by Mao Ni
After he finished cleaning, he casually sat down and began to draw in starlight for Purification.
The Orthodox Academy was a picture of tranquil silence. He closed his eyes in meditation, utterly forgetting all things. He naturally could not hear the night birds in the forest that should have been resting, but suddenly began to chirp, the sound crisp and moving. The croaks of frogs that had halted for several days also began to ring out once more, happy beyond compare.
A butterfly fluttered in from the window and rested on the floor beside him, unwilling to depart.
It was the piece of floor that he had just wiped clean.
* * *
Hundred Flowers Lane was a very ordinary street of the capital. Of course, it had once been very famous because the Orthodox Academy in its depths had once been very famous. Additionally, the Hundred Herb Garden at that end had also been very famous. It had been the Imperial Garden of the previous dynasty.
The most famous rebellion in the Great Zhou Dynasty's history had also occurred in the Hundred Herb Garden. At the time, Emperor Taizong, who was still a prince, was galloping his horse from his estate to the Imperial Palace, but was ambushed at this place by the other princes. At that moment, Emperor Taizong had been dressed in his night gown.
The ultimate conclusion of that rebellion was known by the entire continent: Emperor Taizong narrowly obtained the final victory and his imperial brothers were all executed on the spot, with several hundred of their followers simultaneously being beheaded.
Because of this bloody, rather inglorious history, the Hundred Herb Garden lost its status as an Imperial Garden and was placed under the custody of the Orthodoxy's Hall of Heavenly Virtue, to be used for growing medicinal herbs and spirit fruits. Perhaps the soil of the Hundred Herb Garden had absorbed too many nutrients from the blood, or perhaps too many corpses had been buried beneath it, but the medicinal herbs and spirit fruits planted here flourished. It once more became valued by the Imperial Court and was placed under strict guard.
In reality, extremely few people knew that the reason the Hundred Herb Garden was so heavily guarded, besides the precious medicinal herbs and spirit fruits growing within, was that it would often be used as a residence for important and powerful figures that found it inconvenient to appear in public. For example, when the Divine Empress was first expelled from the Imperial Palace, she resided in the temple here while cultivating. It was also precisely for this reason that the Hall of Heavenly Virtue later on received enormous benefits.
At present, the Hundred Herb Garden was inhabited by another noble.
Under the old walls crawling with ivy was a table made of stone. A tea cup was on the table, and the cup contained the rarely seen and precious tea brewed from tea leaves freshly picked in the rain that spring.
A little lady was drinking tea.
Her face was childish, her pupils like black stars, and her lips like red plums. She had long and slender eyelashes, and her pale white cheeks had two faint patches of red. She was a picture of astonishing beauty.
It was an extremely healthy sort of beauty, delighting both the body and mind of others, but never giving them any sort of distracting thoughts.
The girl herself was not much delighted. Her face was one of deep distress because she still had not found that person.
Chapter 28 – Climbing over the Wall and Seeing a Black Robe
This young girl was called Luoheng, but her nickname was Luoluo because she had a habit of adding a few words before her sentences ever since she was very young. For example, when she was calling the goshawk to land on her little hand or when she was calling for the enormous crocodile in the river to quickly take her to the other side, she would always say, "Lah lah, faster!"
Luoluo was fourteen this year, still very young. For certain reasons, her appearance and figure seemed somewhat younger than her actual age, charmingly childish. Just like her innocent appearance, from the moment she was born, she had enjoyed riches, glory, and status, living a carefree life without any worries. This was still the case, even after leaving her homeland for the faraway capital.
She had already lived in the Hundred Herb Garden for almost a year. She rarely had contact with the outside world, so it was hard for her to not feel somewhat lonely.
She didn't much care about this because the only thing she cared about was how to cultivate; in the aspect of cultivation, she had a few problems that she had been unable to resolve. Even her seemingly omnipotent father had been unable to resolve them, resulting in her journey of over a thousand li to the capital.
She had concealed her identity and attended classes in the Heavenly Dao Academy and Star Seizer Academy, even consulting those brilliant instructors in private. She had even discussed related problems with the Guardians of the Imperial Palace. Regretfully, her problems continued to have no solution.
In her hour of deepest despair, she suddenly sensed one night that a star in the depths of the night sky had lit up. She did not know where this star was, but she knew that the spiritual sense that had lit it was very powerful, very serene. Moreover, there was clearly something different about this spiritual sense compared to those sent out by normal human cultivators. That she could sense all of this was purely because of her innate gift. Upon confirming that everything she sensed had been real, she wanted to find that person.
