Chapter 13: Encounter
The young woman paid no heed to the brocade-robed boy that was approaching her. Instead, she looked over his shoulder and cast her gaze toward the old man as she said with a displeased expression, "Just now, you tried to kill me out of the blue. You had your reasons, but I still think what you did was wrong."
The brocade-robed boy stopped a few meters away from the young woman, looking at her with an earnest expression as he said, "My name is Gao Zhen, and I am from Yiyang County of the Great Sui Nation. If Grandpa Wu has caused you offense in any way, then I am willing to apologize on his behalf and offer you compensation."
The old man's heart was filled with mixed emotions as he stood behind the brocade-robed boy. While the boy hadn't told any lies in his self-introduction, he hadn't told the full story, either. During the entire 1,200 years in which the Great Sui Nation had been in existence, the Gao Clan had always ruled over the empire as its imperial family, and Yiyang County was the home of the emperor of the Great Sui Nation.
The young woman remained unmoved by the boy's offer, and she tightened the bandages around her hands as she said to the old man, "In the face of a master martial artist who’s most likely already at the Windsoar Tier like yourself, I definitely wouldn't stand a chance in the outside world, but here in this world, all I have to do is call upon my flying sword, and your demise will be sealed."
A cold sneer appeared on the old man's face. "That assassin just now was only a peak Lesser Grandmaster, yet even for him, if he had been aware of that flying sword of yours in advance, all he would've had to do is protect his vital regions, and you would've been powerless to do anything. Even if you ran your sword through his body dozens of times, you still wouldn't have been able to kill him. As for myself, I am two entire stages above him, and the Windsoar Tier between us is seen as a virtually insurmountable hurdle for martial artists. I don't know what gives you the confidence to proclaim that you can seal my demise."
The young woman's brows furrowed slightly, and she rested her hand on the hilt of her saber once again as she said, "There are few things I detest more than having to bicker aimlessly with others. If you're not convinced that I can back up my claims, then how about we settle this argument with a fight?"
It had been a very long time since the old man had last been threatened like this, and he was seething with fury. If it weren't for the fact that they were stuck in this godforsaken place, regardless of how exceptional the young woman's aptitude was, there was simply far too massive a cultivation base disparity between them, and the old man would've been able to crush ten of her at once with ease.
Furthermore, he was bound by his duty to protect the young prince, who was the pride and hope of the entire Great Sui Nation. Otherwise, even if he had to risk being suppressed and severely wounded by the self-sustaining Great Dao in this place, he would've been determined to teach this little brat a lesson. She was like a little calf who was provoking a tiger, and her courage was commendable, but that certainly didn't mean that the tiger would spare the calf.
"If you insist on pursuing this matter, I am willing to offer you this item as compensation," the boy by the name of Gao Zhen hurriedly interjected, trying to defuse the situation.
He opened the cloth pouch hanging from his waist as he spoke, then pulled out the jade seal inside, placing it on the palm of his hand before offering it to the young woman. "I hope this will suffice as a gesture of apology. In exchange for this seal, all I ask is that you do not pursue this matter any further. I understand that Grandpa Wu is in the wrong, but it's his loyalty to me that led him to do what he did, and he bears no personal grudge against you."
The old man was horrified to see this, and he hurriedly knelt down on one knee as he exclaimed, "Please reconsider, Your Highness! I am nothing but a useless old servant, yet that seal is a treasure of immeasurable value! Such a treasure could alter the fate of our entire empire! If you insist on handing over the seal just so I can be spared, then you're forcing me to take my own life, Your Highness!"
Gao Zhen's expression stiffened slightly upon hearing this.
The young woman seemed to have lost her patience, and she sneered, "What a pair of pitiful fools you are. Just because you see this seal as a priceless treasure doesn't mean it's worth anything in my eyes. You can keep that thing for all I care. A righteous individual does not steal from others."
After that, she turned and departed without any hesitation.
Gao Zhen was very relieved to see this, and he turned to the old man as he said, "Get up, Grandpa Wu, you're making a fool out of yourself. The twelve chief eunuchs of our Great Sui Empire have only ever knelt down to the past emperors. If the imperial censors of the six supervisory divisions or anyone from the Ministry of Rites were to see this and decide to kick up a big fuss, you and I will both be in deep trouble. Thanks to the blessings of my ancestors, I was able to obtain what I came to this town to acquire, so let's not stay here any longer and risk running into further unforeseen trouble.
