Chapter 94: Seeking a Beast Taming Method

With Xueguo’s arrival, the prince’s mansion became much livelier. Many servants took the opportunity during their free time to come and see the snow-white “little dog” their lord had bought.

As night fell deep, it was time to “rest” again. Xueguo happily pattered along on its four little paws, closely following Ye Liyan’s feet. But before they could enter the room, Shen Yian’s foot blocked its way.

“Grr?” Xueguo tilted its little head, its big eyes full of confusion.

“Hmm, hmm.” 

Shen Yian raised an eyebrow and pointed outside, giving Xueguo two choices:

One, go sleep in the luxurious “little house (doghouse)” that Mendu and others had spent half the afternoon building in the corner of the courtyard.

Two, go with Jinxiu and Jinlian to sleep in the side room.

Xueguo decisively chose option three: sit on the ground and look pitifully at Ye Liyan.

Ye Liyan’s pretty face blushed slightly. She guessed her husband’s intention in doing this and shook her head, indicating she couldn’t help.

Seeing this, Xueguo lowered its little head in disappointment and turned to walk dejectedly towards the little house in the corner of the courtyard.

Shen Yian’s lips curled slightly. To prevent this mischievous little creature from sneaking in later, he took out Long Yuan and let it hover at the doorway.

Feeling the ancient and murderous aura emanating from Long Yuan, Xueguo’s fur instantly stood on end. It quickly scampered into the little house on all fours and curled up.

“Looks like I’ll have to visit the palace again tomorrow,” Shen Yian murmured to himself.

Tomorrow he would go to the Martial Pavilion to find a beast taming method. Relying solely on threats and temptation wasn’t a long-term solution; it would always remain an unstable factor.

Only after the door closed and the lights went out did Xueguo poke its head out of the little house, curiously looking at Long Yuan.

Long Yuan seemed to sense something and slowly rotated its blade, emitting a faint sword hum.

Xueguo instantly cowered and quickly retreated back inside.

The next day, Shen Yian got up early as usual, preparing to go to the training ground to practice some martial arts, strengthen his body, nourish his kidneys, and take good care of himself.

Opening the door, he found that Long Yuan, which had been hovering at the doorway, had flown to the front of the little house at some point. There was also a half-meter-long sword mark on the ground.

“What happened?” 

Shen Yian stretched out his hand to call back Long Yuan and asked doubtfully.

“Oh? Xueguo tried to run away?”

Crouching down, Shen Yian was about to interrogate the little one about why it wanted to run, when a strange smell hit him. Seeing the now wet cushion, he immediately understood what had happened and imagined the scene.

Imagined scene: Xueguo wanted to find a place to “pee” in the middle of the night. Long Yuan mistook this for an escape attempt and, remembering its master’s orders, unhesitatingly moved to stop it. With one sword strike, Xueguo was frightened back into the little house and finally couldn’t hold it anymore, resulting in an accident on the spot.

“Hahahahaha.” Shen Yian couldn’t help laughing out loud. This little one was really too amusing.

This was partly his fault too. He had assumed that these exotic beasts didn’t need to do the daily necessities that normal animals do.

Xueguo huddled in the corner. Before Ye Liyan appeared, it would never step out of the house and would not pay attention to any two-legged beasts.

Though amused, Shen Yian still called Mendu, Jinxiu and Jinlian to change Xueguo’s cushion.

Xueguo was very resistant, but with Shen Yian standing nearby quietly watching while holding his sword, it decided that a good beast doesn’t court trouble!

After this small incident, Shen Yian went to the study after finishing his exercises in the training ground. After hearing reports, he casually gave the Nine Snake Rings he bought yesterday to Yin Hai, thinking they’d be better used by someone skilled rather than gathering dust.

When Ye Liyan came out of the room, she heard about Xueguo’s embarrassing situation from Jinxiu and Jinlian and laughed uncontrollably. She immediately decided to give Xueguo another bath.

After lunch and spending some more time together, Shen Yian had Mendu prepare a carriage for his palace visit.

