Chapter 281: Chapter 281: Army at the Gates, War of Words
「A few days later.」
Lion Flame Academy, in the Lion Flame Royal Capital.
A delicate courtyard gate was opened from the inside. Wu Yiyi stretched and walked out.
She looked at the guards standing watch outside the gate and asked, "I’ve been in seclusion for a few days. What’s the situation outside? Have you captured the Fake Lu Chao?"
The guards’ expressions froze.
With trembling lips, they replied, "Miss Yiyi, the Fake Lu Chao... has laid siege to the city."
Wu Yiyi was stunned. She blinked, wondering if she had heard them correctly.
Finally, she asked blankly, "What did you say? The Fake Lu Chao has laid siege to a city? Which city? *What* city?"
A barrage of questions bombarded the guards.
"It’s Lion Flame City—our Lion Flame Royal Capital," a guard couldn’t help but say, his voice trembling.
Wu Yiyi’s jaw dropped. Her face was a mask of utter bewilderment.
After a long moment, she finally asked, "Are you joking with me? The Fake Lu Chao laid siege to the capital with just the Dragon Flame Academy?"
When she entered her seclusion, the latest intelligence was that the Dragon Flame Kingdom was being kept in check by the Saint Bone Zheng Family and wouldn’t dare to rashly send out troops.
At the time, Wu Yiyi had decided to enter seclusion for a few days, hoping for a pleasant surprise when she emerged.
But what she got was a scare—the guards were telling her the Fake Lu Chao was on the warpath.
"Miss Yiyi, the Fake Lu Chao doesn’t just have the Dragon Flame Academy. He has the help of several Small Kingdoms, too."
The guards quickly explained the situation.
And Wu Yiyi’s first reaction, just like the Lion Flame Commander Shi Guang’s, was that they couldn’t be hostages. Instead, these Small Kingdoms had willingly sided with the Dragon Flame Academy... they were just pretending to be hostages.
"What’s the situation now? How is the Lion Flame King planning to respond?"
Wu Yiyi asked again as she hurried off. She wanted to find her dean and go see the city walls for herself.
But of course, the young guards couldn’t answer. How would they know what the Lion Flame King planned to do?
Soon, Wu Yiyi found her Dean Lion, and she couldn’t miss the pale look on his face. When she asked, she learned that the dean had almost been killed just days ago—he’d even taken an arrow. Right now, Dean Lion was preparing to lead the Lion Flame Academy’s students and instructors to the city walls.
As he led the Lion Flame Academy contingent forward, Dean Lion looked at Wu Yiyi.
He quickly explained, "That Fake Lu Chao is simply too vicious. He killed a commander like Shi Guang without a second thought. And Shi Guang was a damned good-for-nothing, too! With so many troops, how could he lose to a little impostor brat?"
"That one defeat was fatal. The entire Lion Flame Kingdom was thrown into chaos."
"Add to that the surprise attacks from Small Kingdoms like Sky Cliff and Liyan, and we were completely overwhelmed."
Listening to the account of the past few days’ battles, Wu Yiyi suddenly had a thought. ’How could the mighty Lion Flame Kingdom be as fragile as paper?’
Seeing Wu Yiyi’s expression, Dean Lion gave another wry smile. "Even though we negotiated a truce with the Great Wu Empire, we couldn’t recall all of our troops. We still have a large force stationed at the Great Wu Border."
Instantly, it dawned on Wu Yiyi.
She quickly asked again how the Lion Flame King planned to respond. It was a great humiliation for the Fake Lu Chao to have them under siege in their own Royal Capital. Don’t forget, the Dragon Flame Kingdom hadn’t dispatched a single soldier—it was only the Dragon Flame Academy.
"The Lion Flame King has ordered us to defend the city gates to the death and wait for reinforcements from the Fox Flame and Leopard Flame forces."
"At the same time, he has ordered all our forces to gather and return to the Lion Flame Royal Capital immediately. He also just gave the order to bring the families of the kings and students of the Small Institutes onto the walls to threaten the rulers of those Small Kingdoms."
