There were still a fair number of imperial guards under the orange prince's command who could put up a fight in the pavilion. However, their leader had been defeated so they too had no way of fighting on, thereby quickly surrendering one after another. The warriors who used hemlock poison to neutralise the poison from Thorn-tears were starting to slowly give in to the effects of it. They forced themselves to fight because they felt brave after Shen Yiren's speech, but they were slowly struggling to resist the poison now. Shen Yiren had prepared hemlock poison earlier and ordered it be passed around. Those who were heavily poisoned sat down and tried to control their breathing. Those who were poisoned lightly took up the responsibility of guarding the venue as well as watching over the troops who had surrendered.
There were a total of eight-hundred and seventy three rebels in the pavilion, most of whom were imperial guards and the minority were the warriors from the pugilistic world.
The masterminds of the revolt, the orange prince didn't even have a chance to react before he got grabbed by Tang Ye's eagle claw like a chick and hung up. Tang Ye also took the advantage to seal his meridians. In short, the orange prince got put in his place before he could try anything funny. Tang Ye tossed the two leaders, the orange prince and Fu Xiang together before casually going and restraining everyone else.
All the vassals of the imperial court were delighted to see the orange prince get captured.
Soon, there were three layers of people surrounding the orange prince who spat on him to express their loyalty. Needless to say, there were others who decided to use other special methods. It would take more than three days to list all of the wicked deeds committed by the orange prince.
The elder Prime Minister Li who was prime minister for two reigns maintained his mannerisms and held the venue together. He bunched his robe together and looked calm like he was heading to a conference with the emperor. He spoke in a long-winded fashion: "I witnessed even more serious crises back then. This level of turbulence is but child's play to me. A failure of a child got a few nobodies from the pugilistic world to cause chaos? What was achieved?"
He looked like a deity, appearing calmer than Jiang Ziya sitting at the fishing platform. The other major ministers and elder ministers looked as equally calm. Now that is the way wise vassals carry themselves. The others quickly followed suit as though nothing happened. The only thing to look at was the orange prince's face covered in saliva.
When Shen Yiren saw the orange prince's face devoid of pride… okay, his nose was bruised and his facial features had become contorted, she couldn't find any words. Shen Yiren just took a guess as to what he was thinking: "What's the matter? Still not admitting defeat?"
"Defeat? When did I lose? Heh, it's just starting." The orange prince revealed a look like he wanted to cry soon, but his tone was firm: "Shallow water can't trap a dragon. I'll break free eventually!"
That said, it was hard to believe he was the speaker given the shape of his face.
Shen Yiren frowned and then violently exclaimed: "Fuck you! Speak loud and clear. What the hell is a man crying about?"
The orange prince angrily shouted back "Who cried?! Who's crying?! I'm laughing!"
Shen Yiren froze. After taking a careful look, she realised that if she were to get rid of his bruises and get rid of the swelling, then indeed it would be believable that he was smiling. The reason he squint his eyes shouldn't be because he was tearing up but it was someone's saliva.
"I only lost because I had a bad eye for people and misplaced my trust with Long Zaitian." The orange prince looked up to Long Zaitian to reveal an evil sneer like a guy's anal cherry got popped…… It was sickening enough to make one puke.
"I never thought Long Zaitian would dare betray me!"
"You need to learn to put a limit on how much you look down on people." Long Zaitian was lazing around after the fighting came to an end. He smiled disgustingly like a big-red cat that just sunbathed: "Did you properly investigate what sort of person I, Long Zaitian am? I am a genius who got promoted to vice-captain in a matter of years. You actually thought I was someone who would revolt?"
He then got serious and went on: "I could understand you underestimating Liu Shan Men, but aren't you too full of yourself thinking so lowly of us Qilin Guards. We have had no equal in almost ten years of managing the pugilistic world. The demon sect was infamous for a century and look at how they ended up. We Qilin Guards annihilated them. Our grand commander's name could shake the world."
Fu Xiang suddenly spoke out: "If you served his majesty, you would enjoy infinite wealth and could have any beauty you desired. And yet your reason for not revolting was because of your grand commander?"
Long Zaitian looked at Fu Xiang with disdain and responded: "Since I Long Zaitian acknowledged our grand commander, my life was his. I'll never regret it. A man doesn't go back on his word. I see that you assassins don't understand that, Fu Xiang."
Fu Xiang went silent for a moment before responding: "There's still something I don't understand."
He then lowered his head and slowly asked: "I've been wondering this entire time how you and Shen Yiren teamed up. My men kept surveillance on you for twelve hours a day. I knew everything you were doing, so when and how did you exchange information with Liu Shan Men?"
Long Zaitian ridiculed him: "It looks like you won't be able to go in peace if I don't tell you. Well, it was thanks to Liu Shan Men's Su Xiao. That lass barged into our office and apprehended one of my men."
Fu Xiang suddenly widened his eyes and realised it: "Yi Yixian! The one who got taken to Liu Shan Men!!"
Long Zaitian responded: "Hehe, that's right. It was him. When Yi Yixian got sent back, he naturally reported to me. However, what he reported to me was Liu Shan Men's suggestion to join hands. Miss Shen is wise. She had already seen through the fact that the Black Winds Thirteen Wings were hiding in our office. We have our own ways of communicating discreetly. We haven't used it in a long time but since Miss Shen wanted to join hands with us, she naturally could receive the intel I sent out."
