A/N: Guys, we have reached 285 views here. It is currently the third-most viewed story in my profile, right behind TDINE – Become One, one of my earlier fics (and not as well-written ones) by 5. Five. Not kidding. (And Tainted Eyes got 100 views even though it hasn't even been a week since I uploaded it.) Thank you so freaking much, especially to LeafStorm924 and MindAboveMadness for fave-ing this, and LazyPhantom-1412, MindAboveMadness, Mossflower1234, personification of dawn island and thaliamowdy for following. Though I would hope that a review comes in soon…it's nearly 300 views, and not a single one of you has reviewed yet…*sad face*.

I am so sorry for taking so long. I've had so much homework to finish and activities to attend for the past couple of weeks…plus a birthday. Mine. I'm 14 now. The main reason I'm uploading tonight is because I have time. Tomorrow's my Speech Day (read: Prize-giving Ceremony for last school year) and one, I have a prize to get; and two, I don't have to be there before noon. Here's the backstory chapter you've been waiting for. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter 5: Lion Cubs II – Southern Yue

Lyrical Title: Don't Think, Just Run

Date of Writing: 2 November 2018 (Original Draft), 29 November 2018 (Rewritten Final Version)

Date of Typing and Editing: 29 November 2018

Warning: Chinese history. Also note that some of the translations may be inaccurate (due to a lack of resources) and there may be mild historical inaccuracy. Plus, Cantonese (Yale Romanization) and a very complicated family situation.

Note: All dialogue is spoken in some Chinese tongue or another. Most likely Middle Chinese, since it was the official language of the time. This has been translated into English…mostly. I'm using the Cantonese translations because apparently, Cantonese is the closest thing we have to Middle Chinese – the official language of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Except the names.

Late Southern Sòng Dynasty (Mid-late 1270s)

They were on the run.

Nanyue, her officials and her little Emperor were staying in this tiny portion of her territory, south of the hill topped with the rock formation shaped like a stripe-less tiger with long hair along his head and neck. They had named the place Gau Lung, nine dragons, for there were eight hills – dragons in the area alongside Emperor Bing.

She feared that they had reached the end.

That she had reached the end.

She was born as the southern lands of the region, close by the great seas which led to island archipelagos even further south. She had fought against her adopted older brother, Yào, many times before: when he was the Qín and the Western Hàn, in which she coined her true Nation name but was officially taken into Han rule; then the Three Kingdoms period, the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Suí Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. You see, the Sòng Dynasty had been a peculiar situation.

Once, her brother had a great rival known as Xiōngnú, from the times when he was Qín, whom he had fought countless wars against, but she heard that the two had got married sometime during the earlier stages of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. He had dissolved (read: passed away) since then, though not without leaving three children behind: Mongolia, now Great Yuán; Kitán, now not-quite Great Liáo, Western Liáo or Qara Khitai, formerly Great Liáo or the Liáo Dynasty/Empire; and Jurchen Jīn.

During the Northern Sòng, Jurchen Jīn formed the Alliance Conducted at Sea with Yào to defeat Kitán, who accepted. After they (read: Jurchen, since Yào didn't have the strength to fight then) drove Kitán westward, weakened, Jurchen broke the Alliance and her brother had been missing since 1127, the year the Northern Sòng fell to the Jurchen Jīn forces. As a Nation, she knew that it was no coincidence, and from the rumours that she had heard from the North…to put it lightly, it was not pretty.

Even before the Sòng – from before the Hàn, to be exact – nature had established the order of things in the area: her brother reigned the North while she ruled the South. Looking back, history might have been Foreshadowing, after all these centuries, that she would become the Personification of the Southern Sòng.

Politics were…let's just say that she was thankful and suddenly sympathetic to her (adopted) brother, who handled them before…you know. Yuè Fēi – or Ngohk Fēi, as she knew him – her best general – and a Sorcerer to boot – was killed under the orders of some sh**ty (read: f**king corrupt) mundane politicians, such as and this Emperor who wanted to stay in power (as Yuè Fēi wanted to retake the North, which she supported) in prison for charges known as mò xū yǒu ("perhaps there is" or "no reason needed" for English translation). They had to sign the Treaty of Shaoxing for peace not long after that, and it was despicable.

Then she got into an alliance with Mongolia to take down Jurchen. They ended up driving him northeast into the mountains, but…northern stupidity was probably contagious, as she pretty much made the freaking exact same mistake as her brother. So now Mongolia – no, Great Yuán now – was out for blood. Her blood.

Western Xià and Kitán had both died at his hand, and since Mongolia got his hands on Jurchen first, her brother now being at that traitorous, backstabbing b*stard's hands was the most probable theory that she had…and she was too scared to picture it in her head.

Why she had come this way, she had absolutely no idea, except for the fact that her instincts were guiding her this way. Perhaps this place is destined to be special?

A/N: I actually had to rewrite this entire chapter because I suddenly had the urge to change things up quite a bit. I originally intended for China to rep the Southern Sòng, but I read 10 Dark Secrets Of The Mongol Empire on ListVerse and suddenly had a plot bunny hopping around my mind. I also apologize if you got bored during the history lesson, but it's better for you to understand the situation.

Gau Lung is now Kowloon. The "hill topped with the rock formation shaped like a stripe-less tiger with long hair along his head and neck" is Lion Rock Hill.

Xiōngnú represented the "Five Barbarians" (tribes?). He carried this as his Nation name because the Xiōngnú was the most significant tribe in early Chinese history. The marriage represented the Sinofication policies of the Northern Dynasties during that period of time. Since Xiōngnú was losing his culture to China, he was gone sometime around/between the Suí and Táng Dynasties. This is my headcanon, at least.

The idea that Yuè Fēi was a wizard belongs to me.

Nanyue was the Personification of the Kingdom of Nanyue, which was established as the Qín Dynasty fell and was dissolved when the Kingdom was conquered by the Western Hàn army. She went on to represent the southern lands of whatever Dynasty China was going through, or whichever role she was required to play (in the South, of course). She began weakening in the Táng Dynasty, when the northern and southern cultures began merging. Her human name was 趙荷芬 – CHIU Ho-fun (Cantonese), or Zhào Héfēn (Pinyin).

Nanyue literally means southern Yue.

Little did dear Nanyue know that indeed, the land she was standing on was destined to stand out…

Anyways, thank you for reading, and hopefully I will update ASAP. The next two Intervention chapters (IV and V) are already written, and I'm writing Intervention VII right now…because Intervention VI is kind of a summary of what happened between V and VII.

Please leave reviews. I will hold Chapter 6 hostage until I receive at least 3 reviews!

-Talons