26 So blun

Plutarch, Year 198 of the Dragon

Yi Lan yawned as she walked up to the dining room. To her surprise, an unfamiliar man was sitting there, along with Che Ling and Yi Ruo.

Without saying anything, she sat down on one of the seats. The rest of them immediately froze on seeing this action of hers. Che Ling coughed, trying to get Lan's attention, but she just gulped down food like a hungry animal.

He coughed a few more times, finally succeeding in catching her attention, only for her to say "Take some cough medicine, it's a pain to hear so much noise in the morning."

"Yi Meng, this is my father, The Emperor." Che Ling said quickly pointing towards the man beside him. Yi Lan looked at th Emperor while chewing rice balls and said with her mouth full, "Nice to meetcha." A few grains of rice flew from her mouth and landed on the Emperor's plate.

Even Yi Ruo who had been giggling inside her mind, grew pale on seeing this. She knew if the Emperor grew angry, she might be dragged into trouble too.

"Your Majesty, please excuse my foolish sister. I've heard that she's lost her memories." Yi Ruo said bowing down and gestured Lan to do the same.

To her disappointment, Lan ignored her and said "Ah, yes. Forgive me Your Majesty." It would have been better if she had said these words while not tearing a piece off a roasted chicken leg.

The Emperor only made a disgusted face. He waved off the apology and asked, "Have you thought about the engagement ceremony Meng girl?"

"Hmm? Wait a minute." She said and finished her breakfast in a minute, leaving Che Ling and Yi Ruo agape in shock. Che Ling could get that Yi Lan's attitude was different as she wasn't from this world, but Yi Ruo couldn't believe that this person was the same as the Yi Meng before. She has even dared to make the Emperor wait!! And did she just inhale her food!? How did she eat so fast?!

"I'm done! Now, where were we?" She pushed away her plate and wiped her hands. "Right, the engagement. I would like to break it off."

Emperor : "...."

Che Ling : "..."

Yi Ruo : "!!!!!!!!!.....".

'So blunt.' All others thought at the same time.

The Emperor cleared his throat and said, "I'm afraid that's not possible. I had promised your deceased father that I would let you marry my son."

"Eh..Really? Then what proof do you have that he's dead? Was his dead body found? Was my mother's dead body found?" Lan asked leaning against her hand.

"That.. No." The Emperor looked uncomfortable. "But the search for their bodies had been carried out for five years, and here, if a body has not been found for three years, the person is declared dead."

Yi Lan had already decided. She had a gut feeling that atleast one of her parents were alive. But she knew that this old man wouldn't agree easily.

"What should I do?" She asked.

"Pardon?"

"What should I do to break off the engagement?"

His eyes glimmered, before they became clear again. But that small moment was enough for Yi Lan. She smirked. 'Got you~.'

He shook his head. "There's nothin-"

"There must be something." Lan said.

She glanced at the other two who were listening shamelessly. "Let's take this conversation elsewhere." She got up.

The Emperor hesitated, but agreed.

Unknown to anyone, Yi Lan had armed herself with a culinary fork. She followed the Emperor to the throne room. The Emperor gave silent signs to the royal guards to leave them alone.

He sat on the throne with a flourish of his robes, and Yi Lan stood in front of him. "Now please enlighten me Your Majesty, just what do you need in exchange?"

He sighed. "It's not easy. You can say it's possibly impossible for you to do."

Yi Lan's mind wheels spun quickly. "In other words, it's something related to Qi, right?"

He nodded. "On every year of the Dragon, a tournament called the Dragon Blood tournament is held. Students from all parts of the world participate in this, the reason being its prize. The winner is given the legendary dragon blood."

"And you want this dragon blood?"

"No, what I want is the winner to be from our land. Every year, the prize is taken by our rival kingdom. Now, all people make fun of our land, calling it a land of weak soldiers." His face was grim, as if remembering their taunts. "We always get the last position."

"This bad?" Yi Lan was surprised. It looked like all lands focused on training the people to become soldiers.

"I'm afraid so. You won't be able to bring back the prize, but.." He cut himself off.

"But my younger brother can." Yi Lan said knowingly. "Unfortunately, I don't plan to ask him. I myself will take part and win the tournament."

He grew angry. "Are you trying to make a joke of yourself?! You don't even possess Qi."

"Who said I didn't?" She asked calmly. "As a matter of fact, I do have Qi. And I will win the tournament."

"But your test said that-?!"

Lan could see the shock and uncertainty on his face. She took out the fork from her robes and held it in her hand.

"Watch." She said.

She directed a small thread of Qi, though in a rough way, to her hands and crushed the metal fork in one second. Her hand ached slightly, not used to the feeling of using Qi. Her physical strength had also increased by the seal Chun Jie had put.

He finally was satisfied, but still asked "What if you don't win?"

"I'll marry Che Ling. I'll also give up my idea of taking revenge for my parents."

"Revenge? What harm would it bring to me?"

He asked.

"I'll take revenge by obviously killing a few people. And maybe some relatives of those people could come here in search of me. You wouldn't want that, would you?" She smirked. "On the other hand, if I win, I'll leave this land to search for my parents. How about it? It's a win-win situation, you know."