Shen Yiren then calmly added: "It was Feizhen's idea. He was the one who pointed out the issue with the Qilin Guards activities and that the Black Winds Thirteen Wings hiding in their office. He therefore concluded that the one behind the scene was someone with great influential power. He suggested I use Yi Yixian as a middle-man and he was right that someone wanted to stage a revolt."
The orange prince looked up at Long Zaitian and glared at him: "I had always heard your two offices didn't get along. That was correct, right? Your two offices have been in conflict for years, so how did you manage to ally with each other?"
Shen Yiren bluntly hurled an insult: "Li Chengzhi, you really are retarded."
The orange prince clenched his teeth: "You dare insult me?"
Shen Yiren daggered him: "I've hit you already as well, so what if I insult you? Shame on you for being in the capital for so many years. Our offices have fought with each other for almost a century, but don't you know what we were fighting over?"
The orange prince justifiably was unaware of those ancient stories. He's not even passionate about martial arts let alone stores about the martial world a century ago.
"Back then, Patriarch Fei Yu and the first grand commander of the Qilin Guards fought tough battles frequently. They were once surrounded by hundreds of bandits and were faced with a crisis. The two of them once said: "He who kills more enemies is the victor!"
Shen Yiren's eyes looked like stars in winter: "What Liu Shan Men and the Qilin Guards have always competed over was who could kill more enemies. Do you get why we joined hands? Our three offices will always point our blades toward the enemy."
After a moment of silence to adjust his emotions, the orange prince finally let out a long sigh.
"I see now. I was captured because of a legitimate reason. I trusted the wrong person."
But before Shen Yiren and co. spoke, a "crying face" which was actually a smile resurfaced on the orange prince's face.
"But then do you get it? I still haven't lost. There's still no news of father. My plan hasn't failed for as long as he isn't located."
Long Zaitian asked with puzzlement: "How can you be sure his highness is in your hands when the palace is so large?"
The orange prince's response was accompanied by a laugh: "Hahaha, he was always in my hands. Kuang Tian, Fu Xiang, Yu Ye, Zhong Yi. Do you not know who the mysterious Yu Ye is?"
Shen Yiren frowned and zipped through the events again from the time the emperor was almost captured. In the midst of her thoughts, she suddenly blurted: "Nan Junfei!"
The others reacted just as one would expect.
Eunuch Nan went with the emperor. The emperor didn't have any other guards with him and was poisoned by Thorn-tears. He was basically in the orange prince's hands now.
Long Zaitian and the others suddenly ran out of ideas.
The elder Prime Minister Li Si didn't understand it at first but after listening to her, he suddenly cut in: "In that case, your men must not know that his majesty has fallen into our grasp. Both sides have a hostage. All that's left then is a competition of military intel."
That's an elder of two reigns for you. After pointing that out, the figures of the pugilistic world came up with a solution to their problem.
While the others were still confused, Shen Yiren nodded and said: "You are right, prime minister. We can leverage the fact that they don't yet know that we have captured orange prince to come up with a counter-attack plan and snatch his highness back."
Prime Minister Li smiled with joy and nodded: "Very smart of you, girl."
But then the orange prince suddenly looked upward and laughed before saying: "You sure are full of yourself. You think I'm unprepared? Go and report the situation here to Kuang Tian. Tell him not to let the emperor go until we obtain the imperial jade seal!" The orange prince then wore a serious expression and shouted: "Fu Xiang, go!"
"Roger!"
Fu Xiang opened his eyes which shot out two rays of lights. It was like his strength had been concentrated into his leap. Taking advantage of the height of the ring, he leapt over ten yards far away. The profoundness of his internal strength truthfully surpassed Tang Ye's imagination. Tang Ye consecutively sealed six of his meridians and thought that he would be restrained for at least two hours going by his restrained look. But he never expected that the qigong Fu Xiang practiced had a hidden ability to help him recover extremely quickly. In just half-an-hour he had recovered fifty-percent of his strength. With that, he unlocked his six sealed meridians and waited for the right time to come.
He then realised that the orange prince was just buying time with all his questions.
The orange prince exclaimed: "Inform him of the situation here. I must make my father call me 'Master Cheng'!"
Fu Xiang was only concerned about Tang Ye. Anybody he encountered once he got away from the ring was of no concern. He transformed into an elephant-like figure and ran across. None of warriors in his way were able to hold him for a second. Some were knocked flying when he ran straight into them, and those knocked away broke their bones and had their nerves destroyed on the spot.
Tang Ye's qinggong proficiency was about the same as Fu Xiang's. However, Fu Xiang had accumulated a mass of energy for a long time which allowed him to make a massive leap with his first leap. With over ten yards between them, there was no way Tang Ye could catch him. As he hesitated again, Fu Xiang had gone even further.
Shen Yiren shouted out to stop Tang Ye who intended to give chase: "Tang Ye, Stop! You watch this place! You are not to leave without orders!"
There were still many others in the flying fish pavilion who hadn't recovered yet. Tang Ye was the only one who could control all the people present in the pavilion, so he couldn't leave. If he did, the consequences would be dire.
A cold look appeared in Shen Yiren's eyes. She clenched her teeth and exclaimed: "I'll be the one to kill him!"
Glossary
Jiang Ziya, also known by several other names, was a Chinese noble who helped kings Wen and Wu of Zhou overthrow the Shang in ancient China. He's the titular character of the Feng Shen Bang series.
l