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Chu Xiang stepped in to explain for her. “Your Excellency, last year the imperial court passed a new law regarding slavery, which included a clause that if someone can’t pay their taxes on time, they can hand over their children to be slaves of the state in exchange for reduced taxes. As soon as this edict was released, coupled with the heavy tax burden, many ordinary people couldn’t escape the fate of becoming slaves. They were either forced to construct new manors for noblemen or became prostitutes, thus, I first selected those who were instrumental in pushing the law through, as well as one tax official who carried it out.”

“Yes,” Bai Mo said, “Two newcomers last year came to me because of it.”

Lan Jue nodded calmly, but then asked, “You didn’t even spare their youngest children, wasn’t that a bit much?”

Bai Mo shook her head. “Since their parents have already been killed, it would be even more cruel to leave the children behind, My Lord. I for one had hated that I didn’t die with my family that year… this wasn’t Sir Chu’s arrangement, it was my own decision. Sir Chu only said to kill the traitor to build momentum for your future actions, but my assassins were accidentally carried away by revenge… he reprimanded us afterwards and I also know that we were wrong to do it. Since we’re pretending to be righteous rebels, we shouldn’t be so ruthless.”

“Oh… he isn’t so angry anymore,” Xie Zhiwei reminded quietly.

However, Lan Jue said, “That isn’t necessarily true, those self-proclaimed righteous people may be even more cold-blooded than you when they do things. They’re only driven by anger and have no greater goal.”

“After today, the phrase ‘there is no justice in this world’ will spread. When the time is right in the future, Your Excellency can legitimately use the slogan of returning justice to the world,” Chu Xiang said.

At this time, Mo Shuchong suddenly whispered, “My Lord must be careful — future events can be considered in the future, but it’s still an open question as to whether you can leave Tianyan.”

“Why do you say so?” Lan Jue asked.

Due to spending too long disguised as female, Mo Shuchong’s voice was rather airy and high-pitched, but he still whispered, “An informant contacted me to say that the Observatory’s people have thoughts against you, and in addition, someone recently tried to buy our services to kill you. The informant said that they should be an astrologer from the Observatory.”

Chu Xiang had heard from Lan Jue what happened when he had been summoned to imperial court, and knew that the Observatory had stood against him. “You can try contacting them, I’m not sure why the Observatory is suddenly biting at us,” he said to Mo Shuchong.

“It’s said that the Observatory Master Qu Lingxin is very good at deducing heaven’s secrets.”

“I thought that was just those charlatans bragging to please the emperor!” Bai Mo exclaimed.

Mo Shuchong shook his head despondently. “No, Qu Lingxin was born into a family of astrology masters, is proficient in both astrology and numerology, and does have abilities that ordinary people do not. Not mentioning anything else, Qu Lingxin doesn’t look much older than his twenties but he’s actually around the same age as the emperor, maybe around sixty years old.”

He hesitated, then continued in a stiff tone, “My Lord, I also have other news to tell you. Recently, the Observatory has secretly transported the remains of the late Lord of Western Tang to the capital.”

This shocked Lan Jue immensely. “What did you say? My father’s remains?”

“Yes, Qu Lingxin sent people to the late lord’s burial grounds. The late lord passed away in exile and could not be brought home because the Lan family’s crimes hadn’t yet been pardoned, thus he was buried on the spot. You have tried to recover his body for many years, but due to the harsh conditions of the time a tomb wasn’t built, so it has been impossible to find again.”

“That’s right, I was young and couldn’t do much. So you’re saying that Qu Lingxin found my father’s remains, and then… but why would he secretly move it to the capital?”

“He’s targeting you, so he would also target your… filial piety,” Chu Xiang said, “this is… I guess he doesn’t believe your act, and wants to test whether you really are an uneducated brute.”

The chill Lan Jue felt would almost manifest in reality every time his father was brought up, and cold killing intent filled the room.

Just as Chu Xiang worried whether he would erupt, Lan Jue stated steadily, “For now, we’ll wait and see.”

* * *

It was late at night. According to the plan, the assassins wouldn’t move tonight, so Chu Xiang had climbed into bed early on and prepared to sleep.

There was nothing to be done for the slow pace of life in ancient times, and moreover, they were currently in the dormant stage where they were slowly gathering strength and pretending to be weak.

But now that there was Xie Zhiwei, Chu Xiang at least had more avenues for entertainment.

“Zhiwei, do you have any novels or movies or something, share them.”

