Chapter 7 West Horse Farm
Masakatsu was forced to raise his head high, his fair neck stretched into a straight line, and his Adam's apple protruded from under his skin like an autumn fruit on a branch, tempting one to pick it.
A moment later, Shinju lowered his eyes and glanced down, then raised his hand and pressed the hard object back down, and a silent struggle began.
Although Shinju couldn't mobilize his internal energy, he could still unleash his internal strength by ignoring the excruciating pain from his shattered dantian. The power of the person in front of him was unexpectedly terrifying. Generating force from below was not easy, but the opponent possessed an unstoppable, upward-flowing momentum, like a fish leaping over the dragon gate, unstoppable!
Unfortunately, against the overwhelming power contained within the True Immortal Body of the True Abode, he was ultimately outmatched. After a stalemate of a hundred breaths, the opponent's concentrated power nearly collapsed, and he finally fell into a disadvantageous position.
The person in front of him was quite surprised and had to remove the hard object to prevent his internal energy from flowing back into it. Only then did Shinju catch a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that the hard object was actually the hilt of a Miao sword that reached his waist.
"Who are you?" A cold, deep voice sounded above him, carrying a low, penetrating vibration that seemed to pierce to the bone.
Shinju looked up at the other person's face and saw a pair of jet-black eyes fixed on him. The shadows cast by the features were even darker than the night, giving Shinju a sense of oppression, like being watched by a venomous snake. Looking further down, he noticed that although the person was dressed in a black military uniform, there was no attempt to conceal themselves. The lining of the inner lining, with its unicorn-patterned satin, subtly reflected the moonlight. The crown on their head, though also black, was intricately embroidered with gold thread along the edges, secured with a purple jade band, and several long ribbons hanging down to their waist, fluttering in the wind. It was clear that this person blended into the night not through external means, but through an extremely skillful technique of concealing their aura. As a result, even with all five senses activated, Shinju still could not detect that someone was hiding so close by.
Lost in thought, Shinjuku momentarily forgot his current status as a lowly servant and asked in return, "Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking questions? And who are you?"
The man in front of her raised an eyebrow, suddenly dispelling the chill emanating from him, and instead looked at Masakuni with great interest.
Shinjuku didn't have time to deal with him; the thieves in the sheepfold were waiting for him to catch them.
But just as he was about to push past the person in front of him and head towards the sheepfold, the other person said, "If you're going to the sheepfold, then forget about it." The man raised his hand, and Masaki suddenly sensed several auras approaching the sheepfold from not far away. He was startled and turned to look at the man.
The man, who had been looking down at him, naturally noticed the furious glare in Shinjuku's eyes. His phoenix eyes narrowed, and he revealed a cold and somewhat disdainful expression.
"Get out of my way!" Shinjuku said, and then suddenly sprang up.
The winds of their fists clashed, and the battle was about to begin!
Meanwhile, in the sheepfold.
“Biying…Biying…you are mine, you are mine!”
With a loud bang, several men in black kicked the door open, and two daggers were instantly pressed against the necks of the two people inside.
The eunuch who was helping to hold the sheep remained calm and motionless, slowly releasing the sheep's horns.
But his master, that richly dressed young man, didn't have such composure. He was flustered and confused, and couldn't get away for a while while he was ruining the lamb. But his legs went weak first, and he lost his strength. He didn't care about the knife at his neck and his knees hit the ground hard!
The man in black reacted quickly, promptly removing the knife he had been holding to the boy's neck.
The boy belatedly touched his neck and, finding no blood or pain, couldn't help but show ecstatic joy at surviving a close call. He then said imperiously, "Knowing who I am, why don't you come and help me up, and while you're at it, throw this beast far away for me."
The eunuch, emboldened by his master's words, said, "Quickly let me go and serve His Highness the Third Prince!"
The man in black with the knife didn't move, while the one without a knife lit the torches in the sheepfold. The sheepfold was suddenly brightly lit, and the Third Prince then noticed the bronze plaque hanging from the man in black's waist, engraved with only the character "虿" (scorpion). The Third Prince was immediately dumbfounded. A moment later, he hurriedly and clumsily wrapped his outer robe around himself, then curled up like an ostrich to avoid being recognized.
