find an opportunity tonight to get in touch with that man."
Liu Hanyong asked, "Have him kill Zhao Yu? I doubt he has the nerve."
"Of course he doesn't have the guts, nor does he have the ability." Qiao Riyan snorted coldly. "Go ask him whether there is a suitable place for an ambush in the valley to the north, and tell him to lure Zhao Yu there within three days."
"Zhao Yu deliberately exposes vulnerabilities at night, which means his guard will be down during the day," Qiao Riyan smiled. "Tell him that if he lures Zhao Yu there, I will credit him with the greatest merit once the two Qiang branches merge, and personally see to it that Ardai is wed to him!"
Liu Hanyong grinned broadly. "Understood!"
The two looked at each other and smiled, both knowing full well this was an empty promise. The day the plan succeeded would be the day of Aishake's death.
***
"Qiao Riyan left?"
Wang Yu soon learned that Asuli had rejected Qiao Riyan, and that Qiao Riyan had ridden away with more than a hundred Xiongnu warriors.
"He has finally seen reason."
Yan Xiangxue nodded with a touch of gratification; after all, she had watched Asuli grow up.
Then Gulanrena poured cold water on her satisfaction. "It was Huona who persuaded him."
The White Qiang royal court's secret meeting was no secret to Yan Xiangxue's faction, so Gulanrena had learned what transpired there immediately.
Yan Xiangxue spat softly in disdain. "Still the same indecisive child!"
Ardai pressed her lips together, not daring to speak.
"Still, at least he listens to reason in the end," Yan Xiangxue chuckled with a shake of her head, doing her best to salvage Asuli's dignity.
Hearing this, everyone laughed.
Gulanrena was close in age to Asuli and had always regarded him as an elder brother. She could not help but speak up: "Asuli doesn't know our plan, nor does he know the current strength of the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor. It's understandable that he worries for the people of the White Qiang."
"Qiao Riyan has likely gone to the Black Qiang."
Yan Xiangxue nodded, then looked at Wang Yu and said in a grave tone, "With the Xiongnu involved, the Black Qiang will gain two more Xiantian experts."
Wang Yu smiled instead. "Which means they are even less likely to back down. They will definitely send troops."
Yan Xiangxue smiled as well. "True. If we had an eighty percent certainty before, the arrival of the Xiongnu makes their deployment a certainty."
Even though Wang Yu had made himself the bait, Yan Xiangxue had come along as well; heaven only knew if Shi Mo might get cold feet, especially since he had previously been severely wounded by Ling Feiyun and had likely not fully recovered.
Although Shi Mo had enlisted Zhaixingzi and Zhuixingzi with the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor or Zhao Yu as their target, nothing was guaranteed.
With the Xiongnu stepping in, however, the situation was completely different.
The Xiongnu's objective was the reunification of the two Qiang branches. Afterward, whether the Qiang provided troops and logistics to join the main Xiongnu host or served as a flank detachment to threaten the Central Plains, men would have to be mobilized from both branches.
If the White Qiang refused and tied down the Black Qiang, their western designs would be ruined.
Therefore, even if the Black Qiang hesitated to march, Qiao Riyan and his cohorts would never accept failure; they would undoubtedly urge the Black Qiang to advance. And with Xiongnu instigation and promises, the Black Qiang was certain to march!
Yan Xiangxue turned to Wang Yu and cautioned, "However, it is best not to kill Qiao Riyan."
Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because if he is killed, Qiulin Ji might very well intervene in person!" Yan Xiangxue said solemnly. "Qiulin Ji is fickle, sinister, and vicious. He cares nothing for reputation, nor does he hesitate to bully the young or weak. Your martial talent is extraordinary, and you will surely surpass him in the future, but right now it is best not to provoke him. If he enters the Northwest alone, your manor guards may not be able to stop him."
The Great Vajra Monastery and the Black Qiang might fear driving the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor's fifty-thousand-strong army into a frenzy, but the Xiongnu, far out on the grasslands, had no such qualms—just as the Twin Swords of Nanhai, far away in Tiannan, cared nothing for it either.
