CHAPTER 11

Assassin vs Blind Priest

Two days after my first visit, Lord Lan accompanied me back to the imperial palace so I could further examine the crown prince.

I still had not found any traces of poison from the specimen that Lord Lan had taken from Prince Shang’s body, but I found some tiny particles that could only be obtained from a highly refined elixir that only a master alchemist could create.

But it was not poison.

I knew that the crown prince’s life was hanging by a thread, so in the meantime, I had refined a potion, with the help of Xu Dong’s level three alchemy, to prolong the crown prince’s life.

Just as we disembarked from the carriage, I heard a voice coming from behind us.

We both turned around and found a eunuch and an imperial guard running towards us. They stopped three steps away and greeted Lord Lan.

Lord Lan introduced me to them. One was the chief eunuch, Zeng Jie, and the other was an imperial guard, Shao Wei.

“Forgive us for bothering his lordship,” Zeng Jie said after the introduction and a brief exchange of courtesies. “His Majesty just heard of your arrival in the palace and he wishes to see you right away.”

Lord Lan looked at me. “Do you want to come along and meet the emperor?”

Come along? To meet the emperor?

The thought alone sent chills down my spine. My master was a prince, a brother of the emperor of Kan Empire, and a few times, he had brought me to the palace to meet the emperor himself.

I could never forget how Emperor Sun had interrogated me then, kept asking over and over again why I had joined the Ethereal Frost Sect and what my real name was as if he suspected me of espionage. Since then, I had avoided the emperor’s palace like a plaque.

And I still did not want to step foot in another emperor’s palace.

Besides, I did not think I was worthy to meet the revered Emperor Yin of Xianru.

“I’m grateful for the invitation, Lord Lan,” I replied. “But His Majesty wishes to see you all of a sudden so there must be something important that he wants to discuss with you. I don’t want to be a bother.”

He sighed and looked at the chief eunuch. “Escort Priest Luo to the crown prince’s palace. Tell them he has come under my order. If any of those imperial physicians bully him, let me know.”

“Yes, my lord.” Zeng Jie cupped his hands and bowed his head to Lord Lan as if he had taken an order from the emperor himself.

Lord Lan turned away and left on his own.

“This way, Priest Luo,” Zheng Jie said and took the lead.

I followed him with Shao Wei tailing right behind me.

As we passed by an alley, Zeng Jie looked around. “Where are the guards here?” he asked.

I also glanced around. The alley was indeed empty, but it was the middle of the day and the sun was high so I guessed they simply had sought shelter from the heat.

When suddenly, a masked man hiding behind a tree revealed himself and charged towards Zeng Jie.

Quickly, I pushed Zeng Jie to the side but the assassin did not change direction. I realized I was the target.

My reaction was slow and I did not have the speed that I used to possess back then, but I still tried to raise the stick in a defensive position even though I knew it would be too late already.

To my surprise, the assassin’s knife did not reach me. Shao Wei had knocked the assassin to the ground.

I pulled Zheng Jie up and yelled, “Go and seek for help!”

Without wasting a second, Zheng Jie scampered away, turning to the corner as fast as a rabbit running from its hunters.

When I looked at the two on the ground, they were still wrestling each other. Shao Wei was stronger so he managed to pin the assassin underneath him. Just when I thought everything was going to be fine, I saw the tip of a blade protruding through Shao Wei’s back, followed by a painful grunt.

I froze in shock.

I should run to save myself, but I did not want to leave behind a person who had risked his life for me. And even if I did, the assassin was back on his feet now. He’d surely catch up with me or throw his knife on my cowardly fleeing back.

My best option was to face him, even though I knew it was futile.

I only had to stall him for a moment or so until help arrived.

He leapt towards me with his long knife which was probably still dripping with Shao Wei’s blood. I deflected his attack with my bamboo stick and stepped to the side. Before I could even counter, he attacked again.

