CH 17

Jing Qi's vision immediately became clear again.

He had not been very watchful earlier, and it wasn't until this moment when he finally noticed his group had entered a small alley. On New Year's Eve, the capital city was bustling with noise and excitement, myriads of people poured into the streets; but these kinds of places were like a shadow under the lamp, even more secluded and absent of human presence.

A Xin Lai bellowed: "Young Sorcerer, you guys go first!"

As if immense wrath had filled him, he swiftly reached behind and pulled out an odd-looking sword that had always been hidden underneath his robe. With just one glance, Jing Qi could tell right away that this band of attackers was coming after Wu Xi — looking at the latter's reaction, he was positive that this attempt was not the first one they had encountered.

Hence, he lowered his voice and asked: "What is the matter?"

Pursing his lips, Wu Xi grabbed a hold of Jing Qi's arm and firmly pulled the other to his side — the face of this young man who had just been curiously gazing all around earlier was then suddenly clouded with billowing ruthlessness. He did not answer Jing Qi's question and only said: "Don't be afraid. It had nothing to do with you. You go back to that place. There are many people over there, they won't pursue you."

His voice had not faded yet, several figures already leaped out from the shadows, their faces all covered. The weapons in their hands were exactly the same as A Xin Lai's, with colorful threads coiled around the hilts. On the back, they carried a small crossbow that appeared to be the thing they used to shoot those poisoned arrows a moment ago, their garments embroidered with the five poisonous creatures that were baring fangs and brandishing claws.

Jing Qi squinted slightly: Are these their own people from South Xinjiang? The guts of these southern barbarians were indeed not small — they even had the nerve to attempt assassination under the reign of the Son of Heaven.

Wu Xi once told him that although A Xin Lai appeared to be crude and reckless, he was still South Xinjiang's most skilled warrior. Indeed, after just a few moves, he was able to thwart and seize a handful of these assassins. Wu Xi then forcefully shoved Jing Qi behind him away: "Run, quick! Go back to where there are lots of people!"

Normally, this young man always seemed to have sealed his lips, thus was rather easy to pick on. Yet, when he acted, his strength was not to be underestimated: that push caused Jing Qi to stagger a few steps back, nearly crashing against the wall.

The little sable poked its head out from Jing Qi's lapel, squeaking anxiously.

Jing Qi gently shielded its head with one palm; whispering a "shh" under his breath, he said with a soft voice: "It's nothing. Don't be scared."

A Xin Lai got himself surrounded by multiple assassins. In a split second, one of them bolted out from a different direction — A Xin Lai caught a glimpse of that figure from the corner of his eyes, but it was already too late. The "guest" completely ignored Jing Qi to directly charge attacks at Wu Xi.

Wu Xi suddenly narrowed his round, big eyes and swiftly dropped his body as if he had vanished in the air and shrunk to the ground to dodge the attack. Due to the excessive amount of force exerted, when the assassin turned around for another strike, he already missed half of the rhythm. In lightning speed, Wu Xi immediately reached his hand over from a blind spot, and with the fingernails that seemed to be reflecting light, he seized the assassin by the throat.

The assassin's movements suddenly stopped. Almost instantly, a cloud of black smoke spread over and enveloped his entire body, completely covering the exposed skin and flesh on his arms and forehead. His eyes bulged out, a few sounds were leaking out from his throat; his body violently convulsed before collapsing to the ground.

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A foul stench emerged in the air. Wu Xi stepped over the corpse and raised his head to look over the direction where the assassins were at.

Within a blink, the corpse on the ground immediately decomposed into a puddle of mush.

On Jing Qi's face was an expression of pure disgust — he heedlessly gave the little sable a few pats on the head and mused to himself, After this many years, I thought the little venom had finally mended his ways, who knows that his temper has become so much worse. He killed with such ruthlessness, yet I couldn't detest him at all.

The thing was, this move indeed had effectively put these assassins in check — the moment Wu Xi swept his eyes over, without any prior agreement, a handful of them immediately retreated half a step back, completely in sync with each other.

Jing Qi shook his head lightly and heaved a sigh: in his heart, he probably was feeling pity for these poor souls. Realizing that the other person hadn't left yet, Wu Xi became somewhat exasperated, thus turned around and glowered at him.

Yet, as if no one else mattered, Jing Qi brazenly walked over to the corpse and squatted down beside. After carefully inspecting the remains, he commented: "You gentlemen indeed have the true quality of these friends from the southern land. You couldn't wait even just for a short amount of time. As soon as you seize the opportunity, you just immediately jump out and kill people. If Taoist Li knew about this, I wonder how livid he would become."