Wang Yu nodded, though whether he took the warning to heart was anyone's guess.
Yan Xiangxue looked at Gulanrena. "Remind Asuli to send out scouting riders, notify the nomadic herders, and prepare for war."
Gulanrena nodded. "He has already dispatched them, and the White Wolf Guards are ready as well."
Wang Yu stood up. "I'll have word sent to Lingwu Pass."
Relaxed on the outside but taut within, the White Qiang began mobilizing.
Yet Wang Yu and the others were not nervous in the slightest. Each morning, he still practiced swordplay with Ardai; each afternoon, they roamed the surrounding lands, hunting Mongolian gazelles and hares to their heart's content.
Atuke, Huona, and at times even Tasa joined in, knowing full well that these dozen or so days might be their last moments of leisure.
Two days later, as they were galloping by the river, they spotted Aishake riding back from the north. He seemed in a hurry to return to the tribe, but upon seeing them, he wheeled his horse around and galloped toward them.
"Atuke! Ardai!" Aishake waved and called out. "Quick, come with me, I found something great!"
"What is it?" Atuke asked.
Though things had been unpleasant between them two days ago, they had grown up together after all. Afterward, Aishake had not displayed any further resentment and behaved normally toward everyone except Wang Yu, so Atuke did not think much of it.
"I found a clutch of eaglets on Eagle Beak Mountain to the north," Aishake said. "I remembered you wanted to raise an eagle, Atuke, so the moment I saw them, I wanted to head back and get you."
Atuke's eyes lit up. "Eaglets?"
Ardai was intrigued as well. "Eagles or falcons?"
Both the Black and White Qiang, as well as the Xiongnu, trained birds of prey like eagles and falcons. However, once tamed, these raptors would not breed in captivity, so to raise new ones, people had to search for chicks in the wild. Atuke had long envied the tribe's falconers and wanted to raise one of his own, but he had never managed to find any fledglings.
"Eaglets," Aishake nodded. "A clutch of white eagles. For some reason, the nest wasn't built very high, so we should be able to reach it."
Atuke immediately wheeled his mount around and asked eagerly, "Where is it? Where?"
Aishake turned and pointed toward the mountains dozens of li to the north. "On the western cliff inside the Eagle Beak Mountain gorge, about twenty zhang high, but the cliff isn't too steep."
The others gathered around, and Huona was intrigued as well. "How many are there?"
Aishake shook his head. "How should I know? I only saw the white eagles fly in to feed them and heard the chicks screeching. Probably two or three."
"That's plenty!" Huona said. "Steppe eagles only lay two or three eggs to a clutch anyway, and not all of them survive."
Atuke urged eagerly, "Lead the way, let's go quickly!"
Aishake nodded, turned his horse, and took the lead.
Atuke and Paliya, Huona and Mayila, and Tasa all followed behind.
Ardai looked at Wang Yu. "Let's go too!"
Wang Yu nodded, recalling how Aishake had glanced at him several times while speaking, his gaze dark and unreadable. But on second thought, Wang Yu figured that since the two of them had clashed earlier, such a look made sense; it merely showed that Aishake disliked him and could not hide his feelings.
With that in mind, Wang Yu rode along with Ardai.
On the grasslands, a distance of twenty or thirty li was not far. The group soon arrived beneath Eagle Beak Mountain and followed Aishake into the gorge.
"Where is it?" The moment Atuke entered the gorge, he glanced around, looking at the surrounding cliffs.
Huona surveyed their surroundings, his heart suddenly leaping into his throat.
Wang Yu instantly noticed traces of human presence inside the gorge. Grabbing Ardai, he wheeled his horse around, preparing to leave.
But it was already too late.
Qiao Riyan appeared at the gorge's entrance, grinning darkly at Wang Yu. "Prince of Zhenxi, we meet again."
Chapter 114