Free Web NovelChapter 2012: Chapter 2016: The Young Leopardess Coup
"Urgent report! Urgent report! Your Majesty, urgent report!"
Just as the four Great Clan Kings were chatting and laughing, planning to keep fighting Qin Tian in West State on one front while carving up the Leopard Clan from within on the other, the Grand Eunuch of the Imperial Palace rushed in from outside in a panic.
He rushed in, saw all four kings present, froze for a moment, then walked straight to the Lion King’s ear and whispered something softly.
"What?!"
The Lion King’s face changed at once; his smile vanished in an instant.
After the Grand Eunuch withdrew, the Lion King’s expression sank. "Hmph, looks like we were... happy a bit too soon, weren’t we?"
The Xiong King said, "What’s wrong? What happened?"
The other three, seeing the Lion King’s expression turn ugly, all had a bad feeling in their hearts.
Before the Lion King could speak, outside, the Wolf King’s captain of attendants also arrived at the palace gate, reporting there was urgent business and requesting an audience.
The man came in and likewise whispered in the Wolf King’s ear. This time, the Wolf King’s face looked even worse than the Lion King’s; he slapped the table outright. "What? How is that possible!"
After that man left, the Lion King looked at the Wolf King and chuckled. "Wolf King, looks like you’ve received the same news. Hehe, your Wolf Clan wanted to move first, but who knew your scheme would be seen through. Now, trying to occupy Leopard City is going to be troublesome."
The Xiong King felt the Lion King was being too vague and grew anxious. "You two, what on earth are you talking about! What happened? Hurry up and say it!"
Seeing that the Wolf King was already so furious he couldn’t get a word out, the Lion King said, "Something big has happened in Leopard City. Hehe, the army the Wolf King sent out hasn’t even arrived at Leopard City yet, and inside Leopard City, a grand palace drama has already played out."
"Heh, who would’ve thought that little leopard girl would suddenly bare her fangs. She actually had Great General Yan Cheng and State Preceptor Qi Ming directly raided and their households confiscated. Yan Cheng and Qi Ming were directly beheaded!"
"What!?"
The Tiger King and Xiong King both froze on the spot.
The Xiong King said, "That little leopard girl is just in her twenties, and she actually had the guts to kill Great General Yan Cheng and State Preceptor Qi Ming? Those two were the old Leopard King’s right-hand men back in the day!"
"They might have been the old Leopard King’s right-hand men, but Yan Cheng was secretly connected with the Wolf Clan. Qi Ming was secretly tied to the Lion Clan... Heh, when those two saw the old Leopard King die, they got a bit unscrupulous and were already itching to move."
As the Tiger King said this, the Lion King and the Wolf King’s faces both looked extremely unpleasant.
Yan Cheng and Qi Ming had been secretly colluding with the Lion Clan and the Wolf Clan, harboring the ambitions of jackals and wolves.
No one had expected that these two men who held real power would be killed in a single night!
"Under what charge did the little leopard girl kill Yan Cheng and Qi Ming?" the Xiong King asked.
The Lion King replied awkwardly, "Treason and disloyalty. Hmph, that little lass is ruthless enough—went straight for beheading!"
"Qi Ming and Yan Cheng both held military power. How did the little leopard girl manage to kill them?"
"The little leopard girl used mourning as an excuse and summoned Yan Cheng and Qi Ming into the Imperial Palace in the middle of the night, saying she wanted to ask the two great ministers to plan the Leopard Clan’s future. Hehe, Yan Cheng and Qi Ming both wanted to seize the opportunity to grasp real power. They also thought that although the little leopard girl held some military authority, her troops were all outside the city, so she wouldn’t dare act rashly. Plus, they’d watched her grow up, so they let down their guard and went into the palace alone."
"In the end, the two of them were poisoned on the spot, and then they were at the little leopard girl’s mercy."
The Lion King shook his head. "Hmph, who would’ve thought something that looked so smooth would suddenly run into a hitch like this."
The Wolf King sneered. "Lion King, earlier you blamed me for colluding with the Leopard Clan’s Great General Yan Cheng. Heh, yet it turns out you were colluding with the Leopard Clan’s State Preceptor Qi Ming... Hmph, tell me, we..."
The Lion King waved his hand. "At this point, Wolf King, what’s the use of saying all that? Right now we need to come up with a countermeasure, and fast. I heard that after the little leopard girl killed Yan Cheng and Qi Ming, she didn’t immediately release the news. Instead, she used their names to summon every General in Leopard City who held military power into the Imperial Palace and delivered a rousing, impassioned speech... I heard that after listening to her, all those Generals swore their loyalty to her."
"Brilliant! Truly brilliant!"
The Tiger King gave a thumbs up. "If any of my few useless sons had that little leopard girl’s kind of guts, hehe, I’d be able to sleep easy at night... sigh!"
The Xiong King thought for a moment. "Who says women are inferior to men... That little leopard girl has trained in martial arts since childhood; we all watched her grow up. We might not have seen her for years, but everyone still remembers how she led troops at eighteen to crush the Leopard Clan bandit scourge, right? Don’t be fooled by her being only in her twenties. As far as I recall, that little leopard girl has led troops into battle at least four times, and every time was a sweeping victory! ’Number One Beauty of the Barbarian Clan’, ’the Barbarian Clan’s beauty General’—I’ve heard plenty of people mention those titles."
"Yes, who’d have thought Yan Cheng and Qi Ming would actually lower their guard around that little lass. They really shouldn’t have!"
The Wolf King was filled with regret. "All these years, the little leopard girl has been in secluded cultivation with her master and only returned from her travels half a year ago, so everyone probably forgot about her... I, however, have been keeping an eye on her. I was planning to have her give me a litter of wolf pups in the future, heh heh... She’s beautiful, has high cultivation, and carries the Leopard Clan’s Imperial Family bloodline. A woman like that, bearing my sons, they definitely wouldn’t turn out bad, hahaha..."
"Wolf King, now’s your chance. You can go suppress the little leopard girl and conquer her. Once you’ve subdued her, she’s yours, hahahaha." The Xiong King roared with laughter.
Hearing this, the Wolf King’s lips curled into a cruel grin. "Yes, so what if the little leopard girl killed Yan Cheng and Qi Ming? She’s only been back in the Leopard Clan for half a year—what kind of waves can she stir up? I’ve got plenty of ways to bring her to heel. Just you wait and see!"
...
"What!?"
It wasn’t just the Barbarian Clan’s few Great Kings who were shocked by the news of the little leopard girl’s coup. Even Qin Tian, who was in the middle of eating, almost dropped his chopsticks when he heard.
"Damn, that Leopard girl Yan Ruolan—isn’t she supposed to be the number one beauty of the Barbarian Clan? She launched a palace coup, used mourning as an excuse, and killed Great General Yan Cheng and State Preceptor Qi Ming? Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?"
Qin Tian stared wide-eyed at Zhou Yang, dumbfounded.
Zhou Yang gave a wry laugh and sighed. "Yeah, boss, we’ll have to update our perspective. That Leopard girl Yan Ruolan is indeed the number one beauty of the Barbarian Clan, but among the common folk she has another title: the Beauty General..."
"Still, I really didn’t expect that at just over twenty years old, she’d have the guts to directly kill the two most powerful ’uncle-generation’ figures of the Leopard Clan... Tsk tsk, that Leopard girl has some backbone."
While Zhou Yang was sighing with emotion, Qin Tian immediately put down his bowl and chopsticks, pulled out the map of the Southern Barbarians’ six clans and the analysis dossier on all the major power-holders among the Barbarian Clan that Zhou Yang had compiled for him earlier, and pored over them again and again.