"Third Prince, whose name did you call this lamb just now?" the man in black asked, as he deftly drew blood with his knife. The lamb kicked its hoof and died instantly.
The Third Prince dared not recognize him. He was trembling like a leaf. He had been shouting so happily just now, but now he dared not utter a word. He wished he could really crawl into the ground and hide.
The third prince could remain silent, but the eunuchs had no choice but to speak.
Unfortunately, the eunuch was spineless. When the man in black asked him to speak, he refused. The man in black immediately cut off a leg of lamb, still covered in white down and dripping with blood, and then pinched his face and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Help, Master, save me... I don't want to... Waaah, I won't eat it, I won't..."
The stench of blood and the urine of the terrified eunuchs filled the sheep pen, but the man in black remained unmoved. The third prince, however, was tormented by the screams and the sounds of bones being chewed and meat being swallowed, trembling and weeping uncontrollably.
"I was wrong, I was wrong! I shouldn't have called my elder sister by her name!"
If the master were here, he would surely whip this third prince. How could he possibly accept such a thing?! But the men in black really couldn't decide for their master; they would just do as originally agreed and give him a good scolding.
As for their beloved Lord Zhen, he was currently a few dozen steps away from them, with a beautiful woman in his arms, contemplating life.
"..." Majutsu's fist was already swinging over, but it suddenly changed course in mid-air, falling straight down and grabbing his waist belt.
Then, as if losing her footing, she fell directly into his arms, her head nestled in the crook of his neck, her eyes half-open, still breathing, but seemingly oblivious, which was quite strange.
The King of Poison had suspected that the other party was deliberately lowering his guard in order to launch a sneak attack, but under the quiet and intertwined breaths and intimate physical contact, he was inexplicably bewitched and hesitated to push the other away.
The King of Zhen carefully examined the man in his arms. He was dressed in a simple dark robe, with a fair and youthful face. He seemed to be a eunuch from the West Horse Ranch, and most likely a newcomer. After all, the previous eunuchs should have been bribed, and the secret guards had not been exposed, so it was unlikely that he had come to inform Shi Jun. He probably just went to check on the sheepfold.
As for why they went in the middle of the night, that remains unknown and is not important.
Compared to these trivial matters, and compared to that astonishing strength, there was something else that piqued his interest.
This kid... I feel like I've seen him somewhere before...
Especially those eyes, I feel like I've seen them somewhere before. Even in the darkness, you can see that they are light gold with a hint of gold. If sunlight could shine in, one can imagine that they would be a pair of eyes like the molten gold of a setting sun, breathtakingly beautiful.
Golden eyes are quite rare; perhaps they belong to the Simpuwa tribe?
The King of Poison picked up the hilt of the five-foot Miao sword again and poked and prodded the soft cheek of Shinjuku. However, no matter how he looked at it, he still couldn't remember where he had seen this face before.
Just as the King of Zhen was getting addicted to playing with him, and even almost touching him, a glint suddenly flashed in Zhenju's golden eyes. His eyelashes fluttered slightly, and his muscles tensed up again. The King of Zhen subconsciously wanted to use the hilt of his sword to pry Zhenju off first, but then a wicked thought arose in his mind. Instead, he tightened his right hand, which was originally just supporting Zhenju's lower back, and truly embraced the person in his arms!
Shinjuku finally regained his senses and, just as he regained focus, found himself nestled in the other person's arms! They had been at each other's throats just moments before, so how did they end up in this intimate embrace?
Shinju averted his gaze, then suddenly shoved the other away like a cannonball, creating an overly ambiguous negative distance between them. Meanwhile, the King of Poison reached out his hand, then lowered it again.
Shinjuku secretly regretted his carelessness. He had already used his five senses once in the servant's room, and then when he saw the change in the aura around him when the other party raised his hand, he used them again without restraint. As a result, just when he was about to fight, he suddenly became deaf and blind and had no senses at all.
Then he could only count silently in his mind, taking more than a cup of tea to finish before he finally recovered. He didn't understand why this person was still there, why he didn't take the opportunity to beat him up, but instead hugged him...
