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At the same time, at the third building on Ronghua Street.
Chu Hexing was wearing a gorgeous dress just like an aristocratic lady, but although her clothes could be changed, her posture was still as uncultured as ever. She squatted next to a wall, bragging proudly to the street beggars she had fought with in the past.
“My brother’s awesome!” she crowed. “He’s the Lord of Western Tang’s confidant, do you know what a confidant is, it’s the kind of person you tell your biggest secrets to!”
“Then is your brother rich?” a child asked.
“Rubbish,” she said derisively, “you’re an idiot. Money’s nothing much, to people like us, you have to be able to bring out treasure to really be called rich.”
She had spent the entire night memorising the patrol route used by the Iron-Clad Guards. Tianyan was very big, but fortunately, she really only needed to remember Bai Jing’an’s route. The Commander of the Guards didn’t patrol every day, but he could recognise Chu Hexing, and she could also recognise him.
It was almost time — with Bai Jing’an’s patrol speed, he had already reached Ronghua Street.
The children continued to ask, “What treasure? Erni, what’ve you seen?”
“I said I’ve got a name, I’m called Chu Hexing. You guys should call me Miss Chu, I haven’t been Erni for ages!” she said proudly as she puffed up her chest, simultaneously using this action to disguise a glance towards the end of the street where a red figure had already appeared.
Chu Hexing made a gesture to get the children to gather close to her. After whetting their appetite, she looked into each of their eager eyes and whispered, “You guys, have you heard that there’s a magic weapon which can conquer the world?”
“Wow, you mean the demon sword? You’ve seen it? Have you really seen it???”
“I could only get a glance. The entire scabbard was black, and long and straight, and its handle was wrapped with red rope…” Chu Hexing described it mysteriously. Of course she hadn’t seen Longque herself, she was only repeating what Chu Xiang told her. At the time Chu Xiang hadn’t been close enough to the sword to see it in detail either, but this didn’t matter because it actually seemed more realistic the less details there were. For a waif with little knowledge who suddenly turned into a noble lady with just as little education, it was enough for her to say that it was black and had red ropes around it.
Single-edged straight swords were not popular among the capital’s nobles, who preferred double-edged longswords called jian, which were also euphemistically called the gentleman of weapons.1See end notes for image examples In comparison, Longque was indeed unique.
Bai Jing’an stopped in front of a stall which sold rouge. The boss, recognising his red Iron-Clad Guards uniform, was immediately all smiles and wanted to give him all the boxes that he glanced at.
“Then Erni — uh, Miss — where did you see it? Can you take us too?”
“Shh, keep your voice down, my brother said not to talk about it, because… it was stolen. A group of rebels stole it! Don’t you think that’s awesome!”
“Hahaha, that’s really…” They burst into giggles, but then quickly lowered their voices. “They deserve it, it’s good to steal it, well done!”
Curiosity drove them to keep asking about it. “Do you know where they’ve hidden it?”
“Um… I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else… Just three streets away, near Yelu Street, there’s a rebel stronghold.”
“Wow that’s so close, which house is it?”
Chu Hexing pretended to be mysterious and shook her head. “Can’t say, I can’t say it!”
“Then how do you know?”
She looked left and right, hunched down, and whispered, “Have you forgotten how good I am at swimming? That group of rebels contacted me, saying that they wanted me to help them send messages or something… isn’t there a moat in the upper city? But I didn’t go!”
“Wow!” Another wave of suppressed exclamations sounded. “Why not?”
“I’m not an idiot. If I go with my brother I can have enough to eat and wear good clothes, but being a rebel? That’s suicide!”
The children chirped and hummed, starting a new round of envy for Chu Hexing’s fateful encounter.
Meanwhile, Bai Jing’an took away two bottles of rouge and turned straight into Yelu Street.
Yelu Street was home to all the most well-known brothels in Tianyan. Jingshan Court, Yayue Pagoda, Chunjiang Pavilion, Cuiting Willow, Hongshan Garden… Bai Jing’an had never been here before, so he summoned two Guards who liked to spend time at the street of flowers to accompany him.
He had already investigated the two extra people around Lord Lan. Chu Xiang had once been favoured by the Grand Princess but had recently lost this privilege for unknown reasons. Bai Jing’an hadn’t questioned it when she ordered a few trainee Guards to kill him; according to his understanding of the Grand Princess, it was probably just because he refused to obey her.
As for the girl, she had been born in the slums and used to be a little bully among the street beggars, before being bought by Chu Xiang who then adopted her as his little sister.
He bought her from… Chunjiang Pavilion.
Bai Jing’an suddenly felt like the clues had been connected. The girl hadn’t been bought for her beauty — she wasn’t especially pretty — but if it was a rebel organisation? Or it didn’t have to be rebels, they may be a group of hired killers falsely claiming to be rebels who had wanted to recruit a new member but were inadvertently cut off by Lan Jue.
If the child hadn’t seen wrong… then Longque may really have been stolen by those people.
Tianyan was under martial law, so the Grand Princess thought that their enemy would definitely choose to stay here which was the most dangerous place yet also the safest. Bai Jing’an shared this opinion, because he didn’t think that they could sneak Longque through his Iron-Clad Guards’ tight defence and out of the city.
The only question was if the child was just bragging.
So for the first time, Chunjiang Pavilion welcomed the cold, austere, and abstinent Commander of the Iron-Clad Guards.