The leader of the pack stared at Jing Qi with widened eyes, dumbfounded and alarmed. However, he only saw how this gentle, frail-looking young man just paid others no mind, casually took off his outer robe and held it in his hand while folding the fabric into several layers. Then, through the garment in hand, he picked up the South Xinjiang crossbow that was dropped next to the corpse during the fight earlier. The young man clicked his tongue twice, and with a long sigh, he said: "Good stuff."

Before his voice had completely faded away, without any warning, his hands already began to act. In a flash, he drew the bowstring and shot a fire, aiming for the target without seemingly doing so. The sharp arrow whizzed through the air from his hand — on the opposite side, the South Xinjiang assassin clearly did not expect that this elegant, refined young man would make his move and kill someone without saying a single word of greetings. The assassin couldn't react for a moment as Jing Qi shot the arrow which pierced the man's chest from front to back. He collapsed against the corners of the wall, motionless.

Jing Qi shook his head: "Oh dear, I certainly have neglected my practice! Those little techniques in horsemanship and archery had all been returned to my teacher. Such a close distance but I couldn't even shoot properly." He grinned with squinty eyes; facing another assassin, he added: "I was originally aiming at you."1

This time, even Wu Xi had to look at him, completely speechless and unable to react.

Jing Qi rose to his feet and patted Wu Xi's shoulder; putting up the look as if they were brothers sharing the same hardship, he shook his head and continued with a sigh: "I thought that this kind of internal strife was our Da Qing's local specialty only. So your place has it as well? Who are these brothers?"

Wu Xi answered: "It's the Black Sorcerer Clan... They have nothing to do with you. Stay away!"

"Having nothing to do with me?" Jing Qi's long eyebrow perked a little, and in a dawdling fashion, he said: "Here is the capital of Da Qing overseen under the reign of the Son of Heaven, yet they dared to attempt assassination blatantly... Very well, I am also counted as the imperial court's official, but having to witness bloodshed on New Year's Eve like this... Young Sorcerer, you said this had nothing to do with me?"

A wintry sneer escaped from his lips, one hand holding the crossbow through the outer garment layer and the other behind his back — the face that normally showed all kinds of emotions, from merry laughter to angry curses, in that moment started to show a striking amount of sharpness.

The assassins exchanged looks with each other and jabbered in words of which Jing Qi could not make sense; however, standing on the side, Wu Xi immediately tensed up and moved to the front to shield Jing Qi.

Right at that moment, Jing Qi took out from his lapel a small piece of fireworks that had just been bought earlier from the market, then attached it to the tip of the arrow and shot it directly at the sky. Although the firework only burst into a little cluster of sparks amidst smoke in the air, it still looked rather pretty.

Those South Xinjiang men could not fathom Jing Qi's motive, thus only bolted toward the direction of the other two and launched their attacks. From underneath his lapel, Wu Xi drew a hook out, its length being approximately the size of the forearm, its shape resembling the tail of a scorpion – needless to say, one could tell it was lethally poisonous. With the presence of such weapon, the movements of these assassins seemed to be rather restrained in fear as both sides wound up in this ceaseless fight.

On the side, Jing Qi spoke with a deliberate, unhurried yet so clear voice that all of them were able to hear every single word: "I have no idea what kind of plaything Black Sorcery is. However, you gentlemen probably already know about this — even if you could successfully go back, I am afraid that you would still be disciplined by your master. If I am guessing correctly... your master couldn't possibly give you such an order – who is this individual who has decided to act upon their fancied cleverness and sent people out himself?"

As expected, one of the assassins was distracted by these words, thus Wu Xi's hook landed right on his neck. Without any warning, the young sorcerer yanked on the weapon: half of the assassin's head fell off from his neck, blood spurted for several feet (1). Jing Qi quickly retreated a few steps back, yet blood still splashed all over his entire front robe. He clicked his tongue; right then, the little sable that had been hiding in his chest immediately gave its fur a vehement shake, jumped upwards, then, within two or three leaps, had already landed on Jing Qi's shoulder.

Jing Qi just continued talking: "Can't fathom why I realized? How many people were actually aware of the fact that I went to find the young sorcerer tonight? It must have been because I ran into His Highness the Crown Prince, who specifically sent someone to my residence to report back, informing the entire Nan Ning Wang household that I was no longer inside the manor, right? You fellas waiting here in ambush as if you had known about this information in advance, isn't that just directly telling me that inside the Nan Ning Wang Residence there has always been a mole secretly planted by the second prince Helian Qi?"

