Chapter 147
Chapter 147
11.3 – [ The capital has fallen, and the Emperor’s whereabouts are unknown. ]
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
It was night time and everything should have been quiet, but a low groan suddenly echoed in the room, followed by the muffled sound of something hitting the ground. The person lying in bed immediately sat up, startled by the slight noise, and lit the candles on the table with a wave of their hand. The movement was swift, making the person who had just fallen into the room widen their eyes, their gaze turning dark.
“Who is it?” The movements from person on the floor stilled because of the voice the bed, and the sharp blade held in their hand remained there instead of flying out. Following that thin voice, someone climbed out of bed.
The man had been badly injured and managed to hold on until he made it to the house. He thought nobody would be there as usual, but unexpectedly, he bumped into house’s owner, and his strength was no lower than his own.
But to his surprise, the person who put on a coat and got up to slowly walk towards him was actually a little ger. The ger was beautiful, and his appearance was bright in the candlelight. Because he just woke up, his eyes were still sleepy. That pair of fox eyes were still half-closed and misty, and the mole that identified him as a ger in the corner of his eye looked like a brushstroke. When the ger, who was as beautiful as a painting, moved, he appeared even more vivid, and made the man’s lower body half-heartedly want to react.
The other half of him was already unconscious due to the severity of his injuries.
The man lay motionless, and could only look on as the young ger glanced over him. He did not seem to be in a panic at all despite the fact that someone had rushed into the room in the middle of the night. He idly lit another candle and extinguished the one on the table. Then, he brought the candlestick with him as he walked towards the man on the floor.
The light that the candle in his hand let off was much dimmer than the previous one. The man was surprised, but soon he understood his intentions.
Since he was hiding in this house in order to escape pursuit, it was best to take precautions and ensure the candlelight from inside would not be noticed. The man didn’t know why, but his tense nerves suddenly relaxed slightly.
The ger brought the candle with him and crouched down in front of the man. The candlelight swept across his face, and the ger raised his eyebrows and asked, “Six Leaf Gate’s primary enforcer?”
The man frowned. “You recognize me?” He wanted to defend himself, but his wounds made it so that he was unable to move at all.
The ger did not answer him, and only brought the candle closer to carefully look him up and down. He then asked critically, “How many people were you surrounded by, to end up wounded like this?”
The man pressed his lips together. He did not answer this time, but the little ger seemed to be able to read his mind. He continued for him, “The Xian Prince took over the palace today. Did you rush to the palace because you heard the news?”
“Who are you?!”
“Who were you trying to save? If it was Deng Shi, he has already been escorted away. Relax, nothing happened to him. If you wanted to save the Emperor, then there’s nothing to worry about.” The man remained lying on the ground. He was becoming weaker due to his wounds, but he was still conscious at the moment. When he heard the ger in front of him say those words, he realized even more clearly that this person was not ordinary. The ger then pinched his chin, and forced him to raise his gaze. His voice was slow and steady as he asked, “Speak. Who are you loyal to?”
The man spat out a mouthful of blood and coolly answered, “Of course I’m loyal to the current Emperor.” He knew that if he said something wrong, his next step would be death, but now that he has arrived at this point, the only thing he could do was remain firm in his beliefs.
“Oh.” The ger laughed, stood up and said, “You can consider yourself lucky.” He went to the door, opened it, and called out, “Shu Heng, come in.”
That was a familiar name. The man did not have time to think about it, because he had lost too much blood, and was slipping into a coma.
While he was in a daze, he seemed to hear the ger’s voice, speaking calmly and indifferently, as though his words could not possibly be more simple. “I saved your life. It will belong to me from now on.” From within his trance, it felt as though he had fulfilled some sort of fate. He was reassured, and relaxed completely, allowing himself to fall deep into unconsciousness.
Shu Heng was called to the room by His Majesty to carry a body in the middle of the night. He was completely muddled, and when he saw the wound on the man, he became thoroughly shocked. It looked like he was basically split in half! Although he was still breathing, could he still be called a human being?
His Majesty crossed his arms and idly watched as he moved the body, and when he called Shu Heng over, he even kicked the man lightly with his foot and asked him, “Shu Heng, is he familiar to you? This is the Six Leaf Gate’s primary enforcer. If we can cure him, our future in the south will be more secure.”