She wanted to place those questions that had perplexed her for so many years before that person, hoping that she would be able to get an answer.
But quite a few days had passed, and she had still not been able to find that person. Those subordinates she had dispatched, and even the Guardians and experts of the Imperial Palace assisting her, had not been able to find a single clue, which made her even more depressed.
Luoluo's mood was rather downcast, the expensive tea in the cup unable to attract any of her attention. In normal times, how could someone as skilled in the tea ceremony as she treat such fragrant and delightful tea with such disregard? How could she perform such an unreasonable action?
At this moment, she smelled an aroma.
Luoluo widened her eyes, her body growing somewhat stiff.
This was a very faint aroma, but upon entering her nose, it instantly bloomed, becoming extremely distinct, enchanting her like a bottle of fine wine. The Hundred Herb Garden contained countless rare treasures and strange fruits which produced all sorts of scents in the night, yet none of them could suppress this aroma!
When she was small, the valley she lived in was filled with wildflowers. Even in the early summer when the sun was beginning to rise and all those wildflowers bloomed at the same time, not even that aroma was this fragrant!
She was even willing to swear an oath to the profuse stars in the sky that she had never smelled something so good in all her life.
But this aroma was still so faint.
What sort of aroma was this? Where did this aroma come from?
As Luoluo thought of these things, she abruptly realized that the aroma had vanished. In but an instant, that aroma had drifted away, leaving not a single trace behind. She felt lost and disappointed, as if she had missed out on something very important in her life.
She walked several dozen steps west along the wall, towards the place where flowers were blossoming amidst the ivy. She realized that the aroma was not coming from here and inadvertently turned her gaze to the wall overgrown with ivy. She faintly sensed that the aroma had come from the other side of the wall.
What was on the other side of the wall? Apparently it was the abandoned Orthodox Academy. Ever since she had taken up residence in the Hundred Herb Garden that side had always been quiet and noiseless, just like a graveyard. However, from a certain day on, it began to grow livelier, as if something was going on over there.
Did she want to go over and see?
She had this vague feeling that this aroma was somehow connected to the person that she had been searching for.
The hand in Luoluo's broad sleeve slightly tightene
d, her emotions growing rather tense. Without turning around, she looked out of the corner of her eyes into the darkness.
The light emitted by the oil lamp behind that hanging basket of flowers fell into the darkness, seeming to deform somewhat before disappearing.
This meant that there was someone there, perhaps some powerful existence.
She knew who those people were. They were the clansmen responsible for protecting her. At the same time, they were also the clansmen that limited her activities. Every time she wanted to go to the Heavenly Dao Academy or Star Seizer Academy, she required a long period of preparation, and they would certainly not let her depart so late at night.
Luoluo gazed at her shadow on the wall and felt herself very useless, very cowardly.
She suddenly began to giggle, shook her head, plucked a button from her left lapel, and then opened her palm.
This perfectly round button, ground from a rhinoceros horn, fell from her small hand to the floor.
There was a light clap.
Smoke enveloped the area by the academy wall, boring in and out of the ivy.
Swishswishswishswish, ten-odd figures shot out like arrows from various places in the darkness.
The middle-aged man at their head waved his palm, completely banishing the smoke, but realized that no one was by the wall.
These ten-odd people clearly possessed extraordinary cultivations. In the world, there wouldn't be many experts of their caliber, yet now, their faces were abnormally pale and exceptionally fearful.
A person said with a trembling voice, "Prin…the young lady…she's gone."
The middle-aged man had an exceptionally gloomy expression. He softly yelled out, "Quickly report this to the palace!"
* * *
Luoluo had not gone far, she had just gone to the other side of the wall.
She believed that those clansmen of hers would not be able to find her in such a short span of time because the seemingly ordinary button she had used was a Thousand Li Button.
The Thousand Li Button was a sort of magical artifact that could allow someone to instantly travel vast distances. Even when confronting an incredibly powerful enemy, one could use this button to escape. It was extremely precious, even worth the price of a life. Even places like the Great Zhou Imperial Palace and the Longevity Sect only possessed a few of these buttons.
Yet she had used one so casually, and she had used it to get around a wall.
Without a doubt, this was a recklessly wasteful way of doing things, and it was precisely for this reason that she was so sure her clansmen would not expect her to use a Thousand Li Button to simply climb over a wall. She should have enough time to find the source of that aroma.
As long as she could find that person, why did the use of a single Thousand Li Button matter?
She had always been a very generous person.
