He looked as she struggled with the simple concept he proposed, and was intrigued by this sight. The weight of social norms and customs, as well as the weight of public opinion, looked a lot heavier than what he perceived it to be. He once felt this weight himself, so he was not exactly unfamiliar with it, although it had less bearing on him due to the unique environment he grew up in, but it was interesting to examine it now from the vantage point of his current self.
He could see her battle with recognition of the fact that she agreed with him, and trying to reconcile it with the dogmas of the society that were embedded in her consciousness since early childhood.
“There is no need to come to conclusions now, you still have time to ponder on it, as nothing crucial depends on it”
He said when he noticed that she was trying to either accept or reject his statement on the spot. Such haste would only confuse her more, and make her not fully reconciled even if she does come up with a decision.
Shen Min looked up at him, and slightly nodded, as she noticed with surprise that she was so shocked at his words and then so focused on this concept that she momentarily forgot about her fear. Of course, now that she realized it, the fear returned and it led her to another question. If he was courting her, what would he do if she refused?
When he noticed that look, he only sighed, as he truly had made a ‘slightly unfortunate’ first impression on her by killing everyone around except her. He knew that there was nothing he could say now that would make her believe him, and there was no magic that could turn her doubt and fear into trust that easily, but he had patience.
“Let’s talk about you though, what are you going to do?”
He said to her to take her mind off the fearful doubt she had. And it did work, since when she heard that question, there was a slightly lost expression on her face now. Part of the reason that she went to the secret guards was because when she was saved from being taken to the Supreme Master Pavilion there was suddenly no purpose for her in life, and she had nowhere to go, so she decided to be of use to her benefactor. Now that the path to being a secret guard was severed, and she would most likely be tortured and subsequently killed if she was caught, there was nowhere for her to go again, and even her new purpose of repaying her benefactor seemed like a distant unattainable dream.
“I… I don’t know”
She said finally, as she truly did not know. She could only try and figure it out from now on.
“I will probably pay a visit to the princess, want to come with me?”
“You are going to meet the princess?”
He suddenly proposed and she looked up at him with surprise. He nodded, to her question, and doubt appeared in her eyes.
“How are you going to meet her? And why would you meet her anyway, it seems you are not related to the struggles in this kingdom”
She asked, as there really was no way for a commoner to meet the princess that easily. She only received her help since the princess noticed the disturbance and chose to intervene herself, there would have been no way for them to meet otherwise.
There was also the matter of him not being related to the kingdom, as he did not even know about the feud between factions, or their existence.
“Hmm, in a way I do have a relation to them… since I came here to remove the roots of those struggles”
He said ponderingly, as it seemed that lust cultivation and the Supreme Master Pavilion were at the epicenter of the royal feud. He was not going to touch the hand that planted those roots, and which was supporting Feng Hai in the Fantian Kingdom for now since it seemed a little out of his league at this moment, but it would not be long before he would have to deal with that as well. This world was so small that it felt like someone was causing trouble in his backyard, and he did not like too much noise disturbing his fun with his women.
He was not completely sure it was related, but he had a vague idea of what was going on.
“Remove the roots… a-are you talking about the Supreme Master Pavilion?”
She looked at him with wide eyes. She could not guess why he was collecting information about them, but now a wild idea came to her and she was astonished at even the thought.
“But…but you are alone! And… even if you are strong enough to fight multiple people at the Qi Condensation Realm with ease, there are thousands of sect elders in the Revolving Qi Realm in that sect! There are even five Foundation Building Realm experts and a Core Formation Realm titan. Not to mention tens of thousands of sect protectors in the Qi Manifestation and Qi Condensation realms!”
She started listing off reasons it would be impossible for him to accomplish it. Supreme Master Pavilion was peculiar in that most of the disciples who reached their limit chose to remain in the sect as sect retainers and protectors since there was no better environment for them to cultivate. Getting cultivation furnaces on their own would be hard, but as long as they worked and contributed to the sect, they could receive cultivation furnaces from there. Even if they had no hopes of advancing, cultivating was akin to a drug to lust cultivators.
“No worries, I have my ways. But if I get the help of the princess, it may save me some time and effort”
“Even if you gather the whole kingdom to fight them, you are still going to lose!”
“I do not need them to fight… I need someone to prevent the running rats to get too far and hide. You see, I did not expect that sect to be so numerous, and I was mulling over how to not let even one go as with such numbers there have to be some that are leaking through”
“…”
She sat and looked with wide eyes at this madman as he was talking about exterminating a powerful and unshakeable sect, alone without backup, worrying that some will get away and he would have to search for them after.
“Anyway, are you going with me to the capital or not?”
He returned to the question, and she looked down. There was hesitation, but there were three considerations in her choice. First, she still feared him to agree to follow him. Second, she did not have anywhere to go, and following him did give her some time to think about what to do while shielding her from the uncertainty for at least some time. And finally third, is that he might just have his way with her and kill her if she refused to follow him.
She finally nodded, since the third consideration, although false and conjured by her own mind, was weighing too much on her.
He chuckled as he could guess why she agreed, and they took off after the meal. It was still noon, and Wu Long hired a carriage to take them to the capital.
It would be faster to travel by foot, but he could use the carriage ride to get her familiar with him and soothe her fears a little. It would only take three days of travel in the carriage anyway since he was far enough into the kingdom to be relatively close.
As they traveled in the carriage, Wu Long would talk with her, as he asked her about her life before she was thrust out into the world. It turned out that she was a regular young lady of a small merchant family that tried to sell her off when the Supreme Master Pavilion people became interested in her. Thus she was especially grateful when she was saved by a stranger that was the princess, at a time when her own family betrayed her.
When she told him about herself, he then told her various stories. She quickly found that he was a good storyteller, and knew a lot of stories. Despite her being cautious about him, she involuntarily laughed sometimes, as the situations he described and the way he told about them were too funny.
As they arrived at their first lodging, she suddenly became nervous again, but he calmly ordered two separate rooms and bid her goodbye for the night. There was a thought in her mind to run away in the dark, she even got out of the inn and went a few streets away, but she then stopped, and returned for some reason. She was not sure why. She did not feel him following her, and there was no threat to her. Nothing that she feared happened. But she still returned. ．
In the morning, she was surprised to find that her fear of him lessened quite a bit as they got into carriage and started to talk like the day before. As they traveled like that, two days later, they arrived at the capital.