Jing Qi already knew that Helian Qi and Taoist Li had secretly arranged a spy to work in his manor, but he also understood all along that it would not be the best idea for him to act rashly to alert the enemy(2). However, he didn't even think that this secret move would be exposed by these foolish assassins that night — just the perfect timing to use them as a scapegoat to uncover the other party's scheme.

He was long accustomed to witnessing and experiencing extreme spectacles, unable to count the number of times when he had stood on the line between life and death. Although his skills couldn't be considered excellent, these few South Xinjiang assassins were anything but worthy of his attention. A cold sneer escaped his lips, and he continued: "It's pitiful to see after so many years of hard work, that guy Helian Qi finally was able to plant a mole inside the Nan Ning Wang Residence. After coming back, all I need to do is ask who went out at night, and the answer will naturally arrive. Say, how are the second prince and that Taoist Li with the nose of an ox going to think this through? Aren't you afraid that you would lose your master's favor and no longer receive bone treats for chewing..."

These were just some fabricated random nonsense. In his mind, Jing Qi was certain that a handful of people had left the residence to go out this evening; it was him who had soon realized there was such a person residing inside his manor.

He had not completed his sentence, yet one of the assassins had already attempted to slide past Wu Xi in a fit of rage and desperation. Jing Qi was precisely waiting for this moment to happen — acknowledging that his martial arts moves were hardly presentable, he had soon loaded the poisoned arrow on the crossbow so that once the other person came forward, the arrow would instantly pierce through that man's body.

However, he didn't even expect the assassin to be seized by Wu Xi midway — this child seemed to be grounded in the belief that Jing Qi had no ability to fight back, thus risking his own life to protect the latter. He plunged the hook into the approaching assassin's chest, clawing an entirety of the man's internal organs out of his rib cage.

However, the moment he turned his body around, an opening for attack was revealed from behind. Another assassin seized the opportunity at once and slashed at Wu Xi with his blade — their movements were indeed too fast that even with Jing Qi's eyesight it would still be difficult to clearly see the situation. Wu Xi forcefully hurled his body forward only to see that the assassin was coming after him again. Jing Qi immediately positioned the crossbow with the loaded arrow and shot from an artfully calculated angle. While pouring his heart into killing Wu Xi, the assassin did not take any precautions against the underhanded attack — he attempted a marginal dodge yet failed as the arrow hit his shoulder directly.1

But this poisoned arrow was truly poisonous: it was not even half a step that he inched before the targeted assassin tumbled down and laid motionless on the ground.

This confrontation was seriously too risky — Jing Qi breathed out a faint sigh of relief, continued speaking nonchalantly as if nothing had ever occurred: "How come this gentleman had such bad temper... So originally, your master accepted that second Helian as his adoptive father, but the moment things turned out to be not working out for them, they immediately started to slash each other's throat. With the kind of servants like you people, I can already imagine how brilliant your master could be. If I were you, I would just simply take my own life and leave it at that — why bother to go back and induce further feelings of vexation in others?"

Right at that moment, they heard footfalls from a group of people reverberating through the narrow alley. The assassins were stricken with fear while Jing Qi only shook his head and commented with a smile: "It seems like they have arrived. Well, you gentlemen traveled from afar so you probably don't know. The capital city is a densely populated place, and in order to prevent fire from happening, during New Year's and other holidays, people are only permitted to light fireworks on the main streets or the river bank. It has been so many years since the ban on firework use in the alleys was issued. Jin Wu Guards(3) finally have come and brought people here to arrest me for violating the law."

Then with a clear, resounding laugh, he said: "Nan Ning Wang is here. Who dared to be impetuous?"

The closer the approachers were, the more urgent their footsteps became — it seemed like they were just one alley away. The assassin guild leader made a feint move and closed his fingers together for a whistle. As the whistling shrill penetrated the air, all the assassins synchronously brought their fighting to a halt and leapt onto the wall to escape.

Jing Qi hurriedly exclaimed: "Oh my! No committing suicide? Well then, safe travel! I am not seeing you off."

The little sable squatted on his shoulder, following along and wagging its tail in a perfectly matching rhythm.

It wasn't until then when Wu Xi could finally breathe out a sigh of relief. Before he had the chance to speak, Jing Qi suddenly took hold of him and pulled; gesturing at A Xin Lai with a wave of his hand, he whispered with a low voice: "Hurry, go!"

A Xin Lai was not sure why, thus he asked: "Why do we have to go... Aren't the Jin Wu Guards..."

