Water Mirrored Moon - 水鏡月

Part II - Cosmetics Goddess: 15. Wager of the Hundred Flower House

"Tch," said the Seventh Prince. "What nonsense are you speaking?"

Murong Yan chuckled.

"Did the fighting make you deaf or is it such a fascinating story that you want me to tell it again, Your Highness?" he laughed quietly.

Murong Bo grinned into his arm guard, pretending to wipe sweat from beneath his helmet.

The Seventh Prince made a rude noise.

"I'm not clear on some of the finer points. Say it again more clearly!" he said with some impatience, kicking his horse ahead.

Murong Bo grimaced as the flies and the revolting smell of burnt flesh were still heavy in the air. Kicking his own horse, he made to follow.

Unflinchingly surveying the battle scene, the Prince skillfully turned his mount in a tight circle in the sand, picking around the smoking remains of an overturned cart.

The night assault had been very successful, and they had rooted out the rebels that had made their last stand in the small fort , but the Prince was uneasy.

They were more like a mess of bandits...

It had been over two months since he'd ridden out under Imperial decree to deal with the rebellion in the Western provinces that had been stirred up by troublemakers from Xiyu.

Dirty and aching, the Seventh Prince was becoming more irritable. So much death, and so little accomplished. The rebellion had been ruthlessly put down, but it had only generated more questions for him.

Burning the fort to the ground had also been a wasted effort as the true culprits, pulling the puppet strings in the shadows, had not been amongst the dead. Moreover, the fort had been given up far too easily...an utter massacre of what had been an unorganized mess of riffraff.

He felt like the An Xi army had been deliberately pulled into a conflict only for the purpose of wasting resources and time, while simultaneously giving the enemy an opportunity to feel out Tiansheng's defences and test their tactics. His brain churned, sifting through layer after layer of information as he scanned and tore apart the battlefield in his mind, trying to comprehend the real intentions of their enemy.

And how is it a coincidence, he thought, that a woman from the Western territory is now making trouble in my pleasure house?

Grinding his teeth, he leaned back in the saddle. It was maddening. He knew the answers were right in front of him, but he'd spent almost the entire siege awake and it had worn him down. And yet the fort had only fallen after five days of effort...a new record for the Iron Spear Prince. Thus, the title of God of War remained deservedly his.

Apart from fighting hand to hand, he had tried hard to maneuver the intelligence units, but each time he was close to obtaining information about the movement of the leaders...they had slipped through his fingers like fine sand. He could only surmise that the Gao family was involved...but it was the person behind the Gao family that bothered him. In truth, they were likely just a borrowed knife. Who was the mastermind? The traces were still here, mocking him. Groaning, he wiped a hand over his eyes, smudging his already soot blackened skin.