Author note:  Not much to say, no side story as I think it pulls away the mood from the end of this chapter and it's friday night. Enjoy!

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Having decided to tell the truth Sun Jun started from when he arrived home after chasing Sun Qi. He explained how his mother found out about the cave, his mother's plan, and how Meng Fai took him to hire some men.

He was worried that Sun Jiao would cut him off when he said he hired men so he stressed several times that they were only coming out here to teach Sun Jiao a lesson and they wouldn't have killed anyone.

On that point Sun Jiao believed him as he could tell that the boy was a bit timid.

Xiaobo agreed as well and mentioned that if Sun Jun did choose to kill Sun Jiao he would then have to kill the men he brought as well in order to silence them and the boy wouldn't have been strong enough to do that.

Sun Jun then explained the ambush and running away.

"After we escaped I couldn't head towards the city as it was too far away and I knew they would catch up to us. I decided to find you as you were my only help. I...uh...I also wanted to warn you too! I knew they would definitely come for you after they caught me. Definitely!"

Sun Jiao's eyes narrowed with disbelief.

"As if I'd believe that. You led them here hoping I'd clean up your mess."

Sun Jiao's hand tightened on his blade. He thought about the kid he had let go and that the whole thing started because of the kid. Now he was in the same situation and had to make another decision.

"If you hadn't brought them here Xu Rong wouldn't have died."

Hearing the anger in Sun Jiao's voice Sun Jun thought back to when he passed out. He couldn't remember much except for a cold voice, but he could vaguely remember a maid beside Sun Jiao.

Sun Jun didn't know who Xu Rong was, but he could guess that it was that maid. He felt some slight blame for her death, but she was a servant so he didn't place much value in her life. It seemed that Sun Jiao did however which caused Sun Jun to panic.

"I didn't know they would attack like that! I got hurt and Sun Qi almost died! It's not my fault they were assassins!"

Sun Jiao was furious. The boy didn't take any of the blame.

"YOU HIRED THEM! EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T BETRAY YOU WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WHEN YOU SHOWED UP? THEY MIGHT FEAR KILLING ME BUT DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD SPARE HER?"

"Bu but...I..."

"IT'S YOUR FAULT THEY CAME HERE! ARE YOU THAT SHAMELESS THAT YOU WON'T EVEN ACCEPT THE BLAME?"

Sun Jun may have increased intelligence, but he was still a child. Faced with Sun Jiao's accusations he broke into tears.

Sun Jiao stopped yelling. The words he was saying weren't just directed at Sun Jun, but also at himself. He was to blame for letting the kid go.

Sun Jiao agreed with Xiaobo. The girl was still unconscious so he could kill Sun Jun and say he died during the fight with the assassins. Without her partner she wouldn't be able to contest his claim for the throne. In fact she would probably even be grateful to him for saving her life. There was no reason to kill the girl, but Sun Jun would cause problems.

Sun Jiao decided he couldn't make the same mistake twice. He had to kill the boy.

With a calmness that surprised himself Sun Jiao began to walk forward.

"Wh- what are you do-oing?"

"I-"

Sun Jiao stopped. He was about to say that he would kill him, but he saw something in the grass that caused him to falter.

Storing the blade in his ring, he walked over to the objects laid out on the ground and picked them up. His focus was on a flower.

It was the flower that he had given Xu Rong the night before; the Devil Midnight Lily.

It had fallen from the corpse when he stored the body in his ring as the Lily was still able to survive for as long as the energy inside it lasted. The amount of energy it takes to send the seed into space was enough to keep the flower alive for months or maybe even years.

Holding the flower caused Sun Jiao to reflect on his decision while remembering the short time he spent with Xu Rong. However the flower didn't cause him to waver on his decision to kill Sun Jun, but instead increased his determination.

At that moment, just as Sun Jiao was about to pull out his blade again, a large man emanating an aura of strength appeared.

When the hunchback man had infiltrated the scouting party that Sun Yu had sent out he had killed them after receiving a message from Po that they were hired and the assassination would go through as planned.

The scouting party had been expected to continue updating Meng Fai on a regular basis and the hunchback man had continued sending progress reports on time. In fact, just before showing himself, he sent a message and wouldn't need to send another for quite a while.