He went to pay his respects to the old man first. He originally wanted to have a brief chat before going to the Martial Pavilion, but he never expected that the old man would ask him to sit down and stay for a full hour. The topic of their conversation was mainly about Liaodong.

The captured barbarian soldiers and young and middle-aged barbarians were all turned into slaves to mine and cultivate the land, while the rest of the elderly, the weak, women and children were driven to the barbarians’ own territory like cattle and sheep.

When would this cycle of revenge end? Hadn’t the barbarians done the same in the past? How many of the elderly, the weak, women, and children from the villages and cities they plundered had survived?

Was Emperor Wu merciful in sending back the elderly, the weak, women, and children? 

Not really, he wanted to rely on these more than 400,000 the elderly, the weak, women and children, and more than 400,000 mouths to create chaos in the three cities of the barbarians near Liaodong, thereby buying the army a short rest time to prepare for a possible counterattack.

Now the internal strife in the Barbarian Nation was showing signs of stabilizing. It was heard that the most promising crown prince had died at the hands of bandits while leaving the city. The four Archbishops and ministers were now leaning towards the second prince – the Purple-Gold Grand Duke. The establishment of a new emperor was just a matter of time.

Emperor Wu wouldn’t guess the new emperor’s intentions upon ascending the throne. Regardless of whether the other side was ready or not, he was prepared for further confrontation between the two great nations.

Leaving the old man, Shen Yian entered the Martial Pavilion with familiarity.

“When the heavens are about to collapse, I, Shen Lingxiu, am willing to hold them up!” 

Just as he was looking for Shen Lingxiu, an incredibly dramatic shout came from behind a pile of bamboo scrolls.

“Fifth Uncle,” Shen Yian called out, clearing his throat.

“Hm?! Little An?” 

Shen Lingxiu stood up in surprise. His messy long hair covered half his face, but couldn’t hide his bloodshot eyes with dark circles. He had completely lost his usual scholarly air.

“Fifth Uncle… how long have you been without rest?” 

Shen Yian asked cautiously. The other party’s state really reminded him of his friends from his previous life who would battle in internet cafes for days on end.

“Just four or five days,” Shen Lingxiu waved dismissively and asked, “Why did you come running here, kid? Shouldn’t you be spending your precious time with little Ye at the king’s mansion?”

Since attending Shen Yian’s wedding and returning to the Martial Pavilion, he hadn’t rested. He couldn’t help it; the content of these leisure books was too captivating.

Now he wanted to shout to everyone he saw, “My second brother has the potential to be a great emperor!”

“I just missed you, Fifth Uncle, and came to see you.” 

Shen Yian smiled and took out a food box that he had prepared long ago from his sleeve.

“Oh? You’re thoughtful, kid. I can tell from the smell these are all my favorites.” Shen Lingxiu closed his book, tidied his hair and clothes a bit, and led Shen Yian to an open space where they sat on the ground.

As they ate and chatted, Shen Lingxiu suddenly asked about the progress of [Sword].

According to the current progress, Shen Yian would be able to fully condense his life-bound sword in two to three months, but he still had no clue about the origin qi.

“Don’t be discouraged. With your luck, kid, who knows? It might just work out in the end,” Shen Lingxiu said with a smile, taking a bite of braised beef.

“I hope it’s as you say, Fifth Uncle.”

“Let things take their natural course. Come on, kid, let’s have a drink together!” Shen Lingxiu raised his cup and smiled.

After several rounds of drinks, the dishes were almost empty.

Shen Lingxiu examined the wine cup in his hand in the pavilion’s light and suddenly sighed with a smile, “I wonder when little Yanzi will return. I hear my disciple has almost conquered the entire Liaodong region.”

“Second Brother is naturally valiant. How could mere barbarians stop the Second Brother and his Crimson Gold Iron Cavalry?” Shen Yian chimed in with a smile.

“Valiant my foot. He’s just a fool who only knows how to practice martial arts and fight.”

Shen Lingxiu rolled his eyes, dismissing Shen Yian’s assessment. His tone suddenly became serious, “Little An, can you promise me one thing?”

“Please speak, Fifth Uncle.”

“In the future, don’t be too hard on little Yanzi.”