203.1 – Shadow’s Purpose
No matter how strong the light is, there will always be places where it cannot reach; no matter how prosperous a city is, it will have darkness.
— even the imperial capital is no exception.
There are many secluded corners in Chang’an’s outer city. Most of these places hide the dirt of the city, such as selling stolen goods and human trafficking.
The place where the girl is now is one of them.
Such places are always the same — dark, silent, and full of a gloomy air. People can’t help but dislike them.
For someone who hasn’t trod in the dark for a long time, it is very difficult to adapt to such an environment and walk around calmly. In fact, this serves as a warning to ordinary people — don’t get near here.
Leaning against a wall with her hands crossed, the girl sighed.
“How boring… I tried so hard to get a mission and finally be able to show off, yet it turned out to be something shady.”
The girl is about sixteen years old. Her lively voice is quite pleasant.
Her long hair tied into a thick braid winds around the neck to in front of the chest and naturally falls until the waist; her watery brown eyes are particularly bright in this dark corner.
She is not tall, yet the curves outlined by the clothes she is wearing are beautiful and enchanting, adding a bit of a mature charm to her.
If she wasn’t wearing night clothes [1], but a dress instead, she could even be misunderstood as the daughter of a prominent family.
Regrettably, she is not the daughter of a prominent family — the daughter of a prominent family would never appear in appear in such a lawless place.
There is a hemp sack placed at her feet. The sack is bulging, making it rather conspicuous.
Be that as it may, no one would be so tactless as to step forward to check it.
Who knows what’s in it? In the dark, curiosity is an almost sure way to get yourself killed.
What’s more, the girl is playing with a dark dagger. Some people who couldn’t read the situation have come forward to talk to the girl, but were ultimately driven away by the dagger.
A flower with thorns — this description suits the girl rather well.
“Dad is late… by almost 30 minutes.”
The girl murmured to herself, ill at ease, “Were there complications?”
Although she firmly believes in her father’s ability, but at the thought that he went to challenge three Heaven Realm masters, the girl feels worried.
In the end, the girl shook her head.
“It’s going to be all right. Mhm, definitely.”
To be honest, the girl doesn’t understand why her father, who always talks about “not to interfere with imperial affairs”, would take on a dangerous mission such as “snatching food from the wolf’s stock”.
However, since her father gave the employer his word, she, who believes that “father is always right”, doesn’t have much to say, and can only worry here in silence.
Waiting always feels long.
It was not until the sound of gongs and drums indicated that it is the fifth period of the night [2] that the girl finally heard the unique footsteps she has been awaiting.
These footsteps, which have no sense of distance, sound rather strange — sound like they come both from afar and from nearby. They give of a hair-raising feeling. But for the girl, they are familiar. Because they are her father’s footsteps.
“Dad!”
The emotions stemming from waiting for a long time turned into a call of joy. The girl quickly scanned the surroundings and finally found the vague figure of a man tightly wrapped by darkness.
“Dad, you’re here at last!”
The girl wanted to run to greet her father, but the man raised his hand to stop her.
“Black Cat, keep quiet, there are people watching.”
A strict voice crossed the distance between the two and entered the girl’s ears. Her face froze, and then she made an “oh” sound unhappily.
As if disappointed, the man shook his head and sighed, and then walked to the girl.
“Dad, are you hurt?”
Black Cat noticed that the man is staggering and faintly smelled the scent of blood. Thereupon, she asked so in surprise. She didn’t really believe that her father would get hurt since she had never seen him get hurt.
How could Shadow, who is famous in the world, get hurt? The girl has always believed this.
However, although something never happened in the past, that does not mean that it will never happen in the future.
When Shadow arrived within arm’s reach, as if clouds parted and exposed the sun, his blurred figure suddenly became clear.
Due to this, Black Cat was able to discover the miserable state her father is in at this time. He is not only covered in wounds and his clothes are ragged, but he is also covering his abdomen with a hand with a look of pain on his face.
The girl opened her eyes wide in disbelief.
How is that possible? Black Cat suspected that she saw wrong. But when she rubbed her eyes and found that nothing had changed, she realized that the facts are right in front of her eyes. She couldn’t help believing it.
“Dad, are you okay?”
When Black Cat supported him, Shadow immediately bent over and began coughing. The sound of severe coughing echoed.
In the end, he also coughed up blood.
“Dad!”
Black Cat exclaimed and quickly reached out to stop the blood vomited by Shadow. The warm and moist sensation coming from her palm worried her.
But since there is nothing she could do about it, she just gently caressed her father’s back.
Shadow, who seems to have been injured severely, coughed for a while.
Shortly after, seeing that Shadow’s coughing has gradually calmed down, Black Cat asked at once, “Dad, are you okay?”
Shadow took a deep breath and suppressed his messy and agitated breathing. He gently pushed Black Cat away and stood up straight.
“I’m fine.”
“Dad, was Gong Jing really that troublesome?”
Looking in the direction of the Gong Clan, Black Cat frowned and asked.
Before she left the Gong Clan, she witnessed Gong Jing punch her father once. She guessed that it was this blow that left him in such a sorry state.
Consequently, Shadow shook his head.
“It’s wasn’t ‘Guard Spear’.”
“Huh?”
It wasn’t? Black Cat blinked her eyes.
“It was ‘Natural Disaster’.”
“Xue Qilin?”
Shadow nodded and moved his hand away, and the wound on the abdomen that has been covered entered Black Cat’s eyes at once.
Hiss –! Black Cat opened her eyes wide and gasped.
“This, this…”
A piece half the size of a fist was gouged out from Shadow’s right abdomen. As if it had been burned, the edge of the bloody wound is charred black and emits a faint smell.
“It needs to be dressed quickly!”
Black Cat was taken aback momentarily, and then tore off one of her sleeves and wrapped it around Shadow. Probably because the wound was touched, Shadow issued a dull groan.
“I was careless. Xue Qilin’s magic is stronger than I thought. In terms of strength alone, she is very close to a Grandmaster.”
As if making a statement of no concern to him, Shadow spoke indifferently.
“This time, I really offended her. I didn’t expect that she would really dare to enter the Gong Clan.”
Shadow cast an unquestionable look at Black Cat.
“If you see her again, turn around and leave immediately. You have to remember — she is not amenable to reason.”
Upon hearing her father’s words, Black Cat froze mid action.
“In that case, why did father take this order?”
If he refused the other party from the get go, father would not be hurt right now and the Shadow Gate would not have offended the Merak Temple. If such a high price had to be paid, then why did dad insist on accepting it? Black Cat can’t understand this.