"I cooked that nonsense up to trick them. Let's go back first. The rest can wait." Jing Qi further lowered his voice.

A Xin Lai turned his head around to look behind while running alongside and continued asking: "Then who are the people that are coming?"

Jing Qi answered: "The 'no fireworks use in the narrow alleys' is an unwritten, common rule established among the people in the neighborhood. The families have always been looking out for their children, worrying that they would cause things to catch on fire. When I did that earlier, it was precisely to draw the attention of men and women from this neighborhood. They are all townspeople living nearby, running over here to scold the ignorant kids who just set off fireworks. I guess I have really angered them just now. That's why let's run faster, or else we will have to pay for the compensation..."

His voice came to an abrupt halt as Wu Xi suddenly staggered: within a blink of an eye, the latter's entire body collapsed against his.

Jing Qi retreated half a step back so that he could catch a hold of him. The moment he situated his hand and noticed the person was soaked, he felt his heart tighten: "Did you get hurt?"

Wu Xi clenched his teeth and bit back all the sounds, his hands clutching the other man's robe tightly, his breathing was labored and did not slow down until a good while later. Leaning against Jing Qi's shoulder, he feebly propped himself and straightened up: "I am fine. It doesn't hurt. I also have the antidote. You don't need to hold me up. I can walk."

This child is even more stubborn than an actual donkey! Jing Qi was not in the mood to deal with him, thus he only turned to face A Xin Lai and said: "Carry him on your back."

This time, A Xin Lai was completely obedient. Without waiting for any explanation, he forcefully hoisted Wu Xi up on his back, and the three of them, drenched in blood, headed back to the Sorcerer Residence.

That night, Wu Xi began to burn with high fever: when it came to poison usage, if he ever considered himself to be the second greatest, no one would ever dare to call themselves the best. Some of the South Xinjiang warriors also said it was fine after seeing his condition, and that such reaction was normal after taking the antidote — the fever would last for one night, but afterward, there would be no problem.

The little sable squatted beside on the edge of its master's bed, its pair of big, round eyes darting back and forth between the two people, staring at one and then to the other. Then, it used its tiny head to brush lightly against Wu Xi. Realizing that the master was not paying it any attention, the sable let out a few little squeaks and rose on its feet, looking really pitiful.

From front to back, this Young Sorcerer Residence was nothing but a bunch of old and young men — even a single maid couldn't be found. Jing Qi heaved a sigh, feeling that he was fated to have a babysitter life, thus decided to stay. He told A Xin Lai to send someone to Nan Ning Wang Residence to notify Ping An, also passing his words to the latter and ordering that from then on, no matter who they were, no one was allowed to step a foot outside of the residence, and everything had to be put on hold until he came back to deal with it.

After finishing everything, Jing Qi sat down on one side, grabbed the little sable and put it in his embrace. He then ordered someone to bring over a basin of cold water, and after soaking the towel, he placed it on Wu Xi's forehead so that it could help lower the latter's body temperature.

Outside, A Xin Lai was explaining the evening's incident to others, their jabbering was of South Xinjiang dialect which Jing Qi could not fathom. However, he was still able to somewhat guess what their conversation was about, but had no intention to probe — after he was sitting for a while, his mind began to drift to stupor. As a result, he ended up leaning against the edge of the bed and closing his eyes for a rest.

As the dawn broke, Wu Xi suddenly opened his eyes wide. The moment his body moved, Jing Qi woke up as well and reached his arm over to feel the other's forehead. Noticing that Wu Xi still had a little fever, Jing Qi knew that his body was certainly not in any comfort. He asked right away: "Are you still hurt? Do you want to drink water? What kind of medicine do you need?"

But Wu Xi was just lying there in a daze, as if he was still stuck in a nightmare.

Jing Qi gave the other a few gentle pats: "Wu Xi?"

Wu Xi gazed at Jing Qi blankly, and in a hoarse voice, he said: "I've seen you just now..."

Jing Qi was stupefied.

And then, he heard Wu Xi say: "I dreamed of you... with white hair, you were sitting in front of a very big rock. I talked to you, but you didn't pay any attention to me..."10

----------- End of Chapter 17 -----------

Translator's note:

It's a great time to reread Chapter 1 :)

(1) Original text used 丈 (zhàng). 1 zhàng = 10 feet.

(2) Idiom, literal meaning is "to stir the grass to scare the snake"

(3) One of the Twelve Guards who command the Imperial Guards, translated as Imperial Insignia Guards in some texts.