Shinju looked at the King of Venom with a complicated expression. He had many questions he wanted to ask, but he didn't think the other party would answer them. Moreover, he was too busy at the moment, so he simply darted away from the King of Venom and ran away without looking back.
"Remember, I didn't show up tonight." Before he had gone far, Masakatsu heard this sentence drifting from behind him.
He ran all the way to the sheepfold, and when he looked back and didn't see anyone chasing after him, he couldn't tell whether he felt relieved or sighed.
When he broke into the sheepfold, all that remained was the mutilated carcass of a lamb and the smell of burning kerosene from a torch.
He was still too late.
The news of the eldest princess's lamb being killed spread throughout the palace the next day. The eldest princess, An Biying, was kept in the dark until the afternoon, when she could no longer hide it and finally learned of the matter.
This caused the eldest princess to cry so much that she could neither eat nor sleep, and she soon fell ill. Even while bedridden, she continued to shout that she wanted the murderer and the negligent guards to be torn to pieces.
The process of holding those responsible accountable was thus greatly accelerated.
"The night before last, the servant in your bed room said you got up in the middle of the night, is that right?" The two managers temporarily transferred from Higashibaba had Masaya arrested and interrogated in detail.
“…Yes,” Mayuki replied.
"Did you really get up in the middle of the night, or did you go to the sheepfold?"
"After getting up in the middle of the night, I heard some noise coming from the sheepfold, so I went to check and then came back."
"Did you encounter anyone? I didn't see anyone else in the sheepfold?"
"..."
Seeing that Shinju had hesitated for a long time, the person in charge couldn't help but ask further questions.
"Answer me, did you see anyone on the way to the sheepfold or inside the sheepfold?"
Masakatsu gritted his teeth and replied, "No."
After returning to his servants' quarters and lying down that day, Masaya smelled a faint scent of ambergris on himself and realized that it must have come from the guy who had blocked his way.
He knew that ambergris wasn't something just anyone could use; he was well aware of that. Therefore, the man's identity was quite clear: he wasn't an ordinary bodyguard or secret guard, but a member of the royal family.
The murder of the eldest princess's lamb was most likely not an accident that happened overnight. The fact that the former servant was so eager to hand over the task to him proves that the servant had already sensed something was amiss and was afraid that this hot potato would explode in his hands. In other words, this matter was certainly not directed at him, but rather he was simply unlucky.
Heaven knows what tricks those nobles were playing, dragging him into this for no reason.
Mayuki felt slightly irritated, never expecting to be accused of plotting to harm the eldest princess's beloved pet. Even if he wasn't executed, he would likely be banished from the palace or imprisoned.
He had only been in the palace for a few days when he was expelled... Shinju almost laughed when he thought about it.
He didn't reveal the person's identity not because he feared being silenced, but because he was tired of living on thin ice. If he truly suffered a bad end, he would blame that person entirely for stopping him. At that point, he would risk destroying the small world to deal with that guy first, and then find another way out.
Unexpectedly, the two officials exchanged glances and said in unison, "The questioning is finished. There's nothing more for you to do afterward. You can go back now."
Shinju thought he had misheard and was stunned for a long time before he could react in time, until the knots on his hands were untied and he was personally invited out of the meeting hall by the person in charge.
As soon as he stepped outside the hall, he brushed past another person being escorted. That person saw Shinju first, and suddenly his face turned red as he exclaimed excitedly, "Why aren't you arresting him?! He's the one who watches the sheepfold, why are you arresting me?!"
Shinjuku recognized the man as the servant who had "generously" given the job of watching the sheep to him the day before. Seeing his exasperated appearance, Shinjuku couldn't help but give him a harmless smile.
This nearly made the man vomit blood, and he was dragged into the hearing hall while still in a frenzy.
Shinjuku shrugged, feeling much relieved; at least he'd vented his anger. The servant had accepted bribes, so if he'd offered even a hint, Shinjuku could have claimed innocence. As for the real culprit, once Shinjuku regained his strength, he would surely face retribution.
A little while later, just as Shinju returned to the servants' quarters in Nishibaba, someone gracefully came to greet him.
A note from the author:
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I'll update another chapter tomorrow night at midnight ( 'ω` )
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