Chapter 74: Yong Wang’s Obsessive Entanglement; “From now on, there are no secrets between us, and no one…”
“It’s a ghost!”
“Vengeful ghost, take this!”
A group of men suddenly burst in through one of the gates of the Yongning Prince Mansion.
They were a squad of mooks, ordered to search every household for quilts.
They had already swept through Guangling Prefecture once and taken almost everything worth taking. It was only to complete the task assigned by Prefect Jia that they were forced to break into this haunted house and search the Yongning Prince Mansion.
The mooks entered the mansion and saw bloodstains everywhere and the desolation; their hearts and galls were already split with fear.
And then there were actually the sounds of someone laughing from the direction of the garden. The mooks drew closer to look, only to see two figures kneeling before the empty zither platform. If they weren’t ghosts, then what were they?
The rebels struck first to gain the advantage, raising their blades against the “vengeful ghosts.” They picked the soft persimmon to squeeze first, and the blade swung toward Ying Xi.
Ying Xi’s vital xue points were struck, and he could not move.
Ying Dang’s short blade was a hundred times faster than the mook’s blade!
The long blade reached Ying Xi’s shoulder, only to be parried by Prince Yong’s short blade.
Prince Yong rose, and then his blade slid along the other’s edge, aimed straight for the rebel’s throat!
In an instant, blood sprayed, and Ying Dang’s face was splattered.
That strike was so clean it was beyond the capability of an ordinary person.
More terrifying than the blade technique was Prince Yong himself.
His face and body were covered in blood. It was already impossible to tell if he was a man or a ghost. Having just been interrupted in the middle of the “wedding bows,” his heart was filled with rage. Furthermore, Prince Yong considered the Yongning Prince Mansion his home; anyone who trespassed was nothing good.
Prince Yong did not want anyone to know of his or his brother’s whereabouts, so he intended to kill them all.
The light of his blade expanded by several degrees; anyone who touched the web of his blade died. In the blink of an eye, six or seven men lay dead at their feet. The quilts the mooks were carrying fell to the ground. Blood spread, soaking the quilts.
Ying Xi wanted to speak to stop Prince Yong, but he could not.
Although killing the Guangling defenders would increase the chance of capturing the city,
The enemy, after all, had numbers. Once pushed to a dead end, with weapons in hand and a desperate desire to survive, they would inevitably fight for their lives.
Sure enough, just as Ying Xi thought this, the mooks on the outer circle dropped their quilts and, without waiting for Prince Yong to strike, took the lead in attacking him.
A dozen men immediately surrounded Ying Dang!
“Brothers, together!”
“This kid is probably that spy who snuck in!”
“Slaughter them both!”
“Someone go report to the Prefect! The spy is in the Yongning Prince Mansion, silen—”
Yongning Prince Mansion. Silencing.
The rebel soldiers spoke the very words that should not have been spoken in this place.
Ying Dang was momentarily lost in thought.
He only felt that he could no longer distinguish between the past and reality. The assassins sent by Emperor Yuan Tai back then overlapped with the rebels before his eyes.
The corpses on the ground and the blood everywhere fueled Ying Dang’s fear, causing a surge of destructive, manic rage to grow within him.
Ying Dang threw his short blade!
The silver-red short blade pierced through the back of the neck of the rebel who intended to report. The rebel fell dead.
But Ying Dang was suddenly without a weapon.
The rebels all swung their blades at him. Relying on his extreme speed, Ying Dang dodged one strike and circled behind that rebel.
He struck with his palm, pushing the rebel into the center of the fight.
A dozen blades hacked into this person!
Tragic screams erupted in the garden of the Yongning Prince Mansion.
Ying Dang took this opportunity to retrieve his short blade and charged into the crowd, his movements becoming a blur of shadows.
Although Tian Tong had long known that the host was always surrounded by blades and shadows, seeing blood still made it feel uneasy. It sucked in a breath of cold air.
“Bixia… Bixia…”
“Prepare the substitute.”
Tian Tong was stunned: “Use it now!?”
“When Zhen tells you to release it, release it.”
“Understood, understood, understood!”
At this moment, Ying Xi was lying in the center of the fight. To avoid being caught in the crossfire, he had been constantly trying to move his body.
After the struggle just now, combined with the fact that Prince Yong hadn’t had time to re-strike the xue points in his legs, Ying Xi’s lower half was gradually regaining autonomy!
He carefully moved his ankles, daring not to attract the rebels’ attention nor let his brother find out.
There were bushes around the zither platform.
As long as he rolled into the bushes during the chaos and placed the fake substitute there,
When Dang’er finished fighting, he would come to grab the substitute.
He could escape, and Dang’er wouldn’t be in any danger.
Ying Xi made his plans and secretly moved his limbs even more.
Unfortunately, the xue points on his upper body were struck quite firmly; he couldn’t help but feel a mixture of anger and helplessness toward Ying Dang once again.
Ying Xi turned his gaze back to the fight.
