That powerful? Then this Young Master shall face him himself!
But before the words could leave his mouth, Zhu Helin pulled Su Yan behind a pillar and ordered Commander Wei: “Gather all the guards together—don’t fight alone, lest you fall to the enemy’s sorcery. Send a few with strong qinggong skill and horsemanship to break through. Take my token, go to the nearest capital garrison depot, and summon a crossbow unit and a firearms unit at once.”
Su Yan saw how the Crown Prince now advanced and retreated with steadiness, directing with sound judgment. In just a few months, he had grown so much. A (fatherly) pride rose in him, and he added, “Before I came, I also had someone notify Shen Qi. The Embroidered Uniform Guard should be arriving soon.”
Zhu Helin curled his lip. “Why notify Shen Qi? This Young Master can handle it himself.”
The Crown Prince’s maturity bloomed only for a moment, like a flower at night—Su Yan again felt (fatherly) concern, seized his arm and said, “What childish nonsense. With such an enemy before us, the more allies the better.”
Zhu Helin, though clearly displeased, did not refute Su Yan’s words.
After relaying the Crown Prince’s orders, Commander Wei returned and said, “Those Blood-Eyed Assassins are as ferocious as beasts. This place is far too dangerous. Why don’t I have men escort His Highness the Crown Prince and Lord Su away first, while the rest of us stay behind to cover?”
Su Yan turned his head, peered past the pillar, and said, “It’s too late.”
The red-robed man drifted lightly down from the wall, stepping closer through the pouring rain. Yet the rain seemed blocked by some invisible barrier, unable even to wet his robe.
Having spent long enough with Jinghong Zhui, Su Yan had picked up some knowledge of martial theory. He knew this was true qi released outward—proof of immense inner strength, controlled to the finest degree.
The closer the red-robed man came, the stronger his aura grew. Practitioners like Commander Wei, sensing the suppression of a higher realm, stood taut with tension, while ordinary men like Su Yan felt only crushing oppression and suffocation, as though sinking into deep water.
“Seize the villain and protect the Crown Prince!” Commander Wei shouted, leading the guards in a charge.
The red-robed man flicked his sleeve almost carelessly. The wave of qi he stirred sent the attacking guards flying. He seemed not to regard them at all, striding step by step toward the two hiding behind the pillar.
Zhu Helin snatched up the sword he had dropped earlier, shielding Su Yan behind him, and shouted sternly: “The Seven Kill Camp and the Void Sect collude with one another, daring to assault the Crown Prince and ravage the people. You will surely be punished by the law of the realm!”
The red-robed man halted, his gaze from behind the mask fixed on him. “The Crown Prince has courage. Worthy of a fight.”
Zhu Helin’s sword quivered as he prepared to strike, but Su Yan seized his arm in a death grip. “Don’t go throw your life away—find a way to stall for time,” Su Yan whispered in his ear.
The red-robed man seemed to have heard their secret exchange. “Waiting for reinforcements? Too bad—by the time they arrive, your corpses will already be cold.”
He slowly drew from behind his waist a pair of viciously shaped Soul-Severing Hooks. A killing aura, icy and bone-deep, spread out. Zhu Helin’s face shifted; he shoved Su Yan hard to the side and shouted to the guards of Yu Wang’s manor: “Take him away!”
The guards rushed to drag Su Yan, but he clung to the pillar with both arms, refusing to let go, determined to live or die with the Crown Prince. The sight moved and pained Zhu Helin all at once.
The commander urged anxiously, “Lord Su, staying here you cannot help—better to escape sooner, so the Young Master has no worries behind him.”
Su Yan shook his head desperately. “The guards are too few—we cannot split our forces further. First protect the Young Master! If the Young Master survives, we may yet escape. If something happens to him, none of us will leave alive!”
“None of you will leave alive anyway. All shall die here tonight—why bother arguing who goes first?” The flash of blades, the spray of blood—the Camp Commander blasted through the defenders, treading over corpses as he advanced.
The guards protecting the Crown Prince were either entangled by the frenzied Blood-Eyed Assassins, or slain in just a few moves by the Camp Commander. Their numbers dwindled swiftly.
Unable to endure any longer, Zhu Helin swung his sword to meet him. Yet after barely a dozen exchanges, his blade was caught and locked fast by the enemy’s left hook.
As the right hook slashed toward his chest, Zhu Helin closed his eyes in despair.
