“What’s the matter?”
Master Qi jolted out of her thoughts, a clear indication that she never noticed Li Muye approach, and torqued around as though she was going to tear an assailant’s head off, startling Li Muye. “Your Highness… I-I am fine.”
Tapping his chest, Li Muye rhetorically questioned, “You’re fine? I called you three times, but you didn’t hear me. You’re fine?”
Master Qi poked her tongue out.
Li Muye, unaware of his first meeting with death, shook his head. “I heard you found the thief, so why didn’t you bring it back yesterday?”
On account of their rank, Northern Wondrous Warrior’s clan implemented the “Prince Faction”, as well. Master Qi was one of the clan’s selected adepts for her extraordinary skill in her age bracket. As a matter of fact, she defeated the long-missing-in-action ranked Cloud Combing Wind Hairpin Hero. If her gender wasn’t a secret, not only would she be on Seventeen Hidden Wyrms’ rankings but also on Martial Angels’ rankings. Therefore, Li Muye was confident in her strength.
“The enemy… is cunning, unyielding, despicable, ah, sorry, I meant he is very bad… despite his honest appearance…”
Li Muye felt frustrated as it felt his judgement of her was wrong. “What is with your stammering and stuttering? And why are you wearing a mask at home?” He reached for Master Qi’s mask.
“Don’t!”
Master Qi was too slow in stopping Li Muye from removing the white male mask. Anyone who saw her face in that moment would understand why her family insisted she wore a mask while living in the pugilistic world – she wouldn’t even be scary when she was scowling.
“Why is your face so red?”
“R-red? Is it? N-no it isn’t. H-he angered me!”
“You mean… he’s tough?”
“Touch? Yes, the next time I see him, I’ll make sure he can never touch again!”
It wasn’t Li Muye’s first time seeing Master Qi’s childish side. Howbeit, she was usually mature.
Realising her loss of composure, Master Qi clasped her hands and, in a soft voice, explained, “I ran into a bit of a problem in my training.”
Li Muye’s face muscles finally relaxed. “I see. It’s easy to make mistakes when learning a discipline as advanced as yours. Seeing as you’re not in the best shape, I’ll assign the task to someone else. The iron seal is the cornerstone of the plan. Since Mother won’t finance me, I have no choice but to finance myself.”
“Use me as you see fit. Although… I have a bit of a problem, it is not a reason to impact your goal.”
“That’s enough for me. Friends aren’t supposed to be petty with each other.” Li Muye stopped to think for a bit. “Send Luanshi Chuankong. We need someone ruthless for an easy success.”
“Whoa, that’s overkill, don’t you think? You spent ten thousand taels to hire him, yet you’re sending him after a student?”
“Do I have a choice? Liu Shan Men has gotten involved. Without the seal, there’s no money.” Li Muye peered into the heavens. “The Seven Champion White Princes will make big moves soon. I need to get ahead.”
“I remember you said they’d definitely oppose the imperial court. Do you think there will be war?”
“Don’t know. They’ll decide whether they want war or peace within the next few days. Either way, the way they spread their power will change drastically henceforth. Whoever is first will get the biggest piece of the cake. Whoever fights with me for my iron seal must go. By the way, what did you say his name was?”
“Zhao Xin says his name is Hong Jiu, but I heard others refer to him as Feizhen.”
***
“What are you looking at?! Never seen someone forced to stand as punishment?! Go back to class to repay the country, or I’ll report you for not paying your taxes!” That was the twenty-ninth time I had to shoo off a student for stopping to check out the ‘I will not stand up Principal Huang again’ sign I had hanging off my neck.
Uncle Huang was too much. All I did was forget the homework he left for me and made him stay at school overnight to wait for me, big deal. By my rights of the constitution, the punishment was inhumane. Well, I guess not having to take the daily test wasn’t too bad, though.
“Why are you here?”
“Hello, Professor Xie.”
“This is today’s test paper. Don’t forget to complete it while you’re standing here. I’ll come collect it off you later.”
… This is inhumane!
“Here you are.”
I looked up to see the legendary He Shi in three times more bandages than the first time I met him. “Model Student, why aren’t you attending class? Wagging classes?”
“Professor Xie allowed me some extra time off due to my injuries.” He Shi sat down beside me.
Oi, oi, I know your leg is broken, but it doesn’t have to start acting up when you’re around me, specifically, does it?
Following a long silence between us, He Shi voiced, “… Li Muye was the one who ordered his people to break my leg.”
I never asked! You prideful people are so tiring to handle. You feel uneasy if you don’t repay someone for helping you, but you’re too prideful to just express your gratitude despite having principles and being a nice guy deep down! I’m past the age of trying to socialise with your kind!
“My opinion clashed with his, which displeased him. Though it wasn’t anything major, he holds the belief that, once I am assigned an official post, I will cause His Highness Blue Prince trouble, so he decided to strike pre-emptively. However, he didn’t expect Lu Feiming to be such a coward and kill someone here or for news of it to reach His Majesty.”
You sure know a lot.
“I know you’re looking into the case. Li Muye will get off scot-free because His Majesty will protect him. Just tell them I was unlucky and tripped while walking.”
“Really? It won’t even be considered a workplace injury.”
“You saved me once; I owe it to you. Besides, you can’t help me, can you?”
Aren’t you the nice guy? I knew you were the prideful type.
“Hey.”
I cast my gaze in the direction of the foreign voice. He was a burly man armed to the teeth smiling at us.
“Which one of you is Feizhen?”
Glossary
Tough and touch – This is a rewritten joke. The characters the author chose for “tough” include the character for “hand”. Hearing “hand”, Master Qi responds, “Hand? Yes, I’ll make sure to chop his hand off the next time I see him.” In my opinion, using broken English to keep the joke isn’t a wise choice in this scenario, so I sacrificed the joke.
