Chapter 173 – Entering Xuanjing
This time, Liu Ming simply nodded without saying anything else.
Lady Mi and Aunt Hong brought the boy to their original bonfire and began preparing some supplements for the boy, who had lost a lot of blood.
….
The morning of the second day, the Black Tiger Guards once again escorted the carriages toward Xuanjing. Among the carriages was a smaller carriage with a donkey pulling it. Compared to the other carriages, this carriage did not fit in at all.
After the fight last night, seven to eight of the Black Tiger Guards had died while most other guards were wounded. However, the corpses were burned in the night and the wounded merely had their wounds dressed before donning their armor again. Besides having a paler face, one could not tell that these guards were wounded.
The huge bow behind Lieutenant Du also gained a new bowstring. She traveled next to the carriage of Lady Mi, wearing her armor.
Like this, the group traveled farther and farther on the government path. Soon, they had put the temple behind them.
…….
Inside a lavishly decorated hall in Xuanjing, a person in a colorful robe, no older than thirty with a scholarly face, had just finished looking at a secret letter sent from outside of Xuanjing. With a sudden change in his expression, he slammed the table next to him.
“How dare they! To actually try to assassinate my wife and son so close to Xuanjing. Do they really think that, I, Qian Chao won’t retaliate? Come in!” The man who just finished reading the letter gave a loud shout.
“Owner, what do you have to order!?”
A sturdy man immediately walked in from outside of the door. After entering, he immediately gave a respectful bow.
“Immediately send the Ba Brothers out to personally escort my lady to Xuanjing. In addition, send someone to the Third Marquis saying that I want to borrow his Ghost Shadow Guards to investigate a matter.” The colorfully robed person commanded without hesitation.
“Yes, I will handle those things.” The sturdy man quickly answered as he respectfully backed out.
“Hmph, I, Qian Chao, only have this one son. No matter who wants to touch him, I won’t forgive them.” The colorfully robed man gave a grunt as he spoke to himself.
…….
At the same time, in a secret room, also in Xuanjing, a fat person with silk and satin clothing was also in a fit of rage.
“Useless! A bunch of idiots. Three middle tier practitioners with so many people attacking at once and they still didn’t complete the job. Instead they were completely wiped out by them. Those three practitioners were borrowed from master after quite a bit of effort. Now they’ve all died in this. How will I go back to master? Scram, I don’t want to see you again!”
The fat person was actually over seven feet tall and the fat on his body made him seem like a big ball. At this moment, both of his eyes were completely open as he scolded a skinny man that seemed like a butler.
The butler-looking man had a face full of fear and did not dare speak up to justify himself. However, when he heard the final sentence of the fat person, he gave a sigh inwardly and immediately backed out of the secret room.
“Brother Mu, you are really too lax with your subordinates. If someone by me made such a big mistake, he would have already been fed to the dogs.” In a corner of the secret room was a blurry shadow that was seated on a chair.
“Hmph, this butler has followed me for quite long. In addition, he is a distant relative of my wife. Even though he messed up this time, I can’t punish him too hard.” The fat person let out the air in his chest as he responded with some reluctance.
“How you treat your subordinates is not my concern. However, now that the matter has failed and even the three practitioners have died because of it, I won’t be able to report back to master easily.” The blurry shadow gave a sigh as he replied.
“These words can be used to trick others, but why use them on me? Although the three middle tier practitioners are hard to come by in Xuanjing, they are merely normal guards by the side of master. If master really wants people of that strength, they would be extremely easy to find. As long as you put in a good word for me, I won’t treat you too shabbily.” When the fat person heard these words, he rolled his eyes.
Afterward, he took out a full pouch with some heartache and threw it to the corner.
“Hehe, I knew that Brother Mu would not be stingy. Alright, you can leave this matter with me. However, you should be careful. With this move of yours, you can be considered to have officially dropped all appearances with the Hundred Spirit House. That person also has quite some influence within Xuanjing and will soon track the matter down to you.” The blurry shadow caught the bag and after a slight check, he gave a satisfied tone as he spoke.
“Even without your warning, I know that. However, our two houses have fought in the dark for who knows how many times. As long as I don’t leave Xuanjing, there is nothing that he can do.” The fat person with the surname of Mu said without worry.
“Alright, as long as Brother Mu knows. I’ll first go back and report to master.” The blurry shadow nodded as he made a single-handed technique. With a flicker of his shadow, he actually disappeared into the wall behind him.
This person was actually a Spirit Apostle!
After the blurry shadow left, the fat person paced around the secret room a couple of times. Suddenly, he grabbed one of the tea cups on the table and smashed it against the ground. At the same time, he said hatefully, “Qian Chao, all of the humiliations that you have given me earlier, I definitely won’t forget them. This time, you can be considered lucky, but next time, I, Mu Yingcheng, will definitely not miss.”
