The Silly Alchemist

“Wait, I’ll pay,” Taeya grabbed Ye Lang’s gold coin swiftly then tossed a few coppers over. The meal was only worth a few coppers, he would be overpaying by a lot with a single gold coin.

This wasn’t the first time Taeya did this. After spending a day with him, she had already accumulated many gold coins with her. This kid spends too much , she thought as she stared at them.

She didn’t keep these gold coins for herself, of course. Instead, she would look for an opportunity to slip them back into his bag of coins. Since Ye Lang did not keep track of his money at all, he didn’t notice if there were a few more coins in it.

This was very similar to Tigress’ past behaviour so he didn’t care.

At the same time, there was no looming sense of dread among the people of the tribe lands, you wouldn’t know there was a war going on. Was it because they had always been at war? Were they used to this? Well, Ye Lang did not notice because he didn’t know there was one. He probably wouldn’t care if he did either.

“Master, you’re here! Can you take a look at this?”

Upon setting foot into the conference hall, Athena called him over to look at the battle conditions on the sand table before he spoke.

“You’re still playing this game? Why is the progress so slow? It’s been a few days, why hasn’t the game ended?” Ye Lang knew it was the same ‘game’ when he looked at the positions.

“Our opponents are far away, it takes a while for them to make a move.” Athena found a very suitable explanation– they were playing against someone living far away.

“You’re all crazy. With all this time, why not just get that person over here to play... Attack here during the day, feign an attack here but retreat there...” Ye Lang started to make plans after surveying the positions for a moment. They were all seemingly random decisions too, he did not follow any school of thought at all.

The crowd couldn’t help but wonder if he was just talking for the fun of it.

Athena was in a dilemma. Should she take a chance and trust Ye Lang? Or completely disregard his plans? This was a tough decision. It was only after some time when she finally made her decision!

“Alright, we’ll follow your plan!” Athena clenched her teeth. If we die, we die! she thought.

Ye Lang’s casual tone did not give her much hope but what could she do at this moment? This was her last resort!

And this was the story of how Ye Lang was dragged into this war. He didn’t know he was fighting against Tigress, he was now her ‘biggest enemy’.

Naturally, Ye Lang still thought it was a game!

On the other side of the war, Tigress had just received an update from a messenger. Her armies were starting to intensify their attacks after seeing what their opponents were doing. They thought their opponents were starting to give up.

“What?! They’ve started to attack? Call them back! This is a trap! They can’t tell but this is a random war tactic Master often used! When they die, they wouldn’t even know why they died!” shouted Tigress when she received news. However, it might be too late.

After this, she had an odd feeling. This looked like something Master would do but why would he be here? And in her enemy’s camp too!

Perhaps someone stole his ideas after watching him play a few games on the sand table. And that someone is involved in this war.

As Tigress expected, Ye Lang’s next move was to perfectly coordinate all his forces- which were set to look as if they were slow and dispersed- together in the field. This was the point everyone realised it was actually a well-thought-out plan. The parts he didn’t move was actually the key to success.

Athena was now looking at Ye Lang in a different light, her tone when she greeted him changed from flat to a hint of respect!

On the other side...

Tigress was in utter disbelief as she watched the battle unfold over the next few days. Of course, she wasn’t in disbelief that she was now losing the battle. She never had much confidence in herself anyway, this was her first time at war.

She was in disbelief because this was Ye Lang’s battle tactics, it was all too familiar. She felt like they were both playing in the sand again.

“Miss, what should we do? We are going to lose!” lamented one of the people at the table. They didn’t expect the tables to turn this quickly!

“It’ll be alright! If we can’t win with strategy, we’ll win with something else!” Tigress shook her head calmly.

“Something else?”

“Yeah! Master once said everything on the sand table is hypothetical. There are actually many other factors that contribute to one’s victory on the battlefield. And one of them is morale and intimidation!” Tigress took out Tai Ya’s blade, gently caressing its blade as she spoke.

“Morale? Intimidation? Miss, are you saying...” The people didn’t know what she meant but understood when she took her blade out.

“I’m going to battle!” Tigress declared calmly.

Everyone felt a sense of warmth and relief, their blood pulsing through their veins. Watching Tigress fight always filled them with hope and passion, if Tigress went to battle, she would have a significant effect on their army’s performance!

They couldn’t help but look forward to going into battle with her!

“This is bad! The enemy’s little tiger girl is personally leading the army! We got the upper hand but her army is so powerful our men can’t stop them!”

This was the news Athena feared most. They were winning! She was exasperated.

“Get the Master here!” The only choice was to get Ye Lang to solve this.

“You think Master would be able to deal with this?” Thomas and the rest knew this was no longer a matter of tactics. They should be looking for another fighter to deal with the little tiger girl instead.

“If he can’t, we still need him...” sighed Athena helplessly.

“...”

After her reminder, everyone recalled what role Ye Lang was supposed to play here. He was meant to be used as blackmail against Tigress.

At this moment, everyone hoped Ye Lang would be able to solve this problem. They did not want to commit such a shameful act. They were a lot closer to him now too.

Unfortunately...

“You can’t do that! If this were real, and this happened, you have to remember armies dictate the outcome of the battle, not strategy! You have to control this warrior. And I can’t help you if it’s something outside the sand table!” Ye Lang shook his head, dashing their hopes and dreams.