By now, the dozen men had dwindled to just a few, but these few were unwilling to die and were fighting desperately with Ying Dang.
They discovered that Ying Dang’s emotions were unusually heightened, so they decided to provoke him.
Even though Prince Yong’s skill far surpassed the remaining rebel mooks, they were good at distracting him and attacking from different sides.
The rebels shouted:
“Attack his lower body! Sweep the kid’s legs!”
“Hahaha, you fell for it! I’m right here!”
Zi-la!
A steel blade tore through clothing and sliced into flesh.
The blade cut into Prince Yong’s upper arm. Prince Yong withdrew his blade, and the rebels took advantage of the opening to land another strike, drawing a bloody arc on the ground filled with deep and light green withered leaves.
Prince Yong hissed out a long breath.
The left hand holding Prince Yong’s blade felt several times heavier than before; a six or seven-inch wound had appeared from his wrist to his forearm.
Even more blood flowed from the wound.
Tian Tong: “Should I release the substitute?”
This was the last and best chance.
Once they fell into the hands of the rebels, the situation would become a hundred times more dangerous!
It could even directly determine the fate of the North and South.
The rebels swung their blades at Prince Yong!
Prince Yong thought to himself that things were bad, feeling the overwhelming sensation of impending death. But unexpectedly, the brother whose xue points were struck actually stuck out his right foot and tripped one of them.
Tian Tong: “…Bixia?”
A gap was immediately opened in the enemy’s ranks.
Prince Yong’s spirits were greatly lifted, almost as if he had suddenly taken several bottles of powerful medicine.
Ying Dang, bearing the numerous wounds on his left arm, kicked one over and then stabbed through two others. The remaining two or three didn’t dare to stay and fled in panic.
Wounded, Prince Yong was unable to pursue them.
Blood ran down the length of the blade, his own blood mixing with that of the rebels, dripping from the tip.
Half of Prince Yong’s body was now red.
He seemed unable to stand steadily, exhausted. He stumbled toward Ying Xi and suddenly fell beside him, contentedly embracing Ying Xi’s body.
He used both legs to clamp down on Ying Xi’s right leg—the one that had just tripped someone—and pressed his whole body against him, laughing breathlessly.
“Brother…”
“Brother, you’ve always had me in your heart, haven’t you?”
“I know you’re the one who can’t bear to leave me, Xiongzhang…”
Ying Xi was once again firmly held.
Ying Dang was like someone covered in suction cups!
Although he was glad Prince Yong didn’t die, he was full of regret because he had exposed that his legs could move, so he couldn’t escape now.
He could only wait for the next opportunity.
Ying Xi let out a weary sigh.
However, the chaotic footsteps of the two or three who had just run away were returning.
The rebels’ voices grew closer to the garden: “Prefect, the spy is in the garden. There are two of them. One uses a short blade, and the other is being protected by him. Although we couldn’t win, we managed to wound him. We ask the Prefect to investigate!”
Beneath the veranda outside the garden, a group of people approached the zither platform.
It was precisely Jia Ruzhen and his disciples!
the disciples discussed:
“A short blade—it sounds like Prince Yong!”
“Who is the other one? Prince Yong has an accomplice?”
The disciples surrounded a man. The one leading them had a sinister expression and sallow skin. At his waist was the Yuchang short sword.
Jia Ruzhen stepped into the garden.
The mess within the Yongning Prince Mansion had all been bestowed by him.
Jia Ruzhen felt no guilt. He pressed his knuckles against his lips, forcing down the urge to vomit; if he let go, he would immediately vomit blood.
Over a decade…
Recalling those internal injuries again, Jia Ruzhen crushed the brick beneath his foot.
His anger and inability to accept that he was essentially crippled caused his killing intent toward Ying Xi to skyrocket to its peak.
He wanted to capture Ying Xi’s younger brother.
But he was wary of whether Ying Xi had sent other masters to assist Prince Yong. A flash of silver light passed through Jia Ruzhen’s mind.
Jia Ruzhen, of course, did not expect this.
In the garden was not just Prince Yong, but another as well.
With snow-white skin and deep gray pupils, far from the protection of the Longwujun, Ying Xi actually looked like a doll that anyone could manipulate, lying paralyzed before his eyes.
Their gazes met. The descendant of the Yongning Prince and his enemy met again at the scene of the murder—it was like a cycle of fate.
Jia Ruzhen’s actions were faster than his thoughts. In an instant, his figure blurred, and the Yuchang Sword was already before them!
Zheng—
The Yuchang Sword and the short blade collided, the sound so loud it made their ears numb.
Ying Dang barely managed to parry this strike.
But all the wounds on his body—his upper arm, forearm, chest—all burst into fountains of blood because he had taken this blow head-on!
Ying Dang let out a scream of agony!
Prince Yong was certainly a master, but his experience in life-and-death struggle was far less seasoned than the Shadow’s.
The strike was meant to be fatal, aimed only at deciding the fate of the two countries with one blow, completely ignoring whether he had any internal injuries.
Ying Dang had just taken one strike when another followed!
