Legend of Fu Yao

Meng Fuyao fumbled around, trying to find the mechanism. Finally, she found the mechanism and escaped the secret room. As expected, what laid outside was an unmarked graveyard. The tombstones were in shambles as they leaned side to side, with some of the corners chipped. One could spot the white bones that were dug out by the wild wolves and that withered tree that the sorrowful moon seemed to be hanging for. An old crow sat on the branch as it cawed. The surrounding had a strong blood stench. Meng Fuyao looked around and realized that the corpses of the two had already disappeared.

Meng Fuyao stood under the cold moonlight and looked back to where she came from. It had perfectly blended in, covered by the dried branches. She thought about her experience, and it was such an unexpected adventure. Little Seven’s unintentional scheme would actually throw her in danger’s way—secret room with flying arrows, in a pool of water without escape, blood dripping in her ear, a handsome man stripping… and she even heard such a shocking piece of news.

Zong Yue has been held captive in Xuanyuan by Xuanyuan Cheng.

Meng Fuyao glanced towards the direction of Xuanyuan Nation and revealed a cold smile. Without a thought, she rushed back. With her abilities, there was no need to reveal her identity to request for the city gates to be opened. She directly jumped over the wall and returned to her residence. She first made her way to Zong Yue’s house. The house looked normal as though the owner was still there, but when Meng Fuyao touched the bed, it was cold.

Looking at the bed, it was as though no one had slept on this bed for a very long time. She stood blankly there in the house as she reflected her own attitude towards this man with a poisonous tongue. Was she too cold and unconcerned towards this man? Even though she knew he had been busy and going out a lot, she had never thought to ask him what he was doing. Now, even when he was missing, Meng Fuyao was the last one to know, and she could not even find any of subordinates or friends to confirm that with.

Perhaps, in her heart, she had gotten used to relying on Zong Yue’s help, used to his poisonous tongue solving all problems, and hence, never thought that he would have gotten into any trouble. Perhaps, there was another reason that she did not want to face—that she subconsciously wanted to keep a distance between them so that they could cut off their ties clearly in the future.

At this moment, Meng Fuyao suddenly felt that she was very selfish. ‘Towards such a friend that helped you again and again, even if you cannot provide love, there should at least be a word of concern? As a friend, isn’t there some stuff you should be concern about too?’ To be like her and hide far away, wasn’t that be a bit too heartless?

Meng Fuyao decided that she was no longer going to be selfish. She was always using this Mongolian doctor’s medicine, it was high time she treated him too.

She swiftly packed her stuff and casually shoved the sleeping Lord Yuan Bao into her bag. She glanced towards Ya Lanzhu’s house and felt that she would choose to stay. And so, she grabbed her bag and made her way out. The moment she opened the door, she saw Tie Cheng hugging his sword while sitting at her door.

Meng Fuyao smiled resignedly as she rubbed her forehead. “I wasn’t planning to abandon you here. I just wanted to make a move first. You can wait here for Wuji’s invisible guards to make contact with you and then…”

“I’ll follow you.” Tiecheng remained unconvinced. “As for the secret guards, I’ll just leave a secret code. I know their secret code.”

Meng Fuyao smiled as she tossed her bag to him. “Then, let’s go!”

Their conversation dispersed into the wind with no trace, unable to reach the ears of the people who wanted to know of their whereabouts.

And for the Meng Fuyao that had anxiously rushed off, she had long forgotten about an unlucky fool that would face the unfortunate situation where she was missing, and not a corpse could be found…

In the middle of the night, two shadows made their way across the quiet streets, rushing past like a whirlwind. The guards on duty vaguely felt a breeze of wind. Rubbing their eyes, they looked up to find only dried, withered leaves swirling on the floor.

The two shadows had long disappeared into the roads outside the capital.

“Where are we going?”

“Xuanyuan.”

“Morning, Mt. Yu residence.”

From the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain, all routes had been blocked off by the soldiers of the imperial camp. Three steps, a guard and five steps, a sentry post. The woodcutters that lived on around Mt Yu were all stopped at the foot of the mountain as they tried to make their way up the mountain to chop some trees. They looked up and saw gold dragon flags flying in the air all along the mountain route and coughed in surprise.

“Apparently His Majesty rushed up the mountain last night?”

“I don’t know what happened, I didn’t hear of any commotion.”

“Apparently a notorious bandit escaped!”

“Oh…” A gasp of fear resounded.

A farmer with a shoulder pole ¹ that entered the city to sell his vegetables happened to pass by. He made his way into the conversation and commented, “Ya, last night was certainly unsettling. You could hear the old crow crying to the point where your heart feels uneasy. Yet, when you go out to look, you can’t see anything.” He lived outside the city at the Yushui West.

“Aren’t you afraid that the bandit killed someone there?” Someone laughed. “Why don’t you hurry up and report this to His Majesty?”

The farmer glared at him as he shook his head and left.

Zhan Beiye did not catch the important last sentence, though even if he heard, he would still not have managed to link it to Meng Fuyao’s whereabouts. Right now, his entire head was in a mess with only one thought: Meng Fuyao is missing.

