Dragon Tamer

Nan Lingsha really couldn’t stand these two people anymore.

It felt as if there was some kind of tacit understanding between them.

She took another look at Zhu Minglang and saw nothing extraordinary about him, yet Li Yunzi seemed to have a special tolerance for him.

Could it really be because of that dewy love affair?

“You two continue your eye-flirting, this young lady will take her leave,” Nan Lingsha stood up, carrying a hint of resentment.

“Frost, send Ms. Rain… offer her an umbrella,” Li Yunzi said, glancing outside the court, seeming to notice the clouds slowly obscuring the bright sky.

“No need!” Nan Lingsha said irritably. She glanced at Zhu Minglang’s plate with pastries carefully wrapped in a napkin, then petulantly wrapped up the pastries, tied them with a delicate and pretty butterfly knot, and gently lifted them.

“I can’t let all of Star Painting’s pastries benefit him.” With that, she haughtily hummed a little tune, carrying the small pastries as she walked out.

Zhu Minglang, holding a bean cake in his hand, watched Nan Lingsha’s graceful figure leave, his eyes revealing a touch of reluctance.

Such delicious bean cakes, all snatched away by her!

He wondered if there were any more left in Li Yunzi’s house. He should pack some to take away when he left.

“Fourth Miss, your umbrella, please take an umbrella, or your pastries will get wet,” Frost offered an umbrella, quickly following her out.

True to being Li Yunzi’s maid, she was so clever and intelligent, creating a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere without any sense of discord.

“Are there any more? This flavor is really good; I haven’t tasted such delicacies in a long time,” Zhu Minglang finished the last half of his bean cake, took a sip of tea, and waited until the pastry powder in his mouth was completely dissolved before asking.

To be gluttonous, one must also do so with grace.

“No more,” Li Yunzi said as she gently slid the portion in front of her, which she hadn’t touched much, towards Zhu Minglang, probably noticing that he had skipped lunch to come to the Li Imperial Palace.

“Although you said your mood improved a bit this time, I still feel you are full of worries. Is something troubling you? Tell me, it’s better than keeping it inside,” Zhu Minglang said.

“Okay,” Li Yunzi nodded.

Zhu Minglang was somewhat surprised; his words were intended as a mere courtesy, purely out of concern for Li Yunzi’s condition.

He hadn’t expected her to be willing to share her worries with him.

Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t Li Yunzi keep all her troubles hidden within her heart?

“It’s okay, you eat your food, I’ll talk about mine,” Li Yunzi said softly, seeing Zhu Minglang sitting upright and proper.

“Okay,” Zhu Minglang wasn’t too formal.

“Before the annual celebration, all the generals hoped to return, including the big city-states in the south, which all thought we would surely withdraw our troops before the new year. But in the end, my army guards captured their main city on the day of their celebration, ” Li Yunzi narrated calmly.

Zhu Minglang suddenly felt the pastry get stuck in his throat and quickly poured a cup of tea to moisten it.

The city-states in the south had been captured?

All in a winter?

Even though they weren’t as strong as the Ancestral Dragon City, they shouldn’t have fallen like that…

These few lightly spoken words left Zhu Minglang utterly shaken.

The celebration—on one side, festivity with lanterns and auspicious happiness; on the other side, soldiers at the gate and a country in turmoil!

Even though he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes, Zhu Minglang could imagine the soul-stirring scene.

“Wutu, the army guard will be established, and by summer at the latest, the Wutu Nation will be formed. Zhang Tuo will lead as the city-state’s think tank, with Zheng Yu as city lord, ” Li Yunzi continued her narrative.

Zhu Minglang took a deep breath.

From Zheng Yu’s letters and the constant news of border wars, Zhu Minglang had already sensed Li Yunzi’s ambition.

Zhu Minglang did not expect that, in just one winter and half a spring, two city-states around Ancestral Dragon City-State would belong to Li Yunzi alone! “Ancestral Dragon City is the foundation, no matter how many cities I capture, once Ancestral Dragon City-State encounters any unforeseen event, the seventeen battles I’ve fought in the past half year would be meaningless,” Li

Yunzi continued.