“I do, but I don’t have a holographic projection module, so I can play a movie but you won’t have an audio-visual feast to enjoy,” Xie Zhiwei replied through the communication channel. “And the novels… they’re all danmei novels from Jinjiang which you despised before, do you still want to…?”

Chu Xiang: “…”

After a while, the haughty AI took the initiative to contact him. “Ah, your lord is taking a bath.”

“…Zhiwei, how bored are you to peek at someone who’s bathing?”

“But his body is so good, he’s got eight-pack abs and mermaid lines!”

Chu Xiang: “Excuse me, do you have a camera function…”

Xie Zhiwei was very proud as he replied, “No. So only I can appreciate it. Captain, I know you want to look at hotties again, but I must say, you look very good in this world as well, you can just take a look in the mirror.”

It was true that the Chu Xiang of this world looked different from Captain Chu Xiang — their similarities could reach 60%, but they also had many differences. Indeed, if he looked in the mirror, he could admire it as an unfamiliar beautiful person for a while.

“I have many problems, but I’ve never been narcissistic,” he refused righteously.

Another period of time passed.

“Captain, you should do it. You have to remember that you aren’t in space right now, you’re in… a feudal and backwards ancient era,” Xie Zhiwei said.

“So what?”

“In my database, no matter which dynasty or kingdom, accompanying the emperor is always like accompanying a tiger, and moreover, anyone assisting the dragon to rise rarely receives a good ending. Old ministers have always been discarded a few years after the world is conquered, I… I’m worried, like today, your lord got angry for no reason, what if neither of us find out? And even if I can tell, I don’t know why he’s angry, I can only scan his hormone levels to judge his mood. I’m not really a sword spirit, and I can’t read minds either, that’s unscientific! According to statistical probability calculations, the chance of you dying a good death is only 0.82%.”

Chu Xiang fell silent for a long while, then suddenly smiled. “Do you think self-destructing in space is a good death?”

“…I have no way of answering this question.”

“I think it is, because I achieved what I wanted, I asked for compassion and received compassion,” Chu Xiang said. “So, no matter what my outcome is in this world, I’ll do what I want to do.”

“Okay, Captain,” Xie Zhiwei replied. “As you wish, I will obey your orders.”

“Then can you take a couple pictures of Lan Jue’s body for me to see?”

“…Captain.”

“Hm?”

“You shameless pervert, scram.”

Chu Xiang didn’t get to see Lan Jue’s abs in the end. Although he felt regretful for this, he did see Lan Jue’s… recently washed figure. Because Xie Zhiwei still helped him get some benefits by accurately informing him of the time.

When he knocked on Lan Jue’s door, Lan Jue greeted him while dressed only in an inner robe with his hair still damp.

“Your Excellency, please excuse me.”

Chu Xiang saluted as he spoke with evidently no intention to leave, so Lan Jue raised an eyebrow and turned sideways to allow him inside the room.

“Your Excellency, I have discussed our next target with Madam Mo,” he said. “The Guards’ reaction is much bigger than anticipated, it seems that although the emperor doesn’t care for ruling, he’s still scared that the world will change hands. We may not need to act directly against the consul at all. As long as we continue to cultivate the atmosphere of ‘no justice in this world’ where heroes rise up and killers run rampant in the capital, the emperor will naturally be more concerned with disaster relief and pacifying the people. In this way, less supplies will be lost due to corruption by the time we reach the principality.”

Qin Yunian. Lan Jue’s heart moved slightly. The consul who had refused to help Western Tang through famine had become a fat piece of meat to be eaten himself.

“You may continue,” he said.

“Excellency, may I know the situation within the principality?”

“My secret agents have reported that in order for my uncle to cooperate with them and move against me, Eastern Tang has provided some relief food and grass, which can be counted as a silver lining. Little Nian is still under house arrest with a cavalry team patrolling outside his palace. They don’t dare to disobey my royal uncle but neither are they willing to take substantial action, so they’re in a stalemate for the time being,” Lan Jue replied.

But then he said, “These things can be left for tomorrow morning, why aren’t you sleeping? You don’t want your body anymore? Your injuries are healed?”

Chu Xiang was surprised for a moment, then smiled. “Yes, I will go rest now.”

As he retreated from the room, he couldn’t help but cast another admiring glance at Lan Jue, and habitually curved his lips up. “Good night!”

The door closed and the night stilled, yet Lan Jue couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

* * *

Summer arrived and heralded the end of flower viewing spring banquets. The assassinations hadn’t made the nobles rein in their excesses — indeed, they had become even more extravagant. Yelu Street had been reopened but Iron-Clad Guards still patrolled there, which many nobles found depressing, so they simply brought the singers and dancers to their own homes to enjoy.