What’s worse was that this was no normal missing case, there was a high chance she was in imminent danger!

Last night after receiving Little Seven’s report, he almost vomited blood on the spot and even kicked the proud Little Seven who was actually waiting to be praised. He rushed out of the palace like a madman and did not even bother taking the imperial carriage. He grabbed a random horse, got on it, and rushed straight to Mt Yu without even waiting for the horse to get saddled up. Because of that, by the time he reached his residence at Mt Yu, his legs were already bleeding from the friction. He did not notice at all and threw the reins, sprinting straight to Huayin palace.

His heart was in a mess on the way there. He repeatedly thought of the possibilities that might happen when Meng Fuyao came out; If she were to misunderstand him, he would… he should… what should he do? He had absolutely no idea how to explain himself. Little Seven was his loyal subordinate, if not for this, just with Little Seven’s capabilities, there was no way he could set Meng Fuyao up. Little Seven’s actions were equivalent of his actions, and if Meng Fuyao really wanted to blame him, there was nothing he could say.

However, the worst was yet to come.

When the trap opened, Meng Fuyao was nowhere in sight.

Looking at the empty stone room, even Little Seven was surprised. He scratched his head as he mumbled, “Uhm… I saw her falling in.”

Zhan Beiye initially thought that Meng Fuyao had escaped and was relieved. But the few droplets of blood caught his attention. Then, he saw the pieces of cloth and the alarming number of poisonous arrows, which were very fine yet deeply embedded into the tough stone wall. His vision went black.

Zhan Beiye jumped in and picked up the cloth. He recognized it was indeed Fuyao’s and his heart sank even further.

He tightened his grip with the piece of cloth clasped in his cold palm. It was as though that piece of cloth was an icy pair of hands, tugging at his heart with all its might to the point where his heart was hitting against his ribcage, and there was no strength left in his hands and legs. Big drops of sweat dripped down his forehead.

Looking at Zhan Beiye’s expression, Little Seven knew he had gotten into deep trouble. He threw himself to the stone wall and anxiously looked around as though he was trying to dig Meng Fuyao out from the stone. He fumbled around and accidentally touched the kirin, and the hidden door slid open quietly.

Zhan Beiye perked up immediately, dashed towards the door, but he was held back but his guards. Little Seven got down on his knees and kowtowed ² as he begged, “I created this trouble, I’ll go!” After that, he rushed in with the guards.

In the end, in barely anytime, Little Seven was soaked and dragged out by the few guards that were still alive—they had entered the waterway, and half the guards were washed away by the water. The other half of guards now cautiously walked along the path, with Little Seven protected in the middle. When the front few guards were cut off by the rotating stone wall, the guards behind managed to grab Little Seven in time. With a stone wall in between, they listened helplessly to their comrades as they struggled, yelling for help and eventually… the silence. Little Seven scratched the stone wall to the point where his nails came off, his blood dripped, and the flesh was exposed.

Zhan Beiye looked at Little Seven’s bloody hands, made eye contact with the horrified guards, and stumbled backward. His expression could not even be described using the word ‘ugly,’ and none of the guards dared to look into his eyes.

Little Seven kneeled there, stoned, without saying anything, without kowtowing. Then, he suddenly jumped up, stretched out his hand, and a beam of white light shone.

But Zhan Beiye sent a punch over.

The strength of his punch was heavy, and Little Seven flew from the impact of the punch, landing heavily on the wall. With the “kacha”, his arm dislocated and slumped down.

Zhan Beiye glared at him. He was pale from not sleeping the whole night. Above his lips, there were short beard stubbles, and one could see the red veins in his eyes. The web of red veins was fiery red as he yelled, “To die now would be the way of a coward! You, get up and look for her! If she’s alive, I want to see her, if shes…, She’s not dead! Go look for her! No matter where she is if you can’t find her, don’t come back!”

He reached out and grabbed a whip from the guard beside him and threw it in front of Little Seven. “Take this whip and find her! After finding her, give this to her! Let the person who is supposed to beat you, beat you! Beat you to the point you remember that being impulsive, petulant and bumptious are lessons that even death cannot buy!”

Little Seven kneeled on the floor, without a sound, he took the whip and placed it on his back. Biting his lip, he kowtowed to Zhan Beiye, stood up unsteadily, and walked away. Ji Yu, who was standing beside Zhan Beiye, looked at Little Seven worriedly and subconsciously took a step forward.

Angered, Zhan Beiye yelled, “If you dare to take another step, you don’t have to come back too!”

Ji Yu stopped. Zhan Beiye remained unmoved. It was only till Little Seven’s back completely disappeared outside of Huayin palace that he turned his body slightly and glanced towards the direction he left.

That glance was first filled with anger, and then it gradually turned to helplessness and lastly, indelible pain.

In his life, he had never once chased his own brother away. And today, he forced this child to wander around the world. And from today onwards, the Little Seven that he had liked for his innocence was due for its death. The things precious about this young man that he had protected – the young man’s untainted innocence – would be single-handedly destroyed by him.