006 Fighting Four Alone
Su Wantang was rescued to the shore by Helian Rong. Su Huajin seemed to turn back into a gentle and caring elder sister once more, and after saying a few words to the Fifth Princess, she let Xing’er take Su Wantang to change: “Go accompany the Second Young Miss, and take her a set of spare clothes.”
Xing’er: “Yes.”
Su Wantang kept her head down, looking embarrassed and mortified. After whispering her thanks, she followed Xing’er away…
Not long after, Su Wantang was brought to a room.
Xing’er shoved a set of clothes at her haphazardly and sneered, “Second Young Miss, you had better change quickly.”
Su Wantang glanced at the mean-spirited servant. As she reached out to take the clothes, she flicked her finger onto the servant’s acupoint. Xing’er only thought Su Wantang had brushed against her and didn’t pay it any mind. Then, she heard the illegitimate Second Young Miss sob in a pitiful, small voice: “After I change my clothes, I would like to be alone for a while. Could you please trouble Miss Xing’er to tell my sister?”
Seeing Su Wantang’s state, Xing’er guessed that she was too embarrassed to return after making such a spectacle of herself in public and wanted to hide to cry.
She hummed, “Then the Second Young Miss may take a short rest. Remember not to wander about. This is the Eldest Princess’s garden; if you commit a taboo, no one can save you.”
Su Wantang answered obediently and closed the door.
Xing’er curled her lips and went back to report… It was just as well; she didn’t want to waste her time on this second-rate young miss who couldn’t even stand on a stage.
Serving over there, who knows how much in tips she might receive, and she would have more opportunities to be seen…
Seeing Xing’er return, Su Huajin asked, “Where is Wantang?”
Xing’er intentionally raised her voice a little: “The Second Young Miss is distressed and said she wants to be alone. The servant heard her hiding and crying.”
Knowing that her mistress planned to dispose of the Second Young Miss in the future, she took the opportunity to let everyone know how uncouth Su Wantang was, so that when the young lady sent her away later, no one would be suspicious.
Su Huajin gave her an appreciative look: “Alright, you take my place in the game; I will cover any losses, and if you win, consider it your tip.”
Xing’er’s eyes brightened immediately.
But just as she moved forward, prepared to take over for her mistress, her figure suddenly stiffened, and she clutched her lower abdomen unnaturally.
Su Huajin frowned: “What’s the matter?”
“Forgive me, Miss. Servant… servant is feeling unwell. I will be right back…”
Unable to care about etiquette, Xing’er turned and tried to flee the pavilion, but after just two steps, a strange sound rang out.
Su Huajin was stunned at first, and then watched in disbelief as something suspicious flowed from under the white skirt of her most trusted and prominent head maid.
The next instant, the pavilion erupted in chaos.
“Ugh… what is that!”
The Fifth Princess, Zhao Xiyao, had a drastic change in complexion: “How bold! Someone, come here, drag that filthy thing away!”
Su Huajin’s face was already ashen, a buzzing sound ringing in her head… she even wondered if she was having a nightmare.
Her own personal maid had actually defecated in public… and in front of the Fifth Princess and a group of noble ladies…
Heavens!
How was this any different from her doing it in public herself!
While the pavilion was in turmoil, on the other side, Su Wantang had bolted the door. Behind the screen in the inner room, she stripped off her soaking wet clothes, revealing a set of tight-fitting martial arts attire underneath.
She pulled out a piece of black cloth to wrap her hair and everything above her eyes, then covered the lower half of her face, leaving only her eyes exposed. She walked to the window at the back, listened intently for a moment, and then pushed the window open, vanishing like a ghost…
On the second floor of the Lake Center Pavilion, because the eunuch just now had been too busy looking around to attend to his master, the new eunuch who had taken his place was observant and lowered the curtains on the side facing the pavilion.
It was because of this that the few people on the second floor did not see the messy, filthy scene below.
