novelSitu Cang's Personal Involvement
| ← Ch.123 | Ch.125 → |
Translator: Minotauruz
"Hey, what happened to you? Are you alright?"
A clear, crisp voice resounded from the side. Rong Ruihan was still relishing in the lingering emotions from his dream when he was jolted back to his senses.
He covered his eyes with his hands. As he wiped off the tear stains, Rong Ruihan struggled to collect his emotions and compose himself. Then, when he finally removed his hands, he was that expressionless and stoic first prince once again.
Yao Mo's appearance immediately entered his field of vision. This young man's face carried a trace of worry on it.
They had traveled and lived together with each other for some days now. Furthermore, they had fought alongside each other, entrusting each other their backs. Their earlier vigilance and guardedness towards each other have diminished, and they had also developed some form of friendship and trust for each other.
Naturally, Jun Xiaomo saw Rong Ruihan as her friend in her heart. But in Rong Ruihan's heart, his feelings towards Yao Mo was a lot more complicated than that.
At the beginning, he had not even considered the possibility that Yao Mo and that lady of his dreams could even be remotely connected to each other. After all, one was a man, while the other was a lady. One wore green, while the other donned herself in red. One was charming and suave, while the other was aggressively beautiful. No matter how he looked, they were two separate, distinct persons.
However, whenever Yao Mo fought against the assailants who ambushed them, his combat disposition would somehow always cause Rong Ruihan to think about that lady in red.
They possessed the same kind of ruthlessness and decisiveness about them.
There were times when Yao Mo looked like a completely different character in combat than how he usually behaved. But Rong Ruihan did not fear Yao Mo or shun him because of this; in fact, he would even unknowingly glance over at Yao Mo with a strange glint in his eye from time to time.
If he ignored Yao Mo's appearances, the expressions he made during combat was exactly the same as the lady in red! Rong Ruihan's heart would skip a beat whenever he thought about the renewed possibilities of this.
It was as though he had seen a shadow or a trace of that lady in red in Yao Mo. It was only a pity that he never managed to get the name of the lady in red, even at the end of her life...
On the other hand, Jun Xiaomo naturally never thought that she would have left such an emotional burden behind in her previous life. It never even crossed her mind that, despite changing her appearances and the nature of her aura, it was instead the tiniest, idiosyncratic mannerisms and one's combat disposition that were the hardest things to change.
Ye Xiuwen had grown suspicious of her true identity through her mannerisms; while Rong Ruihan had found clues to her true identity through her combat disposition.
However, these two men had kept their suspicions buried deep within their heart for now.
Even then, Jun Xiaomo had noticed that Rong Ruihan had recently begun to stare blankly at her as though in a daze. She could not help but wonder whether it was the chaotic demonic energy in his body that was starting to get to his head.
Therefore, with some measure of worry and concern for Rong Ruihan, Jun Xiaomo clapped resoundingly in front of Rong Ruihan's face as she yelled, "Hey, hey! Wake up! Now's not the time to space out."
Rong Ruihan began to collect his thoughts once more. He sat up and rubbed his forehead as he replied sheepishly, "Sorry about that. I must've been too tired these few days, and I wasn't able to clear my head when I woke up earlier."
After being on the run for some time now, Rong Ruihan had finally managed to set aside the airs of his princely arrogance about him. He no longer habitually referred to himself as "this prince", and Jun Xiaomo naturally felt as though the trust and friendship between them had strengthened as well.
Furthermore, it would have been practically impossible to hear Rong Ruihan apologize or say the words "I'm sorry" in the past!
Jun Xiaomo nodded her head genially as she replied, "It's alright. I could also tell that you were struggling to focus earlier. Your eyebrows were knitted tightly together as though you were in pain. That's why I tried to rouse you from your stupor. Anyhow, here, this is for you. I've grilled some rabbit meat earlier this morning. You'll feel better after eating something."
