Chapter 1683: Ominous Letters second set
"Fuck...that’s not good...that’s REALLY not good."
Zhen Liu looked over his cousin’s message a couple more times just to make sure he had read it correctly. Unfortunately, he had read it correctly.
Zhen Liu had known of the civil cold war occurring in the Bronze Bell Kingdom from Bellona and how several of the conflicting heirs had begun to make more and more dubious allies to secure the throne.
Some had tried to connect more with domestic warriors of influence, while others had gone abroad and sought out connections that were either honorable or clandestine, depending on their personal preference.
Zhen Liu had no idea who among Bellona’s family had connections with cursed treasure makers, but he really didn’t want to find out. Granted, he probably wasn’t going to get a choice in that regard.
"Wait a minute..."
Recalling that the letter from his cousin explicitly referenced one from Bellona, Zhen Liu immediately ripped open the one he received from his mind-reading fiancee.
It had only been a few months since he had last seen her and Alicia, alongside their friends from the Rainbow Phoenix academy, and he already missed them.
"Wait...she’s in school, and yet has time to send me a letter in regards to their at-home situation...okay, yeah, I can already tell this is going to be really bad news."
Just like the letter from his cousin, Bellona’s message came in layers. The first layer was a fairly straightforward inked letter, asking how he had been and expressing words of affection and flattery with a small hint of jealousy that her brother was going to get married soon. The part of the letter that was written in [Chaos], though, was a touch more blunt.
...What did Bellona write?...
My Darling Zhen Liu,
To put it in a way that you would no doubt say, shit has gone absolutely sideways.
The once cold conflict between the factions of my cousins has become more and more openly hostile, to the point that there have been open brawls in the streets of the capital and violent skirmishes in places without civilian presence.
My family, who still maintains a stance of neutrality, has been approached and threatened by all of the other factions, especially in regard to our connection with your clan.
I know that you are still in the middle of a vacation to avoid such affairs, but it would be greatly appreciated if you could provide assistance, especially since I know you would try and resolve this in a violently peaceful manner.
Please write back soon or answer in some equally dramatic fashion.
Forever yours,
Bellona.
...Ain’t that ominously sweet...
"Is...is this my karmic void kicking in again because I vocally shared my distaste for being roped into political intrigue and bullshit?" Zhen Liu darkly mused as he looked over the letter one more time. "Fuck me with a redwood tree at this point, why don’t you?"
Months ago, Zhen Liu had a run-in with one of Bellona’s cousins, a warrior woman who was looking to gain the assistance of the main Zhen Clan in her pursuit of the throne.
Unfortunately, that idea fell through when the branch clan rolled up and swept through the prelimnaries...only for the Fallen to attack the city and ruin the whole affair with a couple of well-planned kidnappings.
From what Zhen Liu heard, though, that cousin of Bellona’s had apparently forged an alliance with the noble household that had produced the late Marquis de Howlite.
Those guys were apparently less... criminally insane...but they weren’t pushovers at the very least.
Zhen Liu had no idea who among this family of murderous royals was gunning for his family, but he made a quiet view that the culprits were going to end up in shallow graves...or monasteries as eunuchs, whichever came first.
’Alright, I’ve been putting this one off long enough.’
Of all the letters Zhen Liu had received that day, he dreaded reading over this one the most because it was from Slug-at-Arms.
The group that Slug-at-Arms was escorting consisted of his paternal grandfather, his great-grand-aunt, his first uncle, and his first cousin.
Not only that, but Terra, the inheritor of Tortallion’s will and daughter of Shockheel, was a part of this group.
Going off of memory, there were two Aether Kings, two Aether Lords, and an Aether Emperor in this group. In other words, there were very few things in this world that could hurt or hinder them, even on a bad day.
Unfortunately, the letter from Slug-at-Arms confirmed that one of those "few things" reared its ugly head. Thankfully, there was an upside.
A weirdly foreshadowing one.
...Of course it gets weird and worse...
To my most honorable liege,
If you are receiving this letter, I have both good tidings and terrible news to share; that could only be sent in this way in fear of interception.
The good news is that our party has made contact with Frosttusk’s mortal descendants.
Despite a fall from grace stemming from a certain event centuries back, the Stormsinger Tribe has been able to survive at least.
They do have a lot of enemies though, but we have also figured out a possible means for them to return to power and keep their enemies at bay forever.
Unfortunately, this leads directly into the bad news.
There’s this Aether Emperor in the area that has more or less claimed that every single aether treasure, or proto-treasure, belong to solely to them, and they have been going on a subjugation rampage to not only force the tribes to come to heel, but to provide her with even more aether treasures.
The Stormsingers’ ancestral aether treasure is on the type of this psycho bitch’s wishlist, and has been plaguing us with more and more minions practically everyday and has even started employing more esoteric means of suppression.
I literally sent this letter because there was a high chance that she has some sort of fucked up treasure designed to intercept our usual means of communication.
Reinforcements would be appreciated, but we should be able to handle it...maybe.
...What the fuck?...
"I feel like this is the exact kind of scenario that I was preparing for, but at the same time, holy shit, I honestly didn’t expect this to happen," Zhen Liu muttered to himself as he looked over all four letters together.
Despite his new power, despite the upgrade from the [Key to Nowhere] to the [Key to Everywhere], Zhen Liu wasn’t able to be in multiple places at once.
Sure, he could technically channel his presence through the kaijin, but that wasn’t the same thing...sort of.
And every instinct in his head was telling him that unless he was present for some of these moments, things were going to get bad.
"So I got three choices," Zhen Liu declared as he separated the letters into piles pertaining to each possible outcome.
The first was to back to the mines and figure out what the fuck happened to Gallop Brothers.
The letter had just detailed that the Fallen and the Shadow Garden had gotten into cahoots with one another, but Railhorn had failed to mention where they had confirmed this horrific alliance’s existence.
The Shadow Garden was an international crime organization, while the Fallen were incredibly nomadic due to their fortress being a giant demon clam thing.
"Assuming that thing is still alive," Zhen Liu wondered as he remembered that the aforementioned fortress got knocked out of the Abyssal Lands and towards the surface.
The second possibility was to wade into the waters of political intrigue that was the Bronze Bell Kingdom, and provide some much needed outside assistance to Bellona and Zhen Yue.
If he sent himself, he’d be able to provide a delicate touch to this sticky situation. If he sent the kaijin, though, they could probably kill the people involved or destroy whatever bullshit they had planned faster than they could protest or mount a counteroffensive.
It wouldn’t be pretty or delicate, but it would definitely work.
"But it would also be kind of the equivalent of putting a bullhorn on the fact that the Kaijin Lord has returned," Zhen Liu realized as he imagine his kaijin stopping a civil war before it could fully break out. "Perhaps I should stick with the frontier?"
As for the third and final possibility, that one was a touch more complicated because he knew it involved some deep seated karma of one of his kaijin and one of the people he made friends with because of that aforementioned kaijin.
"Frosttusk’s people are in trouble...and I’m fairly certain that if I were to send kaijin in my stead, that he would want to be there front and center."
Zhen Liu crafted Frosttusk from a shard of [Death Echo Amber].
That amber contained the remnants of some famous aether warrior from the Echoing Valley, and a lot of Frosttusk’s behavior made Zhen Liu realize that the loyal yet cold mammoth of a kaijin was definitely that guy reborn.
Reincarnated?
Whatever.
Either way, Frosttusk needed to be present for whatever was about to go down there.
"But I don’t necessarily need to be there...hmmm."