Chapter 101: Mu Qiang
The sun set. Knights from all over the principality exited the arena, gathering in groups to return to their tents and satisfy their hunger and thirst.
With the night upon them and nothing to do, the knights naturally began to gather around the warming bonfire, chatting about everything and anything.
The knights split naturally into small groups.
Young chivalrous knights gathered in one bunch; they had no fiefs, eager to prove themselves in battle and earn honor.
Among them was Sam, a loyal reader of the White-Haired One.
The large-framed knight Sam said:
“Do you remember that merchant from Le’an Port who only ever shouted ‘good, good, good’ all day?”
“Yeah, what about him?”
“He’s a fraud,” Knight Sam said. “Claiming that the White-Haired One’s new work has been released; I immediately mounted my swift horse to buy it. When I got it back, I found that if I tied a pen to the mouth of my hunting dog, it could write better than what was in there. It wasn’t written by the same author at all, yet he claimed it was the White-Haired One’s new work.”
“I got so mad that I grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up, and only then did he admit it. He said too many people were waiting for the sequel, but the White-Haired One had stopped writing, so he found a down-and-out writer, gave him the name ‘White-Haired One New’, and had him write the next book for profit.”
“Fraud!” another knight became angry as well. “I waited so long for that.”
“Exactly.” Knight Sam continued, tearing the book titled “The Misadventures of the Elven Queen” by the White-Haired One into shreds with his bare hands and tossing it into the fire before him, “What a waste of my time! I almost missed this battle. That lazy author too, just left it half-finished—if I find her, I’ll have to lock her up in the woodshed until she finishes writing.”
“Locking her in the woodshed is too lenient,” another knight said. “My castle has a dungeon; it was originally for lazy farmers, but locking up an unproductive author is just right, so she can’t sneak away.”
“I’ll donate a foreman.” Another knight chimed in, “My foreman knows how to whip, even lazy cows and lazy people will howl when they go to work. She must write six thousand words a day, or else she’ll get whipped.”
“That’s settled then.” Knight Sam said, slapping hands with his companions, “It’s settled.”
My, this group of knightly readers really is frightening.
Ji Ma remained still behind the knights, invisible, and after listening to the whole conversation, silently raised her hand towards the back of Knight Sam’s head.
Various humiliating curses swirled in her mind, but in the end, she dropped her hand.
What could she do? After all, they were readers who spent money on her work. What was wrong with cursing a lazy author? At the end of the day, they still loved her writing; it wasn’t her fault she was too lazy to continue it.
Had they been pirate readers, she would have treated them differently.
The firelight illuminated Knight Sam’s profile; Ji Ma found him somewhat familiar. After flipping through her personal system’s text records, she remembered that he had participated in the wars against the green dragon and the greenskins.
You might wonder why Ji Ma ran alone to the tent area outside, eavesdropping.
Well, it was all about the armor from earlier.
George’s armor was too inappropriate for his status. Whether it was him or Gregory, the meat-lover, they both brought it up.
Ji Ma didn’t want George to discover that she secretly pawned his full Gothic armor and two other sets, leaving him with only this suit of armor to wear.
So, she made up her mind to change the public perception, so that George might not mind his mismatched armor, and she could escape a disaster.
“Did you see the dragon-slayer George today?”
Ji Ma perked up her ears; someone finally mentioned George.
“I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Quick, tell me, was there a hundred blonde elf archers wearing bikini armor next to him?”
“I also heard he has one hundred and one wives.”
“Not that many,” a knight waved his hand. “There were only two beauties beside him. One was a silver-haired elf, tall and pretty, but her face was just too sour. The other was a succubus wearing a hood, even more beautiful than my dream girl.”
“Don’t let your dream girl hear you say that; her hair tie is still tied to your sword’s hilt.”
“I’m just speaking pragmatically…”
“I really envy George; he’s barely of age yet has women and strength…”
Ji Ma grew increasingly impatient; why were these stinky men only talking about women?
So, she mimicked the voice of a male knight and suddenly interjected:
“Speaking of which, isn’t George’s armor really cheap? Is he really that stingy with his gold coins?”
With that lead-in, and with the knights feeling a bit jealous of George, they chimed in:
“Yeah, right! One shoulder piece is large, the other is small; who knows where he ripped them off the battlefield.”
“The shoulder pieces and armors don’t even match in size, not practical at all.”
“Truly poor aesthetics…”
Seeing the public opinion lean in the direction she wanted, Ji Ma prepared to use her extraordinary powers to spread rumors. Just as she was about to speak, Sam suddenly drew his sword and slashed it into the bonfire, embers flying everywhere. The knights were immediately startled and looked at the furious Sam, whose face was flushed red.
“Enough!” Knight Sam, resembling a bear in stature, declared, “You lot cannot compare to him; all you can do is belittle his armor. No matter how cheap or ragged it is, didn’t he still stab the Demon King to the core and slay the dragon with one sword? Even if he were naked, he’d still deserve respect. I’m saying this now; he treated me to roasted dragon meat, which is a huge honor. If anyone keeps blabbing nonsense, don’t blame me for being rude.”