The host of tonight’s event was none other than Consul Qin Yunian. Only when someone’s status was as respected as the consul’s were Peonies from multiple brothels willing to put aside their squabbles to go to their residence and join in the fun. Meanwhile, the female relatives within the rear courtyard chattered amongst themselves jealously. In today’s Tianyan, Peonies were worth more than noble ladies, how could they feel comfortable?

Their tones were cool as they talked about Chief Justice Zhang’s daughter —

“They looked down on the Lord of Western Tang before, but now that the Chief Justice is dead, won’t that girl have to cry on the streets…”

“That family’s lost its backbone, I heard she’s already gone to become a Peony!”

Music, dance, and food flowed within the main hall, and occasionally some literati stood to compose poems. A dancer from Jingshan Court twirled gracefully at the centre of the venue. She was a dancer from an exotic land, with dark skin yet pale golden hair, and gold bells dotted her entire body which rang crisply with each of her enchanting steps.

Qin Yunian, clearly drunk, picked up his wine cup and laughed loudly.

“This is a foreign dancer from the southern border, a newcomer to Jingshan Court!”

One of the guests who was more well-informed couldn’t help but admire, “I heard that people from the plains in the south look very different from normal people. We have white skin and black hair while they have black skin and white hair, and they sleep during the day and come out at night, so they’re also called Night Tribesmen. It’s really amazing to see one today!”

“The southern border, that’s… speaking of, where’s the Lord of Western Tang?”

“I heard — don’t know if it’s true or not — but I heard that the real reason why Lord Zhang rejected him is because… Lord Zhang found out after many twists and turns that the Lord of Western Tang is a cutsleeve!”*

The entire banquet hall instantly perked up.

“No wonder he hates attending banquets… sigh, it’s fine to play once in a while, but you can’t do it for real.”

Bells rang out, clear and melodious, as the dancer gracefully waved her arms. Her sheer outfit fluttered and her hair floated through the air as she spun.

In a split second, white light flew out from her hair and shot directly at the consul!

However, before anyone could scream, the maids behind the Consul suddenly stood with sabres in hand which collided with the dancer’s hidden weapon. On their sabre hilts were a pattern made of stars —

“The Observatory?” the dancer muttered. His voice was low — although it wasn’t as deep as a man’s, it certainly didn’t belong to a woman.

“Assassin!” the Observatory’s female bodyguards shouted.

The exotic dancer’s body made a strange rattling sound. The bone-shrinking technique would affect a person’s flexibility. Within the blink of an eye, the dancer’s body elongated and transformed into a sturdy man.

For some reason, Liwei Court’s assassins did not comply with the agreement.

Mo Shuchong threw out a string of bells like a whip. As it cracked through the air, a literati who hadn’t been able to dodge in time had his throat ripped open by silk thread, causing blood to spurt out three feet high.

“Protect the consul!”

“Bastard official, go to hell!” Mo Shuchong shouted.

Author:
A must-have for seeing hotties when travelling: Xie Zhiwei!!! And Chu Xiang still doesn’t know why Lan Jue was angry hahahahaha

When I was writing this whole bunch of assassination scenes, I read up on the history of the Warring States period, stuff like Biographies of Assassins,1A chapter from Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, the definitive history book of the time (c. 91 BCE) and then I discovered a serious problem — in our history, a lot of assassins had absolutely trash combat skills. Only one assassin has ever succeeded, the others were all incompetent yet still became legends! And I’ve always wanted to complain about Jing Ke,2Possibly the most well-known assassin in Chinese history, famed for failing an assassination attempt against King Zheng of Qin, who later became Qin Shi Huang. See Wikipedia. you’re so useless but you still became an assassin… Sure enough, reality is disappointing. Assassins are actually all useless, it’s already pretty good to be able to recognise their targets. Things in the movies like wearing stealthy costumes, using hidden weapons, and only needing to go whoosh whoosh whoosh to kill someone… Impossible! Not happening! Doesn’t exist!
……
And also, about Qu Lingxin, how should I say this? He doesn’t want to wreck the emperor’s reign, but his skills are a bit crooked. I’ve tried my best but I really don’t know how to govern a country… can you guys please let him go and let him peacefully be an elegant villain hahahahaa

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  • 1
    A chapter from Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, the definitive history book of the time (c. 91 BCE)
  • 2
    Possibly the most well-known assassin in Chinese history, famed for failing an assassination attempt against King Zheng of Qin, who later became Qin Shi Huang. See Wikipedia.