* * *
Madam Bai Mo fiddled with her hair as she sat opposite Chu Xiang. From between the ink-black strands, he saw a flash of cold light.
Were blades hidden in her hair?
“Madam, might I have a sip of tea?” he smiled.
“It depends on your ability to drink our tea.”
Ah, negotiation… Chu Xiang thought nostalgically. When he negotiated in the past, Xie Zhiwei would scan the other party’s physical condition and could clearly tell him if there were any changes in their heart rate, breathing, and even hormone levels. If Xie Zhiwei was here with him now, there would be no need to go through all this trouble.
“The question now,” he smiled, “is what can you do for me so I won’t expose you for killing Zhang Fengyu, Elder Lin, and stealing Longque?”
“You think…” Madam Mo said as she charmingly stroked her long hair, “you’ll have the chance to say it?”
However, at this time, a maid came into the room and whispered something to Madam Mo, whose face abruptly changed. “You brought the Iron-Clad Guards here?”
“How could I, I’m not one of the Guards.” His smile brightened.
The maid glanced at the guqin in Madam Mo’s room. The guqin was black edged with red, and was the only thing out of place in the otherwise very proper room.
“Longque is indeed in my hands, but you call bringing the Guards here your sincerity?”
“Hiding it in the guqin isn’t a good idea, you won’t be able to deliver it to your client no matter who they are. Bai Jing’an is a very dull person who only has his mission on his mind, he won’t avoid smashing something just because it’s a Peony’s personal instrument.”
The assassin’s dagger was instantly unsheathed and pointed towards Chu Xiang’s eyes. “You’re really looking for death.”
“Killers are paid to kill, no one has offered money for my life so Madam Mo doesn’t have to be so hardworking. Besides, if you kill me, who will make Bai Jing’an go away?” Chu Xiang chuckled. He always had an absurd guess — the name Longque spanned two worlds, what a wonderful coincidence. He needed to see it before he could confirm whether his conjecture was correct.
It was too absurd, and too wonderful. But intuition was a very strange thing.
“Give me the sword, I can hide it for you,” he said firmly.
Madam Mo hesitated, but the maid by the door reported, “Bai Jing’an is walking up the stairs and is calling for you, Madam. The boss couldn’t stop him.”
Chu Xiang still sat at the table calmly, neither hurrying nor anxious, as if he was only waiting for a cup of tea. Bai Mo looked at him. Everyone in the pavilion was a killer, if Bai Jing’an came, he would definitely be able to tell. Regardless of whether it was this person in front of her who drew the commander here, there was a high chance that this stronghold would be exposed.
It was a thick and solidly built single-edged straight sword that was a little wider than normal, with its hilt wrapped in red rope. Although there were no decorations, it was simple yet majestic, very consistent with the two words ‘imperial sword’.
“Here it is, how will you hide it?” she asked.
Chu Xiang took the sword. It was very light, so light that it didn’t seem like it was made of metal. When he tried to pull it out, Bai Mo sneered at him. “It’s a demonic sword, no one can unsheathe it.”
Couldn’t unsheathe it?
Of course, if his guess was correct, it wouldn’t take strength to pull it out! His calculations this time were very good, even accounting for Bai Jing’an, but this thing may not be able to be used.
He examined the blade in his hands. The scabbard was made of black sandalwood…
“It’s too light, I suspect that it’s only a wooden shell with nothing inside, maybe it’s only a trick the nobles are playing,” Bai Mo said.
Yes, a wooden shell!
Snatching the hairpin from the maid’s hands, Chu Xiang pried it hard, and the entire wooden cover cracked apart. Bai Mo jumped in shock and Chu Xiang’s own heart also thumped.
He took a deep breath, forcefully levered it open, and revealed the true body hidden within the ‘scabbard’.
It was a black metal etched with a single-winged longque2A mythical bird, think fenghuang. Coincidentally, also the name for a legendary weapon made during the Sixteen Kingdoms period (c. 300-440 AD) totem in silver. With trembling hands, Chu Xiang pulled off the obstructing red ropes, revealing the biometric neuron lock beneath.
The streamlined sword lay quietly on the table, with its indicator light slowly flashing red to show that the AI was in an energy-saving hibernation state, but as sunlight fell on the charging port, the red turned to yellow.
“This is…” Bai Mo was so surprised that she couldn’t speak. At the drastically different sword, she couldn’t help but step back.
Its murderous air hit her head-on, having travelled through the light of stars to be dyed with fire and blood.
The demonic sword Longque’s biometric neuron lock, in this day and age, was indeed an unnatural thing.
Chu Xiang pressed a hand on it, and the light flashed red once before dimming into a gentle blue.
The space combat energy sword Silver Empress III, the personal sidearm of Longque’s captain, crossed time and space to reunite with him.
Author:
A dear reader correctly guessed Longque’s secret before!!! Hahaha, speaking of it, I’ve said before that I love people guessing my plot twists, it means we’re on the same channel, we’re soulmates, soulmates I say!!!
How about it, isn’t future technology a cheat!
Translator:
Bai Jing’an: I’ve connected the two dots
Me: You didn’t connect shit
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- 1See end notes for image examples
- 2A mythical bird, think fenghuang. Coincidentally, also the name for a legendary weapon made during the Sixteen Kingdoms period (c. 300-440 AD)
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