What The Blood assassins didn't expect however was that Meng Fai had given three bird puppets to the guards so they could send a message as well.

From Sun Jun's personality alone you can tell how protective and cautious his mother was when it came to him. Had they been on earth she would have the type of mother to have Sun Jun continue to call and check in even if he turned 18 and moved out!

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Thus the guards were expected to send a message halfway to the cave, when they reached the cave, and as they left the cave.

When the time the first message should have arrived came and went; Sun Yu immediately began to worry. It took as long as the time it takes to read this sentence for her to send out men to investigate who then quickly discovered the bodies and sent a message back; that is to say the time it took was a bit longer, only a few words longer that is, we're almost there, and done. That's about how long.

Having received the message about the bodies Meng Fai raced towards the cave at the fastest speed he could go. As a peak Third Layer cultivator he arrived to the fight almost immediately.

He arrived just as Sun Jiao had killed the hunchback man and decided to remain hidden. He could tell the young master and miss were still alive and didn't need any assistance.

He also knew that when Sun Jiao chased after Fatman that Sun Jiao would eventually return and knowing Sun Jiao's personality Meng Fai deduced that he would return to kill the two. He could then appear just as Sun Jiao attacked and kill him under the excuse of defending the third prince.

If he killed him before he attacked then the third prince would need to lie to his father and he couldn't trust the naive kid to hold up under any amount of questioning. If he waited until he attacked however then the third prince would just need to tell the truth.

Meng Fai was already impatient having listened to Sun Jun tell the entire story, so when Sun Jiao put the blade away, lost all killing intent, and picked up a flower Meng Fai couldn't wait any longer.

He couldn't figure out what had changed in Sun Jiao; first the question and now a flower? He had expected Sun Jiao to return and talk about how he would kill them while enjoying the sight of Sun Jun in fear.

Now however he was too close to Sun Jun and at this point unpredictable. If he suddenly changed his mind again and attacked Meng Fai didn't have the confidence to react in time while hiding.

After revealing himself he spoke up with a strong masculine voice and a fake worried look on his face.

"Young Master Jun I've arrived! Are you alright? How is Young miss?"

Sun Jun jumped with a start as he had been focused on Sun Jiao and the slightly glowing flower.

"I'm fine, but my sister lost a lot of blood. Do you have any blood recovery pills?"

An image of Fatman eating a handful of pills popped into Sun Jiao's mind, but was then ignored as he focused on the man that had appeared.

Xiaobo, not realizing Meng Fai had been observing the whole time, was naturally upset having missed a chance to eliminate competition for the throne.

A bead of imaginary sweat appeared on Xiaobo's forehead.

Sun Jiao cut the connection; he didn't feel like listening to Xiaobo at this moment.

"Young master Jiao!"

Sun Jiao hadn't been listening to the two as he was talking with Xiaobo and it seems they the man had asked him a question.

"Are you alright? You seem a bit...confused."

Meng Fai used this moment to investigate the cause of Sun Jiao's change.

Not interested in answering and knowing he should resume his arrogant act Sun Jiao decided to ignore the question entirely.

"Fuck off."

With that he ignored the three and returned to the cave to grab the bag of lilies and eat a meal. He wasn’t really in the mood to eat, but Xu Rong had prepared it this morning and he wanted to give the three time to leave. 

After finishing the meal Sun Jiao decided it was time to return home. He figured the battle experience he had was enough for now and if it wasn't then he didn’t care.

Exiting the cave he found that the sun had set, the moon was out, and the three were gone.

It would be a long walk back, but he wasn't in a hurry.

He looked up and saw a full moon in the sky. While staring at the moon he began to wonder how the moon could be so similar to the one back on earth.

If the two moons, separated by an unfathomable distance, were to share the same sky they would be perfect matches for each other.

If one was dark the other could be full and there would always be a shining light in the sky.

Instead they were destined to remain equally alone for all eternity.

"I guess I should get used to being alone."

Sun Jiao didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"What's the difference?"

Xiaobo, not knowing how to reply, wisely chose to remain silent.