Shu Heng’s expression was full of confusion. “But Your Majesty, how will we treat him?”
His Majesty laughed and asked him to move the body to the bed – he had his ways.
Shu Heng felt that His Majesty seemed to have thoroughly grown up during the course of this change in the palace’s ownership. He always only spoke vaguely, and let him confused and unable to understand, but this version of His Majesty made him inexplicably want to trust in him. Therefore, he carried the man whom His Majesty called the ‘primary enforcer of Six Leaf Gate’ to the bed, and then brought over water in order to wipe off the blood on his body. He conveniently wiped off the blood and grime on the man’s face while His Majesty brought out a series of acupuncture needles and use them to stem the man’s constant bleeding and forced the last wisp of life to remain in his body.
What surprised Shu Heng even more were His Majesty’s next actions. He was sent out of the room, and told to guard the door. He did not know what His Majesty did, but by the time he went in again, the wounds on the man had disappeared. Even the small arrow wounds on his face were gone, and the man’s face was no longer as pale as it had been, his breathing steady. He looked nothing like the half cut-apart body that arrived just a few moments ago.
Shu Heng was totally stunned. He could not figure out when His Majesty had learned this skill – it was just like robbing life from the underworld! And he really managed to save the man.
His Majesty seemed to know what he was surprised about. He wiped his hands clean and then offered a sentence, “We are the true Dragon Emperor. Is there anything We cannot do?”
At this point, Shu Heng could only reply, “No. Your Majesty rules with heaven’s grace, and is bound to rule over everything under heaven.”
His Majesty waved his hand and yawned, “Its unnecessary to rule over everything under heaven. It’ll be enough if the person now sitting in that position gets lost and rolls off the throne.”
Shu Heng: “…”
At daybreak, Shu Heng took the silver His Majesty handed to him and went out to buy some necessities. He also went to a royal house that His Majesty had told him to go to, used his token to take some things and bought a carriage before hurrying back to the courtyard in the suburbs.
The palace had been washed in blood, but the everyday people were not aware of it. For them, it did not matter if the Emperor changed, or who he was. As long as their days went on, who actually sat on that seat made no difference to them. Therefore, Shu Heng’s journey back was smooth – all the way until he arrived at the courtyard with the carriage and was stopped by the man standing at the door.
Shu Heng jumped out of the carriage, ignored the man who had an ugly expression on his face, led the horses into the yard, and closed the door.
“Where’s your master?!” The man asked.
Shu Heng frowned. “Is this your attitude towards your benefactor?”
The man choked and had nothing to respond with for a moment. When he woke up this morning, he found that his wounds were completely healed. It was amazing, but at the same time, he kept feeling that something was wrong. Only when he went to inquire about his situation, he couldn’t find anyone else in the house…
For a moment, he thought that he had met a ghost last night.
Otherwise, none of this made any sense…
Fortunately, he had only gone outside and stood there for a while before someone actually returned. But the person who came back was not the one he expected to see.
Mu Ge had been to this courtyard before. The owner here seemed to use this place as storage or as a vacation home, and nobody was here most of the time. But at fixed intervals, someone would come over and go through everything in the courtyard before leaving it empty once again. Mu Ge occasionally needed to go to the outskirts of the city for investigations, and would stay here for the night. Every time he left, he would tidy up the house and leave some silver inside.
He chose to come here last night believing that nobody would find him here, but unexpectedly, the owner of the house came back.
Shu Heng ignored him, and brought the things down from the carriage. He brought the wine and groceries into the house, and then drove the carriage to one side before looking at Mu Ge. “Master said you were the primary enforcer for Six Leaf Gate?”
Mu Ge recalled what that person had mentioned that to him last night, and nodded. “But not after last night.” He openly confronted Prince Xian, and they would never have let him go unless they were certain that he would die from his injuries.
“You were chased?”
“…” He nodded again.
“Since it was for His Majesty’s sake, it doesn’t matter if you stay.” Shu Heng pouted and said, “I’m telling you, His Majesty’s identity is special. Don’t make a fuss when you see him. You’re not allowed to have any ideas about His Majesty; otherwise, I will castrate you.”
Mu Ge: “???” Just as he wanted to ask him what he meant, another person stepped into the yard.
