Lord of the Desert

Chapter 566 Gift
On the Lantern Festival night of the thirty-fourth year of Zhenghe, dragon lanterns paraded through the streets of Fengsui City amidst a dazzling display of lights, and people revelled in the festivities.

In the latter half of the night, the captain's mansion was filled with people who had drunk themselves into a stupor.

Fortunately, most of the people had martial arts skills, and the servants kept adding firewood and fuel throughout the night, so nothing serious happened.

Day two.

As dawn broke and the morning light named all things from the darkness, the sentries on duty on the city tower suddenly noticed a deformed monster moving from several miles away outside the city.

It was three zhang long, with its head and body indistinguishable, and it crawled and writhed in the thick snow.

The messenger immediately relayed the message, and the many high-ranking officials in the captain's mansion sobered up instantly. Unable to find their leader, they had no choice but to rush to the city wall.

The heavy snow in Fengsui City had stopped long ago.

As the sentinel had said, in the morning light, a colossal beast of indistinguishable species was slowly approaching.

Its forepaws and jaws were missing; only one eyeball remained, hanging outside half of its skull, while its body exposed pale broken bones and frozen blood.

"What the hell?"

Hong Bo licked his gold tooth and unconsciously gripped the red-faced lion at his waist.

"A strange beast, it looks dead."

Lu Yunshi narrowed his eyes slightly, confirming that what he saw was a broken trachea hanging below his cervical spine.

"How can a dead person move?"

Gao Junxia felt a chill run down his spine when he thought of the rumors about Captain Zong Juncheng next door using living corpses in battle.

"The giants are skilled at inscribing magic arrays to control inanimate objects; this must be their method."

Hong Lie said sternly.

He drew his Ming Shen sword and was about to give the order to prepare for battle when Xu Yuntao stopped him.

The latter, comparing the broken horn, the half-eaten beak, and the golden fur untouched by blood, suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"This is a Gu Diao!"

Thinking of Hong Fan, who had left early last night and whose whereabouts were unknown, Xu Yuntao, ignoring the incredulous looks of everyone, suddenly called out in a long voice.

"Captain, is that you?"

The sound echoed far and wide, and after a moment, the alien creature, or rather, its remains, stopped and crashed to the ground.

A thick cloud of snow rose up, and a figure emerged from it.

"So you were all watching all along. You knew it was me, so why didn't you lend a hand?"

Hong Fan wiped the slight sweat from his forehead and shouted loudly.

"They're all enjoying good food and drink, unaware that I dragged this Gu eagle around for half the night, wearing out the soles of my shoes!"

This confirmation was like thunder and lightning igniting the city walls.

"Is it really a Gu Diao?"

Yang Haorang swayed, his face flushed, and he had to press his hand against the city wall. He felt the effects of the alcohol, which had already dissipated, return instantly, even intensifying.

"The captain has returned victorious after slaying the Gu Eagle in the night; open the city gates!"

He turned around and shouted into the city with all his might, instantly receiving a response ten times stronger.

Lower the latch, raise the gate, and open the door.

A group of officers and soldiers poured out of the city gate like a torrent, surrounded the dead giant beast, and dragged it in little by little like ants carrying food.

Under the rising sun, cheers, like waves at sea, had already swept across the entire city.

······
Five days later, on January 20th, in the early morning.

The residence of the General of the Central Guard.

Incense wafted from the long table, and documents sent from various departments and cities in the northern frontier were piled up to half a foot thick.

Kou Fei sat upright, reviewing and approving the instructions at a speed unimaginable to ordinary people.

Across from him, Kou Yong was lounging listlessly in a round-backed chair when he suddenly noticed his great-uncle's brows furrow.

"Didn't I decline the request from Fengsui City to establish a market and issue travel permits before the New Year? Why is it being sent up again?"

Kou Fei loudly summoned the Prefectural Assistant, who was working in the side office.

"General, you didn't say that definitively at the time. You only said to send the Gu Diao's head to Whiterun first."

Fu Cheng bowed and replied.

"Nonsense, isn't this just a matter of whether or not..."

Kou Fei was quite impatient, and suddenly looked up halfway through his sentence.

"Hong Fan has sent over the head of the Gu Diao?!"

"No, that's not true, but they did send over a Gu Diao pelt, saying it's enough to make you a cloak..."