…..
Three days later, the envoy, which Liu Ming was part of, arrived before the huge city gates, which were abuzz with people. Above the huge city gates, that were hundreds of feet tall, there were two words, Xuan Jing, painted in silver.
The line to enter the city was over a mile long, and was still growing with many people joining at the back.
At the city gates were nearly a hundred guards in white armor. They would immediately question and search people as they walked up.
On the city’s tall and wide walls, one could faintly see more guards holding weapons. In addition, there were many huge crossbows, over a couple of yards long, lined up. Faintly, one could see thick, black crossbow bolts on these crossbows that emitted blue glows. Obviously, they weren’t normal crossbow bolts.
Although the distance was quite far, Liu Ming could still easily see every detail of the huge crossbows and their bolts.
The huge crossbows were nothing out of the ordinary, maybe slightly larger than normal ones. However, the crossbow bolts had colorful Spirit Inscriptions on them and were in fact one time use Glyph Arrows.
Seeing this, Liu Ming was quite shocked.
From what he could see, there were at least dozens of these huge crossbows. If they all were shot at one person, even a Late Spirit Apostle would perish.
Among the guards at the city gate, under Liu Ming’s Mental Strength, he found that quite a few of them were emitting a practitioner like aura.
Xuanjing was truly worth of being the capital of Da Xuan Country with its security. Even the city guards had a strength that was much stronger than the normal person. Normal Spirit Apostles would probably quietly enter and not cause a fuss.
As Liu Ming was pondering the security, the envoy of Black Tiger Guards finally reached the city gate.
Lieutenant Du urged her horse forward and threw a token at one of the guards while saying in one sentence, “Nanhai State Black Tiger Guard, escort mission back to Xuanjing on the orders of governor. Check the token if you would like.”
“So it’s a lieutenant of the Black Tiger Guard and the token is correct. Then we won’t need to search you.” The white armored guard checked over the token before throwing it back while replying with a deep voice.
With this, the envoy of carriages slowly entered the gates.
……..
Four hours later, Liu Ming was within a hall in Xuanjing. Qian Ruping was seated beside him in a chair of smaller size.
In the middle, the scholarly faced colorful robe person was currently thanking Liu Ming, “For my wife and child to arrive safely, Mister Qian really had a great hand. Mister, you can rest assured. I’ve already told someone to go look for the Ice Silver Grass that you need in our shop. If we have any, we will immediately send it to mister.”
“Ah, if I can find the Ice Silver Grass that easily, then its for the best. Although I have controlled my nephew’s sickness, I cannot wait for too long.” Liu Ming nodded as he answered without a change in his expression.
“Husband, besides the Ice Silver Grass, the Qian Family has to also thank Mister Qian. After all, Hu Er’s (the name of her son) poison was found by Mister Qian and delayed.” Lady Mi was seated across from Liu Ming. She also chipped in with a smile.
“Yes, that is the case. I know that Mister Qian is a Spirit Apostle and isn’t in need of normal objects. How about this, in about a month, our Hundred Spirit House will be presenting an auction. If mister takes a fancy to any one of the items on the auction, I will only take half of the original price no matter what the price was. However, we entreat mister to keep removing Hu Er’s poison.” Qian Chao was silent for a moment before he responded.
“Since I have stuck my hands in this matter, there is no way I am going to stop halfway. Owner Qian, don’t worry, as long as I can get the chance to remove the poison within your son’s body a couple of times, he shouldn’t have any worries after that.” Liu Ming nodded as he replied without spirit.
Hearing this, the colorfully robed person became quite excited and quickly gave his thanks.
“That’s right, from what I heard from my wife was that the purpose of mister’s visit to Xuanjing, besides trying to find a medicine for your nephew’s sickness, was to find relatives. Since Xuanjing is so large, finding someone won’t be easy. How about first staying at my house? Although my house is not one of those lavish mansions or deep courtyards, finding a place for mister and your nephew is a small matter.” The colorfully robed person changed the topic and spoke with enthusiasm.
TL: House is used loosely here to mean a “maze of houses”. Ex: http://a1.att.hudong.com/21/31/01300000241358127797318982310.jpg
“Temporarily staying at your house! Alright, then I’ll be disturbing you both for a while.” Liu Ming’s eyes flashed as he spoke without any courtesies.
When the colorfully robed person heard this, he became even more excited. After talking for a couple more sentences, he ordered a middle-aged maid in to lead Liu Ming and the young girl to the wing where guests could stay.
“Wife, how did you meet this person? Say everything and try not to miss any detail.” When Liu Ming’s figure disappeared out of the hall, the smile on the face of the colorfully robed person disappeared as he asked Lady Mi with a serious expression visible on his face.