Volume 5: International Pouting

Fairy Emperor's POV

The relationship between Lanhua and it's westerly neighbors could be said to be a series of misunderstandings.

Dafeng, Greater Peak Country and the Wu Family's ancestral home, got into a border dispute with the newly fledged country Lanhua, over Xifang Town supposedly encroaching on Greater Peak's territory. The issue was resolved quickly and, if that had been all, things might have been fine. But the problem came afterward.

Greater Peak Country was surprised to discover a nation growing on the "Big Blue" Mountains. The mountains had a lot of dark and grimm stories circling around them, and actual deaths to back those stories up. Though merchants had been crossing over for years without much in the way of problems, no one thought this meant the mountains as a whole were safe enough to live and raise a family on.

What was worse, this new nation was even hiring mercenaries and warriors without even attempting to hide what they were doing. As Greater Peak Country had the Tian Empire to their far west to send chills down their spines, they preferred not to have another such country develop so close to home. Greater Peak Country was thus quite alarmed and sought to investigate.

The sensible thing was to start with the source. If Lanhua was indeed a nation it must have a ruler. Contacting the ruler to figure out what was going on was the first step. It was just…

Every time Greater Peak Country tried to have some kind of official correspondence with the ruler of Lanhua, eight times out of ten, they were ignored. Eventually, they had to send someone directly, only to discover that no one took their representative seriously. The best they were able to get was a nice stay at the Wu Manor, the Xifang Mayor's home, before being sent back with a politely worded message to mind their own business.

This kind of treatment naturally predisposed Greater Peak Country to dislike Lanhua. There were a few more border skirmishes to test Lanhua's military strength and attempted restrictions on the merchants to try and "starve" the new country. None of these tactics worked, with the results of the skirmishes being particularly embarrassing for Greater Peak Country.

Not only did they lose every time, one general secretly gathered his family and most loyal followers and defected directly to Lanhua! He even left an insulting note saying the Greater Peak royalty was spineless and couldn't compare to the godlike Princes found in Lanhua. This kind of double-defeat was enough to make the Greater Peak Country's King spit blood in a rage.

Yet despite all Greater Peak's anger and provocations, Lanhua never did more than defend itself. Whatever they had hired so many fighters for earlier, it had clearly not been to fight Greater Peak. This was even more frustrating because it meant Greater Peak Country had no reason to continue attacking. Expending so much time and resources on a country that wasn't doing anything other than existing, made Greater Peak Country look petulant. As if they were throwing a tantrum.

It didn't help that every skirmish increased the Greater Peak Country army's admiration of the Lanhua's Prince, a bear of a man, and his personally trained forces. If another general defected, the King might actually die from anger. After a lot of deliberating, Greater Peak Country officials decided to just ignore Lanhua and hopefully save their King from an early grave.

This "if you won't talk to me, I won't talk to you" kind of attitude spread to the only other country bordering Lanhua on the west: Shenying, Mountain Shadow Country. Greater Peak Country and Mountain Shadow Country had always had a great relationship, with their royal lines mixing heavily to keep them close. Thus if one country didn't like you, chances are the other wouldn't either.

That being said, only a fool would turn a blind eye to a new military power. Greater Peak and Mountain Shadow Country sent quite a few spies disguised as merchants to keep tabs on the new nation. Most of their information came by way of their spies. While the spies were never able to get close to the Lanhua Royal Family, they did travel freely throughout Lanhua. The general impression they brought back was "a hodgepodge country that did as it liked, lacking in virtues and morality common to civilized nations, but definitely wouldn't cause problems unless provoked".

The split between west and east on the mainland shouldn't be underestimated. For hundreds of years, if something happened on the east, it would take many years before the west heard about it, and vice-versa. And even when they heard about it, the resulting story was often far from accurate. When merchants began passing through, news came quicker and more accurately. But merchant's focused heavily on news important to them, not on news important to politicians. Generally, unless it was an official correspondence with the sources themselves, it was better to treat merchant news as rumor.

Thus, news of Lanhua's rampage in the east took a surprisingly long time to make its way back to the west. This was partially because the total destruction caused was so traumatic and sudden, no one was sure who was behind it. In fact, for a long time commoners thought the destruction was a natural disaster rather than man-made. At least one whole country had been entirely wiped off the maps because of it, whatever it was, without any survivors to say what had happened. Rumors abounded.

This extreme destruction disrupted much of the business flowing between east and west, cutting off the merchants who usually shared "rumors". Merchants either couldn't get out of their countries due to the destruction or fled to Lanhua directly for safety without realizing until much later it was Lanhua that had started the fight.