“Lingxiao City has begun to condemn, Sect Palace has begun to obstruct, they see me as a demon, constantly igniting the flames of war, relentlessly causing people to be displaced,” Li Yunzi looked at Zhu Minglang.

Zhu Minglang refilled Li Yunzi’s tea cup, similarly gazing into her eyes.

“I can’t see the joy of seizing power from your eyes. You’re not obsessed with power, nor do you care about wealth. What is it you want, can you tell me?” Zhu Minglang finally couldn’t help but ask.

What she truly wanted.

On this land, although the flames of war had never ceased, now half of the wars were instigated by Li Yunzi, and all of them could be described as wars of aggression begun by her.

Having taken the city-states to the south, and intending for Wutu to declare independence, if Ancestral Dragon City-State also fell completely under her control, she would possess three major city-states by herself!

At that moment, Li Yunzi’s eyes finally showed emotion, fierce and sharp as a sword’s glare.

“To establish a nation!” she declared.

Nation, a word not unfamiliar to the many city-states, but no actual nation existed on this land.

City-states were independent of each other, with no alliances to speak of. Apart from Sect Palace holding some balance of power, essentially every city-state was its own little kingdom!

What Li Yunzi wanted was the unification of city-states, to establish a nation!

Such towering ambition! !

Zhu Minglang felt he had truly underestimated Li Yunzi, having thought she was only reclaiming her sovereign rights, not realizing she aimed to be the true sovereign of the entire land!

“So your enemy is actually Sect Palace?” Zhu Minglang said with a wry smile.

“I don’t actually have enemies in the true sense, only obstacles in my path,” Li Yunzi replied.

“I don’t understand, if you truly want to become the ruler of a nation, you could wait until Wutu prospered, you could slowly consume South Nation, even wait until the situation within Ancestral Dragon City-State was stable, why act now…” Zhu Minglang shook his head.

No, that’s not right. Even though Li Yunzi had been overwhelmingly victorious, even having taken South Nation by surprise, her foundation was unstable, with internal strife and external threats. Before long, she might push herself into a corner!

She couldn’t possibly have failed to foresee these issues, so why was she in such a hurry?

To establish a nation, one cannot rush.

“In taking South Nation, I was injured. This news, those who obstruct me already know, ” Li Yunzi said.

Zhu Minglang’s mouth fell open, but then he stopped himself from responding.

It was not without reason that Nan Lingsha came at this time—could it also be to probe Li Yunzi’s injuries?

In that case, Nan Lingsha was ultimately one of Li Yunzi’s obstacles, holding power in the Nan Family. Even if she did not care about power struggles, as long as she was intent on obstructing, Li Yunzi would have a hard time establishing herself firmly in Ancestral Dragon City-State…

With so many enemies, returning to recover from her injuries, Lingxiao City State would likely not miss this rare opportunity, and Sect Palace would sanction Li Yunzi even more.

“How is it that you have hardly any guards by your side? It’s far too unsafe, especially since Li Imperial Palace is filled with so many with ulterior motives,” Zhu Minglang stood up and looked around the courtyard.

Even when using spiritual power to sense, Zhu Minglang could not feel the presence of any experts by Li Yunzi’s side.

“Even with a vast army, there are scarcely one or two I can trust. The so-called loyalty, the so-called faith, none can withstand threats and inducements,” Li Yunzi said, her words tinged with a trace of desolation.

Having experienced a fall from grace, and tasting the bitterness of humiliation, she was now clearer than anyone that the so-called support, the so-called loyalty, were all illusory, scattering as soon as a strong wind blew.

“This…” Zhu Minglang, upon hearing this, suddenly felt a pang of sympathy.

Human nature is indeed such, even in Wutu, providing them a chance at life, yet with better interests, they quickly betray and even scorn.

Such things had happened before, hadn’t they?