When we got back to the inn, we realized the main hall ha.s.seven more people sitting there and I saw Tai Zi turning his head to smile at me. “We are staying here as well.”
“In this world, professional a.s.sa.s.sins are everywhere. Feng Huang and Wu Ya are the most powerful among them but no one know about their true ident.i.ty. My subordinates and I will be staying around you so if you have any problems or need any help, you can come find us or get my subordinates to do it. Our illusion skills may not be as good as yours but it is good enough for us to survive in this world. We don’t segregate the strong and weak based on their spiritual powers.”
We saw the little pretty boy, who was playing with the ball, in the inn again. The waiter told me he was the son of the owner and because the owner was away for business, he entrusted his son in his care. When I saw the boy, I have never expected him to remember me. He walked over and talked to me. “Gege, can you play ball with me?”
When I heard him calling me gege, I thought of several hundreds years ago when I have already become an adult and Shi was still a kid. I was carrying him in my arms, walking along the snow-filled road. He was sleeping in my arms, looking so peaceful and warm. It’s because he trusted me and I was his G.o.d in his heart. But the G.o.d he trusted most had killed him with a sword, letting his blood flowed onto the snow-filled ground.
I was hugging the boy so tightly in my arms and for one moment I have a hallucination, thinking that I was holding the child-form Shi. “Okay. Shi, gege play with you.” I said softly.
I felt my tear rolling down, dropping into my hand.
—
That inn was much bigger than what we expected. The place, where we were staying, was only a small part of the inn. Within the inn, there was a little stream, a bridge and also a peach blossom garden. There was another garden with all sorts of plants in the mortal world behind our rooms. There were red plum flowers and also my favorite willow tree but there wasn’t any catkin on it so there wasn’t any sorrow of withering.
It’s already evening time. It seemed like nighttime came exceptionally faster in the mortal world and there wasn’t any light in an instance. When it was nighttime at Ren Xue Cheng, the snow on the ground and the white palace were able to reflect the gentle light of the moon or starlights. But it was not the case at this inn, the darkness was able to give one a pressurized feeling; there were only a few red lanterns hung at the entrance of the courtyard, and those lanterns were swinging in the air like the fire inside was going to go off anytime. Other than all these, the next source of light would be the oil lamp in our individual room.
The waiter gave us five rooms in a row at the southern wing. When I entered into my room, the sky was so dark to the extent that I couldn’t even see the things in the room so Huang Tuo came over to light up the oil lamp. Just when Huang Tuo was lighting the lamp with his back against us, Yue Shen crept behind me and wrote four words on my back. I looked up at her to see her expressionless face. By the time Huang Tuo has already turned back to face us. “My king, you should sleep early. Do you need me to set a protection enchantment over your room?”
“It’s okay. You just need to protect yourself well.”
I sent them out and watched all their lamps lit up before I closed my door.
I wanted to calm myself down because too many things had happened for the past few days. From Liao Jian’s death to Shang Lie, I have a feeling that the West Guardian had already started taking action but I couldn’t find a way to start my defense.
Chao Ya’s room was on the left side of mine, Huang Tuo was on the right and the other two sides were Yue Shen and Pian Feng. Shang Lie and his men would be staying at the North Wing, Qian Cao Tang. There was a seventy to eighty feet wide land with a lot of evergreen conifers and huge rocks in the middle of the land.
I fell asleep very quickly that night but I heard footstep on my roof all of a sudden or maybe I should say I have a sense that someone was above my room. It’s because the movement of that person was very careful and delicate, there wasn’t any sound at all. It was my sixth sense that told me there’s someone at the rooftop of my room.
Just when I was about to get up from my bed, the oil lamp in my room went off. My eyes couldn’t adjust to the sudden darkness in the room and then I heard the sound of the wind and several lights appeared before my eyes. I leapt ten feet away from the bed and those lights flew past my robe. They were so close to me that my skin could actually feel the bone piercing coldness of them. I must admit that I almost died under those lights and they might be those sharp icicles or sleeve swords or even those poisonous needles. But no matter what, they were good enough to almost kill me just now.
When I was moving to the side, I raised my hand up and an ice blade soared up to the ceiling. I heard the cracking of the tiles and the sound of sharp blade cutting the skin and then someone fell off from the roof.
I charged out of the room and saw Huang Tuo standing at the middle of the land. He was walking briskly towards the North Wing. “My king, did you see the man in black? He just leapt off from your rooftop.” He asked when he heard my opening my room door, but throughout his speech, he did not turn back to look at me.
“Don’t let the man run away.”
And then Huang Tuo zoomed off like a flying snow sleet bird. I have never expected his illusion skill to be so powerful and I always thought he only specialized in white magic. Suddenly I thought of something and made my way towards Chao Ya and Yue Shen’s rooms.
Just like what I’ve expected Yue Shen wasn’t in the room. But it puzzled me more when I saw Chao Ya’s empty room. Where could she be? Or did she get murdered by the West Guardian’s men or the West Guardian?
Coldness started creeping up my feet slowly.
Pian Feng appeared behind me. “Follow me to the rooms at the North Wing. That person, who tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate me, is in there.”
By the time I reached the rooms at the North wing, Huang Tuo was already there. There was a cut across on his robe across his chest.
He turned around to tell me. “My king, the person was wearing the night walker suit and I exchanged blows with him or her. He or she seems to specialize in using ice sword, he or she is the one who cut my my robe and disappeared into one of the rooms here.”
“Whose room?”
“I didn’t see clearly. But the person dropped his sword here.”
He held his hand out and I saw an ice sword in his hand. Anyone could tell that it’s definitely not something from the mortal world. That was a sword created by illusion. It was extremely sharp and there was spiritual power on it.
