Chapter 12
By Yourself?
The steward was momentarily stunned, but quickly shook his head. “No, it was not His Highness!!”
“Then who is it?”
Xia Ji removed his boot from the head of the steward. He crouched down and smiled. “This bad blood belongs to someone else, but your life belongs to you. Clarify this for me and I swear in the name of Buddha that I will not kill you. I might even let you go.
“Just look for yourself. I may be acting heartlessly, but this is the result of my years of suffering. Anyone in my position would want to vent their anger, but I’ve spent two years studying Buddhist scriptures. The abbot of Leiyin Temple had even passed judgment on me, saying I’m made of seven parts spirit of Buddha. If it were not for that I would never be able to return from the abyss of misery. You should at least trust him even if you don’t trust me, no?
“Although, if you insist on keeping mum, I am still made of three parts demonic nature and I don’t mind torturing you to death. It was your doing that I wasn’t able to read a single book of skill manual when I was first imprisoned within the archive chamber, wasn’t it?”
The steward continued to be silent. He was acutely aware that there was no way for him to worm his way out of this predicament, but he truly was not allowed to say a thing about it.
Xia Ji was not in a rush. He said warmly, “How about this, let me analyze the situation for you. If this was a serious matter that might invoke the wrath of someone you can’t offend, then take a guess what this person would do once he finds out that I’ve captured you and…”
He swept his gaze on those three hundred soldiers and laughed. “And if one of these young brothers had spread the word about it, do you think that specific somebody will send someone over to silence you via assassination?”
The steward’s expression froze.
Xia Ji continued, “If this was no serious matter and the mastermind was someone you can afford to offend, then why should you die for the sake of this person?
“If you’re harboring some sort of hope that someone is coming here to save you, then why not give it some thought, would your savior bother to come to the aid of a steward with a pair of broken legs? Hmph… Hahahaha…”
Xia Ji suddenly raised his head and howled with laughter.
He laughed like the rustling of the wind and snow.
He laughed like a demonic dragon’s prolonged howling.
The steward was dumbstruck by his laughter. How could he possess this perception and say such words if he had not seen through the ways of the world?
The Seventh Imperial Prince’s words had tempted him.
This prince had hidden his true self far too well.
The golden light tightened again without warning while Xia Ji was laughing erratically. The steward felt a searing pain in his right arm and a clear sound of a broken bone crunching reached his ear.
“Ah ah ah ah!!”
The unexpected pain caused the high-ranking eunuch to scream in agony. The surrounding soldiers and Eunuch Mei held anxious breaths as they watched the Seventh Imperial Prince’s actions.
“Wh…Why?”
Xia Ji’s laughter stopped. “I was worried that you’d be optimistic enough to think that someone was willing to save a master with broken legs, but now since your right arm is also useless, take a guess. If the person saving you appeared right in front of you, do you think he’ll still see any value in you worth saving?”
The steward mulled it over for a long time and finally came to a decision. He closed his eyes tightly and his sweaty, pale face started to turn bright red.
There was a look on Xia Ji’s face as he swiftly applied pressure on a few of the steward’s pressure points. He completely blocked the steward’s vital energy circulation, rendering the steward powerless to channel his vital energy.
They stared at each other in the eyes.
Xia Ji said, “You don’t look like it, but you actually have some loyalty in you. You would rather kill yourself than say another word.”
The steward was prepared to die. He stared at Xia Ji coldly for quite a while before suddenly letting out a burst of pitiful yet shrill laughter. “Guifang will arrive at the city in three days and even Quanrong is entering via the Wolf Restraining Pass to get a share of the prize. On top of that, numerous great bandits and exotic tribes from beyond the Great Wall are also making their way here!
“This is a dance of demons and monsters, every one of them hankering for a taste of the prosperity belonging to the Dashang Dynasty.
“How long can today’s victory sustain you?
“Even if you escape, you’ll still end up alone in the end.”
“If you don’t escape, then you will perish alongside this Imperial City and end up fulfilling the wishes of His Highness.
“I admit that I was blind to not have seen the true colors of a demonic dragon like you, which is why I deserve death.