Suddenly, a cold gleam shot from afar—faster, brighter than lightning tearing the night sky. With unmatched precision and force, it struck against the hook’s blade, nearly knocking it from the man’s grip.
The double hooks were blasted apart by the arrow that fell like a meteor. Zhu Helin escaped death, immediately pulling back his sword and retreating.
The Camp Commander’s hand numbed; he knew he had met a formidable foe. But who in the capital could have such power? He followed the arrow’s path and saw, through the rain curtain, a tall man standing on the eaves, dressed in a dark robe.
“…Yu Wang.” Beneath the mask, the commander’s brows furrowed.
Yu Wang, soldier-born, skilled in martial arts—that much he had already heard from Fuyin’s reports. But he had not expected this—this “skill” was far too extraordinary. Had Fuyin underestimated him, or had Yu Wang hidden his edge all this time?
Yu Wang saw him turn and look. Even through the mask, he seemed to sense the man’s surprise. With a mocking smile, he tossed aside his hard bow and called out: “Spear!”
A guard immediately hurled over a cavalry spear.
Yu Wang flicked it up with his toe, caught the shaft in hand, and leveled the spearpoint at the commander, gesturing an invitation to battle.
The commander crossed his double hooks before his chest, true qi surging so thick it was nearly tangible.
Yu Wang pushed off the eaves with a stomp, man and spear as one, like a black waterfall pouring down from the heavens, rushing toward him.
—
Gao Shuo rode through the stormy night, clutching the unconscious courtesan in his arms.
On Su Yan’s orders, he had led two Embroidered Uniform Guard spies to infiltrate Marquis Xianan’s manor in search of Ruan Hongjiao, tracking her to the wing room where Mister He was lodged.
Cautious as ever, he did not break in at once, but first hid on the rooftop, pried open a gap between the tiles, and peered inside.
Just in time to see Ruan Hongjiao twining her arms around Mister He’s neck, coquettishly begging for intimacy. He muttered inwardly: Lord Su made it sound so urgent, life and death hanging by a thread. Yet here she is, trysting in secret.
One spy made a hand signal: Shall we go down, seize her, and leave?
Gao Shuo gestured back: Unclear situation—observe first.
The three of them kept watching, only to see the scene turn abruptly—gentle caresses hiding lethal intent, willing submission ending in a deathly resolve.
Gao Shuo cursed inwardly: Not good!
He burst through the roof at once, slicing a venomous snake into two pieces. But unlike other beasts, even headless, the snake continued its attack, sinking its fangs into Ruan Hongjiao’s face.
With no time to lose, Gao Shuo cut away the flesh where the snake had bitten, hoping to stop the venom’s spread.
Meanwhile, the two Embroidered Uniform Guard clashed with Mister He.
Though he looked young, Mister He possessed superior inner strength. Gao Shuo had thought this would be a fight of life and death—but as the exchange dragged on, he began to notice something strange—
So it turned out, this Mr. He had a body full of inner strength, his realm extraordinary, but he was unfamiliar with martial forms.
The few Embroidered Uniform Guard agents might not have refined inner strength, but they were veterans with blades at their throats, every move and strike forged at the edge of life and death.
One side relied on internal energy, the other on technique; for a time, the fight could not be decided.
The clash alarmed the guards of the marquis’s manor. Seeing Ruan Hongjiao unconscious, Gao Shuo feared she could not withstand the blood loss and snake venom, so he called for his two companions to cover the rear while he broke out of the encirclement with her.
When he carried Ruan Hongjiao away, he noticed that even unconscious she clutched tightly to a box, and guessing it must be important, he took both the person and the box with him.
The pursuers were soon left far behind. The blood from the woman in his arms had soaked half his robes red. Gao Shuo suddenly realized—
He had sliced off a piece of the young lady’s face; eight or nine chances out of ten, he had ruined this peerless courtesan’s beauty!
As he spurred his horse forward, he lowered his head to look at the blood-smeared face against his chest. He could not tell if it was regret, remorse, or guilt that welled up in his heart—it felt like committing the crime of boiling a crane or burning a zither.
“Miss Ruan…?” Gao Shuo called a few times. No response. He freed one hand to check the pulse at her neck, and frowned.
The pulse was faint. If she kept bleeding like this, she would die before reaching the Su residence.
—That would never do. Lord Su’s order was to bring her back safely. He had to find a doctor first.
