Chapter 54 Complex Relationship

After the women finished receiving their treatment, Lin Xulian sent them to Beast Mountain with a letter. In the letter, she stated the situation of the women and asked her mother to continue their treatment and her father to strengthen them. When she was done settling the women, they started their journey back to the capital.

During the travel, Lin Xulian noticed that Feng Jun Yi is distracted the whole time. He seems to be in a deep thought. Sensing her questioning gaze, Feng Jun Yi sighed and told her about his worries. It turned out that the information given by Gong Weixie is both helpful and not helpful at the same time. It is helpful since they have more chance to finally cure the sixth prince. But the problem is the two countries have complex relationship.

It started since the establishment of the two countries. The three countries originally belong to a single empire called Tongyi Empire. The ancestors of the two imperial family revolted and overthrew the previous one. The Fengs are military family while the Xings are court officials. They teamed up bringing the old empire down. But when they finally achieved victory, a new problem arose. And that is who will be sitting on the throne. The two head of the families wanted to be the emperor resulting to internal strife.

The two gathered their own allied families and started to fight. Some decided not to join in. The Lan family led some family and settled down in a disadvantageous area and named it Fanrong. Although the land is agriculturally unsustainable, it is better than being drag into an unending war. The two warring families didn't mind since it is considered a barren land.

The other families decided to take risk and seek shelter from the Qiangdu country. It isn't an empire and no one outside the country knew how they work and who led them. Once you enter the country, you either have to keep it a secret that you came from the place or just never leave. Because the country is so mysterious, the emperor of Tongyi never dared to think of conquering it.

The war lasted for almost three decades. It was a war between power and strategy. They work well together once they have the same enemy, but against each other they were able to hit each other's weakness. The war only ended after the two family head died from old age while their heir didn't continue the fight. At least openly. The new family heads agreed to divide the country into two.

They created a treaty and divided the country evenly. It was signed by both family heads and also the representative of each allied families. The Feng family named their area as Gonglu country while the Xing named theirs as Zhixiang. But the peace only lasted for a few decades. The Feng family discovered that a mountain on their territory have a rich gold deposit. They immediately started to mine the mountain that helped the country's wealth to rise.

When the Xing family knew about the mine, they fought for their right to co-mine in the mountain. The mountain is located in the border of the two countries. It is just a small mountain and if no one tried to dug a pit on it, no one would think that it is useful. And since the treaty stated that the mountain is part of the Gonglu, the Feng family also fought back to protect their property. And this lead to another series of war.

But unlike the previous war, the Gonglu country overpowered the Zhixiang and subdued them in no time. As a result, the Zhixiang chose to do underhanded means such as targeting the miners and releasing poisonous animals and insects on the site. The war was replaced with small but deadly scheming. The Gonglu country had to place guards on the mine and be constantly on high alert. That's when the two Lin brothers, who are travelling, coincidentally passed by and saw some Zhixiang spies secretly put poison on the miners and guards' food and water and restrained them.

Because of their help, the emperor made a deal with them seeing that they are great martial artists. Their style is unique. They specialize in team combat. No one knew where they came from and no one dared to ask. Aside from the continent they are in, there are also other continents and unexplored islands. They agreed to protect the empire in exchange for the right to settle down on the Gonglu country.

Because of the addition of the Lin brothers' strength, the Zhixiang country relented. But the relationship between the two country worsen and descended into a cold war. Their connection was severed and each country had to depend on themselves to survive. They also connected themselves with the Fanrong country who found a way to maximize the use of the ocean and provided seafood and other marine originated goods.

This lasted until the time of Feng Jun Yi's grandfather who was the third generation of the Gonglu empire imperial family. He connected the Gonglu and Fanrong through marriage between his son Feng Jun and Lan Yue, Feng Jun Yi's biological mother. During his time, he allowed the Zhixiang to mine on the mountain which they named Blood mountain since it caused a lot of bloodshed between the two country so that they won't start another war since they believed that the Gonglu wanted to absorb the Fanrong country.

From then on, the two countries started to trade their goods with each other. Their relationship got better but they are still on guard against each other because of their history of series of wars. Their relationship is considered as civil but not close enough for Feng Jun Yi to casually ask for the Buxui herb from the Xing family. This cause him a headache ever since Gong Weixie informed them about the herb's location.

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Hearing the complex situation about the two countries from Feng Jun Yi, Lin Xulian is also at loss of what to do to acquire the Buxiu herb. For the first time, she can't think of any way to trade for the herb. "Can't we just steal it?" She suggested.

Feng Jun Yi shook his head. "Emperor Xing Wenhe should already know by now that Zhen needs the Buxui herb knowing that Gong Weixie will definitely sell this information to him. If the herb got stolen, he will immediately know that Zhen is behind it. This might cause another war and our people will be unsatisfied once they knew that Zhen sacrificed the country's peace for an herb. Even though the purpose is to save a prince's life, the life of more people will be at risk."

Lin Xulian is immediately stumped. She admits that her idea is very selfish. Leading a country is so complicated as expected. She has to think of other way to save Feng Jun Ying's life as soon as possible.