As Dean Lion spoke, a sharp glint appeared in Wu Yiyi’s eyes...
Dean Lion continued, "No matter how those kings of the Small Kingdoms pretend, their Small Institutes have all been to the Dragon Flame Royal Capital. They must be coordinating with Dragon Flame. So we must force these Small Kingdoms to withdraw their troops."
"Once the troops from the Small Kingdoms are gone, the mere Dragon Flame Academy will be of no consequence."
As they spoke, they had already ascended to the top of the Lion Flame Royal Capital’s walls.
Wu Yiyi gazed out at the motley crew of soldiers below. Right in the center were those dressed in the garb of the Dragon Flame Academy, and at the very heart of the Dragon Flame group were their core figures.
Among them, the masked Fake Lu Chao was incredibly conspicuous.
And Cheng Yunsu was still by the Fake Lu Chao’s side.
"That Fake Lu Chao... he’s a real shit-stirrer. He stirred up so much trouble at Beast Flame Academy, and now he wants to throw the Hundred Countries into chaos. I really want to kill his wife and make him suffer a pain worse than death."
Wu Yiyi spoke with hatred, the image of Cheng Yunsu stepping on her back at the Beast Flame Academy still fresh in her mind.
Just as Wu Yiyi was speaking...
Some of the hostages from the Small Kingdoms had already been dragged onto the city wall.
At that moment, a Lion Flame general pointed at the hostages and said coldly, "Fake Lu Chao, kneel and surrender immediately, or I’ll kill these people."
For a moment, the kings who had willingly become hostages showed a flicker of panic.
After all, their sons and queens were among the hostages.
"Stay calm. Don’t worry."
Several descendants of the Azure Flame Sect guarding them spoke in low voices, telling them not to panic.
Then, Sun Shijin spoke icily, "Lion Flame Kingdom, have you no shame? Using hostages is your first move against our little Dragon Flame Academy? Are you that gutless?"
At this point, Sun Shijin couldn’t be bothered to use the excuse of looking for Nanye spies; he just questioned them directly.
Instantly, some of the Lion Flame soldiers and generals felt their faces flush. It was, indeed, a bit gutless.
But...
The Lion Flame general holding the hostages continued coldly, "The Lion Flame King has spoken. You are not worthy of us mobilizing our full might. You are even less worthy of meeting the Lion Flame King. You have Great Wu spies among you, and we have no need to be polite."
It was still all about them being unworthy...
But many of the core figures in Lion Flame knew that if they fought head-on and the city walls were breached, it would be even more humiliating. So after some discussion, they decided it was better to put on a superior air, using the hostages to intimidate the Dragon Flame Academy and the Fake Lu Chao, and to crush the will to fight of the Small Kingdoms’ troops.
’In any case, you are simply unworthy. We’re just too lazy to fight you head-on...’
The goal was to force the Small Kingdoms to retreat. If that didn’t work, they would stall for time and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
At this, Yu Fei added, "Who said we wanted to see the Lion Flame King? Aren’t you a little too full of yourselves?"
That one sentence sent a wave of fury through the Lion Flame Royal Capital.
But their new commander quickly quieted the crowd, adopting an attitude of ’no matter what you say, we’re holding the hostages right here. Just try and attack the city...’
In reality, the Lion Flame King had also given an order: unless absolutely necessary, they were not to kill the hostages.
Otherwise, these Small Kingdoms would completely break off relations and side with Dragon Flame for good...
Thus, the scene that followed was rather bizarre. Up and down the Lion Flame Royal Capital, the two sides did nothing but trade taunts. One side wouldn’t attack because of the hostages, while the other side couldn’t kill the hostages and could only resort to making empty threats.
Wu Yiyi was rendered completely speechless.
She also noticed that the Fake Lu Chao hadn’t said a single word. She couldn’t help but curse inwardly, ’What the hell is that Fake Lu Chao up to?’
