The Woman in Red

Xu Yuan vanished. Inside Qifeng Pavilion, the zither continued to play its celestial melodies, but the main hall had fallen dead silent. Dawn had barely broken. Many guests were still lost in the embrace of slumber and wine, but just as many had already dressed and come downstairs for breakfast. The hall held not only Xu Yuan, Li Junqing, and his party, but also several wealthy merchants, young nobles, and their guards. Most of those with any experience had already assessed the situation, but none stepped forward to intervene. Instead, they all backed away in silence, looking on with cold detachment. Bloody vendettas were common enough in these troubled times. No one was willing to play the heroic mediator when the circumstances were so murky—especially when both sides possessed unfathomable strength. A few with sharper eyes had already abandoned all dignity, scrambling over windowsills to leap down the cliffside and flee. Yet even if the patrons kept out of it, the guards hired by Qifeng Pavilion naturally had to step up. Given Qifeng Pavilion's immense ability to rake in gold, the consecrated retainer stationed here held quite a high rank—an alluring woman of fourth-rank cultivation, who also served as the establishment's madam. With seductive curves and fluttering sleeves, she leaped down from an upper floor and landed neatly between the six brocade-robed men and Li Junqing. Glancing around, she gave a chiming laugh and said: "Aiyo~ Gentlemen, has there been some misunderstanding? My humble establishment can hardly withstand such rough handling. Give our Music Bureau some face, won't you? If you have a grievance, take it outside—" Before her words finished, a blade arrived first. The slaughter—or rather, the assassination—had begun. Perhaps due to different cultivation methods, the six brocade-robed men had peculiar auras, yet their strength was comparable only to Great Yan's fourth-rank Body Integration realm. One of them hurled a short blade across the air, tearing through the void like a flash of lightning straight toward Li Junqing! Clang—! Halfway there, a bolt of red damask knocked it aside. The blade plunged deep into a nearby pillar, humming with residual force. It was the alluring madam. Her coquettish face turned instantly cold. "I know not who your master is, but the Music Bureau is no place for you to run wild!" The six men said nothing. Exchanging a glance, their hands blurred as flashes of silver erupted. Countless tiny throwing blades filled the entire hall in an instant. Those with keen vision would notice that between these blades ran fine threads nearly invisible to the naked eye. Dense and crisscrossing, they blanketed the entire chamber. The madam tried to intervene, but the red ribbon she cast out was shredded instantly by the threads. Just then, one of the brocade-robed men spoke in fluent Great Yan dialect: "We mean no offense. Remain quiet, and no harm will come to you. Our only purpose is to recover my master's silver from that Young Master Wang—" Before he could finish, Eunuch Hou materialized beside the speaking man and blasted forward with a palm strike. Ghostly fast, yet the man barely managed to match his speed, drawing the short blade at his waist in the nick of time. Palm and blade collided with a deafening ring of steel on iron. Bang! Coughing blood, the brocade-robed man flew backward, nearly smashing through the reinforced brick wall of Qifeng Pavilion's interior. Qifeng Pavilion stood nine stories high. The top four floors were private chambers and lofts, while the lower five formed a well-like atrium looking down upon the elegance of the central hall. Xu Yuan leaned against the fifth-floor railing as if none of this concerned him, watching the bloodshed below with a weary expression. Void-Stepping Slash was potent, but its toll was equally massive. To avoid exposing the Saint's remnant soul, he had used his own Source Qi; at his sixth-rank cultivation, the result was scarcely different from when Qin Mo had used it back then. A mere dozen or so zhang. In other words, the people below actually knew he was up here; they just didn't have time to bother with him. Besides, there was truly no need to—he had only been the one leading the way. Just as the thought crossed his mind, his gaze locked with another midair. Down in the hall, Li Junqing had raised his eyes toward him. Xu Yuan cupped his hands with a genial chuckle: *Thanks for your concern, little brother.* Li Junqing also cupped his hands. Judging by the movement of his lips, he seemed to be saying: *Brother Zhou, it is wonderful that you are unharmed.