He paled and after thinking for a while, agreed to her condition.

It wasn't that Yi Lan was too prideful to ask Yoru. All geniuses were subjected to taunts from the jealous. He was still young. His job was having fun and not killing people. She wanted her brother to have as normal a life as he could. Even if they weren't blood related, she still tended to care for him. After all, he was the only person she had decided to be close with in this world.

"But how do you plan to train? At the very least, you should attend school." He muttered, rubbing his chin.

"School.. Which is the best school out there?" Lan wanted to train as quickly as possible.

"The best school... is what you could call a military training school. Their ways are harsh, but the results are excellent." He said in a preening manner, proud of it. "Unfortunately for you, women aren't given as harsh training as men. Even if you attend the school, you won't be able to defeat the soldiers from other lands." He shook his head in disappointment.

She let out a breath, as she contemplated about what to do. When an idea finally struck, she sighed. This feeling was too similar to a cliché novel.

"If girls are treated gently, then I'll just have to become a boy, right?" She said in a dull voice. "Atleast that way, I won't have to face those love struck women."

The Emperor looked at her with a blank face. When he finally understood, his face had a 'No-way-you're-kidding-right' look. "Don't tell me, you plan on-"

"Yi Lan, age: seventeen, gender: male, soldier-in-training, reporting to the Emperor." She said in a deep voice, almost like a man, not forgetting to salute in the end.

The Emperor felt like banging his head on the wall. Just what did he get himself into?!

"Well then, you just sit back and relax till the day a man named Yi Lan wins the Dragon Blood tournament. I will bring glory to our land." She said loudly.

The Emperor smiled, happy on hearing her words.

".... By the way, what's the name of our land?" She asked nonchalantly, making the Emperor face palm.

"It's called the White Leopard Kingdom." He mumbled.

"What's with all the lands and tournaments being named after animals?" She scratched her neck.

"That's because of the Ancient Beasts. There were originally four, who served the Greatest Emperor of all times. They were: The Ancient Dragon, the Ancient Phoenix, The Ancient Serpent and the Ancient White Leopard. They were brave warriors and we humans, imitate them by becoming soldiers. We named our years after them. Lands were honoured by being given those great Beasts' name. And the tournament was only named like that because of the prize-the Dragon Blood. The stron-"

*Rumble rumble rumble*

The Emperor was cut off by deep, rumbling noise. "What was that noise?? An enemy attack? Where are the guards?" He shouted and got up.

"Uh.. That was just my stomach." Lan said patting her tummy. "Looks like I'm hungry again. Thanks for the info, I'll find you when I need something." She turned back, waving at him.

"Wai-" She left the room. "Atleast bow down to me before you leave." His words were left unheard,making him sulk like a child.

When she got back to the dining room, she immediately spotted Yoru being clung on by Yi Ruo. She gnashed her teeth, feeling annoyed. 'How dare that dirty pedophile defile my cute brother!?'

She walked up to them and pushed Yi Ruo aside, but not before giving her the stink eye. She sat beside him. He gave a big smile and greeted her good morning. She greeted back and asked "Do you plan on going to school Yoru?"

"Yes, my master has already finished training me, so I decided to go to school."

"En? What school is it?"

"Felon's Combat academy."

Yi Lan's gut tingled. "It wouldn't happen to be the best military training school in the land, right?"

"It is! Wow, as expected from Big Sister. How did you guess?" His eyes sparkled.

"Just call it intuition." She sighed. "That's right, I forgot to tell you, I'm going to a training camp with my master. I'll see you after two years."

He got up in shock. "Two years? Master? You never said anything about this!"

"I forgot. Don't worry I'll be fine." She winked at him in such a way that no one but he could see.

He was intelligent enough to notice that she was pretending and played along. "I guess it can't be helped. I'll wait for you."

Che Ling asked, "What about the engagement?"

"It's temporarily cancelled." She said.

Yoru had a big smiled on his face on hearing this. Yi Ruo's face also split into a grin. She was thinking to herself, 'By cancelling the engagement, she'll be thrown out of the clan. With this I'll be the true heir! Even the Crown Prince will be mine.'

Yi Ruo's dreams were too good, but it's a pity that they might not come true at all.

Yi Lan bid Yoru good bye and went to Chun Jie's house.

For the next three months, she was trained like hell, but the results were satisfactory. Her pale thin limbs, were now muscular. Her abdominal muscles also tightened when she stretched. All in all, her body was fit enough to look like a man's.

The only problem was, how she would register to the school. Chun Jie had offered to pay her fees, but Lan hated to leech off someone. She wanted to earn money herself. She decided to get a scholarship test.

Currently, she was training her hand speed, so that she was quick while making seals. In her previous life, she had been pretty fast, as she had assembled and split apart the parts of a gun in a minute or so. She had been rumoured to be a genius in making weapons. Her research material was sold at high rates to different lands.

To maintain her previous reputation, she had to have the same hand speed as before.

And when she would be fast enough, she would go on a search for cheap materials that'll make a good weapon. Making a weapon from scratch was no problem for the previous Lan, but this Lan had comparatively less stamina.

Not to forget, she even had to find a scroll that showed some basic seal techniques.

"This is gonna be one long journey." She sighed.