“Furthermore, even after we meet back up with our people on the outside, we can't afford to get complacent. Among the six pillar nations of the Great Li Empire, the Yuan Clan and the Cao Clan may be in opposition with one another, but unfortunately for us, both of these pillar nations are sworn enemies of our Great Sui Nation. If anything were to happen here that negatively impacts your ability to perform in battle, then it'll be very difficult for me to return safely to our Great Sui Nation."
The old man nodded in response as he slowly rose to his feet. "I am well aware of this, Your Highness."
At this point, the young woman in the veiled hat was already over 20 meters away from them.
All of a sudden, a gentle breeze blew past Gao Zhen, rustling through his hair and causing his robes to flap incessantly.
As it turned out, the old man had never intended to let the young woman off the hook, and he rushed toward her from behind, stomping heavily down on the ground with his first three steps, causing the earth to rumble violently, penetrating all the way down to over 10 feet beneath the ground. With his fourth step, he sprang high up into the air before throwing a punch at the back of the young woman's chest.
The young woman immediately twisted around with the tip of her left foot as a pivot point, and at the same time, she drew her saber with her right hand, sending a streak of white light that was even more dazzling than the radiance of the sun sweeping through the alley.
The old man swooped down from above, using gravity to his advantage, and his fist slammed straight down onto the sharp edge of the saber, but only a light gash was sliced into the back of his hand. Upon landing on the ground, the old man continued to charge forward, forcing the saber-wielding young woman back in retreat. The old man then casually extended his palm in what appeared to be a very calm and slow gesture, but in reality, his palm reached the young woman's forehead like lightning.
He was just about to exert more force through his hand to completely crush the young woman's head when he suddenly stepped to the side, just in the nick of time to avoid an attack coming from behind. The sound of blade plunging into flesh rang out, and he looked down to find the tip of a sword protruding out of the right side of his chest. As it turned out, the young woman's flying sword had swooped in to save its owner.
Despite this, his expression remained completely unchanged as he gripped the tip of the sword between two of his fingers before pushing it backward, forcing the flying sword out of his chest.
Due to the fact that he was hindered by the flying sword, not only did the old man fail to crush the young woman's head, she was able to spring back in retreat, and taking advantage of this brief window of respite, she sprang away like an agile panther, quickly disappearing out of sight.
Gao Zhen was absolutely livid, and his fists were tightly clenched as he yelled with a furious expression, "Seal Holding Eunuch of the Directorate of Imperial Horses, Wu Yue, why are you going against my wishes and doing as you please? Do you really think you're invincible in this town? We are the ones in the wrong, yet not only did she not try to extort us, she was willing to let bygones be bygones, so why would you do something so ungrateful and underhanded? This is an outrage!"
The old eunuch, Wu Yue, withdrew his gaze from the direction that the young woman had just fled toward, and he stood up straight as he turned around before making his way back to Gao Zhen. With each step that he took, his aura became more and more imposing, and it was as if he were treading directly upon Gao Zhen's heart.
In the face of Wu Yue's suffocating aura, Gao Zhen became even more indignant and incensed, feeling as if he were being oppressed by his own servant, and his eyes were wide fury as he yelled, "Wu Yue, you have committed a crime punishable by death!"
Wu Yue remained completely unfazed as he replied in an indifferent voice, "Your Highness, whether my transgressions are punishable by death will be up to His Majesty to decide. In my eyes, your safety is of paramount importance, and protecting you is my sole objective. I have deemed that woman to be a potent threat to your safety, so in order to ensure that no harm befalls you, I had no choice but to go after her. Only with her dead can I rest easy, knowing that I have fulfilled my duty."
Looking at the barely repressed rage in Gao Zhen's eyes, Wu Yue sighed, "I have worked in the imperial city for over 60 years, and during my time there, I've seen far too many sinister schemes and machinations. For the pursuit of power and prized resources, there are no lows that people aren't willing to stoop to, and I simply have no faith left in humanity. While protecting members of the imperial family, I've dealt with no fewer than 30 assassination attempts over the years.
“Your Highness, you must understand that these assassins are far more cunning and sinister than you can imagine. There are some who are so demented that they are willing to give up even their own lives for their cause, and it's impossible to imagine the lengths that they're willing to go to in order to achieve their objectives. Take that masked assassin and that woman just now as examples..."
Gao Zhen stabbed a finger in Wu Yue's direction with a cold look on his face as he furiously interjected, "Shut your mouth, you old, castrated donkey! I don't want to hear any more of your senseless ramblings! All I know is that you've completely gone against my wishes and foiled my plans to recruit that woman as an ally! Even an idiot would be able to tell that she possesses exceptional aptitude.
