Towards Godhood

"Yi Con, not now"—saying so, his eyes turned towards Xiao Fan and the others around him—"not in front of them. They do not need to know." Spies in the family were something not discussed in front of outsiders.

Yi Con hymmed. "You handle them, and I'll keep the barbarians from coming over the walls while pushing my sword into the heart of the Liang Dynasty."

"As always." Yi Pong nodded in agreement. This had been the way in the Yi Family during their generation. Yi Pong kept the house standing, and Yi Con kept everyone out of their yard.

Though as Yi Pong's eye had now come over to them, he began to inquire, "So a concubine and her daughter has joined our cause... and then some add-ons?"

"He's Mask, and she's Facade. You have heard of them already," Wang Geming wanted no conflict to arise.

"He's Mask? Tsk Tsk. I thought he would have looked more... refined." Yi Pong was noting how Xiao Fan's face had still some burn marks on it.

"Refined? I'm a warrior, not a scholar." Xiao Fan's eyes looked back at the man studying him more deeply.

"Good, good" Yi Con laughed. "Warriors are always welcomed in the Yi Family."

"Hmm?" Yi Pong didn't understand, and so a frown took over his face. "But aren't you a strategist?" The records were clear. Xiao Fan was a strategist, or at least all his deeds said so.

"Currently, he is best used in the back, and so, I have tried to keep him at the back," Wang Geming cleared the situation.

Yi Pong, already going over the files concerning Xiao Fan, noticed the information that explained everything, 'Body Activation Realm Third Grade? No wonder, no wonder...'

"He needs training? I can train him!" While Yi Pong was pondering, Yi Con offered to train the man. "Come with me to the wall. If you survive a year you'll be a first-class officer," he spoke to Xiao Fan on the other side of the table.

"To the wall? What about the Tomb of the Four Ancient Ones?" Xiao Fan responded to the man. It wasn't a bad idea, but surely he was more urgently needed back in the Tomb of the Four Ancient Ones, plus he still wanted to be there.

"You can go there later, for now, you are going back." Yi Con had come out of his pondering. 'He's needed back in there. The kid holds too many valuable connections,' he thought to himself.

"What about you, girl? You want to come?" Yi Con changed his target. "Men and women alike, both serve there, and both become legends."

Zhuan An, knowing what was asked, looked at Yi Con whose face was filled with scars from the thousands of battles this general had gone through in his life.

Yet, she didn't get to open her mouth. "Stop trying to get travel company, leave the kids alone," Yi Pong needed to rein in the more casual co-leader.

Letting Zhuan An sigh in relief.

Yi Con laughed a bit but shut his mouth, allowing Yi Pong to continue, "We have come to here... exactly why?" Yi Lin had summoned them here; however, they actually didn't know why they had been gathered here for.

"We have gathered here to plan for my son's victory in the competition of course," she spoke, vaguely.

"... So you want my input to strategy and Yi Con's men I suppose?" A fundraiser? Really? A devious woman... but oh well, it will be fine if the next Emperor is a Yi.'

"You want my men? I'm already starved for men!" Yi Con took this not too well, noted by how his a.s.s almost got off the chair.

"You shall have double when I have won!" Wang Geming was quick to strike back, and unlike the general, he came out of his chair.

Yi Con was quick to counter by getting off from his chair. "How do you know that you will win in the first place? What if the next Emperor is a Guo or a Mo? In that case, I'll be left to defend the barbarians alone!" He had a genuine worry in that he would run out of men under the wrong Emperor.

"If you don't bet you'll never win"—Wang Geming's hand pointed at Fu Xiang—"A woman has already bet her life on me, do you have less courage than a woman?" Wang Geming was spewing out words that Yi Lin had put into his mouth.

Yi Lin knew how to press these men.

Indeed she did since Yi Con hearing those words was easily swayed. "I'll do it. I'll send the best men that I can."

The two men then got back to their seats while everyone in the room was still confused by what had happened.

Except for Yi Lin and Yi Pong. "Father, what about you? Will you help us?" This time it was her turn to sway the other co-leader of Yi Family.

"I'll help. I'll help. It's a game for children, so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with some ideas. And I will always help my daughter." Yi Pong smiled a bit. He would have done so anyway, so getting a little beg from his favourite child was a plus, a free plus which made him smile.

"Thank you, father." Yi Lin bowed to show her appreciation. 'With the two of them convinced, everything should be smooth sailing for Wang Geming,' she thought.

....

Inside the Royal Palace.

"Father! Father!" A young woman, almost blooming into a.d.u.l.thood, was banging on one of the doors, not minding the noises that were coming from the inside.

On the other side of that door, the Emperor was back to his original business. Yet when hearing his favourite child knock on the door, asking for an audience with such a frantic tone, he stopped.

"Wait a minute; papa is coming!" His hands and eyes were already shooing away the women laying and dancing on his bed.

