Dance Of The Dragons
Chapter 261 : Restitution (11)

Chapter 261: Chapter 261 : Restitution (11)

"...ter..."

"Master..."

"Master! Master!!!"

Heaving and panting, Xie Jianyu opened his glassy eyes and looked at her two maids. Their eyes were swollen from crying too hard.

"Master, waaaahhhh... You are finally awake..."

Xie Jianyu closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. He needed to clear his head.

"What happened...?" Xie Jianyu asked a while later, when his mind was less of an utter and complete mess.

"Master... Hic, I am so sorry," Mingyu hiccuped. She took one of Xie Jianyu’s hands and pressed it against her cheek. "I am sorry. I made you see horrible things."

Xie Jianyu gave her a weak smile.

"You showed me the ultimate loyalty, almost at the cost of your own life. How could I ever find fault in you?"

Mingyu’s shoulders shook from heart-rending sobs.

"Master... Wahhh, Master..."

Qingyun put her arms around Mingyu and cried on her shoulder.

"Mingyu, you suffered so much. My poor sister..."

Mingyu could still remember her harrowing fight for survival against the lions. She did not think that she dared to step foot into Shuiran Palace again. If she saw any of those lions again, she might just lose her mind.

"I need to leave," Xie Jianyu announced after pushing himself into a sitting position. Wide-eyed, the maids hurriedly stopped him from leaving the bed.

"But Your Majesty, you just woke up! Where are you going?"

That was a very good question.

Xie Jianyu’s head started throbbing painfully.

"It does not matter for now. I will think about that later."

If he did not leave now, the child in his belly would be killed soon. Xie Jianyu could not let that happen.

He had to disappear for at least three months. Let the child inside his womb grow stronger and healthier first. Afterward, it would be too late to induce a miscarriage using an abortifacient. Unless Xie Jianshen and Zhang Fengxi did not care about his life anymore.

"Then let us go with you!!" The two young women insisted. "You need someone to serve you. You cannot go alone!"

"I have to go alone," Xie Jianyu insisted. "As the Crown Prince, I can go anywhere I want. But you two are different. You will be punished if you leave Fuxi Palace without permission."

Both maids cried even louder.

"Nooo, Your Majesty, please. Please don’t go alone. Who will take care of you? You are pregnant!"

"I can take care of myself," Xie Jianyu snapped, all the while knowing that he could not.

He was raised as a prince in Golden Dragon Palace before he moved to Fuxi Palace as its master.

In his entire life, he had people to serve him on hand and foot. Other than his cultivation, he had no survival skills to rely on.

But so what?

Xie Jianyu clenched his jaw obstinately.

Growing up, he had been learning all sorts of things from the Grand Tutor.

If he had to learn a few additional skills on his own while in hiding, then so be it!

Ignoring his maids’ pleas, Xie Jianyu grabbed his sword and rushed toward Wangshu’s stall, only to stop as soon as he caught his favorite mount in sight.

He could not take Wangshu with him.

Wangshu’s spiritual traces could be tracked easily. His grip around his loyal sword tightened as he considered another viable option of transportation.

He could use Winter Frost to travel, but it was going to consume a lot of his spiritual energy.

Xie Jianyu pressed his other hand against his stomach.

Overexerting himself would result in harming the baby.

On the brink of despair, Mingyu came up with an idea.

"Your Majesty, why not just let me accompany you?"

Xie Jianyu shook his head in exasperation.

"Mingyu, I already said that..."

"Your Majesty, please listen to me," the young woman insisted. "If Your Majesty leaves me alone here, what will happen to me?"

"..."

"..."

Mingyu was the one who eavesdropped the conversation between Xie Jianshen and Zhang Fengxi at Shuiran Palace.

She was the only one who could inform Xie Jianyu about the secret scheme to abort his child.

If Xie Jianyu escaped from Fuxi Palace and Mingyu was found to be conscious...

"They are going to execute me," Mingyu said with eyes brimming with tears.

She was just an inconsequential maid, easy to replace. With no Xie Jianyu to safeguard her life, Mingyu was as good as dead.

"I can take Master wherever Master wants to go," Mingyu offered, as if Xie Jianyu did not care about her life at all.

"Please, Master. I don’t want to die yet."

"..."

She did not leave Xie Jianyu any other choice.

"Mingyu... I might run into unexpected danger," Xie Jianyu said slowly. If he was going to take Mingyu, then Mingyu should be aware of the difficulties that lay ahead of them.

"I will face the danger together with Your Majesty!"

"We won’t have any other person to support us."

"We will support each other just fine!"

"..."

"What about me???" Qingyun cried out. "I also want to go!"

"Qingyun, you have to stay and take care of Fuxi Palace with Head Servant Zhou."

"But...! Head Servant Zhou can handle the job alone, he doesn’t need me!"

"He does," Xie Jianyu insisted. "I rely on the both of you to cover for me while I am gone."

"Master..."

Qingyun started to sob.

Xie Jianyu grabbed both of Qingyun’s shoulders.

"Listen to me. Head Servant Zhou still has the Two-Way Mirror in his possession. If anything urgent requires me to return, do not hesitate to contact me."

Qingyun nodded fervently, tears falling past her cheeks like a waterfall.

Mingyu did not waste any time. She went on all fours on the ground and murmured the transformation spell.

Within a split second, the young maid disappeared, replaced by a dragon the size and length of an entire cloud carriage. It had blue eyes and iridescent scales that shimmered brightly under the sun.

She hissed at Xie Jianyu, who then grabbed one of her horns and swung his body upward. He landed just behind Mingyu’s neck.

"Please be safe, both of you," Qingyun cried out. "Please return to Fuxi Palace soon! We will... We will all be waiting!"

Xie Jianyu let his gaze wander around Fuxi Palace for one last time.

The pavilion under the bell tower, his favorite meditation place...

The courtyard behind the palace, his favorite sword training spot...

The breakfast spot just next to the large window that offered him a panoramic view of the garden...

Xie Jianyu swallowed his tears into his stomach.

Fuxi Palace had been his home for years.

He left the palace many times in the past, but this time he was going to leave for months.

"Good-bye for now," he whispered in a broken voice.

Xie Jianyu then tugged at Mingyu’s mane.

"Go."

Mingyu burst into a sprint. Her four feet trampled hard on Fuxi Palace’s stone pavement before she soared to the sky with Xie Jianyu. Before long, they disappeared.

Qingyun sniffled to herself for a while before she returned inside the palace to talk to Head Servant Zhou.

She did not notice a man who was hiding in the shadow of a tree, watching the event unfold with a lot of interest.

Xie Jianzhi slipped out of the dark corner and left before anyone noticed him.