The second strike went straight for Ying Xi’s throat.
Ying Dang ducked, scooped up his brother’s slender waist, and rolled several times on the ground before rising to run.
The Shadow pursued from behind.
The disciples he brought also pursued; these people had all learned the Shadow’s techniques, and their speed was not a bit inferior to the Shadow’s.
In an instant, there were countless sword-wielding silhouettes following Prince Yong and Ying Xi.
This kind of martial art was like treading on moonlight without leaving a trace, perfect for stealthy tracking.
It made Prince Yong feel a sense of scalp-tingling tension as he was being pursued, with a vague sense of familiarity as if he had seen it before, though he couldn’t remember when.
Since returning to the Fangzhi Hall, the mysteries following him had once again struck Prince Yong.
While carrying Ying Xi through the garden for his life, Prince Yong felt a sense of unwarranted absurdity and awkwardness.
Fortunately, he was familiar with the paths of the Yongning Prince Mansion!
Ying Dang had been naughty since childhood. When playing hide-and-seek in the courtyard as a kid, few could catch him unless he wanted to come out.
He immediately took Ying Xi through the wildly growing flowers and trees, heading toward the rockery his father had arranged.
The shouts of the pursuers behind them were unending:
“Catch them! Over there!”
“Take this!”
A flying dagger grazed Prince Yong’s shoulder and nailed into an old tree in the mansion, sinking two or three inches deep. It was unknown if it was poisoned.
Prince Yong was terrified, and he didn’t even have time to see if he was hurt as the dense rockery appeared before his eyes.
Back then, the Yongning Prince loved elegance and had built many oddly shaped rocks, each with its own name: Penglai Immortal Isle, Lanting Ancient Charm, Bishui Spiritual Platform…
As long as they slipped into the rocks, there were rocks everywhere!
In this world, only a leisurely scholar like their father could distinguish the differences between the rock shapes. He didn’t believe the assassins could!
Ying Dang silently praised his father for saving their lives.
He and Ying Xi slipped into a rockery. They were immediately surrounded by the smell of moldy dampness, and it was pitch black before them.
This rockery was a mountain on the outside but had some space inside, enough to hold two people at most.
Ying Dang and Ying Xi were very cramped inside.
The gap in the cave that led outside happened to be blockable by a rock.
When Ying Dang was little and mischievous, he had broken off a piece of Taihu rock just to block this cave perfectly.
This was his proud work; he had even fooled his clever brother a few times, making him search everywhere to no avail.
And he could observe his brother through the hole in the rock, watching him worry about him and search for him…
Seeing the two suddenly vanish, the pursuers outside were puzzled and looked around.
They split up to search, their voices drifting into the cave:
“He’s not here!”
“Not here either. Damn it, is it really haunted?”
“Master, they were just here, how did they disappear!”
The pursuers were like ants on a hot griddle.
Ying Dang thought it was funny. He held Ying Xi and tightened his arms, his chin resting on Ying Xi’s forehead, whispering extremely lightly and ambiguously.
The warm breath poured into Ying Xi’s ear, making him feel hot enough to shiver, the airflow bringing a tingling sensation.
Ying Xi couldn’t suppress his goosebumps.
“Brother, it’s fine.”
“The cleverness of this cave—later when we went to Chang’an, thinking we might never return, I only told you about it.”
“From now on, there are no secrets between us, and no one can take you away from me.”
However, just as Ying Dang thought he was being comforting, Ying Xi’s legs—the only part that could move—were constantly bumping against him!
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
He was careful with his strength, making sure not to attract the attention of those outside while immediately alerting Ying Dang.
Don’t stay… we can’t stay here…
Prince Yong, of course, didn’t understand, thinking Ying Xi wanted to escape.
Prince Yong used both hands to pin Ying Xi’s legs, circling him from back to front, pinning him firmly.
Outside the air hole, Jia Ruzhen slowly approached the rockery.
This man had his hands behind his back; his sword was behind him, and the light of the Yuchang Sword shone into the cave, revealing a bone-chilling cold gleam.
Jia Ruzhen paced around the rockery.
One step, two steps…
Prince Yong held his breath, making no sound.
After about a dozen steps, Jia Ruzhen turned to leave.
“Search over there,” he ordered.
Ying Dang breathed a slight sigh of relief.
However, just as that breath was only halfway out of his lungs, the sound of a weapon piercing through stone roared inside the cave—
The Yuchang Sword pierced through the Taihu rock and stabbed into Prince Yong’s back!
Ying Dang immediately vomited a mouthful of blood.
Translator’s Note: Oh no! The cliffhanger! Ying Dang has been stabbed by Jia Ruzhen’s Yuchang Sword. The Taihu rock (太湖石) is a type of porous limestone prized in Chinese gardens—it’s what their secret childhood hiding spot is made of. We also see Ying Xi trying to warn him using the “Substitute” plan from the Sweet System (甜统). Will they make it out of the Yongning Prince Mansion? Stay tuned! Love you guys!
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