Jun Xiaomo was speaking from experience right now. Her little packrat might have been infected by Jun Xiaomo's contagious habits, and it behaved in the exact same manner as Jun Xiaomo – both were gluttons who enjoyed pleasing their minds through their stomachs.
Rong Ruihan received the grilled rabbit from Yao Mo's hands with gratitude. A discreet smile crept up the corners of his mouth, but his eyes visibly darkened instead.
Perhaps I'd been thinking too much? The lady in red is filled with such a vicious and ruthless aura as though she were prepared to bury the world together with her. How could she possibly have room for such a relaxed and content disposition like Yao Mo?
It wasn't as though Rong Ruihan had never suspected a connection between Yao Mo and Jun Xiaomo. After all, he had once even questioned Yao Mo on whether he had used an Alteration Talisman to change his appearances.
But suspicions were suspicions. Without seeing Yao Mo's true appearances, this suspicion of his could never be fully investigated and verified. In fact, he would only find that his suspicions would time and again be tested by Yao Mo's little actions.
How would Rong Ruihan be able to know that Jun Xiaomo could only maintain her present, affable appearances because everyone who mattered to her were still alive and well around her? She was a far cry from what she was in her previous life when everything was gone, and all she had left was her hatred, her regret and her loneliness.
"Someone's approaching us. We need to leave right now." Ye Xiuwen had got up early in the morning to practice his sword arts as usual, and he checked on their surroundings as he did so as well.
"Could we have been discovered by that old fogey Grand Vizier again?" Jun Xiaomo furrowed her brows.
She had set up several formation arrays in their surroundings to conceal their presence. By now, she had already cycled through well over ten different formation arrays, and she was all out of potentially feasible formation arrays for their purposes. Despite that, the Grand Vizier still managed to locate their whereabouts.
Ye Xiuwen's eyes darkened as he began to suggest, "Like I've said, ..."
"No way!" Jun Xiaomo immediately leapt to her feet as she interjected. She ran over to his side and clutched tightly at his hand as she responded, "Brother Ye, I've already said it before, this isn't a personal matter. Don't you dare harbour any thoughts of sacrificing yourself so that we can escape. I'm not going to condone that!"
A few days ago, Ye Xiuwen had received Di Yue's message and got wind of the fact that the Grand Vizier had managed to track them down time and again because the Grand Vizier had now got possession of an artefact that belonged to Ye Xiuwen.
After he saw the message, Ye Xiuwen thought of luring away the Grand Vizier and his lackeys so that Jun Xiaomo and Rong Ruihan could escape. However, Yao Mo had also seen the message, and she could immediately guess what Ye Xiuwen was thinking.
No matter how hard Ye Xiuwen tried to convince them, Yao Mo would regardless insist on acting together. He was like a piece of candy that had thoroughly adhered itself to Ye Xiuwen's hair – it could not be removed no matter how hard he tried.
Despite that, Yao Mo's persistence deeply moved the exasperated Ye Xiuwen.
Then in the next few days, Jun Xiaomo insisted that Ye Xiuwen slept beside her so that he would not be able to secretly leave when everyone was asleep. Jun Xiaomo would awaken at the slightest movements around to check on her martial brother. As a result, large eyebags formed under her eyes in no time.
Ye Xiuwen knew that in such situations where their opponents waged guerilla warfare against them, the fact that Yao Mo was unable to maintain clarity of mind was an extremely dangerous thing. As such, under his repeated reassurances that he would not secretly leave at night, Yao Mo finally had one good night's rest.
This morning, the notion of luring their persecutors away had once again crossed his mind. However, Jun Xiaomo interrupted him even before he could even get started.
"And besides, if he's using an artefact that you had carried on you, your personal aura on that artefact would only dwindle and grow weaker over time. The Grand Vizier won't be able to use this formation array for much longer. Once that formation array is no longer effective, then there is no doubt that we will be out of harm's way." Jun Xiaomo solemnly explicated.
Ye Xiuwen locked eyes with Jun Xiaomo's eager and sincere eyes, and he knew that there was nothing he could say in rebuttal.