Zhao Xuanzhen heard the noise and commotion, worrying that Su Wantang was causing trouble again, and rose to go over: “I will go take a look…”
But just at that moment, a window on the side slammed open.
He instinctively turned his head, only to see a ghostly figure wielding a soft sword thrusting toward him.
“Assassins!”
Zhao Xuanzhen shouted sharply and raised his hand to meet the attack, but the assassin twisted her body in mid-air, avoiding his offensive at a very strange angle. Without even looking, she backhanded a palm strike to his chest, and simultaneously used the momentum to attack Crown Prince Zhao Xuanyin like a flash of lightning.
Beside Xie Yan, Wen Jian rushed forward, stabbing with his long sword, yet he didn’t even touch the corner of the assassin’s clothes. Seeing the tip of the assassin’s sword moving forward, a flash of excited, sinister light passed through Zhao Xuanyin’s eyes as he met it head-on, intent on capturing the person…
Unexpectedly, after the assassin’s long sword was parried by Wen Jian, her other hand suddenly produced a curved blade. The left-handed curved blade was used even more smoothly and fiercely than the right-handed long sword.
Seeing the situation was dire, Zhao Xuanyin leaned back abruptly, but the curved blade still sheared off a lock of his hair and cut his chin… Had he been a fraction of a second slower, he would certainly have been severely wounded.
In that split second, the assassin’s movements were fierce; she actually pushed aside the highly skilled Wen Jian with one hand and attacked Zhao Xuanyin again.
“Grand Tutor…”
Zhao Xuanyin hurriedly hid behind Xie Yan. The assassin followed closely. As the curved blade swept horizontally toward Zhao Xuanyin’s neck, Xie Yan, who had been sitting there the whole time, suddenly raised his hand… his slender fingers pinched the blade, and his index finger gave it a light flick.
“Ding,” a sound rang out, and the curved blade vibrated and deflected away.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
Zhao Xuanzhen was skilled in leading troops in war but not adept at close-quarters combat. Seeing that the slender, clearly female assassin was able to fight three people at once and not fall into a disadvantage, he was filled with shock.
What kind of skill was this?
At this moment, Xie Yan flipped the table with one hand and struck it toward the assassin, following closely behind as he closed in on her.
The world knew the head of the Xie family and the Crown Prince’s Grand Tutor was exceptionally talented, but few knew that his martial arts were profound and hidden.
Xie Yan flew in to close the distance, Wen Jian assisted from the side, and the guards outside the Lake Center Pavilion had already received orders and were arriving…
Seeing that she could not succeed, the assassin raised her palm, shattered the window, and leaped out like a ghost, falling directly into the lake below, intending to escape by water.
Wen Jian gave a low shout of “Stop!” and went straight in pursuit, but just as he was about to enter the water, he was pushed aside by a blast of force from behind.
It was in this moment of being pushed away that he saw a cold glint suddenly sweep across the water’s surface… a chill touched his neck. Wen Jian forcibly twisted his body and flew back to the shore, instinctively rubbing his neck, only to discover a thin trail of blood.
He looked up, dazed, to see his master standing by the window with a frown, and a wave of intense fear washed over Wen Jian.
Usually, people said he was highly skilled and that he and Xunhe were the left and right guardians beside the head of the Xie family; they rarely encountered rivals… which made him careless in chasing the enemy.
Just now, had his master not sensed something was wrong and pushed him aside, he would have been throat-slit by the assassin in the water.
Wen Jian’s back felt cold… watching the now calm and unrippled surface of the lake, and thinking of the assassin, alone, fighting four people and escaping unscathed after wounding them, he still had lingering fears.
What kind of person possessed such terrifying skills!
“It should be the Red Lotus Sect’s Red Lotus in person.”
Xie Yan looked at the assassin who had disappeared without a trace after entering the water, his brow furrowed slightly.
The assassins of the Red Lotus Sect were divided into four grades: White, Yellow, Purple, and Red. The Red Lotus were the most powerful and brutal. Although few in number, they had devastating lethality. If the Red Lotus had come in person, it would not be strange for her to have such skills.
