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Chu Xiang couldn’t trust anyone at this time, because the assassins’ disguises were too exquisite. This wasn’t the first time Chu Xiang had seen the flower girl, he had also seen her on the night he and Lan Jue talked in the rain. No one could have guessed that this weak and helpless girl was actually a cold-blooded killer.
The girl was very fast. Chu Xiang desperately pulled at the things around him to throw behind himself as obstacles, feeling like he was playing some kind of virtual reality parkour game — the situation seemed tense but he was in reality incomparably calm within.
He even had the time to consider how he should throw off his tail.
If he didn’t meet another assassin… the answer was still that he couldn’t!
He did everything he could to run in the direction of the post house, because the patrolling guards there would be at least slightly more reliable; occasionally he saw soldiers standing guard at alley entrances, but he couldn’t be certain that they weren’t assassins in disguise. Once again, he missed Longque’s scanning function.
Longque’s central AI was called Xie Zhiwei. The engineer who originally developed this series of AI was surnamed Xie, so the entire AI series belonged to the Xie family. Zhiwei was what Chu Xiang chose for him.
“Zhiwei, your scanning and predictive modelling functions are very useful,” Longque’s captain had always praised this about his AI. “You’re much better than the others. General Ye’s AI loves gossip a bit too much, while Han Yi’s AI is unique — that one’s mouth is so vicious that it can talk people to death.”
“Actually, Captain, aren’t you just lazy? Your IQ is being wasted,” Xie Zhiwei said helplessly.
“Learning to use tools is the most basic requirement for human development!” Chu Xiang argued, “I have the most cutting-edge AI, why should I memorise star charts myself?”
“What would you do if one day I’m not by your side?”
“There won’t be such a day,” he replied firmly. “I’ll be here as long as the ship is here, I’ve sworn it to the power core.”
* * *
Now that he thought about it, he had set such a big flag that he felt chills.
What he feared most happened — three more shadows flew out of a darkened alleyway, causing Chu Xiang’s scalp to almost explode in fright. Twisting and rolling, he darted out of the encirclement through a tiny gap, but this time the assassins weren’t surprised. Perhaps they had already received news that Chu Xiang had some skills.
Long blades blocked his path, causing Chu Xiang to pivot and run in another direction.
The new assassins who appeared were wrapped in black cloth with only a pair of bright eyes revealed. “Why bother, sir? It would be better to depart in a more dignified way,” one said, his voice deep and relaxed. He was sure that his prey had no way to escape.
“No no, I just came here, I don’t want to leave yet,” Chu Xiang replied.
The encirclement tightened in an instant as moonlight glinted on steel blades. Death in the era of cold weapons was much more distressing; among the stars, a single shot from a mothership’s fully charged main cannon could turn half a small planet into dust and high energy guns could annihilate enemy soldiers, but humans would always be more afraid at the sight of cold steel and blood.
Even after experiencing the self-detonation of a mothership’s power core, Chu Xiang found himself still unable to die calmly.
He wanted to live. No matter in which world, he had things he wanted to do.
If he lived, he could have an unlimited future.
In that instant, as many meaningless scenes flashed through his mind and the sword slashed down–
* * *
Clang–
The sword had been deflected by a short spear, which the newcomer wielded with one hand. The other held Chu Xiang. Just that silver spear blocked almost ten swords, and with a horizontal sweep, all the assassins retreated.
“Lan Jue… Lan… Your Excellency?”1Previously Your Majesty when referring to Lan Jue with 君上 Chu Xiang stuttered, stunned.
Lan Jue chuckled lightly, then casually pierced the chest of an assassin who wanted to sneak closer. As blood sprayed, Chu Xiang hurriedly used his sleeves to block it, narrowly avoiding the fate of being blinded.
“Why are you here!”
“Let’s go first!” Lan Jue dragged Chu Xiang through an opening and ran.
Late night urban environments were perfect for assassinations; even if Lan Jue wanted to fight, he had Chu Xiang with him, so they could only run. Chu Xiang himself was exhausted from his previous sprint and his wound hurt. When he saw Lan Jue, he had instantly relaxed, so now his vision was filled with golden stars.
“Wait… Your Excellency, wait…”
After taking another two steps, he had to support himself against a wall even as his other hand firmly grasped on to Lan Jue.
Lan Jue quickly turned around. “What is it?”
“I can’t… I can’t walk anymore…” he panted, then looked at Lan Jue with a determined gaze.
The sentence ‘I can’t abandon you’ had already flowed to Lan Jue’s mouth according to the situation, but the subsequent development of events was very unexpected. “Please carry me!” Chu Xiang exclaimed as he leaned his entire weight on Lan Jue and hugged his shoulders.
Lan Jue: “…”
While he was in a daze, this man twisted around him even more and patted his chest to urge him. “Hurry up, the assassins are about to get here!”
Lan Jue decisively reached out to his knees, picked him up in his arms, and sprinted away with his long legs.
His physical strength was trained on battlefields, so he still had the energy to ask as he ran, “How did you provoke this many assassins? What on earth did you do to the Grand Princess?”
