Chapter 219 - Strange Happenings
'Yangdi...?' a deep frown appeared on his forehead.
"Accept call."
*Beep*
The video connected. Yangdi was sitting in his room behind a desk, a bunch of papers and scrolls scattered around him. There were deep circles around his eyes and he looked exhausted.
"Yo, it's rare for you to call me. Everything okay?" Hao Xuan asked but he knew if Yangdi was calling him of his own accord, it was never good.
His dislike for Hao Xuan was quite apparent which he didn't even bother hiding.
"You're finally out. I've been calling every single day for the last few weeks. We need to talk," Yangdi replied while rubbing his temples like an overworked husband.
Hao Xuan propped himself up against the headboard upon seeing the serious expression on Yangdi's face.
"I just got out yesterday. What's up?"
Yangdi shook his head, "Not over the network. They might be listening. In-person. Hurry back."
*Click*
And with that, he hung up without even waiting for a reply. Hao Xuan stared at his watch for several seconds before getting up. He took a shower, sent Black and White back to the mind palace, and continued his journey.
He was getting a bad feeling about all this. First what Gong Zan had said, then Yangdi, and now even First had said something similar just before he went through the rift.
Five days later he was standing at the periphery of Fortuna. He only stopped once in 5 days to rest for a few hours to get back as quickly as possible.
He stored away Bai and went in on foot.
On the way, he saw several guards marching across the outer districts, which was...unusual.
As he got closer to the city wall, the traffic increased as well. He was going through district 4 and the main road was almost jam-packed with people.
Mostly human, there were thousands of carriages taking the left side of the road, while the right had people on foot and beasts.
It took him close to 2 hours to reach the gate. If he had used the military clearance he could have cut through everything but he didn't want to draw attention to himself or announce his arrival.
The security had been tightened a lot and he had to go through two security checks before he was allowed entry. But everything went fine and he used his own identity to get into the city.
There were guards everywhere. And not just city guards, but people from many of the other units like the Spearhead and the Ten thousand were roaming the streets as well.
Keeping his head down, literally, he cut across myriad of streets to finally reach Yangdi's area.
It's there he went into an empty street and jumped into one of the many giant courtyards to get to Yangdi's home.
A few seconds after he had already gone away, a man casually entered the street. He saw it was empty, looked around for any signs of movement before quickly scurrying away in a panic.
Hao Xuan reached Yangdi's courtyard within a couple of mins. He went through a number of other mansions before arriving in his.
Yangdi's old butler was waiting for Hao Xuan by the door. Without saying a single word he took Hao Xuan down to the basement where Hao Xuan 'Severed' Yangdi originally. He opened the door to the room and left silently.
Hao Xuan walked in and the door closed behind him on its own. Yangdi was sitting on the other side behind a desk, writing something on a piece of parchment. There were piles of plates and bottles beside him. It looked like he had been living in this place for weeks.
Hao Xuan was thinking of something to say when Yangdi's voice came.
"What do you know about the general situation of the country at the moment?"
Hao Xuan didn't reply immediately and sat down on one of the sofas before responding.
"Only that we are at war. Why? What else is there?"
Yangdi still didn't look up and continued writing.
"Five weeks ago, Prince Jia Heng 'appeared' at the royal palace in Fortuna."
Hao Xuan raised an eyebrow, "The Jia's crown prince? And just five weeks ago? Before I even went into the rift?"
"Yes."
"And? What happened?"
"He gave Prince Mei Shu two options." (Mei Shu is the young crown prince of Mei)
"One, surrender. In which case Mei would continue to operate normally with the Mei clan being in charge of everything and everyone in their territory. They would only answer to the Jia clan and no one else. The only catch was that Mei would have to hand over half of its treasury right now and then send regular resources and soldiers to fight for Jia's war."
"Or option two, go to war, in which case the Jia will not stop until Mei was destroyed and crippled to the core."
*Sigh*
Hao Xuan took a deep breath and looked at Yangdi silently. He knew which option Mei Shu chose since the war had already started.
"Is that it?" he asked. If this was it then there shouldn't have been a reason for all this secrecy.
"Yes and No." Yangdi finally put down the pen and looked up. His eyes were red from exhaustion.
"Mei Shu is very young. He will be turning 13 this year. Even though he is the crown prince, he doesn't have the authority to choose for the entire kingdom, at least not yet. But he did exactly that, and without even consulting any of the advisors."
"And the worse part is that a beast clan has formed a partnership with Jia. The Wu clan. Together with their beast armies and Jia's army of giants they attacked the first stronghold near the border. The stronghold was lost within two days and one of the Six Great Generals, General Ren Zhong, who was stationed there attained serious injuries. There has been no contact with him ever since."
"Princess Mei Yin took this opportunity to discredit Mei Shu, saying that he had started a war Mei could not possibly hope to win and is gathering support to overthrow him. The situation is...not good."
"Also, there's something else...."