Zhao Xuanyin touched the wound on his chin, his expression actually appearing somewhat excited: “I must be quite important, for the Red Lotus to come and kill me personally.”
Zhao Xuanzhen had always found it difficult to understand the way his cousin, the Crown Prince, thought.
Was this a matter of importance?
Although Zhao Xuanyin was eccentric in temperament, he was not weak in martial arts, not to mention he had Xie Yan and the highly skilled personal guard Wen Jian by his side… and yet, the person had come in, circled through them, and left unharmed.
Shouldn’t he be worried about his own life?
At this time, the guards had surrounded the Lake Center Pavilion.
Eldest Princess Mingyang came up, panting, her face full of urgency: “Xuanyin, are you alright? Were you injured?”
Zhao Xuanyin had no realization that he had just passed through the gates of hell, and he hooked his lips into an unrestrained smile: “I am fine.”
Eldest Princess Mingyang clutched her chest in lingering fear, and upon recovering, she gritted her teeth and cursed angrily: “My guards are tight, I don’t know how they snuck in… Go, have people search. Everyone who left today must be checked.”
Wen Jian reminded from the side: “Your Highness, the assassin escaped through the water, avoiding the guards.”
Eldest Princess Mingyang’s eyes brightened immediately: “The lake water in the Juyun Water Pavilion is not connected to the outside world; the person must still be in the gardens… Go now, seal it off. Check every guest today carefully, no matter their status, when they leave.”
“Yes.”
Just then, someone rushed over in a panic: “Your Highness, it’s terrible, the Prince Consort, he… he was assassinated.”
Eldest Princess Mingyang suddenly froze in place.
Beside her, Zhao Xuanyin said, “Well, I said it. I’ve been keeping a low profile lately and haven’t offended anyone. Why would the Red Lotus Sect go through the trouble of coming to make trouble for me… So it was a diversion, aimed at the Prince Consort all along…”
Wen Jian instinctively looked at his master.
Xie Yan narrowed his eyes.
A few days ago, the Princess Consort’s husband, Wen Zhaonian, had tried to forcibly seize a seamstress but failed and was injured, losing face… Two days later, that embroidery shop was burned to the ground, and many seamstresses died.
The Red Lotus Sect operated under the banner of “acting on behalf of heaven.” If they were seeking justice and revenge for those seamstresses, and building a reputation among the common people in the capital… then this was not strange.
After all, daring to enter a royal water pavilion to kill a sitting Prince Consort just to avenge a humble seamstress, and succeeding at that… this was a great advertisement for both the power and the reputation of the Red Lotus Sect.
Zhao Xuanzhen took a light breath: “Have those evil cult demons entered the capital?”
Xie Yan hummed: “It appears so.”
Zhao Xuanyin looked at his cousin with a mocking smile: “How about it, Xuanzhen, do you have any methods for dealing with these cultists?”
Zhao Xuanzhen said in a deep voice: “This official can lead troops to search for the Red Lotus rebels.”
“Tch.”
Zhao Xuanyin clicked his tongue: “The Helian Rong you recommended previously let the main force of the Red Lotus rebels escape. Now you want to go and make a fool of yourself again?”
Zhao Xuanzhen was furious: “Crown Prince…”
“Stop.”
Zhao Xuanyin hooked his lips: “Brother is also thinking of you. You saw the skills of those cultists just now. If they knew you wanted to go and suppress the bandits, what if they went to assassinate you instead? Furthermore, I heard the Dowager has been worrying about the heirs of your Ding Prince Residence recently.”
Zhao Xuanyin, completely devoid of any crown prince dignity, leaned back in his chair as if he had no bones, his eyes filled with teasing: “Have you chosen your secondary consort yet? How about brother picking a few for you?”
Zhao Xuanzhen sat back with no expression: “Many thanks for the Crown Prince’s good intentions, but there is no need for Your Highness to worry about my private household affairs.”
Zhao Xuanyin: “Tsk…”