What’s with his tone, the Grand Princess is over fifty years old… Chu Xiang leaned on Lan Jue’s solid shoulder. He had lost blood and was a little cold, now that he was so close to a warm chest, he felt quite drowsy.
“Well…” he said with his eyes closed and adjusting his posture to something more comfortable, “This time isn’t the Grand Princess, I was the one who crossed a line and they’re just testing us a bit.”
His tone was very calm, as if everything was under control, but Lan Jue was sure that Chu Xiang would be dead if he hadn’t arrived just now.
He couldn’t help but expose him. “How would you escape if I wasn’t here?”
“Nothing is absolutely certain in the world. The result this time is that you are here and I got lucky,” Chu Xiang smiled, then shifted his head comfortably and almost fell asleep.
Sure enough, as Chu Xiang said, the assassins were only ‘testing’ them and did not pursue to the end. Three streets later, their tails had disappeared.
Lan Jue, who had grown up in battle, had the habit of carrying basic medicine with him. He simply tossed Chu Xiang onto a random sack in an alley, almost startling the half-asleep man into jumping to his feet, then unceremoniously opened his clothes and sprinkled a handful of medicine. It hurt so much that Chu Xiang shed tears and hissed as he inhaled.
But its blood-clotting effect was also extraordinarily fast.
As Lan Jue pressed on his bloody wound, he said in an unkind tone, “Are whorehouses fun to visit?”
Chu Xiang had the illusion that his superior had grabbed him to make him write reviews because he had problems in his private life, so he subconsciously replied, “I know I was wrong, I won’t go in the future… uh… no, Your Excellency, the brothel has people that you can use.”
“Oh?”
“Tianyan currently contains both rebel parties and killers for hire, but you do not need to consider the former — those people are just taking advantage of the chaos to add oil to the fire, they have no real strategy or plan. They don’t care who’s the monarch, they’re just muddying the waters right now. When your power grows sufficiently in the future, those ‘righteous warriors’ will voluntarily join you.”
“Then you mean for me to recruit hired killers?” Lan Jue raised an eyebrow.
“Is there anyone more suitable for secretly accumulating strength than assassins? They are efficient, precise, and can be found in all walks of life. They not only have command over information networks but also have the ability to act on it. Your Excellency, information is an important resource — if you want to compete for the world, being well-informed is no less important than having a full treasury,” Chu Xiang smiled as he replied. “They have become aware of my existence, so they are now investigating our aim and our identities. This gives us the initiative.”
“What capital do you have to recruit assassins?”
“Your Excellency, not everyone has a choice. Some only become killers to live,” he said confidently. “Unless they’re psychopaths who love to kill, then I would be wrong.”
Lan Jue pressed on Chu Xiang’s wound, and the abrupt pain made Chu Xiang grab his wrist and cry for mercy in a low voice. “Don’t… Excellency, it hurts…”
Seeing that he really was in pain and even had a layer of cold sweat on his brow, Lan Jue felt strangely happy but also couldn’t bear to do it again. “Then what will you do now?” he asked.
“Ow…” Chu Xiang gasped a few times, then said, “I only provide options, only you have the right to choose. If you think it is feasible, then I will maintain contact. This assassination attempt was to test me, if I died so easily then of course I wouldn’t be qualified to meet their leader.”
Snorting, Lan Jue raised the corner of his mouth into a smirk, clearly meaning that if he wasn’t here then he would be deader than dead. He thought for a moment. “I don’t like assassins, but compared to the nobles who eat enough to fill a ditch every day, they are more acceptable.”
Chu Xiang almost wanted to ask, Do you have anyone you like? However, looking at the man’s hand that was still on his wound, he forcefully swallowed back the urge.
Tsk, feudal monarch! he slandered.
Chu Xiang admitted that this was a symptom of time travel, he once again forgot that he was no longer the captain of Longque.
The light of the stars was already embedded deep in his bones. Chu Xiang smiled bitterly, thinking that he would never be able to dig it out for the rest of his life. If Longque was still here, if he had a powered exoskeleton and an energy gun…
There were no ifs in the world, Chu Xiang held no regrets for what he did in another universe. He only needed to remember that behind him, his family and country were both safe, for it to be enough.
“Let’s go.” Lan Jue picked him up again, carefully avoiding his wound, and walked to the post house.
However, when they arrived, they were surprised to find Commander Bai Jing’an of the Iron-Clad Guards waiting for them with his platoon surrounding the entire post house.
Author:
To be fair, Lan Jue has also achieved things. Out of my stories, Lan Jue is the first gong to save the shou, my other shous are all better at fighting than the gongs… Lan Jue should be proud.
And you don’t need to worry about Chu Xiang’s incompetent martial arts, this is just the beginning, I didn’t give him a golden finger but an invincible golden body!!! It’ll be unlocked bit by bit, and in a sense, he’ll get Longque back. I originally wanted to name this book ‘Longque’, but some of my early readers said that it made it sound like a mahjong player or something… orz So that’s how it got its current title.
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- 1Previously Your Majesty when referring to Lan Jue with 君上
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