After all, communication was never a priority with the Lord of the Mountain, and he was too busy dealing with his own problems to care much about anyone else. The Wu Family was the next best thing in terms of getting information, but they were extremely tight-lipped about the Lord and his family.

The eastern lands also suffered from an extremely poor reputation. They were known for being uncivilized and violent. All the western countries who bothered to keep track of the east heard was that there seemed to be a big war being fought over there. Their general consensus was "those barbarous Easterns are fighting… again".

This was why the spies from Greater Peak and Mountain Shadow took a long time to piece something sensible together. The moment they confirmed that the "barbarous" eastern countries have been taken over by the "irresponsible and carefree" Lanhua, they immediately sent the news to their superiors.

At this point, Greater Peak had lost the will to care about Lanhua. The new nation rarely responded to any inquiries, no matter how polite or rude, and, as long as they weren't poked, never acted violently. They were just extremely annoying. The Mountain Shadow Country was in much the same position. Both countries were more surprised by the news than anything.

Lanhua never attacked first. This was obvious because Greater Peak had tried numerous times to start something with them, failing miserably. Exactly what had those warmongering Easterns done to anger such a laid back country into going on the attack? At least now both western countries understood why Lanhua had been hiring mercenaries and wandering warriors all those years ago.

The only thing this discovery did was motivate Greater Peak and Mountain Shadow to put more soldiers near the Lanhua border and send a few more spies to keep an eye on things. Greater Peak was almost certain Lanhua was aware of the spies sent by them. Yet the spies were allowed in and treated like everyone else. Life in Lanhua was good and the reports reflected as much. The King of Greater Peak felt if he wasn't careful, he might end up having his spies defect to Lanhua too. This just annoyed the King even further.

Despite these overt antagonist movements from their neighbors, Lanhua continued being lazy and apathetic. This was as both western countries expected. Even though their spies insisted Lanhua had violently conquered the east, it was somewhat hard to believe considering the nations relative size and behavior towards their westerly neighbors.

The conquering of the east had taken place many years ago by the time western nations got the full scope of things. If Lanhua had wanted to turn their military against the west, there ought to have been some indication of them doing so. But nothing of the sort ever happened. Lanhua kept being their irritating selves, ignoring their neighbors as if they didn't exist.

Greater Peak and Mountain Shadow were considered the go-to nations for information about the east. They usually got the news first after all. That was why all the information about the east was filtered through them. This included anything about Lanhua.

Since both countries couldn't do anything directly to Lanhua for all those years, they made up for it by speaking ill of the new country to their neighbors. This was why, despite Lanhua having existed for over fifty years, it was only just now that far western countries were bothering to visit them. It was also why dignitaries from these countries acted so arrogantly upon arriving. They truly believed themselves better than anyone in Lanhua.

Jin knew all this information before meeting the western dignitaries, despite his best efforts. It's not that he wanted to be ignorant, he was just very specific about the information he wanted to know. And what he wanted to know was which outsiders were a threat. He kept very close tabs on any people deemed a threat or even a potential threat.

But those who weren't a threat? Why should he care about them? If he cared about every non-threatening individual in the world, he'd drown in worry and anxiety from them all. This just wasn't worth it to him. Time spent being concerned about people who didn't matter could be spent on the people that did.

Like Mei. Or his sons. His deer. Even worrying about Ye would be more productive than caring about all the non-threatening individuals in the world.

To get Jin to understand somewhat how western countries related to Lanhua, Mei and several sons had been sneakily feeding him information over the last few months. He had an excellent memory, so once he heard or saw something, he wouldn't forget it. This was why, even though he didn't care and didn't want to know, because it'd been told to him on the sly, he found himself begrudgingly educated.

He was currently in the Hall of Serenity, sitting on a comfortable seat placed on a raised dais. In front of him were dignitaries and Lanhua officials. Everyone had their own chairs with a small table to the side for tea and snacks to be served without interrupting the flow of conversation. The seating arrangement had each group facing each other, with the farthest sitting closest and the ones neared him farther apart. This allowed him to see everyone's face and for them to see him by simply looking over.

The leading official was a Wu grandson, one of the first to graduate from the Imperial Academy and earn a position in the government. He was a man with a spirit that was very straight and firm, with barely a ripple to be seen, exhibiting a unique inner calm for a human. As with all Wu's, he was extremely clever and needed very little information to understand what was being requested of him. He very rarely got upset about anything, no matter how offensive, which made him great for negotiating. Currently, Official Wu was doing just that: negotiating a trade deal with the dignitaries.