He was fast and strong. I may have matched his speed and that was why I was able to dodge his attacks, but my strength was way inferior.

After dodging his knife several times, he briefly lost his balance and I took the opportunity to counter. I grabbed his bladed arm with one hand and with my other hand, I poked at a certain point on his wrist, temporarily paralyzing his fingers.

The knife fell to the ground, but then I realized that he was wearing an iron knuckle on his other hand.

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He did not try to retrieve his knife back. As soon as he recovered, he threw a reckless punch at me. Since he no longer needed precision, his attacks became brutal. The contacts I took all over my arm that I used to block his attacks with must have all turned blue and purple.

I could no longer stand it. I could not breathe anymore, as if I would collapse the moment I made another move, and my poor eyesight blurred even more until there was only total darkness.

Disoriented, exhausted, and totally blind, I was helpless. A hard blow landed on my back. It felt like a rock had smashed my spine into fragments, paralyzing me.

I dropped to the ground, unable to utter a sound, unable to move.

Then I heard something.

Someone had just arrived. Even if I could not see, my senses captured some movements in the air.

A moment later, my vision slightly cleared and I was able to see shadows once again.

I blinked as I tried to recognize the figure of my savior.

It looked like Lord Lan.

I did not expect that he was that fast. In just a short while, he had managed to completely incapacitate the assassin and held him by the neck. I barely even saw anything, and I really wanted to know how he had finished off the assassin so easily.

“Who sent you?” Lord Lan grunted.

The assassin did not answer, and then I heard the sound of a dying breath. I knew then that the assassin had bitten off a poisonous pill. It was what hired assassins do to end their life when they failed their job, rather than subject themselves to interrogation and torture.

Furiously, Lord Lan tossed the corpse across the ground. “Search him and find out who sent him,” he ordered.

I did not even notice that there were other people around us already.

He quickly came to me and slowly turned me around. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Although my whole body felt numb, I felt no pain so I nodded.

He was about to haul me up when he fondled at something on my back. “Your spine is dislocated,” he said as his fingers gently traced the length of my spine. “Are your feet numb?”

I tried to move my legs and realized that I had lost sensation in my lower body.

The realization froze me. It felt like the world had crumbled down on me yet once again.

After losing my sight, now I’m half-paralyzed?

Why didn’t I just die?

“Don’t worry, it’s only temporary,” he said. “A bone just slipped out of place. We can easily fix that.”

I breathed out my relief.

I hoped he was telling the truth.

He repositioned his arms before he slowly lifted me.

I stiffened, my face and ears turning hot.

How could he carry me like a woman? Right in front of these people?

But without my voice, I could not complain. I could not even move. I could only shake my head.

“What?” he asked.

I shook my head again.

He sighed and continued walking with me lying in his arms. “It’s my fault. I should have asked one of my disciples to escort you. Who would have thought that the traitors lurking in this palace are easily threatened by an unknown alchemist from an unknown sect? They’re pathetic.”

He was an intelligent man. I suspected that he understood my silent protest too well but played dumb by intentionally misinterpreting my real concern.

A carriage stopped before us and Lord Lan carefully settled me on the couch. He sat beside me, his arms across my back, supporting me from falling. He even pulled my head to rest on his shoulder and gently brushed my hair backward with his fingers.

It was awkward in all aspects. He was treating me like I was a fragile woman who needed that much extra care and attention. I suspected that he was doing so intentionally just to tease me, and it made me feel uncomfortable instead of being thankful.

When we reached his residence, he carried me again.

“Lord Lan.” I finally got my voice back. “You don’t have to carry me. I’ll try to walk on my own.”

“You have no sensation on your legs. How can you walk?”

“Then please don’t carry me this way.”

“Nonsense,” he replied nonchalantly. “You are injured. Why should it matter how I carry you? Don’t bother yourself with such trivial matters. It’s my fault that this happened to you, so allow me to take care of you.”

With due respect to him as the master of the house, I chose not to argue any further.