Then, just a moment later, the Emperor opened the door, allowing her favourite child to come in, "Tenth, what are you doing here?" he called the Tenth Princess by a nickname.

"I'm here to rob you out of supplies," she greedily spoke. The Emperor never reprimanded her.

"Does tenth want to be an Empress?"

"Don't call me Tenth" she first cleared this; she didn't like the nickname. "Yes, I want to be the next Empress." The greed in her eyes glimmered when staring at her much taller father.

"Well if I can't call you that, then tell me an answer to this: Why should I support you?" His tone became serious, but not much. It couldn't, not against her.

The Tenth Princess hadn't expected this, but she did have a good answer. "Father, do you think that just because no one has heard of me that I haven't been busy?"

"I am."

"I see, then father doesn't know everything after all," she giggled.

"Oh? I don't know everything? Then what Am I missing?"

"Well, first of all, you don't seem to have realised that there is a lot of water in that place. Second of all, you haven't been taking notes of who controls the waves."

She put one of her fingers on the Emperor's mouth "Let me continue" she said to him, who was about to ask.

"Everyone else might be controlling a piece of land, yet I'm controlling the seas alone!" Saying so, she even made a small victorious pose.

"You have boats?" The Emperor was impressed yet also questioning.

"I." She took a moment to think of her words. "I have two warsh.i.p.s... but no one else has any!" She might not have an armada, but she was the only one who had any sh.i.p.s at all.

"It's only been a few weeks, and you have already managed to build warsh.i.p.s?"

"That wasn't too hard since we had all the equipment and know-how-" In their harbour-base, they had an abundance of almost everything when it came to shipbuilding. "but you are sold?"

"I'm sold. What does my precious one want?" The Emperor was a man who spent no time with his children, but the Tenth Princess was an exemption from that rule. When it came to her, the Emperor had all the time and resources.

"I want..." Getting her way, the Tenth Princess began to recite the long list of things that Du Lan and others had asked her to bring back while they built what they could.

....

The Yi Family residence.

Xiao Fan had been watching, mostly from the side, how the Yi Family leadership was going about their preparations.

Now that the family had decided to throw in their weight behind Wang Geming, everyone in the room was discussing within small groups while the outsiders were left to their own devices.

"Sorry, if I'm intrusive, but what did she promise?" Left to themselves, Xiao Fan began to chat with Fu Xiang.

"Not at all." Fu Xiang replied to him. In reality, she wasn't that high up in the hierarchy of the Empire. "Yi Lin promised us to become Yi's and resources for my daughter."

"Mother," Wang Shuan from the side exclaimed.

"We're on the same side. It's okay." Fu Xiang glanced at her daughter, trying to stop their conversation for some reason.

"Princess, you should be grateful for such a mother. Didn't she secure you at least a few cultivation grades?"

"Right," Fu Xiang joined his statement.

"But mother, now we are but..." Wang Shuan wanted to say pawns, yet didn't.

"You would have done better alone? Believe me when I say that almost every kid in the Empire would want your place." 'Does she think that she would have done better alone?' Xiao Fan wanted to laugh when thinking so.

"Eh?" Wang Shuan was somewhat taken from the words Xiao Fan spoke to her.

"You are a lucky woman already, don't try to bite too much. There's a limit how far everyone can go," Xiao Fan made his analogy simpler.

"Ah... you are right."

"Let's do well, and we might end up high enough." Xiao Fan smiled.

Between the two youths talking, Fu Xiang couldn't but think about how smart this Mask person was. 'So young, but he already knows not to reach too far...' She was a woman who had learned that much later; after a few failed attempts to gain some power.

"Yeah" Wang Shuan having understood the meaning quickly adjusted her thinking and so happily agreed, "Let's do that."

Following that, a voice came from behind Xiao Fan, "Princess, would you like to go shopping before we need to head back?" It was Zhuan An who had been left to herself the whole time.

"We—"

"Wait, you have money?" Before Wang Shuan got to say more, Xiao Fan who had started to speak at the same time gained the attention of Zhuan An.

"I do." She had her savings for a situation like this. For long had she wanted to go and shop here, in the capital.

"But if you are asking a Princess to come shopping... the money you have might not be enough."

Zhuan An was silent for a moment. "Can you help?" Coming out of it, she had a clear idea of how she could gain enough funds to go to a place proper for Princess.

"No need. I can pay, or we can go to lower-level—"

She was stopped again by Xiao Fan. "No way! There is no way that such a thing would be appropriate," he denied. Anyway, he had the money, so why not use it. "I'll get her the money. I just need to find a bank."

"Which bank?" Fu Xiang asked.

This time it was time for Xiao Fan to go silent. 'The Golden Bank? No, no, no. The Golden House? No, it wasn't that either.' Never having touched his money businesses much, he didn't know what bank took care of his money in the first place. 'The Golden Junta...'

"Yes, it was the Golden Junta."