"Alright." Ye Xiuwen patted Jun Xiaomo's head, "Thank you, Little Mo."
Satisfied, Jun Xiaomo finally smiled.
As Rong Ruihan looked on at the intimate atmosphere that left no room for a third party, his heart somehow sank, and he turned his attention elsewhere.
Just this moment, his heart suddenly constricted with anxiety and his vigilance surged to its peak!
"Danger!" He only had time to yell out this one-word warning as he leapt back reflexively.
Shk! Shk! Shk! Several ice arrows immediately landed where Rong Ruihan was originally standing and penetrated deep into the ground.
At the same time, Ye Xiuwen reacted extremely quickly as well. He shoved Jun Xiaomo towards his back, unsheathed his sword and cut down the ice arrows that had been shot towards him.
However, this wave of ice arrows had only been the prelude to the oncoming attacks. Within moments, a flurry of various types of attacks immediately blasted towards them from out of nowhere.
Having almost been caught off guard by the ice arrows, Ye Xiuwen, Jun Xiaomo ands Rong Ruihan hurriedly adjusted their positions and got into a three-man defensive formation.
This was a form of tacit understanding that they had developed after having experiences several battles together. Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan, who both possessed stronger combat abilities, stood outside and blocked most of the attacks; while Jun Xiaomo use a plethora of talismans and formation arrays to buff and assist them in combat.
These assailants evidently intended to conceal their physical appearances from them. None of the trio could tell where the assailants were located. Therefore, Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan both expanded the range of their divine sense, hoping to uncover the location of their enemies. However, the assailants were well prepared this time – wave after wave of attacks swept towards them from all directions, and the sources of these attacks were well concealed amidst the chaotic and dazzling display of spells and offensive abilities.
It won't be easy to deal with this ambush!
Jun Xiaomo, Rong Ruihan and Ye Xiuwen had the same assessment of the situation at hand.
On the other side, Situ Cang, who had earlier applied an Invisibility Talisman on himself, trained his gaze on the trio like a vicious, poisonous snake. Slowly, a macabre smile crept up the corner of his lips.
That's right. His subordinates had failed in their ambushes time and again, while Ye Xiuwen's aura on that accessory of his was dwindling with every use. Therefore, the Grand Vizier decided to take matters into his own hands and seal the fate of these three insignificant worms.
Furthermore, the ones who were concealed and observing the trio right now included not only Situ Cang and his subordinates – it also included the disciples from Dawn Sect.
Apart from Di Yue, every single other disciple watched calmly as the weary Ye Xiuwen continued to deal with the onslaught of attacks. Faced with the persuasion of rewards and the dissuasion of threats, they were prepared to passively watch on as their martial brother's life was claimed by others.
They were unable to defeat the Grand Vizier, so there was no reason for them to oppose the Grand Vizier to begin with. Yet these disciples had hardly considered the fact that they would already have been dead if not for the aid which Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo had rendered in their earlier encounter with the Demonvine. In other words, they owed Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo their lives!
This was the main reason why Jun Xiaomo scorned all the other Dawn Sect disciples apart from those under the Heavenly Peak – the notion of "sect fraternity" meant nothing to these other Dawn Sect disciples at all!
Jun Xiaomo knew about the hypocrisy of their lip service through her previous life's experiences.
Qin Lingyu and Ke Xinwen were even worse. Right now, their eyes gleamed brightly in delight as they watched on expectantly – how could they not be pleased by the prospects of disposing of one of their greatest rivals in the Sect?
Ke Xinwen had even eagerly reported to the Sect the fact that Ye Xiuwen had now been implicated with a demonic cultivator.
To any "upstanding and reputable" sect, including the Dawn Sect, being implicated with a demonic cultivator was an extremely shameful thing. As long as the Sect could ascertain this fact, then even the Sect Elders were not going to say anything about the disciples passively watching on as Ye Xiuwen perished before their very eyes.
A vicious smile crept up the corner of Ke Xinwen's lips.
| ← Ch. 123 | Ch. 125 → |