* Xu Yuan didn't reply further, content to watch the show. The Saint's remnant soul spoke with teasing amusement in his mind: "Assassinating an imperial prince right at the foot of the Emperor's throne... These fellows certainly have guts." Xu Yuan replied casually, "They haven't the faintest clue he's a prince. More likely, the kid used that Young Master Wang persona to pull off some shady business." The Saint's remnant soul paused for a moment, then asked with a laugh, "In that case, aren't you going to help him?" "Me, help?" Xu Yuan rolled his eyes, keeping his gaze on the brawl below. "Six fourth-rank Body Integration practitioners against a third-rank Grandmaster—what help could I possibly offer? And you can't expose yourself yet." Below, the battle raged fiercely. The gap between a third-rank Grandmaster and the Body Integration realm was vast indeed. However, the six Body Integration fighters coordinated with remarkable precision, and the razor-sharp threads spread across the hall clearly hampered Eunuch Hou's movements. Pity that this stalemate was only temporary. In a clash of this caliber, it wouldn't be long before Qifeng Pavilion's foundations were torn to shreds. Once they lost the terrain advantage, the Body Integration fighters below would be lambs to the slaughter. Dao Charm was no trifling matter. The Saint's remnant soul chuckled. "Kid Xu, you don't really think the only ones sent to assassinate him are those six down there, do you?" Xu Yuan kept his eyes fixed on the hall below without looking around. "You mean there's a Grandmaster hiding besides those six?" The soul didn't withhold anything. "Most likely. I caught a fleeting sense of it earlier—just once. Without alerting her, even I can't be certain where she is." Xu Yuan shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I can run." "If you're going to run, why are you still lingering here?" the soul asked teasingly. "..." Xu Yuan stared downward, a glint of blood-red light flickering in his eyes, offering no immediate answer. Catching sight of Li Junqing, outside the fray, pulling out a crossbow-like device and aiming at one of the Body Integration fighters, Xu Yuan suddenly shouted: "Little brother, watch out!" "..." Li Junqing. "..." The Saint's remnant soul. The crossbow bolt tore through the air, but the abruptly alerted Body Integration assassin dodged it by a hair's breadth. Clenching his fists, Li Junqing put away the crossbow, looked up, and smiled through gritted teeth. "Ah, thank you so much, Brother Zhou." "Don't mention it. Just doing what I should," Xu Yuan smiled faintly. The Saint's remnant soul seemed to grasp Xu Yuan's intention. "You want to kill him?" Xu Yuan answered breezily, "Didn't he try to use a borrowed blade to kill me first?" He gave a dry snort in his heart. *Heh... Earlier, when I was forced to bring those people over, I deliberately called him Young Master Wang to warn him, yet the brat actually tried to drag me down with him.* Facing the threat of the sects, the imperial family and the Chancellor's Manor indeed needed to avoid internal friction. Xu Yuan understood this, and the Third Prince below understood it too. Neither would openly move to execute the other. Yet things were never simply black and white. Now that an opportunity was served right to his doorstep, it would be downright negligent not to take advantage of it. "..." The Saint's remnant soul said nothing, though he rolled his eyes internally. The battle below continued for a while before the Saint's remnant soul suddenly warned: "I suggest you leave now. That third-rank assassin in the dark seems to have made her move—and it looks like that head courtesan, Chu Jingyi." Xu Yuan froze. Chu Jingyi, the head courtesan of Qifeng Pavilion, was an assassin? Yet he soon felt enlightened. There were plenty of things in this world capable of concealing cultivation. Looking at it now, this assassination was no coincidence; those brocade-robed men were likely reinforcements summoned by intelligence Chu Jingyi had passed along. At this thought, Xu Yuan hesitated no further, calling out in a clear voice: "Junqing, since you have everything well in hand, this Zhou won't meddle any further. See you in the Imperial Capital!" Without waiting for Li Junqing's answer, Xu Yuan sprinted toward the window, preparing to leap off the cliff and make his getaway. Unfortunately, unexpected turns always arrived faster than plans. Just as Xu Yuan reached the windowsill, the ceiling behind him collapsed with a resounding crash! "..." Amid flying wood splinters and shattered masonry, Xu Yuan looked back and spotted two figures amidst the debris. Borrowing a measure of power from the Saint's remnant soul, Xu Yuan clearly took in what was happening behind him. Under the enhanced vision granted by the Saint's soul power, time seemed to freeze for an instant. One of the two was an acquaintance: Chu Jingyi, the head courtesan of Qifeng Pavilion whom Young Master Wang had harassed just before heading downstairs. The other was a stranger: A man with delicate, effeminate features—or rather, a eunuch. The moment he saw this, Xu Yuan realized: That conniving little bastard had another attendant concealed at his side. Motherfucker. That Li fellow had held all the cards the entire time, just putting on an act with him. Time resumed. The two who had crashed through the ceiling were positioned one above the other. The breathtakingly beautiful Chu Jingyi appeared to have been ambushed; she was pinned beneath the feet of the grim-faced eunuch. The immense impact smashed through floorboard after floorboard as they plunged downward! Finally, the two struck the bottom, crashing into the hall with a deafening boom that left a crater roughly two meters deep. Standing beside the gaping hole torn through the floors, Xu Yuan looked down and sighed. Well, these assassins were utterly useless. Below, Chu Jingyi had two short blades thrust through the collarbones of both delicate