A knight, accidentally burned by an ember, stood up with his anger boiling inside.
Knight Sam glared at him, and after taking several deep breaths, said, “I’ve eaten his dragon meat too.”
Knight Sam smiled and drew his sword, saying, “Sir, I remember you.”
Both sides sat back down.
The storm calmed, and Ji Ma’s plan to build up tension ultimately failed.
She reflected for a moment, realizing she had underestimated George’s reputation. At such a young age, possessing such achievements and strength, most people, while feeling envious, were even more in admiration.
This was the treatment of a chosen one.
So Ji Ma changed her strategy, taking advantage of people’s admiration for the strong, spreading various rumors about how “though George’s armor seems cheap, it actually conceals secrets.”
“Did you know? George’s arm and shoulder armor intentionally reveals gaps so enemies think the weak points are there. When a sword swings down, George can squeeze hard and trap the enemy’s weapon.”
“Really? Why can’t I do it?”
“Because he is a dragon-slayer.”
One tells ten, ten tells a hundred. People loved to pass on these “superficially nonsensical yet filled with clever secrets” rumors, as it made them feel more intelligent than others.
Though these were merely rumors Ji Ma concocted with the tip of her tail in just ten seconds.
Soon, someone was thumping their chest, vowing in the name of the lake goddess that they personally witnessed George trap a giant beast’s axe with his arm and shoulder armor and cut off its head with a sword.
In the course of spreading the rumor, a knight with a wound on his backside added credible details. When George trapped the giant beast’s axe, a despicable goblin assassin stabbed a poisoned dagger toward George’s rear, but George was able to pinch the dagger with his muscular buttocks, resolved the giant beast, and effortlessly decapitated the goblin.
(This rumor was later included in “One Hundred Facts About the Dragon-Slayer Saint George.”)
Others said that George wore that armor when he parted ways with his childhood sweetheart; he vowed to wear it into battle until he returned to marry her. Unfortunately, his childhood sweetheart died in an accident, and in his fury and grief, George swore never to change his armor.
People enjoyed explaining the “truth” about George’s armor, watching the faces of others who seemed baffled; otherwise, how could they showcase their wisdom?
No one rebutted these rumors; many subconsciously thought that since George was so strong, he could not possibly be a fool, so the armor he wore must hold a deeper meaning, and they had simply mistaken it.
Thus, the rumors spread wider, and George’s cheap, mismatched armor became synonymous with love, utility, and aesthetics. Even the one large and one small shoulder piece became considered “asymmetrical beauty,” a form of aesthetics that mere mortals could not comprehend.
As for the dents and rust on the chest plate, they were the “beauty marks” of a knight’s valiant battles; anyone unable to appreciate George’s armor was a coward or a fool, with only the wise able to see its deeper significance.
Overnight, the entire army camp became filled with “wise” individuals.
As the rumors grew fervently, Ji Ma, sitting in a small room in Quinaz Castle, was satisfied as she removed the distant illusions, snapping her fingers at a basin of water on the table, shattering the images on the water’s surface.
“Being a teacher to others is truly entertaining.” Ji Ma shook her head, stretched lazily, and commanded Lianxi to bring her a basin of water for washing her face.
Ji Ma sat on the bed; naturally, this bed was beneath her standards. She opened the entrance to the Dream Palace, jumping inside to rest on a large bed, beside which rested a half-drunk cup of red tea-colored sleep-inducing water.
It was time for Jenna to sleep.
Ji Ma routinely invited Jenna; the saintly Jenna told her that military affairs had changed, and the empire was rushing directly to the Obsidian Pass to support the dwarven armies without rest. Only mages like Jenna could lie down in the horse-drawn carriage to rest. By noon tomorrow, the emperor’s army would undoubtedly collide directly with the green tide.
Saint Jenna couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.
Ji Ma smiled, “It’s alright, I have contingencies; you need not worry; everything is under my control.”
With that, she maintained a mysterious smile, remaining silent.
Saint Jenna felt much more reassured, bid her farewell, and after she left, the smile on Ji Ma’s face that read “everything is under control” vanished.
Control—what a joke!
The only reason she helped Arkanis infiltrate the orc army was to make a deal with him. He had a vile character and enjoyed doing such things.
As for Arkanis turning against them at the last moment and reversing the situation? Setting aside whether or not that last moment would occur, just Arkanis’s betrayal alone made Ji Ma lose confidence.
Every piece on the board had its own thoughts, and the thoughts of this piece, Arkanis, were particularly bizarre.
“I seem to be scaring myself.” Ji Ma muttered to herself, “Arkanis wouldn’t actually enjoy being a greenskin, would he? After all, compared to greenskins, he’s still more human-like.”
She dozed off and went to sleep.
