Chapter Eighty-Four: The Question
Under a boundless sky, a bright moon hung high.
Crackle.
In the sound of firewood burning, the Prince of Water City slowly stirred awake.
His mind still clouded from sleep, he let the firelight reveal a broad, formidable figure sitting cross-legged beside the flames, a horse’s leg held casually in one hand.
Behind that burly silhouette stood a camel, chewing dry grass without pause and snorting now and then.
The prince tried to move, only to find his body entirely immobile. Thick ropes bound him tightly, wrapped around every joint and fastening him fast.
“So, you’re awake.”
The prince saw the sturdy figure turn its gaze toward him.
“Hungry? Want a bite?”
At a casual motion, Li Ju withdrew from the fire a horse’s leg still skewered on a stick and held it before the prince’s mouth.
“...”
The prince pressed his lips together and turned his head aside, his eyes filled with a nameless stubbornness.
“Not eating?”
Li Ju lifted an eyebrow.
“Then don’t blame me if you get hungry in the middle of the night.”
He shrugged and drew the leg back.
“And the one beside him—stop pretending to sleep.”
As soon as Li Ju spoke, the Prince of Water City’s companion, likewise tied up like a bundled parcel, opened his eyes.
“Since I have fallen into your hands today, do with me as you will.”
“But there is one thing: could you spare my life in exchange for my young master’s?”
General Wang said in a low voice.
“Your lives are both in my hands. What makes you think you have the right to trade one life for another?”
Li Ju bit into the horse leg, chewing a large mouthful of meat.
The horseflesh had come from the mounts of those desert bandits. Li Ju, who had gone without meat for far too long, was able to enjoy this bite of flesh in the desert only thanks to the bandits’ kind “favor.”
This was what it meant to be family with thieves and outlaws. When he was short of money, they would come of their own accord to deliver it; when he wanted meat, they would likewise hurry over on their own to bring him some.
Only family could spoil him so thoroughly.
“...”
After hearing Li Ju’s words, General Wang fell silent.
“But don’t be discouraged. As a righteous hero, I do not slaughter the innocent at random.”
Li Ju tipped his head back and took a swig of wine he had brought from the Kingdom of Chen.
The prince and General Wang looked at him with disbelief.
“Don’t believe me? Go ask around in the territory of Chen. Ask the righteous martial lord Hai Yuanyi whether my identity as one of the righteous has been personally certified by him.”
Li Ju smacked his lips in lingering satisfaction.
“...I’ll take it that you are a hero of the righteous path,” General Wang said. “So what exactly is your purpose in capturing my young master and me this time?”
As he spoke, he secretly tried to wriggle his body.
No use. The ropes were too tight. He could not break free.
Seeing their little movements clearly, Li Ju said nothing.
“Nothing much. It’s just that you say I saved you, yet instead of repaying me, you even slandered me in secret. That’s rather hurtful, isn’t it?”
Li Ju pressed a hand to his chest, his face wearing a sorrowful expression.
“So you want payment?” General Wang asked.
“In the Kingdom of Chen, I’ve always heard that righteous heroes save people only to set their own minds at ease, never asking for reward. So why is it that, in the case of a righteous hero like you, there is such a hunger for payment?”
The Water City prince’s words dripped with sarcasm.
At his side, General Wang frantically signaled him with his eyes.
“Ah, it’s precisely because there are too many people like you that the righteous heroes have grown fewer and fewer, and the righteous path has been pushed ever deeper into weakness in its struggle against the demonic way.”
Hearing the prince’s words, Li Ju clicked his tongue twice.
“Don’t try to bind me with morality either. I don’t swallow that. Anyway, if the two of you don’t hand over something today, you can forget about leaving this place.”
Li Ju smiled coldly.
“Are all righteous heroes such shameless creatures?”
“Do you, styling yourself a righteous hero, intend to slaughter the innocent after all?”
The Water City prince could not help raising his voice.
“Who said I’m going to kill you? As one of the righteous, I never kill indiscriminately. It’s just that my memory isn’t very good, so when I leave, I’m liable to forget to untie certain people and set them free.”
“And in this yellow-sand desert, besides the sand, there are also a few venomous snakes and scorpions that eat flesh.”
Li Ju spoke idly as he took another large bite of horseflesh.
“...”
The prince ground his teeth, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he swallowed the words back down.
“I don’t know what you want from us. Though we do not have much money on us right now, if you escort us to Yellow Sand County in the Kingdom of Chen, we will certainly present you with a generous gift.”
At that moment, General Wang suddenly spoke.
“Yellow Sand County? You want me to escort you for free?”
“That’s a rather beautiful thought.”
“I heard you call this boy prince earlier. I suppose he’s a prince from some small kingdom around Stone Gorge or the Great Oasis.”
The Yellow Sand Desert was vast, no smaller than the entire Kingdom of Chen. Within so immense a stretch, though most of it was nothing but yellow earth and rock, life still found its way through death, and there were naturally formed regions within the desert where people could survive.
Aside from the scattered human settlements, the largest human concentrations in the Yellow Sand Desert were Stone Gorge and the Great Oasis.
The former was a valley enclosed by four enormous strange boulders. Because the giant stones blocked the wind and sand, the land within Stone Gorge had not been eroded away; inside it lay cultivable soil and a supply of water.
Compared with Stone Gorge, the Great Oasis offered even better conditions for survival. It was the largest oasis in the entire Yellow Sand Desert, with an area roughly the size of a county in the Kingdom of Chen. Water was abundant, the soil fertile, and its geographical advantages were exceptional.
Even the Kingdom of Chen coveted the land of the Great Oasis intensely. If not for the vast swath of Yellow Sand Desert lying between them, Chen would long ago have conquered it.
Unlike the Kingdom of Chen, which had established a unified imperial dynasty, neither Stone Gorge nor the Great Oasis possessed a single central authority. Instead, many small city-states divided the land and ruled their own domains. Those numerous little kingdoms fought one another over resources, territory, and population, leaving Stone Gorge and the Great Oasis mired in chaos.
“Looking at your current situation, life in your homeland can’t be going too well. You’ve even fallen to the point of being hunted.”
“Well then, how about telling me what happened? Maybe I can even help.”
As he spoke, Li Ju patted General Wang on the shoulder, smiling with easy cheer.