More servants met us in front of the door and I quickly looked away. I was too embarrassed to even look at them as shadows.

“Master, what happened?” one man, probably a disciple, asked. In my short stay in this residence, I had observed that the servants had always kept their mouths sealed unless they were required to speak. Only a disciple could dare ask a question.

“He was attacked by an assassin in the palace,” Lord Lan replied. “Summon Physician Yang at once. Tell him it’s a spine injury.”

“Yes, Master.”

I only felt relief when he entered my chamber and gently laid me down in bed. I grimaced as the mattress was pressed against my back.

“Bear with the pain for now,” he said. “The physician is coming.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

He sat down beside me. “You might be wondering why I had to bring you all the way here instead of having the imperial physicians take a look at you.”

Actually, I had not even thought about that, but now that he mentioned it… Why indeed did he have to bring me all the way to his residence while there were dozens of physicians who could have given me immediate relief in the palace?

“It’s because the imperial physicians are not very fond of you,” he continued. “Their credibility is threatened by the mysterious Priest Luo. They are afraid that you might find the answer to a puzzle that they cannot solve. Surely, they’d do anything to save face.”

His explanation made sense.

“…I understand.” Then I remembered the imperial guard. “How is Shao Wei?”

“He was still alive when they took him to the infirmary. He was mortally wounded. I’m not sure if he’d make it.”

I felt somewhat guilty.

“Don’t worry about that now. There are many physicians in the palace to take care of him. Whatever the outcome, you can’t do anything about it anymore.”

I sighed, then I remembered how this man had come to my rescue and moved like a tempest I hardly even saw or sensed anything.

I stared at him, wondering if he was indeed the infamous, mostly feared, yet highly regarded Ruan Yanjun.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked.

I flushed and quickly looked away. “Forgive me, my lord. I’m just thinking.”

“What are you thinking?”

“When you fought that assassin earlier, I realized one thing.”

“And that is?”

“That you are indeed… Ruan Yanjun.”

He looked at me, and then he chortled. “You just figured that out?”

I was dumbfounded. I could not breathe. Even if I had long suspected it, and just moments ago was already so certain about it, hearing his confirmation still bewildered me.

Suddenly, he did not look, or rather feel, real to me.

Could this really be the infamous Ruan Yanjun? And he is right here, sitting right beside me, talking with me, taking care of me?

Isn’t he supposed to be a demon? The Devil of the South as many people called him?

Have they been wrong?

Is Ruan Yanjun just but a victim of a widely spread false rumor?

“It is a pleasure to meet the highly acclaimed great immortal,” I said.

“Highly acclaimed?” He laughed deeply. “I don’t think that is precise. They won’t even recognize the legitimacy of my superiority over everyone else. Those deceitful rankers had gone to such extent to make my existence nothing but a nuisance to everyone else, and to make it appear that my ninth-level cultivation is nothing but a rumor.” He paused and leaned forward, lowering his head closer to mine. “Just like what they have done to the senior disciple of Ethereal Frost Sect… after he surpassed the level of his master.” He paused again and smirked. “Haven’t you suspected that your master must have felt insecure and insulted by your sudden rise, and everything that has happened to you must have something to do with him?”

His accusation shocked me. “My lord, my master has already died. I don’t think it’s proper to be accusing him of things, especially without concrete proof. And I don’t think he is capable of doing such a thing to his disciple. He had always been proud of me and had actually wanted me to take over as the Chief of Frost Mountain after him… I had failed him and even cost him his life. I deserve the punishment I got. I only have myself to blame.”

He laughed deeply. “You have very high regard for your master,” he said. “Don’t worry. Soon, you will get the answers to your questions. Even those that you couldn’t dare to question will be answered.”

My fingers twitched. There were indeed some questions that seemed to creep out from the depths of my mind but I did not dare entertain them.

How did he know about that? Does he know more about the situation I was involved in than I do?