In the almost year's worth of time that she had lived in the Hundred Herb Garden, she had only once peeked her head over the wall to get a look at the Orthodox Academy, curious about that incident from ten-odd years ago. Several months had passed since then, and now that she had truly entered this place for the first time, she discovered that things had changed a lot.
It was still very peaceful, but the weeds growing along the lake had been cut down into a flat lawn. Through the starlight, one could see that the reeds in the lake had also been cleared up.
The greatest change had to be the buildings. Other than the main hall, which had been damaged far too fiercely, the other buildings and pavilions were repaired almost like new.
In the deep darkness, only the library had lights.
Luoluo took a few steps in that direction but was suddenly confronted by a gust of wind. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and finally seized upon a hint of that aroma in the wind. Her face instantly revealed an expression of reverie, knowing that she had not found the wrong place.
When she opened her eyes, her reverie had become vigilance, her childish beauty tinged with frost.
A person slowly walked out of the trees by the lake.
This person was dressed in a black robe that reached to the knees, the two sleeves also reaching the knees. The person seemed extremely neat and orderly, yet the head and face were covered by the black robe's hood, making the person seem completely mysterious.
Luoluo faintly smiled at this person as her right hand slowly moved to her left lapel, and secretly plucked off a button made of rhinoceros horn.
This was also a Thousand Li Button.
She did not know who this black-robed person was, but it was plain to see that this person had been waiting all this time for her to appear. That was the problem.
Ever since she was small, she had been taught to never place herself in any sort of danger. In addition, she could clearly sense that this black-robed man…especially the pitch-black object gripped tightly in his hands, posed a very serious threat to her.
So she prepared without hesitation to use a second Thousand Li Button.
She truly was very generous and very wasteful because she had the right.
She opened her palm, and the button dropped to the floor.
Yet at that very moment, the man shrouded in a black robe also opened his palm.
The pitch-black object in his palm seemed to be made of metal. Its two ends were very sharp, its middle a little thick, and its surface was smooth. It looked very much like a shuttle.
This pitch-black metal weapon fell even faster than the button, and its sharp end deeply thrust into the loose, soft soil of the lawn.
With a burst of clacks, the smooth surface of the metal weapon was quickly covered in countless fine scales. These scales then burst apart and transformed into countless tiny pieces of metal that noiselessly shot off into the night sky.
With the shooting off of those pieces of metal, a powerful Qi instantly enveloped a circle several hundred zhang in circumference, the Orthodox Academy at its center.
The smoke gradually dispersed.
Luoluo's figure was still in its original position, a trickle of blood seeping from her lips!
The Thousand Li Button had not helped her depart!
She raised her head up to the night sky and saw that the descending starlight seemed to be slightly twisted.
She didn't know what sort of magical artifact that shuttle-like metal weapon was, but it had actually been able to seal off such a large space!
Her smile had already faded. She looked at the black-robed man by the tree and seriously asked, "To bitterly cultivate until the upper level of Ethereal Opening…oh, I forgot…you don't have that way of speaking on your side, but in brief, it's no easy task. You're sure that you want to be rendered into scattered ash and dispersed smoke, and for your family and relatives to be chased down and slaughtered for the rest of their lives until not a single one remains? To pay such an enormous price, is it worth it?"
This was not a threat, but a guaranteed outcome, so it was particularly forceful.
Any person that attempted to inflict harm upon her would inevitably have to suffer the boundless rage of the eight hundred li of the Red River.
"They would first have to know who I am." The black-robed man slowly removed his hood, revealing a plain and unremarkable face.
It was a middle-aged man possessing no special features whatsoever. If he were to be thrown into the crowds of the capital, absolutely no one would be able to recall his appearance.
Especially when he combed his hair into a bun.
Tonight, he did not disguise himself. His black hair spilled onto his shoulders, thus revealing those two black demon horns, exceptionally clear in the starlight.
This middle-aged man that was a demon said with unquestionable sincerity, "Moreover, if I can kill Your Highness in the capital of the humans I'm even willing to sacrifice my soul, let alone my life."
Chapter 29 – One Remark Startles the Wind and Rain
As the starlight spilled down from the night sky and passed through tha
t invisible protective screen, it refracted strangely. As this light fell upon the middle-aged demon male's face, it made his face even paler, just like the ice and snow in the north that never melted.
Luoluo raised her hand and wiped the blood from her lips as she asked him, "Do you plan to capture me or kill me?"
The demon man calmly replied, "If I capture Your Highness, it will be impossible for me to leave the capital, so with my apologies, I can only kill Your Highness here."
Luoluo stared at the two demon horns faintly discernible amongst his hair and asked, "It seems that you've waited for a very long time."