“When my death comes, I’ll make sure to slow my pace in the netherworld. Who knows, you might come down soon to join me on the walk there. Ha… Hahahaha!!”
He was trying to goad Xia Ji.
He wanted to goad Xia Ji into killing him.
However, Xia Ji was not angered. Instead, he suddenly said, “Want to make a bet?”
The steward stared at the prince with wide eyes.
Xia Ji said, “I’ll let you live and let you witness for yourself how I will protect this city.”
The steward dropped all reservations as he replied sarcastically, “By yourself? Can you even hold the fort?”
Xia Ji said, “If I manage to protect the city, then you will agree to betray the Imperial Emperor.”
The steward retorted, “And if you fail, I’ll watch how those exotic tribes balance your head on their swords.”
“So, the bet is on?”
The steward gave it some thought and said shrilly, “I’ll… take the bet!”
Xia Ji narrowed his eyes at the steward while the man sneered back at him.
With that, Xia Ji casually released the steward from the pressure point hold and the golden light instantly loosened as it evaporated from within the steward’s body. The golden light transformed into thirty-three prayer beads and returned to Xia Ji’s hands. The glow on the beads looked slightly dimmer, but otherwise, everything seemed to be as normal.
Right at that moment, almost seamlessly, the steward raised his left hand and a string of red thread shot out from this left sleeve. The red thread hung onto an embroidery needle that sailed through the air, bursting out in a chilling glow. The glow vanished among the three hundred soldiers.
The steward was highly trained in martial arts. Even though his legs and right arm were now useless, his inner vitality was still able to make minor circulations within his dantian. Even though his strength was fairly diminished, he was still able to pull off the embroidery vigor from the Sacred Sunflower Scroll.
“Ah!”
A painful scream could be heard from among the soldiers. A soldier had suddenly fallen to the ground, right in front of the doors of the icy-cold palace. Fresh blood was gushing out from between his brows.
The steward tried his best to withstand the searing pain racking his body and suddenly called out a few names, “An Zicang, Mu Weizhi, Shi Yunling, Xu Qi. Bring those four immediately to see me, I have some urgent business with them.”
Xia Ji glanced at the soldiers. “Go get them. Fail to bring the four of them here and you’ll make up for it with your own heads.”
The remaining soldiers had just witnessed the Seventh Imperial Prince’s forceful actions. None of them dared to disobey. Moreover, those four were just normal soldiers. The duty roster had clearly stated their whereabouts and they wasted no time to look for them.
It was not long before the four people were brought over.
The four saw the soldier lying dead on the ground and next spotted the heavily injured steward. Their expressions changed as they turned to attempt an escape. While scurrying about to get away, they demonstrated fairly nimble skills that had far surpassed the abilities of an ordinary soldier, but the steward was not about to let them get away.
A flash of the red thread from his sleeve and the four, who had just turned their backs on them, immediately fell heavily to the ground. Blood quickly splashed across their faces and dyed the thin layer of snow on the ground red. They were clearly dead.
After he was done with this, the steward laughed coldly as he looked at Xia Ji. He said in a low, grim voice, “Seventh Imperial Prince, I’ve already made arrangements with the spies left behind to guard me. His Highness would temporarily remain unaware of what had happened here. There’s no need for you to fear that I would be done in by assassins sent by the mastermind behind me.”
Xia Ji knew that this eunuch had eyes and ears in every corner of the palace. Even though he usually pretended not to know a thing, he was acutely aware of who was spying on him. Now that he had killed these five people, it was a fair amount of insurance. He smiled and said, “This is how trust is built, isn’t it?”
The steward recalled how his right arm was broken right after the Seventh Imperial Prince said those words and could not help laughing shrilly with a feeling of resentment. “I don’t want any trust. What I want is to see you dead.
“If you can’t protect the city, I’ll stand on the city walls and watch you perish horribly, hahaha.”
Xia Ji was not angered by this. He calmly asked, “What if you lose?”
The steward replied simply, “Whatever it is you want to know, I’ll tell you everything and anything.”