Jin was there mostly for show. At the right moments, he'd interject something or act threatening to prove a point. It's not that Jin was incapable of negotiating, but he lacked a human sense of value. What interested him definitely didn't interest humans and what interested humans didn't interest him. When it came to human-to-human negotiations, it was better to let humans deal with it.

He kept his face in a firm, serious expression while only keeping the bare minimum attention on what was being said by the people in front of him. Any Lanhua official brought into this meeting was competent enough that he didn't need to keep close tabs on them.

While his human body limited Jin in many ways, there were still some things he could do reasonably well. One of them was split his attention into two different places. Right now he was listening to what was being said, while he was also using the mountain to peek on his family members.

His Mountain Flower was currently entertaining the wives and daughters of the dignitaries. Lanhua was probably the only country to specifically invite women to an official meeting like this. Mei enjoyed entertaining guests, but the guests in question seemed nervous, puzzled and even a little afraid.

As to why they were afraid, even Jin wasn't sure. It could possibly be that Mei's aura, which had grown alongside her cultivation, was unintentionally intimidating them. They were very frail, after all. Weak spirits tended to instinctively cower in front of strong ones.

To ease the tension, Mei had gotten out her pipa lute and started playing it. She didn't often play for outsiders, so this was a treat even if the foreign women weren't aware. Jin enjoyed listening to her play, so focused on her music for a long time. When she was done, much of the tension of the women had eased. Seeing things going well there, Jin's attention moved on to other places.

His fourth son, Lu Shao, had made good on his threat to his younger brothers. His ninth son, De Zhou, and tenth son, De Qiang, were currently being forced to copy a section of Lanhua Imperial Family Rule book. Their spirits looked withered from the agonizing boredom of the task they were being forced to endure.

Jin's whole face twitched at the sight of them and he almost laughed out loud. He had to cough to cover it up and drank the tea next to him. This distracted the nearby officials and only after glaring at them did they realize they were staring at him rudely.

Actually his ninth and tenth son were lucky it was Lu Shao that had caught them. His fourth son was the most soft-hearted of the bunch. He'd just make them copy the Palace rules and then send them on their way without telling Mei. Even if she found out later, too much time would have passed, and since Lu Shao had punished them, she'd let it go. They would then avoid the worst punishment of all: being continually scolded by their mother.

His other sons would definitely have punished the boys for breaking the rules and then told Mei to top it off. This kind of cut-throat mentality came from Shan Hui, who never showed mercy to his younger siblings. If Shan Hui had to follow such burdensome rules, he was going to make sure all his younger brothers did… or else.

Of course, Jin wouldn't say anything. Unless it was Shan Hui, who insisted on starting fights with him all the time, he wasn't very strict in most matters with his sons. They knew his bottom line and as long as they didn't touch it, he didn't mind their behavior. Ah, though Mei would say he went beyond "not minding" and straight into "actively encouraging" the wrong kind of behavior in his sons.

He couldn't be blamed. His sons were very entertaining to watch. He saw traces of his Mountain Flower in them as well, which made them adorable to look at. They were funny and cute, so naturally it was difficult to be strict with them. Not that he'd ever admit such a thing to them. They already took advantage of him even without him saying anything, imagine what they'd do if he admitted it openly?

And anyway, his unspoken spoiling didn't do any harm. Being Mei's sons they were generally of a good sort, excluding that brat Shan Hui. Whether letting them have fun or earnestly pursue whatever interested them, there was no real reason to tell them no. Watching them be so lively made his days more fulfilling.

Admittedly, it had taken him some years to get to this point. Even after having so many sons, he still found being a father awkward. It didn't come natural to him the way motherhood came to Mei. He was predisposed to being jealous and domineering about the people he cared for, and who he cared for most was Mei. Even with his sons, he didn't want to share her and found having to irritating.

The irritation was worsened because they added to the smothering heat of his existence. They were like him, after all, and their spirits generated their own warmth. It was only because they were like a candle to a bonfire that he could retain his sanity and not immediately, instinctively, destroy them. Shan Hui was the only troublesome one, but he still managed restraint for Mei's sake.

This was the main reason he and Shan Hui struggled to get along. The biting words and arguments were just a consequence of a deeper problem. They were too similar in spirit, repulsed by each other's heat and seeking relief in Mei. But Mei was one person and no matter how strong her spirit got, it wasn't enough to cover both of them. It was good that Shan Hui often left the mountains now, it made things easier for both of them.

Jin sometimes wondered if his Sister was around and the balance of the mountain returned, would he be able to get along with his oldest son?

But then he'd think about that brat's smug expression and doubt. That brat had a serious personality problem and might just keep being contrary out of spite and habit….

While he was thinking that his oldest would probably always be a hopeless case, a sudden spike of raw power showed up on his borders.