As the prefect spoke, he saw the general looking like he'd seen a ghost for the first time.

Fifteen minutes later, a complete golden fur coat was laid out on the table.

Kofi paced back and forth, carefully parting the hair with his fingers to reveal the stitches inside.

"Come here, do you see these cracks?"

He pointed it out to Kou Yong.

“Grand Uncle, the Gu Diao is a treasure trove. Hong Fan is already very generous to send such a large piece. It can’t be that…”

Kou Yong had barely finished speaking when he was slapped on the back of the head.

What are you thinking about?

Kou Fei cursed.

"In this place, the skin and flesh were torn apart by the huge impact; in these two places, the bones broke and pierced through."

He turned the fur over, revealing a small scorch mark on his back that hadn't been rubbed off.

"See? When the Gu Diao died, it was scorched by high temperatures, but it didn't last long. As far as I know, even a Yuan Magnetic level expert couldn't unleash such an attack."

Kou Yong listened thoughtfully.

"So Hong Fan sought the help of a celestial being. But Li Pochen, Shen Moye, and Zhu Zhanran are not skilled in fire energy. Could it be Zhou Wenyang?"

“No. Although I have only met Hong Fan once, I know that he is extremely arrogant at heart. If he were asking for help, he would never say something like ‘I’ll take care of it.’”

Kou Fei shook his head.

"I can smell a trace of gunpowder on this fur; the Gu Diao must have died from a gunpowder explosion."

"That Kaiming Company in Liangzhou has gained a reputation extremely quickly in the past two years. Isn't it Hong Fan's business? Your peer is six or seven years younger than you, but now he is not only stronger than you, but also has much more unconventional methods!"

He said this to provoke his younger relatives.

However, Kou Yong never bought into that.

"Guan Qimai is eleven years younger than you, and Shi Haoran is forty years younger than you, yet they are already Martial Saints."

He said this with a blank expression, like a piece of rotten wood without any ambition.

Upon seeing this, Kou Fei's temper flared up instantly, and he couldn't help but roll up his sleeves.

Seeing that something unspeakable was about to happen in the hall, the prefectural magistrate, who was watching Kou Yongcheng, quickly stepped in to save the day.

"General, how should we respond to Fengsui City?"

He cupped his hands and asked.

"Approve it, let him do it."

Kou Fei realized there were outsiders present and tried his best to suppress his temper.

"Since Hong Fan killed Gu Diao, he has the right to do so. By the way, send a message: Gu Diao is dead, so be it. I grant him permission to establish a market and issue travel permits, but don't let it interfere with important matters."

······
Snow-covered City, on the same afternoon.

Wang Xiaodan sat by the window in the teahouse, watching the sparrows preening their feathers under the eaves across the street.

"Gunpowder can kill the Gu Diao? I just don't believe it."

He happened to be in Snowman City on business today, and unexpectedly heard about Hong Fan sending over the Gu Diao fur.

"I have the same question. Maybe they're using the White Thunder God. One is enough to collapse the city wall, and even a few peak Yuan Magnetic ones wouldn't be able to withstand it."

Kou Yong, sitting opposite him, replied, wiping his eyes with the steam rising from his teacup.

“I have some friends at the Imperial Workshop in Shenjing. They talk about Hong Fan as if it were something that is unparalleled in the world, and it is common for them to supply some contraband.”

His guess was accepted by several people present.

"I've heard that the White Thunder God is extremely expensive."

Wang Xiao sighed lightly.

"It's truly rare that an outsider like him, living in the northern frontier, would be willing to use his private funds for public service; in the past, it was already good enough if the court sent people here and they didn't try to take advantage of the situation."

"This shows that he has big ambitions, which means he is even more difficult to deal with for some people."

Kou Yong said.

"Some people, don't you, the eldest son of the Kou family, count?"

Wang Xiaodan chuckled upon hearing this and asked in return.

“I don’t care. I’ve never thought that the Zhenbeiwei was surnamed Kou.”

Kou Yonghua leaned back in his seat, sipped his brown sugar ginger tea, and gazed at the magnificent golden rainbow that slashed through the clouds outside the snow-covered city.

"Such a beautiful world can only be admired, not possessed."

The room was quiet and still.

(End of this chapter)