Chapter 6 hidden dragon, crouching tiger

wò hǔ cáng long

lit. hidden dragon, crouching tiger (idiom)

fig. talented individuals in hiding concealed talent

In the dark alleys of the bustling city, Die Cheng, in the Xue Kingdom, a small black attired figure moved swiftly on the rooftops, stepping lightly on the roof tiles, before she hopped onto her destination. Another figure followed behind the small childlike figure, trying to catch up.

They just received hidden message from their leader, HeiYing, that he was already with the young master.

Amongst all the shadow guards, only HeiYing, was always able to catch up with the young master, making them both envy and hate their leader and fellow comrade Brother. They had to go through retraining few times when they lost their young master. HeiYing, feeling guilty, had once 'accompanied' the others back to army for retraining. They knew HeiYing wanted to take a break, so he used the opportunity to retrain. Even though they knew it but they appreciated HeiYing's comradeship.

Thus, today when they received the message from HeiYing, they knew that HeiYing was taken away by the young master to do misdeeds together. Nothing seemed to faze these shadow guards, their young master ever since his first outing into the town, he had been running off outside the General's manor to play around the town.

After following their young master for these few years, they had been accompanying young master to many places, from common men's houses to noblemen's manors and lately, the palace. When they had to report to the General where they had gone to, the shadow guards did not know the reason for young master visiting these houses so General could look and ask his only child for an explanation. The golden child only replied to his father that who and who had bullied so and so, so he had to seek justice to the so and so.

"Definitely child of Murong XieChu! What you did was right. Child, don't worry, even though the sky fall, your Father would hold it up for, just do what you want to do." He guffawed and patting his child perfectly rounded head, reaching to pinch her rosy cheeks.

The shadow guards looked at each other, each of them sighed in their hearts. Their young master liked to pick on bullies openly on the street was one thing, but it was another matter when young master started a new habit of breaking into houses. Thank goodness young master did not do anything untoward, and he only seemed mostly doing it for his merrymaking, as he only looked into the houses and moved to another. And now the General had given him permission and blessings to do what he pleased…as subordinates, they could only follow orders.

Murong XieChu remembered the report given by his shadow guards, about the first time Li-er saved a boy from the lake. He had found out it was the royal princes' pranks and was unhappy how Li-er could have been exposed to these unruly princes. Even if he had approved Li-er actions, and saved another life, he still scolded her for risking her health by jumping into cold water. HeiYing, who gave the report at that time, thought 'General, you should ask first if young master could swim before jumping into the pool…'.

From her snooping about from walls and roofs, Murong LiWang, also the immortal Gold Peach Fairy, LiHua, studied about the Xue kingdom's royalty, nobility, rich merchants and other important people. When she had first arrived in the mortal realm, it had been due to High God of War, Yuan LeiFeng's, perplexing message for her to wait for him, but she also had another motive.

LiHua, or now known as LiWang, in the her first mortal incarnation, wanted to know what had happened to her immortal biological grandparents in the mortal realm during her father's, Huang LiWei, rule. As the scion of the newly minted titled General Murong XieChu, Murong LiWang had receive top education and she was particularly interested about their country's history. LiHua learnt about the time of Huang dynasty rule and towards its devastation from her history lessons.

Xue Kingdom used to be Xi Kingdom, strife with internal wars and had seen many emperors trying to gain control of the country from tribal groups, According to Gold Peach Clan's history timeline, when LiHua's grandfather, Huang LiWei, after decades in power, he was caught due to treacherous deceptions, and the entire Huang kingdom crumbled without a strong leader figure.

Those who had stayed loyal to Emperor Huang, grappled with rebellions from all corners. The previous kingdom's nobles from Xi, Bian and Xue, led rebellions, together with their own domestic nobles, looted and razed down Grandfather Huang LiWei's palace. Grandfather Huang LiWei's generals in the absence of their all-powerful emperor fought back against the tide.

Before Grandfather Huang LiWei razed the countries, conquered and dominated over the main land, it was a quadripartite between the countries of Xue to the west, Bian to the north, Huang in the central, and Xi to the east. A separate land to the southwest was ruled by Xuan dynasty, which was strong in their naval and was not conquered during Grandfather Huang LiWei's conquest.

Immediately prior to the rebellion outbreak, a Huang dynasty general, with his Cai family serving the Huang royal family for many general loyally, had aligned with other generals together with the fallen Xue family, who had secret riches and military reserve, to seize control of what was left of Huang's dynasty.

While the traitorous Cai killed all old Huang dynasty loyalist, changed the name to Cai Kingdom, he also renegaded his agreement with the Xue. Instead of returning the economically valuable country back to Xue, he decided to keep all the riches to himself. During a banquet thrown in celebration of success of toppling Huang dynasty, the new Cai emperor killed the main Xue clan leader and the other family members, mostly the clan elders, who had attended the banquet. However, before he could remove the roots of Xue family, the rest of Xue clan had already been evacuated to escape.  

The Xue royal family, lost their thousands of soldiers, without any military might could only flee to the east, where the previous tribal warlords had fought against the Cai. The Xue married the tribal warlords' daughters and slowly assimilated themselves to reset up their own stronghold in the east.

Alike the myth of phoenix rose from ashes, the Xue royal family had fled twice, once from their own fallen kingdom on the western side and later from Cai's treachery, had later slowly rose to power in the east.

Xue family married only tribal princesses, but their own daughters were sent off to marry other influential lords and figures from other countries. In a matter of few years, Xue family gained enough influence and power, aligning with several tribal groups, set up a Xue kingdom in the east.

With their selected Xue child groomed to become the emperor and the tribal warlords were given royal titles and government roles in exchange for peace and prosperity. Xue kingdom had balanced their new dynasty with literati and military within the court. Those unyielding tribal warlords towards the Xue family, maintained their own strongholds, while the Xue family kept a wary eye and spies on these warlords.