But when I took the sword from Huang Tuo, I noticed something strange. There was something on the hilt that made it extremely greasy. This was one of the taboos in swordsmanship because if someone couldn’t even hold a sword properly, he or she wouldn’t be able to execute the best sword moves. But he or she was able to attack Huang Tuo; it would mean that person possessed pretty strong swordsmanship.
While he was talking, the people from the North wing all came out from their rooms and walked towards the corridor.
Shang Lie was the first to come out because he didn’t sleep at all. He was still wearing the same clothes like he wore in the day and his hair was still neatly combed, emitting an imposing aura and a flowery scent. His eyes were exceptionally bright in the dark like the shiniest star in the sky.
“What happened?” He asked.
“Someone was at the rooftop above my room and tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate me.” I said.
I saw a change in Shang Lie’s expression.
He turned to look at the people and then he turned to talk to Huang Tuo. “Are you sure that the person is wearing the night walker suit?”
“Absolutely sure.” Huang Tuo replied coldly, looking at the people at the corridor.
“Then how long did you take to chase the person to this place?”
“Not very long.”
“Not very long means how long?” Shang Lie asked.
Suddenly I realized what Shang Lie meant, then I helped him ask the question he wanted to ask. “Is it enough for a person to change into a new set of clothes?”
“Definitely not enough.” Huang Tuo replied one word after another.
Standing next to Shang Lie was the young handsome man with sword, and his name was Ya Zhao. Just like Shang Lie, he was wearing a white night robe and inside the robe, it was a set of white pyjamas. He was barefooted and his hair was messily falling on his shoulders.
The old man by the name Tong Die was wearing a white fox fur cape and he was wearing a blue silk pyjamas with green dragon embroidery on it. Looking at the green dragon, it reminded me that I was currently standing on the territory of Qing Long, who was the West Guardian of this world. Now that I was facing such weird and clueless problems, I felt so helpless that I didn’t even have the ability to fight back.
The woman I saw this morning at the couch was not asleep as well. Her name was Yizhao and the burly man was also beside her. Shang Lie told me his name was Yu Po but he was obviously already asleep and the commotion wakened him up because I could see from his bloodshot eyes and his messy hair. He looked like he had a pretty heavy drinking session earlier on. I could understand how angry a drunken man would be if he got awakened from his sleep so I didn’t ask him any question.
And that woman wearing transparent glove was there as well. Shang Lie said he didn’t even know her name as well, he only knew her nickname and her nickname was only one word and that was Zhen (needle)! She was wearing a pure black pyjamas and strangely, she was still wearing the transparent gloves. I wondered if she was wearing them when she was sleeping as well.
I asked Huang Tuo. “Did you say that the a.s.sa.s.sin was in black?”
“Yes.”
“Then could it be here?” I pointed at Zhen and asked Huang Tuo.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the person was wearing a tight-fitting suit but Zhen was wearing a loose and soft long robe. This kind of clothes is extremely inconvenient for action and it would create an extremely heavy sound. An experienced a.s.sa.s.sin would never wear such clothes for action.”
“So you are the biggest suspect here.” I turned to look at the girl who was playing the zither in the day. Shang Lie told me her name was Hua Xiao; she was once a zitherist in a brothel.
“Why?” She asked.
“Because you are the only one wearing such a loose grey long robe. I want to see what is under the robe.”
“What you do think it’s under it? The night walker suit?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Then I saw a change in Hua Xiao’s expression. “What if I say it’s not?” She asked.
“Then you will die here immediately.” Shang Lie said but I knew whatever he said would have a certain weight and they were definitely effective. If someone were to be at his level, you have to speak with caution because with one wrong word, it might become a mistake that could never be corrected. One mistake would mean death.
Hua Xiao lowered her head, biting her lip. I wasn’t sure what was she thinking, I saw Huang Tuo already prepared for an attack because there was a faint glowing silver light at his light hand. I have also curled my left ring finger up, preparing to stop Hua Xiao if she were to make a run or attack.
But she didn’t run or attack; she just removed her grey robe.
I felt regretted the moment she removed it because there wasn’t any nightwalker suit inside. She wasn’t even wearing anything at all.
Hua Xiao was biting her lip and I saw tear in her eyes.
I turned my head around and apologized to her. “I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake. You can wear your clothes back.”
“Where are Yue Shen and Chao Ya?” Shang Lie asked me.
“They were not in their rooms.”
“Then why didn’t you suspect them?” Shang Lie looked at me and his gaze was exceptionally sharp and cold like shiny pointed needle.
“Definitely not Yue Shen.” I said.
“Why?” This time it was Huang Tuo who asked.
I looked at him and thought of that particular night when Yue Shen confronted him. I knew there’s a secret between the two of them. It’s just that the two of them didn’t tell me about it, so I asked Huang Tuo. “Why did you suspect Yue Shen?”
“I don’t suspect Yue Shen. I’m suspecting everyone here.”
“Then let me tell you well. When I entered into the room that time, Yue Shen wrote five words on my back - Be careful of the oil.”
“Oil lamp.”
“When you lighted the oil lamp, didn’t you notice there’s very little oil left? The person, who poured off the oil, must have calculated the amount of oil was good enough to last till the time for him or her to a.s.sa.s.sinate me. It’s because a person’s eyes are unable to see a single thing when the environment went into a sudden darkness.”
“Then what about Chao Ya?” Huang Tuo asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know why isn’t Chao Ya in the room. She should be in the room because she has yet to recover from the earlier battle.”
“I guess everyone should go back to their respective room first. We shall talk about it tomorrow.”
“What about Yue Shen and Chao Ya?”
“No choice but to wait.”