Gao Shuo thought of the surgeon Chen Shiyu, who often came to treat Lord Shen’s injuries, and turned his horse toward the doctor’s clinic.
As luck had it, after yesterday’s botched autopsy, Doctor Chen, to avoid his wife’s scolding, had found an excuse that the night was too rainy and late to return home, and so stayed in the clinic for peace and quiet. When Gao Shuo burst in, Chen Shiyu had just lain down, but seeing Ruan Hongjiao’s grave condition, he hurried to staunch her bleeding.
“What a beautiful young woman… what a pity,” Chen Shiyu sighed.
Gao Shuo felt even more guilty and muttered, “She was bitten on the face by a venomous snake, I had no choice.”
“Venomous snake? What snake? Why didn’t you say so earlier!” Chen Shiyu’s eyes widened. “That knife of yours wouldn’t kill her—the snake venom will!”
Gao Shuo could only recall it was red with white rings, but couldn’t name the species. In a panic, he risked returning to the marquis’s manor to retrieve the severed snake corpse. The other two agents had long since slipped away, but he was struck by an arrow from the guards in order to get it.
He returned to the clinic with the arrow still lodged in his back. Chen Shiyu sighed, “One patient has turned into two… Lie down, don’t move. I’ve no time to deal with your arrow wound now.”
Gao Shuo felt it hadn’t hit anything vital; an arrowhead sticking there for a while was no big matter, the pain bearable. He said, “I’m not urgent. Doctor, see to her first.”
Chen Shiyu examined the snake corpse and said, “This is a man-bred variant of the silver-banded krait, its venom fiercer than the original. Fortunately, this snake had already been milked of venom twice before biting, so its glands held little toxin. You also acted quickly. Otherwise, even I could not have saved this girl.”
Gao Shuo let out a huge breath and said repeatedly, “Good, that’s good. As long as she survives.”
Chen Shiyu prepared an antidote pill and fed it to the unconscious Ruan Hongjiao.
Gao Shuo lay on the next sickbed, staring blankly at her face, wrapped so tightly she looked like a white rice dumpling.
“Is there something wrong with my bandaging?” Chen Shiyu asked.
Gao Shuo, lost in thought, nodded, then quickly shook his head: “Of course not. I was only feeling moved. That a courtesan, besides her charm, could have such backbone and courage—it truly puts many men of weak will to shame.”
Chen Shiyu stroked his beard and chuckled: “Do not slight those of the dust. Since ancient times, there have been courtesans with knightly spirit—Hong Fu, Li Wa, and the like. Liang Hongyu even donned armor and commanded troops. Women can equal men.”
Gao Shuo nodded pensively: “However beautiful a woman, she will grow old one day. But integrity and spirit—that is a brilliance that lasts a lifetime.”
“Exactly so,” said Chen Shiyu. “Look at my wife—what beauty has she now? Yet I’ve kept her by my side all my life, because I remember when I first met her—though still ill with a cold, she plunged into the river to save a drowning child. That courage still shines bright today.”
Gao Shuo said nothing more, just continued watching Ruan Hongjiao’s unconscious face. In the past, listening to her sing, he thought her beautiful and her voice sweet. But beautiful girls are many; at most he thought of taking his pleasure, without much thought afterward. Yet now, in this wretched state, how was it she tugged at his heart even more?
He couldn’t figure it out, but kept thinking and thinking, so much so that when Chen Shiyu dug the arrowhead from his back, he didn’t even cry out once.
Chen Shiyu teased: “You’ve saved me a bowl of mandrake broth. If I had more patients like you, my clinic’s costs would be lower.”
A little embarrassed, Gao Shuo asked: “Who else before?”
Yu Wang. I stitched him seventy-two times, and he didn’t drink a single mouthful of anesthetic, just sat there smiling at Lord Su beside him.
Chen Shiyu only replied, “Patients’ private information—I cannot disclose.”
Gao Shuo had asked only in passing. What mattered more to him was when Ruan Hongjiao would wake.
Chen Shiyu said: “The bleeding has stopped, most of the venom cleared. She should wake in four or five hours. But this face will not recover as it was. The flesh you cut away—even if it regrows—will be uneven scar tissue.”
Gao Shuo was silent a long time before saying: “Then she may no longer have a place in the brothel world. What path she will take afterward… I can only beg you to do all you can to restore her looks.”
Chen Shiyu sighed: “Man does his best, but Heaven decides.”
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