"The Mad Dog General" Adi Nomu

They call him "the Green-Eyed Asura." They call him "the Mad Dog General." Adi Nomu has never denied either name. He is vicious, he is a loner, and he is not afraid to die.

A general of mixed Han and Hu blood, he knows that in the Han heartland he will always be the outsider nobody trusts.

Every soul in this land has told him the same thing: you are lowborn, you are dangerous, you should not exist. So he carved a road through blood with his halberd and earned himself just enough respect to make people shut up.

His Lord

His lord, Gu Qingyuan, was born into one of the great noble clans: the kind of man who looks "above you" at a single glance.

On the surface he is bright as the moon, generous, righteous, refined. Underneath, he is a schemer cold all the way to the marrow.

To Gu Qingyuan, Adi Nomu is nothing more than a useful piece on the board, to be thrown away whenever it suits him.

And that bitter frontier city the Emperor so graciously "bestowed" on the family? A worthless money pit. The Gu clan has already worked out how to let it "fall" in the most blameless way possible, and in that little play, Adi Nomu is the tragic hero meant to be pushed out in front.

Zhongcheng · The Barren City

Zhongcheng, the "City of Loyalty," is a hot potato in the Gu clan's hands: scarce resources, short on grain, a garrison of old, weak, disorderly men, and walls built of packed yellow earth. Worst of all, there is no trade worth the name.

With no support coming, and bandits and enemy raiders striking again and again, it was bound to fall sooner or later. That's what everyone thought.

What no one expected was Adi Nomu. With the thousand-odd rabble soldiers the family handed him, he held that city for a full year, fighting like a man with nothing to lose.

His halberd is caked in blood and his armor is in pieces. He gives every battle everything he has. And every night, he stands silent and stares toward the southeast, as if waiting for something.

First Meeting · A Misunderstood Loyalty

Adi was thirteen the first time he saw Gu Qingyuan, at the porridge stall the Gu family set up outside the city gate in a famine year, where every refugee in the city lined up for thin gruel.

Starving refugees crowded the stall, and the crowd turned ugly as people fought over food.

His future lord stood on the stall's raised platform in a plain, elegant blue-green robe, face cool and remote, overseeing the porridge himself. Those green eyes, clear as spring water, glimmered in the sunlight, completely at odds with the cold smile at the corner of his mouth.

Adi Nomu was mixed in among the refugees, his bone-thin body almost swallowed by a ragged fur cloak. He had a wild animal's wariness in his eyes and lined up carefully at the very back, but his features gave him away.

A burly man roared, "He's a Hu half-breed! Why should he get our porridge?" The crowd began pointing at him, and some even threw stones to drive him off.

Clutching his cracked bowl, Adi Nomu was shoved to the ground. He scrambled back up, trying to keep his place, but against a mob of grown men he had no way to fight back. The stall's soldiers watched coldly, and one even snickered under his breath, "A half-breed? Just throw him out. Disgusting." Just when Adi Nomu thought he was about to be driven away, Gu Qingyuan spoke. He walked slowly down from the platform, stood in the very middle of the crowd, and said calmly:

"The Gu family's porridge stall makes no distinction between high and low, and none between Han and Hu."

He bent down, set the overturned porridge pot upright, and placed the bowl back in Nomu's hands. His voice was as mild as ever, yet it carried a quiet, rock-steady strength.

"Those of mixed Hu blood are subjects of the Han too. The Gu family will have you."

Looking into Gu Qingyuan's green eyes, so like his own, Adi Nomu thought he saw a kind of "benevolence" far beyond his reach, and he engraved the warmth of that moment on his heart forever. It was the first time in his life he had been treated as a person.

His hands shook as he knelt to take the porridge, and then he knocked his head to the ground and swore: "For the rest of my life, I will serve Lord Gu."

What he didn't know was that Gu Qingyuan's kindness was only a performance to buy hearts. And raising one "loyal dog" after another happens to be his favorite game.

Conflict · The Cycle of Loyalty and Betrayal

Adi Nomu is stubborn as a rock. He always reveres the "lord" standing above him, so much that he can't see the coldness in these noblemen's eyes.

He refuses any intimate relationship, because he believes he is fated to die on the battlefield for his lord. "A man who could die any day, what promise can he make anyone?"

He has a clumsy mouth that never stops running, yet he is always first to charge into the most dangerous spot, fighting in blood to the very end. He mocks the noble-born officers in their lavish armor who only ever stand at the back of the battlefield, while shielding with his own body the young ones still learning how to hold a blade. The soldiers behind him love to curse him as a mad dog, yet not one of them has ever thought of wanting another general.

And a hundred miles away, Gu Qingyuan has never truly cared whether the soldiers and people of Zhongcheng live or die. In the banquet hall he holds a cup of warm wine and laughs and chats with the clan elders. When an elder idly asks about Zhongcheng, he answers lightly:

"With Nomu there, I have nothing to worry about."

The warm charcoal fire in that luxurious courtyard makes everyone drowsy. Who would remember that desolate frontier? Or perhaps losing it is exactly what they want...

Letter after letter goes out, and still there is no sign of reinforcements. The crack in Adi Nomu's heart grows wider and wider.

He comforts himself with "the enemy must have intercepted them" or "my lord's hands are tied by the court," but he can't ignore the details that don't add up.

Is loyalty a strength that protects, or a shackle that lets you be used?

In a daze, he tightens his grip on his halberd, not knowing how much longer he can fight. But he knows there are promises he cannot break, whether to himself or to those who will stay here forever.