Xue Ling had also gone out to buy some necessities. He also purchased some new clothing and changed into a new set while the rest was put away into the system space. When he came back, he had a fan in his hand and looked like a fashionable gongzi. The cinnabar mole in the corner of his eye had been covered up by salve, but it had no way of hiding the attractiveness of his face.
“Awake?” As soon as Xue Ling entered, he saw the two people standing and staring foolishly in the courtyard. He closed the fan in his hand and said, “Now that you’re awake, we’ll have the noon meal, and depart after eating. Prince Xian should still be paying attention to Deng Shi, and has not yet noticed that We have not died.” He narrowed his eyes and smiled at Mu Ge. “If We remember correctly, you should be Mu Ge, the primary enforcer for Six Leaf Gate. Back then, when you won Our recognition, We gifted you with an inscription?”
Mu Ge’s eyes opened wide as he finally realized identity of the person in front of him. He knelt down violently, and had no time to consider why the person who he had clearly seen was a ger last night had turned into a man. He bowed his head and said, “Your Majesty is unharmed. It is really fortunate for our Xue Dynasty!”
He finally remembered why this person was so familiar to him. Years ago, when he had still been a secret guard in the palace, he had spent a night guarding him. At that time, the night was long and the job as a secret guard was boring. He found himself looking at this person often. Back then, the little Emperor had been a young boy who had not yet grown up, and the temperament evident between his brows now had not been present before…
As time went on, he became aware that his thoughts were different from that of the others. He knew that the person in the Emperor’s position was not someone who could be coveted, but he had no way to tear his gaze away from him. In order to ensure he did not do anything out of line, he transferred out of the secret guard department and entered the Six Fan Gate. After that, he ruthlessly threw himself into his work, gained fame, and finally received an inscription from him…
It was also those unspeakable thoughts that made him leave everything behind and run desperately to the palace when he learned that the throne had been overthrown. Even if he died, he wanted to save that person from the sea of bitterness…
Xue Ling closed the door and glanced at the scowling Mu Ge. He sneered and spoke, “You can say those words to anyone, but I am an exception. You should have retained your memories from last night, and you should be aware of what kind of person We are.”
Mu Ge’s heart jumped, and he recalled the red cinnabar mole he had seen in the corner of this person’s eyes last night.
“I saved you, so your life is mine. Whether you like it or not, it was easy to save you, and killing you would not be difficult either. Understood?”
Mu Ge lowered his head and answered, “This minister is Your Majesty’s man. Even in death, I will be Your Majesty’s ghost!”
Xue Ling nodded his head, and did not mention how strange these words were. Instead, he said, “Get up, after the noon meal, I’ll help you put on a disguise. We are leaving the Capital and going to the Jinji Ferry Port.” That was the closest ferry port from the Capital. Boats came and went from there every day. It was the shortest route to the South.
Mu Ge did not ask him why he had made such plans. He nodded his head several times quickly, and then got up.
Xue Ling looked him over again before shifting his gaze away and sitting down for the noon meal.
Thousands of miles away from the Capital, in Zhanjing. Inside Zhennan Palace, the Zhennan Prince had lost control over his temper and was currently smashing things.
His deputy general stood beside him was worried as he tried to restrain His Royal Highness while anxiously asking the attendants standing to the side, “What exactly happened here!”
“I don’t know!” The little servant was also anxious as he helped to restrain him. He was so stressed that sweat had begun to form on his forehead. “His Royal Highness woke up this morning in an extremely irritable mood. Just now, the more he held back, the angrier he got, and then he suddenly started breaking things!”
The deputy general was tongue-tied, but His Royal Highness finally seemed to have smashed enough and felt better as opened his mouth to order, “Have people come and tidy things up.”
The deputy general quickly waved his hand to let the little servant tidy up before going up and asking in a bit of a panic, “Royal Highness… You are…”
Prince Zhennan pressed his fingers to his forehead and shook his head. “I don’t know. After receiving this piece of news last night, I felt turmoil in my heart. Last night especially, I had continuous nightmares and a kind of ominous feeling.”
The deputy general somewhat curiously accepted the letter from His Royal Highness, and was surprised as he gave it a glance.
[ The capital has fallen. The Xian Prince ascended the throne, Deng Family fled, and the Emperor’s whereabouts are unknown. ]