shoulders, pinning her firmly to the ground. Ripples of Source Qi surged across the two blades, constantly disrupting Chu Jingyi's attempts to gather her own qi. Caught off guard, a battle between two Grandmasters skilled in concealment had been decided in an instant. And at that moment, the zither music and ethereal tunes echoing throughout Qifeng Pavilion grew gentle and soothing. Seeing the scene below, Xu Yuan grumbled internally: "Old Man Luo, how do you handle things? Li Junqing had such a formidable expert by his side, and you didn't even notice?" The Saint's remnant soul sounded thoroughly innocent: "Didn't you tell me not to expose myself? I didn't dare project my soul power outward." "If that fellow had ambushed me, could you have reacted in time?" Xu Yuan asked. The Saint's remnant soul replied as if it were obvious, sounding exceedingly dependable: "Of course. Any move stirs Source Qi fluctuations. At third-rank speed, this old man can still react in time." Xu Yuan said no more. Turning around, he slung one leg over the windowsill, ready to jump down the cliff and run. Just then, however, Li Junqing's smiling voice carried up: "Big brother, the matter is settled! What are you in such a rush to run for?" At those words, Xu Yuan froze. Without exposing the Saint's remnant soul, there was no way he could slip away from under the noses of two Grandmasters. Helplessly stepping back to the railing, he met Li Junqing's beaming gaze below and cupped his hands. "Your Highness commands from afar with great foresight. To think you saw right through Chu Jingyi as an enemy spy?" As he spoke, Xu Yuan vaulted over the edge, kicking off walls and railings in several nimble maneuvers until he landed back in the hall. The hall was currently in utter shambles. The moment Chu Jingyi was subdued, the remaining fourth-rank Body Integration assassins in brocade robes scattered like startled birds, fleeing in every direction. The mission had failed; their priority was now surviving to deliver the news. The newly appeared eunuch Grandmaster had gone in pursuit, while Eunuch Hou stood quietly behind Li Junqing once more. The zither music in the hall drew near its close. Li Junqing grinned at Xu Yuan. "You flatter me. I hadn't realized earlier either." Then his eyes turned slightly chilly, and his tone shifted. "Still, for these Dongying Wokou to infiltrate my Music Bureau... it seems someone truly no longer wants to keep their head on their shoulders." "Dongying Wokou?" Xu Yuan's expression turned a bit strange. He glanced aside at Chu Jingyi, pinned in the crater by the daggers. "Why would they seek to assassinate Your Highness?" Hearing this, Li Junqing walked up to Xu Yuan, threw an arm over his shoulder, and chuckled: "Eh, Zhou Chen, you're being too distant. I still prefer when you call me 'little brother' or 'Junqing.'" "..." Xu Yuan. "As for why they wanted to assassinate me, I merely borrowed a little bit of pocket money from their daimyo. Let's not dwell on that—come, let's take a look at this Dongying thief." Talking as they walked, Li Junqing strolled with an arm draped over Xu Yuan's shoulder until they reached the edge of the crater. Releasing Xu Yuan, he leaned down and stroked the back of his hand across the woman's fair cheek. Turning his head, he grinned at Xu Yuan: "Zhou Chen, now I have plenty of time to properly break this wild mare. Care to join in?" Chu Jingyi lay on the ground, blood seeping from the corner of her crimson lips. She glared at the two dandies beside her, then shut her eyes and fell silent. Xu Yuan cleared his throat and cupped his hands. "Ahem, I don't share such inclinations for the time being. Since Your Highness is safe and sound, this Zhou will take his leave." Li Junqing didn't stop him, merely standing up with a smile. "Having gone through this assassination together, you and I are comrades who've shared life and death. This little brother won't forget such a debt—" Midway through his sentence, the zither music within the pavilion turned as serene and clear as jade-green waters. Noticing the shift in melody, Li Junqing shook his head. "To think the musician in Qifeng Pavilion is still playing. Must be someone deaf and dumb, though their grasp of melody is exquisite. I'd love to take them back—" As he spoke, Li Junqing turned toward the direction of the music. Then, his narrow eyes widened slightly. Seeing this, Xu Yuan followed his gaze. There, beside a table at the edge of the wrecked hall, sat a woman in red robes. Her face was veiled in red gauze. Two slender, fair legs were propped casually upon the table. In her arms rested a pipa-zither. Her sleeves fluttered, spotless and untouched by dust. Her jade fingers plucked the strings, and the celestial music that had echoed all along drifted right from those slender fingertips... Seeing this, Xu Yuan instinctively glanced sideways at the stunned Li Junqing, only to find the kid looking back at him as well. Almost simultaneously, both of them began inching backward: "Heheh, seems you have quite a few enemies, Young Master Wang..." "Brother, you jest. I don't know her at all." "Would an assassin introduce herself beforehand?" "..." The Third Prince. As the two bickered, the woman in red slowly rose to her feet. And then, she slowly drew a sword.