“Even if we compare her to the most talented prodigies out of the cultivators on the mountain, she would still be among the cream of the crop! A prodigy of her caliber is exceedingly rare even across the entire Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, let alone our Great Sui Nation or the Great Li Empire! All I would have to do is nurture her for 10 years, 20 years at most, and she would become the most lethal assassin at my disposal!
“With her at my side, no one would dare to stand against me, regardless of whether it be terrestrial gods or Superior Grandmasters in the martial arts! Don't ever forget that I, Gao Zhen, will be the future heir to the Great Sui Nation's throne, and you're nothing but a castrated old geezer who will serve me until you die!"
Strangely enough, not only was Wu Yue not incensed by the scathing tirade directed at him, his eyes gradually lit up with a sense of gratification. After Gao Zhen had finally gotten everything off his chest and was panting from exertion, Wu Yue smiled as he said, "Your Highness, there are some things that you've never experienced, so you're unaware of just how perilous and sinister human nature can be. However, you are the spitting image of His Majesty's younger self, and I couldn't be more proud to see how you've developed over the years."
An awkward atmosphere descended upon the alley.
After taking a moment to calm down, Gao Zhen realized that he had severely overstepped his boundaries. He still hadn't been officially chosen to become the heir to the throne, yet he had just displayed the utmost disrespect to the Seal Holding Eunuch of the Directorate of Imperial Horses and one of the three gatekeepers of the Great Sui Imperial Palace. In addition to that, Wu Yue was an extremely trusted subordinate to Gao Zhen's parents, the emperor and empress of the Great Sui Nation.
With that in mind, Gao Zhen was struck by a sense of remorse, but right as he was about to say something, Wu Yue smiled and said, "Your Highness, I know what you want to say, and I have this to tell you: do not apologize to your servants. There's simply no need to do so, and not only is it unbefitting of your status, the servant may not accept your apology anyway. Even if you feel guilty, you must bury that guilt deep in your heart. The rulers of nations are revered as dragons among men, and everything they say is to be taken as law, so they cannot afford to waste their precious words apologizing to servants."
"Given my current status, it's still too early for you to be saying this to me, Grandpa Wu," Gao Zhen said.
All of a sudden, Wu Yue's entire body abruptly tensed up as if he could sense the presence of a formidable foe nearby, and he dragged Gao Zhen behind him before casting his gaze toward the lifeless body of the masked assassin.
A tall and graceful middle-aged scholar had appeared at the end of the alley without any warning, and he slowly made his way into the alley, arriving near the assassin's body before crouching down to remove his mask, revealing a strange face with its nose and eyebrows removed, and some characters tattooed onto its cheeks.
It was clear that this man had once been a prisoner.
The scholar looked on in silence, having already anticipated this. The root of this plot most likely stemmed all the way back from that Confucian temple.
A fervent look appeared in Gao Zhen's eyes as he made his way out into the open from behind Wu Yue, then extended a salute as he asked in a respectful voice, "May I ask if you are Mr. Qi from Mountain Cliff Academy?"
The scholar stood up straight again as he turned to Gao Zhen and said, "If it wasn’t for the fact that you've already claimed that fated opportunity, the two of you wouldn’t be able to leave this place so easily."
According to the earliest rules set by the four sages, outsiders who engaged in battle in the town were to be punished. The punishment wasn't very severe, but it wasn't just going to be a light punishment, either. If an outsider were to kill any of the mortal residents of the town, they would be evicted without exception, but there were loopholes to be exploited when it came to battles between outsiders, and for three of the groups of outsiders who had entered the town, including Gao Zhen's, they had all brought "servants" with them precisely because they knew that there was a chance that this rule could be broken.
In the case that the rule was broken, they would be able to use their servants as scapegoats and place the blame squarely on them. It had cost half of the wealth saved up in the imperial vault of the Great Sui Nation's emperor just to earn entry for a single person into the town. The imperial vault contained what was essentially the emperor's private stash, so half of the wealth in the entire vault was naturally an exorbitant amount. If it weren't for the possibility that battles could break out between the factions of outsiders entering the town, there was no way that Wu Yue would've been sent in alongside Gao Zhen.
Essentially, they were paying for insurance.
However, it was no exaggeration to say that mountains of gold and silver were being moved to purchase this layer of insurance, and the residents of the town couldn't even begin to imagine what it had cost for these outsiders to set foot in this place.