บท 52: Chapter 9 The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind
táng láng bǔ chán má què zài hòu.
Lit : The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind
Fig: Pursue a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger
(Somewhere in the underworld)
It was the fourth day of her disappearance when he finally received her information from the mortal realm, but at the same time, he also received words from YouDu, the capital of hell, that they found a lead to the one he had been seeking in the Hell's hidden palace. Just as he was weighing which realm to go first, when suddenly he jerked his head.
Somebody have trespassed his mother's grave!
The barrier he made to conceal and protect the sacred ground was breached. Eyes cold and detached, with just a glance could send shivers down to their spine. He called forth for SheLin to enter the mortal realm to protect the young miss, while he disappeared in thin air.
It was not easy to follow the slippery double head snake, who could camouflage well into any surrounding and moved like the wind, but SheLin soon found that once he entered mortal realm, he had gained a cute white tail.
HeiYing was back wearing his head veil once he saw his young master hopped up to the rooftops, with all his experiences with Murong LiWang, he knew how to go with the flow and he knew the change of plans. He was just glad he did not have to bring their innocent young master to the HuaLou. Discreetly behind from Murong LiWang's shadow, they watched few other silhouettes that had obvious evil intentions trailing the two men walking towards the direction of HuaLou, with one of them in front, using a rare night pearl to cast it luminosity to light the path
"Tsk, can you be more conspicuous? Or is that part of your plan? To attract attention and fight them in the dead night?" HeiYing heard Murong LiWang muttering under her breath.
Soon, the silhouettes popped out from their hiding places and attacked the young men, to which the one holding the night pearl gave a surprise screech, that sounded feminine, making HeiYing dubious of the gender of the attendant. The holder of the night pearl cowered to one side, leaving the one behind to swiftly pull out his sword to fight off his attackers.
"HeiYing, can you tell the others shake off those people?" Murong LiWang was quite perceptive of her surroundings and she could feel the air change when she was in vicinity of others, there was additional foreign people, and she knew they were not her people.
These foreign beings had been silently following her recently; they did not give her the bad vibes like those child kidnappers that tried to follow her and were beaten up by HeiYing and the other shadow guards. However so, she still preferred to watch others, instead of being watched.
When HeiYing saw Murong LiWang nodded to the side, he immediately understood his young master did not mean the fight transpiring in front of them but somewhere else. He did not see anyone else or was aware of others but he trusted Murong LiWang and he raised his right arm, using his finger to motion to his men to circle around and be on guard and weed out whoever dared to harm their young masters. With that, HeiYing lightly went off to parole the area, leaving Murong LiWang to continue to watch the swordplay.
Although Xue ShiMin was putting a good fight, with him fighting off against the odds of 6 attackers, it still disappointed the audience on the rooftop.
'Sigh, to know that this is the mortal incarnation of the lofty High God of War, and is a much lesser version of him, one will find it hard to sing his praises in future.' At first, she was ecstatic when she finally found him, he was after all her first immortal idol, but seeing his mortal version was a different matter.
LiWang was still complaining about Xue ShiMin, thinking how it was easy for her to catch up with her immortal skills, while he was not able to, when she saw the attacker's blade closing in to Xue ShiMin's chest. She quickly threw a dart to attacker's hand from where she was, exposing her location.
Xue ShiMin knew someone on the rooftops had helped him but he could not afford to be distracted, he quickly went back to his fight and defeated the assassins. He took big mouthful of breaths, trying to calm his nerves, and he faced the direction of his saviour, "this young one, thank elder for your help."
Murong LiWang smiled when she heard him spoke, it was not due to him mistakenly thought she was an elder but at his developing voice. She remembered that he was at the age of maturity, just like the older shadow guards that she overheard when they were at the same age as the current Yuan LeiFeng's mortal incarnation.
Just as He Xun ran out together with ZhenBao from the HuaLou towards Xue ShiMin, before he could ask about the prince's welfare, more attackers came. ZhenBao flailed his arms and ran another direction, while both He Xun and Xue ShiMin quickly defended themselves but soon found themselves trapped in the middle of many attackers from all directions.
He Xun saw how Xue ShiMin was already breathing unevenly from the previous fight, and he looked on dimly to find a way out. He had regretted not to deploy their trained guards tonight and this mistake had doomed them. No matter what, he would lay down his life and make sure the 9th prince would survive tonight.
"Elder, if you could again be generous to give a helping hand, I, will be indebted to you," Xue ShiMin called out while standing back to back with He Xun.
A petite lithe figure suddenly leapt forth to the foray, but before anyone could see the 'elder's' features, he was soon whipping out martial arts moves so fluid and deadly, knocking the dozens of assassin unconscious, instead of shedding any blood. Both Xue ShiMin and He Xun was speechless and in awe of the small figured master.
They had roamed jianghu and they knew they were in the presence of a master. When the small master turned, they tried not to be surprised with the cute animal mask covering the entire face, and both thought of why must all the masters be quirky.
"This one was generous to give a helping hand and you, 9th prince, is indebted to me." Murong LiWang happily said in a sing song manner.
Again, all of them, including ZhenBao, who had determined that it was safe for him to return to his prince's side was rendered speechless. With a quirky master who wear cute mask, he could be those old master who liked anything childish, even using a young child's voice but what made they shocked was how he knew who the prince was.
"The night pearl, the eunuch and the fact that I never seen you around before, all proved that you are the 9th prince that just returned from overseas," Murong LiWang helpfully informed them when she saw their stunned faces. She was about to turn and leave when she took the night pearl from ZhenBao's hands, brought it close to Xue ShiMin.
From her angle, she could see his fair features were even, masculine, strong chin and jaw complemented the softly chiselled planes, Xue ShiMin would definitely grow up very good looking, inheriting Yuan LeiFeng's handsomeness, but why not his fighting prowess?
"9th prince, you fought well but need to train harder." With that, she plopped back the pearl to ZhenBao and leapt up to the roofs.
Why did Xue ShiMin feel that this master was condensing him instead of encouraging him? And what was the sweet scent emitted from the master when he stepped closer to him? He threw off his thoughts and when ZhenBao asked if they should still go into the HuaLou.
"Why let them wait? Let's return to palace," Xue ShiMin smiled indifferently without any warmth.
ZhenBao felt that they just narrowly escaped from lion's lair and now they would enter the wolf's lair. Sigh, who had said that a eunuch's life was easy going and profitable? The prince even had him give instructions to pilfer from the unconscious men, and not the dead, saying that they needed anything and everything to feed their growing numbers. ZhenBao could only sigh in his heart.
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